Merndil watched on in suppressed amusement as Rashtvice bit his lip. Of everyone present at this party, his brother probably hated that man the most. Naturally he needed to suppress his laughter when he saw the state his rival was in, crumpled on the floor. The fact that his arm was bent the wrong way around only made him laugh harder. Merndil knew his brother hated Rishtahn, despised him even, but he didn't think it would extend this far. . .
Merndil couldn't say he didn't understand, Rishtahn was one of the primary advocates for Rashtvice's removal from the line of succession. While he didn't really mind not inheriting anything, there was definitely some part of Rashtvice that was hurt by the fact their father actually went through with it. Despite all of their arguments and fights, Rashtvice cared for his father, which was more than Merndil could say of his other brother.
"Your highnesses." Hlapven bowed head before he approached further.
"Sir Hlapven." Merndil returned the gesture, recognizing Hlapven's right to speak.
"Could I ask that we go somewhere a little less exposed?"
Merndil didn't give an immediate response. This sort of request required careful consideration during a social event, a time when everybody was supposed to have a relatively equal opportunity to speak with him. Going somewhere less exposed meant Hlapven wished to speak behind closed doors, somewhere people wouldn't be able to see him.
"What will we be discussing?"
"The Terrans, my lord." Hlapven shot a furtive glance towards one of the room's corners. "And Len."
Merndil raised an eyebrow. Had it been one of the two in isolation he would have suggested moving this to a later time, but given how urgent Hlapven seemed about it he couldn't just brush it off. Besides, the party was slowly coming to it's end. Everybody who wanted to speak with him had probably done so at this point, so there wouldn't be much loss.
"Lead the way."
- - - - -
Merndil sat in silence as he waited for his future vassal to speak. A good five minutes had passed since they entered the rom and sat down, but up to this point Hlapven had done nothing but bounce his leg and rub his chin. Occasionally he would let out a heavy sigh, but other than that he was silent. Evidently something serious was afoot.
"Should we start with the Terrans?" Merndil decided that it would be prudent to give him a push. They might have had time, but Merndil didn't feel like spending it without doing anything productive.
Slowly, Hlapven straightened out his back, collecting himself. This culminated in a heavy exhale, after which he started to speak.
"From what I was able to gather from the crowd, Rishtahn was the one who struck first." Merndil closed his eyes, cringing at the potential implications. "I tried to warn him not to screw with them, but it looks like he didn't listen."
Now Merndil was the one bouncing his leg in nervousness. For all his faults, Merndil believed Rishtahn to be a reasonable person who wouldn't do anything too terribly inappropriate. The fact that he was the one who resorted to violence was a massive problem. Had the Terrans, had Donovan, been the one to throw the first punch he could have smoothed it over somehow. That would be a situation where the Terrans had made a bad impression, so he could run damage control. Given that it was Rishtahn who lashed out, it was the Bulsarzian Empire who were seen as the aggressors.
Donovan and Diana's stance on the empire, and more important himself, was not something he had control over. He had influence, sure, but he wasn't going to be able to remove that stain of an unreasonably violent and unruly nobility by himself. He was not yet confident that Diana had formed a concrete idea of what the empire was like, and he was certain that Donovan was going to take this poorly. Given the scale of his reaction, he wasn't too keen on the idea of putting Diana in danger, danger that was now associated with someone in the empire.
To Merndil, the Terrans were more than just a political asset - people he might be able to make use of to build connections with the Holifanians - they were an exceedingly rare instance of friends. Even loosely defining what a friend was, Merndil found himself lacking. The position of authority known as the Crown Prince gave people the impression that he should be treated with deference and respect. In all other cases they just seemed to be after his power. Hlapven was one of the rare exceptions.
"Do you think that they will try to avoid interacting with us now?" Merndil wanted an opinion on the matter. As good as he was at reading people, he could never be certain. Emotions presented an unpredictable variable,
"Considering that Donovan almost killed Rishtahn, I'd like to think that future interactions will be a little bit colder than before."
"You think they'll still speak with us?" Hlapven nodded his head. "What makes you so confident?"
"Well . . . I have made a few deals with them of a more personal nature. I won't say that the terms were incredibly generous towards them, but I don't really think they would be willing to cut off all avenues of interaction." Hlapven cringed a little as he revealed his perceived breach of trust. "For what it's worth, it seems like Diana wasn't harmed."
