[MoP] Chapter One: Phoenix Down

[Callos_DeTerran]

The (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhLKLSkTxMg&feature=PlayList&p=62BAACDD6A9D6F0B&index=122) jeep rumbles along the muddy dirt road, the four armed men bouncing along with it, the sort of men who lived their entire lives on the edge of the law. Numerous large duct-taped bundles lay in the bed of jeep, to keep the rain from getting to them, as the sun begins to crest on another hot and humid day in the jungle. Most would mistake them for drug dealers or...revolutionaries of some kind, but they'd be wrong in that respect.

These slightly scary individuals were under long term contract to the Salazar family and were bringing the weekly delivery of supplies. Food, toiletries, clothing, and anything else from the list they had been given on the last occasion. Why the guns? Well...the jungle was a dangerous place! Who knew what might what they have?!

Their destination, for lack of a better word, is an extravagent one-floor mansion that rests atop a large hill. Numerous walls with automated gates keep interlopers and the occasional jungle critter from entering into the well-tended flower garden behind the mansion or the elegantly paved front drive-way with a large marble fountain sitting in the middle of it. All of it paid for by cutting edge research into cybernetics and other various fields. Which explains the equally automated gun turrets positioned on strategic points along the wall that occasionally reduce a hapless bird or lizard to a fine red mist whenever it gets too close in a hail of bullets.

But the drop-off is made without incident, the men returning to their normal lives for another week while the household begins to stir for a new day...

==============

The inside of the Salazar family residence is silent, for the moment, as the noise of the Jeep pulling away can briefly be heard. It's the beginning of a new day and each of the occupants is just waking up to begin their day...

[Shades of Gray]

Leah

A new day. The world seemed to always be reliable, every twenty-four hours you get a new day, no more, no less. Once a week the armed men came to deliver supplies, but they were usually at least a few seconds late or early, but the time that days come was always perfectly regular, something that Leah's internal clock truly appreciated.

Leah got up from her bed at 7:32 sharp, yawning. She was sleeping on her stomach, the only way to sleep when one has wings. She stretches out her wrist, which was scarred. Not because of the usual reason that was popular of angst-ridden teens. The edges of the scar were metallic. She holds the screwdriver between her teeth as she pulls two wires out from the gash, tying them together.

Leah walked to her closet and got dressed, being sure to wear clothes that could obscure most of her scars. It would normally be difficult to get dressed with her large wings in the way, but she was now used to it, tucking the wings underneath the shirt and jacket she was wearing. After getting all of her clothing in order, she decided to go wake up the younger of their two masters, Milena. She knocked on her door before opening it and stepping into the room, a smile on her face.

"Time to wake up, Milena." She said with a smile as she opens the blinds, letting a wave of sunlight enter the room as she does so. It's another day.

[AmberVael]

Iris

Iris is already awake. Or, to be more accurate, she is still awake, and has been so through the night, working obsessively on her latest project, with little to no regard to her current condition. Though her eyes betray weariness, she is still attentive and patient as she watches the centrifuge spin. A large, unusually heavy light swings a slightly back and forth above; the power and electrical systems are less modern in the basement of the manor, but still reliable.

As the machine slowly comes to a stop, Iris removes one of her test tubes from its place and examines it, beginning to take a few notes on the results.

[nothingclever]

Avila

Avila woke up at about the same time as her robot counterpart. She rolled onto her stomach, rose on all fours, arched her back and finally stretched as far as she could lengthwise while letting out a long yawn. She then leaped out of bed and dressed hastily. Afterwards she bolted from her room to seek out Iris. As usual the feisty female feline was eager to greet her wards. She knocked on her door and upon getting no answer she opened it a little to peer inside. Seeing that her master was nowhere to be found Avila bounded to the lab figuring that it was the next best place to look. Upon sighting Iris she sprung up next to the little girl and repeatedly rubbed the side of her face against hers. "Aw, you should really be getting more sleep. Staying up all night isn't healthy for you. So, what have you been up to?" Avila purred.

[Noble Savant]

Kuusha

So it was a new day. And a new day meant new opportunities. Mainly they would involve cooking, cleaning and washing. But Kuusha knew she could count on the killer robots to cause trouble. If they didn't, then her masters could probably cause even more.

She quickly made her way down the hall, checking up on the charms and wards she had drawn up. By the time she finished, the other maids and the masters would be awake, so Kuusha made her way to the kitchen.

