Mazel tov!

After seven years as a couple (a few of them long-distance) and one near-breakup caused by a certain penguin's less-than-perfect performance as postmaster, Sir Tristan and Lady Faraday are officially engaged!

Unfortunately, I missed the proposal, because I was off playing a socially-challenged bishonen sorcerer in a game of Exalted.  But I'm told that it was incredibly romantic, and that Lady Faraday got down on three knees and everything.  Apparently they'd been talking about marriage for a while, but the proposal itself was a surprise for Sir Tristan.

There may or may not be pictures of this.  It's less than clear, because the engagement party was quite an event.  I got home while it was still going on; Magick was making cocktails and pretty much everyone was totally wasted except for him and, ironically, the happy couple (who do look really, really happy).  Lady Artemisia might have taken pictures, but she's looking like she might be out for a while.

Lady Faraday says that they haven't set a wedding date yet, but they're not intending to have a very long engagement, so probably it will be within the year.  They haven't decided whether to be married here or to go back home briefly so that their families can attend.

A Bored Libertine

So Magick is bored.  Extremely bored.

Few things aggravate Magick more than monotony. There's a higher-than-chance probability that this is directly relevant to a certain poker game that took place not long ago.

It's not entirely clear why Magick is with this delegation at all.  There's some sort of mystery surrounding it.  We more than suspect that he's involved in covert operations (although everyone is too polite to inquire directly), but from hints that some of the others (mostly Nicky) have let slip, we've concluded that this does not explain why he is here as opposed to somewhere else, because there seems to be some sort of scandal connected with his current job.

This explains a number of things, actually.  Magick likes challenges and action; this sort of job, which mostly limits him to hanging around a group of colourful but largely sedentary characters, is clearly not well-suited to his temperament or abilities.  Sure, Murchison is here, and they clearly have a working history of some kind, and it's probable that Murchison's presence is a partial explanation for Magick's... but only a partial.  Magick is quite obviously wasted here, and he knows it.

From what Nicky's let slip, we suspect that there's a female involved here.  Magick's reputation with the fairer stuff is quite notorious.  Not that this is surprising, given his rank, his looks, and his innumerable talents.  According to Sir Tristan, female felines have never been able to resist Magick, and he's never been able to resist them either, even the ones he really should resist.  So our current working hypothesis is that he got a bit too intimate with the wife of the wrong cat.

If females are indeed the source of Magick's current exile, he's paying for it now, because there are virtually no females here, and definitely no available ones.  Lady Faraday is his best friend's girlfriend, and anyway that boat has long since sailed; there's no interest on either side.  Sithri is quite firmly attached to Skandar, such that it would likely require surgery to detach her, and Skandar gets pretty possessive whenever Magick is around.  Magick and Sithri actually have some sort of history together, although it's not clear whether he was involved with Sithri herself or with her sister-cum-rival-cum-best-friend Smitra or with both of them; whatever happened appears to have ended badly.  I don't really know what would have happened had Skandar not been around to keep Magick away, but from the sound of it, history is unlikely to repeat itself.

This leaves Skwidjit the grey cat, who spends most of her time on AJD's window, often on top of the A/C.  She's not really his type at all, but she's the closest thing to an available female cat on the premises, so Magick can often be found checking her out anyway.  He's been here long enough without putting any moves on her that I don't think he's going to, but checking her out appears to alleviate his boredom somewhat.  She doesn't seem to mind; he's not her type either (she told me once that she fancies ginger toms), but she finds the attention flattering.

This arrangement is less satisfying to one member of the Wild Republic, for whom one really must have sympathies.

Poor Mahler.  He's had a crush on Skwidjit ever since he got here, and seeing Magick - his idol and hero - with her apparently in his sights... well, that's shot all his hopes to pieces.  Never mind that he's much too young and callow for her, nor that she showed no signs of returning his interest before Magick got here... nor that in all honesty Mahler's reasons for being interested in her are probably not that different from Magick's, in that he's a horny adolescent and she's the only available female around.  Mahler is all gooey over Skwidjit in the way that only adolescent males can be.  He probably writes her poetry in secret and everything.  So he's been pretty mopey over the whole thing.

The only other female around here is me, and, well, I'm not a cat, so the chemistry just isn't there. 

Magick and I get along pretty well, I have to say, and he has a lot of the qualities that attract me in a man, and I appear to have a lot of the qualities that attract him in a female... but I'm not a furry and Magick prefers his females fluffier and with more pairs of breasts, and these are obstacles neither of us can get past.  If he were a guy or I were a leopardess we'd totally run off together, but we're not.

