Description: Just recovering enough to move about the castle, Vince decides it's high time he explores his surroundings. In the process, he wanders by the magnificently aromatic kitchen, only to find the Scarlet Mouse scampering around and causing problems. Crisis resolved, the two actually have.. pleasant conversation. Imagine that.
A few nights after a particularly harsh battle, and Vince is still recovering. He was targetted a fair amount, and.. despite trying to keep out of harm's way, found himself getting the tar whipped out of him. But not without whipping tar back at the others! Or some analogy like that! If hospitalization is the price one must pay to bring honor and glory to one's family and art... so be it!
But Vince has been recovering well, which is quite fortunate for the sake of the tournament. He would be fairly useless, were he unable to get back into the duels. But despite being exceptionally tender right now and very weak, Vince has donned his typical cavalier gear and set his jaunty hat back atop his head.
Time to explore the castle.
Finally.
Having left the infirmary, the young swordsman ambles his way down the hall, head turning this way and that to take in all the rustic charm of the castle. Torches, stone walls, tapestries.. it's amazing! And so few people seem to appreciate it! It's like a dream come true for the young frenchman, though.
Just like it were out of a movie, everything is so authentic about the castle, all the way down to... the kitchens. While the young fighter might not of been headed that way and infact would of possibly passed the doors to them without a second thought, they were currently opened. What enticing smells might reach passing nostrils? What shouts of dismay as cooks wield large metal spoons and hurl pots and pans at a little bread thief witch.
"For the one hundreth time, get out of the kitchen, no soup for you!" cries a red faced cook with a german accent. The thief in question happens to be a red dressed woman in her mid twenties with a pair of whiskers drawn on her face to look mousy and she even goes about on her haunches, currently cowering from the incoming pan likely to come her way if the brandishing of that cook is any indicator. When it flies though she manages to duck under a table and goes for another try at that freshly baked bread. What would a castle be without commotion.
"We have got to ask the master to have these defeated fighters moved out of the castle!" the cook cries and starts chasing Naerose with a wooden rolling pin.
It isn't the smells that get him, though they are nice. German cuisine is actually pretty good, Vince has determined. It's the yelling. Castles, indeed, must have commotion.. and some wrongdoing for the sake of intrigue. So hearing someone being fussed at, along with the clatter of pans and such, Vince decides to turn back and investigate.
Thus, a hatted head pokes around the corner. It sees none other than a rather familiar woman being chased by a portly German. With a rolling pin.
"Sacre bleu.. hey!," Vince calls, hoping to get their attention. "Hey, you! Ah.." Crap, what was her name again? "..In the hat!" Probably not very helpful, especially if the cooks are wearing poofy hats.
To be perfectly cliche we must assume the cooks are wearing chef's hats, whatever they are called and to be eternally cliche, we must also assume Naerose is wearing a red witches hat, because she is. Therefore everyone looks over, being taken completely aback by the fact that someone just addressed them. I maen the whole 'STOP' theatre thing seems to work now and then. Except Naerose being the wily one starts to reach out for that slice of bread which sets the cook back off again. They pair bound all around until coming to Vince and circling him a few times. Surely this will lead to a climatic end.
"Stop this crazy woman, she is acting like a child!"
It's true. But also, Naerose was just having fun
Which is basically the same thing.
So Vince does the only thing a strapping young man can in this situation. His icy blues trail on Naerose for a while, tracking her movement around him. Suddenly, he leans down to attempt snatching her up around the middle to physically carry her away from the kitchen. With or without her bread. Of course, if she so much as struggles a little, it'll unbalance the poor frenchman, who's already quite weak from his injuries. But hey, maybe she'll be cooperative?
She isn't, but she also puts up about as much fight as a kitty-cat. It's odd, Naerose might have some real power, but most of the time you wouldn't know it. Be it her attempting to get a kite out of a tree, or trying to sneak a candy bar from a halloween bag, everything she does is so deliciously mundanely failttastic, except those rare times when she manages something that might be considered impressive. This was clearly not one of those times. No that portly chef had a match of it, but by no means was Naerose stealign anythign she wanted, on the contrary, she hardly got a single scrap. The injured Vince should find her quite easy to carry too, despite her whining, struggling and insistence that,
"Hey, I was having funnn." Yes, more whining. Unless he's weak to whining.
Wham. Vince falls unconscious.
Okay, not really.
He carries her out to the hall, then kneels down to set her back on.. well.. her haunches. Since that's how she was scurrying around earlier, why expect anything different? "You are by far the strangest person I've ever met," Vince says sourly. "And constantly getting into trouble, or putting yourself in danger. What is it with you?" He can remember that, but not her name. Not yet, anyway.
