Kíli could have anything down his trousers. (_kili_) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-03-24 16:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, dani moonstar (mirage), kili |
Who: Dani Moonstar, Kili
What: Job interview!
When: A monday ago.
Where: Urdnot Ranch
Rating: Low
A slightly rumpled looking Kili had made good time driving out to the ranch, courtesy of his lead-foot driving. When he was going anywhere, it was like he had a need for speed and went VROOM fast, which makes it a wonder that he even has his license back. There is no telling how long that will last or if he will simply drive the car off a cliff, making having a license at all a rather moot point, as he would be splatterated.
After parking - not in any shrubbery and didn’t use a tree as a parking brake - Kili hopped out of the car and took a look around. This looked like a nice, scenic sort of place, and good to work at. No heavy equipment to wreck things, no big trucks to run into buildings with, and no zombies. Fantastic! He started to walk off toward the building Dani had described to him before, only to abruptly stop, scramble run back to the car for the keys he left in the ignition, and then whistle innocently as he strolled toward the building again, like nothing had happened.
Of course, Dani had seen the entire thing, because she was cautiously watching his approach from the doorway. This was a very casual job interview, and so Dani didn't feel bad that she was also watching it with a travel cup of coffee in her hand. She was dressed in jeans, a tank top, and flannel, and really pretty much looked like every lesbian anyone has ever made fun of, in the history of ever.
The only girly element was the crocheted cap she wore on her head to keep the sun from burning her still-pretty-hairless scalp. She waved at Kili as he walked up, and grinned, "You really are a little train wreck, aren't you?"
Well, lookie there! They match like twinsies, with the way they are dressed. Only he doesn't have anything covering his head, and probably would've benefited from it, since his hair looks windblown to hell and back again from driving with the windows down. Tangled mess doesn't even begin to cover that look he's rocking.
Kili grinned right back at her and waved a hand in the air, cheerfully saying, "Guilty! Didn't kill anything or anyone on the way over, which's always a good thing? Not an accident was had." He stopped waving - since he had been waving the entire time he was talking - and held that hand out to her. "Kili, at your service!" At least there wasn't any bowing, followed by 'show me ur pantry and where the beer's at!'
"Dani Moonstar. You can just call me Dani. Don't bother with the 'Miss Moonstar' or 'Ma'am' or whatever. I'm too young for that." Dani was still grinning as she took his hand and shook it a bit, then she let go and waved him inside.
"Welcome to Urdnot Ranch. We're all very proud of the fact that you got here unscathed and didn't kill anything on the way. Also grateful you didn't kill any shrubs or trees when you parked. I was watching to see if you would. Scott owes me twenty bucks now."
"If it's any consolation? I would've bet that I'd done so," Kili agreed, following Dani and taking a look around. It seemed pretty peaceful! That was good. It was outdoors! Even better. He was by no means a huge tree hugger or anything, but Kili (and even Fili) were prone to drifting off here and there, much more than any other members of their family did. Immediate or extended. "It seems rather nice! What sort of troubled kids are they, since I might want to think about getting shots before I get bit."
Because that could happen, too.
"He's a little worried that you working here is going to raise our insurance, but I have faith in you. Maybe I shouldn't, but I'm thinking that Archery is your calling and as long as we keep you outside in the target range it should be okay," Dani joked. She took a sip of her coffee and lead him through the main ranch house. There was a small shop filled with school supplies and a big lounge area filled with kids. A few of them waved at Dani as she walked past, and she waved back.
They walked through a pair of sliding glass doors, and outside to a patio area filled with picnic tables and grills. There were stables and other buildings off to the left, a huge soccar field could be seen further ahead, and much further ahead along the treeline was a cabin. Various fenced-in areas were scattered around, too.
"To answer your other question, we get a variety. A lot of them are saved from Juvie, the ones that we've interviewed and are confident want to turn their life around. Some of them we find on the street, a few even come in voluntarily. Drug problems, learning disabilities, high school dropouts, kids that got kicked out for various reasons, runaways. That kind of thing."
