"Princesas! Your-a meals." 'Morio' returned just as Hope and Erie were grilling Juliet about the tuxedo incident.
When he did, Erie reluctantly let up and looked at Juliet. "Don't think this is over."
Hope nodded. "We aren't letting you out of explaining it, Julie! If I had to explain my ghost incident, you have to explain your tuxedo incident!"
Juliet groaned. "...Let's just eat."
'Morio' winked with the eye not covered by his eye patch and said, "For-a starters, we have-a the Supa Koopling dumplings." He expertly laid down a plate of turtle-shaped dumplings in front of each of the girls.
"Dumplings?" Erie looked amused and poked at one of the dumplings with a fork. "Not Italian food?"
"No, no." Morio laughed and said, "We-a do nota serve Italian cuisine after-a the incident."
Juliet paused and looked up, curious. "What incident?"
Hope's lit up. "Ooh! I think I heard about this! Is it the one where a hitman pretended to be a worker and then crashed out over how it wasn't authentic?"
Erie gasped. "I remember that! It was like, a bald guy with a bar... code..." She trailed off, suddenly remembering a certain bald guy with a bar code that she and Hope recently met.
Hope paused too, suddenly connecting the dots. Then her eyes widened.
Juliet blinked. "...I think I'm missing some context."
Erie slammed her hands on the table and pointed at Hope. "See! I told you Toby was a hitman!"
Hope blushed. "E-Even if he is, he's a cool guy! He knows how to play trombone!"
"And he apparently can strangle a waiter with soggy spaghetti noodles!"
Juliet slowly nodded and said, "Honestly, relateable. I think I'd strangle a waiter too if they gave me soggy spaghetti." She paused. "...Was it at least bolognese?"
Hope blinked. "What's spaghetti bolognese?"
"...Right." Juliet sighed. "Gal from the middle of nowhere midwest with no food culture..."
Hope blushed. "The midwest has food culture!"
Seeing that the girls were getting into their conversation, Morio subtly made his exit to grab the next dishes.
Erie gave him a quick glance as he left, but shifted her gaze back to Hope. "Oh yeah? Like what? Tuna casserole?"
"Tuna casserole is amazing!" Hope huffed as she grabbed one of the turtle-shaped dumplings. "I won't have you make fun of it!" After that, she chomped down on the turtle's head, angrily chewing it.
Juliet grabbed one of her own turtle dumplings, nibbling on it. As she did, she said, "What even IS a casserole?"
Hope's eyes sparkled and she said, "I'm glad you asked!"
Erie laughed. "Are we about to get a cooking lesson from Miss 'Mustard and Ketchup Macaroni Cheese?'"
Hope blushed and said, "I still think that's tasty! But yes!" She looked at Juliet and said, "A casserole is something you bake in the oven! It can be a lot of different things, but usually it has eggs, carbs, and some kind of meat and cheese!"
Juliet blinked. "...Huh. That simple?"
"Wait, wait." Erie looked at Hope and said, "You're telling me the idea of midwestern cuisine is to get like bread or pasta, mix it with eggs and cheese, along with meat, bake it, then eat it?"
"...Yes?"
"That's so bland! And lazy!"
Hope gasped and hugged her hands to her chest. "You take that back!"
"But it is! Why not just make lasagna then?"
Hope puffed her cheeks and said, "Lasagna is not a casserole!"
Juliet looked amused. After eating another turtle dumpling, she said, "I dunno about that. I've seen some pictures of casseroles online before. Looks like lasagna to me."
"That's because people use hamburger helper! It's not the same! You have to use ground beef and make it from scratch with chicken broth!"
Erie teased Hope and said, "And now you're mixing meats too? Wooow."
Hope looked between Erie and Juliet and then huffed. "You're terrible! I'm serious! It's good!"
Juliet laughed. "I'm just teasing you, Hope. I'm sure it's good... It's clearly Italian inspired after all."
Erie rolled her eyes. "How European, saying you're the root of all culture..."
"Am I wrong?" Juliet shrugged and finished up her dumplings.
As if on cue, Morio came back and said, "Princesas! The next-a dish. Voila!" After saying that, he placed down plates of meatloaf shaped like Morio's head and decorated with ketchup and cheese to look the part. Next to it, there were rolled eggs sliced to look like stars and decorated with nori to make cute faces. "It'sa the main-a course. Supa Morio Star Power!"
Juliet gave Morio a blank stare and said, "Voila is French."
Morio nodded. "And-a this isa the Mushrooms Kingdom, not-a France."
Juliet opened her mouth. Then she paused and realized that she couldn't deny that fact. "...Huh. Guess that's why they rebranded. Can't make an Italian mad if it's blasphemy everywhere."
Morio winked and then left for the kitchen again, leaving the girls alone.
Erie grabbed her knife and fork and said, "Time to commit murder~"
Hope gasped. "Erie! You can't just say that!"
Erie slashed the meatloaf Morio's face in half, carving out his nose. Then she munched on it and said, "Why not? Also, not bad."
Juliet looked at the meatloaf and hesitantly sliced off a bit of Morio's cheek. Then she took a bite. "...Huh. It's actually tasty." She carved off another bigger bite and said, "...Definitely a food crime, but at least a tasty food crime."
Hope furrowed her brow and sliced off a piece of the meatloaf. Then she thoughtfully chewed it.
Erie looked at her and said, "Well? Up to your standards, Miss Critic?"
"...It's bland. 7/10." Hope frowned. "I can make a better meatloaf."