He simply remains knelt for the time being, cape settled about his form and semi-sweeping the floor behind him. Though she doesn't weigh much and she wasn't putting up a great struggle, just carrying her was fairly draining.
"I totally eat spinach," Naerose replies, which is true, in essence that when you eat everything and anything, you also eat spinach.
Naerose cranes her head as if examining Vince then sits down instead, yes i nthe middle of the castle hall, as it were, but luckily this place isn't exactly crowded.
"You look really tired, are you okay?" The whole tournement is so far from her mind, it doesn't even occur to her that the obvious reason Vince might be in this state is. Also, she makes virtually no show of knowing, or not knowing him. It's a pleasant though somewhat unfamiliar, friendly chat she has going on, missing any of the acquired naunces of knowing someone. Though, she was proably always like that.
Vince had come to expect such curiosities from her, really. Vince, however, starts to shake his head.. then pauses, and nods. The poor feather in his hat simply bobbles with each motion. "I'm fine. Just.. a little under the weather from the last fight," he replies. "I'm fine, though." It has to be reasserted, you know.
His head turns to look back to the doorway of the kitchen, then to her again. "You know you were upsetting him, right?," he asks. "Wasn't very nice." He can't really be sure if the woman is entirely cognitive of the things she does, so it's better to err on the side of caution.
"Hhhhuuuuuh?" The witch asks, looking flabergasted.
"But thats' the way it always happens, you have the rat that can cook and the hermit crab with the mermaid, chefs are always chasing them and they're always friends right? So.. I mean.. I umm, don't think he was that upset." The witch deflates a little. Reality bites.
"And why were you in a fight? Fights are hard and hurt people a lot." The witch nods a few times and asserts that she has definately moved on from the tournement. Her mind is on other things and if you asked her, why are you even here Naerose, in the castle in germany and still considered a guest? She probably would have to think about that for a moment. Anyway, it would be a good question.
"The.. the tournament," Vince reminds. "My.. 'team'..," he says with not so much as an attempt to feign the distaste in his mouth, "..has been doing well. The last one was simply more.. painful." His head inclines on her. "I assume you were invited."
He'll just gloss over the countless questions, there...
"How have you been doing?"
"Oh that thing.." Naerose begins and then shrugs a little, because her team didn't do great. " Yeah my team lost, but it wasn't much of a team .. Um Angel? I think that was her name ... " Naerose kept screwing that part up at the outnremnet, "and some fella named Benimaru. They really didn't like each other, I didn't see why though, but I guess whatever, they were both nice. Anyway we didn't work so well together and I guess a group of individuals will always lose to a team that works well together. We lost to this team of peopl ewho were all friensd. Friends sure are better than not friends." The witch muses, not sounding at all bitter about their fate. Actually quite indifferently and pleasant.
"It's funny you should say that," Vince replies, expression flat. "My team includes an imbecile just full of friendly fire, and a man I'm fairly certain not even qualified to fight. There's only one other respectable individual on the team, but if I got the chance to talk to her, odds are I'd be just as disappointed." Vince isn't quite so gracefully indifferent. He's all too aware of how estranged his team happens to be.
"I'm sorry things didn't work out for you, though, Naerose." Beat. "Ah, yes, that was your name." His expression brightens a little.
That Vince didn't know her name, that he just figured it out obviously and that he hasn't said it til now doesn't have any effect on her at all. She simply fails to realize any of these facts. More over it might be more of a sshock that he says her name and she doesn't reply with something like, "How do you know my name?" Instead she just smiles and nods a little,
"Hey so you'rea doing pretty well then if you are still moving on despite you know having a team that doesn't seem to get along at all. I don't know that the whole teacher student thing was about power or skill at all you know, I think it was about who could bring a group together. " the witch gives a shrug, it's all philospphy to her which is like brain surgery. You probably don't want Naerose as your brain surgeon.
"That just makes it more of a conundrum," Vince says with a small sigh. "Anyway..." He seems to have the energy to stand now, and stand he does. The young rogue raises to his full height, and is even polite enough to offer her a hand. "What happens, then? If you lose, you're not evicted?" His head tilts just a hint to the side, giving him an even more youthfully curious look.
"Ah no, they invite you to do exhibition matches. A lot of tournements did that, well are doing that these days. See the way I figure it though I came for the free vacation.. I had no idea it would be this cold ehre though, anway, I don't . "
The witch pauses to think for a moment then grins a bit more and lowers her voice,
"I don't mind the castle so much, it's kind of cool here and there is still food, so if the team I'm on decides to do more here I won't mind, not really, it was kind of fun anyway right?" Yeah she was way above the politics, jsut sort of there and hardly showed up on time for anything.
