Tale as Old as Last Wednesday [Maid IC]

[Benson]

Kitchen
"I reccomend the larder." Terran indicated the little ladder down to the underground room where the perishables were kept.

Assuming she stowed it there, Terran began guiding her down the hallway. They wouldn't be in eyeshot until after Yuki would be partway down it.

After stowing away the potato salad, Merry followed Terran to go see the prince. She sniffed herself and was pleased that she smelled more of butter than brimstone.

[Deme]

Terran took her to the Prince's chambers and slowly, carefully, opened the door, causing the light to spill into the hallway.

"Your Highness...This is Miss Meredeth Liliths. Miss Meredeth Lilliths..."

To Miss Meredith Lilliths, the man standing in front of her (he had given up trying to wait comfortably in the chair), arms folded behind his back, would have been almost unrecognizable as the boy she had tempted and played with, all those years ago. When one factored in age alone, then the line of his jaw swam into focus, the slender shape of his torso, the brow, and the forehead obscured by creamy curls.

The most obvious changes were that he had gold-and-cream feathered wings that made the task of folding his arms behind him somewhat difficult, and a long tail like a lion or a unicorn's, curling itself and uncurling itself in his nerves. His body was covered in a light, soft fur the same color as his hair. His ears were the ears of a goat, and his head had a pair of small twisted horns on the top.

His nose had taken on an odd quality, halfway between a human and an animal's nose, positioned like a human's but slightly wider and flatter to accomodate the padded nostrils. Looking down, his pants ended at his knees where the fur got thicker, disguising the exact structure of his legs, and covering most of his cloven hooves.

The man bowed politely, moving one arm forward as part of the bow, exposing its nature: after the elbow, it went scaly in the way of a bird's leg, ending in a 3-fingered-and-thumbed talon-like hand with long claw-nails. When he straightened, he hid it again.

"...His Royal Highness Prince Leon of Osshia," said Terran's voice, behind her.

And Leon looked at her.
To Meredith, who once knew his silver eyes, pale as the moon...They seemed excitedly desperate and desperately scared, even as the rest of his face looked composed. They were lonlier eyes than the passage of years alone could account for.

[Benson]

Miss Meridith Liliths found herself staring hard at the boy she met those years ago, that boy she considered her first real friend. She expected herself to be smiling too much against her will at the reunion, but all she found herself was forming a confused expression. What...this couldn't be him....just who was this chimera creature? She was confused, her internal self racing around trying to figure this out.


"I.." She fretted with her apron and met those eyes of his, well that there didn't really change even though they looked sadder. "It is a..p-pleasure and honor to m-meet you, y-your h-highness." Urgh, she felt her stuttering there betrayed her of her internal confusion.

[Deme]

The smile faltered a bit. And he had been having such good luck! ...Yes. Yes, he had entered into a universe where being mistaken for a demon and called heartless was luck. He kept the hands hidden, but nodded politely.

"Don't be afraid -- I have no intention of hurting a pretty young lady."

He said in his most gentle soothing-an-animal tone. He would leave off pressing conversation for a bit, though Terran had told him about the skeleton.

Terran left the door open. Sometimes, when a young lady thought she was trapped, she panicked more. They had picked up a lot of things.

[Benson]

"I-I'm not afraid...I j-just wasn't expecting this after all these ye...I mean, well after all this time since I got here...I'm sorry...I'...gyah...I don't know what I'm saying," She ran her hands over her nose in a prayer shape and breathed deep to take a moment to think.

[Deme]

OK, maybe now was a good time to give her a topic, and see if she could, in fact, talk to him. If she was shy, that wasn't a problem.

"Terran tells me you found our mysterious bony friend. I'm glad; I was starting to worry he'd gotten carried off by a wild animal from the woods."

[Benson]

She paused for a moment, her eyes brightening a little. "Oh right, Skelly. Yeah, found him in the wardrobe in my quarters...poor fella was scared and just falling to pieces." This was a comfortable subject and nothing awkward feeling. Also lame jokes. She wanly smiled thinking about her new friend and possibility of him having pseudo mobility to sorta get around, she was rather looking forward to that.

[Deme]

Ok, this was good. Good. His heart could slow down now. Any minute there, heart.

"I wonder what had him worked up...Maybe it's all the fuss of new arrivals."

It was tricky to guess what could upset an animate skeleton. On the other hand, he at least had a conversational volley that made her less nervous.

"Tell me about yourself; do you often take in abandoned skeletons?"

