RVA, Shadow of the Future, The Party
Sep. 27th, 2015 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalThe ballroom was in the new western wing of the manor, built in what Salli thought was rather self-consciously reflective of the Age of Airships, from the half-century preceding first contact with Humanity and the start of the Interstellar Era. The floor was tiled with white marble, broken up by geometric triangular patterns laid out in grey tile. Soaring overhead were arches of polished aluminum girders, circles punched out to invoke the ribbing of an airship’s frame. In one corner was a low stage, where a woodwind quartet was providing quiet dinner music for the twenty or so people already present, and at the opposite corner a bar and buffet.
“The Vicountess Sallivera Darktail!” a footman announced as she entered through the double doors. Salli, having taken the precaution of swallowing one of her tabs of optional anti-anxiety medication prior to dressing, did not break down in tears nor even flinch as every nose in the room turned towards the open double doors. Instead she acknowledged the guests with a polite nod, calling out, “Thank you all so much for coming,” to them, before sweeping into the room and bowing to Mother and Father. Behind her and through the double doors, she could just see Zaker turning away to walk up the hallways, presumably to take up her perimeter duties, now that she had delivered her prisoner to their fated punishment.
Death by canape ingestion, Salli thought to herself, as a gray-furred male with tall ear tips in his late middle-age approached her. It was the Count Longear, Minister of Justice and one of the Ten, the appointed inner circle of the Council of Countesses who headed the major ministries of the MC’s government. Famous for his evenhanded approach to his duties, he had been a major ally in House Darktail’s suit against the late Countess Highglider, both during the dramatic Council meeting that ended with Highglider being stripped of her title and lands, and the later awarding of the Countess-ship to Salli’s mother.
“Governor Darktail,” he greeted, bowing to her politely. “So good to have you back on the homeworld. How are you feeling?”
“I’m looking forward to getting my new eye installed. I’m growing tired of having to turn around to look at anything to my right,” she replied. “And you, Minister?”
“Quite well, thank you. One attends to one’s duties and prays that all runs smoothly,” he said. Longear looked around the ballroom, his ears pricked up in curiosity. “Where is that extraordinary bodyguard of yours, Miss Blacksailor?”
“Alinadar is visiting with her family on the Eastern Continent,” Salli replied. “I’m hoping she returns shortly.” Praying, actually. “Though, of course, I can’t fault her for spending as much time as she wants with them. She has weathered so much pain in her life, I’m loathe to deny her anything.” She closed her mouth before she started to rant about the utter unfairness of the universe and just how much suffering Ali had gone through. It would bear no weight in swaying whatever opinion Longear had on the girl.
“I should think you wouldn’t want her out of your sight. Given her current legal status that is,” he noted.
“She has standard indenture tracking software installed on her palm comp,” Salli said, having the answer in reserve ever since she gave Ali her leave to go, in case the matter came up. “I know exactly where she is at all times.”
Longear cocked his head in surprise. “She isn’t chipped?”
“I don’t need a chip jammed underneath her skin to know where she is.” Salli glared at him, ears flicking back.
“As you will, Governor,” he replied. “And how is your brother and his lovely wife?”
“Rolas is doing just fine. He’s adapting admirably to administering Greenholme in my absence,” she replied, then added after a pause, “Melanie is her usual self.” No need to expand on that description.
“Yes, I imagine she is. A vixen of many talents,” Longear said, a very peculiar smile on crossing his face.
Longear took his leave, greeting another guest who had just entered. Salli began filling her plate from the buffet table, looking longingly at the bar for a moment before turning away. Her medication schedule precluded alcohol, alas, freeing her from the temptation to get smash… er, “socially lubricated.” Drinking had held little appeal to her even during her worst periods of depression. What would have been the point of indulging to the point of unconsciousness, only to wake up with the same problems as before, but also with a massive headache?
Speaking of drinking, another male was approaching her, wobbling a bit on his feet already, despite the party barely having begun. He wore a familiar house uniform, and had a fur pattern of deep red, completed by cream at his throat, and black paws. A whiff of heavy brandy reached Salli’s nostrils even before the male stopped to bow to her unsteadily.
