2022-07-09: Ashford is Exhausted!
- Log: 2022-07-09: Ashford is Exhausted!
- Cast: Milly Ashford, Emilia Eschonbach
- Where: Ashford Academy - Student Council Room
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-07-08
- Summary: Some anomalies come up as Ashford's Student Council Treasurer and President go over the books.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
It's a lateish night at Ashford Academy. Everyone -- even the at-large members -- has been on deck to look over things for the Deculture Festival; it's ambitious in scope in just about every sense, and Milly wants it to go off without a hitch.
She's on-keel for herself, honestly; in a lot of ways, this is the usual Milly. Hard-working despite the veneer of chaos, utterly committed to keeping Ashford running at its usual honest, high-intensity speed.
The primary issue is the budget. That's never been Nina's speed, so she's the first one out. Shirley does do that type of work, but she has other club commitments to a greater extent than the other at-large members. The rest -- well, they have their own lives, too.
What matters is that they're down to just Emilia and Milly, here in the Student Council office, staring at both physical budget applications and laptops with spreadsheets. Milly sends Emilia the tentative final numbers for the Millympic Games.
As she does it, though, she opens a can of worms. "I don't mind you having outside work," she says, "but I'm a little concerned about some things I've been hearing. Is now a good time?" It's just the two of them, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emilia has been eyeballs deep in trying to make Milly's big idea work- She's probably the youngest member of the executive, and she got there because Milly believed in her. So she's got to repay that belief- and all the other things Milly has and is doing for her. Some late nights doing student council work barely count against all of that.
When the final numbers come up, she splits her screens to compare, pulling the physical numbers. The initial numbers look okay, but-
Emilia pauses, then looks to Milly. She knew this was going to happen eventually. She didn't expect this soon but they were advertising at the school. "Y-y-yes." She responds. She's a little nervous, but nowhere near as much as she would have been when she arrived. With Milly... Her concerns are actually concerns.
"...D-do you m-mean the c-c-cafe, or th-th-the w-w-workshop?" She may as well clarify early. "I d-d-don't think th--e w-warehouses. A-a-are giving a-anyone shifts y-y--et." Milly could find out whatever she wants, so there's not point in hiding. More than that... Emilia trust Milly enough to tell her the truth.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"Both, though the cafe a little more," Milly says, deciding to be very explicit. Emmy is someone who has always had the best time with Milly when she's direct with her; while direct is a different chaos speed from her usual, Milly can do that too. "It's not that I want you to stop working there if you're happy with it, but..."
She chews at her lip a bit. "Some of those places are fronts for worse things, and the job itself isn't always safe in the first place, either. I know not that long ago they tore apart a warehouse that turned out to be a front for a Refrain den..."
Her expression is uncharacteristically serious as she says, "Again -- I'm not asking you to stop! You've got control over your own life. But I thought you should be aware. You only moved here pretty recently." Sincerity on this topic comes easy for Milly, because she means it; she doesn't mind if Emilia makes choices other people might see as unwise, as long as she's making them with full knowledge of the choices that she is making.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emilia pauses for a few moments, she decides not to interrupt Milly at all here. Let her lay it out. It's a good feeling to be cared about, but... "I-I know." She says, calmly. "The c-cafe pays t-t-too well, and o-one g-girl gets all th-the big t-t-tipping regulars." Emmy's surprisingly calm. "I th-think it's m-money l-laundering." There's something a little.. sad in her tone.
"It's n-not s-s-surprising. N-no non-Britannian business c-c-can run h-here w-w-without b-breaking the l-law." She shifts back to her laptop briefly, scrolling through the numbers and she squints, before pulling up. "They n-need p-p-protection money to o-open, and wh-when that d-doesn't work, even the l-l-legal businesses. Need to b-b-b-bribe the kn-knightp--olice." She sighs. "Mr S-Suzuki i-is a g-g-g-good employer. But w-we both kn-know my b-bonuses are b-b-because if I. W-work the c-counter on i-inspection days. There's. L-l-less trouble."
She pauses for a few moments. "I d-d-d-don't. Work there. B-b-because I'm h--appy, though." ...She's not even going to lie by omission tonight. Another pause. None of that makes sense. Emmy quickly starts grabbing papers and a highlighter. Something's definitely up here.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Money laundering... Emilia's got a good eye. If the real goal is to use the 'top girl' to launder money -- that makes a lot of sense; either on their own might draw attention, but every part of the water trade ends up with a number one girl... while the place itself stays free of wrongdoing. They can even move top girls around if it gets suspicious. Easy.
Her eyes hood a bit. "... I'm glad you understand that much," Milly murmurs. Emilia is a kind person -- deeply so, in Milly's estimation. The fact that she's working at a... locally owned, business, and working with an eye toward that business's ongoing success...
On the other hand... Milly's eyes do widen a bit as she admits that she's not happy working there, even if it's something she's comfortable choosing for herself. "I know your situation's complicated. I wasn't going to push," Milly answers. That's true in a sense, too -- Milly trusts Emilia to make smart choices. But... there's something she can't quite bring herself around to saying.