That was intenteded as a joke, but it probably won't end up as one.

[Benson]

"Huh? Ah No...maybe....it wouldn't be weird thing would it?" She glanced down at her apron and then found herself taking a whiff and wrinkled her nose. Her buttery smell was being overtaken by the brimstone smell, which she found no bueno.

[Atreli]

Lune hardly noticed Yuki coming in, as she was mourning over the state of the cakeballs. She had taken to sitting at one of the counters while she waited to go see the prince. Her hands had begun to fiddle with the end of her dress.

" I just wanted to do a good job...prove myself.I-" The sentence drifted off as the sir above her begun to act strange. It twisted and turned until it formed a cloud. It rolled around in place a few times, gaining a darker shade each time and then when the cloud looked almost black it let down thunder, lightning, and rain upon poor Lune's head.

[Lycan 01]

Yuki stared at the sandwiches. She then turned and stared at Lune and her rain cloud. Then she stared back at the sandwiches. "You finished my meal?" she asks in a neutral tone. "You... actually finished my meal? After I...?"

A soft smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. "Thank you," she says quietly, before lowering her head to give a small bow of gratitude.

She then strides purposefully over to Lune. "Is this normal?" she asks, tilting her head slightly as she studies the roiling storm cloud. "Is there something I can do to assist you, in return for the help you provided me?"

Yuki leans to the side, studying the cake balls. "You know... I could try to add some icing decorations to those, if you'd like."

Yes, that would cost her valuable time better spent on her own meal. Your point?

[Atreli]

Lune looked up and smiled softly. " You were kind to me so I wanted to help you...and you're welcome" She mumbled in return.

She could only nod in response to Yuki's question. " It happens sometimes when I'm upset. Once I start to feel better it goes away on it's own."

All at once the rain became the slightest of drizzles. " You'd do that?" Lune leaped off her chair and hugged Yuki." Thank you Miss Yuki."

[Lycan 01]

Yuki says nothing as Lune hugs her and the cloud starts raining on her too. The assassin eventually lets out a small sigh. "Right. Hand me an icing tube..."

Once Yuki has a tube of icing, she sets about the taste of re-icing the cake balls to make them look spiffy and presentable.

Spoiler

Show

Skill: (1d6x4)[4]

[Atreli]

"Okay!"

The cloud dissapated completely as Lune handed Yuki the icing tube. Lune leaned over to watch the maid work and then a thought hit her.

"What do we do if this doesn't work Miss Yuki?"

[Deme]

"Huh? Ah No...maybe....it wouldn't be weird thing would it?" She glanced down at her apron and then found herself taking a whiff and wrinkled her nose. Her buttery smell was being overtaken by the brimstone smell, which she found no bueno.

His smile picked up a bit of warmth...On the other hand, the nerves were setting back in for her, which meant they were also setting back in for him. He realized that with some displeasure, trying to think of how meeting a girl used to feel.

Used to was an unpleasant thought, in and of itself.

"It's unusual...But everyone needs something that's not the usual. It's what makes people interesting, and keeps meeting new people from being boring."


Kitchen

The cakeballs are now iced in a way best described as "barely competant." There's icing on them. The icing is, in fact, on them. And that is the limit of the fine qualities of the icing.

[Benson]

"Right...yea, kinda like this look you're sporting...I mean...no...derp...I didn't mean it that way....like a bad a way..no not a bad way--" She froze and tensed in uncertainty.

[Lycan 01]

Yuki stares at the baked abominations. "Hm."

She then looks back at Lune and flatly states: "Take the good sandwich. It will probably go over better than these, and you did technically make it."

[Deme]

"Right...yea, kinda like this look you're sporting...I mean...no...derp...I didn't mean it that way....like a bad a way..no not a bad way--" She froze and tensed in uncertainty.

Terran was in hell. He couldn't help Leon without admitting that everything was lost. He couldn't not help Leon without having to sit in squirming agony as he watched his best friend struggling.

Leon laughed with all the sincerity of a cardboard cutout, and just a hint of despair in at its edges. After a few moments, though, he gave up and shook his head.


"This...isn't me. It isn't me any more than the costume is the actor." He looked down at what he saw and remembered the earlier conversation with the devil maid. He couldn't give up.

"I have no intention of living and dying this way. I haven't forgotten!"

He stood very straight as he said that, looking proud as a prince ought to look, though perhaps not as civil as he generally did look.

