Work Text:
The green eyed smeet gnawed on your robe, he'd been fighting viciously to tear the thick fabric with his little teeth minutes prior but was starting to tucker out. You'd wrapped up training your secondary litter of the day some time ago but Tum, the smeet you were currently attempting to sooth, had extra energy pent up leading to his aggressive personality to build off it.
Your next queued litter wouldn't be coming in for a bit and the smeetery drone who was to take care of this 'problem batch' after you was very apprehensive to approach when you had held Tum up for carry. You'd taken a step closer to encourage your coworker to take him and suddenly you were holding a screeching wild beast as Tum hissed and swatted at the poor soul. You awkwardly tucked the ball of fury against your chest and offered to calm him down before bringing him over to their session.
If it wasn't so obvious that the drone was fresh out of training you might've held more disappointment towards her for not attempting to control the situation but, It was criminal how brief and bare bones smeetery training was compared to any other mandatory job training so she was probably floundering to figure out how to properly deescalate a real tantrum. You remember graduating from the academy and immediately being thrown into a classroom knowing more about how to deconstruct a blaster than how to manage a room just short of two dozen smeets on your own.
Cooing softly, you feathered your fingers down the back of Tum's head in response to his light growling, he'd snap at the cloth closer to your hand but didn't nip at your gloved wrist. It took a bit longer to get him to calm down entirely, but your patience was boundless when it needed to be. With a lack of the overaction to his antagonistic nature in response to his hyperactivity he was at ease.
He lay cuddled in the comforting warmth your robe emitted for a short period before hopping off to play with one of the instructional toys scattered about. You'd have to bring him over to be under the watch of the other drone sooner than later but for now you'd let him enjoy himself. You're sure that his next teacher would appreciate whatever brief reprieve from his antics you could willingly give.
You'd built a reputation within the smeetery, known for 'taming unruly behavior' out of the misunderstood and lending a guiding hand to your fresher or simply more flustered colleagues. Earning the unofficial title of 'Instructor' within your rank. In any other field your kindness would be twisted and perceived as weakness, an unwanted trait, and many times when you were just starting out did many others grill you on what they thought was laziness or lenience.
Most managed to get through your skin back then, you'd cower and nod along to their every word, trying and failing to apply their strict tactics into your classroom. Through the years your skin grew thicker, and you stood up for what worked best in your environment, what worked best for your students. You were ready to listen to any criticism your elders would give but you held conversation with confidence and soon the back and forth was evened, they didn't talk down to you and nor did you to them. You were respected and held that same respect out for others.
You decided that when your work hours concluded you would stop by during the new drone's last class and extend some advice and temporary extra supervision.
Your attention was caught as two bulging green orbs focused on you accompanied by some quick chittering. Chirping in response you got up to scoop the little one into your arms, receptive he cooed for the first time in your experience with him. Pleased at how much your bond with the small one had progressed since he'd first came sprinting into your room ripping at the walls mouth foaming you bumped the ledge of your forehead with his once and chirped.
Abruptly stealing your attention away, a vibration buzzed up your PAK before a built-in screen curled around to be displayed next to your face. Quick to repeat your earlier feathering when Tum hissed out in alarm you kept your eyes towards the screen as a message echoed throughout the room causing you to cringe as the robotic voice boomed in volume "SMEETERY DRONE K-98221 YOU HAVE BEEN CALLED TO ATTEND THE INAUGURATION OF THE TALLEST. FAILURE TO ATTEND WILL DEEM YOU LIABLE FOR PUNISHMENT" You held Tum close so he wouldn't fall out of your arms as he attempted to attack his newfound source of aggravation.
Confused and a little miffed you tried to rattle together an explanation for this urgent summoning, the call for attendance was personalized with your identification number, an unusual addressment towards none-criminal irken. Also, as a smeetery drone it was unheard of to be called away from potential charges to attend political events no matter the importance. You'd simply be required to open and watch through a live feed of events if it was truly demanding of your attention.
