Completed Mastering the Art of Dreadlord Cooking by Drast and Evie

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh was busy cracking eggs. A whole slew of them. Basket after basket, she filled the massive bowl in front of her were orange egg yolks and translucent egg whites. Somehow. Some way. She was stuck with kitchen duty again. One would have thought that being so close to graduating they would have given her a duty around the academy that was less… mundane. Because while Everleigh was a savant in nearly every subject that focused on tactics, strategy, killing people, obliterating armies, destroying monsters, and just being a general weapon for the Republic of Vel Anir, she was lacking in one area.

As Proctor Rordan Gamsey declared not long ago, her food was shit. And she was a fucking donkey. Then he proceeded to scream about where the lamb sauce was before taking two pieces of bread and pressing it against her ears and telling her to call herself a stupid sandwich. Which she did because as far as Everleigh was concerned she’d get her revenge on Proctor Hell’s Kitchen within in due time. But she was put in “remedial classes” which was just extra kitchen duty.

Finally she cracked the last egg and looked over at the bundles of eggshells in a large wicker basket. Everleigh sighed and took the basket, going to dump it into the compost waste bin before cleaning the basket for any possible yolk residue. Once that was finish she went back to her Sable-sized bowl and grabbed an equally large whisk, starting to mix the eggs together. If she thought like Zael she would have thought about how great it was that she was getting a bicep work out in. Which wasn’t a bad silver lining of the whole thing. Stronger arms then better punches, hopefully.

“How are you handling things over on your end, Drast?” Everleigh asked the only other initiate in the kitchen with her on their free period. They were only supposed to be prepping the items for dinner as Proctor Gamsey insisted they mustn’t actually cook anything yet until they could prove to him they wouldn’t be burning water.

Drastus Tal'deneshaar

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

Drastus could actually cook.. but like three things and each one was spicier then the last. Like him, food should be exotic, or so he thought. Girls loved a guy who could cook so long as they could feel their tongue after dinner.

And he had a girl in mind that he wanted to try to cook for, he just didn't want to kill her. The anniversary of their freedom was a few weeks away and he had a goal, no, he had plans.

Between classes, missions, punishments, and the like, he was exhausted and he looked like it. He hardly heard Evie as he was just stirring around his flour with all the mix-ins still in their bowl beside him. "Huh? Oh yeah, doing great. See this flour? Coarse." He would say with a grin. "So, whats new with Zeaverlay?"

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh glanced over to the dry ingredients that Drastus was mixing together, and something about the word “flour” made her think of the hallucination and the mill of Zael’s past that she had witnessed. Of course, then he had to mention Zael. She rolled her eyes rather easily, moreso in jest than in any sort of frustration. From what she had learned, it was best to distract, and there was one subject that Drastus was always fond of no matter what.

“Zeaverlay? Who’s that, a new initiate? I have no idea what could be new with them,” she said lightheartedly. Her mauve gaze focused back down into the bowl of eggs, and she mashed some of the unbroken yolk with the whisk before stirring again. “Speaking of initiates, I saw Kristen earlier. Doing… Kristen things.” Which was really her way of saying that something happened and Kristen seemed stressed about it.

Drastus Tal'deneshaar

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

"C'mon, you and Zael.." he teased with a laugh and a nudge. Boy he loved messing with her about it. "You two are like two perfect peas in a trouble making pod." He said as he continued to mindlessly stir.

That coy little witch! She just had to bring up Kristen. He tried to act uninterested. "Oh yeah?" A subtle brow perked, his tone casual. "What uhh.. what was going on with Kristen?"

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh felt heat rise to her cheeks and she dipped her head down as she was nudged, now furiously whisking away at the eggs. Because to her, there wasn’t really a “her and Zael.” Or rather, despite how much she enjoyed him and his company along with working beside him on missions and other dreadkid things, she was certain that only she felt excited to be at his side. Since to her, while Zael was friendly with her, he was friendly with everyone.

But she was soon distracted from thoughts that caused her to curse her immaturity. Why should it even bother her in the first place that she couldn’t discern what he was thinking.

“Hmm… I wonder,” she glanced over at Drastus, a sly grin coming forth. “It could have been something to do with Kalix… or maybe Delaney….” His rivals. Even though Everleigh couldn’t quite see Kristen, despite her nativity and purity, particularly getting along with either of those two. Or, even Drastus for that matter. But she couldn’t deny the fact that she had seen him around Kristen more and more.

Drastus Tal'deneshaar

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

He watched that heat rise,something he would address once she had spilled the beans. Kristen could have something bothering her, that was never good. That worry immediately was erased when he saw the grin.

