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Post by Nathalia on Mar 2, 2008 1:06:04 GMT -5
Bernard limped down the hallway from his room, a worn leather bag slung over his shoulder and another small bag clutched in his left hand. He rolled his remaining eye and tried to ignore the voice of the man following him. Larry was a bit of a talker...and the things he talked about were...well, unimportant. At least as far as Bernard was concerned. He already knew for a fact that the coach was ready, that there was a team harnessed and fed, and that he had packed everything. He honestly didn't need an attendant following him everywhere and trying to "help" him remember last minute things. Larry, a rotund Selkie Lakes raccoon guard, trotted after the King, oblivious to his irritation. He was delighted to be helping his illustrious Queen, Queen Rai! He had made sure to order the Coach, out front waiting with two Ox-like Aces, harnessed and ready, he had checked over Bernard's bags himself, and had filled the King in on some facts about what it was he was going to do. After all, his Highness Bernard may know a lot...but he, Larry, was one of Queen Rai's personal assistants. "So you may not want to take fruit after all, your Highness, I'm fairly certain that His Majesty, Aderlass is more fond of cheeses."Bernard stopped dead, dropping the bag in his hand and turning around to face the raccoon. "Look...Larry. One; the fruit is for her Highness Anoushka. Two; don't you think I've researched any of this myself? Really, you've helped enough, why don't you just go back to the gate?"It was taking a considerable amount of Bernard's patience not to simply snap at Larry and ream him out for digging through his belongings and treating him as though he had no idea what he was about. He had visited the Court of Clubs in the past, he had been on fairly good terms with Veldmair, and now he needed to go and make certain that he was in a good enough placement with the new Queen, Aderlass. Especially after it had...come to his attention that his Queen was friends...with the Queen of Clubs. That wasn't a bad thing, certainly...but it could become one if he didn't make sure that the Courts themselves were on as good a term of communication a the friends were...backstabbing and theories arising out of nothing was the last thing the two Courts needed right now.... Larry looked slightly affronted, but fell silent as Bernard picked up his bag and set off again, the raccoon, laden with goods for the Clubs royalty in his arms, following sullenly in his wake. |
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 2, 2008 1:43:46 GMT -5
Lani jogged through the halls of the palace of Hearts, not in enough of a hurry to actually break down and run but needing to be in the courtyard quickly, before Uncle Bernard could just up and leave. She'd heard Larry talking with one of the kitchen staff as he walked past her about how the King was going to the Court of Clubs as a lone ambassador and didn't like the sound of that at all. A quick, hurried talk with Vio had decided her and she'd thrown on the pretty golden feathery boa that her Daddy gave her many years ago before leaving their room. She'd never been to the Court of Clubs before, had never seen the need, and honestly she still didn't have any particular desire to go there. The palace of Hearts and the Capital were more than enough to hold her interest. Still, she was even less keen on the idea of her recently-mauled uncle going to another Court alone, having refused to take an escort as per Larry's chatter. She'd be going with him if she had to fly along above the coach for a few miles until he finally gave in! Reaching the courtyard a short while before Bernard, she took note of the coach and checked with its driver for the destination. Yep, this was the one. With a grinned 'thanks', she opened the door with her mouth and hopped in to wait for him. |
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Post by Nathalia on Mar 2, 2008 14:15:52 GMT -5
Finally reaching the Courtyard, Bernard watched as Larry ruefully stacked the gifts for the royals in the back and then stood to the side, awaiting approval. The King hefted his bag and gave the Raccoon a small smile, he wasn't so bad...just overly pompous and a pea-brain...well not everyone was as intelligent as Bernard hoped... If only Larry could be taught social cues...
"Thank you, Larry. Sorry, I've been in such a mood, just not really in the best of ways right now, you know?"
He moved around to the front of the Coach to greet the driver and blanched slightly at the sight of the harnessed Aces. He hadn't been expecting that...it wasn't awful...just a shock. He avoided eye-contact with them and glanced up to the driver, a squat Highland Lizard with a bony crest.
"Hello, Peter...ready to head out?"
He asked, watching the driver's tail drift lazily over the front seat.
"Yew bet, yer 'ighness. We're all ready ter go."
"Sounds good, I won't hold you up any longer than necessary, thanks Peter."
The Lizard grinned, reaching down to pat one of the Aces on the rump.
"Aw, yer 'ighness. Yew kin 'old me up as long as yeh like. I get good places ter stay an' nice food when yer about, 'member?" The coachman replied with a short, raspy laugh, his bony fingers tightening on the reins.
"How could I forget, you'll drain my salary faster than anyone in the palace but my nieces." Bernard threw back with a grin as he pulled the door open. The coachman had made him slightly nervous...the man was twitchy and not his favorite, but much more amicable than the other coachmen...but what had the man meant by we're all ready to go? Had he been referring to the Aces?
Queer.
SLiding into the compartment, still staring back out the window, he let his bags drop to the ground and sighed before turning around as the Coach began to move forward.