“Lady Darktail,” he greeted, his words slightly slurred as he raised his glass to her. “Good evening. Haven’t seen you since my sister Melanie’s wedding.”
“Lord Marl. What a pleasure to see you again,” Salli lied smoothly. Marl Lovejoy was Melanie’s younger brother. There had been some scandal about ten years back involving his removal from the post of administrator at his family's plantation on Nagrim Prime, which was apparently the result of an audit conducted by his sister. He had been drunk at Melanie and Rolas' wedding as well, Salli recalled. She wondered if his alcoholism was result, or the cause, of his fall from grace. “How are you?”
“Not drunk enough yet. I can still feel my legs,” he replied. He laughed heartily at his own joke, and failed to notice Salli did not. “These little self-congratulatory soirees are always a trial to get through,” he went on. “I avoid them when I can, and try to get anesthetized beforehand if I can't.”
“I can agree on the former,” Salli replied. “Alas, since the party is for me, it was hard for me to escape it.”
“Should have brought that little bodyguard of yours along. She probably could have livened things up.” Lord Marl laughed again, gulped down the remainder of his drink, then grabbed another from a passing servant.
“The time would pass much more easily,” she agreed. “Unfortunately for me, Alinadar is visiting with her family.”
“Ah, yes. Such a tragic story, that. It's no wonder she has such a temper.” Before Salli could ask what that was supposed to mean, Lord Marl sighed and looked towards an irritated looking vixen on the other side of the room The vixen gestured to him sharply, in a silent but unmistakable command to stop being foolish and come to her. “Sorry, the wife wants me to come over and be scolded again. Good health to you, Lady Darktail.”
“And to you, Lord Marl,” Salli replied. He chucked back the rest of his drink and began staggering across the ballroom to his waiting, and Salli guessed, long suffering, wife. Still, as drunks went, Lord Marl wasn't particularly unpleasant, just loud and foolish. Compared to her late ex-husband, whose drunken rages were something she had learned to deeply fear, Marl made for a sad figure, but not a monster.
Salli began circling around the party, chatting briefly with each of the guests as the ballroom began filling up, exchanging trivialities and answering the expected questions about the status of Greenholme's colonization and especially its recovery from the pirate attack. Each time the latter came up she made sure to praise the efforts of the colony's emergency response teams the aid of the Navy in capturing the attacking pirates. The routine of the social duty, something she had become practiced at in the years prior to her marriage, came back to her with surprising ease.
She was on her second plate of victuals and third glass of sparkling water, when there was a polite cough to her blind right side. Salli turned, to find a young vixen, perhaps Alinadar's age but closer to Salli's own height, in the uniform of an MC infantry commander, the red braid at her left shoulder marking her at the rank of captain. Her fur was deep black, with a bright spot of white at her throat and twinkling blue eyes.
“Governor Darktail?” the captain inquired.
“Yes,” Salli replied, wondering why the vixen looked so familiar. She was certain they hadn't met before.
“Ah, good. I was looking forward to meeting the vixen responsible for my losing my company command.”
Salli's brow wrinkled in confusion. “I'm sorry? How am I responsible for that? I'm not involved in military matters at all.”
The captain's smile turned up a little higher. “I apologize. I've been trying to see the humor in the situation.” She held out her paw to shake Salli's briefly, her grip firm but not crushing. “I'm Captain Aganatha Highglider. Well, Lady Highglider now. I've just taken over as the noble in charge of the Highglider District, now that House Darktail holds the Countess-ship.”
“Oh! My apologizes in turn, Lady Highglider. I hadn't realized the succession had finally been sorted out. You are cousin to the late Countess Highglider?” Salli should have realized it earlier, the captain's fur pattern being identical to her former mother-in-law's.
“Please, call me Aggie,” Highglider replied. “And I'm her niece. It was sorted out a few weeks ago. Given you were in transit back to Foxen Prime after that awful attack on Greenholme, I'm not surprised it slipped your attention.”
“Indeed. I've been somewhat distracted since I returned home. Though I honestly have no excuse for missing something that important. I'm guessing from your humor, you weren't looking forward to your, er, change of command?”
Aggie nodded. “Indeed not. I had every intention of going for a committed transfer to the Military caste to pursue a career in that direction. Unfortunately, with Aunt Evelina being removed so abruptly from her position, it turned out that I as going to have attend to more Noble duties.”
