Lily Flower

Misc: Damage Mitigation

Frustrating, it was all so frustrating.

Pomegranate couldn't help her annoyance towards Pure Vanilla. Even if he wasn't the one instigating the Dark Enchantress, the instability within the cookies of darkness was all attributed to him.

It may be an innocuous shift to anyone else- he was a rather kind and gentle man, the type that she used to respect for their principles- but in a mixture like the cookies of darkness, he became an element that disrupted the order. It was obvious to anyone who had a lick of common sense, the way that the others swarm to him and hang off his every word, seeking his company and approval. Slowly and surely, he was influencing them, making them grow as people.

In any other place, that would be a marvelous sight. But the ruined castle does not favor change.

Dark Choco shouldn't hope for the chance to find a better life, or he'll act on his troublesome loyalty towards the Cacao kingdom. Licorice shouldn't have any self-respect, or he'll grow too discontent with his place in their master's ranks. She had so carefully helped to cultivate the destruction of their character, all to ensure that they would never disobey the dark Enchantress.

For disobeying the Dark Enchantress meant death.

Pomegranate was perfectly willing to bend and break the others to keep them under control. Perhaps it was cruel of her, to pluck them out of their fates and throw them into this frying pan, but she just found it rather ungrateful of them to loathe her so for it. She didn't care for their feelings, not really. All that mattered was the Dark Enchantress, the monster she had willingly bound herself to.

Pure Vanilla just had to come in and treat everyone with kindness, and wear down years of her careful conditioning. Could he not understand that that kindness would become poison for them? Even her, who he hated, he treated with some level of respect borne from wariness. She would have preferred the Dark Choco's defeated silence or Licorice's curses. She was used to that.

The healer wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place!

It was not in his fate, yet something had drawn him to the castle. She never saw any indication of what it was: that condition, that speck on a butterfly's wings which meant his return. The chances of him meeting Licorice, asking him to be brought into the cookies of darkness, staying beside the Dark Enchantress despite what she had done to him, all of this combined was near infinitesimal. Yet that is the future that had come to pass. She almost expected some sort of foul play.

Because of his presence, her master had stepped down a path that she could not come back from. Going forward, she will likely ignore Pomegranate's counsel when it comes to the healer, and since he interacts with everyone, there is bound to be a ripple effect from that.

She scoffed.

Ultimately, she had to remember her reason for being here. It didn't matter if Pure Vanilla disrupted the order. She will simply adapt and continue on as always.

Red Velvet passed her, claws twisting in a jittery fashion. "Pomegranate." He gave her a shallow acknowledgment, then went to speak to his mother. He seemed troubled by something. A quick pry into his future revealed that he tried to bring up the healer, before being shut down by the Dark Enchantress. He gave the rest of his report, subdued.

How very moral of him. It would be endearing if it weren't so useless. One would think, after all this time, he would know his own mother better than that.

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Pure Vanilla had managed to discover some things when it came to the Strawberry Sword.

Though curses can form naturally through resentment and close proximity to death, a curse as strong and particular as the sword would likely be crafted. Magic users were often prideful, and as a result magical items usually had some type of claim inlaid upon their weaving. After careful study of the magic layering it, Pure Vanilla had managed to find the creator's etch. There were no names, but a short description of the sword was present.