Dorm Kitchen

[Stein]

It was mid-afternoon and Miss Alice was in the small kitchen by the dorm building. She was enjoying a quiet afternoon of baking, cupcakes to be exact. She was doing it now because she was baking up a batch of rhizome powder cupcakes and didn’t want anyone interfering; there was nothing lethal, just enough to knock the average person out for about 15 minutes; but Alice ate them because the rhizome powder had a nice tang to it that she enjoyed. “Are they done yet? I would like one!” Mint bunny said excitedly while he was sitting on the counter beside where she was working. Alice just giggled “They’ll be done in a second, you must be patient. Patience is the mark of a cultured individual.” She went on to ‘lecture’ while she pulled them out of the over and set them on a cooling rack beside Mint Bunny. She had them quickly cooled, and frosted with a rainbow of colors: blue, green, pink, indigo, yellow, and some had sprinkles on them.

Alice put the last batch of cupcakes in the oven and sat down to wait while they cooked. She reached into her bag and pulled out her swords and knitting before she found her needle point and sat down on a stool to continue working on it.

[Sabata]

Zeran could be found where he could usually be found when he wasn't training, on a mission, or in class. That was in his room, smoking. It wasn't like he bothered with people all too often, so mostly he just sat alone in his room, smoking or gaming, in his free time. Somehow, through the cloves scented tobacco smoke, Zeran managed to catch the scent of something quite appealing from the floors below. He almost immediately recognized the smell as some form of cake baking. His mouth watered.

Zeran smashed his cigarette into the ash tray on the night stand next him, careful not to crush the filter and activate the smoke bomb inside, then hopped up off of his bed where he had been comfortably reclining. After sauntering downstairs, Zeran's single visible eye gleamed with a look comparable to what he got during a mission. Those cupcakes were his objective. He just needed to figure out how to get one without alerting the girl doing the needle point. He couldn't just walk up and ask for a cupcake, that would be far too simple, nowhere near fun enough.

He glanced back and forth rapidly between the girl and his delicious, rainbow frosted objective. He needed a distraction, something to get her away from the cupcakes. Something subtle . . . something that he could do without letting anyone else on and without alerting Alice too quickly about what had just happened. He slowly pulled out a throwing knife and tried to pick the best place to throw it to distract Alice . . .

[Johnathan]

There was a slight pop in the room, as a teen with a large rifle pointed a Zeran appeared with a smile. "Bang." He said in a monotonous tone. "Executed for trying to steal the queens pastries. You should be ashamed, it's such a pitiful way to go, don't you think?" Alex sniffed the air as his face curled up in mock disgust. "You wreak by the way. Totally spoiling this delicious atmosphere. If you could do me a favor and just leave, that'd be great." Alex sneered in bemusement before lazily turning his head towards Alice.

"You're grace, this creepy perv here was just about to try to nab one of your precious goodies. If you're not careful, he may push you up against the counter while you're not looking and do naughty things." Alex turned away placing a hand over his mouth to conceal it from Zeran and called out in his best feminine voice. "Off with his head I say!"

[Rikka]

Walking towards the dorm kitchen was a woman with long purple hair, about 5'8 in height, in short shorts, and purple plaid shirt which was tied in the front. Her shirt was just showing off the hint of a lacy purple bra. Yellow eyes spotted one male hiding outside the kitchen door and another speaking in the kitchen. Arching a brow she grinned mischievously. It was time to put her new look to good use. And by the smell coming from the kitchen it would be well worth spending all that time with Blair today. Turning her grin into a smile that Blair would wear she walked over to the door and looked over all the kids in the room.

"Alright Apple its Game time!" The high pitched words would not be audible to anyone in the dorm kitchen. It would be audible to someone else though.

"Hello! How is everyone today?" The person before all of them for all intents and purposes looked, smelled and sounded exactly like the english teacher Blair. Her yellow eyes rested on the girl in pink and took in the details quickly. Deciding it must be Alice who Blair liked to pick on her smile widened a bit. "Well Hello Alice! What happened to the dress I put you in this morning? It looked so cute on you!" Yellow eyes traveled over the cupcakes and wondered how she could confiscate them.

Looking over the two males she noted the gun in Alex's hand and almost let herself slip up in her disguise as she opened her mouth to ask about it. "I do believe that Weapons are supposed to be put away when your not in a practice range." Her voice showed slight concern but more amusement as she covered up her slip. Later when her cover was blown she would ask about it and maybe she could coax him into allowing her to use it.

