Adoption Offer

After her chat with Ossian, Folly tries trumping Martin last thing every night before she goes to bed, and first thing every morning when she gets up.

When she finally gets through after a couple of days, she keeps the chat brief, knowing Martin is very busy and probably also very tired after all the intense Shadow-shifting. She hands back Ossian's Trump and will happily fill Martin in on any of the highlights of the last few days he seems interested in, but mostly she just provides a few minutes of happy conversation.

Martin accepts the call with remarkable alacrity. He's happy enough to take the Trump back, but happier to hear from her, Folly thinks. He's remarkably fresh for a guy who's been riding hard and fast as much as he has been lately, but he did get an extra day of sleep in there.

He does inquire to be sure she's been trying to reach him, in case he needs to Trump his father.

If she notices the bandage on his arm, she'll ask about it.

He confesses that he got scratched up sparring, doing something stupid. But he'll be fine by the masquerade, he assures Folly.

Folly, of course, was present for the conversation between Adonis and Martin concerning Lilly; and she was present when Martin told his father he had a date to spar with Lilly right before leaving on his errand. But she decides to wait 'til later to tease him about it.

She does make a mental note to invite Lilly to tea or out to a pub, though. She's been sorely remiss in getting to know her new cousin.

In the afternoon of the fifth day of the Return, Gerard sends a page to Folly to ask her to attend on him in office sometime in the afternoon, before dinner.

Folly replies via the page that she will be there within the hour.

When she arrives, she greets Gerard warmly and settles into one of the chairs opposite his desk. Although her manner is casual, she has taken the time to brush her hair and change into a reasonably cat-hair-free dress for the meeting.

"What can I do for you, Uncle?" she asks.

"Oh, it's not so much what you can do for me."

Gerard says, "I've had a chance to think a bit about how things will be now that Amber has a King. I know that things must seem strange and different to you, and they'll not be so cozy as they were with this old rockpile full of my brothers and sisters. And how we may revert somewhat to the manner of the old days under my father.

"Has anyone told you yet about being a ward of the crown?"

"Yeah," Folly says. "A little." She slumps back in her chair like a child who's just been told recess is cancelled and all the animal crackers have been replaced by spinach. "But only a little. Are there parts that don't suck?"

Gerard says, "Well, I suppose that depends on who has your wardship. I've been thinking about that."

Gerard catches her gaze and says, a bit slowly, "With you having been a foreigner in Amber, and not knowing my brothers, it must be very hard for you, and a bit scary. And perhaps it's a bit odd for you to think of Vialle as sort of a mother-figure. But I like to think I've been a bit of an uncle, or e'en a father, to all of you young folk during the Regency. And since ye know me, and I'd be less strange to ye than a brother o'mine ye don't know, I hae decided to ask Random for your wardship.

"If ye approve, of course."

As she considers his words, Folly regards Gerard in silence, her expression equal parts fondness and sadness.

Then she says, "You remind me of my Papa," and her voice, too, is tinged with melancholy. "He was a good man -- good-hearted, always looking out for me, even when I --" She breaks off, stricken, and glances down at her hands.

"Look," she continues more matter-of-factly once she has regained her composure, "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd hate to cause you the kind of grief I know I caused him. And I certainly don't want my foolish decisions to reflect poorly on you."

She lets out a long, bitter sigh. "But I don't suppose there's a snowball's chance in hell that Random will just let me be responsible for my own damn self, is there?"

"Random will do what Random will do. I'm not worried so much about his conduct towards you as I am--other things."

Folly nods. Her brow furrows as she turns a few things, some of them a bit disturbing, over in her mind.

"As for your troublesome nature, I've been responsible for it all through the Regency. And if I were to think of all the grief your cousins have cause me, I'd think of Brita getting lost in Arden, Cambina threatening everyone who annoys her with the evil eye, and Paige giving me a grey hair or two here and there. I've never seen or heard you do a thing that I'd be ashamed to claim in my own daughter."

He looks like he's about to say something more, but decides instead to say: "I've already talked to Vere and Solange, and they'll be very disappointed if they can't welcome you as a sister. They were so looking forward to it, but I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do."

