High Commander Diah's Resistance

Feast of Fool... (nope not a typo)

Once the traveling circus of heirs and spares manages to figure out their own pecking order of who got to stand where like the bunch of toddlers they were as they all troop in after us not so subtly chasing after Aida, while their fathers followed after much more sedately, if more bewildered at their offspring's antics.

Apparently they and their boys hadn't seen her in years and had no idea that the adorable and rare equivalent of little princess among their peer group had grown so lovely. And I wasn't even gonna need to bet on their reactions when they found out what she'd been through the moment her menses began. Seemed like even in this bass-ackward Isle, they knew some restraint when it came to allowing girls to become women, to some extent at least.

I pondered the possibilities as we followed our host, who'd executed a rather impressive hopping and flapping sort of dance to get ahead of us, that left him winded and affronted at having to exert himself in his own home. His grouchy expression was turned onto some effeminate looking male servants who had flocked to him when they noted his frantic attempt to get in front of us after we got inside. His boy-toy looking servants were all a flutter trying to placate him as they flitted around him, using their own flowing scarf like attire to mop up the sweat he had begun beading his face and arms.

I examined them and noted how each of the four guys could have easily passed for girls, albeit more demurely dressed, the scarf like panels draped and positioned in such a way that gave the illusion of modest femininity. They had belts with those dangling coins slung sideways on their hips to give an impression of shapely hips. I was kinda jealous of how well they pulled off their fabulous-ness. But also a bit put off by how 'aye papi' they were being about their greasy boss. I was seriously hoping they were really good actors with a strong sense of self preservation, and not actually twitter patted with someone so detestable. I made eye contact with one of his little fawning filly's by chance, and found a brow raising when they gave me a playful smirk and an eye-roll at their sweaty boss as they kept babying him vocally over his head. It was then that I noted that all of the Lag's Patriarch's 'ladies' were at least a half a foot taller than him. Hmm? What an odd contradiction. I looked at Aida, and saw she too was well on her way to being taller than him as well. How very odd, most power trip types would never be able to deal with their pets literally looking down on them like this.

Was this creep intensifying his own little-dog syndrome issues, on purpose? Did he surround himself with people who made him look inferior just so he could feel justified in being ugly to them? Or was it some guilty pleasure of his to be drawn to beautiful people way taller than himself I wonder? I shook my head of these silly thoughts, knowing they didn't really hold the key to Aida's freedom. They may hold some clues as to why she was taken I suppose, like Lag-Butt figured she'd be a tall one when she grew up or something and that's why he grabbed her. But what we really needed was to prove the 'betrothal' wasn't sanctioned by her parents, and that she'd been specifically targeted at all, never mind when she was underage. I glanced at the Heir's and Spares to see if any in particular stood out as more than just being lusty over Aida. A few at least seemed more on the enchanted side, like she seemed like an angel to them, rather than a lady in a fragrance house.

We passed a number of entertaining spaces, all seemed needlessly opulent in my opinion. Who needed so many living rooms, let alone with so much chintzy decor and huge floor cushions? Were they expected to have some kind of grown up nap time at various points in the day? Were siestas a thing here? I gave a dubious sneer to it all as we continued on and finally made our way to an open room holding a long table and Luve friendly benches. One had to have strong back muscles and not slouch around these parts, that's for sure. There would be no leaning back to rub the food-baby here. But then, that would imply a certain level of comfortable I just don't feel.