[CLOSED] You think that all your time is used

[archademode]

WHO: Gabranth, Byerly, Derrica, Diana, Barrow, potentially tba
WHAT: local man has bills to pay, time to take on 100 low level quests
WHEN: catch-all, consider it fairly current with a little give
WHERE: Gallows, Lowtown, tbd
NOTES: catch-all for threads involving (1) millenial judge magister in need of jobs + bonus horsegirl chapter + old men fights

Comments

[bouchonne]

It's a protection mission. Guarding a group of civilians as they venture into the wilds.

[archademode]

A worthy cause. [He loves escort quests they’re his favorite how did you know.]

How soon do they depart? I’ll make ready to leave with all due haste.

[bouchonne]

Early tomorrow. Around noon.

[ By has a rather liberal definition of early. ]

You can meet them at [ an address near the western edge of the city. ]

[archademode]

[Liberal indeed. That’s well more than halfway into the day itself by Archadian standards.]

You need not worry. [He isn’t worried, Gabranth.]

No harm will come to them for as long as they remain at my side, you have my word.

[bouchonne]

Excellent.

Ah, you'll also need to carry a few things for them.

[archademode]

[Valuable cargo? Smuggled weaponry, lucrative ore— possibly missives, if the matter of obligation and protection speaks to anything in Gabranth's own experience.]

A heavy burden hardly qualifies as hindrance. [And yes, the armor does due work in appealing to the idea that he is— at least in part— capable enough to manage taxing endeavors: even the most skeptical bystander could hardly argue against the amount of endurance required to maintain the guise of a Judge Magister, much less see combat within it.

But beyond that, he supposes he's little else in the way of credentials, and so adds without pride or preening:]

In my service at Emperor Gramis' side, there was little I could not be expected to manage without assistance.

[bouchonne]

That is a relief. This...

[ Heh. ]

Will take a special set of skills. How are you with children?

[archademode]

....children.

[bouchonne]

Children, yes. Do you have them where you're from?

[archademode]

[There is something so, so dry in his given answer.]

I was responsible for the protection and training of Prince Larsa Solidor for the majority of his young life.

[If something similar is in play here, he does at least carry a suitable record— though even before reaching age twelve the boy was infinitely more capable than most adults.

And triply so if that adult happens to be Benedict Artemaeus.]

[bouchonne]

[ A gasp of delight. ]

The Maker smiles upon us! You were the perfect man for the job all along, and I didn't even know it!

Byerly, you are a professional menace

[archademode]

Fate would favor us both, it seems.

[Does he seem a little taller in that moment? His chin held higher by degrees?

An eternity of time spent apart from old habits has done nothing to curb his longing for the simplicity of them: orders leading to the promise of commendation, a cyclical flow that turned even the most taxing morality into a simple, translatable exchange. But instead of baring that, he simply stays the worst of his instincts. Limits it to that minute difference in posture, and nothing more.]

These children, then. Those you would have me safeguard [for surely that is the whole of this by his estimation] they are of great importance.

gabranth is just so easy to torment.

[bouchonne]

[ By nods thoughtfully. ]

All children are important.

[ that's not an answer. ]

legitimately canon, pls place F in chat for him

[archademode]

Yet those are not what I've not been asked to guard.

[Unless all children will, in fact, be gathered at noon tomorrow at whatever address he's been told to head towards.

In which case yes, he will very much guard All Children.]

[bouchonne]

Yet. It sounds like that might be your duty next time.

[archademode]

Too steep a challenge for one man, I think.

[He's a Judge, after all. Not a tickle-me-elmo.]

[bouchonne]

Perhaps. There are quite a few children out in the world, I fancy.

These ones are orphans.

[archademode]

[Ah.

For a brief pause, there’s only the solidity of heavy silence stuck between them. Ivalice knew orphans in a way that bordered on critical at times, and Gabranth—

Well.

He takes up the leather kit resting at his side, moving to rise. He isn’t angry— not visibly, or in truth— not even if this exchange happened to be a game of sorts for Byerly himself, if only because of the end result. The task at hand.]

Rest assured they’ll know security, for once in their lives.

[And then, with one last little nod, he moves to take his leave.]