Bastard sons: 2

Hands: 1

Beatrice knows about the hand already. Maybe I should open with that.

I'll be off over most of Christmas-tide and the New Year, with nothing but cheap scotch, my laptop, and bitter, bitter memories. And this scar in the shape of a holly-bush.

I will be around, but it will be irregular. If you need me, please +mail and ask to arrange a time. I'll reply as and when the headache stops and the pain comes back.

Liam's eyeballs didn't explode at my codpiece at Bley's wedding, and no one was afraid.

Must try harder.

Gossip ACR: Sun Dec 13 03:18:51 2009 by Benedict (public)
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The salons and halls and chambers of the palace have it from people who have it from other people that the King wonders why Bleys chose to ignore his Royal Heritage to have a wedding to the Duchess of Karm take place off Crown Property. The King firmly supports his brother in his good endeavour and wishes him well in his marriage, and utterly refutes that it is a sign of weakness on Bleys' part to marry the Duchess under such circumstances. Yes, the Palace was available to his brother. Of course.

Gossip ACS: Sun Dec 13 05:44:59 2009 by Bleys (public)
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The better-informed gossips in the palace believe Prince Bleys to have been prudent in his choice of venue for his wedding, for when the wedding was announced, and invitations sent and the logistics arranged, it was Julian who was upon the throne and not Benedict. Given the only-tenuous truce and lack of warmth between His Previous Majesty and His Royal Highness, and the disarrayed state of the court and palace in the absence of Princess Flora, it seemed wise of Bleys to have chosen a venue less subject to mishap, whether deliberate or intentional. And besides, who would have dared plan a wedding in the palace at a time when Flora was absent?

To the image of Bleys, Benedict is looking at an oil painting that hangs in the Dining Room in the Palace. He looks from a painting to an image. "Prince Bleys."
The image of Bleys is in a place with a grimly ugly sky. It is raining fur, lightly. "Brother," he greets. With cold irritation he says, "I would rather again the logistics and bloodshed of moving a starving batallion of iron-turtle knights and their damnable mechanical contrivances through the haunted mountains of Ygyrystan than to attempt to move my wedding from one venue to another." He points at the roiling, varicolored sky. "A shadowstorm is coming. Beware of monsters. That is all." And like an elastic band snapping back abruptly, he withdraws his mind from the contact.

The image of Bleys turns his attention away from the Trump, and vanishes.

You paged Bleys with 'That one where we had to blast our way through rocks with boiling vinegar?'.

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To: Bleys
Subject: +sending/PAT-BD: Bird with orange plumage
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The bird carries a very small vinegar vial. Inside is a rolled note: /Was/ available. When nobody asked. Benedict Rex.
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