"So, should I wander around at night and see if (the vampires) come out?"

Friday, November 25, 4

Ariana hardens her skin and dispels a small part of the area affected by the witchcraft spell. There is a loud pop, and she and Flora are knocked on their asses. Flora asks if it worked. Ariana says she can't tell, since it's a witchcraft spell. Whimsy's tutor is the one who created it. Ishmael approaches them from the other end of the hall, investigating the popping noise. Ariana tries to warn him about the spell, but is too late. Ishmael starts advancing on Ariana. Flora says she'll find Granny Witherall, and leaves Ariana to handle Ishmael. Lovely. Ariana tells Ishmael that he's being influenced by a spell, and reminds him that he has a wife, but Ishmael keeps moving towards her. She tries to escape by dropping through the floor, but Ishmael grabs her and comes with. He begins fondling and kissing her, much to her dismay. She emerges in the passageway that leads to Whimsy's tower and begins hammering on the door. Ishmael turns her around, pushes her against the door, and begins working her skirt up. Elaine says that Whimsy isn't accepting visitors. Ariana swears and says Whimsy had better come deal with this, because it's her damn tutor that caused it. Whimsy opens the door, causing Ariana and Ishmael to topple to the floor. Whimsy puts Ishmael to sleep and helps Ariana crawl out from under him. Both Ariana and Whimsy are rather cranky. Ariana sarcastically remarks that that was some inebriation spell. Whimsy claims she thought Ariana could handle it. Ariana points out that the two magics interact explosively, and she has no way of knowing if her dispel even worked. If it was so easy, why didn't Whimsy deal with it? Whimsy doesn't have magic. She adds that Granny claimed she couldn't undo the spell. Ariana finds it hard to believe that Granny couldn't remove her own spell. Whimsy says she'll deal with Ishmael and asks Ariana to make sure the hall is blocked off. Ariana goes to do so, but notices that people appear to be walking through the hall without any ill effect. She catches a glimpse of a ratty skirt vanishing around the corner and concludes that Granny finally got rid of the spell.

Ariana goes to her quarters in the castle and shakes for a while. Eventually, she gets a Trump call that she can't identify. She resists, but it's too strong. She readies a dagger and accepts the call. Caine appears and comments that he already has a dagger. He asks what kind of magic that was earlier today. Witchcraft. Ah, in that case he assumes it was Whimsy. Her tutor, Granny Witherall, actually. Behind Caine, Ariana sees Ishmael jumping up and down. He seems to be yelling, "I'm sorry." Caine pops Ishmael in the ribs, causing Ariana to smile slightly. She tells Caine that Granny appears to have removed the spell, so the affected area is safe again. Caine thanks her and ends the contact.

Shortly afterward, Ishmael begins trying to Trump Ariana. Every ten minutes. Ariana ignores him. Eventually, he comes up to her quarters and begins knocking on the door. Ariana won't open it, and tells him to go away. He shoves flowers under the door and says he's sorry, it was a spell. Ariana knows. He continues to apologize. Ariana says she understands that it wasn't his fault, but she needs to be alone for a while. Ishmael isn't looking forward to telling Maddy. Ariana says Maddy can contact her if she wants to talk. Ishmael thumps his head against the door for a bit before heading off.

Ariana stays in her castle quarters until after lunch, then returns to her townhouse. She cancels her classes and spends the rest of the day at home with the children. Lucien notices her quiet mood, but doesn't ask about it .

Ariana continues to be quiet that evening, so Lucien asks if he should sleep on the couch. No, she'd rather have him with her, actually. He's guessing something happened? She explains about the lust spell and her encounter with Ishmael. She knows it wasn't his fault, but the experience has brought back some unpleasant memories from when Brand raped her. Lucien tries to lighten her mood, telling her that bringing Ishmael to Whimsy was mean. Ariana says she could have brought him to Maddy. He says that would have been really cruel. He understands why this is distressing her, and suggests that things will look better in the morning. She's hoping. He holds her close during the night, and she has very peaceful, relaxing dreams (thanks, no doubt, to Vincent).

Saturday, November 26, 4

Ariana feels much better in the morning, and seeks out Edwin after breakfast. He appears to be in a bit of a temper, but is still polite. Ariana says she'd heard he had a bit of an altercation with Whimsy the other day, and explains that Whimsy was under the influence of a lust spell. This makes a lot of things clear to Edwin, since he understands how horrifying that would be to Whimsy. Ariana hopes he doesn't think she's being too much of a busybody. He says that hasn't been his impression of her.

Ariana elects to skip her usual sparring session with Ishmael, but resumes the rest of her normal routine. She warns her staff at the hospital not to travel at night, claiming that there have been a rash of attacks on people recently.

Ariana has lunch at home, then goes looking for Nicholas. He's nowhere to be found, so she tries to find Random, instead. While she's searching for him, a page leads Alex to her. He asks to borrow her Trump of Meander. She's agreeable, and overhears Alex's side of the conversation:

"I'm sorry, is my hair not right?"

"I was wondering if you could speak to that Granny person."

"Oh, great."

"Ah, that makes me nervous."

"Ah well, it seems like that's taken care of."

"You did agree to, it's not like he's a great orator or anything."

"Well, have a good time on the Disc."

Ariana notes Alex's eagerness to get rid of Granny. It wouldn't have anything to do with the flowers Granny left outside of his door, would it? Well, that was a rather childish prank, but he's more concerned about his relatives. Oh yes, she's sure that he is. He returns her Trump and departs.

Ariana finds Random and tells him that she knows of a Borge, Jasmine, who knows quite a bit about vampires. Random agrees she might be useful. He's in the middle of something, so he asks her to relay a request for Jasmine's aid to Alex, since he has contacts in Borge. Ariana does this thing.

Sunday, November 27, 4

Ariana spars with Ishmael for the first time since the lust spell incident. He goes easy on her, letting her get a lot of blows in. This does seem to help her overcome some of her edginess, and she's relaxed a bit by the end of the session.

Random Trumps Ariana and brings her through to the meeting with Jasmine. Caine, Julian, Alex and Gavin are also there. Jasmine asks everyone a lot of questions, trying to bring herself up to speed on the situation. After sunset, Shard is brought in. Jasmine is very interested to see him and grills him pretty thoroughly. He's somewhat evasive in some of his answers, but she's persistent. When she's done with her questions, she says that she's pretty sure Lasker is a high-powered vampire, although not as powerful as Shard. The fact that the vampires are able to move through Shadow is disturbing. Ariana explains that Brand gave Lasker a Trump deck in exchange for detaining her. Jasmine asks if she knows if Brand taught Lasker how to draw Trumps. She can't be sure. Basically, Lasker bit her, then pulled out a Trump deck and left. Ariana asks if vampires could gain the power to shift Shadow by biting an Amberite. Possibly. Jasmine says she'll get back to them when she has some ideas.

Tuesday, November 29, 4

Ariana has lunch with Maddy, who mentions that she's learning witchcraft. Ariana is happy for her. Maddy explains how she hates being a doormat, and that she's hoping she can protect Ishmael this way. Ariana cautions her not to put all of her faith in that. If she does, and something happens that's beyond her control, it will be harder for her to deal with. Ariana learned this the hard way, especially after she lost her child. Maddy says she thinks losing your child might be easier than having it die. Where she grew up, children often didn't live into adulthood. Ariana grew up in a similar environment, which is probably why she has so many children. Maddy mentions that Ishmael isn't happy about her learning witchcraft. Why? Because she's learning with Whimsy. Ah, so he thinks Whimsy will do something horrible to her? He's very overprotective. Maddy asks if Ariana is OK about what happened last week. Ariana says she knows it wasn't Ishmael's fault, and nothing really happened. Maddy says Ishmael would never hurt her. She knows, the experience just brought back some unpleasant memories. Maddy gives her an inquiring look. Ariana explains that she was raped once by someone she knew, which is another example of a time when her power was not able to save her. Maddy says that almost happened to her, until she grabbed his balls and twisted. They talk about Ishmael for a while, and how he wants more children. Ariana suggests Maddy tell him if she doesn't want more. She's tried. Ariana says that she has that problem with Lucien, too. He tends to have some traditional Chaos attitudes where women are concerned.

Wednesday, November 30, 4

Ariana goes to the Disc to see if she's had any responses to her ad, but so far, there are no takers.

Thursday, December 1, 4

Ariana finally manages to assume a true faerie form. She continues to practice, in an effort to make the form easier to assume and maintain.

