2023-07-02: Job-Hunting
- Log: Job-Hunting
- Cast: Hannah Curie, Rixia, Holly, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Meria City - Central Commercial District
- Date: July 02, 2023
- Summary: Reviewing jobs on the local board leads to a few people crossing paths as they deliberate what they ought to tackle next. Penelope attempts to murk Zephyr.
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Hannah is back at it again, back from her stint on Lunar and already looking to get back to work. She's a young woman, barely in her 20's, with short, curly pink hair, green eyes, and garbed for travel in a denim jacket and jeans. A satchel is slung behind her, and on her shoulder perches a red-tailed hawk, Zephyr. They just finished a delivery and now they're at the Adventurer's Guild, looking for more work to take on.
The atmosphere is lively but sedate, with most people having their own private conversations: an exchange of information here, a swapping of stories there, somewhere else someone makes a pitch for a brand-new fantastic product. And, in one particular case, a half of a conversation being carried out with... a bird, of all things.
Hannah stands at a board with all manner of job postings listed, frowning as she looks them over.
The hawk chirps, and Hannah nods. "We could take that one, and there might be a job on the way back..." Her eyes glide over the board and then she points. "Or we could take both of those at once, and do it all in one trip, in case we don't find something on the way back."
Zephyr tilts his head a little, and then chirps again.
"Mmm, I suppse you're right about that..."
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia's had a pretty bad time of just getting really angry at odd times and listening to stories that make her feel worse and then feeling awkward and having to get out of polite company and also... ...she's pretty hungry, given that Dezel's madelines and frappes can only go so long after she's made a trip back to Meria Boule on nothing.
That means needing money, and that probably needs to be a job, so here she is at the Guild, stumbling in with bags underneath her eyes. She steps up to the board and stares at it for three seconds, before going, "Oh, hi, Hannah," before blinking a few times and redoubling her look at her.
"Zephyr, too."
She rubs her eyes. "Do any of these jobs pay up front...?"
<Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
Technically, Holly should be looking for work. She's been stealing food and just... not doing anything, but trying to get people to go to the library to save things. Or waking up in strange submarines. Or finding a strange place while tagging along... The world's so much bigger than she's used to and that's far more interesting.
With all of that said, she's recently posted more notices on the board. This time she's included a map, detailed instructions on recovering the books (And preferably taking them somewhere to be safely kept with scavenger rights permitted on the grounds of saving knowledge) and explicit notes that it's not about a cat. That last one's writing had an edge of frustration if the sharper lines were an indicator.
She's also just sleeping on top of the board. Shh. A familiar voice gets her to sit up and look around bleary eyed before murmuring, "I did it again..." before looking down. A hand goes up and she calls out, "Hey you two." Though she doesn't hop down right away.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There, quite suddently, comes the pungent scent of cigarette smoke from above. At a good six-even, Josie is quite likely the tallest of the ladies here (easily, in Holly's case).
"Lesse... no, not unless'n they're doin' half up front. No, they ain't paying me enough to go in there again. No, can't do that without a Gear..."
She squints.
"...Zeboim site expedition? Hm. Alexandros salvage operation?"
Folding her arms over her chest, Josie takes in those who are likewise apparently looking for work.
Unfolding her arms, she gestures broadly with her smoldering cigarette as she speaks. "...Well, ain't we a motley lot. Haven't I seen some of you kiddos around somewhere, or the like?"
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Zephyr turns his head to look at Rixia as she stumbles in and chirps. Hannah turns her head to look a moment later. "Oh. Hello, Rixia." Bird and mage both observe the other girl for a moment, making a concerned frown. "... Are... you okay?" The bags under Rixia's eyes don't immediately give off the vibe of someone who is ready to run out and tackle a job.
She saw the ones for the library, and she's talked to the fairy that posted them several times--but she doesn't have the resources to do much by herself. Hannah looks up to the fairy. "Oh, hi, Holly." A second small frown for her, too. "... How are you? Any luck?" She supposes it makes sense, if Holly didn't feel like going back to the library to sleep all the time that she'd have to sleep elsewhere, but even so...
Asked about jobs paying up front, Hannah skims the board. "I think... There's a couple, that do--"
Josie makes the comment about some having half up front, and she nods. "--right, that. That one, and... that one." She points a couple out.
Zephyr cranes his head around to look up (way up, it seems) at Josephine, head tilting a bit. Hannah turns to look up at her... and blinks, frowning--but this time in concentration. "... I think so. You were one of the people we rescued from the Memory Maze, correct?"
Zephyr chirps, and Hannah blinks. "Oh! Right, and at the wedding."