He would pfft her. "Puh-lease. Kristen doesn't go that way so Delaney is better off finding a portrait to rub up on. And Kalix?" He would laugh. "That himbo wants one thing: the booty. And Kris is not the type to just do a single pointless dance. Especially with him pining over Eva.. or anything else with a vagina." That may have been ironic for him to say, but he said it. He was confident. Vel Numera was a great time for them. Oh yeah, confidence. Yeah.

"But really, what about you and Zael? I can see some electricity there, when you going to make the move? Need me to see how he feels? Pretty sure I got detention with him coming up."

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh raised a purple brow at how confident Drastus felt. But he did have valid points. While in Vel Anir one’s sexuality didn’t matter as long as they were useful, she understood that it was something that couldn’t be changed on a whim. She herself had never thought long and hard about it but… how could Drastus know how Kristen felt?

His point with Kalix was completely and totally valid, causing Everleigh to laugh. Although the part about proctor D’Amour was interesting. She’d keep that info for a later date.

The purple initiate was ready to retort something witty, to keep the conversation going towards Kristen and away from— dammit. As if her whisk were a knife she pointed it straight at Drastus, narrowing her eyes. Anxiety was prickling along the back of her neck and she felt it. Apprehension. Fear. And even that obnoxious push of hope through the negative emotions.

“Nothing is there. You’ve heard Zael talk about all the… fun he’s had at brothels. Captain Claudia and others. And how much he misses it or would always shoot for threesomes. Zael doesn’t like academy girls, I’m sure of that, and even if he did he’d want someone with… with… huge knockers and lots of experience and was easy on the eyes and… nice. Someone probably like Liza or….” A bit of egg yolk dripped off the whisk, bringing Everleigh back to her senses. “Why do you have detention with him?”

Drastus Tal'deneshaar

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

Drast felt the shift leaning back towards her and Zael as the apparently solid facts he had pushed her back in her zone. He had actually missed these talks with her as it had been awhile.

"Evie, we're guys. We all talk about the brothels. I talk about the Lusty Leopard about two to three times a week. I'm a regular, for Pepper who needs my financial support to feed her three kids and make it into some sort of training program. So we're just doing our parts to better the society." He said with a grin.

He gave her the look. The look that told her he knew that what she was saying was b.s. "Evie. You can't bullshit the bullshit king. If any girl was busy b.r, before Revy, they were stuffing. And now that we're in the a.r, after Revy, your chesty is really becoming some breasties." He would even use his hands for comparison. "And like, I say this in the best way."

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh had put the whisk back into the bowl of eggs that had finally been whisked the way they needed to be. Then she turned back around to punch Drastus right in his bicep. Yes, as Kalix had pointed out in punishment games, her breasts had grown. Not that she had a busty figure to make a Holstein cow blush by any means, but now she had to use leather or cotton wrappings to bind herself up.

“What I’m trying to say is,” Everleigh huffed, forcing herself not to cover her chest like some drama queen and actually squared her shoulders back to show she wasn’t embarrassed whatsoever, “Drastus, is that Zael is good looking and you saw how at the punishment games everyone was drooling after him. Get ready to mix,” she said, holding up her bowl of eggs to slowly pour it into the dry ingredients. She focused hard on her task, doing her best not to think of Zael.

“So if Zael were to like someone, other than Vance, why not pick someone who was actually not fucking purple like some slimy frog?” She frowned, freely showing her emotions for once. Drastus being one of the few to ever see such a thing. “Or you know… toxic.”

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

He knew the punch was coming and he would just let it happen, laughing as the blow landed. He would let her finish speaking her peace before he began to unbox the hot mess she was about to drop. He may have said nothing but he still smirked or bit back a laugh. Just from how she was talking, he knew she liked Zael.

"Schlurp." Drast mused as she poured the eggs into his mix. "I've been stirring since I was born, Eever-lay." He would say the last bit with a southern drawl. "Punishment Games was just a bunch of horny teens drooling all over each other. Delaney and I hate each other, and even she checked out Wilbur and I didn't shy from the nip slip." He began as he slowly mixed in the eggs, careful not to overstir.

"Well for starters, you only go for Vance if you want to have a boring three seconds. I mean, nobody but him, is getting pleasure in three minutes." He said matter-of-factly. "Plus Vance is kinda just boring. Two, the purple makes you stand out, it's hot. It's unique." He smirked at her. "Your slimyness is between you and your maintenance."

After some more stirs, he would continue. "And ya know, just build up slowly with the toxins. I let you poison me for fun, least he can do is let you poison him for a canoodle."

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh kept her eyes focused on the food prep listening as Drast spoke.

