No need to be nervous (Amerie)

Oh man. I don't think I can do this, Aran thought as the overloridian's mansion came into view up ahead. It was huge. Aran was pretty sure her apartment would fit inside of it like, a hundred times. She could steal a lawn ornament and it would probably cover her rent for nine months.

That's exactly why you HAVE to do this! Gamma said, trotting next to her. The overloridian is probably the richest person in Solas. If she hires you you'll never have to worry about money again! You'll get to LIVE here!

Right, right, yeah, Aran grudgingly agreed. She needed this job. She had to get out of Stonecraft, away from the fighting rings. She was wearing the best interview outfit she could put together (a button down borrowed from her friend Mason and a pair of black pants that didn't have any holes) and had prepared a sort of "hire me!" speech about the benefits of having a bodyguard.

She was ready.

She got up to the giant ornate doors and knocked.

Amerie was having a stressful day. Her mother had woken her at the crack of dawn, telling her it was imperative that she look over something, and then the responsibilities hadn't lightened since.

The only good thing that had happened in the past week was that she was finally settled and had her Eilemaiden, but with all her new Overloridian duties she hadn't even been able to test them out at all. And now her mother and father were wanting to move in with her. After all the years she had spent in training, her parents still didn't believe in her. It made her feel sick to her stomach.

Not to mention all the things she still needed to learn about ruling an Eilemaiden! There was one advisor left over from the late Overloridian, and Amerie could tell he was on his last nerve with her. But it wasn't her fault that she had no idea what she was doing! How was a sixteen year old supposed to do all of this? Caviar, who had been trying to remain positive over the past week was having a difficult time consoling his clio. He'd tried to remind her of good things, and that in a few weeks when she got the hang of it everything would be fine and running smoothly, but Amerie was unconvinced.

For the past fifteen minutes Amerie had been hiding out in the broom closet near the front hall of her mansion (a mansion she couldn't even enjoy, with all the stress she was dealing with!). Her parents and Scott the advisor had been running her ragged, and she just needed a few minutes to cry to herself. Which is exactly what she was doing when a booming knock came from the front door.

She tried to stifle her sniffling, thinking that one of the mansion's many maids would be around to answer the door, but none came. Another knock came at the door, and Amerie sighed.

"Don't you think you need to answer that?" Caviar asked.

"Why don't you answer it?" Amerie asked. She knew, of course, that Caviar could do no such thing, even if he wanted. But that didn't stop her from wishing he could. He, however, didn't dignify her with an answer.

"Dry your tears and get to it," he commanded. He'd had enough with Amerie's water works. "This is no way for an Overloridian to be acting." Though he loved her, it was apparent that she needed a little tough love right now. She'd get through this--he knew she would.

She wanted a minute or so--enough time to swallow her tears as best she could-- and then finally went to answer the door herself.

Before she opened the door, she brushed some dust off her clothes and smoothed down her hair. Running an Eilemaiden didn't give time for your hair or make up and she felt naked. She sighed. How was anyone supposed to take her seriously looking like this?

"You got this," Caviar whispered to her.

Standing tall and wiping her eyes one last time, she swung open the door.

Outside was a tough looking clio and what could only be her daemon. Amerie wasn't sure what sort of clio would have a hyena daemon, but it made her nervous, all big and scary like.

"Uh, hi," Amerie said, swallowing and instantly forgetting that she should speak with authority and poise.

Aran was just about to lose her nerve and leave when the door swung open. There was a girl standing there, looking small and pretty and kind of scared. Was she the overloridian? She had to be, she looked just like in the pictures. Aran knew that she had just settled, but damn she wasn't expecting someone so...frail looking. She definitely looked like she needed protecting.

"Hi, um, Miss L-Lux?" Aran stuttered, slightly taken aback by the overloridian's noticeably red eyes. Had she just been crying or something? What could someone who lived in this incredible mansion possibly even have to cry about? Should she ask if she was okay? No, no...This was her future boss, the fucking overloridian, the highest authority there was. She couldn't just treat her like any random girl. Gotta be professional.

She cleared her throat. "Um, my name is Aran Sawyer and I'm here to talk to you about a bodyguard job." Gah, she looks so sad, stop looking at me with those sad eyes, "I, um, I sent a letter a while back..."

You're doing great! Gamma said encouragingly. Tell her about the heart thing!

Not now, Aran thought, annoyed. Gamma could be so dumb sometimes. I don't even think she remembers the letter.

