November 4th

Amongst the feeling of a wet patch on his cheek and pillow and the stinging sensation of sleep and morning light on his peering eyes, Alfred could also feel vibrations racking through the bed sheets. Groaning, he swung a hand down, groggily searching for what was causing his discomfort, causing his hand to rest on a cool object that shook his tired fingers as he propped himself up and leant against the headboard, feeling for his glasses on the bedside table and getting the sleep out his eyes. Vibrations. Phone. Phone is ringing. Should answer. Once this string of relatively simple thoughts had been processed Alfred hit the answer button and pulled it to his ear, using his other hand to straighten his hair and pull down his Captain America T-Shirt he had worn as a pyjama substitute, which had ridden up in the night.

"Alfred? What's wrong? I tried calling you four times already!" The familiar voice of Tino called through the other end. Oh yeah, he was doing that thing today…

"Yeah, well, it is pretty early, y'know?"

There was a splutter on the other end. "Early? Early? Alfred, it's twenty minutes to noon!"

The fact that the only thought that responded to the news was Oh, may have been viewed as odd in itself, but Alfred still was not awake and so it has been estimated that the news of the Apocalypse would simply have sprung a response of 'So lunch is off then?'. It is also causing some controversy in many of the leading institutes whether Alfred's obliviousness to Tino's stress was due to his drowsiness or his overall personality, though some peacemakers believe both.

"So, why'd ya call?" Alfred tried to find out the reason he had been taken from his slumber so early in the morning.

"You told me to tell you if Arthur did anything weird, right? Well, right now he's getting changed into… really weird clothes. Here, I'll send you a picture. Moi moi!" Alfred was slowly gaining his ability to keep up with real time, and using this power he looked at the phone screen which had changed to the text screen as a message came through carrying a picture. It was a photo of Tino and Berwald at a café in Amsterdam; they were dressed in Dutch fashions (not that Alfred could tell) and were holding marshmallow and strawberry sticks which had been dunked in a chocolate fountain that was just visible in the background. Moments later a second text came through; 'I am so sorry! could you delete that? here's the proper one' And following that came a photo of Arthur dressed in a very odd outfit; a black hat with a buckle and puffy trousers. Alfred slowly started to change into some jeans and socks before replying 'k sry i dk wut hes doin' and heading into the kitchen.

Matthew was preparing a sandwich and had his back facing the door when Alfred entered, noticing the pile of wicker dolls that had been assembled on the table, though some were missing parts of their bodies and only a selected few were in pile of 'perfect' ones. The coffee maker beeped and Matthew turned, seeing his brother's frame in the doorway.

"Good Morning! I did make you pancakes but you didn't get up, I can warm them up again if you want them for… brunch, I guess?" He poured out the coffee and went to retrieve the pancakes from the fridge.

"Yeah, thanks dude." Alfred grinned, pulling Matthew into a hug before sliding off and waiting outside the microwave, eagerly moving around the balls of his feet. "Oh yeah, what's with the dolls?" He nodded to the pile of figures as the microwave finished and headed down to the sofa where Matthew had already settled with his normal lunch.

"Those? Oh, I was making effigy's of Guy Fawkes – apparently it's a British law, though not everyone still does it. I figured Arthur still does though, so me and some of the others made these for him, we'll burn them tomorrow."

Alfred then remembered the earlier conversation with Tino and figured that Matthew might know what it was all about. "Hey, Tino called about weird events at Artie's, d'ya know what he's doing?" He found the photo on his phone and, whilst trying to still balance the almost-finished pancakes on his lap, showed it to Matthew, who frowned and rested his empty plate on the coffee table before pulling up his laptop from the floor.

After much typing, clicking and more typing, finally Matthew swivelled the laptop around to show his brother, a look of accomplishment on his face. "Looks like his dressing up like someone from the Stuart Era; when Guy Fawkes was around."

Alfred paused his last forkful on its journey to his mouth for a moment. "Okay, two questions; one, what's a Stuart Era? Two, who's Guy Fawkes?" For both questions Matthew mentally sighed, and far away Arthur felt a shiver down his spine and sneezed, wondering why his urge to punch Alfred in the face had suddenly become stronger.

"Alfred, you should really know about the Stuarts, after all, they were the rulers of England and America before the Georgians and George the Third." Alfred winced at the name. "They were there near the beginning of the English colonialisation of America, I'm surprised you don't know. Wait, actually… No, I'm not surprised… As for Guy Fawkes, he tried blowing up parliament, and failed. Well, he wasn't the only one, there were actually thirt-"

"That sounds pretty cool! So, because some dude tried blowing up parliament Artie has fireworks? Awe-some!" Matthew rolled his eyes slightly at his brother's energeticness and turned on the television, relaxing back into the warmed up folds of the sofa, Alfred following suit as Adventure Time came on to relax them both.

Meanwhile, Mathias Køhler was splayed out on Françis's coffee table, groaning loudly and trying to soothe his flour-covered fingers, causing a small snowstorm to fall on him from his outstretched arms. Françis was a few feet away in the kitchen, putting the final touches on the large cake Mathias had just finished. He was getting great joy from making all the little twirls and roses, making sure every inch was covered in the white icing that shone like tiny diamonds. Ludwig was going to arrive any moment now to create his famous red and blue sugar sculptures to add an abstract feel to it all.

At the other end of the kitchen Kiku and Yao were trying their best to replicate traditional English dishes. "Aiyah! This recipe does not even say whether to use lamb or beef!" Yao complained, throwing his hands in the air in his annoyance at the poorly written instructions. "Nevermind, I'll just use lamb as there seems to be quite a lot here…" Kiku was trying to ignore the elder's comments, focusing his energy on making the Shropshire Pea Soup he had been assigned.

Françis's home had been elected as the hub for everyone who had been given a job to do with cookery, as a result the kitchen was filled with excitement and wonderful aromas as the various chefs rushed around with their duties.

Other homes had also been given their own jobs too: Feliciano and Lovino were hoarding the creative types; Ivan had gathered a few of his 'friends' and were working on floral arrangements and other such decorations; Lili was head of a sewing group who were all working their fingers to the bone with costumes; and Elizabeta and her assembly were doing the research – though through Gilbert's boredom it had become more of a game than anything else, they were just spinning around on their chairs and looking up minigames on the computers.