The prompt for today's TWSTober actually gave me a good idea for the first part of the fanfic series for Mika. There is a going to be a scene in which Pomefiore will have to showcase themselves for a fancy dinner. Rook and Epel have invited Grim and Mika as guests to take part. Mika knows that the both of them are not equipped to meet Vil's standards of polite dining, so they ask Riddle for help to brush up on their fancy skills.

Link to original post: https://old.reddit.com/r/TwistedWonderland/comments/xe5lzy/twstober_prompt/

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“I confess, I was surprised when you asked me to teach you proper dining etiquette, but if you are so desperate, I will be more than glad to assist you in those lessons.”

“It’s for Pomefiore’s Open House Dinner,” explained Grim.

“Rook and Epel invited us,” Mika added.

“Pomefiore House?” Riddle groaned. “Of course.”

“Is that a bad thing?” asked Mika.

“Not exactly, but now that you clarified, that means I have to be more specific to meet Vil’s dining expectations.”

“It’s different from your rules?” Grim smugly questioned.

“Something you don’t realize is that unlike me, who tends to run a tight ship, Vil will literally do everything possible to embarrass you in front of everyone attending his dining events. If you want to spare yourselves from mental torture, you need the 301 in manners. To the dining hall, chop chop! We don’t have all afternoon, you know.”

“Yes, sir!” the duo replied, fast walking over to the said room.

Riddle sat Grim and Mika together at the upper right side of the dining table, where it was closer to the dorm’s kitchen. Each of them had a plate, a full set of dining utensils, and a drinking glass full of water displayed at their section of the table. On both plates, there sat a small half of a tomato, a tart, and a small chicken breast.

“Do you see your set in front of you?”

Both trainees nodded.

“You will see a similar dining display at the Open House Dinner and pretty much any fancy meal you will attend in the future. Let’s start with the tomato first. Mika, how do you think this tomato should be eaten?”

I eat tomatoes all the time, she thought. This is easy. Mika gently took a fork in her left hand and a knife in her right from the most inner sides of the utensils.

“Stop right there.”

Mika stiffened her body. “I didn’t get to eat it yet,” she said.

“Exactly, and this could get you into trouble in Vil’s eyes. You always take the most outer right of the utensils first. The more you eat from each course, the further in your utensils will become. The most inner utensils are reserved for desserts.”

Her eyes widened with wonder. “Oh! I didn’t realize.”

“The campus cafeteria doesn’t teach you stuff like that, and why should they? The kitchen ghosts are not our parents. Anyway, now that you know, you may proceed with the tomato as originally asked.”

Mika gently took the most outer fork and knife into her left and right hands respectively. She guarded the right side of the tomato with her knife. She used her fork to flip the tomato slowly over to its round side. She pointed the tip of the knife at the top of the tomato’s flat side, and the cut as the knife sliced through the fruit was clean and straight down the center. Then, she took the half that the fork was stuck in and placed it in her mouth as if she would at the cafeteria.

“Very nicely done,” Riddle congratulated. “Well, Grim, let’s see how you fare.”

Grim scoffed. “Please. It’s just a squishy tomato. How hard is it to cut?” He took the outer fork and knife into his paws. He fiddled with his grip on them due to his small paws. When he managed to hold the two utensils safely, he let out one victorious laugh as he prepared himself to put the rounded top of the tomato half.

Smack!

Riddle slammed the top of his Housewarden staff onto the table, screaming the living crud out of the little monster cat.

“For the love of the Seven, what’s wrong with you?” snapped Grim once he regained composure.

“What’s wrong with me? I was saving you from destroying my tablecloth, thank you very much!”

“Excuse me, sir, but the knife and fork were nowhere near the cloth!”

“Not the utensils, you dunce. You were going to spray tomato juice everywhere!”

“I was? But I was going to cut the tomato like Mika did.”

“No, you were not. You were aiming to cut the tomato while the round part was facing upward. Mika flipped her tomato over so that the flat part was facing up. Cutting a tomato slice while it’s facing down is like stepping on a bug. Once you press the round surface too hard, its guts will fly everywhere, ruining everything around the plate. I don’t think Vil will be so generous in letting you leave his party with his own table cloth stained with tomato juice.”

Grim’s face paled. “You’re right. I’m so sorry!”

“Oh, don’t be so pathetic. Now that you are aware of your upcoming mistake, begin again, but this time, don’t pop the tomato please.”

“Right.” Just like Mika, Grim carefully flipped the tomato onto its round side. It took him five tries to balance the tomato enough, so he could cut the piece down the middle like Mika did. Once he had that half, he put it in his mouth and chewed before swallowing. “Ah ha! I did it!”

“Yes, you did.” Riddle confiscated Mika and Grim’s forks and knives, preparing themselves for the next course. “Next, the chicken. Grim, perhaps you can show Mika how cutting a chicken is done.”

