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Post by Princess Katie on Mar 10, 2008 0:41:02 GMT -5
Today was supposed to be a lucky day. Not for the day in particular, exactly. Today Genn was wearing her lucky pearl-drop choker. Not because she needed the luck today, but it matched the accenting on her cream and pale pink empire-waist gown perfectly.
Of course, because something is supposed to be lucky, that doesn’t always mean it is.
Today was one of those things.
Genevieve, while in her menagerie, noticed that they were painfully low on Roc chow. Now, this could simply not do. It is a bad thing when a horned eagle the big enough to fly away with an elephant is hungry. And of course, the only Roc chow worth purchasing was from this three-armed man on the Nightmare-side outskirts of the Forest of Mystery, as we all know.
So, after feeding the phoenix, doves, and peacocks, Genn ran double-time to grab a carriage from the coach house (her favorite carriage, too. The replica of Catherine II’s coronation coach, redone in pink, for her 16th birthday all those years ago.), had the coachman hitch to it her Unicorn, Stanhope, and her Pegasus, Phlegon. She wasted no time, only grabbing her purse and Crawford Kennedy, and hopping in.
Things were going swimmingly. Genn was deeply absorbed in The Princess Bride (for the six hundredth time), and didn’t even notice the carriage stop until the coachman was at the window.
“Your Highness, there’s road construction up ahead; we’re going to have to take a detour, briefly, through Dreamland. You may want to pull the shades down. The sun and all. Sorry about this, Princess.”
“It’s no problem, thanks for the warning, Mr. Jamison,” she said, following the driver’s advice and closing the little brocade curtains. Soon they were back on the road, Genn was back in her book, and Crawford was asleep on her lap.
That is, he was on her lap until the carriage lurched to a halt and sent dog and princess flying forward into the opposite wall of the carriage interior. After her initial shock wore off, Genn called out to the driver, “What happened, Mr. J?” There was only a yell, fading into the distance, by way of response. That was weird.
“Mr. J?” Genn peeked out of the front window, rubbing her head. The coachman was nowhere to be seen, and fantastically, they were parked in the middle of a midday-sun-drenched Dream road. Forced into the harsh sunlight to investigate, our melanin-challenged princess was none too happy. She put on her sunglasses (unfortunately that was the extend of her sun-relif) and investigated the scene.
Apparently Phlegon pulled his harness right off the yoke and took off. The coachman, who apparently dove onto the winged horse to try and keep him from flight, was dangling from the harness, yelling. The two were already but a speck in the distant sky by the time Genn located them. Hm. The people who sold her Phelgon told her she should clip his feathers a bit, but that was cruel! How could she deny a winged horse its power of flight? Stanhope was still there, however. He looked a little confused, but otherwise quite fine.
Dang.
Already feeling the sting of a sunburn forming, Genevieve coaxed Stanhope to pull the carriage into the shade (or, the shadier bit, at least) of a nearby flowering tree. In the incident, the front wheel of her carriage had gotten quite a bit damaged, and there was no way one unicorn would be able to pull her and Crawford in a heavy, damaged carriage. And even sans carriage, she wouldn’t be able to ride bareback AND sidesaddle while holding her doggie.
Looks like she was walking home. With a heavy sigh, she unhitched Stanhope, set Crawford Kennedy on his back, and began the trek toward the Castle, knowing full well that by the time she made it home, she’d have a nice, lidocaine-required sunburn.
Lucky day indeed!
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Post by Marguerite on Mar 10, 2008 12:13:16 GMT -5
Gavin, with his typical luck found out that Mabel-possibly-the-mother-of-the-antichrist from Accounts Payable had left her presentation at home. In Dreamland.
Since Gavin was the only person there who had a method of transportation that didn't involve walking, he found himself using his lunchbreak to gallop back to Mabel's house instead of doing what he wanted during his lunchbreak, i.e. eat lunch and not think about how crappy his life was.
And... oh crap. Someone wearing a dress on the road! Maybe it was a ... nope. Woman.