“None of your other relatives desired the position of Lady Highglider?” Salli asked, surprised. Normally the chance to social climb, even if it was for a position that would have formerly been a Countess-ship, would have seen many of her peers jockeying for the prize.
“Well, discounting my older sisters and cousins, who couldn't unbend their tails enough to accept a devolved position, we were all doing our best to dodge the honor, having our own concerns. Since I was youngest and least settled in my then current career, I drew drew the short straw. So here I am.” Aggie gave Salli a brief bow, tinged by a generous amount of irony.
Salli's ears twitched involuntarily in amusement. “I suppose I should apologize to you.”
Aggie straightened up. “For disrupting my career? Not your fault, despite my little joke earlier.”
“No,” she said. “I meant for being the cause of your aunt's downfall in the first place.”
The former captain's expression turned more serious. “Not your fault at all. Aunt Evelina built her own funeral pyre on that one. I had always known she and her son, Kevinaugh, were a bit unpleasant. It wasn't until all the horrors went public after Aunt Evelina's trial and public breakdown, that I realized how much my own immediate family had been shielding me from her and my cousin. My entire clan owes you an apology for that. We kept our silence, wanting any shame to remain internal, un-examined. And because of that silence, you and your family suffered. For that I owe you the greatest of regrets.” She bowed one more time, deeper and with complete sincerity.
Salli bowed to Aggie in turn. “Accepted, and we will speak no more on the matter.”
Aggie rose and smiled. “Thank you, milady.”
“When is your is your formal investiture as Darktail Domain's lady? I hope I haven't missed it.”
“Oh, no. That isn't for another couple of weeks, though all the formal paperwork is signed and sealed. I'm hoping you'll be able to attend.”
“I wouldn't miss it,” Salli replied sincerely. She found herself liking the upfront and honest appearing captain. If she was as competent in the tasks of administration as she was in social situations, Lady Aganatha would be a gift to Highglider District, and a valuable subordinate in the Darktail Domain.
Aggie flagged down the servant still circulating the room with the drinks tray, and took a golden cordial for herself. Sipping lightly, she said, “The only bother to this is that I'm going to have go husband hunting I suppose. Can't leave the district without a declared heir for long, especially given all the recent shakeups. Unless I want to be completely narcissistic and clone myself.”
Salli laughed. “I'm sure you'll find someone, eventually.”
“What about you, though?” she asked, her expression curious. “I can't imagine your mother the countess is going to permit you to hold on to that little bodyguard of yours. Especially now that the newsnets have picked up the story.”
All of the good humor that Salli had been feeling from her conversation with Aggie disappeared, as if she'd had a bucket of ice cold water thrown in her face. “What story?” she demanded.
“You haven't heard? Well, it did just hit the nets late this afternoon.” Aggie pulled out a palm comp from the pocket of her uniform tunic, and punched up a newsnet feed. From the loud and bright graphics it was obviously one of the more salacious feeds, concentrating on scandals among the famous and powerful, rather than reporting anything actually useful to the general populace. At the top of an article titled “LADY SALLIVERA DARKTAIL'S MURDEROUS PIRATE LOVER” was a picture of Ali, her lips curled back in an angry snarl directed at the camera. Salli could guess when and where it had been taken. Ali's expression matched the snarl she'd given that idiot reporter that had confronted them at the orbital station. Obviously he'd captured the image with his camera monocle when he'd tried to interview Salli.
She snatched the palm comp from Aggie's paw, reading through the article. It was short, and with plenty of exclamation points in the text, but was a tolerably accurate summation of Ali's career as a pirate, forced into a career as a child soldier under Bloody Margo, and later serving the Red Vixen, until her trial and partial exoneration. The article then made several broad hints that Ali's relatively lenient sentence for her later crimes committed under the Red Vixen's command was the doing of Salli's family, indulging a salacious and forbidden love to make up for her ill-treatment at the hands of her late husband.
“You all right?” Aggie asked. “I mean it's utter Commoner newsrag tosh of course.”
“Of course,” Salli managed to grind out, her paw shaking with rage as she handed Aggie's palm comp back her.
