Congratulations, cuddlers! You've survived your first month here in Cadelle, and with only (cough) minimal catastrophe. The city administration is beyond grateful for all of your help in the rebuilding efforts, and cannot thank you enough for all your hard work.
Well, maybe that's not entirely fair. After bribing visitors to move out, meeting the seemingly endless caloric needs of hungry superheroes, and funding the reconstruction efforts, the city's coffers are starting to feel a little light... which leads us to today.
The festivities kick off with a time-honored Cadelle tradition: the skills fair! In keeping with local customs, Cadellians traditionally volunteer to host a booth and teach a skill of their choice for the day, a good deed that helps to refill the city's energy stores after the busy summer season. This year, the city has graciously agreed to let anyone interested sign up to host, and has set aside a small number of booths for the exclusive use of their newest visiting citizens... and while money isn't on the table (sorry, y'all, but they did say they were a little tight on the wallet), teaching out of the goodness of your heart still counts as a good deed done.
Whether you choose to host a booth and teach a skill of your own, or to wander the fair and learn something new, be sure to take time to appreciate the day's other offerings. Like any good late-summer fair, there's plenty of delicious food and drink from some of the city's best loved vendors to sample, upbeat music in the air to dance courtesy of the local top 40 radio station, and lots of opportunities to escape the heat thanks to special seminars hosted by the city's own university. Yes, seminars — there's one every hour, with topics ranging from underwater basket weaving to particle physics to the careful art of walking more than one dog on the same leash. Classes are free, seats are plentiful, and hey, what else do you really have to do? You don't have a job yet, do you?
Speaking of jobs... after the fun in the sun of the skills fair is over, it's time for the main event on day two: the job fair! Yes, that's right, a job fair, because it's time for all you freeloaders to start paying your own way.
That might be a little harsh.
In any case, Flora and Cornelius are glad to welcome to you to Cadelle's first annual Employment Extravaganza, complete with brightly colored booths, friendly vendor representatives, and plenty of applications to go around. Come say hi, shake some hands, and maybe even get hired on the spot!
In addition to the city's many and varied culinary venues, there are a wide variety of cultural institutions, learning centers, recreation spots, and shopping destinations to appease even the most restless of visitors. (Hint, hint: there's even a DIRECTORY.)
While the sky's the metaphorical limit, be sure to check out the sponsored booths currently hiring:
▸ Barred is currently hiring for dance instructors! From classic ballet to interpretative dance or hip-hop, any style is welcomed. Please note: all classes are fully-clothed. (If you prefer to dance in your birthday suit, we suggest a more personal arrangement.)
▸ Blue Springs Pool is looking for qualified lifeguards to supervise the annual 'Learn To Swim' and 'Mommy and Me' programs this fall. While being able to breathe underwater is preferred, it's not required.
▸ Chop Shop has an opening for an even-tempered (... or not) culinary instructor for their evening cooking classes. Exceptional candidates may even be considered for the chef's academy, where they will be tasked with training Cadelle's next great generation of professional chefs!
▸ Crunches is eagerly hoping to fill a variety of positions, from gym staff to personal trainers and fitness instructors. If you've got a passion for fitness and want to get paid to join a multi-level marketing company sweat, come on down!
In case meeting and greeting with desperate to hire vendors doesn't sound like a great time, or if you need a little practice with the concept of having conversations with real people, Flora and Cornelius have graciously agreed to host a speed networking event. Much like your beloved speed dating events, this special event is intended to help you quickly and easily meet a variety of hot singles in your area professional colleagues and friends, and to potentially find a new career if you're lucky! (Plus, it's air-conditioned. How can you go wrong?)
Be sure to visit the welcome table to sign in and pick up your name tag. You'll be pleased to note that the name tags have been prefilled for your convenience, so just find the one with your name on it and slap it on. Don't mind the descriptions underneath...
