Letting the Prisoner Out for His Walkies {Tino}

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

"Right, so there's this Fall Faire thing, and I'm going to allow you to go. For good behavior and introducing me to Jew coffee (though I still haven't found anyone willing to give me the real stuff). But remember: you're still my prisoner. But you shouldn't mention that in public. People will get... suspicious. And we don't want that! Because then I'd have to kick their asses, and use the secret powers given to me as Conqueror of Finland!

"So I checked, and we can't call you a slave. Apparently people aren't cool with that here. Stupid mortals. And lackey isn't right. So I'm just going to call you one of my vassals. You're not really one of my vassals, because you're not exactly... useful. You're more like territory I conquered. Anyway, you're my vassal at the Faire, got it? So behave like a vassal!"

Actually, if Laharl had it his way, he'd have put a ball and chain around Tino. Not that he thought he actually needed one; nobody had come after Finland for months now. Laharl had been conqueror of the country for all that time, and somehow, nobody seemed to notice. Most people just seemed to think that Laharl hadn't actually conquered anyone, which was all kinds of frustrating. He was the great Laharl, demon Overlord! And he still wasn't getting any of his powers back, which wasn't putting him in a great mood either.

In fact, that was the real reason he had dragged Finland out here. Laharl knew that strange stuff was happening in Tenebrae, and whenever strange stuff happened, well, powers and stuff seemed to be nearby. Laharl wasn't an idiot: he was just unlucky. The last time stuff had happened, he'd been stuck down a hole. The first time, he'd kidnapped Finland and they'd both missed it. So now, Laharl figured that if he paraded his idiot captor around and walked about the Faire "stuff" would happen.

"So why isn't anything happening?" muttered the irritated demon lord. He folded his arms across his scrawny chest, frowning as he looked over everything. Things were definitely too cheery, and that was only the beginning of his problems...

[Tino Väinämöinen]

Tino had just nodded along politely, though privately he wondered what powers one exactly gained by conquering another country, it wasn't like Denmark or Sweden or Russia had exactly had any extra abilities, and their bosses hadn't either, unless you counted the extra strength of his armies and all that, but Laharl wasn't a nation so that wouldn't actually apply to him, and Finland's army wasn't even here, so he had no idea what secret power Laharl was actually talking about.

The vassal part was easy enough, it was like being back at Mr Denmark's house, or right at the beginning with Sweden until he'd gotten to know the other nation a little better. Either way, he knew what he was doing, and he was quite content to play along if it meant he got a fun afternoon at the faire. Tino loved faires and festivals and he loved getting together with Estonia to come up with new, fun holidays. Besides, it was autumn, and autumn meant it was nearly winter, and winter meant it was nearly Christmas, and Finland loved christmas.

"What?" Finland looked around at his muttering captor "Lots of things are happening. See? There's a pie baking contest, and an eating contest too, and rides, and look at all those stalls and all the people and there's so much going on! I'm not sure what I want to do first, what about you? Don't you want to try something out?" he nattered on cheerfully.

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

"What?" Laharl blinked, looking around quickly to see what things were happening. He was really hoping to see a giant killer robot or possible some Sentai rangers dressed up and doing battle with a group of monsters. He'd have settled for cake monsters, which was apparently a thing. But Laharl came to the realization of what Tino meant just as he was continuing speaking: normal, mundane, faire type activities.

"Of course there's faire activities!" snapped the demon lord. He stomped his foot and then crossed his arms over his chest. "Any idiot can see that there are faire activities! That's not what I was talking about! Don't you remember--oh, wait, I kidnapped you last time. Didn't you hear about the invisibility ray or the creatures made out of meat? You live in a bar!" Laharl was tempted to wave his arms, but his voice was already rather loud, loud enough to draw a few people's stares. Laharl returned them with interest, his eyes narrowing to slits. If looks could kill, Laharl would be a murderer (he technically already sort of was, but that was neither here nor there). The demon overlord began scanning the area, eventually snorting derisively.

"Let's go there," Laharl said, pointing toward the food area. "I could go for something to eat, and they probably have something decent here. It's been too long since I had any good food; the humans here suck at cooking," and Laharl had spent most of his money keeping Tino and Eva alive and hidden for a few months. Well, first it had been the bling, which included several necklaces Laharl was currently wearing, then it had been keeping the two countries alive and hidden (though Laharl seemed to have lost one somehow). He began walking, counting on Tino to keep up with him. The country knew the consequences. (at least one of them had to).

[Tino Väinämöinen]

Initially, Tino wasn't sure if Laharl had actually meant something different or if he was just trying to save face, but then he mentioned a couple of event that actually rang a bell and the nation realised exactly what sort of 'anything' the demon was talking about.

"Oh, yes," he nodded "I remember hearing people talking about that... you want something like that to happen? That doesn't sound like a very good idea, those events sounded pretty odd, I can't really understand what good would come of any of them..."

The promise of food distracted him from his rambling and he perked up.
"I wonder if they have salmiakki," he commented cheerfully as he followed Laharl towards the food stalls. It was unlikely they'd have the treat, it was an acquired taste after all, not to mention pretty rare to see outside of Northern Europe.

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

"Because, idiot," said Laharl, flicking his eyes dismissively toward his captive, "the people who keep showing up at these events are getting their powers and abilities back quicker. Plus, it's better than just sitting around here doing nothing. We've missed all the fun!"

