#sp:authority

[delicatevalentine]

culinary genius » eir & hilda

It’s your turn on cooking duty, and you know exactly what you want to make: delicious pizzas! The kitchens are well stocked today; too well-stocked, in fact, because there are way too many choices for toppings, with everything you can imagine from meat to veggies to more unorthodox choices like chocolate or mapo tofu. Will you and your cooking partner come up with a brilliant new recipe, or spend the entire time arguing over whether or not that pineapple belongs on the pizza? [Grants Authority +1]

Cooking duty was definitely Hilda’s favourite chore, if you could have a favourite chore. It was at least a little fun, and she directly benefitted from it afterwards -- score! It was even better when the other person knew what they were doing; she could feign ignorance and contribute as little as possible. But, when she was partnered with a novice cook, well, she didn’t mind teaching them a thing or two. 

Swinging open the kitchen door, barely even five minutes late, she was met by the sight of long, silvery hair cascading out of a slicked back ponytail. Her partner had already arrived! Hilda admired her hair and clothes for a second before announcing her presence. 

“Hey!” she greeted cheerfully, choosing not to acknowledge her own tardiness. “Have you already decided what we’re making? If not, can I make a suggestion?” She continued immediately without waiting for a response. “Pizzas! They’re delicious, easy, and fun!” 

Pizza was something that she’d only recently been introduced to; in fact, it was soon after she joined the Academy. Dinner at home was always several courses, cooked for her and eaten with silverware. So, when presented with a slice of dough covered with cheese, tomato and an abundance of other unfamiliar ingredients, she’d been a little apprehensive at first. That soon disappeared with a single bite. Now, she was hooked and on the hunt for the best pizza topping.

“What do you think?”

@asphuxia

[amitieos]

cooking by the book

@ephemeralove

It’s your turn on cooking duty, and you know exactly what you want to make: delicious pizzas! The kitchens are well stocked today; *too* well-stocked, in fact, because there are way too many choices for toppings, with everything you can imagine from meat to veggies to more unorthodox choices like chocolate or mapo tofu. Will you and your cooking partner come up with a brilliant new recipe, or spend the entire time arguing over whether or not that pineapple belongs on the pizza? [Grants Authority +1]

The kitchen smells delicious already, wood fire ovens burning brightly and the scent of garlic wafting through the air. Supervising cooking duty really was quite a treat after all. The students had already separated into pairs and whilst some had picked up some... questionable toppings, no fights had broken out. So far so good.

Except, it wasn’t quite going to plan. Elincia spots Katarina, quiet and delicate as a shade, rolling out dough alone without a word. Which seemed entirely unfair, to expect one woman to do the work of two people.

“Excuse me, Katarina? Would you like a hand?” Elincia asks the younger woman, a bowl of mushrooms and peppers in hand. Sensible, easy toppings that most people could enjoy. It appeared a few heated debates had started about adding pineapple, although that seemed far less offensive than sprinkling the pizzas with gummy worms. "I’m quite adept at cooking and this was supposed to be a two person job.”

“Ah, unless you’d prefer to work alone? I’d hate to be a bother.”

@ephemeralove

[amitieos]

a lesson in sword dancing

You’ve co-taught your peers, now it’s time to take it to the next level! A nearby village has had enough of their unruly children behaving like gremlins and have begged the church for aid. Their hope is that a little bit of learning might sate their unrelenting energy for a moment or two - and if not, well, at least they’ll have a day’s respite to gather themselves back up.  Grab a partner and a lesson plan and meet your new students, and maybe take care not to lose any of them. [Grants Authority +1]

They meet in the dining room for a hearty breakfast as the late summer sun streams through the window, illuminating the hall in rosy hues of gold and crimson. Elincia tucks an errant lock of sage green hair behind her ear before tucking in to an extra helping of eggs. This was the most important meal of the day, after all.

Across from her sits Soleil - a new student and a member of the Blue Lions. The mission they had been charged with was definitely safe but she thinks to herself it’s a little cruel to throw the younger woman in at the deep end. Despite this, Soleil smiles brighter than the star she’s named after as they share idle chatter and small talk in order to get to know one another better. Privately Elincia has to admire the other woman’s open, cheerful nature. It puts her more at ease too, Soleil’s easy smiles make her own reservations seem like trivialities. Why hold back if there’se nothing to hide.

“So, I was thinking,” Elincia begins, in between bites of toast. Part of her hopes it’s not too forward - again, something in her holds back around others. She has never been particularly shy and Elincia supposes it’s just a remnant of her upbringing. One she hopes to break down. “We could walk the route set out and arrive at sunset in the village, thoroughly exhuasted.”

“Or... we could fly there. I’m a fairly skilled rider and Chrysaor’s always excited to meet my friends,” Elincia’s hand reaches in front of her face, stifling a chuckle. ”It would be much faster and leave us ample time to prepare for our class.”

