Fable - Ask Midnight Munchies Part Two

[Thraah]

*Why did you fucking ask then Liv?*
Thraah's thoughts turned bitter as she hopped onto the counter and kicked her legs.
With Gladys in her arms she focused on her instead.
"You get it, don't you Gladys?"
She asked the hen who gently clucked. Interpreting the single cluck as agreement Thraah bent over and kissed Gladys on the back of the neck.
"Thanks girl!"
Well what did she expect?
Liv was self centred and Stormy was, also not that interested in others it seemed.
Zin... shit who fucking was Zin?
Thraah observed the newcomer.
Apologise? For wanting to be there with Zin? Fuck, ZEPH! She wanted to be with Zeph not Zin!
How fucking useless.
She considered the door, just getting up and leaving but she doubted she would feel any better if she did.
Determined to ignore Liv she let the others answer the clumsy question which was clearly only asked to get her to stop talking.

Thraah's temperature increased another few degrees.
Gladys fussed, then settled in contented.

Houri
Livia Quinnick
Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Thraah seemingly ignored Zinnia once again and the other two girls seemed eager to move on. So move on Zinnia did.

"I'm actually...g-graduating at the end of this y-year, so...s-some sort of work study for Proctor Salak, I think."

No more holidays. Not that she got them for long anyways. Before the Revolution they didn't really give time for breaks at the Academy. The brief time where they were around was nice, but Zinnia just buckled down and continued working out through them anyways. One needed friends in order to spend such time on fun.

Speaking of which, Zinnia had begun flipping through the cookbook once more and landed on something that made her mouth water.
"Ooohhh..." she gawped before turning the book around and holding up a golden-colored illustration. "C-custard tarts?"

 

[Houri]

Houri subtly pushed a flammable bag of grain further from Thraah's reach with the tip of her foot.

"My mother wants me to visit her in Vel Vara," she answered simply to keep the conversation moving away from the dangerous subjects that might set the kitchen aflame. "I would rather be working," she missed the more dangerous missions she had gone on when still in the Asylum. Even if she had been little more than a tool brought out when needed it was hard to shake the remembered feeling of the excitement and thrill those missions had brought about.

"Maybe I can volunteer for something so I don't have to spend the full month away," concentrated doses of her mother never led to peaceful rests. Her eyes flickered to the cookery book when it was opened. "We've not tried pastry before... should be simple enough though."

 

[Livia Quinnick]

"Graduating!" Livia took the cookbook from Zinnia, skim reading the custard tarts recipe. "Goodness, I never quite know where I stand with Proctor Salak." She shrugged, looking around for something to mark the page for future reference. "You need a gift. A graduation gift. No need to protest, because I will not listen to any." Livia gave Zinnia a smile, using a spoon to bookmark the cookbook.

"Vel Vara sounds like it would be nice... I think I will go to Vel Odren, to our summer house. If there are no missions, then I need to start looking into the business I am inheriting upon my graduation day." Her brother left it to her, to give her something that would give her considerable income if she was not to be married off to a Great House and become their wife. A Quinnick always found something to do, and Livia knew a lot more about the pearl trade than her older brothers.

"If any of you wanted to, you can come with me." She shrugged. "You might meet my brothers, but really, they would only be there if our mother becomes insufferable at home. She loathes Vel Odren." And it became the sibling's personal escape house.

 

[Thraah]

This was terrible, not as bad as she felt it was, even Thraah could not convinced herself of that being true but even so. A series of upsets had left her feeling like she was a rotten tooth in a smile.
The others all had big plans, yep.
Careers on the go for sure.
Perrine's words echoed in her head.
"Lean on your friends..."
Thraah was not used to asking for anything, even when she wanted it. Now, necessity was about to drive her into an action she could only hope she'd feel better about later.
Before speaking she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"What-if-we-like-all-took-big-trip-like-everywhere-did-every-City-so-that-way-we-could-get-everything-done-and-still-get-to-move-on-when-we-want-to-and-we-could-keep-baking-and-shit-and-I-don't-know-but-we-could-do-it-together-with-a-bit-of-planning!"
She felt like she lost Zeph when they went on Vel Castere... when Thraah tagged along, unwanted.
If she was to make good and mend things with Zephyrine she needed to make sure she wasn't going to loose Stormy and Liv. Zin... Zin was gonna have to wait for Thraah to calm down.

Livia Quinnick Houri Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

"V-Vel Vara?" Zinnia parroted. It was not a place she'd ever heard of, but she smiled all the same. At the very least, at the notion of Houri's agreeing to bake the tarts.

Zinnia was immediately distracted by Liv's next words, quickly becoming flustered once more.
"Really, Livia, th-that isn't--"

It seemed her refusal to listen to protest was just as she said, however, as Livia had already moved on to other topics. Zinnia sighed. A gift was really too much...she'd already received so much in these past few months, the excess would surely begin to spoil her. It was all far more than she deserved.