So the upshot of this is, Magick is really bored, and much as I love having him around, I do hope for his sake that whatever scandal he's been sent away to avoid resolves itself with due haste so that he can get back to doing things he finds more fulfilling.

Magick's Fan Club

Jasper's arrival was a huge relief to the entire local chapter, because it effectively put an end to the kittens' running about wrecking havoc because no one was looking after them.  Several residents were, as I have mentioned, particularly relieved.  Alfredo is relieved because he needn't be quite so worried about them causing great offence.  Stal is relieved because he felt like it was his fault they were so unruly even though it wasn't.  Lady Faraday is relieved because she can do her real job without feeling an urge to intervene.  All of this I've mentioned before.  What I hadn't mentioned before is that there is one other highly relieved party, namely Magick.

One can't really blame the kittens for idolising Magick.  He's what all young male cats want to grow up to be: dangerous, suave, brilliant, successful with the ladies, you name it.  So it's not really surprising that immediately upon his arrival, they started hounding him.

This is such a typical moment, I can't tell you. Mahler, Navarre, and Rusty are the most persistent; Cami, being the shyest, hangs back a lot.  Mahler gets close to him, mimic his every movement and manner of speech (down to the accent, I'm afraid), and try to show just how cool and impressive he is; Khamsin pesters him with questions; Rusty and Navarre alternate between behaving like Mahler and behaving like Khamsin; Flurry just sort of rubs against him a lot and makes excited noises; and Cami stares at him shyly with mute hero-worship in his eyes.

Magick is actually rather fond of them, but it's rather hard to conduct one's business - particularly when a large portion of said business involves being mysterious - with a pack of kittens shadowing you around everywhere.  He's much too well-bred to be rude to them, but they're kind of hard to discourage, and the whole experience was extremely embarrassing.  A lot of the time Magick would be reduced to pacing around the room with his entourage in tow until another of the adults took pity on him and swooped in with something else for the kittens to do.  

So quite possibly Magick is the person most relieved by Jasper's arrival.  He certainly made a point of befriending Jasper from the start.  Of course, they're both leopards, both intelligent, and both good at sparring, so they'd probably have been friends anyway; but Magick's gratitude at Jasper's existence helped break the ice.  Magick's a great guy, but he's not normally quite so gregarious.

Pedro's Working Vacation

Pedro recently took his turn in the south room, having earned a bit of respite from kittenish antics.  It proved to be a working vacation, but I would like to stress that this was entirely Pedro's own idea; no one pushed him to work while he was off.

This was Pedro's first tour of south room duty, which meant that it was his first encounter with Sleepyhead.  All of Pedro's medical instincts went into red alert when he realised just how much sleeping Sleepyhead does on a typical day.  'No healthy panda ought to sleep this much,' he informed me, and immediately set about trying to get to the bottom of this.

Sleepyhead, however, is not a particularly cooperative patient.  He'd apparently decided that he wanted to sleep on the floor between my mattress and the nearest bookcase, and he had himself wedged in there pretty good, with the result that there was no room for Pedro to really get in there with him.  Pedro's principal technique in diagnosis involves judicious sniffing; he requires close proximity to his patients.  Naturally there was no chance that Sleepyhead would come out on his own, either, and Pedro is too small to move him around if he's not helping.  Magick was on south room duty too, but he refused to get involved, although he watched the proceedings with something suspiciously akin to amusement.

So, after grilling Seal for about twenty minutes for a full description of Sleepyhead's habits (which Seal tolerated very good-naturedly), Pedro sort of hung himself upside down over the edge of the mattress and went to work.  This must be a terribly awkward position in which to conduct medical examinations, so he deserves commendation for his devotion to his medical calling.

This is an unusually good picture of Magick.  Usually attempts to photograph him just result in a sort of Shapeless Black Void, because his fur is so very black, but this picture does a pretty good job of showing his silhouette.  A Black Void in Silhouette is much more demonstrative than a Shapeless Black Void, don't you think?

Anyway, I'm sorry to report that Pedro's efforts were largely for nothing, as he was unable to find any signs that Sleepyhead's persistent somnolence is the result of a medical condition; in fact, Pedro pronounced himself completely baffled.  His recommendation is that Sleepyhead consult a psychiatrist.  Sleepyhead, who seems perfectly satisfied with his life, is rather unlikely to do so of his own accord; but Alfredo has been lobbying for an on-site mental health professional, so if his campaign is successful, Pedro might get his way.

He's got my back

I had kind of a rough night last night, but this morning, when I woke up, I had a few moments where things were okay. 