[Stein]

Alice smiled. She had smelt Zeran when he came to the kitchen, she was planning on greeting him, Mint bunny had seen Zeran’s knife and told Alice about it, so Alice had pulled a knife of her own, but only a small paring knife; she stopped when she heard Alexander ‘pop’ behind her, and quickly hid the knife in her apron pocket as she stood up and turned to greet them. “Good afternoon Alexander, thank you for saving my pastries, He could have had one if he simply asked, and I would like him to stay I’ve never met him before.” Alice walked over to Zeran and curtsied as she said I’m Miss Alice Kiraland, it’s a pleasure to meet you. What’s your name?” She turn as Alex as he finished his ‘naughty’ comment and attempted to sentence Zeran. “Naughty things?” She said innocently “A gentleman would never do such things. And will the ladies of the court please be silenced; it is for the queen to sentence people not the court.” she finished as she looked at Alex, knowing he was the one being silly. Mint Bunny flew over and landed on Zeran’s head, ready to jump if Zeran tried to touch him.

Apple heard the quiet idea that it was game time, and she recognized who they was pretending to be, and she knew the best place to hide; She inched between Blair’s breasts, being careful to hide behind the purple-lace bra and watched silently.

At that moment Ms. Salem walked into the kitchen, greeting them all excitedly. Alice took a few steps back and curtsied again to Blair. “Good afternoon Ms. Salem.” She said as she did so, and stood back up. “I-I did not approve of your outfit choice for me, and decided to wear my own dress choice instead. You may have it back.” She reached into her bag and handed Ms. Salem a carefully wrapped bundle. As Blair turned to address Alex Alice could swear that she’d seem something green and red in Blair’s bra what could she be doing now, wait… When Blair asked about Alex’s weapon Alice knew it wasn’t Blair…she wasn’t quite her usual self.

[Sabata]

"Uh huh. Alex, do I need to remind you which one of us has an automatic sniper rifle?" Zeran asked, dealing with the situation nonchalantly. Sure, Alex had better range and was more specialized, but Zeran did have more firepower overall. He also was more of a trained killer. Zeran stood up and as he turned to Alice, a subtle flick of his wrist sent the kukri spinning out of his hand before anyone commented on it. Hopefully it would Alex squarely between the eyes.

"Name's Zeran Heartt." Zeran replied to Alice, it certainly wasn't rude like it might usually be, but it definitely wasn't formal or polite. Besides, he wanted to minimize the formalities, the fewer the people that knew he was in the Melanthios family the better. He didn't need any enemies more than the bitchy fire dragon who didn't like admitting her flaws. She was just a pain in the ass and he truly hoped that she gave Erebus a cause to rip her a new one. Zeran truly couldn't believe that for once he was rooting for Erebus on anything.

And then Blair walked in. Or at least someone trying to be Blair. Zeran watched closely and it seemed a little off. He couldn't quite put a finger on it, but that certainly wasn't Blair Salem. Unfortunately, he couldn't put anything substantial behind his suspicions, so he kept quiet about it. He didn't need to seem like a looney and not have Alex shut up at any point whatsoever about it. He'd just watch for something definitive, then call the impostor out on it. For the moment, it was just better to play along.

"Anyways- The fuck just landed on my head?" Zeran asked as Mint Bunny landed on his head. It wasn't entirely pleasant, like having a mass of marshmallows land on his head at random. Having anything land on your head at random was rather perturbing, but especially so when it felt like a mass of warm marshmallows. ". . . I'll just go grab a cupcake now if nobody minds." Zeran said, walking over to the cooling rack, still feeling the warm, fluffy mass on his head.

[Johnathan]

There was a double pop as Alex vanished just long enough for the knife to pass right through where he had been sitting. When he reappeared, he stood up and was about to give Zeran an earful, when something weird gave him cause to pause. Zeran's shadow rose up out of the ground behind him as he reached for a cupcake, and then collapsed down onto him.

