T - Jenn, Nako, Xenon, Bee, Lucca

[The Jenn]

The concierge had made a good recommendation, Donnie reflected. The herb-laden chicken salad sandwich tasted divine and their fries were salted deliciously. She hated to admit it, but a rest and a slowly filling stomach made it a lot harder to remain angry with the girl. Merely very strongly annoyed.

She glanced around at their surroundings - simply decorated, tastefully understated, casual, and with prices on all of the artwork. The piece above them was a study of a particular bouquet, the flowers sharp-petaled reds and whites against a black background. With a start, she focused on the name below it and thought she might recognize it. Had that woman been in one of her classes back home...? Much younger? The name Hyacinth was unusual and specific enough...

Biting into her sandwich in silence, she thought for a long moment before swallowing and glancing down at her daughter. "I told you very explicitly that you were not invited on this trip," she said in a low voice.

Catching Mikael's eye after that, she nodded around her and asked, "So? With all of the time spent in my company, which bit of local art do you think is my favorite?"

[Nako]

Mikael had made a point to almost pretend like he wasn't there, picking very intently at his food while the Queen berated her daughter. He almost didn't want to be there; he really had absolutely no say in how the girl was dealt with, despite technically being family. He couldn't even say he was in the girl's side. If he had kids, he'd be -furious- with them if they stowed away in the back of a carriage. What if they'd gotten hurt? What if the bottom fell out in some freakish accident and the girl got strewn onto the road, trampled with no one the wiser? His ears burned at the thought of it.

Mikael's eye had been gazing onward when Donnie turned her gaze into his, and he gave a slight jump. Blinking wide, he obviously was confused at the very sudden change of tone. What... was she looking to ease the tension? Change the subject? He cleared his throat abruptly and gave a small laugh.

"The day I think I know your personal tastes inside and out is the day I've undone myself." He alluded with a grin, his tail giving a soft wag. He made a show of glancing around the room. "There's no questioning you have good taste... hm.." Hm. Could he keep stalling like that? Hesitantly, his eyes cut across the table back at her. His cool resolve was carefully unravelling under her gaze.

[carcinoGeneticist]

Quietly, Sophie munched on another fry, staring down at her plate. The food really was good, but she didn't want to seem to be enjoying it too much. After all, she was feeling badly that she'd gone so very much against her mother's wishes. A part of her was, too. The rest of her knew she was doing something important.

"I know, mother," she whispered into her meal, staring at the burger. It smelled amazing. Before setting into it, she turned to look up at Donnie, her expression a little nervous. "I promise I'll be good from now on." Part of the statement went unsaid, but it was obvious: Please don't make me go back, yet. As the Queen's attention went to Mikael, Sophie's attention went to her burger, and she took a large bite of it.

While she chewed, she looked around the room as well. Nice paintings. "Mikael could do better," she pointed out after swallowing the bite, then quickly took another one, looking embarrassed. Right. She had to keep quiet.

[The Jenn]

Donnie's facial markings in human form made twitching her nose look more like a sneer than it really was. A quick sniff turned into a derisive gesture easily. Really, though, she was just amused and distracted enough by Mikael's response to make her question worthwhile. She had asked it more to distract herself from getting angry again in public than anything else, and the Jack had not disappointed.

"If it's really that difficult a question," she mused heavily, eying him sidelong, "then how about the most aesthetically pleasing Card?"

Her daughter's stated promise to be 'good from now on' brought a scowl to her face that she slowly smoothed into a flatly unamused expression. Her voice became quiet again, low-pitched so that others would not easily overhear the discussion. "Thus far I have seen nothing to indicate that you're responsible enough to come on a diplomatic mission. You hid well. But you blatantly disobeyed your mother, and your Queen, and that is not the sort of face that we need to be presenting to regional dignitaries." Her look dared the girl to add to her statement. She honestly hoped that she would.

[Nako]

Mikael was obviously swayed by the girl's compliment, making a slight 'dawww' noise and tilting his head good-naturely to the side in his own sort of a smile... but his head dropped a bit when Donnie continued her berating of her daughter. Hrm. Perhaps he was more easily put into a good mood than her mother. Then again, he wasn't the parent.

Mikael of course, looked a bit slack-jawed at the alternate question. "W-well.... um." He very suddenly stammered, looking around. Very suddenly, he gestured quite gallantly at Sophie. "How about this? Prettiest little girl in the room? Eh? Eh...?"

His ears quickly dropped when he questioned if his lightheartedness might have been ill timed. Sorry, but he was -not- going to start pointing out pretty Cards in the middle of a restaurant, in front of her daughter. Even if it was under the guise of mere visual appeal, one couldn't help but assume that one would have to keep in mind sexual attraction as well. Which meant for Donnie.. female. The restrictions in feeling like he -couldn't- point out a prettily patterned male made him feel uncomfortable for some reason. Restricted? Walking on eggshells?

"I could help watch her.. if you needed." Mikael offered, sounding much too meek and quiet even for his own liking.

[Bee]

Illyria looked at her food anxiously. She needed to have eaten lunch approximately an hour and ten minutes ago, or not eat until three when she could have her tea. This food was out of place and wrong and should not be, and she couldn't make herself eat it. It looked quite fine. Delicious, in fact. Tender chicken in a salad with all the healthy fruits and vegetables and everything, served up with some kind of dressing she was assured was authentic Villa, but still the thought of eating it had made her stomach rebel.