After simmering Tum's wrath once again you made your way out of the room to drop him off, looking around as you went to see if anyone else appeared to have received the call because surely you couldn't have been the only one to have gotten it, that would be ridiculous. Perhaps the newest tallest was ego-tripping and simply wanted to be drowned in as much attention as possible? It was irresponsible behavior to be sure but not out of the realm of possibility.
Shifting Tum's weight into one arm you reached out and was just about to knock when the room's owner burst out in a heap slamming the door behind them with heavy breathes. Desperate noises accompanied incoherent mumbling as she leaned heavily against the door. When she turned to face the hall the sound she made was akin to a choked scream as her attention sped upwards to mirror your saucer eyed expression with her own.
She gawked at you for a little, face shifting between fear and embarrassment. You took a few steps backwards and cleared your throat to which she responded by breaking into a fit of apologizes "Hey," she abruptly ended her prattle and looked at you with what must have been a mix of pure anxiety and intimidation "It's okay." She deflated, not soothed but not panicking, just spent.
Still she eyed the smeet in your arms wearily when she peeled her full focus from your face. Thankfully he was still placated so he wasn't prone to throw a fit at the moment. Getting a good look at her she had some quickly fading claw marks stretching downwards from eye to chin "Calio?" she looked back up at you "What?" you gestured towards her cheek with your free hand "Calio did that, didn't he? Lured you in for a holding and lashed out?" she took your extended hand as an offering, and you helped her to her feet "Yeah..."
The embarrassment was seeping back onto her face "Hey, don't worry about it, he got me once" pointing toward your own face "He hooked his thumb right under my eyelid and wouldn't let go. Had to bribe him off so he'd trade it back to me."
A light laugh, the response you were looking for "Those bunch are rough on new faces, literally. I'm surprised you were assigned such a rowdy group on your first day." a half truth, you could point out precisely why she'd been dealt such a rough start, you'd seen the exact scenario play out countless times. It was a reality that left a sour taste in your mouth. She didn't have much of a vertical advantage by any means.
She nodded sheepishly "Yeah well.. Wait- uhm, how'd.. You know?" expression puckered into confusion. Her question was vague, but you caught her meaning "Your robes are fresh and still-- extra.. Poofy? The sugary scent they implement into the fabric is also still very potent on you." she looked down at herself for a moment "Oh."
"OH!" you echoed loudly mere seconds later "The inauguration! I completely forgot." startled by your outburst she jumped a bit, puzzled as you shuffled Tum in your arms "Listen, if they give you anymore trouble tell them something along the lines of me being dissapointed in their behavior. It sounds childish but it'll work for a little while." Tum was reluctant to let go of you but didn't freak out when you gently placed him into her hesitant arms. She froze up on the spot but didn't drop him.
"Any other time I'm free don't be afraid to ask for some help or advice." you began hustling down the corridor "And try not to seem too nervous! They're really good at picking up on that!" before you could catch any reaction you turned the corner, rushing off towards the nearest elevator.
Few were milling about the halls of smeetery, most still attending to their classes or filing daily reports in their dorms. It seemed like no one was rushing to get up top like you currently were, so you had the enclosed elevator space all to yourself. In the mere minute it took for the elevator to speed incredible lengths from beneath the lower middle crust of irk to its very surface you realized you'd forgotten to ask her if she'd gotten the call, that she probably hadn't, and that either the message you'd gotten was delivered extraordinarily late or you really were the only smeetery drone called to attend.. For, whatever eerie reason.
Sure enough, what awaited you at the end of your brief trip upwards was an expansive storage space devoid of all life but yourself. Taking a peek at a map splayed on the wall opposite the elevator's entrance you sorted through your memories in efforts to recall what section your ship was parked in before trotting off into the cold space with only the click of your boots and the whirring of an unseen ventilation system to accompany you. The further you walked the thicker the coats of dust layering each ship became, ships that've possibly been rotting away for centuries.
You didn't want to admit it, but you were relieved when you finally found your craft, happy to be soon departing from the spooky garage space. You activated your ship and hopped in, pouting lightly at the discovery that it was no longer a comfortable fit, more of a tight squeeze. Cramming your knees up to your chest and hunching over you shuffled to lean into the controls to bring up the navigation system and set your destination.
