#Aratek Lazere

[altorenn]

Severe Mutants

It’s strange, working with the Severe Mutants. Their skin feels thick and waxy, and if you press down too hard you leave a dent for a bit, until their blood evens it back out. Their heads are almost perfectly round, or an offset gourdy oval, or wide and pointed. They often have no faces, just a smooth round surface; or else they have only one eye, or their eyes are different shapes and sizes, or there are no eyes but one wide, toothy mouth. They have no legs as wigglers, only a thick, wide, sap-sticky body with two flipper-like undeveloped arms, and so often the shuttles will find two or three that are identical in every way except the color of their mismatched, monocolor horns.

Aratek loves working with Severe Mutants. She loves the blue ones that no one’s ever seen except straight off the shuttles from the Distant Forest, and she loves the dark gray ones that have had cousins on Al Torenn for decades now. The blue ones learn to speak so much faster than normal trolls, raising their flappy little arms and babbling excitedly any time she comes near, and the darker ones scoot their way over to follow her no matter where she moves, sticking to her legs and feet whenever they can. She loves them, and they love her too. No one else loves these strange little wigglers quite as much as she does.

It always feels so lucky that Aratek has an Empress who encourages raising and educating mutants, including these ones. Not many in the brooding caverns will take them in, wanting to stick to normal, proper trolls as much as they can; so the Empress has made exceptions for those caretakers willing to embrace her vision, lifting headcount limitations on those who come to take Severe Mutants off the shuttles and raise them. No other Empress in the confederation’s history has let caretakers raise more than twelve trolls at a time, but Aratek has raised twelve, sixteen, twenty of these all at once, and she’ll do it again with a skip in her step. It’s hard work, but with a skip in her step and a song to help them grow, she can always seem to manage.

It’s easier with the darker ones. One or two toys and they all pile onto one another, bonking heads and smacking arms, running over each other’s tails. Aratek wonders if this is how some of the older caretakers raised their more standard cousins, when they whip each other into an energetic frenzy. Sometimes they start arguing, pushing each other over and away from the toys, and she has to start taking them out of the playpen to take a nap. But they always turn out just right in the end. The blue ones take more toys, more songs, more inquisitive nibbles at her fingers as they try to figure out how a big body works. They’re always so surprised when she spreads her fingers apart and wiggles them one by one, and they always try to do it themselves - they look so silly trying to split their little flippers, and Aratek sometimes laughs when they just keep trying to make it work. But sometimes they get sad or upset, and she has to sit on the floor and hold them for a little while and promise they’ll grow up to have big hands one day with fingers they can wiggle all they want. They’re trusting, so very trusting, and she loves them all the more for it.

Getting them into a cocoon is usually a battle, though. The silk scares them, and much of the time the blue ones try to run away. Aratek will promise them over and over that she’ll be there to help them get out when it’s time, and she holds the ones that cry until they’re ready to be brave. The darker ones are usually easier, but when one of them decides they don’t want to grow up yet they hiss and flail and run away as long as they can. Aratek waits until they’re sleeping, sometimes, if she can’t convince them it’ll be okay. Those ones are usually grumpy when they finish pulling their way out, but they can’t really be mad at her even then. They love her, after all, and they know it’s important for kids to grow up and make a difference in the world.

Aratek never has to look very far to find a lusus for any of her children. A lot of the time, some are waiting outside the caverns when she brings everyone up, like they’ve been waiting to find the right young troll to take care of. She doesn’t know how the lusii always know when it’s time, but she doesn’t think it really matters all that much. Her kids are in capable hands, and she can always count on them to be there for her and her kids. And it makes it so much easier to find the next shuttle for another group of wigglers, however many she can bring back home. There’s always more than she can take, but that’s fine. She’s not the only caretaker working here. Al Torenn has many good caretakers, enough to fuel their great export of paragon trolls. She just loves these little guys the most out of all of them.

[altorenn]

Aratek Lazere

Sylph of Life. One of the new generation of caretakers, grappling with the standards her predecessors set down - and the consequences of their methods. Patient but with endless quiet energy, Aratek specializes in raising Severe Mutants with love and careful attention, doing her best to give them a place in the ruins of the Alternian Empire.

[altorenn]

Omelas Telvin: Mage of Void. A young mutant struggling to find work on Al Torenn, despite having plenty of mechanical talent. Does not stand up for himself unless he’s in immediate danger. Sometimes wishes he’d been born with normal blue blood instead of this crushed-berry variant. Trying not to question too many systems at once. Knows he’ll never get off this planet. Good friends with Aratek Lazere.