It is perhaps not strictly Ace-like behavior to stand hidden behind a giant oak tree on Diamond grounds with a growing pile of snowballs at the ready, but Avery will probably never be entirely Ace-like that way.

Try considering it a training exercise.

If that helps.

It wasn’t a pretty fight. Of course, there were no pretty fights, not really. When Jordan had challenged in fencing when he’d been fifteen, that had been a pretty challenge, more like dancing than a battle. But this was different ( Read more... )

So with the borders opened up, it's time for a bit of a business trip. He isn't expecting to be gone long, but there are things he's promised to get for people, things he's promised people Outside he was coming to buy soon. All sorts of promises all over the map. So that needs to get done and there's certainly very little he can do about whatever ( Read more... )

He'd surrendered all of his duties in the Hearts, and his boxes had been packed - some of them already moved to the apartment his grandfather had ordered vacated in Spade Castle, near the other Novaks. For all that he had another week and some days before he and Maddox Hobbs met at the appointed place, he was pretty much not a Heart anymore. Of ( Read more... )

The borders are finally open. And no major crises occurred, no huge disasters narrowly averted. Just the weird reactions of the landscape, houses popping up where there weren't any before, trees and rocks and bushes out of nowhere. It's a little worrying, but then, maybe this is how the Deck copes with a sudden population expansion. Maybe once ( Read more... )

Clive had developed a schedule that suited him when it came to running the Suit. He spent the morning in the office, for briefings. Lunch was in the same dinning hall as most everyone else, and then his afternoons were spent checking in on various departments and chatting with people as they went about their day. Being...personable, as it were ( Read more... )

He was supposed to be back in Montréal before the new year. He had accepted missing exams in a (comparatively) calm sort of fashion--had worked out sitting them from home, gotten a Wisconsin doctor's stationary for Caleb to sign off on his terrible terrible 'mono ( Read more... )

Hadyn didn't want to apologize, but the truth was that Bond made a poor substitute for Elisha. He was cuddly, yes, but the puppy was...well a dog. And he was rather silent about a lot of things, which was an advantage when angry- not with anything else. So after rehearsals and doing his duty as the Ambassador to the Spades ( Read more... )

Avery surreptiously slipped her shoes off and flexed her feet - hours in heels last night, being subject to Cynric's every whim (and Cynric had interesting whims) had done a number on her feet, and she'd like to just be soaking them while she read a book. But there was always work to be done, wasn't there? She'd ordered the event planning staff to ( Read more... )

There will be an election, yes.With the King and Queen understandably preoccupied with the current problems in the Deck - and frankly, Avery's more than concerned herself - it falls to the other two Diamond Faces to keep everyone calm with Business as Usual. And it's December, which means Business As Usual means the lavish winter celebration they ( Read more... )