Manually maneuvering out of the foreboding place and into burnt fuchsia skies you were quick to enable autopilot and 'relax' back into your seat. Flying low as the machine traversed traffic towards the city central you couldn't help but let your eyes wander, honestly intimidated as you observed unfamiliar skyscrapers littered with neon bright ads that could make your head spin if you focused on them long enough. It had been many decades since you'd last been permitted to step foot on the surface and when you had it hadn't been for long at all so your surroundings weren't exactly familiar to you, it felt strange really, to be able to look up and see the endless space that awaited you had you dared deviate from your path.
Most of your rank will go through life only ever having roamed open ground once with how demanding your job could be of every spare second, you were hatched, raised, sent to the academy, sent to the surface for graduation, and then expected to spend the rest of your life deep within irk's hallowed layers. You'd even have to rush back as soon as possible when the inauguration concluded to ensure you were prepared for your tertiary group of the day- because you certainly weren't staying for the afterparty.
With no convenient spots available you had to park a bit farther in the back of the lot some ways away from the crowded main entrance to a looming domed building decorated with some giant screens that you assumed would be used to broadcast the event to onlookers outside once it started. Good, at least you weren't late. Slipping out you made for the crowd already surrounding the structure, trying to be mindful of those behind you also making way towards the large building ahead. You shuffled forward awkwardly as the crowd became more compact, leaving you to move in slow, stilted steps.
It wasn't long before you caught the attention of your fellow irken, self-conscious doubts threatening to seed themselves deep within every pore of your flesh as more and more heads turned to watch the tall smeetery drone, words that seldom often fit in the same sentence, moving at a crawls pace through a herd of average surface layer citizens.
The curiosity was innocent, but it was starting to make your skin prickle with the thought of just how many eyes had come to fall on you in such a short amount of time. Sure, you were used to new recruits often coming to look at you with unearned reverence and intimidation upon first glance, something you would be quick to shake out of them with jokes or friendliness in general, but it was a whole other story here. Here, there were dozens of unknown eyes of varying age and rank picking you apart with every inch they counted. It didn't help that you couldn't locate anyone else of notable stature in radius, you could see straight over the crowd and came to the defeated conclusion that they had all arrived prior to you and were already inside.
Worse so when some started parting way for you. Height was obviously a very crucial attribute in your society, yet you were a fish out of water when faced with this sort of special treatment. You were casual with the grown irkens you happened to interact with regularly throughout the day so no inequality barrier was ever permanently formed between yourself and those you worked closely with, meaning for the most part they treated you as they would treat someone of their same standing. You much preferred that lighthearted treatment over this weird, misplaced respect.
It had only been three decades since the days when you woke to find you no longer fit in your original robes, and even now your barely used to your body being the way it is. Your growth spurt had been swift and abrupt, not at all as gradual or as simple as you’d wished it had been. You had no time to prepare for how everyone would suddenly look at, talk to, or see you differently.
Somehow, someway, your discomfort was forced to sink in further when you were called very loudly by name and status to the front of the long ques up ahead bustling with irkens waiting patiently outside for entry into their destination. Sucking in a low hiss you excused yourself multiple times as you half-shoved through those not yet in the lines, being sure not to glance at any of the folks encasing you in rows on each side when you did reach and subsequently pass them by. Truly, you couldn't wait to sink back into your bubble thousands of miles below.
Passing through the scanner with a polite, albeit unsteady, smile to the drone manning the entrance you stalked forward into an open hall. You stopped in the middle of the hall to glance around, with no signs pointing out where specifically to go you waited for someone else to come in and followed at a distance, blindly trusting them to lead you through the winding halls towards whatever room this whole thing was being held in.
You eventually crossed through some wide sliding door into a stadium esc area. Stepping to the side you took a moment to take in the bustling room, loud chatter merged into one wave of incoherent nonsense bouncing off the curved wall, no wonder they were only letting in so little at one time- the place was already pretty much packed. You leaned this way and that looking for an open space you could slip into, everyone stood in descending rows squashed into each others personal bubbles leaving you with nae opportunity to squeeze in.
