| Logs |
2004 September 12
| Idlewild |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
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| Realms: Idlewild Logs |
September 12
suddenly Melierel and Anisaire are facing off in a quiet but intense discussion, Lauren and Grennit have moved off a ways to have their own whispered consultation, and Kip is looking bewildered and lost.
Steven glances to Aiden. "Uhm, Aiden? When Sol had that... ahem. Uhm, 'issue,' a while ago... might that help here and now? or something like that?"
Aiden nods at Steven. "Yeah.. It might, I guess, if they'd even consider it.."
Kip gnaws his lip til it bleeds, then tries to wade into Melierel and Anisaire's discussion, which seems to be composed primarily of a variety of "You can't!" and "Oh yes I can." Interestingly enough, it switches off at one point to Melierel saying "I won't" with regards to something, and Anisaire pushing some heated but not-quite-audible issue.
Unable to actually make a dent in their attention, Kip's patience erodes and he eventually yells, "I WANT MY BABY."
Grennit has just stomped off fuming from her conversation with Lauren. She stares at Kip, along with most of the rest of the gathering.
Aiden winces at that, his eyes going back to Soleil and the necklace.
Lauren also winces at Kip's words, in an unusual reversal of roles.
Steven gives a start at Kip's shout, almost falling backward where he's sitting. He holds his breath, waiting to see what happens next.
Anisaire says, "You can HAVE it," then reconsiders. "No. You can convince ME to have it, and then you can come get it. Start trying. I'm listening." Her eyes flash, not literally.
Melierel says, "Wait. Kipyranyllie, what will you do with a baby? A new baby?"
Kip says, "Work it out later. Ani? What do you want? I think it's maybe our turn to listen, not yours. You said something earlier, but..."
Aiden is still sitting quietly, leaning against the wall of the little room and hoping that all of this stomping around isn't going to send them all careening towards the ground.
Anisaire looks around, points at Lauren. "She listened. I want a conference to discuss terms; a regular council. I want her on my side. I want..." she looks directly at Lauren, lip and finger wavering, and says in humbler tones, "Will you be on my side?"
Lauren blinks, and looks slightly less than abysally miserable. "At a...council? I don't know anything about those, but...well..." She looks at Anisaire's stomach, then at Kip. "All right. I got your back."
So far, the treetop room has done nothing worse than sway under Aiden's rump... although it is definitely swaying, just a little. Slowly.
Steven blinks a little in surprise. "Er.. I'm sorry. But how do you mean by a council?"
Swaying is no particular issue. That's what trees do. Aiden fails to be at all worried by this.
The defiantly confrontational Anisaire looks almost pitifully grateful at Lauren, and walks toward her. Answering Steven as she goes, Anisaire says "We're going to treat this like any other serious issue that has come up that affects the families... only in this case, we are the elders, and we decide the issue. There are two sides, and we either come to an agreement here that Kip and I can both live with... or we don't, and I don't keep the baby."
Kip murmurs to the Grey-Worlders on his side, "The issue is between me and Ani, but we get counsel before we make each other offers and try to come to specific terms of agreement. Counsel... is you." He pauses, hopefully. "..Please. If you'll help me think."
Aiden nods at Kip, "Of course, Kip. Where do you want to start?"
Lauren nods, gloomily, as Ani comes over. This is NOT going to go well. Somebody, probably everybody, is going to be very upset by this time this council thingy is over.
Grennit looks mildly apologetic and heads toward Anisaire's side of the room. "She could use another head. The boys have quite a few already."
Kip just nods to Grennit.
Steven frowns a littlem, his mind working. His gut instinct -- and what he has learned -- is that if at all possible the baby should be allowed to come to term. Especially if one parent wants it and the other is at least amenable to bringing it to term. Even so... he wonders briefly if Ani is going to stonewall just out of spite. All the same... since he's never had a baby or brought one to term he just doesn't have the experience or knowledge about what it entails. He nods a little to Kip, settling in with him and Aiden.
Looking at Aiden, Kip says "Start with something we can offer her. What do you think she wants? She'll ask, when we start talking, but... if we can think of anything to add to it, or that I'm happier about, it would certainly help."
