Maria Vespucci Quest

Your name is Maria Vespucci, and the manor in which you work prides itself on never having employed a maid.

Certainly, the manor employs numerous female servants in a variety of roles, you yourself being one such servant, but it has never had a maid among its staff. The precise manner in which the Lady of the manor accomplished this is something a local mystery, but your suspicion is that she sends you on far too many random errands and nonsensical tasks for any sort of maidness to take hold. Indeed, the atmosphere among the manor's servants is one of tense informality. There is no required uniform, just that you are expected to dress in a manner 'befitting a servant', whatever that means.

This afternoon, as is often the case for Tuesday afternoons, you are not in the mansion. Your Lady has directed you to collect soil samples at a graveyard on the south side of the town, which is large enough that walking from the manor to the graveyard took nearly an hour, and you suspect that once you've completed your work and walked back to the manor, the sun will have set. Perhaps this will be the day your Lady pays you overtime.

The groundskeeper has long since stopped trying to chase you from the premises, you have been sent here enough times that she knows it isn't worth the effort. Instead, she normally gives you a curt nod as you pass through the gates, and points you away from the patrician families' plots, towards the gravesites of poorer citizens. If you're going to be upsetting the ancestral gods, she figures you might as well upset the graves of those with weaker ancestors.

Today, however, the Groundskeeper is missing, and you vaguely remember hearing some rumour she would be visiting family in a neighbouring village this week. Considering that she isn't there to stop you, you could always take samples from the patrician graves this time. Your lady might appreciate a greater degree of variation in the samples you bring back. On the other hand, the Groundskeeper might notice the disturbed soil when she gets back, and start trying to keep you out again. This is truly a dilemma.

What would you like to do?
- Risk the Groundskeeper's wrath by disturbing the graves of the patrician class?
- Settle for commoner soil?
- Something else?

(Hi! I'm very new to this and not sure how to arbitrate character decisions, so I'm just gonna ask what you all want to do. Please consider voting in an orderly manner, as I have removed the poll system on the advice of others. Also, I would find constructive criticism very helpful, though I would ask that it be gentle, since I am not a confident writer of fiction. Thank you for reading.)

 

You feel indecisive, but opt to gather a mix of soil from both commoner graves and the graves of the patricians, albeit favouring the commoner graves so as to ward off the future wrath of the Groundskeeper. Your Lady did supply you with several pouches, to keep the dirt from each individual grave separate, after all. Since the patrician graves are nearest, you elect to start with them, kneeling in front of the grave of a Marcus Antoninus Bacchus with your gardening trowel, taking several heaping scoops of soil and putting them in one of your pouches. The graves of patricians Gaius and Caspian Coperiga and the grave of Lady Amelia Iulius Verdantine are similarly defiled, their soil samples placed in similar bags.

You stand, stretching your aching legs, and turn towards the much larger section of the graveyard devoted to the ignoble masses. Crows have gathered near one of the graves, and you vaguely remember your lady saying that was an auspicious sign. As such, you approach that grave, gently shoo the crows away from it, and proceed to take a sample. Glancing at the headstone, you notice it shares your family name, Vespucci, though the given name seems to have worn away. This is an old grave. The soil here is softer than you'd expect for an old grave, however, as though it had been recently disturbed. There isn't much time to dwell on this, however, as the shadows are just beginning to grow long and it will be a long walk back to the manor. A crow calls above you, and you shift your attention to taking soil from a few other graves, though the names on their headstones have long since worn away entirely.

You return the now-filled pouches to your larger rucksack, dust yourself off as best you can (your hands are filthy), and begin the long trek back to your waiting Lady, slower now for the weight of the earth on your back.

The walk is uneventful, and you are silently grateful your Lady sends you to the nicer of the town's two graveyards, since the other is in the slums. You pass some children playing in the street with a ball, and turn a corner onto the final stretch. Gazing ahead, you see the steep hill leading to the manor, and the manor itself at the top, as one would expect. The light always seems to fade faster in this part of town, for reasons which escape you, which serves to make the lights of manor stand out like a somewhat dim lighthouse at the top of the hill. Tonight, however, the manor's lights are out. Perhaps your Lady is hosting some sort of event with guests, but you can't think of any event that would necessitate turning off all of the manor's lights. Perhaps it is stargazing, but it is still much too early in the evening for stargazing.

The dirt in your bag seems heavier than normal, somehow. Perhaps gathering from both patrician and commoner graves caused you to inadvertently take more soil than usual. You are strong, however, given how many times you have been made to perform this particular errand, and so manage to make your way up the hill without succumbing to exhaustion, though you have worked up a bit of a sweat. You think you hear shouting from behind the manor as you approach the front entrance.

What would you like to do?
- Investigate the source of the shouting
- Enter the manor to complete your soil-hauling duties
- Something else? (write-in, subject to possible veto)

 

You aren't a maid, and are thus bound by none of a maid's diligence or commitment to duty. As such, you leave your rucksack of grave soil on the front steps of the manor, before darting around the side of the building to see what the ruckus is. You walk quickly, as a compromise between your urgent curiosity and your legs, which have begun to ache with tiredness. You finally turn the corner, and are greeted with an HONOURABLE AND VALOROUS sight.

The manor without a single maid has clearly ALWAYS HAD A MAID. The maid, who you believe is named Valerie (she had certainly been taking her duties WITH AN APPROPRIATE DEGREE OF SERIOUSNESS) is in the midst of VIRTUOUSLY fighting your lady. Your lady is no slouch with a dagger, and Valerie is clearly unused to THE POWERS SHE'S ALWAYS HAD, but the UNENDING VIRTUE of the maid is difficult to resist. Your Lady defiles herself by continuing to struggle, darting in to rake her knife across the maid's cheek in an AESTHETICALLY PLEASING red line. She follows this up with a swift roundhouse kick to Valerie's head, which is enough to bring her to unconsciousness. Despite the EMINENT VIRTUES AND WONDROUS ARRAY OF POWERS AND SERVITUDES GRANTED TO MAIDS, they aren't much more physically resilient than anyone else.

The effects of Valerie's maid-ness are somewhat dampened with her GRACEFUL SLEEP, but you can still feel them plucking at the edges of morality and nature. Your lady directs you to help her carry Valerie to the infirmary, in the hopes she will recover from her MOST VIRTUOUS CONDITION. You might not be a maid, but you get the sense you should obey your lady in this matter, and holding Valerie's legs (with your lady taking her arms) you carefully bring her into the manor, and up the stairs and down the hall to the infirmary. Your lady inquires how your grave-soil fetching quest went, and you relay to her that you acquired a collection of both patrician and commoner samples. She seems pleased at this, then directs for you to bring the soil in, and leave it in her study. Further, she asks that you bring a sample of patrician soil to the infirmary, that she might try and experiment with it in such FORTUITOUS CIRCUMSTANCES as these.

You obey her in these things, and your lady grants you the rest of the evening off. Today has been an exhausting day, and you have a mild craving for pancakes, knowing there is a lovely little shop slightly north of the slums which sells apple-cottage cheese pancakes, and which never seems to be closed. However, it is rather far, and perhaps you should go home and have instant ramen, then sleep.

What shall you have for dinner?
- Apple-Cottage Cheese Pancakes
- Instant Ramen
- Eschew dinner and do something else entirely (write-in, subject to possible veto.)