My habitual sleeping posture is on my right side, or on my stomach deviating towards my right side, and usually curled into a semi-foetal position.  I almost never end up on my left side or my back unless I'm really having trouble sleeping.  This morning, I woke up on my right side to discover that Magick was spooning me.  He was lying against my back with his paws hooked over my left shoulder.

You know, that really felt good.  Magick is a good person to have your back like that.  You know he's got pull, and you also know that if he decides he has your back, he's not going to let you fall, and he'll be willing to fight dirty on your behalf if the situation seems to warrant it.  Nor does it hurt that any girl would love to wake up and find herself with a guy like Magick, either, or rather a human version of him.  I sure would.

So Very Aesthetic

AJD and I are still obsessed with the aesthetics of black-and-white contrasts... and now we have a zebra to add to the mix.  Ergo, when AJD caught Murchison talking to Quixley the other day, he seized the opportunity to summon Magick for a photo op, and here you are:

Imagine Murchison and Magick, charging towards each other full speed, neither intending to deviate from the inevitable collision.  They run into each other and BAM! both of them are instantly annihilated, but a zebra is created.  

Yes okay that's very silly, but, you know.

And Now For Something Completely Aesthetic

As you may recall, I really like black-and-white contrasts.  AJD spotted another good one the other day.

In addition to its aesthetic value, this picture adds to the perpetual mystery of exactly what is going on between Murchison and Magick.  Magick looks like he's bodily trying to keep Murchison away from something here, and we've been unable to determine what that may have been.  Both of them, of course, played innocent and dumb when queried.  They made up some story about Magick politely grooming Murchison's back as cats are wont to do.  Slickly told - they're both professionals - but we're not sure we buy it, given the source.

Poker Part III

When I left off the account of the poker game, Magick had just won big on a bluff, and nearly caused an International Incident in doing so when he refused to show his winning hand.  Rochester and Humphrey were  rather riled up.  Not only were their general appetites for winning whetted, but they now personally wanted to beat Magick.  As news of Magick's enigmatic victory spread around the north room, the audience for the poker match steadily grew.

The new players still had not worked out that victories are worth more if you keep the other players in the game for longer.  A few games after Magick's big victory, Rochester made the same mistake that Reggie had earlier.  He had two kings in his hand, and Reggie dealt another king on the turn.  Rochester prematurely went all in, causing all of the others to fold (except Humphrey, who had already folded).  He felt a bit vindicated, after that loss to Magick.

Remember how I said that the size of the peanut gallery was steadily increasing from the point of Magick's victory onward?  One of the newer arrivals was Gilly.  Gilly wasn't actually all that interested in the cards, but he'd worked out that the poker chips were worth something and decided to claim them all.  He's a rather mercenary little fellow, our Gilly.

It was growing pretty late now, and everyone could tell that the end of the game was drawing nearer.  Magick was dealt the queen and ten of spades, and decided to sit.  Reggie, with a pair of aces, decided to raise.  Humphrey and Rochester called; Humphrey had the ten and king of diamonds and Rochester the six and nine of diamonds.  Magick decided to go ahead and call too.

The turn produced the nine of spades, queen of hearts, and three of clubs.  This produced a holding pattern: Magick and Humphrey were looking at possible straights, but could still turn out to have dross, and Rochester now had a pair, but a low pair; Reggie's hand wasn't improved.  Then the flip yielded the eight of spades, which made things look better for Magick.  He bet six dollars; Reggie raised to ten.  The others stayed in.  Reggie's enthusiasm was significantly greater than his skill, and no one really believed Magick had anything.

Then the river prodcued the jack of spades.  Humphrey now had a straight - and Magick now had a straight flush.  He promptly went all in.

Had any of the others gone all in, everyone else probably would have folded, but no one trusted Magick.  Rochester in particular was grimly determined to stay in and force Magick out of the game. He had an even better hand this time, even though his hand wasn't particularly good.  Humphrey, with his straight, was seeing glory.  Reggie was just having fun.

So everyone went all in.

Here's a shot taken further out, so you can see just how much attention the poker game had attracted by this point in the evening.

Gilly, Barry, Desmond, Parsley, Seleucus... even Leprosy had come over by then, and Murchison was excited enough that he had moved in closer for a better view.

With everyone all in, of course, Magick had to show his hand.  He played it up for all it was worth, of course; he made a great show of trying not to seem reluctant while secretly being reluctant and managed to draw out the suspense for just long enough before revealing his straight flush.  The game was his.

Such excitement!  Rochester and Humphrey stared at each other in profound shock, while everyone else rushed to congratulate Magick, except for Desmond, who stayed to provide moral support to his fellow marine mammal.

