"A deck of cards is a grand idea," Ballad replies. She sounds a touch surprised. And then, "Er, my artistic skill is sufficient. Let's figure out how many flowers will be necessary first, and go from there."

But then Ballad gives Jon a Look. The L in Look is somewhere between capitalized and not. Sort of, if a Look were a dagger one could unsheath, this is just the slightest kiss-bright gleam of metal. They are just going to be occasionally oil and water, these two.

She says, to Jade, "Why, sure! we can do the foot of the stairs of Tir-na-Nog'th again, as long as we keep the picnic on the ground. There may be other good vantage points for Tir-na-Nog'th viewing: roof of the castle, down in the valley, the Grove. And I think in the spirit of exploration some other post for a first picnic would be fun! Ha! Perhaps at the Faiella-Bionin?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:16, Mon 04 Jan 2021.

"Oh, I have never been to the grove ! You know where that is, please Ballad that spot would be just perfect. I so hope we catch sight of the unicorn." Jade gets a dreamy look again.

Jon raises an eyebrow in response to Ballad's look, as he is not quite certain what he did. "The grove sounds lovely and peaceful." *smiles* "What is everyone's preference?  I will head to the kitchen and request it, so that we have a nice Pic Nic meal ready for us when we return from the city."

“Then our current party is breaking, to be reconvened this evening?” Ballad says, both with a touch of wistfulness for she likes her cousins company (even Jon's, even with the Look), and a touch of yes, let's break this up, shoo shoo, I need to read, and a touch of yes party later huzzah! because Ballad likes a get together.

“I’ll send a note to let Lance know, if he wishes to take part. Do we wish to invite anybody else or do we want to stay intimate? Jon, my only request is that you bring a game for us to play.”

"I am alright with keeping it small and intimate."
Jade had an odd little smile.

*nods* To Ballad "A game. Hmm, that is a challenge" *grins mischievously* "But I will see what I can do." he stands "I'll meet you in the yard, let me get to the kitchens" he says to Ari and Jade before he leaves.

“I thought it might be," Ballad says, when Jon declares finding a game a challenge. His mischievous grin is matched by a glint. "Fare well; until later.”

Jade’s odd little smile deserves a response! Ballad — affectionate, at her most starry — swoons gracefully across the couch to bump her head against Jade’s arm, giving the green-haired princess the big blue eyes of soulfulness, before she pulls a face. Ballad's a clown.

Jade laughs, "Ok, ok were on our way."
She gets up to head to see Ezra.

"You are an officer and a gentleman!" Ballad says, having picked it up from who-knows-what-Shadow. She says it in this slangy way, and sweeps up to give Jade a hug before she (and Ariadne, probably?) leaves.


If Ariadne is also gearing up to leave too, Ballad tells the beautiful dark-haired woman. "You should show Jade that shop you found last night where we purchased our finery."

Ariadne nodded to Ballad

"That's a good idea "

“My ideas usually are,” Ballad says, with the spark of an intrepid grin; her eyes sparkle—she is both 100% serious and making fun of herself, you see. “Here’s another: You and I should do something together, just us! Explore the castle in search of parachutes or, er, go for a ride, or ax throwing. What weapon did that Xena use? Maybe we can find one of those to play with. Let me know.”

As she speaks, Ballad prepares to dive back into the books, re-filling her fountain pen with ink. Ballad favors smoke gray ink, the kind called noir, and if it can have a silver shimmer to it: more the better.

]

Ariadne chuckled, charmed by Ballad's personality almost despite herself
"That sounds like fun, Ballad.  I definitely would love to see more of this city, though I'm still healing up so i shouldn't push myself too hard.  Still, that sounds like a good time.    I think Xena was mostly a sword gal, though she had this razor sharp frisbee she called a 'shakra' that she tossed around.   But axe throwing could be fun.  Or archery.  My father taught me that as well when I was a kid. "

“It sounds as if your father wanted to make certain you were prepared for anything,” Ballad says. There's a quizzical cant to her head: “Have you had a chance to have a good talk with him or his relatives yet? Is he glad to be home?"

A lopsided qurik of her mouth, restrained exuberance: "But, you're right, archery is also a good time. What d'you say to tomorrow morning, just after breakfast? I'll arrange the details.”

Ariadne smiled ruefully
"Sadly, i haven't been able to get any quality time with him yet.  Since he's been 'trapped' on Earth for a few decades, he's been catching up with old friends and assorted relatives, most of whom apparently think they should let me mingle with the royal family before trying to take up my time.  But i hope eventually to get some time with him to catch up.     But meeting tomorrow after breakfast sounds great.  I'm a little rusty, but i always enjoyed archery, I'll admit. "

22:10, Today: Lance rolled 4 using 2d6-1 with rolls of 2,3.  Lance, perception, listening at library door.


  As Lance and Flora arrive at the library, Lance pauses to listen at the door before entering, not wanting to disturb anyone.  Not hearing anyone, he opens the door as he's asking the questions, not realizing that Ballad is in there studying.  ((OOC: If I'm correct, this entry happens after the trio of cousins has departed for the city.))

