[nathan67003]

A woman, 6'7" and built like an Amazon, was laying in a lounge chair in front of the Yulind residence, her feet bare and some beige cargo pants accompanying her dark gray sleeveless shirt - which had an orange 4-point star on it. Her long, rather curly black hair was, for once, loose. Her green eyes were intently focused on the words of the book she was in the process of reading.

Max raised her eyes off the ink-riddled pages and gazed at her surroundings, enjoying the warmth, the wind and the songs of nearby birds. This place reminded her so much of home. Sure, the lake was bigger and she could see ground that stretched way further, but everything else felt the same.

She had been supposed to meet with Ophelia at this very house. However, when she arrived, all she found was a note that pretty much said that the family was gone for a few days and to make herself at home in the meantime. Max had been rather outraged at that, but had managed to calm down after about half an hour of formulating inventive ways to destroy the building. Since her Aura had been registered within the security system, she wouldn't need to break in like last time.

Sighing, she plunged back into the book. This wasn't so bad after all.

[Asterisk]

"I hope you know this, but they'll be gone for two months." Stella arrived and leaned on one of the marble pillars with two boxes: a square tin and a long, thin wooden box with a sliding lid. Also having been given access to Ophelia's residence, she sat down on a chair next to Max and said, "Hope you don't mind if I join you. I brought these. A box of butter cookies from Orchid and an over 400 year old bottle of the legendary Vueursueilon Vendemmia wine. It's a forgery by me but Marigold says it tastes exactly the same as the real one so meh." She set them on the table and leaned back, taking in the view.

[nathan67003]

Max's eyes rose from the book, angling themselves towards the young lady that had appeared out of seemingly nowhere. Camellia having deemed that giving her a detailed rundown of all her friends was of the utmost importance, she was capable of easily deducing that the girl - whom she had never met before - was named Stella. She was slightly surprised that she wasn't somehow getting insulted, but that might be because she was associated with the family of her new neighbor's friend.

Her words, however, hit hard. "...Two months? What the fuck is wrong with her?? We were supposed to meet here two days ago! I swear, if I get my hands on her..."

Max, however, calmed down, realizing the uselessness of making death threats to an absent person. "Now I'm probably gonna have to hunt her down or something." She listened as the small lass exposed what she'd brought with her, after having asked a rethorical question. "Hey, this isn't my home. You're free to do whatever you want. I won't mind. As for the food... Sure, I don't mind having a taste. Especially since the wine isn't rare at all."

A question - a very important one - then passed through her mind. "By the way, I'm Max. Sorry for asking this, but why are you here? It's not like there's any reason for you to show up here with food and drink in hand, especially since your friend and her family are gone."

[Asterisk]

"Yeaaaah... I wouldn't recommend you do that... As to why I'm here..." Stella pulled a small bag of light green powder out of her pocket. "I've been creating extremely powerful strains of wasabi through gene editing for Camellia to put into grenades." She smiled and set it on the table. "You can have it. I made a lot anyways. Just add water, but be warned, a single whiff will have an Ursa on the ground clawing at its own face."

[nathan67003]

Max looked with curiosity at the bag. "...Wasabi, huh? What's that?" Reaching down, she took a large pinch of the dust and unceremoniously dropped it into her mouth.

[Asterisk]

Stella blinked, then slowly turned away. The highly potent wasabi powder would cause an extremely powerful and excruciatingly painful burning sensation to the nose, eyes, tongue, and esophagus.

[nathan67003]

Max swirled the dust around in her mouth a bit, making sure to thoroughly coat the entire sample with saliva. The flavour was surprisingly rich, even though it was almost entirely drowned out by a hellish, fiery mess of a molecule she couldn't quite place among the ones she already knew.

Once the wasabi had completely dissolved, she swallowed and turned back to Stella, giving her a smile - something she rarely did with strangers. "Y'know what? This is pretty damn good. Bit spicy, but amazing."

(EDIT: This thread should probably be considered null, at this point.)