Playing the Bad Guy (Solo)

[Seidaku]

Timestamp: 25th Day of Fall, 511 A.V.

Seidaku sat in his single rickety chair, at a scuffed and scarred desk littered thickly with half-crumpled sheets of parchment and the frayed remnants of quills. Most of the papers contained fragments of writings and obscure notes to himself for topics of later research. It was not his musings that he frowned at, though; it was a pair of pages laid out side by side, each of them covered in neat lines of sharp, angular script.

Staring at a list of his students, the classes they were scheduled to attend, and the accompanying tally of payments made on their behalf, he supposed that he should not have been surprised at what the figures told him. Almost a quarter of his students, children and parents both, were delinquent in the meager payment for their classes. Quite aside from what this might have said about their character however, was the impact that this negligence was going to have on his ability to feed himself next Season. If they did not give him their silver Mizas, he could not in turn give those Mizas to vendors in exchange for food – or clothing, he thought with a sigh, fingering the frayed cuff of his shirt.

He looked at the sheets of paper one last time and made a decision. He did not want to have to remove children wanting to learn from his classes, but he had to eat. At the very least though, he could speak to them personally before he turned them away.

He could be honest enough to admit to himself that his motivation was not entirely altruistic. If his students continued to come and learn, he would continue to be paid.

[Seidaku]

List in hand, Seidaku trudged through the streets, peering about himself to try and pick out the identifying characteristics he had put on his sheets in lieu of a proper map, which would have been worse than useless in Alvadas. His first stop was at the home of the Mason family, who had not one but two children enrolled in his classes.

He had been searching for the better part of two bells now, and was beginning to grow frustrated despite knowing full well that it would do no good. Alvadas had been difficult this Season, throwing up dead ends and switch backs that went nowhere, looping past the same location six and seven times, or simply taking the road into a place that would be suicidal to follow; off steep sided cliffs, through roaring infernos, or past lazily reclining but still sharp eyed predators. It was beginning to become disquieting.

Despite his frustration, or possibly because of it, he could never tell at times like these, Seidaku finally spotted a red kerchief tied tightly about the left hand shutter on the window of a house. He checked his list one last time to make sure of the description he was looking for. Yes, this was the Masons' home.

Seidaku steeled himself to approach the house, squaring his shoulders and taking a deep, steadying breath. He could do this. He just had to walk up, knock on the door, and confront them about their delinquent payments.

He released the breath in a heaved sigh, seeming to deflate, Maybe in a chime or two...

[Seidaku]

A chime or two had turned out to be more than a bell. More than a bell spent standing in the street outside of a hovel, preparing himself to confront a mother and father living in poverty and demand payment from them. The final impetus to push him toward action had been a low growl from his stomach as it demanded food that his own coin purse could scarcely afford.

After a much short walk than he would have preferred, Seidaku found himself standing before the door of the home, his hand raised and a sharp knock delivered. He could hear movement from within the building, the soft sound of footsteps coming slowly closer. Finally, the door opened an inch and a suspicious eye stared out at him, studying him and the street behind him intently before the door was pulled the rest of the way open.

With a polite smile, he bobbed his head in greeting to the man standing in front of him, his wife standing a short distance behind, "Good afternoon, Master Mason, ah, Mistress Mason."

Rather than return his greeting, two sets of eyes narrowed suspiciously, "What do you want?", the father asked curtly.

"I, umm... that is, your sons have attended nine classes now. Without, umm, without payment," he cringed mentally, hating the hesitation in his voice when he most needed to sound confident. Glancing down at his sheets of parchment to take the time to gather his thoughts, he continued, "At our, umm, agreed upon rate, you owe a total of, ah, one and one half gold mizas."

The reply was a disinterested grunt, followed by, "We don't have it. And even if we did, I wouldn't waste it on payin' you. Workin' the docks is good enough for me, it's good enough for them. There's no shame working for a living."

"I, umm, I never said that there was," Seidaku replied, eyes darting between the pair of them, "But the, ahh, fact of the matter is-," with another grunt, the father turned away and the door slammed closed in Seidaku's face.

[Seidaku]

With a frustrated sigh, Seidaku raised his hand and knocked again, more sharply this time and frowned in irritation when there was no further reply. He looked up and then down the street; the crowds went about their business, uncaring of the difficulty he was having. Seidaku heaved another sigh and knocked again, pounding the side of his fist upon the closed door.

He heard a shout of, "You handle it! I'm done dealing with him!", from the other side of the door. When the door opened again, it was the wife alone, no sign of her husband or her children.

Stepping outside the of the hovel and letting the door swing closed behind her, Adele Mason said, "He wasn't exaggerating. We really don't have that much money right now. The docks have been slow and-" she broke off, swallowing and wiping her eyes, "We just don't have the mizas."

Feeling very much like a genuine bastard, Seidaku winced and said, "I, umm, understand... But I cannot, ah, I cannot teach your children for free. If I could do so and, umm, still feed myself or provide shelter, I would. But, umm, I cannot. I am sorry, but," he winced again, more deeply this time, "If you cannot pay, I will have to turn your children away."

She bit her lip and ducked her head, "Please, don't. They told us what you said, in your class. About being able to make a better life for themselves, even if they work as a laborer. I just want them to have a better life."

Seidaku sighed and closed his eyes. Could he really turn away children who wanted to learn? Children with at least one parent who would encourage them to do so? But at the same time, could he afford to teach them for free? All it would take was one of them telling a friend, or a neighbor, or one of the other students, and then word would get around that a story of hardship would get him to work for free.

"Maybe you can, umm, that is," he wrung his hands, "Can you spare any coin? Whatever you can, umm, spare will help. And then you can pay the rest when, umm, your husband's work pick back up."

She looked down, then softly said, "Maybe. Let me see what we can do," before she turned and vanished inside.

[Seidaku]

He had been standing outside the Mason's home for the better part of a bell now. First, there had been the sounds of shouting coming from inside, immediately after the woman had gone inside. After that, he had heard soft weeping, accompanied by an angry muttering.

And then silence. Which had been the only sound from within, beside the occassional shuffling, for the last handful of chimes. So he sighed, and fidgeted, and wondered whether she was just hoping to pawn him off in that way, before the door finally reopened and she emerged back onto the street.

"We don't have much," she said, holding out a hand cupping a meager few silver mizas, "But will this be enough? Please?"

Seidaku took the coins, not needing to take the time to count the small number. It was half a gold miza, and it disappeared quickly into a pouch on his belt. It was better than nothing, he supposed. Not much better, but still more than he had before.

"Yes, madam," he said with a polite smile, "That will, umm, be sufficient. Please though, pay up the rest when you, ah, when you can. I genuinely do not want to, umm, turn your children away from their classes."

"Thank you," she said with a beaming smile, "We will. As soon as we have the mizas, we will pay you."

With another muttered thanks, Seidaku turned away and headed back to the streets. Once he was safely lost amongst the crowd he sighed, fingering his belt pouch forlornly. At least he would be able to eat tonight.

Hopefully the other families would be easier than this.