The Melancholy of Cecilla Izayoi~ It's a piece of cake! {open}

The scent of various cakes and cookies drifted down the dorm corridor from Cecilla's dorm- she was baking cakes for the first time since she had arrived at Whisper Hallow. There was nobody on any games that she could meet up with and train (she played as a support character, and so she found it hard to solo), nor was there anyone visiting currently, so in her boredom and melancholy, Cecilla had baked a large quantity of delicious cakes and cookies;
Sponge cake with a butter icing and strawberry jam filling, white and milk chocolate chip cookies, red velvet cake, triple chocolate cookies, and a mandarin cheesecake. A batch of chocolate chip muffins was currently in the oven and Cecilla was waiting for them to be ready.
"This sure is a rather boring evening; no games, no visitors. Nothing. Absotively nothing. Oh well, at least it's... peaceful.", Cecilla told herself in her mind. "I guess I'll put some music on. Something... loud!", she walked over to her iPod speakers which was already set up and carefully scrolled through the music. "IOSYS? Nope. Oh, Rolling Contact? No, I need something I can sing to. Albatrosicks? I'm not in the mood for miko..." Cecilla sighed as she failed to find any music that currently interested her. "Ah! Capsule!" Cecilla exclaimed as she found the album "Music Controller" and continued to press play. Loud upbeat music blared from the speakers as Cecilla began to sing along in Japanese whilst she looked over at the kitchen timer.

Once Richard had made it to the common room, he knew that he was in the wrong dorm hall. 'Damn,' he thought to himself. His mind had been wandering, thinking about a new idea for a short story. The idea was set in the future, and every mode of transportation was hover-craft like, kind of like in Back to the Future II. As such, he hadn't paid too much attention to what dorm hall he had entered.

Before he turned to leave, a plethora of scents and smells entered his nose. He breathed deeply; it smelled like there was cookies, cakes, and possibly even a batch of muffins in there. Intrigued (and with the faint hope that he might get to have some of what smelled so good), he Richard proceeded down the hall. As he went, the scent began to grow stronger, and he could feel his saliva glands producing extra saliva in anticipation of biting into the food. His pace quickened, until he stopped outside one of the rooms: 47.

'47. I wonder who's living in here? Is she nerdy, is she hot, is she...?,' he thought, his mind going through all sorts of possibilities. He brushed his hair, adjusted his hairpiece and his backpack, smoothed out his sweater. Satisfied at his appearance, he straightened himself, and knocked on the door.

"Ai to yume to oto o tsumekon-" Cecilla stopped mid chorus as she thought she heard knocking. She turned her music off and listened again intently. It was definitely knocking, "What?! Knocking?! Wait... this may be a trap..." she thought to herself as she looked out of the kitchen window and through the hallway of her dorm. She sighed heavily "Well, I better go answer it... I suppose it's probably someone telling me to keep it down or something... though... I knda hope it isn't, heh."

Cecilla dodged through to her dorm door, 007 style, pretending to hold a gun in her hand and went to grab the door handle but suddenly stopped "Heh, I'm bored, and if the person behind this door dares to come to the Ceci-Lair, then they should play along. I wonder who they are, anyways... maybe they'll stay for some cake or cookies?" she thought to herself whilst giggling out loud. Standing up straight and puffing out her chest like an army general, she cleared her throat and tried to make her voice sound deep "You there! State your name and intent!!" she spoke sternly to her visitor. However, her 'tough act' failed because she just sounded like a squeaky little girl who was trying to sound like a man... but then again, that's what she was. Waiting for a response, she was hoping that the person would play along or not just walk off, it would be fun to have company, after all.

Richard was just about to knock on the door once more before he heard a voice. It sounded like a girl trying to speak like a man, demanding him to state his name and his intent. Now he began to wonder who exactly lived in this dorm. He paused for a moment before answering the voice.

"Richard Aquarius Diagon XXIII!" he replied in a similar militaristic tone. "I request permission to taste some of your delicious smelling cooking...sir!"

He hoped that the girl in the dorm wouldn't give him too much hassle and outright refuse him entry. He really wanted some of what the girl was cooking. His stomach growled softly in response. He looked down at it for a moment, wondering if the growl was just coincidence or if it actually responded. He wouldn't doubt if the thing had a mind of his own: he had seen much stranger things while visiting his mom's old troupe.