... Did Zephyr just remind her of that?
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia does look a bit dazed. "Oh... ... I just haven't had any food in a while. Need to find an easy job to get a meal," she murmurs. She looks between Zephyr and Hannah again, and then looks towards the fairy with some measure of surprise. She shakes her head, having to double-check that she's not hallucinating things, but... it's a fairy! There was a fairy in Kilika too...
She smells cigarettes, and looks towards Josie. "Well... half up front is good enough. This is enough for a bread roll, two..." she starts murmuring, before blinking back to the archaeologist. "... dunno. I'm Rixia, though. Nice to meet you."
<Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
Holly eyes both Josephine and Rixia since they seem to know Hannah. For once she's not running at the mouth. Yet.
With her legs crossed now, she's still wearing the remnants of some book cover.
She's not about to admit that she's avoiding going back. She wants to save it, she wants to take care of it, but she doesn't want to find herself trying to hide away again. None of this is said, but there is a guilty look at the question of luck. "Gotten some bites, but it's taking time." That was short and to the point. That's new.
She leans forward, elbows on her knees and chin on her hands, "You got married?" Seeming surprised. Then she pauses, head tilted. No that wasn't right. She shakes her head. Instead she waves to the other two.
Rixia's look of surprise gets a wave and a grin, "Hi there." She actually resists the urge to tease the girl. She looks like she's had a rough time and... well she's just not going to.
She hops from the board and takes flight, floating at a more convenient level for the other three. Kind of. Josephine's clearly too tall and will have to look down instead. She brushes herself off briefly, having gathered some dust up there and bobs forward, offering something of a cutsey to the other two, "I'm Holly. A librarian! I don't have a job that pays up front though." She gestures back at the board, "Mine is a uh, there was a problem. So I don't recommend taking my job right now-" She takes a breath, "But if you want to help me out I'd really appreciate it because I don't want to lose all of that knowledge that those jerks had sealed away and while I might have helped them I thought it was worth it at the time because we would still share things-" she takes another breath and continues. Then catches herself and stops. "Hi." Is how she ends it and bobs back again. "Sorry." She's at least trying to keep from being a tiny flying chatterbox.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
From atop a nearby roof, there lurks... another. Penelope's eyes glitter darkly as she considers the matter of Zephyr.
Below, though, where others may yet wait unaware of the threat that awaits them all, Josie takes a drag from her cigarette. "Yeah, gella up front'd be ideal, like," she says, gesturing stiffly with her (bad) right hand. "But a bunch of these're not paying what they oughta, or even at going rate ain't worth the pain. Survey into Fila del Fia of all places? They've gotta be tryin' to get newbies with that rate... cutting corners, most like." She shrugs, widely. "Anyhow, ain't my circus or none. One of those last two might suit, if--"
She pauses, regarding Zephyr.
"Well, well," she remarks, arching a pale eyebrow. "So you were with those lot, both of them times? Let's start right on back again, shall we? Josephine, Josephine Lovelace."
She pauses a good ten seconds.
"But if I hear you kiddos callin' me anything but Josie, well... then I'll keep on correctin' you until it sticks, right? I ain't having with 'Josephine' or 'Miss Lovelace' any."
Holly, meanwhile, asks for aid, darn near running out of breath (do fairies need to breathe?) in the asking. Josie, nonplussed, holds up her right hand as if to tell her to slow down. "Hold your horses, kiddo, first things first. You payin'? And I mean cold hard cash."
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
So Rixia hasn't eaten in a while. "Oh, I see..." She frowns a bit, gaze drifting a bit in a way that suggests she's running calculations in her head. "If you want... I could buy you a meal," she offers gently. She thinks her budget can absorb that. It's not like Zephyr is expensive to feed, after all.
And worst come to worst, she (and Zephyr) can just hunt some game. She's used to that.
Hannah has run into Holly enough times to have some guesses, or at least some suspicions about her hesitance to go back... She can empathize with avoiding certain places, certainly. But Holly's gotten some bites. "Well, that's good."
She shakes her head. "Oh, no, the wedding was for a friend of mine." But Holly is making her pitch, and Hannah decides to let her handle any potential negotiations.
She doesn't seem to take any umbrage at being called 'kiddo' by Josephine, but since there's an introduction, with a stipulation. "O-oh, okay then. Nice to meet you, Josie. I'm Hannah, and this--" she says this with a little tilt of her head towards the hawk "--is Zephyr."
Zephyr is, as of yet, blissfully aware of the presence of another.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia just about blurts out a 'hi' in turn, but Holly starts to speak more in depth of who she is and the job she has. A librarian? And some books have been sealed away and-- Josie interrupts and tells her that she'd better have cash if she wants to offer a job. A little snicker, but...
