Squeeze the Teddy! [Job - Balthazar/Zen]

It was one of those days again, when Zen found himself reading through a newspaper. The sky was overcast, but the young man didn't mind. In the past it meant that his work would be able to be done easier. He shook his head. /"I'm better than that now."/ He thought as he flipped through the pages. And very much like last time he did that, Zen found a rather interesting job posting. Interesting as in 'I never thought somebody would and could request a person for a job such as this'. It was from a toy store located in the Oak Town. The request itself was to test the squishiness and fluffiness of teddybears that they were going to sell, to ensure their quality. That was one heck of a request if he had ever seen one. But it sounded awesome. Zen didn't even look at the job rewards and immediately set out for the Oak Town. Right after he stuffed some essential items into his coat's pockets back at the Guild.

It didn't take Zen terribly long to arrive in the Oak Town. The town breathed history, just like it was described. Old architecture and the town's general layout were pointing at its extensive past. Many different alleyways that could only be explored by simply getting lost amidst them. Which was also coincidentally the best way to explore a place one has never been to before. Luckily for Zen, living most of his time in shady alleyways made it easy to navigate them, almost no matter where he went. He assumed that the town didn't have too many toy stores, considering its size. Thus, finding the store wasn't too tough for the young man. He wasn't the sole visitor of the shop, though. Standing in front of it was man, with the visage of a bat. A bat man. And Zen thought that he looked strange enough. He looked unsure, as if he was looking for a certain place in this town. "Hello." Zen would greet and calmly walk up to the bat man. "Are you looking for something? I'm not a local resident, but maybe I could help you out." He would ask the stranger and offer his help.

It took a moment for the bat man to respond. He seemed to be embarrassed about seeing if the shop that he was standing in front of was the correct one. If the other man was looking for toys, then he most definitely was. The bat man then showed him a piece of paper, saying that he was looking for that. Zen squinted at the paper, reading what it said. /"Well, if it isn't quite the coincidence."/ He thought amusedly. It was an ad for the very same job request Zen himself was in Oak Town for. "Quite the coincidence, then." He would say amusedly. "I'm here because of the same reason."

As things were, though, Zen didn't expect to run into an another individual that was looking for the same job as he was. It was definitely a surprise. But the job wouldn't do itself with both of them just standing in front of the store. "I'm pretty sure that this is the place, though." Zen would say and point to the store's door. "I don't think they will mind having two people for the job." He would say and walk to the door, opening them. Zen made that job sound so serious, when in reality it was about fluffy teddybears. A soft chime sounded their arrival and the young man would step inside the store. He didn't even properly walk inside, when somebody called out from the back of the store. "Hello hello! I will be right with you, just a moment please!"

Zen wasn't so sure about the 'work will go faster' with this job, but it surely would be more fun with an another person. And not in the naughty way, of course. Shortly after the duo heard the voice, a tall man in glasses appeared and went to stand behind the shop's counter, like a proper shopkeep. The young man took a brief look around the store. There were plenty of various toys on display, ranging form simple wooden ones, to dolls and mythical creatures that were imbued with tiny lacrima crystals that gave them the ability to move and perform tricks for the kids. They all seemed to be very high quality and most definitely handmade.

"Hello!" Zen would greet the shopkeeper. "We would like to ask about the job request that had been posted in the papers. The teddybear testing?" The young man would explain the reason for mages that entered the shop. The man's face lit up. "Ah, yes! Of course of course." The shopkeep would happily nod. He would look under the counter and the sound of things being moved could be heard. "Give me.. just a moment.." He was obviously looking for something. As much as Zen wanted to help out, he felt like it would be sort of inappropriate for him to do so. He had no business behind the counter, afterall. "It's not a problem that there's two of us, right?" The young man would ask instead. It was quiet for a moment, before the shopkeeper spoke up. "Not a problem at all. It would be actually better if I had more opinions on the teddybears than just one." He would answer and let out a 'ha!', as he straightened himself up. In his hand was a tiny piece of cloth. The shopkeeper would take off his glasses and wipe them gently with the cloth he had just found. He would put it on the counter and put the glasses back on. "Well then. If you don't have any more questions, we could get right to the task?" The shopkeep would give the two mages space for last minute questions.

It would not be good if the opinions of the two guys clashed, but everything was ultimately still the shopkeeper's call. But hey, as long as it was within healthy and friendly manner, it would work out, Zen was sure of it. When the shopkeeper gave them the space to ask their questions, Balthazar asked his. It was about the teddies themselves. Zen was intrigued, but he knew that nothing would beat actually seeing them. "Oh don't worry. They are all quite unique, you'll see." Whatever could that possibly mean. Zen would shrug, not having anything to ask. He was eager to get to work. "Well then. Let me just put up this sign.." The shopkeeper said as he pulled out a sign that said 'I will be back in a jiffy' in fancy letters. He would walk around the counter, to the front of the store and place the sign, so that it could be seen from the outside. "Follow me to the workshop, if you would, gentlemen." The man would motion for the two mages to follow him.

Zen did just that. They would step into the back of the store, where all of the magic happened. Surprisingly enough, the workshop wasn't a total mess. There were a few tools laying about, but there was no chaos. The place was tidy and one could even say that it was cozy. The shopkeeper would stop and point to the other side of the workshop. "There they are." On that other side was a sizable common carpet, with some odd toys on one end and the hugest teddybears Zen had ever seen on the other. "You will be testing those teddybears. I have been thinking of adding something quite extra to my shop's repertoire, so I made these. But before I think about selling them, I need to make sure that they are absolutely perfect." The shopkeeper went on to explain their task, but Zen was barely listening. All he could think about was how he was going to cuddle one of those teddies and then never let go. "On the table here you have some paper and pencils to write down things, should you need it. Just hand it to me when you're done." The shopkeeper would finish his explanation, lingering to see if there were any more questions, now that the task itself had been assigned. Zen didn't have any questions. He was just standing there, with his mouth slightly open, seeing these absolutely adorable teddybears. Even if they were slightly bigger than Zen himself.

