Alice

and I are heading out on the town. I'm not supposed to go, but I'll be damned if I let her go shopping for swimwear without me. Oh, and she wants to get her ears pierced. That should be good.

Y'see, I know all the seedy parts of the town pretty well, the sections nice girls don't go to. Not on purpose.

So I'm going to take her to a piercing place with all the frills, y'know? Like a place that does tattoos and caters mostly to sailors.

It will impress.

Oh, Sera

Well, here we are.

I'm thinking the girl has a crush on me... Sera, the youngest (and I'm talking something like 8 here) daughter of Flora. She's pretty sharp, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna do the horizontal hula with her.

All this leads up to her not liking Alice, because Alice is clearly sweet on me. What's a guy to do? I don't have to do anything, but Alice will have a hard time of it, and the chick puts out. And she'd make me deal with it or stop putting out.

Dulcifera

Pertinent facts:

1) Loves Jack, in her own twisted Harlequin romance kind of way.
2) Turns the oddest shade of green some times.
3) Has ghosts in the tower.
4) Is the child of Fiona, and not much of a swordsman.
5) Likes watching the swordfights in the courtyard.

I see her with Jack, Cori, and Lillith a bit... she seems to stay on her own, mostly.

Frick.

I've got that bottom of my stomach feeling that Corwin, Julian, and Benedict are dead.

You could swap out the name "Bleys" for any of those, but it makes sense that they were hanging out together and got nuked.

This leaves Harri in a tight spot, and her relationship with Lex is gonna get socked. Sadly, I can't comfort her without pissing off Alice, and Alice is a sure thing.

Maybe I'll just be nice to Harri for a while.

Heel

I am such a friggin'...

I had sex with Alice... she's the companion to the royal children.

She's sweet and innocent, and it was damn easy.

I know I'm just going to dump her, but it's hard to turn down a free ride, y'know?

Flirting

So Alice and I are getting along pretty well, private picnics and whatnot. We're going sailing and swimming as soon as I get her a swimsuit (when will these girls learn?

Meanwhile Sera (Flora's youngest), me, and pretty much everyone else, are gathering to discuss what the hell is going on with everyone.

And I've a sneaking suspicion that Corwin is dead. About fricking time. This is gonna send Harri into a tizzy and probably blow her relationship with Alexius all to hell. And she's gonna abso-friggin-lutely hate yours truly for insisting that Amber might be behind it (before reports of Corwin's death are finalized) in order to gain control of the second Pattern*. I might not be right, but I'll be damned if it's not a possibility.

*The Pattern makes what is real. Without it all would be Chaos. Thanks to Corwin, there are two of these things, but without him there wouldn't be any.

But Alice still likes me.

Lex

Pertinent Facts:

1) Son of Random, the King.
2) Legally minded
3) can play the drums like he's on fire. The Dude can rock.

Mostly he seems like an obstacle, but he might have the chops to actually do things. I'm waiting to see.

Dunno

Me, Lex, and a few of the girls should get together and talk. Something's up, some of our folks might be dead, and the friggin' monsters aren't likely to go away without intervention.

That leaves things up to us.

Well, okay, there is that army our parents have, plus networks of spies, a navy, the rangers in Arden and a helluva castle defense system. We probably could sit in here and just wait it out.

I'm thinking not, though.

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!

Thing is, there are these two girls I'm interested in. One's all cold and distant, but she wants to understand me. I mean, she's all swordplay and "who's yer mama" and then she hits me with the question:

"What makes you hate women?"

See, that's all because I call 'em chicks and such, but she wanted to know. I've only seen her once, but she's... she's got it going on.

Then, just the other day, I get roped into giving the new girl a tour of the castle. It's me, Lex (Random's son), Mirabel (daughter of Flora), and the new girl, Alice. We go around, and I suggest we wrap it up in the ballroom with a bit of swing, y'know? Alice is all cool, and when we meet she gets upset at me for telling her that her mattress is a little soft on one side.

Anyway, we hussle over to the conservatory, where I grab a guitar and the others grab instruments. We head over to the ballroom and start up a few things, I get out a few licks and talk about rock.

And Alice has never heard of it. She asks how to dance to it, which I started by quoting Chuck Berry, and the others urge me to demonstrate. Lex and Mira play drums and cello, respectively.

I get my groove on, y'know, doing my thing, when Alice starts joining in, and the girl is wild. She's doing thing that would get her yanked off the floor so fast you'd just hear the air if we'd been chaperoned, and she's lettin' me do it with her. At first I think she's just showing me up, so I start getting low and mean... showing her some good steps, but she's not. She's a natural dancer, she just moves to the rhythm, and the beats laid down just asked for her to...

Rock and roll.

So I'm thinking it's a short term fling with one, while I feel up... I mean, umm... while I get the scoop on the other. If something solid happens, that's cool, but if not, it's good to have a backup.