Cecilla's eyes widened as she listened to her visitor reply in a manner similar to hers', and grinned at their second sentence. "Nya! Okies then, soldier! Permission granted!", she spoke, trying to keep up the manly voice. Giggling softly, she opened the door to a boy who was older, and taller than she was. He was fairly good looking in her picky opinion, his hair caught her attention and she stared at his holly hairpiece for a moment. Standing in front of him, she stopped with a confused expression on her face and she realised how short she was compared to him. Looking up at him, she stood on her tiptoes very precariously so she could almost meet him at eye level. "That's better!"

"N-nice to meet you Mr. Diagon XXIII" she said suddenly losing the the manly tone and stretching out her hand to shake his whilst trying to keep balance, "I'm Cecilla Patchouli Izayoi, and you will soon be entering...".

Cecilla paused and looked down and suddenly started giggling with a slightly evil tone, "...The Cecilla Zone!! Dah dah daaaaaaah!"

That last part went very well in Cecilla's opinion, the only letdown was that Cecilla was still in her school uniform, and whilst she liked the anime-style magical girl look, this situation wasn't very suited to it. At all. He probably thought her act was terrible- a short pink-haired girl in a magical girl cosplay trying to be an army general/creepy butler? Nope.

Richard stared with a slightly shocked expression as Cecilla revealed herself. The first thing that he noticed was her bright pink hair. 'She must have dyed it,' he thought, 'There's no genetic code for naturally occurring pink hair. Although, is anime is any indication...' He ended that line of thought as Cecilia introduced herself. He took her hand, being careful not to squeeze to tightly. He felt that he would end up breaking her hand if he did so.

Richard couldn't help but laugh as the girl declared he would be entering "The Cecilla Zone!!" He knew that she was trying to be slightly scary and make it sound like her dorm was the stuff of nightmares, but her overall appearance lessened the effect. 'Quite an eccentric little girl,' he thought to himself. He was reminded of the anime club back at his old high school. A vast majority of the people there acted and dressed in a manner much similar to Cecilla. While he enjoyed watching the occasional anime, he couldn't see himself dressing up as his favorite character and acting slightly silly.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you Cecilla," Richard said, letting go of her hand. "So, may I come in then?"

Cecilla smiled brightly at Richard's laughter, and proceeded to duck down, slip between him and the doorway and appear behind him.
"Of course you can come in! That is, if you're prepared to see what lies inside..." Cecilla giggled happily, pushing Richard into her dorm, "...Which is probably cookies, cakes, more food, videogames, even more food and pure awesomeness!".

When they had both stepped clear of the front door, Cecilla stopped pushing Richard and turned to the door, roundhouse kicking it shut with a loud bang. "I'm the strongest!" she proudly declared before turining to face Richard.

"So Richard... oh, may I call you that?", she asked politely "Anyways, I was wondering what brought you here? Was it the food? Or do you have ulterior motives...?" she continued in a suspicious tone before giggling due to loss of control. She could act, but tended to lose the straight face and seriousness when she wasn't in a really serious mood.

Richard was sufficiently surprised when Cecilla ducked between his legs and pushed him into her dorm. The surprise didn't stop when he finally entered the dorm and saw all that it held. The wallpaper and carpet reminded him of a 60's home magazine picture. He looked around the room, spying the Wii and the 360, but his gaze stopped when he beheld the DDR machine. The questions that had doubtlessly been asked in the past began swirling in his mind. 'How did she get it? Where did she get it? Does it work? Can I play?' The questions floated away as Cecilla caught his attention. He couldn't help but smile every time he looked at her; she was just really cute.

"Yes, you may call me Richard," he said, looking down at her. "Well, I had accidentally entered the girls dormitory. I was spacing out, thinking about the specifics of a new story that I've been thinking about. I was just about to leave when I smelled a plethora if delicious smells, and so I decided to investigate. I stopped at the door, and, well, you know the rest. And no, I have no ulterior motives, except to devour as much of your cooking as I possibly can."