The shopkeeper shook his head at the bat man's question. "There's no hard time limit. I only ask of you to finish before I close up the shop." The man would then nod amusedly and leave the workshop. Zen was still entranced by the cuteness that radiated off of the huge teddies. But then he noticed something in front of his face and when his vision focused, he saw that it was a hand. A hand that waved in front of his face. Zen would shake his head a little to snap out of it. He would look to his right and then to his left. The young man spotted the bat man and he chuckled nervously. "Oh. Sorry about that. I got carried away a little." That totally explained the way he just stared at those teddybears in pure awe.

It was high time the duo got to work, though. The teddies were indeed quite on the large side. Zen figured that they were most likely meant for cuddling, rather than actually playing with them. "Anyway, I think we should get to work." The young man would give a little sigh and take off his coat. It was a bit too warm under it for his liking. The table was surprisingly clean for a workshop, so he didn't feel bad about resting his coat there. Zen would walk over to where the carpet was. The young man would take off his shoes, aswell. The workshop was neat and tidy, he wasn't going to ruin that. Especially by stepping onto a carpet in dirty shoes. "Let's hope they are as soft as they look like." Zen would say and hug the closest teddybear. It was slightly bigger than he was, perfect for cuddling. "Yeah. This is the best job ever." Zen would say amusedly.

Zen couldn't help it. He just loved cute things. Anything that was adorable, just instantly melted his heart. So the bat man wasn't too far off from the truth. Although that sleepover that he mentioned did sound really nice. It would be kind of rude to that in a shop, though. When the other man tested a teddie of his own, he commented on how ridiculous the job was. Zen couldn't argue with that. The pay was indeed quite promising. He still did it mainly for the teddy bears, though. The young man could feel his eyelids get slightly heavy, realizing that he should probably get an another teddy. He couldn't fall asleep just after telling himself that he wouldn't.

Zen was about to plop himself on top of an another teddy, when he realised that he never even introduced himself. Better late than never, right? "The name's Zen, by the way." He would say, slightly awkwardly. As if there was anything wrong with two grown men hugging oversized teddies in a toy store. If one asked Zen where he saw himself in the future about a year ago, this definitely wouldn't be one of the answers. The young man plopped down on the second teddy. It was just as fluffy and comfortable as the first one. He had no issues with it. He would then continue on to the third one and perform the same procedure. It was the same fluffy teddy as the two brothers before it, but with one little thing. When Zen squeezed its arms, though, there wasn't as much of the filling as there was with the previous teddies. Was that intended or just a slight oversight? Or perhaps he didn't have enough cotton or whatever stuffing material he used? Regardless of the reason, it wouldn't hurt to write it down. The young man would get up and tiptoe to the table, where the papers and pencils were. He quickly wrote down that the white teddy with black specks was possibly missing some stuffing. Zen would briefly look behind him, seeing how the other was doing.

The young man would not at the other's name. It seemed that none of them actually thought of sharing their names, which sort of amused Zen. But then again, they didn't really need to know each other's names. Balthazar seemed to be doing just fine, inspecting the teddybears. Although he didn't seem to be as excited about the teddies as Zen was, he was still checking them, as per their instructions. After Zen wrote down his note on that one teddybear, he went on to check the last few.

There were still four teddies left to check, so Zen deemed it fair if they split those in half. "I'll check out those last two and leave the two more to you." The young man would say and hug one of the two teddies left. It was so soft... And fluffy... He almost wanted to just take one with him. But he reckoned that it would be kind of tough, trying to smuggle one of these monsters out of the shop. Especially unseen. /"Oh well. Maybe one day, when I have money to splurge I will buy one of these."/ That didn't sound like too bad of an idea. He'd have to keep this shop in mind. Zen would check the last teddy aswell, though this one was kind of missing stuffing in its left leg. Or it seemed like that, at least, when he compared the squishiness to the other teddies. One more thing to write on that paper. Zen would walk back to the table and write down his findings. Taking one last look at the teddies, he deemed himself ready to finish the task. That, however, was also dependant on Balthazar's progress. "I'm pretty much done with my teddies. How are you holding up, Balthazar?" The young man would ask his job companion.

The young man was glad that Balthazar was done with his work on the teddies, aswell. Zen wasn't sure whether the hugging of teddy bears he did was good enough, but he reckoned that it was the best that he could do. Especially when the plushies were of such enormous size. "Sure thing. Let's get going." The young man would say and grab his coat, the paper with written notes. As the two mages were leaving the workshop, Zen put his coat back on.

The shopkeeper was standing behind the counter, checking a bunch of papers. He noticed the two little helpers enter the front of the shop and he smiled. "Ah, there you are! All done?" Zen would nod in reply and hand in his paper. "Yes. We have checked out the teddies, just as promised." The shopkeeper would take the paper and nod. "Very well then. Here is your payment, gentlemen." The shopkeeper would hand Balthazar and Zen their respective job rewards, in form of Jewels. "Thank you. We shall take our leave." The young man would give his temporary employer a quick nod in thanks and exit the shop. The thought of grabbing some food that Balthazar had mentioned earlier didn't sound too bad.