@adoringflirt

[amitieos]

nine to five

The academy professors are bogged down with work and need a little extra help. Teacher’s assistant positions have been opened up and are available to just about anyone willing to lend a hand. Try your hand at helping teach some of your fellow students—or get an inside opportunity to change you and your friends’ grades in the assignment logs. [Grants Authority +1]

When she caught a certain professor she’d agreed to help out as an assistant with lesson plans and grading, Elincia thought about turning around and going back to her room. Exams were around the corner, if staff were more interested in day drinking perhaps she could spend her time better by studying. As a matter of fact, she was already half way back to the dormitories when she remembered another classmate had also volunteered her help. Whilst she had no qualms dropping the professor in it, leaving one student to handle the work of three people seemed needlessly cruel and Elincia turned around and made her way to the woman’s office.

“Sorry I’m late,” she bowed her head upon entry, feeling guilty that she’d ever thought about not turning up. “Lady Julia, isn’t it? I don’t believe we’ve met yet, despite being in the same class.” Lilac eyes rise to meet her own and she slides into a seat adjacent to the young woman. The desk is... frankly a total mess of paperwork, stained with what looked to be wine. She very much doubted that was Julia’s doing.

“Its a pleasure to work with you,” Elincia mustered a smile for her companion. She could complain about the professor’s ungracious attitude until she was blue in the face but it would help neither of them. Instead, she pulled a stack of papers closer to herself and started leafing through them. The handwriting was almost completely illegible, a few scattered doodles of saints accompanied them and - eugh, remants of yesterdays lunch. “Have you managed to make heads or tails of this? I can’t even tell what the lesson should be about...”

@lafilledenaga

[amitieos]

will the real lyndis please stand up

When you break the news about the imposter lords to one of the villages, they naturally react in horror and shame for being deceived. However, something goes awry when the message is passed along to the village elders. A miscommunication down the line leads these leaders, half-blind and three-quarters-deaf, to believe that you are the “real Lyndis”. Whether you are or not, there is little you can do to convince them otherwise, and so they demand you make things right. [Grants +1 Authority]

It’s a warm, quiet day. With the Battle of the Eagle and Lion behind them, it was a blessing to have a day to themselves. Far from Garreg Mach, in a small coastal village in Southern Faergus, Elincia takes her tea with extra sugar. The scent of rose petals delicately weaves it’s way through the air. A soft, hazy smile makes it’s way to her face as she gazes at her companion.

“You know, the ponytail suits you well,” she says between sips of tea. Her left hand reaches up, teasing through her own verdant locks. “Perhaps I should try something new? This does look a little too formal for such a personal occasion.”

A friend date, they’d decided to call it. Elincia sets her cup down and loosens the braid wrapped around her bun. Carefully displaces bobby pins and elastic bands until her hair falls down in waves past her waist. A sea of green, shaken loose from it’s usual bindings. Petite hands run through loose curls, throw lengths over her shoulder and smooth down any cowlicks until the Crimean queen is quite satisfied.

“What do you think? It’s nice to try something different once in a while but… it’s not too messy, is it?” Elincia asks in earnest, before being rather rudely interrupted.

“Lady Lyndis!” Byleth is accosted suddenly by a stranger. A few men, similarly dressed follow along. “Please, you must lend us your aid and sword arm. There was an imposter! Someone pretending to be you! We… we fell for it and now we’re bankrupt. You must take responsibility.”

“Don’t be a fool! That’s not Lady Lyndis, her hair is blue not green!” Yells another man. There’s at least a dozen at their table now, shouting the odds. A woman cries and Elincia feels genuinely guilty for being upset about having her peace shattered. It looks like their day off is a bust after all. “That woman is Lady Lyndis! You’ll punish the brigands and fakers, won’t you?” A finger is pointed squarely at her and Elincia swallows uncomfortably.

“Don’t be a fool! Lady Lyndis always wears a ponytail—”

They begin bickering. About whether Lyndis carries a sword, which both she and Byleth do. How tall the woman is, the exact shade of her hair. Elincia casts an apologetic glance at Byleth for what she is about to do.

“Quiet! Neither of us are Lady Lyndis,” Elincia declares, eyes flitting between the many faces before them. She allows her shoulders to relax as she addresses them once more. “However, we will assist you in righting the wrongs you have suffered. You claimed there was an imposter? Tell us what happened and where she went.”

@ashenprofessor​

[luneirika]

dungeon dice monsters

There’s a new game taking the school population by storm. It involves collecting small art prints of various monsters controlled by powerful summoners with spells and traps. They can be combined to form decks to be pitted against other players in head-on battles. Are you interested in playing and collecting? Or are you perhaps more interested in grabbing the rarest, powerful cards and selling them for a profit? [Grants Authority +1]

A new craze had seized Garreg Mach, one that had managed to pique Eirika’s interest. At first it had been the art on the cards that had attracted her, drawn her here to the marketplace in order to buy her own set. Sat inside a small cafe, the swordswoman sips on a cup of coffee whilst carefully reading over the descriptions of each card and it’s effects. A cursory glance told her that using them in battle required both luck and strategy. If only she had someone to play with. As if on cue, a familiar face sits down at the table next from her. Lifting her head, Eirika smiles gently and waves.

