"Woah!" (C/F) Cookie gapes at the sheer height of the shelves of the palace library. There seemed to be an endless number of them, all stuffed with old, thick tomes. They totally underestimated just how massive this library could be. And they thought the Graham Library was big! They could fit the entire building in here–maybe even twice–and still have plenty of space!

Beside them, Pure Vanilla Cookie chuckles. "You are welcome to read anything you'd like. And I'd be happy to explain anything you come across."

"Thank you!" Their response is a bit louder than they'd like. It echoes around the large room faintly. They're just that amazed by the sight.

He leads the way into the looming rows of bookshelves, "Let's see..." He pulls a book from one, "Oh! This should be rather basic. Admittedly most of the material in here is on healing..."

"Works for me." They shrug. That's the kind of magic he is famous for so that makes sense. They're not going to complain. It just means he can probably answer any of their questions on it.

He smiles faintly and hands it to them. "You are welcome to keep these. All they're doing here is gathering dust."

"I think Strawberry Crepe Cookie would kill me if I started a library in the Hangar."

"Oh? Are you staying in the Hangar with Strawberry Crepe Cookie?" He asks. He hasn't been carrying his staff around them before, so now that he has it they feel very judged by its unusual eye. It's like it sees the darkest recesses of their soul, even the parts that not even they knew existed.

"Uh, yeah." They nod somewhat nervously. Is that a bad thing?!

"I'm glad they're not spending all their time there by themself." His smile brightens, which prompts his staff to get this almost smug look that is so uncanny (C/F) Cookie feels their dough crawl.

"Yeah..." They lower their gaze to the cover of the book in an attempt to remove the orchid's expression from their mind. It doesn't work. "So, uh, yeah. I'll bring this back before I get a new one..."

"Alright." Pure Vanilla Cookie replies—they still aren't looking at him so they don't know what his expression is. "Please let me know if you have any questions. I would be happy to help."

"Will do." They nod timidly. They've never had anyone answer their questions without a "didn't you learn that in school" which makes conversation very awkward. They raise their gaze to his face, hoping to keep that stupidly creepy flower out of even their peripherals.

"I'll show you the way back to the front gates." He smiles, "Unless you want to look around a little more."

"No, it's ok." They shake their head, "It's not like I won't ever be coming back, and it's getting pretty late already."

"Alright." His grin brightens at the reminder that they'll be back. "This way." He leads the way down the stairs leading up to the library (which is in its own little tower inside), down an empty hall, opening the door at the end to the corridor passing a massive chapel, turning right, crossing another hall, passing the kitchens and dining room, and continuing to the entrance of the castle. They are glad he is guiding them; they would've gotten hopelessly lost otherwise.

(C/F) Cookie dips their head as they step towards the large doors, still clutching the tome in their hands. "Thanks." They mean it.

"It is no trouble at all." He shakes his head, still smiling warmly, "I am happy to help. Please stop by anytime for more books."

"I definitely will." They nod. "Uh, bye." They turn to go.

"Farewell." He says. They can feel that piercing eye stay on them until there is a door between it and them.

"Where were you? You were gone all day!" Strawberry Crepe Cookie huffs angrily. A loud whirring from a massive group of wafflebots agrees with them.

"I got a book." (C/F) Cookie holds up the heavy book in their hands.

"That took you the entire day?" Strawberry Crepe Cookie scoffs.

"Sort of...?" They set the book down in the place designated for them. "What are you working on?"

"Look!" There's a shining excitement in the child's eyes as they gesture to the army behind them. "They all wanted to say hello!"

"Uh... Hi?" (C/F) Cookie addresses the collection of bots. They've never really worked with anything resembling artificial intelligence before these, and the Goliath is the only time they've really seen it in action. It doesn't help that they could guess that these bots were the reason Black Raisin Cookie is missing an arm.

"Be more enthusiastic than that!" Strawberry Crepe Cookie huffs. "I got all of them ready to say hello to you this time."

"You really like these wafflebots, huh?" (C/F) Cookie smiles, chuckling a little at the child's enthusiasm.

"Well yeah! The wafflebots are my friends and family!" They exclaim. "I mean, what's cooler than ice cream and syrup making such complex equipment?"

"They're a wonderful example of the joining of magic and machinery." (C/F) Cookie agrees. "Much cooler than those dumb science machines I built for the Republic Cookies..."

"What machines?" A very excited child's face is suddenly centimeters from their own.

"Mostly stuff that was, ironically, for magic study." They lean away from the kid, "So much of my childhood went into that stupid thing..."

"Could you build another one?" Those light blue eyes might as well turn into stars.

"I bet we could make one that follows a similar concept..." (C/F) Cookie shrugs, "I saw those crates of supplies for wafflebots, so it's not like we have nothing to work with."

"Yay! Where do we start?" The kid cheers.

"Have you never designed something before?" (C/F) Cookie finds themself surprised by this. This kid seemed like they'd done everything.

"Nope! Dark Enchantress Cookie showed me the blueprints for the wafflebots and..." They suddenly go quiet, their excitement dying.