“I mean, she didn't actually do all those awful things, did she? Can't see how anyone sane would want to come within a hundred meters of her, if it were all true.”
“No,” Salli said, pulling a deep breath. “I can't imagine any sane person would.”
Fortunately, I am not.
“The Vicountess Sallivera Darktail!” a footman announced as she entered through the double doors. Salli, having taken the precaution of swallowing one of her tabs of optional anti-anxiety medication prior to dressing, did not break down in tears nor even flinch as every nose in the room turned towards the open double doors. Instead she acknowledged the guests with a polite nod, calling out, “Thank you all so much for coming,” to them, before sweeping into the room and bowing to Mother and Father. Behind her and through the double doors, she could just see Zaker turning away to walk up the hallways, presumably to take up her perimeter duties, now that she had delivered her prisoner to their fated punishment.
Death by canape ingestion, Salli thought to herself, as a gray-furred male with tall ear tips in his late middle-age approached her. It was the Count Longear, Minister of Justice and one of the Ten, the appointed inner circle of the Council of Countesses who headed the major ministries of the MC’s government. Famous for his evenhanded approach to his duties, he had been a major ally in House Darktail’s suit against the late Countess Highglider, both during the dramatic Council meeting that ended with Highglider being stripped of her title and lands, and the later awarding of the Countess-ship to Salli’s mother.
“Governor Darktail,” he greeted, bowing to her politely. “So good to have you back on the homeworld. How are you feeling?”
“I’m looking forward to getting my new eye installed. I’m growing tired of having to turn around to look at anything to my right,” she replied. “And you, Minister?”
“Quite well, thank you. One attends to one’s duties and prays that all runs smoothly,” he said. Longear looked around the ballroom, his ears pricked up in curiosity. “Where is that extraordinary bodyguard of yours, Miss Blacksailor?”
“Alinadar is visiting with her family on the Eastern Continent,” Salli replied. “I’m hoping she returns shortly.” Praying, actually. “Though, of course, I can’t fault her for spending as much time as she wants with them. She has weathered so much pain in her life, I’m loathe to deny her anything.” She closed her mouth before she started to rant about the utter unfairness of the universe and just how much suffering Ali had gone through. It would bear no weight in swaying whatever opinion Longear had on the girl.
“I should think you wouldn’t want her out of your sight. Given her current legal status that is,” he noted.
“She has standard indenture tracking software installed on her palm comp,” Salli said, having the answer in reserve ever since she gave Ali her leave to go, in case the matter came up. “I know exactly where she is at all times.”
Longear cocked his head in surprise. “She isn’t chipped?”
“I don’t need a chip jammed underneath her skin to know where she is.” Salli glared at him, ears flicking back.
“As you will, Governor,” he replied. “And how is your brother and his lovely wife?”
“Rolas is doing just fine. He’s adapting admirably to administering Greenholme in my absence,” she replied, then added after a pause, “Melanie is her usual self.” No need to expand on that description.
“Yes, I imagine she is. A vixen of many talents,” Longear said, a very peculiar smile on crossing his face.
Longear took his leave, greeting another guest who had just entered. Salli began filling her plate from the buffet table, looking longingly at the bar for a moment before turning away. Her medication schedule precluded alcohol, alas, freeing her from the temptation to get smash… er, “socially lubricated.” Drinking had held little appeal to her even during her worst periods of depression. What would have been the point of indulging to the point of unconsciousness, only to wake up with the same problems as before, but also with a massive headache?
Speaking of drinking, another male was approaching her, wobbling a bit on his feet already, despite the party barely having begun. He wore a familiar house uniform, and had a fur pattern of deep red, completed by cream at his throat, and black paws. A whiff of heavy brandy reached Salli’s nostrils even before the male stopped to bow to her unsteadily.
“Lady Darktail,” he greeted, his words slightly slurred as he raised his glass to her. “Good evening. Haven’t seen you since my sister Melanie’s wedding.”
“Lord Marl. What a pleasure to see you again,” Salli lied smoothly. Marl Lovejoy was Melanie’s younger brother. There had been some scandal about ten years back involving his removal from the post of administrator at his family's plantation on Nagrim Prime, which was apparently the result of an audit conducted by his sister. He had been drunk at Melanie and Rolas' wedding as well, Salli recalled. She wondered if his alcoholism was result, or the cause, of his fall from grace. “How are you?”
