Hansel and Lethel

[drinkandforget]

The twists and turns of the forest are long, secretive, and closed. But in this one small clearing, there is a house made entirely of sweets. Gingerbread forms the walls, adorned with enormous pieces of candy. The pillars and lampposts outside are peppermint, while the bushes grow marshmallows and slices of pie and cake. Even the paving stones of the pathway are rock candy. A river of pure dark chocolate flows lazily alongside the house, hot enough to be molten.

It's clearly a haven for children. In fact, a girl with pink hair and wearing a soft dress sits comfortably amid the wafer candy grass and nibbles at a handful. She looks up and smiles at the newcomer. Something about the smile is a bit too cold for her greeting, but with so much candy nearby, there's plenty to distract from the expression.

"Come over and try some," she invites. "You can eat enough to have a full stomach." This is a rare and precious thing, in a poor kingdom like this one. "Don't worry, I live here with my sister."

(ooc: story can be looked up here. Lethe is working for the witch to lure travelers in return for herself and Mnemosyne not being eaten.)

Comments

I apologize for the French Rev undertones but I couldn't resist

[theycallhersunshine]

Alice herself had no taste for sweets and never had. She had liked the looks of Petit Fours as a child, delicate spider's web fine frosted concoctions in brilliant colors, but with the Kingdom's recent financial difficulties and her mother's own callous sugestion that the starving citizins eat cake had turned her off even that small pleasure.

"I'm not hungry, thank you." She said kindly to the odd girl. "Actually, I'm here because I've been investigating the recent disappearance of some child," against the express wishes of her father, "and I was wondering if you had perhaps heard anything that could hel?"

/squeee~! no apologies needed! XD

[drinkandforget]

That could be very troublesome. Such a richly-dressed girl would be missed, not like the peasants that normally came by here.

"It's just me and my sister here," she said again. "We don't usually see strangers so far away from the village. But if you want to come inside, we can talk about it."

There'd be trouble if she didn't get the stranger inside before she could go any further.

/wanders off to go listen to Edith Piaf

[theycallhersunshine]

"It's such a nice day today, don't you think?" Alice asked, still smiling pleasantly at the girl as she made surruptious movements to ascertain that her father's hunting dagger was still tucked discreatly against her back under her riding cloak. Something about this whole situation was prickling her nerves something fierce.

"Why don't we continue the conversation out here, under the sun?"

enjoy! <3

[drinkandforget]

The girl smiled back, as though this hadn't upset her plans and wasn't an obstacle in her way. "Alright," she agreed easily enough, though the sun was starting to feel warm, an odd heat that would only grow greater until thirst might overcome common sense.

"Would you like to eat something? It's delicious." Anything to keep her here a little longer.

[theycallhersunshine]

"Oh, no thank you." Alice shook her head and held a hand up in light dismissal. "I'm afraid I've no head for sweets, myself." She told the girl, failing to add that, as she had no want for food herself back home, she would have been loathe to take even the smallest scrap from those who did, even if it had been something she desired.

[pinnaculum]

[Sephiroth regarded the pink-haired girl curiously. He'd never seen someone with pink hair before.

The candy held no interest for him, but he was interested enough in the girl to come closer.]

The nutritional value of such food is low.

i lol'd. you always amaze in the best ways XD

[drinkandforget]

But it's delicious, and you can have enough to eat. [The last was the important part, really, though she ate normal food as well, now.] Why worry about nutrition?

Haha, I am glad to hear it! :D

[pinnaculum]

Nutrition is important and should be considered. I prefer nutritionally balanced ShinRa brand rations.

[If he sounded like a commercial, it was because he had been brought up on propoganda.

Sephiroth's sweet tooth was all but nonexistent, as Genesis Rhapsodos had discovered, to his sorrow. It was hard having your life dream be to have Sephiroth taste your apples and apple-based products.

In the neighboring kingdom of ShinRa, the king had no heir, for he could have no children, and his kingdom was ailing, and he had asked his wizard to create for him a perfect child to solve his problems. However, the moral of that story was, "is perfection really possible"? Yet that is another story altogether, though during it, the perfect child ran away from home, proving that perhaps he was not so perfect after all... That's why he is here, now.]

No, thank you, I do not want any. Do you live here?

awww, runaway seph-prince XD

[drinkandforget]

[If the candy wouldn't work, perhaps simple friendliness would, a veneer covering a dark heart willing to make a bargain with a golden witch.]

I do. Do you want to see it? It's a very comfortable house, and it's delicious, too. It's all I need.

A rival witch appears!

[histrionic]

[However, not far away, near enough to be visible because it is situated on a hill, is a gleaming, splendid palace of gold and jewels, where another witch lives. Far more tempting and more beautiful than a mere cottage made of mere candy, don't you think?

Unsurprisingly, Kuja's never gotten along well at all with the witch of the candy cottage.]

*gasp!* perfect 8D

[drinkandforget]

[There are days when Lethe stares at the gold and jewels and wonders what their lives might have been like if they had been rich like that, instead of born to a life so deeply changed by the country's wars.

She knows better than to lure its owner, and so when she sees the witch outside, she stands up and bobs a short, hasty curtsy. Better safe that sorry, with witches.]