Folly smiles at Gerard in gratitude and affection, deeply touched by his words. The shadow of indecision dims her usual sparkle, though, as the wheels of her mind continue to turn.

He pauses for a moment, then says, "There are those who'll think I've asked for your wardship because Vere's sweet on you. You know and I know that it's not so, but I'd rather folk thought your marriage was reserved for him than schemed for your hand."

Folly chuckles. "If Vere can endure the rumors, then so can I -- especially if it discourages unwanted suitors."

Then, more seriously, she continues, "In an ideal world, it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't need a sanctioned guardian to protect me from mischief and malice. But this is not an ideal world."

She pauses, gathering her thoughts. When she speaks again, her voice is warm with affection. "You're right, Gerard -- you have been rather like a father to me over these last few years. And Vere and Solange -- I can think of few people I'd be prouder to call my siblings." She smiles, a bit misty-eyed, and comes to a decision.

"Go ahead and talk to Random," she says, rising from her chair to give Gerard a hug. "But.. no going and marrying me off when I'm not looking, OK?"

Gerard accepts the hug and returns it, bearlike, picking Folly slightly up off the ground and giving her a good rib-compressing squeeze. "I promise I'll ask you before I accept any offers I get for your hand, lass."

He holds her at arms-length and looks her in the eye. "The other thing folk will think is that I'm your sire after all. But I don't know your Texorami, so I can reasonably surely say I'm not. Let others say what they will, but if you and I know the truth, that's enough for me."

"Me, too," Folly says with a little half-smile.

"I do wonder whether any of your brothers will suddenly realize I might be theirs, though," she continues. "Or whether one of them knows already and just isn't telling."

She pauses, then adds, "I'm not sure whether that would bode well or ill."

"If any of them come to me, or if Random tells me someone has come to him, you'll be next to know of it. I don't want to estrange you from your heritage," Gerard says.

"...Whatever it may be," Folly adds with a wry smile.

A couple of days after Gerard talked to Folly about the wardship issue, she receives a note from Gerard telling her that Random has taken the matter under consideration but has made no decision.

After the meeting in the tent with Brita, Marius, Caine and Bleys on that first full day back, Brennan heads back out to continue overseeing the organization and reintegration of the Army.

As best as is reasonably possible-- and sometimes even a little unreasonably, he coordinates this with Jerod, Brita, Marius, Conner (if he's still engaged with the Navy) and other interested parties.

As a general rule, he is fairly free with mundane knowledge. For instance, that first afternoon, the first thing he does after he informs his officer staff of the decision of pay, is to gather and address the men directly, giving them the same information. (The gist of which, of course, is that they'll be paid for their entire AMber-reckoned length of service, and that anyone going AWOL forfeits that. At the very least.) He makes it a regular habit to make sure the men know what is going on, what is expected of them, etc.

He does this by the occasional mass address, as well as by walking around the various camps and talking in person. Within the limits of decorum and common sense, the troops are encouraged to come to Brennan with their ideas and concerns.

Brennan does not go out of his way to play up the Order of the Ruby just yet. He does expect questions about it, though, especially from the nobility, and he plays it generally cool. He does not tell them too much about the selection criteria, both because it's still being hashed out (which they don't need to know) and because he wants to get a good idea of how the most eager to achieve it act. (Probably not in ways that will ultimately win Brennan's approval, is his guess.) The one thing he definitely lets slip is that it will not be limited to those already having patents of nobility or other titles.

Brennan does not, in his own mind, play coy with membership. He does not hint or favor anyone openly. Anyone so poor a judge of character as to recommend himself, though, will receive the acid side of Brennan's temperament.

One immediate and ongoing task is the coordination with Jerod and his staff regarding, first, the integration of the army as a whole (including payments) and, second, trying to catch, contain, and take care of potential trouble cases before they happen (men whose wives have taken new lovers or had children clearly out of wedlock, new widowers, etc.) The flip side of the second task is writing up the Patternfall Book of the Fallen, so that the new widows can be informed as soon as possible, also.

