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Post by Satra on Jul 16, 2009 22:47:10 GMT -5
The anxiety for working for this Queen really killed his libido. There were lovely women in this court, but fear kept his flirting at bay. Not only was she a Yarrow, but she was a Yarrow that caught him at one of his worst moments as a first impression. He had to prove it wrong. He was well aware he was not an intelligent fellow. He was also well aware that what he referred as a "love of the ladies" was often referred to as "lewd and lecherous behavior" by others. He took several deep breaths and left his room to begin his planning for the gardens and start making dialogue with whatever staff had been hired. He knew there was a chance of her coming out to greet them as they worked. He had no idea how he would react when they met face to face again with no strong-willed Bog mother or good-natured brother between them... |
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 16, 2009 22:55:27 GMT -5
Part of Donnie wanted to see how the new garden staff was faring. After the last batch had departed and before the new gardeners were hired, the plants had fallen into some disrepair. She hadn't had any time to take care of the things in those first few frantic sessions, but now... well, the second half of the incentive was the new borrowed, or rather, gifted help. Gifted. Hah. That certainly seemed to describe the fur-headed young idiot. Still, from what she could tell on her casual perusal that was nevertheless unmistakably an inspection, he knew his way around a garden. She knew nothing about his past in the Hearts gardens beyond snippets she'd heard from his family, and she knew very little about his current duties with the Clubs. King Anoushka had apparently felt confident enough in his outdoor abilities to bequeath his services to the Spades, and so she would see what the crass old bitch had in store for them. "Nice trimming, Your Excellence," she commented dryly as she passed a newly-restored topiary that had been in sad disrepair a few days earlier. "At least you can apparently command garden shears better than you can command a haircut." And she continued onward. |
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Post by Satra on Jul 16, 2009 23:12:05 GMT -5
Hadrian took his first real close look as he walked around the garden and found himself rather disturbed at what he saw. Well, it wasn't his job to finish the garden, just work on it for a week. It was his goal to get a considerable amount done, but he found himself more and more disappointed at the realization that chances were very good he would have no chance of actually seeing this project to the end.
He'd been working for some time now. He decided to fix up what was already there before making any actual plans. He jumped at the sound of a voice behind him. All that courage he'd taken the effort of working up was suddenly gone. No, he had to show her his confidence in himself. He knew a Yarrow-mix would love a male she could walk all over, but he wanted him to respect him for the person he knew he was.
"Well, when I come across a lady that complains, I can show you my untapped skill in that as well." His slightly snarky smirk fell as he realized that not only did he over compensate for his lack of backbone, he did further to dig his own grave deeper from where he was with her already. He cleared his throat after his ears went flat against his head.
"Er, uh... I mean t-thank you."
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 16, 2009 23:23:32 GMT -5
Donnie froze.
"...testosterone-laden idiot," she retorted coldly, dry voice suddenly gone frigid. She'd told herself she wouldn't resort to standard Yarrow fare, but something about the way he said it, as if his prowess in bed with women was supposed to impress her... it made her want to punch him in the face and sink her claws into his back. But no, no, that wasn't at all diplomatic. Yarrow-baiting wasn't a 'sport' that encouraged longevity.
She stood up straighter and stared at him, every inch an intimidating bitch. "When your skill with manners improves to the point of your gardening, perhaps we can have a more civilized conversation."
The rest of a day, she made a point of avoiding the 'guest' in her new palace. She had more than enough things to occupy her body, hands, and mind. She didn't need to go looking for trouble. He could play with the dirt and she would continue the business of trying to figure out how to manage this mess without screaming.
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Post by Satra on Jul 16, 2009 23:46:40 GMT -5
Hadrian twitched, wanting to kick himself for his stupid.
"Yeah, let's hope that day comes," he murmured to himself as she walked away. He shook his head and went back to work. Again, he'd shown her a part of him that wasn't who he really was. He only acted like that as a joke and usually when the other person knew he was being a dick. He kicked himself for his apparent inability to rub two braincells together.
He and the small gardening staff decided that they would fix up what was already there before any real plans would be made. They made it a goal to get that done at the end of the day if not tomorrow. It wouldn't be hard, no real thinking required for fixing up a mess, justa lot of hard labor. What were Clubs good for, right?
Hadrian collapsed on the bed after forcing himself to take a bath, despite what his aching muscles were begging. He stared at the wall in the darkened room as he drifted off. He reflected on the day as much as his exhaustion would allow him.
The next day he dragged himself out of bed and went back to work. There was only a small amount of clean up left, then he could rest as he planned. Maybe under some shade with an icy beverage. That would be nice. However... that tree... he didn't like the way the roots were potentially interacting with the wall. He began digging to investigate.
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 16, 2009 23:56:11 GMT -5
Donnie just happened to be glancing out of one of the upper story windows overlooking the garden only a few moments after Hadrian had decided to start digging. She was in her office working on setting up a series of important meetings and had assumed her biped form to maximize comfort while performing the aggravating and rather tedious task. Thus, her fur hackled and she just stared as the canine displaced dirt around an old and rather venerable-looking tree.
No. She wasn't going to go down there. She wasn't going to interfere. She was going to stay in her office, work on her letters and her schedule, and leave the... damn fool to dig up the Court garden.
Damn it! She growled and forcefully drew the blinds on the window, sadly blocking out natural light but also blocking out a sight she very much wished to correct.
