open | like a B- for effort

[illequipped]

Who: ya boy emil and you
When: now, later, etc
Where: queen's residence, around town, a farm somewhere
What: some influence jobs and a general prompt
Warnings: he may cry eventually

loren's lament

[Let the record show: Emil and any kind of paperwork have never gotten along swimmingly. He barely scraped through school and has a personal vendetta against reading for work, so this? This is honestly his worst idea to date, letting himself get roped into reading for work!!! for this Loren person. What's in it for him, he mumbles mostly to himself, but he's still doing it.

Like, not very well. But he's sitting behind a messy stack of papers, now mumbling mostly to himself about how "sort by severity" is completely subjective? For example, he has no vested interest in the rippling effects of recent upheavals on local businesses, but apparently a lot of people do! Wow! Amazing!

For the third time in an hour, he sighs loudly. Hi, you're here, so please give his woes your attention.]

This is dreadful. Does he really read all of these when no one else is here?

[Who READS??]

shock it 2 me

[The only reason Emil is even trying to help with the livestock problem is because... well. Honestly, it's because the thought of sad farm animals made him deeply upset and he was compelled to come help. What this means for the job, however, is that an overly-emotional tiny dude has become attached to at least one farm animal (like, a cute baby goat, probably) in between complaining about how the animals seem to want to follow him around and chew on various bits of his clothing.

And then, tragedy of tragedies, his favorite baby goat goes missing and he is deeply distraught. Now, at last, he is inspired to take action.

Of course, he's terrible at Craft, so his misguided attempts to do anything resembling an electric fence keep ending with him giving himself a huge dose of static electricity. Is nothing easy?]

stylish yet irresponsible use of stipend

[Or: who blew their whole stipend on clothes instead of budgeting for food? This guy. On the one hand, he can dress like a local on a whim now! That's exciting! The clothes aren't incredibly great, but they're not terrible. He's managing.

He's also incredibly hungry, which is starting to get embarrassing hours and hours after breakfast. Please feed him, or at least humor him when he very abruptly begins a Casual Conversation (hint: he's bad at this one):]

How do people get jobs here? Just wondering.

misc

[hello what do you want to do? i'm probably on board with it. you can send me a pm or pp to jojoveller with ideas or just tag wildly!! dark knights is the only job emil won't do... and for my own sake i'd like to limit job threads to 2 per job so i can handle them!! thank you

feel free to find him being terrible at magic practice or whining about morning training, etc, i am really open.]

Comments

Stylish!

[championbittersweet]

[During the day is usually when Jonathan sleeps, although of late his hunger makes that difficult and so he's taken to wandering the palace during particularly difficult moments, making certain he keeps inside and away from sunlight. He's seated in the largely empty dining hall mid-morning, a large mug of coffee steaming and untouched in his hands, when Emil sits down and, apropos of nothing, starts a very strange conversation.]

I imagine it wouldn't be dissimilar to finding work anywhere else. [Jonathan answers, raising an eyebrow.] Find somewhere you think you would be useful in and ask them if they have work available, talk to them about your skills, perhaps offer to trial with them. What work have you done before?

[illequipped]

[Listen, intimidating fruit man, that's a loaded question. There's probably no call for adventures out into the wilds or anything, and Emil has only ever had the one job—]

I'm a cleanser. [3... 2... people don't know what this means any time he brings it up here, but he still nearly forgets to explain every time.] I burn infested lands so they can be safe again.

[Gaze... if that's an option, please let him know!! But he has doubts.]

[championbittersweet]

A... Ah. [He's not terribly familiar with the practice of field burning beyond a general awareness that it happens at times; Jonathan has always been a city boy at heart and managing land is more than a little beyond him.]

Infested with weeds and insects and... [He searches for what else lands might be infested with and comes up empty.] ...other such things? So you have farming experience?

[illequipped]

Uh, what? No. [Does he look like a farm boy! Please.] Trolls— monsters. Beasts and so on. If you don't burn them out of infested areas and blow the buildings to the ground, there's always a chance something's going to find someplace to hide out and survive the winter.

