Khalil peered ahead at the hard hat that hung from its usual space by the apartment door. He never had to question whether he needed it for his day job until now... two jobs. Boy, that could make things rough. Still, it was a means to making money to support himself and his family.
He brushed his front claws together and then snatched up the headgear. Knowing what guild work was like, he'd probably need whatever protection he could get.
"You two ready?" he shouted, turning slightly so that his voice could reach back to the bedrooms. "It's morning; the guilds aren't gonna wait just because you wanted to sleep!"
Ori had been awake and had even had time to help her parents and siblings open their cafe next door. Her mother had been so proud of her daughter's work working the guild that she'd packed a little lunch for her and she roommates, which the meowth had placed within her pack. Right next to the little drawstring bag of bottle caps she kept finding by their front door. "I'm ready, Khalil!" She called, padding up to the front door, her paws wrapped around the straps of her pack.
"Neh..." A low drawling yawn escaped the gothita's mouth as she dragged her feet forward down the hallway, her fingers tapping on the milk jug in her hands as it floated upwards, joining the three like it as they followed behind Stella like a bunch of lost psyducks. "They should pay me just for waking up this early." She complained loudly; although considering this was Stella, it wasn't that loud at all. "I need to stop by the- what'sitcalled..." She waved her hand around as if it would magically tell her the answer, but her brain was refusing to cooperate. "Whatever it's called... It's on our way so don't worry I won't keep y'all too long. Or whatever." She snorted.
Khalil scoffed as he skittered along the wall and down to the floor. "Better get used to it; this is what having a job is like. Spoiled brat."
Without waiting for the usual loud and indignant response, he reached up, grasped the doorknob gingerly in his claw and turned it. "I'll be needing to check in with the Trackers to make sure I know about the dangerous parts of the job firsthand. Wonder if they have a brochure somewhere on what everyone's doing...? Ah, I'll figure it out as I go along."
"I'd talk to the mon on the usual Tracker patrols, they're around the cafe every night." Ori added quietly as she shuffled out the door before Stella could reply in her usual angry manner. "That way you don't have to go out of your way. I have a meeting with Frankie tonight, so after we're done I'll be working with her as a model for one of her paintings."
Stella barked out after them, even though they had left them in the dust, still standing in the dining room. "I'M NOT A SPOILED BRAT!" She cried out, following after them, her cheeks turning red with frustration and anger. Sure she was the youngest; but that didn't make her a brat! Let alone a spoiled one! Damn it! She just wanted to be paid for her hard work! Was that a crime!
She continued to mentally rant, hands folded into fists as she crossed her arms. "I could probably read their minds and just get the info." She stuck out her tongue at Khalil. "But now I won't. Since I'm such a spoiled brat." She raised her nose in a totally not spoiled bratty way.
"Shame." Khalil rolled his eyes. "You two do what you want, anyway. As long as we don't have more junk in the house by the end of the day..."
He glanced pointedly at both of the girls. Knowing their knack for hoarding - Ori her knick knacks and shiny junk and Stella just about anything that could be eaten, read or resold - he was amazed their apartment wasn't going to explode from the inside out!
He reached into the pocket in his belt - ah, there were still some chips left from last night's woodcutting session. He popped a few of the wood flakes between his mandibles and started chewing.
"I at least keep my things in my room and organized, and I use them... for... things..." Ori mumbled. "But for now let's keep the bickering to a minimum please? We have to make a good impression so the guild will hire us again and the artisans are some of the nicest people!"
"F.I.N.E" Stella huffed, pausing to look as they passed a building, her nose scrunched up as she read the sign. "Oh- One second, sending in milk" She waved her hand at them, rushing up the steps- before promptly catching the last step with her foot, her face slamming forward and hitting the floor with a thud. The cartons of empty milk jugs dropped immediately, tumbling down the steps as she sat back up, rubbing her face. "DFHA!" She cried out frustratedly- the words meaning nothing other than a frustrated noise, turning to the empty milk bottles, rubbing her face as she had gotten a nice red spot on her forehead.
Khalil watched the girl injure herself with all the enthusiasm of a Slowpoke. "All right," he said to Ori. "As long as we're each putting in enough effort to get the next rent in. ...Modeling, though? Shouldn't we be doing something more constructive? I mean, the guild must have a lot of hands-on work to do."
It was what he had been hoping for, anyway. Guilds were known for getting into situations that involved heavy labor, and that kind of thing made him happy with his work.