Humming absently, Kuusha began swiftly cooking up a simple breakfast. Eggs, cheese and fresh orange juice. With utmost care and delicacy, she set a bowl of fruit in the middle of the table. "An apple a day keeps the demons away!"

[AmberVael]

Iris

Iris takes a step away from Avila, not even deigning to look up from her notes as she raises an arm to push the maid away- not hard, but in a manner that demonstrates her displeasure.
"Servants are at their best when neither seen or heard, but I suppose we always knew you were incompetent. What do you want?"
The teen's voice is irritated, aristocratic, and as cold as she can make it. It was very well known that Iris was far more of a pain to deal with than her sister, and in fact seemed to harbor some hostility towards the maids that ever remained unshaken.

"And make it quick."
The tone of her voice and minute change in eyes and eyebrows are probably pretty troubling- it usually implies that she's contemplating punishments.

[nothingclever]

Avila refused to yield to this routine browbeating. It was equally well known that she had developed a great tolerance for Iris' wrath. The cat girl frowned momentarily and then burst into smile. "I just wanted to wake you up and say good morning and see how you were doing. I'm sorry I bothered you," she said cheerily. Avila's expression was far from repentant.

[Felyndiira]

Mireille (forgive me for using first person)

This is a daytime, master had taught me. When the yellow ball in the sky rises, the daytime begins. When the yellow ball falls, the daytime ends. The yellow ball is called the sun, and it is a very long distance away from where our current location. Sometimes the yellow ball is covered by white things called clouds, and then you can't see it, but we are still supposed to know if it is daytime. There is a complex decision tree that humans use to determine whether it is currently daytime, selecting from factors such as the amount of light not from an artificial source, the season, whether there is heavy clouds, and the amount of time elapsed since the last indicator that it is daytime. Humans are supposed to process this information with expediency; they have a feeling when it is day and when it is night.

I feel that it is daytime. The algorithm is too complex for me to check my work, but the master had said it was okay. A feeling is adequate for this judgment.

The master had tried to make me program this tree into one of his robots. "Mireille could have done it," he said, and he loved Mireille. He wanted me to be like Mireille, and he said that sometimes I would succeed. "Love is when a human like me develops a compulsion to remain with another human for the sake of procreation, and sacrifice their lives and well-being for the other person," the master had said. He was crying. I instinctively moved to wipe his tears. I do not know why.

Do I love master? Master asked me to help take care of his children. I feel compelled to abide by his commands. I would sacrifice my life to protect the master's children. Do I love master's children?

But my memories are not useful. My love is not useful. I am not Mireille. I am a failed experiment, and therefore, I am a maid. Correlation is not causation; the other maids are not all failures like me. They were wonderful, perfect creations. They were not created to be Mireille. They were different. They are different. I think Master Iris will tell me this if he could read my thoughts. I may even be able to attach a probability to this.

I put on my uniform. I must take great care to not allow my clothes to touch my wings. The master had told me that Mireille did not possess wings, and therefore, they are my first failure. My uniform is pure. It should not be tainted by my undesirable wings. I must also attach my headdress before I put on my dress, as my hair is my second failure. The headdress would negate that failure and make me whole once more, although I do not know why.

The jeep is here. I must go and pick up the daily supplies, which are always in a rectangular construct of paper. Humans are fascinated with rectangles, it seems. When I have my episodes, I imagine myself looking at rectangle tables and rectangle desks. The house is also rectangle. I fancied myself. The master laughed. When the master laughs, I have briefly succeeded in being Mireille. My successes are very rare, and my failures had caused master to leave. I am a failure. Perhaps it is because I am not adequately attached to the rectangular shape.

I carry the box inside. I see that another maid is already awake. She is named Kuusha, just as I am called Mireille despite my failure. She is more perfect than me, but I still walk up to her, and I say hi.

[PhoeKun]

As the sunlight streams through the recently opened blinds and falls on Milena's face, the young heiress winces and scrunches her eyes tightly.

"Mmmm..." she whines, pulling the covers over her head in protest. She rolls over, burying her head in a pillow.

This too, was part of the routine. As surely as the sun would rise in the morning, little Milena would struggle to rise with it. Of late she had gotten very good at squeezing in a couple of extra minutes of sleep during this routine. Already, Leah could see the slow rise and fall of the blankets which indicated her charge has drifted off again...