[He's really good at blowing up abandoned houses?]

i'm here for secretary emil

[ilves]

[Like Lalli enjoys sorting through paperwork any more than Emil does? Like Lalli enjoys reading? The only reason he's here... is because Emil is here, honestly, but that doesn't mean that he's going to be helpful; while Emil is tossing paper left and right, Lalli is just, you know, slumped over the back of a nearby chair, watching his friend do this thing through half-lidded eyes. Maybe he should nap...

Or maybe he shouldn't, because there Emil goes... doing that talking thing again...]

No. [He eyes that mountain of complaints, frowning.] That's why there's so much now.

[Lalli Facts™! But seriously, just shove them in a drawer or something.]

emil staples his sleeve to the desk

[illequipped]

[Lalli is the worst assistant in history, which Emil anticipated, but somehow still finds himself dully surprised by. This guy... sitting over there, not helping at all...]

We're supposed to be looking at them, Lalli.

[Somehow, Emil is convinced they're going to be paid for this. He's not ready to be disappointed, but he will be. He looks down at his stack of still unread complaints, then at the one he tried in vain to shove at Lalli earlier...]

Did you put some of your pile into mine?

lalli rips the sleeve trying to free him... a tragedy

[ilves]

[Oh, right—"his" pile! The pile he took one look at and never even touched. Is this laziness, or pettiness fueled by that one (1) time Prince Loren lectured him? Hmm!]

Pfh.

[That's a No and a What do YOU think, all rolled into one, because he's not moved for the past, like, ten minutes.]

You're just going too slow. Read faster, [orders the person who is neither reading nor helping. He's Supervising.]

he spent literally all of his money on that sleeve

[illequipped]

[Lalli! The point is to help Emil specifically, come on.]

Speak for yourself, you're not reading at all. If you didn't want to help, you didn't have to come.

[Except that Emil would have been fussy about it, so in that sense, yes he did have to come. He could stand to be even 5% helpful, though. Emil is just staring at his latest complaint, not even reading it now, just looking... he sighs. Dreadful!!]

Lalli, please help with this.

loren's lament.

[unwieldy]

[ You know what?? This actually isn't that bad??

Haein will take sitting down and looking at paperwork over rescuing someone from under a pile of rubble any day. It's not like the task is difficult, either. All he has to do is look at the problems and judge how severe they are.

But, hm. Haein's screwed up sense of what's considered a Real Problem is the issue here. His stack of "Not That Big a Deal" looks a lot taller than the other one...

Also, it's kind of annoying having to work while listening to someone sighing, and then finally complaining. Way to take him out of his concentration!! Haein glances up from the complaint in his hands to glare in Emil's direction. Ugh, this guy again? Fate is cruel. ]

The sooner you get this done, the sooner you can leave.

[illequipped]

[Oh, but isn't it? Isn't it that bad? Emil thinks it's terrible and boring and he deeply regrets agreeing to do it at all, but now he's stuck. He wouldn't want to look like a jerk or a quitter...

And yet he wonders, is it in poor taste to crumple up these papers and lob them at Haein for, like, speaking at all? Emil doesn't sigh dramatically for sass, only sympathy. This dude!]

Yes, yes, I know how the job works. [Eyeing those uneven piles now, hmm-] Do you? You're throwing out so many of them!

[unwieldy]

[ Please don't, because then Haein will lob them back at Emil and he really doesn't need to get Loren on his case a second time.

Though that might still happen with the rate he's going with these complaints... ]

Because they're not severe.

[ Duh?? Who even cares that someone's home is so poorly insulated that they're potentially going to freeze to death? ]

[illequipped]

[Is there a paper shortage, too? Maybe Loren should chill.]

Well... maybe. [A lot of these are pretty lackluster, he has to admit, but that doesn't explain why Haein's Forget It pile is so much larger comparatively.] Let me see!

[Emil will be the final judge of what does and does not count as severe!! It's his unstoppable force (too many feelings) vs. Haein's immovable object (not giving a damn); two losers enter, one loser leaves.]