"Perhaps not, but it is evident that they will be antagonized by that fool in the future. There is no saying what harm might come of her by his hand."
"Will he really?" Hlapven didn't seem convinced. Rishtahn was basically just a mangled corpse at the moment. "I sort of think he would be traumatized by that."
"He's a lot more hard-headed than you think. It is because of that trauma that Diana is going to be in danger. If he sees them as a threat he will do everything in his power to get rid of them." Merndil shook his head. "Enough of the Terrans, I think I have an idea of what challenges are presented on that front. What of Len?"
Hlapven shut his eyes tight and bit his lip. Obviously he didn't want to say it. "Len blocked Rishtahn when he tried to hit Diana."
Merndil's first reaction was that of confusion. How was that a problem? Len was a part of Donovan's squad, it should be expected that he defend Diana when she was threatened. If anything that was an action worthy of praise, something he could use to demonstrate that his empire wasn't full of angry and arrogant snobs.
"Rishtahn knows Len's name."
The implications of this point did not immediately make their way to Merndil. Rishtahn was the future Prime Minister, it would be more surprising if he didn't know who Len was, especially given Len's relation to General Arrelois. Only once Merndil thought of Len's status did things click.
Len had acted in opposition to Rishtahn. Rishtahn knew it was Len who did it. Rishtahn could find out who Len was. Len was the adopted son of General Arrelois. Rishtahn could construe his injuries to be the fault of Len. Len was the adopted son of General Arrelois.
Len wasn't a noble.
"Oh no." Now Merndil was cringing too. "Fuuuuck."
Len wasn't a noble. Len did not have the protections afforded to the nobility under imperial law, he was no better than a commoner. Len had just 'attacked' a high ranking noble.
"Son of a bitch!"
The worst part? There was nothing that Merndil could do about this, not officially at least. Approaching Rishtahn to get the charges on Len dropped would only make the situation worse, both for him and for Len. This didn't just throw a wrench into Merndil's plans, it dumped the entire toolbox into it. Not only was Len one of Merndil's precious few links to the Terrans, he was also a newfound source of influence over General Arrelois. By being on good terms with Len he would be currying favor with two different parties - an incredibly efficient arrangement for him.
Now another one of his assets was being threatened by Rishtahn. Could Rishtahn have done anything more to annoy him? Was such a thing even possible? Merndil made the decision to stop thinking about it, at this point he was better off not tempting fate.
"So it's that bad?"
"It's worse than you think Hlapven. Len might end up dead if we don't do something." Merndil started tapping his forehead, trying desperately to think of something, anything, to get Len off the hook. He couldn't come up with anything. "We need to talk to the three of them about this."
- - - - -
Diana observed the award ceremony with a curious eye. This was an important event for her, not because she expected to receive anything but because she wanted to gauge the crowd's reactions to the various prizes. They were a variety of different works of art, all laser engraved with limited alloying to get different colors, but they definitely didn't compare to the originals.
There were six 'plates' and four sculptures to go to the top ten, all different styles. Of the plates, three of them were of the realistic style, two were fantastical, and one was impressionist while the sculptures were all recreations of renowned pieces from earth, if made to be moveable by hand. The grand prize was the one she was most worried about, especially given the fact it was supposed to be the most precious piece given out. If the reaction to one of the other awards trounced the grand prize, it would mean she had miscalculated.
Arc had suggested that the grand prize be bigger than the others, and that the significance to Terran culture be greater than the others. After a moderately heated debate, they had decided on a depiction of the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus. Of the realist pieces, it was by far the most detailed and stunning, but she worried that the potential 'newness' of one of the others might overshadow it in some way.
""""OOooohhhh!!!""""
They fourth place prize seemed to have evoked a favorable response, the piece in particular being a recreated 'painting' of Charlemagne's coronation. It was chosen in large part due to the piece's duller color scheme lending itself well to an adaption to more metallic colors. From what Diana remembered, there was a fair deal of texturing done to get the desired shading effects. It wouldn't look the same if a light was shined perpendicular to it, but at angles above or below it looked fine.
"Are you sure you're alright Diana?"
It might have been a little bit inappropriate to do publicly, but Diana was putting all of her weight into Donovan as they sat together, her head on his shoulder. She wasn't hurt, and she wasn't in any sort of emotional distress, Diana was just milking the situation for all of the affection and attention she could get. It was rare that she had so much time together with him. Also, the image of a murderous Donovan lingered in her mind, an image she desperately wanted to replace with her usually Donny.