Resigning yourself to just standing an inch or two shy of the exit. At the least it'd mean you could get ahead of the swarm and hustle back to your parking spot, with hopes that the mass of irkens outside would start departing just as swiftly.
Your plans of sitting back quietly and idling in your thoughts were cut short however as while lazily scanning the crowd you took notice of armored figures scouring through the rows in search of something or someone. Curiosity peeked you watched them rough through compact lines of irkens, pointedly looking through the higher up rows farthest from the stage in the center, which were made up mostly of shorter to average sized irkens.
That was until one of them happened to look your way- they froze, internally processed something, and then snapped back into motion. They poked at their headpiece, a holo-screen projecting itself some inches from their face, looking from you to it as visible confusion stirred on their previously stoic expression. After disabling their screen and seeming to call out something to the other guards that you couldn't pick up on over the volume of everyone else, they began to approach you.
Spooked you tensed on the spot, they all appeared unarmed but that did nothing to quell your rising anxiety. The stern purposeful focus directed at you gave you the inward feeling of shrinking backwards despite not moving an inch, daring only to allow the nervous twitch of your hands dangling limp at your sides, opting to keep as much panic as you could sealed inside.
Four of them came to surround you rather quickly, keeping you from moving away from the wall at your back and standing in pattern to block you from moving in any forward direction. To be honest, the scene probably looked unusual yet comical to anyone who might've been watching seeing as you had a clean two-foot elevation advantage over the tallest of the small group of guards. After a moment one of them spoke "We'll be escorting you to your row." you paused mentally- confused- but they didn't give you much time to catch up with the situation at hand; they turned and not wanting to get in any sort of trouble for standing there like an idiot you jerked your legs forward.
Confused and nervous you followed them without protest down the steps up until you were led through the frontmost row, made up of individuals mostly taller than yourself. They stopped walking abruptly. You opened your mouth, just about ready to ask why it was necessary for them to have escorted you down some stairs or- even better, why you were being escorted anywhere in the first place, but without so much as a second glance they turned and branched off to take their own respective places amongst the collective.
Rude, but they're just doing their jobs you suppose.
Now, standing in the front row meant for.. Well, not smeetery drones, you began to freak out a bit. Your mind is boggled by the day's events, your mundane life of constant work and no significance has been interrupted in just under an hour, added that the blip in the norm wasn't yet over. Part of you was curious to see if it could get weirder, to discover the reasoning for your backhanded special treatment. The rest of you, however, was apprehensive and would be fine if this was where the oddities came to an end, even if it meant you didn't get an explanation.
"Talls and Smalls.." a voice echoed from some unseen speakers, effectively shushing the crowd as the volume of the horde died rather quickly, few whispers strayed into the open air. One by one the overhead lights loudly flicked off to leave only one bright circular light fixture in the center of the dome to solely illuminate the stage "Today you've gathered to witness the dawning of not one, but two powerful leaders!" whispers broke out around you, anticipation surging through the collective.
You weren't up to date with politics in the least, always too caught up in your work to hear a word about the goings on outside of the smeetery aside from scattered 'office talk' supplying you with tidbits of information here and there so unlike everyone else in the room you had absolutely zero clue as to who was next in line- you hadn't even known something had happened to Miyuki up until yesterday, three weeks after her disappearance.
The remaining light suddenly split into two separate colors, casting a dimmer shade further obscuring the crowd "So here they are! Wiggle your antennas in salute for your new, Almighty Tallests!" a deep mechanical shuttering was heard as the stage began to split, allowing fog to bellow out and crawl up the barrier into the crowd. Cheers erupted from all around you, but it was background noise to the revelation you'd just came to staring up into those clashing red and purple lights "Oh.. No.." your words slipped out in a low breath. Opposite to the joyous atmosphere full of antenna wriggling supporters yours were pinned back, rigid against your cranium.
Frozen in shock your hands clutched at your sides, digging into the fabric of your outer robe. Memories rushed back from the depths of your brain to be the front and center of your attention; the outer world forgotten as you delved into the shadows of your mind.
