Little Flower |Scaramouche| ✓

◤VI |Seventeenth Cotillion|

"This is Il Dottore. He will see to it that you feel welcomed here at Zapolyarny Palace before I ultimately take over as your mentor. Dottore," Pierro's voice dropped low in a threatening tone towards the lunatic. "Do not under any circumstances get out of hand with your little...experiments. You wouldn't want the little flower coming down for another lecture, would you?" The psychotic doctor chuckled as he recalled how the twelve year-old had reprimanded him for going too far on one of his experiments. He enjoyed seeing how hard she tried being scary. His little creation was quite the achievement and Dottore hoped he could use the notes he found to strengthen the magic and make it permanent so that the heirs would be wiped off the face of Teyvat for good.

"Of course! Of course...I'll take good care of you, Kunikuzushi," Dottore sent an ill intended smirk towards the fifteen year-old boy. Experiments? What sort of experiments did this madman need to do in order to make the boy feel welcomed?

"Good. I don't want to hear that the little flower had to come down here again. Kunikuzushi," Pierro diverted his attention to the boy who was silently trying to figure out what was going to happen. "Do your best not to resist Dottore too much. All of this is for your own well being for when the test comes." With that, the masked harbinger bid the two goodbye and shut the door to the laboratory. Kunikuzushi looked around at his surroundings and noticed the various tools, vials, beakers, and lone table standing in the middle of the room. Footsteps coming from Dottore's direction caused the boy to instinctively reach for his katana, only to realise that it was no longer with him as Pierro had confiscated it as soon as they arrived on palace grounds.

"Now then...how about we start your examinations? Let's see what sort of memories you have, Scaramouche."

"Scaramoucheeeeee! Scary Moose! Scary Mouse! Geez...are you usually this heavy of a sleeper?" The annoying imitated voice of a cicin mage made its way into Scaramouche's ears as he covered them to block out the sound.

"Would you shut the fuck up? I'm up now thanks to you," he grouched and sat up from his bed. They had found a cheap inn to spend the night at and ended up being lucky enough to find a room that had two separate beds. Thank the Archons there were two beds otherwise the boy would've opted to sleep on the floor instead.

"Look!" (Y/n) shoved the invitations Ozzy had gifted to them. His indigo eyes scanned the cards and questioned what the girl wanted him to look at. It was just a damn piece of paper, what was so special about it? "The names you dummy. How do you do on this fine morning, Dion Lafayette? I'm mademoiselle Agathe Blanchet."

"What the hell are you talking about? Have the heirs possessed you or something?" He shook his head and swung his legs over the side of his bed, watching as the girl grinned like a child on Christmas. "Green and topaz today," he commented while studying her face.

"Hmm...not unusual for one of the heirs to show up two or more days in a row," she shrugged. "Anyway, those are our temporary names to sneak into the cotillion. Ozzy left a little note saying he stole—er, borrowed these invitations from some non-important people the queen knows. Wanna guess what we're gonna be doing before the cotillion?" Archons no, he didn't want to know. He didn't want to disguise as some random Fontaine man just to get into a cotillion. That fish man couldn't have just created fake invites, huh?

"Don't tell me we have to actually disguise as—"

"Eggsactly! Apparently Agathe runs a family boutique in which the queen trusts in her services. Dion is her fiance and they're usually seen together at Agathe's shop. Once I get a good look at them I can easily create a disguise using my wonderful magic just like how I was able to impersonate an electro cicin mage," she said proudly. Right as she was about to open her mouth once more to say something else, she was interrupted by her stomach growling in hunger which brought flashbacks to when she had first run away. Letting out a nervous chuckle she ran out of the room down to the restaurant the inn had, eager to get some food. She hadn't the energy or patience to wait for Scaramouche and so he was left to begrudgingly follow after her.