Doubtlessly, she would be very contrite and apologetic once she woke up. And doubtlessly, she would attempt to figure out a way to make up for the extra trouble later in the day. But right at the moment, it was time to play the "wake up" game. And Milena had just raised the stakes. What would the next move be?

[Noble Savant]

Kuusha

Kuusha whirled around to face Mireille, her eyes wide. She was surprised. This was not, in point of fact, a very uncommon thing. Mireille was quiet and Kuusha was... distracted. At the moment, she had been examining the way the cooking oil sparked and fizzled on the pan. It had a distinct resemblance to fairy lights, or what she imagined that fairy lights looked like.

"Oh! Mireille, Hey. You brought supplies..." She smiled absently at Mireille. The other maid had always been a bit weird and quiet. Kuusha had always wondered about her, and those odd floating wings of hers. But she was a good girl, and good at her work, and never caused trouble. Kuusha stared up at the ceiling, pondering.

"Then again, things have always been odd around here... All the fairies, demons and kill robots dancing through the halls and touching my stuff..." She was still cooking, working on auto-pilot, turning eggs over and moving them onto a large plate to her side. "She might be some sort of inter-dimensional rift that brings them here. Or a regular maid. Or a demon summoner... Or a regular maid... Hrm..."

[Shades of Gray]

As the sunlight streams through the recently opened blinds and falls on Milena's face, the young heiress winces and scrunches her eyes tightly.

"Mmmm..." she whines, pulling the covers over her head in protest. She rolls over, burying her head in a pillow.

This too, was part of the routine. As surely as the sun would rise in the morning, little Milena would struggle to rise with it. Of late she had gotten very good at squeezing in a couple of extra minutes of sleep during this routine. Already, Leah could see the slow rise and fall of the blankets which indicated her charge has drifted off again...

Doubtlessly, she would be very contrite and apologetic once she woke up. And doubtlessly, she would attempt to figure out a way to make up for the extra trouble later in the day. But right at the moment, it was time to play the "wake up" game. And Milena had just raised the stakes. What would the next move be?

Leah

The cyborg looked at the Milena-shaped bulge in the blanket with a smile, her master seemed to be getting better and better at this. Would the few extra minutes of sleep do much? Leah was not one to talk, often taking naps when it wasn't imperative that she be doing something else, but she always woke up in the morning on time.

Leah sat down on the side of the bed, crossing her legs. She would try something new today. Carefully, and without making a sound, she lifted the covers up from the foot of the bed. Using one hand to keep her master's ankle still, Leah began tickling the Milena's foot in an attempt to wake her up completely. 'Here come the tickle monster...' The cyborg thought with amusement.

[roll0]

[Felyndiira]

Mireille

"Yes," I affirmed her assumption.

Kuusha is cooking. Kuusha is transforming a raw mixture of partially solidified liquid from an unhatched chicken, fermented milk that have turned yellow, and a few droppings of sweet fruits into a combination of location and admixture that is edible by humans. A raw unhatched chicken egg cannot be safely eaten, but once placed inside a pan and heated with fire, it becomes a white-and-yellow solid that you can consume without remorse. The shell, of course, you must toss away. Eating the shell would be silly, master had said.

But not directly to me. Maybe to Mireille. Maybe I have simply inherited this memory of Mireille being silly, and the master correcting her behavior as he did mine. I wonder if Mireille had really tried to eat an egg shell.

I wonder what happens if I eat it.

Kuusha has not yet thrown away the shells, I see. They are laying around on the table, and instinctively, I feel a slight compulsion in my mind. My legs weakens a little, I think at the anticipation of being silly; my mind tells me to be daring, and I obeyed. I put the rectangle box on the floor and walked slowly toward the egg shells. My eyes stared at them for a long time. They are open wide and a few droplets are coming out of them. I wondered whether it would be prudent that I eat them.

Before I am able to make a decision, my hand acted on its own accord. Or is it on my accord? Humans are such strange and complex beings. Still, the egg shells were easily broken by my teeth. They tasted like starch, but with a different texture and did not melt into an congealed paste. I swallowed them, expecting to feel silly as the master described. I did not feel anything at all.

"I wonder why master had said that eating egg shells is silly?" I asked aloud to no one in particular, as Mireille was fond of doing. I imagined that Kuusha would hear the question, and I wondered if she would respond even if the question was not directly addressed to her.

