Royesland [Full]

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

Tuesday put his spoon down and pressed his plams into his eyes for a moment, "Great," He said and didn't extrapolate, "Good for her."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

At his obvious distress her face fell again. She hesitated before gently touching his shoulder. “Are you okay, love? Do you… do you know her?”

 

[TrashRabbit]

"I'm fine," He said quietly moving his hands away from their apparently concerning position, "Riley Marie DOnovan is Truffle, and I suppose this means, she doesn't have a plan. She was always free to leave the forest, so I suppose, she did."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

“Oh.” She moved her hand back to the teacup, less surprised than it felt like she ought to be that her wildest theory was the correct one. Or half-correct, at least for now. “Well… I’m sure if she’d had any alternatives, she would’ve pursued them. And I’m assuming she didn’t leave the forest until you did, so that feels… relevant?”

Molly bit her lip to keep from continuing the train of thought, which was that maybe Riley- Truffle- left the forest because she had to; because she was forced out. And maybe something was stopping her from looking for Tuesday, too. Should I mention about the Duke now? she fretted. Maybe not. Maybe it should wait for morning. I want him to be able to sleep tonight. “Now you know where she is, though! You can go talk to her tomorrow and… and figure out what to do next, right? So that’s a good thing, I think.” She smiled, trying to project hope and reassurance. It broke her heart to see him so stressed like this.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

"It is what it is," he said. He knew full well that if Riley had left the forest that she would not remember him, as that was standard fair for faerie court contracts. It was a shame that Tom wouldn't know her anymore, they were family after all if however distant. Truffle had always lamented there was know in town who knew her. Not any one that counted. 'So why would I go back' rings around his head. Perhaps he had only thought she was his frined. Maybe as soon as he was gone it was her chance to flee. Maybe he never been any better than Jarl of bears. "I don't know if I will be paying her a visit or not. I don't see how I would explain myself- and I would like to keep Lockette's hands off of me for the rest of my life if I can. I digress though- how did the rest of your day go..."
He still had to admit to her that he let Cathal steal her pearl and he sensed she would forgive him quickly but that almost made it worse.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

She let out a breathy laugh at the Lockette comment, partially to relieve her mounting exasperation. Why won't you visit her? What is there to explain? I thought she was supposed to be able to help. "Yeah, I'd rather Lockette not throw you around anymore, either. Um…"

Molly ran a hand through her hair, debating whether she should press the Truffle issue or keep going. "Uhh… I guess…" She sighed and decided to just get it over with. "Well, Nicola had to find an ingredient for the potion to fix her friend Jackie-" she gestured vaguely towards the side of the room the two had gone off to. "It was something she could only find in the woods. The Fairy Woods." As if there were any other woods around here. "And I didn't want her to go out there by herself, so I went with. We passed Magpie House on the way into the forest, you see."

Even if that wasn't quite the right order of events, it was technically true. "The woods are very beautiful!" she said brightly. "It was really nice too because Nicola knows a lot about plants and wildlife, so she was telling me about all that as we walked. But… then we, er… ran into somebody." The freckles on her hands stood out where she was white-knuckle gripping the teacup. "Uh, and that somebody said they know you, and wanted us- me- to pass on a message to you."

Molly closed her eyes, frowning as she tried to remember exactly what they'd said, because the wording had felt important. "Erm. The Duke of Foxes wanted me to tell you that… Tithe? Begins soon. Um, when the… serpents return. And that…" She unconsciously scooted a little closer to him in order to murmur this last part. "The king-games wait for no one." Watching his face, in a whisper she added, "I'm really sorry, Tuesday."

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

The poor man visibly wilted as she delivered the Duke's message, frosted peas still pressed to his face. He had not had the best grasp of time as a fae lord, but he could of sworn it would not be so soon for the serpents to return. He did not think he had very many options in the matter, or perhaps he was becoming less clever the long her was manshapped.

"I see, Thank you..." He said with a level of seriousness that didn't suit him. He looked down at his soup scathingly and then at Molly with affection and then at the bar with longing, "Molly Sills, you have far too kind me and an excelent messenger and I would hate to ask more of you after you had to put up with Magni, but would it trouble you greatly if I asked you to get me a beer. Maybe three?"

