Mouclade Rochelaise

Caleb’s eyes widened as he tried to recall the details of Maddy’s transformation as Maddy straightened out her clothing, “What exactly do they do again? How bad is it?”

Maddy shifted her eyes as she finished getting her top on, her voice was strained and it was clear this was stressing her out a great deal, “Each one of those desserts is a miniature transformation for whoever eats it following similar rules to the Sabotages. I hadn’t planned on using them because of that but if someone has taken them they could trick others into eating them.”

Caleb nodded, that made sense. If Maddy offered people a dessert, most people would likely be on alert because of her transformation, they’d be less likely to suspect someone else. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, “What desserts are we looking out for?”

“An apple tart, a chocolate pot, and a millefeuille, they’re all not very big just enough for one small serving,” Maddy said while focusing on recalling the image of the sweets as best she could.

Caleb frowned, he didn’t want to but the thought of being thorough compelled him to ask, “Do you think Lily might have taken them? She was alone in your guys’ room.”

Empathetically Maddy shook her head, “No, there is no way that Lily would do something like that without telling me! She hates the Sabotages more than anyone there is no way she would have done that, especially without talking to me first!”

Caleb let out a heavy sigh and smiled, “Ok good, that sounds just like her but I wanted to make sure. That doesn’t narrow it down though, it could ostensibly be anyone.”

Maddy shook her head and took a step out, “Let’s not waste time thinking about it, the culprit is hopefully still in the hotel. If they aren’t the island is too big for us to search with any efficiency or hope of locating anyone. Let’s split up.”

“Ok yeah,” Caleb conferred, “I’ll take the second floor, and you take the first and we can meet back up in the lobby.”

“Most everyone should be at breakfast anyway so I’ll start there and it will narrow it down!” Maddy began to hurry down the steps away from Caleb, then did a quick pause and doubled back calling out, “Thank you for the date! I really enjoyed myself!”

Smiling Caleb called back, “I enjoyed myself too, now let’s find that thief!”

Maddy nodded and hurried down the steps. Caleb turned and began walking. The Second floor wasn’t nearly as big and it helped that several of the locations were barred from entry like the hotel and the date dining hall. That meant the only real locations where the desserts could be would be the gaming room or the individual bedrooms. Caleb didn’t like the idea of snooping through people’s bedrooms while they weren’t around but under the circumstances, he didn’t have a whole lot of choice. Still, he ran first to the far side to the one area he hadn’t been to yet - the game room.

He wondered if anyone had made their way to this corner of the hotel, which honestly made it a decent hiding spot if few people were checking in. He opened the brass doors and found the cross between ostentatious and comfortable. The whole gaming room was decorated in warm wood tones and had glass cabinets full of various knickknacks and games. There was a brass inlaid pool table, a dart board and two different tables for playing cards. Then a long coffee table accompanied by a comfy couch and chairs. Caleb could genuinely see himself having a lot of fun in the space but he didn’t see anyone in the area.

“Whatcha looking for?”

Caleb nearly jumped out of his skin as behind him was Stella giving him a curious look while grinning. She was wearing what a Halloween shop might charitably call a sailor uniform along with her trademark flatcap. On her arm was a tote bag and she casually stepped back as Caleb turned towards her.

“Jesus Stella, you nearly gave me a heart attack.” He stumbled back into the game room and clutched his chest before settling his gaze on Stella, “Not feeling up to breakfast? What are you doing here?”

“Hmmm breakfast generally makes me feel sick, maybe because I’m not used to being up early? Besides I heard you and thought I’d see what you were up to.” She reached into her tote bag and pulled out a spoon.

Caleb eyed the spoon curiously before looking back at her face, “I’m uh…looking for something have you seen anything out of the ordinary?”

Stella pulled out a ceramic pot and casually began eating its contents with her spoon, “Out of the ordinary how? Is there mischief afoot?” there was then a subtle change to her posture, she arched her back gently to emphasize the curve of her waist and purred, “Has someone been naughty?”

Caleb paused and looked at the pot and back to Stella, “Where did you get that?”

Stella turned and flashed him a grin with lidded eyes, “Oh I think you know.” She said in a sing-song voice before dashing across the hall.

Caleb cursed and took off after her, he didn’t doubt that he could catch her in a fair race but she had a head start on him.

