Last season on Hot! Hot! Beauty, Bucket, Brigade; Gaiden...
GREED...
In spite of its ordinary appearance, it wasn't just any dumpster; for Inside this dumpster there was a girl, and outside the dumpster there was a sign, made of corrugated fool's wood, and on that sign, hand inscribed in steady peasant script, was a message to the Gods or anyone else who cared enough to answer: "Will fight fires for $$$"
HUBRIS...
The process was slow as it was precise. Forty-seven soft semi-circles clockwise. Forty-seven soft semi-circles counter-clockwise. A hundred would've been excessive. Mundane. Maybe even predictable. Ninety-four seemed about right. At the center of this ritual was the heirloom green orb, shimmering even more than usual under the attention. With a whisper, and a nod towards her dusty, slightly scorched boots, the orb faded to its standard dull glow. The boots, on the other hand, were good as new. Better than new. Maybe even radiant. They couldn't look any better... or could they?
As the hair on the first orphan ignited, a grisly parallel to the birthday candle he'd now never get to blow out, his would-be savior began counting once more... one.... two.... boy, were they going to look great! Maybe she'd do the vest next!
ENVY...
It wasn't fair, Cece sobbed. She'd done all the hard work, rushing to the top of the building, poking holes in the roof, and finally flipping the bucket over to let the water out. All he'd done was dawdle about on each floor, shouting and hollering to his friends, knocking on all the doors and wasting time. This was no time to socialize! It was impossible to tell through the smoke and chaos, but she was pretty sure when last she saw him, he was giving a kid a piggy back ride! How frivolous! It really wasn't fair. Not fair at all. Why should they dig him a nice clean hole in the ground? Put him in the dumpster, give me the hole! He can even keep the bugler, if he wants.
WROTH...
"Come on Cece, I'm the one who found it. The bet was your idea, I didn't have to give you a chance at all. I even gave you best out of three.. and best out of five! The time for games is over. Please... just hand it over. Ok?" Honeyed words from a honeyed man. Enough honey to make you sick. Ever the sore loser, Cece threw her nose in the air. "Fine! You want it so bad, go get it!"
She dropped the beehive in an instant, and in the next gracefully booted it back into the air, sending it sailing out of the darkness of the alley, sailing up into the pale embrace of the moonlight, and finally sailing through the singed curtains of the Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine. She crossed her arms and hmmphed. Honeysuckle Tuck was sad, sure. It was a big beehive, probably an entire weeks worth of honey. But it was an impressive kick. As the cries of children once again rang through the city, only muted slightly by the buzzing and stinging, he couldn't help but feel like it deserved some kinda points. Two.. no, three! Definitely worth three points.
GLUTTONY...
"Ma'am, we *do* respect the Firefighters, there is nothing personal about this. I would love to sell you that many sausages, but it simply isn't practical! You have only two hands, however will you carry them?" The sausage vendor gestured plaintively. He wanted the gold, who wouldn't? But how could he complete the order? What the firefighting woman said next blew his mind, blew his assistant's mind, and revolutionized sausage selling for decades to come.
"Somebody get me a bucket. A great big bucket. For all this sausage."
LUST!!!
Giggling as she put her eye up to the tent, Cece thought to herself "So *THIS* is what all the fuss is about!" She couldn't make out if the shapes were men or women through all the steam, a clever use of the seemingly infinite supply of water bestowed upon them by the firefighters guild... at least not until one of the shapes turned around. Goodness gracious! She dumped her sausages onto the ground, lifted the bottom of the tent up and kicked the bucket under. The soapy scene turned to bedlam, and before she ran off blushing she said the only thing that came to mind "I think you need it more than I do!"
SLOTH...
Cece is sleeping on a bunk upstairs in the headquarters of the Guild of Arcane Firefighters.
The sun is still up, it is late afternoon, and other people are making plenty of noise in the firehouse, but Cece's sleep is well deserved and long delayed.
The room smells of three different kinds of smoke. Fresh smoked sausages, lazyleaf smoke, and the smoke embedded in Cece's own clothing from her first very full morning as a Firefighter.
How long will she sleep?
SEASON TWO, COMING SOOOON!