An Orc and her Elf kid.

[drrnchambai241]

When Evelyn was told they found her a new foster home, she simply sighed at the news. This would be her 3rd foster home in a year, and she expected it to end the same way all the others had, with her being sent back because she was to “difficult.”

Being an elf wasn’t something that Evelyn asked for. The other races didn’t always have the highest opinions of her people. The humans viewed her kind as being weak due to their cultures stance on pacifism, something that resulted in them being labelled cowards by some.

The drive down to meet her new foster parent was smooth enough even if there was an awkward silence in the car. After what felt like an hour, they soon arrived at the location, and to say that Evelyn was a little surprised would have been an understatement.

“A bar?” she turned to look at her caseworker.

[PirateLife]

Her caseworker smiled and said, "Don't worry, the owner of this establishment has promised me that she cracks down hard on underage drinking, and I believe her! We wouldn't be putting you with her otherwise." She turned to look at Evelyn more seriously and said, "Evelyn, I know you might not believe me, but I'm really on your side, and I want to find you a place where you're comfortable, loved, and happy, but also have some boundaries. But you also need to put in some effort to show your best side to potential families and caretakers. OK?"

Shelgoborath, who usually just went by "Shelly" for short, was an orc from the Urektah orc clan, one of the most feared and violent orc clans on this continent. There were other orcs who lived in the city now, but most from other clans, very few of the Urektah clan will interact with humans, elves, or any other species in a peaceful way. Shelly had sometimes joined in with her clan's violent bloodlust in her younger years, but she had never really loved it as much of some of her clanmates. When she decided to move to the city with no intentions of trying to loot it, she was rejected by the rest of her clan. That day she lost her mate, her family, and her clan. But she worked hard, and she got a job at a successful bar that was popular with adventurers and other rough and tumble types looking for a place to relax for a few hours and get a drink. And then about a year ago when the owner died with no close living relatives around, he left the bar to Shelly, his best worker who could always handle any dangerous situation that arose in the bar, making her the full owner of it.

Shelly had always wanted to leave something behind her family could be proud of, some sort of legacy, but her old family wouldn't even get anywhere close enough to see how successful she was now. She hoped that maybe she could pass on a legacy some other way, and so she began to apply to be a foster parent. At first, the city had been hesitant to give her any kids. She was a lot nicer than most of her clan, but she was still far more fearsome and scary than most "civilized" people. But when Evelyn was having difficulties finding a good home, a few administrators decided to give Shelly her chance.

Shelly was busy walking around the bar and she heard one of her patrons let out a long profanity-laden sentence and she walked over and slapped him over the back of the head and growled, "I've got a kid coming, watch your langauge!"

He said, "So what, it's your kid! I don't have any fucking kids!"

Shelly slapped him again and said, "If you'd like I can rip your balls off so you'll never have to worry about it." She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she had decided to stop talking like that.

Shelly had light green skin and dark hair tied up behind her head. Her teeth were a bit more pointy and menacing than most other species you'd find in the city, but she mostly kept them inside her mouth so as not to appear too directly menacing. She always tried to maintain a decent appearance, but today she made sure to look especially nice and clean because she was told she might finally get the kid she'd been asking for. She hadn't received much information, but she had been told to expect a teenager named Evelyn. Shelly wasn't sure how she'd relate to the girl, when she'd been a teenager she was already participating in her first raids and swinging around an enormous war axe, but she would do her best to raise a (mostly) civilized teenager.

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Evelyn wasn’t entirely sure how to interoperate the whole situation playing out in-front of her, on one hand she had never been inside a bar before, and the fact whoever was fostering her most likely had a very interesting career; while on the other she worried that her new foster parent was an alcoholic like one of her previous ones.

She stood outside the establishment looking over everything. It looked nice enough and soon her caseworker began pushing her slightly to get her moving inside. Evelyn didn’t own much, just the few trinkets she had in her bag and the clothes she was currently wearing, a purple hoodie, jeans that were starting to fade, and sneaker that look like they should have been thrown out months ago.

Stepping inside, she was soon overcome by the smell of tobacco and beer. A few of the patrons looked over at her direction and a few more even offered her a little wave.

She and her caseworker then made her way to the bartender, and she introduced herself.

“Hello, are you Miss Shelgoborath?” she asked the large orc woman.

“I am here about Evelyn here,” she continued pusher the girl a little forward. “Say hello,” she continued.

“Hi…” Evelyn said a little nervous.

[PirateLife]

Shelgoborath turned around and did her best to smile, though to be honest sometimes people found her smiling face to be a bit unsettling. She said, "Yes, that's me! I go by Shelly for short though." The truth is, most humans and elves pronounced her full name incorrectly anyways. She looked down at Evelyn.

She had known that she probably wouldn't get a young orc to care for. She had been preparing herself on how to care for elves, humans, and other "more delicate" races for months now, but as she looked at Evelyn, she began to doubt herself. Was she really ready to take care of this girl? Most members of her tribe would snap the skinny little girl like a twig and use what little meat she had in a stew. What did Shelly really know about delicate teen girls?

But she pushed those thoughts of self-doubt away. She had promised herself that she'd give this her best shot, many thought that she'd never adjust to life in the city either, but now she's a successful business owner!