"Zeee~raaaa~nn~!" Two slender arms draped in black wrapped around Zeran, holding him from behind. "You just gotta help me!" Veronica looked worn out, and smelt noticeably of alcohol. "Erebus forbids me from telling the little princess where he is, and now she looks so sad all the time, even when she's sleeping! Her eensy weensy pouty face is bad for my health, I can't deal with it. If you go cheer her up, I'll owe you a favor." Veronica collapsed into one of the chairs at the table, grabbing one of the cupcakes. "And I won't forget just because I'm drunk; I have a perfect memory. You cheer her up, the favor is yours." Veronica shoved the entire cupcake into her mouth inelegantly, and continued once she had swallowed. "Not to mention that Erebus just recently received word that SHE** would be coming here. Gods, I can feel the headache already." Veronica turned to Alice with a blank expression and deadpanned,

"You know these are poisoned right? I mean," she continued, grabbing another off the tray and popping it into her mouth. "They're still good; just slightly poisonous." She pointed at Alex and gave him a scary look. "You probably shouldn't eat one. Very dangerous. I'll take you're share." Grabbing another cupcake, this time Veronica took only a bite before pulling out a bottle that seemed to be made of a human skull and taking a big drink from it, ignoring whatever looks she might have been getting from the other occupants in the room.

**Veronica is referring to the daughter of the emperor of Ansharad(the princess). Zeran would know who she was referring to, as the Melanthios are not only contract assassins, they also serve the Ansharad imperial court directly. The princess has a boisterous and pushy personality, and while she's a good person, she often tries to "help" the melanthios; often visiting their estate and following on assignments.

The family likes her and feels it's good for a member of the imperial family to be so involved, but that said she's also clumsy and a bit of a headache.

[Rikka]

Blair looked over them and noted that both Alice and Zeran seemed to know she was not Blair. Unfortunately with no proof they couldn't out her to the other one. Chuckling she took the bundle and flicked it open revealing a mid-thigh length strawberry red with pretty green lace along the edges and spagetti straps. Suddenly a girl appeared from Zeran's shadow and started complaining to him. Blinking as the girl spoke up about poison in the cupcake she looked over at Alice. She poisoned her cupcakes? How interesting. A grin graced her lips as her eyes narrowed slightly like a cats. She really wanted to taste the cupcakes. Placing the dress over her arm she looked at Veronica and listened to the woman complain again.

Sneaking down the hall toward the commotion were 10 little tribal looking mice. They were moving along the wall since they had smelled the cupcakes. Their goal was to obtain one or two to offer to their god. Upon peering into the kitchen though they found it full of people and started to whisper among themselves. Nodding they let the lady in black in the kitchen distract people while three raced up the counter and hid behind the cupcakes. The others stuck to the shadows and spaced themselves out on the floor. Waiting a beat the four on the counter dropped a cupcake to two mice just below. Catching it the 'female' looking mouse started sneaking toward the door while another ran up to help catch the next cupcake. On it went until at least half a dozen cupcakes were slowly making their way toward the door. The last four mice quickly climbed off the counter but not before they noticed Apple and Clover.

[Stein]

Alice turned pink when Blair flipped open the bundle to reveal the dress, it had pretty colors on it…but was kinda short. She quickly turned towards Zeran, who was approaching the cupcakes so that Briar couldn’t see how pink she was. Mint Bunny giggled as Zeran reacted to him. “I’m a ninja!” he said. He planned to steal some of the cupcake when Zeran grabbed one and nibble on it…just to see if Zeran could see him. “What landed on your head? Alice asked with a knowing smile “Is there a problem?” Alice asked right before Veronica emerge from the shadows. Alice recognized Veronica from the Melanthios family as one of the few ‘Master Assassins’ and masters of the dark arts. She dropped into a low curtsey and said “Good afternoon Madame Veronica. I’m curious, who is ‘she’, is that the princess of Ansharad? I would very much like to meet her if it’s allowable.”

When Veronica commented on the poisonous cupcakes Alice asked “Someone’s been messing with my cupcakes?” Alice looked around worriedly “Who would do that? Have I made someone mad?” That’s when she noticed the mice, who were systematically removing cupcakes from the counter, and trying to leave the kitchen. She walked over and begun picking up the cupcakes and looking at who was stealing them. She was going to put them in her bag, but paused after picking up two and was looking at the 2 little mice that were wearing tribal clothing, and had small spears on their back; they were clinging to the bottom of the cupcakes, determined to keep the cupcakes. She smiled “If you asked you could have as many as you wished, and these ones have poison apparently. I’ll get you some different ones. How many would you like, and what colors? The mice on the bottom of the cupcakes Alice was holding immediately transformed back into their red/blue polka dotted, and orange plaid colored Henko forms; This startled Alice enough that she squealed a little, and dropped them as she stepped back.