Laharl threw his arms up and growled. That was definitely something he was not appreciating. So far all he'd managed to do since arriving was get beaten up regularly (usually by girls), lectured repeatedly (usually by girls), and stuck in holes (which strangely didn't involve that many girls). Meanwhile, other people got to fight living desserts, put down animal uprisings, and have all sorts of activities that just had to be increasing their levels and powers. Laharl was nearly prepared to rant when Finland made the mistake of wondering something aloud. Apparently the Jew Coffee incident had taught him nothing.

"Soul Miaki?" repeated Laharl. He blinked, looking up at Finland. "Eating souls? Your country is definitely awesome! C'mon, let's head to the food stands! I could use a pick me up anyway!"

This time, Laharl actually grabbed Finland before taking off. Once he had a good grip on the country's hand, he started marching determinedly toward the food area, where he would likely be seeking anything made of souls, which he would undoubtedly wash down with Jew Coffee.

[Tino Väinämöinen]

"Oh really?" He asked, interested by this piece of information... until he realised he didn't really have any powers or abilities to speak of. He could move around the world fairly quickly, but he didn't know what use that would be to him here, or even if it would work given he couldn't leave Tenebrae, and the immortality... well that was a difficult thing to test. It probably wasn't in effect currently, not in quite the same way anyway - none of the people around him seemed to be exhibiting any signs of madness, but then it hadn't actually been that long, and Laharl was clearly already a couple of bookcases short of an Ikea - and there was a thought that made him miss Sweden. Again.

"Soul? No...No, that's not what... I..." he trailed off, allowing Laharl to grab his hand and drag him away. What was the point, really? He'd already found that no matter what he said he couldn't dislodge the idea once it was in Laharl's head. He'd smoothed over the jew coffee incident with the barman and explained the misunderstanding, he just hoped he'd get a chance to do the same with anyone else who might think he was a soul-eating lunatic.
Still, if they actually did have any salmiakki he could show Laharl that it wasn't made of souls, and still enjoy his favourite treat, so there was that...

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

Laharl was vaguely aware of Finland's protests. The country sure did seem to complain a lot, a lot more than Laharl would think a country would complain. Then again, Laharl did seem to hear a lot about countries complaining about their situations in a sort of generalized sense, so why not a more specific sense? He wasn't one to dwell on such thoughts though, especially not when there were delicious souls to consume.

"It's been ages since I tried to eat anybody's soul," he commented. He stopped and looked around, trying to orient himself. Thankfully, there was a drifting scent in the air, a rather appealing odor that could only belong to an area that produced an abundance of food for the eating. Laharl nodded and started that way, again dragging Finland behind him. "Last time I tried it didn't stay put enough. I hear that you can deep-fry a soul though. I think I've seen those on sticks before."

There, they'd entered an area where the smell of food was overwhelming. There was the hint of fried foods; that odor seemed to dominate the section they were in overall. Yet this strange cloying odor wove its way through it, a sort of Autumn odor that Laharl actually recognized as being related to pumpkin. He'd actually experienced that gourd before, though usually used as a weapon or tactic for intimidation purposes. He thought he smelled some other odors in the air, possibly involving some contests of some kind. Nothing smelled like souls though, but Laharl figured he had an expert. He tugged Finland forward and nodded.

"Right, now lead us to the place that's most likely to sell this Soul Miaki," he instructed. Laharl waved with a hand, commanding his companion and captive to head forward and do his thing.

[Tino Väinämöinen]

Tino blinked, staring at him. He had actually eaten somebody's soul? Or...well, tried to anyway, which was still quite bad. He didn't know why he should be surprised, after all he was apparently quite up for the idea of drinking ground up people or eating their souls, so hearing that he might have actually done it in the past shouldn't really be that much of a shock. He had no idea how someone would go about deep frying something that was supposed to be intangible, but perhaps where Laharl came from they had more of a presence... or maybe they were even different things. That was a much more pleasant thought but he doubted it was true.

Still, at least it was quite likely that deep fried souls on sticks probably weren't an actual thing, any more than jew coffee and soul miaki was. So maybe it wasn't just Finland who accidentally lead Laharl to believe there were all sorts of terrifyingly sinister foods out there, perhaps he was just the type of person to mishear everything of the sort.

"Well I'm not sure where to start..." he admitted, looking around the foodstalls for something that was perhaps selling sweets or even international treats, before shrugging and heading into the throng to look, his eyesight was pretty good, he was sure he'd spot a likely candidate eventually, if one were there.

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

At least the stupid prisoner wasn't insisting that he meant something else. That had been the problem with the Jew coffee, which, admittedly, sounded less probable than something made out of soul. Laharl knew plenty of demons who regularly consumed the souls of their enemies. True, he'd never actually managed to do it himself, but he was pretty sure it was possible. Totally possible.

Unfortunately, his prisoner's helpfulness seemed to have reached an end. Laharl sighed, glaring up at Finland in frustration. "Really? This is your dish, prisoner!" Laharl debated smacking Finland but thought better, mostly because he couldn't reach the taller male's head. "Surely you know whom among these people would be most likely to sell this... soul miaki," Laharl cast his gaze over the stands. The smell nearly pulled his feet along as it was, and he could feel his stomach doing little lurches. He frowned, then moved to push Finland.

"Well, start walking. We're going to walk until we see someone who might sell your stupid treat already," the demon insisted. He would stay behind Finland, pushing him along, until the country started walking on his own. Then Laharl could come out from behind him and walk along beside, casting his gaze. "Ah, deep fried twinkies, truly this realm possesses the greatest of evils," he muttered as he saw one stand, his eyes widening at the sight.