"... Josie is fine with me. I don't like formalities either," she admits. "Fila del Fia... I heard that was a real dangerous place. But I guess I was already lined up for something dangerous, with that Omega stuff."
Hannah offers to buy her a meal, and she hesitates. "I don't want to owe more... ...I guess I could just march back to Klein Manor if nothing else, but..." She folds her arms, looking aside. "I dunno... I just hate being stuck not even being able to go meal to meal like this and having to be so reliant. That's why I want to really turn it around."
<Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
Holly gives Josephine a look that would curdle milk if she could when the term kiddo comes up. "I've swept away cobwebs older than you!" she puts her foot down.. on midair. The stome is a stomp either way though. Then she composes herself quickly enough. You'll have to excuse her a bit.
"I just said I couldn't pay up front, but the amount of knowledge there for the taking is more than enough payment." She actually keeps it short and concise. Maybe being frustrated keeps her focused enough! Though she did chew out Kanon for a bit...
Rixia's lack of food does interrupt the rant though. She glances around the room. There's not actually much she can do and she kind of just bobs there, that earlier frustration forgotten. Stealing a bit of food's one thing at her size, might be harder for Rixia. And technically she should feel bad about it. Shh.
She glances to Hannah, particularly at the offer to help out Rixia. "Could see what I can scrounge. I don't think you guys want to eat the weird spiders and monsters I did an-" she catches herself again. Really hard being out with people and not oversharing. "Hunting maybe."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
She waves her right hand through the air dismissively. "Sure enough. Your lot don't but live ages, right? But it ain't about years, like."
Being a kid, sometimes, is more of a state of mind than anything concrete, as such.
"Whew. Been there, can't say I've enjoyed my time," she tells Rixia, letting her shoulders slouch in sympathy for the moment. Still, Josie furrows her brow. "But chin up, kiddo. Tell ya what, I got a few coins in my pocket I can't be trusted with. If it'll get you a sandwich, then that'll see you through to your big break. You in?"
Perhaps she's of like mind to Hannah on this one.
Holly says she said she couldn't pay up front. "Did you, now? Can't say I right heard it!" Josie says, grinning, before the fairy goes on.
"Sorry, kiddo," she tells Holly. "Knowledge don't put food on the table, right? But sure as sure can be, there's them that'll do the work, free-like." It's just also clear that Josie... doesn't count herself among them. There's work-for-free, because she's been blackmailed or strongarmed or because she actually feels obligated to help for a change... and then there's work-for-free.
"Hannah, Hannah. Got it! ...And Zephyr, huh? Not a bad name. For the Guardian Lord, right? You know," she goes on, regarding Zephyr more closely, "back when I started out, I had half a mind to raise a hawk, myself--"
This is when it happens. From on high, Penelope divebombs Zephyr, which might have been more dangerous if she weren't... well.
A pigeon. A fancy pigeon, but still a pigeon.
Josie reacts quickly. Dropping her cigarette, she snatches the bird right out of the air with a practiced hand as Penelope continues to try to menace Zephyr. "Penelope!" she scolds, squatting to release the captured pigeon onto the pavement.
"Sorry 'bout that. She seems to get... I dunno, jealous or somethin' about other birds. She's goin' through a phase, I figure."
This has been happening for about six years, Josie.
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Hannah might just be stuck in such a frame of mind of considering herself a child.
Hannah's heart aches a little bit when Rixia says she doesn't want to owe more, and a little of that pain seeps through into her expression. "I understand that. Truth be told I do a fair bit of hunting too, like Holly suggested. That might be another option. And it don't cost nothin'."
But she nods as Rixia explains she doesn't want to go back to Klein Manor. "Eleanor's pretty generous, isn't she?" She's still not quite used to the idea of 'having a room in a fancy manor', herself. 'I want to really turn it around.' Hannah nods, and simply says "Yeah," in agreement.
She knows that feeling.
"Zephyr likes eating various monster meats," she says to Holly. "Most of it seems to agree with him fine, though it's always a bit chancey the first time he tries somethin' new."
She looks (waaaay) up to Josie and nods. "Oh! Yes, actually. And I actually didn't quite raise him, we just sort of... found each other when I was little."
And they share an inexplicable empathic bond, but that's not the type of thing she offers right away.
Zephyr lets out a startled squawk when Penelope divebombs him, taking off with a flurry of wingbeats and circling around with a menacing eagle screech. Hannah herself jumps a bit, looking back and forth to see what all the participants are up to.