This is a rather large task, and it falls primarily to Lord Sense (previously cast as Alan Alda) and a reasonable staff of his own. Chief among these are Lantern, the son of a salt and spice magnate, and Boxer, the sone of a Life Peer. Lantern is quickly becoming the unofficial quartermaster of the Army, and Boxer, its chronicler. They will no doubt have a staff of pages and assistants as necessary.

(Boxer is played by Allan Arbus; Lantern by Josh Bryant.)

[Jerod]
If I remember correctly, Vere was coordinating the list of casualties from the army as his final duty before seeing to his father's health. And Jerod had the Marshals and crew dealing with internal mechanisms in the city. I take it that Lord Sense and company are working from the army's end?

[Brennan]

Yes. Lord Sense was given a battlefield promotion after Deirdre's death, and is part of Brennan's officer staff. In order to get anything done, Vere is going to have to talk to someone on the Army side, and Lord Sense would be the person to contact.

And if Vere wants to see to his father's health sooner, rather than later, then letting Lord Sense bear the brunt of the responsibilities makes perfect sense.

Brennan lets that be known to Vere privately, in summary mode, as it were. (In other words, when Vere comes around to ask about methods of healing, Brennan delicately tells him, "Shoo! Go! Git, already! Go do what you need to do, already, it's all under control. Leave us the names of your staff and GO!")

[Jerod]
Then once Lord Sense has provided the names of the army personnel who are dead or missing, the Marshals can do their work of contacting people in town.

[Brennan]
And thus is born the spirit of cooperation.

A second task is the drawing up of plans, such as they can, for the establishment of a more permanent (though likely smaller) standing Army. There is a limit to what can be done, of course, without more explicit approval from Random, so the preparations are really at a proposal stage. However, Coals (played by G. W. Bailey) and Earl Raptor (was going to propose Gene Wood as casting until I saw he was already cast to Craig T. Nelson.) are helping with the proposal, the first part of which is identifying that cross section of the troops both interested in and suited for a standing army.

Earl Raptor is discrete enough, well-connected enough, and sufficiently in tune with Brennan's ideas (one hopes; not trying to hijack the NPC entirely) to draw up a short list fairly quickly. Likewise, Coals has been around long enough (and was recommended by Swift as someone who knows everyone) to help with the same task on non-Noble side.

Brennan is letting the two of them sort out how they're going to work together, as something of a test of their character. He thinks they'll get along reasonably well.

He also, in general, keeps a close eye on those FireLillies. He makes it clear that they are not to be meddled with. He's just paranoid and pro-active enough to make sure that the camp is fireproofed as well as possible. Which, here, probably means making sure that tents aren't pitched too closely together, there is an adequate water supply, a bucket brigade is organized, etc.

This task, which is passed off in part under the heading of "keep the troops too busy to get disgruntled or do real damage" is assigned to Lord Hunter (cast as David Ogden Stiers) who is level headed enough to get the job done, smart enough to keep the men from asking too many questions, and smart enough to keep them busy without overstepping their bounds and spoiling the place. If they think it's typical benign make-work to keep them out of trouble, so much the better. That's a line of thought that's quite encouraged.

Lord Hunter is in charge of day to day operations in general, but he's specifically told to keep a quiet watch on those FireLillies as part of it.

If they're organized sufficiently by the end of the second day (Brennan lets it be known, including fire prevention) Brennan will allow a small celebration, which is not to get out of hand in any way.

By about the third or fourth day, Brennan will have the outlines of all this down in two reports. The first contain the situation as a whole, and the second contains the draft proposal for the standing army. They are sealed with Brennan's imprint and delivered by page along with a request for audience to discuss both.

Random sends back word that he will be pleased to do so, and suggests that in a day or so he could come down, discuss all, meet commanders, inspect troops, cure scrofula, etc. Or early next week.

Anyone who has anything specific they need to do during the first week should post it ASAP. We're planning to move through the end of the first week on Wednesday, and that will kick off some new business for assorted people.