“You talk a lot of shit,” she said with a grin. “Good thing you can back it up, right?” She added. Everleigh let it freely be known that anyone who had the “fancy-schmancy” powers was most definitely on her ignore list. Until it came to a fight, and then she had to prove how no matter how powerful one’s personal magic could be, she could beat it with wit alone. But Drastus was like her: powers that weren’t omnipotent and without costs, and because of that, she held respect for him than to someone like Vance.

“And the poisoning is necessary.” She shrugged. “Not that I don’t have self control, because I do, I just think you’re the type to drink whatever gets handed to you and one day I’m sure there will be poison in there.” The eggs had been poured in. She’d let Drastus finish mixing everything while she went over to peel potatoes. She held up the parring knife, looking at her reflection.

“Aren’t you worried about the proctors finding out that… yanno… you have eyes for something that isn’t bringing glory to the republic?”

Drastus Tal'deneshaar

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

He would return the grin. "Gotta fake it til ya make it." There were many peers that had powers so unbelievable, that grew so quickly, that it was a tad annoying to him. And she felt the same way. And like her, he held a level of respect for those that had to really work for it. He also knew, that she could poison the whole Academy and most of them would be dead the next day.

"Well yeah, we both know eventually someone is going to try to poison me and pin it on you. So the day a poison kills me, is the day I know you killed me." He said with a laugh.

He watched her look into the reflection. "Evie, you're a queen. If Zael doesn't recognize that, its because his brain hasn't fully developed and he should be dropped in a tundra somewhere." At her question, he shrugged. "I think if any of them made a move or a threat, they would find their afterlife enslaved to me. Besides, if anything, us setting down roots makes us fight harder for the Republic."

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh cracked a wry grin. “I dunno, by that time maybe you’ll be immune to whatever I have in my arsenal if this keeps up.” She said lightly. Soon enough she was serious. She was quiet for a moment, thinking things through. Her poker face was back, and she focused on peeling the potatoes, going fast so she’d have to pay extra attention not to cut herself.

“I wouldn’t want any harm to come to Zael,” She said, hearing him say ‘the proctors used to call it serving a Zael on the rocks,’ and remembering how his favorite season was summer. She’d never want him in a tundra. “But that doesn’t mean I’m…” what did she want to say? “That I’m like you, the one seeing the world in rainbows and flowers and sparkles and googly eyes.” She gave him a look.

“What if they hurt you… to hurt Kristen?” She persisted. “She’s a Pirian. I know you’re a Tal’deneshaar but Kristen’s status is… well, part of the seven houses. You know how the proctors treat nobles. They’re worse to them than to us.”

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

Drast responded to her quip with a smirk and a roll of the brows. She grew silent for a moment and he took that chance to finish up the stirring and slide the bowl to the side.

"Please, Evie. We both know I don't look at it like that. I have more rage than I care to acknowledge, I share my head with Rupert and hunger for things I shouldn't. I have to find a way to keep it light.. or else ill slip quicker into madness. I just like to mask it all behind a witty crack, a wink, and a dated reference." As he spoke his gaze focused on something beyond her.

"The only thing they can do to me that they already haven't.. is kill her. I've lost friends but never someone I liked.. They tortured me many times over the years just because of the disdain they held for my dad, so I'm sure one day they'll use me." He shrugged. "If I can make it, and she can stomach it, then she'll be fine. She's not as fragile as everyone thinks."

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh nodded her head. She understood what it meant to hunger for things that one shouldn’t. A hunger that was so deep that one was too hungry to eat. His solution of course was far more acceptable than what she had done to cope.

“There’s worse things than them dying, I think.” Everleigh said quietly, her eyes somber. “Proctor Novgorodoff’s class on torture, one of the things he said is very successful is to take the person who has information and torture their loved ones. They always beg for you to hurt them but you don’t touch a single hair on their head and instead just continue to hurt those they care about. Guilt and shame can overpower any sort of sense of self-righteousness or duty.

“Or to break bonds. Find out their worst fear, their deepest fears, and have them experience it. And you stop it when they say to harm another person other than them.” She glanced at Drastus. “But I think the worst thing would be… for them to get hurt because I was selfish or not careful. I think I’d hate me more than whoever was hurting them because I made a mistake and now they’re suffering.” A deep breath.

“And don’t you think Kristen would choose her house, her family, over you?”

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

"Like I said, been years since they broke me.. but I think Kristen would be able to hold out, to not cave because of the pain I'm in. And with Pirian as prominent as it is right now, they wouldn't dare torture her like that, so I wouldn't cave. She's been here a year, and the Academy isn't nearly as harsh as it used to be.. I think there are lines they won't cross anymore." Drast said thoughtfully after a pause. He had allowed Evie to speak without saying anything himself.

