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[Strider03]

". . . Of course." Of fucking course. It had been a stupid lie, brought on by lack of preparedness. If he'd even had a second, from hearing footsteps or something, he would have been better prepared. Now he'd simply have to hope that the garden was relatively bug sparse, or rely on that tiny bit of knowledge that spending years around his brother had afforded him.

"No offense, but does Mary get bored without enough variety in domestic servants? Since you're already consistently overstaffed, and I was one of seven or so more hired to work here."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Security? Like one of those cartoons where the maids whip out knives?"
Faith might run into an even more sullen-looking Karen. She spots Faith, before looking away back down at the pager.

[Empiricist]

Shef
"No, not at all! She's just trying to fill in the rooms, with any luck your batch will be the last ones, until someone leaves of course."

Well the good new is that you aren't immediately bombarded by the deafening mating calls of cicadas, so that's something at least. On the other hand, for all Appleton's eccentricities, her garden is at least somewhat normal, which is a bit of an issue seeing as barren lawns would at least make finding insects a little tricky as opposed to your standard high class european garden. You can already see the damn beetles crawling amongst the plants. You'd probably be in a spot of bother here were it not for the yellow blur and buzzing of a hornet, a hornet flying right at you.

Minato
He mumbles something along the lines of _{"Wouldn't put it past Fleur..."} before taking another sip of water. "There's bodyguards amongst us, well I suppose they're not technically bodyguards, but they've been retrained enough they basically are. Not sure if you know this, but this kind of job attracts a lot of ex-military types. The sort of people used to a certain kind of order. Guess you could say it's therapeutic, easing back into civilian life like this."

[Strider03]

"Sounds pretty eccentric, if I'm allowed to say it, but not bad, I guess. The garden is quite nice." He looked around, taking in the sights. (Are they in a green house, or is it open air? Mostly flowers, or are there some nonflowering plants? Widely spaced, in the way one would expect of a wealthy manor's garden? Or is it more close packed ?)
Shef noticed the hornet, when it was just a few feet away, and while his first instinct was to attempt to shoe it away, he didn't. It would be unprofessional. So, he continued to walk forward, following the maid, presumably directly on a collision path with the hornet.

[Chevaleresse]

"I suppose I can try to do that," Noriko said dryly. A job that was supposedly about cleaning and general housekeeping, but was in actuality more about being nice to people who were socially awkward or otherwise unsuccessful in their interactions with other people? Gee, where had she heard that before? Not that she'd be here for long, with the way things were shaping up.

[spümpkin]

Oh, what's this? A challenger?  Yoake spins around on the spot, brandishing her duster. It takes her a moment before she realizes she's keeping a cover, and she switches almost instantly to a demure pose, acting with mock-surprise and embarrassment.

"S-Sorry! I was j-j-just cleaning up, there was a d-dusting task available so I decided to do it..."

[Empiricist]

Shef
It's an open-air, open-spaced garden with a roughly even mix of flowering and non-flowering plants.
"Tell me about it, she's not a bad person or anything, but I guess with who she is, it's hard to have anything like a normal li... Hey is that a-"
The hornet, and it's this big fucking hornet, gets all right up in your grill, almost colliding with you before finally buzzing away.
"-hornet. I think there's a nest somewhere, we've been seeing these a lot recently."

Yuki and Noriko
Another maid walks over to join you guys, waving to you and Yuki.
"Hiyaa~! I haven't seen you guys around, are you the new hires?"

Fleurette and Vendellin just sorta stare blankly at the newcomer for a few moments before speaking
"Mary, what the fuck are you wearing?"
"You look ridiculous in that."

If this were some generic anime, which frankly there seems to be quite the wealth of evidence towards, Shef's existence notwithstanding, this would probably be where you'd be treated to several seconds of a chibified Mary freezing in place with her servant's criticism piercing her chest. Thankfully, your life hasn't gotten that weird. Or perhaps it's sailed far far that point already.

"Eh...?! But I spent all morning preparing and..."
"Yeah, well you just look like a no-good pervert."
"Eh....?!"
"Fleur, you're literally holding a porno mag. Aiko, Noriko, this is Mary, the boss? She's a total weirdo."
"I'm standing right here!"
"In a maid outfit. Like I said, total weirdo.'"

