Etiquette (Solo)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

They got to the site, and Tock pulled out a large spool, which held a long strip of marked leather for measuring. She tied the end in a small loop, and pulled Handy off her shoulder. "'Old 'is baby..." she told him, "no, wit'cher tail, silly!" He tugged on the strip with his wooden fingers for a moment, then when she corrected him, he slipped his leather tail though the loop and tugged it tight. Then she set him down and pointed off to the other end of the lot. "Take 'er down 'ere, sweetie!" He obediently scurried off, crawling across the ground with his wooden fingers working like legs, the leather strip trailing behind him. Tock held the spool and fed the leather out as he scurried off, waiting until he was at the far end to call out, "'Kay! Stop an' 'old it fer Mommy!" He plopped down on his wrist and tugged on the strip with his fingers, holding it steady so Tock could check the measurements. Meanwhile, she told James and the other laborers, "Measure 'at side, an' tells me whatcha got!" They were used to listening to her on a job, just because she was bossy, but now that she was officially of a higher rank among the crew, they had to listen to her. That felt pretty darn good. The sun was shining, the air off the sea was fresh, and it was quiet except for the occasional cry of a gull. It was a perfect day to be working outdoors. She was glad she was no longer stuck in Jacques's office, being lectured, and dealing with stupid meetings and customers and all of that garbage. She recorded the numbers from her own measurements, then the ones James called out to her. Then she called Handy back over, and stood overlooking the lot, hands on her hips as she considered it. "Izza gonna been wit' the door over 'ere," she said, stepping over to what she figured was the nest position facing the docks. She waved a couple of the laborers over and said, "Gimme some stakes 'ere, an' 'ere... an' 'ere..." She marked some spots by digging her heel into the dirt, measuring the distance between each point. The men drove wooden stakes into the ground where she indicated, marking the locations where the front pillars would go. She had them tie strips of twine between the stakes, and continued directing them with more placements as she worked out the calculations to five the pillars proper spacing, ensuring she had the spot for door in the center of the available space. Meanwhile James was figuring out the square footage of brick needed for the foundation, and Jacob was getting some measurements for how the layout of the rooms inside would fit in the available space. Once the measurements were done, however, there wasn't much left for most of the crew to do. The real work couldn't start until the blueprints were finalized, which would be awhile yet, on a job this big. So Tock directed the men to clear out some loose rocks, branches, and other light debris, and then told them, "Awright boys. 'Ead on 'ome, aye?" They grinned, looking a bit surprised. It was a good hour before their normal quitting time. But Tock saw no point in making them hang around, and it wasn't worth sending them back to the warehouse this late in the day. "Go on, git," she told them. "Plenty more work tomorrow..." They thanked her, and a couple of then actually went so far as to tip their caps to her as they headed off. When Eavin was in charge, no one ever went home early. He also tended to badger and yell at everyone... whereas Tock only yelled when people were being lazy or giving her an attitude. It felt good to get a little respect from the crew. It felt good to be able to send them home early, and to have the authority behind her to direct the men based on more then just her stubborn bossiness. And while Jacob certainly had the authority to overturn her decision, he seemed to agree with her, aid held the same views on how to treat the workers. James stepped up to her, handing her his calculations, and asked, "You coming out for drinks tonight?" She looked up at him, uncertain. Things were still rather weird between them. On top of that, her head was still full of all the things Jacques had said to her earlier. She shook her head and said softly, "Nah. Not tonight, mate..." He just nodded, then turned around and silently left.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock and Jacob headed back to the warehouse when the rest of the crew went home. They stopped by the drafting office to begin making some adjustments to the initial designs. It would take a couple of weeks to work up the entire set of blueprints for a building this size, but now that they had the measurements, they could at least work up a good outline. They worked together, mostly quietly, measuring everything to scale and drawing out the structure of the outer walls. Tock laid out the placement of the facade and the locations for the marble pillars, though she'd hold off drawing the intricate designs until later. Likely she'd be starting on her carvings before the building was even raised, and then the carved blocks would be set into place once the rest of the structure was ready. Once they had the designs for the outer walls, the locations of the support pillars, and the other load-bearing walls, they decided to call it a night. The layout of the individual rooms would take more time, since they needed to coordinate the size of the needed rooms against the available space, and figure out the best arrangement of the rooms and halls. But since everything needed to fit inside the size of the lot, they