The King of Clubs wouldn't have sent an idiot as an official sign of goodwill. This was something she had to keep reminding herself. The woman was smarter than that.
Unless this was a veiled barb and a test of just how 'Yarrow' the half-Yarrow Queen really was.
Gah. She didn't know anymore.
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Post by Satra on Jul 17, 2009 0:14:54 GMT -5
Hadrian groaned when he found what he'd been fearing. Crap. This meant he needed to tell the person in charge of finances... which was at this point as far as he could tell, Donnie. He gulped, and went to face his fears. He shook himself up and headed up to her office. When he got there he knocked on the door. When the door opened, the Queen would find a fairly dirty Solandrian Coyote sitting behind it with his head slightly bowed and his ears back.
"I'm... sorry to disturb you, but I came across a bit of a problem I think you should know about. There's, uh, a tree that was planted by the last gardeners that was put too close to the wall and the roots are starting to not interact well will the part of the wall it was put next to. It's not a problem now, well, uh, it's a small problem now, but it will definitely get bigger in the future. Even if the tree is removed now, the damage done already combined with the damage that may or may not be done in removing it should be taken care of." He felt very nervous talking that much at her. Guh! Talking AT her? Is that was he was doing? Crap. Better apologize. "Er, I just thought I'd let you know," he added, waiting to be dismissed.
Boost: For about 10 minutes once a week, Hadrian can hold a conversation with one plant of his choosing. The plant is capable of responding only to him, but it can give him useful information, such as what it has "seen" lately, or "heard". The plant often looks for a token from him, which can be his ability to give them a growth boost, some water, or some good soil. He is also now able to cause plants to grow twice as fast as they normally would, twice a day for up to a minute.
(I haven't updated Hadrian yet, but this ability is in a PM from Nat)
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 17, 2009 0:27:54 GMT -5
Donnie stared at the dirty apparition in front of her, wondering if he was about to admit to uprooting some ancient tree on the grounds or - heavens forbid - digging through to a stray sewer pipe that some demented architect had sent wandering into the gardens. There were a million and one things he could announce just then that would have her swearing and sending him packing.
...but that wasn't one of them. Her teeth clicked together once in aggravation as she considered. Well, that was crappy news. He'd been doing his job, though, and he'd found something important. "You know, it had to be the checkmate. If the tree's new enough to be planted by them, I'm sure the drugs were addling their heads the whole time." She refrained from growling, swearing, or doing any number of imminently satisfying things that would be inappropriate for a Queen.
Instead she took a few breaths and looked him levelly in the eye. "Very well. We'd better remove it and hire an architect familiar with the layout of the palace to fully assess the damage before anything else happens. Good job finding it." The last few words came out more sour than she'd intended, because it was him delivering the news and it was just another problem for the large pile of them, but he really had found something important.
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Post by Satra on Jul 17, 2009 1:49:04 GMT -5
He stayed as quiet as he could the whole time, only nodding in agreement when it was appropriate. He gave a quiet 'thank you' and took her last sentence as a dismissal and bow his head and slowly turned to leave. He watched her, waiting for any signs of him being wrong. When she didn't say anything, he began walking away.
The day ended. Small amounts of planning was done, but there was more cleaning than expected. The tree had told him that the last gardeners sometimes planted things arbitrarily, and made a big deal to someone who was apparently in change as proof that work was actually getting done. The ability already spent, he had to tell the tree (with no response) the reasons why is was being moved and he would do his best to avoid as much damage as possible. They had another hole dug further away from the wall and placed the tree in that.
Over all another day ended. He'd give the plans more thought. Hopefully tomorrow's soreness wouldn't get in the way of the thought process too much.
An idea crossed Hadrian's mind. However, that involved requesting a slightly larger gardening budget from a woman who didn't know where the court finances actually stood. He spent the rest of the day planning and discussing possibilities with the people he had to work with. They had a list of things and began scratching off ideas and narrowing the options down. Now all that was left was getting the final opinion. Not wanting to deal with her personally, Hadrian had the letter sent up complete with ideas and a budget estimate.
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 19, 2009 23:30:42 GMT -5
Donnie flipped through the notes and specifics of the request for the garden budget that had been sent up by Hadrian the day before. She hadn't found the time for it yesterday, despite meaning to with his time limit and the need to utilize his skills while they were available to the Court. Other things just kept jumping in the way, ambushing her with additional work and meetings. Getting into the swing of a Court as its new Queen was ridiculously exhausting. As much as she loved having something challenging and worthwhile to do with herself, something that would eventually improve the lives of many people, she wistfully pined after an hour or two of peace in which to play her harp.
That would come as things settled down, she supposed. The life of a noble could be one of leisure eventually, even if she kept herself busy. She would have time for her music in a few months, more than just snippets of practice and song that she managed to eke out at present. There had to be.
The biggest problem with approving any expenses was that she didn't know if they had the money to cover it. They probably had credit, but again... she didn't know how much. The records were horrifying. Some attempts had been made to organize information, but they had been few and far between. From what she could tell from her rudimentary research, some of it may have even been forged. That put her right on edge.
Nevertheless. The palace exterior was the first thing that people saw when they visited the palace, and the palace of Spades was a visual interpretation of the health of the Court. She couldn't have it seem like her reign signaled a sickly Court, especially not one worse than her predecessor's!
She approved it and sent the reply. He could put out for a request of the materials and labor.
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