10
07/26/2007

GM: In the afternoon after your long and wonderful night, while talking with Loren and Alma during their return of your well-behaved little one, Loren brings up his recent receipt of tickets to a new show by the Underways Troupe of Rajas. "Four tickets, actually... compliments of the Troupe Master. Would you two like to go, if we can arrange sitters?"

The show is in two days, at the end of the Troupe's run of the comedy you enjoyed.

Helena: (The play was moving to Jesby after playing at Hendrake a while as I recall, so is this the last of the days at Hendrake or the first at Jesby.)

GM: (This is the first days at Jesby. They were originally scheduled to replay the show that you and Saras had already seen, but now it seems that they intend to present a sequel or extended version of some sort, if you read the tickets right. "Return to Bottomless Sorrow" this is called, where the one you saw was, "Sorrow without Bottoms." Apologies for the lack of specifics previous.)

Helena: I exchange a long look with Saras. "We just went last night, to the shorter version or preview or whatever it was! Which is not to say we wouldn't go again for the opportunity to attend with you; it was quite well done.

"But, I don't know exactly how to explain... the writer of the show? We think it is someone involved with Amber, which makes the tickets awfully suspicious. I don't know enough about what we saw to explain well, but the author came on stage during the bows, and he... glowed with Trump." I gesture at the orb. "It was so strong I was a little damaged by it.

"Saras observed through me what I sensed. Perhaps he can explain it better?"

GM: Saras covers all in fair detail, including your discussion of theories after.

Loren thinks long and hard and then, "I will have to go, most likely. Lord Jesby will be there, and I do not think a bit of Trump strangeness will dissuade him." Alma hooks his arm. "You'll not go alone, now that I am fit to attend."

Then Alma asks, "Do you want to sit for us, if you are uncomfortable going?" She smirks at Saras. "I trust you are both tired enough to keep your attention on your siblings, eh?"

Helena: I give Alma a bright, innocent smile.

GM: She giggles. There is some indication that she would like to hear how your night went, if she can get you alone a while. *eg*

Helena: My smile becomes a little conspiratorial. perhaps...

GM: Perhaps at the dress fitting, her mind gently whispers.

Loren fights down his blush. "I think the center of the difficulty has little to do with how tired any of us might be... but rather whether this is a rock or a lion." One who mistakes rocks for lions is thought a fool... you remember from your youth ...but one who mistakes lions for rocks is easily eaten. "Helena, I would not be herded into my Ways over this mystery. Have you persuasion otherwise?" Though settled and quite politic, Loren is still not one to give conflict too wide a berth.

Helena: "I have no trouble with attending, actually, to further investigate what is happening here, and the intentions of whatever party is arranging this, though without some way of ... dampening the effect we may find it a little limiting." I look at Alma with the word "we."

"Do you think we can arrange someone to stay with the children at such short notice?"

GM: "I should think a Lord of Jesby could make an arrangement with three Turning's notice," Alma teases, and Loren nods. "I made some initial inquiries even before asking you, dear daughter. Easily done."

Saras made dinner for four. Do you continue this conversation, or steer discussion elsewhere?

Helena: Continuing the conversation about the Trump effect and the man we saw -- just to the extent I mention below ...

GM: You note that your seats are the left four in an eight seat Noble's box. With a day and a half to prepare, what would you do before the performance? Any thoughts on preparing or protecting yourself from the Trump overload you might face?

Helena: I have no thoughts at all on that, no. But I am asking Alma more directly now, and ask if Loren has any thoughts.

GM: Loren suggests some form of Trump defense that you don't quite understand the specifics of, but seems to involve him contacting you to provide a shield or shunt of some sort. "However," he adds, "that may limit what you can learn observationally." Alma volunteers to remain unshielded, "to provide a different perspective."

Helena: If everyone is okay with that arrangement, I will go along with it. Since I don't understand much about this I will be uneasy, but that is something of the risk that I accept.

GM: Alma's confidence may do something for your uneasiness... or not, as you believe.

Helena: If we are sharing a box, then dress becomes more of an issue. If Loren is doing the formal uniform thing, then I will as well. If it is to be social dress, then Alma and I will consult and get ready together.

GM: Loren is obliged to attend, but is not officiating. If he wore a uniform, it would be out of laziness; a sloth Alma would not tolerate. ;-)

Do you make immediate arrangements for a dressmaker?

Helena: For ourselves and the men... or at least to have us look good together? But only if we have time to do something properly. If not, then it's a trip to the closets.

