He swept the credits into a safebox, and she tried not to show her distaste as a long, forked tongue flicked in and out of his slightly-parted jaws. Living around aliens, one tended to see all matter of bizarre habits, and eventually got used to them, but Garraus always had a special way of making her skin crawl. She may have been young when Earth exploded, but she remembered enough about it to know of some of the fauna that had gone up in flames with it.<i>Snake</i>, she had decided, was a very apt term to describe her boss. He was just as sly and slinking as one.<br/><br/>She managed--just barely--to keep a straight face as he chided her, but there was no hiding the way her jaw tightened with suppressed anger. He could pull that routine all he wanted, both of them knew the only reason her rent was so low was because he had some sort of fetish for humans. He wasn't the first of that type she had ever crossed paths with--apparently, humans were now considered "exotics" with how few of them were left. It seemed that some, Garraus included, got off on the idea of fucking an endangered species.<b>"I'll keep that in mind,"</b>she said through gritted teeth, briefly entertaining the idea of throwing him in front of a hoverbus one day. If she did it right, it'd just look like a terrible bloody accident, right?<br/><br/>She snorted quietly as he waved her off, complaining of her stinking. Hard labor tended to have that effect.<b> "G'night, then," </b>she called behind her as she walked off, returning back to the lift. When she figured she was out of earshot, she scowled.<b>" At least <i>I</i> don't have fleas,"</b>she muttered under her breath.<b><i>"Jackass." </i></b>Her stormy expression remained as the lift doors slid open, only to soften almost immediately as she saw who was stepping off. Astor had been one of the few who hadn't reacted to the news of a human moving in the same way one might have reacted to news of a rat infestation. Tamelyn had built up a thorny facade over the years, but those who managed to get past it found a friend for life, and Astor was one of them.<b>"Evening, fuzzball,"</b>she greeted back, using the affectionate nickname she had come to give the downy insectoid. She leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms, leaving a foot in the elevator door so it wouldn't close.<b>"Yeah, they needed me to cover another guy's shift today. Had a mishap with one of the gravity cranes, apparently. He's busted up, but he'll live."</b>Dock work could be dangerous, and while Tam didn't have the raw strength of some of the other alien workers, she was tough enough, and more than nimble enough to navigate the platforms. That was one of her few advantages there.<b>"What about you, where're you off to?"</b>Kree were nocturnal, she had learned shortly after meeting Astor, and they most often seemed to cross paths when she was ended her day and he was beginning his.