[Job Thread] Why Me?

[Draven McNiel]

68th Day of Winter, 515 AV

Draven was still in Mythrin following his latest adventure, a couple days of rest within the outpost had helped immensely, as Draven had gotten ready to depart earlier, as the snow had finally calmed down, he was stopped by a potential client. Since he decided that he’d hear them out Draven had no choice but to follow his word as he had indeed promised. So here he was in the client's home listening to the man’s plea. Draven looked around the cottage home, so this man was probably one of the many residents working the fields to feed them, and thus the young man felt the urge to somehow help them out. A part of the roof looked as if it had just recently been fixed, and there were repairs as he walked into the house, there was a good chance that this house was damaged by the snow somewhat. But Draven didn’t want to ask, and just sat down at the wooden table once he was gestured to sit there.

”So what’s the problem.” Draven asked in his best serious tone, however his slouchy posture gave off the look of a slouch which the older man on the other side of the table didn’t seem to mind too much. ”Ah yes, Mr.McNiel, I’ve contacted you regarding my son.” The man seemed to slowly speak out as if he was embarrassed to admit something. Draven turned to look at the burning hearth which had what he presumed to be this man’s wife. She looked a bit younger than her husband, though it was obvious the pair were already middle-aged. ”How do I put this, well I’d like you to follow my son for the day, he seems to get bothered by a group of hooligans.” The man finally sputtered out. ”Well how bad is it?” Draven asked in regards to what he perceived as bullying.

”Well he’s terrified to go out, and when he does he tends to stick to the walls and not approach the fields. He can’t continue going on this way.” The client said forcefully, which Draven didn’t fully understand. However this was the person hiring him, so he didn’t really want to get into a discussion. ”Alright, so where is he now?” Draven asked to which he heard the front door opening and a young man make his way in...Well he was probably on the skinnier side, something which Draven was accustomed to, however the guy seemed to be looking down at the floor, not trying to meet his eye...Was he soft? ”There he is, that’s my boy. Please take good care of him today. Arden, this is the mercenary I hired to help you out, listen to what he says okay.” The father spoke in a firm tone, which his boy just nodded at. Draven gave a big grin to the slightly younger male, and turned to the father. ”Alright then, I’ll be taking him on a long walk with me today, you’ll see him again this evening.” The swordsmen said which the father chuckled at a little.

”Don’t kill the boy alright?” The older male seemed to have lightened up a bit and patted Draven on the back. ”Ah, how I’d love to have a boy like you.” He said as he firmly gripped Draven’s shoulder, however the mercenaries eyes flew straight to the young man who seemed dejected at that statement. He frowned again, however it wasn’t his place to get involved, just scare off the boys. ”Thanks, we’ll be on our way then.” Draven said as he gestured Arden to step out and followed directly behind him. The pair then closed the door behind them and began their trek through the snow covered outpost.

”Arden is it huh, nice to meet ya. I’m Draven.” He said as he stuck his hand out for a handshake. ”Nice..To meet you too.” His voice was quiet and low, his hand shook a little as he went to shake it. Draven frowned once more, he seemed to be doing that lot recently. ”Firm, you need to put in a good bit of strength when you shake hands.” Draven said with a smile, to which the younger male seemed to respond with positively as he strengthened his handshake. ”Okay, I’ll do so…” His voice was quiet just as before, and he still refused to meet Draven’s eyes. But his job wasn’t to toughen the boy up. ”Say how old’re you?” He asked out of curiosity, he rarely got to work with people his own age. Arden looked up for a second, however he still didn’t meet his eyes. 17.” Was all that he said, Draven nodded, so he was already considered an adult.

”So what do you do for fun?” Draven asked the younger male, who looked down at the floor again, Draven had to grab his sleeve and pulled him the side to make sure that he didn’t bump into anyone. ”Sorry. Nothing really I guess, bird-watching is sort of fun, maybe reading a book if I can grab one…” The boy said, Draven cracked a small smile. The pair walked around for a couple of hours, Draven simply asking him questions and the younger boy having replied. This continued on for a while until they explored almost all the areas left to explore. However a part of Draven wondered why the boy’s father just didn’t tell the knights of this problem. He wasn’t quite complaining, but it wasn’t a stretch for him to admit that this boy was a bit of a chore. ”Can’t wait to run into those bullies so I can end this.”

