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The Drowner



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Tue Jun 12, 2018 12:51 am
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ExOmelas says...



Hey, anyone who might be happening to look at this. We'll start with a summary of my thoughts so far.

I don't really have a plot. I have a DnD character that I am making into a central figure in the plot, though I don't think he'll be the main protagonist we follow. We'll certainly have chapters from his POV, but I think he would be tiring to follow all the way through. The character is a knight who made a deal with a water spirit to kill a bunch of people in order to send the life energy back to an ailing water-world... I'm aware it needs work.

I'll edit this once I have more of a synopsis, though I'm forcing myself to do plot last because it's the part I find easiest.

THE PROMISED EDIT: Synopsis

Daena Graham is obsessed with her father's exploits as a soldier in Queen Leara's army. She knows he is only a footsoldier, but she is sure that one day he will prove himself. Well, on a blisteringly hot day at a border camp, he does, bravely saving his Senior Lead from an assassination attempt. His SL, Robin MacTulloch, is so grateful that he invites the entire family to the palace for a medal presentation ceremony.

This is Daena's dream come true. She is beyond overjoyed. But as her mother has been worried about for years now, her daughter's blissful fantasy of her father's life is about to be pricked by real life danger.
Last edited by ExOmelas on Tue Jun 26, 2018 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What fools these mortals be!
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream


Who cares if one more light goes out?
Well I do.
Linkin Park
One More Light


  





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760 Reviews


Gender: Other
Points: 31396
Reviews: 760
Tue Jun 12, 2018 1:01 am
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ExOmelas says...



Character


Robin MacTulloch
Spoiler! :
Keep the origin story, but fast-forward it to a moment when he has become more powerful. Our protagonist is someone trying to fight against him, but we follow Robin a fair bit. Robin has risen rapidly in the ranks of the queen’s men and seems to the outside observer to have been driven mad with power. He is ruthless, both on the battlefield and in back corridor intrigue.

However, what he is attempting to do is reach a rank high enough where he can influence the queen and pressure his subordinates into betraying his own orders so that resistant sergeants don’t get an idea of what he’s doing until it’s too late. His eventual hope for all this is to cause the collapse of his nation and civil strife. He has been experimenting with contraptions and realises that he could implant the spirit water into other soldiers so that they would do the work of the mersa.

He is not entirely himself, but he is also not entirely under the influence of the water. His purpose, like his sword, is a bonding of his existing personality and the water world. The water world is a more just society than the mortal, with communal arrangements between a connected life force. It appeals to his sense of justice, making him prone to agreeing with its expansionism. But as the water has taken him more and more he has forgotten why the water must win, and his actions no longer reflect his sense of justice.

His sense of justice stems from his mother. Partly from the things she taught him about respecting the land, and partly from the lack of medicine available when she got sick. He didn’t know it at the time, but his father was unable to procure the existing cure, which the queen was actually in the process of using at the exact same time. The first time his newly promoted father took him to see the queen he realised his lack.


Daena Graham

Spoiler! :
She is the daughter of a foot soldier in a very similar position to Robin in his youth. He is finally introduced to court after a feat of daring where he saves the life of his captain. For Daena, this act makes her his inspiration, more than her seamstress mother ever could be. This hurts her mother greatly, but the ubiquitous rhetoric of chivalric heroism has caused Daena to value her mother inherently less, and as a result she does not easily notice this pain.

It is only when she reaches court and realises that she is expected to follow her mother’s footsteps rather than her father’s that she begins to see life may not be as simple as she thought. At first she sees the injustice as it being wrong to have a boring life forced upon her, but when her mother dazzles the queen with her tailoring, and the queen invites the family to stay at court for a while, she realises that her mother is pretty awesome too.

Daena then attempts to introduce herself to her mother’s life, but it just doesn’t suit her, as much as she now respects it. She still wants to fight. So when her mother goes missing after having gone to the river to wash some fabrics, Daena is determined that she will be by her father’s side as he goes to rescue her.

Up to this point, Daena has been somewhat arrogant, sure that her father’s courage will live through her once he is gone. She is clever and determined, a natural born problem-solver. She has always been less great at getting inside other people’s minds and understanding how they reach their conclusions.

This got her into several problems with other children in the village, for example when she accidentally spilled some beef juices on a borrowed blouse, and didn’t understand why her friend was so upset even though Daena offered to wash it. It was about Daena’s lack of care, but Daena, not caring, didn’t understand why that was important.

However, when she does understand that someone is upset for a reason that makes sense to her, she tries very hard to make them feel better. Possibly too hard, to a point where the person ends up desperately trying to express their gratitude instead of just cheering up.


Clara Graham
Spoiler! :
In her own youth, the idea of marriage terrified her. She had heard horror stories about the marriage bed, and her own mother had died in childbirth. For her, the moment she married her life would be on a clock counting down to the end. That was why she was so flummoxed when she met Gordon Graham. He had come in to have a ripped military uniform mended, because he was unable to afford a new one. In fact, he could only afford the tailoring price because Clara agreed to allow his payment in installments. He was funny, perceptive, and she could tell from his every action and word that he respected her. And as her infatuation blossomed, her identity was shaken.

She had always considered herself so independent, and had been earning copper coins here and there for her patchwork ever since childhood. Who was she, if she wanted this man? So she pushed him away for a while, and to his credit he stayed away. He did this even despite, as she found out later, threats from her father who assumed he had taken Clara’s heart and abandoned her. Then one day she bumped into him in the street, on the way to the river to collect water. She asked if he would like to walk with her, and he said yes, and they had the best afternoon she had had in months.

That was when it clicked that this was on her terms. She grinned to herself as she knelt down with her bucket, then whirled round and looked up into his eyes. He said yes to her proposal.

From then on she grew more confident, funnier, and was more open to caring about other people. That was, until her daughter started using sewing needles like little swords, and she realised she would never be able to compete for her affections. She did her best to help her daughter practice with her sister’s son, but the son kept crying because he wanted to be good enough to fight the other boys.

Clara loves her daughter, and her husband, but as our story opens, her hope for Daena is fading.


Gordon Graham
Spoiler! :
It's going to be difficult not to write this guy as absolutely perfect. He is considerate, mature, funny and interesting. What more could you want in the one guy who could make a character consider marriage as an option for the first time? If you were a really good person, what flaw would you develop? Maybe not being okay the moment you discover a flaw in yourself? Getting obsessive with it and stopping functioning.

The reason he is able to continually be a good person is because he had a brother who hung himself when they were both young men. He never really understood his brother, and often snapped at him when his moods were unpredictable. He still doesn't always understand other people but he does his best to respect them and help in any way he can, in whatever way they want. However, he never ever talks about his brother and doesn't want anyone to learn because he is worried that they won't see him as the good person that he's trying to be, and that nobody will trust him anymore.

The extent to which his daughter is inspired by him is a guilty pleasure to him. She is the one person he would consider telling his secret to when she is older, because her love for him he knows is unconditional. As a result this is the one area of compassion he could do better in for his wife. Saying that, he's still very good at comforting her, just not great at actively explaining to his daughter why her mother is really cool.


Queen Leara Dairden

Spoiler! :
Her father went to her mother’s home country and sought out a noblewoman he could take home to wife because he desired a woman who would introduce ‘exotic’ blood to the bloodline. The country he went to being much poorer than his own, he was able to give them what seemed a generous dowry, but to him was barely pittance.

Her mother, Kieri, was treated terribly by her father, Wildev II. The only recreation he offered was allowing her to choose the fabrics for the fashion displays, in which the women of court dressed up like Kieri's people and paraded around for the honour of their husbands being granted a royal pension. Often Kieri would be so bored that she ended up taking part in these parades, to stop the butchering of her culture if nothing else.

As a result Leara grew up around seamstresses talking in intricate detail about their craft. It was interesting, technical and beautiful. It was like the way men talked about swords except nobody died at the end of them. She spent most of her time with her mother and her mother's chief maid, Nell, who was less interested in clothing than painting, but who treated Leara well, certainly better than her father ever did. They often make jokes about how the maid, Nell, is essentially Leara's second mum, and her father is more like a distant benefactor.

These are entirely fair comments. Her father spent most of his time off fighting wars, at much the same time as Robin's father (decide later whether they know each other). He father. He assumed that because his daughter spent most of her time with her mother (which was her doing in the first place) that this meant she wished to have the same life as her. He wasn't a cruel father (though he was a cruel husband), but he was definitely an ignorant father. To that end he had been attempting to find a husband for her from age fifteen onwards, until he died, only three years later.

