2.4 - Cygna Gets Domestic

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Phoenix - Rise from the A
1

The middle of the afternoon before the next meeting (which, I believe, would be Friday afternoon), Cygna makes her way to the kitchens. She pauses at the door for a couple of minutes, simply watching as she tries to get a feel for who seems to be in charge...and to discern who (if anyone) speaks any of the same languages she does.

After a couple of minutes, Cecilia approaches the maga and asks a question in Spanish.

[color=red]"Does anyone here speak Latin?" Cygna replies as her gaze sweeps around the room. After no reply, she then asks if anyone speaks English, then Russian (not really expecting a reply to either one).

As she looks around the room, if she spies a Vintner in the kitchen, she will have an idea. If not...she will try something else.

2

There are Vintners everywhere.

3

[color=red]"Ah," Cygna exclaims as she spies the Vintner near the window. [color=red]"Could you do me a favour? Would you be so kind as to let these women know that I will be needing the use of an oven in the morning?"

After the Vintner translates Cygna's request and any reply the kitchen staff may have, Cygna will (probably) continue.

[color=red]"I will also require..." Cygna will proceed to tick off the ingredients she will require to make about four dozen grape tarts...if they don't have grapes, she will settle for grape preserves. [color=red]"Oh...and ask them to have someone who speaks either Latin or English in the kitchen tomorrow...that way, I won't have to impose upon you any more than I have. And thank you."

4

Cecilia is puzzled by the demand. A maga? Grape tarts? An oven??? What madness is this??
Yet she knows she needs to work with the magi and, despite her behaviour, this cygna seems nice enough compared to the others.

To the vintner:
I don't understand. Does she wants grape tarts? If she really wants to cook them, I'll do what I can to help her, of course, but we can also prepare it for her. Such a noble lady shouldn't soil herself with menial labor.
All the while, her mind is racing, trying to understand cygna's motives for this, and taking mental notes, just in case.

5

Vintner translation to Cygna (comprehensible to all): "This woman will have your grape tarts ready for you in the morning, as you requested."

6

Cecilia instantly understands that the vine is either stupid or mischevious. Or both.
Thus, she needs both to play the part, and convey through her attitude that the translation was far from perfect.

So, she turns towards the vintner, and begin gesticulating as if angry

That's not what I said!!! Why didn't you translate my words properly???
Turning to cygna, with an humble tone in her voice, as if apologizing (the tone is important, as cygna won't understand)
I wouldn't presume to make a choice for you, of course. You get to decide

7

[color=red]"No, no no!" Cygna says angrily, [color=red]"That's not what I wanted at all!" She then makes an exasperated noise before turning directly to Cecilia. She doesn't know if the breakdown was between the vintner and the mage, or between the vintner and the cook, but she's going to try to get her point across directly.

[color=red]"I am going to be making the grape tarts, not you," she says, pointing to herself, and then to Cecilia with an emphatic shake of her head and negatory waving of arms. [color=red]"I need the ingredients." She looks around and points to whatever she sees lying out in the way of ingredients. [color=red]"I will be mixing them together." She pantomimes holding a bowl and stirring it, then points to herself again. [color=red]"I will be making the crust and the filling." Miming rolling out a pie crust and pouring the imaginary bowl into it. [color=red]"And I will be baking it." Miming sliding something into the oven.

[color=red]"Do you understand? Without waiting for an answer, she will then start poking through the cupboards and pantries, looking for what she will need to make the grape tarts the next day. As she finds each one, she will look at whoever's watching and point to it, saying that she needs some of that, and about how much.

When she's done, she will turn and ask, [color=red]"Did you get all that?"

8

The jewish maids scatter, seeing one of their masters on the warpath and cursing in a foreign tongue.

9

Cygna turns after trying to give her instructions to the kitchen staff, only to see that (except for Cecilia and the vintner) she's all alone.

[color=red]"What?" she yells at the door through which the maids most likely ran. She then turns to Cecilia.

[color=red]"Is this how you run your kitchen here? A magus comes in to give instructions and they scatter like sheep? If this is all the discipline you have, it's no wonder Wednesday's supper was as bad as it was! Why, back in Riversedge, if any of the cooks even muttered under their breath, Isabel would have skinned them alive then set them to the dishes!"

Cygna makes another exasperated noise before she turns away. [color=red]"I will see you in the morning," she says over her shoulder, too mad to care whether Cecilia understands her. She pauses long enough to point up at the vintner (who I'm picturing is around the window and up along the ceiling, for some reason). [color=red]"And you...whatever your name is...I will not stand for you playing your games with us. If it happens again, I'll...I'll....gaaaah!"

