[Fin] When Noob Met Chef [Bee]

[Dark]

Maeve wasn't sure what she was feeling--anger, confusion, uncertainty--but she was certainly not entertaining kind thoughts concerning the leveret who had left her to find her own way to the kitchen. 'Too busy.' Hah. Too lazy was more like it.

It had taken her nearly forty minutes to reach her destination, though she doubted the search would have taken quite so long if she hadn't slunk down the corridors like a thief, deathly afraid she might run into someone, and jumping straight out of her skin at the slightest noise. She would have liked to blame the newness of her situation, but knew better; she was naturally skittish, something that her father had never been all too pleased about. Maybe that was why he had traded her.

Maeve stepped into the kitchen uncertainly, taking a moment to admire the airy layout before proceeding further into the room. Hopefully no one had noticed the delay; she doubted the leveret of her earlier dealings would have taken the initiative to tell anyone she was coming. "Hello?"

[Bee]

Somhan was quite engaged inspecting his newly-baked confections when he heard an unfamiliar voice call. He glanced over the top of his little cakes suspiciously. It was...a leveret. (A Josiggy. He had such a terrible, terrible weakness for green. Cruel Chelan! His heart beat a little more painfully. But that was a concern for another time.)

A leveret with...what appeared to be a blade for a tail. Oh dear. He assumed she--the voice sounded feminine enough, and he was a pretty decent judge--was new, or else his Jack was having visitors and rather meanly decided not to inform the kitchen. That sort of thing always made him panic. He took another look at her tail and had the sudden morbid thought that she could be put to very good use as the Warren executioner.

But now he was creeping himself out.

He said, cautiously, "Hello there. Are you lost? Looking for someone?"

[Dark]

Maeve was very hard pressed not to start fidgeting, instinctivally curling in on herself; he was looking at her tail. She hated being looked at, hated the prickling sensation that made her want to crawl right out of her skin and just dissapear. Everyone, everywhere she went, was always looking and whispering. It wasn't proper for a leveret to have such natural armament, they always said, especially a female leveret. What if she became a doe? Scandalous.

Father had always seemed to find the situation humurous.

She gave herself a mental shake, and attempted to focus. If she wanted to keep under the rader and out of trouble, she would have to play her part. And that meant ignoring the stares.

"I was looking for you, actually. You are Somhairle, yes?" Hopefully her assumption was correct, because otherwise she'd just made a total fool of herself. "I've been assigned to kitchen duty with you."

[Bee]

"Oh, yes. That's me. You can call me Somhan."

He hadn't been expecting a new member of the staff. He had shown people around a couple of times, but they had always been assigned elsewhere. He just wasn't terribly great with people. He could give polite orders as the acting head of the kitchen, and he was friendly, but he was also very reticent and tended to employ baked goods as a mode of conversation.

Some people eventually learned what "peach strudel" meant in Somhanese. Most didn't. That was just the way it went.

"Well, we can find something for you to do. Have you ever cooked before?" If she hadn't, he could always put her on cleaning or washing dishes. It was a good bottom-of-the-totem job; no one else really liked doing it. Somhan certainly didn't. He was much better at making messes than cleaning them up.

[Dark]

Maeve rather enjoyed cooking, though it wasn’t something she had been allowed to do very often back home. When she’d been assigned to the kitchen, she’d been lucky if she was told to chop/slice/mince something, and if she wasn’t she’d spent her time washing the mountains of dishes and utensils that were constantly multiplying. It wouldn’t have been nearly so bad except that people were disgusting and she hated the pruny feeling her paws got when submerged in hot, soapy water for any amount of time.

Regardless of what she might have liked, though, she couldn’t afford to draw attention to herself. Not anymore than what was drawn by her damnable tail. It was better to be completely unremarkable--no special skills, no astounding wit, nothing to set her apart. She would be remarkably unremarkable, competently incompetent. It was all she could do if she wanted to avoid undue notice. So, she lied.