Aiden tilts his head to the side, thoughtful. "What she really seems to want the most is to have a voice. Seems like she doesn't have one at the moment.. I don't know if that's a product of her family, or because of some other circumstance, though."
Steven nods a little to Aiden and Kip. "It seems like much of what she has had up until now has not been her choice." He considers for a moment. "Since the families don't seem to want to give that to her, what do you have to offer?"
Kip's head tilts to match Aiden's. He blinks, "A voice..?" and then nods at Steven, understanding dawning. "A choice. Well." He winces. "I can offer to take the baby after she has it, freeing her of... well, taking care of a baby." He looks a little worried. "I need to give her something that makes her happy in the meantime, though. What? I'm not going to be here... I can't go back when I might pop into a room out of thin air and let the whole family know I'm a freak. What can I give her when I can't give her anything that depends on me being there?"
Aiden says, "Maybe you can be there. If there isn't here."
Kip winces. "I could take her away? That... well. That would put the responsibility back on me to keep her happy." He doesn't look happy about that himself, but he does square his shoulders and take a deep breath. "Okay. So, I can offer to take her away."
Steven frowns a bit. "Let me try a different tack. We know what she wants, ultimately. What do you want, Kip? What is the best result of this that you wouldn't even dare to hope for?"
Aiden says, "It doesn't have to be permanant. I've got a couple things for you to think about. Back home, years ago, if a girl got inconveniently pregnant, they'd send her away to convalesce from a made-up illness while she had the child, which was then adopted and she'd return to society."
Kip perks up a lot. "I wouldn't have to stay with her forever?" He looks awfully relieved. "I mean, I hardly know her, it sounds awful, but..."
Looking at Steven, Kip regards the dark-skinned monk with a very serious face again. "I'm thinking... just a moment."
Aiden says, "There's another option that I can think of. Kip? You've seen the necklace that Sol wears? You know what it is?"
Still abstracted, Kip answers "Seen it... and no. Does it mean something?"
Aiden says, quietly, "It's my daughter."
If Kip looked confused before, he looks more confused now. "It, um. It is? In... what way?"
Steven blinks a bit, looking at Aiden. This is the first he's heard that the... uhm, the contents -- no, the baby -- no, the whatever-it-is -- augh, the opre-baby-like-being in the necklace was a daughter."
Aiden says, "The timing was really bad for her conception. We found a mage who was able to put her spirit in the necklace so that when the situation improved, she could be born in safety."
Kip blinks yet again. "That's... wow. That's wonderful. I'm glad, Aiden... is that really an option for me?" He looks thrilled, as he turns to Steven. "I think that my ideal choice would include that... I don't mind having a child. I'm not exactly used to it yet, but she's mine." He blushes. "Or he. But, the important thing is that I want to be there for it. I can't wish its existence away. I couldn't do that. Now, the rest of perfection..." he looks downcast, then says "I like Lauren better than Anisaire. I knew Anisaire for a day or two before she... you know. I'm sorry for her but I don't want to be tied to her too. I want a chance to figure things out and see what I want. Who I want it with."
Kip finishes, "In a perfect world, I could go back to my family.. they wouldn't mind what I am... Meli wouldn't have to be married to Ani, and neither would I. I could keep exploring, and not choose between friends and family and child."
Aiden nods, "I'd definitely advise against getting yourself tied to her in a permanant fashion. I appreciate that you want your child, though. It'll be a challenge, sure, but I think it's one you're up to and it's not like you won't have a lot of support."
Steven nods a little, tapping his chin thoughtfully. He thinks Kip has the right way to approach it. "Well, that's a start, certainly. I think she might like it too, since it won't involve her bringing the baby to term." He glances to Aiden. "We'd need to get in touch with her somehow. She's way off between Winter and Spring.o
Aiden nods at Steven, "Realistically, it may mean that she brings the child to term and then entrusts it to Kip. I don't know if the solution that we used will work in this case, because she's so pregnant, but it would be worth a try."
Steven nods a little. "True. We'd have to ask."
Melierel says quietly, "If she disappears, there must be a very good reason that I can give... and thus far I cannot think of one. My family has surely noticed that I do not dote upon my wife. My brother has disappeared, and she was the last to see him. If my wife disappears, I will be suspect. Enough people blame her already that someone will think of revenge as a motive."
Aiden looks at Melierel. "How do you feel about a vacation?"