He nearly jumped a mile to see one of previously mentioned nieces sitting across from him.
"Hills! LANI! What?"
He yelped, staring at her in disbelief.
"What are you doing in here?!"
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 2, 2008 16:06:54 GMT -5
Lani heard her uncle speaking to people outside the coach, first Larry and then the odd-looking lizard who was driving the team of oxen Aces. The King's voice sounded normal, as if he wasn't very worried about this journey at all, though of course that didn't really mean anything with him. Her father had mentioned to her once, very briefly and in passing, that Uncle Bernard his just about everything beneath the epitome of the word 'fine'. He'd failed to mention what 'everything' consisted of that it was so bad, but the girl could guess that it had something to do with the rough past of their family.
And the recent past, now. She closed her eyes for a minute to drive thoughts of all that away. Not now... she'd pushed all that into the back of her head and it only really bothered her at night now, when she was supposed to be sleeping. No one's bedroom was safe anymore in her mind, not even that of the Queen of Hearts. Or any Queen of Hearts. It was horribly unnerving. The palace was still home and 'safe', but it had lost some of its protective illusion in her eyes.
Those thoughts were all successfully pushed back when he made a crack about Lani and her sisters. Well, sister and half-sister. It wasn't her fault if her uncle liked to be generous on holidays and birthdays and she took horrible advantage of that fact. Next to Daddy, he always gave the best presents.
The smirk lingered on her muzzle when he opened the door to the coach and stepped in. She watched him in extreme amusement, gold eyes crinkling around the edges as she held back a laugh when he didn't notice her for a minute.
And then he saw her and the reaction was better than she could have hoped. She laughed, ducking her head for a minute, then looked back up at him with a grin. "Hello, Uncle! You didn't think were were just going to let you go all the way to the Clubs palace by yourself, did you? C'mon, your family cares about you more than that. And I am going. My butt's pretty firmly planted. It would take a lot to pry it up, I assure you."
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Post by Nathalia on Mar 2, 2008 16:44:18 GMT -5
Bernard's heart rate slowed back to normal as Lani spoke to him, her eyes dancing with impish delight and her tail wagging slightly, causing the sound of rustling feathers to swirl around the Coach.
The King raised an eyebrow, looking thoroughly put out as the Coach picked up speed. He couldn't chuck his niece out now, that if nothing else, was certain...she even had a small bag by her and she was wearing her boa...she had been planning this.
He rubbed his fingers against the lines in his forehead to ward off a headache...good god....
"Lani, I'll be fine, it's not a matter of whether you all care about me or not. Though..." He let his hand drop and looked at her seriously. "I am rather glad to hear it. This is an official matter, it could be dangerous, if I was just going out, I would love to have you along, Lani. Really, I would, but I'm not sure if...this is something you'll want to be stuck doing."
He had caught himself on the verge of telling her she wasn't old enough. Giving her a quick look...she was old enough. She would be eighteen very soon and she looked more regal than any of her siblings, if he was old enough to start traveling at her age, then she was old enough to come with him on his travels... But he couldn't shake the feeling that she was simply doing this to get out of the palace. She probably wouldn't like what it was goign to entail...being an ambassador.
"Alright, I can see your rear's planted, I won't try to chuck you out...at least not until the next stop at the Capitol." He would see how she reacted to that...she would probably at least tell him why she had come along. She couldn't really just want to come with him...he knew he was pretty boring to a girl like Lani.
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 2, 2008 17:01:36 GMT -5
Lani could almost feel the "you're not old enough" on the tip of his tongue. It was just the intuition of a girl who was very much a young adult, a young woman, and wanted to be treated as such. She'd heard phrases like that one her whole life, often enough from her uncle, so when he didn't say it... she couldn't stop her grin from widening. Uncle Bernard had always treated her like her own person, for all that she had been a child, but now he was also treating her like someone old enough to make her own decisions. That was just awesome.
"Well, that's awfully good of you, Uncle. Of course, if you're thinking about just dumping me off at the Capital, I might have to sleep in the coach to make sure that doesn't happen. Then I'd just wake up grouchy and I know you don't want to have to deal with that." She tossed her hair back and smirked, proof that she was exaggerating, but still. She wouldn't be dissuaded so easily, not now that she'd been issued a challenge like that. She was a very competitive girl. Challenges made her perk up and show even more interest in anything.
So this was going to be an official visit between two Courts. Interesting. "Could you tell me why we're going, Uncle? Who we're going to meet?"
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Post by Nathalia on Mar 2, 2008 21:34:48 GMT -5
Bernard couldn't help the slight smile that absconded his face as his niece threatened to hide out in order to stay with him...it....really felt nice. Her being there did buoy him up a bit, whether he wanted to admit it or not...maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.
"All right, all right. If you want to spend your week with your Uncle, I'm certainly not going to fight it any further than that. I would be rather afraid of seeing you in a foul mood in the morning."