Cecilla noticed Richard looking around at everything; he seemed slightly taken aback by it all. "Heh, well this is an odd dorm, and I'm a little odd, but my visitor hasn't screamed like a little girl and run away yet, so I think he's probbie okies~" she thought to herself as she noticed the DDR machine catch Richard's eye, "ah, the DDR machine... he's definitely come in peace~!"

When Richard started talking, Cecilla looked up at him attentitively with a surprised, wide-eyed expression; "I know who you are..." she said softly, standing on her tiptoes again to reach his eye level, "you're Alice in Wonderland in some sorta handsome-prince-schoolboy-hybrid form!! Spacing out, getting lost, investigating, wanting cookies. Though I wholeheartedly assure you my cooking won't making you shrink! Pinky promise!" she exclaimed excitedly then held out her right pinky finger and almost forcefully latched it onto Richard's, which was big compared to Cecilla's petite hands, and shook softly. "I've found someone who's really interesting already! Yay!"

"Nya! Richard, you should come with me to the kitchen then you can pick out a drink and something to eat! You look like you have the munchies! And after we've eaten we can play games if you want!" she smiled happily at him, gesturing to the kitchen. "...And if you don't mind... could you tell me about this "new story" pretty pretty please? Because I love stories! Unless it's a codename for top secret experiment you're working on...?" she ended up giggling excitedly again.

'Handsome-prince-schoolboy-hybrid form? Well, if I didn't think she was a little odd now...' Richard thought as she listened to Cecilla. He smiled a little as she grabbed his pinky with hers, "Pinky promise," he said in reply. He hadn't made a pinky promise since the 4th grade.

"I would love to join you in the kitchen," Richard said, spying the loads of cakes and other delicious treats. He knew that he shouldn't be eating so much sugar and other slightly unhealthy ingredients, but it just smelled so good. After all, he did indeed have the munchies.

"I don't mind telling you about my story, unless you plan on stealing it for yourself," he said with a slightly mischievous grin, "Anyway, here we go. So, it's set nearly a hundred years in the future. The vehicles are all run by hover-technology, like in Back to the Future II. This includes cars and motorcyles. The motorcycles are referred to as Air Bikes, and biker gangs are naturally created. They range from vigilantes to nihilistic terrorist groups. There's a pretty famous local gang called the Stormriders, and they belong to the vigilante group, kind of. They dabble in the occasional illegal act. My main character (who I have yet to give a name) wants to join, and has his dads old Air Bike, which is a clunker of an Air Bike. So far, that's where I am."

Cecilla listened intently to Richard's story plans with her eyes almost glistening as she placed various cakes and cookies onto little plates. She loved futuristic things, although she loved retro things aswell.
"That story sounds awesome!" she exclaimed before pausing, "I think your main character should be called Kumo! Because Kumo means cloud in japanese and he wants to become an Air Bike rider!" she giggled happily before turning to Richard, "Well, it's only an idea anyways, heehee! I love stories, so tell me lots more about it when you start, okies? And I wouldn't ever ever steal it! Stealing is bad, bad, bad! I have ideas of my own anyways!" she tapped her head lightly, grinning.

When she was satisfied with the arrangement of the food on the plates, Cecilla carefully carried the sugary goodies over to the table holding one plate precariously in each tiny hand, before setting them down rather clumsily, each plate had a chocolate chip cookie, a white chocolate chip cookie, a double chocolate chip cookie, a slice of sponge cake, a slice of red velvet cake, and a generous slice of mandarin cheesecake. "Richard!! You can sit down, you know! We don't have butt's just for the purpose of wedgies!" she exclaimed as she pulled a small chair out from the table. "I hope you're in a superly duperly uberly muchy mood! Because there's plenty of yummy things here! The muffins will be ready in a minute, too!" she smiled, "it's nice to have a guest over for cake!" she thought happily.
"Oh, and is there anything you'd like to drink? I have a whole lotta drinks here! Irn bru, cherryade, orangeade, cola, lemonade, tea, herbal tea, fruit tea... uhh... coffee... hehe, lots!"

"Kumo..." Richard said, his mind beginning to wander. He quickly reigned it on before it went too far out, but he held on to the name of Kumo. He rather liked it. "I'll make sure that you're one of the first that'll read it, even though it'll probably not be any good. But I'm glad to hear that you're not going to steal it. I've had to get rough about people stealing my stuff in the past."