GM: Loren and 'Zaran' are able to make an appointment with a haberdasher of some skill; Loren to update his look and Saras to create one for his new persona... though he did not look bad in his medical guild uniform at the last production. Saras begins to suggest that the two of you might do well in similar fashions, but the look Alma gives to bring him up short is nearly sufficient to kill a king asp.

Helena: Ouch. Poor man.

GM: "I will make some arrangements," Alma insists, and by morning, she has you booked with Verail of Thelbane, dressmaker to the Queens of Chaos. You served with one of Verail's sons briefly during the war. He gave good account of himself before dying. Some say that Verail has sought additional wives to replace the children he spent against Amber; at least his lust for life is not spent. Do you arrange a thank-you gift for the short notice? Alma makes no such recommendation, but you know she brings one.

Helena: Of course. Though I would like it to be a "rain check" -- if Saras agrees to create one of his statues representing Alma and me wearing the dresses Verail creates, with him holding our hands, presenting us... ?

Otherwise an order of several bolts of one of Jesby's most exotic silks...

GM: Perhaps a single bolt as an initial thanks, and then the statue as the after gift? That would be most politic, you figure, and Saras is willing... though he would keep a duplicate for himself.

Anything that night? The appointment is fairly early the next morning.

Helena: Nice family time with Saras, Avye, and the fur kids.

Besides that, doing maintenance paperwork and communications on the mine project, no.

GM: You receive a Trump call from Alma at your agreed upon time, which proves to be a fairly psychedelic experience. Your eye echoing her eye echoing Trump back and forth, plus the background experience of your minds touching, however peripherally, repeating the blue waves again. Alma seems to be able to process past it, but you find it quite distracting.

You think she's in the outer Ways of Verail's Royal Studio, but the background is swimming a bit through all the blue. Alma says something pleasant that you can't quite make out, and then extends her hand to bring you through.

Helena: I assume that since it was at an "agreed upon time" that I am ready and appropriately dressed.

GM: Quite, though the specifics of dress are not of much consequence. The Royal Studio provides a sumptuous bath and spa treatment as preamble to fittings, befitting truly royal treatment.

Helena: Squinting, I accept her hand and go through to her.

GM: You arrive, the Trump effect falls away, and then Alma asks, "Are you all right?"

Helena: "Did you not experience that strange doubling, Trump effect? Or perhaps it was just a little easier for you to sort through it all." I shake my head. "Really, I'm okay now."

GM: "The little blue overlay? Yes. It troubled you?" She puts an arm around you, concerned.

Helena: I refrain from giving her the evil eye. "Mmm. Quite bit."

GM: "Tonight, I'll scout, and your father will keep you clear of it. No problem." All quite motherly matter-of-fact.

This is certainly the place - great crimson gates sweeping skyward, marbled purple and red flagstones beneath your feet. Along the path ahead, ornate fountains of living crystal, spraying sparkling waters like kaleidoscopes. Beyond the fountains, demon maidens come to take whatever encumbers you, leading you into curtained areas for steaming mineral baths. Alma suggests a paired bath, that you might gossip a while. Your privacy is assured here, by the honor of Thelbane.

Helena: Of course, I accept.

GM: Once you are both settled, Alma leans close, conspiratorially. "So, what was it that turned your father a ghost when he called?"

Helena: I raise an eyebrow in her direction, smiling. "So he didn't mention," I say, knowing he probably did - or at least gave it mostly away with his reaction.

"Let me just say I was very sleepy when he called."

GM: She pouts a bit. "He changed your diapers, Helena. I seriously doubt a naked nap would discomfort him like that."

Helena: "You make teasing you too much fun." I grin more broadly. "Zaran, sorcerous handcuffs, a tree, and a few prominent love bites were also involved. Also shapeshifting, at which my man has apparently been practicing in an effort to catch up with me."

GM: Alma claps. "You have rejuvenated our... Zaran quite a bit."

Helena: "He wasn't exactly on his last legs when I met him."

GM: "Not so much, I suppose." A slight withholding there.

Helena: I tilt my head curiously.

GM: "He did not seem the same man to me, after he overcame his cancer. The tales no longer matched the man so much."

Helena: "How was he different?"

GM: "Smaller. More measured. I think a taste of mortality changed him. He had faced death before, but never from within."

Helena: "Do you think he was... diminished, or just thinking about things in a new way?"

GM: "I'm not sure. I knew him only as they wheeled him in, wracked. But I sensed... it felt as though he spoke his history like it happened to another, larger man."

Helena: "He has spoken very little of that time. I wonder if he feels the same now, or all the same? I know he took it hard, that the particular course of the war made his position and service... problematic for Hendrake."

GM: "I don't know. I'm surprised... well, perhaps not. He told me stories because he had nothing else he could do. With you, perhaps it is different."