( shock it 2 me. )

[sunborne]

[ it doesn't help that he's currently partnered up with a large mechnoid being who is, well, (almost) entirely made out of metal. that makes the static a little more mean than it has any right to be.

daylight does his best to give emil some distance to avoid shocking him anymore, but seeing the repeated attempts try and fail has him offering to help: ]

Soooo.... Do you want me to try? [ wouldn't hurt to give it a shot. at least let poor emil stop getting hit with a nasty case of the static shock every time it doesn't go right. daylight thinks he's more than capable of absorbing it if it goes wrong.

plus... he's not gonna lie- it would be nice to see if he could figure out how his craft could interact with electricity. figuring out how to use the jewel's magic with electricity of the fence could help him a lot with a side project of his. but let's see if he can get his servos on said fence at all. ]

[illequipped]

[How Emil found himself out here with Daylight of all people is a mystery even to him. They're setting up an electric fence, and let's be honest - Emil knows very little about how electricity actually works, but he's got the whole "metal makes it worse" thing down. Why did Daylight even volunteer!

Whatever! Even standing further away does nothing!! He's not good at Craft at all... There's some silver lining in the fact that he hasn't set himself on fire, but it's barely any comfort. When will he be good at magic? Sad.

He nearly flings his jewel to the ground in frustration, but instead just squeezes it real hard while he glowers at it for a moment. Ugh!!]

—Fine! It's your turn! Do... whatever you do, I don't care.

[Hint: Emil is a quitter.]

[sunborne]

[ daylight's winglets shoot down and he looks chastised by the snap. he knows that it's most likely a case of emil getting frustrated over the lack of progress since they've started this task. he knows that he would get snippy if he kept hitting dead ends on this, he told himself.

but that doesn't stop him from wilting as he shuffles over to currently powered down electrical fence, trying to make himself small as possible while he fishes his opal mounted charm out of his messenger back. ] Okay... Let's try this.....

[ taking a deep breath and shuttering his optics to better channel his focus on the task at hand, daylight begins to use his craft to try and summon energy. since he hasn't has had a lot of time to practice his craft, there are a couple of starts and stops. also- static. lots of static. (sorry, emil.)

soon, however, daylight begins to gather energy into his open servo. a thing to note is that the energy he's using looks a little... different. the colour, for example, is a faint purple-white unlike the usual sparks of white or yellow. huh. ]

[illequipped]

[Later, he'll feel bad about his attitude, but not yet. Not in the midst of it, and unfortunately the static coming for him isn't helping. He's resorted to just holding his hair down flat with both hands, so that he at least doesn't look like a pissy dandelion while he puts up with endless little static shocks. This is the worst day ever!

So bad that he's soooo not interested in that weird energy color. Definitely not. Hmph.

....okay fine he has to know-] Why does it look different when you do it?

stylish;

[mekhanikos]

I asked for one.

[ the most deadpan answer he can muster. but, really — that's pretty much what it amounts to. it's how percy got his job in the docks, too. ]

You know, "hey, could I work for you", and that's it. I mean, sure, before that I'd been in the power plant for two days without sleeping, so I'm pretty sure that had something to do with it.

[illequipped]

[What kind of crazy world is this! Emil's employers back home don't have any standards to speak of, but even he had to fill out a form.]

Um, what? Really? Is not sleeping supposed to be an attractive feature in an employee around here? I can't keep up with that.

[mekhanikos]

No, I just meant that because I'd been helping out for free for two days straight, it would've been a dick move to not give me a job. Especially when I'm supernaturally good at being a mechanic.

[ just. facts.

he taps his cheek in thought and continues, ]

If you have some powers, those might work. Or if you can use the Craft stuff well enough, the guilds need people like that too.

plants a flag in this log and claims it

[ilves]

[Picking up Craft isn't as difficult for Lalli as it is for some people, but Craft itself is still quite the thing for him to wrap his mind around. He's used to a very different, very situational type of magic, involving spirits and spells and all of that fun stuff; never in his twenty years of living has he wondered what it would be like to use his magic for more mundane tasks, like keeping himself warm. That's what fire is for? Duh?

