Mission Debrief: Black Eagle Maid Force
Part One: Result
Victory for the Black Eagles
Gold (plated) plaque presented to the Black Eagles by Monastery town's Gonfalonier at 6pm.
Invite to Celica's for buffet afterwards for all participating Houses.
Part Two: Data Assessment
Relevant statistics:
Number of tickets (customers) served: 189
Number of Townsfolk served: 173
Number of Students served: 11
Number of Faculty served: 5
Faculty served: Seteth, Flayn (introduced), Alois, Manuela, Jeritza (1pm), Jeritza (4pm)
Deer served: Hilda, Claude, Ignatz, Lysithea (2pm), Lysithea (4pm), Raphael, Marianne, Lorenz
Lions served: Ingrid (12pm), Annette, Mercedes, Ingrid (5pm)
Beverages
Number of teas, black, served: 36
Number of teas, green, served: 14
Number of teas, tef, served: 2
Number of coffees served: 137
Desserts
Number of Saghert and Cream slices baked: 100
Number of Saghert and Cream slices served: 90
Number of Saghert and Cream slices eaten by Bernadetta: 1
Number of Saghert and Cream slices eaten by Byleth: 1
Number of Saghert and Cream slices eaten by Edelgard: 8
Part Three: Rival House Activities
Blue Lion House
Turned the training grounds into a carnival with the leftover wood from their logging activities this month, presumably to rebuild Remire's palisade without disrupting the natural forest growth in the area. Duedue claimed some passing interest with woodwork and blacksmithing, but was hesitant to provide more details when I asked him, stating that he only lived to serve Dimitri now. Nevertheless, he fashioned an impressive "spinning teacups" ride operated by hand-crank that I rode on with Edelgard before she demanded to get off, citing reflux brought on by the espresso.
Before the reflux kicked up she was smiling, and that was a great relief.
Shortly thereafter, Felix strolled up to me and called me a "f****t" for wearing a woman's maid costume. I explained that such a comment made no sense, and endeavored to explain in halting terms the usefulness of the siege warfare tool and its lack of resemblance to a maid costume.
The Heir to House Fraldarius then replied anyone who fought in sieges was a coward, regardless of which side of the wall you were on. He then told me what his intended definition for his previous insult was, so I have censored it for academic purposes. I do this particularly in consideration to any students of mine that wish to marry someone of the same gender. Maya then arrived to bully Felix and did so quite successfully through some strange turn of phrase, and then Felix granted that he'd be a "top only" which apparently satisfied her.
I asked Sylvain for a translation, but his face was still quite swollen from Raphael's reprimand for hitting Marianne... so I could not understand his meaning. Still, I believe Maya is a good influence on the red lancer.
Sensing Felix's desire to have another duel, I asked if he wanted to cross swords and get beaten off the training grounds again, which provoked laughs all around. Felix, supposedly for the first time in his life, declined a duel. I suspect my last victory over him at the seminar has shaken his confidence a bit, and wish to restore his self-esteem in some way. Perhaps I will use him for mission support next month.
When I approached Dimitri, he invited me to Mercedes' Birthday Party, but was quite pensive about even holding it, citing that he really wished to use the opportunity for one last consultation on Remire. I told him to send me an invite with a plus-one, and then, seeing my student in her nauseous and agitated state, the Lion King immediately asked me to do a mission-support trade with someone capable of watching over me from his house.
I silently considered exchanging Hubert for Felix, but then I realized that such a trade would be a lose-lose for both of us, as Hubert seems a bit scrawny for manual labor, and Felix is in an agitated state. Edelgard then approached us and said that she needed to have final approval on such matters, and I deferred to her, much to the Crown Prince's displeasure.
Golden Deer
My Student initially did not join me for the assessment of the Golden Deer activity which was located in the Reception Hall, and that is a good thing. When I arrived, I saw Claude was teaching the locals how to ballroom dance. Never having observed his peculiar approach to ballroom dancing before, but knowing it was an art of the nobility and thus most likely was an esoteric form, I wished to analyze as much as I could. If Edelgard asked me to dance, I would've made a complete fool of myself in front of her and likely would've lost her respect as a teacher.
When Claude noticed me contemplating this, he immediately sent over Hilda – who endeavored to ask me why I didn't know how to dance – and why hadn't her brother taught me at his famous parties.
