Jolyne had heard about this old lady before she bumped into her, although she did not know it today was the day she would meet ‘Granny Betty’. The sweet old lady who was said to be filled with sugar to animals and children of all ages sounded like someone Jolyne would want to emulate.

On this day the Atreides wanted to look for a new place in which to place her things, she still had a bit of trouble adjusting to living in one spot but her latest reason to move was more due to her current relationship with her landlord. That was what brought her to the Horizon Apartment on this day, and that is what brought her into meeting Betty who was currently pacing frantically in front of a door in the apartments. It was clear to all and blindingly obvious to Jolyne that the woman was extremely distressed but the reason was unfortunately not as apparent. Such was the way of life however, most often the pain was seen much easier than what caused the pain in the first place.

Approaching the older and much smaller woman Jolyne would call out before, unprompted, she got the full story from a lady who was at the end of her rope. She also requested help from her, help that Jolyne was more than willing to give to her as it fit her life motive to a tee.

After saying her goodbyes and assuring Betty that everything would indeed be fine Jolyne ended up going inside the building through the front entrance and headed straight for the room number that she was told. It did not take long for her to get there, and luckily it was only on the second floor so if Jolyne needed to bring stuff down it would not be the worst thing ever. Then Jolyne opened up the door to the room in question;

It was the worst thing possible.

The whole place was packed with trash, packed so much that it was impossible to traverse about the dimensions of the space within. It was akin to some garbage cube or maybe the inside of some trash monster, either way it was going to take far too many trips downstairs for even Jolyne to keep a positive disposition about it. Still she had promised the woman and now she could see why Betty had been so distressed in the first place, Jolyne certainly would not have wanted to see this as her new house. The Rune Knight novice was also considering talking to the owner of the building, but in any case she decided that she would not be living here at all.

First thing would be removing the trash and there were still many steps after that, still with grim determination Jolyne set about to completing her task and began running things down the stairs to the dumpster behind the building. Soon the dumpster was full and Jolyne was piling the trash near and around it uncaring about the reprecutions to the owners of the building.

514/1000

This was not entirely on the previous tenant, while slothful and gluttonous no doubt, they paled next to the owner of the building in terms of blame. Selling out a room that was dirty, let alone this dirty, was not shameful, it was greedy, greed was the worst of the sins in the mind of Jolyne. Greed was what drove the worst action in the world, most wars were started on greed, most people harmed others due to greed, though the other sins may be blame-full greed caught the worst for her.

Still the cleaning had to be done and Jolyne had already brought out the garbage, it was down to the scrubbing now and the sun was still in the middle of the sky. This allowed for a bit more of a leisurely pace and a more detailed eye, the preferred way to work for any Atreides. Cleaning was not unknown to Jolyne at all, even if they had not been on the run she would have still cleaned like anyone else. To forget how to work for oneself is to forget oneself or so the saying among her people went, it may be broken by some later in life but it was an important aspect of their culture nonetheless. Scrubbing the floor and trim was much easier than getting all of the sand out of anyplace, sand had an odd habit of spreading and moving whereas grime did not carry about in such a rude manner allowing one to use some tricep grease. It was the place that actually worked, the elbow had no muscle, like some Florian things she simply did not understand the saying.

The walls were easier still, and Jolyne knew then that the worst was behind her now while she continued her cleaning of the nice old ladies apartment. It ended up actually being carthictic in the end to clean, and while the beginning was painful the ending was relief. It was certainly nice to do a good deed for another human being, it had always been a way for her to find happiness even as a little girl. It was something that had kept her company as other aspects of her self had changed as she had grown throughout the years. It was something that she truly cherished. It was personal.


Granny Betty broke Jolyne out of her inner thoughts, it seemed that a lot of people were doing that these days.

“Oh my you are quite the capable young lady, you truly are a good person” her eyes were full of appreciation as she spoke to the taller and younger woman.

“No please it was nothing, you deserved better than this” Jolyne flustered back while waving her arms out in front of her and nervously laughing to herself.

“No I insisted you should have one of these” and with that Granny Betty shoved a cookie into Jolyne’s mouth, whom was completely oblivious to it’s magical nature. Soon after saying her goodbyes Jolyne felt a shift within her, but she wrote it off to another feeling of joy from helping another person.

522/1038