His mouth began to water as Cecilla began to bring out the assortment of treats. 'She's far too generous,' he thought, 'but everything thing looks really good. The only way that I will know for sure is if I finally start eating it!'

"Thank you," he said as he took the seat. He grabbed the plates that held the velvet cake and the white chocolate chip cookie, setting it in front of him. "Do you have Earl Grey tea? I haven't had some in quite a while, and I can't seem to find any in town. I'm dying for a cup."

Richard took a bite of the cookie, and about near melted. "Oh my god! This is delicious!"

"You're super duper lucky, Richard!! Earl Grey tea is the only non fruit or herbal tea I have! Because all the maid cafes in Akihabara have Earl Grey tea!" Cecilla piped up happily as she clicked the kettle to boil. "C'mon... boil Mr. Kettle!!" Cecilla ordered as she grabbed a bottle of Irn Bru and the box of Earl Grey tea from the cupboard. Irn Bru was her favourite drink. It was so sweet! She first discovered it when she went to scotland with her family on holiday, ever since then she's had Irn Bru to drink! Well... not just Irn Bru, but it is her favourite, and her preference.

Beeeeep Beeeeep Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep....

"Oh, shush, Mr. Kettle!" she told the kettle once again as it beeped numerous times to signify the water has boiled. Just as she was about to pick the kettle up, Cecilla heard Richard compliment her baking, which made her jump slightly from the surprise;

"Kyaaah! You really like it?!" she asked excitedly, briefly ignoring the tea to run over to Richard with her eyes sparkling and a big smile on her face.

"I really like it!" Richard said, swallowing before he began speaking again. "I can't wait to try everything else you've made!"

He eagerly grabbed the plate with the velvet cake, and picked up the piece up with his hand, taking a rather large bit out of the piece. He spent several moments chewing, savoring the flavor. He hadn't had too much velvet cake in the past, but by what he could compare, this was the best.

"Where did you learn to cook Cecilla?" Richard said once he swallowed the cake. "I'm alright when I cook most things, but ask me to make any kind of German food and you'll certainly be in heaven. The head of my mom's old troupe was German, and my mom often helped in the kitchen, and she passed on most of her recipes and secrets to me,"

Cecilla smiled brightly, "Yay! I'm so glad you like it! Just help yourself and have as much as you like! They're baked to be eaten, and it doesn't look like I'll be having any other guests today!"

Suddenly remembering the tea, Cecilla turned back to the kitchen counter where the cups were sitting. She carefully made Richard's tea, and poured Irn Bru into her pink glass, which almost fizzed over the top of the glass. To avoid any spilling, Cecilla quickly sipped up the bubbles, "Heeee~ Irn Bru is so yummy!"
Cecilla took the drinks and brought them over to the table, placing Richard's carefully in front of him and the sitting down in the chair next to him.

"Learn to cook..." Cecilla thought to herself, "I suppose my mum and dad taught me, but it wasn't exactly direct teaching..." she sighed happily and then looked at Richard with a smile, "My parents cook together whenever they can! When I was little, they would let me help them, and as I got older they sometimes got me to cook by myself. To be honest, I'm not great at baking... I'm more of a cook!" she smiled brightly.
"German food... sounds yummy!" Cecilla exclaimed, "Richard, you should stay for dinner and cook yummy German food! That is, if you want to!" she then paused a little; "Richard, if you don't mind me asking; what do you mean by 'old troupe'? It sounds interesting nya~"

"I would love to cook some German food for dinner, is you have all the right stuff that is. I might have to run back to my dorm for some ingredients," Richard said, picking up his teacup. He slowly and carefully took a sip. He smiled as the drink entered his mouth and down his throat. He felt like he was meeting an old friend that he hadn't seen in a very long time, "Thank you for the tea," he said.

"Well, my mother was once, or should I say, still is, a gypsy. She traveled around the country with a band of gypsy's. They made their living selling homemade jewelry, putting on shows, selling liquor, selling...other things (I know my mother never did that, for certain). Life was good, until she met my father. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. When they first made eye contact, my mother said that she felt the call of Fate and knew that this was the man for her. So, she pursued him. He fell victim to her feminine wills, and the two fell in love. They married, and my father stayed with my mothers troupe for a little bit, until he had to go back to work. So, my mother followed him, they had me, and now I'm here,"

He took another bite out of the cookie, and placed a new plate with a chocolate chip cookie on top of the now empty plate.