knew how big the outer walls would be, no matter what. "You heading home?" Jacob asked, opening the door and pausing for her response before he left. Tock was still seated at the table, making some last minute notations for the dimensions of the facade. "Nah... not yet..." she replied quietly, without looking up. "...Jack still 'ere?" She still had her mind on his earlier words, and was thinking of talking to him again before she left. "I think so," Jacob said. "Do you want me to--?" "Nah," Tock replied, getting up and heading for the door. "I's git 'im..." Jacob said good night and headed out, off to see his family. Tock lingered, heading into Jacques's office without knocking. She never knocked. He was seated behind his desk, going over his ledgers, and likely updating for the profits he'd be earning off Marshall's job. "Oy, Bossman," she said, pausing just inside the door. "What can I do for you, Miss Zipporah?" he asked, glancing up at her briefly, but continuing his work. Jacques always stayed late. As far as Tock knew, he didn't have any family in Zeltiva. Though she didn't know anything about his personal life. Their relationship was strictly professional. "Iz ya think I's gonna been good at 'is?" she asked, still lingering in the door. She had been feeling inadequate all day. Her self-esteem had been crushed, and it was a very unusual feeling for her. Normally, she didn't CARE what people thought of her. If someone had anything bad to say about her, she just told them to petch off, and ignored them. But this was... different. Her boss was giving her a chance that she hadn't expected, and it seemed to indicate he thought she had earned the position. But at the same time, he had spent an hour lecturing her on the things she did wrong. She didn't know how to reconcile with that. Jacques paused in his work and set his quill down. He looked up at her, folding his hands, giving her a considering gaze. He nodded to the chair across from him and said, "Sit." She plopped into the chair, pouting, and hugged her arms across her chest. She already regretted asking the question. She remained quiet until Jacques said, "Miss Zipporah... Do I strike you as a man who second guesses his decisions?" She thought about that for a moment, then shook her head. "Nah," she said. "Ya always jus' says, 'Does somethin',' an' people does it..." He nodded and asked her, "So, do you think I'd have offered you this position if I didn't think you were capable of it?" She frowned, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Looking down at the ground she replied, "No... but..." "But what, Miss Zipporah?" She chewed on her lip for a moment, unsure how to answer. After a long wait, Jacques asked her, "Is it possible, Miss Zipporah, that YOU are the one worried that you aren't fit for the job?" She squirmed in her seat, hating how he seemed able to cut to the heart of a matter, even when she herself hadn't realized that was what was bothering her. But now that he had hit the nail on the head, she couldn't deny it. "Aye..." she whispered. She didn't know what else to say. She just felt... terrible. "Tock," Jacques said. She looked up at him, surprised to hear him using her preferred name yet again today. "Have you ever failed at something you set your mind to?" She thought about that for a moment. Sure, she had her failures in life. She had messed up plenty of things. But never the things she devoted herself to. Her job, her projects... she saw them through to the end. Even if they didn't work at first, she kept revising, adjusting, and rebuilding until she got it right. Just like a couple of weeks ago, when she built Diggy. His balance had been off at first, so she'd adjusted and added a counterweight in order to correct the problem. She made the leap to where Jacques was taking this, and answered, "Yer sayin', if'n I done works 'ard on 'er, I can does 'er jus' fine?" Jacques smiled, both in pride, and in seeing this somehow wasn't going to be another of those conversations where it took them forever just to get on the same page. He gave her a nod and said, "Exactly. Work on it. Don't get discouraged if you make mistakes. And come to me if you need any help... and I'm sure you'll do just fine. Just remember the things we talked about... your temper most of all. Understand?" Tock nodded, and got up to leave. "Aye, Bossman," she said. "Gotcha..." She headed home, still feeling somewhat dejected. She got home just as the sun was starting to go down, stepping into her messy house and leaning against the door. Naily rolled over immediately and started nuzzling her ankle. She picked him up and carried him over to her bed, plopping down on it. She set him on her chest, and a moment later felt Bitey crawling up onto the bed with her. The spider crawled onto her belly and curled up there, while Handy nestled against her face, stroking her cheek. Comforted by the presence of her babies, she started to relax for the first time today. In the darkness of the quiet little cottage, she asked them, "Ya loves Mommy jus' the way she is... don't ya babies?"

[Cascade]

Adventurer's Loot Tock's Loot : Skill XP Reward Architecture +3 Drawing +2 Persuasion +1 Leadership +2 Rhetoric +2 Mathematics +1 Lore: Discussions With The Bossman Meeting Mr. Marshall Taking Philip's Place Some Hard Changes Etiquette Lessons from Jacques A Promotion A Few Insecurities Nicely done. I always like how much meat you put into your NPCs, and it's also interesting to see Tock have to deal with her... 'quirks'. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!