Regardless, I returned to my original position and moved to pick up the box once more.

[AmberVael]

Iris

"I do not appreciate your interest,"
Iris says coldly to Avila, keeping her back to the maid as she continues to write precisely and methodically, hiding her fatigue as much as she can.
"Or your intrusion. Ask before entering, do not touch me, and do not speak unless spoken to. You know those are my rules.
"Now, go make a pot of tea for me. It should be hot and waiting at my usual place in the dining room."

The last order Iris gives is troubling. Iris dislikes tea and all the maids know it, as she completely refuses to even taste or smell any variety of tea; her usual drink of choice is black coffee. Of course, it's hard to determine whether serving her tea or questioning her order would be worse, and it seems all too likely that she's merely manufacturing an excuse to berate Avila further.

[nothingclever]

Avila just shrugged and walked out of the room and to the kitchen to whip up some Earl Gray. After all, who didn't like that flavour? She was prepared to be ridiculed and didn't really care if she was being set up. Perhaps Iris was finally ready to give tea another chance. Once she was done she set it in the regular place.

[PhoeKun]

"Mmmmmmeheheheee!"

Milena shifts her feet deftly to avoid Leah's hands, but to no avail. The ankle has been firmly clasped and held, and her bare foot is assaulted by the maid's fingers. She wriggles, she squirms, and her whining protest melts into a full fledged giggle. Defeated, Milena's eyes flutter open.

"Eeeheehehee... ok, ok! You win... Leah? Leah!"

And just like that, she's slipped free of the grasp, free of the covers. Her nightgown flutters in a burst of motion as she springs forward into the traditional Good Morning Hug, after which she promptly flops backwards onto the bed again. She yawns loudly.

"Moooooooorning. You've gotten too good for me again. It's not fair..."

And just like that, Leah gains 3 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2642328/) favor.

[Shades of Gray]

Leah

"Good morning to you too." Leah said with a laugh as she stood up and opened Milena's closet, picking out the master's favourite outfit.

The cybernetic angel smiled and turned towards the girl. "One day you'll win and I'll let you sleep in until Twelve o'clock." Leah joked, but knew in the back of her head that this was only inviting Ms. Salazar to try even harder the following morning.

Leah sat down on the side of the bed once more, laying down the clothes as she began to brush Milena's long, blonde hair. "Is there anything in particular that you want to do today?" The cyborg asked as she nearly completed the brushing.

[AmberVael]

Iris

Iris eventually makes her appearance in the dining room, her lab coat over her arm.

The tea is waiting for her.

Treacherous tea. Iris narrows her eyes at it as she sits down, watching it carefully for any signs of a problem. Nothing seems to happen at all, but Iris quickly pushes back in her chair after a moment, her expression terrified as she turns her eyes towards Avila. As she notices the maid, she recovers her aplomb and haughtiness, though there is still a hint of shakiness about her.

"Avila, you know I despise tea. Take this away at once!"
If she was planning something more, the tea seems to have distracted her from it. Somehow.

[nothingclever]

"As you wish." She took the tea away and promptly replaced it with a fresh cup of her usual brand of coffee. It was as dark as her umbral soul. "Is this more to your liking?" Her voice contained no sarcasm.

[Noble Savant]

Kuusha

As Mireille spoke, Kuusha turned to her, staring intently. "I think..." She said, furrowing her brows, turning away from the frying pan. A long moment passed. "I think it's because you look silly while eating an egg shell. Crunching on the little pieces... And if you look silly, then people will think you're silly." She spoke as if handing down rare and precious knowledge. "And if people think you're silly, then you feel silly. And that's just silly."

She stood for a moment, arms folded around her midsection, nodding in content, before suddenly looking at the wall in the direction of the dining room. "Oh! Breakfast! We need to serve breakfast! Plates! Food! Cups! Drinks! Go!" She picked up a tray, quickly loading it with enough food for one, and half-dashed towards the dining room, to present it to one master.

[PhoeKun]

Milena

"Twelve!? Do you mean it?" Milena's eyes are ablaze and all her drowsiness melts away at the exciting prospect of more sleep. She smiles serenely as she is dressed and gets her hair brushed, leaning her weight against her servant until she is nice and snuggled in. This too is routine, albeit a pleasant one. She turns her head upward to look at the cyborg maid.

