Gathering Up the Court Saturday (30 Aug 2001) Tom, Alice, Elinor and Simon link up to do some investigating.

The Winthrope Household
A moderately sized two-story home that sits far back on a wooded lot on the edge of town. It has been painted ivory, with a trim of dark brown, and numerous windows of the classic sliding frame sorts adorn the upper floor, two per room, with much the same for the lower floor save for one large bay window. A full covered porch spans the front, complete with a swing hanging from two chains. Some oak and pine trees surround the house, one practically close enough to brush the house with its leaves.

The front door swings open and a dark haired kid walks out. Holding the door open, he shouts back into the house, "I'm going out for a bit and do some hiking. I'll be back before dark." A muffled response replies to his statement and Tom releases the door, letting it close. He trundles down the porch stairs and onto the path leading out to the sidewalk. Tom whistles as he walks, backpack over his shoulder. As he looks ahead, his eyes catch a familiar someone walking up the sidewalk and his whistling stops. Alice? What's she doing out this way? he wonders.

Up the way the familiar sight of the blonde-haired little girl can be seen walking in his direction. She's wearing one of her usual outfits, the ones that tend to be too nice for all the inevitable games the group plays, and in her right hand next to the purse that dangles from her shoulder is a brown paper bag. The girl seems to notice him, and she waves in greeting while calling out, "Hi, Tommy!"

Tom waves toward Alice. "Hey, Alice," he calls out. "What brings you out this way? You're not lost, are you?

"No! I'm not lost," answers the little girl. She lifts a the brown paper bag for Thomas to see as she makes her way over to him. "I brought you some cookies."

Tom quits walking and shifts the pack on his shoulder. "You brought me cookies?" he asks, sounding disbelieving. He shifts from foot to foot, watching her approach and says, "That's nice of you. Um, how come you brought them?"

The young Westfield lowers the bag and peers down in to it, takes up a cookies, and offers it to Thomas. They're fanciful shaped cookies -- dragons, snow men, and others. Though hardly fearsome despite the creatures they represent they are made even less so by the pink and blue frosting and carefully done smiley faces drawn on them in yet more frosting. "I wanted to say I'm sorry for being mean."

Tom takes the offered cookie and looks at it. He stifles a giggle at the smiley faces and looks at Alice. "Oh. Well, I completely forget if you were ever mean. I should apologize to you, really. I shouldn't have discounted everything you said so ... gruffly," says Thomas.

Alice takes a cookie out as well, holding it in both hands as she nibbles on it and then looks up. "I didn't really mean you were a monster. I was just ... just, well, upset you never listen to me. But I don't hate you," she explains.

Tom takes a bite out of the cookie, pausing when the sugar in the icing hits him. "Oh, that," says Thomas, "Well, I probably deserved it. I have to admit, something was going on. I just don't know what. I guess I shouldn't have discounted any possibilities so rudely."

She nods a little. "I don't know what's going on either, but I think it's ... it's magical and it's ... maybe our fault? Mr. Kuning told me we can play whatever we want and believing it maybe makes it real." She takes another bite of cookie.

A black cat yawns from where it is curled up on top of a rock, then sits up and looks over to Tom, smacking its chops. It sniffs at the air inquisitively.

Tom chomps the cookie and chews thoughtfully. After he swallows, he says, "Well, something is going on. What, I don't know but I intend to find out." He glances over at the cat. "Sorry, Shadow, no cookie for you. You know you don't get human food." He turns back to the little girl. "The first thing we need to uncover, is the 'Lord Mel' business. It all seemed to start with that."

Shadow drops his head at Tom's words, ears flipping back, but they perk forward again in a moment. The cat hops from the porch and pads over to the pair, rubbing against Tom's ankles before tilting his head back to look at the boy's face. Or, perhaps, at his cookie.

"Oooo, is this your kitty?" as Alice, suddenly distracted. She turns and peers over at the cat, leaning over a little. "Well Lord Mel has been with me today, but I left him at home for a few days before. I didn't want him getting all wet on our voyage. Lord Mel doesn't like water. It makes his mane all smooshed."