While she taught me ballroom dance with confusing and contradictory directions, she pressed me for information about what Holst's parties in Derdriu were like, and complained bitterly about never being invited to them – under the impression that they were grand balls of some sort for the exceptionally adult and noble.
I informed that there was no dancing at Holst's parties, just drinking and confused thrusting, and she then spent a long time listening to my halting descriptions about all the gory details. She claimed these were not the descriptions he provided to her – and prioritized her brother's interpretation of the events over my own.
Edelgard arrived shortly thereafter and broke us up. Claude said that he would get a dance with me during the Academy's Winter Ball and suggested that I save the maid dress – but I have no idea what that was in reference to. Can you attend a ball in a maid-dress?
Before leaving, he slapped my buttocks, but in a comradely way, I think. I scarcely felt it through the dress.
Part Four: Student Assessments, Black Eagles
Summary: The operation's execution left a great deal to be desired, but after some contemplation and review...
That should have been expected, at least given the lack of experience that six noble students, one commoner, and one sociopathic son of knight have in the art of serving refreshments to others.
In retrospect, I should have assigned particular rows to particular waitresses from outset. Dorothea suggested this but was shot down by Ferdinand, who said that nobility did not need "a guide to serve" as nobles were inherently "born to serve". I put the matter up to a vote.
Ferdinand refused to participate in any democratic activity, but the "noble way" still won 4-2, with the other dissenting vote being Edelgard, naturally because the sentiment up for a vote was delivered by Ferdinand. Looking back, it seems to me quite silly that I allowed Linhardt and Bernadetta to vote on this, being on kitchen duty. Only front-of-house staff should have been given franchise in this matter.
I also realize that since Caspar and Petra were on table-bussing duty, such confusion would allow them to have more time to practice grappling behind the dishwasher's curtain – I am told it was grappling but I never assume anymore thanks to Claude. I will detail this later in their personal assessment.
Dorothea's suggestion was later instituted at 2pm by me via executive order, but the wait time had already become intolerable for many.
Self-Assessment
While I have mastered the art of an espresso pull (one of the townswomen informed me of this before Edelgard arrived to snatch their garland flowers away) – I feel as if my preparation and pre-operation lecture was insufficient. I may have also spent too much time focusing on the coffee, and not on my students, which I resolved to solve on the march to the Red Canyon, as was my resolution yesterday.
Because I spent most of time repeating the same methodical maneuver and trying to observe my students in the process, I must end mine here.
Performance Grade: 100/100
Participation Grade: 50/100
Effort Grade: 75/100
Overall Grade: 75/100 – Scaled to 80 because I may have helped Edelgard smile and I feel this is increasingly becoming an essential part of my duties as her educator.
Assessment, Edelgard:
Did not fulfill the primary role of hostess with sufficient regularity to expedite seating, instead went around micromanaging everyone's activities and closely monitoring the garland status of my hair until roughly 3pm, when she and I were scheduled to have our thirty-minute break.
Edelgard insisted I make her an espresso so she could understand "their fascination with coffee" – their being the townsfolk, particularly the petit bourgeois, who apparently write the harlequin novels she is reading as the newest member of Dorothea's banned book club. I made espresso per Hubert's direction, and my student complained about an onset of esophageal reflux due to the inherent acidity of the drink. She then asked how anyone could consume it, as if I consumed coffee or would know.
I showed her Hubert's letter regarding the coffee flavor profile on the 19th, and Edelgard insisted that she be allowed to screen any letters from Hubert in the future, which I agreed to. My student did not want "Hubert's low opinion of my gracefulness" to color my own view of her. I replied that she should not feel bad about being clumsy. She denied being clumsy.
In an attempt to rescue Hubert's reputation, I then replied, "You are brilliant to me." and she blushed very brilliantly, forgetting about how angry she was at Hubert, I hope. If Hubert is going through my personal files like I suspect he is, you're welcome.
We later went on Duedue's teacup ride, but this prompted her to be claim general nausea and discomfort throughout the rest of the workday, choosing to abandon the hostess's lectern for the last two hours of service to get a notebook and ask me questions about the Albinean navy, which Hubert implied my expertise in. I merely have seen it battle, but do not claim expertise. Part of me wonders where Hubert got my service record from.