Due to being born seconds before the twin-ish meatheads you were initially paired up into the same class as them, a class made up of high expectations and such heavy spoilage it was bound to rot even the politest smeets down into greedy little monsters had they been exposed to the treatment long enough. Not to say that's where Red and Purple had gotten it from, no, from what you could gather they were brats by nature. The extra attention focused on them specifically and emphasis on their extra few inches of height over other smeets had simply encouraged their behavior.
They wielded the doting 'can do no wrong' attitude extended to them by their teachers maliciously.
Red was equal when it came to who he decided to pick on, he was less inclined to mess with someone unless they had something he really wanted and afterwards would often leave them be. His forte was hollow threats rather than psychical contact.
Purple, on the other hand, was the total opposite.
He was wild with his bullying strategy, stripping others of their snack even if he didn't really want it, and reveling in taunting the victim afterwards by eating or demolishing whatever the treat happened to be in front of them. Targeting specific classmates he didn't like and manipulating the teacher's willingness to take his word over theirs. He was a bruiser, a tyrant in waiting.
You'd slipped past their radar by hiding behind training equipment during snack break for a decent amount of time, opting to wait for everyone else to pick their snacks when they were handed out and taking whatever unwanted treats happened to be left as an extra measure. You hadn't been able to avoid them forever, however. One day at the very end of class you were tucked away in the corner of the room when Purple approached you.
He’d snatched a piece of candy straight out of your palm, throwing it into his gob as if it was his in the first place. He’d had a smug look on his face, waiting for you to burst out in tears or call for the teacher. You’d gotten up, taking a step forward and making a move to shove him, his flat palm making contact with your face just as yours began trying to push him backwards. You’d both stood there, your hands on his shoulders and his hand on your face, forcing your head back while his other hand gripped tightly onto one of your offending limbs in a power struggle to knock each other over.
The drone in charge of the class had come rushing over when he'd heard a loud cry. He’d found two smeets hissing at each other, teeth bared, specks of vibrant pink dripping onto the floor from where Purple stood gripping his hand to his chest.
You'd bitten him.
From that point on he almost exclusively targeted you and your treats. Oddly, he wasn't inclined to call out for a teacher and get you in trouble when you’d put up resistance against him like he so enjoyed doing to others. He even seemed disappointed on the days when you just let him freely take whatever it was you had. Stranger still when he would start leaving the snacks behind no matter how the interaction went, tossing them back in your general direction or dropping them some short distance away and walking off to rough someone else up over their food. You took this as him finding another way to mess with you.
On your last day with that class, you’d overheard two of your teachers talking about you, sneakily as you could you’d listened in. Discovering that you were to be moved to a lesser class; apparently no longer meeting certain expectations. It was predetermined that you had no potential for the higher ranks. Being so young you hadn't wholly processed the implications of these words, but the negative tone taken by the conversating drones was enough to tip you off to the fact that whatever was going to happen to you wouldn't be good.
Panic had welled up inside of you and for the rest of the day you’d tried your hardest to meet their expectations; trying to convince them to let you stay with your actions, that you were worthy of their attention and training.
Purple had come up to you at some point and had attempted to steal a bag of chips, ensuing a messy tug of war that ended with him ripping the bag out of your grip in a flurry of crushed crumbs and sending you to the floor with force. Normally, you'd get right back up and continue the battle for the ruined chips but, with the combination of your welled up panic and collision with the hard floor you’d broke away from his expectations.
Silent shaking gave way to sobs, you’d curled up on the floor, bawling your eyes out. Instead of taunting your behavior he stood silent, uncomfortable and confused "Hey... Stop it." his small voice had called out but caught up in your own world of tears and pain you just couldn't bring yourself to stop. The smeetery drone watching over the class took notice of the scene and approached the pair of you swiftly, coming up and scooping you into their arms with harsh words reprimanding you for the mess.
You’d began to fuss, struggling to escape the drone's grasp, terrified as they approached the door. Climbing up enough to look past their shoulder, the last you saw of the room was your classmates watching on with mild alarm, one in particular looking more spooked than the others as he held a ripped bag of chips crushed in between his claws.