These days, Leara spends most of her time trying to convince her military generals not to go to too many wars. She can't stop them entirely though. They grew used to a certain status under her father and now any imposition seems to be perceived by them as foreign intervention on the part of a 'dark, exotic' mistress. Still, they have to show at least some respect for heirarchy in order to get their men to follow them, so she can usually get at least some of her way if she confronts them in a public place.

She also takes care of her ageing mother, who lives in a cottage in the royal grounds with her former maiden. Their minds are both failing, but it is clear they love each other, and love Leara. She is never more comfortable than when she is there. She is also continuing her mother's parades, but now she uses them for outreach and has all the dancers be authentic members of her mother's society. Her mother cried quietly, and with a huge grin, the first time she saw this.


Thomas Dairden
Spoiler! :
He enjoys his life as a soldier, but feels that there is probably something missing. He rarely gets to connect to people on a human level, and has noticed other men in the camps doing so. Every time he tries too, however, the men get scared because they don't want to offend the prince. They brush him off with pleasantries and refuse to tease him in the way they mercilessly roast each other.

He hopes to one day go home and see his sister. She is of the same status as him; surely she will treat him like a real person. Unfortunately, he doesn't really know how to get to a stage where he could get home. The more he impresses his father and gains his favour, the more his father wants to promote him and embed him more in military life.

He is surprisingly funny, though the surprise may just be because he is usually so quiet you wouldn't expect him to crack a joke. He blends into the background often, and in most cases keeps his jokes to himself. Blending into the background is actually a skill he's put a lot of work into. Most people tend to stare at him, because of his position, but he's found a way of keeping his head down and not imposing his presence on anyone.


Lynas MacTulloch
Spoiler! :
Lynas doesn't do much thinking about things other than his day to day life. He was never really taught how. After a brief carpentry apprenticeship that ended in a small fire, he enlisted in the army of Wildev II and found himself shipped out to a different, much warmer continent. He never had the prowess to rise above footsoldier and went largely unrecognised for the two years before he returned home.

What he found at home was a woman who had come to live with his parents. There was some distant connection, but he paid very little attention as he fell into conversation with her. He was fascinated by her, and never wanted to stop listening to her.

This became a problem when she wanted to talk to people other than him. She enjoyed his company, and was in fact attracted to him, but he was suffocating, the extent to which he shoved himself into every conversation. She was on the edge of breaking off their relationship when he, presumably realising this, desperately proposed. The reason she was living with the family was due to death in her inheritance-less family, so she had little option but to accept.

Once he had confirmation that she was ostensibly his, he started to relax a little, but he never quite treated her with anything other than elevated adoration.


Sara MacTulloch
Spoiler! :
It hurts Sara that she had no option but to marry Lynas, and when she got pregnant she became determined to make sure that her son never flowed right into his father's mould. She taught him about how water could slip from one container to another, joining and separating at will. She taught him to view humanity in the same way.

One of the reasons Lynas's worship bothered her so much was that she knew her own flaws and Lynas won't validate her that they exist. She has a small passive aggressive streak, and she finds it difficult to empathise with situations she doesn't understand the mindset of, for example that of a soldier. She knows it would be better if she knew how the minds of people she disagreed with worked, so that she could better convince them of her way of thinking. All of this is stuff that in a perfect world she would be a married to a man who could help her fix, but Lynas only smiles, calls her beautiful, and kisses her on the head.


Janet Graham
Spoiler! :
Janet spends most of her time running errands for Sara so that Sara is able to maximise the business time spent actually working. This looks mostly like making deliveries, taking payments, but she has been learning more of her mother's trade so that she can actually have conversations with clients about fairly basic requests and mean Sara can get even more work. As she's reached age twelve and her brother, Ali, nine, she has started to also take on the job of collecting Gordon's remittances from the field. Ali is able to take some of her burden running around the town, freeing up her time to go to the next town over, meaning that they don't have to deal with the messenger's cut from the remittences.

She really enjoys having all this responsibility, especially since she is clearly more committed to it than Daena. It is clear that Daena doesn't try as hard and Janet likes to quietly point this out to Sara whenever she can. This desire to impress is very nice for Sara, who worries about Daena's dreams and is sure they will one day be thwarted. Still she encourages Janet not to be cruel about the fact that she is better at talking to clients than Daena, as does Gordon when he's around.

She adores winding up her little brother, but will always stop when she sees it really get to him. She'd like to wind up Daena, but she's generally too oblivious to even notice she ought to be wound up. She's basically the social centre of the family, always happy to fill any silence at the dinner table. Except for with her father, whom she doesn't see often and is never quite sure what will make him laugh.

She has lots of friends dotted around the town, many of whom also do odd jobs for their parents. One of her best friends is James, the farmer boy from near the edge of town. The two have a mutual love of pranks, and have concocted many schemes over the years. James is an easy-going kid; the sun seems to emanate from him even on the cloudiest days. He even occasionally makes Daena laugh, which makes Janet wildly jealous.


Alistair Graham
Spoiler! :
While Janet has dived enthusiastically into the business side of Sara's work, Ali is transfixed by the bright colours. When Sara saved up her earnings and finally bought her now prized loom, he spent hours staring at it from the corner of the room and waiting for it to produce its rainbows and patterns. Everything around him is either grey or brown, and its wondrous to see so many reds, yellows, blues etc. Red is his favourite colour; not only is it the colour of his father's uniform, it is by far the brightest boldest colour.

He too is eager to help his mum, but he’s more sad about Daena not being that enthused than irritated as Janet is. He thinks that Daena is missing out, and often shows her what he’s going to be delivering the next day to get her excited. He’s so happy about it that she doesn’t quite brush him off, but she almost always drifts away to write a letter to their dad.

He also gets on well with his friends, who like to run through the streets of the village. James has a younger sister who can run much faster than Ali. She’s trying to help him get faster around the smooth green grassland around their farm. Her name is Maureen and she’s as laid back as James but a bit quieter. She’s relaxed around Ali though, and generally it doesn’t take her that much to become relaxed in a situation.


Kieri Dairden
Spoiler! :
Most of the stuff about her is written in the Leara section, but probably worth talking about what she's like in the present day. Largely, she's actually happy. As a royal widow with a child on the throne there is no pressure for her to remarry, so she is able to spend most of her time in her little cottage with her former maid, Nell.

They are roughly the same age, and have their status as widows in common. This is the reason that either of them will give when asked about their living situation. The truth is that they have been in a relationship for most of the length of Leara's life.

It started after Leara's first miscarriage, when Nell was the main source of comfort for the young Queen. They are both significantly younger than the distant Wildev, so it seemed like a natural position to anyone looking on. But they realised early on that it was more than that. They had something with each other that they'd never had with their husbands. Whether this meant they'd never have it with any men they didn't know, but it didn't matter, because they had each other and would never need anyone else.

They considered telling Leara several times, but realised that Leara's relationship with her father was already strained. From age fifteen he was seeking a husband for her, and they could tell she wanted nothing more than to ask him if he would please just hold off for a couple of years. But she never said; she must have been scared. They didn't want to give her an extra secret to keep from her father. It just seemed too great a burden.

Once Wildev finally died in his bed, with Leara at the age of seventeen, they decided that this would be the year to finally tell her. Wildev had never been much of a father, but she still seemed a little lost now that he was gone. They figured it would be nice for her to know that she still had two loving parents. Leara was a little confused at first, not even really understanding what they meant, but when it clicked, and she saw them leaning on each other as they sat round the dinner table in Leara's bedroom one night, she realised that there was finally happiness in her life.

Kieri is constantly attempting to keep her daughter afloat in the world of military generals, but she has to do it in a roundabout way, because reminders of her existence do two things to Wildev's old men. Firstly, they are reminded of what they saw as pointless distraction in the form of endless fashion shows. Secondly, they are reminded of the odd little cottage that the queen insists on maintaining and allowing her mother to live in an odd sort of arrangement with her maid in.

So she uses Nell's connections with the servants (Nell is well loved), to have the most charismatic staff influence the masters in the desired ways, always compensating them handsomely. This is rarely enormously effective, but it keeps the staff happy and sometimes one of them comes up with just the right thing to say to change their master's mind.

Kieri is calm, quiet, dedicated, and hopelessly in love with Nell.


Wildev Dairden II
Spoiler! :
Annoyingly, he is someone who genuinely believes he is doing right by everyone in his life. His own father raised him to be a gentleman, and to provide for his family. To him this means not intruding on his wife's life too much and for the most part letting her be, as long as she plays her part. He also seeks to provide for his daughter by finding her a husband, and is genuinely flummoxed as to why she so lacks enthusiasm for the idea.

