Jade looked to Janessa smiled and was about to talk to her but stilled herself when she saw her cousin speaking privately with their uncle.

Ariadne sighed and rolled her eyes.
"On Earth, there are lots of different royal families, and there are tons of stories about backstabbing and betrayal.  I was hoping that things was different here.""

"I am hoping among us, we can change that. We could form good memories with one another. Especially now that we are all threatened it is best if we do work together."

Ariadne nodded and smiled at her cousin.

"There's Merlin, who the crown feels is trustworthy. There's Rinaldo, whom the King and Merlin have... an understanding with, so he's trusted enough. There's Dalt, whom Merlin had in line... but I do worry about with Merlin missing for so long. But much more so am I concerned about Dara..."

Ariadne chuckled.
"So, should we try to check on some of our wayward aunts and uncles?"

Julian frowns. "We haven't been able to... so my advice is no." He waves a hand. "But do what you want." He pauses. "Of course, if my daughter were present, I'd say otherwise. I'd tell her 'Absolutely not, don't you go within 1000 Shadows of Dara, not ever.'" He makes an oh well gesture. "But you are not my children."

Ariadne raised an amused and skeptical eyebrow, wondering if Julian was trying to get them to do that, but getting some plausible deniability.

Jon smiles "Well, I think before we start trying to check up on our Aunts and Uncles, we should at least master the Shadow Walk."

"I agree, and we still need to complete our training here. I know we have a long way to go. I wish Lance had stayed to train with us, though perhaps he was a lot more prepared for dealing with the threat since he was sent out before us."

She then looked to Janessa, "Maybe we can work together on some magical things to sense card energy and other things to help out the kingdom?"

Janessa nods in acknowledgement to what Julian whispered and turns back towards her cousins. “Sounds like a good plan.” She says, smiling at Jade. Her eyes turn towards Jon, smile still in place. “And that is definitely on the top of the to do list. I don’t wanna speak for Ariadne, but I think we both want y’all to meet the non-Amber side of our families and see our parts of our hometown shadow.” Janessa looks at Ariadne for confirmation.

In reply to Janessa McCoy (msg # 208):

Ariadne nodded to Janessa, grinning wryly.
"My father is actually here in Amber. taking care of his family business, whatever that is, but I'd definitely be thrilled to take people on a tour of Boston or Los Angeles.  Though It's not something that should be taken lightly, since Earth is a lot less....cosmopolitan...than Amber and the surrounding shadows.  The people there love to pretend that there's magic, in shows and performances, but if they see something they think is real live magic, or worse, real live monsters from another dimension, they'll seriously freak out. "

She gave Janessa a smirk.
"And as much as I'd love to show off a motorcycle, a 3D movie, or even a deep dish pizza, I have to admit that it's not as urgent as being trained to handle ourselves out in Shadow.  Heck, that might be crucial in protecting Earth, for that matter."

“That’s true.” Janessa says with a smirk. “And people freaking out is not good.” She looks to Jon and Jade. “Our history is filled with people doing horrible things to other people over unexplained things.” At the mention of pizza Janessa sighs, wistfully. “Ahh, pizza. Though what I’ve been really missing is some Mexican. Tamales, enchiladas, menudo…” She trails off with a far off look in her eye for a moment before blinking and refocusing on Ariadne.  “Getting Shadow Walking down is number one on the list. It’s what Dad had me do shortly after walking the Pattern. I didn’t always end up where I intended, considering I was trying to get home, but I found some interesting shadows.” Janessa chuckles. “Found one where they worshipped a shadow of myself as some sorta goddess or somethin’. One where the ground was clouds made of cotton candy like stuff.” She shakes her head with a chuckle. “Still hoping to find one where the water is a nice merlot and you can pick dark chocolate off trees like apples.”

In reply to Janessa McCoy (msg # 210):

Ariadne looked at Janessa with surprise and amusement
"Wow....I'll admit that when they said that other worlds were different, I kind of underestimated what they meant.  A 'chocolate tree' world is a bit mind bending, for sure.  And meeting 'shadows' of myself is...a bit surreal.  I'll definitely want to get better at this stuff."

"I looks forward to riding on a motorcycle." Jade smiles.

"What are tamales ? or pizza?"

Jon smiles, getting a bit lost with the "earth" terms being bantered about.

He nods in agreement to Jade's question.

In reply to Jade (msg # 212):

Ariadne smiled at Jade, thinking about pizza.

"It's nothing too complicated, but it's good.  Essentially, it's a baked flatbread with toppings like zesty tomato sauce and melted cheese, as well as other toppings like spicy meat or vegetables.  It's one of those foods like a sandwich, that you can customize as you want. "

She thought for a moment.
"Tamales are a Mexican food, a cuisine famous for using corn tortillas and can be spicy, but I don't have them that often, so Janessa might be more familiar with them.  I'm more of a taco girl, myself.  "
This message was last edited by the player at 16:47, Sat 11 Feb 2023.

Janessa nods. “It’s ground corn turned into a dough. The dough is then smeared onto a dried corn husk before a spicy shredded meat mixture, usually beef, that’s already been cooked is added on top of the dough.” She pauses a moment, thinking, before continuing. “There’s an art to putting just the right amount of fill in’. Too much and it will leak, too little and it doesn’t taste right. They then fold up the husk into little parcels, place in a pot with a little water on the bottom and steam ‘em till the dough is cooked.” She smiles. “They’re usually smaller than a phone, width wise, but about that in length.” Janessa says, holding her phone up. “And I can usually eat about five or so, along with the side dishes that come with. My mom makes some good ones, and with enough warnin’ could make some for us. Heck, Mike might even have fresh beef for use too.” She looks around at her cousins. “Mike’s my adopted dad. He runs a cattle ranch.” Janessa explains.

"Oh do they have horses too at the ranch? I would like to get better at riding horses." Jade says thinking about how Earth must be and of course getting it all wrong in her head.

Janessa nods. “Absolutely. I have two at my place and my folks have probably half a dozen.” She smiles. “There’s quite a few animals there actually. It’s a cattle ranch with a small farm as well.”

In reply to Jade (msg # 216):

Ariadne nodded in agreement with Janessa's description
"My father had me take horseback riding lessons as well, though because we were in the city my lessons were from a snooty riding academy, rather than a regular ranch.  I learned competive jumping and racing and something goofy called 'dressage', which I'll admit I never really got the hang of.   Still, it was one of those weird things that my father knew would come in handy later, I'll admit. "

"I learned mostly from my times sneaking ashore from kind, people in the city who had horses and traded for tales of the sea. Often a song or two I found earned me enough coin to trade for things."

She smiles, "I would love to ride properly and not have it be some stolen joy."

In reply to Jade (msg # 219):

Ariadne chuckled and smirked at Jade.
"Don't worry, kiddo.  You're in the big leagues now, and we'll be sure to spoil you rotten. "

"Big Leagues ?  Thank you Ariadne and Janessa !" Jade said in her normally optimistic voice.

Jon smiles. "Just more reason to look forward to going to Earth. Both of your descriptions are fascinating and sometimes contradicting. It sounds much bigger than my home." he then catches Julian just looking at them.

"Sorry Uncle, this is still all new to us."