Besides, this would help Lani decide whether she really wanted to be in the Courts or not. He had never quite been sure what it was that Lani wanted out of life...this would reassure him one way or the other...it would also tell him what kind of training she would need more of when they got home.
"Ah, we're going because the Court of Clubs has gotten their new Queen, Aderlass settled in at last. I need to visit with him and pass on our Court's good feeling...and talk... It's come to my attention that he and Queen Rai have known each other for awhile...I need to look into that to make sure that their friendship doesn't backfire in our faces. We're going specifically to meet with Queen Aderlass and King Anoushka? Remember her? The Torquhelm wolf?"
Something then occurred to Bernard and a questioning look crossed his scarred features.
"Lani...? Does your Dad know you're going on this little voyage with me...or did you leave him in the dark?"
The idea of an overly "upset" Gaston in full find-my-daughter mode was rather terrifying...he hoped that Lani had at least informed Vio...
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 5, 2008 20:52:32 GMT -5
Lani's smirk turned back into a grin when he stopped trying to tell her he was going to kick her to the curb and send her back home in a nice uncle sort of way. She'd hoped that bowling him over with her presence and insisting on staying would work. If not, she would have had to resort to less mature tactics and those wouldn't have worked nearly as well on Uncle Bernard as they did on Daddy. A good whine got to him better than anything when he was reluctant but it would probably just grate on her uncle's nerves.
When he explained their purpose, she made a slight face. "Ah, yeah, I remember her. She was really a bitch at you when she came to visit the Court a few years back. I remember that much pretty clearly. She wasn't too nice at me either, but at least she was polite enough. I guess since I was a Queen. Or a kid. Either way, she was still really obnoxious." From her limited experience, she didn't think much of the King of Clubs at all.
She paused when he asked his next question. "Oh... well, Daddy doesn't specifically know that I'm here, but Vio knows and she'll be able to tell him before he has a meltdown or anything. Although that would be really funny to see, if I didn't have to suffer through the aftermath."
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Post by Nathalia on Mar 6, 2008 0:56:05 GMT -5
Bernard rolled his remaining eye when his niece expressed such...verbose distaste for King Anoushka.
"You may have seen it that way, but she's over worked and under appreciated. She's currently the only King, or functional worker at all, stationed in the palace of Clubs that I'm aware of, she's often exhausted and...the fact that she's not fond of Birds doesn't help. Don't think or act poorly toward her because of your first impressions, Lani...in fact."
Bernard put his bag back on the floor, sat up straight, and looked in neice directly in the face, frowning slightly.
"We need to have a little talk about how you're going to act on this trip. If you're really going to come with me, you're going to have to realize that your doing so makes you a full representative of the Court of Hearts. Anything you say could be taken to heart or taken literally, I don't know these people very well, in the case of Queen Aderlass, at all and I don't know how they would ract to your "teasing". You are of age and will be treated as a diplomat if I bring you in with me, I will not have you ruin the image of the Court of Hearts, just because you got bored or were mildly offended."
He gave her a rather stern look.
"Is that understood, Lani?"
After she responded he would relax, smiling again and staring out the window.
"So, you've been to the Capitol a lot more often than I have recently, where do you think is a good place to stop for dinner?"
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 6, 2008 1:26:26 GMT -5
Lani stared at her uncle in surprise, honestly not expecting a serious Talk just yet. She thought she'd have at least a day before one of those, when they got closer to the Court. But maybe he just wanted to get it out of the way...
No matter what he said, that woman was still a flaming bitch with a serious attitude problem. He didn't get like that under the stress of being a King, so why should she? And then he started with the even more Listen To Me Because What I'm Saying Is Important tone and she refrained from rolling her eyes, not showing her annoyance and just paying attention. She honestly didn't want to chance the fact that he would just kick her out if she didn't behave because she knew he probably would.
She had to be the proper little Queen for this trip, as polite as she could be while not surrendering any of the respect that her rank or family connections garnered her. She could do that. It was certainly easier in public than it was when she was alone with family. "Don't worry, Uncle. I won't say anything to offend anyone in the other Court. I'll just let you take the lead on most of the conversation, since you know what you want to say anyway." And that would also mean that she had to bite her tongue less often. It would work out okay. Her uncle was one of the few people she really didn't have a problem following the lead of. Uncle Bernard, Daddy, Father... Dymphna sometimes...
Oh good, the lecture was done. She relaxed the 'serious listening face' she'd taken while he was speaking and relaxed on the seat of the coach. "Well, I doubt you want to go to a club so that knocks out like half of my usual spots. There are a few nice little cafes around the fountain, but most of them serve better lunches than dinners. Hmm. If it wasn't such short notice, I'd say the Golden Apple, but they're usually pretty booked. The Silver Swan isn't quite as swank, but it's not as horribly busy either. We can grab a nice bite their without dying of food poisoning or anything. They serve really decent food. I've been there alone and with Dymphna once or twice. I think it's one of her favorite places."
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