Sweet, sweet servitude [End]

[Tigeress]

So this was to be the first day that she would spend all day (and most likely all night from what she'd heard about his tidyness, or lack thereof) inside Wulfram's personal chambers, cleaning up weeks worth of neglect. The task in and of itself was daunting, as she was not trained to clean and truth be told she was a bit squeamish about grime and bacteria. But this would be a good time to harden herself to that little weakness and learn to get past it.

It was all a learning experience. Though she was getting worn out from all her learning. Where a mere 7 had sat only days ago, a 9 now perched proudly on her chest. She was absolutely shocked to come into the realization that all her biggest steps were coming up so quickly in the future. She was worried how the man would take to her rank jumping, would he feel threatened at all? She hoped not, she didn't intend to try and take over anything or rob anyone of hard earned positions, she just wanted a taste for now of what it would be like to be in the courts, just a Jack.

She knocked confidently to hide the nervousness she was trying to swallow before he opened the door for her. Though she still felt a little warm and sweat made her skin feel chill, her expression was at least under control for now. Taking a deep breath, she decided to announce who she was, he probably was hungover, or still drunk, and in that state was not likely to open up for just anyone.

"Your excellence? It's Inca, here as requested." And then she waited, listening curiously for any sounds from inside the room.

[Vyn]

Wulfram was, shockingly, not drunk nor hung over at the current time.

With the knowledge that Inca would be arriving to tend to his room, Wulfram had kept himself properly sober. He'd want to watch the girl, see just how well she worked and whether or not it was worth his while to keep her here. The crow didn't know her nearly well enough to trust her, not even if Vessatha trusted the girl's valor and all that crock.

He'd see for himself.

"Come in, Inca." He called, leaning back into his high-backed chair once more. He had paperwork to do, as per usual, but he could work and watch her without a problem. With any luck, she would prove to be as capable as Vessatha had suggested and he could rest his paranoia for the night.

Once the winged-doe entered the room, Wulfram's sharp eyes would slide over her rank once more before he turned his gaze up to her face. "You are to work quietly and not bother me unless absolutely necessary. If I'm satisfied with your work by nightfall, perhaps I'll keep you around."

[Tigeress]

Her eyes flitted up for only a moment as she took in his words, entering the room and surveying it with a neutral expression. It would be better to ask for supplies now than to be caught later and risk incuring his wrath as he made it clear would probably be the case. Closing the door firmly behind her, she tapped her jaw thoughtfully before turning to his desk. He seemed in rather good shape for someone who was supposed to be very out of it at this hour, she was impressed.

"Thank you very much. Might I trouble you for a moment your excellence before I begin? I will most likely eventually need two bags and perhaps a folder of some kind, as well as a tray to carry dishes." Most likely everything on the floor would belong either in the dirty dishes or trash category, with some dirty clothing for the second bag, but from the looks of paper on the ground she would have to go through every piece to ensure none of them were important and if they were she would put them in the folder for the Jack.

She found a clean area of table right near the door which would be perfect for sitting the tray of dishes on until she could make a few runs to the kitchen with them, but beyond that she didn't dare go searching for any of the items she needed without Wulfram's permission. She didn't know him well enough to gauge his mood properly, and so it was best to act as if anything could set him off, which may have not been far from the truth from what she'd heard.

[Vyn]

With such expectations floating around in her mind, Inca would undoubtedly be in for a day of many surprises.

Wulfram was not exceptionally clean, it didn't help that he'd had Lenore to pick up for him most of his adult life, but it would also be easy to see that he was no slob either. Messes were amassed in piles here and there, mostly dirty dishes and cups from his bad habit of locking himself away in his chambers while he worked. The bed was undone and there were some clothes here and there, but when it came to his desk everything was meticulous.

Except, of course, for the few dishes that had managed to find their way there as well.

Inca's questions caught the crow off guard and his eyes narrowed slightly, hands clasping as he rested his elbows on the desk. "Did you not come prepared to vork, Inca? Zat ist quite disappointink." That sense of Tulgey odd abruptly swelled around him, easily making the younger nine feel quite small compared to the displeased crow. His lips quirked upward in a smile. "Go zen, fetch supplies und next time you vill remember to brink zem viff you."

As he ran over the list she'd asked for, and the purpose she would have for each, the crow paused once again. "Forget ze file. You von't need it. All auf my files are already organized as I vant them, you vill heff no need auf touchink my desk, understood?"

What did she expect of him as a Jack? To scoff his duties and forget the files he took care of, leaving them to be trampled on the floor? Wulfram was determined to be Queen one day, he wasn't about to slack off in his duties as a Jack. A failure at this stage would be down right insulting.