  "So, it sounds like there is a lot of personal preference in how one moves through the shadows.  That's good to know.  So, say I needed to find local currency, or a weapon, or find someone...all I'd have to do is make that circumstance fit the visualization and move to it, right?  But do things out in the shadows translate into each reality we pass through, or are they strictly localized.  Like, say I wanted to find a weapon of power, like Mjolnir or Stormbreaker or Excalibur...or say I wanted to find a place where I could control lightning...or change myself to have some kind of superhero power, or something like that.  Would any of that become a real part of me wherever I went, or would it be like engines and just be so much useless junk back here?  I mean, once I get done in Sonofashi maybe I'd probably want to find someplace where I could go and try to just get myself together and try to not agonize over her for a while... "

“Always admit what you enjoy,” Ballad replies, eyes crinkling at the corners, all rakish (but make it goodnatured) joie de vivre. “That’s my general policy. Maybe tomorrow we’ll enjoy the rarest and most coveted of all archery tricks—splitting the arrow.” Robin Hood aspirations are not bordered by shadow, or restrained by those who know Robin Hood.

“I'm going to do my best to arrive to breakfast on time, or early,” and Ballad does look a touch tired now, to the perceptive, "But if I don't quite make it, let's meet at the stables."

Ari chuckled
"You'd better let shoot first, then.  I had a few bullseye shots when I was a teen, but haven't done any serious shooting since.  I went on an archery date once, but i was a bit distracted."
She grinned impishly
"Go ahead and get some rest.  I'll find you tomorrow, cousin."
Just saying the word 'cousin' still seemed so exotic and strange.   But in a good way

(OOC: My dude, I have completely lost track of that sort of thing. People do things, I respond. Jade's been doing stuff in her private thread that I have no idea how it works timewise. Ballad just finished a discussion with Random that could have taken place 1 or even 2 nights ago for all I know. I'm the Pavlovian GM now-- stimulus, response, stimulus, response. The timeline doesn't make sense to me right now, and I've given up on making it do so, for the present moment.)




"More or less... There's actually a trick to making your currency and clothes and carriage shift to match the Shadow you're entering, but it's a bit more difficult..."




"It's a case-by-case situation every time. A magical sword that does fifty amazing things in its home Shadow will... be less likely to do all fifty of them in a different shadow... but you never know, it might. Or it might just be a sharp piece of metal elsewhere. It just depends."



"That is much harder. You could probably find a Shadow where you're capable of flying just by thinking about it if you tried, but that certainly wouldn't still work once you left that Shadow. Finding a Shadow where you can change yourself and make it stick when you left is not only tricky, but rather risky, and I... strongly advise against it. Brand found a place of magical power that somehow made him able to teleport anywhere without using the cards... but it made him insane, too. Well, extra insane. See what I mean?"



At this point, Laurence goes and happens to open the library door from the other side-- just in such a way that makes it seem like Lance was obviously attempting to spy at the door-- he half-falls inside.

(Lance gets 1 new xp point, and takes -1 on his next roll due to embarrassment, an increasingly familiar sensation.)

“Fare well, Ari! Have fun in the city! I will rest: or, at least, I will be the very picture of virtue today.”

Ballad executes a graceful salute with her pen, mirth (restrained, though) in her blue eyes. Once Ariadne has left, she briefly leaves her comfortable nest to find Laurence. "Say, Laurence, I have another topic of interest..."


But once she's found him and requested his aid in pulling the appropriate books, she retreats to the couch by the fireplace again and sinks back into study. For a little while. Because time marches on!

Laurence gets up, opens the door, and ... Lance falls through the door? The commotion is enough that Ballad looks up curiously from her page.

  "Oh, Laurence....I'm sorry, I was just trying to make sure we weren't going to be disturbing anyone."  Lance manages to stammer out.

  He looks around, and sees Ballad looking up from her studies.  The cat was already out of the bag, as it were.  He was sure that his conversation with Flora had not gone unheard.

  "Laurence, if you would be so kind, I rather urgently need any reference material we might have on a shadow called Sonovashi.  I'm not sure if the middle is spelled with a V or an F."

  He waves to his cousin, his breath catching and he nibbles on his lower lip. "Oh, Hi Ballad.  I, um, missed you at breakfast this morning.  I hope we're not intruding?"

Ballad was studying on the couch by the great marble fireplace: a spark of starlight, surrounded by quite a few stacks of books. There’s ink on her fingers. There’s ink on an earlobe, too. Maybe she didn’t hear much of the conversation in the hall—she was absorbed in her reading, it’s a big library (then again, maybe she did and she’s just good at hiding it?)—but she’s paying attention now. She waves back when he waves. A pause, and she sits up too.

“Hallo, Lance! Aunt Flora, what an unexpected pleasure it is to see you! My spirit rises. Rather urgently? What’s rather urgent about Sonovashi? And…” here, quiet ember of a smile—which is another way to say a suggestion. Ballad, who is immediately Engaged, leans forward, clasping her hands loosely. “…yes, I was sorry to miss everybody this morning, but I’m glad to see you! You’ve been such a secret. What have you been about today?”

