A cloying sensation and lack of moisture in his mouth, along with the faint smell of earth were the first sensations that greeted Julius when he surfaced from the safe haven of sleep. He smacked his lips a couple of times, moving his tongue around trying to generate some saliva, some hint of moisture. It was an attempt in vain. Refusing to think too hard lest he lose the comforting embrace of sleep he exhaled in a huff through his nose and reached out for the water bottle he kept on his bedside table and groped blindly. Failing to find the bottle he went to place his hand on the table, planning to slowly scan across the top until it came into contact with the bottle. His hand instead felt dirt. Consciousness came to him then. He sat up sharply, looked around with a confused and then slightly panicked expression before scrambling backwards until he was pressed against the wall of the mines tunnel. The memories of yesterday came then.
Like most mornings since Winter had retreated and the days had started earlier Julius had been awoken by the sound of birds and the annoying beam of sunlight that lanced perfectly between his curtains. He grumbled about it everyday but when it came time to go to sleep in the evenings he made no effort at all to fix the gap acknowledging that all things considered it was a pretty nice and easy way to wake up. He began his day the same way every man he knew did and that was with a piss and sometimes a little shiver which felt strangely nice although he’d never said that to anyone and no one had ever said that to him. Once that was taken care of he’d moved onto the next part of his routine. This was a fairly recent addition but one that had taken root over the past 6 months. He stood on and checked the scales.
When the weight was lower he tried not to smile, merely noting it, and when it was higher he tried not frown, merely noting it. He’d take those numbers each day and then at the start of the week average them out and compare them to last weeks averaged out number. When the weekly number went down down his lips went up and when it went up his lips went down. He’d started this habit in line with working out every other day and actually paying attention to what he was eating. These behaviour changes were just some of the changes he’d made after hitting the big 3-0. Numbers divisible by 10 seemed to have a special place for humanity. In Julius the big 3-0 had provoked a deep contemplation over what he’d done with his life so far, what he was doing, and what he was going to do. There had been a lot of outcomes and realisations from this contemplation but one of the key ones was that he was getting fat. Even that was a lie ‘Lie to other people but never lie to yourself.’ He couldn’t remember where he’d heard that but it stuck with him even if he didn’t always keep it in mind. He wasn’t getting fat, he was fat. He’d known this in a hazy way and told himself he’d tackle it with the same hazy level of conviction for over what ended up amounting to years in the end. When he’d fought through the haze he’d allowed himself to admit he felt himself jiggle whilst going down steps and had a wardrobe full of clothes he no longer fit into, or ones he just about fit into but felt too self conscious to wear.
Whilst not the fastest mentally it only took him about a month and a half to research the basics of nutrition, count calories using an app, find a reasonable weight lifting program, go to a gym and actually learn the technique to do each of the exercises. No he definitely couldn’t claim to be the fastest, but he certainly wasn’t the slowest either. The few times he’d had a goal he was actually motivated to achieve he found that once the motor had started and he’d sluggishly shifted up through the gears he actually could be quite fast. Not the fastest. But fast.
After dressing he either went to work or to the gym before hand. In the gym he’d progressed to head nods with some of the regulars he saw, and to feeling somewhat comfortable. During the first weeks he’d felt like a kid on their first day of secondary school walking through corridors filled with much bigger kids and the cacophony of shoving and noise. In both cases he’d adjusted and learnt the social norms of the environment despite the ever present fear that today was going to be the day that someone would decided he’d make a good source of entertainment.
Work was nothing special but he did enjoy it and that wasn’t something many people could say. He spend his days talking to companies who were looking for staff, finding out what the job role required, and who the company thought they were looking for. Julius then spoke to many people who were looking to become staff at a company, and honestly he couldn’t believe his job was so easy sometimes. One of lives many unexpected turns was that Julius found himself acting as a sort of life coach to quite a few of the people looking for jobs. He’d found so many people who had the right training, or education, or experience for a role. Or … and this was the big one although no one really seemed to understand it, the right character to be able to work seamlessly within a particular company. They had all the stuff, or the right components to become the right person for the job but they didn’t believe it or refused to see it. It was like having a puzzle missing a single piece, and finding that piece except you then had to have a counseling session with the piece so that it would believe in itself enough to try out laying down in the gap shaped just like it in the puzzle. Sometimes people couldn’t be convinced, Oh but when they could the pleasure he felt when they called him up.
“I got the job! Julius I got the job! I can’t believe it!!”
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It felt good. He really felt like he was helping people as the jobs he matched them too were almost always a step up in terms of pay. He’d follow some of them via Linkedin over the years and watch as their careers took of. It might have been conceited of him he felt a warmth spread through his whole body whilst thinking ‘I did that. That’s because of me and that persons life is changed for the better.’
