| Logs |
2004 November 07
| Idlewild |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
 |
| Realms: Idlewild Logs |
November 7
After the group decides where they are going next, now that Lotte is not accompanying them, the conversation breaks down into the dry but necessary details of getting there-- though Zhi and Ayali, the Foxcatchers are offering a good bit of help with supplies and equipment that Aiden's wanderers have simply been lacking until now. It takes some time, and not everyone stays. Aiden is heavily involved in the planning as de facto group leader and a person with experience. Melierel is also there for the duration. Kip stays for most of it, though very quietly, and if one were not observant, the slight Fall elf's departure would have been easily missed due to that lack of speech. The reason for it is not entirely obvious either, but shortly after Kip slides away from the conversation and slips off between the tents, Soleil and then Aiden leave the remnants of planning to Melierel and Zhi.
Lauren and Steven are drafted to go fetch supplies a few moments after that, and Lauren spends the next several hours following Zhi and Melierel around. Ayali takes Steven. When Lauren returns to camp with her last pile of supplies, no one is in sight and she's tired enough to crawl into her (shared, but empty) tent for a nap. Upon waking, she hears voices outside as the boys who vanished earlier finish bringing in the last load of supplies and useful things, and start discussing dinner plans.
Melierel's voice comes clearly. "I would prefer, if possible, that we depart tomorrow morning. The sooner this trip is begun, the sooner it may end-- you are good companions, but I do worry that Anisaire will find travel harder if we wait too long."
Aiden's sitting outside, by the fire. His hands are employed in helping arrange for the packs of supplies that they now have. He's keeping one eye on the pig that's comfortably roasting on the fire in one piece. "It's probably the best idea, Melierel. Besides the obvious reasons, such as Anisaire, if we stay here too long.. it's going to start getting really comfortable. It's going to be difficult enough to leave; why make it worse?"
Lauren yawns, stretches, and picks a couple of bad tangles out of her hair as she waits and hopes to eavesdrop something interesting before sticking her head out of her tent.
Ayali's voice comes cheerfully clear to Lauren's eavesdropping. "I think I shall come with you. You might need another bow, and things are quiet here, lately."
Melierel nods a touch ruefully to Aiden. "It really would be all too easy to enter camp life. No fewer than three Foxcatcher girls invited me to a party tomorrow night, and all of you as well... but welcoming as they are, we have things that must be done before we rest too long."
Kip's voice is neutral. "I'm sure Lauren would like that, Ayali."
Aiden does his level best not to look at Ayali like he's grown another head. The only way to accomplish this is to just not look at him for right now. "Yeah, Melierel. I know. Duty first." I'm so fucking sick of duty. I want to just settle for a while. I'm sick of this.
Out of Lauren's sight but visible to Aiden, Zhi gives Kip a subtle, thoughtful look... but says nothing.
Lauren winces, in her tent.
The look in Melierel's eyes appears to be a good match for Aiden's thoughts on the matter. The broad-shouldered Fall elf looks tired. Then he straightens from his slouch, and looks around as if remembering something. "Oh. Anisaire and I have been talking... could I ask a small favor?"
Aiden tilts his head to the side. "What's that?"
Footsteps approach Lauren's tent, as Grennit's voice asks "Has anyone seen Lauren?"
Melierel says matter-of-factly, "I'm divorcing Anisaire for adultery." He's positively beaming-- and so is Anisaire, as she nods happily to him. Meli adds, "I need witnesses to make my declaration formal. Three is the minimum, though more are always nice."
Aiden grins, "I'll witness the declaration for you, but I draw the line at witnessing the act, okay?"
Lauren's shaggy-looking head prods out of her bright tent on cue. "M'here already," she yawns. And, in short order, sounds like she's trying to swallow a frog.
Melierel rolls his eyes at Aiden, but he's still grinning. "That's really up to Kip and Anisaire more than me, anyway." Anisaire turns slowly pink and coughs. She says quietly, "I thank you too, Aiden." Sol, grinning, offers to stand as second witness, and shortly thereafter the entire campfire group has risen to bear official witness.
"...you could have divorced her for adultery any time you wanted and you had to pull all this SHIT to do it?" Lauren stands up, bristling. "YOU SON OF A BITCH."
Aiden rolls his eyes in a most subtle fashion.
Lauren bends down to pick up a nice, chuckable rock. "You don't have to like it, Aiden, you just have to move a few inches to the right so I can dent his selfish asshole head."
Aiden turns to face Lauren completely, moving himself between her and Melierel. "It would seem to me that this is a rather recent development. It's not like he was stringing you along for weeks."
"Stringing ME along my ass." The irony of this statement bypasses Lauren in her fit of pique. "He could have done this months ago and saved a LOT of people a lot of goddamn trouble."