He acts similarly towards his men, which goes down a lot better since what he thinks they want actually happens to coincide with what they do want. He is a strong, confident leader. He remembers being in their place, or at least he thinks he does. What he actually remembers is his father running drills with him and the other noble boys in the morning, rather than the desperate desire to please your captain that the men whose livelihood depends on their rank feel.

Most of his relationships have already been described, and when the story starts he's dead, so that's probably enough about him.


Nell MacAndrews
Spoiler! :
She’s a good bit more energetic than her partner, who spends a lot of energy worrying about her daughter. Not that Nell isn’t worried, she’s just got better at compartmentalising her feelings over the years. She felt romantically about Kieri for several years before anything happened between them and the only way she could continue to do her work was to put them firmly to one side. It was very difficult, but eventually she found a way. She had to.

She is very resilient, and can see that in both Leara and Kieri, even if they perhaps don't always realise it themselves. Leara seems to have more self confidence than Kieri, and Nell hopes that she was able to help influence Leara in this way. She adores Leara, and is ecstatic that Leara seems to consider her a mother. Her three boys all grew up and joined the army, so she barely sees them. She was worried from the moment the third boy was born that she would grow old lonely if something happened to her husband, and even to an extent if it didn't. She always felt more connected to her sons than her husband. So as her bond with Leara grew stronger, a sore emptiness was filled in her heart.


Commander William Banford
Spoiler! :
He's been in power for ever and is honestly a little tired of the responsibility. However, he has a great deal of pride, and would never step down while he's still able to do the job. There's also the small matter of the politics between two out of his three Senior Leads. One is off trying to deal with a border skirmish when the story begins, and the other two have been squaring up to each other pretty much since he left. Without SL3's voice to settle disputes, Banford has had to be more active than he had in a long time.


Chief Strategist Thomas Penidar
Spoiler! :
Penidar is the slightly less into violence of the two warring Chief Strategists, though this isn't due to any sort of pacifism or logic. Largely, he is lazy. He doesn't want to rock the boat. He is fine with the territory they have, and wants to maintain it, but he himself having such a decent living situation makes him care very little about expanding trade and making more money. He is actually quite a content person, and this plays quite heavily into his attitude to his work.


Chief Strategist Ralph Wailit
Spoiler! :
He was born quite a bit poorer than he is now but rose rapidly through the ranks by dedication and intelligence. He is addicted to moving faster and faster up the ranks, making his territory bigger and bigger. He has been driven almost mad by hunger. Obviously this works terribly in co-ordination with Penidar, and this is a difference that is usually bridged by Robin. Robin has also risen through ranks in his life, but he is much calmer than Wailit and knows that keeping everyone working happily together is going to be more productive than in-fighting. This is because they end up arguing and arguing and doing nothing because Banford will never do anything unless it is brought to him by a unified force, because he can't be bothered dealing with drama. Sometimes Robin will arbitrarily side with one of them just to bring a conflict to a close.


Last edited by ExOmelas on Tue Jun 12, 2018 1:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

What fools these mortals be!
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream


Who cares if one more light goes out?
Well I do.
Linkin Park
One More Light


  





User avatar
760 Reviews


Gender: Other
Points: 31396
Reviews: 760
Tue Jun 12, 2018 1:08 am
ExOmelas says...



Setting


Daena's House
Spoiler! :

Living space
Cramped room that fulfils multiple functions. There's no hallway on the way to it from the front door. There's a single hard couch with very thin linens in the far right corner, a battered armchair in the near right, and a dark rectangular wooden table on the left side. There is a small hearth but the chimney often clogs so they aren't always able to use it. The floor is wooden with a large but scraggly rug in the centre. There is one window on the right side.
Sounds: chairs scraping, kettle whistling, chatter
Smells: outside (holes in the walls)
Texture: rough wood that often results in splinters

Kitchen
Tiny area just off the near left of the living space. The kettle is heated on the hearth in the living room and taken back through to the kitchen. There are a few pots and pans stacked haphazardly on the wall behind the sink. The sink is immaculate because of the risk of disease since the water is fairly often contaminated. There is no window.
Sounds: water sloshing, pots bubbling, plates clattering together
Smells: very boring things that largely just smell of the outside,
sometimes rather sour smell of the water
Texture: sink really smooth from all the washing
Bedroom
Parent bed on one side. Actual bedframe as opposed to the pallets the kids sleep on. Black and slender and actually in fairly good condition. Pallets placed close together and the kids often end up accidentally rolling onto each other during the night. Floor is hard and cold. One big window towards the back of the room.
Sounds: snoring, thuds when Ali falls off his pallet
Smells: pretty stinky (they don't get to wash very often)
Texture: scratchy bedding, hard floor
Washroom
Very small area with a single thin door cordoning off from bedroom. Single tub that you have to cram yourself into and wash in cold water that you collect from the stream. Often people just wash in the stream instead.
Sounds: chittering teeth
Smells: pretty stinky like the bedroom
Texture: cold tub
Outside appearance
Thatched roof that looks like its thinning in some places. Stones cobbled together with patchy cement. Only one floor. Very small.
Sounds: kids talking to friends
Smells: sometimes smoke drifting out
Texture: smooth stones because stuff has rubbed up against them so
often
Privy
Shared with a few nearby homesteads. Small squat building with single bench and hole. Gets emptied in turns by each household. Near to the stream so people can wash their hands in the stream. Of course, this is also people's washing and drinking water. Lovely.
Sounds: you don't wanna know
Smells: even worse
Texture: ... really? Also the wood is quite rough


Village Setup
Spoiler! :
Roughly seventy homesteads. Some of these are simple cottages, some are farmhouses. Probably a 30:70 split in favour of cottages. There are a few blacksmiths, spread out quite far so that they don't steal each others' business. There are also carpenters, butchers, bakers. It is essentially a functional village with a low, managable population. It also helped by many of the men of the village holding together the nearby border force, and sending remittences back. This means that the town has more money than mouths to feed, which helps it greatly.

It is about a mile and a half from a mid-sized river, which is not the cleanest river in the world. People often bathe in it, and honestly people often relieve themselves while doing so, rather than dragging themselves all the way to the privy. It is also the main source of drinking water, though the village has been working on building up some reserves so that water can be dispensed from a container kept in the back of the village hall. This would also create jobs, as it would need people to carry water from the river all day, so everyone is in favour of it.

There's lots of grass and only two real roads, which intersect the town in a four-way symmetrical cross. This is where produce is moved around the town in carts before carried to its final destination. Some people rent the carts, others pay their owners to deliver their wares, creating yet more movement of funds around the village.
It is not an uncommon village. In fact, many villages in the country are set up in similarly co-operative ways. This is enabled by a benevolent queen and a low population rate, which is of course kept in check with large doses of cholera from the contaminated water.


Village Hall
Spoiler! :
This is technically a church, but the village is currently without a minister after the passing of Reverend Laidlaw. He died about five years ago, but the village keeps so much to itself that there seems to be an unspoken agreement that if a new minister shows up they will welcome them, but there is no rush. The community is a faithful one, and they know what their God asks of them. They file into church every [Sunday], and without fail someone will be standing at the front ready to tell a story of something insightful that occurred to them this week

The building has one main room. The hall is a bit drafty, but is fairly small. Roughly the church from Outlander that Claire gives herself up to the English from. It is dark, but usually lit with candles by dutiful children who want to get extra gathering bread. There are rows of quite low pews with chipping varnish. The stage is only slightly raised and can be accessed by a few creaky steps. There is a rickety wooden lectern but nobody ever uses it because nobody in the town can afford vellum... barely anyone can write either.

There is also a small room off to the side that is supposed to be the minister's office, but has become something of a prototypical safe space where townsfolk can go to recover if the service gets to be too much for them. It has a high wooden table and a couple of stiff hard-backed chairs.

Sounds: murmuring, creaking floorboards, wind coming in cracks
Smells: fresh (because of the air coming in), sometimes bread because the baker provides more bread than necessary for the service
Texture: cold, much of the furniture is scratchy
Taste: hot damn that is some delicious bread


Palace Setup
Spoiler! :

Living in the palace is Queen Leara at least, nominally also her mother, but as stated in some of the character description stuff, her mother lives in a cottage on the grounds with her long term partner Nell. If Nell had been male, she would probably have formally moved out, but she doesn't want to make Leara's life any more difficult than it already is. There are also several rooms that house guests, who are often the military leaders that make Leara's life difficult in the first place.