Once he learns how to actually cast a heating spell, however—well, maybe using magic like this isn't as dumb as he initially thought it was! Maybe it can even be kind of useful, especially when one, say, weaves heating spells around small stones and tucks them into their pockets. Zipping about the city without worrying about cold hands... nice...

And all things considered, a simple heating spell isn't all that difficult? It's why, after an hour or so of urban exploration, Lalli thinks about his magically-challenged friend and decides to head back to their shared room—but not before shooting Emil a mental message, because a) it's convenient and b) the more he makes Emil practice this shit, the better he'll get. Hopefully. ...One can dream.]

Where are you?

[Hi, hello, how is your day going, etc.]

ah, again

[illequipped]

[Picking up Craft is hard, so Emil isn't really trying. Sure, every few days he'll disappear after breakfast and morning training to practice with a nice princess girl who asked him to, but it's not like he's exhausting himself nonstop to get it right, you know? All that really motivates him to keep working on Craft is the future in which he isn't embarrassed every time he has to use it. That might include just a little bit of wanting to impress Lalli, but he's not focusing on that, either. Emil does not respond well to failure, something they both know all too well.

It's hard, so he doesn't want to, the end. Emil is spending this particular day wandering around trying to get himself a job in the city that isn't, like... horrible. He wants to do something if only because sitting around makes him restless (and they are Out of Money, which is unacceptable), so for the first time in his young life, he is Hitting The Pavement.

It, too, is hard and he's getting sick of it, so Lalli's sudden intrusion into his thoughts is both a welcome distraction and way too abrupt. He startles, the feeling of which definitely gets transferred back to Lalli before he actually responds.]

Out? I'm going back to the room. Why, what's happened?

[Is there an... emergency!!!]

my manifest destiny

[ilves]

[Why is he always so surprised to hear Lalli speak to him out of the blue like this? Dumb boy. But... at least he responds in a prompt manner; it's clear that he's much better at this telepathy thing now than he was a few short days ago, which Lalli can't help but to feel slightly pleased about. Slightly. It's definitely 2 small 2 register on this mental link of theirs.]

Nothing? I'm going there, too. [A pause, and then, helpfully:] Hurry.

[Because there is an emergency! Or because Lalli is just, you know. Shit at this whole communication thing. Is he going to find Emil anxiously chilling in the room when he gets there, or is Emil going to find him awkwardly sitting on the bed? They're both... so cool...]

this thread is only here to be soft

[illequipped]

[It's a day ending in -y, which means that Emil is once again striking out at regular employment. He's made some progress, in that a few landens have taken pity on him and let him help out for a couple bucks (he's learned he does not enjoy waiting tables despite how fresh he looks in a busboy apron). So, a job that lasts a whole week and more? Not yet. But enough money to eat more than just bread and wrinkly breakfast fruit at least once this week? Hell yes!!

So, thrilled with his spoils, he rushes back to the palace rooms to see if Lalli is back from skulking around in narrow spaces or whatever it is he does during the day. Emil could give him a mental nudge, but he wants this money to be a surprise, so he's just going to take a guess on Lalli being back and go right there in person. Logical!

Thankfully Lalli is back, Emil notes immediately upon walking in the door—]

Lalli—oh. [Ah!! His plucky enthusiasm, wasted. His cash, unappreciated. Just a sleeping Lalli getting his dirty boots all over the bed. Emil sets his incredibly impressive (barely) envelope of cash on the bedside table and pauses a moment to shrug off his coat and leave it on a chair. He looks at Lalli while he does, considering him; he looks peaceful, for once, not stressed or frustrated by something happening in this weird city.

Because, see, Emil has already convinced himself that this place stresses Lalli out way more than it stresses him out. Obviously. He isn't liable to snap at any moment. He's making sure Lalli is at least somewhat comfortable and maybe happy, he hopes... That's Emil's actual full time job.]

Hmm. You're really out, huh?

[Just talking to people while they're asleep... it's fine. Well, anyway, this is Emil's bed, and Lalli is a twig, so there's plenty of room left for Emil to just sit himself on the edge of the bed. That's normal; less normal is probably leaning over Lalli, just to see how asleep he really is... maybe push his hair out of his face a little... he's done this before and no one told him it was odd, in his defense.