Melierel looks over as Grennit starts to step forward, and starts to say with definite apology, "I'm afraid only males count as wit--" he stops short and blinks at Lauren for one frozen moment before his voice starts dripping ice cubes. "Lauren, when the opinion of the person who drugged our breakfast is allowed to be self-righteous again, I will be sure to inform you. For now-- she was not adulterous before, divorcing her while we were at home could have resulted in her banishment and death, and... if you don't put that rock down, I'm going to do far worse this time than happened last time. Is that clear?" He smiles. It's not very nice.
It's also just a little hungry.
Aiden steps out of the way. He has a feeling that Lauren is much more likely to listen to Melierel this time. Or probably any time.
Lauren's hand wavers. And eventually drops. So does the rock. "Yeahbut," she tries, once, and gives up.
Melierel stands straight and relatively tall, very, very focused on Lauren. His expression does not change as he says, "Good choice. If you would like to discuss this later, I will be at your service. Perhaps after dinner?" Then the smile widens a fraction. It does not get nicer or less hungry, however.
Lauren fidgets fiercely for a few seconds, dares a quick and quiet "gotohell", and hunches herself down to look small and wait for dinner.
Aiden's still working on getting it ready, and goes right back to doing that after he's certain that Lauren and Melierel aren't liable to kill each other if he turns his back.
Melierel appears to dismiss Lauren's entire existence from mind quite easily as soon as he turns back to the rest of the group, bows slightly from the hips, and with a pleasant expression says "Thank you for witnessing. On this day, I declare publically that my marriage to Anisaire, formerly of House Tresmere, is over. The child she carries is not of my seed, and she has committed carnal acts outside our marriage. I request you all bear witness that we are no longer tied to one another in any way."
Anisaire shivers as if cold for a moment, but she's smiling. Melierel actually smiles back at her, and as he sits down again looks much relieved.
Aiden waits for a moment before he sits, just to see if they need to say anything, or if he just needed their attention.
Lauren shuffles Aidenward, sullenly. "Wh'z for dinner?" she asks.
Although a few elves murmur acknowledgement after Meli talks, it's not universal, and he doesn't seem to notice or care. He does smile at Aiden and add in normal tones, though, "That smells wonderful. Can't wait."
Aiden looks at Lauren. "Pork." He motions at the pig roasting on the spit. "Seodil, Soleil and I hunted it." He smiles back at Meli, "Shouldn't be too much longer.."
Grennit plumphs down onto Lauren's log-seat and scoots over to murmur, "What the HELL is between you and the grumpy dark one?"
After a slight pause, Grennit adds, still at a whisper, "...and what did he mean about drugging breakfast...?"
"...I thought everybody could stand to be nicer to each other so I dumped romance assistance in the porridge," Lauren explains matter-of-factly. "Turns out that stuff's not ROMANCE assistance, you know." She blatantly fails to address the Meli issue.
Lauren eyeballs the future cutlets grumpily. She elbows Aiden. "We got any nuts left?"
Steven is the last of the increasingly large group to arrive, just as Aiden declares the pig done a few minutes later. Steven enters the firelit circle bearing an extra-large wooden bowl, practically a small vat. Zhi looks up and smiles. "Brother in light, good to see you before we gnawed it down to bones."
Aiden says, "Sure.. There's a half dozen nuts sitting at the campfire right now. You wanting more veggie fare?""
Ayali says helpfully, "Oh, more than a half-dozen."
Steven blinks a bit at the epithet, then smiles to Zhi. "Sorry I'm late. It took some time finding this." He holds up the large bowl. " This has almonds in it, Lauren, it might be what you're looking for..."
Lauren smiles half-heartedly. "Cute. I can't eat the pig or my guts will melt. Veggie please."
Lauren sniffs. "What's that, Steven?
Sol says innocently at a whisper to Aiden, "Which one did she want to eat today? --Oh."
Aiden says, "Hope you're good at identifying plants in the woods then, Lauren, because I'm not great at it and we mostly hunt on the road."
Steven leans down a bit near Lauren so she can get a glimpse -- and a whiff -- of what's in the vat. "It looks like wild rice, with raisins and almonds. Lovely, too, my old teacher -wishes- he could cook like this.
Aiden sits down next to Soleil. "I bet Kip's vegan. She doesn't like my cooking."
"mmmporridge," says Lauren fervently, and holds out her hands hopefully for the big bowl.
Sol blinks. "Vegan? --Anyway, I'll eat anything you want to hand me, s'been lovely so far." He sniffs.
Steven grins to Lauren. "Let me get it served out. I'd like some of this, too, you know!"I don't mind the meat on the road, and some part of me has REALLY gotten to like meat lately, but this just SMELLS so wonderful.