"That's ok. I can teach you. You're smart, you'll probably catch on fast." The larger Cookie says, awkwardly trying to push the conversation past that, "But, uh, can we start tomorrow it's pretty late. Actually, why don't you try to come up with ideas of what we can build? This is your lab after all! You should decide what we build!"

"Really?! Anything I want?!" Their enthusiasm returns tenfold.

"Well, maybe not anything, but yeah. If it's something too complicated, then we can work our way up to it." It's nice to see someone who's actually happy to do this. It's a nice change of pace. It's weird, but in a good way. Weird in the sense that part of them is so confused why they don't have to stress themself to crumbling all the time anymore.

"I'll start preparing right away!" Strawberry Crepe Cookie hurries off deeper into the Hangar.

"Hey, uh, it's dark. You've been working all day. You should get some sleep to be at full energy tomorrow." (C/F) Cookie says. They're then very self-conscious of the weapons almost all the wafflebots are carrying, especially as the curious bots crowd around them. "Woah! Ok..."

Swords, ice creams, magic staffs, lances, some even have chocolate coating... They would lose big time if these things attacked them. But the bots only curiously examine them, poking and circling them as if to get a good sense of who they are.

A particularly large one that appears to be made of thick sugar and cream, decorated pink with strawberries and gold, connected a golden staff that appears to hold the gem that controls the bot. Its closed eye design reminds them of that stupid staff Pure Vanilla Cookie has that creeps them out so much.

"Uh, hi...?" They wave up at it.

It whirrs in glee and a strange feeling of health washes over them. They pat themself down and find nothing amiss aside from the fact that they feel more alive and rested than they have in years.

...Did it just heal them? Is that what healing magic feels like??? Why did it do that??????

"Aww, look!" Strawberry Crepe Cookie comes back riding one of their giant arms, the other wheeling a cart full of blueprints behind them, "The Berry Bishop likes you!"

"Does this have healing magic???" They point up at the massive bot, still whirring like a purring cat.

"Sure does! It can summon little healers too!" Strawberry Crepe Cookie smiles happily. "By the way I already know what I want to make!"

"That was fast. WOAH!" (C/F) Cookie is lifted by a few shields sliding beneath them and above the mass of wafflebots. They're not that comfortable with this kind of crowd surfing, but at least they can see the kid more easily now(?).

"Uh huh!" Strawberry Crepe Cookie nods, looking as elated as before at the idea of building something themself. "I want to make myself stronger! Those adventurers utterly destroyed all the weapons I built before, so I want to be tougher if I ever need to fight again! Particularly my Crepe Cannons."

"I'm sorry your what–"

Going to sleep that night was surprisingly hard. Probably because they kept having to shoo all the curious bots away from their book and bed, and hearing ominous whirring while you're trying to calm down enough to sleep–especially when you know a very small child could easily kill you in it–is absolutely terrifying. They wore themself out trying to get them all away, and then the Berry Bishop seemed to notice their exhaustion and healed them again and that was what got (C/F) Cookie to sleep at all. They were awoken a few hours later by a kid so excited they almost thought it was Cookiemas.

"(C/F) Cookie! Wake up! Let's get started!" Strawberry Crepe Cookie says happily.

"Gah! Oh, good morning to you too..." They shove their hands over their eyes, ready to keel over and break in half, even if the kid would then nag them in the afterlife to come back and help them.

"Hurry up already! You're normally awake by now..."

"And I normally don't spend the night wondering if one of those is gonna kill me in my sleep." They gesture to the wafflebots. "Or you for that matter." They poke Strawberry Crepe Cookie between the eyes.

"Why would I let you stay here if I was just going to kill you?" The kid asks. They're genuinely confused. "You're not as dull as everyone else."

"Glad to hear it." They squint their eyes shut as they try to find the will to get up. "Have you started drawing your ideas yet? It's good to list your ideas just to throw stuff out there when you're thinking about it. Then look over it later and see who you think will work."

"I started on that last night!" Frustrated crepe arms lift (C/F) Cookie out of bed as Strawberry Crepe Cookie exclaims, "Come on! Let's get working!"

"Well...? You're the weapons expert. What sort of thing are we building?" (C/F) Cookie tiredly rubs their eyes, attempting to suppress a massive yawn.

"I was thinking we start with the cannons!"

"And? What will we be doing to them?"

"Uh... giving them more power obviously?"

"How?"

"Do I have to explain every little thing?" Strawberry Crepe Cookie says angrily.

"If every little thing is important, yes." (C/F) Cookie nods as their yawn slips out and they lift their hand to their mouth to cover it, "What about giving them greater speed and tougher shells?"

"They're already made out of the hardest waffle I could find." Strawberry Crepe Cookie frowns.

"Why don't we talk about this over breakfast?" (C/F) Cookie suggests, "You can tell me all about what they already have and we can talk about possible better designs for them."

"Alright, let me grab this first." The child runs over to a mess of blueprints on a table, "Here it is!" They pull one from the pile and smile, before hurrying off towards the doors. "Come on! Let's go!"

"I'm coming. I'm coming." (C/F) Cookie smiles as they tiredly follow behind. They hoped to get started on that book sooner rather than later, but oh well...