The Midnight Sun

The great carriage returns to The Midnight Sun from its excursion to The Black Tower, backing back up into its temporary berthing in the delivery dock. Stan hops down from his perch, and moves to remove the great harness from the pony. At the rear, Jax attends to the ladder, opening the door and setting the ladder into its grooves.

The first out the rear door is Madame Naoki, who again opts to disregard the ladder, taking a short hop to land on the ground- again the pleats of her peplum fluttering with the fall. She raises her arms in a tall V-shape, stretching her back. Moving away from the area at the foot of the ladder, she turns back to wait for everyone else to disembark, glancing up at the carriage. She takes note of the Red Sisterhood device mounted on the top, barely visible from the ground.

Once Artemis and Skarlet have taken their time in disembarking, Naoki would lead the way back into The Sun through the ingredient warehouse side door, and addresses Skarlet as they walk.

“So what did you think of that whole bit? My impressions were mostly positive.”
She intentionally doesn’t refer to The Black Tower by name, and assumes Skarlet will notice and follow suit.

Naoki nods slowly, somewhat disappointed with Skarlet’s response. Always so curt and withdrawn. Naoki has been yet unable to engage Skarlet in any sort of lengthy conversation. Their longest exchange was perhaps earlier that day, on the topic of her immortality. But even then, that wasn’t more than fifteen sentences, and was essentially the bare minimum to reasonably respond to what Naoki had said. She sighs inwardly, and comes back with an equally succinct response.

“Yeah, it sure is.”

Without further discussion, Naoki leads the group into The Midnight Sun proper, the side door depositing them just next to the kitchen. The aromas of cooking food waft over, rudely reminding Naoki that she hasn’t yet eaten today. She places a hand on her midsection, and glances over to one of the nearby tables, where some manner of potato and cheese dish is steaming away. She feels another small pang of pity for Skarlet, for she would never be able to fully appreciate the unparalleled quality of Maelik’s cooking- or even the cooking of his chefs, which is usually nearly as good. Blood must get pretty bland after the first hundred years, she muses.

“I’m hungry; I think I’ll have something to eat. You’re welcome to join us if you like, of course, Skarlet, but if you’d rather not, I understand.”

If Skarlet decides to take her leave at this juncture, Naoki would wave, and encourage her to keep up the good work. However, regardless of her response, Naoki would wave over one of the waiters to where they stand.

“I’ll have whatever that is,” she says, gesturing to the potato bowl. “There’s nothing… unorthodox about it, is there?”

The waiter who approaches them glances over to the dish in question, and responds. “Not if you don’t consider potatoes, cheese, bacon, garlic… salt… basil… and some other spices- unorthodox,” he lists the ingredients off on the fingers of one hand. “I don’t believe that there’s anything that the average individual would find objectionable about that dish. Just standard ingredients and some time over an open flame. If there’s something more to it, I haven’t been made aware. I’ll check with the chefs, and get the full details.”

“Excellent. If there is nothing strange about it, just go ahead and bring it out. Just no fairy dust spices or... imp-bacon or any of that nonsense.” Naoki waves her hand dismissively, referring to those sorts of unorthodox ingredients.

Her distaste for mythical animals stems from the same incident in which her distaste for seafood is rooted, one particular occasion wherein Artemis had caught some manner of exotic magical fish. Ordinarily, she would have shied away from eating something rainbow-colored with two tails, but hunger does strange things to one’s sense of edibility. The fish tasted great going down, but gave them indigestion and nightmares for weeks. She realizes that one of the wait staff would probably say something if she requests something that she wouldn’t be able to stomach, so as not to earn her ire… but there’s no harm in making doubly sure.

“You going to have anything, Artemis?” Naoki speaks to Artemis without facing her, turning to glance around at which tables might be empty and suitable for their dining activities.

The waiter nods, records their selections on his notepad, and excuses himself to the kitchen with a slight bow.

Acknowledging his nod with one of her own, Naoki follows Artemis over to the newly vacated booth, and takes her seat opposite her.

Unbuttoning the top button of her dress uniform and slipping a hand in through the widened collar, Madame Naoki massages her shoulder. The stiff fabric of the epaulettes certainly isn’t the most comfortable thing, she muses.

As they await the arrival of their meal, Naoki casually addresses Artemis over the table. “So what did you think of Reese’s report? I haven’t had the chance to read it yet; anything notable happening over in Gauldin? How is our favorite Demonlord faring in the Académie?”

She add a mocking touch to the foreign term, though her pronunciation is perfectly correct.

“Good, good… You know how I adore my odorous cheeses.”

Finished with her shoulder, Naoki removes her arm from the interior of the jacket, but leaves the top button undone. Her fingers, now without a task, find their way into the pouch on her hip, and pull out a small gemstone: a faceted trilliant of hessonite. She idly plays the reddish gemstone between the fingers of her left hand, the color almost matching that of her hair.

“That’s something we will definitely have to look into on our trip. Though, I imagine the students probably spend most of their time within Academy grounds. It will be a task to speak with any of them. Perhaps they have some manner of job fair… or perhaps we could speak with some of the administration and be granted the opportunity to speak to the student body en masse. Something to consider once we have more information about the staff and procedures, I suppose. Perhaps I’ll ask Maelik to strike up more conversations with some of the staff.”

