Courtly Matters

[Kari Muffin]

Peaches had returned to the Courts to find everything in chaos. Half the staff was dead, her already mess of a son was a bigger mess, and there were things everywhere that needed to be attended to. So of course she was forced to attend to matters she usually wouldn't.

A meeting with the other Courts. Xiven was quite insistent about it, and the other Courts seemed to be willing to oblige. That was a troublesome fact alone. Everyone agreeing to something was never a good sign.

Peaches had taken to setting up the more tedious arrangements. She was a Jack, after all, and the higher ups shouldn't have to deal with the arrangements that could easily be handled by a low ranking individual. She rolled up her sleeves, set to reserving a proper room in an undamaged part of the city, and prepared the various points that were to be covered at the meeting.

She did all of the paperwork and left ahead of the King of Hearts so she could tend to the minor last minute preparations.

It was a classy little inn with a good deal of meeting room space. She set out the paperwork for Apocalypse to read, got the staff to fix up various drinks for the different nobles tastes, and made sure her looks were in order.

When everything was to her satisfaction, she took a seat and waited for everyone to arrive.

[The Jenn]

Thyme spent much of the aftermath of the Lowland and Josiggy war and the parallel decimation of the Selkie Lakes under the close supervision of a healer within the palace of Clubs. Her initial condition upon waking in an entirely random back street of the Outer Bazaar had been beaten to hell and back, woozy from blood loss, and in overall terrible shape. A little girl had been shaking her worriedly, saying her Mommy had gone to find a doctor and could she stand up?

When she returned to her Court, she was beyond relieved to discover that the palace had not been attacked. She feared the worst after hearing numerous reports in the Capital of chaos in Hearts, Diamonds, and Spades. Lack of news regarding Clubs had only worried her further until she came to realize that no news did, in this case, mean good news. Several nobles had been involved in skirmishes and outlandish adventures elsewhere, but the palace remained unaffected.

Thank the Suits for small blessings. She had been able to recover for several days heavily medicated to allow for Corvie drugs working their magic. The doctor mentioned something about not healing as quickly as she could and poor overall condition for her age, but she brushed that off as little more than a reactio to the medicine combined with the extent of her injuries.

When a messenger from Hearts arrived to finalize a meeting between them all, she volunteered herself for the task. Perhaps she could learn more of the true details of the event in the company of other nobles.

[Kitty]

One of those nobles to be involved in .... adventures elsewhere happened to be the brightly colored son of his Highness Anatolius. When he had heard news of the gathering of the Courts, he didn't hesitate to offer up his services. The only real injury he'd suffered was a burn to the face which had left a scar across his nose and a few bruises. He thanked the Queens past that nothing else had happened to him or his group of, primarily, children. Well, the one little boy's paws had been quite full of glass at one point, but that had been self inflicted and the worst of their injuries.

With his sunglasses off and in his pocket, he hurried his steps to fall into stride with her Highness Thyme, flashing her a broad, friendly grin. He was excited, despite the grim circumstances that had spawned this meeting, and he hoped he might be able to bring a bit of, well.... anything but gloom to everyone who gathered. He had been told a few times he had the natural charisma to rival a Diamond. Maybe he could pass it off into good vibes.

This did have the potential to go very wrong rather quickly, depending on how well the other nobles that gathered had been dealing with the events.

[carcinoGeneticist]

The world all around him had gone insane. It had gone insane around his ears and dragged him down with it, just enough to unsettle the man. Even now, he was left pondering the events of that night and then things that had happened. He wanted on some level to pretend that none of it had happened, but there was a six-year old girl who's very existence was proof enough for the King.

In a way, having some form of responsibility was a relief. Even if it meant working with Peaches - though, with Vaska in the state he was in, he understood why the woman would also need something to focus on.

Once Apocalypse had slipped into the hated gray suit that went along with his title, he headed for the Capital to meet up with Peaches and hopefully get briefed on the situation as it currently stood before the others arrived. He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

It was still hard to believe.