She throws her hands up in frustration, then storms out of the kitchen, slamming the door open on her way out.

10

Given what happened to her own translation, Cecilia quickly understands cygna's wants. immediately, she begins to take everything that's needed from under the nose of the paniqued servants, and quite impeded by them, by the way. She puts it onto a table next to cygna, intending to have everything brought to the fulminating maga.

She is quite surprised by Cygna's rage, but, not understanding nor knowing her, endures patiently (lucky for her, cygna has the gentle gift!), hoping to convey that she is efficient but baldy helped.
On the other hand, Cygna's anger towards the vine is both understood and shared.

Once the maga has stormed out, she goes in search of the maids, and puts them through a sermon, military-style: The kitchen is their duty, serving the masters is their duty, so, unless their life is threatened, they don't leave their duty! Not unless they want to displease the masters, and they don't, they can trust cecilia on this.

11

Cygna makes her way to the cavern and thence to the regio, her angry expression deterring any of the humiliores from approaching her. When she gets to the other side, she stops and looks around at the empty Council Bath Chambers. She disrobes, placing her clothing over the back of a chair, and eases into the warm waters, letting the water close over her head before she surfaces. She splashes her face again, then ducks her head under the water and takes the form of her heartbeast. The swan flaps her wings vigorously, beating them against the water. [color=red]"Ah, that's much better," she says. It's the first time she's let herself take the form of her heartbeast since she left England.

She will go ahead and try to adjust her humours, casting Form of the Phlegmatic Heartbeast upon herself. Mu 6 + An 3 + Sta 0 + Aura 5 – Gestures (None) 5 + a roll of 1, then a roll of 2 = 6+3+0+5-5+4=13, so cast with the loss of a Fatigue level. Which gives her +1 Str, +3 to all rolls involving intuition and memory, and a temporary Personality Trait of Cool-Headed at +3 (which, I'm assuming, will cancel out her Hot-Tempered +3).

She then waddles her way through the tunnels out into the open air and takes to the sky, hoping that an aerial view will help her pinpoint just the "right" place for her sanctum and laboratory. When she spots the pond two miles beyond the gate, she will squeee and take to the water, just enjoying herself for a few minutes. She then takes flight again and circles around, looking for any habitable buildings in the area that she could claim for her own (barring any revelations in the Amos, Cygna and Viscaria scout out labs thread).

^-_-^<

The next morning, she will return to the kitchen and (hopefully) set about working on her grape tarts as though nothing had happened the day before. She will still, from time to time, turn a scornful eye to the vintner, however.

[color=red]"I assume somebody here speaks Latin?" If there's no reply, she will then ask about English. If still no reply, she will turn to Cecilia (if she's there) or whoever looks the most competent (if not) and say, [color=red]"I only asked for someone who I could communicate with as I work in here...was that too much to ask?" a little crossly (and in English).

12

OOC: Cygna gets a confidence point for roleplaying her true nature, and currently applies a -1 Loyalty adjustment to the Jewish members of the covenant. I'll just assume, based on this, that this will eventually level out to a -1 across the board.

[Sidebar: I keep confusing Cecilia with Celestria. ]

Can you give your suffering SG a clue as to where you would like me to go with this? I'm up for the ride, but I can't seem to find my seatbelt :laughing:

13

Cecilia had all that cygna needs organized way before the maga went back to the kitchen, trying to ensure the maga will be perfectly happy with her arrangment. Hopefully, all goes well on that front[1].

On the other hand, having non-learned people speak latin is quite rare, so I doubt she can find one. So she instead send a servant in search for someone who came with cygna and that could serve as translator. Not sure about the availability of that, though.

[1]Since this is potentially a stressful situation, I'm rolling:
Stat 0 + Cook 6 + 1d10=7 = 13.

14

Of the people who came with Cygna, the only one who speaks Castillian is One-Eyed Maria...although Celestria did pick up a smattering en route.

15

Awesome.
Either way, it changes little, save maybe have cygna feel a little more alien and infuriated.

16

Checking the Wiki, it looks like (of the characters with sheets there) Augustus (5), Abdul Fati (1), and Brigitte (2) all speak English (scores in parentheses). Of those, Brigitte (3) and Abdul (3) both speak Latin, and Abdul speaks Castillian (4) as well. There's also the maidservant Daniella who speaks some English.

17

Hum... Has she wormed her way enough to be aware of things like this, be it through intrigue or pure gossip?

Probably not for most (it's been a few days), but maybe for fati, probably for Daniella. So daniella it is!