005 / Seelie + Unseelie / (Video + Action)

[dragmire]

{ Locket - Video }

[The image shows a hard looking man, dark green of skin and fiery red in beard and hair. The rough lines of his features show his age and a lifetime of hard living, though he richly decorates himself in gold and jewels that adorn his forehead, his spiked crown, and earrings. There was no kindness wrote in his eyes and his bearing was that of a general and a king. Every word he utters is precisely mean.

His is a name that is known throughout the Drabwurld, despite not yet having lived in this world for a full year.]

I am Ganondorf Dragmire, Lord of both Mair and Maupertius. Both I have won through battle and conquest and that alone should tell you all you need know of me. A battle is coming that will make our previous conflicts look like squabbles. In light of recent aggressions within Unseelie territory by Seelie shardholders, I will no longer tolerate Seelie shardholders within my city without my express authorization. I issued this warning once, but now I make it law. All Seelie shardholders will leave my lands or they will be considered spies and be treated thusly. I will allow one week for any such individuals to make their arrangements and leave. After that week, they will no longer be tolerated. Neither Mair nor Maupertius will provide a safe haven for you, regardless of whether you think to claim neutrality to this conflict. Your word is meaningless next to the safety of my people.

Do not trouble me with your objections or accusations. I have no use for them.

{ The City of Mair }

Inside the city, Ganondorf was busy. There might yet be those in the city who could see his preparations, but let them. He had been hard at work. During the days he would drill his soldiers for hours. They were trained in mounted combat, archery, swordplay, and all those skills that were born to the Gerudo warrior. These were his personal elite guard and selected from the soldiers for which is native commanders and lieutenants commanded. They were men and women both, of races of human and elf and dwarf and orc and trowe. They were trained to their strengths and made to be deft of hand, hard of body, and quick of mind. But even that was not the highest honor. When each day's drill was completed, Ganondorf would select among the women the strongest and best of the elite. She would follow him to his tower and then...

Most could not say. All knew not to ask. All that mattered was that the next day, Ganondorf's small force of Iron Knuckles would grow by one. They would become like statues that were given a key part of the city's defense to guard. They did not move and they did not speak, but they waited. They did not train, but all knew that their strength was fearsome to behold. They carried war hammer or battle axe or greatsword and each one was heavier than what any man or woman should be able to carry.

In the city, nothing escaped his notice. It was common knowledge that eyes of Ganon are everywhere. On the tops of buildings, his gargoyles watched as silent sentinels that kept the peace and enforced his law. In the skies above, kargarocs patrolled the skies when they were not busy in petty disputes over a plump pigeon or stray cat. His own agents were elsewhere, always listening. The people knew this and they did not love him for it, though they had also not forgotten the old Lord Magister who had been brutal and cruel. They might not have been watched, but they felt secure behind the walls. Ariadne's builders had made the city strong and Ganon's soldiers had made them fortified. Even mages were paid to enchant the stones so that it could not be so easily breached as it had been when Ganondorf took the city with a few hundred men and his shardholder companions.

Those who sought Lord Dragmire would not have difficulty in finding him. He paraded his soldiers out of the city and into the wide open country outside the walls of Mair. It was important that his presence always be felt, so he often led patrols himself inside and outside the city. Within the castle, he permitted any to come to his audience chamber where justice was dispatched. He kept no council but himself, but he did listen and a shardholder always came first to his attentions. Those who came to the city were treated gently, given rich accommodations, and freedom to explore all parts of the city save for his own black tower in the center of the castle.

Comments

video; locked

[desperate_times]

Greetings, Lord of Mair and Maupertius.

This is Chloe Frazer, Captain of the Black Pearl. I'm flying south and have supplies for your city to drop off from Caer Scima, if you'll receive them. I left the castle quite stocked. [Much for her own benefit.] Seems like you might make good use of the stuff.

Just try to keep your flying monkeys off my ship, and I'll happily deliver them to you.

video; locked

[dragmire]

I do not have any flying monkeys. [Nor would he want any. What would a flying monkey even do? He doesn't understand. However:]

I have heard tell of your ship and its black sails. You are welcome to the city, Captain. How soon will you arrive?

video; locked

[desperate_times]

[Didn't get that reference, but no matter.]

Have you now? From anyone in particular?

I'll be there within the hour, if you're ready.

video; locked

[dragmire]

From many. From the birds and from the streets. A black ship sails the skies. A thing such as that does not stay secret long.

I will await you at the east tower of Mair. I think you will find it a satisfactory anchorage for your ship.

video; locked - can action if you like!

[desperate_times]

Thanks. I'll see you there.

[Sure enough, within the hour a ship black as night descends from the clouds toward the mentioned tower. It doesn't necessarily need to touch ground to make dock, but can drift to a place where the gangplank can be lowered. The skeleton crew will collect the supplies to be dropped off and bring them ashore while the Captain oversees it all herself.]

Video; locked

[huntedby]

Pity that people can't keep their manners. But I suppose with war coming, your choice would be inevitable.

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[dragmire]

It is a necessary precaution. An unfortunate one, as well. There are those in the Seelie court that are not without value.

Video; locked

[huntedby]

I would not disagree.

[She has friends there, after all.]

Still, one bad apple can ruin the entire barrel.

Video; locked

[dragmire]

The Seelie court has a number of bad apples. Many have made reputations for themselves with their reckless actions.

Video; locked

[huntedby]

I'm sure we have our own, but they tend to be...highly self-righteous.

i'm so, so sorry

[playmakings]

[ That's a little unfair, and Kelsi's lips quirk into a small frown. The guy's intimidating, if well-spoken, but still... ]

What if there was another option? Where Seelie and Unseelie could unite and all get along? Would you let them in your city again?