Sunday, December 4, 4

Morning. Ariana misses her period, so she checks to see if she's pregnant. She finds that she's about two weeks along. Which dates it back to the Pattern walk she did. She walks back into the bedroom, where Lucien is still lying in bed, and asks if he remembers the conversation they had after she walked the Pattern. Oh, they've had so many conversations... The one about him making himself infertile because she didn't want to get pregnant. Oh, is she pregnant? She throws one of her metal balls at him, hitting him in the chest, and tells him to stop lying to her. Lucien claims he got her pregnant because she's happy when she's pregnant. Just think, soon she'll be able to feel the baby move... She throws another ball at him, which he dodges. He asks if she's really all that upset about the baby. She's upset that he lied to her. He wanted it to be a surprise. Yes, but most surprises you can return if you don't like them. She could do that here. No, she can't. And he knows that she won't. He says it would have been a shame to waste the opportunity after she walked the Pattern. She points out that she can conceive without the Pattern. True, but Pattern children are strong children. She reminds him that he was always telling her that children could be used against their parents. After what happened to Grayson, she decided that Bryan would be her last one. Lucien says that maybe he wanted this child. She looks thrown for a moment, then says she wishes she could believe that. Is he trying to repopulate his house? He reminds her that he has no house, anymore. Although, he could start a new one... Only if it meant he'd stop doing jobs for Nicholas. Well, he could tell Nicholas that he couldn't leave Amber, because he has a child on the way. Would he? Possibly. She'll believe it when she sees it.

In the middle of the argument, Ariana receives a Trump call from Ishmael. He tells her that Maddy's upset, and it's not his fault, and he forgot, etc. He eventually tells her that he got Maddy pregnant after he walked the Pattern. Ariana begins ranting at him, saying all men are alike, and he didn't forget, etc. She throws one of her metal balls at him, and he breaks the contact.

Ariana returns her attention to Lucien, saying that it's hard for her to trust him when he lies. He says he'll try to do better. She doesn't know how she can believe him. She yells at him some more until he throws her over his shoulder, walks into the bathroom, runs a cold bath, and dunks them both. Ariana shrieks, which wakes the entire household. Lucien lets her go when she seems to have calmed down a bit. She begins changing into dry clothes, saying she's going to visit Maddy. He asks what the children will think. She offers loudly to explain that their father is an asshole. Well, they probably know now.

Ariana Trumps Maddy and comes through. Maddy is in her bedroom, with Ishmael out in the hallway, pounding on the door. Maddy is furious with Ishmael, since she just had a baby three months ago. Ariana tells her that Lucien got her pregnant with Briana only one month after she had Ana. And when she told him about it, he called her his little baby factory. Ishmael yells that he would never call Maddy that. Maddy wants to leave before Ishmael bashes the door down. Ariana suggests they go to her summer house, since no one is there right now. Maddy likes this idea.

Ariana Trumps to the summer house with Maddy and her baby. They commiserate for a while about how rotten men are. Maddy wants to cut their husbands off from sex for the whole nine months. Ariana thinks it's a nice idea, but she doubts they'll stay angry for that long. She suggests that Maddy just cut Ishmael off until she's not mad at him anymore. Eventually, Ishmael tries to Trump Maddy, but she asks Ariana to help her block it. Then Ishmael tries to contact Ariana, but she won't answer either.

Some time later, Whimsy contacts Maddy. When Ariana identifies who it is, they decide to answer (not that they could stop her). Whimsy says she's heard the news, and wants to know if Maddy is coming to their witchcraft lesson. Maddy asks if Ariana can baby-sit Clare. Sure. Maddy goes through to Whimsy, leaving Ariana with an adorable three-month-old. Ariana finds that taking care of Clare lightens her mood a bit. Maddy Trumps Ariana and returns a while later, and they spend the night at the beach house.

Word is sent out that the new ambassadors from Faerie will be presented in two days, on December 7.

Monday, December 5, 4

Maddy has morning sickness. Ariana is more fortunate. Maddy appears to have already gotten over most of her anger at Ishmael and decides to go home. Ariana returns home as well, and finds Lucien snoring in bed. She attempts to dump a bucket of water on him, but he was faking and avoids it. Ariana is disappointed. He points out that he wouldn't have lived this long if he wasn't aware of when people enter his bedroom. She tells him that it's a good thing she doesn't have morning sickness, or she'd really be mad at him. He says this pregnancy will be much easier for her, given her current level of shapeshifting. Overall, his attitude isn't very apologetic. Ariana bets Ishmael is being much nicer to Maddy. Lucien says he thought she'd gotten enough of Ishmael the other week. She looks hurt and leaves.

Ariana takes the boys to Maddy's to play with her kids. Maddy is bawling her eyes out because Ishmael built her a greenhouse. He's being so nice and solicitous that Ariana bursts into tears as well, which confuses the hell out of Ishmael.