With his hand forsaken and the witch apparently content as is, Vince, simply sets the hand to his hip. She always was a quirky person. "Just fun for you, perhaps. For me.. it's a quest to prove the worth of Rose Dansant. A quest I cannot allow myself to fail." His expression brightens a little more, and he turns around to examine the castle walls. "It -is- cool, isn't it? Just like out of a storybook, or a glimpse into the romantic past...," he gushes.
She didn't even notice the hand, it wasn't really rude, per say, not a look at the hand then ignore it, it was, not even glance at it. Perhaps if he waved it in her face and said, WANT A HAND UP?! she might of totally taken it, but that wasn't the way of Naerose, instaed she just misses the significance entirely. . Yep. nothing personal.
"I never looked at it that way. I mean, I hope I did well and people think that way about, well you know, me, but I dunno, I mean my team lost and I figure er... well, I dunno what fame is all about." The witch admits a little sheepishly at that last part.
Vince didn't take insult to it. She's just.. odd, in her own little ways. "It's not so base a desire as fame, as it is to show the world magnificence. Not unlike an art gallery or museum exhibits things of the past so elegant, so beautiful that the world not only would enjoy it, but benefit from the culture it gives."
Vince whirls around on her again, and he raises his hands in a mild shrug. "This is my view of Rose Dansant, anyway. It's something the world should come to recognize as excellence. The founding family deserves that respect." Which he just so happens to be from, so his endeavors aren't entirely humble. "Anyway, are you being treated well? Apart from upsetting the waitstaff, I mean..?"
"Yeah, I think so, no noe has kicked me out yet, er hold on, umm you've been here a while and you want to make a name for yourself right? So how has it gone so far? I maen, have you had a good showing?" She's pretty sure somewhere in her mind, in her heart that such might be a bit insensitive to ask, but she asks it anyway, being a tactless witch. Though she gies her own report too.
"I meanwhile have er.. I dunno, We lost!" l n
Her question takes Vince off guard, but only temporarily. It doesn't seem to phase him in any particularly negative way - just makes him a little more contemplative. "I believe so, oui. I'm not sure. Time will tell... or reports. No adoring fans or anything, though." The last part is said with mirth, joking. Apparently Vince's mood has been lifted a little - somewhat odd, considering the effect Naerose usually has on him.
"I guess I could like try to read a newspaper or something, " - because apparently Naerose hasn't heard of the internet. " And see what is what. " The witch nods a few times and maintains a big smile.
"I dunno, it might be that you'd got adoring fans and they just arn't allowed in the castle right now?" The witch rasies both brows and manages a biiig smile for Vince who is nice enough you know.
"Perhaps," Vince says. He's content enough to let the subject drift, however, and he inclines his head. "So your accomodations are still intact here?," he asks. "Not been kicked out or anything? How is your room? Isn't it fantastic? Mine is amazing - luxurious, spacious, perfect..!" Gush. Vince's eyes turn fairly starry and sparkly. "This is just the sort of place I'd dreamed about as a boy..."
"Ummm.." Naerose remembers back to her room, her every whim was paid for except one, perhaps the only one she really cared about. room service. Sure there was some free stuff there, but there was no complimentary room service, THAT she had to pay for and of course, she didn' tbring any money at all. Though the sleeping in was choice and she did that a lot.
"Umm, yaeh it's great!" Normally Naerose lives on someone's coucgh.
Vince grins widely at Naerose, hands linking together before himself. "It's excellent. Everything is so exquisite!" But then he pauses, and inclines. "..Is something the matter?," he asks. "You seem a little... I don't know." Better than normal? Then again, she has whiskers drawn on her face. Srsly.
"We're just talking!" Exclaims the witch, assuming that he thinks they are having a date and you know where that leads. first they have to climb a tree and she's a terrible climber, then they have to listen to KISS and letes face it, Naerose HATES that kind of music, it's too loud and screamy and the hair and the makeup (she has whiskers drawn on her face for real!) And then they have to baby set a baby in a baby carriage and man that's a drag, who wants to do baby setting, it's too expensive and no one wants to do it and it's terrible. so claerly Naerose isn't going to do it.
"Anyway, I was just hoping for some free bread."
Vince turns his head slightly, brow furrowed. "...D'.. D'accord.." His right hand lifts to scratch at the side of his head. "Well! Try not to pester the chefs anymore, alright? You're lucky he didn't pull out the meat cleavers." His expression sets to casually pleasant once more, smiling gently. "I'm going to see the rest of the castle, myself. So.. be careful, will you?"
"Okay!" The witch primises and smiles and watches Vince go with that smile staying far to perfectly on her lips as she brings up her wrist and wavse her hand with a sort fo queen of england manner. . . .
. . . .
. . .
<|8)
The witch happily hops back to the kitchens after Vince is gone.
Log created on 18:58:13 12/13/2008 by Vince, and last modified on 15:57:11 12/16/2008.