# Chapter 01 Input — The Day Job

## Scene Goals
- Introduce Phelan through his mundane day job at a mixed herbal supply store (mundane storefront, licensed magical components in the back)
- Establish his financial situation immediately — meager wage, barely scrapes by, needs more income to advance his studies. Often has only 1 meal a day.
- Show Phelan's voice and personality: dry observations, cataloguing people, socially detached but precise
- Mere visits the store — early attraction phase. She thinks he's cute and charming in an odd way. He flirts in his own stilted, analytical way. Neither has made a move yet
- Subtly hint at Phelan's magical ability — he notices flaws in enchanted products on the shelves (doesn't explain it, just reacts to them instinctively, maybe repositions a jar or avoids touching something)
- Seed the guild: Phelan's application to the Guild of Necessary Services is pending. He's waiting on results. This is his way out of the day job.
- End with a hook — he almost asks Mere out, but assumes she is out of his league. Ponders why he is so interested in her to begin with.

## Key Dialog
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## Character Moments
- Phelan's internal monologue while dealing with customers — he reads people like systems, finds it useful and slightly boring
- His reaction to Mere should be different from how he processes everyone else — she disrupts his pattern recognition somehow. He notices this and finds it annoying/interesting. Instantly attracted to her beauty.
- Show the gap between his ambitions and his reality — he has plans, drawings for the house, but he's stocking shelves for someone else
- His relationship with the shop owner (needs a name) — functional, not warm. Phelan does his job well but doesn't pretend to love it

## Mood / Tone
- Grounded, slightly sardonic, everyday frustration laced with competence
- Not dark — more "a capable person stuck in a life too small for them"
- Humor comes from Phelan's observations about customers and the absurdity of his situation

## Freeform Notes
- The shop is a good vehicle for world-building without exposition dumps — what people buy tells us about Corvel
- Mere browsing magical components, she's very observant and only picks specific components even if there are several of the same. Example: "This herb has 3 leaves instead of 5, I want that one specifically".
- Mere has her own interests/skills beyond what Phelan initially assumes.
- The guild application being pending creates low-level tension throughout — every time Phelan does something menial, the reader knows he's waiting for something bigger
- Don't reveal Flaw Sight by name yet. Just show him being weirdly aware of magical objects in a way that seems like intuition