Apple saw the mice and wanted to say ‘hi’, but she remembered that Blair had said they were playing a game, so she stayed quiet and continues watching quietly “I want a cupcake” She whispered in Henko, so that no one else would hear her.

[Sabata]

Before Zeran could grab a cupcake, what amounted to a large, gothic cloak draped over his shoulders. Zeran glanced at the currently rather drunk assassin. Ugh, the fuck does she want? he thought to himself. Veronica was an annoyance on her own, add alcohol and you had Zeran wishing that she had little enough skill when drunk that she could be pushed out of a rather tall window without a moments thought. Unfortunately, Veronica tended to retain most of her lethality even when inebriated. It was an enviable skill, to say the least.

"Give me a break, Veronica. When you're not shoving your chores onto me, you're asking me to do simple things you obviously fail at like 'Cheer up Eirika.' How come that vampire who works in the library never gets asked to do this stuff?" Zeran asked. Of course, he referred to Aislin, but he couldn't be bothered to remember the name of someone that he rarely talked to and when he did it resulted in little to no conversation. Zeran didn't have much to ask for from Veronica anyways. Besides, he didn't want people let on to the fact that he had a soft spot. He'd probably visit Eirika later, regardless of whether Veronica knew or not.

"Wait, wait, wait. She? HER?! Why?!" Zeran asked incredulously. He truly couldn't stand the princess. He barely put up with his superiors in the Melanthios family, let alone a pushy princess trying to tell him how to do his job. It wouldn't be the first time she had caused him to miss a sniper shot via breaking his concentration, alerting the target that someone was trying to kill him, which meant he had a bigger mess to clean up.

"Poisoned . . ." Zeran muttered to himself, eyeing the cupcakes, then casting a glance at Alice. She didn't seem the type to make enemies, which meant either she poisoned them, or a random sociopath was running around campus poisoning food. Honestly, both options seemed equally likely given the school they were at. He ignored the mice and other such odd events. He had been inured to the quirks of people and things at this academy by that point. You could tell him you a pole dancing, necromancer, Dragon who aged backwards and Zeran wouldn't be the least bit surprised by this point.

[Johnathan]

Veronica stood abruptly, and to the other occupants of the room it would look like she simply draped an arm over Zeran's shoulder. In reality, it was much closer to a headlock with the intent of ripping his head from his shoulders.

"My, my, my! What's this? Little Zery's got quite the attitude today. Here I am thinking of doing you a favor and what do I get?" Veronica pulled a black lace handkerchief from nowhere, covering the lower half of her face and sniffing as though she were crying. "Such a hateful response. It's almost like you don't even like me!" When Zeran began to question the princess's visit, Veronica completely ignored him, letting him go and sniffing her way over to Alice. Stepping behind her, Veronica draped herself over the girl's shoulders, gingerly wrapping her into an embrace. With a sigh, she lay her head down on Alice's right shoulder, her long black hair slowly cascading forwards.

"What a nosy little girl." Veronica brought her mouth right up to Alice's ear, before speaking quietly in a sing songy voice. "If it were something you were meant to know, you would have already heard about it, right?" As if to punctuate her statement, Veronica ended by nibbling gently on the girl's ear, smiling suggestively to the rest of the room, and snapping open her black lace fan to hide both of their faces.

[Rikka]

As the mice were caught the two who were picked up clung to the stolen cupcakes and stared at Alice before listening to her. Suddenly they chatted excitedly between themselves as they heard her say they were poisoned. They decided it must be organic cause they had taken bites out of a seventh one on the counter. Nodding they looked back at Alice and changed into their blob forms at her question. As soon as they did though the girl dropped them. Screaming in Henko they hurtled toward the floor. Hitting the floor from that high up could possibly damage their nuclei.

Clover gasped as Alice dropped her mice out of surprise and dove forward catching her poor mice. The mice squirmed out from under the cupcakes and quickly oozed up their god's arm visibly shaking. Clover reverted back to her normal form placing the cupcakes on the counter and had to readjust her shirt for a second before calming down the mice. Her form now consisted of black hair in a pixie cut and was about 5'10'' with lightly tanned skin. The bra was obviously gone where it had gone was unclear.