The palace is further from the border than the village I described last time. It gets close to the mountain range (will go into more in World Building), which is within walking distance of the edge of the palace grounds. Noble families in nearby houses often spend days out hiking there. The grounds themselves are well-kept short grass with lots of neat stone paths weaving around particularly neat areas. There are also lots of trees coming quite close to the walls of the house, and there are paths going in between these too.

The walls are made of huge blocky stones, many of which have worn away into odd angles and occasionally have had to be repatched. Wildev did not spend nearly enough time and money on its upkeep, opting to put most of his energy into his attempts to capture territory abroad. Leara has ceased these operations now but still has to deal with a retaliatory border skirmish so doesn't have quite as many funds as she would like to do all the necessary repairs on the palace. She is getting a fair few done, though, and the place is at the very least shinier than it used to be.

From above the palace looks like an F shape. Most official business happens in the bottom vertical wing. The guest rooms are in the bottom horizontal wing. The social rooms are in the upper vertical wing. The resident rooms are in the top horizontal wing.

The inside is mostly dark red and off-white. The carpet is red all the way round, and soft and deep. There are often paintings of previous monarchs or dramatic landscapes dotted around at regular intervals, though sometimes the space is taken up by pedestals holding sculptures or pretty vases. Leara has never really understood why any of this is here, but she is nervous about redecorating. Rocking the boat has proved a bad idea in the past.

Sidebar: why has this proved a bad idea? She tried to put the strategy room closer to her own living quarters, but that night she realised that people were following her and standing outside her room. She is pretty scared of doing anything that might offend military leaders who are used to her father letting them get rid of their enemies in pretty shady ways. There is a story of essentially the knight of the long knives when Wailit took a bunch of his soldiers on a midnight training mission and they all mysteriously perished. Wildev did nothing.

The lighting is bright, with torches spaced liberally along the walls.

Sounds: actually quite quiet because of the deep carpet, some rooms have stone tiles which produce much louder footsteps. People talking, minstrels.
Smells: bloody excellent food, fresh air

Sidebar: where's the kitchen? Intersection between official rooms and guest rooms. Wildev spent a lot of time in official rooms.

Texture: smooth, soft, but then also cold in official rooms


Dining Hall
Spoiler! :

This is one of the social rooms so it's on the upper vertical branch of the bird's eye F shape. It is a narrow, high ceilinged room with flagstone tiles that contrast starkly with the soft carpet leading up to the door. It made mealtimes rather solemn when Leara was a child, and she will still eat in her mother's cottage if she has the chance.

The table is long, chunky, wooden, shiny. The chairs are tall and black, very hard. Not fun. They have gaps that your vertebrae get stuck in when you lean forward and it's really uncomfortable, even painful. They screech awfully when you push them out from the table.

There are three candle-holders spaced out along the table, as well as lots of cutlery, more than a village person like Daena would have any idea what to do with. The room itself is lit by an enormous gold chandelier with some very well set candles that look very steady.

There are large wide windows at the other side from the door that light the room with long swathes of natural light during the daytime. You can see some trees in the distance and usually when you have dinner there the light is going down behind the gaps between them. For Leara, this was all she wanted to look at when she was in there with her parents. Even when it was just her mother, Kieri was often so sad that she was difficult to look at without crying.

Smells: amazing food
Sounds: servants walking around, screeching chair legs, shoes clopping
Texture: smooth, hard


Great Hall
Spoiler! :
The floor is surprisingly soft, much softer than the dining room, and the softness underfoot often makes people feel warm and safe. Sometimes Leara wonders if this was to make court business seem open and happy for its guests and then cold and sharp in the dining room for those who did work behind closed doors. The light streams in on all sides and the room is always well lit at night.

There are rows of softly-upholstered benches facing up at a dais, on which sits a main throne, a throne for the monarch's spouse and a throne for the next in line. There are also a few desks several feet behind these, hidden in the shade cast by the alcove they are in, for scribes and other clerical workers.

Often the front rows of benches are cleared away for minstrels and jesters to perform, adding to the feeling of warmth that comes with this room. The ceilings are high, and their words float all the way up and around due to some cleverly arranged acoustics.

Sounds: acoustics, happy chatter, muffled footsteps
Smells: bit stuffy because of all the people
Texture: soft carpets, rough walls, smooth thrones


Strategy Room
Spoiler! :
It is a wide room with evenly spaced flagstone tiles. They are arranged symmetrically, perfectly square, and all sorts of other ways of mathematical neatness. The table sits in the exact centre of the room and is made of good, solid wood. On it is carved an exactly to scale and brilliantly detailed map of the surrounding region. This is used for essentially Diplomacy like shenanigans with little wooden discs coated in various different dyes to represent troops of different nations.

The walls are smooth and cold and grey and have lots of maps hanging down, tightly pinned with their bottom edges perfectly parallel to the ground. The maps have detailed keys and are cleverly cross-referenced with other maps around the room. They are thin but tightly woven fabrics that have been kept in brilliant condition by many low-ranking military workers who are constantly maintaining the room in order to gain the favour of their superiors.

Sounds: shouting, shoes tapping on flagstones, quiet scraping of pieces across table
Smells: nothing spectacular, as fresh as any of the other rooms
Texture: smooth, no bumps or skelfs


Cottage
Spoiler! :
Layout: living room you walk straight into, one bedroom off the back left, kitchen out back right, privy a fair few yards away

Living room
Two large armchairs on either side of a low coffee table, coffee table is well polished but chipped in quite a lot of places. There are often a few solid, thick mugs sitting on thin slate coasters. Kieri and Nell drink a lot of tea. There is also a tall bookcase full of many leather volumes with titles in small gold writing on the spines. The parchment is thin but strong and the writing is squeezed all up together. There is a small table with some small hard wooden chairs. They usually eat meals at this.
Sounds: chatting, shifting around on cushions
Smells: strong tea, homely food
Textures: soft, kinda rough

Bedroom
Single bed because the military leaders sometimes do random checks to make sure nobody has infiltrated this property on the palace grounds, apparently. It is springy, but kind of hard and the blankets are heavy and rough. There is an old barrel as a bedside table, on which sits a small mirror and usually a book or two.
Sounds: probably shouldn't go into too much detail, thumping footsteps in the morning because they're both morning people
Smells: bit stuffy because the window is quite small
Textures: same as living room
Kitchen
Fairly big table in a similar state to the copy table but it doesn't take up too much of the room. There's a fire in the corner with places for pots to be suspended over it. There's lots of space to cut vegetables on the wide countertops. Lastly there's a few stools shoved in under the table but they only ever use them if one of them is just there to keep the other company while cooking.
Sounds: chopping, boiling, chatting
Smells: very intense food
Texture: steam going right in your face and burning your eyes, furniture similar to living room and bedroom


Grounds
Spoiler! :
Obviously very big. Kind of a lower case r shape in terms of where the forest. The palace is at the corner, and there is a wide margin around it. Each of the two branches is filled with neatly kept grass with paths criss-crossing around and across it. The trees border the grass also very neatly but the forest gets wilder and wilder the further out you go. Towards the northeast is a mountain range that can be reached after a few hours' walk.

The cottage is in this direction and it is often an outdoor excursion for Kieri and Nell (and occasionally Leara if she has a free day). There are some artfully shaped bushes and well kept flower patches around the grounds. Leara isn't entirely certain who does all this but she would like to find out at some point. It's very good.

Sounds: low whistle of wind, howling more when you go into the trees
Smells: pine, wet mud
Texture: forest gets more uneven underfoot as you go further out, soft springy for both the ground and the pine needle laden forest floor, few trickling streams that go over rough rocks


Kitchen
Spoiler! :
It is huge. There are lots of instances of the highest tech in the land, including stoves where the fire is built in and is channeled through to heat the underside of pots on racks. There are various different sized versions of each utensils hanging on the walls, with lots of cupboards packed full of cutlery and crockery.

There is one table in the centre of the room, much like the one in the strategy room and it has lots of built-in sinks for washing vegetables and cleaning dishes. There's little indents for chopping boards so they don't slide about all over the place and also slots in which to store knives.

The floor is hard stone and is always cleaned very dazzlingly. It would probably feel like one of the colder rooms of the castle if not for the physical warmth from all the cooking food. It is also well lit on three different sides so there is almost always lots of natural light flooding in, which in the summer does tend to add unpleasantly to the heat, though it also gives the place a very sunny feel.