He scratched his jaw. "I'm sure she would. I would hope she wouldn't.. our houses are allies. But.. Why concern myself with something that may happen? If you live with fear of certain outcomes, then you're not really living. I'd rather try and have something happen, then not try."

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

“What if… what you think they’re feeling isn’t what they’re really feeling? What if they tell you ‘no’? What would you do?”

Drastus Tal'deneshaar

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

Drast glanced at her and smiled. "Worst they can say is no, right? Zael ain't the type to just dial in and level ya. He might make a playful joke, but he won't go out of his way to be mean to ya." He looked down for a moment. "Guess its the same for Kristen. She says no, that's the worse that will happen. We just can't be too scared to take a chance."

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

“For the last time,” Everleigh said with an air of frustration as if Drastus kept saying that nine plus ten was twenty-one, “I don’t like Zael. We’re comrades. We have fun together. We work well together. We just make a good team.” She said sternly, her glower not yet fading from her violet eyes. Then she huffed. “Besides, I’m never scared to take a chance. Ever.” She added, before focusing back on her potatoes.

“You didn’t answer the question. If Kristen rejects you, what will you do? Continue being her friend? Or become bitter and resent her?” Because there was one person that Everleigh had in mind that was definitely the type to be bitter and resentful, and while she couldn’t picture Drastus being like that, sometimes time changed people. “Not just rejecting you, but what if she picks another right in front of you. Do you keep smiling?”

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

"Nothing about this discussion leads me to believe your claims of no interest. Your eyes are purple, Everleigh, but just this second they turned to brown with how much shit you're full of." He added with a haughty laugh. "Ya like him. Just accept it, nerd."

"Well.. if she didn't feel what I felt, maybe once I graduate I'll travel. Take the damage that comes from it." He shrugged. "If she picks someone else, accidents happen." He added with a mischievous grin. "Or you know, maybe ill go banana sandwich and give into Ruperts wishes and become a Lord of Undeath, taking vengeance on all life. Who knows."

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

“You don’t know my heart.” Everleigh said softly. She rolled her eyes at the shit comment but her face was rather neutral. “I like many people.” She added. “Tinker is one of them.” Hardly a logical point, there was no logic in it. Of course, it was meant to only distract, to take Zael’s name out of this conversation. Drastus didn’t seem ready to give up yet, which was fine, but at the same time, Everleigh felt herself getting more self-concious, more aware of how she must be looking and what she was saying.

A trickle of fear from a single thought: did the proctors think the same?

“Is that what Rupert wants? To end the living? Even though he lives in a backpack twenty-four seven?” Finally, a much easier topic to talk about.

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

"Evie, we're trained to read people. Cannot bullshit the bullshit king." He would pfft and laugh at Tinkers name drop. "C'mon. That is a different like, just like how I'm a different like." He gave her a look, the look, all side-eye.

He'd drop Zael for now, but he'd come back to that later. "Rupert? He wants to either feel some shit or kill some shit. Twenty-four seven. Rupert is constantly hungry and always wants to kill."

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh’s lip curled up ever so slightly in disdain, not from Drastus’ words as much as what they implied. After all, her poker face? Unflappable, as impenetrable as Vel Anir’s walls. She was losing her edge. Or rather, it was the subject matter that made her lose her edge. And it frightened her immensely. She could never let a proctor to assume what Drast had assumed, she couldn’t imagine what punishments they would devise. More importantly, she couldn’t let them target Zael.

“Huh.” Everleigh said, finishing up the peeling of the potatoes and now placing them all on the cutting board for her and Drast and to chop up. “So he’s cursed. Like the professor from the excavation mission?”

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

Drast watched her reaction in real time, he even recognized it. He had made the same face when he realized he had feelings for Kristen that went beyond spending a night with her.

Drast would take a potato from the bowl. "Not so much cursed. I think he's just a very strong revenant, which is already one of the strongest classes of undead. His own hate keeps him bound to this world, not magick."

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

“Hate, interesting.” Everleigh said after a moment, and looked over at Drastus with a sly grin. “So like if Proctor Palahniuk were to die without being to finish one of his sudoku puzzles he’d become a reverent?” Not her best joke but a joke nonetheless. Necromancy was a frowned upon craft in Vel Anir, that much was clear. There was an upper classmate a few years ago that had gone missing that was whispered to have such gifts. Everleigh wondered if it was one of the noble houses at that time that wished to extinguish such a forsaken craft, after all, usually when a initiate went missing there was often a outside force that made such a thing happen.

“And I thought my magic was a bitch.” Was all she could say about such a thing, because really, Everleigh understood what Drastus was explaining. And he was walking a dangerous precipice when it came to his magic and Rupert. And who was Everleigh to even give advice on such a life-changing matter?

Drastus Tal'deneshaar