Raising (my own) hope| JOB| Take Care of my Baby

Romulus was loathing his day to come and the sun wasn't even up yet. After a long dry spell of not doing any jobs, he had decided that today was the day he started doing more to bring in money, after all, all that coffee wasn't free. And neither were all the drinks he had to consume to build up the guts to march to the job board. Romulus had continued to put off through out the night, but by the time he had gotten up to the large board, the only D ranked job left was a baby sitting job. Romulus was certainly not a big fan of children, but he did have to admit that he enjoyed them more than their full grown counterparts. Romulus begrudgingly pulled the paper off of the board in front of him and sulked his way over to Sophie. Romulus flashed the paper at her and just sulked his way up to his room in the guild hall. This had to be the exact opposite of the jobs Romulus would have preferred and the opposite of what his magic was suited for. Regardless, he knew he would have to set out on the first boat the next day.

Romulus laid, collapsed, on his bed. He was contemplating just exactly what he would do to deal with a child. He was especially worried about how bad the job request made the child out to be. If it was willing to pull a knife on itself, then what would stop him from pulling one on Romulus? The thought of having his first real injury in the guild come from an infant was a thought that Romulus quickly forced out of his head. Soon after Romulus had come to terms with the fact that he was already committed to doing this job, the sun's beams of Scarlet light begin to pour through the two windows in the room Romulus was in. He stood up from his bed and walked over to his night stand. As he gazed at himself in the mirror, noting that his black outfit was visibly dirty and his stark white hair was in an absolute uproar despite Romulus holding his magic back for the most part, he saw something he had completely forgotten about. There on the night stand was a small stuffed visage of a wolf. The toy was a bit overly cute, but anyone could still tell it was a wolf. Romulus took a bit of time to let the memories that wolf carried wash over him, before he began lightly washing his clothes while still in them.

After Romulus deemed himself presentably clean, he scooped up the stuffed toy from his night stand and headed off towards the docks. Once Romulus arrived at the sea, he quickly found a bout leaving for Magnolia immediately. It was a passenger vessel, which meant that there would be more people than Romulus cared to deal with, but he boarded anyway, knowing that he needed to arrive as soon as possible. The boat departed in the early morning and arrived in the middle of the afternoon. Romulus headed straight for the clients house, since the job request did not specify a time he should arrive at. As he approached the given address, Romulus began to hear the screams of the child Romulus knew had to be the one he was going to be taking care of for the night. Romulus made his way to the the door, took a deep breath, and lightly knocked on the door. After his knuckles made contact the second time a silence fell over the house Romulus was requesting to enter. The only sounds were the sounds of a light set of feet making there way to the door to open it. When the portal was finally unsealed, Romulus saw in front of him a petite woman in a very elegant and flowing evening gown that was obviously designed to keep all attention on her. The woman, though barely older than Romulus, was the mother of the child in question, as evident by the fact that she was holding him.

The child's eyes were fixed on Romulus. Whether it was the mage's white hair, the long black coat he wore, or his magical pressure, it was impossible to tell. The woman set the child down and exchanged somewhat forced greetings with the mage. The quality of conversation was in no way improved when the man of the house showed up. However, the man at least spoke about the job. He explained to Romulus everything that he should have needed to know for the job. Except the child's name. In all of that talking, no one cared to even mention the child's name. Or even acknowledge his presence behind their legs. They spoke about him as if he was a piece of furniture, not their son. Did these people even care that they were parents of a living, breathing, loving child? Regardless, the two nonparents were in a rush to abandon their child with someone that could be a mass murder, and kind of was in a way. But at least this killer cared about life. Those two monsters were the most dangerous he had ever encountered, and he prayed he would never see their kind again. Though, sadly, he knew he would. Their kind never went away.

As Romulus stepped into the house he knew the hardest part of the night would be trying not to get lost in this maze of a household. There were so many halls that he truly didn't know where to begin. As he set off down a hallway, he heard a crashing noise and smelled a hint of smoke. Romulus bolted in the direction of the smell, his heightened senses helping him navigate the winding hallways. When he arrived at the source, Romulus stood in the middle of the living room, completely shocked. From what he could tell, the child had thrown a flaming wooden chair at a picture of his parents' wedding. Romulus quickly extinguished the small blaze, and then squatted next to the child. Romulus was stern, but in no way mean, as he reprimanded the child for his behaviour. The child did not react in a normal way. The boy just stood there in awe, shocked that he actually got the attention he was trying to receive. The boy's reaction told Romulus everything he needed to know. The child acted out as a way to get attention from his negligent parents. So, to counter this, Romulus decided to make that night completely about the boy he was charged with. He told the boy to go run and grab as many blankets as he could, and Romulus did the same. He also took extra care to find a large white sheet. When the two reconverted in the living room, Romulus tasked the boy with building a pallet out of their recently collected blankets, while the mage began hanging the sheet at a 45 degree angle between a wall and the ceiling. When both of them had their job done, they laid together on the the pallet, staring at the sheet. Sensing the boy's confusion, Romulus coated his hand in dark energy and waved it horizontally in from of him. As his hand traveled across the imaginary horizon, the same dark magic coated the sheet, leaving small white spots untouched. Romulus had just created a faux night sky for the two to fall asleep under. The boy cuddled up to Romulus and the two both drifted off to sleep. Romulus awoke later, when the two parents arrived home. They were stark raving drunk and Romulus just scowled. As the mage released himself from the boy's grasp, he quickly replaced himself with the stuffed wolf he had brought. It would serve the child better than it would serve him. Romulus met with the two nonparents in the main hall, received his small payment, and sadly marched out of the house. This, this was why he liked children more than adults. A child is not capable of doing something truly evil, but an adult is. And most of the time they commit the worst atrocities without realizing it.