I’m glad that you like Lianne, she’s painfully blind but I wanted someone who was not such a strong, at times unpleasant, personality to fill out my last big noble family. (There are other noble families and we’ll see them, but they’re less important at this point.) I needed someone who would try and make peace between Katherine and Marisol rather than egg Marisol on or be a snob with Katherine.

Actually, Squeak’s name is Firenze, at Morgaine’s request. But everyone, including his wife, calls him Squeak. You’re right though, Bors would never get that it was a joke, especially not a joke on him. Of course his robes are so timelessly classic that someone would wear them years later!

Thanks, Winter.

Katherine and Caroline should be the first Albionese in space – a one-way mission to an asteroid belt would do the trick.

I have to wonder what Bors would think of Squeak marching around in his signature outfit. Actually, no. The idiot would probably be flattered to be imitated hundreds of years later, even if it’s by a guy named Squeak.

Sorry to drop a whole lot of character introductions into one post, but we’re starting the meat of a plot arc next post and I needed to get several introductions made before we started that. (Plus I have a hard time finding a balance between introducing characters and narrative… So sometimes they just get dropped in and we find out more about them in retrospect. Sorry about that too.)

As I told Morgaine, this is pretty much the best of Marisol, she’s in a position where she’s defending, but she’s not scared of the offensive either. The more I work with her the more complex I find her. She’s supposed to be a neutral character, but not without the ability to be a secret badass or at least use her inner Angelique to knock a few pegs off someone like Katherine…

There are some interesting dynamics, I’m hoping they’ll be interesting to follow through.

No, I don’t see Squeak being a Bors to his wife and kids. He’s a Ferreira twice over. (His mother was a Ferreira as was his father. They were cousins. The Ferreiras are kinda the antithesis of the Bors side of the de Ganises in how they treat their families.) I just wanted to be able to make some jokes about Bors’s robes really. How would you take a man wearing that seriously.

Squeak is an agent for the crown, he’s kinda a fireman for the king. The king sends him here and there to put out political fires for the crown. And we’ll see more about why he’s here in River Sulis in a few posts as well.

Thanks, Van!

She’s heard the kind of crap Caroline was laying on Marianne from her own mother and sister and she hated it. Plus she understands all too well what it’s like to be a de Ganis girl, and to be looked down upon for things you can’t control. (In Lyssa’s case it’s her bloodline, in Marisol’s case it’s the lack of dangly bits in key areas.) And let’s face it, she doesn’t have a very high tolerance for bullshit after years of it being shoved in her face constantly.

Lianne does need to see that while her kids might’ve missed some of the easier to spot self-destructive traits, they’ve still got some self-destructive traits and these might actually be worse.

It might be a good idea, but I’m not sure that she would think of it. In a lot of ways she doesn’t really realize that her daughter is growing up and she does think that court is a dangerous place for a kid. Plus, I think she’s worried about Vivianne getting lost in the shuffle, her time really isn’t a lot her own when she’s in Camelot. To Lianne, Vivi is better off at home with Squeak and her brothers still. (Which is my author’s way of justifying her continued blindness for a while because plot.)

Besides, considering how she feels about her mother right now, I’m not sure Vivianne really wants to be stuck with her at court. She’d still be lost in the shuffle, plus she’d be without her friends and her brothers, who, they’re brothers but they’re decent to her.

As far as how long the Finessas have been in River Sulis, the kids moved there when the twins started at the Academy (so about four years.) Squeak moves around a lot and Lianne spends a lot of time at court, but the kids have been all together there.

Yes, they are cute together and there can never be too many happy couples. Well, so to speak, happy couples don’t make for a lot of interesting storylines…

Thanks, Morgaine!

(And Henry is… Katherine’s husband?)

Whatever the case may be, there sure are some interesting dynamics here! I’m glad to see that while Squeak may have commissioned Bors’s clothing, he certainly hasn’t taken any inspiration from that corner in regards to his character (or at least how he treats his wife and children).

Interesting that the Finessas keep moving around…

And I have to say, I was … quite impressed by Marisol. She defended Marianne, she defended Lyssandra, she gave Katherine what was coming to her … I was expecting a lot worse out of Marisol. This woman has potential, mark my words. Even if it’s only potential to skewer Katherine … which isn’t a bad potential to have, I’m just sayin’ …

However, Lianne … she needs to wake up and smell the family dynamics, ’cause where I’m sitting, they ain’t pretty. It’s not a good thing that she finds her kids so incomprehensible. I wonder, might it be a good idea for her to take Vivianne along the next time she goes to the capital? I can see why she’d want the twins to stay in school, since the school is so prestigious, but if Vivianne is being taught by private tutors (which seems to be the case), there’s no reason why she can’t be taught by private tutors in the capital. Besides, she’s a teen in game terms. That seems to me to be old enough to start going to court and getting a feel for things. More importantly, it might force the two of them to have some conversations, which they seem to need.

And while, yes, Vivianne would hate to be separated from her friends … if Lianne starts with a short visit, and sort of works her way up as the years go on, this wouldn’t necessarily be painful. It might even be fun!

(Although I wonder — how long have the Finessas been in River Sulis? Vivianne and the girls seem to have known each other for a while. Are the Finessas moving around the kingdom all the time?)

At least Lianne and Squeak are cute together. We’ve got TWO happy couples here, folks — Lianne and Squeak and Eric and Raven. That’s pretty darn good in my book!