Anyway, hello, what's up, how's sleeping??]

this is how they are? it's canon

[ilves]

[Does this terrible city stress Lalli out? Well... yes? Of course it does, because there's a distinct difference between someone signing him up for a risky expedition (bad) and someone bringing him to an entirely new world where absolutely nothing makes sense (worse). Even though he agreed to come to this strange place, he still finds himself searching—yearning—for familiar things. Finnish forests! Cinnamon rolls! His brand of magic!

Not that he misses hearing spirits call to him at all hours of the day, mind you, but—there are things to miss, like the knowledge that his Luonto is There if and when he needs to call upon it. It is, in a way; he can still feel it within him, just out of reach, but after wasting an entire morning trying to call it forth... nothing. How disappointing? How frustrating. It's not like this is something he can share with Emil, either, which is why he silently zips back to their shared room and, after a second's consideration, falls right back onto the bed. Sometimes it's nice to relax on something comfortable! Sometimes. And since Emil is out and about doing Emil things, and since Lalli is... much more tired than he cares to admit...

Well, it's no real surprise that Lalli falls asleep almost immediately; what is a surprise, however, are the strange, loosely connected dreams he finds himself floating through. Forget his lonely dreamspace! Onni, Tuuri, Reynir, even Mikkel and Sigrun—everyone he knows seems to pop up at some time or another, just to tell him how proud they are, how happy they are to know that he, the best scout, agreed to come to this new world for their sakes. But while all of this praise is, hmm, excellent, there's one person who is obviously missing? One person he finds himself searching for, time and time again, until—

—oh. He feels something—a hand?—brushing against his cheek, possibly smoothing a bit of hair back behind an ear, but it isn't... unpleasant. Nothing is unpleasant about these dreams, which is why he slowly cracks open his eyes. The room itself is familiar, but it's not like he's paying close attention to it; he's more focused on the face hovering right above his, on those wide blue eyes framed by a familiar fall of golden hair.]

Ah. [It's a dream, of course? An obvious dream. There's absolutely nothing strange about lifting a hand just to oh-so lightly brush his fingertips across this person's cheekbone.] ...Emil.

[The person he's been waiting for. Go on, then! Tell him how amazing he is! He blinks up at Emil in an expectant way, expression... oddly soft as he waits.]

finally some good fucking food.jpg

[illequipped]

[Emil isn't trying to wake him up— quite the opposite, really. As long as he's known Lalli he's known him to be a heavy sleeper for, uh, one reason or another, and while he doesn't have any reason to believe Lalli is in another magical coma this particular day, he also doesn't expect him to actually wake up from simply brushing his hair aside. So that leaves Emil caught with his hand in the metaphorical cookie jar, indulging in his seemingly ever-present desire to give Lalli some kind of affection, while he's asleep and won't fuss—

Ah, but he's not fussing? Emil blinks, mouth slightly open like he had something to say to explain himself, but he's lost it entirely when Lalli looks at him like that. The look on his face is so distracting, Emil almost doesn't notice the touch against his own face until he's already tilted his head just so to lean into it.

Maybe that tethers Emil back to reality? He's still sitting there, fingers curling lightly in Lalli's hair, just looking at him. When does he ever get to just look at Lalli? It suddenly feels... important that they get this moment, quiet and still, just looking at each other and waiting for something to happen. What something? Emil has no idea. Thinking that far doesn't matter as much as whatever this is.

It's only a few seconds but it feels longer, and then Emil smiles, only a touch sheepish. He'd apologize for waking him, but while Lalli looks so... content, this smile is the extent of his apology. Instead, his usual babble, but softer:]

Hi, Lalli. I was thinking, since you helped me so much with the magic stuff, we could go out and eat something good for once. What do you say?

[Please god someone teach Emil about savings. But his minimal capacity for logic drains right down to zero when Lalli is involved, anyway, so... Just let him set up his Big Reveal of like fifty dollars.]