"Frankie is a prominent figure, if I make a good impression I might be able to gain a reference for other work within the artisans guild. Besides I'm not as physically adept as you, not everyone can lift a bag of cement like it's flour, or as intellectual as Stella, I've got to find my niche somewhere." Ori explained, avoiding interacting with Stella as she was likely to blow up at the normal type which would cause her to be rather jittery during the task later.
Stella pointed her fingers at the milk jugs, scrunching up her face as she waited for them to start floating. One of them wiggled happily in response, never leaving the ground, but it was happy to wiggle.
With an upset grumble she pushed herself down the steps, poked each of them as they started floating up, before just grabbing the last one and making her way back up the steps, keeping her eyes intently focused downwards. Fall once, it's the stairs fault, fall twice, it's her fault. She headed inside, and within a second she was back outside, some spare change in her hands as she happily tossed up the coins. They were floating around her head as she counted them. "I can lift a bag of cement like it's flour." She told Ori as she passed by, spinning around to walk backwards, the coins responding as they spun around like annoying gnats. "Besides, Khalil, modeling is hard work!" She turned around, walking away, waggling her finger.
"Yeah, but can you lift it without tripping?" Khalil grinned cheekily, knowing she'd already proven his point for him. "All right, if you girls say your pretty paintings are hard work then I'll leave it at that. Let's go get this work done then; sooner you can figure out a steady line of work, the better."
"I hope I can work more with the artisans, and perhaps the keepers, Topaz and Gemma are some of the most amazing people I've ever seen! I can't wait to work with them!" Ori gushed excitedly her face turning a soft red.
Khalil had honestly no idea who Frankie, Topaz, or Gemma was, now that he thought about it. Cetra was the only Pokemon he'd interacted with directly, since she was a prominent architect in town. And it was hard not to hear stories about Vander, knowing how folks loved to talk about adventure and battle, things that they didn't dare to do themselves.
Lucky enough, guild work wasn't all battle and heroics. "Well, you know these guys better than we do, I guess," he told Ori. "Point us where we need to go."
"Oh right right, you're both new to town. The theater is in the middle of Tabira, by the great tree come on." She called saying a paw as she padded down the streets with ease.
Stella yawned, catching each coin as she watched Ori take the lead. Part of her grumbled, 'I should be taking the lead! I could just read her mind and just go there.' She internally complained. Granted; her mind reading capabilities were subpar at best, but that didn't mean that meant she couldn't do anything! She huffed, crossing her arms as the coins slowly fell down into her hand.
The sight of the tree was something to behold. It rose bigger then any tree before it, dwarfing any house by a hundred with ease. Each branch was bigger than any apartment complex. It was like the entire tree was some legendary beast, slumbering in the middle of town. Stella was completely intimidated by the tree, and the fact they were walking right towards it was even worse.
"This tree makes no sense." She told them, crossing her arms as she looked away from it, keeping a mental tab to not trip over any sudden stairs.
Although he wasn't new to the town as a whole, Khalil realized it had been some time since he'd visited the Great Tree, probably when he was around Stella's age. Still, even then he had been less afraid and more resisting the impulse to climb the thing, at risk of being yelled at and slapped away by the caretakers. As strange as that old fable behind the tree was, it made sense that the hub of the guild would be treated with this much respect.
"You make no sense," he shot back at Stella. It was a weak retort, but one he reveled in anyway.
"It doesn't have to make any sense, it's a marvel and it means a lot to the people of Tabira." Ori replied glancing up at the great tree, her family had taken pride in the stories of the city's founding. Especially since her father was a Glennish/Tabiran war veteran, pride in their city had meant that much more.
"Even marvels have to make sense eventually." Stella grumbled, counting the coins in her hands again. "It doesn't matter if it means a lot, just-" She waved her hand at it, her tone becoming slightly lower as they got closer and closer. "The biological aspect of this tree makes no sense at all. No tree can be that tall, it should have collapsed on its own weight by now- the gravity of this world applies to all species the same, including trees." She raised a finger, "Not to mention the fact it's hollow- that destroys the structural integrity of the tree inside, Khalil, you're all buildery, you got to know this."
She paused; glancing at Ori's thoughts as she may or may not have read their thoughts. She tilted her head at the mention of a war. What? War? She shook her head and added it the her mental list of things to check out later.
"It's hollow?" Khalil frowned, his interest now piqued as well. Most of his work took place on the opposite end of the Great Tree, so he was used to thinking of it as a solid mass inside. Though as Ori led the troop around its base, he could clearly see a big, arching doorway at the trunk.