That was the key for Julius he thought. He cared about what happened to his clients. Sometimes he couldn’t give people a step up and that was fine too because usually they just needed a step, any step to stand on in order to stop them from sliding down. But this was the part where he thought he might be on to something. When he didn’t get people with the right backgrounds or training or experience. When he got the people who just needed a job, any old job will do thank you very much. He still found out what it is they wanted to do. Lots of people didn’t know and didn’t that just suit Julius fine because he knew the market and what sort of skills were in demand. So he told them. Not only did he tell them but he also pointed them towards the right training courses (which more often than not were free) and then the right accreditation or certifications. It was a recent idea but he’d snagged his first ‘Level Up’ at lunch time. He’d gotten her a job as a Receptionist at a Dentists which stopped her parents from breathing down her neck but didn’t have a lot of upwards mobility. He’d then convinced her that a good route forwards would be something like Data Analysis.
“Mary I don’t want you to think this is the end goal OK? Your GCSE’s are fantastic and your A-levels aren’t bad either, you’re clearly quite intelligent. Think about the Receptionist role as stable ground. You need stable ground as a base to move from yea? I know when we spoke before you said not applying to university was a mistake and that you were in a bad place at the time. Look you’re only 19 trust me on this you’re going to be fine. If you really want to apply next year you can but I’d really suggest that with your grades in Science and Maths you look into something like PowerBI data analysis. Salaries are from £35k up an … no you heard right Mary, £35k. Listen I have some clients in the pipeline who are gearing up for some big projects and I know their going to be looking for junior talent. If you’re interested I can send you a few links to a certification and the training to go along with it. The training is free online but the certification will cost. Don’t panic it’s not a lot Mary, less than £200 and remember with your new job you’ll be able to afford it. Yea. Yea OK. No I don’t think so. OK great stuff. I’ll get it sent over, you have a look and get back to me OK?”
That had been 6 months ago and yesterday she had called him up to tell him she’d passed the exam and gotten the certification! He’d reached out to a few of his clients and arranged a call for the next day with one of them. He’d wanted to celebrate the seeming success of his new initiative. If it went well he’d approach the CEO and pitch it as a formal incentive within the company, with him as the department lead of course. He’d just been about to call his mum and tell her about it when the first stabs of pain had started, before progressing into the worst pain he’d ever experienced and transforming him into a rictus of agony … and then he’d opened his eyes, lying on his back staring up at the hooded man's face.
“Hey you. You’re finally awake.”
The man had uttered the first lines of dialogue from the opening sequence of Skyrim. Which was apparently where he was right now. Julius sat there for a while then, deep in thought. There were wolves, Orcs, bandits, murder, death, war, rebellion. The panic and fear tried to come on but there’d been too much of it too often and it merely washed over him weakly, like the waves lap at the shore as the tide goes out.
‘I need a plan. I know it’s dangerous out there but if this is like the game then there are places I can go. And putting combat, wild animals, Hags, bandits and other shit to the side, just for the moment. There’s also magic.’
He smiled as he sat there, then abruptly jumped up and began pacing.
‘There’s magic. Probably there’s magic I mean I haven’t seen any yet but I’m here and that’s pretty fucking magical I’d say. So so so so. So let’s assume there’s magic. I want to learn magic, it’s too amazing not to. But also the mages college gives you access to free lodging. So do the Companions actu… oh fuck there’s Werewolves and Vampires too. Back up. So Mages College, Companions, could join the Imperials or Stormcloaks but that’s just cruising for a bruising’. Where else gives lodgings? Oh shit, there’s the thieves guild and the Dark Brotherhood. Thieves is kind of grim though, and the Dark Brotherhood … might as well slit my own throat at this point. There are inns and they were cheap in the game. Again assuming this works like the game. Game logic can’t always apply here though right? Fuck it Mages Guild is the front runner so far. That’s the goal probably maybe possibly. Gotta have something to aim for. Issues. That’s in Winterhold. Fuck knows where I am. There’s no way no how I don’t end up encountering danger trying to walk there. So long term goal potentially. Immediate goals. Get to a town. Hopefully one with a carriage that I can pay to take me there. That will cost money. I need to inventory this place and then scout around. Scouting is dangerous though as I could, almost definitely will encounter some danger. Do I have a perk tree? Do I level? Do I have a race? Does the race have traits?’
His manic internal monologue was interrupted by his body reasserting its biological needs and prompted him to scan his surroundings. He spotted a bottle on the table in front of him, uncorked it and gave it a smell. Wine didn’t seem like the greatest start to the day, especially given the amount of shit he had to mull over. Continuing to look around he discovered a few of the barrels where actually full of water. In the game there were always some barrels you couldn’t access, the idea that they were full of water actually made a lot of sense now he thought about it. Grabbing a tankard from the table he filled it and drank his fill, downing the entire contents twice over before filling it for a third time and replacing the barrels lid. Leaving the filled tankard on the table, Julius explored the mine.