"Quit sodding off and get a move on, you nimrod!"

The berating tone of his supervisor proved to be quite successful in pulling him out of his dreamy stupor. It got him to move along and get back to his duties as Quercus sighed under his breath. He had been doing what he usually always did, which was wondering why he had to do what he had to. That was when Tepal, as the violet-eyed supervisor of the department was known, had brought him back down to the hard reality from the wonderful place that was his brain, brimming with ideas and curiosity.

"Tepal, why?" he drawled out the last word as he felt the presence of his supervisor right behind him.

"Don't make me have to report you, boy," Tepal's warning tone would have gotten through to probably every other worker under him, but he was sure he couldn't get through this one's thick skull so briskly and simply.

He had never quite understood why the boy had been causing so much trouble ever since he had begun working there after the completion of his mandatory education period. It was the most prestigious and sought-after department of the prominent and only non-service industry in the planet.

Quercus hailed from a well-known and respected family but he had done far more harm than good by not focusing properly on his all-important conveyor-belt-level packaging duties. He did show some signs of possessing the qualities and talents his clan was known for but he never realized those signs to their complete potential. He even had their trademark light brown hair that resembled the bristles of a brush and dark grey eyes but he didn't resemble them in any other way.

These duties were no joke and were to be performed with complete precision for the best effect for all of the inhabitants of the planet. If they failed, the biannual flourish of all of the food crops which fed their food input stream would fail, and the majority of them would starve to death. What would be left of life in such a scenario?

It certainly felt off-putting and unbelievable that the fate of the entire planet of Zephyr lay in the hands of a gullible and day-dreaming youngster like Quercus, but there wasn't much Tepal could do about it. He could only hope for the boy to snap out of it soon so that there would be no adverse effects. After watching him carelessly put together one package without even checking for it to be completely dry, he huffed and proceeded to educate the boy yet another time on what had to be done.

"Listen to me, and listen clearly, Acutissima. This will be the last time I teach you," he moved him out of the way and borrowed the boy's gloves, pushing his green hair out of his eyes before he set to work.

While Tepal slogged on and on and told him how to ensure the packages were as dry and light as possible, Quercus' attention strayed to the small box-like window set in the bleak grey wall to his side. The sky gleamed with streaks of yellowish light from the star that Zephyr orbited as he marveled at the violet colour of the sky that seemed a shade lighter than Tepal's eyes, his mind wandering like it always did.

"Quercus!" Tepal couldn't hold back his anger anymore as he gently set down the finished package in his hand and pulled off the gloves, throwing them at the boy to catch his attention.

He pulled the front of Quercus' neon pink mandated outfit towards himself as his usually high-pitched voice dropped to a menacingly low tone, "I will not give you another chance, boy. You have disgraced all of your clan and all of us on Zephyr. I don't know how it is that you got this job but you're absolutely unfit for this. You won't even bother to learn how to make use of your inherited ability to perform this task; it's in your very DNA, but you won't learn to use your abilities for the good of everyone."

Quercus gulped nervously, his eyes flickering between Tepal's eyes that were nearly completely violet, the usually black pools disappearing, and his brown-clad arm holding him, his muscles bulging out as multiple crests. All he could focus on was why they had such different eye colours and why they were mandated to wear such different colours. It wasn't a matter of him preferring brown over neon pink or violet over grey. Many perhaps would've written it off as different genetics and different work positions requiring different colours for easy differentiation, but Quercus just wouldn't have it.

A sigh of frustration exiting out his oral orifice, Tepal breathed slowly and deeply to keep his raging temper in check before addressing the elephant in the room, "This has never been anywhere remotely close to what you want to do, right?"

His attention still wandering, Quercus responded with a nervous nod when Tepal snapped his fingers next to his ears. A tiny part of him told him he was in trouble, but Quercus inevitably concentrated on how he had always wondered about Tepal's background and desperately yearned to ask him about it, and yet he had never found a situation appropriate enough.

"Quercus! Look, I'll be in big trouble if anyone finds out that I helped one of the prestigious Packagers quit, but you have to if you're going to perform so pathetically. I don't have the power to fire you so you'll have to do it on your own. You're so distracted all the time, and this certainly isn't the right place for someone like that. You could probably find a job in the Gears section or in the external maintenance area, you'd be well-suited for that. Now, if anyone asks you, I didn't tell you this."

Tepal had barely finished speaking when the audio amplifiers built into the walls blared a summons for Tepal and Quercus Acutissima to report to the headquarters immediately.

A fleeting look of pure panic ran through Tepal's features before he composed himself and warned Quercus he hadn't told him anything before he proceeded as ordered almost robotically. Quercus swallowed nervously and followed him, waving at his neighbour at work. She happened to live but a street away from the street his place was situated by, although her house came under a different area, and his under another.

"What did you do this time, Quercus?" she lifted one of her jet black eyebrows at him, her hazel eyes sparkling with curiosity as her walnut brown forehead became marred by frown lines.

"Nothing, I swear, Reggie!" Quercus attempted to settle her concern so she wouldn't get into trouble.

Regia Juglans, however, had absolutely no intention of staying ignorant and safe as she observed with keen eagle eyes Quercus returning to his designated workplace and resuming work intact. However, his eyes had lost that excited look that he always had when he was questioning something else and was close to figuring it out, just like he had had before he went to the headquarters. She awaited Tepal's return, but he didn't return for the rest of the day, prompting her to get back to her work.

Regia, however, did happen to notice that there was another person who came in and took Tepal's place. He donned the same brown robes, but was vastly different in that he was far more built and seemed more intimidating. He sent her a rather menacing smirk that sent her scuttling to return to her work, baring his fang-like yellow teeth that struck a rather conspicuous contrast with his bright blue hair and red eyes that gleamed with devilish joy.

Bordeaux Melange had returned to his position, and he was all set to resume his duties as the residential terrorist of all of the employees of Zephyr's most controlled packaging department. He had certainly enjoyed his previous reign, and he was surely going to enjoy this even more, his sadistic side chuckling in enthusiasm.

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Hey there! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Ooh, also, feel free to let me know any thoughts you have about this...

Plus there are these covers I have right now so let me know which is your favourite or seems the best and any improvements that can be made!

Let me know what you think and I'll probably post the next chapter next week (if I'm done with it by then). Until then, sayonara!

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