She later began hiccupping at 5pm, so I re-assigned her to Saghert and Cream cutting duty, much to everyone's chagrin, where she consumed seven slices with tea before closure.
Further interrogation on naval warfare throughout. I endeavored to explain that I knew nothing about navies, but that I did participate in small-scale marine operations near Kupala to check Almyran raids. Doing my best to describe those, I realized she seemed so interested and content... and I felt glad she was not complaining about reflux anymore.
Apparently records of the Brigid-Dagda war's principal marine operations were lost prior to some event called the "insurrection of the seven", which she then declined to explain to me – citing reflux.
Her final spat of queries before closing were very detailed... and I gathered that she clearly understood how integrated support functioned, at least in terms of landing operations. This was in spite of a poor explanation from me. Since we are studying at a military academy, I will grant that it's a great use of time.
Performance Grade: 60/100 (D-)
Participation Grade: 80/100 (B-)
Effort Grade: 100/100 (A+)
Overall Grade: 80 (B-) – Scaled to 85 due to "interdisciplinary fusion" a term I heard Seteth say once and think I have a grasp over in spite of never asking for the definition.
Assessment, Ferdinand
Served the fewest number of tables out of all the wait-staff, but the tables he did serve had unflinchingly positive opinions of him. In particular, his exhaustive knowledge of blends and oversight of the blending process with Bernadetta lead him to actually preparing a questionnaire for each individual townsperson he served to properly attenuate their flavor palette.
Later, during his lunch break at 2:30pm, Ferdinand asked for leave to return to his dormitory and acquire what he called an "aroma box" which actually included canisters of each of the ingredients which comprised the Empire's 622 approved tea blends. When he arrived with the exquisitely engraved teak box bearing the seal of the Marquis Vestra, minister of the Imperial Household, I was very impressed.
He then informed that there are only two such sets in the Empire – one owned by the Marquis Vestra, and one formerly owned by his son. This was apparently traded to Ferdinand in return for getting the room directly next to Edelgard's. He said it was quite the steal, citing all of her "yelling at night" and implying that My Student was probably enjoying the company of other men and women there.
Before I could caution him not to say that within earshot of her, Edelgard slapped the set out of his hands and then demanded that I join her on the next available lunch break, presumably to discuss Ferdinand's comment. She merely told me that Ferdinand is a liar and a brown-noser, which is a lot to handle, honestly. I replied that she was entitled to her own interests, perhaps too tersely, and then she spent quite a while endeavoring to explain that those were not her interests at all at this moment.
Women are confusing. Ferdinand is a fine fellow.
Later, our ginger gentleman ended up personally consulting with the owner of Celica's, a Dagdan by the name of Mizan, who will be adding tea to their expanded daytime menu in the summer thanks to Ferdinand's enlightened recommendations.
After that, he approached me during the four-o-clock hour, where serviced slowed as a result of the citizens heading over to the Cathedral for Evening Mass. In our one-sided conversation, he expressed the desire to work towards the exploration of my tea palette. I filled out the questionnaire, and he apologized, noting that his professional recommendation was "Bergamot".
Performance Grade: 70/100
Participation Grade: 100/100
Effort Grade: 80/100
Overall Grade: 85 (B)
Assessment: Dorothea
Ended up saving the front-end from complete disaster at 2pm after I re-centralized power under her authoritarian leadership. She asked if I could refer to her as "Generalissima" in the interim which I was happy to oblige to in spite of protests from the House Leader.
Otherwise, left glowing impressions on all the townsfolk, but I get the impression that she performed her duties quite distractedly, as she kept circling back to me and trying to assess what I wanted to read next in her banned book club. I suspect she was also aggressively shilling Hubert's espresso in order to do this. Naturally as the most competent waitress of the bunch, she was moving a lot of tea-curious folk back into the general direction of coffee – creating more work for my right arm operating the lever.
Regarding the book club, the songstress also asked if it would be permissible to invite Annette Fantene Dominic, a fellow member of the choir club, to the book-club, which Edelgard protested. My student then asked me, as the "faculty moderator", to intervene. I acknowledged that it was Dorothea's book-club, and as Dorothea's book club, she was well within her right to invite anyone who she wanted.
As a middle-path, I suggested that she simply provide Edelgard a list of banned books she was considering instead of just picking them arbitrarily – attempting to draw parallels between my success with the mission brief situation and her own ability to keep our House Leader in the book club under similar auspices.
