Who: Drake Liu & Pyr Min What: Career advice Where: Drake's office When: This afternoon! Rating: PG Status: Complete!
His meeting with Drake provided the perfect excuse to get off training early. Pyr had meant to bring it up about twenty minutes before the agreed hour―but then Jareth had got that glint in his eye that spelled extra miles, and Pyr had blurted it out. Thankfully, a meeting with a Councilor was important enough that Jareth had let him go. And so, with a spring in his step, choosing to ignore the knowledge that his escape was only postponing the inevitable, Pyr made his way to Drake's office in Bahamut Hall.
He was five minutes early, but he knocked anyway. When Drake's voice answered, he pushed the door open and waved. "Hi," he said, grinning. "I'm kinda early, but it's okay, right?"
Drake looked up from the document he was reviewing - a proposal for replacing the current practice dummies with new ones - and waved Pyr in. “Yeah,” he said, putting the parchment to the side. “Come in, sit down. I’ll grab the food.” It was as good a time as any to start eating. Besides, it was always good to feed the squires since they were still growing, and Drake was starving now that he was thinking about it.
He’d packed the bento before work - four full boxes of rolls and tamagoyaki (which were for Pyr - Drake shuddered just making them), wraps and dumplings. Good, filling food that was easy to make (or buy). He’d never be the world’s best cook, but he could at least put together a decent meal. He placed the bento on the table and undid the furoshiki before placing the different boxes in a neat row, lids off. “Help yourself.”
There were two sets of chopsticks and he held one set out to Pyr. The squire sat down in one of the chairs and took the offered utensils.
“Thanks. This all looks great!” His stomach growled in agreement. Before digging in, however, he put his hands together, following the custom of Ordalia. He had a nagging feeling if he skipped that little bit of ritual in front of a Councilor of the Guild, somehow his mother would know, and she wouldn’t be happy.
The food was so good that for a little while he forgot the real purpose of his visit wasn’t just to have lunch with Drake. He swallowed the dumpling he’d just taken and said, “Thanks for making time to talk to me. I know I need to figure this out but I can’t seem to.”
Drake had already finished off the last of the wraps and was slowly working his way through the buns. “Well, what are you having problems with? I know you weren’t sure which class you wanted to go into - are you still trying to figure that out?” Pyr had mentioned being torn between monk and archer; maybe he was still trying struggling?
Monaco probably wasn’t the best mentor for the kid for monk, but he’d seen the berserker fight: he was quick and precise. Less refined, and not the best at hand to hand, but despite that, Drake had noticed that Pyr’s stamina had improved. So maybe Monaco wasn’t so bad.
Pyr munched on a roll and pondered the question. “Well,” he began, after a moment, “I’m better at hand-to-hand than archery. I like both. But I don’t know if I like archery because I like archery or because,” he hesitated, “well, because I’m chicken. And my endurance and strength and stuff is improving, but I don’t know if it’ll be good enough.”
He trailed off, unsure how to explain. He had waited too long, and the longer he waited, the more anxious he became. The more anxious he became, the more he started doubting his own reasoning. Juliette would be class soon. She’d take her exam in a couple of weeks, and she would pass―and if she didn’t, then the rest of them were screwed anyway.
“What can I do - or your mentor do - to help you work through the idea of being good enough?” he queried, taking another bite of his bun. He’d had similar reservations, but his mother had pretty much decided for him. It’d been the right choice, and he’d just gone with it since he couldn’t do what he’d wanted, but he’d grown up with people in his class.
Peony was a mage. Sky was an apprentice to some merchant. He didn’t know much about the Min family, but he didn’t think that any of Pyr’s direct relatives were in the Fighter’s Guild. “I mean,” he continued, “it makes sense to be cautious. Is anyone in your family in a Fighter’s Guild? Sometimes, talking to people about why they chose a class is helpful.”
Pyr hadn't thought about that. His wasn't a family of fighters, like Storm's. There was only one other fighter that he knew about. "My Mom's uncle is a Dragoon," he said after a moment. "He's the one who gave me the idea to join the guild. But it takes a while to get letters home and I can't send a message because of the Mist." And as far as Pyr had been able to gather, his uncle had picked his class by tossing a coin--that was what he told everyone. He wouldn't be much help.
There was always the option of talking to some of his friends in the guild, but he'd tried that before. When he'd talked to Felicity about it, before she left, she had made being a Monk sound like the most amazing thing in the world, and Pyr had decided that was the path for him. Then he'd talked to Cress, and she had made it sound like being an Archer was the most amazing thing in the world, and in the end he had been unable to make up his mind.
"If I went Monk, and kept training like I have been, and took the exam in a year," he said, "do you think I could pass?"
Drake chewed thoughtfully. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “It’s been a while since I worked with you, so I don’t know how you’ve progressed. What we could do, though, is set up a mock exam.” He’d have to remember exactly how it went - Juliette was taking hers the following week, so he was going to have to do it anyway. Which reminded him, he needed to talk to Bram and Aspel about that.
“We can see where you are, figure out what you need to work on, and then you can talk to Jareth about it.” It was the best that he could do for him.
“That… could really work!” And I could find out just how much better than me Juliette is now. “I mean I’m probably going to have to train lots and lots. But maybe I can do it.” He grinned, still a little weirded out that he was actually getting excited over an exam, but excited anyway. “Thanks, Drake!”
And just like that, he took another tamagoyaki roll and continued to eat, happily, all his worries erased from his mind.