“Sure thing. How hard can cutting chicken be?” Grim stuck the next fork into the cooked bird and kept the knife close behind. However, no matter how much he tried, the knife wouldn’t go through the chicken’s surface. “The heck? I’m telling you to cut, damn it!”

“Grim, for Seven’s sake!” yelled Riddle. “Don’t break my kitchenware!”

“I’m tryin’ my best here.”

“You’re cutting the chicken wrong, which is why putting too much pressure will actually do more harm than good. You need to cut your chicken, slanting the knife.”

“Slanting the knife?” Grim took Riddle’s advice, and the chicken was a clean, easy cut. “Huh! That actually worked.”

“Of course, it did. Meat is a bit fickle, and directly cutting into it doesn’t make the knife go through the skin simply.”

The creature cut the chicken, slanting the knife again, making sure the first time wasn’t a fluke. “Yeah, doing it this way is so much easier.”

“There you have it. Mika, why don’t you give it a go?”

She took her second set of utensils, lightly stabbed the chicken with her fork, and cut it in the slant Riddle had advised. The cut was clean on the first attempt. She took the small piece of chicken into her mouth and quietly chewed.

“Very nicely done, Mika.” Riddle snatched the second utensil sets from the table and placed them in with the first sets in the dish box to be cleaned in the kitchen. “Before you have dessert, have a sip of water.”

Mika took the glass from the top of its stem but supported the base of its cup. She slowly tilted the water towards her, and the liquid slipped into her barely open lips. She returned the glass to the upright position and placed it back on the table. The glass was now a sixth empty.

Grim took the glass at the bottom of the stem, but he couldn’t even lift it from the table. “I wish I had a smaller glass to use, you know.”

“Grim, let go of the glass,” growled Riddle.

“Why?” whined Grim, wondering what he did wrong this time.

“To prevent any form of spilling! Have you ever considered what would happen if you dropped the glass onto the table, your lap, or even on someone else? Not only would the water be all over the place, but because of your size and the impact of the fall, you will have broken glass all over.”

“Myah! We don’t want that to happen indeed! My apologies, Mr. Riddle sir.”

“Mika, present to Grim what you did if you please.”

Mika nodded and repeated the drinking action once more: held it at the top of the stem, tipped slowly, small sip, and carefully returned it to the table. Her glass was now two fifths empty.

“The way she held the glass at the bottom of the cup is to help the glass balance while it has liquids in it, especially when you tip it towards your mouth. Her almost closed lips control how much water comes out of the glass. You will tip it more the less liquid you have in your glass, but at the current state, it shows your cohorts that you are not greedy when you take a drink.”

Grim experiments holding the glass the way Mika did, and just as stated, it was much easier to control where it moved, regardless of its size compared to the creature. “Well, Riddle, Mika was right. You sure know your stuff.”

“Consider it a great many practices from childhood to now. And lastly, let’s take the tart, but instead of me seeing what you would do, I will teach you the proper way to eat it. You will ignore the last set of utensils on the table. Considering how small the tart is, you will use your thumb and pointer finger to pick up the tart, but pick it up at the sides. Grim, in your case, you are allowed to use your whole paw.”

The both of them did as Riddle instructed.

“You will hold the tart to your mouth, but you will hold your other hand just up to your chin. Not direct at your chin. Just slightly under.”

They followed.

“So when you bite into the tart, you will take it in small pieces at a time. The hand below your chin is to catch any crumbs that your bite can leave behind.”

They each take a bite of their tart, and just as Riddle said would happen, some crumbs fell into their lower hand.

“So far so good. You will gracefully take your lower hand and tilt it over your plate, so you can drop off the crumbs you just caught. If you need to, you can use that free thumb to brush the remaining crumbs off your hand. Once you’re done, you will take the napkin, which would be in your lap since the start of dinner and gently wipe your mouth of any crumbs that stuck to your face. Any harder than gentle, and you could either smear the leftovers further or ruin any cosmetics you’ll be wearing. As one would say, less is sometimes more.”

The duo dropped off the crumbs to their plate as Riddle said. They also placed the tart back onto the plate, similar to the way that they had picked it up a moment ago.

“I didn’t even have to tell you how to put the tart back down, and it was already perfect. I must say, I am impressed with your work. As long as you keep practicing in between your school meals, you will be flawless before the Open House Dinner even starts.”

“Riddle, we are very grateful for the lesson you gave us. This will help us a great deal for the Open House Dinner.”

“Yup. Being polite and having a good time is all that matters.”

“Ah yes, Grim reminds me. Do not forget to be your best selves and have a good time. The most important thing that the most important guests need to see is how Pomefiore will present themselves as a student body. They can’t do that if all they do is be a bunch of stiff bodies all evening. Oh, but there is another thing, but you should already know. Never, and I mean NEVER, chew and speak at the same time. Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir!”