Apprentice Mingle

[loveskulls]

Periodically throughout the month, you will find yourself accosted by guards who inform you that the Mistress has picked you, specifically you, to do some cleaning. The castle is big, and other than the rooms that have been locked and rendered off-limits, you’re going to help clean every last bit of it.

Sometimes, the chore may be pleasant enough—maybe you’ll be sorting and reshelving books, or doing a little bit of sweeping. Other times? Well, have fun scraping out the gunk between the cobbles with a stick.

However, there will be one special time mid-month where all the apprentices will be not allowed to leave first thing in the morning. Instead, after they’ve eaten, they’ll be taken down into the cellars. The cellars are a catacomb of stone storage rooms, some magically chilled and others simply basement-room temperature. They’re lined with shelves, jars, and other storage methods, all filled to the brim with ingredients and various drinks, both alcoholic and not. While the ones with the freshest ingredients are kept as spotless as you can hope for in a fantasy setting, many of the others—especially the furthest ones—are much worse off. While nothing is off-puttingly bad, it sure hasn’t seen a good cleaning in a while.

You are given proper cleaning supplies, and told to get to work.

Of course, under some of those shelves and corners are lurking the spores of a certain mold, when inhaled, will make you start feeling… pleasant. Your thoughts will begin to slowly reel and your thinking will alter, and you’ll relax. If you’ve ever been high on certain herbs before, you’ll recognize that’s what it is. It creeps in slowly. The longer you’re in the mold-infested rooms, the higher you’ll get.

There are no adverse effects to long-term exposure—but you’ll fall asleep and some hapless guard will be in to retrieve you.

Every hour or so, the guards will check in on you. Once everything is clean enough, they’ll let you leave.

-
((OOC: Catch-all mingle for apprentice activities this month! But if you're an outlier who happens to have business at the castle while they’re cleaning main areas, or you’re a guard who has to patrol the pantry with an NPC platoon, why not hop in?))

Comments

[witchofwishes]

Pregaming

[Guess what? Yuuko hates this. She hates chores. She doesn't do chores. Other people do chores for her. That's how it's always been. She's never had to sweep or dust or do anything like that ever.

Naturally in her very short time here she's been skirting her duties as much as possible. Today luck isn't on her side, or so it seems at first. Today she's been led to a wine cellar and her eyes immediately sparkle in delight. This is how the day will be spent. And if there was a warning about not to drink anything down here she didn't hear it.

Yuuko hums happily feeling quite delighted as she looks over all the liquors that are on display.]

Which one~ Which one~

[She doesn't see any sake but there's lots of wine which is just as excellent. And soooo~ many to choose from. She eventually plucks a red wine from the shelf and plops herself down on a crate as she fusses with the cork, struggling with it for a few minutes.]

We might as well help ourselves. If we finish early they'll just send us somewhere else. It's cool down here and there's alcohol. Why be anywhere else~?

[There's a soft pop signalling that it's party time down here.]

After Party

[The rules that she lives by states that she can't take something without giving in return. That's just her own personal rule set and if it exists in this world or not is not completely certain. And today isn't the day to find out. So naturally after drinking what we'll average as a few bottles of wine it's time to pay for it. And that's by finally doing the task assigned to her. Clean.

Now, you might be saying that's towing a fine line. Payment can't be what she was told to do from the beginning. And you'd probably be right. But at least she's willing to clean now and a victory, however minor, should be celebrated. This sudden willingness to do the task given to her is no doubt thanks to the alcohol in her body and mold in the air.

If you come down you'll find a very intoxicated witch. She's humming and stumbling a bit, which puts all those fine expensive bottles at great risk. But most importantly she's doing a very bad job at cleaning. But at least she's trying. That's the important thing, right?]

pregaming

[ignisvulpes]

[Anybody unaware of Kaphlar's current condition would mistake him for a man deep in thought... and maybe they wouldn't be completely off-base, for once? On one hand, he likes this lady's thinking, whoever she is. Yup, could use more people like her among the apprentices. On the other hand... Slacking off is risky for him, the way things stand right now. Fearing consequences isn't really his style, but he can't help but imagine that if he pisses off the Mistress again, she'll just make it so he straight up can't open his mouth without a dick in his ass.

... Shit, he bets that's some good wine, though.

He shrugs in acceptance and fetches his own crate to sit down on. As soon as Yuuko takes a sip, he signals at her to pass him the bottle.]

[witchofwishes]

[She passes him the bottle after her sip, running her tongue over her lips as she does. And yes this is some good wine. The mistress has some excellent taste in the liquor department. Yuuko can appreciate that. She can't wait to sample a few more...

Now, if only her cleaning partner in this unfortunate servitude was more talkative. This is going to be a very boring boozing if things continue at this pace.]

Are you the strong silent type or just lacking a voice in general?

[Had she her powers she could have felt the curse placed upon him but as it is this is just a guessing game. If she can get him talking this will be much better. It's not the end of the world if she can't as she does most of the talking in conversations anyway but it's nice to at least have someone give their voice occasionally.]

[ignisvulpes]

[Kaph takes his own sip - well, okay, it's more of a large gulp - and lets out a big ol' heartfelt "Ahhhhhhh" at the end of it, but that's it. No words.

When the woman asks her question, he points and nods at the latter half of it, a resigned look on his face. He glances at the floor and has a thought - yeah, the floor is probably dusty enough that he could...

Yup. He bends over and clears some dust on the floor with his finger, writing the following: CAN'T TALK UNLESS IM DOING SOMETHING SEXY.

Then he looks at her and shrugs dramatically.]

[witchofwishes]

[She can't help but laugh. It's ridiculous but then everything thus far has been. Of course... Of course this person is cursed or doomed to not be able to speak unless he's performing some kind of sultry act.

She holds out the bottle to him, as he probably needs this more than she does which is saying something.]

Well. They say silence is golden, for what it's worth. If everyone was silent we'd all be wealthy, so on and so on... [She waves her hand. Her usual rhetoric of talking a lot feels wasted here.] I assume you could speak before? You don't even make an attempt to communicate with your hands or sign. If you were always mute I'd assume you would. That's why I ask. I'm curious about how you fell in such a state but I assume it's a long story to write on the floor.

[ignisvulpes]

[He doesn't quite appreciate the laughter, especially considering the circumstances that landed him in this predicament. Just knowing that other people saw how the Mistress humiliated him is enough to make his blood boil.

But she'll get what's coming to her some day. For now, Kaph takes another enthusiastic swig from the bottle, then gives the woman a faux-apologetic tilt of the head. Thanks for giving him an easy out, there.

He takes a moment to discreetly eye her from top to bottom too. She's not bad-looking at all...

After giving her a furtive nudge, he writes a few more words on the floor:

"JUST THE 2 OF US IN THIS CORNER THO"

And then he draws a winking face next to that.]