Cyrus sits at a large desk. A considerable amount of paperwork is between him and the wide expanse of floor that makes up most of the room. He looks up as he hears the door close and smiles. "Taleyn," he says warmly but with a hint of frayed edges to his tone. "Thanks for coming." He stands.
( Disturbing news )

Addendum:

When the True Lady slays a Necromancer, she makes certain he stays dead. The True Lady also cleans up her own messes, and if she has to drag numerous other Family and friends along to help, she is sure to give them a nice luncheon afterward, or at the very least, drinks.

On that note, I shall be taking a short trip to Cibola; back in a jiff. (Note to the Kitchen: pls have a nice cold collation awaiting our return.)

My dearest little sister,

How darling you are! Mother informs us she is already beginning to teach you to read, despite your tender months of age. As such, this fond missive is addressed to you, since I've no doubt you shall be well abreast of its contents in no time.

As your older sister, it falls to me to teach you how to comport yourself as befits a proper Lady. Here, then, is my first lesson to you.

( Merciful Unicorn, Taleyn gives advice on Being A Proper Lady!!! )

Taleyn sits alone in the Umberto Library, poring through one of a pile of books on Rebma. She is making notes on a pad of paper, still with her left hand, though her right is now out of its sling.

Benedict comes into the room, finds that the book he wants is out, and looks around to see if the perpetrator is present; and there she is. He advances casually on the table.
( Benedict gets to watch Taleyn lose it! )

After the naming convention of Hollywood Power Couples, I give you:
.
.
.
.
.
.
Beanadict.

It is mere hours since Taleyn's return to active duty, and here she is, out in the field, with a band of Intrepid Volunteers, coming to the rescue!!! It seems her Platoon, under the command of a Lieutenant while she was in hospital, was scouting down the Black Road per usual, when they were trapped by the Enemy!!! Details are sketchy-- only a swift distress signal reached MHQ to tell of their situation. Now Taleyn leads the Intrepid Volunteers in a scouting mission to see what's going on! Could this be a trap? Highly likely!!! Only their quick-thinking and able-bodied actions will determine their fate this day. As they ride in what looks to be the direction of Alhambra, their way gets rockier and more treacherous-- a sea of orange sand giving way to a sea of black sand, giving way to basalt floes. Pools of lava steam up between them as from a recent eruption. It is hot as the proverbial Hell.

( Taleyn, Liam, Valentine, and Kirie lead some INTREPID running-away! )

The big battle is likely to be fought in these discreet units-- a Covert Ops team needed to take out the High Priests, the Slave Army surging up against the Priest Caste, and the Volunteer Militia to take on the Ferocious Drugged-Up Death Cultists. Those of the slaves unfit for combat will be waging urban guerilla warfare-- cutting traps in the catacomb ceiling/city floor, and the like.

( Lucius has command over one flank of the militia, and Kincaid over the other flank, while Lady Miranda has surprisingly volunteered to lead the Covert Ops team. )

It's a fine day in Arden! The birds are chirping merrily in the trees, the woodland creatures scuttle and scurry noisily in the underbrush, and spring annuals peek up through the leaf-litter toward the sky for the first time. Except for that horrible black gash in the forest. That isn't so nice. Birds are silent there, swarm-insects hum ominously in discordant refrains of malice, and shadows lean hungrily against the blasted trees.

Taleyn is there with her platoon, the First of Foot, Defenders of Kolvir, known for being top-notch scouts. But even these elite are being reinforced for this mission by Anae, Arianne, Dinah, and Miranda. Never let it be said that Prince Benedict underestimates the value of motivated volunteers.

( Here follows the account of Taleyn's first Black Road scouting expedition! Others are forthcoming, and if you want to play in one, just +mail Taleyn! :) )

I will be off the mush through the weekend. Family emergency, traveling with no computer access, blah blah.

Sorry for any inconvenience, and *HUGS* to all!!! :) Have a great weekend!

Dear Mother,

Enclosed please find a gift to little Anathema that I wrote for her while up at the Fort. It's to be sung to the tune of the old folk melody "The Merry Merry Maids of Totley Court," though one has to smoosh the syllables a bit in places. I hope you and she find it just as soothing and edifying as I do!

( Fibonacci Lullaby )

Dear Mother,

I am writing to you from Amber City once more, having completed my very first tour of duty up at Fort Hard. Fort Hard is a LOVELY place with a most magnificent view of the mountains. The sky was the most amazing shade of blue, and my posting was very near an eagle's aerie. There was even a river of pure glacial meltwater, from which we drew our daily drinking and bathing supply! Daily! I was lucky enough to draw a winter rotation, when it is no doubt at its loveliest. In fact, I learned early on to pay close, CLOSE heed to the natural wonders around me! My, it does sharpen the senses and get the blood pumping!

My CO at said posting was one Lt-Col Jasper, a highly motivated individual who went out of his way, some might even say above and beyond the call of duty, to show me the the seemingly inexhaustible errors of my ways. I have learned at great length about the spongiform nature of my general character, my response-time in relaying orders which was likened to a hothouse garden gastropod, and my physical weakness and general lack of stamina, the latter two also being likened to aforementioned gastropod. His constructive criticism was truly helpful in throwing light upon my deficiencies as an officer, as was his beneficent regimen of mental and physical hardening exercises designed with the exalted intention of making better command line officers of us all, but most particularly me, who, I'm informed, was the worst specimen of said lowest lifeform that the Lt-Col had ever been accursed with by the gods, and whatever did he do to deserve this. Of course I decided that if he was taking such a kind interest in my betterment, well, there was nothing for it but give him ONE-HUNDRED-AND-FIFTY-PERCENT of my Best Effort EVER!!! This, I was shortly informed, was a terrible attitude, and I was subsequently instructed in some very colorful terms not to be so keen and just to learn to do my job right for a change.

