Chores: Don't eat that! (Tags: Ant/Open)

[hseru]

It seemed that Candidacy was sitting quite well with Rozen, as her first rotation on the chores list was to be of some use to the Creche. Well, that certainly worked out well enough to her tastes, and she strolled with an even pace down the various hallways towards her chore destination directly after a quick breakfast. Zeek was wrapped comfortably around her neck, his small brown body thrumming against her throat as he expressed his happiness with breakfast and things in general.

His Mine had given him such tasty meat! He flashed her several images of the many tidbits he'd eaten from her fingers, licking his jaws in reaction to make sure all the delicious juices were really gone. The yellowish fluffy stuff was best. There was nothing to compare to how much he loved it, and he told her so over and over again with much enthusiasm. Rozen chuckled at him, reaching up to give him a short caress, which he leaned into eagerly. She was no longer surprised at how much Zeek had changed her personality. Only a few short days with him and she was laughing a little easier, mostly at him, but still. Most people still did not sit well with her, but she was more likely to at least pretend to not hate everyone. All in all, he was a wonderful bright point in her life, and she doted on him like a beloved child. He would probably grow up to be fat, lazy, and spoiled rotten. Zeek caught the mental image she made of him blown up like a balloon, and he chattered at her, his eyes swirling with a tiny bit of peevishness, but it quickly faded, and he nuzzled her cheek in apology for being angry.

Rozen passed the kitchens on the way to the creche, and thought that she really wasn't looking forward to that chore in particular. Kitchen work and Rozen just did not get along. Oh, she could do the cleaning and such, but she was a horrible cook, and food in its many pre-made forms failed to make any kind of sense to her. Hopefully, she'd get to stoke the fires or some other equally non-threatening job when it came her turn to work there.

She opened the door to the Creche, and carefully closed it behind her just in time as a small child around 2 turns of age waddled over to her, clinging to her leg when he reached her, his tiny hands tightly clenching fistfuls of her loose lavender pants. She reached down and picked him up under his chubby arms, cradling him at her hip with one arm as she tapped his small button nose with her finger, making nonsense sounds at him, which he returned gleefully. He took a new hold on her darker colored shirt, a warm brown-red, and then the brown flitter at her neck suddenly became the most interesting thing to him, and had his full attention.

Rozen turned to the Crechewoman on duty, nodding her head in greeting, as the child kept her from bowing properly. "Ah, Candidate Rozen here to assist you." That sounded.. shards, weird. She'd have to get used to it though.

With his eyes glued to Zeek, the boy-child reached up with his small hand to take tight hold of the brown's tail, bringing it to his mouth with a quick jerk, making the flitter squeak in surprise as he was tugged backwards. Wincing as Zeek's claws dug into her, Rozen quickly pried the boy's hand open, at which point Zeek shot off her shoulder to the other side of the room, chattering at the boy. Rozen patted the child as he attempted to work up a good crying fit at losing his newest toy. "Hush now, hush. He is not for eating, little one. You can play with him later, hush now." She swung him gently, patting him, and he calmed down enough to wriggle about, aiming for the floor. Rozen let him down, and he stumbled off to play with some wooden blocks near another child.

Zeek returned to her then, and he nuzzled her with renewed fervor. That smallnotMine hurt! Did all smallnotMines hurt? Mine had held the smallone and it had hurt him! Was Mine hurt? His eyes whirled in concern, and she attempted to comfort him, looking back at the woman with an apologetic smile on her face. "I'm sorry, he just hatched a few days ago and we're still figuring things out together."

[antinanco]

The crechewoman on duty nodded solemnly. “Ah, wonderful to meet you for the first time, Candidate Rozen!” There was a stifled giggle that interrupted her greeting, but the woman quickly covered it up with a polite cough and continued. “Good to see you’re moving up in the ranks of life—and out of the crèche. Supposedly,” the auntie greeted uncharacteristically calmly, yet with a enough sass to slay a herdbeast and a sly twinkle in her eye at the thought of more slave unpaid underlings labor.

That kind of labor was Ieoha’s favorite kind!

An astoundingly conscious green flitter had been perched on her shelf, almost blending in with the walls due to her natural pastel colors if not for the obvious glow about her, but as soon as she saw Hers begin conversing with Zeek and Zeek’s notHers she launched herself off of her ledge. Gliding over to Ieoha on her disproportionately large wings, the f’lizard roosted on the flamboyantly orange, frilly dress of Hers’ boney shoulder and chirped a creepily chipper greeting to the newcomers and

“It’s perfectly fine, honey! I’m just happy finally see a good mother around here who socialized and loves their baby, whether human or flitter!” Ieoha chuckled at herself, leaning heavily to the right side on her cane as she twisted around to reward Laef for being awake. Even it if only was because she was going to rise soon—and she was long overdue, too—the old auntie was thoroughly enjoying having a cognizant pet and hoping it was a sign of things to come.

