27 Lage 4385: Wait What Day Is It?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

This Morning’s Nightmare

An intangible mind-eating monster (that would be Kijji) attacked Dad-Dad while he was looking for my brother outside of the city. (I don’t know why my dream thought "outside the city" would be a good place to look for Void-Dancer). I tried to save Dad-Dad by killing him myself and then using a bound Spirit Tether to keep his spirit from leaving while I dragged his body through the city gates. Kijji clung to my father's body invisibly. The guards arrested me for doorwaying and when I tried to explain about Kijji and my father they charged me with Selling an Enchantment Without a License. "But I don’t want to sell my scroll!" Then Kijji animated my father’s corpse and gave me five lozens and took my scroll, and the guards executed me for doorwaying or possibly for Enchanting Without a License and before they could bring me back Kijji stole my body and killed the guards and that’s where I woke up.

This Morning’s Unfortunately-Not-a-Nightmare

GloriousBlue was changing for bed when I woke up. "Oh good, you’re awake." She handed me thirty lozens.

I tried to give them back. "Nooooo I don’t want to sell my scroll I can’t anyway I’m not a guild member!"

GloriousBlue peered at me. "Or maybe you’re not awake." She shook me by the shoulder.

I blinked at her a few times. "Why are you giving me thirty lozens?"

"For my half of the rent. So the landlord doesn’t have to wake me tomorrow when he comes to collect it."

"Rent? But it’s only … "

"The 27th. It’s due tomorrow."

I bolted out of bed and grabbed my scroll to check the date with it. "AHHHH it’s the 27th! The rent’s due tomorrow!"

GloriousBlue flopped onto her bed. "Didn’t I just say that?"

I stuffed the scroll into its case and put it in my pocket. "I gotta go!"

"Great, you got another job?"

"NotyetbutIwill!" I dashed for the door.

As I was running through the front room to the exit, GloriousBlue yelled after me, "You better! I’m not paying your half, remember!"

In Search of Rent Money

I knew that I needed to get lozens fast, and there aren't very many ways to make money that pay you on the same day. Especially not that pay you thirty lozens on the same day. I went to the post office first because that's where the most general job listings are. The ones that don't need guild memberships. Guild jobs usually post through their guilds or don't post at all and only go by word of mouth.

Purrzhon was at the post office again, this time waiting to pick up a message. I started to wave hallo to him then I thought about what tuftears had said about Sleeth ignoring you when you try to get their attention. So instead I went to the Dead Tree of Colors which used to be one of the Post Trees, but it got killed by a maintenance ritual that went badly wrong. Since the trees are big and hard to get out of the building, the post office just trimmed back the scrawny branches and twigs and let people post notices on it for a small fee. Because people are in and out of the Post Office a lot so it's a good place to put general notices. Oh, and the Post Trees in Vheshrame are all grown inside of the post office. The roof's invisible so they get plenty of sun and the post workers water them. Being inside makes them easier to protect during Surprise.

One set of branches on the Dead Tree of Colors has all the job listings. Some of them are quite fancy, with Illusidor spells on them to make them glitter and flash or move as people look at them or talk (but the ones that make noise you can only hear when you're touching them because otherwise the Post Office would be so noisy you couldn't understand what any of them were saying. Or anyone else for that matter). Most of them are plain because most places don't need to spend much money to get workers. If they do, there's probably something horribly wrong with the job. Normally I'd ignore the fancy postings because I don't want a horribly wrong job, but today I was desperate.

Among the shiny-looking ones:

• Recruiting poster for the guard


• Miniature of a tough-skinned Khtsoyis offering work on the docks, in a bad imitation of cant


• Vheshrame Association of Carters, looking for ostlers and loaders


• Miniature busty long-furred Cani exhorting "brave explorers" to join a settlers' expedition to Verach (I don't even know where that is)


• Adorable cartoon guntry with big dewy eyes pleading, "will you come take care of me and my family at Baron Greensward's farms?"


• A pristine landscape view of Spiral Garden, with a solicitation for workers to "preserve the beauty and wonder of Vheshrame" and directing inquiries to the Department of Civic Pride. That might mean they're hiring gardeners, but I kinda suspect it's for streetsweepers and trash collectors.


• A solicitation for spell scribes that described it as "an exciting opportunity!" using an anthropomorphic magerium. I think the magerium was supposed to be cute but it just looked like a creepy monster sort of thing.

There were more but the only ones promising lozens up front purchasing indentured servants and I'm not not not indenturing myself!

Purrzhon still didn't seem to have noticed me although he'd gotten to the head of the line and picked up his message. It didn't look like good news; he was snarling as he read it. I started scanning the other advertisements too. I made sure to peer at them furtively, as if I didn't want anyone to notice what I was doing or looking at. I was using one hand to shield an ad for an adventuring expedition to the Verticals when I felt Purrzhon's paw on my shoulder. I turned my head to see him standing on his hindlegs and staring at the ad. "I see you are still the unemployed Orren," he said.

You were right Tuftears! Acting like you don't want a Sleeth to notice what you're doing does get his attention!

Comments

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, oh dear, money problems are always bad, especially when you need a relatively large amount of money very very quickly, and don't have many assets! I don't personally know what to do in your situation, but I will try and be available for the next few hours to answer questions that might make you money should some 'information selling' opportunity fall into your lap.... but it looks like you might be adventuring! Ah, the ever traditional occupation of killing things and taking their stuff! Arrr, be ye a land pirate?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Adventuring usually doesn't pay off in one day either, though.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that's true. Very few things do! Many confidence scams and extortion jobs do, but I dont think that's quiiiite the sort of thing she wants to do...