Kili's eyes got big and round and darty, but he (FOR ONCE IN HIS LIFE) decided not to say anything. Part of the fun of having him as an employee was finding out the 1001 different ways he could get injured, probably by sticking himself in the face with one of his own arrows.
Instead, he followed along, smiling at everything and everyone, checking everything out.
"I see! Well? That sounds like the sorts that I could get on with, not that I'm criminal? I'm not. I mean, other than the things with my driving record, but that's not exactly criminal, is it. It's simply bad driving." He really should have stopped talking sooner rather than later, but no. There is noone there to tell him that he should not be saying anything else that might be incriminating. "As long as I'm outside and not around anything that plugs in and can get fingers put into it, should be fine!"
"Even if you were we'd probably give you a chance. Of course, it'd depend on what kind of crimes they were and all of that, but I doubt you did anything worth worrying about." Dani laughed a bit as she lead him past the large gymnasium wing and towards the archery center. It was actually a mixture of indoor and outdoor ranges, but the first step was getting a bow.
She lead him inside and towards their bow armory, pulling out the keys to unlock it as she went, "We've got all kinds of bows, so you can pick out one you're comfortable with."
"Oh ho ho, NO, nothing I've been thrown in jail for. My driving record's absolute SHITE, but I'm clean on background checks. No bank robberies. Could you imagine? I'd probably shoot myself in the foot!"
Kili had been happily chattering along as they walked, until he hit the range and his eyes lit up at all the bows there.
"These're much better than what I've got at home." After a moment of intense consideration, he picked up a compound bow with the sort of care that he didn't afford his own self, considering how many times he's been injured, thus far. He tested the draw on it with a bright smile on his face. "I'll be using this one. I still feel terrible, taking your job from you. Your wrist isn't about to fall off or anything, after you've gone through that. Is it?"
He eyed her questioningly, then her wrist, then her face again. Ok, fine, back down to the wrist, where he squinted at it in a most intense way, as though silently telling it NO DO NOT DOES THAT with a stare.
Dani laughed, and shook her head, "We have a really good doctor and after a round of chemo and some radiation we were able to remove the tumor there without having to cut my wrist up badly at all. The tiny bit of bone I'm missing will heal itself back up, probably stronger than before."
She envied his ability to draw the string on the bow he'd selected. Her wrist wasn't strong enough to do that yet, though she'd been doing a lot of strength training exercises lately, "And it's okay. I have all kinds of jobs to do around here now. I really don't have the time to teach the kids anymore. I'm glad someone came along who could, to be honest. Grab some arrows and let's head to the outside range."
"I hope it heals up sooner than later," Kili told Dani, grabbing some arrows and looking eager to get started. "I mean, I admit? Never worked around kids, personally. I'm certain it's much more likely that I'll get injured before I ever let anything happen to them, even if they get mouthy at me. It's probably a bit of a nice break for you? If you get better again and want your job back, then I'll gladly lay down my bow and let you have at it!"
He smiled and let her lead the way, hoping his aim didn't suck today.
"It really isn't a problem, Kili," Dani assured him. She pointed in the general direction of the stables, then waved her hand around a bit, "I have crops to tend to, horses to raise and train, kids to keep in line, livestock to feed, it's a lot of work. I'm grateful there's someone else to do this. I don't mind at all."
She lead him to the outdoor archery range as she spoke. It was filled with the traditional round targets, spaced out over varying distances. Dani pointed at them, and grinned, "Okay, trainwreck guy. Show me you can shoot things other than your own foot."
"Crops, horses, livestock? Please. Tell me you don't play Farmville. That game is crrrrrrrap." He even scrunched his face all up as he said that.
Once he was done judging the distance and quickly grabbed for an arrow, he nocked it, aimed, and let it fly. He wasn't a hundred percent elf accurate, since his first arrow landed just left of the center bullseye. Instead, that arrow lodged itself the hell in there, hard. One could practically hear a *TWANG* afterward. Kili always took that as a good thing and grinned magnificently at the target, then over at Dani.