It remains to be seen how many of them will ever again agree to play poker with Magick, of course.  Reggie probably would.  Humphrey and Rochester could go either way; they might want revenge, or they might be reluctant to try again.  As for the spectators, they all want to learn poker now, but possibly not against Magick, although they all want to know his secrets.  He, of course, says that these are things one learns for oneself.

I was pretty impressed, too.  There's just something about males who know how to play poker.

Poker Part II

When I left off my account of the poker game, Rochester, who had been on the verge of quitting, had decided that he liked poker after all, thanks to an exciting showdown victory over Sir Tristan.  All of the players were fully committed now: Magick and Sir Tristan are longtime poker aficionados, having played together since their kittenhood; Humphrey had won two early games and was convinced he was a natural; Reggie just likes games; and Rochester, the last holdout, was converted.

After another hour or so, Sir Tristan, who had recovered somewhat from his loss to Rochester, won a hand with a pair of aces over Rochester's nines and Humphrey's jacks.

Sir Tristan had now achieved a tidy profit.  Not a huge profit; he's too conservative a player to win dramatic splashy victories most of the time.  But he was coming out ahead, and that was what he'd been after, so he collected his winnings and politely withdrew from the match.  He doesn't always decide to leave poker games early like this, but he always does when he's playing with Magick.

The new players weren't sure why he'd quit when he had, but they didn't mind too much.  They were starting to get the hang of the game now, but they hadn't picked up on some of the subtleties yet.  So, for instance, two hands after Sir Tristan's departure, Reggie discovered that he had two pairs between his hand and the table: queens and sixes.  Delighted, he promptly went all in, causing everyone else to fold.  Reggie didn't realise that he'd have won more had he kept the others in the game for longer; he was too excited over his victory.  Here he is, showing everyone his cards.

There are different kinds of winners and losers.  There's the quiet and gracious type of winner, like Sir Tristan, for instance.  Other winners get very excited and exuberant.  Some of them make you want to slap them, and some of them don't.  Humphrey is the first kind of excited winner.  When Humphrey wins, he gloats and pats  himself on the back and generally makes a show of himself, so that the losers feel that much more annoyed that he won.  Reggie is an equally exuberant winner, but in a very different way.  He's utterly delighted when he wins, but he doesn't take his victory as a sign of superiority in any way.  There's something almost innocent in his display of enthusiasm, and it makes the other players happy for him.

By this point in the game, Magick had managed a few small victories, enough to keep him playing, but he was still behind the others in terms of chips.  A game or two after Reggie's victory, Magick was dealt a bad hand and decided it was time to have some fun.  Sir Tristan had left the game, after all.  For the sake of friendship, Magick refrains from having too much fun until Sir Tristan has left the table.  Not that he'd gone far.  He'd located Lady Faraday, who had now left the kittens to their fun, and the two of them had come back to watch.  Sir Tristan leaving the poker game is always Lady Faraday's cue to come watch.

Rochester, who had the first bet, had been dealt two queens, so he bet five dollars; everyone else called.  The turn produced the ace of spades, six of hearts, and four of diamonds.  Rochester again bet five dollars.  Magick, playing as though he held an ace, raised two dollars.  Humphrey folded - he only had the ten of hearts and nine of clubs - but the others called.

The flip produced the king of hearts.  Rochester again bet five dollars, with some trepidation.  Magick decided that he also had a king, and raised another five.  Reggie had the king of diamonds and junk; he went ahead and called, but he was rather nervous about it.  Rochester also called.

So it was down to the river, which turned up the nine of hearts.  Rochester prudently checked, upon which Magick went all in.  Reggie and Rochester were sufficiently dismayed by this show of confidence that they didn't want to go all in and folded.  And so Magick won - with the seven of clubs and two of hearts.

The others wanted to see his hand, of course.  Magick refused to tell.

By the point Rochester was getting rather hot under the collar.  He had had a genuinely good hand, and proceeded to show everyone.  But Magick, still keeping mum, quietly and rather enigmatically raked in his winnings.  Magick is very good at enigmatic.  He comes by it naturally, but he's not above making use of it.

Magick explained to Rochester that the rules of poker do not require any player to reveal his hand, even if he wins.  Rochester did not believe him and insisted he show his cards; met with Magick's continued refusal, he demanded to see the rule book.  Lady Faraday, who had been perched on the rule book, promptly opened the book to the correct page - without bothering to look it up - and pointed to the rule in question.  She has watched Magick play poker before.