(Incidentally, did you know that a great many human anatomical features can be described by substituting the common names of hapless woodland and farmyard creatures? It would be an ingenious form of code-talking, I thought! If only we could spread the knowledge of these words and their double-usages throughout the Army, what a splendid layer of security it might produce! Alas, I am informed through channels that, while these usages are extremely well-known to the Army at large, they are also part of the popular vernacular in so many other quarters that it would scarcely be useful as a code. How disappointing!)

After much fresh, cold, mountain air, wind, snow, exercise, calisthenics, drilling the platoon, following orders, and having my character built, I am informed through channels that the men feel the other junior officers and I am perhaps less likely to get them killed by "being too ******ing booksmart." Do you know, Mother, the enlisted men love the Lt-Col as though he were the Sugarplum Faerie.

I hope all is well with you at the country estate. Do give my love to Anathema! (I may have picked up an entertaining present for her at the Fort, but don't tell her, it will be a surprise!)

Your Loving,
Taleyn
Kn Cpt, 1st Pl, Ofc DoK Br, MHQ

Oooh, ooh, one more horrifyingly geeky haiku before I drudge back to bed...

GM tells Cold, "Roll."
Icosahedral bastard--
Natural twenty!

Pep-talk For Macrophages Against the Common Cold

Sweet proteinoid coat,
Chewy RNA center,
Come on! Eat up! YUM!

Of course, being a huge geek girl, I had to look up whether the cold virus was in fact a DNA or an RNA virus. The following haiku resulted from my further reading on the subject.

Rhinovirus, with
Symmetrical protein spikes,
WHY must you be CUTE???

Why so fast-acting?
Positive-sense RNA.
Go, Speed Virus, Go!

Also, I rarely get sick with anything other than allergies, so apparently I am a huge wussbag when down with an actual disease. I am feeling better, though, and will be back on the mush soon! I will leave my parting shot to the Rhinovirus as follows:

Mitochondria
Evolved from protist pest-bug.
Come on, cold, evolve!

Here's a poser for you--

What do you do when your brother resurrects your worst nightmare, which then comes to present you with interesting and disturbing moral questions, less through what is said and more through what is unsaid, and you've no ruddy way of tracking it down for further questions, and OH BY THE WAY, YOUR BROTHER RESURRECTED IT!

Do you:

(A) Rush about screaming?

(B) Go stab your brother?

(C) Invent GHASTLY NEW RECIPIES for Roach Stew and make EVIL PLANS to guilt the high aristocracy into eating it so that the people have more food to go around?

(D) March your troops through the ruined Lower City on patrol in the rain until every last man of them would jolly well like to chuck you into the ruined Harbor?

(E) Do D while thinking of C and fantasizing about B while all the while wanting to do A?

Can't sleep, deadline will eat me...
Can't sleep, deadline will eat me...
Can't sleep, deadline will eat me...

*HUGS* to the whole MUSH! :) I'll be back on very soon!

Dear Mother,

You'll be thrilled to hear I have finally picked up knitting! It was just a matter of finding inspiration and the right project. Enclosed you'll find spider pants for little Anathema. Of course the legs, pedipalps, and abdomen are Feldane grey, and the little hourglass-thingy on the back is in Feldane crimson. They will look so DARLING!!! I cannot wait to see them! Perhaps you could have a portrait made and sent to me here.

Your loving daughter,
Tally (Kn Cpt)

Dear Mother,

Greetings from the City, the Townhouse, and associated holdings! I hope this missive finds you and little Anathema in good health. I've made the little dear the most ADORABLE rattle out of a Cibolan monkey skull!!! Tempted to keep it myself, but the boys would never let me live it down.

Which reminds me, I'm back in the Army-- my old unit of the Defenders of Kolvir, where I'm happiest! I hope it meets with your approval, but then you're all the way in the country estate and thus cannot pitch a brick at me if it doesn't. :)

I took Aunt Gwen to visit a perfectly marvelous Haunted Castle last week! I do think the ancestors like getting out of the House on occasion. She wasn't too keen on our being pitched out of a speeding train car into the hellish black oblivion, but of course I caught us before we were both dashed upon the rocks. You needn't worry, all is well as it ever is! Next weekend I'm thinking of taking Aunt Agatha to the seaside-- you know how grouchy she gets at this time of year; fresh air might do the poor dear some good.

The enclosed spores are from a giant Cibolan basidiomycete similar to Agaricus, which might prove a simply stunning addition to the estate gardens! But since experience has demonstrated that everything from Cibola must be presumed cursed until proven otherwise, Father deemed them best cultivated at the country estate rather than in the Feldane Gardens. Do let me know how they get on!

Hope your knitting is coming along! My embroidery has taken a back seat to the painting of monkey skulls of late, which is a severely addictive craft, as it turns out, and there were so *many* monkey skulls for the collecting, due to the prevalence of Giant Mosquito Gods in our immediate vicinity. (This was in Cibola, not in the Feldane Gardens, regardless of Uncle Christopher's hyperbole on the subject.)

Take care, and we all send our love! Especially Father, who is right blue and sentimental in your absence.
Your loving daughter,
Tally
(Ldy Kn Cpt, 1st Plt, DK)

Real life has been a bear of late. I miss you all and will return to mushing soon.

*HUGS* to all!!!

Here's a look at the uniforms for the gunmen. There will be a Cool Patch coming, once it gets agreed upon whether they will be called the Hornets or the Griffons! :)

I'm SO EXCITED!!! I picked them out all by myself!!! :)

( Images below the cut )