"What I wanna do? Hmmmmmmmm... Well, I--" she pauses, tapping her index finger very deliberately against her lip. She remembers seeing Iris do it once, which meant it obviously makes you look smart and makes people respect you. She hasn't quite learned whatever secret her older sister uses to create the specific presence that she has, but Milena is trying her best, and isn't that what counts?

"Right now I'm just hungry. Could we go eat?" She starts to chew on her fingertip...

[Shades of Gray]

Leah

The cyborg gently pulled Milena's hand away from her mouth. "Of course, we'll go right away." Leah strengthened her grip on her master's hand as she helped her up and began walking towards the dining room.

"I see that Mireille and Kuusha have already started on the breakfast." Leah said, smelling the scent of delicious food. The cyborg did not need to eat that often, but still made a habit of having a bit of food during every meal, to feel more accepted."Come, we wouldn't want it to get cold."

[Felyndiira]

Mireille

"If people think I'm silly, then I'm silly," I repeated. The master had created Kuusha after me, but she was not like me. She was perfect, while I am tainted by my wings and my white hair. She was wise, like master. She is wise, as master would have been if I was not a flaw. At the meeting of her sight with a section of the uninteresting, white walls, she remembers her duty like a perfect being. I had forgotten all about the rectangular box. "If people think I'm silly, then I'm silly," I whispered, burning the words into my mind. I am not perfect. Kuusha is. Therefore, her words are a boon my limited knowledge.

Kuusha had cooked. She had began the morning with simple, raw meat and fermented milk. She ends the work, now, with the fermented milk melted and the meat transformed into a state that humans can eat. She had transformed the liquid eggs into masses of yellow items. "Scrambled eggs. Do you remember scrambled eggs?" Master had asked me. They were items that are fit to be eaten when it is day[time].

And, occasionally, when it is night.

Now, Kuusha carries the cooked items in a flat container and runs past me. "Kuu-" I tried to stop her - to ask her about the cooking. To ask her about eggshells and "silly," but she had already left me alone. Quickly, I remember that I must deliver the box to the correct room, although my mind does not listen. "I want to cook, too," I had thought. I feel a droplet of water forming near my eyes.

I remember something, although I do not remember having experienced this memory. I was not myself in this memory. I was not wearing my maid uniform, but in its place, a long dress that was shiny and purple and made me feel a tingle of warmth between my nare and my upper pharnyx, concentrated near the apex of the space. "Silk," a voice whispered to me in a soprano voice. "Who is Silk?" I asked. There was no response. It must be another one of those episodes.

I can see a spatula in my right hand. Spa-tula. It is a tool with one side covered in a thin rubber and the other side bare. It is used in cooking. It is Kuusha's tool, and in my memory, it is mine. The voices tell me that there are many different spatulas. They tell me that the metal spatulas had no rubber covering, and it is a single piece of metal that is flat on one side. They tell me other things, too, but I choose to ignore them. I sim

I suddenly feel a rush of heat. I believe that I have a fever. I tried to fall backwards, as humans do when they are afflicted, but the master suddenly appears before me. He approaches me with a bright glint in his eyes. They were tilted a bit inward, but he appeared. He was smiling. His hands touched my wings. "No, master. You must not taint yourself so," I tried to say, but he held me tightly in his arms. I could not part from this place. I did not want to part. My finger traced an upward crescent forming on my lips. I was smiling, and my smile rooted me to this kitchen as if a world for only the two of us.

Why am I smiling? Because in my memories, I am Mireille. In my memories, I am perfect. I reasoned with myself, but somehow, the logic does not seem to fit. Why am I laughing? I still could not understand my smile.

Suddenly, master disappears. A pan appears before me. My right hand moves. The voices speaks to me once more; they reveal to me the contents of the pan, and my eyes follow as I take items from the shelf. As I discover their volume and mass. As I carelessly throw them into the pan and light a fire underneath. The master had secretly forbid me to cook, although my hands - not of my will - are defying this order. I look behind me, and there, master was sitting. He nodded his head. I said something. I think the smile still had not faded from my face.

I am happy, they whisper. When you are happy, you smile. But the inverse is not true.