Gavin sighed. "Hello-my-name-is-Sir-Gwalchgwyn- the- Greene- Knighte- Maedenie’s- Knighte-Defeandere- of- Wertue-please- call- me- Gavin- do- you- need- help- no- good- okay- buh... er... Your Highness Highness? Princess Genn?" He dismounted easily.
"Aren't you... kinda vampiric to be in Dreamland in the middle of the day?"
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Post by Princess Katie on Mar 10, 2008 19:45:16 GMT -5
“Ohmygod, Crawford, how come you didn’t remind me to bring a parasol, or suggest a more covering dress? Something without cap sleeves and a low neckline? Hm?” She demanded, wincing as they went from a patch of shade to a patch of pure sunlight. Of course, the dog, being unable to talk and all, did not answer. So she plodded along, guiding Stanhope by his harness, just feeling her skin turning pink.
Genevieve squinted against the sun at Gavin as he approached and read off his rather rehearsed-sounding greeting. She wiggled a few fingers in salutation and gave him a half-hearted smile. Even extreme sunlight-discomfort did not permit melancholy.
“Oh, hi. Yeah, just fifty percent too Vampirey to be entirely comfortable,” She forced a cheery smile as the sun seared her collarbone and arms. She pointed at the unapologetically pink carriage not-so-far behind her in explanation, “My carriage broke down and my horse flew away with my coachman. These things happen I guess.”
As smiley and roseate as she was trying to be, this was really becoming too much. “If we’re going to chit-chat, do you mind if we possibly move to a shadier area, please?”
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Post by Marguerite on Mar 10, 2008 21:38:53 GMT -5
Gavin glanced at the coach. "I guess? That's probably what would happen to me, though. Oh, here, hang on."
He pulled off his suit jacket, relatively sure that any sweating he'd done while riding would've been absorbed by his shirt. He then sincerely hoped he didn't have sweat-stains because there honestly were very few things more disgusting than sweat-stains.
"Here, take this. I'm probably tall enough so that you can pull the collar over your head and still keep your arms covered. Er... there's some shade over there." He pointed.
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Post by Princess Katie on Mar 11, 2008 0:56:12 GMT -5
“Ohmygosh, you are so my hero!” Genn gushed, practically leaping into the jacket. The fabric didn’t feel so great against her already stinging skin, but it was a huge improvement from her previous state. She flipped up the collar and retracted her arms as far back into the sleeves as she could to give herself more protection. “I am really, profoundly, grateful for this. I mean, I probably wouldn’t have burst into flames or died or anything, but then again, I really don’t know. I don’t experiment with this sunlight thing a lot.”
She pulled her unicorn into the shade with her (so he wouldn’t run away, too), and took this occasion to compose herself. Her hair had gotten a rather disheveled in her fantastic fly-into-the-carriage-wall, her ‘lucky’ choker was all twisted about, and her makeup was probably smudged. “This is the second worst thing about being half-Vampire, you know? I mean, next to getting these terrible hives every time I eat garlic. It’s really upsetting because I love Italian food. It is actually a little lame being half. You get all the weaknesses, but no awesome cool super strength or incredible senses.”
Genevieve suddenly realized that she was rambling on at length to someone she was introduced to once. God, this was embarrassing! “I’m so sorry. I get like, sun-drunk. You stick me out at midday for three minutes, and I loose all social graces. Sorry.”
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Post by Marguerite on Mar 11, 2008 23:06:27 GMT -5
Gavin tied the reigns of his horse to one of the low-hanging tree-branches, becuase his horse had the very unfortunate tendancy to wander off at with very little provocation, as if acting on its embarassment at hanging around Gavin.
"Sorry to hear that, Your Highness, and, er, really, don't worry." Gavin grinned. "I'm the last person you ought to apologise to for rambling. Me, I just go on and on and on because... well, I... don't actually have any reason to. Hunh. Sucks about the garlic, though. Maybe there's a... garlic substitute-type thing out there? There ought to be, what with sciene being what it is. I bet it's made out of soy, if there's something that tastes like garlic but isn't."