She suspected that this is why her aunt brought her here to lunch. She knew that it wasn't noon any more and she wasn't going to eat anything. She sunk back a little in her chair and avoided looking at her food entirely, preferring to survey the other customers. The only party of note was a couple of tables away, and her vision latched onto them primarily because two of the three looked to be mostly Gardens, like herself. They were apparently quite involved in conversation, which looked, at turns, tense.

She watched them curiously.

[carcinoGeneticist]

While it did make Sophie happy to see that she'd made her uncle smile, that happiness was short lived. As soon as the scolding began again the girl sank lower into her chair, staring fixedly at her burger. She had known things wouldn't be easy, but she had naively hoped that perhaps they wouldn't exactly be hard, either. So much for that.

She was staring at her burger with such determination that she missed entirely whoever it was that the Jack was talking about, and she quickly raised her head to look around. Too quick, she realized, sinking back into her seat. But she had caught sight of a girl sitting at a table close by, and decided in a moment that Mikael was right. She was very delicate-looking, a Gardens mix, and with amazingly blue hair. "She is pretty," she replied. Color touched her face even through the discomfort she'd been feeling, and it only deepened when she realized that Mikael was actually talking about her. She gave her uncle a small smile before turning back to her mother.

"I-I know." She said in a voice that was little more than a whisper, looking distinctly unhappy. She had no reason to be unhappy, really, which just made her feel it even more strongly. "I can learn, though. You'll be proud of me, momma." Discomfort turned, briefly, to hope. "...even if you aren't right now."

[The Jenn]

Donnie's eyes moved briefly between the two of them, her daughter and her Jack. With a slow, careful gesture, she brought her hands up in front of her pretty white plate and rested them together. This presented her with a convenient opportunity to stop some of the awkward and actually turn this lunch into something less stressful. Good.

Her gaze flicked to the girl her daughter mentioned, yellow meeting yellow for all of a second before she turned back in light bemusement. Oddly, oddly enough, that little mumble made her feel a bit better. Pretty little thing, yes. Very.

Mikael's otherwise lame redirection of the question did its job. And she could trust him as a relative of her daughter - odd to think, but, well - to be fair to the girl. And her next words didn't hurt either. An excellent transition. Her voice went mild and she sipped at her lemony water first. "Well. I would very much like to see you make that challenge a reality, Sophie. Enough so, in fact, that I am giving you a job on this trip. You may come if you work. You should not expect to be off the hook, now or once we return to the palace. However, if you do a good enough job with the tasks you are given, I may be convinced to moderate my opinion of your willful disobedience."

Raising the small metal fork beside her plate, she pointed it suddenly at Mikael. "You. Will be in part her keeper. I will hold you to that. And I do expect you to make her work. You," she turned to Sophie, "will be his attendant, and nigh on his slave-within-reason, for the duration."

He was family. He would be appropriate, but also wouldn't feel the need to hold back for the princess, especially not with a command like that. There were a million and one tedious, menial tasks she could imagine he might assign the girl. She did not give him this burden lightly. And she would make very periodic and likely annoying interferences in his affairs for the extent of their traveling.

[Bee]

Quite tense, apparently. She felt embarrassingly like an eavesdropper, which she supposed she was, but she tuned into the conversation nevertheless. It was easy enough to tell just from body language that the girl had done something wrong. When she looked back at her, suddenly and unexpectedly, Lyr gave her a small, sympathetic smile. She knew, after all, all about being in trouble. She rather wished she were in a position to say something, but that would be terribly, soul-crushingly awkward. And if their group of three went to four, she would be ruining a perfectly good number, which would be unspeakably rude.

Then the woman noticed her too, met her gaze, and she became even more embarrassed for the attention she was giving them. She was an awful meddler.

Her aunt said, somewhere on the corner of her consciousness, "Eat your salad," and Lyr fought the urge to look at her. She suspected that whatever was on her own face was unpleasant, and her aunt wanted to see it, and that wasn't going to lead anywhere good.

"I will," she murmured, and turned her gaze back to the group. She stuck her fork absently into the salad and made no attempt to move it to her mouth.

[Nako]

Mikael's head nodded quickly at his Queen's words, sitting up a bit straighter in his seat. For all that there was less strain between the three of them than there had been minutes ago, he could not miss the seriousness of this assignment. "Absolutely! I take this responsibility with the utmost seriousness. She'll get a taste of work ethic and responsibility even if it's the death of me."

He turned his head to Sophie, looking almost exasperated behind the mask. "And don't you try escaping me in the boot of a carriage, because it really would be the death of me." His tone really told that there was some truth to that. Still, he managed to smile.

He glanced toward the girl at the other table. She looked half Kahmden. Yikes. He had enough of Kahmdens on a daily basis from Vessatha as it was. "Well, she's not the one lucky enough to be my assistant." Mikael said with a smile in his voice.

He looked back at Donnie. "Come to think of it, I actually brought with me an extra set of paint brushes that aren't quite as clean as I want them. That'd be a nice task to start her off with on this trip."