The ambassadorial delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy has just been enriched by the arrival of not one, but two new delegates, apparently by direct order of the Monarch. This has been the cause of great celebration for the members of the delegation already present, as the newcomers are not merely not strangers, but old friends. So it gives me great pleasure to announce the happy arrival of Sir Winidavefred and Lady Artemisia Lapis-Lyme.
Those who read this blog are probably quite familiar with the heroic saga of Angel Joe and his withstanding of dire torture at the hands of the evil Ebenezer Popcorn, dictator of the Wild Fascist Dictatorship. You will recall that Angel Joe and his partner in the field, Winidavefred the badger, daringly penetrated the enemy stronghold in order to steal back vital documents which, had they remained in enemy hands, would have put the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy in gravest peril. But they were unable to both sneak away undetected, so Angel Joe bravely allowed himself to be captured so that Winidavefred could escape with the documents, and underwent all sorts of grim torture until the Monarchy's best agents could recover him.
Well, now Angel Joe and Winidavefred are on leave from active duty, to allow them to recover from their harrowing experience, and they've both been knighted for their heroism, and... as of last night, they have been happily reunited with each other, as it was decided that since they were both on leave anyway, they might as well be posted together.
So Winidavefred the badger has joined us here in the Greater New Jersey chapter of the Wild Republic. He's not on medical leave - technically I think he's on "personal" leave - and will apparently be helping Nicodemus, the official Administrative Liaison, from time to time, but primarily he's here to hang out with Angel Joe. They'd been partners in the field for so long, and trusted each other so implicitly, that they'd really missed each other.
You might ask why, given that Angel Joe has perked up considerably since Winidavefred got here, the Monarchy didn't think of this before; but actually they had good reason. Winidavefred, you see, felt absolutely terrible about having to leave his friend behind - in fact, he would have much rather preferred being the one to stay and take the torture. They had to draw straws to determine who would go, because both of them felt this way. So it was incredibly hard for him to see Angel Joe at the height of his infirmity. For his part, Angel Joe felt a lot of conflicting emotions: genuine gratitude, because by all accounts Winidavefred moved hell to get his friend rescued as soon as possible; relief that he had spared Winidavefred the same treatment; and yet some understandable anger. It seemed best to separate them until they'd both recovered a bit from their ordeal.
Now they're doing much better, and they feel only relief in seeing each other again. Their reunion was incredibly poignant; I know I wasn't the only one with tears in my eyes watching it. (Sithri was so overcome by emotion that she fainted, but of course she's an opera diva and she does that sort of thing a lot, when she's not inhaling Skandar.)
They're probably going to spend the next few days alone catching up, and everyone agrees that this is important and that the kittens and baby polar bears and Beppe need to be kept away from them if possible, despite the clear curiosity Beppe in particular feels towards this new hero. This is likely to be successful in the case of the kittens, at least, thanks to the identity of the other new arrival.
Lady Artemisia Lapis-Lyme has not previously been mentioned on this blog, but she is best described as "something else." She is a caracal, and she has been Lady Faraday's best friend ever since they were roommates at school; this could and perhaps should have gone horribly wrong, as Lady Faraday was clearly intended to be the Good Influence on Lady Artemisia, who was something of a hellion. But in fact they got on swimmingly, even if Lady Faraday was always having to bail her friend out of some sort of ridiculous scrape or other.
Like Lady Faraday, Lady Artemisia is the daughter of an earl, in her case the Earl of Kereswicke. The Earls of Kereswicke are the highest-ranked noble caracal family in the entire Wild Parliamentary Monarchy, so she is an august personage indeed. On her mother's side, she's descended from the Tarragon family; the Tarragon family isn't noble, but they're very wealthy and very influential.
In many respects, Lady Artemisia is to Lady Faraday what Magick is to Sir Tristan: she's the one prone to getting into trouble, and she's the one who has clearly been around the block a few times. You can tell just by looking at her that she is one tough cat. By all accounts, she's quite brilliant - Lady Faraday once told me that the only reason Lady Artemisia wasn't expelled from their school (the way she had been from no less than six others) was that the headmistress was impressed by her genuine intellectual curiosity and became convinced she was just too intelligent for her intellect to go to waste. (Apparently, Lady Artemisia is particularly gifted in mathematics.) And, again like Magick, it's not really quite clear what she is doing here. She is known to work for the Foreign Office, but the capacity of her employment is unclear, particularly as this is her first non-domestic posting - unlike Magick. And, again unlike Magick, her arrival does not correspond to any sort of Unfortunate Incident; she has a reputation for being a hellion, but not for being particularly scandalous otherwise, and she doesn't seem to have been sent here for disciplinary reasons.
Her arrival, therefore, raises some interesting questions. Why is she here? Does her presence here have anything to do with Magick's? Did they really send Winidavefred just for Angel Joe's sake, or is something else afoot? Why is Murchison taking a particular interest in this new arrival? I really have no idea. I mean, I still haven't figured out what Magick is doing here, and apparently the plot is already thickening.