Melierel's mouth twitches after a moment of staring at Aiden in disbelief. "Aside from the worry of war between families without me, and the worry of not being able to return without a very good reason for my departure... it sounds surprisingly appealing."
Aiden shrugs, "Tell them I forced you to come with me at arrowpoint."
Melierel actually grins. "And Anisaire, as well? Stolen separately, and I was caught giving chase?"
Aiden nods. "Sure. Why not?"
Kip looks terribly relieved when his brother laughs softly and says, "Then by all means, take me captive."
Aiden looks around. "I seem to have left my bow behind. When I have it, I'll surely threaten you with it if you'd like the formality."
Steven frowns a bit. "This is contingent on Ani wanting this method as well, doesn't it. And, Aiden... what happens when all this is over? We won't be exactly welcome in Fall anymore."
Aiden's answer is a little frustrated. "Zhi's said it a dozen times. We won't be welcome in this part. We're not welcome here anyway.. We're wraiths."
Steven says wryly, "I'd really like to know what that means, too, sometime...."
Kip looks at Aiden and Steven, and the quieter elves that have been listening and nodding to various points. "So... are we ready to discuss offers with Ani?" Melierel nods solemnly to Aiden regarding the bow, and Zhi nods as well. "The rest of Fall is open to you all, Steven... and with Melierel's aid, perhaps someday this part will be as well."
Aiden says, "Seems obvious enough to me. Just because we're not welcome in one country, doesn't mean we're not welcome in the country next door."
Steven says, "No, Aiden... I mean the 'wraith' part."
Aiden says, seriously, "Seeing Lauren and Anisaire next to each other, I don't want to linger on the possibilities."
Aiden nods at Kip, "I'd say we're ready."
Steven glances over to Ani and Lauren, frowning a little, and nods. "Right." I don't think I'd like to see my 'opposite number' here. The implications for that are a bit disturbing. But why here, in Fall, and not elsewhere in this world? He nods to Kip, focussing on the here and now.
Melierel looks at Steven and says helpfully, "I am not certain that you are wraiths, now. I do not believe you are, in fact. Wraiths are the half-seen, those who wander our woods in strange attire, and they are only shadows of people, no substance... but if you touch one, you may vanish to their world and never return. They come to steal lives. Some who were taken are seen again, fleetingly, as wraiths themselves. They never return to life."
Melierel adds quietly, "They do have a certain... taste about them. You share it. But you are clearly not thieves of our lives, and you can be touched." He shrugs.
Steven frowns a little and nods. Inside, though, his mind races anew. Maybe a 'soft place' between here and the Grey World? We'll have to be careful. If we want to stay here, we'll have to avoid 'wraiths' as best as possible.
Aiden is quiet, but thoughtful. So.. There's a leak here? They're seeing a slip through from our side to the other.. a shadow of a person walking down the street in the Grey World where the forest is here maybe? That would mean that we didn't so much fall into a different world as we did take a slight step to the side from our own.
Kip takes a deep breath. "I'm going to open discussion now." He shoots them a grateful look. "Thank you. Thank you all."
Steven breaks himself from his thoughts and smiles to Kip, nodding. "Good luck."
The simultaneous consultation of the women has been, in some respects, remarkably similar. As the groups split into two, Lauren and Grennit went to join Anisaire.
"So how does this work? If they can't convince you that it's worth it to stay married to Melierel and pregnant, then you get to do something about it and no one can stop you?" Lauren looks hopeful.
Anisaire looks like she hadn't actually thought of it quite that way before. "I... I don't have to stay married? But I'm married. It's done." She blinks.
"Ani," says Lauren, presuming the use of a nickname in this very sisterly sort of environment, "look. Just because you're a girl doesn't mean you have to do everything they say. There's always SOMETHING you can do. You could just leave if you wanted. Linden did."
"Leave and go where?" Ani says bitterly. "Eat what? Live where? I'm not trained to hunt because I'm not a boy. I hate sewing. And I'm pregnant. I'm going to swell and I hope you know how to get rid of it if I lose because I'm bluffing. Unless I just jump out of a tree or stab myself in the stomach, neither of which bode well for ME, I have no idea what to do." Ani pauses. "And who's Linden?"