"I'm fine, Donny. He didn't lay a hand on me." Diana turned her face and kissed his cheek. "Len protected me."
". . . I'll have to reward him somehow."
"Mhm. Maybe you could give him a gun? So that he doesn't have to get hit when he saves me in the future?"
Diana was happy to see that Donovan smiled at her joke. Even if he was like that when he protected her, he hadn't lost his self.
"I think firearms are off the table, at least for now."
"Then how about a medal?"
"I don't think he would like that."
"Hmhm, I guess we'll just have to ask him then." Diana settled back into Donovan's arm. The next prize was a statuette of 'Atlas', the Titan punished by the Greek gods to shoulder the weight of the heavens. This took the form of a globe placed heavily on his back for the sculpture, the implications of which would be easily understandable by most present. At least she hoped it would. Surely they would know what a planet looked like from space, right?
"Eh?" "Hmm?"
Perhaps it was because the statuette was small, but the reaction was not quite as enthusiastic as she had hoped. There were those interested in the design, particularly the person who had received it, but for the most part the general reaction was one of confusion.
"So that one was a flop." Donovan wrapped his arm around her and rubbed her arm. This one had probably received the least amount of applause. "It might be best if we didn't try to give out stuff they wouldn't know about or relate to."
"I'll keep it in mind." Diana frowned a bit. It hurt to hear, but that was probably good advice. These people didn't know who Atlas was. "I'll go speak to her and explain Atlas' origin before she leaves. At the very least I don't want a winner felling like they've been snubbed."
Diana was now very worried about the grand prize. Sure, the quality and detail of the image itself might be exquisite, but would they feel a connection to the emotions behind it?
"Ooh!" "Wooow!"
Diana sighed in relief as the second place prize was unveiled. She didn't exactly have much experience in the realm of flora of this new world, but it seemed like flowers were still something that found their way into paintings and such. This piece was a golden chrysanthemum, literally, and was Arc's own design.
Arc actually took quite a bit of pride in this one, and put in a corresponding amount of effort. The petals were golden, obviously, but it had gone out of it's way to create rust to use in the design. The stem and leaves, for example, had copper carbonate powder mixed into the top layer of the nickel base. It was by no means a perfect recreation of the plant's color, but it was green.
The real kicker was the background.
The style of art that Arc had been imitating was the flower drawings of eastern origin, which were just a single flower on a blank white background. To get that same effect, Arc had requested the use of a small amount of Titanium to use in the same manner as the copper, to oxidize and sprinkle over a silver base. The result was a shiny white, the textured silver working to reflect the white of the Titanium oxide and making the background almost completely white.
Arc had even decided to make actual brushstrokes, and had marked his name in the bottom right.
"I'll tell him they loved it."
"I'm sure Arc would be ecstatic to hear that." Diana felt pity for Arc, who had recently been expressing that it didn't feel like it was being as useful as it could be.
Donovan smiled in response, which in turn caused Diana to smile. She knew how important Arc was to Donovan, not just as a tool but as a friend and companion. Arc was the friend he had known the longest, at least the only friend left alive. It was probably the second most important person to Donovan, right behind Diana.
The winner of tonight's game finally made their way up to the winner's table. He wasn't anyone Diana knew, none of the people who won were, but he seemed pretty happy about it. Clearly the lead up to this had him extremely excited about what he would receive, people had expectations about first place after all. Diana held her breath as the cover came off and -
Silence. A tense silence. Diana did not know if this was good or bad, but her stomach was left to churn as it went on longer and longer.
Personally, Diana thought this to be the best of Arc's work. Much like the Chrysanthemum, Arc had gone with rust powder in certain paints, however there was much more detail put into this one than any other. There were alterations to the original, the most notable being the addition of curved black marks underneath the eyes which they had come to learn were now genetic.
"Incredible. . ."
Diana sighed in relief. It would appear that they were silent out of awe.
cakeonfrosting Happy Easter, and thank you for the top spot on trending! The party is now over, but there is still some stuff to be taken care of in private afterwards. Unfortunately not everything on the list will be completed. I knew this would happen going in, there was just too much to do, but it's still a little bit disappointing.
Good news for some of you a little bit bored with the party though, there is going to be a serious shift in focus for a few chapters after the party, as in they won't be focused on the Terrans. I won't spoil it though.