She returns to her spreadsheet, for the moment. She doesn't notice Emilia getting grabby with the rest of the documents -- or at least, she trusts in that, too.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emilia pauses. She expected Milly to push more- maybe tease her for knowing so much. Ask why she's doing it if she's not happy. To just... accept something like that seems unlike her. The woman who dodged customs to get her out of Britannia, into Side 3, and back again.
Once Emmy finds what she's looking for. It all cascades. Making a copy, she starts correcting the numbers. "M-Milly, c-can you. T-t-take a l-look?"
There's cells highlighted, comparing Milly's numbers and Emmy's. An extra zero is a occasional risk, but a few times. Then reorganizing the expense categories... "Th-those are all. Dupli--cates, r-r-right?" She's double checking but... "Th-the Jindai f-f-f-funds aren't in, e-either..." There is something in Emmy's voice. She's getting nervous. Milly Ashford doesn't make mistakes. At least not mistakes like this.
She doesn't even get to the papers on her right. Her big green eyes look up at Milly. There's very palpable worry and concern in her voice. "I-I-Is everything. Okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Milly accepts the cross-check, and looks their papers over. She pauses, reaching up to the bridge of her nose and pinching it to make sure that she's actually looking at what she appears to be looking at. "... This --" well, one of them is certainly wrong. And there's no way, now that she looks at it again, that renting a Hobby Hizack costs BU$15,000.
"Wh -- hold on..." The budget at least balances, even with Milly's errors; she wouldn't pass a net loss on to Emmy. But... no, Emmy's right -- her work is sloppy. Not just sloppy, but the type of sloppy that comes with an expertly-wielded newspaper.
"No, this isn't -- I..."
She slumps into her seat. "... I want to say yes, but this is the sort of work I gutted the Frog Lover's Club for. I guess I'm not." ... Why does she feel so out of sorts...? There's a certain release in saying it to Emilia, though.
It takes a census of the last week's unusual events to fully process it. "... Do you mind if we take a break? Honestly, we have until August 5th to nail this all down, so... maybe we need to be done for the night."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The Milly reacts... The uncertainty, the unsureness. "...Y-yeah. L-l-l-let's t-t-take a b-b-break." Emmy's trying to suppress her stammer. They've got time, sure but...
The budget's not the important bit right now, as far Emilia's concerned.
"Wh-wh-why d-don't I, um, m-make s-s-some tea?" She asks, looking for something. "A-and you g-g-grab a s-seat. O-on. T-the couch." She doesn't what Milly to just walk away like this. Not if she can do something to make her feel better. "D-d-dest--ress. A b-bit." Poor girl has no poker face, so she start's moving to the student council's kettle before Milly can tell her she doesn't need it, before going to look for something. Lavender Earl Grey, or something herbal perhaps...
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Swapping the locations of one of the couches outside the student council room with one of the low tables that had previously been inside it? Best decision Milly's made in ages. She agrees, moving over to the couch with a slightly dazed-sounding, "All right."
The flop isn't a confident one -- it's a tired one. She's still going back through the last several days -- what is wrong with her? There has to be something. She expects better from herself.
"... Emilia," Milly starts, when she starts looking for the kettle. "I'm going to tell you something in confidence. If you can't handle that, just leave the room for a minute, instead, okay? We don't have to bring it up again if you don't want to deal with it." Milly rarely asks 'is that okay,' but she can find the words to express the concept if she attacks them sideways.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Milly agreeing so easily, while troubling in it's own way, is probably a good thing. She finds something that will do. This is not a pot situation. She grabs two mugs, one for each of them. For Milly, a spoon of honey, and...
Emilia blinks at the request. It takes her a second to parse it. The something in confidence is about Milly... right? That it might be rough. "O-okay. L-l-let me. Finish. Th-the tea, f-first." She thinks she might want to be sitting down.
She reaches into the fridge to grab milk, and the cling-wrapped half lemon left in there from earlier in the meeting. No point being wasteful, right? She gives herself two sugars, before squeezing the lemon into Milly's drink with the spoon so no seeds fall in. She places the lemon face down on the cling wrap, just in case they need another glass and wipes the spoon so she can stir hers, juggling everything with surprising ease.
A few moments later, she's walking over to the couch, sitting next to Milly, and pressing Milly's cup into her hands- making sure she takes it and hopefully drinks it, putting down coasters before Emmy sits herself. "O-okay. I-I-I'm ready."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Milly waits patiently for her tea; it's only when Emilia presses that tea into her hands that she fully reorients. "Thanks," she says. She's really off-kilter, it feels like -- so she takes a long drink, holding the cup in her hands and collecting her thoughts before she speaks.
