The World Ends With You [Finished]

[Kari Muffin]

Zane didn't doubt himself, he just didn't like the idea of being in horrible physical pain because she didn't like him. The thought alone was enough to make his left eye involuntarily squint briefly. If he had recognized that smirk for what it was, she was either planning to cause some trouble like his father or she was just being mischievous about the whole thing. Or he was over analyzing everything. He hoped for the last one.

"Though the idea of you doing something unpleasant is very frightening... I would like to jump into the work immediately without interruptions." Normally he would take the safe option. However this was a big problem that needed to be fixed regardless of what happened to him physically. And if anything went horribly wrong, which he doubted, he would still be a King. That was something at least.

He hoped that everything would go smoothly.

[The Jenn]

That was certainly an amusing response. Obviously the man didn't have many problems accepting authority, if he was willing to blatantly admit to fright. Donnie supposed his father had helped with that demeanor, though. At least he was polite about it. And she could sincerely respect his desire to get things done. It was how she'd felt on many occasions.

"Alright then. We really do need help. I'm going to give you this chance and hope that you can show me some form of progress before a week is up. If not, we'll deal with it from there." The tone of her voice reinforced that 'there' wasn't anywhere he particularly wanted to be.

Taking a breath, she reached out to hesitantly hold her hand near his rank marking, about a food away from actually touching him. She'd never actually raised someone's rank before, but she'd been told that she had the ability and now seemed a good time to try. Concentrating and trying to make it work simply by staring at the letter intently, she watched as her vision slowly began to blur.

Except that wasn't actually her sight... it was his rank. Changing. Well, that was awfully spiff.

[Kari Muffin]

The simple emphasis of one word was enough to get the point across. The sparrow gave a small smile as he truly hoped that he could manage the task given to him. A week wasn't a lot of time to completely revamp and obviously broken and destroyed system.

He watched her make the motions to change his rank, the last time he had it happen it had been a complete surprise to him. Watching someone work so deliberately was definitely a different experience. He glanced down at his rank, watching it change before his eyes.

A King. In the court of Spades. Looks like he had finally managed to beat Ez at something.

"Thank you very much, Your Majesty," He said, slowly standing up to bow. "I would like to get started as soon as possible if you don't mind. I at least want to see the general state of how bad things are before I jump for joy."

[The Jenn]

A week was enough to make some measure of progress, and that was all Donnie expected of him, even if it was only taking complete stock of the mess before him. That in and of itself would be an improvement. She wanted to see whether or not the man would formulate a plan of 'attack' on the mess before he simply began to act. In someone handling finances, she thought that would be very important in and of itself.

"You're most welcome, Your Highness. I look forward to seeing the progress you make on this... mess. To be quite frank, it's a disaster. I only hope we're secure enough in our funds to continue operating at the capacity we have been, which is nowhere near full." She dug around in her desk for a moment and then stood, motioning towards the door. "One of the guards should be able to take you to the file room and the treasury, which are at the heart of the problem. You'll need this key to gain access to some of the locked items. Keep in mind that I wouldn't be affording this kind of immediate trust to someone off the street. Your father's recommendation has played a large part in this initial act of trust. I hope that you will prove yourself worthy of it."

Blunt, but he would get the hint. She hoped so, anyway, as she handed him the key.

[Kari Muffin]

The sparrow bowed his head in thanks upon receiving the key. He eyes widened briefly at the mention of the recommendation. Part of the sparrow hated having to rely on his father. He wanted to have a name for himself but this had been his only chance to do so.

Wonderful complicated matters.

"I plan on proving myself," Zane said with a smile and a bow of formal departure. Now it was time to find the guards and look at what he had to do. Which one of the guards was going to lead him to the proper place? There weren't all that many on duty.

--

It was a horrible mess. The sparrow nearly burst into tears when he saw the stacks of unorganized everything. There was no proper paper trail, there was no proper filing system, there was no proper anything! How could anyone live like this?

Thank god he had a week to work on it, otherwise it would have been impossible to show the new Queen any progress.

It took a few all nighters to get things into a decent order. The complete refiling would have to come later, following the trial of numbers was more important. He did manage to figure out how much of the funds were still there, and what had been spent in the previous three years. The important part was that he had a number and an idea on how to fix things.

He grabbed his file folder with the information that he needed before heading to Donnie's office. He knocked on her office door lightly, hoping that he hadn't interrupted anything. He had lost his concept of time over the week while he was trying to piece things together. Hopefully it wasn't lunch or anything.

