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"Aye, cake an' ice cream," Kestrel echoed, her voice dreamy as she wandered away to the food.

Kieran almost followed her, but he changed his mind and decided to keep an eye on Artemis. It was his job, after all, as Artie's self-proclaimed big brother.

Artemis was still intent on reaching the ball. However, when Agent Cali placed his toddling charge in the playpen, the little half-demon's attention was momentarily diverted to the newcomer. However, even as he looked over his shoulder to see who it was, his feet still carried him forward until he collided with Henry's back.

Both toddlers fell in an unceremonious heap. The ball went flying, and Artemis's drool-soaked toy apple plopped to the floor. Hissing in annoyance, Artemis glared up at Kieran, who was trying very, very hard not to laugh.

There was a quiet knock on the door followed almost immediately by the door being flung open. Two pale complected boys, the slightly bigger one wearing ripped jeans, a black t-shirt, and glasses; and the smaller one wearing shorts, a red t-shirt, and glasses burst into the room. They immediately spied the pile of presents and added impeccably neatly wrapped present to it. An older darker girl followed, much more calmly. She was wearing green overalls and had a green bow in her hair. She put a diaper bag down beside the playpen and went to stand near Maeryn/Kaliel and Ilraen.

Finally, a young man with extroidinarily wild bright blue hair, wearing a PPC uniform, and green rimmed mirrored sunglasses entered holding the hand of a still unsteady girl toddler. He walked her over to the playpen and placed her inside, well away from Artemis and Henry.

He looked around as if unsure of what to do, until he noticed that Kyle had already found a way to climb up a railing. Kevin was close behind him.

He ran over and grabbed Kevin and put him back on the floor. As he pulled Kyle down, he siad, "No climbing today! What did we talk abuut on the way over here? Huh?"

"That there was going to be cake and ice cream, Uncle Cali!" the boys said as he squirmed free and darted into the crowd.

At the mention of the word "host," all four of the Andalite's green eyes focused momentarily on Mal, the main two slightly narrowed, before the stalk eyes returned to roaming the scene freely. To his credit, although a certain racial intolerance for brain parasites had been imprinted on his psyche as part and parcel of his species' heritage, it hadn't had the opportunity to properly take root, and so he didn't immediately say something stupid. There was, however, a decidedly lengthy pause when Kaliel stopped speaking.

For that reason, he only got as far as <So—> before Barid and Voltarmi entered.

"'Ey, Ilraen," said Agent Barid of the APD. "It's been a while, mon." He waved to the Andalite as passed on his way to hand off his gift to Jenni.

"Hello, indeed," said Voltarmi, as she eyed Agent Ilraen up and down... well, mostly up. "Not so well muscled as the last time I saw you, more's the pity." With a blown kiss to Ilraen, Voltarmi went in search of something to eat.

Slightly dazed, Ilraen waved back to the pair of them before turning back to Kaliel. Maeryn. ... Them. He gave himself a little shake, scratched an ear, and tried again.

<Forgive me, but you're not a Yeerk, are you? I do not believe any Yeerk ever bothered to differentiate itself from its host so politely, but perhaps things have changed.>


Jenni intercepted Barid with a slightly worried look at his present. She had heard he was trying to get rid of a collection of shrunken Sue-heads at the behest of his partner, and one of them would definitely fit in that package. The raptors were nice, though. Well, creative, anyway. ... