Chapter I - Sword and Shield

Completed chapters of the serial storyline are stored here after completion.
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TennyoCeres84
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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Crystal chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. "Well, if you happened to be a retired Saturday morning cartoon villain, I'm sure you'd have droves of young people swearing fealty of you in return for improved grades and vengeance against bullies."

She smirked and teased, "Though, for fun, perhaps you can introduce me to some of your other personas when we're alone."

***

"Well, hopefully that won't ever happen," Aislinn replied with a scoff, leaving her to raise an eyebrow. "Why was Meris of the Orcades an atypical archmage? I mean, she has immense arcane knowledge and skill under her belt and overcame death. How did she manage to have that deep of an understanding of Matter to be able to possibly transmute things?" she asked.
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"Oh, I certainly will," noted the Clank, "though I should say that Lev Kirilov has me beat as far as current popular adoration is concerned. The man has gone from a hokey reminder of the days of the Iron Curtain to a mild-mannered Political Sciences teacher. Accent and all, I have it on good authority the last promotion of students thought he was rather... cool."

He paused and then raised a finger. "That was a spirited turn of phrase based on his powers; a mot d'esprit of sorts, and not in any way an attempt to peruse a figment of today's wretched popular lexicon."

* * *

Three could only shrug at that. "If the masters of all things Matter are those squid-things, maybe she took classes," he said, scoffing at his own suggestion. "Maybe there's a Chtulhu-Wan Kenobi hiding out there or something."

Cordatus looked uncertain, but his looks tended to veer towards a knowing smirk. "Oh... I've heard of stranger things in my time, to be honest. Wisdom knows no bounds."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"That's good to hear. I've only been around Kirilov a scant amount of times," Crystal admitted, smiling in amusement. "I know modern slang can be confusing or casual, but it'd probably be the same for any other change in language. You just gotta learn to live with it, Archie."

***

The roane shrugged. "Maybe. It's just hard to imagine a wise, helpful Void Weaver. They're outright murderers; I know that much. I guess the adage of not judging a book by its cover applies here, too," she mused.
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"I'd rather remain the linguistic nonconformist that I am, then, thank you very much," noted the Clank, "even if I am well aware I shall have to twist my own arm once or twice in that regard. I couldn't hope to work as an infiltrator if I couldn't speak the current lingua franca - however crude it seems to be."

He tsked in annoyance. "It's the acronyms that I can't stand, Crystal. The shorthand text messages and emails, the way words are butchered for the sake of the errant keystroke to be saved... I enjoy seeing the unconscious metering and the unmentioned measures in properly written prose, and I love hearing the tranquil music of a properly constructed and spoken casual sentence!"

The Clank gestured at Crystal with his pipe. "Take the way you ended your last conversation with Andrea, on the phone. The way you paused for half a breath and asked her to take care? The way you extended your salutations to her girlfriend without an ounce of hesitation? That was adorable. I swear I wanted nothing more than to reach across the phone line and find a way to hug all three of you simultaneously, physical distances be damned."

Again, he lifted a finger. "I won't ever squee for anything, mind you, but if I did squee, I would have squeed for this. Instead, I settled with a fond smile carefully hidden behind my mustache."

* * *

"Jerks and saints seems more likely than an entire civilization of baby-eaters, honestly," suggested Drake. "I figure we're only seeing the ideological figureheads, the regular Squid people are probably as caught up in everyday paranoia as every person ever was in the Middle-Eastern provinces I saw. Either you walked the party line anywhere between Afghanistan and Syria, or you were crucified or beheaded. I mean, what would you do if you had no options, no ability to defend yourself, and someone went and said Start worshipping my crazy gods and praying for us squid-people to crush everyone else, or I'll rip your mind apart? You'd probably turn into a zealot in short order."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"True, it's just difficult to get past their notoriously "evil" reputation," Aislinn admitted with a sigh, her mind returning to Meris' letters. She looked to the human with some hesitation and admitted with a sigh, "I have some documents of Meris' that could shed more light on the Void Weavers in general. Only my family and Gubbin knows. I've been so busy that I've barely had a chance to look at them. They're old, written on vellum."

***

Crystal chuckled and hugged the Clank. "Don't ever change that, Archie. Though, I'll make sure never to text you a LOL," she joked. "However, I do love the fact you are in our lives."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"And I guess modern English isn't these scrolls' forte, huh?" rhetorically asked the soldier.

The lawyer, in the meantime, merely shrugged. "I'd be willing to spare a few minutes for an impromptu translation, if needed. Anything from Archaic Orcadian and Faroese to Latin, Spanish and Welsh. Simply call my office once you'll have the documents on hand."

* * *

Archie made a mockery of his own former lack of ease around modern social mores, momentarily grumbling and looking away as he was hugged. He didn't overdo it, however, and quickly shifted to hugging Crystal back, the grumbling sounds turning into the kind of loving sounds of physical strain you'd produce while hugging someone back.

"Well, that's it," he said, sighing contentedly. "I shan't move another piston. We'll have to shimmy back inside like a four-legged biomechanical monstrosity. I'd also have to admit to being somewhat fond of you and Andrea," he said, clearly joking.

