I Hate My Life. [August Chores/Open]

[Ruby]

M'kai was generally a sweet guy. He liked manly things, of course, but he also liked canine puppies, and rainbows, and fluffy felines. He even liked Futh, and Futh was still a baby, for all intents and purposes. He didn't mind hard work, or chores, or being constantly tired and having no free time that wasn't taken up with feeding or oiling (and Futh required bathing about twice as often as every other hatchling from his clutch).

What M'kai did hate was baby humans.

He hated everything about them, from their scent to their stickiness to their obnoxious wailing that seemed impossible to shut up. They were dreadful, obnoxious creatures, and M'kai spent most of his time avoiding them if at all possible. Of course, that meant that his first assignment as a Junior Weyrling put him in the Creche. Of course. He couldn't have been left scrubbing floors or building or anything that would let him move and use up his energy and time so that it seemed like he got back to Futh faster- no, of course not. No. He was stuck with the wailing, helping ancient old Aunties care for the Weyr's Greenriders' accidental spawn.

Excellent.

So there M'kai was, bouncing a whining, drooling baby on one hip, trying to stuff the dirty clouts one of the Aunties was stripping off baby after baby into a hamper. Every time he moved, it seemed like he trod on another scampering child, who were screaming and laughing uncontrollably. M'kai wasn't the most coordinated at the best of times, but distracted as he was, his clumsiness was worse than ever. If only he could get back to Futh.

[Tashe]

"NAUSI!"

Dipping down as a young girl came running over to him as he entered the Creche, the young man scooped her up into a hug before shifting her to his hip as a few other kids came racing over to greet him. Now that he had graduated Candidate lessons, again not sure why he needed them since he wanted a Wher not a dragon, he was able to come back and work longer hours in the Creche.

"Nausinausi! Look! Look what I made!"

Looking down at the source of the voice, Nautic inspected the picture as he stroked his chin with his hand, screwing his face up in a comical expression. "Ahh! It must be the most fantastical drawing of Absinthe I have ever seen! Why don't you have Isca put it up on the coloring wall?" Smiling as the boy laughed, the Wher Candidate watched as he scampered away to find one of the 'Aunties'.

"Nausi! Can I have a runnerback ride?"

Looking to the girl who he had perched on his hip, Nautic put her down before letting her climb onto his back like a monkey. Weaving around the children who played around his feet, the Blond haired boy hiked Olana farther up before striding up to a rather frustrated looking acquaintance. "You are rather bad at this kid thing Ma... I suppose its M'kai now, right?" A grin. "I think I can find you a more appropriate job... Here, Olana, you need to get down please. Go find Risca and play with her." Letting the little girl slide down onto the floor, Nautic offered his now empty arms to M'kai after swinging a recently procured towel over his shoulder. "Give me the kiddling. Isca can take over your job, and I'll help you find a less... hazardous chore that needs to be done."

[Ruby]

M'kai didn't even hear Nautic come up, the beast on his hip was squalling so loud. In fact, the blonde Candidate's greeting made him jump slightly, and forced him to dance awkwardly sideways so as to avoid yet another tiny hand. "Hey, Nautic. Yeah, M'kai, or that's what Futh said, at least," he said. He knew the other boy hadn't impressed, and didn't mean to rub it in, but if he remembered correctly Nautic was interested in Whers, not Dragons. Come to think of it, M'kai wasn't even sure the Candidate had stood at the Dragon hatching.

When Nautic held out his arms for the brat, M'kai shoved her into them without a second thought. He immediately wiped his hands on his pants, although that didn't seem to really remove much of the mess- why were babies so incurably sticky? After he was done inspecting him, though, he realized that it might have been slightly rude to shove the baby off so fast, even if Nautic WAS offering to hold her. "Sorry, I'm just... well, basically, you're right. No offense to them, but I really hate kids," he offered as explaination. He repressed a shiver, glad to be free of the clinging creature.

He grabbed the final diaper the Auntie stripped off the last dirtied baby and added it daintily to the nearly overflowing hamper, slamming the lid on the whole mess as soon as he could. He returned it to the cabinet it had come out of, then turned back to Nautic. "Well, that's out of the way, I guess. Is there anything I can do here that doesn't have to do with kids?" he asked in a long suffering tone.

[Tashe]

Taking the child, Nautic adjusted her so that she was laying against his towel cover shoulder, he then promptly began to rock his torso while patting the young toddler on the back. Who then began to quiet down into sniffling. Removing a set of wooden keys from his pocket, Olana had to indubitably have placed them there for him, the Candidate offered them to the girl with a smile. The keys were a big hit, as he suspected they might be. Turning back to M'kai as he spoke, Nautic continued to sway slightly as the girl amused herself with the toy. "Hate is such a strong word. I bet you just aren't suited for child care." Offering the Weyrling a smile of his own, the Blond haired boy swept a glance around the area. "M'kai. Its the Creche. Everything here has to do with children. Except paperwork, but thats done by the head Crechewoman."

Trotting forward with a simple wave of his hand, he didn't look back to see if the other boy was following or not. Weaving through the various groups of children, Nautic stopped by a washbin. "You can clean your hands here, and then you can help me pass out snacks for the kiddies. They get cranky if they don't have their fruit and juice." He motioned with his free hand to the washbowl before excusing himself for a moment. He then dropkicked the baby into a crib and returned. Slinking over to one of the younger Creche workers who he often flirted constantly with, he got the young woman to take the toddler off of him so he could go back to the Weyrling.