“Not much to do today, I’m afraid,” she continued with a soft smile, “I know, it’s a miracle! But I’m sure there’s something around here I can find to keep you busy…” Her hand found its way to her chin as the woman took a moment to scan the crèche.

“Oh! I know!” Ieoha cried triumphantly and energetically shuffled over to a cabinet, “You can wash the walls! They’re still dirty from when Herot got his hands on some charcoal and decided to illustrate every blank, flat surface in sight. Luckily, tots can’t see too much at their age.” She flashed a wide grin as she passed the Candidate a bucket, a rag, some soap and a flash of water. “And in the meantime you can entertain me! So, Rozen, are you going to stand for that wher clutch I predicted, hm?”

Straight to the point, forward, peppy and blunt, that was the way Ieoha did it. Intently she fixed her gaze on Rozen and Laef cooed to Zeek. Too bad both of they were too young; Rozen and Zeek both. They were quite attractive, but sadly both girls were a little too old to be thinking of romance.

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[hseru]

Rozen flashed a brief smile to Ieoha, giving a small laugh at the woman's formality. Well, she'd been rather formal too, but she was rather proud of her new title, even if it sounded far too corny, and a mouthful at that. "Supposedly out of the creche, only to be sent back and ordered to subject myself to your tender mercy for the next..." She made a show of counting to some large number on both hands. "Oh, forever."

She eyed the unusually active Green as she landed on Ieoha, and raised her brows in surprise. "Is that Laef, or did you manage to snag another flitter who looks exactly like her?" Zeek, despite his youth, didn't miss the older green's entrance, and now that the situation with the child was over, he watched her with swirling eyes. Oh, but she was a pretty green! He liked greens. They were so pretty, and, well, pretty. They were all pretty, and so green. He cooed to her, a soft sound that was barely audible, and chirped a louder reply of greeting back when one was voiced from Laef. At that point, however, he quickly tucked his head behind Rozen's neck to hide himself from view in a sudden fit of shyness. What he didn't see, couldn't see him.

Rozen reached up to pet him at that point, and he came out of 'hiding' to nuzzle her hand. "I probably spoil him, truth be told. He doesn't think so, but what child does?"

It actually was surprising that there wasn't much to do in the creche. Normally, the place just couldn't stay clean. Rozen waited as Ieoha pondered the question of a chore to set her to, fingers idly messing with the hem of her shirt. Maybe she could play with or watch the children- ah, no such luck it seemed. Rozen took the bucket, rag, and soap with fairly good grace, even smiling a bit at the idea of a child getting charcoal all over everything. She could just bet that he'd gotten it all over himself too.

Able to see quite clearly where the smudged attempts at taking the charcoal off had started, Rozen kneeled by the wall in a promising spot, putting the soap directly onto the rag and then dipping it into the water. She wrung it out with a quick twist, and began soaping the blackened spots.

She turned back to flash a bright smile at Ieoha when she mentioned whers, her favorite subject. "Well, I'm certainly not standing for a dragon when wonderful whers are to be had. I haven't been to see the clutch yet, but I will as soon as I get a free moment, as long as it's allowed." She turned to scrub willfully at the wall, her eagerness at thinking about the wher clutch evident in her enhanced scrubbing. She would likely be able to do the whole job on her knees, seeing as the scribbles and smudges only reached some few feet off the ground. She turned back to Ieoha after moment or so, a question in her eyes that she had obviously been pondering.

"Should.. I bring something for the queen who laid them? I don't want to upset her by just showing up, you know, with her being wild and whatnot." Her brow furrowed in thought. "Maybe a haunch of meat, or would that make her more likely to protect them by attacking? Maybe I shouldn't go at all?" That thought depressed her. She didn't really know if Ieoha could answer her questions, but she had yet to learn anything new about whers in her candidate classes, and she was starved for information.

Zeek was still watching Laef at this point, his most favorite green in the whole world right now, and he told her so with a warble. He began thrumming so much against her neck that Rozen paused to give his small dart-like head a gentle scratch. "Be good, Zeek." She murmured, though it was unnecessary, as he was on his best behavior for all the females in the room.