Tom covers his cookie. "Now Shadow," begins Tom, "you know better." Protectively, he bites his cookie and nods. "That's Shadow. He's sneaky and thinks by being cute, he'll get food." He reaches down and pets the cat, holding the cookie over his head. "Well, I want to go back to the place you first saw him sometime. Perhaps we can find some trails or something leading to what you saw."

The feline purrs at Thomas, butting his head against the boy's hand affectionately. When it appears that food is not forthcoming, Shadow switches his attention to Alice. He pushes his forepaws off the ground to stand on hiscrouched hind legs, arching his neck in an effort to put his head on level with the young girl's face as she bends to look at him.

"See?" comments Tom.

Alice lowers herself a bit, brushing her dress carefully out of the way to avoid most of it touching the sidewalk. She reaches out and pets the kitty enthusiastically. "You mean when he came and he was bigger, to scare away the jruuh?But, Lord Mel was with me." Her left hand, which now holds the bag, reaches over to pat her purse where Lord Mel resides -- his head poking out through the unzipped half of the purse.

"Well, if that was Lord Mel. Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't. We need to find out. It's the start of answers. And if anything, maybe we'll find Ryland or more about the jruuh," says Thomas.

At the touch of the girl's hand, the cat drops back to all fours. Shadow seems to enjoy the petting for a moment, but he flattens lower and lower to the ground underneath the weight of her enthusiasm for the activity, his ears laid back against his head.

"Oh! Well okay. I'd like to talk to Mr. Avarre some more too. He's kind of hard to understand, but the riddles are fun. I wonder if he's related to the exchanged student Elinor?" The idea makes her giggle, and she covers her mouth with her hand for a moment as she does so before resuming petting the cat. "When do you want to go look?"

Tom hmms. "Good question, really. I'm not sure. Probably the sooner, the better. I've also thought about building us a fort somewhere where we can keep notes and maps and such. I don't think our parents would like knowing about us climbing through caves and such."

Shadow looks momentarily relieved when Alice takes her hand away, and takes a couple of paces away before she traps him under her cheerful caresses once again. He mewls.

Tom frowns. "Careful. When he flattens his ears like that, he's getting annoyed and might swat. Petting him too hard can make him grumpy."

Alice blinks, then stands up again. She ceases to pet the cat and resumes paying full attention to Thomas. "I'm ready to go look when you are. I can bring all the cookies with us, my mom made them for us anyway."

"Oh, you're just fine, Shadow," he says, reaching down to pet the cat's head. As he lightly pets Shadow, he looks up at Alice. "You want to go now? Well, I suppose we could. Do you remember where you first saw him?"

The cat arches his head against Tom's rubbing, then slips out from underneath his hand to curl around Alice's ankles, purring.

"Um," the girl pauses, as if considering a moment, "well I kind of was falling down the hill, so it was hard to see where I was, but I think Lord Mel came and saved me at the bottom of the hill next to the old mine. You know, the spooky one that's really the Siege of Stone and Wat-" The girl's response is broken by a sudden trail of giggles as the cat rubs against her ankles. "I mean, Stone and Water."

"Yeah, it was near the old cave. There is an old mine further away though, I think, hrm," Thomas replies. "Do you think any of the others might want to go?" he asks, then laughs as he watches Shadow curl around Alice's feet. "See? He's strange," He comments.

Shadow mewls again, and flops over on his side, on top of Alice's feet, his head upside down against the ground. On anything but a cat, it would like a dreadfully uncomfortable position.

"Kitties are all strange, but they're also cute," says Alice. She reaches down to pet the kitty again, and this time does it with less enthusiasm so as it would seem not to rile the feline again. "I think maybe ... Simon, Elinor, and Agatha might want to come? I don't know if they're busy or not, but we can go ask."

The feline tolerates her attentions with better grace this time, even favoring her with a purr.

Tom nods. "Or maybe they have other ideas they'd like to do. I don't want to force them into wandering off on one of my tangents of curiosity if they don't want to go. C'mon, we should probably go find them, then, and see. The day isn't going to pause and wait for us to get around to it," says Thomas. He glances at the cat. "Though, I think Shadow has ideas of how you should spend your day, hee."

Shadow does his catly best to keep Alice's feet pinned under his vast bulk ... all ten pounds or so of him.

