hellish_butler | IC inbox for starhuevalley

That's the right name, at least. First step accomplished easily enough. Now, of course, comes the difficulty of presenting himself well.

"You-- needed a farmhand?" Talking around the thing might be easier. "Experience-- would be better, right?"

The point is there. The point is he can do this.

The point might take Horatio a few minutes to get to, if he isn't redirected.

"Indeed I do. You have read my note on the board, right?" Sebastian's voice is friendly, and there's an English accent as he speaks. In the past, people always approached him for a job, and they're nervous, but Sebastian always hired them.

"No experience is not necessary. Anyone can learn while they work. Even a child can do it. It was just picking up vegetables and fruits, put them in a basket, and then put all of them into the bin. It's only 2 to 3 hours and you'll be done by lunch. It's short. If I have more jobs I can think of and I need you to do more, then I will pay more by the hour."

Friendly is friendly. It's new, but it's the sort of thing that the past week in this place has been keying Horatio's mind into acutely.

Which isn't to say that he knows much what to do with it.

"I did. But I can do more." A careful breath, and he tries to force the words more slowly. "I've done this before. It's what I used to do at-- home. I can-- do this. Quickly and efficiently."

He can sense the gentleman's nervousness on the line. He's interviewing for a job after all.

"I wouldn't worry about it, the lack of experience. I can teach you if you wish to come today. I had my hands full at the moment, so I appreciate it if you come whenever you can. I have a phone in one hand and a watering can in the other. So if you like to talk about it, your world, then you can come over to my land. I mean, everyone here is pretty laid back and casual, so the pace is slow here. Come as a guest and leave as a friend."

"--okay." Another deep breath. "Thank you, sir."

Horatio is fairly certain he's underwhelming in person. Particularly in the clothes he's found for himself here, he looks small and just a bit fragile. Still, it's a chance for work--and work is all he really knows.

So he'll come jogging up to the farm soon enough, forcing himself to actually look for the potential employer rather than lurking outside the gate nervously.

Sebastian puts away his phone and realized he didn't get the young man's name. Still, he texted him the address to his phone, so that Horatio knows where to find him.

Horatio will see a tall gentleman with raven black hair. Sebastian in appearance looks refined and graceful, and he wears clothes that matched the era he's from, from the 1890s, so he looked terribly old fashioned in comparison to the other residents that came from other worlds.

Still, Sebastian did all the tilling and fertilizing much earlier that morning, so now he's working on pulling out the various vegetables out of the ground and placed them into the basket. When he arrived and saw him at the gate. "Good morning. Are you the one who called me earlier today? I didn't catch your name, but I appreciate your coming here. Honestly, I didn't expect a helping hand when I put up the sign."

He opens the gate, "Come in. You're just in time. You see the rows of green leaves coming out of the ground? They're ready to be pulled out and harvest. Just take them out and put them in the basket."

Everyone here has been startlingly tall. This man, however, is more than that. There's something about the edges of his movements that can't help reminding Horatio of his escort, his prep team--of the unnerving sensation that all citizens of the Capitol seemed to radiate even when they weren't in the highest echelons of power.

That sticks him briefly to the gate, breath slow and careful before his attention is directed to the tilled field. The low green leaves and dark rich soil feel like home as well, but like the pieces of home that could be thought fondly of now.

"...I am, sir." It's easier to speak now that he has a task, rolling up his sleeves as he walks to reveal thin but wiry arms from under too much cloth. "Horatio."

It's much easier here than it had been at home. Everything seemed to pull easily from the dirt or practically fall off trellises and bushes. Even wheat came with much gentler swings of the scythe.

This would be easy. For the moment, that keeps his shoulders loose and comfortable.

Starhue Valley isn't anything like the Capitol. The government is a constant reminder that your life is not your own and the officials control every resource from the districts. Your life is ever at odds with the government and their system of keeping and restricting the citizens rights to keep them in line with their laws. In Starhue Valley, the only danger is the monsters that ran rampant ever now and then, but usually, there's some sheriffs and officers on patrol as part of the guard watch, keeping citizens safe.

The atmosphere is casual and relaxed. There's so much nature and space around that it gives a restless mind a lot of space to think.

"Horatio...that was the name of Hamlet's best friend. Are you familiar with that work?"

Not once Sebastian criticized him. He just let his new friend sort out the work and provided the tools needed, including the watering can and the scythe to cut out the weeds and grass. "You're doing a good job, my friend. You don't have to do it so quickly though. Slow down and please take your time. There's no need to rush."

It's much easier with a helping hand. Sebastian is perceptive of Horatio's skills at being quick with his hands and efficient with his tasks. Sebastian's experience as a butler means he is accustomed to managing a modest size staff inside a mansion of the young Earl, and he observed his staff strength and weakness to make them more efficient workers around the household.

"What was your world like? I know people came from different worlds. I came from Earth, from England. You're one of the new arrivals, were you?"

Trusting the relaxed atmosphere has been difficult. As genuinely soothing as everything was, there had yet to be a night Horatio didn't wake from panicked dreams, certain he'd find himself back in the scrap of a cave in the Arena.

But it's another tick in the Valley's favour that even the elegant and well-fed seem so quickly inclined to gentleness. Even work, the honest eking of a living, seems lined with direction and allowance rather than demand.

More than all that, of course, actually working was wonderful. Horatio barely heard the question to shake his head--a hamlet is a place, not a person, his mind buzzes idly--before setting himself properly into the blankness of work.

This is by far the lightest touch he's ever felt under supervision. That, more than the words, makes it easy to actually slow down when he's directed to, taking time to enjoy the familiar motion of the scythe or the friendly sensation of rich happy dirt on his fingers.

Even the question about home isn't enough to knock the beginning of a smile from the corner of his lips, gaze still lowered to watch the swing of his blade. "I am. From Panem. It's..." What's the word? "...not like this."

Sebastian came from a relatively calm household, and when he managed servants. There was this maid who is prone to accidents due to having nerves especially when service demands of her.

But for now, Sebastian focused on loading all the crops into the basket. When the basket is full, he simply gets another one, and indicated, "Here, fill this one too, if you please." More baskets of crops shall be filled, more weeds to cut and clear with the scythe, it's one task after another.

"Oh? Panem isn't like this?" Curiosity filled the butler now. "What is like then?" He asked though he had a hunch it wasn't a peaceful world then.

Taking a new basket is entirely natural. The slow pace is new, but the demands of a working farm are utterly familiar. Even this isn't such a terribly difficult size for an operation of one or two to manage.

Still, it's a lucky thing that his hands can be put on autopilot. Panem might be the only home Horatio has ever known, but it had barely taken a week in this place to suss out that it was a particularly blighted home to come from.

"Bigger farms. Fewer owners."

"I see." Sebastian can quite picture it, but that's not a lot. Still, he's not one to question it. He figured the young man has a farming background, which explains why he's pretty efficient with the help he provided.

Once the tasks are done and all the baskets are filled. "There we are, all of them are filled. I can ship the rest and my pick-up man will come to pick it later in the afternoon" He said.

"Well done, Mr. Horatio. You've been a big help for me, and I thank you. I hope I can repay you. If you're hungry, I have some lunch if you like to eat something. It's on me. And then I shall give you your pay and that's all the help I needed from you."

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