“Not drunk enough yet. I can still feel my legs,” he replied. He laughed heartily at his own joke, and failed to notice Salli did not. “These little self-congratulatory soirees are always a trial to get through,” he went on. “I avoid them when I can, and try to get anesthetized beforehand if I can't.”
“I can agree on the former,” Salli replied. “Alas, since the party is for me, it was hard for me to escape it.”
“Should have brought that little bodyguard of yours along. She probably could have livened things up.” Lord Marl laughed again, gulped down the remainder of his drink, then grabbed another from a passing servant.
“The time would pass much more easily,” she agreed. “Unfortunately for me, Alinadar is visiting with her family.”
“Ah, yes. Such a tragic story, that. It's no wonder she has such a temper.” Before Salli could ask what that was supposed to mean, Lord Marl sighed and looked towards an irritated looking vixen on the other side of the room The vixen gestured to him sharply, in a silent but unmistakable command to stop being foolish and come to her. “Sorry, the wife wants me to come over and be scolded again. Good health to you, Lady Darktail.”
“And to you, Lord Marl,” Salli replied. He chucked back the rest of his drink and began staggering across the ballroom to his waiting, and Salli guessed, long suffering, wife. Still, as drunks went, Lord Marl wasn't particularly unpleasant, just loud and foolish. Compared to her late ex-husband, whose drunken rages were something she had learned to deeply fear, Marl made for a sad figure, but not a monster.
Salli began circling around the party, chatting briefly with each of the guests as the ballroom began filling up, exchanging trivialities and answering the expected questions about the status of Greenholme's colonization and especially its recovery from the pirate attack. Each time the latter came up she made sure to praise the efforts of the colony's emergency response teams the aid of the Navy in capturing the attacking pirates. The routine of the social duty, something she had become practiced at in the years prior to her marriage, came back to her with surprising ease.
She was on her second plate of victuals and third glass of sparkling water, when there was a polite cough to her blind right side. Salli turned, to find a young vixen, perhaps Alinadar's age but closer to Salli's own height, in the uniform of an MC infantry commander, the red braid at her left shoulder marking her at the rank of captain. Her fur was deep black, with a bright spot of white at her throat and twinkling blue eyes.
“Governor Darktail?” the captain inquired.
“Yes,” Salli replied, wondering why the vixen looked so familiar. She was certain they hadn't met before.
“Ah, good. I was looking forward to meeting the vixen responsible for my losing my company command.”
Salli's brow wrinkled in confusion. “I'm sorry? How am I responsible for that? I'm not involved in military matters at all.”
The captain's smile turned up a little higher. “I apologize. I've been trying to see the humor in the situation.” She held out her paw to shake Salli's briefly, her grip firm but not crushing. “I'm Captain Aganatha Highglider. Well, Lady Highglider now. I've just taken over as the noble in charge of the Highglider District, now that House Darktail holds the Countess-ship.”
“Oh! My apologizes in turn, Lady Highglider. I hadn't realized the succession had finally been sorted out. You are cousin to the late Countess Highglider?” Salli should have realized it earlier, the captain's fur pattern being identical to her former mother-in-law's.
“Please, call me Aggie,” Highglider replied. “And I'm her niece. It was sorted out a few weeks ago. Given you were in transit back to Foxen Prime after that awful attack on Greenholme, I'm not surprised it slipped your attention.”
“Indeed. I've been somewhat distracted since I returned home. Though I honestly have no excuse for missing something that important. I'm guessing from your humor, you weren't looking forward to your, er, change of command?”
Aggie nodded. “Indeed not. I had every intention of going for a committed transfer to the Military caste to pursue a career in that direction. Unfortunately, with Aunt Evelina being removed so abruptly from her position, it turned out that I as going to have attend to more Noble duties.”
“None of your other relatives desired the position of Lady Highglider?” Salli asked, surprised. Normally the chance to social climb, even if it was for a position that would have formerly been a Countess-ship, would have seen many of her peers jockeying for the prize.
