NationStates Jolt Archive

"Well I wasn't the greatest spouse either" Eduard said as he gulped down his scotch.

"Things are not always for the best. Why did you marry her in the first place?"

Eduard Heir scratched his beard, looking out the shadowed window. "I married her, because...well...well....Actually, I have no idea why I married her. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time."

"Hmmm...I have never been married, I do not see any benefits for myself." she said simply and drank from the tankard that had been placed before her.

[QUOTE=Unibot;14603343]"Mostly, but not all." she said devilishly
Before Angela could open her mouth, Serifina placed a hand over it, and grinned at the Cookesland ambassador. "I can assure you, my cousin here has never in her life been any of the things she claimed." She then yelps, and withdraws her hand quickly - Angela having bitten it.

The blonde-haired princess gives Serifina a sweet grin, then looks over at Eduard. "Sounds ta me like your problem's more in the marriage than the person! It's always better to know why you're marrying, instead of just doing it for no reason. If you can, love is best... Though I know I'm not going to have that one. Mine will be for religious ties or political reasons, prob'ly."

"Anyway, that's enough about me. What about you -- is there anything about your boss that drives you crazy? Do you have as much trouble with the mob back home as we do? Do you think you'll like it here? ... Goddess, I sound like a press conference, sorry." Abashed, she busied herself with whipped-cream strata.
Renae chuckled. "Trust me, you have a ways to go before you begin to sound anywhere near as irksome as a barrage of informative agents. Primarily, the Delegate isn't all that horrible... the fact that I act as a mouthpiece can be irritating, but other than the paperwork it really isn't too unpleasant. The Assembly is a little... sparsely populated compared to what I was told to expect, but I believe I can enjoy myself here. I must inquire, however, what is this "mob" of which you speak? That is not a term with which I am familiar, and I assure you that is no mean occurrence."

Before Angela could open her mouth, Serifina placed a hand over it, and grinned at the Cookeslandic ambassador. "I can assure you, my cousin here has never in her life been any of the things she claimed." She then yelps, and withdraws her hand quickly - Angela having bitten it.

"What has she claimed to be?" the Princess

A tall, thin, distinctly Earth-British man in a suit and bowler twitched his mustache and poked his head into the Bar. After glancing about for a moment, he ducked out and promptly opened the door, allowing a large blue avian to flutter its way in, extending its legs to the ground only after realizing there wasn't really room to fly to every destination it might wish to reach. The avian, followed shortly by the suit which so generously allowed the man inside of it to come along, then quickly strode over to the table where Lady Renae and her companion were so conversationally engaged and handed (beaked?) her a paper missive which she was apparently not very happy to see. When Lady Renae opened her mouth to object, the avian clicked its beak in the bowler's general direction, which prompted the man wearing it to lift the startled female and place her atop a cage-like contraption that promptly whisked her out the bar door and didn't return.

Having completed this odd and unexplained exchange, the avian stood atop an available chair. "The Lady is indisposed at the moment due to matters at her nation being far too important to be ignored by somebody else's half-cousin. Until further notice, I will be taking her place as nominal representative and indignant mouthpiece for matters of greater and lesser importance on behalf of the antiquated masses and their constituent turnips. Barkeep, if you feel the necessity to divert her tab to my name, I will be more than happy to continue not to pay it on her behalf. In the meanwhile, if you could provide me with a slender glass of Cheese Tennamin and a straw, I would be bi-weekly appreciative with a side of imbibed."

The man entertained himself by flicking various coins with his toes whilst rehearsing the invisible fluglehorn.

"I guess that's the end of my chance to get recorded in the Library," Avaya told herself glumly. "Damn, I had such a good explanation of 'mob', too."

She eyed the blue avian speculatively. "I suppose you wouldn't care to be my little girly chum?" she asked. "I feel the need of someone in whom to confide, someone my own age, someone who would understand the special pressures my generation is exposed to. To which my generation is exposed. I mean, it's not as though I want to talk to just anybody about ... about ..." -- her lower lip trembled --"about the utter breakdown of my once-tender relationship with that gadabout louse Sammy Faisano, allegedly Kennyite ambassador to Ardchoille, who's never home and when he is, isn't awake or isn't interested or, for all I know, doesn't remember how-ow-owwwww ..."

Her impassioned speech gave way to heartbroken sobs, which in turn became despairing howls, which were replaced by an ululation of grief that would have emptied the Bar in seconds, had Violet not had the presence of mind to appear with chocolates, chips, cupcakes, a chick flick, cute flannelette pyjamas, fluffy slippers, sundry hair products, face masks, manicure items and a pile of huuuuge pillows, into one of which she gently pushed Avaya, handing her a battered purple plush kitten (with chewed ear) to cuddle and fussing around her with soothing clucks, aimless pats, an extra-large box of extra-large Aloe Vera-impregnated tissues and a backpack of multicoloured alco-pops.

Having completed this odd and unexplained exchange, the avian stood atop an available chair.[/I] "The Lady is indisposed at the moment due to matters at her nation being far too important to be ignored by somebody else's half-cousin. Until further notice, I will be taking her place as nominal representative and indignant mouthpiece for matters of greater and lesser importance on behalf of the antiquated masses and their constituent turnips. Barkeep, if you feel the necessity to divert her tab to my name, I will be more than happy to continue not to pay it on her behalf. In the meanwhile, if you could provide me with a slender glass of Cheese Tennamin and a straw, I would be bi-weekly appreciative with a side of imbibed."
A large Raven wearing a silver chain around his neck, who is sharing a meal and a theological conversation with the oldest of the Kawaiian nekomusume, waves one of his wings in a casual greeting to this fellow avian.

Felix Lupin, for such was the avian's name, as indicated on the nametag pinned to the odd man's bowler, had his companion present the largely emotive female with stuffed bears, synthetic slapping trout, and a bottle of carico from the bar.

"I can take your colloquialist definition to the Lady if you so wish, though to be entirely honest and uncharacteristically serious with you for a moment if I may, she was only going to flirt with you anyway. Your recording may have made it into the Library, but an effort to place her in the role of platonic female companion would have resulted in disaster, especially once you started moping about and fussing on the general topic of male intimacy." Felix patted her on the back with his wing and placed a chrysanthemum in her hair as a customary gesture of comfort he learned in Intellect and Art.

"I believe you mistake the force of basic human social interactions, Mr Lupin," Avaya said chattily. "Platonic same-sex companionship is a group survival mechanism. I suspect that a display such as mine would have triggered a reaction at such a fundamental level that even the most intensely conditioned female human would have found it difficult to avoid responding.

"I should explain that said display of emotion is an attempt to invoke peer-group pressure upon a male to whom I am pair-bonded. It is, however, generally more effective if the platonic female companion or companions is or are pair-bonded with the platonic male companions of the errant male. While this is not the case here, several members of said male's wider social group are present and can be expected to exert some pressure, whether by giving or by withdrawing approval, upon him.

"By the way, thank you for the teddybears, which will be a suitable and much appreciated present for my goddess-children."

Her instructive cameo role completed, Avaya flashed a bright smile at the blue-feathered one and returned, with a forbiddingly high decibel count, to her weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. However, politeness prompted her to interrupt her activities one last time.

"Oh, and be assured I shall put the slapping trout to excellent and well-deserved use on ... gasp ... Sammmmeeeeee," she added, resuming operations. The level in the carico bottle lowered rapidly, though the chrysanthemum was crushed sadly in one of the more evocative hair-tearing moments.