Actually, it was me not being very clear on wording. Marianne was disappointed so Brandon volunteered. Kathrine wasn’t disappointed that Brandon volunteered. In a way I think that Kathrine’s reaction would have been closer to happy that Brandon would volunteer to spend his afternoon chaperoning. After all, that means that things going well for Caroline is important to Brandon. (Which it isn’t–at all–he was doing it to spare Marianne hell, not for Caroline.)

But that’s not how Kathrine would have interpreted it.

Although as far as the dynamic between Kathrine and Marianne goes, it’s actually a little more abstract than that. Marianne is very much her father’s child in demeanor, personality, and values. And quite honestly Katherine is not that fond of Henry in a lot of ways. She thinks that her parents sold her short. SHE is a scion of house Gwynedd, one of the original founding members of the Albionese court and her mother’s family is very high ranking in the Reman court as well. Why should she have been married off to a man who is barely clinging to nobility, why should her son not have a title, lands, and fortune waiting for him when he comes of age. Her daughters should have lines waiting for their dance cards at parties.

She should have been married to a man to whom her pedigree was appreciated not to some–diplomat that her mother’s family probably snubs when walking through the market. In a lot of ways the dynamic between Kathrine and Henry is a lot like Medea and Octavius’s, without the mental illness factor. And rather than throwing this in Henry’s face, she throws all of it in Marianne’s face because her daughters have the privilege of being like her, why would they want to be like him?

Thanks, Van!

I figure if I have the ideas (which I do, for the next half a dozen updates at least.) the time, and even the slightest bit of inspiration, I can put a couple hours a week into writing something. In fact the not wanting to pressure myself is sort of why I haven’t even opened the game in like a month. I just haven’t felt like it. Sometimes I’ll go wander through some of my favorite blogs/Sim-tumblrs and see if I get any inspiration, but I mostly do that because I enjoy looking through other people’s pictures. Promise I’m not like “you must write NOW. You must SIM NOW.”

I’ve been working my way through several games my brother loaned me and just enjoying the down time. If I feel like simming, I will. I’m really being rather chill about it, despite how it might have sounded.

Yeah, there is just a wee teensy bit of irony here isn’t there. Taking an extra cookie at tea shall damn us to hell. But this whole mess… it’s nothing, really. Katherine, as Henry pointed out, is actually very Reman. And Remans have committed treason and overthrown governments for less slight than cussing out their daughter and telling her she’s an idiot. Add to that the fact that Leo “broke Caroline’s heart” and there’s enough reason to start calling in favors from poisoners.

Caroline didn’t really think before she spoke. *gaspshock* And if this were not her baby, Katherine might think herself. But nobody attacks Caroline. Nobody. She’s gotten into fights uncounting with Marisol because of Elizabet and her lack of patience with Caroline which isn’t very smart either.

As I said to Morgaine, Squeak understands how vindictive Katherine can be when spited and he’s smart enough to know that Henry stands behind very little that Katherine says when spited. He’s not going to burn the bridges, in fact until he has a very clear idea that Henry supports anything that Katherine says, he’s likely to stand on the bridge tossing buckets of water on the fires Katherine tries to start. He doesn’t need another enemy in River Sulis. As Henry doesn’t support anything Katherine will try and start, I think they can probably work it out later.

For their parts in it, Ferreiras don’t give up on people they care about very easily. After all, this bunch is descended from a pair who, well, one of them broke into a heavily warded workroom and stole Elixir of life for his granny and the other was ready to go do battle with the fae to get the guy she loved back. It will take more than Katherine to end this for either Severus or Vivi. (And I don’t think that Marianne will give up that easily either.)

We shall see what happens with Leo and and Vivi hopefully in the next update. (Or we’ll at least see what happens afterward, I’m not sure whether their actual chat will be the update.)

Thanks, Winter!

Very true. Caroline and Leo were about as likely to float as a boat with a hole in it. Maybe they’d have stayed up for a whole, but more than likely they’d have sunk before they’d ever really begun.

I dunno if Katherine will keep her nose out of it, this being Katherine and all. But I think that Squeak will keep an open enough mind to know that a rage-y Reman being rage-y doesn’t mean that there is open warfare on all channels and will wait and see what Henry has to say. Especially as he was the one who encouraged Hector to send Henry to Reme right now.

There just might be some other way those families might still get that alliance. some way…

Thanks, Morgaine.

Well, I can’t say I’m sad about the end of Leo and Caroline. Not at all.

And hey–if Henry finds out about Marianne and Severus, there’s the problem solved right there. To hell with whatever Katharine thinks.

And speaking of Katharine… she’s disappointed when one of her other children volunteers for an unpleasant job she had earmarked for Marianne. Yeesh, was Marianne a four-day labor or something? That sounds closer to genuine hatred than merely having an unfavorite.

Caroline, you stupid twit! Was she trying to be clever? It felt like she was channeling Mary Crawford right then, with her mouth too big for her head. I can’t imagine she bothered with something so unladylike as politics without having a purpose, but to think that sort of statement would help? Marianne’s tea-taking will ruin them, but not this? And her mother, for all her machinations, is going to be just as bad on the spiting-her-face scale.

I too hope Henry can convince Squeak to ignore whatever Katherine does/says in his absence. And Marianne, since this will be presented as the end of all hope with Severus and her friendship with Vivi.

And speaking of Vivi, I wonder if Leo will be going to ‘tell her how right she was’?

And well … it’s probably just as well that this ended when it did. Leo and Caroline would have never worked even if there wasn’t the ickiness between Leo and Caroline. And any descendent of the Ferreiras deserves better than a Babette clone.

Hopefully Katherine won’t say or do anything that actually raises the ire of the Ferreiras too much. I have faith in Henry and Squeak, they’ll make things right between them as long as Katherine keeps her nose out of it. Hopefully Henry can get to Squeak and ask him to ignore anything his wife says until Henry gets back.

Besides, we all know that hope of a Ferreira/FitzChivalry alliance isn’t as dead as it appears to be.

But for now, at least it’s an update, right?