"She's from Summer," Lauren explains. "Her husband was horrible to her, so she came with us and now she's happily running with the deer. She's better now." "Also," Lauren adds, "I'm not bluffing. At least I don't think I am." She looks at Grennit. "Probably. If you want to try, I'll do what I can."
Grennit says without looking at Lauren, "Is death really better, Anisaire?"
Anisaire answers Grennit first, after giving Lauren an odd look about the deer thing. "Melierel's not actually an unfair person... to anyone but me. He sleeps on the floor, he won't touch me, he doesn't even talk to me unless he has to. I'm young, and I feel like I'm shrivelling up already into a thin, hard elder ready to blow away. I wanted something worth living for, something special. As long as I'm married to Melierel... and bound by my own body... I'm not getting any closer to that, and there's only so long a person can go on like that. With no hope for anything better." She looks at Lauren again. "So. Leave and go where? Do what? I want a better life, if I can't have love. I definitely want sex, if I can't have love. It wasn't worth all this, but it is awfully nice, the times I've tried it." She blushes a little, raising her chin defiantly. "But only the men get to talk about that. Girls do it and they're dirty."
That gets Lauren's dander up. "Like fucking HELL it does," she says, levelly. "If Meli and Kip can't come up with some magic solution to make you happy, then they don't DESERVE you and Grennit and I are going to do something about that."
Lauren nods, satisfied with herself. And hopes fervently that Grennit's not still ticked off with her.
Anisaire looks grateful. Grennit looks calm and says nothing to either agree or disagree. Ani looks at Lauren. "So... what do we ask for?" She seems to take Lauren at her word, eerily similar face full of trust. "What are our terms? And, um, what do we do if they won't meet them?"
Lauren tugs some hair over her shoulder and fusses. "Um. I guess we want whatever YOU want. If that's Meli not being a complete asshole, cool. If it's not having to raise the baby...one way or another, um...that's cool too. Maybe it's both. And if they can't handle you wanting things like that, we steal you."
Lauren corrects herself hastily. "Wait, no, don't say it like that though. Just say you'll...um, remove yourself. That'll make 'em WORRY."
"Steal me?" Anisaire actually looks delighted. "Oooh. REMOVE myself. And then.. vanish! Dead, or worse-- but they'll never know to be sure!" She practically cackles, only it's light and disgustingly melodious.
"People are going to hate us for this," Lauren says solemnly, but...damn it, it's too deliciously swashbuckling NOT to appeal, and eventually she breaks a grin. "I kinda hope it's enough to convince 'em and kinda NOT."
Anisaire giggles outright, and looks about a thousand times more likable then she did when she was kicking Kip. "So... are we ready to start talking to them? I could demand sex. That would probably make us lose the deal."
Still grinning, Lauren elbows Grennit and nods. "And demand he does the cooking too. That'll show him."
Anisaire looks wistful. "I really want to be touched. Even by my husband." The cooking makes her GRIN. "He already does. I'm a terrible cook." She winks, and takes a deep breath. "I'm ready."
"Right then." Lauren squares her shoulders and prepares to look suitably dour. "Let's lay it down."
Kip stands and walks a few steps forward. Anisaire does the same, both backed by their supporters and counsellors. Kip coughs. "We, uh. Declare the proceedings open. Now."
Lauren makes a discouraging little snort, just to get the right mood going.
Aiden looks completely and utterly unruffled.
Steven remains quiet and mild, watching the 'proceedings' for the moment silently.
Anisaire nods, and says "We are ready to bring our requests to the table. In return for continuing this child-- we want sex, and our freedom to go where we please after you have the baby."
Kip chokes on whatever he was about to say next. Melierel looks like he's having trouble breathing.
Steven looks like you could bowl him over with a feather at that.
Kip finally manages to say, in suitably horrified tones, "What, ALL of you?"
Aiden laughs. He slips right up and does it out loud at first, too.. Finally, he drops his head to cover the grin, but the shaking shoulders give it away.
Lauren leans over to whisper something to Anisaire. It's not quite quiet enough to keep the guy side of the room from hearing her inform Anisaire that "he CAN'T have the baby, he doesn't have the PARTS".
