Is HE doing here?!?!?!?!?!??!
Who let this guy in?! Do they even KNOW what he did?! Because SHE KNOWS IT WAS BAD, AND DEFINITELY NOT PARTY-INVITE WORTHY!!!!!!
He always was weird, even before the war. None of them liked him, but nobody ever did anything about it. Well, not today! He already ruined their lives and took away so many others — she’s not gonna let him ruin the ball too, or take it away! She’s grown now, and this time, she’s gonna DO SOMETHING!
Sneaking over the snack table, Elise snatches up a pre-popped corn bag left behind (to avoid extra noise drawing attention to herself, of course, totally not because she doesn’t know how to use even the most basic reason magic spell yet, noooo, of course not) before dumping in every last bit of spice she can find and shaking it all up. Sorry, other people who wanted spice. It’s for the good of the world.
She drops the bag as close to Iago as she can muster (alongside a friendly note that says “For Iago”, just in case he doesn’t get the hint) before scurrying off to hide behind a pillar. All that is left, is to wait. Like waiting for a mouse to go into one of those cheese trap things. Except also not at all because she actually likes mice. Mice are cute. Iago is not cute.
A rat, scurrying around him. He can hear some faint snicker, and though he can't tell from where, he knows he is being made to play a fool.
His disguise was iron-clad (gold-clad, really, the only hint he was himself was the mask still over the otherwise golden maiden of a uniform) and he rarely even used his name here. This was someone from home.
He doubted it was someone like the older royals who left this, or a Hoshidan at all - they were much more mature, greater fools they may be, they would still more likely confront him directly, which this was not. Unless it was poisoned. But even then, with his past, an unceremonious death was not a fate they would give him, in his viewing through their eyes. He deserved worse from them, a death to signify how truly irredeemable they were from Nohr's future.
So unless this was one of those blasted spawn that popped out like a worm when the rain fell that Iago never really got to study and stomp underfoot, Iago had a hunch on who left him this 'gift'.
"Well, far be it from me to refuse such a... magnanimous gift."
He makes sure to emphasize his words, making him seem the perfect fool, as he opens the bag and takes in the sight.
He has to restrain himself. It's so... juvenile. No care for excess, just piling every spice they could get their hands onto into one single bag.
And while the blatant overusage and expenditure of resources enraged him as a Nohrian, especially with who he imagined left it, it was moreso just... sad. Not tragic, not fully, but merely pathetic. Extremely pathetic. No poisons, not even a sedative herb! It was just... kernels of corn, blasted in heat, and put in more spices than likely even could be put on a single banquet table in Nohr.
And while he knew his stomach was not iron, would not enjoy this... he would do it. To show he was not so easy to take down.
He pops it into his mouth, and an explosion of contrasting flavors bursts from his mouth. It's wrong, and so much at once it's a good thing his mask can hide his face contorting and lips curling.
But they have no way of knowing what it did. And since information is king...
"Well... thank you, whoever left this for me."
He turns to where he heard the laugh come from, and, with a sly chuckle himself, peels the compound mask back for a brief moment, an excessive and coy smirk on his face as he tosses his flower from the pocket of his suit.
"I'll make sure to repay the gift."
And he replaces it on his face, continuing to (carefully) eat at the bag, because even if it was food that was, practically speaking, nearly inedible, he knew better than to waste excess food.