sythyry: (sythyry-doomed)
[personal profile] sythyry

Mirrored from Sythyry.

Villain’s Welcome, reprise

Lithia: “You brought Nangbang? Here?”

Me: “Yes. He is Treacle-Eyes’s father, and has as much right to be at your wedding as I do.”

Lithia: “He wants to take her back to Oorah Thrassen! He wants to break her and Dorze up!”

Me: “Actually, he wants to break her and you up too.”

Lithia: “You told him?”

Me: “Zascalle told him.”

Lithia: “Oh, no! We have to stop him before he tells her!”

Me: “You should have told her yourself, long ago.” Which was not a bit helpful of me, I will admit.

Lithia: “Don’t be a fool! No, I should not have!”

I didn’t understand. But we were too late anyhow.

The Master Plan

In another parlor, sitting on a suicidal couch, Nangbang was doing his best to wreck his daughter’s impending marriage.

Nangbang: “Treacle-Eyes, child, there’s something you need to know about Lithia. She is not as she appears to be.”

Treacle-Eyes: “Father, don’t say any more.”

Nangbang: “What, do you suspect something?”

Treacle-Eyes: “What, me, suspect something? When my wife-to-be has hourly cramps? When, in alternate hours, she is glad to go swimming like a proper Orren, and prefers not to? When, at times, she is tall enough to reach the mantlepiece without stretching, and at times prefers to climb on a footstool, despite always appearing to be the same height? When she discusses our future plans, and in ten years’ time she plans to be dead — of ‘oh, nothing in particular’?”

Nangbang: “All these things, and she has not told you her deepest secret?”

Treacle-Eyes: “I am not a fool, father, and I am not a child. I suspect something … something quite dire.”

Nangbang: “And she has not told you! She has lied to you!”

Treacle-Eyes: “Exactly. I will discover the precise and horrible truth from her corpse. In the meantime, I will remain ignorant. We will be as any other married Orren couple, wife and wife, with nothing the least bit remarkable or dubious about us … outside of Strayway and Castle Wrong, at least, where wicked people will keep the secret from me. Only when it is too late will the awful truth emerge. I shall have been tricked! Wronged! Betrayed! Befooled! But my wife-to-be and I shall have had a decade of an ordinary peaceful conventional life together. She wants that more than anything, and I will admit that I rather wish it as well. Indeed, you may tell your friends and colleagues at home a simple and straightforward story about me while I am married, and, if the story gets out at the end, it will probably not reflect too badly on you. Save that your daughter can be fooled at length.”

Nangbang: “You know?”

Treacle-Eyes: “I have certain suspicions, but officially I do not know. I could even say, ‘Nobody ever told me about Lithia’s true nature, and, despite certain suspicions, I never confirmed it’ under a truth-spell, and, if I word it carefully, it will be true. Misleading, but true. I would appreciate if you did not spoil that, by the way. For the sake of the family reputation, if nothing else.”

Nangbang: “It is odd to see you so concerned for the family reputation, considering that you ran off with Dorze. What is to become of Dorze?”

Treacle-Eyes: “Dorze will be my factotum and body-servant. Nobody outside of the household need know precisely what totum he will fac, nor how he will service my body.”

Nangbang: “Where on wood did you get your concept of a “typical Orren marriage”? Where you raised by Sleeth, girl?”

Conference of the Parents

A rather disturbed Nangbang came to my parlor to confer with me, and told me of that conversation.

Me: “Bold as brassica, is Treacle-Eyes. I wish she hadn’t stowed away … but she has somewhat of a deceptive side, even a criminal one. Her plan to deceive everyone possible about Lithia is of a piece with her stowing away.”

Nangbang: “Nothing of the sort! It is Lithia’s plan! Lithia, not my daughter, is a sneaksome and insidious girl! The upcoming nuptials do not please me for this reason!”

Me: “Treacle-Eyes, not Lithia, stowed away on my skyboat! She, not my adopted daughter, has a history of sneakage and insidiation! The upcoming nuptials do not please me for this reason!”

Nangbang: “H’m. Perhaps they are, in fact, a good match.”

Me: “Unacceptable! You are supposed to break them up, so I don’t have to.”

Nangbang: “Which is unlikely to occur, as the terrible secret which your sneaky daughter conceals will not be the devastating surprise I had hoped.”

Me: “I suppose we had better start planning the celebration, then.”

Nangbang: “Alas! I have not completely given up hope of preventing this wedding. Nor must you — I demand that you admonish your daughter at least once! I shall try mine as well. But, on the whole, yes, we might as well start to learn our parts in the ceremony. Ah — and please be aware that Pulla-and-my objection is to having a shifter hybrid in the family. Having a Zi Ri wizard, even a traff one, as an in-law is neither a social nor an intellectual disaster.”

There is little more distressing than an Evil Sorcerer being reasonable.