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Noooo I don't want to be a criminal! I have moral standards! Also I like not being maimed or killed or indentured!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Yes I am adventuring! How did you guess I hadn't gotten to that part yet?

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

"I was using one hand to shield an ad for an adventuring expedition to the Verticals when I felt Purrzhon's paw on my shoulder." Not too hard to make a good educated guess!

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Maybe if you were an anthropomorphic magerium, spell-scribing would be exciting?

[zeeth_kyrah]

Well, from Sythyry's description so long ago, it sounds like it would involve scraping bits of yourself into a box for grafting. Or patiently examining a pattern until it could be duplicated onto a scroll for those who wish to grow the pattern themselves.

Basically, you'd want to be a Rassimel, I think.

[alex-muridae.livejournal.com]

A terrestrial reference: Imagine being a classical monk, copping some book (a dictionary in which you knew all the words, let's say, for added boredom) by hand, with quill and ink. Further, imagine the book you're copying from doesn't actually exist, but is instead tattooed onto your wrist, and you had to squint to read it. Now, imagine that it was an entirely mental exercise, and the work consisted essentially of staring at it all day. Remember, it has to be copied properly, so you have to focus hard. And remember, you do this as a full-time job.

Spell-scribing is, I'd wager, at about that level of boring; maybe more. It will also eat through your daily cley fairly quickly if you're not magically skilled.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Aaagh yes that sounds a lot like it. You're using cley to carve into the interior of a box a mold of the spell you already have grafted. It's a mold to magic-sense, not physical sense. And carving with cley to magic sense is not as fun as carving with wood and it's soooo soooo finicky. You left out the part where if you misspell a word or get a dot of ink on the paper, the whole thing's useless and you have to start over. HATE SO MUCH.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Maybe if I were a fungus with a serious brain injury, it's be exciting. x.x

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Is an anthropomorphic fungus with a serious brain injury a PERSON? I mean what do you CALL an anthropomorphic fungus person? A Myconid? Do you even have those? Of course, WE don't have those, but we imagined some for some stories, and for all I know that's one of those things that, um, where someone's imagination or our collective consciousness managed to think up of a creature that actually existed in some reality somewhere. Or it was just someone thinking, "Okay, what category of object have we not YET made into a thinking person for this story?" ... but yea! Are fungus people real that you know of, on the Tree?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Prooooobably. There're sapient tree folk and fungus monsters. I haven't met any fungus sapients but I'm pretty sure there'd be some somewhere.

[zeeth_kyrah]

The problem with a Sleeth who wants to notice what you are doing... is that what they want to do with it might not be to your taste.

But perhaps you are going to help someone, and that is both valiant and potentially worth some money.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Mm hm! It worked out fine this time though! But I think Tuftears is right I have to be careful not to let him know that I was doing it on purpose just to make him curious!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of help. ^_^

Maybe Purrzhon will have helpful (if Sleeth-viewpointed) advice!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

He had even better than advice he had a job! For me!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose if you're desperate in two or three hours, you can lurk around the magic halls of the Academy to sell cley. Not dignified, true, but you would hardly be my first friend who did that. The smallest secretary in the Department of Corpador, Mentador, and Spiridor traditionally handles those arrangements.

You could also blackmail me pretty easily with what you've seen in my journal, but that'd be easier if I were anywhere near Vheshrame.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

What if she just, instead of blackmailing you or pretending to blackmail you, she just... asked for money? Not necessarily as a loan, mostly just "I will pay you back if I can, but getting spare money isn't easy for me, but if you come over and I will cook for you and listen to you and give you advice if you want it." Would that be more honorable AND as likely to work as 'blackmailing' you?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Have I been in Eigrach too long?

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

If your advice is to say, "Pretend to blackmail me even though we are friends, so I have cause to solve your problems" rather than, "You can ask for help and I will do what I can since I am a friend", then YES, you have been in Eigrach too long!

[alex-muridae.livejournal.com]

You know, I think the lizard might be making fun of you Gavin. Or making fun of Eigrach; they deserve it a little more...

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Eigrach does! It's an awful little city I'm glad I don't live there!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

You have! You should send yourself home and not just tell your people to leave! Oh right you can't you need to keep Vae occupied and away until her baby is old enough that she can see Oixe again or something. Soooooorry.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Noooo I wouldn't ask Sythyrs for money! Zie's got all kinds of money problems zie's even worse than just broke! Zie's in debt!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Ewwww nooo I'm not that desperate! I'm not going to turn tricks on the Street of Luminscent Crimsons either! Or join the Thieves' Guild! I'd rather be a riverbum if it comes to *that* sort of choice.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Sythyry scurries off, snickering! -s^y]

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Oh Delight! This is off topic, but you know Siege's post about the methane and what you thought was "possibly going to destroy all life on our branch" or something like that? That rumor has been debunked! Hooray! There won't be one giant mega disaster of that sort on my "branch". Oh, since you have seen pictures of my world and know the basic shape of it, the term for the large landmasses is "continent". I have NO IDEA how that term is going to be translated, though!

Anyway, if you want to read the article that talks about the debunking of the rumor, which is filled with local natural science, you can check here!

http://io9.com/5585294/

[zeeth_kyrah]

Let's just say that... well, it ain't gonna happen on or in the World Tree.

We disagree on this topic. Such debates are best left among externals who will be more affected by it, since I doubt our young Orren acquaintance will have much but excitement to contribute to it.