Once he arrived, Nautic leaned against the wall next to M'kai. "So. They stuck you in the Creche. Usually they put the girls and the feminine boys in here." A lie. "Oh well! A pair of strong arms is always needed. Go wait by that door, I'll rally the troops." Removing himself from the scene once more, the Candidate darted over to a table and jumped up on it, an act the other Crecheworkers were never fond of. "All right kids! Liiiiisten up!" He waited until most of the children had stopped to look at him, his loud voice penetrating the chatter. "Snack time! Sit at your tables everyone!" Leaping down, he scurried back over to M'kai and tugged on his arm, leading through the door and up to a few Drudges. "Hello! We'll take some trays off you!" Accepting a tray with snacks and plates on it, Nautic waited quietly for M'kai to follow his lead and get a tray.

[Ruby]

"No, I'm pretty sure I hate them," M'kai shot back, fighting to keep annoyance out of his voice. He conspicuously wiped some mysterious substance that had escaped his first cleaning on his pants, wrinkling his nose. These'd have to be washed as soon as he got back to the room, or Futh wouldn't come near him for hours. M'kai himself didn't much mind being dirty, although like most reasonable humans he'd prefer to be clean, but Futh was practically a hypochondriac. M'kai would swear the Blue spent more time making sure he was clean than he did eating.

M'kai returned Nautic's smile, but groaned at his next comment. "I can do paperwork... even paperwork would be better than this," he grumbled, half under his breath. It wasn't really meant for Nautic's ears, but if he heard it, M'kai wasn't worried. The washbasin was welcome, though- the Blueweyrling scrubbed his hands, then inspected his fingernails and surreptitiously washed them again. Luckily Nautic had taken off to ditch the child (or at least that's what M'kai hoped he was doing).

"Thanks," he said when Nautic returned to lean against the wall. "Yeah, I guess they thought I needed more... motherly instincts or something. I'm not particularly feminine, and as I impressed blue, that might eventually be a problem. Or maybe they found out that I broke some rule I didn't even know exists. Who knows..." he trailed off, sighing heavily as he returned the sink's towel to its rack. "What do you like about it, anyway?" But Nautic was gone, jumping on a table and calling to the brats. Magically, they all started laughing and shouting, dashing for the seats that were, apparently, assigned. M'kai briefly contemplated what that would have looked like if he had tried that little manuver- kids would probably be screaming and hiding in corners.

Food was ok, though. He grabbed a tray after Nautic took one, following the Wher candidate and helping to distribute the food. Every child Nautic went by seemed to be smiling or laughing when he was done, whereas every kid M'kai fed was looking vaguely petulant at not being served by Nautic, but at least they weren't sobbing. Returning to the door to ditch the empty tray and grab one filled with miniature cups and juice, he hovered vaguely until Nautic, too, returned. "You're... really good with them, actually. It's kind of impressive. How....?" He couldn't exactly phrase the question he wanted to ask, but hopefully Nautic would get the point.

[Tashe]

"Oh pleaaaase~. The masters of us "younglings", are on a perpetual lookout for rulebreaking. I bet they get a sick, twisted pleasure out of handing out punishments." He was mainly referring to the fact he had been recently been given archive duty, but of course, he didn't expect M'kai to discern anything other than the face value of his statement. Grabbing a tray with juice on it, Nautic gave the Drudge a smile before turning back to the Weyrling. "Well to answer your first question, what do I like about working here, I think it was?" He paused and looked out to the feeding hoard. "Its their simplicity. Their innocence and ignorance." He let his eyes focus on a young girl, although his speech was still directed at M'kai. "We of older generations, despite what we like to believe, are corrupted. Whether with guilty pleasures, or with less desirable things... we have been touched by depravity, and dangers. While these little children, still think that little boys and girls have cooties. And they know little of the world that is outside the caring arms of us who look after them. Its nice to be adored by children, it is despite the chaos you might see, rather refreshing. It lets me be a child again." Nautic sighed and let his blue eyes travel back to the Blueweyrling. He realized he had shown his deeper side, one that when released usually drew stares. The candidate was known as the joker, the flirter, the all around naive blond who probably couldn't hurt a fly. And when he started spewing what he really thought of the world (for some reason he always happened to do this around a Bluerider that he hardly knew, maybe Blues were his favorite Dragon or something), it surprised him and probably everyone who listened. No one ever thought he contained anything more than bells and whistles. "Plus." He added, immediately perking himself up, as if he hadn't said anything before. "They can be so hysterical. I suppose I'm just a kid person." Immediately detaching himself from the wall he started to walk forward, motioning with his free hand for M'kai to do the same.

"Now as for your second, half formed sentence. How do I not make them look like they've just eaten a lemon... Its rather hard to answer... Here you go Olana." He gave the girl her juice and moved on. "Its something that I think, time develops. Risca, what kind do you want?" He repeated the process of giving the juice and moving on. "Older children are easier to win over. Playing with them and joking is an easy in, but it only works if you aren't giving off a 'go away vibe'." He spun around, careful not to spill his cargo. "See. Somehow, in my opinion, I believe children have this weird little sense that lets them pick up on body language. See you, no offense, its very obvious you kinda really don't want to be here. It translates into your body and eyes. You aren't relaxed! If you're relaxed and happy, you tend to get a much nicer greeting." He finished up giving the cups out before handing his tray in. He hopped back over to where M'kai was, so he could continue speaking.

"I'm not impressive. I just know how and when to be extra silly. Like when I jumped up on the table, I bet neither you nor the kidlets expected that. If you can grab their attention and be a little funny, it certainly helps to win their hearts. Being nice isn't a bad idea either." Crossing his arms, he smiled. "I dunno. I suppose I'm trying to say in a whole lot of excess words is, I'm not afraid to be a child again."