Maybe the overloridian hadn't even gotten the letter. She probably had servants who went through and answered her mail. Maybe one of them had sent the reply and never told the overloridian about it at all. And now here she was, showing up out of nowhere. It would explain why this girl looked so incredibly nervous. Probably thought Aran was here to rob the place or something.

Miss Lux. Now that was a weird thought. Although the mansion servants called her that, she still wasn't used to it. She didn't feel like a Miss Lux.

"Body guard?" Amerie asked, her eyes getting wide. "Do you really think I need a body guard?" she asked Aran.

Caviar flitted around her head, her wings beating quickly as she hovered.

She must be the one who sent that letter! The one Scott told you about. You said you'd meet with her. Well, your mom did.

Of course.

"Of course, okay." Amerie's sudden try at composure didn't even fool her. Caviar winced.

"Please, come in!" She said, taking a step backwards and nearly tripping over her own feet. "It's, uh, been a bit busy around here. I apologize for forgetting. I need to start a planner!" She said in an awkward cross between a poised apology and a silly "my bad". Ugh, she hated herself.

She led Aran into the entrance hall, which was big and grand and made Amerie feel really small.

"This is, well, this is the entrance hall!" She announced.

You are really something else, Caviar thought. If he were a Clio, his cheeks would have been burning. Luckily, Amerie's were red enough for the both of them.

Why did she have to be so awkward?

Aran didn't notice Miss Lux's horrible awkwardness too much, because she was too busy taking in the enormity of the entrance hall. It seemed even bigger on the inside. What did people even do with all this space? Did they really use it all? What was even the point of an entrance hall?

Who cares! Gamma exclaimed, obviously excited by the prospect of making this mansion home.

Aran picked her jaw up off the floor and tried to focus on the matter at hand. Job. Interview. Impress the overloridian. "Okay. Right. Well um," she paused for a second. She had kind of expected the overloridian to start firing questions at her, maybe even ask her to show off her skills. But she just introduced her to the entrance hall and stood there. Was Aran supposed to say something?

Tell her all the stuff you practiced telling me! Gamma practically yelled. Don't just stand there!

Ugh. This was hard enough without an overly excited hyena screaming in her head. The overloridian still wasn't saying anything. "Should I, um, maybe tell you why I'd be a good bodyguard?" Aran prompted. "Or do you have any questions, or...?"

Wait, was this an interview? Amerie needed to conduct an interview?

Oh for crying out loud, OF COURSE it's an interview, Caviar told her, his voice rising.

Amerie bit her lip. She thought she'd already hired her in the letter. Apparently not.

"Well, um, do you have any experience?" Amerie asked, leading Aran down the hall. The least she could do was take the body guard to her office. It would seem more official that way. Maybe Amerie would actually feel like the overloridian in there. "And do you have a resume?" she threw in as they walked. Jobs asked Clio for resumes, didn't they?

"A resume?" Aran asked. Well, shit. She didn't know you had to have a resume for a job like this. She always thought that resumes were for office type jobs. She wanted to be a bodyguard, not a goddamn secretary. Oh well, just downplay the resume thing, focus on experience instead. "Uh, no. But I have lots of experience. A lot of, um, business-type guys have hired me for guard jobs." The overloridian didn't need to know that most of those 'business-type guys' sold drugs.

"So, you know, I know how to deal with dangerous clio," she went on. Now was the chance to really sell herself. "Someone tries to assassinate you? I could take them out in a second with my Eilemaiden. Not even exaggerating."

It was true, too. A moment's contact was all it took.

Assassination? Amerie's knees felt weak.

What does she mean, take them out in a second? Caviar prodded Amerie, ignoring her light-headedness.

Amerie and Aran had finally made it to her study, so she opened the door. As soon as she did, she wished she hadn't. The room looked like a tornado had hit. Several boxes were scattered around, some holding the new things that would fill it now that Amerie had taken over, and many holding the previous Overloridian's belongings.

She'd been meaning to sort through this stuff, but hadn't gotten the chance.

Don't you mean you were too busy sniffling in the closet? Caviar asked, flitting around her head. Just shut the door and ask her about her skills!

Ears burning, Amerie slammed the door shut to hide the mess inside. She turned around to face Aran.

"Tell me about this "taking out in a second" business," she said in a formal tone, her back against the door.

Aran was confused when Miss Lux lead her to an office door, opened it long enough for them to glimpse inside, and then slammed it shut again and turned around. Was there something in there she wasn't supposed to see? It had just looked like a normal office to her, papers and books and boxes and whatnot. This girl was kind of a strange one.