The songstress laughed at me, and then said that everyone knows that Edelgard is reading my mail. My Student quickly fashioned a very good bantering riposte from face-down in her plate of saghert and cream shortly thereafter, which I was proud of, I think.
I cannot remember what it was because Dorothea had started singing some kind of love-song in my ear. It sounded very wholesome and chivalrous; I think – so I endeavored to inquire after the name of it.
She informed that the title was: "Whipped"
And that writer was "Dorothea Arnault"
And that she composed it five minutes ago on a whim.
After I stated how impressed I was, she claimed that she:
"Sings them as she sees them." and I felt some kinship with her as a diarist.
Who inspired her, I wonder? I did not have the time to ask.
Performance Grade: 100/100
Participation Grade: 100/100
Effort Grade: 100/100
Overall Grade 100 (A+)
MVP
Assessments: Caspar and Petra
I struggle to assess them separately here because they worked very well together as a tandem.
Caspar actually took bussing tables with a gusto, primarily because he realized he could drink from the teacups of the people who left in frustration over Ferdinand's endless waiting periods. I was informed by Caspar that he doesn't actually like tea very much – just green tea with ginger when he's feeling under the weather – but really does enjoy drinking the syrupy slurry that people leave behind the bottom of each teacup from the sugar and tea particles – citing he would do that at home with assistance of an overly indulgent and probably overcaffeinated domestic servant.
I then asked if he felt any differences in fighting when on a sugar rush or not, and he seemed to think that while his movements were slower when not sugarfied, he had more focus when "off the juice" – juice his slang for the bottom-slurry. I will endeavor to keep Caspar "off the juice" before every battle, if possible.
Petra spent most of her time behind the dishwasher's curtain. Behind this dishwasher's curtain was just a rolling tray with dirty dishes on it next to the class's restroom, which was also hidden behind the curtain. I was not aware the classroom even had a restroom until today – but it is not as if I spend very much time here anyway.
The wastebasket is also in there, and is apparently in every classroom restroom, which answers a question that has been nagging me since I've arrived. An Almyran boy named Cyril arrived to replace the wastebasket at 4pm – and I had a reflex reaction where my hands clenched too tightly on the espresso gauge, making for an over-extracted pull. I suspect that whenever I see Almyrans, my body just goes into fight-mode, which is unfortunate.
...What if a student was attending here and was of Almyran heritage?
Anyway, at around 5:40 pm, when Dorothea was singing to me and Edelgard was interrogating me about marine warfare, I noticed that Caspar and Petra had retreated into the bathroom and were doing a great deal of grunting. My mind flashed backed to Claude and Hilda, and I hoped that Caspar did not intend to have a child with Petra, given the fact that I felt as if I had not sufficiently taught him to respect Bernadetta yet.
Dorothea seemed to acknowledge this while Edelgard was busy attempting to argue with me about the logistics of arming boats with ballistae. While I corrected her about the size of the flat-bottom barges the Albineans preferred, Dorothea cracked open the restroom door and showed me – the two were actually grappling, which is fine with me as long as both parties were in agreement. Petra was winning anyway.
The Songstress then asked me what I thought they were doing, and I shrugged. She spent the remainder of the evening laughing at me, and I probably would've laughed too, if I could laugh.
Petra then approached me and asked why I was "melancholing on a Holiday of Fodlan". I told her I was not sad, and just had no emotions – prompting more background laughing. Petra, that honest, gentle soul, then tried maneuvering my face for me with her hands into a smile, which hurt quite a bit.
Performance Grade: 85
Participation Grade: 85
Effort Grade: 85
Overall Grade: 85 (B)
Assessment: Linhardt and Bernadetta
NOTE: Because they were located in the kitchen until the late afternoon rushing out more Saghert and Cream and roasting more coffee, I am unable to give them a fair grade.
So I have asked if Linhardt would submit a grade for me on his and Bernadetta's work, as I trust him to be far more academic than I am.
I have not received that document yet, but I will update this when I do.
EDIT:
1st of Pegasus Moon, 1181
Never received Lin's self-assessment.
Never received Bernie's assessment.
Linhardt, please add these here if you happen to have them on your person for the sake of completion. Thank you.
-Byleth