Ariana returns home that evening to find roses, chocolates and chocolate-covered strawberries waiting for her. Lucien even apologizes, saying, "Sometimes I can be an ass, and this day was one of them." Ariana bursts into tears again, then hugs him. Once she recovers, she notes that he hasn't asked if the baby's a boy or a girl. He claims it doesn't matter to him, but asks which it is. A boy. She asks if he really meant it when he said he wanted the baby. He claims he did, adding that maybe he's starting to feel his age. So, what is she going to name this one? What makes him think she's thought about that yet? Faith. Well, she does have a few possibilities... She suggests Adrian, Dorian, Gaelan, Ian, Kevan, Nathan or Ryan. She's favoring Ian or Ryan. He likes Dorian. She figures they've got a while to decide. She tells him that if he'd just told her he wanted another child, she would have been willing. He didn't need to deceive her. He claims he couldn't pass up the opportunity. Ever since the powers changed, he's wondered how easy it would be to conceive. What if she truly hadn't wanted another child? He knows her well enough to know that wasn't an issue. She says she honestly had meant to stop, pointing out how uncertain things are. He says there's always an excuse not to have children, just like there's always an excuse to have children. Still, she would have preferred to have a say in the matter. He points out that most couples aren't able to choose when they have children. She knows, but she'd still like to be informed the next time he decides to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity. He says he's decided to stop meddling with his plumbing at all in that respect, saying he misses the surprises. Ariana misses how she used to be able to trust him, without wondering if he was lying to her. Lucien says he would never intentionally hurt her, and he loves her dearly, but beyond that he's tired of making promises that he ultimately can't keep. Ariana says she's not asking that he promise never to lie to her, since everybody lies at some point. She just wants to him to do it less often. All right, is there anything else? She asks if shapeshifting will hurt the baby. No. Why not? The baby will be as adaptable as she is.

Tuesday, December 6, 4

The Faerie ambassadors are presented at a late afternoon gathering. Ariana attends with Lucien, Jalana and Shannon. Much of the family is there, including Benedict and Nicholas. Nicholas seems worn down to Ariana. It's nothing obvious to anyone who doesn't know him, but the fire has gone out of him. Both of the ambassadors are women. L'Wren, the Seelie ambassador, has pale, golden hair and bright green eyes. Macavery Mor is the ambassador from the Unseelie Court. Ariana introduces herself to both of them, then spends some time talking to L'Wren. Whimsy introduces herself to Macavery, who stiffens and gets a wild look. L'Wren asks Ariana what prompted that reaction. Ariana warns her that Whimsy has a Faerie Ward. L'Wren braces herself as Whimsy approaches and introduces herself as the Justicar. She even extends her hand to Whimsy. After Whimsy leaves, L'Wren needs to lean on Ariana a bit, and Ariana helps her over to a chair. L'Wren asks why Whimsy doesn't just take off the Ward. Ariana says she thinks Whimsy fears retribution if she isn't protected, given her job. Both ambassadors bow to Alexandra, who says that's not necessary. They say it is when their lord is present. Ariana looks around for Jack upon hearing that, but doesn't see him. She sits next to L'Wren at dinner, and chats with her in the faerie language. L'Wren is startled to learn that Ariana has a faerie soul, saying that just doesn't happen. Ariana says she's been told that before. She offers to help L'Wren if she has any questions about life in Amber. Grayson hangs out a lot with Macavery, and dances with her after dinner.

Quotables:

"Do you think you might want to say something to (Ariana)?" -- Random to Ishmael
"Your place or mine?" -- Sean

"If you don't understand it, it's usually magic." -- Caine to Ishmael
"That would mean a lot of things are magic to Ishmael." -- Sean

"Thanks a lot, Reeshau. You've been very helpful." -- Caine to Reeshau
"That's a first." -- Kris

"The dagger in the spine I can forgive (Caine)...leaving me as Reeshau is calling for more quality time in the 'Tween." -- Alex to the group

"A witch's spell? I didn't know we had witches." -- Maddy
"They're new." -- Ishmael

"So, should I wander around at night and see if (the vampires) come out?" -- Gavin to Caine, Random, Julian and Shard

"Bring (Molly the succubus) to the School of Wizardry, watch enrollment drop." -- Matthew R.
"No, enrollment would be up, grades would be down." -- Sean

"The concern that you're almost displaying is touching." -- Alexandra to Jack

"Outrageous Fortune"
Game Logs for Sessions 1-115 | Character Logs for Sessions 116+

All text on this page is © 1999 by Kris Fazzari, with the exception of the attributed quotes.

Last modified on August 26, 1999 by Kris Fazzari.