The little girl giggles at that, too. "Poor kitty. I have to go now!" With one last pet the girl rises and straightens, dusting her dress off with a hand before looking back down the way she came. "Well let's go ask. My mom says I don't have to be home 'til later, so I'm okay."

Tom nods. "My folks know I'm gonna be out for awhile so it's okay here too." He reaches down and pets Shadow. "Now, be good while I'm gone, okay?" He stands and shifts his pack again. "Well, off to find the others, then." He resumes walking toward, then on the sidewalk, glancing back to make sure Alice is following.

It takes the girl a moment to get going, being trapped as she is. Carefully she eases her shoes out from under the feline, saying words of apology as she does so. Finally when she is free she waves to the kitty and turns to follow Thomas. "Ready Tommy," she announces, cheerfully and cat-free.

Tom walks off with Alice, explaining, "You see, that's what's called a cat-trap ... "

A disgruntled-looking Shadow rolls in the dust of the sidewalk behind them. He sniffs, then rolls to his feet to pad after the two humans, mewling.

Alice glances back, watching as she tells Thomas, "Your kitty is following us. Can I pick him up and take him along?"

Tom says, grudgingly, "Well, if you help keep an eye on him. I don't want him getting lost." He hrms. "Perhaps he might even help. They do have better hearing than we do. Might be able to hear things coming while we look." He then adds, "Then again, he might also just play with leaves."

Shadow certainly looks like he can come along. He stands next to Alice and looks to her expectantly.

"Okay." The girl offers Thomas the bag of cookies before going to scoop Shadow up.

The cat squirms a good deal in Alice's arms, making him an unwieldy burden, but eventually he gets comfortable, nestling his head under her chin and purring.

Tom takes the bag and grins. "And I'll apologize now -- he's gonna shed on that dress," says Thomas.

The girl listens to the rumbling against her chest, putting an ear to the kitty for a moment. "Like an engine -- that's what my daddy always said," she notes. She just smiles to the apology. "Oh it's okay. If we're going in to the woods again it will probably get dirty anyway. Let's go?"

Tom nods. "Let's go!"

A stop at the Travison house yields one Ruritanian girl in short order. She smiles at the pair of them. "Mr. and Mrs. Travison say that they heard from Rebecca last night," she tells them. "She said she sent letters to you both. But it is too costly for her to call you all."

"Really? We haven't seen the letters yet. Did she they say when she sent them?" Thomas asks. "And oh, we're here to go off and try to uncover what's been going on. We're going back to the beginning, where the first odd things happened to see if we can find a clue. Interested in going?" asks Thomas.

"Oh! Letters! I'll have to write her then. My mom knows how to write lots of letters because she's a nurse, so I bet she can help me," says Alice excitedly. She edges a hand out to accept the letter if Elinor has it, but finds her hands to full for that in short order and retracts the hand quickly to steady the cat. "Wanna pet Shadow?"

"I do not think she said, but I thought only recently." She shies back from the cat, looking hesitant at Alice's offer. "I could ask Mrs. Travison, if you like. And yes, I would like to join you, wherever you are going." Elinor looks away from the feline to smile at Thomas.

Tom reaches over and scratches Shadow's head. "Don't like cats?" asks Thomas. "He's harmless, but sneaky. If you have food, he's your best friend," he says.

"He's not a mean shadow like the jruuh. Well, only if you pet him the wrong way anyway. But he can't have a cookie so he's grumpy," explains the blonde.

Tom holds out the bag. "Which reminds me, want a cookie?"

Alice nods, saying, "My mom baked them when she was off work. They're monster cookies with lots of frosting."

The dark-haired girl shakes her head, one lock slipping free from her ribbon to droop against her cheek. "No ... I am not much fond of cats," she says. She extends a hand towards Shadow tentatively, but he lays back his ears and hisses at her, and she withdraws it. Elinor draws her hand back quickly, glancing to Tom. She smiles a little again. "I like birds better ... and cats eat birds. But I would like a cookie, thank you."

"Shadow!" chastises Thomas, "You know better than to act like that. Elinor's a very nice person."

The blonde tries to calm the kitty in her arms with a bit of petting. "You should listen to Tommy. Elinor is very nice and you should be nice, too," the girl tells the feline.