None of the Juliani (including Daeon) will have returned by the end of the first week.

Brennan has the following things going on:

1) Knights of the Ruby Table discussion (which can probably be considered as the summation of a few such meetings over the period between the Return and the Coronation, if it pleases everyone else. That way, when Jovian and/or Daeon come back, they can jump right in.)

[Lilly]
That goes along with what I was thinking. I figure we can pound out a lot of details in summation mode. I also assumed that there would be several meetings before the coronation to prepare for the Knighting ceremony.

2) Ongoing army trips to be dealth with in as much detail as the GMs prefer. (I'll detail a summary list shortly that goes heavy on the first few days.)

3) Spelunking trip.

Brennan would like to do the following things:

4) Talk to Lilly. Preferably right after that first Knightly meeting. Probably to be played out, even if it's brief.

5) Working meal with Jerod, to coordinate the disposition of the troops, payment, etc. Can be summarized or played out, at Blake's pleasure.

[GMs]
This one has to go before the next one.

6) Audience with His Kingliness, the Random, mostly about the same. Probably to be played out.

7) Pine, becuase Vialle doesn't love him and doesn't want an audience with him.

(Joke. Joke. There is no need to play out a Brennan-Vialle meeting, unless it was on the GMs' agenda anyway.)

[GMs]
She may summon him, depending on the outcome of her discussions with Ossian.

The probably covers it.
I'm guessing the Poker Game goes into the second week.

[GMs]
Night before the coronation, actually.

Maybe in the second week, Brennan can unbury himself and socialize with more of his cousins. If the pace of work keeps up, he's going to get himself an office.

[Aisling]
I would like to talk to Caine. I imagine if he hasn't found me by the fourth day or so, I'll start trying to find him, maybe even going so far as to send a note requesting a meeting sometime he'd like to talk.

Lucas intends on doing whatever work is needed on his part for the coronation. His only currently assigned task is to find some low-key entertainment to keep people entertained if they don't feel like watching hours worth of lame ceremony.

Lucas will be assigned more tasks as the week passes on. Vialle will probably claim some of his time to work on the memorial service as well as the things he is doing for the coronation. She may also ask him to do some quick procurement.

[Lilly]
Also, I believe Paige and Lilly have plans to meet sometime during the week. Kris and I should be able to get that thread started on our own though.

Beyond that Lilly plans to spend as much time at the Queen's side as is both physically and psychologically possible. (I'm under the impression that too much Vialle might be bad for Lilly's health. Heck, Lilly's not afraid to use that blade... It might be equally bad for Vialle's health.... <g>)

Vialle does give Lilly some free time. She has a lot of boring bureaucratic duties these days, and during the first week, she interviews and accepts a woman named Ember as her secretary.

If Lilly inquires about Ember, she learns that Ember is the daughter of Lord Burn, who was the steward under King Eric. She has been working as an assistant to Nestor the librarian and Vialle mentions that Vere recommended her for the post.

Ember is naturally shy, it seems, and a bit in awe of Lilly's apparent skill with the blade.

Through her work with Vialle, she also meets Random's secretary, Gilt Winter. Gilt is charming and courteous and both Vialle and Ember warn Lilly that he has a notorious reputation with the ladies, for which Lilly should watch out.

Vere's planning on following up on Solange's suggestion about Corwin, and extending it to the rest of the Family. Starting with Cambina, then proceeding to Nestor, and then on to everyone that he thinks might have any useful information, he will question them on three related topics, checking in with Solange to find out what Corwin said and to share his findings as they come in, and if she wishes to split up the questioning so they can annoy more members of the Family more quickly.

Lucas seems startled and amused. Much as he does when anyone in the family seeks him out on a personal level.

First, [Vere] wants to know whether anyone has ever walked the Pattern while injured, and if so whether it seemed to aid or hinder their healing (hopefully the Pattern has a little-known miraculous healing ability that instantly restores anyone who traverses it to full health....). Secondly, whether anyone is known to have walked the Pattern after being healed by magical or technological means, and what happened when they did. And finally, whether travelling through Shadow is known to cause the effects of magical or technological healing to unravel, or whether once a member of the Family has been healed by whatever means that's it, they're healed, and they don't have to worry about staying out of particular types of Shadows.

