Help Wanted: Monster Handler

There has been increasing worry about Uta's well-being of late. Leading a slime research lab while lacking the Handle Monster skill would sounds like madness to a sane person, probably because it's exactly what it is. After numerous reassurances she could handle the slimes herself with no issue, and after exactly as many issues, it has slowly dawned on Uta that perhaps it is the case to hire a professional to assist with the actual handling of the little creatures. Maybe. It's not so bad, after all. Maybe she can go a little longer doing this alone?

The Spriggan shakes her head, and resumes the calibration of her instruments. This one looks kind of like a microscope, sort of, but perhaps not as powerful. It looks more like a telescope on a frame, with a bunch of dials on screws that can be adjusted, and Uta is doign exactly this as she occasionally peeks into the eyepiece.

    Knock knock, the sound of wood on wood violence can be heard at the entrance before Setsuna lets himsef in, his wooden staff in hand. It was a business location after all, not like Uta was sleeping in the slime pit or something like that. At least he hoped that Uta wasn't sleeping in the slime pit. Making his way into the lab as he looks about , he is rather impressed and doesn't bother to hide it. He doesn't wander to far from the entrance but does finally speak up , " Hello?" Only three possibilities could explain why Setsuna didn't immediately spot Uta, one she was just out of view in some way or another, two he was being polite, or three Setsuna suffered from the eternal debuff many males suffered, the inability to see things infront of his nose.

Uta, who is very well awake and not sleeping in the slime pit, looks up from her instrument. "Oh, Setsuna, hello! What brings you here this fine day?", she asks, and returns to look into the eyepiece. "I'm trying to calibrate this instrument so I can see this thing right in front of my nose," she says, other eye closed and various dials being rotated in turn. "Please, please, take a seat, I'll be with you in a minute." Without raising her eyes, she gestures off to a corner of the room. "You can put your staff over there, next to mine. Or hold onto it. Or keep it into your inventory. It's fine, we are a very relaxed workplace, and every day is Casual Staff Friday."

    Setsuna looks about before replacing his staff into the inventory, " No worries I learned long ago how to sit and leisurely wait patiently. " He takes his seat at the location he was pointed to and begins to fidde his fingers while he waits, realizing waiting was easier in the other world when he had his phone, or a hand held console, or even a book. He would player kill for a sudoku book. Finally after the heinous waiting of like two minutes he speaks up, " So what are you trying to see in front of your nose? Some super secret slime secret?"

Uta looks up from her instrument. "Uh? What? Who's there? Oh! Setsuna! I didn't hear you come in! Are you sure you're a human and not a Spriggan? Your sneaking skills are impressive." She grabs a chair and sits at a desk right across from Setsuna. "Just a second... I'll put on my glasses and..." She looks around the table, lifts 'papers' and looks under them, peeks into drawers, and finally, after frowning for a good few seconds, she slaps her forehead. "Oh, wait! I don't need them anymore since the Apocalypse! I forgot about that." She shakes her head, and looks at Setsuna. "So, uh, what can I do for you?"

    The necromancer blinks at the spriggan as she scurries about for her glasses. "I mean I'm sure you could have someone make you glasses if you wanted to have them anyways. Who knows maybe they give a buff to searching or something. It would be ironic to need glasses to find glasses." Setsuna leans forward a little as he gets a more serious look on his face and seems to be compiling his thoughts before he says, " Well the truth is Uta, I am looking for a job. I was hoping you might be able to help out."

"I might look into glasses," Uta replies. "But, to be honest, I don't really feel a need for it."

Uta looks up in surprise at Setsuna as he asks for a job. "Oh. Well. Uh." She scratches her head. "...I'll have to be brutally honest about it: the Royal Society for the Appreciation and Study of Gelatinous Creatures is hardly a profitable enterprise at the moment. I'm just starting basic research, and apart from renting off the occasional slime, /right now/ our income is close to null. Enough income to sustain a full time job in the long term is weeks away, if not months." She inhales deeply, and then she breaks into a smile, "Buuuuut it's a perfect moment to get your foot in the door. My budget does have a sum set apart for contracting Monster Handling services from the Peko Ranch on a case-by-case basis, and based on early experience, I can estimate that I /could/ possibly switch that fund from "savings to hire contractors if needed" to finance a part-time job in-house. Assuming business picks up at about the time it's supposed to pick up..."