As they got to the stairway for the lobby she looked back and smiled, “Catch me if you can Caleb.” Before sliding down the banister with ease, Caleb followed at two steps at a time as the imp was already dashing across the lobby toward the exit doors. She leaned on the brass doors decorated in frescos and smirked, “Oh dear, I believe this is as far as you go isn’t it?” and pushed open the doors running outside to the docks.

Caleb froze, he could feel his heart in his chest and heard his blood pounding in his ears. Maddy had pointed out that if the thief got outside there was little they could do. But she was right there! He knew where she was he could stop her! With a roar and a rush forward, he pushed past the brass doors and felt the wind and sun on his skin.

The effect was instantaneous, it felt like heavy stones were laid on his chest, his legs gave out from under him, and he felt his vision narrow to pinpricks in front of him. Caleb’s hand clutched to his chest as he fell to one knee. One thing that people who have never suffered a panic attack may not be aware of is how similar it is to a heart attack. Doctors will say that one distinguishing factor is that on average, panic attacks hurt more.

Caleb put his hand on the pavement and slid so he was laying on the pavement and tried to breathe. He tried to get his breathing to resemble anything close to normal as his heart raced, “Relax, there is no one on this island but us and the fauns…no one is going to hurt you” he chanted in his mind, “You’re the only one who knows that Stella has the treats, if you don’t stop her now…” Caleb grit his teeth and got to his knees, He felt like his chest was on fire but his heart was slowing down as he took deep breaths.

He ran a hand through his hair, his scalp felt like it was tingling, his hands felt like they had needles poking into them as he stood up straight. He was still panting like he ran a marathon and he felt like he could fall apart at any moment but right now that wasn’t important. Stopping Stella was. He began to move towards the dock and saw that Stella was leaning against the wall waiting for him with a satisfied expression on her face.

“Stella! Get back here, those aren’t yours!” Caleb managed to call out as he stumbled his way forward.

“No Caleb I don’t think I will,” A shiver seemed to run up her spine as she reached into her bag and pulled out a tart, “In fact, I think this is just the start!” She popped the tart into her mouth in one go and licked her fingers. This time the effect was drastic and much more apparent as her skin tone darkened as if she had spent the last few days soaking in rays. What was more, her chest began to expand as if swelling with air, pushing out the small shirt covering her chest and giving her prominent cleavage where there had been none before.

Stella raised her hands to her chest and gave her new breasts a proper squeeze, “Oh yeah Momma could get used to this mmmph” The twin pinpricks becoming visible made it evident that the mischievous gremlin wasn’t wearing a bra. She then swung her legs over and climbed into a boat and whispered something to the Faundolier who pushed off.

Waving as the boat took the canal she called back after Caleb, “Catch me if you can Master!”

“Damn it, Stella! Get back here!” Caleb gripped the wall and struggled to get down to the dock, and more fell than boarded the boat. He looked up at the Faundolier and then pointed at Stella’s boat in the distance, “After that gondola!” The Faun silently rolled its eyes and pushed off.

As the gentle breeze flowed through the air Caleb felt his body begin to relax. He had never pushed through a panic attack before. He knew that the body couldn’t keep it up for long but this is the first time he had gotten to the point where he was just left with the pain in his chest afterward. He smelled the air, it was lightly floral, the sunlight danced across the gentle waters of the canal and shimmered like starlight. It was beautiful.

Caleb clambered to a proper sitting position in the gondola, the movement annoying the piloting Faun and looked towards the boat ahead of him. He cupped a hand around his mouth and called out, his voice echoing across the water, “Stella, you better be ready to apologize when I catch you! Better to turn yourself in now!”

If he got a response he couldn’t hear it across the distance as they floated across the water. He then saw the boat in front of him dock and saw Stella rummaging through her bag again, “Stella! You better not be going for that last dessert! Those aren’t yours!” The only response he got was waving as his boat approached the dock in time to see her chomping down on a many-layered dessert. He watched as any fat the girl had melted away, her body tightening and bulking up with strong muscle, her exposed navel showing off firm abs.

Stella leaned forward and pulled at her one eye while sticking out her tongue, “You already got a muscle boost so it would be no fair if you could catch me super easy. So master! Catch me if you can!”

Immediately the woman turned on a heel and began darting through the narrow streets of the marketplace in front of them making Caleb watch her firm ass and tight legs as she ran.

Caleb jumped up out of the boat onto the dock the moment that it pulled in. What was her endgame, she had just eaten all of those sabotages. Then he remembered the conversation that Stella had had with him the other day. Was that it? Was she seriously doing all of this just because she thought it sounded fun in the moment?