Merndil watched on in suppressed amusement as Rashtvice bit his lip. Of everyone present at this party, his brother probably hated that man the most. Naturally he needed to suppress his laughter when he saw the state his rival was in, crumpled on the floor. The fact that his arm was bent the wrong way around only made him laugh harder. Merndil knew his brother hated Rishtahn, despised him even, but he didn't think it would extend this far. . .
Merndil couldn't say he didn't understand, Rishtahn was one of the primary advocates for Rashtvice's removal from the line of succession. While he didn't really mind not inheriting anything, there was definitely some part of Rashtvice that was hurt by the fact their father actually went through with it. Despite all of their arguments and fights, Rashtvice cared for his father, which was more than Merndil could say of his other brother.
"Your highnesses." Hlapven bowed head before he approached further.
"Sir Hlapven." Merndil returned the gesture, recognizing Hlapven's right to speak.
"Could I ask that we go somewhere a little less exposed?"
Merndil didn't give an immediate response. This sort of request required careful consideration during a social event, a time when everybody was supposed to have a relatively equal opportunity to speak with him. Going somewhere less exposed meant Hlapven wished to speak behind closed doors, somewhere people wouldn't be able to see him.
"What will we be discussing?"
"The Terrans, my lord." Hlapven shot a furtive glance towards one of the room's corners. "And Len."
Merndil raised an eyebrow. Had it been one of the two in isolation he would have suggested moving this to a later time, but given how urgent Hlapven seemed about it he couldn't just brush it off. Besides, the party was slowly coming to it's end. Everybody who wanted to speak with him had probably done so at this point, so there wouldn't be much loss.
"Lead the way."
- - - - -
Merndil sat in silence as he waited for his future vassal to speak. A good five minutes had passed since they entered the rom and sat down, but up to this point Hlapven had done nothing but bounce his leg and rub his chin. Occasionally he would let out a heavy sigh, but other than that he was silent. Evidently something serious was afoot.
"Should we start with the Terrans?" Merndil decided that it would be prudent to give him a push. They might have had time, but Merndil didn't feel like spending it without doing anything productive.
Slowly, Hlapven straightened out his back, collecting himself. This culminated in a heavy exhale, after which he started to speak.
"From what I was able to gather from the crowd, Rishtahn was the one who struck first." Merndil closed his eyes, cringing at the potential implications. "I tried to warn him not to screw with them, but it looks like he didn't listen."
Now Merndil was the one bouncing his leg in nervousness. For all his faults, Merndil believed Rishtahn to be a reasonable person who wouldn't do anything too terribly inappropriate. The fact that he was the one who resorted to violence was a massive problem. Had the Terrans, had Donovan, been the one to throw the first punch he could have smoothed it over somehow. That would be a situation where the Terrans had made a bad impression, so he could run damage control. Given that it was Rishtahn who lashed out, it was the Bulsarzian Empire who were seen as the aggressors.
Donovan and Diana's stance on the empire, and more important himself, was not something he had control over. He had influence, sure, but he wasn't going to be able to remove that stain of an unreasonably violent and unruly nobility by himself. He was not yet confident that Diana had formed a concrete idea of what the empire was like, and he was certain that Donovan was going to take this poorly. Given the scale of his reaction, he wasn't too keen on the idea of putting Diana in danger, danger that was now associated with someone in the empire.
To Merndil, the Terrans were more than just a political asset - people he might be able to make use of to build connections with the Holifanians - they were an exceedingly rare instance of friends. Even loosely defining what a friend was, Merndil found himself lacking. The position of authority known as the Crown Prince gave people the impression that he should be treated with deference and respect. In all other cases they just seemed to be after his power. Hlapven was one of the rare exceptions.
"Do you think that they will try to avoid interacting with us now?" Merndil wanted an opinion on the matter. As good as he was at reading people, he could never be certain. Emotions presented an unpredictable variable,
"Considering that Donovan almost killed Rishtahn, I'd like to think that future interactions will be a little bit colder than before."
"You think they'll still speak with us?" Hlapven nodded his head. "What makes you so confident?"
"Well . . . I have made a few deals with them of a more personal nature. I won't say that the terms were incredibly generous towards them, but I don't really think they would be willing to cut off all avenues of interaction." Hlapven cringed a little as he revealed his perceived breach of trust. "For what it's worth, it seems like Diana wasn't harmed."