She reaches into her gi, and pulls out a pair of glasses, while going over what looks like a budget sheet. "You might still need to go take the occasional duty from the Hunters' Guild, or have a side gig for a while, but at least half of your income should be guar-" She blinks as she puts the glasses on her nose, and pulls them away immediately. "Whoa whoa whoa... so strong! Whose glasses are these!?"

    Setsuna is about to say something before the glasses are produced and then flails at the prescription strength . There is a slow blink as the monster handler processes what he is seeing. Where did the glasses that didn't exist come from and ... well if he was going to do this he would have to learn the ways of Uta. Taking a moment he speaks up, " I will take only half of what you are thinking in terms of rate. Likely the funds will be funneled back into the lab for supplies and whatever else. " At this point Setsuna wishes he had something to sip to momentarily drink and wait for a comment but instead he goes on to add, " I feel the experience I will recieve will be payment enough."

"Oh. Well, uhm, I don't feel it'd be fair to underpay you, but..." She scratches her head. "...I suppose a partially paid internship in this place is an excellent opportunity after all. I mean, the Peko Ranch is literally next door." She gestures in a direction at random, which turns out to be the exact opposite direction as to where the rest of the complex is located. "They contract monster handling services, and should they have more requests than they can handle, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to send them towards you, so there's that built in potential side gig if you want."

She takes a pencil, what functions as an eraser in this world, and begins correcting and re-adjusting a second budget sheet, this one written in pencil instead of ink. "...yes ...yes ...I think that if we do that..."

She looks up again. "Ok, we can do that. But I won't underpay you. Instead, I'll consider it a risk-based investment. I'm setting you up with a higher bonus-based retribution based on the performance of the lab. So you'll earn less now that things are harsh, but you'll get a higher pay than you'd have gotten if we turn a big profit. That works for you?"

"Well, assuming you pass the rest of the interview...", she adds, after putting her hands in front of herself. "Gotta sort that part out first."

    Setsuna watches and feels he had gained what he wanted, a place he can practice handling monsters without risking it with the asshole known as snowball. Then the rug under him is given a tug as he sits back in his chair. "Right, I suppose we still have to do the interview portion. I should of went to Gwen and got a suit. " Taking a breath he sits up straight and takes on a more serious business look. " Ok ready when you are. Let the interview commence."

Uta sets her papers aside, intertwines her hands, and lets her nose rest on the 'bridge' so created.

"So, uh..." She looks down. "...oh snap. I should have gone to Gwen and gotten a proper office lady attire." With a pained look, she side-glances at Setsuna. "...you conveniently forget about my lack of office lady attire and I'll forget about your suit. Deal?"

She clears her throat. "So, why did you choose to apply at the slime lab particularly? And what kind of contribution do you think you can bring?"

    " Deal." Setsuna nods his head as he accepts Uta's deal and makes a mental note to stop being to busy to see Gwen. " I chose to apply at the slime lab because I did not know of anywhere else that I could get hands on experienced with monsters in a controlled environment. I sought out lander's with similar setups before here, however most of them only had one or two monsters and wouldn't have given me what I wanted. So I suppose to make a long story shorter, it is because I am hoping to learn more about handling monsters. On the side, your work on the Chimlinks was very interesting too." The man smiles as he considers the next question for a moment.
     What would he be bringing to here, " Well I was offering free labor or discount labor, but you seem insistent on paying me. So then I suppose all I have to offer is my little knowledge of working with monsters and my strong work ethic. " It really was all he had left to offer.

"Thanks!", smiles Uta. "We did not yet find much out about chimlinks, to be fair, but we found the Chim Chims, so it's a start." She sighs. "Spent the last week trying to communicate with them. Not as easy as I'd initially imagined." She pinches the bridge of her nose. "That kind of set back the whole start of research by a week, but-" She perks up again, "Hey! Optimism. I'm back and we can now start properly." She stands up, and walks over to a slime enclosure. "Anyway. Those are very solid reasons, indeed. I suppose the practical test is the only thing left. I'll just need to make sure you can properly pick up the slimes, place them into the Simulated Biome..." she gestures toward what looks like a slime playpen in the middle of the 'lab', "and bring them back to their enclosures again."

