The Second.... Thingy

[quu]

Welcome, outlanders, to the throne room of (presently unconscious) King Alxis of Glazingstoke. The lilac-colored eyes of the sorcerous Prince Joffrey fix with unnerving penetration upon the party of outlanders as he clasps his beloved father to his breast. Limned he is by the last of his flames; their low ebb purples the face of the slumbering king. The echoes of deep magic swirl in the room and color the sunlight that streams through the windows.

"Explain yourselves." He commands. It is the tone of someone who is used to being obeyed immediately.

Behind him, about him, a few guards are coming around from their poisonous nap. Groggy blinking; clumsy, sleep-swollen hands fumbling to check upturned helmets, or grasp weapons, or smooth ruffled feathers. A muffled "wut happnd" slurs from someone's numb lips. Two piles of black ash smoulder silently upon the dais.

(Free-for-all response)

Comments

Wow I am a winner. REPLIES TO THE OPENING SCENE GO HERE

[quu]

RIGHT HERE!

[mccrusty]

Now talking, he can do. Talking he can be pretty damn good at, as opposed to resorting to fisticuffs with wizards, assassins, or wizard assassins.

McCoy clears his throat (he's been doing a bit too much of that for a while now). "Near as I can figure, we're the victims of a little too much good luck. The sedative they...uh, the poison they used didn't seem to have much effect on us."

He gestures to their little collective (a collective a perfect strangers), the evidence, well, self-evident. "Before that everything was doing just as normal."

[quu]

From the confusion of replies that follow, Joffrey plucks McCoy's response from obscurity and gives him the sort of hard look that a principal might award a truant.

"Is that not convenient. How do you know it was a sedative."

[mccrusty]

A frown, near to a scowl, is maybe not the best response that a man could have. But if there was ever a thing that could rile his old bones like nothing else--

The more careful politeness took a seat. "Because I'm a doctor, son, not some layman playing with bones and spices. What they used was designed to knock a person out, otherwise we'd be seeing more unfortunate signs from the victims. Hives, vomiting, bad color, fever, shakes - it'd be damn obvious, in my opinion."

[quu]

"A doctor." A keen look, not unkindly, comes over him. "I see."

[yowokomete]

Shonagon almost draws the fan away from her face, desperate for something to fiddle with, but holds her ground. She glances around the room, her eyes settling on the waking guards.

"Really, shouldn't you see to your people before anything else? Someone may have been hurt when they fell."

[quu]

A number of snoozy quarrels are erupting patchily throughout the room.

"Yeah... see about... yer peopzzzzzskrh..." Argues someone behind Shonagon. Here and there members of the audience are slowly rousing themselves.

The prince remarks, "Truly I am touched by your concern for others, Lady." He might be trolling. On the other hand, it appears that he does recognize her as something a little above the typical rabble.

[yowokomete]

She nods when he addresses her as a lady.

"Given that you incinerated the people I suspect may have been able to provide answers, I'm unsure what other help we could be." She smiles wryly, but it's mostly hidden by her fan. "Not that I could argue that you acted in any unjustified manner. You very well may have saved our lives by doing so, and I thank you for it."

[quu]

Though there is no time for him to reply before his father starts to stir, Joffrey has, at least, time to consider her polished, courtly manners.

It is an item of interest to him.