The grumpy cat climbs onto Alice's shoulder, resting the top of his head in the curve of her neck, purring at her and closing his eyes, ignoring the Ruritanian girl.

"It is only in his nature, I think, Thomas," Elinor says. "Shall we go find Simon and Agatha?"

Tom nods to Elinor. "Yeah, we should. You can see the weird place where all this began.

Alice looks somewhat guilty regardless, nature of cats or no. She continues to pet the feline anyway and nods to the idea of finding the others.

The Lefallons live in a rather run-down little place, off to the southeast past the old church. A knock on the door yields a surly looking old man in a T-shirt that fails to hide his beer belly, and patched slacks. "Yeah? Oh, you want Simon? He's grounded, can't go out with his friends. Don't want him burning any more boats." Unseen from the doorway however, Simon's head sticks out from a window and a hand waves to the others.

Elinor winces at the portly man's refusal. She steps out ofthe line of sight of the adult, and waves back to Simon surreptitiously.

Tom keeps his mouth shut, not wanting to get Simon in any more trouble. "I see," is all he says and turns to the others. "Well, looks like Simon is out. Shall try and find Agatha?"

"Okay, sorry, Mr. Lefallon," says Alice to the adult. Sheglances towards the window, moves to wave but stops as she seem to think better of it, then steps from the doorway. "Agatha? Okay."

The uncle grunts and slams the door closed, grumbling something unintelligible, which features the words "kids" and "trouble".

After Mr. Lefallon leaves them standing alone on the porch, Elinor lets out her breath in a sigh. "Poor Simon," she murmurs, glancing back to his face in the window. "Maybe we could sneak him out?"

Tom nods. "Simon always did grumble about his uncle, now I see why. Man, jerk." He smiles at Elinor. "We probably could sneak him out, but what about getting him back? His uncle would surely notice him gone, and when he got home ... ow."

Simon looks after the others worriedly, glancing back at what must be the door to his room.

The little blonde looks up to the window and waves to Simon, too. "I don't know. Mr. Lefallon seems really grumpy. We don't want to get Simon in more trouble," she offers.

Tom waves to Simon and shrugs, unsure of what to do for the poor guy.

"I do not know. I do not think he notices Simon at all, except as an inconvenience," Elinor says, a grim expression on her face.

Shadow mewls languidly, lolling in Alice's arms. "Perhaps we should ask Simon," the Ruritanian suggests, tiptoeing cautiously to his window.

Tom follows Elinor over to the window, staying slightly back. He leans back and whispers at Alice, "Dang, she's worse than me. I don't know if I'd want to mess with the great blob."

Alice follows, cat and all. She shifts her arms a bit to help accommodate the lounging feline and takes some more time to pet him, ear propped against the black cat so she can listen to him purr again. She suddenly giggles at Thomas's comment, but then gives him a half-hearted accusing so as to at least appear to protest the remark just a bit.

"It has been more than a week since we seared the boat," Elinor says, stoutly. "He did no more wrong than any of the rest of us -- why should his punishment be so much greater than that of the rest of us?"

Simon looks about to say something, as they approach, then whispers, "Where are you guys going? My uncle grounded me a week ago, and it should be up by now, but he's being ... " He shakes his head.

"Drunk? A jerk? Mean?" offers Thomas.

"I wish Simon could live with us. My mom and dad are busy, but I could take care of him. I can cook and he could share a room. He wouldn't have to live with mean Mr. Lefallon," Alice says, sadness tinged concern in her voice.

Tom grins and shrugs, explaining, "Sorry. We're off to try and figure out what the heck is going on. I thought we should go back to where it began, up near the cave. Maybe we can find some evidence or clues up there, near where Lord Mel was first seen."

"Will your uncle notice if you are gone, Simon?" Elinor asks, glancing to Alice as if in sympathy for her offer.

Alice smiles a little in return to Elinor for a moment before she returns to watch Simon at his window.

"Keep it down," Simon hisses. "I can handle my uncle. He'll forget I'm grounded in a while if I don't mention it, but next time, just bounce a pebble off my window, okay? Sure, I'm up for that." He grins wryly.

The black-haired girl looks abashed. She backs away from the window, heading for the sidewalk so she won't be so conspicuous.