So... the other thing is, we now have a female feline with us who is not affiliated with any of the males. Gasp. There is so much potential for disaster here. Lady Faraday keeps trying to stop herself from smirking, and I can't say I really blame her. I'm actually not so worried about Magick - he and Lady Artemisia have known each other forever and are good friends, and if they get up to anything, I suspect no one will get hurt by it. But... then there's all the others. Who knows what will happen.
But anyway, the local chapter is now happily enriched by two individuals who are old friends of someone or other, and while there is some potential for complications, on the whole everything seems to be pretty good.
Well, now Angel Joe and Winidavefred are on leave from active duty, to allow them to recover from their harrowing experience, and they've both been knighted for their heroism, and... as of last night, they have been happily reunited with each other, as it was decided that since they were both on leave anyway, they might as well be posted together.
So Winidavefred the badger has joined us here in the Greater New Jersey chapter of the Wild Republic. He's not on medical leave - technically I think he's on "personal" leave - and will apparently be helping Nicodemus, the official Administrative Liaison, from time to time, but primarily he's here to hang out with Angel Joe. They'd been partners in the field for so long, and trusted each other so implicitly, that they'd really missed each other.
You might ask why, given that Angel Joe has perked up considerably since Winidavefred got here, the Monarchy didn't think of this before; but actually they had good reason. Winidavefred, you see, felt absolutely terrible about having to leave his friend behind - in fact, he would have much rather preferred being the one to stay and take the torture. They had to draw straws to determine who would go, because both of them felt this way. So it was incredibly hard for him to see Angel Joe at the height of his infirmity. For his part, Angel Joe felt a lot of conflicting emotions: genuine gratitude, because by all accounts Winidavefred moved hell to get his friend rescued as soon as possible; relief that he had spared Winidavefred the same treatment; and yet some understandable anger. It seemed best to separate them until they'd both recovered a bit from their ordeal.
Now they're doing much better, and they feel only relief in seeing each other again. Their reunion was incredibly poignant; I know I wasn't the only one with tears in my eyes watching it. (Sithri was so overcome by emotion that she fainted, but of course she's an opera diva and she does that sort of thing a lot, when she's not inhaling Skandar.)
They're probably going to spend the next few days alone catching up, and everyone agrees that this is important and that the kittens and baby polar bears and Beppe need to be kept away from them if possible, despite the clear curiosity Beppe in particular feels towards this new hero. This is likely to be successful in the case of the kittens, at least, thanks to the identity of the other new arrival.
Lady Artemisia Lapis-Lyme has not previously been mentioned on this blog, but she is best described as "something else." She is a caracal, and she has been Lady Faraday's best friend ever since they were roommates at school; this could and perhaps should have gone horribly wrong, as Lady Faraday was clearly intended to be the Good Influence on Lady Artemisia, who was something of a hellion. But in fact they got on swimmingly, even if Lady Faraday was always having to bail her friend out of some sort of ridiculous scrape or other.
Like Lady Faraday, Lady Artemisia is the daughter of an earl, in her case the Earl of Kereswicke. The Earls of Kereswicke are the highest-ranked noble caracal family in the entire Wild Parliamentary Monarchy, so she is an august personage indeed. On her mother's side, she's descended from the Tarragon family; the Tarragon family isn't noble, but they're very wealthy and very influential.
In many respects, Lady Artemisia is to Lady Faraday what Magick is to Sir Tristan: she's the one prone to getting into trouble, and she's the one who has clearly been around the block a few times. You can tell just by looking at her that she is one tough cat. By all accounts, she's quite brilliant - Lady Faraday once told me that the only reason Lady Artemisia wasn't expelled from their school (the way she had been from no less than six others) was that the headmistress was impressed by her genuine intellectual curiosity and became convinced she was just too intelligent for her intellect to go to waste. (Apparently, Lady Artemisia is particularly gifted in mathematics.) And, again like Magick, it's not really quite clear what she is doing here. She is known to work for the Foreign Office, but the capacity of her employment is unclear, particularly as this is her first non-domestic posting - unlike Magick. And, again unlike Magick, her arrival does not correspond to any sort of Unfortunate Incident; she has a reputation for being a hellion, but not for being particularly scandalous otherwise, and she doesn't seem to have been sent here for disciplinary reasons.
Her arrival, therefore, raises some interesting questions. Why is she here? Does her presence here have anything to do with Magick's? Did they really send Winidavefred just for Angel Joe's sake, or is something else afoot? Why is Murchison taking a particular interest in this new arrival? I really have no idea. I mean, I still haven't figured out what Magick is doing here, and apparently the plot is already thickening.
So... the other thing is, we now have a female feline with us who is not affiliated with any of the males. Gasp. There is so much potential for disaster here. Lady Faraday keeps trying to stop herself from smirking, and I can't say I really blame her. I'm actually not so worried about Magick - he and Lady Artemisia have known each other forever and are good friends, and if they get up to anything, I suspect no one will get hurt by it. But... then there's all the others. Who knows what will happen.
But anyway, the local chapter is now happily enriched by two individuals who are old friends of someone or other, and while there is some potential for complications, on the whole everything seems to be pretty good.
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