Confronted with the official rule, Rochester had no choice but to lay off, but he kept grumbling about it under his breath.  Had this happened earlier in the game, when he was still unsure he liked it, he probably would have quit.  Lady Faraday has no patience with this attitude; she believes players should always be gracious.  Here she is regarding Rochester sternly while the others clean up after the last hand.  (Humphrey has the next deal.)  You can see Murchison watching carefully in the distance.  Magick's activities are of general professional interest to him.

I should mention here that Lady Faraday did not decline to join in the game because she doesn't know how to play poker, or even because she is too ladylike to play poker in mixed company.  Actually, she's a very good poker player. She is better than Sir Tristan, in fact, and Sir Tristan is pretty good.  But she refuses, on principle, to play poker with Magick.

The game wasn't over yet, mind.  Now Rochester wanted revenge, so to speak.  And so did Humphrey, because this particular victory of Magick's eclipsed his own so far.

Poker Part I

During the reception held in honour of Sir Angel Joe, Magick discovered that there were some poker chips lying around, and decided to ask whether anyone wanted to play a game of poker.  It turned out that the denizens of the Wild Republic had never actually played poker before, but a few of them were interested in learning how.  Reggie was pretty keen, and Rochester and Humphrey were interested too.  And, of course, Sir Tristan wanted to play.  Magick and Sir Tristan have been playing poker together since they were kittens at boarding school.  A desire to keep the kittens of the local chapter unaware of the game for a bit longer led Lady Faraday to teach them Yahtzee instead.

So here they are, getting ready to play.  They've all anted up.  Reggie really wanted to be the bank, and Sir Tristan volunteered to take charge of the rule book.  He also agreed to be the first dealer.  Laszlo, Mahler, and Desmond aren't playing, but they wanted to watch.

They played for a very long time, so we aren't going to show pictures of the entire game.  That would be excessive and often not interesting.  I'll just show you the highlights, and bits from the first few hands.

Here everyone is after the first deal.  Magick raised, Rochester called, Humphrey raised yet again.  Rochester and Sir Tristan prudently folded, but Magick and Reggie went ahead and called.

After the turn, essentially the same thing happened: Magick raised, Reggie called, Humphrey raised again, and the others called.  After the flip, Magick raised again, but this time Humphrey didn't raise further; he and Reggie just called.  Then came the river, and this time Magick folded.  Reggie raised, but then Humphrey raised again, and Reggie decided to fold.  So Humphrey won, and he was very pleased with himself.  Probably more pleased with himself than he needed to be; but hey, he was new at this.

The next game they played didn't force a showdown either.  This time, Magick raised again; Reggie and Humphrey called; and this time Sir Tristan raised.  Rochester promptly folded.  He was starting to be a bit unhappy; he wasn't really sold on the game.  Folding early isn't really all that exciting, especially when everyone else calls and continues playing.

Here's the state of the game after the turn. The four of diamonds, five of clubs, and ace of spades are all on the table.

Magick raised.  He raised rather a lot, in fact; he depleted his stack of chips at a much faster pace than any of the others.  Reggie folded, but the other two called.  Then the flip turned up the queen of spades.  Sir Tristan was pleased: he now had a pair of queens.

Sir Tristan is a very careful player: very good at assessing the game, but inclined to play conservatively.  Nevertheless, he's pretty good at working out if he has a better hand than his competitors, especially when most of them don't really know what they're doing, and it was very clear to him that no one else had anything nearly as good as a pair of queens.  Magick raised again, and Humphrey called, but Sir Tristan still felt confident enough that he went ahead and raised again, and then Magick folded.  Humphrey folded after the river, when it was clear that Sir Tristan had a good hand. 

The next game they played turned out to be very disappointing for poor Reggie.  After the deal, no one had a particularly good hand; Humphrey raised a bit, but Sir Tristan and Reggie decided to fold, and the others just called.  But then the deal happened, and Reggie suddenly became visibly disappointed.  He's a river otter; they're not really all that good at hiding their feelings.  Reggie was sort of wiggling all over the place with big sad eyes.  He didn't say what the problem was, but the others could guess.

Humphrey, still feeling rather over-confident thanks to his early win, over-raised after the turn.  Rochester decided to call just to keep playing, because he'd folded on every previous game and was becoming impatient.  Magick called as well.  They all bet five dollars on the flip.  No one really had much of anything, though.  Humphrey and Rochester both checked after the river; Magick raised, but only a small amount.  Humphrey then decided to raise by a large amount, which caused the others to fold.  He was pretty pleased with himself.

After Humphrey's win, Reggie revealed that he would have had a straight, had he stayed in the game.  The others were sympathetic.  Well, except for Humphrey.  Here you can see Humphrey gloating over his mound of chips while Reggie regards his would-be straight mournfully.