"Hello," Shelly said in a voice that was rough but still had a touch of femininity to it, "you must be Evelyn. I've been anxious to meet you! Don't worry, I have a little house around back, you won't have to stay in this old place! You can just call me Shelly for now." She didn't really like to use her last name, because her last name was basically just her clan name, Urektah, which was hated by most civilized people. She was never one for ostentatious titles anyways, she was OK with the girl calling her Shelly.

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Evelyn nodded, “Yes, Miss Shelly”

Evelyn wasn’t sure about this whole thing still, but she didn’t let it show on her face. She had never met an orc before since most of them tended to avoid the cities, but she was willing to see how this played out.

Miss Shelly was tall, much taller than her, and had the muscular body you could expect from an orc. Evelyn was tall for her age and had with a willowy body, something that all elves shared in common. As Miss Shelly and her caseworker began talking Evelyn tuned out for a bit and started looking around at the people in the bar. Most were men, with a few women sprinkled here and there. One of them seemed to have been drinking heavily before Evelyn arrived and had fallen asleep at his booth.

“I believe that Evelyn will do just fine here. If you need anything please give me a call,” her caseworker said, handing Miss Shelly a card with her number on it.

She then looked over at Evelyn and said, “I am sure you will like it here, trust me,” before giving her a pat of the head and heading out.

[PirateLife]

Shelly said, "Regie, come over here for a minute!" Reginald (Regie for short) was a human man who worked for Shelly. He was a large bald man with tattoos covering his arms, and he looked tough. He was one of Shelly's best workers for much the same reason that Shelly had been one of the best for the old owner, he didn't tolerate any non-sense. She said, "Regie, this is Evelyn, she's going to be my foster kid! Evelyn, this is Regie, feel free to ask him for help any time I'm not around!"

Reginald just nodded at Evelyn and said, "Nice to meet you," in a very low voice.

Shelly said, "Anyways, I'm going to take Evelyn back to the house and get her set up in her new room, Regie, you're in charge while I'm gone." And Shelly took Evelyn to her house that was near the bar. The house wasn't precisely suburbia personified. It was a simple light green house with white doors, but it was very clean. Although "cleanliness" was not always high on her people's list of values, she'd learned that it was important to coexist with city folks, and although the inside of her house was rather simple with few decorations, she had also managed to keep it very clean.

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Evelyn stared at the man for a good solid minute before returning his greeting. Most of the interactions she had with humans had been… problematic to say the least. Regie did seem friendly enough in that he actually said hello to her, but if Miss Shelly trusted him enough to watch over her bar, she would at least give him a chance.

The house was nice enough. While it did look plain, she had no problem with that. Looking around she noticed the usual trapping that you would find in someone’s home.

After taking a quick look at her surroundings, she then went back to looking at where Miss Shelly was taking her.

[PirateLife]

Shelly could see that Evelyn uncomfortable with Regie, but unfortunately kids usually don't make their way through the foster system without some emotional baggage, so she was prepared for things like that. Regie was a patient man and wouldn't require Evelyn to be 100% comfortable with him right away, they'd have to give her time!

Shelly led her into a simple bedroom. There was a bed in the corner with pink covers on it, and the walls were white. There was also a wooden desk and chair in the corner opposite the desk with a small reading lamp on it. Shelly said, "This is your room. I know it doesn't have much now, but we can repaint it if you like and go out and buy more decorations and things!" Shelly wasn't even sure exactly what most teen girls would want in a room. Her clan was nomadic, and although it was common for most young orcs to make a few drawings on the interior and exterior of their tents, she found the decoration of city teens to be far more complex.

[drrnchambai241]

Walking into the room she looked around to take in her surroundings. The room was plain, but not in a bad way. The bed looked comfortable, even if the pink sheets wasn’t exactly her style. There was also a desk with a little lamp on it if she ever wanted to use it. When Miss Shelley told her that she had options, she was a little surprised, her previous foster homes had a “what you see is what you get” policy when it came to their rooms.

“Thank you Miss Shelly,” came the reply from the girl, even if it did sound a little robotic. She walked over to the bed and placed her bag on it before walking back over to the woman.

[PirateLife]

Shelly said, "Now, I am very happy to have you here, Evelyn. I want you to feel free to come to me any time you need something or have a problem. You're free to use any room in the house, but if you use the kitchen, tell me if you use up most or all of any ingredients so I can replace them, and tell me if I don't have anything you'd like! If you don't know how to cook, I can teach you, and feel free to ask me to help you make anything, too! If you don't know how to use kitchen equipment without starting a fire or anything like that, then ask for my help first. I expect you to keep this room clean and I will ask you to help out with some chores around the house, but I won't overload you! Your main duty will be to go to school and get a good education. You must keep your grades up, I don't want to see any failed tests or projects! You can have friends over, but ask me before you invite over more than 3, and always tell me before you bring any boys over! Don't stay out later than 8 PM without telling me, and be in bed before 10. You can come visit me in the bar any time I need to be working there, but no drinking anything but water or juice until you're 18. And don't copy the foul mouths of some of the guys in there! I can write down these rules for you if you need, but I think they're pretty straight-forward, don't you? And if you don't follow them, I'll have to spank your bottom."

She wasn't sure how the young elf would feel about the last part. Young orcs were spanked almost every day any time they had even the most minor slip up. It was simply the way of the orcs and Shelly hadn't even really questioned it when she was young. Perhaps she'd be a little bit softer than her tribe had been with her, but overall she considered that the discipline she received when she was younger was one of the few good things her tribe did for her modern life, and so she certainly wasn't going to discard that part of her history!