[Draven McNiel]

Draven sighed which was picked up by the younger male, the wandered for a good while. Draven didn’t even have any idea why he picked a walk. ”Sorry about this Mr.Draven, I must be a bother huh…” Arden said in a downtrodden voice which made Draven feel pretty bad, this kid seemed to have it sort of tough. Even so the swordsmen didn’t agree with the way that the boy thought about himself. ”You’re not too bad, I definitely know worse people that I could be spending the day with.” Draven said as he rubbed the back of his head. He stood half a foot above the fellow male and he got a small urge to rub his hair, but it probably wouldn’t be seen as comforting, or that’s how he felt anyway.

”Anyway, what makes you think you must be a bother, there has to be a reason right?” This made him wonder somewhat. ”Because I’m not useful to anyone, I can barely even plant the crops properly, don’t even ask me to last on the fields the whole day, I can’t lift heavy stuff and I’m as thin as a stick plus all my hobbies are boring.” He said in a low tone, however it seemed as if he was holding this in for a good while, Draven sighed and chuckled a little bit. ”Is that it?” He asked, as if he was merely waving away all of the boy’s worries.

This didn’t have the effect that Draven thought it would as it actually fired the younger boy up. ”What do you mean is that it? I’m useless, no-one expects anything of me, not even my father! Not like you’d understand, you’re a cool mercenary, I bet you go out on the biggest quests and get all the girls unlike me… Ah! Shyke, sorry, just forget I even said anything.” Arden looked back at the ground after meeting Draven’s eyes for the very first time that day. Draven however found himself more than a little surprised at that outburst. However he wasn’t disappointed, it was exactly what he wanted to hear all day, passion was in that boy’s voice, something he didn’t hear the whole of that day from him.

So Draven did what he did best, he acted unprofessional and overly friendly; so he threw an arm around his shoulder and chuckled. ”That’s it, you do have some fire. Trust me on this one, but you’re not useless, I thought the same and still do sometimes. I haven’t made progress with my swords skills in years, and I’m stuck in the same old rut as always. Hahaha, look you’ve got things you’re good at right? Like look what’s that bird there?” Draven asked as he pointed at a bird just resting on the roof of a recently collapsed cottage.

”A snow bunting, but I don’t know what you’re getting at.” His voice trailed off as he looked at the bird. Draven found himself laughing even harder now, which made the younger male frown. ”If you’re just going to la-” Arden was cut off before he could complain once more to him. ”See what I mean, you’re good at something, I can’t tell the difference between a crow and a raven, a lot of people can’t either, but you know your fair share about birds. See, why not write books about them or something, you’d make some money from that.” Draven said as he pulled his charge in closer for greater effect.

”But my dad wouldn’t wan-...” He was beginning to trail off, the fire that was there in his voice earlier was all gone. ”But nothing, grow some balls!” Draven said as he used his other hands to squeeze the aforementioned balls earning a squeak from the boy. ”A-what’re you doing!” He screeched out, making Draven laugh again. ”See, you stood up for yourself there, looks like you got big ones too.” He said as he wiped his hands on the boy’s face which earned him a scowl of some sort. ”Alright, y’know what, I’ll teach you how to be a man today alright? Just follow big bro Draven’s teachings, and you’ll be set.” Draven said as he rubbed the boy’s hair and detached himself from Arden. He stood in front of the younger male and struck his best “guts” pose, with a single hand raised up in a fist and pounded on his chest. ”Wait what…”

[Draven McNiel]

”You heard me, I’ll teach you to be manly, all it takes is a couple of things, and from there you’ll need to work on it yourself.” Draven said as he patted his shoulder. However Arden seemed more concerned than relieved as he slowly inched away from the older male. ”What do I have to do?” He asked Draven as he apprehensively watched the older male, Draven just chuckled.

”Chill buddy, I won’t have you do anything extreme, just give you a bit of courage. I’m really shyke at this teaching thing, and I can’t petching inform you on how to be a brave man. But manliness is above all that, the main thing you need to be able to do is fake it.” Draven said with a big grin and a thumbs up that looked more like a bad car salesmen. However this seemed to get Arden’s attention. ”Look, if you can fake it then the people around you’ll believe it. Pretend you’re fine, and then they’ll expect things from you. After all that their expectations will give you real courage.” Draven said as patted Arden on the chest with the back of his hand.