See the way Magick is positioned, with his cards under his paw?  That's his general gaming pose, apparently.  He's very suave even when he's losing, which he was doing rather markedly at this point.  Compare his piles of chips to Reggie's.

By the next hand, the players had very different attitudes towards the game.  Humphrey was now high on two big victories and was convinced that poker is the best game ever, and that he, Humphrey, was a poker king.  Reggie was feeling a bit down, although Magick and Sir Tristan both assured him that he had been correct to fold given the information he had available at the time; he wanted to keep playing, though, in case he had a good hand.  Magick was losing but seemed unfazed by it; when Humphrey made a cocky remark, Magick said that everyone has off nights.  Sir Tristan was doing moderately well and felt pretty good about it.  But Rochester was really not having a good time.  He didn't feel like he was playing a game at all, and he was ready to stop playing.  The others convinced him to try just one more hand, and he gave in grudgingly.

After the next deal, Humphrey and Magick both folded.  Sir Tristan raised, and the others stayed in the game, Rochester with a sort of grim look of determination: this was going to be his last hand and he was going to play it out, damnit.

The turn produced the queen of spades, the five of clubs, and the queen of diamonds, and this was good for everyone.  Sir Tristan, who was to go first, had a queen in his hand.  Rochester called; he didn't have anything just yet, but he had the beginnings of a possible flush.  And Reggie had two pairs, so he stayed in as well, really wanting to redeem himself.  The flip turned up the six of spades, and Rochester perked up a bit.  He was starting to feel like he was playing after all; he even raised Sir Tristan's bet.  Reggie folded at this point, but Sir Tristan called.  And the river turned up the eight of spades: Rochester had his flush.

This was the game's first showdown, so the new players were particularly thrilled.  After Sir Tristan's bet, Rochester went all in - and won.  He had had the two and king of spades.

Here you can see Mahler, Laszlo, and Magick admiring Rochester's winning hand.

Sir Tristan was gracious in defeat, and Rochester was (mostly) gracious in victory.  He decided that poker was a good game after all, and that was the end to his thoughts of quitting the game.

Our Tribute to Swan Lake

The Pennsylvania Ballet's production of Swan Lake closes later today.  This is my favourite ballet, and I have a subscription, so there was no way I wasn't going.  I went to the matinee.  It wasn't perfect - I really wish they'd cast someone else as Odette/Odile - but the choreography was awesome, the Prince was great, and there were a lot of really neat things about the production overall (e.g. the character dances, particularly the Russian; the stuff with the mirror; Odile's tutu; the demise of Rothbart).

There's a primary opposition in Swan Lake between white and black, with the lead female dancer playing the dual role of the white swan and the black swan.  Since this is both generally and specifically awesome, the denizens of the Wild Republic have put together an honourary tribute to Swan Lake by playing up the various possibilities for black/white contrasts.

Here we have Cami and Vim, artistically arranged.

There are multiple contrasts going on there, of course, besides just the black/white: feline/ursine, patterned/solid, shy/rambunctious, and so on.

Then here we have me with our two men of mystery, Magick and Murchison.

This is in fact exactly what I wore to the ballet today, although you can't see the black rosettes in my hair in this picture.  Slightly more of what was going on with my hair can be seen in this picture of me and Magick:

and this one of me and Murchison:

My belief that I am one of the least photogenic people on this planet has not changed, but this deficiency doesn't bother me as much as it used to.  Just to prove it, here's one of me without the boys.

A Charming Tale of Friendship and Romance

Once upon a time, some years ago, a new class of students began their tenure at the most venerable and exclusive public boys' school in the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy.  Among the class were two young cats who could not possibly be more different.  One of them was the eldest son of an ocelot baronet; he was dutiful, responsible, and impeccably well-mannered for one so young.  The other was the eldest son of the eldest son of a panther marquess and clearly destined for a life of trouble, even at such a young age.  When their classmates started teasing the baronet's son for his overly proper mien, they fully expected the marquess's grandson to join in, but he surprised them by taking the baronet's side.  And so began the highly unlikely friendship of Tristan Rivers (Sir Tristan, upon the death of his father) and Ruthven Jet Shadewater, later Lord Ebonwood, known to his schoolmates as "Magick".

There are two key elements holding Sir Tristan and Magick together.  The first is that, despite their many differences in opinion and character, they have rather a lot more in common than one might at first suspect.  They were, for instance, easily the two most intelligent members of their class, which meant that they found each other much more interesting company than the rest of their classmates; they also had interests in many of the same areas, from the arts to politics and diplomacy.  The second important factor in their friendship was that they complemented each other very well in a number of ways.  Sir Tristan was responsible for ensuring that Magick did not slack off on his studies and performed at the level at which he was capable, while Magick ensured that Sir Tristan had a bit of fun.  In short, they balanced each other very nicely and were intelligent enough to appreciate it rather than fear it. 