Sounds: clanging utensils, shouting, steam shooting out of things
Smells: very strong, varies depending on what's being cooked, quite sweaty also
Texture: smooth, often wet and soapy


Robin's Strategy Room
Spoiler! :
It is much more cramped than the one at the palace, which is bothering Robin. It is basically a hastily constructed hut that can be collapsed and moved around whenever needed. Its walls are four large planks held together by minimal support structures. The roof is a layer of canvas that is only thrown over at night. All elements are stored in one cart as they move around.

Because the top is open there are no windows and all the light comes in the top. There is also no floor, and set up on the ground is a folding table. There are no chairs, only the maps nailed to the walls and the maps strewn across the tables. The slightest brush against the walls can result in skelfs.

There is room for Robin and two Junior Leads, though there are more than two in the group, so who gets chosen on any given day is an oft sought after position.

The wood is dark red.

Sounds: creaks as it is put up, scuffing sounds when it's taken down
Smells: bit damp sometimes
Texture: extremely rough, heavy


Outside RSR
Spoiler! :
The main site of conflict moves around a fair bit so it isn't always the same exact environment (will go into more in worldbuilding). It doesn't matter so much because it usually faces onto the rest of the camp. There are thin canvas tents (it's a pretty warm area), a very large one of which belongs to Robin but is used for delivery of orders meetings once the orders are decided on in the strategy room. Trying to get between the tents is like trying to dodge your way through a cluttered kitchen - you're always trying to avoid tripping over something and smashing your face into something sharp. Except around here it's a sword rather than a butcher's knife, which isn't really all that different actually.

Most of the ground around this region is grey and dusty, which can often get in people's eyes. Many bored soldiers - it's been a long, stale conflict - have started experimenting with removing their uniforms' cuffs and attaching it to the front of their helmets as a sort of visor. Most of their superiors tend to mutter something about it getting in their eyes but they are so lethargic that they can't really be bothered leaving their own stations to properly scold them.

Sounds: shouted orders, soldier mutterings, thumping steps on the dusty grass
Smells: stale bread, not exactly a smell but dust often gets in people's noses and it's very scratchy
Texture: everything is dry and hot, many things are hot to the touch which makes cooking dinner quite difficult, tents are fairly smooth because their material is so thin




Worldbuilding note: days
Last edited by ExOmelas on Mon Jun 25, 2018 3:07 pm, edited 11 times in total.

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Tue Jun 12, 2018 2:48 pm
Lives4Christ24 says...



Wow, you have a lot of planning done.
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Tue Jun 12, 2018 4:06 pm
ExOmelas says...



I do indeed! I had a lot done before I finally made this thread xD

(testing a thing for squills v)

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Last edited by ExOmelas on Tue Jul 24, 2018 1:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Sun Jun 17, 2018 10:03 am
StellaThomas says...



I know you're still trying to figure out where this story is going, but I love the concept. It reminds me of a certain part of American Gods which I don't want to spoil if you haven't read it... and also gives me vibes of one of the stories in Leigh Bardugo's Language of Thorns... so basically you're in excellent company!

You also have a really well developed cast and I think they'll drive the story for you :)
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Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:20 pm
ExOmelas says...



Oh wow that’s a huge compliment to me! American Gods is sitting on my shelf waiting for me, but I love Neil Gaiman in general <3 Yeah, I have a couple of seeds of plot and I’m kind of hoping I’ll know the characters so well that they’ll just tell me what the plot is xD

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Fri Jun 22, 2018 9:23 pm
ExOmelas says...



Plot


First Days

Grahams
Spoiler! :
Gordon is returning from a term patrolling the border. He has performed a daring act and is to be awarded with a token of gratitude at court.
Daena: Can barely even function she is so excited. She keeps running round the house, unsure of what to do with herself, and eventually ends up taking on extra work for her mother just so she can run the energy off.
Sara: Extremely proud but worried about the disruption in business. Gordon assures her that one sale at court will pay for dinner for a month, which actually isn’t too hard to believe.
Janet: A bit sad to be taken away from James, who yesterday had pecked her on the cheek to say goodbye then run away at lightspeed into his house. Still, she overhears her father say to her mother about what courtiers will pay for fancy clothes and gets butterflies of glee in her stomach.
Ali: Just excited about going to somewhere with so many red pennants flying from the turrets.
Gordon: Was sort of looking forward to time off with his family, but guiltily revelling in Daena’s pride. They’ll also get much nicer rooms at the palace, which is something he has wanted to be able to provide for his family for a long time.


MacTullochs
Spoiler! :
Robin returns from the border for a medal presentation ceremony for Gordon.

Robin: Robin is the one that Gordon saved. It had been so long since Robin had seen any active combat that his water manipulation had failed him at a critical moment, during an ambush. The guard had fallen asleep in the glaring sun, but he had owed Gordon some gambling money. Their shifts didn't match up particularly well, so they'd agreed Gordon would come by during his guard shift. When he did, he saw him bleeding from the stomach and looking up, saw a figure dressed all in black sneaking towards Robin's tent. He immediately shot the figure in the foot, causing him to cry out. Robin darted out his tent and shot his arm out toward him. But only a stream of water came. Gordon jumped on the assassin from behind, wrested his sword from his grip with barely a breath taken and helped Robin to get the assassin to the ground.

Robin is in shock, and invents a story where he was sleeping through the whole thing. Gordon agrees to go along with it to keep the fear of his Senior Lead strong. The only person he tells the real story to is Clara, though Daena does overhear. This is why all the ceremony is gone through, to cement this version of the story in people's minds.

Lynas: He wonders why the hell Robin is going to so much trouble to reward a lowly footsoldier purely for doing his duty, and knows that something must be up. He arranges a day trip with Wailit to see what he knows, but gets nothing from him. He meets Robin on the way back, but Robin refuses to acknowledge how odd the situation is.


Dairdens
Spoiler! :
Robin suddenly announces he’s coming back and awarding one of his footsoldiers with a medal for saving his life.
Leara: Robin is the only one of the Senior Leaders who seems to respect her opinion. As a result, of course, the others were happy to give him the honour of heading up the field. He was also fine with this, since it gives him the opportunity to earn accolades. Accolades get him a promotion, and the more power he has the more havoc he can cause, more water to the water world and all. Leara, however, always regretted allowing him to be sent away, and intends to keep him nearby if she gets the chance. This may result in his support for her fading, but she would lose nothing.
Kieri: She never liked Robin very much, fairly sure that Leara was enamoured with him. Falling in love with one of her Senior Leads seemed like a terrible idea, both for Leara herself and for her image. She keeps trying to distract her with staffing issues, for example that two of the waiting staff seem to be getting too familiar together... and how terribly this would affect their performance.
Nell: She is spending most of her time trying to rein Kieri in, pretty sure this is going to really annoy Leara. She trusts Leara, and knows that Kieri does too if she would stop to think about it.


Themes

Grahams
Spoiler! :
Daena realising that her father's life, while exotic, is not a fantastical chivalric myth, and that her mother is actually just as worthy of being a hero. Also that fantastical chivalric myths tend to be more complicated in general. This also involves her listening to her sister about her crush on her friend and her realisation that for her brother, their mother IS a fantastical mythical hero.

Clara finally gets to the root of Gordon and finds out why he's so perfect all the time. Gordon is terrified that she will think he has been lying to her. She will say this is true, but that she always suspected as such. She screws up a seam, takes it out, smiles at him, and starts over.


MacTullochs
Spoiler! :
Robin realises he has gone too far and gives himself up to the water world. The water world has no use for him so simply takes away his powers. He retires and goes to live under a new name in the Grahams' village, which is so insular that they don't recognise his face even slightly.

Lynas is hopelessly disappointed in his perfect son and tells him that he can still make a name for himself without whatever powers the stupid selkies were giving him. When Robin refuses, he cuts off contact, and Robin is surprised by how unsurprised he is. He goes to his mother's grave and gives her an ordinary daisy. He says it is a symbol, but not a cheesy kind of symbol, of the simple life he is going to lead.


Dairdens
Spoiler! :
Kieri realises that she has to stop imagining the worst for Leara. Leara is capable of handling herself and if she wants to be actively involved then that's her choice. Kieri had been so confused about why her mother was so upset about her asserting her authority in front of the military leaders - it couldn't possibly be for the same sexist reasons that the leaders were bothered by it, so she was flummoxed. She realises that her mother and Nell have a strain on their relationship because of all this and that they are not just there to guide her through her rein.



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Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:44 am
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ExOmelas says...



Chapter posts:

(LMS IV) The Drowner: 1

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Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:01 pm
ExOmelas says...