“Well, discounting my older sisters and cousins, who couldn't unbend their tails enough to accept a devolved position, we were all doing our best to dodge the honor, having our own concerns. Since I was youngest and least settled in my then current career, I drew drew the short straw. So here I am.” Aggie gave Salli a brief bow, tinged by a generous amount of irony.
Salli's ears twitched involuntarily in amusement. “I suppose I should apologize to you.”
Aggie straightened up. “For disrupting my career? Not your fault, despite my little joke earlier.”
“No,” she said. “I meant for being the cause of your aunt's downfall in the first place.”
The former captain's expression turned more serious. “Not your fault at all. Aunt Evelina built her own funeral pyre on that one. I had always known she and her son, Kevinaugh, were a bit unpleasant. It wasn't until all the horrors went public after Aunt Evelina's trial and public breakdown, that I realized how much my own immediate family had been shielding me from her and my cousin. My entire clan owes you an apology for that. We kept our silence, wanting any shame to remain internal, un-examined. And because of that silence, you and your family suffered. For that I owe you the greatest of regrets.” She bowed one more time, deeper and with complete sincerity.
Salli bowed to Aggie in turn. “Accepted, and we will speak no more on the matter.”
Aggie rose and smiled. “Thank you, milady.”
“When is your is your formal investiture as Darktail Domain's lady? I hope I haven't missed it.”
“Oh, no. That isn't for another couple of weeks, though all the formal paperwork is signed and sealed. I'm hoping you'll be able to attend.”
“I wouldn't miss it,” Salli replied sincerely. She found herself liking the upfront and honest appearing captain. If she was as competent in the tasks of administration as she was in social situations, Lady Aganatha would be a gift to Highglider District, and a valuable subordinate in the Darktail Domain.
Aggie flagged down the servant still circulating the room with the drinks tray, and took a golden cordial for herself. Sipping lightly, she said, “The only bother to this is that I'm going to have go husband hunting I suppose. Can't leave the district without a declared heir for long, especially given all the recent shakeups. Unless I want to be completely narcissistic and clone myself.”
Salli laughed. “I'm sure you'll find someone, eventually.”
“What about you, though?” she asked, her expression curious. “I can't imagine your mother the countess is going to permit you to hold on to that little bodyguard of yours. Especially now that the newsnets have picked up the story.”
All of the good humor that Salli had been feeling from her conversation with Aggie disappeared, as if she'd had a bucket of ice cold water thrown in her face. “What story?” she demanded.
“You haven't heard? Well, it did just hit the nets late this afternoon.” Aggie pulled out a palm comp from the pocket of her uniform tunic, and punched up a newsnet feed. From the loud and bright graphics it was obviously one of the more salacious feeds, concentrating on scandals among the famous and powerful, rather than reporting anything actually useful to the general populace. At the top of an article titled “LADY SALLIVERA DARKTAIL'S MURDEROUS PIRATE LOVER” was a picture of Ali, her lips curled back in an angry snarl directed at the camera. Salli could guess when and where it had been taken. Ali's expression matched the snarl she'd given that idiot reporter that had confronted them at the orbital station. Obviously he'd captured the image with his camera monocle when he'd tried to interview Salli.
She snatched the palm comp from Aggie's paw, reading through the article. It was short, and with plenty of exclamation points in the text, but was a tolerably accurate summation of Ali's career as a pirate, forced into a career as a child soldier under Bloody Margo, and later serving the Red Vixen, until her trial and partial exoneration. The article then made several broad hints that Ali's relatively lenient sentence for her later crimes committed under the Red Vixen's command was the doing of Salli's family, indulging a salacious and forbidden love to make up for her ill-treatment at the hands of her late husband.
“You all right?” Aggie asked. “I mean it's utter Commoner newsrag tosh of course.”
“Of course,” Salli managed to grind out, her paw shaking with rage as she handed Aggie's palm comp back her.
“I mean, she didn't actually do all those awful things, did she? Can't see how anyone sane would want to come within a hundred meters of her, if it were all true.”
“No,” Salli said, pulling a deep breath. “I can't imagine any sane person would.”
Fortunately, I am not.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-09-28 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-28 09:56 pm (UTC)Seriously, do you think I introduced enough suspects in that scene? :)
no subject
Date: 2015-09-29 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-29 07:48 pm (UTC)