"I don't like talking about this, but I know the rumors get around either way," she starts. "My mother... is leaning on me a little harder than she was, to get married. Not graduating is buying me a little time." This is the most candor Milly's given... anyone, honestly. But the walls are a little bit down. "I stayed at home instead of in the dorms this weekend... she wants me back home for summer vacation, too." Looking a little distant, she concedes, "I got a lecture over dinner at Burger Fiend this time... I guess it must still be bothering me!"
She laughs, and says, "She's definitely vetting them less, too. I think she's getting a little desperate."
Milly feels like she's being cruel, dumping everything on Emilia like this all at once. The girl has her own problems, and Milly decided Emilia was someone she wanted to spend her... 'enforced gap year' keeping safe, and yet -- here she is making her problems Emilia's.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emmy just listens quietly, watching Milly intently. It's like seeing someone who you thought was invincible wounded, or sick. Wordlessly, she puts a hand on Milly's arm, looking up at the older woman. After a few moments, when Milly's finished speaking, Emmy puts all she can into speaking clearly. "D-Don't. Go. H-home."
It seems to take a lot out of Emmy. Telling Milly what to do. Telling her to fight against her parent. She's still scared of her own grandfather. "I-I-If she's... Getting d-d-desperate..." She'd done some reading at that museum of Zeon. It had some things to say. "Th-then it's. A s-s-siege. S-s-s-so you shouldn't. Shouldn't ab---andon your. Fortress." There's something in her eyes. Anyone that could do this to Milly Ashford...
They should be treated as the enemy until proven otherwise. She just didn't think she'd want to protect Milly from her own mother.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
The utter seriousness -- firmness, even -- from Emilia catches Milly off guard. "... You've grown a lot in a few months, and I don't mean that you're getting taller," Milly murmurs.
She takes several silent moments to consider. Turn it into a siege -- Ashford as armor, shield, and fortress all in one. (It's not lost on her that Emilia's suggesting to her what Milly suggested to her, either.) ... she just didn't think she'd need protection from her own mother.
"I can't exactly tell her to leave me alone. ... I'm good at giving the men she chooses the slip, too... and it's not all bad to play along." But... Milly takes another long drink of a drink prepared with care. "... You're right, though. I shouldn't let her push me around."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
For a moment, Emmy's caught off guard, blushing at Milly's praise. But she doesn't stop her focus on Milly. When her tone starts to change, Emmy's face turns into small, determined smile.
"B-B-Besides... Y-you s-s-s-said you'd teach m-me h-how to l-lose paperwork. And. F--orce writeoffs." Now that Milly's bitten, it's time to see if she can reel her in. "Th-th-this is the b-best o-opportunity r-r-right?" The risk of forced marriage was one Emmy had just accepted once.
"B-b-but you'll. Have to.. to pay f-f-for the C-Clovisland t-t-tickets." Milly... likes to help people. The fact it got this to even tell Emmy about her own problems- in confidence, late at night- that she tries to hide it...
Emmy's not sure when she learned to understand others like this. But she's pretty sure she knows why. So if Milly's helping more than just herself... "I. St-st-still don't kn-know why it's c-cursed." She has a very good idea, though.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
... Is it that simple? Does she just need to follow through on what she wanted to do for Emilia all along, and simply -- turn that in turn into her own salvation? Milly laughs, rubbing at the back of her head. In that instant, maybe she's crawling down from her pedestal, a little bit.
"Oh, that? I usually buy tickets for another student and give them a five minute heads up on a budget multiplier event. They just so happen to find a way to wreck things. Once people started picking up on why it's cursed, they've asked me to pull out Cupid's lead arrow on their behalf, too!" ... Breaking up unhappy, stuck relationships... is this, too, the power of Milly Ashford? "Now, granted, my mother has started demanding I take these meetings somewhere else, but... I don't see why I can't become a little beloved by ghosts~."
That sounds a little bit more like Milly.
"Thanks, Emilia. I'm sorry this had to spill out like this." She still feels a little trapped -- things are definitely getting more intense. But even so... "Hmmm. You know, I haven't been sleeping right in my dorm room, either, come to think... do you mind if we pull out the futons tonight?" Maybe she just needs a change of scenery.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The laugh means a lot, in this instant. Emmy relaxes a little, only to hear the explanation and blink exactly once. "...I w-w-wondered why there was... s-s-so much in th-the archery c-club account when w-we don't h-h-have one." She'd meant to ask earlier but... Deculture Festival. It's a lot.
"I-I'm g-glad," Emmy says, when Milly apologizes. "Th-that you c-could t-tell me. A-and I c-could help." Emmy looks, frankly, relieved as hell. And a little proud of herself that she could finally help Milly back. The smile only gets bigger at Milly's suggestion. "I-I'd... r-r-really like that!"
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"Oh, that's out of pocket, actually. The Archery Club budget is because we had a generous donation before my time and then the club dissolved. I think it's cursed and I don't touch it," Milly answers. ... cursed arrows all around, from the sound of it.
Standing up and cracking her knuckles, the blonde announces, "Well then -- let's get to work! The Slumber Party Follow-up Light Novel gets its first chapter!"