Chapter Text
What would be the correct word for how she—no, most definitely he today—is currently feeling?
Oh, that's right, boredom. Being the Virtue of Knowledge comes with the fact that it's kind of hard not to know basically everything. One person talks to him, he can read their body language to know what they say and how to solve it before they even get to the point.
There was one huge thing in Blueberry Milk's life that made him less bored: his students. Oh, his biggest passion is his students, when Blueberry Milk first arrived on Earthbread, he had no idea what to do with all of his knowledge. But after a few days of wandering, he found another Cookie, strong and burly in fact, who worked in construction yet she stayed around and listened to him and even watched him prove them.
That's how Blueberry Milk found out how much he loved teaching. So he volunteered at an orphanage for young Cookies and looking at their excited and awed faces, oh, it was adorable! Blueberry Milk adores them all, children and adults alike and it breaks his heart to see them sad or scared because of some of the things he talks about.
The most prominent example of this is Blueberry Milk's lessons on the Witches, he had to cut out a part of them because of their reactions. Blueberry Milk thought that his students would like to know why to beware but also still love the Witches; they did not; they were horrified that there was a community of Witches that ate Cookies and so was Blueberry Milk, as was he but still!
Well, there was one Cookie who still wanted to learn it all, someone who was both gossipy and incredibly smart when the effort was put in. But it made Blueberry Milk entertained; when he had started this school, he had known about gossip but didn't really think about it. Until Grapevine came along.
Grapevine started to come into the classroom after class when Blueberry Milk began teaching about the Witches. He had spoken about how there was a gap in the lesson, a small inconsistency, something that no one else had noticed. Blueberry Milk discovered that one of his students, who he thought was the least attentive, was the very best.
He agreed to teach Grapevine but also made it clear that if he was even slightly uncomfortable, the lessons were over; Blueberry Milk doesn't want to scare people. But in the moments of teaching, he discovered something else. The rush that came from the gossip—Grapevine spread it around everywhere he had expected that he would spread it to the teachers but not the enjoyment that would come from it.
Gossip satiated his boredom almost as much as teaching; by the end of the first month of alternative lessons, Blueberry Milk decided to try something, decided to make something new.
So he put his knowledge to the test and made a new object. It was called a radio, something that could broadcast speech from other places, he made the first few and kept on going until the model was perfect, then replicated enough for multiple rooms of the school before starting on making where the voice would go into to broadcast it.
The first microphone was made today; its creator was Blueberry Milk and its first user was Grapevine.
The radio was playing again; it always started a few moments after Blueberry Milk woke up. He realised it after Grapevine got into a consistent schedule with the radio. Apparently his student wakes up earlier than he does, another admirable thing about him.
Blueberry Milk swung his legs off the edge of the bed and walked into the kitchen, when had this become the new normal of his life? Needing to listen to his student every day to not be overcome by boredom. Was that his Witches given flaw? Blueberry Milk tried not to dwell on it; if it were anyone else, it would be entertaining but about him, it'd just be self-deprecating.
Blueberry Milk continued on and casually flicked on the coffee machine with a press, which was one of his first inventions after learning about coffee from another magic user. They disagreed over some things but they had agreed to teach him about coffee magic even if he preferred lattes.
Blueberry Milk grabbed onto the edge of a chair and pulled it out but didn't sit down, instead pulling open a drawer and taking the time to prepare a plate the old-fashioned way. Blueberry Milk could take the short way out, buuuut...
Well fine, he'll admit it; Blueberry Milk is doing this because he wants Wheat Flour to think that he isn't lazy. Look, he has enough humility to admit it! It wasn't that she did but still, he had his worries about what would happen if she eventually did. Blueberry Milk had some qualms about losing one of his closest friends and batchmates.
(Blueberry Milk chose to ignore the fact that Wheat Flour wouldn't leave him or any of the others even if they were lazy; he chose to believe this as to not confront the other reason.)
But as he moved, it was as though the tiredness was seeping from his very dough; the offer of company always made him rise up and move until everything was perfect. Blueberry Milk was quite impressed with his own skill in the moment; all of his chambers in the Spire of Knowledge had been thoroughly cleaned and the oven was currently filled with blueberry muffins, everything was going perfectly.
Blueberry Milk had even scheduled the meeting on an off day for the students so Wheat Flour could get away from the demands of Cookies. Truly he thought that it was quite selfish, but he knew that to keep people happy, sometimes you would have to hold the truth back a bit.
About forty minutes later Blueberry Milk flung open the oven with his magic and lifted the muffin tray out and onto the table. There they smelt perfect; Wheat Flour would love them!
