The human element drags you down (open)

[overharrowed]

WHO: Julius and others
WHAT: Catch-all for Harvestmere
WHEN: At a point in the month when he's not offsite for drake wrangling; we can handwave specifics unless you need not to
WHERE: In and around the Gallows, mainly
NOTES: While participation is obviously opt-in OOCly, if you'd like Julius to track down your character without their IC permission, that's a thing that can definitely happen. Ditto involvement with Sashamiri projects - if you want in but haven't been already, Julius is not above corralling people. Dive in or hmu if you want a hook beyond what's here. (Also note that there is discussion of sex between consenting adults in the closed thread for Petrana.)

I. Official business (open)

Now that the projects are sharing personnel, Julius is less concerned about recruiting, per se, and more interested in keeping track of all the people with their fingers in various red lyrium or Corypheus-flavored pies. So while he keeps semi-regular office hours, he is also getting a bit more proactive at looking people up. On a given day, he has a list of people who have participated in recent Sashamiri missions, people whose names turn up in reports, or people who other people have told him to talk to. He also noted down those who had comments about things other than mabari statues, the last time Alistair reached out.

There's plenty to do. It's just a matter of finding people with the skills and the time to get it done.

II. Off the clock (open)

Julius tries to make himself approachable, and he knows not everyone will want to encounter someone first in an official capacity. (It's not so different from the Circle, in some ways, though he knows better than to observe as much aloud.) He makes a point of eating at reasonable meal times, and sitting with people he knows a little less well when the chance arises. He's a regular at the organized Wicked Grace games, and neither wins nor loses enough to draw attention. And, for all he isn't part of the Research division anymore, he's not infrequently in the library. In any of those places, he's happy to talk with acquaintances old and new.

What he likes now and then, however, is a bit of time on the top of the tower, watching the city below or the sunset over the water. He's not opposed to company, but for once, the company isn't the point. It's a thing he does just because he likes it, and there are few enough of those.

III. Annotations (closed to Petrana)

Julius had been looking for something else entirely -- he'd mislaid a book, and couldn't remember whether he'd last been reading it in her room or his. When he found the small codex, he'd not intended to pry, exactly, but he'd seen his name and been unable to resist.

However, his particular attitude when she discovered him was less of a man salaciously invading his lover's privacy and more of a scholar engaged in revisions. He had a pen in hand and was making notes on a loose sheet of paper he'd gathered at some point, concentration serious enough that he doesn't immediately break his train of thought when she enters the room.

IV. Wildcard

[If you want to talk about something specific that won't fit I or II, grab me on Discord or Plurk and let's make it happen.]

Comments

[overharrowed]

He laughs at that, warm. "I mean, they can be two separate things, the celebration and the moving. I suppose it's true that I work in my room less frequently than you do, so if it's a matter of convenience..."

Teasing, a bit, now that he's on surer ground.

[ipseite]

“It has always seemed the wiser thing to have a second desk than to give into inertia and simply pull a cot into my office—” which does, knowing her, seem altogether too plausible. At least if she's working in her quarters, she's more likely to actually go to bed at some point.

Especially if there's a warm body in it, though he's as likely to be reading something work-related as not.

[overharrowed]

"A cot is altogether too small," he says, definitively. "I suppose there's nothing for it, then." Julius leaned in to kiss her, properly. "We're both terribly practical people, it makes romantic gestures a bit harder to come by. But I think we do better together than apart."

Practically and romantically.

He adds, "I'd warn you about my habits, but you know all of them already, at this point."

[ipseite]

Very seriously, with her palm against his cheek— “I have forgiven you your terrible Wicked Grace game.”

[overharrowed]

"And I forgive you the heartless theft of my socks," he returns, instantly, though not managing such a straight face as hers.

[ipseite]

“If you cannot adequately defend them—”

[overharrowed]

"I was attempting to be gallant, which shows how well that is rewarded. I will grant it is partially my own fault for underestimating you, but in my defense, you were actively encouraging me to do so and you're very convincing."