From then on, you'd internalized him as your bully and the reason you'd been stripped of your opportunities to be something bigger in life. You'd dwelled on it for a long time in your past, blaming him for more and more obscure things as time ticked by- fuming internally but never openly expressing your feeling. But you'd put that all behind you at around the same time you'd learned to stand up for yourself. You'd made yourself forget him, and it wasn't hard.
Yet here he stood in front of you. Possibly only some feet away and hidden only by a curtain of fog. Newly crowned with the weight of near limitless power over a literal galactic empire, sky's the limit to whatever he wanted to do with it, all the power he and Red could ever dream of.
It felt like you'd just gotten punched straight across the face and then again in the abdomen. Your prior inner accusations of him baring you of everything you could've been and more rushing back with zealous. He'd gotten so much farther ahead in life than you and though the rational part of your brain reminded you that it wasn't only his assigned class that'd gotten him so far you just couldn't help the bitter hurt.
You caught on to the whole runaround you'd been put through. He'd gone out of his way to drag you out here by force of command and intimidation because he wanted to have another dig at you, to startle you, maybe even scare you. You had to wonder what other intentions he may have with you, what lengths he would possibly go to in order to make you miserable just for kicks.
The fog cleared just enough for you to see him, he was facing you, arrogance carved onto his features as he waited to see you where he knew you would be stood. His sharp, lazy smile wavering however as he was met with just a few too many surprises. You didn't look at him, facing away and refusing to acknowledge his presence - he wanted attention, he wanted a reaction, so you weren't going to give him one. You'd dealt with smeets just like him and giving them the satisfaction of your distress or irritation would only encourage them.
What you didn't realize was that you were crying. Frustration tears streaming passively down your cheeks in droves you were too unaware to wipe away. Though they were barely visible with the given lighting, he still saw them.
He became rigid and uneasy for reasons that eluded him, nearly forgetting that he had to address the stadium and the entirety of his race that would surely be tuning in to witnesses his and Red's first declarations as the newest Tallests.
Luckily, his co-Tallest was there to jab him in the ribs, bringing him back to reality and tearing his stare away from your unnerved frame. He shifted in his position, reluctantly turning to face the same direction Red was as the fog dissipated entirely. His posture stiffened from its usual hunch, straight-backed tension hinting at the internal conflict that was being waged within.
Red side eyed him and adjusted his own posture accordingly.
You felt frustrated, humiliated, and scared. You were scared of him, scared of his intent. You were smeets when he bullied you, small creatures capable of little more than scratching and nipping at one another, seemingly equal in matchup. Now you were both grown, you a lowly caretaker and he an emperor; he could have you ripped limb from limb publicly and no one would bat an eye.
You rocked on your heels with hands coming up to swipe away the babble of tears streaking down your face in a futile attempt to put an end to the constant flow of moisture. You couldn't settle yourself and were only grateful that those around you were too distracted to notice your little breakdown. You suppose this was the result of bottling up your past vexation, having never allowed yourself to cry or outwardly vent your frustrations before. All it took was maybe three seconds of eye contact with the smug bastard and you broke, spilling over and crumbling into a heap of repressed emotions.
The event was a blur to you, you'd stopped crying when your ducts had no more liquid to give but you still felt retched. You composed yourself to short shallow breathes and stared forward hollowly, daring only watch the skirts of their formal dress as they paraded about the stage making grand declarations you were too caught up in soothing yourself to hear.
You could tell when he turned to face your direction, the front seam of his robe facing you and causing you to tense as you, rationally, waited for some damning insult or punishment to be thrown your way. Each time you would only relax and ease back into your daze when he rotated to address some other portion of the crowd. Devolving into something meek for the duration of those two hours in front of your leaders.
Snapping out of it when the announcer's voice broke out from the loudspeakers once more, wrapping up the ceremony and chatting on about the festivities to be thrown immediately. Taking that as your que, your stiff legs broke into pace as you sharply turned to slip past the cheerful talls gossiping and blathering on in the bottom row, not sparing a single peak to your right for fear that you'd be met with a burning stare.
No one stopped you as you ascended the expansive staircase, but you were alone in your journey, everyone else remaining in place and preparing for whatever the announcer had claimed would be coming next. A chill crawled along your skin, you had the express sense that you were being watched but dared not turn back and face the source of your icy sensation. You kept your head down and prayed to the brains that this was the last you'd ever have to see of the upper layer.
