I'm Doing This For Them

The Lieutenants

"So what do you think she's planning?" JPG asked Alison as she finished the last of Sampson's cupcake. She had been a little more than surprised when Alison had come into her automaton lab bearing a cupcake, but she wasn't going to complain! JPG just hadn't even realized that the mansion had a bakery! Sure, she'd eaten the food that came from the normal kitchens, but it sounded like the place where the cupcake had come from was a special kitchen that only Sampson, or the Gingerbread Woman herself, could access. That made a bit of sense, though. The Gingerbread Woman wasn't the mansion's one and only cook, she was just the main proprietor of sweet stuff, and JPG supposed that she was highly protective of her recipes, hence why her kitchen was separate from the main one where JPG, Cedric and all the other humans of the estate got all their food.

"Who? The Sorceress or the Gingerbread Woman?" Alison replied, JPG's question rousing her from her thoughts.

"Both, honestly," JPG shrugged. "Think the Gingerbread Woman will give me more cupcakes if I ask?" she joked, but she did look quite forlorn as she tossed the now-empty cupcake wrapper away.

"I don't think I would go there," Alison replied seriously. "There's something not right about that woman..." the vampire shook her head darkly. She'd already told JPG about the incident with the Ice Witches last night, and then she told JPG about her run-in with Sampson in his kitchen, so JPG at least had a bit of understanding that the Gingerbread Woman wasn't exactly the warm and fluffy type, like the way her cupcakes were. But JPG still smacked her lips hungrily, regretful that the Gingerbread Woman wasn't more open about her kitchen. But, the young inventor supposed, the regular kitchen could produce pastries too, so it wasn't like there was a sugar shortage within the estate.

"You can't blame a girl for trying," JPG replied to Alison with a small smile and, despite herself, Alison chuckled in agreement.

"But that Sorceress, though," the vampire sobered up as she continued to think about the Gingerbread Woman and the Ice Witch, both of whom had been employed by the Sorceress over these past few... well, years, Alison was going to guess. But it could've been more or less than that. And since neither Sampson nor Sireen seemed to know what year it was, or what year it had been when they arrived to the mansion, who even knew?

JPG, however, pretended to put on a despairing face.

"Oh! No! Not the Sorceress again!" she pretended to swoon over her workbench. "Seriously, Alison, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were in love with that woman, all the thinking and talking you do about her!" the inventor joked. Alison knew JPG was only teasing, but the mere thought of being in a relationship with someone like the Sorceress was enough to make Alison hiss. She would rather be in a relationship with Vera! And that was saying something because Alison couldn't stand Vera! (But at least Vera was kind of pretty...)

"Absolutely not," the vampire muttered at last, JPG laughing heartily at her involuntary hiss at the idea of dating the Sorceress.

"I think it would be cute!" JPG replied, trying to egg the vampire on more, but Alison only rolled her eyes.

"It would be as bad as you and Cedric," she replied, and all at once, JPG's humored expression changed to one of abject horror.

"I'd rather be with one of those spider-women! At least they're hot in human form!" JPG cried, looking thoroughly repulsed at the idea of being with Cedric. Now it was Alison's turn to laugh heartily at JPG's expense will the young inventor pretended to puke.

At last, however, the joke ended and Alison returned to her original topic. The Sorceress.

"Just like always," JPG sighed under her breath, but she continued to listen to Alison's speculations. Although the inventor still had serious doubts that the Sorceress was any real threat or villain, she was at least starting to agree with the vampire that there was definitely something big going on here. The evidence was all too clear. Bringing in vampires, werewolves, spiders, armies and witches? Maybe the Gingerbread Woman seemed a bit out of place, all things considered, but perhaps the Sorceress just liked sweets? But who could blame her? The Gingerbread Woman was a killer cook! And although JPG really was trying to focus on Alison's talk, she found herself longing for another cupcake...