Or do. While the city administration had graciously agreed to loan an intern to Flora and Cornelius for this event, they didn't exactly send their best and brightest. Grumpy intern Monty Montague has decided to have a little fun with his boring assignment — instead of the requested polite descriptions, Monty's opted to fill in the blank with more... well, colorful phrases. Things like:
▸ Hello, my name is Inigo. I am a revenge-obsessed swordsman with daddy issues.
▸ Hello, my name is Marshall. I am what? who? chicka chicka Slim Shady.
▸ Hello, my name is Moana. I am MOAAANAAAAAAAA.
What will your name tag say? Do you agree to stay and wear it? While you may seek out blank nametags (or even just an extra marker to scribble out the offending message), you'll be sorely disappointed to find them all conveniently missing. Tearing it in two won't work, either — there's no penny-pinching on supplies here, and that thick plastic sticker won't rip for anything.
Oh, well. It could be worse, right? At least there's a snack bar, and everyone's suffering together... right?
Pull up a chair, find your next match, and try to avoid the enormous elephant in the room. Or don't. Whatever floats your boat, cuddlers!
In conjunction with this event, the mod team is glad to announce the launch of our official JOBS DIRECTORY! Should your character find honest employment at the jobs fair or even on their own, please be sure to let us know!
Helpful Hint: As a reminder, players are always welcome to suggest a location that may be missing from our directory, and characters are also welcome to open up their own venues with help from the city administration! For help with this, or to make a suggestion, please drop us a line at our GENERAL INBOX (or SCREENED INBOX, if you prefer).
As always, we're here for you, cuddlers, to make this game a success! We couldn't do it without you! |
bigby wolf | fables/the wolf among us | ota
[ Hello, my name is Bigby. I am THE LAW
... honestly, it could have been worse. If whoever wrote this thing had gone for some dog joke, written that he's "a REAL son of a bitch", he probably would have chucked it in the first trash can he could find and done without the damn thing. Even so, it's not like this paints him in the best light, but if he needs to try his hand at this "playing nice" thing then a name's a fine place to start.
Not that it's going to be easy, even then - but when is anything ever easy? ]
2. job hunting
[ It's not that he's eager to find himself in someone else's employment, not by a long shot, but he's also not so stupid as to deny that needing money is a fact of life. He can't exactly just nominate himself sherriff here, and not for nothing but he's pretty sure that his way of handling things differs pretty greatly from the police.
The idea is there, in the back of his head, to look into starting up his own private investigative practice. Detective work was admittedly engaging. The hunter in him enjoyed seeking the trail, connecting dots to find his way to his prey - the truth. It's part of what made being the sherriff of Fabletown actually bearable, but he's not sure this place has the same seedy underbelly to dig into. Or, more accurately, he doesn't think he's been here long enough to find the traces of it. A place like this, with such a pretty face and an aggressively warm-hearted message, that offers such a tantalizing prize to its volunteers for the low price of a little cooperation, a little affection... he doesn't trust it, not entirely, and he wants to do a little digging to find out what he can about this place, what secrets it might be hiding that the ones in charge don't want coming to light. For right now, there's no obvious lead to follow.
But he knows where to go if he wants to find a start.
Booze always loosens lips, but just picking any bar isn't enough. The nicer ones aren't worth his time - if there's anything going on behind the scenes here it won't be exposed by the higher-ups, the people benefitting from the system. It'll be from the ones who are down on their luck, who have been driven into a dark corner - the kind that find themselves in dive bars, which is why he finds himself stopped at the stand for CriminALES. Yeah, this could do. If nothing else, a night job would give him some income to start saving up so he can start something independently. ]
Place like this looks like it could use some muscle.
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eventually, he looks up, takes in the scruffy, scarred face, the put together but still rough around the edges appearance. his mind's mostly made up from that first glance. but a snapshot opinion can definitely be swayed for better or worse once people open their mouths. he presses his palms together, pursing his lips as he tut tuts before responding.]
You're not wrong. I've got one guy already, but that doesn't mean I can't use more. Drunks tend to be rowdy. Why my bar though? It's not the only one in need of help.