"...You learn something new every day," he mused. "I guess it's possible that there are supports from inside the tree, help keep everything stable. Those branches might have a similar system; all it'd take is strong enough cable in the right places to hold it all together."
Of course, there were no such cables - at least, none he could see - as he looked up. Maybe that talk about this being the body of an old Pokemon isn't all that much a folk tale after all.
"Well, the Keepers and the mystics they employ take very good care of the tree, and have since the day it sprung forth. It's kept happy and healthy, it's the pride and joy of the city. It gives the people of the city hope." Ori replied with all the pride of a Tabiran. "But enough about that now the theater is right over here!" She said pointing to a building adjacent to the great tree where mon of all shapes and sizes were entering the building.
Stella stepped inside the building, a large archway revealing the bustling building's interior. Pokémon scrambled back-and-forth, some of them carrying wood, others carrying costumes, a few had a few food platters in their hands. Rows upon rows of recliner chairs crowded theater, pathways of empty space running too and fro were filled with Pokémon. Aloud chatter was abuzz throughout the entire place. In the front set a platform, a curtain wide open as various items were being built right on stage. A few lights flickered on and off from above as they tested the lighting.
Stella frowned, crossing her arms as she dodged a Pokémon that nearly ran her over. She barked out an angry reply, "Watch where you're GOING!" She snapped. Her voice didn't carry two feet in front of her before it was mixed between the chaos all around.
Khalil made a point of nudging her with one of his legs as he scooted past. "Worried you'll get stepped on, shorty?" he teased. Being a bug, he was used to having to pick his way among those who were bigger than he was; it was an easy task for him to sidestep, dodge and weave around the thick legs of Ursarings and Tropius and other such Pokémon moving between the theater and stage.
"Huh, looks like they still haven't got the props together yet," he mused, observing the back end of the stage, which was being blasted with yellow light to reveal a team working with wood, cutting tools, and paints. As he continued to observe, he frowned. "Oh no no no no, they can't really be doing-- Oh that'll never stay up. I'm just gonna..."
Without so much as a backwards glance at Stella or Ori, he hurried off to the stage.
Ori dropped to all fours and followed after Khalil trying not to be left behind. "W-wait for me-oh wow are those dresses for the actors?" She stopped to inquire her eyes practically sparkling at the sight of such amazing craftsmanship as the other mon walked by. "Oh right focus. Hm maybe I should read for a role." She hummed quietly to herself.
Stella watched Khalil leave after not a split second of watching a few Pokemon move around some wood. Apparently they were doing something wrong? She had no idea. Her gaze changed when she realized Ori was running after him. Stella blinked, standing still for a split second as she thought about potentially staying down off the stage to help...?
She scoffed, then ran after the two of them, holding her book within her hands as she dodged some more Pokémon to catch up. Stella ran into some Pokémon holding a script, dodging underneath their arms as she passed by, she snatched up one of them, earning herself a startled 'YELP!' from the duo as she continued into the crowd.
Her eyes scanned over the first few sentences of the play as she walked on stage, snorting at it. Her eyes drifted upwards before she sent the stapled script up in the air with her telekinesis, positioning it right above where Ori was standing, then released it.
The script fell down, fluttering off the wrong way as it landed right in front of Ori.
"Dangit." She mumbled.
Khalil, meanwhile, had become engrossed in the construction work the design team was doing. "Here, you need a longer piece if you want to make mountains. And those little pegs aren't gonna be enough to support it. You know about slats, right? Yeah? Okay, so once we get the main shapes down we can cut just enough of a hole for the pieces to fold together. You got wheels?"
Usually a passerby wouldn't have been able to understand what he was saying over the loud scraping of saws on wood, but the Pokémon he was talking to seemed to have learned the same method of half-listening, half-lip-reading that he'd been trained in for the months of construction work under his belt. As he worked the board and saws around with his big claws, the stage's vision began to slowly come to life; what had once been small, wavy ripples like an ocean tide had now become tall, sprawling mountains. His part for those set pieces was done; all that was left was the paint.
"Okay, so that's your first set done. What comes next?"
Ori picked up the sheets at her feet, looking them over and humming the tunes upon the paper as she approached her other teammates. "This is nice they're preforming "Moon Song" this is actually a pretty good production, it's about a cleffa who fell from the Stars and falls in love with the changing world." She replied flipping through the script. "My parents read it to me as a bedtime story." Although the production would get started if they didn't finish the sets. "Stella and I can start painting the next sets, there are four major locations in this play so there are gonna be four sets."
