[OPEN-ISH] Sometimes I feel like my brain turns to leaves

[overharrowed]

WHO: Julius, Ellie, Strange, Barrow, Wysteria, Benedict, and anyone else who wants to tap in
WHAT: Julius has a new job
WHEN: Vaguely after the return from the Silent Plains
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: Feel free to tag in responding to the main text, or talk to me OOC if you'd like to hash out a bespoke starter.

When Julius realized he was the last dedicated project leader remaining, it had been clear to him that the position was likely to change or vanish in short order. The organization has contracted, and distinctions that were once useful have become redundant. It's not as if his knowledge from the project would be lost, or that he doesn't trust the new division heads. To the contrary, he's worked with Niehaus on red lyrium for years, and Derrica is among his nearest and dearest. They are sensible choices and that are also personally advantageous to him.

If a small part of his mind registers frustration at not swinging up the ladder himself, there's another part ready to point out all the reasons he wasn't the most strategic choice, many of which were the results of his own actions. It's fine.

Seneschal is unquestionably a position they need filled, and also one that requires trust. He's here because he's earned that. And he's willing to shelve his own ambitions (or at least turn them down a bit) in the name of a well-run, effective organization. It's not as if he isn't a practical man. But it's an adjustment. It certainly feels a bit like starting over, not least as he settles into a new office. He's not set official office hours yet, but he can be found sorting through a variety of books, papers, and correspondence more often than not for the first week or so.

Comments

Closed to Ellie

[overharrowed]

Julius respects how useful the griffons are, but every since he first climbed on one's back, he's secretly harbored the belief that they are too intelligent for him to feel perfectly comfortable riding them so high up and so fast. This belief is responsibly and firmly suppressed whenever an assignment requires riding with someone else, but he's never spent a lot of extra time in the eyrie. He's willing to help if asked, but usually his skills are better applied elsewhere.

Still, it's not as if he doesn't know where the eyrie is. And it also makes sense that Ellie spends more time there than in her office. It's not a very office-focused job, Julius suspects. The eyrie is his first guess, at least, when he decides to track her down. And if he misses her, he supposes the extra trip up and down the stairs can do him some good.

[notathreat]

The eyrie is where he'll find her. Morning and evening, a pitchfork or a brush or a pick in hand, feeding or scraping or spreading down clean bedding.

She's got her hair pulled back, a smock covering her armor, and thick gloves. She's working to pitch clean hay into one of the just-cleaned platforms when she hears the door open up.

Ellie glances down from her platform, wipes her forehead with the back of her forearm. Julius isn't someone she's overly familiar with, but both Marcus and Derrica seem to hold him in high regard, and that's enough for her.

"Hey," she says casually. "Taking a walk?"

[overharrowed]

"Inevitably," is a bit rueful. He grew up in a tower and he's in decent shape now, but he's daily aware he's no longer as young as he was. (Or at least his knees aren't.) He's dressed neatly but not flashily: robes, today, but with a practical cut that allows easy movement.

"No, I wanted to find you for a talk, if you're at liberty. It's not deeply urgent, so it can be another time, though regardless, I may take a moment before I head back down. As long as I'm not in the way."

His eyes flick, casually, to see if Little White Monster is in residence. He can't say they've especially bonded, but there's some transitive fondness from Marcus anyhow.

[notathreat]

Ellie pitches and spreads the last of the hay, catching her breath before she heads to the edge of the platform, swinging her legs over it to let them dangle.

She sounds a touch out of breath at first, but she catches it quickly as she starts to peel off her gloves, flexing her fingers. She slides down off the platform, catching herself before dropping the rest of the way to the ground.

"Nah, go ahead. Must be important if you came all this way just to catch me."

Little White Monster is somewhere nearby, in one of the roosts. Though he was sleeping when Julius walked in, he's cracked open an eye and shuffling now.

[overharrowed]

"Important but not an emergency," he says, resisting the fleeting urge to lean against a wall. He's not out of breath, at least, even if his old Ghislain injury is probably going to tell him about today's excursion later.

"I mainly wanted to speak to you now that I'm taking the vacant Seneschal position. I don't intend to meddle needlessly in how you're managing the griffons; you know more than I do, and I'm not going to try to override you for no reason. But I feel like I should be aware of what you are doing when I make choices or talk to the Division Heads. To see if there's anything you need but don't have, anything you do have but could use more of, that sort of thing." He smiles just a little. "No promises, obviously. I'm going to have to balance a lot of priorities. But I figure the more I know, the better decisions I can make."

[notathreat]

"Yeah, congrats on that, by the way."

Ellie flashes him a smile, a nod, looking around at the work room, the supplies, the way it's set up. It probably appears like chaos.

"Um, I don't have much of anything written down 'cause me and the stablehands just kinda know, but do you need any ledgers or anything? For cost?"

Fuck if she knows how it all works. She just knows what to order and when to keep it in stock, and how to keep the mounts all fed.

"... anything you wanna know?"

[overharrowed]

He returns her smile briefly, but then considers the question. "I'll get back to you on accounting; we've done without anyone formally in the position for a while, no sense making you do extra work until I know what my system will be. Probably eventually, though it may be something you can delegate."

He looks around the eyrie, evaluating. "I know supplies are constrained throughout the organization, so I'd assume more food and supplies for gear repair or upkeep are always welcome. Is there anything griffons need that people more familiar with horses and livestock wouldn't think of offhand?"