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Umbrology
Vice Captain

PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 1:07 pm


This ORP is just for fun — it has nothing to do with the meta and I don't have any epic surprises planned. You're welcome to join in, but please don't use more than one character or character/animal pair at a time, and I'd be extremely grateful if you tried to keep your posts short (unlike my intro, which got out of hand).

The morning had dawned gray and drizzling, and as the day wore on the weather exhibited no signs of improving. The lawn stretching between the forest and the Oldcastle ruins, which now had a great iron skeleton rearing up from it against the bleak sky, only partway covered with stone, as if molting, was being abandoned by the handful of picnickers and ladies who had turned out despite the wet and cold to pass the time while their men hunted. Soon only a handful of people remained. One of these was Llyr, who sat reading on the remains of a low stone wall.

He had not emerged from the carriages the day before, when the queen had arrived in town to observe the construction's progress, but had rather stepped out of the Wardwood to greet her. (This was largely regarded as a stunt; his fine waistcoat and jacket did not have the look of items exposed for any length of time to the elements.) A number of bystanders had then seen him going in and out of the iron framework with the queen and several of her engineers as if testing it. At one point he had swooned, and a guardsman had had to carry him out. He had either produced the desired result or sickened too badly to continue, for he hadn't entered the building again since.

Before long a group of hunters rode down the lawn toward the forest, their horses' breaths sending up plumes of steam. One horse peeled off and pulled up close to Llyr, and the gentleman riding it, a robust fellow with a gray mustache, called out: "Hallo! Care to join us for the hunt? We have a spare horse in town and an extra musket."

"No, thank you," Llyr replied, looking up from his book.

"It's a damn poor day to be sitting about," the hunter said convivially. "I swear by a good ride to get my blood moving."

"What do you imagine I would do with a musket?" Llyr inquired, with every indication of courteous interest.

"Why, help flush out a fox—or shoot a boar or a deer, if you're able. It might improve the men's opinion of you if you were to turn out and give a show."

Llyr watched the man steadily with his queer amethyst eyes until the silence grew uncomfortable and the horse began to dance uneasily to the side, its bridle jingling. This was not the first time someone had made a veiled suggestion that he do something to prove he was a spirit.

"I would be happy to," he said finally, "but I must decline your kind offer of a horse and musket. A spirit hunts on foot and takes his quarry by opening its throat with his teeth, or sometimes strangling it to death; and then customarily eats the meat raw."

While Llyr spoke the hunter's florid complexion went very pale. Now he cleared his throat to make a reply, but then thought better of it, or perhaps his horse did, because before he had a chance to say anything else his mount shuddered about the withers and lurched away as if someone had smacked it on the bottom. His figure receded across the lawn.

Llyr returned his attention to his book. Several droplets of rain stained its pages, and presently several more joined them. With the first sign of irritation he had shown thus far Llyr frowned, shut the book, tucked it into the breast of his jacket, and gazed out into the wood.
PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 1:29 pm


"Do you really?" asked little Olivia Chandler without the slightest hint of fear or revulsion. Instead, she stared up at man with guileless blue eyes. Livy was a naturally curious thing, and her boldness never ceased to give her poor mother headaches.

Nyx Argyros

Eloquent Muse


Umbrology
Vice Captain

PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 1:34 pm


"Yes," Llyr said, looking down at her with one hand still tucked beneath his coat. "We usually drink the blood as well, but I didn't want to disturb him unduly."
PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 1:40 pm


A few steps away, one of the ladies who had come to the picnic to see and be seen- the young Countess Bankes, was arguing with her governess quietly. The older woman had given the spirit Lyr a wide berth as they'd passed, fairly dragging her charge to the point that she'd nearly stumbled.

"And you know it!" came the final words of the squabble as the Countess snatched her hand away from the doughty woman and swiftly stepped away out of arm's reach. She approached the fae with a gracious smile and nodded to Olivia, though her face paled at Lyr's last announcement. "And... why d-do you hunt?" she asked, lifting her chin a bit as if in defiance of... something.

Shady Maru

Shy Muse

10,265 Points
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Nyx Argyros

Eloquent Muse

PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 1:51 pm


Well. That made sense. None of it sounded like it would taste good, of course, but if you're going to have any of it, you may as well have all of it. As for the other...

Livy thought that that was a silly question. But then, adults often asked silly questions. "For food, of course." Really. Why should anyone hunt except to eat?
PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 2:04 pm


Llyr's impassive gaze shifted between the Countess and Olivia, the movement slight and very much like that of a cat watching people move about a room. He withdrew his hand from his coat. "Indeed, we hunt to eat," he said, with the restrained courtesy which seemed to be his default state, "though sometimes we enjoy the sport of it. We don't cook our food, as you do—we rarely do anything at all to prepare it."

These statements perhaps seemed odd coming from a man who looked normal in every respect but the color of his eyes, wearing an immaculate waistcoat, jacket, and gentleman's cravat.