Week 6 entry (week 5 isn't out the Green Room):

2396 words

Spoiler! :
The crowded training field in the palace's front courtyard was Robin's idea of hell at that moment, so he hunched his shoulders and powered forward, out into the forest. The dusty path, cutting the grass out the back neatly into two halves, led Robin most of the way west towards the densely packed pines, but stopped at a high wall made of uniformly arranged stone. He ducked out through a black iron gate that didn't quite reach his head height, then slammed it shut behind him.
He frowned at his own hands as they relaxed their grip on the bars. He hadn't even realised he was angry.
With the treeline in sight about two hundred metres distant, he began to pick up his feet and jog. His anger picked up traction along with his pace, and soon he was growling to himself, occasionally muttering about lying little water spirits and their promises of power. Before he knew it he had sprinted head first into a wide, rough tree trunk. But with his lips curled back in a snarl and his eyes screwed up so tight his vision was beginning to blur, he couldn't have cared less.
He stumbled around between the trees, jumping over gullies in one huge step. A couple of times he tripped over roots, but his adrenaline had heightened his senses, and there was no way it would allow him to fall.
Finally he made it to the clearing. It was a vague 'L' shape, in the sense that it curved out of sight to the left about twenty metres from Robin. He knew from many long days spent there that the other side was slightly shorter but roughly the same ten metres width, hence 'L'. He rested against a tree for a moment, letting his breathing slow, then paced forward to where the two sides met and raised his left hand towards where he had just been standing.
He loved this spot for how quiet it was, but also for that one sound that you could always here. Amidst the occasional chirp from a lonely bird, there was the ever-present tinkle of a spring, hidden away in the trees just behind where Robin stood. He let its gurgle, its clear never ceasing flow, fill his brain until no other thought was there to clutter it up.
Then he shot.
The water flew directly out of the pores of his palm and continued straight like an arrow for the length of the clearing, all the way to the tree he had rested against to catch his breath. The water stream spattered wildly in all directions as it pummeled the trunk, the splash zone reaching farther and farther as he squeezed his core tighter. His face was crumpled in a grimace, and his arm ached from the cold. But he grinned through the pain. It was working.
"Robin!"
His arm dropped instinctively to the side and he glanced around for whoever had spoken.
"Over here, Robin," the voice said. A moment later there was a rustle behind him and Queen Leara emerged from the trees.
Her simple blue gown was hitched up to the knee, and her feet were bare. Robin smiled ruefully with one side of his mouth. She never had convinced the cobblers to make her shoes suitable for outdoor activity, then. The dark skin of her shoulder glistened a little from a few spots of water but as far as he could tell her frizzy black hair had got away unscathed.
She put her hands on her hips. "Why are you trying to eviscerate that tree?"
Robin's gaze dropped to the short, light green grass. "I need practice. Away from watchers."
"Oh," Leara said. When Robin looked up her eyes had gone wide and she had taken one step backwards.
Robin waved his hands in front of him. "No, no. Sorry, your Majesty, you can watch me as long as you like."
She raised an eyebrow.
Robin sighed. "Okay, I guess I need to practice words. Actually was that even dirty? Or are you just trying to mess with me? How did you see me anyway?"
Leara was grinning very, very widely. "I was at Mum and Nell's cottage. Nell spotted you going by, well, charging by, and suggested I come out and find you."
"And you risked my watery wrath just like that?" he asked, smiling a little.
"I don't really risk a telling off from Nell," she explained. Her smile got a little smaller, but it was less toothy. Robin smiled too at the thought of Nell and Leara's mother, Kieri, together. Nell was basically her stepmother by this point. Of course, if she'd been a man, she probably would have been her stepfather, but from the sounds of it Kieri had decided Leara had enough problems trying to get her military leaders to take her seriously.
"It's good to see you," Robin said.
Leara took a step towards him, properly into the clearing. She was barely a metre from Robin, who in his six months away had presumed he'd exaggerated how tall she was in his mind. But it was true. In fact, as she closed the whole distance and kissed him, he realised that she was actually the one tipping her head forward a little.
When she stepped away, she was biting her lip slightly. He wondered if he would ever know her well enough to tell if her ebony cheeks were blushing. He'd consulted a physician on a diplomatic trip to her mother's homeland, Galra, and been informed that white doctors often missed diagnoses of various conditions because they were expecting a certain visual response. Robin had expected high praise when he returned and told her of what he'd learned, but she'd only nodded and told him how true that was, then went back to what she was reading.
He grinned. "It is so good to see you."
She smiled at him for a long moment, but eventually began to falter. Her gaze dropped from his. "Robin, what are you doing? I'm putting my neck out there for this soldier's medal and everyone I hear is telling me he did nothing spectacular."
He gulped, his stomach twisting. "Okay, there's something you have to know."
She looked up, her eyes unreadable and staring straight at him. He took a deep breath, a pace backwards, and told her about the assassination attempt, about how his power had failed him.
She frowned. "But you were doing fine just there."
He nodded. "You're not wrong. Maybe the sun was draining me, I don't know. But he definitely saw what happened, I'm sure of it. But Gordon's a modest man, everyone knows that. If he tries to claim some nonsense about the legendary Sir Robin MacTulloch faltering at the crucial moment, well, everyone will think he's just trying to deflect attention."
She blinked a few times, but none of the rest of her moved. "That. That is your great plan? Come on, I bet you're not even losing anything. Shoot that tree again!"
The fury in her voice made it ragged, desperate, and he was sure that her eyes were a little watery in the corners. He whimpered slightly, but thrust his arm into the air and willed the water to come.
And it did. For a moment he pounded the tree with that powerful, freezing stream. But suddenly there was a horrible sucking noise and the last few droplets fell to the ground just in front of his feet. He hung his head, waiting for Leara's horror.
Instead he felt the pressure of a long slim arm around his shoulders. He turned to face Leara, her face serious, calm. He fell into a tight, warm hug, standing awkwardly with one arm still stretched out to his left.
"Come on," she whispered, "The soldier and his family will be arriving."
They walked quietly out of the forest, for the most part with their hands tightly clasped together but occasionally letting go to jump across streams or patches of tree roots. As they finally emerged into the outskirts of the garden, with the dark grey clouds beginning to recede, they took one last look at each other and simultaneously altered their stances. He drew himself up taller, she rested her weight on his arm like he was escorting her around the grounds.
That was what they must have looked like as they strolled around the perimeter of the garden on a neatly cobblestoned path with a smooth wooden fence on the left hand side, keeping the forest at bay. They were simply a young Queen and her trusted military commander, who had been without opportunity to catch up for several months.
Their first test came at the stables. As they passed along outside it, they heard a shout from inside, followed by a low male voice, which seemed to be chuckling. Robin gulped as they approached the first stable door, which was hanging wide open. They leaned quite far left to get past it, which nearly resulted in Robin's empty scabbard catching on the fence. But then they were on the other side, staring Robin's horse Palliser right in the mottled white face.
"Hi, boy," Robin said, craning his head to try and see past. There were figures moving inside, but they didn't seem to have noticed him yet. One looked young, though quite tall. The other was even taller, and his long greying blonde hair flowed freely around his shoulders. He turned around at the noise and Robin bright blue eyes pierce through the darkness.
"Hello, sir," Gordon Graham said.
Robin's throat felt thick and scratchy, but he managed to say, "Good afternoon, Graham. Is this one of your children?"
"Do you think we could do this round the front?" Leara said. Robin had to stop himself from giggling as he realised how much she was having to stoop to see in through the door. She was right next to it, whereas he was able to lean back on the fence.
"Of course, your Majesty!" Gordon smiled.
"Your Majesty?" the young person shouted, a female voice, Robin thought. "Are you telling me that's the Queen, Dad?"
"Daena!" Gordon snapped.
Leara ducked out of the doorway and flattened herself against the thick planks of the stable, facing out at Robin. His heart thudded. He had no idea what the matter was. But then her hand rose to her mouth and her eyes screwed up and her shoulders started to shake. she was trying to conceal a giggle fit.
They resumed their lady and gentleman pose and strode around to the entrance of the barn. Gordon and his daughter were standing outside already, with the girl staring down at her feet. Her cheeks were bright red, and Gordon's lips kept tugging upwards at the side. It seemed he found his daughter's excitement amusing too.
"So, Daena was it?" Leara asked.
Daena's head jerked up. Her eyes were so wide Robin panicked for a moment that there was an assassin behind him again or something, but as she stuttered over her answer he realised that it was Leara she was frightened of.
"Y-yes, your Majesty," Daena said. Her voice was still far too panicked to be soft, but her long, deep curtsey underlined her nerves perfectly.
"And this, Daena," Gordon said, helping her to her feet somewhat jerkily, "is Senior Lead Sir Robin MacTulloch, the man responsible for our stay here."
Robin froze, just for a moment, but Graham darted a quick glance at him. It killed Robin not knowing what Graham really had seen that day.
Daena held her hand out to Robin. "It is incredible to meet you, sir. I am in awe of everything you do."
Her voice was steadier, following the words with smooth dips in cadence and emphasis in clearly choreographed places. Robin took her hand and shook it heartily. "The pleasure is all mine, miss. You should be very proud of your father."
Daena glanced at Gordon, then back at Robin, and nodded.
"Well, Daena," Leara said, ever keen to move awkward conversations forward. "What do you think of the horses here?"
Daena grinned and launched into a surprisingly well informed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the six horses currently housed within. Robin watched Gordon as she talked, and noticed that his eyes never left his daughter for the duration. No attempts to size up Robin, no suspicious glances between Robin and Leara.
When she was done, Leara stared for a moment, then said, "And which one exactly would you like to ride?"
Daena's jaw dropped open, then clamped shut with an unsettling snapping sound as her manners kicked in. "That is a very generous offer, your Majesty. I would like to ride the brown mare."
"Uh, Daena, I really should go help everyone get settled. I didn't actually mean for this to take so long," Gordon said.
"We can take her," Robin said.
Daena squeezed her closed fist against her mouth, and Robin wondered how loud the excited scream she held back was.
"We can, yes," Leara said, raising an eyebrow at Robin. Robin bit the side of his lip and shrugged. He had spoken out of turn, to be fair.
"Dad, please say yes," Daena said, her voice finally soft and low. How long would her attempts to stay calm prevail for?
Gordon sighed. "Of course, if the Queen is definitely alright with this."
Leara nodded, Daena grinned. Gordon said goodbye quickly, then headed north towards the front entrance of the palace. Leara led Daena into the dimly lit stable, with all the light currently streaming in from the open doors. As Daena slipped through the brown mare's gate, Leara leaned in towards Robin.
"You were quick to suggest this," she whispered.
He shrugged. "It's a win win. She gets to ride on one of the best horses in the country, I get to spend an afternoon with a kid who thinks I'm God."
Leara smirked at him. "Yeah, well don't get used to it."
His eyes dropped from hers. "I won't. I just... I need this right now."
He felt a hand brush his in the dark. Leara whispered, "Okay."
Then Daena was calling them over to ask the location of some equipment, and they were back to Queen and subject.