[dragmire]

[A low chuckle.]

If only it were so easy. This is a war that has been fought for thousands of years. Do you think it will be so easily mended?

[playmakings]

Of course! I mean it'll be hard but the important thing is we don't just give up. Peace has to happen if we try our best, right?

[dragmire]

You are naive to believe so, child. What will trying do for you except find you an early grave? If battle does not suit you, then flee from it. But no amount of effort on your part will change what has already been writ in the future.

[playmakings]

But you don't know that for sure! [ It's quick, and maybe a little too hopeful, but Kelsi's brows are furrowed, lower lip jutted out as she tries to piece her words together. ] We can all work this out--we were chosen to be here, maybe, but no one can control what we do. So why fight? Why not find an alternative solution to all of this? We're all in this together.

video.

[metalica]

So you are the man whose castle I have been defending, then.

[ He recalls they met. Once. How long ago... ]

A pleasure to see you again.

video.

[dragmire]

And you the man who has clad Maupertius in metal. It was an artful demonstration of skill. I trust you have found it a comfortable castle during your stay.

[He suspects that there's more it than that. But if there is, it does not concern him in the least. The company Morgana keeps is irrelevant, so long as she does not betray him.]

video.

[metalica]

[ I didn't do it for you; it's on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he just smirks. ]

Comfortable as a castle can be. It's better now.

[ Metal everywhere makes it more homey. ]

video.

[dragmire]

I should hope it is. By now the stench of fox should have faded from it.

[And as for the metal... well, what is metal to a sorcerer? It might protect the castle from catapults and siege weapons, but he thinks it more wasteful than practical.]

video.

[metalica]

If only his ghost didn't linger.

[ Almost literally. Erik has been toying with the idea of wearing fox fur, as it were. ]

( action. )

[manipulative]

It's much later in the month Katherine properly settled in the city of Mair. Where she'd been in Caer Scima, learning how to properly flick her wrist with her newly acquired spear, attempting to ply Gwenllian with sweet-talk to hear her speak of the Seelie's own plans in Caer Glaem, and then the terrain near the Three Sentinentals where she had attempted to wrestle with the native vampires, she'd been far too busy to attend to the city that was almost akin to her own home.

But with the impending battle on the horizon, she wasn't sure how long it would remain a home. The safest place for a woman with too many enemies gradually trickling into the Drabwurld, Mair had become Pennsylvania for her — save for every human being entering the town being under her compulsion.

And the possessive part of her actually wished to defend it.

She hadn't gone to the streets in hopes of cornering him, even though she could hear the voice of Lord Dragmire from a mile away as if he were standing over her and speaking to those who chose to spoke to him. The soldiers were a comforting presence, but a constant reminder of what was to inevitably approach them on the horizon — and war was often a visitor Katherine fled from. But she wasn't so certain she wished to run from it. Fighting for what she wanted was what she excelled at, but a war where there was very little personal benefit for her … She knew she was changing, and a part of her wanted to fight that instead.

After seeing him with his soldiers flanking his sides, Katherine took the opportunity to approach. "Lord Dragmire," she said with a smile. Even in her black, unbreakable heels, she still had to crane her head to look at him. She decided to jest, "You're looking very tall today."

( action. )

[dragmire]

The city ever attracted shardbearers who came and went as though it were a second home. It was something that the Gerudo king allowed and even encouraged. In truth, he would have much preferred to keep them here at all times and under his thumb and control. That might have been easy among the Seelie, where people were made to follow orders. But the Unseelie were chaotic and strong willed. So, he tolerated what he must.

As his soldiers were dismissed, he turned to gaze down at her with his golden eyes. "So I am told," he answered mildly. "But I find that it suits me. I see you are endeavoring to do the same."

The Gerudo had never quite found a use for heels, no matter that all but Ganondorf were women.

( action. )

[manipulative]

"With very little success." Standing at 5'6", Katherine doubted, even with a little magic, she could spring to the seven feet Ganondorf stood at. To look down at the world and see those who were the ants they truly were would tickle her — and it would be incredibly useful to note when a certain werewolf-vampire hybrid was on her heels. "Unfortunately, I doubt it would suit me."

Perceived as the cat that often chased the mouse, she was more the latter than the former in traits, sneaking into hideaways where the cats couldn't quite track her. Being smaller in stature and even in nature allowed her to keep to herself, hidden in the shadows when she didn't wish to be seen for decades, until she emerged as loud and as stealthy as a cat that always landed on all fours.

Tilting her head to the side, her brows knitted together, "Can you make yourself smaller? Or are you forever at seven feet?"

( action. )

[dragmire]

He seemed to consider that for a moment. Given all his magic, it was not outside his power to alter his shape. He had that favored form of a boar, but he might have taken other forms if he so desired. The truth of it was, his form he took now was more for the memory of what he was than because it came naturally to him. His time in the Twilight Realm had made him something else. Something beyond mortal flesh and blood. Yet even as he considered it, he gave a shake of his head.

"I could, perhaps. But why should I want to? This is the shape for which I was born in. It suits me. As does your own to you."

( action. )

[manipulative]

She had been a shapeshifter herself, growing hard where she had once been soft and easily pliable. Easily able to deceive others into thinking herself to be suited to the sharp frame she dons, Katherine had been able to fool herself into believing it, too.

"And it's usually the lords who wish to change their spots to stripes that see their own castles fall." Though Klaus may be incredibly powerful, invulnerable and near invincible, he suffered the same affliction as her — he didn't know who he wished to be. So, instead of running and changing his skin like she had, he lashed out. "I've met many powerful people over the years. Not all of them possessed such a great power as you." It wasn't for his clear strength and magical ability she spoke of, but the confidence many who took to their thrones lacked.