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Plus, he knows the "I'm fucking busy wait a second" well enough from how often it's plastered on his own face.
So he stands there, arms folded over his chest, meeting the man's gaze as he's examined. ]
Used to go to a bar like it, back home.
[ Mostly to shake down people for information, but. Details. ]
I know how to read the room, sort out the troublemakers. Handle them if I have to. Plus, anything too upscale makes me break out in hives, so I figure this is a safe bet.
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he's not as much of a hard ass as people make him out to be. also, he's really tired of being bartender AND security AND having to count down for the night. at least he has kara to help some nights.]
Pretty sure everyone who comes to my bar is a troublemaker. But if you can tell the ones who'll actually start shit versus the ones who're just there to get plastered you'll do. You feel a little uncomfortable when you walk in and they're trussed up like turkeys on Thanksgiving too?
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[ Given that he's dealt with literal monsters trying to eviscerate him in the middle of the room? Yeah, some people getting a bit hammered and dressing like idiots is a welcoming and peaceful change of pace.
...
Mostly. There's always a part of him that feels that dark satisfaction at putting someone down with sheer force and brutality, but he's trying desperately to keep it reined in. ]
Trust me when I say I'm not so easily shaken.
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guidelines that he's seemingly misplaced. really, no one should leave him to handle this whole interview process alone. he grabs a sheet of paper, scrawls down an entirely too small a sum of money to be worth anyone's time, and slides the offer over to bigby.
if bigby's capable of holding his own against the boss, he'll probably be fine with the saturday evening crew, and mick is hoping that at least one more person will be able to pass this test or it's back to square one with yet another poor sap.]
That's one week's pay.
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His reaction isn't hurried. In fact, initially he does very little - he reaches into his pocket, fishes around for a cigarette and lighter. Tucks the cigarette between his teeth, unlit for now. ]
Back home, I took the smallest, shittiest apartment I could find. It's not that I wasn't making enough to afford better, but I don't really care about living the fancy life or having all sorts of bells and whistles. Four walls, a roof that barely leaks, running water, electricity most of the time. That's all.
[ He flicks his thumb to ignite the lighter, staring down at its flame for a few seconds... ]
That kind of pay... isn't even enough to rent a corner to piss in.
[ ... before touching the flame to the slip of paper on the table, letting it start to burn as he leans down to light his cigarette with Mick's now-blazing offer. He straightens back up, slowly, eyes decisively narrowed. ]
Hell, I'd call it unprofessional.
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mick's gaze darts between the lighter, the flame, and bigby's expression which has no hint of anything...
until it finally happens.
he smiles wide in response, laughing heartily as an offer that wasn't even worth the paper that it was printed on goes up in literal smoke.]
You don't actually need a job around here if you don't care what kind of place you live in. City's nice enough to provide the essentials. I wouldn't blame you if you did want something nicer though.
But you're right. That wasn't an actual offer. It's how I weed out who isn't even worth my time. You've passed.
[he clears his throat, looks at the rapidly dying remnants of that piece of paper before continuing.] Now's time for the real questions.
If I'm gonna work with you, I have to know that whatever personal shit you've got stays outside the bar. People shack up a lot in places like this. You good with telling whatever body keeps your bed warm that if they don't behave you'll be throwing 'em out just like any other trouble?
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Sometimes once upon a time needs to stay in the past.
His expression loses its edge once he confirms that things are going smoothly, hands resting on his hips as his shoulders let out a bit of their tension. ]
You're not going to have that problem with me.
[ As if he could lay with someone who wasn't...
Well.
That's a whole can of worms he's better off not even thinking about. ]
I've always done my job, whether people liked it or not, regardless of who those people were.
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he'd like to honestly forget that time, so, this whole job thing where he's a working stiff who's responsible for others? it's not so bad.]
Aside from the manager, sounds like you might be the most reliable person I've met. [because he really does need to know what he's working with here, mick's next question will require bigby to tell a bit more about himself than he's mentioned so far.]
