Sunday, May 14

After hashing out characters and personalities, the setting opened with a flashback the motley ensemble's teens, where they learned that they would be attending class under the stern eye of of the dreaded Madame Fayla (known popularly as Madame Failure). The class would teach them the various information about science, culture, and cosmology that could be applied through shadow, as well as the concept of the Pattern.

Class got off to a roaring good start with Victor getting caught smoking, and the getting caught putting his cigarette out on the bannister. He spent the rest of the day refinishing the bannister. Sammuel, on the other hand, got in trouble for bringing his pet hellhound to class. He relocated the creature to the stables, where it promptly ate Madame Fayla's old nag.

It was during this early portion of class that Kevin first met Erika, and vowed to break the arm of any man who dared touch her.

Class proceeded largely without incident. Kevin (in a rare burst of kindness) helped Vic finish his work on the bannister. Sammuel, on discovering his dog covered in gore, was aided by Alia in smuggling the pooch into the castle baths where it got a thorough cleaning. Later, Alia got a thorough ass-chewing by Vialle. (Can you say "Bad Stuff"?)

The rest of the week proceeded uneventfully. Vic worked on bribing the teacher and looking respectable, everyone else just tried not to piss her off.

Then, there was the weekend.

Yay!

But there was homework.

Boo!

But it was Friday night, and no one wanted to do homework right away at this time. Kevin knew of one high-end social function. Vic knew of a house party out in the Bayle estates. A comprimise was reached, and the group decided to attned both (in a manner of speaking).

Alia spent some time working on helping Sammuel with his homework. When that was looking like a lost cause she left to join her mother and Sonora for dinner. The girls then got ready for the festivities.

Kevin, of course, needed every spare minute to decide what he was wearing.

Sammuel, after finishing his studying, went off to take a bath, and bath the dog again.

Vic had decided to take young Benjamin under his wing, and set about getting him dressed to the nines by the finest tailors in Amber. Benjamin hated the process, but submitted none-the-less.

And then, the carriages arrived, everyone was looking great...

...except for Sammuel.

In a state of emergency, Kevin and Vic bodily dragged Sammuel to the rooms of the one person remotely the same size as Sammuel: Michael, who had inherited his father's scrawniness. Michael was happy to oblige, but was unwilling to attend the festivities. He even put up with a hug from Vic.

After getting Sammuel dressed in something bordering on appropriate, the gang jumped in the carriages and headed off to the festivities.

Not much happened at the formal event. The geeks stood out, the cool people blended in, and all was right in the world.

At the event at the Bayle estates, it was a typical balls-to-the-walls frat party. Wine was being drank like it was going out of style, and couples we skipping off to the viniard for a little innocent nookie.

Vic was trying to get everyone worked into the social structure, Alia was defying Vic's abilities since no one wanted to party with the Crown Princess, Sammuel ended up outside, and Kevin was doing dirty dancing with Erika.

And then, of course, disaster struck.

A scream was heard outside. Sammuel, being the closest, had his hellhound tear through the grapevines to find Sonora about to be ravished by some brash youth.

Sammuel did something to mentally fry the youth, but whatever it was grounded out through Sonora. Sammuel then stabbed the youth through the heart. Vic and Alia arrived a moment later to find Sammuel carrying Sonora, and the dead youth on the ground (who was identified as a son of one of the more militant houses).

Alia first tried to trump Benedict. When she didn't get in touch with him immediately, she pushed for contact. When she got contact, he was in the middle of a sword fight, and he was distracted enough to get stabbed. The psychic resonance of the wound carried through the trump, and left her sore in her ribs and bleeding from her nose.

Everyone but Kevin went through the trump. Kevin was asked to stay behind and watch over things at the "scene of the crime", even though he had no clue what was going on.

Gérard came on the scene and took over the care of Sonora. Vic grabbed a horse from the stables and rode like mad back to the party. Alia was giving some salts to use on her nose, and then she slept the sleep of the dead. Sammuel skulked off back to Arden.

Back at the party, the Amber Guard was clearing things out. Vic found Kevin and Erika updated them on what had happened. At the mention of "rape" Erika's libido goes way down.

The group went back to the castle, and Vic set up camp in the room with Gérard to watch over Sonora.