"Veinth! That's your name, right?! You're amazing, you're the coolest!" Arcelle called out to the incubus.
Well, at least someone appreciated his work. Exiting the castle, he was exhausted. Usually he'd just jump from dream to dream, but if the girl had any seeds of angst lingering in her brain, those would suffice.
"Veinth castle too big!! Arcelle better!!" The imp laughed, running around. Waru hadn't the slightest as to what he wanted to do, aside from maybe venturing to the night-time booths. Rather than spending time thinking, he figured making fun of Veinth was much more amusing and efficient. Instead of getting irritated, however, the incubus passed by Arcelle, patting her head as he walked.
"Looks like Waru likes yours more. I lose this time I guess." He poured a little magic in hopes of getting something from her brain-- sorrow, jealousy, angst, whatever. Some deep rooted negative emotion. It's not like it was uncommon. In the brief period of contact, he discovered something amazing:
Absolutely nothing.
She was a ball of happiness or idiocy. Just like Waru. Well, that plan failed. He'd make it through the day one way or another. Probably. With that, he began his return to the festival grounds, the imp beginning to climb up the incubus.
Watching as the blonde haired man coated the small castle of ice in sand, Waru clapped.
"Castle!! Veinth, you make one too!!!" The imp cheered, pushing Veinth's leg.
In all honesty, the incubus thought Arcelle's boasting over her creation was... silly. It was detailed, but small. Her ice magic seemed lazy at most. She could at least go all out. But did he really want to expend energy to dishearten a girl? Not really.
"I'll pass." Shrugging the imp off, he began to walk away, until...
"Veinth's magic too weak?? Weak Veinth!" The small annoyance jeered, sticking his tongue out.
'As if I'd fall for such a blatant provocation...'
"Big sister wouldn't let you live it down if you didn't at least try. Labentis made Waru a castle before, you know?" Waru switched to Fomorian, unsure of how to get his message across in Tuathan, "It was big enough to Waru to run in and out of!! Labentis is much better than Veinth, huh?"
'... Annoying. Of course he has to bring them into this.' Irritation returning, Veinth sighed. It was his loss. He couldn't let the taunt pass. Casting, he lured water beneath the sands and began raising a mixture of ice and sand from below himself. Distancing himself from the blondes and imp, he created a bridge as he walked and erected a castle, dragging water up with it.
It was relatively large-- at least 10 times the incubus' size. The interior consisted of a simple staircase and large, spacious rooms which lead to a balcony, but it would suffice. Returning to the imp, he lightly kicked the cretin in the head.
"There. A castle." He was exhausted, but tried his best not to let it show. 'Damn, we're only halfway through this festival. I shouldn't have done that.'
"Oooh!!" Waru ran towards it, stopping in front of the stairs. He frowned. "Waru can't climb these. Stairs too big! Castle too big for Waru!"
Waru looked up-- it was Arcelle! His ride had come to him, without him needing. What a smart stinky.
"Waru should give cookie to Arcelle. If Waru could reach table." Waru stared at the girl expectantly, testing her intelligence again.
---
"I'm so sorry," Arcelle broke down a bit as she picked up the imp and placed him on the table, "I'm really, really sorry for tossing you like a potato sack."
After smoothing out her dress nervously, Arcelle reached to pick up a cookie, but stopped herself when she remembered that Waru would reward her with one. Not wanting to impose, she stood there like a good human servant, waiting for her treat.
---
Waru was confused. Waru was not a potato sack. Was Waru skinny like potato sack? Potato sacks were nice. The big stinky was a funny person. She reminded him of big sister!
"Waru likes potato sack. You throw Waru better than big sister -- big sister cannot catch!! Dumb Veinth catches Waru, keke!!" The imp picked up a cookie and handed it to Arcelle before turning to the rest of the food and picking up a piece of bread.
---
"U-Uhh," she took a bite out of her reward cookie, "yes, that's good. I think?"
Unsure how to answer Waru, she felt that blindly agreeing with everything he said would probably work out. After all, it's not like he had done her any wrong so far.
Finishing the cookie, Arcelle could feel her stomach still grumbling, but instead of a piece of cake in her hand (or, even better, two pieces) she found a key accompanied by a letter. Not sure if she was hungry enough to eat both, she shoved the letter in her mouth and downed it with a cup of punch. Yes, she was that hungry.
Sensible enough as to not devour the key as well, she passed it to Waru and prayed no one saw her eat the slip of paper. To cover it up, she grabbed a few plates of everything.
Everything.
(How embarrassing.)
---
Soft bread, hard bread, stupid looking bread... Waru took a piece of all of them, not caring to finish them. He was an imp, not an ogre! He glanced at Arcelle, who devoured a piece of paper greedily. What a weird... paper eater. Oh well. Waru didn't care. Veinth ate weird stuff too, after all. The imp had long decided to not question the peculiarities of the lesser beings.
