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The sun rose, like any other day upon Castle Askr. Kiran sighed in annoyance as the rays crept in through his window, feeling for the umpteenth time that Commander Anna picked this room SPECIFICALLY for him to cure his late wakening spells, as the windows were angled just right to allow the sun to shine on the bed starting early morning. It wouldn’t be so bad if he could move the bed, but the bedroom was also a bit snug; too much so to allow any such transition.
‘I should get Barst in here some time to chop this bed up; Anna will give me an earful, but even if I sleep on hay bales for a while, at least I could move them away from the window angle this is at now,’ Kiran thought to himself, also for the umpteenth time. As much as he hated to admit it, this was very helpful to keep him from missing important events through the day, and in lieu of alarm clocks, it was the next best thing.
Sighing, he threw the covers aside, and grabbed his cloak, putting it on over his nightclothes. He yawned as his mind slowly filled in the important bits; who he was, where he was, what day it was, and so on. Kiran smiled slightly upon remembering that yesterday had been the last day of Harvest Festival. Like years past, it had been another grand celebration, the younger heroes enjoying the candy(along with some of the older heroes; he was pretty certain he saw Frederick and Gunther hoarding some of the new candies Kiran tried his hand at making this year) and of course seeing everyone in costume was always an additional treat. As always however, the summoner was up far too late, between telling spooky stories, making more refreshments and then immediate clean up(Fae had had a rather spectacular crash into the candy table when she tried to fly; only to realize too late that she wasn’t in dragon form. The brownies broke her fall quite nicely, at least.). Letting out an amused grunt at the thought, Kiran admitted he had no one to blame for his current exhaustion but himself. Opening his mouth as he felt another loud yawn about to erupt….
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
Blinking, Kiran paused at the scream that perfectly coincided with his open mouth. After mentally confirming that yes, his vocal cords were NOT the ones uttering such a shriek of fear, he blinked away the last vestiges of his sleep and ran to his chamber doors, throwing them open. He glanced around to try and figure out where the shriek had come from, when another helpful shriek gave him a direction.
“EEEEEEEEEYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! G, GET AWAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!”
“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP! M, MOOOOONSTEEEEERRRR!!!”
Deeply alarmed now, Kiran sped off in the direction, racing down the corridors as other members of the Order started pouring into the halls, also alerted by the noise. Some were in half-states of dress like he was, and others gripped their weapons, expecting the screams to be a prelude to an attack. For a moment, Kiran wondered if he should also have grabbed Breidablik, but hoped that he would have enough time to backtrack and do so if needed; for now, he needed to know what...the...hell…
As Kiran rounded the next corner, he briefly saw two heads of red hair(Est and Maria, he recalled), two blondes(Elise and Lissa), and one mop of orange(Annette) and purple(Bernadetta) before being barreled into and trampled over, all five of them screeching in panic and fear. Annette he should have expected to be so powerful(every time she lifted her weapon, he wondered why her wrist didn’t snap in half), but the healers and pegasus knight? They ran him over like they were on Duessel or Frederick’s armored mounts. Thankfully they didn’t step on him overmuch, but now Kiran was infected with their panic, and scrambled back to his feet as he looked in the direction they came from.
Shambling closer from around a far corner at a steady rate was...some monstrous abomination that Kiran couldn’t even describe at first glance. It seemed to have various items fused to its body(a cask for one of its hands, a broken wagon wheel looped over an ‘arm/shoulder’, some substance dripping down its legs, a chair seat and part of the back on its chest, and rope...oh so much rope of various textures and cords all over its body), and it was roaring...at least, he thought it was roaring. It certainly seemed to be frustrated, as it swung its arms all around, knocking the decorative plaques, pictures and furniture that lined the halls down, adding the cacophany of noise as the aforementioned girls continued running and screaming in fear.
Even for a strategist of repute like Kiran, this was a lot to absorb, and he was just about to consider a plan of action, when he hear another scream right behind him, “AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!” before a fireball flew right by his head.
Showing a remarkable degree of agility at that moment, the monster nimbly dodged the blazing projectile, which impacted harmlessly against one of the columns. The monster waved its arms widely in response, roaring, “HHHHHHPPPPPMMMMMMMMMSSSSSSSSS!!!” as it staggered forward again.
Glancing back to to issue orders and try to contain this situation, Kiran was unsurprised to see Lysithea hurriedly prepping another fireball from her tome in hand(Arvis’? Aelfric’s?). Unfortunately, at that moment, his mind decided to connect the dots on this mystery, and despite the adrenaline flowing through his body, he wasn’t quite quick enough to say, “No, LYSITHEA DON’T!”