But Josephine has Penelope well in hand. And Hannah turns to Zephyr. "Easy, easy. She's got 'er. Come on down, now." She holds out her forearm, and Zephyr eventually deigns to land on it. Hannah fusses over him for a moment, checking to make sure he isn't injured. Meanwhile, Zephyr is glaring intently at Penelope.
Abruptly, out of nowhere, Hannah says, "No, you can't eat her. She's Josie's friend." A beat. "I think." She glances to Josie for confirmation.
"I understand," she says in a stage whisper. "Zephyr gets jealous whenever I'm admiring a chocobo."
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
"S-spiders... um, no..." Rixia turns a little blue at Holly's suggestion, though hunting -- as also brought up by Hannah, who seems to share how she feels about owing to people -- gets her thinking for a moment. "I don't really know much about hunting or survival skills, but... I could try fishing, I guess, we did a bit of that... I tend to just bartend, since if I find the right crowd, I can usually make money out of mid-grade spirits."
Josie offers her some coins, and Rixia pensively nods and says, "... well, okay. Let me fix you up a drink or something, at least? It'll just be around the corner, this big break..."
Then, a dastardly pigeon rushes down to attack!! There's a little squeal along with Zephyr's as Rixia jumps, her tail and ears just about both going up as far as they'll go. "Ah geez, that really starteld me!" she grumbles. "Birds are something else..."
She looks to Hannah again on the topic of Eleanor. "Yeah... it makes me feel a bit awkward... like I've wanted to try working in the kitchens, but the maids don't tolerate any of that."
<Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
Holly looks at Josephine and says flatly, "You don't seem like the sort that would be able to use the magic it could teach you anyway." and promptly turns away from her. Knowledge is it's own reward and using it to smite your enemies is a bonus.
Rixia's reaction to eating spiders is met with a wry shrug. "They're common, they taste fine with some work and I'm not exactly huge. I was also trapped inside for.. too long."
There's a dive bombing pigeon. That's met with a very confused look. "It's not a corvid and it's got a death wish?" as she hops well away from the two. She also looks to the pigeon just in case, "Don't even think about it!" muttering just in case.
Still, things are weird and that's funny in its way. Back to the matter at hand. "I.. would suggest something other than spiders though at your size. I can help hunt though!" and she'd get some nice food out of it too. She has an appetite despite her small size. High high metabolism
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Weren't the daughter of a wizard for nothin', y'know," she says to Holly, only to shrug. "But like I said... if you don't have coin, I'll pass. Can't eat magic, right?" She grins, lopsidedly.
"You're staying with Nora? Heh, now ain't she a pure-hearted lass!" Josie says, a glint in her eyes as she reflects on something one of Eleanor's sisters had told her at the wedding. She might owe Eleanor her life but that won't stop her from making Eleanor's life a little more difficult.
Heh heh heh.
Now that gets Josie's attention. "Drinks, eh? Well, I don't mind if I do, if'n you're offering!"
With that sort of offer, Rixia might well make a tidy sum just off of the remainder of Josie's coinpurse. Perhaps it's not a surprise how Josie goes from feast to famine so quickly...?
Of course, this is when Penelope introduces herself in the most dramatic way possible short of 'actually interrupting a wedding'. Which, it should be said, she pointedly did not do at an actual wedding! Somehow!
"You know he's a hawk, right," Josie says to Penelope, long-sufferingly. Penelope, busied with preening after her manhandling, pauses to look up at Josie blankly. All Josie can do to that is shrug her shoulders. "She was off on her own for a fair bit, like. Seems to have given her a big head!"
She was already like that, Josie.
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
"Fishin's good. Didn't do nearly enough of that growin' up." On account of growing up in a desert. "But I wouldn't mind sharin' a bit of what I know of hunting... though to be fair Zephyr helps me out a fair bit, too."
Hannah... may have just found a kindred spirit of sorts in Rixia, as she complains about not being able to work in the kitchens at Klein Manor. "I know what you mean. She's always been like that, even when we were'n school together. I wanted to help out 'round the place, too, but they weren't havin' it."
She nods to Holly, "Sure, I wouldn't mind takin' a trip. Got a new recipe I wanna try, too, see if I can make stuff carry for longer."
Hannah nods to Josie's mention of staying with Eleanor, though she looks a bit embarassed to be admitting it. "Yeah, she... well, she insisted, and I couldn't really turn her down, so..."
She finishes her inspection of Zephyr. "Oh you're fine," she says, in response to a grumpy squawk from the hawk. "Ain't even got any feathers out of place." She gives her forearm a little lift upwards, and Zephyr takes off to resettle on Hannah's shoulder. "It was... Penelope, right? Is she okay?"