[x] [Deploy] Cleverly
[x] [Forces] Yes, from the streets
Education: Practical
Early to Rise
+1 AP
[Debuff Negated by My Fighting Will Surpasses Incredible Pain]
Education: Academic, Practical, Discovery all 2+:
The Student's Truth 1:
You are a student. If your mind alone is not enough, and your body alone is not enough, you must put the two together. Now, when you do, you learn.
All Actions will train skills or teach Lessons.
Damn Deacon, but he was right. If I wanted more time in my day, in my life, there was only one way to do it. Simply be awake longer. It wasn't enough to just sleep later; that was a bad crutch. The only real way to have more time, more useful time, was to wake up early, before anyone else did.
But as I staggered out into the street, I realized my own foolishness.
The misty grey streets of the predawn were not empty, not at all. Fishwives and bakers were out early marking out their stalls, haggling and taunting their neighbors in the same breath. They shared the street with late drunkards, and they shared the street with a few furtive boys and girls stealing a moment in the darkened alleys.
[Deductions: I Spy…]
Actually, was that June? It was!
Well, good for him.
Unfortunately for him, he shared these streets with the local bell-ringing priest on her daily morning walk, as rigid and inflexible as a bellwoman could be. "Good morning," I called, loudly enough to jolt her attention and enough for June to freak out in the corner of my eye. "Good morning," she replied strictly and curtly. "May today be peaceful and harmonious," holding her hands curled in a circle to her chest as she continued her morning rounds.
As she passed, I took a moment to glance back at the alleyway. June and his partner were both out of sight. Good.
But as I turned back to the bellwoman's back in the first rays of predawn, I noticed something. Her footsteps were so regimented it was like I could trace the steps on the very brick beneath her…and now that I looked at the street paving stones, I suddenly realized that even the least brick must have had a story, a lesson to learn.
It was a new world. I felt like I had just snapped awake from a long, long dream. Everything was as clear as it had ever been, and everything was clearer than it had ever been.
Then the sensation wore off, but my duties remained.
Nezhin sent me out to go get the latest from the adventurer houses about the Beasts of Autumn roaming outside the city; apparently there weren't many yet this early, and with all luck that would continue. Just in case, though, the Folger group asked for Nezhin to come by one of the eastern forests; the beasts had set up a nest there, and while it was possible to just let it sit, one of the big nobles, count or something, was getting mightily unhappy about missing the best poaching season for the white-tailed sparrowflys and was on the verge of making it everyone else's problem. Which meant that it was Nezhin's problem, and probably mine. Ah well.
After that came bread and fish purchases - for all that the fishwife said she was happy to see me again after seeing me walk by in the morning, she sure haggled me out of nearly my entire wallet – and returned home. The sun was barely a fist above the horizon, and already I'd gotten what used to have been my morning's work done.
Which meant it was time to put on my National Guard hat, and get those warm bodies we needed.
So, the first stop.
"Yo, June. Have a good morning?" I said, smiling a wolf's smile.
His seventeen summer frame gained a solid foot of height in an instant. Then gravity pulled his feet back in contact with the ground, and my quick hand stabilized him.
"Captain!" he half exclaimed, half whined.
The rest of his boys quickly snapped to attention, all roughly the same age as him. Some sixteen, some eighteen, the oldest a wiry nineteen. Still hanging out in the same alley as they had ever been in.
"Come to think of it, why do you boys meet up here?" I asked.
June and the wiry boy glanced a conversation at each other, before June started. "It's got to do with old man Giuseppe here," he said, pointing at an old and faded sign. "Some of us didn't have a lot of places to go as a kid here, but the old man never yelled at us for staying by here. If it was cold he'd bring us inside and get us a coat, and sometimes he'd make us toys from the scraps. Kinda natural for us to help him out every so often too, with the firewood and stuff."
I nodded. I understood perfectly. Youth shouldn't be any obstacle to doing what you needed to do.
Which is why what I was about to do stung.
A warrior was supposed to be at his peak at thirty-five. Some of the people starting at fights were truly in their prime, and I was going to bring these unblooded boys into uniform where they might be expected to encounter that kind of fighting.
But I didn't really have a choice. Later today I was going to tell Viv she should work on nursing the cuts on her legs, and Mr. Thompkins was clearly crumbling from the stress.
But I did have a plan.
[Tactics: Cleverness – passed by ally!]
"On that note, sir, well, there's no good way to say it, but my men are exhausted. I need to let them take a break or we'll be totally spent as a force, but I understand manpower needs are pressing everywhere. I have a potential source of replacements, but they're young and untested. In your opinion, how should I handle this?" I asked.
Theodosia folded his hands and leaned forward.
"I think it's quite feasible, actually, so long as you are capable of keeping your young men relatively disciplined. Request Captain Borde's assistance in bringing these young men up to National Guard standards. You'll be tailing her all the time, her men will teach those young boys discipline, everyone wins. Except, of course, our reactionary enemies. All you have to do is find a way to convince Borde to accept."
"Thank you, sir," I said, with a nasty grin.
"Well, you'll have your chance to do something more, not just for the nation but also the old man here. How would you all like to join the National Guard?" I asked, pulling out a row of ribbons from my jacket pocket.
The boys lit up in excitement. Guess I shouldn't have worried about that.
No, what I needed to worry about was how to convince Borde to accept them as trainees…
[] Young Adventurers
Take June's boys out for a little excursion to the outer parts of town and help them kill a bunch of Beasts of Autumn. Sell them as monsterhunters getting ready to defend the existing order of things. Make sure that while they're out there, they're toughened and disciplined, like real adventurers.
Trains [Officer's Sense: Drill Hard].
[] Young Men's Church Association
Sweet talk a bunch of local clergy into believing that you're running a youth training group, take them over to Borde with the intent of finding good and useful work for a bunch of church boys.
Trains [Speech: Diplomacy: Common Interests] {Requisite Lesson automatically learned}.
[] Fellows and Countrymen
Alternatively, you could bring Borde a bunch of countryside noble sons joining the fray, if you simply ignore some of their countryside mannerisms. You'd need some convincing costume work, though…
Trains [Stealth: Disguises]. Does not replace later Tara [Stealth: Disguises] action.
). 