Looking toward Alice she glared slightly. "Do you know how close your were to damaging my mice? They are rather fragile!We need to have a talk......in private." Noting how uncomfortable Alice was with Veronica she grabbed the girl's arm and dragged her out of the kitchen and away from everybody. Yanking her into the hall way she got them out of ear shot and let go of her before looking her over. "You alright? I heard from Blair that your a proper lady and I figured you probably aren't used to the attention Veronica gives to some people."

[Stein]

Alice decided that it’s be best if she departed, she did not feel comfortable in the present company. She moved to the table and had quickly packed her swords and needlepoint away. She moved to the counter to start picking up cupcakes when Veronica embraced her from behind this is not appropriate behavior, why is she doing this. A lady would never do something like this . When Veronica called her a ‘nosy little girl’ she realized how discourteous she’d been and was intent leaving and apologizing before Alice did something she’d really regret. When Veronica started nibbling on her ear and opened her fan to conceal them Alice moved away from her and curtseyed as she said “I’m terribly sorry for asking inappropriate questions, it was curt of me to interfere.” Alice turned away and was chanting to herself in her head A lady is never disreputable in public, A lady does not frown, she hold etiquette and poise in high esteem… As she tied closed her reticule and continued storing cupcakes in a Tupperware. When Alice saw Blair dive to save the blobs and reverted to look like someone else Alice realized it wasn’t Blair and that she’d been correct, but this new girl didn’t look at all happy with her accident of dropping the Henkos, which was only confirmed by the girls glare. I just cannot do anything correct today

“I apologize profusely for dropping the baby Henkos, it was a complete accident.” Alice said as Clover got out of ear shot. When Clover released Alice’s arm Alice fell into a kneeling position on the floor in the edge of the hallway, prepared to be lectured on her clumsiness. When Clover asked if she was alright she was torn This girl knows how much Mrs. Salem upsets me, still she did this anyway….yet she helped me away from Veronica Alice replied “I’ll be fine, I’m simply not accustomed to such…inappropriate behavior After she paused she asked “Are the little Henkos ok?...and If you knew this behavior bothered me so, why did you repeat it disguised as Ms. Salem?”

When Clover dove to save the Henko mice Apple was squashed and moved out of Blair’s cleavage grabbing a cupcake and hid under the nearest table cloth…or so she thought. But Apple was now contently eating a cupcake while tucked away under Madame Veronica’s skirt, right between her feet.

[Sabata]

Then take a goddamn hint, you drunk psycho. Zeran thought himself. Veronica's behavior had never really amused Zeran, even when he wasn't the target. Normally, he'd take great joy in watching other people endure the torment, but Veronica seemed to suck the fun out of everything. Literally everything.

Zeran left the room and went into the hallway when he overheard Clover and Alice talking. "I fucking knew it!" Zeran said once he heard that "Blair" had been Clover the whole time. At least he knew he wasn't going insane, even if he ahdn't been able to identify quite what had tipped him off. He took out a cigarette to start smoking, but before Zeran could even pull out a lighter an imp slammed into Zeran's face, making him drop the cigarette. Ugh, what does that emo want now? Zeran questioned, recognizing Erebus' preferred form of communication. Nonetheless, he listened to the imp's message. "Wait, Every hospital in Savale? All of them? Oh, oh, so I can deal with them however I want, as long as it doesn't cause too much trouble? The fuck is the point of telling me "however I want" then?! Ugh, whatever. Just tell him I'll get on it. And that his sister misses him. And that he's still a horrible boss." Zeran responded to the imp, before sighing, "Gimme a fucking break. I just come off that stupid incident in the Gym, and now this happens." He had only just gotten his equipment fixed after it had been covered in diamond. Suddenly, this day wasn't looking up.

Zeran picked up the cigarette he had dropped then trudged out of the building, deciding he had nothing better to do than get to work.

[Exit Zeran]

[Johnathan]

Veronica sat down on the kitchen counter as everyone filtered out of the room. Idly scooping up the henko from the floor beneath her with her foot, Keeping it in the air with kicks as one might a soccer ball, she prevented it from sticking to her legs with the shadows as she had her fun. Slowly she turned to look at the last person left in the room, Alex, with a sinister smile. In response he vanished in a small puff of smoke. Pouting in disappointment, Veronica crossed her arms.

"Poo, no fun."