Lily Flower

Pure Vanilla: The Institute (1)

WARNING: Gore/Body Horror, psychological torture, and emotional abuse. This one's a doozy. At least there's a few more crumbs of PV lore, hehe.

DE's communication and PV's thoughts are both in italics. This is intentional.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At a reasonable hour of the morning, Pure Vanilla finished preparing for the trip and set out to meet with Licorice and Strawberry Crepe. His morning routine had been rudely intruded on by the dizzying command of the Dark Enchantress, asking to report to her before departing. He refused to let it define his day, however, making sure to clean his space extra nicely to compensate.

He strolled to the hanger to convene with Strawberry Crepe. Before he could get too close to the garage, it opened of its own accord. The child hovered in their armor. They were already prepared for his arrival. He greeted them warmly, and they gave him a somewhat childish response which could also be interpreted as an insult.

Pure Vanilla noticed that each of their mech arms had a cone-shaped addition, jutting out from the sides like spikes. Evidently, the child has been busy during the night.

"Now, what could these be?" He wondered.

"It's a surprise that will help us later," they said impishly.

He decided to indulge the child by making wild speculations about the innocuous cones. With Strawberry Crepe, there was probably a fifty-percent chance the "surprise" would be actively hazardous to their health, but they were also capable of marvelous feats of technology for their age. It came down to whether or not they genuinely wanted to help, and Pure Vanilla liked to see the best in everyone. He could almost sense their ego inflate with every comment.

With half of the party secured, he returned to the castle to fetch Licorice. The child accompanied him, a skip for every few steps. They made their way to the striking purple door, and Pure Vanilla gave it a few quicks raps.

There was no response.

After a minute, Crepe banged on the door, significantly harder than he had. "Hey, are you there?!"

another short pause, and Pure Vanilla flicked it open with magic (his own turn to rudely intrude). He went inside cautiously, his flower swerving around to look for the reaper. Pretty quickly, they located him among a lump of blankets in the corner. He was softly snoring.

Ah, the sweet taste of schaudenfreude.

Pure Vanilla moved toward him, making sure to keep his footsteps light. The child, seeming to realize what he wished to do, went along with the plan. He crept forward until he was right beside the sleeping cookie.

"Good morning, Licorice cookie!" He lit his staff to full brightness. The other man let out an unholy scream and buried himself under his covers, only to have it stripped away by Strawberry Crepe.

"Wake up!" they called sweetly, "It's the day of the mission, and a little kid is ready before you. It's so shameful. If I were you, I would never leave my room again."

"Be nice," Pure Vanilla chastised the mechanic.

"If I was a nice person, I wouldn't be me!"

"Be nicer," he amended, tilting his head to avoid the pillow sent his way.

Licorice had only been awake for one minute and was already feeling harassed. Why did he agree to this again? Right, for the opportunity to get rare books and because the Dark Enchantress said so. He bemoaned the terrible start to the morning.

"He's not getting out of bed. At this rate, I may have to apply extreme measures."

"Crepe, that's dangerous-"