Since he'll be asking the same questions over and over again of different people, it would probably save time if you don't want to play it out, and just give us a synopsis of what we find out.

[Novak]
Were you including your new cousins in that, too?

Do you mean "is Vere asking his cousins these questions as well?" or do you mean "Is Vere sharing the information he receives with his cousins?"....

The answers are "Yes, definitely," and "If anyone asks."

I meant the former, but the latter might happen. Play it out or summarize?

Normally I'd be for playing it out, but since the GMs have indicated we're moving on starting Wednesday, and since I'll be out Wednesday night watching Two Towers anyway, it might be better done in summary.

Summary mode it is, then.

First, [Vere] wants to know whether anyone has ever walked the Pattern while injured, and if so whether it seemed to aid or hinder their healing (hopefully the Pattern has a little-known miraculous healing ability that instantly restores anyone who traverses it to full health....).

Brennan never gets hurt, so the issue never came up for him. The point of data Brennan has on the issue is that Brand was a madman prior to walking the Pattern, and a madman after walking the Pattern.

It's not the best data point for a whole bunch of reasons, since even in those Shadows where mental illness is physically induced, it's often a birth condition manifesting at a later age, and thus would be the last sort of injury or disease Brennan would expect to be cleared up.

[Lucas]
"I've only walked it the once. A good gambler knows a bad gamble."

Secondly, whether anyone is known to have walked the Pattern after being healed by magical or technological means, and what happened when they did.

And finally, whether travelling through Shadow is known to cause the effects of magical or technological healing to unravel, or whether once a member of the Family has been healed by whatever means that's it, they're healed, and they don't have to worry about staying out of particular types of Shadows.

[Lucas]
"I've sadly avoided such shadows, much to my detriment it seems, so I can offer no insight into the matter."

Very tough question, Brennan says.

Since he's only been in Amber a short time, nothing he says is pegged directly to Amber's physics. But he can rapidly tick off half a dozen places he's been to in Shadow, with half a dozen physical underpinnings for what matter is, and why it does what it does, opposing each other but true in their frames of reference.

And it's tough to move complexities around through Shadow like that.

I assume Vere summarizes the other schools of thought on the issue, including Solanges (right?) nanotech theory. He kinda grimaces at that, and thinks that with some effort, he can make a case where that would work... but can probably make several cases against it.

He's not sure, but he's highly skeptical. Less skeptical if the nanotech is trying to stimulate Gerard's own healing process into a higher function, but still skeptical. And the misfire could be... bad. It might also prove very difficult to find some puny Shadow tech capable of doing that properly to Gerard in the first place.

As a hypothetical experiment, though, Brennan wonders what would happen if someone took a native Amber animal with a broken leg, say, applied such a technique out in Shadow, then brought it back.

[Jerod]
1) Speak to Violet - arrange the evening for Martin and make sure things are kosher. Depending on the GMs and Violet, this can be summarized or played out. This will also involve arranging for all the guys to attend. Jerod will get ahold of each of them in person rather than by messages - this will include the Chaos-siders. Any that wish to RP introductions and the like - we now have an opportunity (dinner, breakfast, lunch, the semi-obligatory sparring match, etc).

[GMs]
Consider the Violet end handled. Violet is more than capable of fulfilling instructions about how to arrange Martin's poker parties. She's been doing it for years.

Threads with PC cousins are yours to arrange.

2) Speak to Thalia at the Gateway embassy.

[GMs]
Start a thread about this telling us how you go about it.

3) Arrange to inundate the pirate folks - this will take awhile but I'd like to keep it in summary as most of it would be invitations, meetings, greetings, dinner appointments, arguments, cargo checks, etc, etc, etc. Jerod will make sure that Harga'rel is brought up to speed on what's going on, and make sure that Random gets a note telling him what Jerod has done. This will take up a good 40% of Jerod's time as he does not want to just hand them away. He wants to make sure that the LoP crews, and most especially their captains, know who he is and get comfortable around him (and he wants to know them a lot better).