Helena: "I think at first he did not want to... and since he has left some of it behind. But I do wonder. I suppose he will tell me over time.

"I am not sure whether to ask." I frown.

GM: "I don't know. He might not want to. I don't know if he needs to. With me, it was easy. We did not share a bed. And, frankly, I was crazy. What did my opinion matter?"

Helena: "I would like to think sometime that he will not be concerned that he can change my opinion of him so easily."

GM: "Most men are more fragile creatures than they dare admit. They do not love us less for their fears, I think."

Helena: "I will try to remember that." I give a wry smile. "I don't doubt his love."

GM: "Good. He will take strength from that.

"You are a good wife." Giggling, "I'm not sure I'd trust Loren to tie me to anything."

Helena: I raise an eyebrow. "Could he even be induced to do so!"

GM: "I would so like to try!" laughing.

Helena: I smile, looking down, though not from embarrassment. "I'm not entirely sure how we ended up... where we ended up. Or actually, it started as a bit of a joke after a fencing match, shortly after we first met. And then he had made these... bracelets as a follow up to that joke, and after our match, he gave me the ring. I can feel my face move through a series of expressions, including the loss of him that came so fresh upon our engagement.

"I suppose, last night, I wanted to banish everything that came in between then and now." My grin returns. "Zaran was most cooperative and helpful."

GM: She smiles. "I thought you seemed less troubled, though I could hardly tell on first greeting you from all that squinting." She winks her silver eye.

Helena: "We also talked a lot, beforehand. Before going to see that play, actually."

GM: "Did he share in kind then, or just listen? Not that one bests the other...."

Helena: "He had questions, but didn't really tie them back much to his own experiences."

GM: "Perhaps he could not. Even I did not endure all that you did."

Helena: "That is not true."

GM: "You endured without breaking. You persevered without another mind to absorb the worst of...." She comes up short, not seeking this debate, or the darkness that might come through it.

Helena: I kiss her cheek. "There is no comparing one experience to another."

GM: "No. Thankfully not."

Helena: "We are here, together, now."

GM: "Safe enough. Well enough. Blessed."

Helena: "And loved, and loving."

GM: "Yes. In this sumptuous place, free to discuss trees and games and our darling husbands, flawed creatures that they are.

Helena: I laugh again. "Yes. It is more than some blessing of luck. It is work, and joy."

GM: "Well worth it." She laughs. "Do you think your locksmith husband would accept my commission?"

Helena: "In what way?"

GM: "I just wonder if Loren could handle the surprise. If he would, from me."

Helena: "I think you'd have to ask him yourself. I hate to think of him trying to decide whether to help you with anything that might surprise Loren."

GM: "I will, then." She sighs. "Though we love again, I tire of being 'handled' and comforted so." A little laugh. "Let him fight me a bit."

Helena: "You wonder sometimes then if you are seeing the real man beneath."

GM: "Sometimes." A little smile. "Did Zaran let you see deeper when you played?"

Helena: One side of my mouth quirks up hard. "I think so. Yes, actually, I think I did."

GM: "Was it good to see him?" hardly believing it couldn't be.

Helena: "Very good. He showed me his original form."

GM: Alma seems surprised at that.

Helena: "And the things that he wanted--when he could win them from me.

"And also what he wanted to give to me." I get more shy at that.

GM: A smile, a little laugh. Then a gentle hand at your shyness. "Did he surprise you?"

Helena: I nod, smiling.

GM: "What did you let him learn of you?"

Helena: I look a little surprised, not having thought of that. "I did give away some surprises that will only work once in a battle." With a chuckle.

GM: She chuckles, softly. "More than a little of your mystery remains, then."

Helena: "I think so. Also perhaps he did not know how much I would enjoy being completely his; I did not know..."

GM: "It is a relief to be possessed by one who loves." She smiles, perhaps at some memory, or is it just the thought...?

Helena: "Ask him. If nothing else convinced him to help you, that would."

GM: "Heh. I would trade something more concrete... but perhaps as a bribe over-top." Her eyes go to scheming

Helena: I kiss her cheek again. "Do you have a plan for our dresses, or shall we leave ourselves in the hands of the dressmaker?"

GM: "I fear the dressmaker has plans for us." Smiling ominously.

Helena: "Excellent!" That is my preference. "That is a relief."

GM: "I explained only the least of our requirements, and he immediately claimed to have whatever we needed in one." Laughter now, to remember the conversation she must have had.

Helena: "What were the 'least of our requirements?'"

GM: "I mentioned that we might be leaving early, and he began going on about dancing and such. Quite the character, this one."

Helena: "You think we'll be leaving early?"