[Tigeress]

Inca smiled her apology and realized that nobody had bothered to show her where the cleaning supplies where. Feeling suddenly whiter, she tried to reflect upon her many travels around the courts for familiarity, she had to have passed something at some point. Well, the wing with the kitchen seemed to also be the major servant's wing so that must have meant if it was anywhere, it would be there. Worst came to worst, she Did know some of the kitchen staff and surely they'd help her out?

At least now she knew what to look for, and this made things easier. The knowledge that the paper on the floor could all be discarded made her chest feel less tight. The thought that he would expect her to be able to file his papers had been a frightening one. There was just too much room for error with a task like that. "Of course your excellence, thank you for forgiving my forgetfulness." In truth she hadn't forgotten, but it was better for him to think she'd misplaced her items than for him to know that she barely knew where to get them from in the first place.

"Understood." She said simply before turning to the door and slipping out quietly. When she was a few steps away so that hopefully he couldn't hear, she bolted off in the direction of the kitchens. It wasn't very... proper, but it did mean she'd get back in hopefully enough time so as not to irritate the man. She burst into the kitchens at record time and began rifling around until she found a clean serving tray, grabbing that she investigated a few of the closets, finding a lot of flour and sugar and eventually two sacks perfect for laundry, and one that would have to do for trash.

Before anyone could say a thing, she was out the door and running back through the corridor. She took a moment to catch her breath before she opened the door, her chest rising and falling silently with the effort of the run. The bag for clothing was taken with her, the tray set carefully on the surface of the table she'd found. This was her area of expertise, as Irving had taken to wearing clothes to hide his... abnormality when he had gotten his bipedal form. It worked fairly well, and it also meant she knew how to get out a fair amount of stains. Irving wasn't the most graceful person with his movements and it often resulted in a mess.

A blush had crept along her face simply because she wasn't used to touching someone else's personal items, much less that of a male. The scent of alcohol made her wrinkle her nose but she knew how to handle that, later. She sorted them in layers based on what solution she'd have to get for which stain. She knew how to make one for blood, but the others would probably be readily on hand. Come to think of it, with the reputation of the courts, they'd probably have one for blood, too.

There wasn't that much clothing on the ground, it just seemed like it with how spread out the articles of clothing had been. She tightened the drawstring on the sack and placed it by the door, grabbing the tray and making a round around the room, checking under furniture for good measure but finding very little that was not immediately obvious. As she placed the dishes, mostly cups, on the tray, she adjusted the weight, finding that servants must have practiced with these alot because balancing was much more difficult than it seemed.

Steeling her arm into place, she arched her back as she walked and found if she kept good posture, the tray was more likely to stay in place. Coming up to his desk, she avoided eye contact and carefully slid the cups away from his working space, not daring to pick them up until they were at the edge so that if she happened to spill them, they would not be all over his paperwork. The scent of old liquor next to her face made her cough as she started away towards the door, she'd never drank a drop in her life, the stuff must have tasted amazing with how it seemed to be so enjoyed by the few people she'd met. The smell certainly said otherwise, though.

The last sack had been a precaution, she was unsure the last time his bed had been changed, and whether he would require it to be made or to the stripped and new sheets put on. "Please pardon my interruption your excellence, but do you require new bedsheets? Or should I just make the bed as it is?" The sack was held loosely in both hands, her face turned towards him though she had been poised to enter the section of his personal chambers that held his bed.

[Vyn]

"Very goot."

Wulfram watched Inca go with a look of cold severity shining in his dark eyes. He wasn't a patient soul, not in the least, but he would give her a break for her first day on the job. Next time, he wouldn't be nearly as lenient.

Her return received Inca nothing more than a courtly nod as Wulfram worked through his stack of paperwork for the day. He didn't intend to be bothered, nor to make small talk with the 'help'. However, were the doe to peek a look at Wulfram from time to time, she would find those ruby orbs studying her actions; assuring that everything was how he wanted it.

He approved of her thoroughness entirely and, with a brief smirk, noticed her poise as she figured out balancing the tray. She wasn't entirely hard on the eyes, really. Perhaps he'd keep her around even with his lack in true need of a 'maid'.

"Chust make ze bed as it is."

The crow offered her a brief nod before motioning to his bed chambers and returning to his work.

[Tigeress]

She nodded her head a few times, feeling his eyes on her back now as she had a few times before. He certainly was paranoid, then again, of course he'd want to make sure she was doing a good job. If not, he could easily find someone else. This just drove her to try and do better, although the feeling of being watched made her mouth a little dry. She wasn't used to this. Her squeamishness was pushed aside to enter his personal chambers. She'd... never been in a man's room before. Although old enough to consider sex, she just... never really had. And having lived with a group of males, she was used to a 'communal room' which was much less personal than this.