  Lance looks to Flora  and says, “Mom, I need a minute or three to tell her, but please stay.  We need to finish what we were about, and there’s nothing That I’m about to say that you don’t already know.”

  He then walks over and kneels before Ballad.  Not just one knee, but both, hopefully showing her how significant this is.  He gazes into her eyes, and his voice trembles as he speaks.

  “Ballad, this morning I did something that I know you had wanted to be there for, but it’s actually good that you were not.  I pray that you will forgive me.  I....I walked the Pattern.”  His voice hold no pride, nor exuberance, just pain and exhaustion and fear and remorse.  “I had wanted you to be there too, but if you were, I’d likely have died.  As it was, I almost did.  Ballad, you consume my thoughts, and my heart, and you drive me to distraction.  Had you been present, I don’t think I would have been able to concentrate enough to make it through.  I did okay until the final veil, and that’s where the Pattern saw my weakness.  It showed me all my fears about you, and it overwhelmed me.  I stopped moving, and was beginning to burn.”

  He takes a deep breath, tries to blink back the moisture in his eyes.

  “It’s not all bad though.  As the flames started to burn me and I was looking into oblivion I found something within me that was stronger than my inner demons and the veil itself.  More than anything in all of existence I wanted to see you again.  That alone gave me the strength to try to move again, and I did.  Because of you, I made it through.”
This message was last edited by the player at 09:32, Thu 07 Jan 2021.

Mid-way through, Laurence walks toward Lance with a small stack of books, but then he registers what's being said and about-faces and walks back and pretends to be searching the shelves for some additional book.

Uh oh. What's this?? Lance is so very earnest as he approaches and goes to his knees. Ballad sits up straight again; her clasped hands stay loose, and her expression goes from engaged and interested to deer-at-twilight wary. There’s that sort of stillness, you see.

But once he begins speaking the wariness is replaced by an ah hah!—he means he walked the Pattern, doesn’t he? And he’s being very earnestly Lance in his apology? Aw! The ah hah! moment is chased by open-hearted congratulations—a quizzical cant to her sudden smile, only because he seems so gloomy about his accomplishment.

“But that’s wonderful!” says she, ardently! leaning forward to push on Lance’s shoulder, like, c’mon, fellow! Be happy! She means to reassure him that she isn’t at all mad! But—he’s got more to say.

I'd've likely died: Ballad raises a skeptical eyebrow.

Ballad, you consume my thoughts... Ballad flushes, then goes pale. She regards her hands, flicking a glance over when Laurence comes near, about faces, goes back to the stacks (no, come back!), then the glance goes back to Lance. Could her eyes be bluer? More like the sky of some fairyland where it is always evening?

Once he's done. "Enough of this, Lance. Enough.

"Which is it? You would have died because of me on the Pattern or you made it through the Pattern because of me? It can't be both. It must be one, or it must be the other. Do you think I like to hear this? Do you think I need to hear this? Why do you want me to hear this? Do you think I want to be cruel to you? I don't, so why are you forcing me into that role? Of course I forgive you for walking the Pattern without my presence. I only wanted to be there as support, I'm glad you're a proper initiate now--it's monumental, it's great. But I don't know that I'll forgive you for locking yourself into this, I don't know what it is. You're just cruel to yourself, and you're using the idea of me to be cruel to yourself, and I don't like it."

Pale, and now flushing again.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Thu 07 Jan 2021.

  Lance stands, bows his head and says simply, “I shall trouble you no longer then.  I have errands to attend to for the King.   I just wanted you to know is all..”

  Cheeks burning at Ballad’s rebuke he turns away, looking for Laurence.  He needed to be anywhere but where he was now, whether Flora followed him or not.   Lance fully expects a lecture from his mother, but it would fall on deaf ears.

   He had a duty to fulfill, and infinite reality lay before him to get lost in with eternity to do so afterwards.  All he needed was a place to learn what he needed to know about Sonovashi to find his way there to fulfill his promise to the King.  He would leave Amber as soon as he was able.  He just had to hide his key to the Pattern room  assign a servant to see to getting his drawing of his coat of arms to the herald and go.  It would be quickest to leave by horseback, but he wasn’t sure what manner of  danger he’d be heading towards, so decides it best to go on foot.

  The grey men were out there, and it was against them that he would vent his humiliation.  He would find his own way to take them down.  He had spent his entire life on his own.  Why should things change now?   Maybe it was better this way..  He didn’t belong here.  He didn’t fit in with his cousins, and it was by his own doing.  Perhaps he had created the wedges between himself and the others.  He certainly had with Ballad.  Maybe it was for the best.

  Inwardly he was glad that Fiona had not been present during his brief stay, so there was no card drawn of him.  It would make him difficult to be found, if not impossible once he had finished up his business for Random.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:19, Fri 08 Jan 2021.