Stella frowned at being told what to do - granted she didn't know of anything else she was supposed to do but that didn't mean she wanted to be told what to do! She decided to hardball it. With folded hands she looked up at Ori. "Nya." She stared simply, her brow creasing before she failed to even come up with an argument. She paused, looked at the paint buckets, then looked back. "I can't paint at all." Stella told Ori, frowning at her with a strict gaze. It was the truth to he honest but whatever.
Khalil had barely taken notice of either of the girls, though when one of the volunteers gestured helplessly to Ori, saying "she knows more about the play than we do", he threw up his claws in frustration. "Well you're the prop team; shouldn't you know what you're supposed to be making?"
A Rattata bumped into one of the cutouts that had been laid against the wall, jarring it just enough for the yet-unpainted hills to topple over and slam onto the floor. Khalil's head snapped back unnaturally quickly. "Watch what you're doing! These things are designed to look good, not last long! What is this, your first time working with wood?"
"Uh... yes..." the rat answered meekly.
"Fine, then help out with the costumes or something; you won't be able to work here unless you have some experience first. You! ...Yeah, you. Bring that back over here, we have to make sure it's not damaged. Could need a patch job."
Khalil had effectively established himself as the head of the props department, and began scooting around the stage gathering materials, sawing and shaping wood into set pieces and crafting supports and fixtures to help transfer them on- and off-stage as quickly as possible.
"Well the four major locations in the play are a starlight meadow, a palace, a marketplace and hilly area. I can paint the starry meadows, I've been practicing blending paints." Ori chimed, opening cans of paint and beginning by setting a light yellow. "And don't be so hard on them Khalil, most people don't work in construction and lots of people are new to the guilds and the city. It's not surprising if you think about it."
Stella watched them explain the different areas, nearly letting out a yawn at all of the hard work she would have to do. Instead, Stella looked towards the doorway, her eyes narrowing slightly as she filled her mind reach out, a small smirk growing on her face. "Welp! Good luck with that, I can't paint so I'm going to go do what I do best!~" without waiting for them to respond, she hopped off the stage - totally not nearly tripping from the impact, and headed towards the entrance. Stella smiled brightly as she picked up a top hat on the way out.
When she had made it to the entrance, Stella leaned on the door, casually waiting for her chance.
"Listen, in my line of work you either do something right the first time around, or you waste time tearing the failure down and building everything again from scratch. You have to get--"
By now Stella was halfway to the front doors. Khalil blinked, looking after her suspiciously, then shrugged. He wasn't the team leader or anything; if Stella pulled something the guilds didn't appreciate then he could well and honestly tell them that he hadn't known or agreed to her shenanigans.
He sawed out another plank, this one planned to take on the outline of a fancy bed - for interior cuts like this, the scenery would take a little more time to plan out, but he'd just need another form of cutting tool... Turning around, Khalil took in the other sets of implements the arts team had brought out, but as an afterthought grabbed some of the wood chips from behind him. He didn't want to let them go to waste!
"And this isn't your line of work is it? This is stage production, mistakes are made and things have to be made based on a director's whims." Ori explained as her brush moved over the wooden surface. She allowed the world to fade away her brush her escape from her screaming teammates and their antics, although once she'd finished the mural upon the planks, her eyes glancing up at the clock on the wall. Hm it was about one for her to go to her appointment with Frankie, better tell Khalil and... Stella... hm, where was the gothita? She'd seen her walk toward the entrance, the meowth followed wondering where her roommate had gone.
Stella stood in front of the doorway, top hat pushed outwards as she waited. She had preemptively made a sign, of which said "tickets - two rep each!" Which she was leaning against her chest. She had already gathered several coins in the hat, there jingling sounding almost like music to her ears. Stella chuckled, a big smile on her face. She would have enough money to pay for rent and so much more soon enough!~
Ori had already finished the paint job on the next set - and made it look perfect, at that - but as he prepared to hand her the first piece for a two-dimensional market stall, she didn't take it. He tapped it a bit, trying to poke her or something to encourage her to pick it up. All of a sudden the steady pace between the two of them was broken! That made him look up, to find Ori looking around.
"Something wrong...?" he prompted. Looking out over the stage, he could see plenty of smaller folks setting up chairs and a few rehearsing lines (from what he could tell, anyway, based on the bunch of papers that group was holding). Nobody seemed to be having any real trouble, or causing it either. Which only made Ori's look all the more confusing.