    "Optimism it is, really its all we have." Setsuna adds to the comment about the Chims, and then stands up stretching as he follows Uta over to the enclosure. Setsuna looks at the Slime before taking a dee breath, no pressure right. Opening the enclosure , the so called monster handler reaches in and picks up the Slime. Fr a second it seems all is going to plan , until anyone really looks at how he is holding the slime. It's like waching someone who never held a cat , hold a cat. All wrong. Worse of all like cats, slimes exist in a sorta gelatinous state and about half way trhough the slime begins to ooze out of his hands and all Setsuna seems to do is to pick up the pace to the biome. However it is a seco to late as the slime slips from his hand and plops on the ground , before moving on the ground wherever the Slime wants to go and Setsuna chasing after the Slime. Hilarity is moments away from ensuing , it is only a matter of time.

Uta looks at the performance with the most deadpan face one might have seen Uta sport since the Apocalypse. "...I now understand why you say you need the practice." She sighs and scratches her head. "...but I am kind of desperate for an at least passable monster handler on a budget, to be honest, so..."

Eyes closed, she tilts her chin upwards a little, inhales, and thinks.

And thinks.

She stands there, for a few seconds, as if for considering, or dropping, some heavy anvil.

And then, finally, she tilts her head down again to level her gaze at Setsuna. "My final offer is this. You're on probation for three months. Part-time work. Pay is, as you proposed initially, half as much as the average skilled Handler would earn. No rights or claims to anything afterwards, yet. If in three months you've improved enough to be employable, we re-negotiate. Deal?"

    Its not fair, Slimes are , they aren't like normal monsters. They are just water balloons with sentience, however this damn slime is s still giving Setsuna enough trouble. Finally he grabs a bowl from one of the cabinets and scoops the slime into it. Fortunately also like cats, the slime conforms to fit in whatever it needs to, though there is an obvious slime loaf going on. Setsuna huffs as he picks up the bowl and moves to the pen and pours the slime into the pen before turning back. " I think this Slime wants to hang out in the biome for a bit. " As he listens to the offer he takes a deep breath before he nods his head. " I accept."

"Excellent!", exclaims Uta, as she stands up, and exclaims "Welcome to the family!" as she bows to Setsuna. "You're just in time for the official start of the activities of the lab. I'm-" She bursts into laughter. "Well, I suppose we should say /we/ start this week, now." She grins, then returns to a normal smile. "The plan was to start somewhere in the upcoming week, but recent setbacks and the coming Storm festival might delay things a bit. You might find out that I'm spending the whole day calibrating instruments or double-checking the inventory. Not much actual monster handling going on. So... I'd say your official work can start in a week, but if you want to come in earlier to practice informally, fine with me." She begins to walk around the Simulated Biome. "Your first official task will be feeding and caring for the slimes, cleaning up after them, and moving them from their enclosures to where they're needed for experiments and vice versa. In particular, you'll be responsible for putting them back into their enclosures at the end of the day. Think you can manage that?"

    Setsuna looks at the slime and considers if he really does want this, before nodding his head. " I think I can manage that. Hopefully by then I will be able to pick up a slime without needing a bowl. " Setsuna would of course be keeping the bowl on hand for the first few days. He looks at the Slime, and tilts his head , " I suppose from this angle they are kinda cute." He reaches down and boops the slime's snoot before looking at Uta and then giving a bow, " Thank you for the job."

"See you!", Uta waves as she stands up. "See you whenever you want to visit." She scratches her chin and looks around. "Right, where was I? Oh, right. Putting away the slime." She watches as the slime scoots around the floor, randomly bumps into things, blinking confusedly, and starting again.

As the little monster slithers around, Uta notices something about it. "Oh! You're /squinting/!" She grabs the glasses from the desk, and places them on the little slime, who blinks again, but then smiles. "THAT's whose glasses they were, now I remember! Anyway..."

She grabs a bowl, and scoops up the beglassed slime. "Time for your nap!", she declares, as she walks towards the proper enclosure.

"We're growing, little buddy!", says Uta, and her HP bar gets a notch docked down while the tip of her index finger glows stippled.

Yes, she booped the slime's snoot as well.