One crumb, two crumbs, three crumbs... As he munched on the bread, they left a little trail, ensuring he wouldn't eat the same bread twice. At some point, Arcelle passed him a key before going to devour plates and plates of food.
... What was he supposed to do with a key? Was it food? Did she think it was food? Was it a food present to him? Waru stared at it for a while before continuing with his bread. He looked around a bit to see other people with keys, which they were not eating. He could just follow them later, probably.
---
Now feeling satiated, Arcelle looked back at Waru and the key. What were they supposed to do with the key? There were probably instructions written on the paper, but the note was beyond saving at this point -- what with it being in her stomach and piled on top of by heaps of food and anything that may have resembled food.
Following Waru's gaze, she turned her head towards the other partygoers who were beginning to trickle out of the ballroom. Not wanting to admit to the host that she ate the precious letter, Arcelle regretfully picked up Waru and stalked the others as they walked into a hotel.
A hotel key! That was most likely what it was supposed to be. Wait, they would get a free hotel room? Now that sounded even stranger than a young lady munching on some processed lumber. Without even looking at the key for a room number, Arcelle began visiting every door and stuck the key in each keyhole, hoping to figure out which room was theirs.
---
Arcelle apparently knew where to go, as she followed the other attendees. Smart stinky, smart stinky!! Looking at the key, he noticed some funny letters written on it.
"BIZ"
What was a BIZ? Was that the hotel name? What a dumb hotel name. Waru watched curiously as she put the key in every door. The hosts didn't even give them the number of their room?! What dumb hosts!! Big dummies. The hotel was as big as 5 dragons!! There were too many doors!!
"The hosts are dummies!! Too many doors for one key! "BIZ" Hotel is big like 10 dragons!!" Waru scoffed, looking at the doors. A few odd stares came him way, but he didn't care. They were probably mad that they had to search through thousands of rooms too. What dumb hosts!!
---
The corridors seemed endless as the brave duo went down the winding paths, repeating the same tasks over and over again: door, keyhole, key in keyhole, hand on doorknob, chakachaka, no entrance, next door. When she reached the end of the first floor and saw the stairs leading to the next, Arcelle felt her legs beginning to give way and her stomach rumbling again -- this time, it wasn't hunger.
Frantically searching for the treasured land commonly referred to as a bathroom and not thinking to check if there was a public one on the main floor, Arcelle ran up the stairs as thoughts of a mini doomsday happening in her silky gown covered up the odd ranting of her imp master.
'BIZ'? The only "biz" she cared for at this point was the business that needed to be dealt with in her nether region.
---
Woosh! Arcelle sped up the stairs, fast like a coyote searching for delicious imp blood. Stupid coyotes. 211... 212... Some other numbers Waru didn't care for-- what if they had to go to floor 58459043?!?! That was too many floors!! What crazy hosts... Amidst his furious thoughts, a sound went off.
Chaka. Click. An angelic chorus began to sing.
The door to room 218 opened, and Arcelle nyoomed inside, dropping the imp and running into another room. What a funny person. Maybe she saw something in the room? Whatever the case, Waru was now on his head, staring at the door.
"BIZ"
The door said BIZ!! The imp then realized what BIZ was-- it was 218!! Wow. The hosts must be really bored if they make these puzzles. What's the point of that? Waru looked around the room and proceeded to climb onto the bed, clamboring on top of the pillow. Soft... Soft like big sister's boobies.
The sleepy imp dozed off, not really sure what Arcelle was doing in the other room. Maybe she was praying or something before she slept. She was weird, but she worked hard. What a good stinky.
... It was sort of stinky in the room though. Waru shrugged it off-- ogres smelled worse. Especially dead ones. Eww... Oh well. A stupid hotel with a stupid puzzle and a stupid smell.
---
When the door to room 218 opened, Arcelle thought about what sort of saintly thing she might've done in the past to be rewarded so kindly. Unfortunately, what she was about to do was probably going to negate any good karma she had possibly incurred over her lifetime. Into the room she ran, and onto the floor fell Waru, whom she apologized to in her mind, since everything other than words would probably spill out of her mouth if she opened it.
Many exorcised demons later, the gassy girl dragged herself out of the washroom (of course, she flushed and washed up) and looked groggily at the single bed in the room. Good thing she asked Waru instead of Guede -- that would've been disastrous. Actually, him being present as she swallowed paper would've already been disastrous.
Careful as to not wake the sleeping imp, Arcelle climbed onto the bed and slipped under the warm, comfortable blanket.
A great number of things had happened that day, but nothing was quite as enjoyable as falling asleep.
Except the toilet, maybe.
---
Thus ended the story of the amazingly cute Waru and his stinky (literally) companion, Arcelle.
Guede let out a sigh of satisfaction. After days of designing, trashing said designs, inspiration hunting and designing once again, Guede had finished two dresses for the promenade. One belonged to Mistreil, who had left to get prepared for the party, while the other was for Arcelle. He was hoping to ask her to go with him, with the dress as a gift, though he'd put it off for... quite a while. "I'll ask her after I finish Mistreil's corsage" was his first excuse, "I should comfort Laima for a while" was his second, and his last excuse had just run out.