He raised his left thumb and index finger. "Just a bit. A teensy weentsy bit."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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OOC: Shoot, sorry about that. I forgot to add a reply for my characters.

BIC: "Thank you for the offer," Aislinn responded. "The letters are in Selkie, but someone from my family would have to be there to open them. They reseal themselves when unsealed, and they're electrically booby-trapped if someone not from Meris' bloodline touches them."

***

"Right, of course you are," Crystal scoffed, then deciding to try something. She then placed her fingers along his torso and began tickling him. She was honestly curious about how receptive he was to the sensation.. Plus, she would have a means of escape from her amorous captor.
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"Would your own presence suffice," asked the dragon, "or must another relative be available? I've some experience with magic-based two-man locks, to be honest, and I must say your clan appears to err on the side of wisdom. Waylaying the occasional snoop is something few inheritors of magic heirlooms ever think of."

He then raised a hand. "Not that this poses any problems; I'll simply add another seat to my office."

* * *

Archie reacted by keeping his arms and upper torso close while pulling his abdomen and ribs away with a little flinching noise. "Mind your manners, miss Lowell," he playfully purred into one of her ears, parting from her with a little complicit wink.

It looked like she wasn't about to defeat his poise that easily - or at least not in the context of a friendly gathering. That wink, though, had been eloquent enough. Maybe her fingers had hit their mark, but he'd keep his chuckles for her, and her alone.
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"Yeah, either me, Neasa, Ciaran, or my dad. I think my mom got near one of the letters, and it shocked her," Aislinn explained. "It's very own security system, bound by blood. Meris is quite ingenious."

***

Crystal grinned and chuckled throatily. She nuzzled his face and pecked him on the lips. "Of course, Sir Knight," she joked.
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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Something made Three stop and think, however, even as he briefly ventured back inside to drop the plate of finished steaks on the counter. "Did Meris account for the possibility of one of her descendants joining the proverbial dark side? Not that you or your siblings really have to worry, but it'd be a possibility on a long enough timeline. I don't think the McConmara selkies have a kind of Get out of Power and Wealth's Seductive Reach Free card."

* * *

Archie had the sort of poise to manage the odd feat of blending self-satisfaction and disinterested care together; his own playful brand of snobbery and his devotion to the werewolf both showing in the smile he gave her. It seemed obvious, then, that he enjoyed teasing her, preventing her from seeing what would pull honest peals of laughter out of him whilst in public. They returned inside in a single file, Crystal first and Archie second - the Clank using this to usher his love forward with a hand on the small of her back.

Seeing the couple return, Aidan's father faked disappointment for an instant. "Here I was with my cigar, ready to join you both. I didn't know you smoked, Deputy Chief."

Archie sent her a complicit look. "She doesn't," he replied. Gavin appeared to suss that out in the next second, his mouth parting in a silent Ah of comprehension.

"Well, in that case, I thought you'd have dithered a bit, mister Holden; beaten around the proverbial bush..."

The Clank wasn't offended by that assumption, and merely shrugged. "I've come to understand that happiness matters more to people of this day and age than the entirety of my rather defunct upbringing. We were both interested, we gave it an honest try, and it worked fairly well. Besides, I was unsure as to how I would fit my living days' long courtship into today's hectic workdays."

He lifted a hand in self-moderation. "Meek shows of potential interest had their value for the Romantics I used to know, but what the heart takes pleasure in anticipating, the mind would rather confirm, if possible. In any case, nothing is stopping me from being a proper gentleman; I simply am a gentleman who has elected to follow today's pace.
- And your ex is...?"

Archie's tone and poise frosted over slightly, but not towards Gavin himself or the question he'd asked. "My ex, as you put it, is advised to keep her distance. I've already lent an ear to her baseless accusations of mysogyny or of my being woefully out of touch. I won't be disparaged as such any further.
- I don't get it," he admitted. "Sasha's a supermodel and a fashion designer, she's had movie deals and A-list suitors since the Golden Age of Hollywood! She's more than proven herself on her own merits - how can anyone resent someone else for so long?"

Holden parted with a silent sigh, now looking as though he had to deliver a lesson in class. "The Carmilla are less emotionally stable than you or I, mister Drake. I started a rather noxious process in her psyche simply in acting as a man of my times would have. I protected her, I cared for her, but I never recognized her input. It was foolish and inconsiderate, of course, but we were all foolish and inconsiderate idiots - all of us Victorian men. Fast-forward to the nineteen-fifties, and a now fairly powerful and resourceful female vampire finds herself locked in a world in which women aren't much more than window dressing. Her resentment of her peers must have been phenomenal in scope.

Take this very same woman, bring her to our day and age, in which apathy and the more noxious ends of Third-Wave feminism combine to create a system that validates the hatred of men rather than the self-actualization of women. Proper feminists believe in equality among the sexes, improper ones commit the same grievous sins the men of old once endorsed."

Gavin's eyes widened as he took a sip of his beer. "So she's turned her hatred into a system, while you went ahead and tried to learn from your past mistakes.
- Roughly, yes," agreed the Clank. "Well - that and the fact that one does not romance a werewolf without a proper amount of deference and respect. That is, unless one does not mind the concept of leaving the relationship with a broken heart, a few severed limbs and ample bite marks."
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