Aiden's not the only one laughing. Sol cracks up and absolutely loses it, sitting on the floor. Zhi actually doesn't, but his face twitches. Seodil's eyebrows go up and he grins. Grennit makes a sound closely resembling "snork" and leans in to whisper to Lauren in turn, "Wait... CAN we work that in for all of us?" with a huge grin.
"...sure," Lauren mumbles to Grennit, after a contemplative pause and an increasing blush. "Sex for everybody. Sure."
Steven blinks. "Er...." He coughs. "Uhm, the, uh, issue at hand, please?"
Anisaire apparently didn't mean it quite that way. She turns hot pink and says solemnly, "Um, no. Just me. Negotiate with them separately." And then winks. "I, however, am not stone. I have been married for five months and my husband has not touched me at all. I am lonely, Kip. I have no friends here and your family does not trust me. If I am to keep sane for the rest of the time required to have this child, I need some kind of touch. I know I'm not getting love. But I insist on some contact, because I'm getting older and drier and more alone every day without it. So. Part of the deal is that you keep me sane. If you won't touch me, then-- your brother was willing to marry me for you and your child. Perhaps he'll be willing to negotiate my sanity as well, for a limited time. The terms of that touch can be discussed privately."
Anisaire takes another deep breath. "Essentially, you have to make me happy enough not to... not to do something on my own about being unhappy with my life and position, which you helped put me in. While I'm still stuck, it's your problem too. After that's done with, I want the freedom to go look for something else to bring meaning to my life. I don't want to come back and be married. To either of you. Say that I died. It'll be the truth if you don't meet my terms-- an active attempt to be nice to me, which involves not avoiding touching me, and my freedom once our goal is accomplished."
Kip listens, eyes wide and looking a little frozen. He nods as she finishes, saying plaintively "May I... have a moment to discuss this with my counsel?"
Aiden puts a hand to his temple as if he's sprung a headache suddenly. This is, of course, exactly what's happened. Great. Force them to do what you want them to on penalty of your death. You're going to hold them hostage to your whims and tastes and if Kip wants the baby, he's not going to have any other choice. You selfish bitch.
Ani nods gravely. Kip manages not to scurry when he turns and goes back a few paces to say at a fierce whisper, "We covered everything but the touching!"
Aiden frowns, "Why do I get the feeling she's going to hold you hostage with that, too. Tell her she'll have the freedom to pursue who she wants, but that your council advises not agreeing to terms that make you uncomfortable?"
Soleil scowls. "Tell her she's a-- yeah, ok. Aiden said it better."
Steven murmurs, "The goal is so that you both can find somethign you find mutually acceptable. Holding her life and the child's life hostage is... well, bluntly, not good."
Melierel says, "I have nothing to add to that. They speak well, Kip... and if it comes to that, yes, I will deal with her. But please don't tell her that unless you're desperate. I do not like her, Kip."
Lauren offers whispered counsel while the guys confer. "Maybe you should have just said the sex, Ani," she murmurs. "They look kind of...disgruntled."
Kip nods, pale and strained, and goes back to address Ani. Anisaire is looking no less strained. She murmurs to Lauren, "Or maybe I shouldn't have. You can still steal me... right? Even if they won't let me go."
Lauren nods, and then returns her attention to Kip's return offer.
Kip says bluntly, "Ani, I'm not comfortable with the sex, and it's not fair to make it an all-or-nothing agreement with threats. I'll give you your freedom, and I can say confidently that Melierel will not pursue you when you leave. You don't need to worry about the marriage."
Anisaire looks at Kip. She appears smaller as her shoulders sag. "Kip, I don't have anything else to bargain with. You have everything, and I'm trapped, and tired, and when people get tired and miserable enough they are willing to give up if it's not looking any better. Is it asking you that much to make it better? There doesn't have to be sex. I just want something pleasant. I've been effectively shunned since you left. I've been spoken to more today than in the entire time since I last saw you."
Aiden sighs internally at the unfairness of this whole situation. He hopes she'll at least listen Kip's offer out.
Kip says, "You're not trapped, if you listen to my offer. There may be a way to keep the baby without you having to finish... growing it."
Anisaire's focus sharpens visibly. "Go on."
Lauren blinks across the room at her 'siblings'. "What the hell?" she mouths, silently.