What'd you do before this?
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So are you really in law enforcement, or is it a more ironic take on your profession?
[Hello, my name is Vincent Nigel-Murray and I am a font of facts.]
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Sheriff, actually. I'm not exactly the law, but I'm the first face some people see when they break it.
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In the United States, a sherriff is typically an elected county official.
[Just... so you know...]
But your nametag implies you're also a volunteer, so I'd say it's safe to assume you aren't a sherriff here?
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[ His tone is casual, indifferent, but he keeps his eyes hard in their gaze. Sure, he's here to socialize, and this kind of attitude is probably a little counterproductive to that end, but...
Well, maintaining his image to some extent has always had its benefits. ]
Not that it's my jurisdiction.
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[He's on your side!!!]
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Good answer.
[ One that he'll believe, for the time being. ]
What made you pick that field, specifically?
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It's challenging. It requires a good memory and keen observation skills. I like facts, and bones tell us a multitude of facts about a person's life.
[If you get the notion that he was the kind of kid who got picked on at school, you're probably right. In the lab, he has power and gets respect. But hes not exactly going to share that with someone he's known all of two minutes.]
What made you go into law enforcement?
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Got it.
Not that he doesn't understand, or anything, and not that he'd belittle the importance of that kind of work. He's no stranger to studying dead bodies himself, but he's not exactly a scientific expert in the field. ]
It was either that, or sit back and watch a community tear itself to shreds.
[ ... not exactly the truth, but it's not a complete falsehood either. His original reasons were far more based in survival and sentiment towards a certain someone, but keeping Fabletown in one piece was the only hope any of them had at a future. He's not going to let some bruised egos bring that to ruin. ]
Plus, people listen to me. I'm charming.
[ It is physically impossible to miss the dryness of his tone. ]
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He nods at first, smiling at what Bigby says -- how noble, very nice! -- and then... well.
Vincent can't tell if it's all right to laugh at that or not, so he holds onto his smile as best he can.]
You do have quite the presence.
[It's a compliment. He's trying.]
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[ Broken bones and bloody noses tend to be good motivators for keeping people in line.
...
His idea of being a sheriff isn't exactly in line with the norm, but it's necessary. ]
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[She said he was her favorite. Granted, he was dying at the time, but she's not a liar, so forgive Vincent a childish smile.]
Anyway-- [he clears his throat] If your skills are needed here and there's some sort of enigma to solve, I'd be happy to assist.
[Like a good nerd.]
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[ This guy's mentor sounds a bit like Snow. Snow on a bad day, at least - she's usually not blunt until her nerves get worn down, but when she's done playing nice?
Forget who's afraid of the big bad wolf, he's almost afraid of her.
At that last remark though he lifts a hand, motioning briefly to their surroundings in a vague sort of way. ]
Isn't everything about this place an enigma? There are a lot of things that don't add up, if you ask me.
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itisamystery.mp3]
Yes. [He can't disagree at all.] A city that runs on kindness is unheard of where I'm from. [He pauses and frowns at Bigby.] Unless you're referring to some other enigma?
[Vincent can have kind of a one-track mind sometimes.]
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[ A pause, as he rummages through his pockets for a cigarette and lighter. ]
So people get brought here with the promise of a wish coming true. All they need to do is cooperate, cuddle up a bit, and boom. Wish granted.
[ A flick of his thumb, flame sparking to life from his lighter as he tucks a cigarette between his teeth. ]
So they can do that for every single one of us, alter the past, change reality based on our desires... but can't power their city?
[ The cigarette is lit, and he takes a drag from it before huffing out a sigh. ]
Doesn't exactly add up.
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Huh. I've... got nothing to contribute to that at the moment, but you're right. It is strange. To say nothing of us effectively creating energy to begin with. [Something something laws of physics.] If I discover anything, I'd be glad to share it with you.
[Vincent is a helper! Also he works very well under clear direction.]