Blueberry Milk opened a cabinet with his magic and set a plate on the centre of the table while he worked on pulling the muffins out from the tin. Once that was done, he set them down on the plate and continued on with preparations; glass cups were flying through the air, smaller plates were set down on the table, fabric was flying, and the stovetop was whistling with steam.
It was perfect, a half dozen of muffins and a careful small stack of pancakes, smaller than what Blueberry Milk would want her to eat but Wheat Flour always refuses to eat an appropriate amount because there are other Cookies out there that have nothing at all.
Now if they were hanging out with Delight Sugar, then she would more than likely eat a lot more since everything else would be donated to all of the Cookies living within the Garden. After all, almost all of them were hurt and alone Cookies who were just in need of a place to stay to pick themselves back up on their feet. But some stayed and made the Garden of Delights into what was functionally a utopia.
As the last cup of coffee hit the table and the last few sugar cubes fell in, there was a knock at the door. Blueberry Milk knew he should've woken up earlier; he was still wearing the apron. He flung it over his head and onto the hanger at the end of the kitchen below an overhanging counter as he raced to the door.
"Wheat Flour Cookie! I am hoping that you were able to make your way here safely." Blueberry Milk looked slightly up at Wheat Flour, who held a soft smile when looking into the room.
"Yes, your citizens have always been the more welcoming of our kingdoms. One of them even escorted me through the forest to the 'new path'. Has something changed recently since our last exchange? You didn't mention anything about a new route in our last letter." Wheat Flour looked down at Blueberry Milk as she pulled out her own chair; as much as he wanted to show a courtesy, he knew that she would hate that, being treated as though divine when Cookies like her were treated worse than crumbs.
"Ah yes, there was a development to work on domesticating the local Blueberry Birds, as they are known for their speed and could help us deliver our letters much faster. We decided to get rid of the path in that area to turn it into a training area in their natural environment. So they can live out in the wild while still knowing to trust and help Cookies." Blueberry Milk responded, a hint of excitement coming into his voice; he loved nothing more than to share his Knowledge with others and Wheat Flour was a perfect listener.
"Hm. Well, that does explain why I wasn't notified. Has the operation been going well?" Wheat Flour glanced away from Blueberry Milk to observe the table; it seemed as though she was satisfied, although it had become harder to tell as the centuries passed; at one point it would've been easy. She was once unguarded and free of worries; it was as though she constantly had a mask over her face, never allowing one to know whether or not she was truly there.
For several decades now Blueberry Milk had thought of this change as a fate worse than crumbling. Who would ever want to see their friends be hurt like this? Their spirit was crushed and will crumbled; while he was strong, he was weak-minded enough to almost fall into a depression, or rather a state of ennui; even teaching seemed to lose its appeal.
Blueberry Milk pushed away the thought and decided to continue talking instead; that would be a good distraction. "Yes, very actually! The Blueberry Birds seem to be quite willing to help as long as they are given an adequate roost and feed. I believe that we can start trying out deliveries soon; it would be quite beneficial for all of us." In truth none of them but Clove Spice had a kingdom but still it was hard to stop himself from saying it, as that's just what he thought of his students as.
Blueberry Milk picked up a muffin from the tray in the centre of the table; it was a simple thing and yet also a planned act. Wheat Flour usually wouldn't eat unless someone else had already begun or gotten through a significant amount, so he continued taking small bites as he ranted about everything. "Oh and I've been able to find a student who wanted some extra lessons it's become pretty rare to see people like that these days; all they want is to relax and just not help others..."
That sounded a bit rude but that's fine. Blueberry Milk is allowed to raise up concerning behaviours with someone who understands. Although it would be an even better subject to discuss with Delight Sugar, she was constantly working and making sure that the Cookies in her garden were working to support themselves too. She didn't make the place for it to be a charity case! Delight Sugar wanted to rehabilitate Cookies and then let them go free to help the world.
"Oh! I almost forgot." Blueberry Milk stood up from his seat as Wheat Flour was still working on one of the muffins he had made. He dug through a shelf in his room until he found the papers, then opened the fridge with his magic and carefully pulled out the plastic tins of sweet delicacies.
"You mentioned in your last letter that there was a new Cookie who decided to help out in the Pagoda... Peach Blossom, right? "Well, I just thought that if you were going to have so many peaches now, you would want to share the recipes with your followers."
Blueberry Milk set the tins down on the table, the tin on the bottom being a shaved peach atop granola with its centre filled with yoghurt and honey glazed across the top. The tin in the middle was filled by frozen peaches covered in syrup, and the tin at the top had about six jellies carefully sat beside one another.