“Sorry, no. They wouldn’t let me near anything I might burn back home. I’m more the ‘here, chop this’ type of helper,” she shrugged, “Just point me in the direction you want me.”

[Bee]

"Well," said Somhan, happy to have the issue of finding a place for her resolved so easily, not that many leverets tended to be belligerent given they shared a lot in life, "we could always use someone to wash some dishes. We'll put you at that for a while and then have you run some chopping or mixing or something as the need arises."

There. That sounded like a good plan of attack. Plus it got him out of touching the cupcake pans. He hated those. He always sprayed water in his face.

He gestured to the sink, where things had regrettably piled up a bit. He tended to only wash things he was going to immediately need to use again, and the rest could wait for another hand--or his own, if he was really getting desperate, but he always hoped it never came to that.

"That should keep you busy for a while, I think."

[Dark]

Dishes. Of course. Maeve nodded noncommittally, and approached the sink. It didn’t look like anyone had bothered with a decent scrubbing in awhile--typical--and she felt a wave of irritation before she forced it down. Surviving menial tasks with some manner of sanity intact was just a matter of getting into the right frame of mind--at least, that’s what she kept telling herself--and she was determined to get through the ordeal.

Maeve tied her ears back--it wasn’t entirely comfortable, but they tended to get in the way unless she pulled them back--and got to work. The work kept her busy, but not very occupied, and her mind wandered aimlessly while she scrubbed viciously at dried cake batter. Didn’t anyone know you had to soak the pans immediately after use?

She felt so completely off-kilter; there hadn’t been anything to warn her that father planned to trade her, and why would he? She wasn’t particularly attractive, didn’t have any sort of skills that made her worthwhile, and her mutation was a novelty that was quick to fade. No one should have wanted her--she should have been left in obscurity, right where she wanted to be--but she had been traded, and that meant someone had taken notice.

Maeve gritted her teeth against the rising panic.

[Bee]

The new leveret was very, very strange. Somhan liked that she was quiet--he wasn't much for constant, mindless chatter, and only devolved into that when he was really nervous--but there seemed to be something a little off about her. She was twitchy and edgy, like she expected something fangy to leap out of the bushes. Or from behind one of the counters. Whatever.

Maybe it was just because she was new. He couldn't remember any other time than being at this particular Warren, but it was probably a strange experience to move. Maybe she was homesick.

He pondered this for a while. After a bit he decided to walk over; there was no use letting someone be lonely if they looked like they needed company. And if she preferred being alone, he would find out soon enough. "Here. Take a break and have a cupcake."

[Dark]

Maeve didn’t know to react to the unexpected attention--why was Somhan being so nice--and after a moment of hesitation, warily accepted the cupcake. “…Thanks.” Meave situated herself on the floor and nibbled; flavor burst across her tongue, and she glanced at him in surprise, “s’good.” It was good, and she took another bite greedily. They had never let her have very many sweets back home--said they’d rot her teeth, though the same didn’t appear to apply to the does--and eating the cupcake was a sort of guilty pleasure. She made sure to get the crumbs.

With the cupcake gone, though, doubt began to creep back in. It didn’t mean anything, really, giving her a cupcake, and he could just as easily be expecting something in return for the gesture. That was generally the case, she had found. She frowned, and stared at the floor; she should probably get back to work.

[Bee]

He was pleased she enjoyed the cupcake--food was the point around which his world revolved, after all, and it would be most upsetting if someone told him he sucked; his psyche might not handle the stress crumble completely, in all honesty--but when she was done, she seemed to regress right back to frowny-faced pensiveness.

He couldn't decide whether it would be better to let her do her own thing, or do more to try to make her feel welcome. He pondered this for a few seconds. There wasn't much he could do, really; it wasn't like he could throw a party for a leveret. He would get some mighty strange looks. And then he would get his face stomped in.

"Anyway," he said, deciding not to push anything after all for fear of scaring her off, "take a few minutes to relax. When we have some downtime later, I can show you around the place."