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A few hours later, Sharena, Alfonse, Anna, Kiran and the associated parties were seated in the meeting room, a vein throbbing in Anna’s forehead while scowling as the other three tried to look appropriately stern, but having varying levels of failure. Even Alfonse occasionally had to hide his face behind a hand because he couldn’t stop laughing. Sharena had long given up any pretense, and had settled for just holding her sides and silently giggling. Kiran just grabbed his copy of the report summary as he glanced at the main girls involved; Annette, Maria, Est, and Bernadetta looked positively morose, with Bernadetta looking as if she was about to be sentenced to a firing squad(when she realized that she’d literally trampled the Legendary Summoner, Bernadetta had reacted in predictable fashion. It wasn’t until she was repeatedly assured that she would not be killed, and with Edelgard ordering her to leave her room that this meeting could get underway). Lissa, Lysithea, and Elise had reddened cheeks of embarassment, though their glares at the two main...culprits?...made clear their secondary feelings on the matter.
And speaking of the culprits...one of them appeared as though she wanted to curl up and disappear, perhaps the only person who successfully conveyed that better than Bernadetta herself, while the other, simply gave a sheepish, lazy grin as apology.
Kiran finally skimmed through the report once more, glanced at his friends on this side of the table, and decided to speak and clear tension. “So...I guess I should start and own up to my end of this whole spiel.”
Both sides of the table looked at the summoner in surprise, and he clarified, “I...back in my world, I was told that I was a pretty good, vivid storyteller. And Harvest Festival was when I was in my prime, as some of you noted last night.” Several of the folks present nodded, Bernadetta shivering the most upon remembering. “So, I feel that led to...the escalation to our climax. We all responded like anyone would with such stories predominantly on our minds. Therefore Commander, I think we should just assign the girls to cleaning duty, even Lysithea.”
Alfonse nodded in agreement, Sharena even managing to get her giggle fit under control enough to signal her assent. Anna sighed with a grunt, and finally nodded. “You’re really too soft on the heroes, Kiran. Someday, one or more of them are going to take advantage of that!”
“I admit that;, but I’d rather have to deal with that, than a revolt because I’m too heavy handed,” Kiran replied easily.
“Alright then...but that being the case, that means YOU should take responsibility for this fiasco ,” the commander said with a twinkle in her eye. “Stop by my office after these proceedings; I should be able to find some work for you while the ladies are taking care of clean up.”
Kiran had a feeling that was going to be the dropped shoe, but aside from pinning all of the blame on his OTHER friends, there was no way around it. With a resigned sigh, he then turned his gaze back to the others who had been excluded from the immediate discussion, interjecting, “However...I admit to a certain curiosity. Felicia, Setsuna; could the two of you PLEASE explain how in the name of all the gods, goddesses and other deities in these worlds this happened?”
While the question was posed to both of them, Felicia looked as though she’d rather die than answer, and so it left Setsuna rubbing the back of her neck with relaxed motions as her normally lazy expression adopted a thoughtful aura. “Well...to be honest Kiran, we were coiling up the rope used in some of our decorations. Gotta say, Felicia has a streak of kindness in her that won’t quit; she wanted to leave less for everyone to clean up the next morning, So she started working with her sister, and then I got roped in somehow...or maybe I volunteered...anyway, and we were taking the rope back to storage, and...well, I noticed how some of the rope felt very comfortable and soft against my skin. So, I wondered how it would feel when tied around my feet. I mean, you know my...destiny with traps, so I figured…”
“You figured if the rope felt better around your ankles or such, you’d try to have us use that for snares and other traps instead,” Kiran finished with a groan. Sharena started giggling again as others present stared at Setsuna incredulously(mostly those who hadn’t interacted with her much) or rubbed their heads seeing where this was going.
“But she wasn’t able to get some of the knots right,” Felicia spoke up softly at this point, still not looking anywhere but down. “So, I tried to help her, but...she tripped and fell into some flour, and then I couldn’t see, but I had the rope, so I tried following the rope back to her, but that tipped over a barrel of cooking oil…”
As Felicia accurately recalled the chain of events that led to a terrifying ‘rope monster’ staggering through the halls of Askr(with the occasional correction or clarification by Setsuna), shaving off years of life from some of their Heroes, Kiran grabbed a quill and jotted down a note: URGENT: Keep Setsuna and Felicia on separate duties at all times.