There was only one way he was going to get an answer, “Don’t think for a moment I’m not going to catch you! Get back here!”

Across the island in a different Bazaar, Amy and Lily had just finished having a breakfast of fried dough that Lily was now polishing off with a colossal cloud of cotton candy. They walked over to the nearest alcove and Lily offered some to Amy.

“No thanks, plain sugar in any form isn’t really my thing, enjoy it,” Amy said as Lily looked over Amy’s exposed muscles and nodded sheepishly taking a large bite from the mass.

Over breakfast, Lily had explained her situation to Amy and the Oni had been silent with her feedback so far. She needed time to mull over the facts so now she felt more ready to respond as she leaned her arms against the wall, “First I need to know what your goal is here, because if I don’t know that I don’t know how best to help you.”

Lily set the cloud of cotton candy down and her face soured looking at Amy, “I told you, I’m trying to figure out who Sabotaged Eliza on her date.”

Trying to be sensitive Amy kept her voice even, “Yeah, I understand that’s what you’re doing but why are you doing it? Is it just to know who it is to warn others or are you trying to get back at them? Or is it information you want to keep to yourself like your fight with Maya?”

“I-” Lily started then closed her eyes, “I don’t know…it’s just not right that someone could do something like that to my friend and get away with it.””

“When you say things like ‘get away with it’ it sounds like you want to punish them, you understand why I’m trying to clarify? Because the thing is Lily I don’t mind trying to help you sort things out but also I’m warning you now that leaning into the getting even game only has the conclusion of an arms race.” Amy tapped her fingers against the wall.

“That’s not too much of a problem, right? At least they would be going after me and not my friends.” Lily frowned but her tone was resolute.

Amy shook her head, “No, and that’s part of why I think you’re struggling with figuring out who did this. You’re assuming everyone here thinks like you do. Lily, I like you and I don’t even think like you do. If Eliza was my friend, my end goal would be to figure out if the Sabotage helped her out or hurt her. To me, it’s the end result that matters. At that point, I wouldn’t care who did it unless it was harmful and I would still be looking to protect myself first and foremost.”

Lily looked like she was straining pretty hard to understand what Amy was saying, so the Oni continued, “Hey so another way to look at it is, you’re assuming that the person did this to harm Eliza. What if they were trying to help?”

Lily scoffed, “That doesn’t make any sense, why wouldn’t they have told her or owned up to it after the fact?”

“...Maybe because you literally treat everyone who uses Sabotages in any way other than what you agreed to as a criminal? Maybe they planned to own up and then got scared seeing how angry you got. There’s also the possibility it's not one of us who did it.” Amy said thoughtfully

Lily’s face darkened, “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean there’s the possibility that one of our esteemed hosts could have done it, maybe Eliza struck a deal and is now keeping it hidden for fear of backlash…or” Amy paused because she knew this possibility was going to be a problem for Lily, “It’s possible Caleb did it?” Lily’s face rapidly turned to disgust, “I’m just saying, we don’t know what resources he has at his disposal as Master, it’s possible he isn’t being up front about it, it’s just another avenue to explore though I think it’s unlikely.

Pouting, Lily threw her hands out, “So what? It’s unsolvable is that what you’re telling me?”

Amy shook her head and threw her hands up defensively, “Lily that’s not what I’m saying at all, I’m just pointing out that only looking at it from one point of view narrows the possibilities you’d be able to see. I think it’s most likely the fact that someone was trying to help, as other possibilities rely on information we don’t even know is true. Mira and Maya are definitively out, I confirmed my point totals with you, Stella…well I wouldn’t put anything past Stella but she’d want to be entertained by anything she does so doing something she couldn’t see is unlikely. This makes the most likely suspects either Maddy or Noemi.”

“Well it can’t be Maddy, I’ve been with her the whole time!” Lily said confidently, confidence breached by the raised eyebrow the Oni was giving her, “What?”

“What about when we were in the Garden together? Or when she said she was planning her date? You can’t account for all her time.” Amy said gingerly.

“But…she wouldn’t… there's no way.” Amy could see the plant woman spiraling and put her hands on Lily’s shoulders.

“It just means she is just as likely as Noemi, I’m sure if you talk to her with an open mind you’ll get a clear answer, but it has to be with an open mind, Lily.”

Lily nodded, but the Oni could feel the other woman was trembling in her hands.