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Finn Dolan​

Finn did not miss the look of disgust on Jackie's face when Nicola read out his note on not minding the chicken feet so much. He waited until Jackie and Nicola had distracted themselves with a discussion of poor Tom's love life, and raised his eyebrows at Vidya with a sly grin. It was a look they had perfected many, many times in their childhoods, and could only mean one thing:

You wanna see something funny?

Under the table, Finn stretched one leg out, until his clawed and scaly foot brushed against Jackie's calf.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

While still clearly upset by it, Molly thought Tuesday had taken her message with the grace of a king. As he was one, that should've been right, but it just seemed… too serious for him, and it worried her.

So the follow-up request for a beer or three sent a wave of affection crashing around inside her. She laughed, touching his arm again. "No such thing as too much kindness, especially because I'm happy to help if I can."

Getting up from the table, she continued, "but it seems I've kinda done the opposite and only given you bad news today, so the least I can do is buy you a beer. We'll start with two and only if you promise to drink water also, okay?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

"For you, Anything," He said brihgtly, "But I must say If water is your price, you need to learn to haggle," He said with a dry laugh. Molly was truly too good and too pure for this world.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"Listen, I ain't haggling nothing, there's just enough going on around here I don't need hungover magpie princes on top of everything else." She winked and flounced away to the bar before he could see the face journey she was having over 'for you, anything'.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

Tuesday had yet to be hung over ever so he found her sentiments ill founded. While she was away at the bar propper he invested in scowling at Vidya from distance, who was too busy laughing at Finn's antics to give him even a second thought.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

It took her a few trips to return with two beers for Tuesday, a small mead for herself, and water for each of them. "Anyway, Nicola did more putting up with the Duke than I did," she settled in to continue her story. "She got herself stuck up in a tree trying to get to those flowers she needed. But it worked out in the end, she and Tom made the potion and Jackie's back to her usual…" Molly looked over her shoulder at where her sister was going on about something, while her friend appeared to be half-draped over her. "...yeah.

"Oh! That reminds me." She sipped her mead. "I have to apologize, Tuesday. You trusted me with that big, beautiful pearl and I thought it would be safer if I left it here at the inn. Uhh, it was not." Molly smiled. "It was stolen. But I think you knew that already." The smile grew. "Which I think because Cathal told me, while I helped him make dinner back up at the tower-" emphasis on the implication of why Cathal could speak and cook dinner now- "that you tried to stop him. Unfortunately it might be a good thing he got away, because it sounds like the pearl is back with its goddess." She propped her chin up on one hand. "Probably where it belongs, in the end."

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

He made an excited gimmie motion at the first beer as it was delievered and waited for her to return before he took the first blessed sip. Beer was much much much better as a man than a fairie and the oposite was true of milk and honey.

"I'm glad the Duke let you go. They're fickle. Fickle by my standards and Truffle likes to tell me I'm very fickle," he said, not loving that the two had come in contact, "They haven't been right since the king started in on breeding foxes for fur." And the logic of that causation made more sense to him now as a man as well, it was just unfortunate and logical that domestication did something strange to a faerie.

The news about Cathal was a blow and all he could do was sip his beer about it. Could not have disagreed with her positive sentiments more but tried to keep it off his face. His opinions on such things like the ownership of his pearl, Cathal, and the tyrany of all cats (Vidya included) were not appreciated and he was learning to keep them quiet. This was by far the worst news off all, but at least he didn't have to explain that he'd let a cat make off with her gift. He couldn't believe Cathal was a man again so easily. It wasn't fair.

"Well," he said un-ethusiastically, "Good for him."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

As she'd anticipated, despite his delight over the beer, the news about Cathal soured Tuesday's expression. "Well, everybody's fickle sometimes. I'm sure you're not so bad." She nudged his arm playfully.

“But no no no, see, it is good!” Molly didn’t linger on the horrifying revelation about the king’s taste for fox fur. She had to get some good news out of this evening. “He just went to the temple and got a simple little quest and the goddess made him a man again. So it could be just as easy to do the opposite for you! We just have to figure out how.”

