Berserker looked over at the Labour Market.

Many people found themselves over time picking up roles in the community. Maybe someone had started cleaning an old bridge, or putting out water for the local cats, or maintaining mystical wards over a stream connected to the Underworld. First it was fun, and then it was a habit, but one day it was time to leave it all behind. So the task was written out on paper - sometimes an entire manual depending on the complexity - and placed in the Labour section of the Dumping Festival. Sometimes there were photographs, sometimes the person was on hand to walk the new apprentice through it, or sometimes you were told about a run down little farm in the hills and given a front door key and cryptic warning about 'the ghost'. 

The Civil Servants were out in force in this section, nearly twenty of them, wearing their brilliantly embroidered blue and golden robes and hats, contemplating everything and asking questions. Their presence was at least a little bit intimidating, for they held the power of Conscription - the power to outright tell someone to perform a certain task, perhaps backed up with a geas or curse for the recalcitrant. Not all adventures were voluntary, and sometimes the material world came calling when a Civil Servant knocked on your door with a mission from the province. Sometimes things needed to be done despite no one being interested in them, sometimes people needed to be shaken out of harmful or stagnant routines, and sometimes the kind of utopian tyrant who climbs the ladder of power wants to make the world a better place wants to try something new and everyone has to go along with their experiment. 

Generally, they wait until the end of the day and pick up things that have been overlooked and do assignments. Sometimes they have a vision and move sooner. And yes, the Civil Servants [i]absolutely [/i]sometimes decide that certain people should be dating and instruct them to begin a relationship until at least next year's festival. It works out more often than you'd think - some people are much better at being in a relationship than starting a relationship.

Berserker watches all of this and considers. Then she shakes her head mutely at Katherine. Instead she walks decisively over to the stand of a young boy where the sign reads SCARECROW DUTY. In crude handwriting, the child has written 'please keep the birds off the lawn i want to be a horse racer instead'. He quails as Berserker, a giant of black steel, towers over him (inasmuch as she can tower over anybody), and takes the notice in her mailed fist.

She looks at a distant mountain, and taps her finger pensively against her armour. She does not know if she will have time, but she had long wanted to see if she could learn to keep swallows away.