"Perhaps not, but it is evident that they will be antagonized by that fool in the future. There is no saying what harm might come of her by his hand."
"Will he really?" Hlapven didn't seem convinced. Rishtahn was basically just a mangled corpse at the moment. "I sort of think he would be traumatized by that."
"He's a lot more hard-headed than you think. It is because of that trauma that Diana is going to be in danger. If he sees them as a threat he will do everything in his power to get rid of them." Merndil shook his head. "Enough of the Terrans, I think I have an idea of what challenges are presented on that front. What of Len?"
Hlapven shut his eyes tight and bit his lip. Obviously he didn't want to say it. "Len blocked Rishtahn when he tried to hit Diana."
Merndil's first reaction was that of confusion. How was that a problem? Len was a part of Donovan's squad, it should be expected that he defend Diana when she was threatened. If anything that was an action worthy of praise, something he could use to demonstrate that his empire wasn't full of angry and arrogant snobs.
"Rishtahn knows Len's name."
The implications of this point did not immediately make their way to Merndil. Rishtahn was the future Prime Minister, it would be more surprising if he didn't know who Len was, especially given Len's relation to General Arrelois. Only once Merndil thought of Len's status did things click.
Len had acted in opposition to Rishtahn. Rishtahn knew it was Len who did it. Rishtahn could find out who Len was. Len was the adopted son of General Arrelois. Rishtahn could construe his injuries to be the fault of Len. Len was the adopted son of General Arrelois.
Len wasn't a noble.
"Oh no." Now Merndil was cringing too. "Fuuuuck."
Len wasn't a noble. Len did not have the protections afforded to the nobility under imperial law, he was no better than a commoner. Len had just 'attacked' a high ranking noble.
"Son of a bitch!"
The worst part? There was nothing that Merndil could do about this, not officially at least. Approaching Rishtahn to get the charges on Len dropped would only make the situation worse, both for him and for Len. This didn't just throw a wrench into Merndil's plans, it dumped the entire toolbox into it. Not only was Len one of Merndil's precious few links to the Terrans, he was also a newfound source of influence over General Arrelois. By being on good terms with Len he would be currying favor with two different parties - an incredibly efficient arrangement for him.
Now another one of his assets was being threatened by Rishtahn. Could Rishtahn have done anything more to annoy him? Was such a thing even possible? Merndil made the decision to stop thinking about it, at this point he was better off not tempting fate.
"So it's that bad?"
"It's worse than you think Hlapven. Len might end up dead if we don't do something." Merndil started tapping his forehead, trying desperately to think of something, anything, to get Len off the hook. He couldn't come up with anything. "We need to talk to the three of them about this."
- - - - -
Diana observed the award ceremony with a curious eye. This was an important event for her, not because she expected to receive anything but because she wanted to gauge the crowd's reactions to the various prizes. They were a variety of different works of art, all laser engraved with limited alloying to get different colors, but they definitely didn't compare to the originals.
There were six 'plates' and four sculptures to go to the top ten, all different styles. Of the plates, three of them were of the realistic style, two were fantastical, and one was impressionist while the sculptures were all recreations of renowned pieces from earth, if made to be moveable by hand. The grand prize was the one she was most worried about, especially given the fact it was supposed to be the most precious piece given out. If the reaction to one of the other awards trounced the grand prize, it would mean she had miscalculated.
Arc had suggested that the grand prize be bigger than the others, and that the significance to Terran culture be greater than the others. After a moderately heated debate, they had decided on a depiction of the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus. Of the realist pieces, it was by far the most detailed and stunning, but she worried that the potential 'newness' of one of the others might overshadow it in some way.
""""OOooohhhh!!!""""
They fourth place prize seemed to have evoked a favorable response, the piece in particular being a recreated 'painting' of Charlemagne's coronation. It was chosen in large part due to the piece's duller color scheme lending itself well to an adaption to more metallic colors. From what Diana remembered, there was a fair deal of texturing done to get the desired shading effects. It wouldn't look the same if a light was shined perpendicular to it, but at angles above or below it looked fine.
"Are you sure you're alright Diana?"
It might have been a little bit inappropriate to do publicly, but Diana was putting all of her weight into Donovan as they sat together, her head on his shoulder. She wasn't hurt, and she wasn't in any sort of emotional distress, Diana was just milking the situation for all of the affection and attention she could get. It was rare that she had so much time together with him. Also, the image of a murderous Donovan lingered in her mind, an image she desperately wanted to replace with her usually Donny.