True relief only came to you when you stepped out of the building. Feeling the hot stagnant air against you and appreciating the stark difference between it and the airconditioned environment you'd emerged from. You navigated the crowd outside slowly, a weary face among smiles and enthusiastic gestures.
You couldn't wait to be back in your shell deep within the underground, to suppress and forget this ever happened. You just wanted to drown out any conceivable thought with work, busy yourself to exhaustion and ignore every paranoid thought that would threaten to crack your slowly reforming emotional barrier. Right now you were too free to think, too aware that this wasn't going to be the last you heard or saw of Purple. That would be too simple, too easy. Your life from this point on for better or worse was going to be in the hands of someone who'd openly took enjoyment in frustrating and angering you and others in the past.
For the worse, defiantly.
…..X
Four days had passed, nothing had happened in relation to Purple yet, but you still kept a constant edge when your mind was free to neglect your surroundings in turn for mulling internal comments. Currently instructing your fourth and final class of the day through some additional basic obstacle course drills with encouragement and psychical demonstrations on how to improve on technique, only to immediately be snapped to attention when a barely audible knock rapped on the door.
Informing your class that they could take a breather while you went to investigate the interruption, you jogged over to the door.
Confused when you spotted nothing in your immediate line of vision you almost closed the door when a timid voice drew your attention downwards. An extraordinarily petite service drone stood with a package laid out across the table on their head "Oh, sorry I.. didn't see you down there." hesitant to speak up he uttered an "it's okay." in response, just waiting for you to take the box so he could return without punishment for tardiness. After thanking him for the unusual delivery you watched him fast shuffle with difficulty down the hall until he rounded a corner.
Immediately upon closing the door some of your more inquisitive smeets raced the distance from the course to you in order to crowd your boots to get a glimpse at whatever you'd just received. Naturally you were reluctant to open it with the events that transpired less than a week ago but caved to the now full class of glassy eyed pleading and squeaking up at you to show them what you got, you really could be weak when it came to these adorable little beings at times. If it was something offensive or embarrassing you would reseal and easily keep it out of their sights anyhow, so with help from one of your PAK legs you sliced open the tape holding down the mauve flaps to the box and revealed its contents.
Snacks, upper grade treats stacked deep into the container perplexed you. Resting the hard material against your chest with one arm you dug into the box with the other in search of a message or other nonedible item that would assist in clarifying the meaning behind this.. gift? Food was all you found as you jabbed around, whatever this gesture was supposed to entail rocketed your mind into a warzone of high flung rapid conflict.
Intently staring into the sea of goods you attempted to grasp a conclusive reason for anyone, especially the irken you suspected, to send you something of this nature. A light tugging on your robe snapped you back into the real world, the twenty or so smeets at your feet all looking a little worried as they'd been trying to verbally regain your attention for a minute or two to no reply on your end. Applying your instinct to reassure them you told them about the nice things in your hold, to which they eagerly re-established the puppy eyed method without directly asking you to share with them. Clever little things knew how to get what they wanted from you; you were proud at how quickly they could sniff out a weakness and the teamwork put into it but less enthused to be their training dummy.
Jokingly informing them that their 'malicious battle tactics' wouldn't always work, you sat knees folded with the box placed in front of you to sort and distribute to the mass of tiny grabby hands. When everyone had gotten their snack and skittered off to an empty space to ensure that no one else would make an attempt at their meals you were left with a stray bag of chips resting at the bottom of the almost hollowed box. The familiar packaging surfaced the memory of your last day sharing a class with Purple.
One hard long look at the bag later you popped it open and tossed a chip into your mouth. The taste nostalgic in a way. You didn't have any stellar memories regarding the months you’d spent with your original class but the food you were served then compared to what was given in smaller portions in your downgraded class and nowadays in general was miles the difference in quality. With the smeets distracted, you were are able to sit quietly; for a moment in time entertaining the idea that perhaps Purple was trying to make amends with an unremarkable smeetery drone such as yourself.
Why...?
Well, you kept drawing a blank there.