[The Jenn]

Donnie had asked one of the staff to keep an eye on the sparrow as he began on the daunting task of evaluating their Court's financial situation. The woman would make sure that he ate at somewhat regular intervals and be on caffeine-delivery status in between her normal duties, but also deliver the occasional report to the Queen as to his diligence. She would have no idea how far he'd actually gotten or what his results were until the week had gone by and he could tell her himself, but she could at least be kept abreast of his efforts and commitment to the task he'd been assigned.

On the appointed day, she'd been affixing her signature to a few items when he came by the office. It was about an hour before lunch and she'd started to distract herself with thoughts of food, so she didn't want to do anything too thought-consuming until then. These were items she'd already earmarked for approval and just needed to affix the appropriate seal to.

"Come in," she called, tipping the papers upward to organize them and then set them aside.

[Kari Muffin]

(( OOC: >_> do hope the auto movement is all right? ))

With all of the folders in his arms, he opened up the door, and gave a bow of his head out of respect. "I hope I haven't interrupted you, your Majesty, but I've come up with the solid total for the finances and wanted to share the results with you, even though the reorganization of everything isn't complete."

He waited until she gave a sign that it was okay to actually come in for a nice long chat. Once he was okay he shut the door behind him and made his way over to the desk, taking a seat.

His whole body still hurt from the lack of sleep and proper meals. He shifted the papers for a moment to regain his senses before handing the Queen what was legible and understandable. The figure she needed to look at was clearly circled.

"On the bright side they weren't that off with the estimate."

[The Jenn]

Donnie nodded a greeting as he entered and then motioned him closer, gesturing in that same sweep of her arm for him to take a seat. "No interruption. I was actually waiting for you to come by at some point. I wouldn't expect things to be complete. Honestly, I'd be surprised if you even started on some of it. There's only been a week for you to wrap your head around everything, after all."

She accepted the stack of papers that she was handed, giving him a once-over with a raised eyebrow. Damn, but the man looked awful, not in the 'poor health' sense, but in the 'my eyes have bags big enough for groceries' sense. She wondered how much sleep he'd gotten over the past few days. It was a good sign, honestly, that he was willing to put in the hours. "Hopefully you'll moderate your work ethic when you're no longer fearing for your title," she commented in a dryly amused tone, looking down at the number.

It looked... good, actually. Better than she'd expected. For all that the system was a mess, many of the programs had been in place long enough that they hadn't overspent themselves using older figures. "That's good to hear, I'll admit. I was afraid we'd run it dry without realizing it or something else equally difficult to manage." She glanced at a few of the other notations on the sheet before putting the papers down in front of her. "And what else have you found?"

[Kari Muffin]

A tired smile was all the sparrow could manage at the dry humor. Any other time he would probably have laughed, or at least snorted in mild amusement. However, things such as humor were pron to escaping him when he wasn't completely focused.

Well that was a good sign at the very least. "There were a few expenses that were unaccounted for, as in there was no paper trail to follow at all, but I don't think anyone is embezzling funds or nonsense like that. If they had, they certainly aren't doing it now considering the amount of protection resources have since your took over the throne. It would have had to be a previous accountant if embezzlement was the case. Ranting and speculation aside, everything at this point forward is going to be an easy fix."

Though once he wasn't afraid the Queen was going to tear his beak off, he had every intention of taking a nice long nap before he tackled the other work he had to do.

[The Jenn]

Donnie's eyes narrowed and she nodded. "If you'd found any evidence of embezzlement at this point, I would've had them imprisoned before we finished talking. I've put too much into this Court already to allow that degree of corruption beneath me. Accepting bribes is one thing. If I found it, I'd deal with it, but it's not my top priority. Blatantly stealing from the Court's coffers is a different matter."

She rubbed at one side of her face thoughtfully, scratching the skin to alleviate an itch. Strange thing, bare skin. "All of that sounds promising, and was more than I'd had cause to hope for. All in all, you brought very good news. Even if you hadn't, the effort you put into this is obvious, and we would have had even more need for your services. I think you should probably eat something, go to bed, and then report to me for further instruction tomorrow, Your Highness. You'll know what needs to be done on the organization front, but we should discuss how you will be reporting to me, the type and frequency of our meetings, and other things of that nature. You're dismissed. Go and get some sleep." He looked wobbly enough that he needed it.