GM: "I meant to hint at needing to be able to move in them, if things got 'complicated'. Whether he took my meaning or another wasn't clear from his words."

Helena: Ah so.

GM: "I guess we'll find out."

Helena: "I suppose we will."

GM: The attendants come for you, moving you to massage tables now.

Helena: (oh, bliss.)

GM: And indeed it is.

After a long and liberating massage, performed by shape-shifters for shape-shifters, you and Alma are given diaphanous wraps that seem to sense the temperature you would be most comfortable at before being ushered into a grand fitting room for two. Great lounging couches alternate with seven meter high mirrors to dominate the curved walls. Light pours down from a great arcane fixture some ten or twelve meters above, sometimes steady and bright, other times ranging through all manner of illumination and shadow; every imaginable lighting one might encounter while so well dressed.

Verail awaits. He is a slight and aged man, but not stooped or gnarled yet. His eyes are bright to see you both, but perhaps you most in particular. What plans lurk behind his eyes?

"Welcome, Unheralded Heroes of Jesby. I am at your humble service." He sweeps through a deep bow that you imagined would make him creak, but he is supple as a willow.

Helena: I let Alma lead the way in this, as her status takes precedence over mine, and she arranged the meeting.

I am prepared to present my gift (which Alma knows about) at whatever point she signals is appropriate - before or after the fittings / design session.

GM: The gifts were handed off to attendants as you entered. Alma instructed them briefly, so you'd imagine that presentation would immediately follow the items' reappearance, if they haven't already been received in some fashion.

"Thank you for your kind welcome, Lord Verail," Alma replies. "We are in your debt for making this time for us on such short notice."

Verail bows again, a smaller gesture of thanks. "I have followed recent events quite closely. Pardon my candor, but, I have very much been lying in wait for such an opportunity to offer my services. Our Bachelor King," said with such disdain, "has had little use for my services, and less honor still for those who sacrifice for the good of all Chaos." He bows to you first, and then to her.

Helena: I nod slightly back, made uncomfortable by such talk, especially after so long.

GM: It takes but this moment's exchange to realize that such commentary may well be part and parcel of the price of the dresses.

Verail continues. "Perhaps to see Chaos' heroes dressed as queens will move him, and shake the cowards behind him." He rubs his hands in anticipation. "Shall we begin?"

Helena: I eye Alma's reaction. "I am looking forward to seeing what you will create for us. Mother, shall we work in these forms or our demon forms?"

GM: Alma seems content enough, though she seemed to sense your discomfort at his first words.

Before Alma can answer regarding forms, Verail explains, "What queen would be forced to choose? On my honor, it will suit both." He gestures to the dressing dias of white marble and gold. "Which of you will be first?" His eyes alight on you, but quickly after give Alma her due.

Helena: I take my cue from her, and go forward if she gives any subtle indication, or let her take the lead as seems more appropriate.

GM: Alma lets you go first, her nod almost imperceptible to anyone who did not know her well.

Helena: Either way, when I go up to the dias I smile more warmly at Verail. "You would like to see both forms now, or work first on this...?" I gesture at my human form. Either way, I put myself in his hands for the fitting and design, and pose comfortably, changing as he directs. While Alma and I have not worked with someone of such stature in the fashion world before, we have certainly done enough haute couture to understand how these things work.

GM: Verail has you begin with Human form, and you remain so for a large part of the fitting. At first, you were dismayed at the layers and weight he was assembling, but closer to completion, it seems lighter... almost self-supporting. Your warrior training notes that its hems and seams and layers have the subtlest provision for arms... though not in small measure. Two sword scabbards, shield sleeves, and a multitude of smaller weapon sheaths grace the design from head to toe. Truly fit for a Queen of Chaos.

Do you seek to have it rendered in Jesby's colors, something more neutral, or according to some other design?

Helena: [Loren's lineage colors are Jesby blue with red and gold twinned bands; Jesby colors are blue and black. But anything that Verail likes with our coloration would be fine, so long as it is not some code color for something offensive if there is such a thing.]

Colors are Jesby's blue and dusky black, with sapphire and diamond jewelry in hair and at the neckline. Different settings, same stones for Mother and me.

GM: You need to decide how much weaponry the dress is hiding.

Helena: military dress sword on the outside... or is that gauche?

GM: Not terribly... though you may want to alert the tailor to alter the line a shade.

Helena: Yes, we'd have told the designer that originally. If the designer has any hint of objection, I'll just take something hidden.

GM: No objection. The left hidden will be removed to ease the line of the overt.

Helena: Interior weapons will include a weighted microfiber garrote, two long daggers, and bracer bars that extend down the forearms.