Cecilla tried to down her drink in one but failed halfway through when it got too fizzy for her... "Oh! Just take a lookie through the cupboards and see if the ingredients are there! My parents gave me lots of ingredients a couple days ago so I would be okies until I found where I can get some more!" she gestured to the kitchen cupboards behind her. She then took a white chocolate chip cookie and began nibbling on it, "my cookies have exceeded expectations nya!" she said happily, "you're welcomies!"

She continued happily eating her cookie as Richard told her the story about his mother and father, "Wow, sounds interesting nya! Gypsies have those long pretty dresses and intricate, eleborate jewelry, don't they? Please forgive me if I'm wrong! My parents are geeks! I love them lots and lots! They showed me how to cook, play videogames, draw, and so many other things. They took me to martial arts class, too. I miss them a lot, but I always email them and call them, though calling can get pretty expensive seeing as they're in England... I didn't have any friends back home, so the only ones I can miss are my family, heh... I can see all my MMO and videogame pals whenever they're online though, so that's okies!"
She finally finished up the cookie, and then drank up the rest of her drink, "Richard, do you miss your family?"

"Not usually. They only dress like that for special occasions or whenever they stopped at a town. Other than that, they dressed like normal people. Well, except for Brahns, the leader of the troupe. He always was dressed like he came from the Victorian Era. Never got around to asking him why..." he said, drifting off as he sipped his tea.

Cecilla's question caught him by surprise. "Do I miss my family?" Richard questioned. It seemed like such an odd question at an odd time. "Well, not really. Sure, I miss having them constantly around, but I know that eventually I will be leaving them, so I guess this is kind of a pre-life kind of a thing, where I get to know what life is going to be like without them being always there. Now, that may seem a little cynical, but it's what I believe. I'm sure my mother and father see it the same way,"

He grabbed a plate of sponge cake.

"Victorian clothes..." Cecilla said, thinking, "when I go to anime expos, there are people who dress in those sorts of clothes, because of a japanese fashion called "lolita" which is based on victorian clothing! It's so pretty~!" she exclaimed, licking the sticky marshmallow icing from a slice on red velvet cake.

"Oh..." Cecilla mumbled after Richard answered her question, "I suppose... you're right, Richard. I really miss my parents though, and they miss me, but I think you're right about life preparation. Nyaw..." she spoke quietly as she rested her head on the table in a sulking manner, looking up at Richard, "I guess I'll be okies here though, I mean, I'll make lotsa friends, right? You're already a friend!" she smiled brightly, reassuring herself.

"'Lolita?' That seems like a rather odd name for a fashion trend," Richard said, "Then again, I hardly know any Japanese, and I guess that if I translated the word into English, it would make sense,"

"Of course you'll make lots of friends! You're an easy person to get along with, and fun to be around, from what little I've seen of you," he said, finishing off his tea. He stared at the empty cup, and his shoulders slumped slightly. Even though he knew he could easily get another cup, there was something about the empty cup of Earl Grey that struck a chord of melancholy in him. He set the cup back on its plate, and got out of his chair, heading to the kitchen. "I think that it's about time that I start cooking. Do you mind if you come help me? I have no idea where anything is in this kitchen," he said, placing the teacup and plate on the counter.

"Actually 'Lolita' is said the same way in Japanese and English!" Cecilla giggled, "because you write lolita in Japanese as 'ro-ri-ta'" she explained as she drew the katakana in the air, "I think Lolita was the name of a story or something... I can't quite remember; all I know about the fashion's origins is that Mana, the cross-dressing guitarist from the Japanese rock band Malice Mizer made it really popular with his fashion label 'Moi-Meme-Moitie'. other Japanese visual-kei bands made it popular, too!" she smiled.

"Nya?!" she gasped at what Richard had said, "Do you really think so? I've never really had many friends at all in the past, and I don't socialise except for on the internet, so it's... well I suppose it's kinda odd hearing someone tell me that" she said quietly as she watched Richard head back to the kitchen. She then quickly grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and followed him. As she stood next to him, she saluted; "I'll do my best to help, sir! What do you need to find, sir?" she said in her 'manly' voice, grinning.