[histrionic]

[Kuja eyes the girl but doesn't return her curtsy (though the absence of a curtsy might indeed have been angering). It's true that witches are treacherous and shouldn't be trusted.]

Good afternoon, my dear.

[She laughs, because she knows (and scorns) the nature of her sister witch.] Are you dinner, I wonder, or are you lunch?

[drinkandforget]

I'm neither. [Which leaves open the option of pet or slave, really, and while Lethe has chosen that, many might say it's not a step upward.]

[modernholmes]

Conan had no interest in sweets. What he did have an interest in were all the children who had disappeared recently. He had investigated the situation and tracked the disappearances to this section of the forest. What could he do next but investigate the area for himself. And see if the culprit would take the bait of another supposedly lost child.

And what was more suspicious than a house made out of candy and a welcome for lost travelers in the middle of the wilderness? He approaches the woman in the garden with a carefully constructed attitude of wide eyed innocence.

"Ne, ne! Why are you all the way out here?"

[drinkandforget]

"I've lived here since my parents died," she answered, which was true. In their despair and grief, and with no way to support themselves, they'd turned to the forest which at least had plants for food and shelter from the trees, and they'd turned to the witch. They'd had no other choice but to stay with her.

"There was no one to take us in, and so my sister and I finally found shelter here with the owner of this house."

[modernholmes]

He makes a wondering sound. "It sound like it must have been lonely. Do many people come through here?"

[drinkandforget]

Lethe shakes her head. "We're back in the forest, out of the way, here. It's rare to see travelers." Not so rare that the rumors of children disappearing weren't true, but rare enough to be truthful.

[mooneternal]

Usagi is pretty much following her nose at this point. The inviationg of something delicious creeping into her nostrils... it's too good to resist! When the home in the clearing comes into view -- her eyes widen, her mouth hanging slightly open with a stream of drool creeping up on her. Her hands are clasped together tightly as she admires it. "W-well maybe just a little...!"

The girl is secondary to the scene as the blond slinks in closer, unable to believe this is really happening. "I've never seen a house like this before!"

the poor house. T_T

[drinkandforget]

"Taste some, stranger" Lethe invites with her usual slightly-cold smile. It's a very warm day somehow, and sitting in the shade near the chocolate river would feel nice, wouldn't it? "We don't have many travelers."

The girl is welcome to gorge herself so completely that she forgets about everything else.

it never stood a chance u_u

[mooneternal]

"Ah haha!" she laughs loudly, far beyond the point of no return. "Well if you insist!" Usagi springs forward, pretty much gnawing at a side of the house, going up and down, in all her glory. "It's delicious! A house made of candy, I just can't believe it!"

There's a corner of windowsill in her hand as she chomps down on it, and turns towards Lethe with a full mouth. "You really live here?!"

goodbye, house; we knew ye well.

[drinkandforget]

"I do," Lethe says, without wavering in the least. She is the determined one, ready to spring her trap and take her quarry, and this girl who loves sweets so much is just the sort the witch wants her to catch.

"Come inside. I'll show you the rest."

I know I owe you tags but I decided to do this too

[tasercopter]

Tired from a long day of hunting wolves, Little Red Reno Hoodlum walked through the trees with a yawn. But once she saw the candy house, she stopped short. A house? Made of candy? She sighed. Kids stuff. Completely useless. Now, a house made of booze (don't ask how that would work) or a house made of cigarettes, that would be good.

She was not so much into candy. She avoided the pink haired girl at first. Thinking to herself that red was a far superior color for hair, she snuck around to the back of the house, driven largely by an instinct for mayhem. The pink haired girl seemed to be the only person around. Good.

So Reno jumped out of the bushes and struck at the candy of the house with her rod, to see what would happen. Hopefully this would result in some successful vandalism.

you are welcome anywhere, anytime. also, i giggled. XD

[drinkandforget]

Had the pink-haired girl really been in the front of the house? Because the moment the rod crushed a bit of the gingerbread wall, she was standing in front of the intruder.

"You can help yourself, if you want to eat," she said, a trifle coldly. "However, breaking it is wicked of you."

yay!

[tasercopter]

Oh well, there Pinky was. Little Red glanced at her, but she wasn't worried. "That's right. Guess I'm wicked." She was ignoring the fact that she wasn't supposed to be the wicked one in her story. Anyway, sometimes you needed to be wicked to get shit done.

"I'm not a kid. I don't want some candy house. Anyway, this is probably some evil thing, isn't it? I bust up evil things. Like wolves or whatever. I'm Reno the Red Hoodlum, but you probably haven't heard of me."

And with a satisfying Crack! she struck the candy house again with her rod.

[drinkandforget]

The house, a creation of the witch's anyway, could be repaired or replaced easily. A trap was no good if the bait worked only once, after all, or if there wasn't enough.

No, the real concern was how to get 'Reno the Red Hoodlum' into the house (and, by extension, the little cage).

"This house isn't evil," she lies with ease. "It's a haven for travelers. You can rest here if you like." It may soon become hard to think of reasons to move on if Red Hoodlum stays much longer, but that's part of its... charm.