Wheat Flour looked up at Blueberry Milk in slight surprise; it had been quite a while since they had shared such personalised gifts created by him. "I... cannot take this while other Cookies will starve." And there comes Wheat Flour's sense of justice again; Blueberry Milk doesn't get that.
"Well, that's why I gave you the recipes; you can test out the food, tweak it if needed, and then give it out to your followers at your pagoda." Blueberry Milk's eyes flickered down to the small stack of papers set on top of the tins. He had made more recipes but three tins were more than enough to carry without something to hold them in.
"...I will, and Peach Blossom will enjoy sharing his peaches with all of the Cookies." Wheat Flour responded and just like that, she was out the door, it might be hard carrying everything; Blueberry Milk hopes it's alright.
Blueberry Cream is starting to listen more and more to the radio and she was starting to notice something when she listened later and later on in the night; Grapevine seemed to lie in the night. It was odd, going against what Blueberry Cream usually taught to all of her students, but it was entertaining and still under the Souljam of Knowledge. She learnt that lies could help get her closer to the truth; they were both knowledge, just in different forms.
Blueberry Cream grabbed the knob of the radio and twisted it, turning the volume from a soft chatter to a louder voice to let everything truly sink in. It was entertaining, it was exciting, why do the lies that Grapevine tells excite her more than teaching her students has in years? It felt nice… maybe she could indulge.
During a lesson when Blueberry Cream was teaching, she decided to slip in a tiny lie about the battle, something to lessen the feeling of sadness. The effect wasn’t obvious nor was it immediate but it sent a thrill through Blueberry Cream to see a few Cookies lift their heads up from their notes and that little shine of hope. But the rest of the lesson wasn’t as sugar-coated; it felt bad to hurt them immediately after giving that tiny spark of hope.
But the euphoria that came from getting away with a lie to so many Cookies…! Oh it was to much to not try it again! When Blueberry Cream had a student ask her about what was going to happen in the next lesson, he seemed to not like the thought of discussing more war being a healer, as was shown by his badge, she decided to press out another lie. “Don’t worry, we’re going to be going over the effects on Milk Cookies from their new diseases.”
She relished in holding such power, and it was a half lie, except that was only the very bit of the lesson; when looking at the lesson plan, Blueberry Cream carefully decided to circle something she had earlier marked out for being too much. She loves her students to death but something about making the half-lie into something full seemed to itch at the edge of her mind.
“During the battle between the Milk Tribe and the Coffee Tribe there was a significant decline in the Milk Cookies.” Blueberry Cream spun her staff between her fingers to change her projection on the wall. “The Coffee Tribe had used a brutal tactic of using their basic coffee magic to cause an infection on the battlefield. Causing many Cookies to crumble in the snow, in which other Milk Cookies wouldn’t be able to find them due to the colour of their doughs, causing the Milk soldiers to become sick from the coffee disease of their own comrades.”
Why was this so pleasurable? Why did Blueberry Cream enjoy this suddenly? She doesn’t know but she knows that it’s so beautiful to see the Cookie from earlier squirm and wriggle in his seat like a dying worm.
Then it went from using the lies to reassure her students to Blueberry Cream planting little seeds of lies in Grapevine’s mind. She knew that he had already lied but she wanted more; she wanted her own ideas to come up to the surface and bubble the peaceful dynamic of her Academy.
And when Blueberry Cream’s own ideas came out of the radio and flowed into the minds of her students, it became entertaining. Blueberry Cream used to be dissatisfied with always knowing everything but now everything was unpredictable. The lies formed rivalries, rivalries got broadcasted on the radio and the cycle continued. It kept on going until Blueberry Cream truly realised what a gem she had found.
“Grapevine?” Blueberry Cream hopped off of her seat at the kitchen table. “Does your main ingredient happen to be a more specific type of grape?” It was an odd question, random at best and insane at worst, she didn’t usually say things like this but there had been a thought invading her mind as of late.
“Not that I know of. I’ve always just been regular grapes.” Grapevine looked up from his papers, he of course, had a script for his radio show. “Any reason for asking?”
Blueberry Cream hummed and set down a few bowls in the sink with her magic. “You just remind me of something a friend once told me.”
Black sapphire grapes are some of the sweetest you can find but not many people know due to how they look. Grapevine looked to be perfectly innocent enough for a student but he spread sweet lies. Blueberry Cream has herself a black sapphire but is he the gem in the rough or the grape hiding in plain sight?