Yoake
"You looked like you were trying to murder the bed!"
Standing in front of you is diminutive lady carrying a stuffed bunny.
"And what was with that pose? It's like you're a completely different person!"

[Chevaleresse]

Noriko was stuck for several moments; you could almost hear the wheels turning in her head as she attempted to locate the appropriate response to this situation. Granted, it wasn't Faith ending up in the maid fetish costume this time, and it wasn't on the level of Yoake. . . Best to avoid that thought, lest the heat in her cheeks rise any further.

Eventually she elected to go with the formal response. Which she immediately fumbled, by dint of that response being trained into her as a curtsy and her lack of skirts at the moment. "I, uh, yes, good to meet you, Madam Appleton." She glanced over at the two experienced servants. "Maybe she just wanted to know what it was like?" she volunteered. "Although, you probably should have had one of the actual maids dress you, if that was the case. . ."

[Empiricist]

Yuki and Noriko
"Er, right! It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Noriko! Sorry, I thought maybe I could get to know everyone better if I pretended to just be a maid but..."
"You're not very good at it."
"And anyone who's seen you before would recognize you instantly."
"Ehehe... yeah I guess I really aren't. Sorry, um, I probably should have thought this through more."
"No kiddin', hey Noriko you feelin' okay? Your face looks kinda warm."

[Chevaleresse]

Noriko cleared her throat as she scrambled for a response. "Ahem, hm, sorry, just, uh, nervous." Do not tell them you were remembering one of your acquaintances, who is also another maid here, that you saw her attempt to do some sort of reverse Arthur-draws-Caliburn act in an adult goods store. Or that you'd essentially just suggested that one of the people in the room undress (and then dress, but hey) Lady Appleton. "First day, you know, it's a little weird."

[Powder Miner]

Faith came across another maid... ah, it was Karen. Faith knew that there'd been a fair bit of arguing when she'd first showed up, but admittedly Faith hadn't been much paying attention to it -- she'd been focused on the whole "being a maid" thing. She still was. Dammit... it was all super embarrassing, first she gets shoved into this fetish outfit SOMEHOW and then the universe conspired to put her into a maid outfit again. Plus it was just a little degrading on its own, she guessed, and she could only imagine if anyone ever found out... oh, she'd never hear the end of it. Faith sighed and looked down.

...oh right, Karen! Well, Karen didn't look to be very happy, so maybe Faith could be nice to her and extend a bit of an olive branch from the group...? "Er... hey. I'm..." Uh, what had her cover been, stick with the whole cover plan, Karen would catch on just fine, "Joan. Another one of the new trainees, remember? Anyway, uh, what I wanted to say was..." And with the cover maneuvering out of the way: "Are you alright?"

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Karen just stares at Faith for a moment. She pauses, looking over her, the merest glint of disapproval in her eyes, before curtly replying in a brusque tone.
"I'm fine, not that it matters."
"So, what, like black ops operatives become maids and stuff? That only happens in cartoons and terrible movies. No way that happens in real life."

[Powder Miner]

Faith frowned a little bit at Karen's expression (she wasn't sure she liked what she thought she saw there too much) but she pressed on nonetheless. "Um... you're sure?" Faith put a hand to her cheek, and took a breath, she had to tread carefully. "Like... I know things haven't been the smoothest with some of the other trainees, but I think it might be nice to, um... you know, to have things be a bit easier there? I'd be willing to help, I mean. Like... I don't think you really deserve being yelled at by everyone and I know how I'd feel..." Uh oh. Maybe she'd gone too far.

[Empiricist]

Yuki and Noriko
"Really sorry about that! And the uh, uniform thing."

Minato
"Probably not special forces no, but it's not uncommon to find ex-military personnel in such jobs, as I have said, they've the kind of order and discretion that would be familiar to them, not to mention rather generous salaries and high demand. Considering the ill treatment of many veterans face when returning to civilian life, it perhaps isn't a surprise they would choose this kind of job."

[Chevaleresse]

"Not a problem. I, uh, wasn't trying to call you weird, by the way, just that being new to a job is." She resisted the urge to shoot a glare at the other domestic servants. You know a damned blush when you see one, don't call it out.