4) Troop return coordination - this will involve Brennan and Conner. Depending on how we want, it can be summarized if needs be. I foresee the majority of the work being tedious meetings, development of plans, etc, etc, etc. Since I've done this sort of stuff in real life, I'm not sure I'd want to RP it...:) Non-troop stuff can be RP'd. This is another 40% routine probably.

5) Meeting with Vialle. Jerod wants to solicit her support to bring the ladies of court online as part of the plan to work up the nobles to help with army integration. This was one of Jerod's original ideas and he wants to follow up on it. This can be done in summary if the GM's wish.

[GMs]
Start a thread for the summary.

6) Eric's Weirs - Jerod wants to arrange a short audience with the King concerning the disposition of his father's forces. He's not sure if Random will dispose of the entire armed forces just at the moment and figures not, but he wants to figure out what's up there.

[GMs]
Start a thread privately to the GMs about this. [It'll come public later, for all you nosey parkers.]

More specifically, in Marius-oriented terms, he's going to spend the time towards these goals.

1) Keeping his men busy. And not just "busy," but gainfully employed. Every man aboard a ship has at least one other talent. If they can carve wood, Marius'll talk with the Rangers to get some wood applicable for carving -- heck, he'll sponsor competition for scenes of the battle or things appropriate to the upcoming Coronation. If they can twist rope, we'll have more nets than a Rebman can shake a fin at. If they can dance, they'll teach others. If they can sing, they'll make limericks to make Brita's pretty cheeks turn red...erm. [giggle]

Check. It will be mostly ropes. With Brita's permission, the Rangers will allow some limited foraging for deadwood near the camp.

Brita will allow. It is good for the woods to have an occasional clearing of underbrush...

2) Getting his "stuff" together. Once he applies Brita's generous offer in regards to Trump application back and forth to the castle, he'll spend a few hours each day working on getting himself "settled."

Marius has a nice room in the castle near where Corwin, Merlin, and Caine are quartered. Corwin and Merlin are gone but are expected to return before the coronation.

2a) That probably means an audience with Vialle at some point, briefly to find out where he's stationed, and taking responsibility to start putting Deirdre's stuff together.

I'll start that as a separate thread.

2b) That also means getting to know current castle staff as much as he can. Do they get tipped? Are there any notable missing or new? How do they seem to be handling the influx of royalty?

They do not get tipped. There are some notables missing, but that makes sense with the earthquake and all. The influx of royalty is causing some mixups (cf problems with boxer shorts finding their way back to their owners) but the staff is scrambling and they're trying really hard.

Marius, as a commander, thinks that there have been some recent additions to the staff to handle all the new people.

2c) He'll be cautiously replacing his wardrobe. Dark but snappy is the style. He'll take care in his morning ablutions.

There's a lot of that going around (dark but snappy wardrobe replacements, that is.)

Bathing, in case it wasn't clear, is communal and sort of Roman-style. Or you can sponge-bathe in your own room.

3) He'll keep up on the Knight meetings. He doesn't really have a whole lot of recommendations at this point, but he'll mention a few names as if to see if the others agree. [Question: We are pretty much making these up, right? Intended to flesh out the characters as we do, but I'm not overlooking some names from past logs or anything?]

[Novak]
No, I'm making mine up as I go along, just like with the Army staff.

The GMs are trying to pick people up from past logs and add people to the encyclopedia as they are mentioned.

4) Assuming Jerod allows him to arrive as a proper pauper, he'll make the poker game.

Check. That will be a separate thread.

5) Mostly, he's working. The trip to the Pattern has brought out a bit of his brooding side, but he's burying it in labor. He never asks someone to do something he can do, and he's probably working himself into exhaustion every night.

There is a lot to do, so he can be that kind of busy.

6) He's not avoiding Family, but he's not really seeking anyone out, either.

Check. Corwin, who isn't here, and Caine are the most likely to seek him out.