However the young boy’s turn to frown came around and he had some displeasure in his tone. ”Isn’t that just one big lie then? Pretending to have courage isn’t courage, that’s just a big fake look, as if anyone will believe that.” Arden almost screamed those words out as if he was saying them from the deepest, darkest most well hidden pits of his soul, he must truly have wished for the courage that he always dreamed about. ”It’s not about believing, it’s about trying. As long as you try, no-one can truly fault you. Don’t give up on it, hope doesn’t cost anything y’know.” Draven said as he patted the boy’s back saying words that he truly didn’t believe in. However this kid needed the more than he ever did and Draven would be damned if he didn’t at least pass on something useful to him by the end of this day.

”Don’t question it, just do. Thinking is left for other things, don’t be hard on yourself. A fake smile, a fake shout of bravado isn’t just for the people around you. One day you might realize it isn’t fake at all.” Draven said as he patted he flicked Arden’s head. However the boy’s pull on his sleeve made Draven turn around quickly. ”It’s them, they’re there.” He said quietly whispering to the mercenary. The older male turned and looked around his eyes falling on a trio of large burly men, far larger than Draven himself which made him almost blanch. ”Who those guys…” Draven said as he pointed at the large men, however the boy shook his head and pointed at a pair of kids, probably younger than Arden by a good bit, they didn’t even look like they began to hit puberty yet. ”No way…” He facepalmed, now he knew why his father didn’t go to the knights, who the hell would take this seriously.

On closer inspection though Draven could see that Arden seemed to be thinking of something. ”Why don’t you go ahead, I’ll deal with them.” Draven said patting the boy on the back, however to his surprise Arden shook his head and looked Draven straight in the eyes, however he kept glancing away as if the simple act of meeting each other’s gaze was hurting him. ”I can do it.” He said with a fake smile and walked ahead, however Draven didn’t feel comfortable after the two young boys stood in front of him trying to stop him from walking. However to his surprise, Arden didn’t back down straight away, he was far from intimidating, but he actually spoke. ”Let me pass please.” His tone was quiet, yet there was some strength in there, or maybe Draven was imagining it. [i]”Gotta pay the toll.”[/color] Said the taller of the two kids as he pushed Arden back.

Arden merely tried again and again, each time failing, Draven was standing there for thirty minutes watching as the younger male was being pushed back against two pre-teens. He was dumb for expecting some kinda change this fast. Arden however looked as if he was going to cry, tears were welling up completely let down by Draven. Just as he was going to run away one of the boys got in his way, ending up completely knocked to the floor by the taller male. ”Why you!” The other boy was about to react with a punch, however Arden thrust out his hand to protect himself, somehow smacking the other boy in the nose...

”No way...This is the dumbest job I’ve ever taken.” He muttered as he face palmed once more as the second boy hit the floor. ”That’s right, don’t mess with me anymore.” Arden put on the guts pose as he just made two kids cry and run off. A content smile on his face. He turned back to Draven with a big grin on his face. ”I did it, you were right Draven!” He said as he cheered in front of the older male. Draven merely shook his head before he wrapped his arms around the younger boy’s shoulder. ”Let’s just go home, soldier.”

[Devi]

Your Grades on Hold! Notes : Hi Draven, From looking through your Character Sheet I noticed that you're ledger has spilled into the red from taking off your Winter Expenses. Ledgers should never go into minus figures, especially for living expenses, as it would mean that Draven is dead! Without any money characters are unable to purchase the basics like food, housing and healthcare that keep them in tip-top shape. You can enter a lower standard of living but be aware that living consistently below a common standard of life will have an impact on Draven's health (potentially causing death in the long run, just as it might in real life). It may be worth having a word with Reflection and Nightmare, the STs for Syliras, to get their advice on how to resolve this. Once you've got it all sorted and your ledger is back in the green then just let me know and I'll proceed with grading your thread. _

[Madeira Dusk]

Grades Awarded!

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Draven McNeil

Skills

• Observation: 3xp
• Rhetoric: 1xp
• Socialization: 4xp
• Teaching: 3xp
• Acting: 1xp

Lores

• Teaching: the manly art of the handshake
• Teaching: mentoring a youth
• Acting: fake it 'till you make it

Awards & Retribution


Notes
What a creative use of a mercenary! And that ending was hilarious. Great read. I wish Draven was around when I was in grade school. (ง'̀-'́)ง

I couldn't find many lores in there. If you think I missed anything give me a shout.