Kip says, "Magic. I know someone who's already done it. Just come with us, and we'll try it. If it doesn't work, I'll do whatever you want to keep you happy til you've had it naturally and then you can go."
Steven mouths, "Later," to Lauren, nodding to Aiden as if to say 'His idea!'
Aiden grins and ducks his head to cover it.
Lauren frowns at Steven, and turns a very unimpressed look toward Aiden.
Anisaire's face is full of rising hope. "But you think it'll work, or you wouldn't be offering that."
Kip smiles a quiet little smile. "Yes." He glances back at Aiden, trusting.
Aiden gives Kip a reassuring smile. If she can't do it, I'm going to be the biggest asshole in this world or the Grey world.
Lauren's eyes are still trained on Aiden. He can't do it.
"I'll agree if you also agree to talk to me," Anisaire says. "Melierel doesn't have to, everyone else on your side may hate me, but I don't know how long it's going to be and I need some kind of promise it's not going to be as lonely as it's been. I can try to get by without touch, but at least try to talk to me like you don't hate me."
Kip just nods. "I agree to that."
Anisaire closes her eyes. "Then it's done. I agree, and we go. You talk to me on the journey, and we will go free the child and each other." Her hands are shaking noticeably before she puts them behind her back.
Kip bows briefly to the blind Anisaire. "Then this council is complete." He turns and smiles tentatively at "his" side.
Ani sits down and puts her face in her hands.
Aiden stays quiet. Nothing won, nothing lost. Maybe we'll be able to get them sorted.
Hey, wait a goddamn minute. People were supposed to be angry and unreasonable and then Lauren was supposed to be able to do the righteous empowering thing and have adventures and eventually come back and have Kip for herself. This is NOT how things were supposed to go. "Aiden?" she asks, coolly. "Steven? C'mere." She takes a few steps away from Ani.
Aiden walks over to where Lauren is. "Yeah?"
Steven blinks a bit, andnods, moving over to where Lauren is.
"You're both assholes," Lauren informs her brothers. "What did you tell him we could do?"
"Fuck you too, Lauren." Aiden doesn't say it jokingly, either. "We're going to take him to someone that might be able to safely store the child for a while, just like my daughter."
Steven folds his arms, remaining quiet and letting Aiden give the details of it, for now.
"You don't have a daughter. Steven, what's going on?" Lauren turns a plaintive face to Steven. "Make him make sense."
Aiden says, "Yes, I do, Lauren."
Steven sighs a bit. "All right. Before you showed up, Lauren, Soleil had an... accident... with something we found in a treasure horde. And for a little while Sol was a 'she." He glances at Aiden. "To make a long story most mercifully discreet, Before Sol got the curse lifted she was with child. That's where Aiden's daughter comes from.
Aiden continues with Steven's train of thought. "We're not ready to have her yet, nor in a place that is stable and safe enough to bring a child into. So, she's being held for now."
Lauren swallows. "At least you didn't knock up Seodil too," she says.
Aiden's left eye twitches just a little.
Lauren catches that twitch. "YOU DIDN'T! Oh my god, you DID!"
Aiden says, "No, Lauren, I didn't, I promise."
Steven keeps to himself the liklihood of Seodil ever unwittingly picking up and putting on a tiara of dubious lineage, considering his experience with a ring of somewhat lesser mien. "No. Soleil was the only one who was changed in that way."
Aiden says, "I'm not even going to get into all the various ways that it's impossible, but it is."
"I can't BELIEVE you. My GOD. STEVENNNN." Lauren throws up her hands. "No one gets to have ANY MORE SEX, EVER, until people figure out HOW TO USE SOME GODDAMNED BIRTH CONTROL."
Steven facevaults at Lauren's outburst. And it is, in part, to conceal his laughter.
Aiden says, "Shut up, Lauren."
"Stick it, Aiden," retorts Lauren. "Obviously SOMEBODY needs to say these things."
Aiden notices that Melierel, a polite distance off to the side-- as much as he can be in a round, twenty-foot room-- is giving him a look that suggests he wants to say something but is waiting for Aiden to be free.
Aiden has just about run out of patience for Lauren today. He says, shortly, "Just make sure you follow your own goddamned advice and let me worry about my own sex life."
