"Thank you! If you're only at 'probably' I'll keep looking but I'm excited about this job, it’s pretty likely I'll still be interested then even if I end up with something else to fit it in around, so please do let me know."

"Yeah, absolutely. Even if you can tolerate it for one whole season running that'd be better than we get out of some people, it's just a lot of meeting people at the worst moment of their lives."

"It’s no easier to stand by knowing exactly what happens if an ambulance is too late," he says softly. "I won't burn out in a season."

"Cool. I have your file, we'll - email when the time comes, yeah?"

"Yep! Thanks so much." He'll wait a second in case there is more but if there is not then he'll hang up.

There is not more.

And now... the police department. He's studied the things he missed on the practice quiz. He has a more detailed résumé for them that in fact lists every job he's had. There was his very brief attempt at a plumbing apprenticeship (he does not go into any detail) and then he did some database work for this innocuously named business and at his current job he has used all these important skills like driving and situational awareness and always showing up on time. He sounds slightly less like he played madlibs with the first template he found on the internet and slightly more like he has genuinely done a bunch of things that he's really proud of. And they can have more references, since he's not - it's not lying, with the other people, but keeping things they don't want to think about hidden where they don't have to think about them, and here he's not really doing that. If they would be too disgusted to talk to his current boss they can simply decide not to.

They don't get back to him for a few days but then they give him a date and location on which he can sit the exam, in person, after he's out.

He just kind of sighs at this because that is approximately the least helpful response possible for getting back to the organizer.

He looks at the rest of his list. Most of it is skilled work that requires a lot of education he doesn't have and can't fit into the amount of time that decontamination takes - even if he could take every single class in medical school remotely it takes a year. Becoming an insurance claims investigator takes two. He might be able to test out of some things - he's listened to a lot of lectures online - but the vast majority of his will just not allow him to hit the ground running. And then of the things that require less lead time than that, becoming an EMT absolutely can't be done through remote study and dance is kind of awkward to try right now (not that he doesn't know any dances but he can't really be part of a group, and he's legally required to have red hair for just a little longer so people probably wouldn't like to watch even if he put videos online, and anyway decontamination is going to kind of suck, physically, so - there basically aren’t steps to take).

In Miolee he could take the dispatch job and also go to medical school. But Miolee is a tiny equatorial auction country with a jury-rigged law code at risk of being bombed into oblivion and dependent on foreign industry, and his Evaleen isn’t very good, and also planning to move there wouldn’t get him out of here as fast as possible. And strictly speaking he could do that in Voa, too, it’d just be awkward. Very awkward.

But both of the jobs he’s applied to have had practice tests, so. Are there similar things for the orange schools he's considering? Or for the orange careers he’s considering studying for? Can the internet tell him if he’s totally unfit to be a medical lab tech or social worker?

There are practice tests and online educational materials for most things! Lab techs and social workers are... not especially among them. Lab techs are too hands-on - it's less about whether you can identify the chemicals than about whether you reliably follow the procedures about them - and social workers too soft-skills.

Unfortunate.

Grey is starting to seem like the responsible choice with the more certain payoff, strange as that is. Two possible backup plans neither of which is swapping into Miolee, Yellow Mod said. He has one very good one, and doesn't actually have an offer from the police department so maybe arguably being a cop is the backup plan. Every other grey job on his list has lead time, a lot of lead time, several times longer than he has before he has to decide if he's going grey. Still, though. He looks up tests to give him some sense of whether he'd be any good as a fire inspector or park ranger or insurance claims investigator or firefighter or dancer and - maybe. He can't do better than "maybe", can't get as far as a job offer, could maybe take some relevant online classes during decontamination but can't get far enough to have new evidence about his prospects as a grey.

He lets the organizer know he has a tentative job offer.

"Really? Wow. Good for you, I don't have anything even slightly lined up - though I won't be in this first batch so I have a while -"

"I am confident someone somewhere will have the good sense to hire you. Anyway, the tentative offer is grey - it's emergency dispatch, apparently they have a hard time keeping anyone but I bet I'm better suited to it than pretty much anyone - and the police department I applied to scheduled a test for, you know, later - they definitely know but I guess I could still turn out to be too clumsy." He is not remotely clumsy. "And there's nothing orange that I could make comparable progress on, I could sign up for classes but unless I got in a time machine and signed up for them three seasons ago I couldn't get as far as applying to jobs before I need to pick. Also the time machine rental place would probably be furious about having to wash it. So." Shrug. "I think maybe it's settled and if nothing comes up I'm going grey."

"Huh, they have a hard time staffing dispatch? That's really good to know, you should put that online in case anyone else wants grey."

"It’s probably not a great option for most people. But sure."

"Grey's not a great option for most people."

"Yeah. I still have no idea how I’ll deal with - being surrounded by people who think of me like that. It's going to kind of suck."

"Maybe practice online?"

"I have internet friends, I've had internet friends for years. It's the - literally being surrounded, all the time, even when I'm not at work."

"I meant internet friends who think you're grey, but - yeah, I don't have advice for that."

"It'll be fine, I just don't know yet how it'll be fine. So - so is that - I don't think I should hope everyone else is having a harder time, but - "

"I don't think being surrounded is weighing heavily on most people but nobody's completely unstressed about it, just - about different parts."

"...Thanks. Um. What I meant was do you know yet if I seem like a better choice than the other people you were considering." He kind of obviously finds this a mortifying thing to say out loud.

"Oh. Yes, you're in."

He smiles so hard it hurts and half-turns his head and puts his hands to his face as though he's embarrassed to be seen celebrating. He vibrates a bit from the effort of not jumping for joy or hugging the organizer or trying to do both at once.

It takes him a moment to say anything but then he manages, in a slightly strangled voice, "...Okay. Thank you."