Date: 2010-07-05 02:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shurhaian.livejournal.com
Good on *-Eyes, in this case. She's evidently serious about what time she CAN have with Lithia - she has a damn good idea, at the utter least, about Lithia's secret, and she's carrying on anyway. Even if it is being done in a very Cani way - very carefully shaping what she does and does not "know" and such.

Lithia is coming across as morally the worst person in the lot, to be honest. I suppose desperation makes people do crazy things...

Date: 2010-07-05 04:47 pm (UTC)
rowyn: (studious)
From: [personal profile] rowyn
Lithia *is* obliging her betrothed's desire not-to-know, though. Perhaps she's more aware of Treacle-Eyes' willing ignorance than we realize.

Date: 2010-07-05 04:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sythyry.livejournal.com
Again I must apologize for my translator's sluggishness. I confronted Lithia about this very topic. Observe the result before a final judgment. It may not change your verdict of course, but it will at least inform it.

*laugh*

Date: 2010-07-05 05:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
>>“Unacceptable! You are supposed to break them up, so I don’t have to.” <<

I perceive that the sneaksome and insidious girls have ample company on Strayway.

Re: *laugh*

Date: 2010-07-05 06:52 pm (UTC)
rowyn: (studious)
From: [personal profile] rowyn
I don't think that Sythyry knows what zie wants in this case. Especially since one of the main factors in zir decision to let Treacle-Eyes stay was that Lithia had a crush on her and Sythyry wanted to indulge that. At the time!

Date: 2010-07-05 07:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] terrycloth.livejournal.com
For all your hatred of mentador, you primes seem amazingly obsessed with mind games.

...maybe mentador is cheating?

Date: 2010-07-05 07:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kensan-oni.livejournal.com
I know it's suppose to be Were you raised...

... but I am highly amused by Where you raised by a Sleeth... The poor look on the Sleeth's face.

Date: 2010-07-05 07:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shurhaian.livejournal.com
I will allow for that possibility. I've been inclined to distrust Lithia's motives, and really should try not to get in such a rut...

I suppose we'll have to wait and see!

Date: 2010-07-05 07:49 pm (UTC)
zeeth_kyrah: A glowing white and blue anthropomorphic horse stands before a pink and blue sky. (Default)
From: [personal profile] zeeth_kyrah
"Were you raised by Sleeth?"
"You chose my nursemaids!"

Re: *laugh*

Date: 2010-07-05 08:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stormydragon.livejournal.com
Well, I'd say Sythyry knows exactly what sie wants. But perhaps hir biggest character flaw is passivity. Instead of dealing with problems, sie tends to just let them run their course (hoping someone else will take care of it) until it precipitates a crisis and forces hir to respond.

Date: 2010-07-05 09:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] delight-in.livejournal.com
I don't think Lithia means badly she's very sweet actually and she had a good upbringing. Being in love may not bring out the most sensible in anyone but I think she's trying really.

Date: 2010-07-05 09:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kensan-oni.livejournal.com
Good comebacks always come after the fact...

Date: 2010-07-05 10:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tuftears.livejournal.com
What's wrong with being raised by Sleeth, anyway? ^_^

Date: 2010-07-05 10:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mharreff.livejournal.com
Rrai, my kittens are raised by Sleeth, and they seem the quite pleasant and playful kittens!

Date: 2010-07-06 04:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stormydragon.livejournal.com
Does 'being raised by a Sleeth' refer to their childrearing skills or their habit of using Mutoc Corpador to play with their prey?

Date: 2010-07-06 03:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alex-muridae.livejournal.com
I believe it refers, in this context, to a lack of adherence to social norms when it comes to romance. See "raised by wolves" as a terrestrial equivalent, except wolves aren't as known to have the same...habits as Sleeth in that light..

Date: 2010-07-06 04:15 pm (UTC)
rowyn: (studious)
From: [personal profile] rowyn
Say, whatever happened to Melillot? Is she still skulking around on the airship or has she been shipped back to Ketheria?

Date: 2010-07-06 04:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sythyry.livejournal.com
She is still around. We didn't have the cash to send her back at the time, and we still don't exactly, and there is a lot going on here.
[This will come up again in a few entries. -bb]

Date: 2010-07-07 01:15 am (UTC)
rowyn: (studious)
From: [personal profile] rowyn
Did Zascalle have any of your money actually on her, with which to try to bribe wizards and whatnot?

Date: 2010-07-07 02:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sythyry.livejournal.com
She had quite a bit of money on her, which I retrieved, and which I have spent most of on more important things than moving Mellilot.

Date: 2012-02-20 08:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sakhujakyxy.livejournal.com
Я бы еще кое-чего добавил конечно же, но по сути сказано практически все.Image (http://zimnyayaobuv.ru/)Image (http://zimnyaya-obuv.ru/)
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