Today, his presence was important on a level deeper than that simply of his title. After all, he had been there. Sure, he had also lost consciousness with time, but... There had been things he had seen that might be helpful.

When he arrived, he seated himself beside Peaches, raising an eyebrow at the woman. The papers were neatly in order before him, just waiting for his perusal. "Thank you," he murmured quietly, then gave her another glance. Wow. She was looking... quite good.

Sadie had not been entirely surprised to find herself invited to a Court-wide meeting between the Suits. It did surprise her that it had come from Hearts, but she had been dealing with the issue of replacing a dead Queen and the loss of a good number of Kings. There was still much to do, but she felt confident that between Ez and the remaining Kings, her Court would survive her absence for a few days.

If not - well, she had to rebuild everything else, didn't she?

It was a long ride to the Capital, but in a way, the woman was thankful for it. It gave her time to think about the people who were likely to be there. There was a pang of worry that Her Majesty of Spades would be present... But then, there had been dark whisperings that Donnie was no longer in a seat of power. Perhaps this way she could actually see the truth for herself. She sighed, giving Thalia a glance across the carriage. "This should be exciting,[/b]" She commented idly to the Yarrow mix.

[/|/afamere]

Sabe too had found it hard to believe that his own court was spared from all the mess that he had witnessed in the Court of Hearts. He gave a sigh of relief but knew that this could also be seen by someone else as a strange occurrence... he hopped that no one would jump to conclusions about the Clubs helping the funding of the Jossigy and Lowlander war. They were no fighters so it shouldn't be risen as a topic in his eyes.

Once the summons where announced at his courts did he leave the palace with as much haste as possible, even going against the wishes of the court physician. He took one of their own carriages and shared the ride with Thyme on the way there. He made sure that he had the appropriate documents in order so as to not be caught unaware of what the others may toss at him and his court. He shared most of this information with Thyme so that she would be better prepared than what she could have been. He wondered who all would come to such a meeting and wondered how many titled members of a higher rank would show.

Once arrived he would thank the carriage driver who had brought them and continued inside the prestigious inn. As he moved he looked about and noticed with much happiness that not too many were hurt as he had feared from some of the reports that he was able to get his hands on. Though he on the other hand... His proud rank and suit was shredded to across his chest though even the best of Corvies couldn't have done much with it, his right eye had a long gash over it and his back showed signs of abuse of the claw as well. He was glad that most of the injuries that came from the Queen of Hearts Xiven had healed, and even those from a whirling vortex of demons bent on killing him. He walked heavily on his cane with all these too apparent recent injuries showing. He gave a slight chuckle aloud... "I hope everyone else has a good story to tell as well..." he thought as he took his seat next to Thyme.

[Bee]

"Really?" Thalia asked curiously, meeting Sadie's gaze with rounded eyes and toying speculatively with the ends of her scarf. "With all the personalities involved I don't think it's possible to calculate exactly how things will pan out, but if I had to make a projection I'd say it stands a much higher chance of awkward tension devolving into aimless anger and/or a dance party. Which I think is exciting, so I hope you're right."

She made an effort of thinking forward and making things like Progress and getting things like Answers, but she also had insidious little thought-snakes of her Tosiek and her children, one of whom was worryingly Selkie and one of whom had barely been Returned and seemed more than moderately scrambled in the brain despite his best attempts to seem put-together and mature. She trusted Tosiek to care for them the short time she would be away, though, and she trusted him to relate to their hardships in a much more direct and helpful way than she could.

They arrived at a very nice-looking establishment, and walked in beside the Queen, seeing a mostly-readily-recognizable assortment of royalty. Purple, greenish, red and yellow, a fine mix but for their own arrival. "You and I ruin the rainbow," she told Sadie.