Steven says, "All right, that's enough, you two. It's not helping us at all. Right now we have to figure out our next course of action. Aiden you have to start threatening Mel and Ani with a bow, I think. Lauren, if I can think of anything important from our misadventures forom before you joined us, OI promise I'll try to tell them to you as soon as I can think of it." The succubus ring and the dragon's lock are, needless to say, automatically relegated to 'unimportant.'"
Aiden breaks off from the small sibling huddle, effectively freeing himself up.
Soleil, who was sitting on the floor, stands up and gives Lauren a seriously baleful look as he stretches.
Lauren is more or less used to nasty looks from Sol. It doesn't hurt that in her mind he's gone from Arrogant Bastard to Sluttish Arrogant Bastard. Feeling much less intimidated by the elf prince all of a sudden, she lifts her chin and sniffs, and haughties back over to Ani and Grennit.
Steven sighs and rubs his brow. Great. I'd start a bet with Seodil to see which of those three are going to kill the others first, but Seo is the kind of guy who would stack the odds in his favor.. annd probably would have every intention to put Lauren on top of that list. Lord Pelor, what a family....
Steven hears a warm male chuckle between his ears, and the comment "That's why they need you, Sven."
Steven blinks, looking around curiously to see who was talking to him, then after a moment he nods, letting out a breath. I'll do my best. I promise. For them.
Steven feels a warm, approving sensation deep in his chest.
Melierel walks over to Aiden and solemnly presents him with Meli's own bow, and then holds out an arrow.
Aiden takes the bow and the arrow. He raises the arrow to his forehead in salute and without another word, nocks it, draws it and points it directly at Melierel's heart. "You have two choices. Either you surrender and become my prisoner, or I kill you on the spot. Your decision?"
Steven looks over at Aiden and Lem, steeping closer and quietly just in case the answer isn't what they expect it to be.
Calmly, Melierel says to Aiden, "I surrender. I will remain your prisoner, on my honor, until released."
Over on the other side of the room, Lauren obviously assumes that for reasons hitherto unknown, Aiden is going to shoot Melierel dead. Sure, Meli's a horrible person, but Aiden can't just shoot him! "Aniii!" she squeaks. "Aiden stoppit STOPPIT!"
Steven coughs, "Uhm... Lauren... it's okay. I'll explain it all."
Aiden startles, badly, at Lauren's screeching in the previously-silent room. He manages to retain just enough sense to swing the bow up so as to fire the arrow towards the sky instead of into Melierel.
Lauren watches the arrow quiver in the ceiling. "The hell," she says flatly, "is going on THIS time?"
Steven gives a start, blinking and taking stock of the situation to see that Mel is unharmed, then facepalms again. "Ah.. Lauren? This was... you know, part of the plan. So he could say he was threatened into going with us at least a little honestly." He looks up at the arrow. "So... Mel. Feeling threatened yet?" Because I sure as hell would be.
Aiden hands Melierel's bow back to him with a shaking hand. "Sorry.. shit.. sorry." Aiden sits down right where he was standing, looking unsteady and a bit ill.
Melierel is more than a little white around the eyes when he bows to Aiden and remarks, tossing his hair back over one shoulder as he rises, "No need to apologize. I would not have had that turn out any other way." He actually has a small smile, which fades as he bends to put a hand on Aiden's shoulder, frowning. "No harm done," he says quietly. "Continue to trust your reflexes." His gaze flicks up. "And I should have thought to do that in private. Next time."
Straightening, Melierel smiles at Steven. "Not by Aiden," he says with good humor. "Lauren, on the other hand..."
Seodil and Sol both are giving Lauren looks, now.
Steven blinks, andd glances to Lauren, then Sol and Seodil. "Right. Uhm. We'll know for next time, then." He looks around. "Are we ready to go?"
Aiden nods, "Thanks. No next times.." He stays where he is for a little while longer while he trys to calm the nerves connected to those reflexes that he has to both trust and thank for keeping Melierel unhurt. Once that's stable, he stands. "Yeah.. ready."
The looks finally take effect, and Lauren wilts and looks ashamed. "yeh-hm," she affirms. "we can go."
Sol and Seodil have reached Aiden, one on either side, and help him up as Melierel tells Steven, "I am kidnapped, as is Anisaire, so we have little to prepare." He smiles. "When you go, I am ready."
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