Amerie wrote:"Tell me about this "taking out in a second" business,"

Oh man, here it was. The good stuff. The stuff that was bound to get Aran hired. "Okay, so, here's the thing," she said, trying not to talk too fast. She tended to talk too fast when she was excited about something. "So, Solas uses electricity, right? Well I read one time that it turns out our muscles are controlled by electricity, uh, somehow. So if you can hit someone in just the right spot, it fu--er, messes with their muscles and down they go. Also, you can use it to control your own muscles, making you faster and stuff."

She grinned. "And that ain't even the half of it. I also read, in the same book, that the heart is a muscle too. And if someone has a heart attack you can save them with electricity. So if you hire me, you never have to worry about dying from a heart attack, ever. Because I'll save you."

This kind of stuff was so cool, it was amazing how the body worked. Aran didn't totally understand it. The book had had a lot of stuff about pluses and minuses and other things that didn't make any sense in a book about muscles, but whatever, it was still awesome.

Amerie's eyes widened. This girl was crazy. Who got excited about stuff like this?

A good bodyguard, that's who, Caviar said.

Amerie wasn't sure she would need saving from a heart attack since she was only sixteen, but she guessed that sounded like it would be a good thing to have around sooner or later.

"Do you like science, then?" she asked. "I never really thought about it that way, but I guess that all makes sense!" She frowned in thought, wishing she had been taught by a Solas how to become a Solas Overloridian. If she had been allowed to attend regular school she probably would have taken classes about Solas and she would have known all that. Or anything. That would have been nice.

"I haven't really gotten a chance to use my Eilemaiden at all just yet."

She was supposed to be pretending that she knew everything there was to know, like a proper Overloridian should, but it was difficult to keep up the charade. And if this girl was going to be her bodyguard, Amerie supposed she would find out what a fraud she was eventually, anyway.

Amerie wrote:"Do you like science, then?"

"Yeah, well I mean, I like medical books and stuff, from the library," Aran replied. She had tried reading a book about the physics of electricity once, to get some Solas-y ideas, and it made absolutely zero sense, so she stuck to the anatomy books from then on. Those she could at least get the general idea from.

Amerie wrote:"I haven't really gotten a chance to use my Eilemaiden at all just yet."

"You just settled, right?" she asked. The hardest thing about using Eilemaidens was that you couldn't even barely practice before settling, even if you were an overloridian. Aran had to learn the hard way; she lost a looooot of fights before she got the hang of hers. She always figured that overloridians had like, personal trainers or something to help them out when they first settled...

...

...

"...Hey! I could train you how to use it!" she exclaimed. Then less excitedly, "Uh, I mean if you wanna hire me, that is, heh."

This is going pretty good, Gamma commented happily.

"You'd do that for me?" Amerie asked Aran, her voice hopeful. She could have a bodyguard and a trainer all in one! And Aran just looked so... so tough! Maybe she could teach Amerie how to be tough too!

Ask her about her hours! Her rate! Caviar insisted, trying to cut off Amerie's sudden excitement.

"When can you move in?"

Caviar groaned.

"When can you move in?"

"When can you move in?"

"When can you move in?"

Move in...move in to this huge, extravagant mansion that probably had at least one indoor pool. Aran's current apartment didn't even have running water. Aran and Gamma would have soft beds, good food, and a roof over their heads that didn't have mysterious black stuff growing on it. They'd be living the good life, and all Aran had to do was, you know, train, protect and potentially give her life for this girl. No biggie.

"Whenever!" she said, grinning like crazy. This felt like a dream. "I don't have much stuff. I could move in, um, pretty much tomorrow."

"I'll just need to talk to my mom first, and then I can get a room ready for you!" Amerie exclaimed, unable to hold back her sudden excitement.

Your mom? Caviar asked dryly. He had hoped hiring on Aran would mean that Amerie would stand up to her parents.

Amerie ignored her daemon, but thought she felt her face getting a bit warm. Maybe Aran didn't need to know that she was going to run the new position by her mother.

"I mean, just so that she, uh, knows that someone else is going to live here," she said, trying to give herself a little more credibility. "She worries."

Caviar perched on Amerie's shoulder and tucked his head under his wing.

A few awkward moments later (during which Amerie supposed Aran was wondering why a child was running an entire Eilemaiden) the ladies settled on a time that Aran would arrive the next day, her belongings in tow. Amerie was not looking forward to telling her mom she'd made such a major decision without her, but she was looking forward to having someone closer to her age around. Maybe, when they weren't training, they could actually hang out or something. Amerie had always wanted a friend.