Wardwood Mule
Captain


Nyx Argyros

Eloquent Muse

PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 2:45 pm


Livy hopped up onto the wall that she might sit near Llyr. She swung her legs as her earlier thoughts returned to her. "Uncooked food doesn't sound good to me," she mused. "Does that mean you don't like cooked food?"
PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 6:54 pm


Rose swallowed audibly, fanning herself a bit as she tried not to dwell on the thought of eating raw meat. Now that she was actually a part of the conversation and her governess would have to interrupt to drag her off again (the old woman was hovering like an arthritic raven in the shelter of an oak nearby, merely awaiting her chance), she bided her time rather than pelt the spirit with questions, content to listen quietly- for now.

Shady Maru

Shy Muse

10,265 Points
  • The Wolf Within 100
  • Angelic Alliance 100
  • Wintersday Bard 50

Eauo

PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:19 pm


Darcy had been sitting near the wall, quietly watching the men and women milling about near the construction sight, but had, for the most part, kept to herself. She had made the trip especially for Samhain, one she has made every year these last three, and the amount of chosen and guardians she's seen, so far, has put her in an unusually withdrawn mood.

Mostly, she's been watching Llyr.

The hedgewitch hadn't been at the ball last year, but the tales of what happened were hard to miss, and she knew it's account, in some form or other, quite well. His manner is interesting, she thinks, and he wonders what goes on, really, behind that calculated mask of tense politeness. She smirks faintly, amused in a sort of morbid way by him and thinks that he must enjoy making people uncomfortable when he can.

But, for now, she keeps her peace as she watches the women milling around him suddenly, as if him putting away his book were some invitation to break his peace.
PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:41 pm


"It does," Llyr replied. "Some of my kind refuse to even touch bread, let alone taste it, though many of us cannot resist sweets despite being made ill by them." Perhaps Livy, as a child, could sympathize with the latter. "If you ever wish to revenge yourself upon a spirit, just leave a pudding at the edge of the wood."

"We may change the subject, if you like," he added to Rose, with polite concern. It didn't seem to occur to him that discussing raw meat was rather different than discussing bread and pudding.

Wardwood Mule
Captain


Shady Maru

Shy Muse

10,265 Points
  • The Wolf Within 100
  • Angelic Alliance 100
  • Wintersday Bard 50
PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:54 pm


With a small twitch that betrayed her surprise at being directly addressed, Rose blinked twice before she was able to think of anything silly to say.
"As please you, sir," she said with a slight curtsey. "I've heard that Spirits have an affinity for flowers, is that true?"
PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 8:16 pm


Livy giggled at the thought of using sweets as revenge. It would make a marvelous prank, if nothing else - though, perhaps a rather mean spirited one. Perhaps Llyr was right and it should be reserved for revenge. "Perhaps we could feed them to the wolf prince," she mused, thinking that Georgie might appreciate that sentiment.

She was, however, equally curious about spirits and flowers, or perhaps all green, growing things. So, she let that question stand.

Nyx Argyros

Eloquent Muse


Wardwood Mule
Captain

PostPosted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 7:21 am


"If you ever furnish me with a pudding," Llyr said to Livy, "I will deliver it to Gwyn myself."

He took a moment longer to consider Rose's question. "That depends on what you mean by 'affinity,'" he replied finally and with unusual hesitation, though his expression, neutral and politely attentive, did not waver. "I gather that much of your human artwork and stories depicts us as wearing flower garlands and frolicking in blooming meadows, which I can assure you is rarely the case, except perhaps sometimes with spirits of the Houses of spring and summer. However, our blood does produce moss and flowers when it is spilled."

He rested the fingers of his right hand on the back of his other wrist as he spoke, seemingly unconsciously, where the edge of a cruel white scar emerged from his sleeve.
PostPosted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 7:46 am


Soibhan listened from a distance, resting a little more relaxedly than usual upon the broad back of her horse as the conversation came to her. On a whim, she'd hopped on Lochlan's back without even saddling him and left Palisade, riding all morning to come to Oldcastle; she hadn't been there since the Masque, and the place sent a creeping down her back even now, months later. The fact that Llyr just so happened to be about on this of all days made her cranky.

She still didn't trust the....spirit.

Nudging a knee into Lochlan's side, she turned the horse towards the wall where the ladies and girls had congregated around the spirit. One particularly bold little girl had even perched herself upon the wall next to him.

"If enough o' yer blood is spilled, would larger things grow? Trees, mayhap?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest as her horse stopped before them.

Ashtiel Arykosa

Benevolent Shapeshifter


Wardwood Mule
Captain

PostPosted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 8:33 am


Llyr looked up with a birdlike twitch of the head and unblinkingly studied Soibhan's face.

"We have spoken before," he determined finally. "Briefly, at the masquerade. Did you not see the creation of the tree in the courtyard?"
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