“Pelleas, is that you? It’s been quite a while,” she says softly, not wishing to disrupt the quiet atmosphere of the place. Still, it was quite exciting to see a familiar face. “I hope you’ve been well. It’s nice to see you again.”

“Would you like to sit together? I can move these out of the way if you like.” Eirika offers, already gathering her cards back together. She pauses, hands mid sweep, when she spots the deck of cards in his own hands. It seems she wasn’t the only one bitten by the Dungeon Dice Monsters bug.

“Ah, unless you’d like to play a little while? I’m a complete novice but it would be nice to learn the ropes with a friendly face. Assuming you aren’t otherwise preoccupied of course! If you have better things to do, please don’t let me keep you.”

“I’m just glad to see you again!”

@pirrhyc

[lalamines]

lessons from friendly faces

closed starter for @damegalantea

Mercedes arrives in the little classroom, provided by the villagers, a little later than Ingrid. This is to be expected. Ingrid is disciplined, steadfast unwavering, and perhaps most of all, punctual. Everything Ingrid does is clear and purposeful, in sharp contrast to Mercedes who seems to float to-and-fro on a lilac breeze. She takes quiet steps across the floorboards and crosses the distance between them.

“Sorry, Ingrid! One of the children asked me to come see his favourite horse,” her face was flushed from rushing over here, in a bid to outpace him. His younger sister had then eagerly insisted upon showing her a drawing, of herself and Ingrid, that Mercedes hadn’t had the heard to deny her. She also hadn’t commented on the fact that she appeared to have three legs in the picture, if one couldn’t flex their imagination in childhood when would they ever? “Have you been here long, I didn’t see you at breakfast either.”

A frown finds it’s way to her face. She admired Ingrid for many things, including the young woman’s tireless work ethic. It worried her though, sometimes, that Ingrid would get so caught up in her duties that she’d forget to take time for herself.

“Here, I baked some pastries last night. Help yourself.” Perhaps she’s fretting too much, it would be very unlike her classmate to skip meals. She had probably eaten and washed up before Mercedes had even pulled herself out from beneath soft, fluffy covers and cloudlike dreams. The priest pulls herself a seat next to the desk and rests her face in a cupped hand. “Have you decided what we should teach today, Professor Ingrid? I’m sure I have a lot to learn but I’ll do my best to assist.”

[coeurenais]

the lost child

@irroche

The knights had sent the pair of them - Eirika and a girl around the same age, who went by the name of Constance, on a mission. They were searching the village, looking for any signs the infection had spread out this far. What they found was dire, almost as dour as Constance’s mood in the harsh winter sun.

It seemed the village had been mostly abandoned in a frantic hurry. The streets were silent, all the stores were already boarded up and there was little to suggest people still lived here. 

However, they had been lucky enough to be approached by the local doctor, who informed them that most of the village residents had fled after the first wave of deaths from the plague. She did tell the pair though, that she’d recently seen a sick child, suffering not from the plague but another affliction, one all three of them hoped was less lethal. The doctor let them know that the mother still called a farmhouse on the outskirts of the village her home but had no returned to the surgery with he child.

Eirika and Constance shared a concerned look. Words weren’t spoken, but the way her brows knitted together and the frown on her face spoke for her. Well, they’d found a lead at least.

They thanked the doctor and headed through the deserted streets, cloaks tightly bundled around their shoulders to guard from the vicious cold. It was a truly cheerless day and Eirika’s hands trembled in her pockets.She wasn’t sure she was fully prepared for what they might find, children being in danger had always been a sore spot for her. It was for that reason she couldn’t turn around and inform the knights; the fear of taking too long, of being too late gripped at her heart. The street opened up and the farm appeared in view.

As they approached, the pair took note of the barren fields that looked at a glance to have been devoid of crops for quite some time. The barns and coops were dilapidated too and no roosters crowed or cattle grazed. The place was so eerie, like something out of a ghost story.

She almost tripped over a child’s tricycle, laid out on the porch. One of the back wheels was missing and it was covered in a layer of snow. How long had it been left out here? Where was it’s owner?

“Are you okay, Constance?” Eirika asked softly before knocking on the door. The question was somewhat redundant, even without the haunting nature of their current setting, Constance had been deflated and morose since they’d left camp. Before she could reply, the door creaked open, revealing a dishevelled woman, probably in her thirties or forties. Her dirty blonde hair seemed matted and her eyes a watery blue were wide as saucers. Eirika cleared her throat and put on a gentle smile to match her tone.

“Good afternoon, ma’am,” she said, “we’re students from the Officer’s Academy. We’ve been sent to look around the village and see if there’s anything we can do to help. Would you allow us to come inside?”