Aiden explains, "I think Lauren's vegan.. that's someone that doesn't eat animal products, because they are cruel."
Lauren turns a smile of genuine happy on Steven. Steven is her new favorite person. "Di'ju make it?"
Soleil says, "Oh. Huh. Melierel's cruel too, but I wager she'd eat him." He is, luckily, still whispering. Only a smirk makes its way to the outside world.
Aiden elbows Sol, but not too hard. He snickers.
Seodil heard it. The silver elf barely grins, and helps Aiden put meat on wooden plates to pass around until everyone is served.
Steven starts ladling out the rice into smaller bowls. "No, I didn't actually. ONe of the others here made it."
Lauren takes her bowl and promptly fills her face with porridge. "S'good," she says. "And no stringy blood vessels in it."
Aiden vows, internally and a bit childishly, to ensure that he never cooks for Lauren again. Easy enough to accomplish. He just won't make anything that she'd hate or insult. Which is apparently everything. Good enough.
Steven purses his lips a bit, then shrugs some as he fills several eating bowls. "Did't get her name, actualy, now that I think about it. Just smiled, handed it to me to take back to this group of 'nice boys.'"
Grennit snickers noticeably. "Nicer with you around, Sven... trust me."
Steven blinks a little blankly to Grennit, then glances around worriedly as he passes out the bowls.
Aiden listens to Steven's explaination. The first bite is on the way to his mouth when he sets it down to his side instead.
Lauren blinks. "Waaaait," she says, twigging on.
Grennit takes a bowl and quite cheerfully starts in on it. She blinks at Aiden, then says after a swallow, "It's not poisoned, y'know."
Lauren sniffs her bowl oh-so carefully. Poisoned, no, but she's well aware of what you can stick in porridge without poisoning it.
Aiden says, "Neither was the last one."
Steven doesn't seem concerned at all as he takes his own bowl and follows Grennit's suit, eating comfortably.
Seodil borrows Aiden's bowl for a cautious sniff, then a more cautious taste. He nods, finally. "Nothing with flavor or scent I know, but I still do not trust it either, Aiden." He sets it gently down again.
Grennit winces, looks aside to Lauren, and says "What... did everybody get it? I didn't..."
Aiden looks relieved at Seodil's confirmation. He leaves the bowl next to him. "Lauren decided to help things along by putting something into one of our recent meals. You'd have to ask her what it was."
Lauren looks at Grennit. Grennit knows additives, and she's eating. What the hell? She digs in again. "Mos'ly," she says through a full mouth. "Mos'ly everyone."
Steven blinks a bit, looking around. "Uhm... got what?"
"Stuff," Lauren explains unhelpfully. "Wanted romance assistance. Got sex potion."
Grennit says, "Oh my," and keeps her mouth busy with rice dish and delicious pigmeat for awhile. Her eyes rove speculatively, though. She whispers to Lauren, "Didn't I mention it was concentrated? --Who ended up with who? I'm dying to know. I can't believe I missed this."
Aiden goes back to eating the meat. He hunted and cooked that one himself. He's quite sure of the exact contents.
Lauren grumbles. "I'm trying to forget about that." She flicks her eyes at Seodil. "Mostly."
Steven blinks again at Lauren. "Oh," he says, perfectly mildly. "Was that what it was? Huh. Well, that explains it." he returns to placidly eating.
Grennit's eyes widen. She pokes Lauren, whispers. "Holy trees. Did you and Meli...?"
Lauren goes mauve in an instant. "NO," she says. "Or Kip. Or Zhi. Or Steven or Aiden or Seoldil or Soleil or....whatever. Eat."
Sol licks his fingers and leans happily against Aiden. "Ought to get to bed soon," he sighs. "Back on our feet tomorrow. Th's so nice, though. I'll miss it. I could come back and stay much longer. It's so... quiet. Mostly. When Lauren's not conspiring."
Aiden nods, "Yeah. One last night here. Gonna miss it too. We'll be back though." He says it like he's trying to convince himself, not anyone else.
Grennit's eyes flicker around the camp gathering, and then she grins slowly... broadly. "Ayali. Sweet mother of memory. Well. At least it was nice, huh?"
"Stevennnnn," Lauren pleads, "Do something distracting. Please. Quick."
Seodil reaches out to rest a hand silently on Aiden's shoulder. Sol says firmly, "We will come back. Seodil never really liked the cold."
Steven blinks to Lauren curiously. "Uhm." Which comes out oddly since his mouth is full. "Anyway. Yes. I'll miss it as well, but there are things to do...
Melierel rises, stretching, and compliments Aiden's cooking. Then he gives Lauren an evil little smile. "I'm going to bed. Are you quite sure you wouldn't like to step into the dark woods and have a little talk, first?" The stretching does very pretty things to his torso under the vest.