 The greatest test of their friendship came about after they had left university and had begun their training for a career in diplomacy.  Among the other newbies was a formidably brilliant young serval named Lady Faraday Pebble-Stone, the daughter of an important earl.  She was clearly destined for greatness every bit as much as the boys were, and the three of them swiftly became the best of friends.

(Left to right: Sir Tristan, Lady Faraday, Lord Ebonwood.)

The next phase of this drama, of course, is entirely predictable, given knowledge of the general character of the particulars.  Females, especially intelligent females, were already one of Magick's great weaknesses, so he, predictably, began pursuing Lady Faraday.  Since females tend to have a corresponding weakness  for Magick, and Lady Faraday was quite definitely female, as well as already very fond of her two new friends, she was quite susceptible.  Sir Tristan was terribly in love with Lady Faraday himself, but elected not to compete with his best friend, not least because he had far less experience with females and suspected that, being quieter and less flamboyant than his friend, he was unlikely to be successful with any female Magick already had his eye on.

Nevertheless, the relationship between Magick and Lady Faraday did not last all long, as they swiftly discovered that they were not particularly compatible as romantic partners.  They decided to return to simply being friends and cheerfully explained to Sir Tristan (and others) that they were rather confused about the whole affair.  Everything went back to the way it had been before.

Sir Tristan, of course, was still desperately in love with Lady Faraday, but he was too conditioned by the expectations of behaviour for a gentleman of his class and station to actually tell her about it.  Eventually Magick realised what the score was and started trying to coax his friend into revealing his feelings for her.  Being a rake rather than a gentleman, Magick found the situation rather exasperating, especially as he was coming to suspect that Lady Faraday was in love with Sir Tristan herself, although she, of course, being a lady, was much too genteel to show it. 

After a number of conversations with Sir Tristan explaining that, as Lady Faraday was a lady, he really did need to make the first move (these conversations were tremendously frustrating for both parties), Magick accepted an assignment in India.  Since the other two were still posted locally, they started spending more and more time in each other's company.  Even then, they might well have gone on pining for each other oh-so-politely, except that Sir Tristan accidentally dropped one of his (highly embarrassing) sonnets praising the intelligence and wit and beauty and talent of Lady Faraday, and she found it.

Exactly what happened next has never been revealed by either party, both of them being immensely proper and private individuals, but they've been together ever since.

Sir Tristan and Lady Faraday are difficult to photograph together because of their characteristic poses, but we did our best.

After a while, Sir Tristan was posted to the Wild Republic, which forced him and Lady Faraday to carry on their romance long-distance.  They wrote each other letters every week, (rumour has it that Sir Tristan's letters often contain sonnets, while Lady Faraday prefers haiku).  Nevertheless, the situation was less than ideal, particularly given that the Wild Republic had made Plouie Postmaster General to keep him out of trouble.  Every now and then Plouie would happily present Sir Tristan with a bundle of six or so of his own letters to Lady Faraday.

But when their superiors decided that Sir Tristan's mission had been so successful that a full diplomatic delegation should be sent to the Wild Republic, the lovers finally found themselves reunited.  Lady Faraday requested to be included in the delegation; she now is sufficiently high-ranked that she has a measure of choice over her assignments, and this one is suited to her rank and talents as well as advantageous to her personal life.  Magick somehow found himself attached to the delegation as well.  Thus the trio of best friends has been reunited, to their considerable satisfaction.

And, of course, Sir Tristan and Magick are still the very best of friends.

When Murchison Met Magick

Although we're understanding the institutional details of the Wild Republic more and more all the time, there are still a number of aspects of it that AJD and I don't really understand.  The arrival of the new delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy has only highlighted some of these deficiencies in our understanding.

Near the top of our list is Murchison.

Murchison is an arctic fox and a secret agent of some sort; apparently most arctic foxes go into espionage.  When you think about it, this doesn't make all that much sense: how can your secret agents possibly be effective if everyone knows about them?  Murchison isn't undercover here, but surely he can't truly be undercover anywhere, right?  And what exactly is he doing, anyway?  We know he's up to something, something beyond merely being highly suspicious of Sir Tristan, but we haven't a clue as to what it is.

Now that the new delegation is here, we're even more intrigued, because the new delegation includes Magick, and Murchison is very clearly interested in Magick.

