#fenixtj

But a glance up at Ellie and she smiles. "I have my Princesca, and you too, mija. The Condesa is kind and someday you will rule, and we will serve by your sides and it will be as good as familia - no, better."

A little frown, and then she impulsively hugs the pooka.

"Oh, and the gatitas! Oof!" She is hugged, and pats Ellie back. "Oh, do not muss your dress or it is a thousand lashes for me." But, she grins.

"I won't let anything bad happen."

"Me neither" Ariel says

Holger stands nearby struggling to translate this.

Standing up, she tucks the book under her arm. "I will go check on the churros." A bow to Ellie, and she hurries off!

Unimportantly, the wilders and grumps are mingling, eating, and chatting/networking.

"Bye Salma!"

"Ariel, we should make flowers for all our new friends. We know their favorite colors now..."

"We do! " She says "And I have been using spring magic to help them grow. "

Big eyes. "OH! Real flowers!"

"well sure, I got DeBuke training.."

"Wow. I was just going to make them with crayons..."

"Oh" A blush "Well, maybe should do that, there's still not ENOUGH flowers... "

Holger turns as if he saw something

Then blinks, maybe it was his imagination

"...What is it? Ah.. que?"

"El Nino.." he rattles ..

And makes a gesture much shorter than him, abut the girls size in height

"Nino... boy?"

"Si" He nods

Jessica, having made the rounds, finds a bit of wall to hold up and sips her cerveza.

A figure yanks at Jessica's pants leg, possibly scaring the shit out of her

Because it's without warning.

She does startle, and look down; she manages to avoid kicking reflexively.

The sluagh boy has painted a skull like pattern over his lips (See picture in OOC room)

Jessica regards him a moment. "You are from Sunkissed Waves?" She murmurs.

"...." he says in the lively crowd's noise.

Jessica crouches, leaning to listen.

"yes." he repeats

"Welcome to Fenix. I am Jessica King. What should I call you?"

"I am Ahpuch" He says slowly "I tried calling myself 'slowly dying' but folks tell me not to be weird"

"Ahpuch." She pronounces carefully. "Do you understand why you are here?"

"you need a whipping boy" he nods

then he smiles, the painted teeth creating a toothy smile no sluagh could do without said art "kidding. Baron said whipping boys wreen't allowed so I was your problem now"

"Something like that. I don't think you should be punished for something someone else did."

"Okay." He says staring at her "But what do I do here?"

"Well, we'll work that out. You will have duties that match your skills and ambitions."

"Would you like to stay here, or would you rather we find somewhere else? If you like, you can be here a while and decide later."

"I think I'd like to be here awhile" he says "i will just find some hole to dig into or something, won't be trouble"

"We have an sluagh childlings here before. We'll find you space, or if you'd rather make your own space, we can do that too."

"I can just do that? make my own space?"

"If you like. Be considerate of others."

"yes, countess. thank you countess. " A pause "no varich live here do they? I mean, in the hold?"

"No, Ahpuch."

another smile and he nods

"Would you like to come meet some of the other childlings?"

"are they nice?" cautious

"I think so." She agrees.