What fools these mortals be!
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream


Who cares if one more light goes out?
Well I do.
Linkin Park
One More Light


  





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Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:35 pm
ExOmelas says...



Week 7 entry (same reason as last time)

Chapter 5.1

Spoiler! :
The throne room, where in a few short moments Daena's father would be presented with a Medal of Honour, was far more homely than Daena would have expected. The floor was covered in fluffy, cream carpet. Its colour was rich, with no stains and barely any dust or signs of wear. The walls were a very bare stone, but it was very even stone without big ravine-like gaps as the joins in between. Torches were mounted regularly along and that, along with the smiles on the faces of the assembled crowd and the sun streaming in through a large stained glass window to the throne's left, made Daena's heart glow warmer than it already had been.
Three loud bangs on the big double doors rang out into the hall, which, being extremely high-ceilinged, held the echo for a long time. Then the doors swung open, and in marched a man in a well cut tunic and tight black breeches, with a long red, flowing robe rolling down from his shoulders. In his right hand he held a long, slim mace, the ceremonial kind with a little figure in silver on the top. Daena couldn't see what the figure was, and she doubted she'd be allowed anywhere near it afterwards. She itched to know as much as she could about this place.
The macer was followed by a man in similar attire, though without the robe, then Daena's father, then the lithe figure of Sir Robin MacTulloch. Daena did her best not to stare at his strong, sharp jaw, but figured if he did look over at her she could just switch her focus to her father. She'd managed not to embarrass herself again while out riding with him and the Queen, but she was still determined to be careful.
Bringing up the rear was a man with a trumpet, blasting out a slow processional accompaniment, and the five men proceeded forward to the throne, which was raised on a fairly low dais. The carpet covered the whole stairs, rather than just the middle, so it barely looked like a departure from the rest of the room. That wasn't to say the wide, gold adorned throne wasn't impressive, but it just didn't have that epic flair Daena had been expecting.
Queen Leara rose languidly from the throne with long, even steps. Her dress was gold and flow-y. Daena thought there was probably a better term for that than "flow-y" but that was her mum and Janet's department, really. Leara met the five men at the bottom of the dais, at which point the macer peeled off the procession and stood to the side with the mace held rigidly out in front of him. The man with the trumpet marched to the opposite side and blasted one final loud, long note, then held the trumpet down at his side.
The audience, filling most of the hall but split on either side around a fairly wide corridor the procession had walked down, were mostly silent, but there were a few rumbles of anticipated chatter as they finally came to a stop. The man dressed similar to the macer turned round to face Daena's father and Sir Robin, who abruptly took steps to the side and turned ninety degrees to face each other.
"We honour today the daring acts of Foot Co-ordinator Gordon Graham," the man announced. Daena's eyes drifted away from the back of Robin MacTulloch's head and watched her father dart a quick glance his way. MacTulloch didn't flinch, as far as Daena could see. The officiator went on, "He is hereby credited with saving the life of Senior Lead Sir Robin MacTulloch, who has submitted this recognition request. We honour that now, with the blessing of Queen Leara."
At that Queen Leara held forth a small, flat black box. She reached her fingers over the tip and opened it from the top, tilting it a little forward so that the gathered crowd could see the glittering silver circle within. She passed it with a curtsey to the officiator. Well that didn't make any sense, Daena thought. Why was the Queen curtseying to a random master of ceremonies or something?
The officiator did at least bow long and deeply as he took the box. He turned back around and offered the box to Sir Robin as as Leara retook her seat on the throne. Sir Robin reached his arm forward, clad in a shiny black brace that was far too clean to ever have been used in battle. He picked the medal out of the soft navy bedding, and Daena's father immediately lowered himself to one knee. He leaned his head forward and Sir Robin silently, smoothly placed the medal on a narrow maroon ribbon around his neck. He bent over and kissed Daena's father on the forehead, then both rose to full height together.
The macer and trumpeter sprang back into action and a moment later the party was passing by the audience once again. Daena barely got a chance to catch her father's eye, and it was only as he passed right in front of her that he managed to quickly glance over at her and the rest of the family, flash them a smile, then he was practically at the door. Two servants swung the doors open in perfect unison and the macer led them out, Daena's father, Sir Robin, the officiator and then the trumpeter, giving one final elaborate run before stepping backwards through the doors.
The doors stayed open, and one of the servants invited the guests to retire to the great hall, where the main event would soon be taking place. Daena frowned and started to follow the crowd out. She looked from Janet on her left, to Ali and her mother on her right. All were beaming proudly and looking all around them as they shuffled out of the room. Not one of them seemed to be concerned that this short, meagre little thing was not going to be tonight's main event.
But it didn’t matter. Her father was here, and they were in this grand, beautiful place together. She bet they’d even hear a tale or two from Sir Robin MacTulloch. There hadn’t been much time for talking as they tore around the palace grounds on the royal mounts, but Daena would give anything for a proper talk with him. Maybe she could even squeeze a training session out of him.

What fools these mortals be!
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream


Who cares if one more light goes out?
Well I do.
Linkin Park
One More Light


  





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Tue Aug 21, 2018 11:49 am
ExOmelas says...



