FOTD belongs to @flock-of-the-divine
Inez belongs to @timoogi
Robbie is mine!
Mention of Tani @gnarpgnarpworldtour
TW// Talks of the divine, talks of rule breaking, lmk if I missed anything
ALSO I KNOW I HAD YOU FACT CHECK AND READ UT AS I WROTE BUT PLEASE JUST IF YOU SEE ANYTHING THAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED LMK ( @timoogi )
I'm pretty sure the prompt had paired Inez and Robbie to interact so here is that!
Just a reminder btw that it's okay to hate the character and not the creator within reason, I'm grateful I was allowed to write for Inez and I'm hopeful I portrayed her right. There was already a post made by her creator but I'd like to reiterate that we should not be villain-izing a child who is just trying to protect/defend herself. Period. There are plenty of other characters who were made to be villains if you wish for an antagonist in your story or for a character to dislike. I won't dive into it anymore than that as it's already been addressed, just be more mindful:(.
Robbie dug his hand made trowel into the dampened and dark earth, hooking it under the vegetation and popping it out the ground.
His eyes glanced up at the girl who was holding a woven basket full of different vegetation he and the other vegetable farmer, Tani, had worked so hard to grow this harvest.
Inez was luckily done with her assigned chores when Robbie had approached and asked for help collecting the vegetables and delivering them the cooks, fearing there were too many that were at their peak ripeness to carry alone (though also fearing punishment if he were to allow good food to go to waste)
“I've been meaning to ask”
Robbie decided to strike up conversation with the younger girl as he turned his focus back to uprooting more vegetables, this time discarding the trowel to uproot carrots, narrowing his eyes at a half bitten one and setting it to the side instead of handing it to Inez
“Why are you so like- what's the word..-perfectionist? No, that sounds rude– like, a stickler for the rules?”
Inez blinked in surprise, half at his comment, though mostly at the fact that Robbie seemed more confused (or caught off guard) on what he was saying than Inez had been.
“What?”
“Eh- er, okay I'm sorry, but it's just-”
Robbie handed off a nice ripe (yet dirty) onion to Inez, allowing the girl to drop it in her basket.
“-i mean- i think I'm exaggerating here..? But it's almost like if someone breathes wrong you tell the oracles?”
“I don't tell the oracles if someone is breathing wrong!”
“That's why I said it was an exaggeration-”
“I know! But breathing wrong is a big difference than breaking the rules The Divine has placed for us to remain-”
Inez took a moment to conjure the correct wording in her brain
“Sinless?”
Robbie suggested, pulling another carrot from the ground, pausing to look at the orange vegetable that had somehow grown an extra end, making it appear to almost have legs.
Inez nodded, and Robbie patted the ground beside him. The younger girl hesitated before sitting in the damp soil, though allowing herself to keep a respectful distance between herself and the farmer. She placed the woven basket in front of her, careful not to damage any still growing leaves or crops.
Robbie reached into the basket and took out a perfectly good carrot, he momentarily compared it to the one with the extra end before placing them both laid down in the soil for Inez to see.
“Can you tell me the difference between these two?”
Inez lifted her hand at Robbie’s question and curled three of her fingers and her thumb into her palm, extending her index finger out to point at the two carrots
“That one has an extra end to it, but the other looks kind of normal”
“Like one you'd see in a store, right?”
Inez took a moment to think about Robbie’s example and shrugged
“I guess?”
Robbie wiped his dirt covered hands on his pants before leaning back and staring up at the sun, muttering something about how it's “too damn hot” for the fact that it's almost Fall.
He sat up and stared down at the carrots, trying to jog his memory of their conversation
“What was I trying to say?”
“Something about carrots..?”
Inez gave Robbie an unsure look (mainly due to her confusion as to how someone could forget the conversation they were having not even a minute ago)
“Right!”
Robbie snapped his fingers
“So I guess think about it like this! Us lambs are the carrot with an extra leg, the oracles are the other one.”
“...so I'm a carrot?”
Whatever message Robbie had been trying to convey was getting horribly lost in translation. Inez gave him a confused look (for what felt like the hundredth time-), only causing Robbie to run his hand over his face (unintentionally getting a large streak of dirt down it).
“No- it's more like.. um- okay. So The Divine made us in the ways he saw fit. Of course we all have our differences in personalities or personalities-”
“You said personalities twice…”
“-But at the end of the day the one thing we all have in common is, we are flawed. The Divine ideally made us flawed to remind us of how we need him, so breaking a smaller rule or two should be okay, it just reminds us we are humans.”
Robbie smiled almost triumphantly at his “motivational” speech, nodding to himself and crossing his arms proudly, thinking he made a good point and Inez would appreciate the message.
Inez pressed her eyebrows together in something akin to being upset or even frustrated. Her hands that had been once resting on her folded knees had at some point curled up into the fabric of her skirt.
“in a sense, it stops us from breaking more rules, or thinking we're above one another”
Robbie added on to his original point, slowly picking the caked in dirt out from under his nails.
Inez pressed her lips together in a small frown before finally allowing herself to speak, a bitter taste on her tongue from the echoing words in her head ‘breaking a smaller rule or two should be okay’ no, breaking any rule shouldn't be okay at all for any of the flock.
“Even breaking a small rule is enough to get you punished”
She began, keeping her voice steady and sharp (or at least trying to)
“We are flawed, which is why the rules exist in the first place and why we have to follow them. The Divine is a fair God, The Divine just wants to help us be better. He won't punish us unless we deserve it..”
Inez trailed off
“Well the carrots!-”
“The carrots..?”
Robbie caught a glimpse of Inez’s change in demeanor and paused himself for the first time in his life, taking a moment to think over his words.
“The… the carrots…. They've been popping out half eaten!”
He dramatically changed his tone to a frustrated one as he presented the earlier orange vegetable that he had found to Inez. Sure enough, teeth marks and chunks missing where you could see the inner layers of the carrots were there. Albeit covered in dirt, but there nonetheless.
Inez blinked a few times, her posture relaxed by the slightest bit as she finally released her skirt, the usually well taken care of fabric now slightly wrinkled.
“I was thinking gophers or something have been eating the crops! They've got to be! Or something that is able to burrow! Way too small to be my teeth!”
Inez seemed to light up a bit as the words came flying out of her mouth
“It has to be bunnies!”
She paused, backing down a bit once she recognized her outburst
“It's just- Rabbits eat carrots, everyone knows that..”
Inez looks down at her hands, nervously messing with her fingers and trying to clear some dirt from her nails like Robbie had been doing earlier
Robbie snapped his fingers like Inez had just presented an idea that would end world hunger, a smile on his face.
“You're right! And I found a few carrots above ground too, and rabbits tend to be strong enough to do that! I've seen it!!”
Inez lit up at once once Robbie hadn't rejected her idea, similar to a kid in an ice cream shop when you tell them they can get whatever toppings they want.
“How about…”
Robbie started again, placing the whole carrots in the basket and carefully collecting the half eaten ones in a neat pile
“After we're done delivering the vegetables, we can take these one with the bites and leave it somewhere nice and hidden so the bunnies can eat without getting in trouble? There's no rule against that, right?”
Inez could barely contain her excitement, twirling a loose leaf (though careful to not damage it) between her fingers as she nodded
“Right, Yeah!”