"The Japanese rock-n-roll scene must contain some really strange people," Richard said. He never paid too much attention to the popular stuff in Japan, much less to the popular stuff here. He was always caught up in the past. It's what he read, what he listened to, sometimes how he dressed. It seemed to him that all the best stuff happened before he was born, and he did his best to experience it.

"I need beef, a carrot, a celery stick, a leek stick, parsley root, an onion, bay leaves, pepper corn, salt, and potatoes, Private!" Richard said, barking out his list of ingredients like a sergeant would. He began looking through some of the cupboards, looking for a medium-sized pot and some measuring equipment. He quickly found the pot and put it on the stove. He poured about two cups of water in and set the stove to high. He stood there in front of the stove, waiting for Cecilla.

"Sure does! It's so... unique and interesting; and I'm all about about unique and interesting!!" Cecilla said happily, she loved different, unique things like cute zombies, zombified cute things...

"Beef; I have some in the fridge! Yummy beef! A carrot; I have plenty of those! A celery stick; there's some celery in the fridge for when I make curried tuna bake! A leek stick; Leek spin!! Parsley root; ...there should be some parsley over on the spice shelf... An onion; they're a regular ingredient! I have plenty of those! Bay leaves; again, spice shelf. Pepper corn; another spice shelf ingredient! Salt; yet another spice shelf ingredient! Potatoes; I think there are some in one of these cupboards..." she thought to herself hurriedly as she rushed to and from cupboards and shelves and the fridge, dropping off each ingredient on the kitchentop next to Richard as she went. "All ingredients present and accounted for, sir! I didn't have too much trouble finding them, we should thank my parents for the many supplies they left me with before departure, sir!" Cecilla said, as she saluted once again, "It looks like this will be a very, very yummy dinner, sir!"

"Thank you Cecilla, and give a thank you to your parents for me," Richard said, finding a tray for the beef. He set the oven for about 450 degrees, set the beef on the tray, and stuck it in the oven. "Normally this would take a couple hours to make, but I know a way that we can cut down the cooking time and start eating in a half hour, tops!"

He began to chop the vegetables (finding a knife and cutting board wasn't too hard) and put them into the pot. He grabbed the spices and threw a generous amount of each into the pot, except the salt. For that, he only added a couple teaspoons, other wise the soup would be ruined. He looked inside the pot for a moment, and then proceeded to cut up the potatoes. He cut them into squares and dumped them into the pot. He began putting some of the ingredients away and cleaned the cutting board. The beef wouldn't be ready for another fifteen minutes.

"I'm making a Beef Potato Stew. It was always a favorite of Brahns, and as such he always cooked it often. The troupe never got sick of eating it so often, mostly because it was so good. He took his time with it though. The soup I'm making now is going to be nowhere near the deliciousness of Brahn's soup, but it'll still taste great,"

"You're welcomies! And I'll tell my parents 'thankies' when I call them later!" Cecilla said brightly as she watched Richard put the yummy looking beef in the oven, "Wow, super speedyness! You must be an uber awesome cook, Richard!"

Carefully and intently, Cecilla peered up to the kitchentop and watched Richard prepare the vegetables. She saw a chunk of carrot slightly roll to edge of the cutting board and quickly took it and popped it into her mouth. "This dinner should be delicious!" she thought to herself happily, "So many yummy veggies and super beefy beef... this is looking like a stew or casserole of some sort! Yummy, warm and... yummy! Full of goodness! But... if Richard can cook stew or casserole in about 30 minutes, he must secretly be some amazing chef!!"
Cecilla watched the vegetables bubble in the pot, and then squatted down to try to see the beef in the oven, "Haaah... beef nya...." she said, licking her lips.

"Stew! Stew! I was right!!" Cecilla stood up and exclaimed proudly,"you can never get sick of eating lots of beefy beef stew! It's yummy, and warm, and gives you energy! If yours is going to be as yummy as it's starting to smell, then buh-bruh--" she paused, trying to think of the name Richard just said, "Oh! Brahn! Then Brahn's stew must be uberly superly yummy! Nya! I can't wait for dinner!!" she hugged Richard "Thankies for cooking, Richard, you're super awesome!"