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?]

[maledictus_semper]

Drinking and cleaning:

[Ardyn was used to cleaning by now and being ordered by the Mistress to do so. It was becoming a daily grind for him; get up, eat, drink, then find where he's supposed to clean today. This time, he wasn't cleaning knobs for a change, but venturing down into the cellar. It was cooler down here, as he walked into a room containing lots of glass bottles. Some of them looked like wine bottles.

Had he stumbled upon the secret supply of the castle's stash? Well, it couldn't be that secret, since the Mistress had asked them to come down here and clean. Ardyn set to work dusting and cleaning in between the shelves, occasionally pulling out a bottle and examining it. A few minutes later...]

She won't notice if one is empty, will she? Or three?

[He chuckled softly to himself, as he uncorked a bottle and sat down on the hard floor, drinking straight from the bottle. Ah, that felt good. He could feel the rich liquid pour down his throat, offering him up an incentive to stay down here to clean longer. The only thing he didn't notice was that there was some mould-like substance clinging to the stone walls all around him, which was giving off a rather noxious substance. A drug, which was slowly being inhaled by the oblivious Chancellor.]


High as a kite:

[Around half an hour later, Ardyn was up on his feet rather wobbly feeling very strange indeed. He was used to drinking wine, so it couldn't possibly be that, could it? He began chuckling to himself almost in a stupor, as he attempted to clean around the bottle shelf, but then felt the room spin.

Oh, not good. If anyone walks into the cellar they might find the Chancellor of Niflheim rather drunk-looking. He's actually high as a kite but he has no idea the mould has effected him so. Now, he's smirking at the bottle in his hand, as he drained it, let it go to smash onto the floor and began removing his clothes. Because why the hell not? It had suddenly got hot in here. He was sweating.]

That's better....oh, yes....now I can get some air to where I need it.

[He stripped naked, piling his clothes into the corner of the room, before pulling another bottle from the shelf, uncorking it and gulping the contents down. He was having a ball, or so he thought.]