Tom looks around. "What time do you need to be back by to make sure he doesn't notice?" He also steps away from the window some, watching Elinor head toward the sidewalk briefly. He reaches out, hoping to catch her shoulder before she gets too far.

Glancing between Simon and the black haired exchange student, Alice seems to get the idea and so tags along after Elinor with cat in hand.

Shadow gets tired of lolling in Alice's arms and squirms out, plopping down to sprawl on the sidewalk, a boneless black-furred mass. He leans his side against Alice's ankles and purrs.

Alice lowers herself to balance on toes, knees tucked, so she can pet the cat more fully at the sidewalk and watch the goings on at the window.

Simon glances out at the sun. "I should be back before dinner," he whispers. "As long as I'm here when my uncle expects me to be, I'll be fine. Right?" He winks.

Tom nods, facing away from the window after Simon speaks. "Well, c'mon, then," he whispers, and steps further away from the window. He glances down at Alice. "Hey, Shadow doing okay?"

The littlest of the two girls peers down at the feline. "Are you okay?" she asks it, still petting.

Tom just looks at Alice oddly.

The little boy clambers through the window, leaving a ruler to prop it open. "Whew! I thought I'd never see you guys again. A week seemed like forever."

The cat mews at Alice, and butts his nose against hers.

Elinor crosses her arms over her chest, glancing at the cat for a moment, and then she smiles at Simon. "We have missed you, as well. The court is not the same without you."

Alice giggles all over again, and leans a little more forward to nose butt back. "I think Shadow says he's just fine, but he still wants a cookie," answers the blonde.

Tom elbows Simon lightly. "Been quiet without having you around. Why, I think I've regained some sense of music, not having to be regaled with your ballads." He grins and winks at Simon. "I'll keep a look at the sky, when it starts to get near dinner, I'll let you know." He then grins down at Alice. "Well, he still can't have one."

After another mew, Shadow goes to investigate Simon. Maybe he will have a cookie for the cat.

Simon oofs, then reaches down to pet Shadow. "Your cat, Tom? Why aren't we giving him a cookie?"

"Nope! No cookie, they're bad for animals," agrees Alice. She stands up again and waves to Simon. "Hi, Simon. I'm sorry about your getting in trouble and all, and you can have a cookie if you want one."

Tom's cat purrs energetically for Simon, rubbing against his hand and butting his nose into the boy's palm. Apparently the court jester really knows how to pet a cat.

Tom raises an eyebrow. "Yep, my cat. And because, cats do not eat cookies. He always does that. If a person eats it, it must be good for a cat. Hmph."

"If you offered him a cookie, he probably would not even want it," Elinor adds, supporting Thomas.

Tom nods to Elinor. "Probably. Once he can get it without a struggle, it's not as interesting anymore."

Simon obliges the cat with scratches behind the ears and under the chin. "Well, there you go, if you want him to stop bothering you for a cookie, give him one. It's that simple!"

Tom elbows Simon. "You're encouraging him!"

"And?" the little boy says, grinning as he comically sways his arms off-balance, then recovers.

"Not like dogs, though. They'll eat anything at all. But they shouldn't have a cookie either." The blonde takes a moment to dust herself off again, and then moves to dig in her purse some. "Um, we should probably get going. It would be bad if Mr. Lefallon saw us standing out here together."

The cat twines his way around Simon's ankles while the small boy is distracted by the other humans. Elinor nods to Alice. "You are right. We should find Agatha, in any case."

With that, the dark-haired girl slips away from the house. She moves with a natural stealth, surprisingly quiet as she leaves the area of Lefallon's home.

Alice tags along after the black-haired girl once again, much like she tended to follow Rebecca around.

Tom hefts up the cat, ignoring the mewing protests. "Yeah, let's go," he says, pausing to watch Elinor sneak off, impressed. He shakes his head briefly and follows.

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This site serves as a chronicle of sessions in an online roleplaying campaign moderated by Conrad "Lynx" Wong and May "Rowan" Wasserman. The contents of this site are (c) 2001, 2002 by Conrad Wong and May Wasserman except where stated otherwise. Despite the "children's fantasy" theme of this campaign, this site is not intended for young readership, due to mild language and violence.