Warmed to it by Tuesday’s enthusiasm for his alcoholic beverage, she drank more of her mead. “The Goddess of Pearls is obviously really important to the fae, just like she is to the people. Maybe you need to go talk to her! If that’s something you can do. Or at least, y’know, visit her shrine, see what’s up.” She shrugged. “Something like that. Do you wanna go to the temple tomorrow? We can go first thing in the morning! Or- or I mean, you can go. I don’t have to go with, that was presumptive of me.” Molly blushed a bit and reached for her glass of water instead. “Getting a bit ahead of myself, here. But that- that might be helpful, right?”

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

"No Molly, I do not want to go to the temple," He said but managed to keep any bite out of his voice. What would the goddess do, laugh? This was after all the consequence of an old decision, the shape of which and the consequences of were only truly laid on the table to be seen clearly now that he had a mortal mind. "When Cathal and his sister were born, their mother, Airn, brought them to court. She said she had given birth alone and being surprised by a second baby had not properly kept them apart which one was born first- and she had promised the goddess her first born. So you see she asked me pick, which infant to keep and which one to send to the temple. And I knew, just looking at them that if Kitty staid with her mother she would become a witch more powerful and sinister than any that had ever come out of the north. But if I I sent Kitty to the Goddess, then the other child would be the one to teach me humility. At the time humility seemed a mild lesson. But-" he made a little cheers motion at Molly and took a big sip, "Here we are. Tomorrow I will...Think of something. let's save it for tomorrow, though."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"Oh." Rather than washing the taste of mead away, drinking water had in fact just watered it down, leaving an unpleasantly sweet and watery stickiness on her tongue that rather matched her mood presently. She’d listened wide-eyed to the story of Cathal and his sister (and wondering at the odds that he’d be the third person, including herself, she’d learned had a twin in the last week). “Wow, that’s… wild,” she finally said. Picturing the scene of such an omen added weight to the history of the powerful faerie king she knew existed, but had never seen for herself. “Um. Dang.”

Frowning at nothing in particular, she suffered the weird taste in her mouth for another moment before drinking from her mead again. “It was worth a shot, I guess. And I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you fret over it tonight. But… obviously I guess it would make you worry, the way I keep bringing it up.” She pursed her lips. “I’m gonna try to be more mindful of that.”

Molly realized with surprise and dismay that had been the last swallow of her drink. “But, uhh… that about sums up my day. Played a little music, talked to Riley, went in the woods… went back to the tower and hung out with Cathal while Nicola and Tom worked on the potion before coming back here.” Leaning back in the booth, she stretched one arm out to run a finger around the rim of the empty mead glass. “Hang out with you. Pick up all the crap Cathal inevitably knocked around my room when he went through my purse before I finally go to bed.” Molly laughed. “Another boring day in Port of Pearls!”

She paused thoughtfully before catching his eye to clarify, “that was sarcastic. And I like hanging out with you, it’s not boring at all.”

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

He smiled. Molly Sils was perfect and despite the level of horseshit happening to him elsewise, she was a blessing he was not so sure he deserved. "I wish for it to be less exciting, at this rate I'm going to have to move to the country and rest my heart," He said putitng on his best grandma voice. It was a thing many folks in the city of Royes often said before moving to places like port of pearls, and most of them soon discovered that life didn't stop becuase you were some where quaint. He put the frosted peas down on the table and added, "Listen you should get another Mead and go visit with your sister. You ought to finish out your good day on a good note, I think I'm going ot call it quits." With that he got up, gave her a peace sign and made a quick retreat out of the saloon and up into the inn's rooms. Molly did not need to spend her evening fussing over him. She deserved much better.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

His joke got her laughing harder than it probably should've, so she wasn't paying enough attention to keep a disappointed "aww" from escaping when Tuesday suddenly peaced out. She managed to gather a couple brain cells in time to call "uh- uhh- sleep well!" at his back as he retreated.

Molly stared petulantly in the direction he'd vanished for a moment until she sighed and grumbled to herself, "I gotta freakin' learn how to talk to boys better." Instead of infodumping on them 'til they run away. Her objections, useless with no one to proclaim them to, bounced around her head: I spent most of the day with my sister. Getting to see you tonight was finishing my day on a good note. And…

She looked over her shoulder at the table across the room where some kind of ruckus was happening. Nicola's friends are fucking intimidating.