-- Knock knock.
"Laim--"
"Shut up! You get it!"
... Right. She was wallowing in despair. Guede went to the door and opened it, and as if by some strange miracle, there was Arcelle.
"O-oh. Hey. 'sup?"
(( arcelle and i wrote up the rest of the first event, so read more ahoy! we'll be writing everything up to the dance soon and she'll post that. ))
Seeing Guede’s familiar face, Arcelle’s face lit up as she greeted him. “Hi Guede,” she smiled as she welcomed herself into Mistreil’s home, “I was just wondering if you might’ve made anything new lately?”
Briskly making her way around the humble abode room-by-room, she noticed Laima looking particularly down. Worried she would only make things worse, the uninvited guest dropped a cute bracelet she picked up from the boutique she recently frequented, “I thought it’d suit you or something, haha. It’s adorable, don’t you think?”
Arcelle looked at the bracelet she placed on Laima’s table and hoped it would cheer her up, though the present was originally intended for Mistreil. Quietly, she thought to herself: ‘wow, I hope I didn’t botch that up too badly.’
“H-huh? Y-yeah, how--” Guede was at a loss for words. How did she know that he’d made a dress for her? As she walked around, she left a bracelet for Laima, who smiled a bit.
“Thank you, Arcelle. And yes, it’s very cute.” Polite as she always was, towards anyone that wasn’t him at least, Laima picked up the bracelet and put it on. It looked more suited for Mistreil, but Guede figured Laima wouldn’t notice or say it-- Actually, she probably thought of the girl when she took the bracelet. Oh boy.
“Anyways, c’mere for a sec.” He walked towards his room, beckoning her over. Wow, he hoped he didn’t sound too creepy. God damn. This was difficult.
Nodding in agreement, she followed the blonde butler to his room and thought, ‘Wow this would be very dangerous if he were a stranger. Geez, stranger danger-celle.’
Now in Guede’s room, Arcelle took a moment to look around in amazement at all the beautiful designs and pretty fabrics lying around. As expected of someone of Guede’s profession, everything was organized very neatly and not a piece tapered onto the ground. In the corner of her eye, she saw a wondrous purple dress and mindlessly moved towards it, dazed by its intricate style.
“This is beautiful, Guede,” feeling the quality of the materials used in assembling the gown, Arcelle turned to face Guede and, dropping the sleeve of the dress, she walked back towards her friend. Rather than to him, however, Arcelle passed right by him towards a pile of boxes and picked one up, “this is perfect!”
Again, she went back to the costume, picked it up, folded it curtly, then placed it in the box. “Oh, I forgot! How silly of me,” advancing in Guede’s direction once more, she opened her arms and strode by him to grab the lid of the box she accidentally left behind, “yes, this is good. Very good.”
Guede stood there, praising the gods that she liked the dress he made. As Arcelle walked by him, he was somewhat startled. Was she going to hug him? O-or anything really. Even holding his hands and shaking it or something-- Nope. She picked up a box and placed the dress in it. She turned towards him and approached again, forgetting something-- the lid. His hopes swelled and was promptly crushed.
“Glad y’like it.” Guede smiled, hiding his disappointment with his vast amount of pride.
… Wait. What was she looking for a dress for? How was he supposed to ask her to go with him if she just took the dress? Well, speculation never did anything for him, so he decided to just ask. What’s the worst that could happen?
“What’re ya lookin’ for a dress for, anyways? Ya goin’ out or somethin’?”
‘Going out’ -- was that the right word for it? Technically, she was going to go outside with her imp companion, but there was a possibility that Guede was hinting at the romantic interpretation of the words. Regardless, Arcelle answer with a swift nod of her head and then thanked her comrade briefly.
Unaware of Guede’s hidden disappointment, Arcelle continued onwards to pick up the filled box, said goodbye to Laima, and then headed out the front door.
Realizing something else had momentarily escaped her memory, Arcelle re-entered the home, box in hand.
“Oops, forgot something again,” she motioned for Guede to head over to her and put down the adorned box. When he stood in front of her, she hugged him tightly and moved her hands along his figure. Confident in her abilities, she quickly swiped a rose from his ‘how-could-this-possibly-exist?’ hammerspace butler shop inventory.
“No worries,” she placed a small pouch containing eight-thousand gold pieces in his hand, “it’s all there. I’m so happy about the free dress that I don’t even need to wait for that mysterious Alban Heruin discount, haha.”
After thanking him again, Arcelle opened the box and placed the rose inside of it, said her farewells, and left the area.
Guede watched as Arcelle left, his face a mix of depression and happiness. She hugged him-- that was… nice. Really nice. At the same time, though… She was going on a date with someone and was using the dress he made for her. And one of the roses he had. Closing the door, he turned to his cousin.
“God damn-- Laims! Gimme some of that wine! Guess I’m joinin’ yer corner of depression!”