Naoki shrugs, her shoulder ornaments tiling upwards at the outer edges to provide humorous accentuation to her expression.

“I delegated that matter entirely to Reese. It isn’t as if I can go touring homes over an afternoon. I left it up to the discretion of him and his agents to select a suitable location. He hasn’t gotten back to me though, so I assume it’s still an ongoing process.”

The triangular gemstone finds it way into her right hand, where it is flicked into the air by Naoki’s thumb, and caught again.

“But that’s fine. In matters such as those, I’d much rather he take all the time he needs to do the job right the first time. It would be decidedly unfortunate if, in haste, we selected a house that’s haunted by some ages old Gauldish ghost, or has an insect infestation, or some other issue like that. I’m in no rush, at least as far as that’s concerned. Just as long as it’s ready before we get there.”

Naoki takes her glass from the platter, and swirls the rosy red liquid around in the glass. Though it could technically be classified as a wine, to do so would really be doing the word an injustice. It would be much more accurate to call Naoki’s drink ‘fine grape juice in a wine glass’. She takes a sip and hums thoughtfully, still mulling over their previous topic of recruiting Gauldish mages.

It is at this moment that the waiter from earlier returns, a covered platter held in the palm of each hand. Nodding wordlessly, he places each one before their intended diners, removes the covers, and stands back. From Naoki’s bowl of scalloped potatoes, steam rises as the cover is removed, carrying with it the appetizing aromas of cheese, bacon, and spices.

Setting her glass down to the side, she inhales the mixture of scents, and glances to the side at the waiter with a raised eyebrow.

He responds with a small shake of the head, “Nothing strange about it, Madame. Regular potatoes harvested on a small farm just north of here, cheese of cow’s milk, bacon of pigs that previously lived in this world. No unorthodox cooking methods or special properties to the ingredients.”

“Excellent; thank you Simon. Have a good day.” From the side of her plate, Naoki takes the fork between two fingers, placing the gemstone in its place.

“And to you, Madame. Enjoy your meal.” With another slight bow, Simon excuses himself to attend to other patrons.

A nod in farewell before Naoki gives her full attention to the still-steaming dish in front of her. As she lifts one of the potato slices with the tines of her fork, another small wave of stream rises. The skill that went into preparing the dish is made clearly evident as she takes the first bite, shuddering a bit at the taste. Even is Maelik himself isn’t currently present to direct the kitchen, his group of chefs certainly seem to be doing an excellent job of maintaining the high standard of quality in his absence.

Without any further spoken words to Artemis, Naoki proceeds to consume her dish, carefully and with her customarily high level of table manners. However, the occasional raised eyebrow, the maintained eye contact established with Artemis, and the absolutely inordinate amount of fork waving might lead the astute observer to think that the pair  might still be carrying on wordless conversation.

To Empress Naoki Skarlet would shake her head when offered to eat with her and Artemis, "Thank you, but I think I should get to work now."

Skarlet bowed and left to go change into her bunny suit.

"Well, I'm not really sure, a special commission of sorts. Ah-" As the messenger approaches their table, he stands up and beckons Megan to come with. He also brings along his latest masterpiece.

They follow the messenger to Madame Naoki. "I have returned! And I present to you 'The Midnight Sun', a more liberal application of literal-ism to lavish the livelihood of this lounge."




"I believe I've proven my worth and it's high time you sent me on this special task you've been alluding towards."

Alden slips into the Midnight Sun. As always he walks without noise, avoiding being in peoples line of sight, subconsciously avoiding being observed. He mad his way up the stairs, to the room that had been designated his. He had changed the lock on his door, the new one was the best money could buy. The old lock sat on the floor next to the door. Dissembled into it's component pieces, which were neatly organized. Though he had no furniture, or decoration beyond what the Sun had provided the room bore the signs of his personality plainly.

The closet doors had been taken off their hinges, and laid neatly in front of the opening. The mattress currently sat in the middle of the room. The bed frame was dissembled and stacked, neatly against the far wall. The dresser had received similar treatment, the drawers boxed together, each containing a suit of identical clothing. Of course the desk and chair had been dissembled and stacked near the window. On the floor infront of the window was a pile of broken glass. Placed to be invisible to someone coming in through it, and be unavoidable when they stepped through.

Alden neatly scoops up the glass by the window, and disposes of it. Next he takes out the fastening he purchased on his way back from Moons. He then hangs his wind chime in front of the window, smiling as it's musical tone fills the room. He then sits down cross legged on his mattress, he closes his eyes and sleeps.

"Yes, Hello! I am Megan Zachurr, Aaedanian Sorceress. I trust Raulio has said only good things hahahaha." Megan was still embarrassed about when an angry mob beat her to the ground and kicked her repeatedly when they thought she was attacking an innocent man who was actually a killer. "This is my first time in Isra, I had only heard about it from my Uncle Levi Thunderstruck who discovered this place with an Aaedanian exploration force. It seems to have come quite far since when he was here, since his descriptions are 3 years old."

Levi Thunderstruck is a famed Grand Magus who is renowned for his past heroics, he was recently present in the battle with the Ka of Gravlor.