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Trotting back into the dining room, the Nightmare cued in on an Undead fellow. Usually, she'd leave those types well enough alone (the rot always made her feel tingly in an unpleasant way), but he had the most beautiful blue hair color she'd ever seen and he looked so dejected that she couldn't possibly stay away. Addie paused at his table with a sweet smile, greeting the boil, "Welcome to Hades' Kitchen! I'm Ada, and I'd be happy to take your order today~"

His first request was met with a curious lift of brows and a thoughtful countenance, rubbing her fingers over her chin. Leave the bones in? Visually appealing? That sounded like a fun challenge! Making food taste good with...well, different ingredients was intriguing! "I follow," she remarked, amused, "and I can do that." She opened her mouth to ask what he wanted, but he beat her to it sheepishly, prompting an easy grin from the fiery equine. The mirth she wore only grew as he continued to place his order, feeling this was less of a culinary task and more about being creative and pleasing the customer. Surely it would hurt her soul to change the skellington, but she would please the customer to the best of her abilities.

"Don't worry about it, I'll make sure you have everything you want and then some. I'll be back in a jiffy with your order!" With another excited flick of her tail, she quickly returned to the kitchen, eager to get started.

Addie cracked her fingers, trying to envision the dish, not entirely sure how she was going to add all the required components and not make it look like...well, a moving tea deer. Maybe that was the point? Hm. She wouldn't know until she tried!

An honest mistake was made in the course of following the customer's wishes -- instead of five tea leaves, she only used three deer, the ones mentioned by the undead boil. Instead of just shaving off the flesh of the mini's, she used a sharp knife to cut it in long fillets, wrapping those and putting them in the fridge. While they chilled, she cleaned the bones of the cut deer, meticulous around the ribs to keep them in tact and cleaning out the skull. She accidentally broke one of the pairs of antlers, but she was still able to preserve the other two, setting all the bones aside to resume preparations. Taking the deer out of the fridge, she patiently seared the meat against the chosen leaves, the pink ones curdling to an awful red, choosing not to use those for garnish since it didn't work with the rest of the set up.

While working on peeling the mashers, Ada gave pause, looking at the eyeballs and making an executive decision to pluck a few out neatly, replacing them in the finely mashed vegetable when it was made into a satisfactory mush. He'd asked for a long puck wing, too - and after scouring the puck reserves, she picked the perfect wing to adorn the hunk of meat with. Carefully arranging the bones around the food, making them just as much a part of the meal as the recipe itself, she sent it out with no small measure of pride.

Sauntering over with her tray of food, Ada proudly set out the meal before the undead boil amidst the pudding's continued wailing. "Here we are, good sir! Pantiless Crab RIPsotto with shells intact and one very angry boil in the boil's kitchen." The Nightmare arranged the plate so it was closest to the customer, legs displayed in an arch towards him. "For your main course, we have a very crunch rendition of Tea Deer Skellington, complete with antlers and the longest puck wings I could find, with a side of eyeballed pumpkin mash - no greens." The dish was put down to the side of the appetizer, again facing the other just so.

Luckily, the screaming was starting to fade just a little - it was a tiresome business, all that noise, no doubt - Ada contently removing the mostly finished dessert and putting it opposite of the main course, the gaping maw facing its would-be consumer. "Last but not least, one screaming Blood Pudding!" It wasn't as garnished as it should have been, but she was banking on the shrieking dessert to be distracting from that fact. Sacrifices had to be made!

Folding the tray against her stomach, both hands curled around the base of it, Addie beamed brightly. "Enjoy your meal, and thank you for choosing Hades Kitchen!"

Kari knew the recipe was somewhere in the pile of ingredient... she just wished she knew where. The longer she took here, the longer it would take to serve the customer! Sifting through her ingredients frantically for about a minute, Kari finally spotted the paper containing her instructions. "Let's see... Tea Deer Skellington... pluck and rinse... shave and refrigerate... pan sear and cook at 8th Circle of Hell... shave and boil mashers... mash thoroughly... and add puck wings. Alright, let's do this", she cried to no one in particular as she rolled up her sleeves and reached for the first Tea Deer.

Kari started off by plucking the leaves off of the Tea Deer. Of course, since the customer wanted his meal still squirming, she had to pluck them while they were very much alive. The Tea Deer didn't appreciate having their leaves plucked, kicking and biting the whole time she tried to restrain them. After a few minutes of fighting, she finally managed to tie them all up and quickly picked off as many leaves as the deer would allow. She rinsed them off and set four of them aside, not completely plucked, but good enough that only someone who was looking for the leaves would notice them.

The shaving proved to be an ordeal in and of itself. Kari didn't know Tea Deer meat was this tough to slice! It didn't help that the deer were crying out in pain. "Sorry, just cooperate with me", the ghoul pleaded, putting her full weight down on the knife so she could cut through its flank. After several minutes of cutting, screaming, and tears, Kari had a sufficient amount of meat, though the end result hardly looked pretty. Wrapping them in pastry wrap, she tossed them in the fridge to cool. "That was definitely not fun", Kari sniffed, wiping her face on her sleeve shoulder as she waited.