Ori's ears twitched and swiveled about along with her eyes. Stella disappearing was never good... "Maybe..." Ori replied hesitantly. "It's just... I haven't seen Stella in a while and I've got a sinking feeling." The meowth continued to her companion. "I think I saw her headed toward the entranced, I'm just going to go check up on her." Ori's voiced wavered with hesitancy as she bounded toward the entrance, the familiar jingle of metal striking her interest. "Stella, are you over he - What are you doing?!" She exclaimed upon catching sight of the admissions booth the gothita had haphazardly thrown together, or possibly stole from the props department. "This is supposed to be a charity event! Also known as free to the public!"
The departure of the Meowth made him set aside his tools for the moment and watch her go. Her swishing tail vanished behind the wall that separated the stage from the outside - thus preventing any passersby from watching through the glass doors for a free show - and then he heard her yell something about charity.
Oh boy, something was definitely up. Khalil sighed, passed his equipment to a Chimchar next to him and offered a quick "Don't break anything" before hurrying off the edge of the stage and out along the same path Ori had taken. It took only him laying eyes on the trashy-looking display that could only have been thrown together by Stella to process what was going on.
Stella had glanced at Ori, a frown on her face before she paused, then spoke up. "Oh but it is for charity!" Stella grinned happily, "All profits go to donations and charities around the city!~" Stella sung loud enough that there was a few Pokémon on the street glancing at her. She then turned to Ori, frowning as she spoke a little lower. "Props aren't free, you can't tell me this isn't expensive. At least we gotta get that stuff paid for!" She explained to Ori with a wave of her hand at the sign, then lifting up the moderately heavy top hat filled with a bunch of coins. "It only makes sense!" Stella hummed, a big smile on her face.
"You gotta be kidding. Stella, somebody's gonna snap you in HALF for this!" Khalil quickly butted in.
"Oh please, I know that's a lie, the artisans even said on the flyer that all the materials were paid for and that they only need volunteers! You're swindling people, it's rude and probably illegal too! The artisans won't be happy if you take advantage of people." Ori scolded, she couldn't understand why Stella did this kind of thing or how with eleven siblings the gothita thought the doe eyes and innocent routine would work on her...
Stella huffed. "It's what I'm good at, what can I say!" She pushed back from the little booth, raising her hand as she touched the side. Immediately the thing disassembled, the bits floating into the air that she held onto her top hat she totally didn't take from some passerbys in the play. Nope. "But fine since you're both complaining over nothing I will take it apart." Stella huffed, raising her hand as the bits of metal and wood were pushed back inside. She had plenty of money anyways.
Khalil narrowed his eyes at the floating pieces, and the one making it happen. "Would you do us all a favor and not go walking on thin ice like this? Imagine if that Gemma girl caught onto this. I bet you'd be tossed in an Apricorn cell without a second thought."
"And then what'll happen?" The Nincada's voice rose a bit in volume as he moved away toward Stella's newly-made pile of rubbish. "You gonna pay bail and rent money at the same time?" He gathered up the supplies as she began to shove them out of sight. "I'll be taking these. At least they can be brought back to the stage where they belong - well not this one. Broken..." He tossed aside a few pieces here and there while he got busy reorganizing the scraps into neat little piles.
Ori sighed her ears falling back. "Look I've it to meet with Frankie soon. Why don't I take Stella with me that I can make sure she doesn't try this again and you and your builder group can finish the last of the sets. Then we can all go home and enjoy supper together and then come see the production and make Stella return the money she took selling tickets."
Stella crossed her arms, hands wrapped around the hat with a heavy frown. "What? I don't wanna return the money! I collected it!" Stella barked out like an annoying child trying to defend the fact they had flushed a toy down the toilet and had clogged it. "This is stupid!" Stella huffed, walking behind Ori as she tried to prove her innocence even though she was pretty sure she was guilty of something. Stella pouted.
Khalil was left to his own devices as the two departed, shaking his head. Kids. There was something funny about how someone who had been in the world for so much shorter time than their elders could be so adamantly sure they were right about things. At least it was money, though... something everybody needed.
There was no time to waste thinking about that troublesome girl anymore right now; Ori probably had everything under control with her. He gathered up what he could manage in one trip and carried the loose scraps back to the stage, taking in what had been put together in his absence. From the look of things, the crew had managed to work out a few more outlines for the palace scenery, a couple of ornate pillars and a throne. It looked passable at least; might need to have a once-over but nothing that couldn't be handled in good time.
"All right, let's see what you guys put together," he announced as he set down his haul on the edge of the stage and climbed right up, ignoring the steps. "Play's gonna be on later today so I want this place picture perfect in the next few hours; we got a job to do and we're doing it right! That throne piece first, let's see it."