Aiden glances at Ayali, then at Lauren. Maybe we'll have to come back to take Lauren to see Frangipani next.
Steven looks up at Melierel, quite levelly, flicking a glance over to Lauren first.
Melierel's eyes are only for Lauren, at this moment. He does not appear to notice Steven's look.
Lauren looks up from her bowl, narrowly. It DOES take a few seconds, but her resolve holds. "Find a tree," she suggests.
Melierel smiles at Lauren as he strolls around the campfire toward her. His hand rests casually on her shoulder for a moment as he leans over and says, "I was offering a lesson in manners that will only be postponed, not forgotten. If I'd wanted your body, I'd have made use of it when it was attempting to mate with my leg," then leaves with the same bland smile and a "Goodnight, Ayali," tossed over one shoulder. His dark hair swishes like a tail as he tosses his head.
Steven narrows his eyes some, watching Meleriel go off. Asshole. Going to have to watch him.... He says flatly, after Mel has gone, "He's become quite the... charmer."
Seodil very quietly rests his chin in his hands, such that the lower half of his face is hidden.
Aiden puts his head in his hands. Muffled, he says, "Night, Melierel."
Lauren winces and stifles an 'owowow' at the seemingly casual touch before looking a weird mix of relieved and worried as Meli saunters off. "Something like that," she mumbles at Steven, distracted.
Sol says quietly to Steven, "You missed the provocation... the first blow wasn't his."
Kip and Anisaire look oddly frozen, in a matched sort of way. "I'mgoingtobednow," Anisaire says breathily, and does. As she disappears into her tent, Kip looks between it and Melierel's... and puts his chin on his fists, staring at the fire.
Steven says only, "Mmmm," and returns to eating, trying to gauge just what the hell happened. He glances to Sol and lifts his shoulders a little.
Lauren looks over her shoulder at her own tent. She finds herself wishing that it had a lock.
Steven narrows his eyes a little. Provoked or not... when wrong is done to you, you protect yourself... but you aren't an ass about it. If he's going with us... I will have to keep my eye on him.
Aiden glances at Sol, "Bed? I'm done. Tired.. Walking tomorrow and lots of." It occurs to him that Meli's touch on Lauren's shoulder might've hurt, if her whining was any indication. He sort of finds it to be justifiable.
Sol nods firmly. "Bed." He rises, offering Aiden a hand, and walks with him back to their tent.
Lauren slinks off to her tent, and makes a point of piling everything she owns in front of the flap on the inside before settling down.
Steven nods a little, and goes to sit in front of his tent for his evening meditations. After finishing that really good rice first, of course.
The next morning rises cool and grey, but that does not delay the travellers. Zhi, Ayali and Melierel supervise the less experienced in getting their new backpacks settled comfortably, and the trek starts. The next few days pass an uneventfully as the previous night, and everyone settles into the new rhythm eventually. Zhi seems much relaxed compared to his previous slinking and guilty look after the child's prank upon entering Fall, and Melierel has apparently forgotten his promise to Lauren that things are only postponed, not forever delayed-- he's his former pleasant, unruffled self to everyone.
Anisaire and Kip spend a lot of time talking as the days march on, and he usually leaves his brother to sleep alone, joining Anisaire's tent. Grennit proves unselfconsciously cuddly in her sleep, to Lauren-- who still does not have a tent to herself. Perhaps a week and a half after the group leaves the Fall camp, they exit the forest. A few days later, they sight the mage tower they're looking for, lying on its side as usual. What isn't usual is that it's smoking.
Steven frowns. "This isn't a good sign. We shoudl approach with caution." he starts taking off his pack. "I'll shift and scout ahead a little bit."
Aiden stops dead in his tracks. "Oh, no. Frangipani.."
Lauren pulls Crennie up short. "It's not supposed to be doing that?" she asks, worriedly.
Aiden shakes his head, "No.. It's not." His stomach sinks with the realisation that they might be leaving bodies in their wake that they weren't even aware of. It actually makes him queasy.
Steven adjusts the cloak on his shoulders after dropping his pack and moves and shifts in the same motion, trying to hug the rocks and keep out of immediate sight of whatever or whomever might be in the tower or near it.
The little brown mage exits the smoky tower, coughing violently, and then spots the party. As soon as she does, she's hiked up her robes and is pelting toward them as fast as her short legs can take her. It takes Frangipani minutes of coughing and wheezing to speak, but when she does, it's clear enough. Tears trail down her wrinkled face as she says, "Need you. He came... took them. All of them. My tree... my kittens... he said." She wheezes. "He said that the other branches would know where to find them again. Said he'd put them to keep the other tree company..."
Steven's approach yields him the smell of smoke, and one other faint, tingling scent he's smelled before... Haasha.
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