A little bit belatedly, he asked, "Oh, er... are you alright? I mean with the sunburn thing."
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Post by Princess Katie on Mar 12, 2008 0:29:20 GMT -5
“Really! I mean, they can have particle accelerators, you think they’d make a garlic-substitute for Pasta-Loving vampires. I think I shall invent it, it will have a huge market in my neck of the woods. I could be a self-made millionaire, it would be great.” Genevieve nodded vigorously, “A soy garlic substitute. I’m getting right on that. Of course, I’m not really since I don’t know anything about cooking or science or soybeans, but it’s fun to imagine. Oh, and you can call me Genn, by the way.”
He really shouldn’t have given her leave to continue rambling. She was going to go off on her tangents until the third wave of sun-poisoning kicked in. For those unfamiliar with the mental steps of sun-poisoning in half-vampires, they are as follows:
1) Ill temper and vexation (which, thankfully, Genn experienced before Gavin showed up)
2) Delirium and divagation
3) Drowsiness, stupor, and possibly lack of consciousness
“Oh, I’m fine,” She said, with a terribly convincing nod, “Just a tiny bit dizy, and… Okay. Be honest. I won’t get mad, promise. Am I like, hideously red?” She touched her cheek, apparently trying to feel the color of her face. Genn regretted it immediately; it stung. “Seriously. Is it gross looking?”
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Post by Marguerite on Mar 12, 2008 21:27:04 GMT -5
Gavin laughed. "Sounds like a brilliant plan, Your Hi- Genn. I'm sure you wouldn't mind giving a small kick-back to the oh-so-brilliant knight in... er... his... shirtsleeves for inspiring such a genius enterprise?"
He leaned over. "Er... I don't... it's not gross, but it does look pretty bad." He looked around uncertainly. "Er, there's some sort of... plant type thing that's supposed to help with sunburns, isn't it? Aloe?" Gavin thought it was aloe. He wasn't terribly sure what aloe looked like, but he yanked a long leaf-like thing off of a plant he was vaguely sure might possibly be aloe.
Dang. He ought to get on his horticulture skills.
The end of the leaf thing oozed slightly and Gavin poked at it. "I think you put this end on the burned areas. Er... water? Are you supposed to drink water?" Gavin, as the dream of sunshine, had never had to deal with sun poisoning before, in all his years of probably-funny-to-other-people injuries.
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Post by Princess Katie on Mar 13, 2008 0:50:28 GMT -5
“Of course,” Genn said with a smile that made her sunburned face hurt, “You’ll get ten percent of my weekly sales, how’s that sound?”
That was aloe? She had only ever seen it in a bottle. “Are you sure?” She asked, prodding it in investigation. The texture seemed right, but she wasn’t just going to go rubbing any old gooey plant on her face. For all she knew, it could be some sort of little-known deadly-to-vampires plant of doom.
“And water would be lovely, if you have any. But really, all I really need is to get into somewhere with gloom and clouds. Dreamland shade isn’t so shady. It’s more like there is extreme sun and not so extreme sun, you know?” Genn pressed herself closer to the tree as a breeze shifted the leaves (/her canopy), trying to avoid the majority of light speckles.
After it was safe to move away from the trunk a bit, she rocked embarrassedly on her heels. She felt silly being so helpless. “So, is this what you do? Like, rescue princesses all day? What do you get in return? I bet you have like, a ton of poorly monogrammed handkerchiefs.”
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Post by Marguerite on Mar 13, 2008 1:08:34 GMT -5
"Sounds perfect!"
Gavin glanced around. "Oh, spring. That's handy. Except... I don't have a cup. Er."
He sat cross-legged on the ground and flipped through his files until he found a lamented series of graphs. He twisted one of them into a cone and scooped up some water for Genn. "Here you go. Careful not to let it unravel and spill."
Gavin colored at the question. "Er, well. Actually, I, er... I work in finances mostly. As in, setting it up and all that. Dreadful stuff. The rest of the time, I, er... hide in bushes to avoid damsels and helpless crones and all that. Oh God, I've got a closet full of them. Handkerchiefs, I mean, not damsels and helpless crones."