"I'm fine, Donny. He didn't lay a hand on me." Diana turned her face and kissed his cheek. "Len protected me."
". . . I'll have to reward him somehow."
"Mhm. Maybe you could give him a gun? So that he doesn't have to get hit when he saves me in the future?"
Diana was happy to see that Donovan smiled at her joke. Even if he was like that when he protected her, he hadn't lost his self.
"I think firearms are off the table, at least for now."
"Then how about a medal?"
"I don't think he would like that."
"Hmhm, I guess we'll just have to ask him then." Diana settled back into Donovan's arm. The next prize was a statuette of 'Atlas', the Titan punished by the Greek gods to shoulder the weight of the heavens. This took the form of a globe placed heavily on his back for the sculpture, the implications of which would be easily understandable by most present. At least she hoped it would. Surely they would know what a planet looked like from space, right?
"Eh?" "Hmm?"
Perhaps it was because the statuette was small, but the reaction was not quite as enthusiastic as she had hoped. There were those interested in the design, particularly the person who had received it, but for the most part the general reaction was one of confusion.
"So that one was a flop." Donovan wrapped his arm around her and rubbed her arm. This one had probably received the least amount of applause. "It might be best if we didn't try to give out stuff they wouldn't know about or relate to."
"I'll keep it in mind." Diana frowned a bit. It hurt to hear, but that was probably good advice. These people didn't know who Atlas was. "I'll go speak to her and explain Atlas' origin before she leaves. At the very least I don't want a winner felling like they've been snubbed."
Diana was now very worried about the grand prize. Sure, the quality and detail of the image itself might be exquisite, but would they feel a connection to the emotions behind it?
"Ooh!" "Wooow!"
Diana sighed in relief as the second place prize was unveiled. She didn't exactly have much experience in the realm of flora of this new world, but it seemed like flowers were still something that found their way into paintings and such. This piece was a golden chrysanthemum, literally, and was Arc's own design.
Arc actually took quite a bit of pride in this one, and put in a corresponding amount of effort. The petals were golden, obviously, but it had gone out of it's way to create rust to use in the design. The stem and leaves, for example, had copper carbonate powder mixed into the top layer of the nickel base. It was by no means a perfect recreation of the plant's color, but it was green.
The real kicker was the background.
The style of art that Arc had been imitating was the flower drawings of eastern origin, which were just a single flower on a blank white background. To get that same effect, Arc had requested the use of a small amount of Titanium to use in the same manner as the copper, to oxidize and sprinkle over a silver base. The result was a shiny white, the textured silver working to reflect the white of the Titanium oxide and making the background almost completely white.
Arc had even decided to make actual brushstrokes, and had marked his name in the bottom right.
"I'll tell him they loved it."
"I'm sure Arc would be ecstatic to hear that." Diana felt pity for Arc, who had recently been expressing that it didn't feel like it was being as useful as it could be.
Donovan smiled in response, which in turn caused Diana to smile. She knew how important Arc was to Donovan, not just as a tool but as a friend and companion. Arc was the friend he had known the longest, at least the only friend left alive. It was probably the second most important person to Donovan, right behind Diana.
The winner of tonight's game finally made their way up to the winner's table. He wasn't anyone Diana knew, none of the people who won were, but he seemed pretty happy about it. Clearly the lead up to this had him extremely excited about what he would receive, people had expectations about first place after all. Diana held her breath as the cover came off and -
Silence. A tense silence. Diana did not know if this was good or bad, but her stomach was left to churn as it went on longer and longer.
Personally, Diana thought this to be the best of Arc's work. Much like the Chrysanthemum, Arc had gone with rust powder in certain paints, however there was much more detail put into this one than any other. There were alterations to the original, the most notable being the addition of curved black marks underneath the eyes which they had come to learn were now genetic.
"Incredible. . ."
Diana sighed in relief. It would appear that they were silent out of awe.
cakeonfrosting Happy Easter, and thank you for the top spot on trending! The party is now over, but there is still some stuff to be taken care of in private afterwards. Unfortunately not everything on the list will be completed. I knew this would happen going in, there was just too much to do, but it's still a little bit disappointing.
Good news for some of you a little bit bored with the party though, there is going to be a serious shift in focus for a few chapters after the party, as in they won't be focused on the Terrans. I won't spoil it though.