"Not in my foot!" he proclaimed, as though that was a major accomplishment. He started to grab for another arrow. "New bow, I'm afraid? I've got to compensate on my aim."
"New bows always take a few shots to get used to," Dani agreed, with a nod. She gave herself three shots to hit something when the conditions were new to her, and was certain Kili would hit the bullseye either on the next shot or the one afterwards, anyway. It was very impressive how far in the arrow stuck, though, and she raised her eyebrows a bit.
Her own arrows hadn't had that kind of punch in months. She was a little jealous, "You'll get it on the next one or soon after, I'm sure.”
“And of course, it’s a bonus that you didn’t hit me or yourself somehow," She added, with a smirk.
Indeed, that arrow was lodged. He might not have the aim down just yet, but he certainly had the oomph, thanks to this particular archer's...gusto. However, that aim went awol just as she said that last bit. Kili had turned his head to protest with the string drawn, and PEW! That arrow zinged past the target entirely.
After a moment of blinking and eyedarting and attempting to look innocent (which failed), he picked another thing to protest about.
"That one doesn't count and it's not a safety issue! Nothing's been injured, you see there? It was your teasing which made me miss, Miss!"
So there!
"You hurt that poor tree over there. Look at it, it's almost crying," Dani teased, pointing at the tree to the back of the range that the arrow was now very solidly lodged in. Wow.
"I'll stop teasing now, promise! Just get the arrow where it goes. But keep in mind that kids are going to heckle you all the damned day here, so you're going to have to stop missing when someone gives you a hard time."
"It's a tree! It can take it. It'll bleed some sap and mend itself, and then someone will chop it down and use it for firewood. And...ehhhhhhh...I suppose you've got a point there!"
And Kili has proved he is no tree hugging hippy. He did nod and looked appropriately sheepish about it, taking aim a third time (or second time considering what just happened), and letting it fly. It hit the bullseye and he grinned ear to ear over at Dani, totally looking giddily triumphant.
He certainly did look proud of himself, and Dani thought that it was probably a good thing. An ego like that would be hard to suppress and it'd keep him afloat when the kids decided to give him a hard time.
Which would probably be every day, but she'd enjoyed that part of it more than some teachers did. Dani liked to show off sometimes and she'd always manage to land a shot no one else could and shut them all up.
"Good job! Now can you do it again?"
"Surely, fair lady! I can!" He paused to give her a thumbs up and a megawatt grin of massive proportions, nocked another arrow, took aim, and repeated it again a second time. He would, at least, be able to weather the slings and arrows of teenage misfortune that he might be verbally assaulted with. Thus proven by the fact he finished with a bow and by asking, "Do I get a major award? Maybe a lamp shaped like a lady's leg. My brother and I have been wanting one of those since we first watched that Christmas Story marathon. I think that'd do. Otherwise, trophies aren't very interesting, are they?"
"Well the trophy you're getting this time is a weekly paycheck, so I think that's nice enough, yeah?" Dani replied, with a laugh. This guy was pretty funny, and just the kind of infusion of energy the ranch needed. She held out her hand so that they could shake on it, "We'll give you a probationary period of three months to see how you settle in and if the kids like you. After that, if things go well, we'll sign you on full time. Sound good?"
"Sounds like a fine trophy to me!" Kili exclaimed, dropping the bow, passing by her hand entirely, and glomping onto her, complete with backpatting happening. Patapatpatpatpat! "Hopefully no one puts their eye out!"
There are so many things that Kili could have learned from the Christmas Story movie. The 'you'll put your eye out kid' part was not one of those things he learned. And neither was 'I triple dog dare you to put your tongue to that frost-covered pole on the playground' because he would do it. Without a second thought. Quoted for most unfortunate truth.
The hug was somewhat surprising and a little bit rib-creaking in nature, but Dani liked Kili's enthusiasm. She patted him back and laughed, "Alright, you. Let's go get some coffee and do some paperwork. I'll have one of the kids pick this all up."
The man dunnit know his own strength! He let go of her so she could breathe, and nodded in agreement.
He motioned with the wave of one arm, for them to get started. "Lead on!"