"Rose, please come to me," I whisper. The master had explicitly forbidden me to cook, although he spoke of this only when we were alone. Am I not an imperfect copy? I cannot truly be Mireille; even now, I am defying master's final wishes. I am performing tasks that were forbidden to me by the master's wisdom. "But the other maids do not know about the order," I reasoned. "The young master and mistress does not know of the ban. And I want to make Mireille's fruit-flavored food." My inner imperfections won over me, and I picked up a spatula.

My little familiar fanned the fire, and I began to cook.

Skill - Cooking the Master's Wife's Finest Plum Pudding: [roll0]

Also, since I might be interacting with the master/mistress of the mansion soon - remember that Mireille was created in an attempt to revive the scientist's wife, and Mireille, despite being a child with white hair and wings, does look very much like her. It's also definitely arguable - regardless of whether it's true - that her constant remainders of his wife and her imperfect personality contributed to his disappearance. How your impressions of her changes depends on you, although I definitely am prepared for lots of hatred =p.

[Noble Savant]

As she nears the dining room, Kuusha slows down, and takes time to straighten her dress. She walks into the room in a measured, dignified gate. She smiles at her two masters. "Now then, who wants the first tray? And remember, I expect you to eat it all. You both need your energy for-" Here she paused for a long moment, drifting off. "-the zombie apocalypse, all signs point to it cropping up any moment now. And how will you hold a shotgun if you don't eat?" She filled in for herself, mentally.

She coughed, shaking her head as if dislodging something. "-your busy day-to-day life in the manor." She completed, smiling even wider.

[AmberVael]

Iris

Iris picks up the coffee without replying to Avila and sips it, calming down a little now that the tea is out of sight. She says nothing, but the silence is far better than her normal attitude, after all.

Rather than waking up, she actually seems a bit more tired. Or maybe it's less that the coffee is putting her to sleep, and rather that she doesn't have the focus and momentum that was keeping her awake before, now that she's moved on to a new situation.

When Iris hears others approaching, she seems to perk up a little, expectantly watching the entrance to the dining hall.

[PhoeKun]

Milena

For Milena and Leah, the trip down to the dining hall is a long one. The young girl is very content to take her time, despite her claims of hunger, simply holding onto the maid's hand while taking one delicate and deliberate step after another. She smiles serenely, and leans her head against Leah's arm, closing her eyes and entering a sort of sleep walking state.

And then, maybe three quarters of the way there, her eyes bolt open in a moment of absolute panic.

"My sketchbook! We forgot my book!"

Hand detaches from hand. Milena spins about on her heels and dashes back toward her bedroom at top speed. Not on the chair... oh, under it. She hugs book tightly, fishes out a pencil, then heaves a very relieved sigh. Better. Much better. The trip is ready to be repeated again, and in no more hurry than the first time. At long last, the pair appears in the doors. Her face lights up when she sees Iris already seated and waiting.

"You're here! I haven't seen you in..." she pauses, counting off the time on her fingers, realizing after a moment that she's not really sure. "... a long time! What have you been doing this time?" She stands next to her chair, waiting expectantly to someone to help her get seated.

"Oh, she can eat first. Sis is super busy and important, and I'm..." she trails off.

[AmberVael]

Iris

Iris stands as Milena enters the dining hall, smiling in a genuine and kindly manner that she only seems to display in the presence of her sister. Though she is obviously exhausted, bags under her eyes, her hair disheveled, she moves to her sister's side to give her a small hug, and then help her to her seat.

"I ate earlier, sis."
Iris says gently. Not quite truthfully, unless you count an apple as a meal- but Iris's schedule is completely messed up anyway, so she might not even eat before she goes to bed. She'll manage somehow though.

With an idle hand, Iris brushes loose hair from her eyes, keeping her composure as best as she can.
"Right now I'm just doing some basic studies. Nothing important or interesting, unfortunately. If I get the results I'm expecting, I might achieve some fun results later."
Milena would know that Iris isn't lying- when she says something isn't interesting, it really isn't interesting.

[Shades of Gray]

Leah

The cybernetic angel stood behind the young master's chair with a blank expression, going into a sort of dreamy state. This was one of Leah's "rests." She had to perform them every now and then to prevent overheating. She lazily extended a hand to take Milena's sketchbook while she ate.

[Noble Savant]

Kuusha carefully set the tray down in front of Milena, smiling happily. "You eat up now! I'll go and get the other tray." She frowned for a moment. "I wonder where Mireille is... Maybe she was ambushed on the way? After are all, as they say, 78% of all lethal ambushes occur in your own home."