" I haven't forgotten. To borrow from Rosencrantz, 'I haven't forgotten -- how I used to remember my own name -- and yours, oh yes! There were answers everywhere you looked. There was no question about it - people knew who I was and if they didn't they asked and I told them.' I'll have that again...Somehow."

He admitted. The words someone else had written -- the actors who had said those words, the passion of that moment of rememberance, strange as it was to the characters -- there was something in it that he could use, when his own time seemed empty and alone, and when his strength was flagging, to serve as his lifeline.

[Trobby]

"Ooh, I've got a better idea. Let's not tell the prince who made what at all, and sod the whole competition entirely."

As far as Ante is concerned, it should have been a team effort from the start anyway.

[Lycan 01]

Yuki turns and looks at Ante. Then she looks back at Lune. And then she looks at all the culinary atrocities they've created.

A sadistic grin forms on the assassin's face. "Yes. And as for their lack of quality... Let's blame the butler," she states darkly.

[Benson]

"Right...good...I think," She wanly smiled and scratched her nose, a lot of his more ten dollar words and phrases going over her head. She fretted with her apron again and looked back at him. "If...its too uh....out of line let me know....please...but ah, how did this happen?"

[Deme]

He came down a bit from that emotional battle-line. It was drawn, though he wasn't sure how he'd manage it.

"No, no...You know, no one's asked me that." He settled onto the couch, spreading his wings so he wasn't sitting on them.

"... For a time, I took a sorceress as a companion, but she wasn't...What's the best way to say it...?"

"She was a wretched excuse for a human being, with all the cruelty and arrogance her body had room for," Terran piped up from his place leaning on the doorframe. Leon nodded.

"Not classy enough to be my guest. We had a fight, she misunderstood the nature of the fight -- or perhaps the whole relationship to begin with -- and when she returned, thinking there was still something between us, and saw that I had moved on... Well, this happened."

[Atreli]

Lune smiled, glad to out of her dark mood and back to sunny skies that was her constant mindset.

" You two have the best ideas and I am all for it."

[Benson]

Merry was a little startled by the sudden chiming in of Terran, he was so quiet she had forgotten about him. It was a little weird to her to hear this side of the little boy she once knew. But what did she expect after a decade and then some of time? She felt a little silly about her expectations.

"So...she cursed you? Do you know whatever happened to her?" She asked trying to be careful with her words.

[Deme]

"What?"

Said the butler, apparently having preened and smoothed his nerves. He looked puzzled about being involved; being involved was for humans (and demons and mermaids and the point was, not him).

---

"Yes and I have no idea. People've looked, but wherever she's gone, she won't let anyone else find her. She teleported away."

He said glumly, slightly too busy being glum to pay attention to the awkward levels. They were at levels Terran deemed not dangerous, so that was OK.

"I'm sure some of this story is old news; they've done their best to keep a lid on things, but a rumor's a fast thing."

[Trobby]

"Oh naturally. I mean, hiding essential ingredients from the cooking staff? Creating clutter in a workspace? Fraternizing with a maid? Goodness, I think you could lose a job over this, Mozart."

[Lycan 01]

"We're blaming you for the unfortunate state of things," Yuki flatly informs him, gesturing a thumb over her shoulder at the fubar sandwiches and cake balls. "It is hard to properly make a meal when we have to deal with random obstacles and forced conflicts. And since you orchestrated the challenge, it is only fair that you are held liable for its results. If you had allowed us to work as a team, the poor Prince would actually have a proper meal. I doubt he'll be happy."

[Benson]

She wanly smiled and looked at him, she didn't like those sad eyes, those weren't the playful bright eyes she had become fond of much too late back then.

"I...I'm sorry your..highness...I did..not mean to sadden you by bringing up such memories...I just got carried away..with my curiosity."

[Deme]

Leon noticed her nerves flaring back up. Thinking back to Yuki, he decided he could at least ask the truth.

"It's alright, it's alright."

Terran arched an eyebrow from his place by the door.

"I said it's alright, Terran...Anyway...May I ask what has you so nervous? If it's that I'm a prince or your employer, don't worry about things like that; I'm not a fan of formalities, particularly not when it makes someone nervous. Be as frank as you like."

He was hoping this was the case. Really, really, he was.

---

The cat was not impressed by that threat.

"And then what happens?"

He asked.

[Trobby]

"Oh nothing much. To us, that is. You'll get thrown out most likely. I'm sure the local wildlife will take an immediate liking to a housecat like yourself."