Taking the wrapped meat out of the fridge, she lightly seared the writhing mass with the picked, and unpicked, leaves and threw them into the oven. "8th Circle of Hell... and there. Oh, very rare... have to remember that", the reaper sighed as she slid the dial of her oven to the desired setting, then took a pot, filled it with water, and set it to boil. Turning to the mashers, she couldn't help but feel sorry for their impending fate. "Sorry, guys", she groaned as she placed them into the boiling pot with the shaved garlic. They hissed and screeched, but died without incident. As the mashers cooked, she took the meat out of the oven. slightly warm, but still squirming... that looked very rare indeed.

Once the mashers were cooked and the meat was set aside, Kari got to peeling. "Ouch!", she cried, nearly dropping the partially peeling masher. Her hand had slipped and she'd cut herself instead... now her blood was scattered on the mashers! "Well... considering the customer's earlier preference, maybe he'll like blood in his meal... I might be able to make this work...", she grumbled nervously as she held the cut appendage in her mouth to stop the bleeding. Cutting up the rest of the mashers, Kari once again had trouble getting her mashers mashed properly. Why were all of her ingredients so hard?! Putting all of her weight down on the pot of mashers and garlic, after much struggling, the panting ghoul was able to get them mashed to completion.

Putting the roughly cut, wriggling meat and bloody mashers on the plate, Kari took some Puck Phantom wings and decorated the plate with them. Not her best work, admittedly, but maybe the customer would care more about taste than appearance. Bringing out the plate, Kari set it in front of the customer while stating "H-Here's your Tea Deer Skellington, wriggling and extra bloody. I hope you enjoy." Her job completed, she dashed back into the kitchen to catch her breath.

[DINING ROOM]

Ruth wasn't so much as torn away from her conversation with the dormouse as she was swept away by the tide of contestants. She managed to maintain her bearings despite the whirlwind of excitement around her. She listened and watched intently as the dishes were prepared and demonstrated. She was going to have to mimic their procedure and movements, which meant she wasn't going to let anything distract her.

The timer started, and the blonde ghoul zipped off, tying the Red apron around her (which immediately started to turn a faded, unsaturated version of the color) as she entered the Dining Room. She approached the first guest she saw, the eerie smile of a paranoia agent pressed firmly upon her face.

Maybe the smile unnerved the guest, maybe it was Ruth's silence, but after about five minutes of "Hmms and Umms," the reaper gestured to the Panty RIPsotto and gave it two thumbs up. As a "gentle suggestion" of what they should order. Again, it was either her silence or her smile that prompted the guest to nod in agreement.

Merope visibly perked up when Ada approached him and took his order, his markings glowing pleasantly as she listened to his requests. "Great! I look forward to it!" He called after her as she left.

The realization that she was a bit on the fiery side bubbled to the surface of his thoughts after she left. He really, really hoped she didn't burn it. While he wouldn't mind the extra crunchy he wasn't too keen on the black'n'crumbly look.

When Ada returned with his order, Merope quickly straightened in his seat as he looked up eagerly. As the plates of food were placed before him, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Th-thank you!" He stammered out, reaching out and immediately beginning to devour the plates in front of him.

The panty crableg was the first to be grabbed. Merope took a moment to begin peeling the shell off of one leg before giving up and crunching down on the entire thing, shell and all. The RIPsotto was soon an empty plate, save for the occasional piece of shell he overlooked.

After wiping his talons clean, Merope carefully picked up a fork and knife as if the utensils would turn on him at any moment. He eyed the dish, frowning as he spotted the fur left on. The boil began to eat, working his way around the wing and antler garnish and focusing on the meat. During the course of the meal the antlers and wings disappeared carefully into Merope's pockets.

And finally came the -- oh. Ooooh! So THAT'S what that noise was! Merope's glows brightened as he realized that his dessert was indeed screaming like he requested. Gleefully he devoured everything. While he wasn't a fan of sweet things, it was screaming of all things. Even if it did have green things on the plate.

Either way, Merope carefully wiped his mouth when he was done before side-eying the cameras. He... wasn't expected to pay for this, was he? Ah, fiddlesticks.

[DINING ROOM]

With quiet efficiency, Ruth returned to the dining room to present the guest with their order. She maintained the eerie smile as she lowered the dishes, indicating which one should be eaten first. And when the guest tried to disobey, Ruth leaned close and pointed to the proper order. Her proximity with the guest and her too-wide smile that bordered on sinister seemed to unnerve the guest into obedience. And with that, Ruth bowed before making her rounds.

Now she needed to find a VIP guest to serve. Oh, were there still any left?