[Lucca]

The Court of Spades was a mess. Though it had lost fewer nobles to odd deaths (except for poor Zane), both Vessie and Mia had resigned from their positions shortly after the whole mess, and while Colin couldn't quite bring himself to blame them, it still made him angry enough that a few vases didn't survive the ordeal. He was ashamed of it later, that losing control of himself, and it didn't quite help that his reputation was already thrown off by the strange events surrounding his Rank up and his gaining of his title.

He also hadn't been sleeping well. Or, it was almost more accurate to say, he hadn't been sleeping. Between the curse he was under to see ghostly visions every other night, and the number of hours he'd been having to put in to prevent the Court of Spades from falling apart at the seams, not to mention the regular, garden variety nightmares when the ghosts didn't come...well. Though he didn't really have any physical injuries to speak of, the psychological ones were certainly taking their toll.

Despite that, he showed up to this important diplomatic meeting with a smile on his beak and his head held high. He nodded politely to the other nobles already there as he walked in, aware that, while not exactly late, he wasn't the first to arrive, either. "Greetings."

[Kari Muffin]

Peaches did her best not to smirk at the man's response. Did she detect a hint of surprise? That was rich. Shifted in her seat a bit as nobles started to filter into the room. It was going to be an interesting assortment of the Suits, that was for sure.

There were rumors about the Queen of Spades changing, but nothing had been properly confirmed with the chaos in the city. It was hard to get her connections to give her straight answers on top of making preparations, so she just had to sit and wait with everyone else.

The woman in the straight jacket turned to Apocalypse, "Will you be doing the introductory greetings and topics that should be covered today, or will I, Your Highness?"

---

Parsley had returned to the Court terribly confused at what had transpired. Apparently there was a new Queen, his Queen had been through quite a bit, and someone had kicked the bucket under suspicious means. The Court was a mess, and he did his best to help in affairs.

So when an invitation had arrived he offered to help. It was the least he could do, and he could handle himself fairly well in social situations. He had never expected for the Queen to want to go, but he wasn't about to argue anything.

He quietly followed, a few documents in hand.

[The Jenn]

A goodly collection from all of the Courts, wasn't it? Thyme noted His Highness Apocalypse - and how couldn't she? - with Her Excellence Peaches, who looked quite frankly amazing for her reported age. Made the wolf feel old.

Queens Sadie and Thalia had come from Diamonds, which was no small matter with how the recent catastrophe had decimated their number. Spades sent... aha, Spades sent her brother and the bird she'd heard was their new Queen. Had that been confirmed? Had it been a confrontation? She wasn't privy to many details.

Clubs seemed best represented, which pleased her. She and Nova would support Queen Sabe, as all of them had been embroiled in the events surrounding the Capital to some degree. So as not to put further pressure on the heron, who was recovering from injuries just as serious (if not more so) than her own because of an altercation with the Hearts Queen, she stepped forward and approached the pair of humans representing that Court. As they had been the ones to organize this rendezvous, it was only appropriate.

"Your Highness, Your Excellence, Clubs offers its regards and three of its titled members. His Majesty Sabe, His Excellence Casanova and I thank you for inspiring this gathering."

[Kitty]

He gave a courteous bow to the Hearts nobles before him, completely unaware that he'd met his Highness Apocalypse before .... but that had been long ago, back when he was a scythe and Nova was merely a clumsy puppy with big paws. Of course this human skin was quite a bit different from a wolf pup, so not even Rhi might not recognize him ... or remember really. That was pretty likely.

It was also quite possibly the best thing of the night that he had no idea that her Majesty Thalia had anything to do with the kidnapping that ultimately lead to his brother's disappearance. He could put all of his energy into not seeming overly cheerful, but he definitely could not fully stamp down that grin he always wore. Although tonight was a bit more for show then it was him actually feeling it ... he had some things on his mind but he was pretty determined to stay focused at the tasks at hand.

Hmmm, only one other Jack here from what he could see that made him feel rather... privileged actually.

When the Queens approached he'd make sure to give each of them a bow and a 'your majesty', waiting until all were near enough to make a full greeting instead of repeating it and sounding even more like a broken record.

It is a pleasure to finally meet you all.