Juliet laughed. "Right." She pointed at the meatloaf and said, "This is actually up your alley for food stuff, isn't it?"
Hope nodded. "Mmhm." She took another bite and sighed. "...I'll need to ask Mister John to get me ingredients. Finding stuff for meatloafs and casseroles are hard around here."
Erie stabbed one of the egg stars with her fork and ate it. After that, she said, "Oh yeah, what happened to the corn that you asked Mister John to get?"
Hope smiled and said, "It's coming tonight!" She giggled. "I'm going to make soooo many tortillas! And tamales! And homemade corn flour! And cornbread, and-"
"Wait." Juliet blinked. "Homemade corn flour? How?"
Hope blinked. "You just dry the kernels and grind them up! It's easy! I bought a dehydrator already!"
Juliet tilted her head. "...Okay. So you aren't a BAD cook. You're just a weird cook. Makes sense."
Erie nodded. "Her oshi IS Miya."
Hope blushed. "Miya isn't my Oshi! I like all the girls! I just watch her the most because she's helpful!"
Juliet kept slicing off chunks of the meatloaf and said, "Speaking of the girls... Do you think Lore's done anything about our stuff yet?"
Erie's eyes lit up. "Ooh, let me see." She pulled out her phone and said, "If there's anything, those guys on the fanserver definitely found it... Yep." She laughed and showed her phone to Hope and Juliet. "See?"
===
> @jumpingjackal: OH MY GOD THEY DROPPED THE NAMES
> @ryu-jay: FOR REAL?!
> @inquisitiveigloo: Niko Manser... Lady Zen of House D'Rion... and Arenbi?
> @crazycat: What are these names?!
> @keen_eye: Wait. Zen... D'rion... Zendrion? Cendrillon!? WE HAVE CINDERELLA?!
===
Hope giggled. "It looks like everyone's having fun?"
Erie pulled her phone back and kept scrolling, chuckling at the reactions. "Yep. They're all panicking at what it means. Some people are going full conspiracy theory with the names and wondering if we have a fairytale theme."
Juliet ate more of her meatloaf and pointed her fork at Erie. "They're not wrong. "
Hope reached off to the side and pulled out a bottle of strawberry milk in a chilled cooler. As she did, she said, "Did you want some too?"
Erie blinked. "Huh. I didn't even realize we forgot about our drinks."
Juliet took the offered bottle of strawberry milk from Hope and said, "There's our Hope, keeping an eye out for us."
Hope puffed up her chest and said, "That's right! I have to make sure both of you eat right because you're both the sort of girls to skip meals!"
Juliet quickly looked to the side.
Erie laughed as she took a bottle of strawberry milk from Hope. "You clocked us already, huh?"
"Mmhm!" Hope nodded and cracked open her strawberry milk. After taking a sip, she said, "You're the type of girl to play games all day and forget to eat, Erie. And Juliet would definitely be stuck writing songs in the studio and lose track of time."
Juliet fidgeted. "I wouldn't... do that. ...Often."
"See!" Hope pointed at Juliet. "You can't even deny it!"
Erie cracked open her strawberry milk too and said, "Well, that's why I'm going to have an emergency food rations cooler next to me at all times in the future."
Hope's eyes lit up. "Ooh! I'll start carrying around one of those thermal bags! I'll be the snack lady!"
Juliet laughed. "Alright... then I guess I'll just make our meals in bulk and you can meal prep them or something?"
"Deal!" Hope let out a bright smile. "I'll even do the dishes and clean up! But you have to cook!"
"Man." Erie sipped her strawberry milk and grabbed another cookie off the platter of desserts, looking at Juliet with a teasing smile. "You've got a pretty lady already promising to take care of you, Julie... Most guys would kill for that."
"Oh, I know." Juliet stabbed another egg star and munched on it. "I'm going to have a lot of fun messing with people as a villainess. I mean, music is definitely my thing. But I'm wondering if it'll be fun to just have a ranting stream. You know, spill all the tea on the 'Romeos' who tried being in my life before..."
Hope giggled and covered her mouth. "Julie! You shouldn't do that!"
"Shouldn't? Yes. But that doesn't mean I can't." Juliet finished her food and chuckled. "A true villainess doesn't leave grudges on the table~"
"Wow." Erie finished her food too and said, "Not even a day into the idea and you're already relishing the thought of letting loose as a villainess, huh?"
Juliet mopped her mouth clean with a napkin and said, "Well. I have a lot to get off my chest. Don't you two too?"
Erie nodded. "Obviously. That's why I'm going to drag Meryl's corpse around like a dead horse."
Hope coughed, mid-sip of her strawberry milk. "Erie! Nooo!"
"Erie, YES!" Erie laughed. "I'm going to do so many things. SOOO many things. Like throw her off the walls. Bounce her around the screen... Heck, I might even let the viewers have some commands to mess around during the stream in the background. Like, random jumpscares or something."
Juliet pointed her fork at Erie and said, "You are an absolute menace. ...But it's cheaper than therapy, so fair."
Hope paused. "How much is therapy anyway?"
"Too much." Juliet sighed. "And people are weird about it. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're like, reaaally in a bad place. Guns are cheaper, unironically."
Erie gave Juliet a blank stare.
Hope did too.
Juliet blinked. "What?"
"...The implications of that statement, Julie," Erie said. "...What do you mean, guns are cheaper?"
Juliet smiled.
Hope let out a nervous giggle. "...You mean for firing ranges, right?"
Juliet kept smiling.
"...Right?"
Erie shook her head. "Yep. Hana's DEFINITELY your Oshi..."