Week 8 entry

Chapter 5.2

Spoiler! :
A fashion show. The main event was a fashion show. The moment the last of the crowd shuffled through to the grand hall and started to spread out around the tables, it was announced. There was to be a surprise fashion show of the style King Wildev had been fond, which Queen Leara had been working on all week. As Daena watched the grin spread wider and wider on Janet's face, she tried to keep the image of the badass Queen arising from her throne to descend towards her subjects.
Just so long as Sir Robin didn't show up in golden breeches with a studded sheath strapped across his chain mail or something. Actually, Daena realised as a waitress in a long flowing orange dress started leading Daena and her family towards their table, maybe this was her chance. There was no way a knight covered in such glory would stoop to parading himself around. She'd probably find him as far away from the festivities as possible, which was exactly where she wanted to be.
The grand hall was even bigger than the throne room, and just as softly carpeted. Like the throne room, it had a raised area at one side, though in this case it was just a stage, rather than a dais. The carpet stopped there, and was replaced by narrow planks of wood with a fantastically shiny finish on them. All around the room, tables were dotted about, huge enormous tables that no one family could possibly take up.
And it turned out they weren't expected to. Daena did her best to not politely as they were seated at a massive round table with various dignitaries hunched over their places. There were only two when they sat down, but soon four more joined in two sets of two. Three old pot-bellied men and their wives with straw-like grey hair. Alright, maybe they weren't all that old and fat, but they certainly hadn't seen a battlefield any time recently.
It seemed like dinner wouldn't be served immediately, that they were expected to socialise for a little while, so Daena grabbed the opportunity to excuse herself to the privy.
Her father's eyebrows raised a little. He pointed to the right. "Nearest one's that way, I think."
She smiled. "Thanks."
As she turned to go Daena thought she saw Janet roll her eyes at her, but she didn't care. She didn't see Sir Robin anywhere in this room, and that meant her theory was right. He didn't care about fashion shows.
She peeked her head out of the grand hall, into a corridor with a slightly thinner but no less warmly cream carpet. To the right, the corridor ended in a squat arched door, with the top of the arch coming to a sharp point, so that it was more like a slightly curvy triangle than a circle. She almost had to duck a little on the way out.
She emerged into a bright day, though that was only from the endless white of an overcast sky. It was autumn now, so there wouldn't be much sun for a while this far north. A narrow flagstone path led to the right, disappearing around a corner, one of many in a palace that didn't seem to have ever heard of squares and rectangles.
"It's not really my sort of thing... And besides, why do you want to keep doing something your father only started doing because he saw it done when he went shopping for your mother?"
Daena started, and went still. That was the voice of Sir Robin, and it seemed he really didn't want to partake in a silly fashion show. But what in the world was the rest of it about?
"You never heard of reclamation, you idiot? I'm un-bastardising a proud tradition. Besides, I've heard Graham's wife is a wonderful seamstress. I want to see what she has to say about the work of the women my mother hires."
That was the Queen! She seemed to be telling Sir Robin off around the corner, where the path led, but she was laughing too, as if she didn't really care that much.
Daena had just about forced herself to move, and it had even begun to occur to her that she should probably go the other way so she didn't accidentally interrupt them, when they strolled around the corner. Arm in arm. Sir Robin was leaning lazily over with his head buried in the Queen's frizzy hair, so he didn't notice her, but the Queen's jaw dropped open and she jabbed Sir Robin with her elbow.
He looked up, and muttered a curse.
"Hello, Miss Graham," he said, "I didn't hear you."
Daena gulped. "Sorry, sir. Um, habit. When I was wee I would sneak around town to pretend I was like my dad... on a, er, stealth mission."
Sir Robin grinned. "Any chance you could stay... stealthy about this?"
The Queen rolled her eyes and disentangled herself from Sir Robin's arm around her waist. "Good Lord, Robin, she's not a child. Daena, please could you keep what you have seen between myself and Senior Lead Sir MacTulloch a secret?"
Daena nodded, a wave of pride suddenly rushing over her. "Of course, your Majesty. Whatever I can do to help."
The Queen smiled. "That's what I like to hear. Now, I assume you were on your way to the bathroom."
Daena's eyes dropped to the ground. "I guess you could say that was my stealth mission's cover story... I just wanted to get away from all the people for a moment. Fashion isn't really my thing."
The Queen strode towards her. "Well, we shall soon fix that!"
She started to herd Daena back into the corridor towards the grand hall, guiding her by a firm hand on her back. Daena walked forward a little faster to show she would oblige, and a moment later the Queen took her hand away. She looked over her shoulder to try to get some sympathy from Sir Robin, who clearly took her side on the matter. But he was already walking away, towards the forest.

What fools these mortals be!
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream


Who cares if one more light goes out?
Well I do.
Linkin Park
One More Light


  





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Sat Sep 01, 2018 5:02 pm
ExOmelas says...



Week 9 entry

Chapter 5.3

Spoiler! :
"Your Majesty!" A short young man clad in red silk robes, but with a small dagger tucked into a leather belt around his waist sprinted down the corridor towards the queen. He stumbled to a stop in front of them and doubled over, panting. "There you are, your Majesty. Senior Lead Wailit is wondering when you're going to make the announcement about the hunting trip attendees. Should I tell him to just be patient again?"
The Queen hummed as she thought, and the young man, a cross between a guard and a messenger boy it seemed to Daena, managed to straighten himself up. He was still quite short, but now he rose a little bit above Daena's eye level.
"No, I think I'll come now. Just, could you go find Senior Lead MacTulloch and see if you can wrangle him into coming along for at least the closing of tonight's show?" The Queen smiled at the guard, whose mouth had drooped a little at the corners. She chuckled. "You wanted to tell Wailit off again, didn't you?"
He sighed. "The look on his face... But yes, I shall go find Sir MacTulloch. I think I saw him go out in this direction earlier, perhaps he's in the grounds somewhere."
The Queen nodded without saying anything further, but smiled again at the guard as he hurried past.
"Alright, Daena, I think I'll have to leave you here," she said, starting to take a few long strides ahead of Daena. She turned around to face her. "I really do encourage you to come watch the display though. Expression is an important tradition in my mother's culture, and I wish to uphold that. But feel free to wander around in the halls until you have all your sulking out of your system."
She smiled the whole way through this, but Daena wondered with a jolt just how much she might have offended the Queen. To be fair, the show was probably more than just stitching buttons back onto pretty dresses.
But before she could apologise, the Queen had hurried back up the corridor to the great hall, leaving Daena just as she had been before - alone, and wandering around without much of a purpose she could really explain as her reason for being there.
She sighed, hunched her shoulders and started to walk forward.
"Gordon, you have to tell her!"
Daena's head jerked up and she glanced about. There was nobody in the corridor, but that had definitely been her mother's voice. Only once door in the corridor was open, and even that was only cracked, but a spark of excitement sprang to life inside Daena. What in the world was going on?
She flattened herself against the wall, keeping her breathing slow and steady, and edged towards the open door. By that point the voices had become raised, and she realised her parents were arguing about something.
"She'll be crushed," her father moaned, "You know all she wants is a little bit of adventure. Come on, let me talk to MacTulloch."
There was a pause. Daena's heart started to thump against her chest. But finally her mother said, "You can try, but you know what he will say. They don't take girls on hunting trips, they don't give them swords, they don't get to be soldiers. She has to know this one day, Gordon, and it has to come from you."
"Fine, fine, fine," her father muttered.
Some floorboards creaked. Footsteps approaching Daena. She jumped back but there was nowhere to hide as the the door swung open. And, to her true shame, she yelped in fright as her parents strode out of the room.
"Daena!" her mother snapped. Daena's breath caught and she glanced at her father to see how much trouble she was likely to end up in. If his eyes weren't angry, then it would be okay. But then her mother's brow relaxed. She sighed. "I have a feeling I ought to leave you two alone."
Daena opened her mouth to say something but her father put a hand up to stop her. She clamped her mouth shut and let her mother go, watching her for a brief moment before staring back up at her father.
"Dad," she mumbled, "What's going on?"
His eyes dropped to the floor, but he soon looked back up and held her gaze. He was still, all his strong muscles and wide frame holding itself in suspense. His mouth moved a little, as he seemed to try out words without ever actually saying them.
"Daena, you know that hunting trip that is being organised for some of the soldiers on leave?" he began. Daena nodded, then waited a few more moments for him to continue. "Well, I don't know what you thought, but you won't be coming. I am afraid the wash bucket is as close as you will ever come to a sword."
Daena forgot to breath, and choked. "What are you talking about?"
"You're a girl, Daena," her father groaned. His voice had gone all high pitched and whiny, and there was a horrible redness in his eyes as he forced the words out.
"I know, and I know that I have to work for the family business. You don't have to tell me all that! But it's just one hunting trip!" Daena's voice felt ragged, its hoarseness increased by the dryness she felt at the thought of arguing with her father. She had waited all this time.
"There's one last thing," he said, as if she hadn't even spoken. "You are to stay away from Robin MacTulloch from now on. Do you understand that, Daena?"
He was practically crying. Daena was torn between wrapping herself into his arms and thumping her fists into his chest. Instead, she held her chin as high as she could and muttered, "Fine. I'll go back to Janet and Ali then."
He called after her, but she couldn't look round, couldn't let him see the tears that were building up.

What fools these mortals be!
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream


Who cares if one more light goes out?
Well I do.
Linkin Park
One More Light


  








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— Mitch Hedberg