To be fair, everyone is interested in Magick.  Magick is an interesting character.  We're not certain, for instance, what exactly his role in this delegation is supposed to be.  He's a peer's heir and not precisely expendable, yet he's clearly known more than his fair share of danger; Pedro is apparently always having to patch up unusual and unexplained wounds for him.  Some of these are probably from duels (Magick's been in so many duels he's lost count) or from escaping from ladies' bedrooms (Magick's taste in women often runs towards the inappropriate), but he's definitely up to something and neither of us is certain what that is.  We suspect, from what Angel Joe has let slip, that Magick was given this assignment after a particularly ill-advised liaison with a married noblewoman necessitated sending him somewhere out of trouble (though Sir Tristan probably had a hand in that too), but that doesn't help to elucidate what his assignment actually is.  From his general attitude, one would be forgiven for thinking him primarily a bodyguard for Sir Theo and Lady Faraday, except that his rank precludes his accepting such a menial station.

We suspected that the meeting between Murchison and Magick would be epic.  Murchison, we know, has been rather bored here for some time; Magick is probably the answer to any number of his prayers.  Naturally he'd have heard of someone of Magick's storied reputation.  Nor were we disappointed, either; they met and promptly made it clear that they're going to be keeping an eye on each other.  Conceivably, this is evidence in favour of a theory making Magick Murchison's WPM equivalent.

Here they are, staring each other down.  They both wanted to make it clear that they are in no way intimidated by the other, and that even though Magick is here on a diplomatic mission, neither of them is letting down his guard.

I'm particularly fond of this picture for two reasons: I have always appreciated the aesthetic quality of a good black-and-white contrast; and this is the only picture we have of Magick that really shows him off, since photographing someone that black turns out to be hard.  Look at that gorgeous silhouette.

Here's the thing, though: we have reason to suspect that there's more to the relationship between Murchison and Magick than meets the eye.  We suspect, for instance, that this was not their first meeting, although it's difficult to articulate where this notion comes from.  We also wonder if they're less adversaries than they appear to be.  Consider this picture of the two of them in an unguarded moment:

Murchison appears to be whispering in Magick's ear.  Is he issuing a threat, or are the two of them in collusion over something?  Do they meet up in Bombay for friendly chess matches with lots of witty banter and then get back to being nemeses?  Are they secretly allies?  We'll have to keep an eye on them.

Wild Parliamentary Onomastics

It took some doing, but we finally figured out the names of all seven members of the new Wild Parliamentary Monarchy delegation.  I am particularly proud of us given that three of said members are felines and two of them also have titles.  

Some of these names are old news, of course, i.e.,

• The capybara is named Pedro, which is a reference to The Twenty-fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
• The lynx is named Sir Theophilus Pearl, Bart., commonly called Sir Theo; the surname is a reference to the almost pearlescent quality of his fur.
• The ermine is, yes, named Angel Joe.  It came to me in a dream.  I don't know why.

 Others of them are not old news.

• The goat is named Nicodemus, probably because his nouveau riche parents were trying too hard.  My cousins had a black cat named Nicodemus, so it seemed like a good name for a white goat.  [This is not a complete reconstruction of my thought process, but it's kind of very close.]
• The owl is named Hrothgar Q. Hornbeam, Viscount Twilby.  Since he's a viscount, he'll typically be called Twilby, although Sir Theo addresses him as Hrothgar because they're old friends.  He has graciously given his permission to me to address him thus myself, which makes me very happy because I am uncommonly fond of the name Hrothgar, but I'll probably end up using both names.
• The serval is named Lady Faraday Pebble-Stone; the "lady" is due to her status as an earl's daughter.  Her surname is a reference to the markings on her coat, which look rather a lot like pebbles; we agreed that plain Pebble felt a bit too Flintstonian, and surely one of these guys would have a double-barrelled name.
• The panther is named Ruthven Jet Shadewater, Earl of Ebonwood, although his intimates (including Sir Tristan and Lady Faraday) call him Magick.  Coming up with a surname for him that was a) a reference to nature and b) a reference to black things and c) not a totally obvious reference to black things and d) vaguely plausible as English pseudo-aristocratic was remarkably hard.  I'm rather proud of both his title (by which most of the Wild Republic will be required to address him) and his nickname, which is a very indirect reference to blackness.

Everyone has a name now, which is a relief.  Tomorrow we're going to introduce the new delegation to the Wild Republic, who so far have met only Sir Theo, who has been in AJD's room to confer with Alfredo.  This promises to be memorable and we fully intend there to be photographic evidence.

Also at some point I really ought to tell everyone the story behind the Sir Tristan-Lady Faraday-Magick relationship, now that I've learned it.