Before she left, Kuusha stealthily began an important part of her morning ritual. As she straightened up behind Milena, she slipped a carefully prepared warding charm into the cloth on the back of her dress. The pleasant smell of ink and incense filled the room as she pulled the charm from her own uniform.

Kuusha always made sure that bother her masters had a charm somewhere on them, for some mysterious and likely gnome related reason, they were almost always gone less then a day after she put them there. Kuusha reasoned that she had to work on her sneaking.

Iris was always a bit more aware than her sister, but she looked tired enough that Kuusha simply shoved the charm into her pocket quickly before dashing back to the kitchen to check on the rest of the food.

[nothingclever]

"Oh, she can eat first. Sis is super busy and important, and I'm..." she trails off.
"You're someone very special to all of us and an awful lot nicer to greet in the morning!" chirped Avila. She lightly rested a hand on Milena's shoulder and smiled warmly at her.

[PhoeKun]

Milena

"You ate already? But it's so early! When did you have time to... have you been not sleeping again? I don't like it when you do that, especially for the boring stuff..." She huffs indignantly, showing concern for her elder sister's well being, but it isn't difficult to placate her: in another moment, all is forgiven.

She smiles when the tray is set in front of her, taking in the aroma with a deep breath and an exuberant 'Thank you!'. She turns her head up to look Kuusha in the eye. Busted?

"You did a wonderful job." She beams. Whew...

Milena does not begin to eat right away, preferring to take the time to savor this rare moment when everybody is together. Avila's comment elicits a giggle from the young mistress, and she reaches up to pat the hand that's now resting on her shoulder. Everyone is always so busy, so to have that moment when nothing is going on in all the world... who could ask for more?

[Callos_DeTerran]

Breakfast seems to proceed all too happily, up to a point. Towards the end of the morning meal, the lights within the dining/banquet flickered a couple of times at sporadic times.

And then went out completely.

Luckily, everyone can still see from the light flooding through the windows, but everything is rather abruptly cast into long shadows. A soft whirring can be heard as the power struggles to come back on, but nothing seems to come of it either. Nor from the back-up generator or the back-up back-up generator.

Everything would likely remain fine...for a time...but no power meant no defenses. No cooling. No lots of things actually. Not even counting how creepy it makes everything look with the sharp shadows cover everything.

[PhoeKun]

Milena is just finishing her breakfast as the lights begin to flicker. Her fork falls to her plat with a clatter, and she stares up at the ceiling in confusion. She blinks as they flicker again.

"What's going--?" Flicker. Flicker. Black - Milena is plunged into shadow. Already her mind races with thoughts of the demons that must have done this. She looks into the now dark corners of a once familiar room, wondering what horrors might have crawled into them in the moments since they shut off the lights.

She lets out a cry of fright, and in a flash of movement is out of her chair and clinging possessively to Leah's neck.

"I don't like this... make it stop. Make the lights come back on..."

[Shades of Gray]

Leah was still "resting" when Milena clung to her neck, causing her great surprise. She suddenly woke up. "M-Milena?" She manged to blurt out, before flailing in shock. Her arm lashed out and knocked over a pitcher of water, followed by her head being pulled forward by the weight and into the newly spilled liquid..

"Full system reboot in... 3... 2... 5.. 7-8-9-1..." The cybernetic angel said, her speech speeding up.

She pulled her head up a few seconds later, a great big smile on her face. Don't worry. Leah said, holding Milena with one hard and patting her head with the other. "It will not last long, I'm sure this is just normal for a building like this. After this is over your sister and I will bake you some cookies." She said, comforting the little girl.

[roll0]

[AmberVael]

Iris

Iris remains calm. Or, well, she isn't scared or startled by the power outage. That said, she is obviously displeased with the situation. Still, she seems to have herself under control, and after a moment, she twists the top of her watch. Light blossoms from her wrist- it isn't much, but it is about the same power as a decent sized flash light, or a tiny lantern.
"House maintenance is not something I am inclined to put time into. I believe such is the province of others..."
She gives a pointed look at the maids.
"I expect I won't have to deal with this situation much longer."

Turning her attention from the servants, Iris takes the watch off of her wrist and holds it out to her sister.
"Don't worry, Milena. We're not out of light yet."

[nothingclever]

"Don't worry. I'll go check the fuse box and sort things out." Avila quickly went to do so.