She left the second sack sitting against the wall, as apparently she wouldn't need it, and pulled back a plush blanket to reveal the pillows and crumpled sheets below. It took only seconds to arrange the pillows, fluffing them up just a bit before setting them down to grab the sheets. They felt of surprisingly good quality in her hands, and so she was gentle with them when they were whipped up into the air, makig a slight 'whoosh' sound before settling almost perfectly straight atop the arranged pillows. After a few quirks and adjustments were made, she moved onto the thicker blanket, again slapping this one into the air and letting it float down atop the other sheets. Her experience meant that every toss was almost spot on, she did used to make 4-5 sets of beds every day while growing up.

She grabbed the other sack on the way out, as well as a cup that was almost overlooked, and brought them back into the main room. She decided to take the tray of dishes and the extra sack out first because she knew exactly where to put them, the sack of clothes she wasn't precisely sure about, but she would ask around. Once this was done, she returned to Wulfram's room with a rather fancy looking duster. She'd been informed that it was one kept aside for the rooms belonging to royalty, the tended to not like the cheap ones which often just stirred the dust back up into the air.

Again the door was closed carefully behind her, her eyes watching the ivory skinned man for any sign of displeasure. When it seemed like he wouldn't say anything, she began the long task of dusting the tables and shelves by the door, working her way around the room. One of the shelves seemed to have a small crack in it, a sliver sticking out. She tried to push it back in, but in the dimness she misjudged the distance away and pricked her finger on the jaged piece of wood. It lodged into her skin when she pulled her finger away and she cried out in surprise, blood welling up around the foreign object.

She turned around fearfully, hoping he hadn't noticed or that he wouldn't bother to ask what had happened. Perhaps she could slip out quietly and tend to the wound without him noticing. She'd never had a sliver before so she wasn't sure how to take it out, but surely someone would help her.

[Vyn]

Without neglecting his paperwork entirely, Wulfram remained vigilantly attentive of the girl moving around his suite. He wanted to be sure that not only could he trust her to do her job well, but that she wasn't the sort to snoop through his belongings or stick her nose where it didn't belong.

For the most part, she didn't beautifully on all these fronts. That is, until the moment when she encountered the splinter of wood and found it 'intelligent' to poke at it.

Her yelp enticed a frustrated sigh from Wulfram and slowly he pushed away from his desk, getting to his feet and making his way toward the doe. "Vat in ze name auf ze Suits heff you done to yourself, girl?" Without waiting for a response, Wulfram reached out abruptly to grab her wrist and get a closer look at the wound she was attempting to nurse.

[Tigeress]

Oh gods. She heard his voice and mentally winced, it didn't hurt that bad, she had merely surprised herself when the piece of wood had suddenly shifted position under her tentative push. Well now that he noticed her injury, hopefully he wouldn't think she'd been the one to damage the shelf. She had been doing so well, too, really getting into the flow of things. It was just her luck to mess up at the last possible opportunity.

"Nothing, I was careless. I won't concern you with it your excellence." She said, embarassment ringing in her voice as she turned her head away, not wanting to watch him expect the piece of wood which had embedded itself almost entirely below her skin as if it were a parasite, moving, alive. She could feel the blood blossoming again only moments after she'd tried to suck it closed, apparently it had gone in deep, although the wound wouldn't be very wide which explained the slow dribble.

"I didn't damage the shelf, I was trying to smooth the splinter back into place so it wouldn't be noticeable and ruin the decor." Her voice was soft and almost mumbling, her heart sunken at the prospect of him turning her away over something so foolish. She saw the neatly arranged paperwork still sitting where the man had been only moments ago and knew she'd broken the number one rule which was not to interrupt him. She managed to meet his eyes glancingly, as if waiting for the hammer to fall. She could barely feel anything in her finger now.

[Vyn]

Wulfram's eyes narrowed a little further, his gaze scathing...and then he relaxed his posture and sighed. As much as he would've enjoyed tormenting the woman over her minor mistake, she was simply too pathetic. He could've chatisized her about that if he really wanted to.

"Don't sulk, it doesn't suit you." He rolled is eyes slightly, before returning his attention to the splinter. It was deep, but he could see the very edge of the wood still sticking out. "I know you did ze shelf no damage. Come viff me, I vill get it out."

How long had she been in possession of this form? For a doe such as herself, thorns in the paw had most likely never been a problem. Another brief roll of his eyes and Wulfram ushered Inca toward the bathroom. He had a decently stocked first aide kit in his bathroom thanks to all the times he'd injured himself and had to patch himself up. It should have a pair of tweezers in it if nothing else.