Thraah's following, rapid outburst snapped Zinnia out of her daze, however. This was...far more than she was capable of dealing with. All she could manage was to look to Houri and Livia and hope they'd know how to handle Thraah.

 

[Houri]

A stunned silence filled the room after Thraah's outburst that turned awkward with every passing second someone didn't speak.

I should say something, she thought but none of the voices answered to tell her whether that was a bad or good idea. She found herself oddly nervous about having to make the decision for herself. Maz would say something kind, her brother was a far better moral compass to be guided by than Shiva or Ahvdi.

"Sure," Houri shrugged in what she hoped was a casual way that wouldn't make Thraah feel stupid for her outburst. "Vel Vara is at the very Western edge of Aniria, my family would be able to send us back here on a ship. So it's just a matter of choosing where to stop along the way. I stopped at a few places on the way back from my last mission that you guys might enjoy..." her cheeks heated faintly at the memory of the road trip with Silas.

 

[Silas Artesto]

Gods, he was starving.

Silas had always been a heavy eater. When you could move as fast as he could, your metabolism had to pick up the slack to keep you from wasting away. With hunger pangs like Artesto's, even the middling kitchen-slop they served at the Academy looked like a banquet feast. Still, it wasn't like him to go hunting for snacks so late at night.

That would be Livia's doing. She'd shown up at his room a few hours ago and nearly pounced him clean off his feet. She'd do that sometimes when the mood struck her, but she'd been especially energetic on this particular occasion. By the time she'd had her fill of him, he'd spent so much energy that his growling gut was echoing off the walls of his room.

There was no way in hell he could wait until breakfast, he needed something now or he was going to die. So trudging toward the kitchens in a loose-fitting shirt and a tattered old pair of cloth pants wasn't nearly as embarrassing as it should have been to him. After all his life was on the line!

Of course, once he opened the door to the kitchen and saw the group assembled inside, he thought perhaps starvation wasn't the only thing that might be about to kill him.

"Oh--!" He stood there for a moment, saucer-eyed at the group of four women, a caterpillar and a chicken. Something clicked in his head now, a realization that this is where Liv had been disappearing to on those random nights. "I'm sorry, ladies. I didn't mean to interrupt. I'll be on my way, and..."

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Livia quirked a brow at Thraah's speedy thoughts being spoken, but before she could make comment on it for further clarity, Houri spoke.

"Charming places you have seen then, Houri? Well, it certainly seems to me that we are to depart here and make Vel Vara the last stop. Perhaps if Zinnia is stationed somewhere along the way we can surely pay vis---"

But the rest of her words caught in her throat. Alarm registered in her olive eyes, falling upon Silas. Had she been imagining him here? Her lack of sleep finally catching up to her to make her dream while she was awake that the boy that made her feel...

"What are you doing here?" Livia put on her best disapproving expression, giving away nothing to the other girls that she had been previously in Silas' room before this and had thought he had gone to sleep.

 

[Thraah]

Thraah wondered to herself why every time she tried to open up to people some unwanted person seemed to appear as if out of nowhere!
She swiveled on the counter top to face Silas with an accusatory look. The kind that was reserved for people who were going to terrible places when they died but then she happened upon a notion.
Her eyes flicked to Zinnia then back to Silas.
He was notorious for having lots of girls attentions.
"AHAH!"
Leaning back Thraah gave Gladys a confident stroke in her arms.
"I see what's happening here."
She had never been more sure of anything in her life than in what was about to come out of her mouth.
"You two are planning on meeting up down here for some messy kitchen fucks. Damn Zin, I didn't know you had it in you. Respect!"
She held out her closed fist to Zinnia for a fistbump.

Livia Quinnick
Houri
Zinnia
Silas Artesto

 

[Zinnia]

The world was suddenly a vague, unimportant blur as Zinnia heard the voice of the new arrival. She beamed, dropped the cookbook, and visibly perked up.

"Silas!" she exclaimed, dashing over to him and hugging him before he could retreat back into the safety of the Academy's halls. So distracted was she that she failed to notice the cold reception Livia had to offer him.

She was not, however, so absorbed in his presence that her brain did not register Thraah's wild assumption. Zinnia dropped the hug, spun around on her heel back towards the other girls, and immediately turned beet red. She raised her hands in front of her and began to wave them back and forth as if trying to swat away a wasp, rather than return the fist bump.

"Wha-? N-no, I...I wouldn't--I mean we, we h-haven't--I'm still a v--I m-mean--!" she stammered clumsily, unable to process a fully formed reply and steadily becoming more embarrassed until at last a jet of steam escaped from behind her ears with a sound not unlike a brief whistle of a teapot.

All she could do after that was look to Silas for help.