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Post by Princess Katie on Mar 13, 2008 23:15:42 GMT -5
Genn watched amusedly as he just busted out some laminated paperwork. She definitely wasn’t expecting that, but it seemed effective. “Innovative,” she commented, taking the graph-turned-goblet gratefully. Sure, she’d had more effectual cups in the past, but she mostly avoided spilling, even if she looked less than dainty doing so. Just as she was taking another sip, Gavin mentioned his day job. It took every thread of self-control that Genn possessed not to laugh.
It wasn’t that working in finances was a particularly humorous job; it was just the tone of defeat he had mixing with the unexpectedness of it. It was one of those tragically funny things. Thankfully, she was able to contain herself with only a small cough, and moved on as deftly as possible.
“Well, clearly, as a closet full of damsels and helpless crones would just be impractical. I mean, you wouldn’t be able to find anything in there at all,” Genevieve giggled. The image was certainly amusing when paired with her light delirium. “Oh, but wait! You didn’t dive into a bush to hide from me. Was my case just so pathetic you couldn’t possibly live with yourself if you let me go it alone?”
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Post by Marguerite on Mar 13, 2008 23:29:19 GMT -5
"No bushes around here," Gavin replied, rather cheekily.
He sat on the ground next to her. "Oh God, a closet full of them! I have enough trouble trying to get away from them as it is. I can just imagine it. I'd get up for a drink of water in the middle of the night, and wham! Saddled with a quest to fetch a unicorn, or rescue them from a dreadful hangnail, or risk life and limb to secure their happiness with water from the fountain of youth because living in that closet gave them such wrinkle lines."
Leaning back against the tree and crossing his arms behind his head, Gavin asked, "Where were you headed?"
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Post by Princess Katie on Mar 14, 2008 0:43:50 GMT -5
“It would be a daily stress, I’m sure. And you’d have to feed them and let them out every so often so they could use the restroom. And be careful not to tread on their long blonde hair, or disrupt their beauty sleep, or accidentally interfere with one of the curses they’re under. As an experienced helpless damsel, I can foresee nearly every little drama you’d face with a closet full of us.” Genn gave Gavin a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
“Well, I was was heading to the Forest of Mystery to buy some food for my Roc, Humphrey. But then my horse decided he was done pulling around some spoiled brat in a Barbie Dream Carriage and took off. Then I crashed and hit my head and got all sunburny. So now I’m heading home,” she scratched Crawford Kennedy’s belly as she rather anticlimactically retold her day’s bout of bad luck. “Where am I keeping you from, work?”
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Post by Marguerite on Mar 14, 2008 18:15:34 GMT -5
"I shudder to think of how much I'd spend on shampoo and conditioner," Gavin replied, with an histrionic grimace. "And... oh God, the fights over the bathroom." He shuddered. "I can just imagine it and... ooh. Very, very dark mental place without any sign of a light switch. Don't know if I'm going to be able to get out of it."
He nodded. "Yeah, work. Don't how hoe I'm ever going to survive a- oh hey You hit your head? Are you alright?"
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Post by Princess Katie on Mar 14, 2008 23:59:21 GMT -5
“Not to mention, you’d have to deal with their whining. Maidens are so whiny.” Genevieve reflected on this, rather seriously, for a moment. “I don’t know how binding that whole ‘laws of chivalry’ thing is, but no amount of gallantry should require you to have a Damsel Closet. Especially not for the payment of amateur needlework. If they ever instate that as a requirement, promise me you’ll quit this whole knight business.” She fixed him with a very earnest expression. “You always have the garlic-substitute business to fall back upon.” Genn was very proud of how earnest she was able to remain. Usually she would have lost her straight face.
“Hm? Oh yeah, I’m fine. It’s just when the carriage stopped, like, really abruptly, I kind of went flying into the opposite wall.” She touched her forehead lightly. “Maybe a small bump, but it should be gone in a few hours. Quick healing with that sort of thing, thanks to my mother. Mostly just injuries to my pride, you know?”
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