Quoted By:
<span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-b">Winner:</span></span> King and Harlequin were tied when I began the write up, so both.
"The <span class="mu-i">King</span> wantsh to shee me?" you cannot hold back your surprise at the King's request for your presence. Nor can you hold back the sudden panic when you realize that you are in no fit state to be presented to the Monarch. Alcohol always loosens your grip on your thoughts and emotions - <span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-g">which is hardly a bad thing!</span></span> - which, if one were to put it charitably, makes you far more expressive. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, <span class="mu-i">Hiiiiiilde</span>! I'm not in any shtate to shee the King! What am I shuposhed to dooooooooo...?"
Annette look at you in shock. You do not make a habit of drinking heavily in front of your men-at-arms, as a matter of professionalism, so that just makes it <span class="mu-i">worse</span>. Normally, they're the ones worried about getting drunk in front of <span class="mu-i">you</span>, which is why you go your own way when they're on the town on leave. Seeing you nine brandies deep into a drunken stupor must be like seeing a two headed horse.
A rare memory that you can only pray to the LORD Annette will not hold against you.
Seeing you sink and sink into a despondency and slide deeper into the pool, Annette dutifully claps a hand over her eyes. The expression on her face is one of a woman afraid she'll get sent to the gallows if she speaks of what she's seen here today. Hilde's glare at her doubtless reinforces the feeling of creeping doom, leading Annette to declare that, "I saw nothing, Madame! What should I tell Sir Damien?"
"Tell him <span class="mu-i">burble-burble-burble-burble-glub</span>," you try to tell her exactly what to say, but by the time you say it your mouth has fallen below the waterline. All that comes out is unintelligible noise. Not that you notice it. "<span class="mu-i">Burble-glub-glub-burble. Burble-burble-glub-glub-glub. Burble...</span>"
"Beg pardon, Madame," Annette calls back to you. Dutiful and dependable, she did not let her hand slip from her eyes. "I don't think I caught that."
"<span class="mu-i">Burble-</span>" you try to explain what you meant before Hilde cuts you off.
"She said to tell Damien that the message caught her at a bad time," Hilde explains more or less what you wanted to tell her. As she speaks, she strokes your head in away that somehow makes you feel like everything will go alright. Sure, you still have no idea why Annette couldn't understand you, and you're in no state to meet with the King, but... "Tell him that she'll need some time to prepare... and that if he can buy some time for Lou-Lou to prepare, Hilde will be <span class="mu-i">very grateful</span> for it~"
She makes some weird gesture in the air with her hand and her mouth that you don't quite understand. It's a sex thing, isn't it? It has to be, otherwise Annette's face wouldn't have turned into a shade of red as bright and fiery as ripe jiaotian pepper. Wait, if she's not looking, then how did she see-
"I'll tell him right away," Annette declares, and scurries off with a quick, "By your leave, Madame!"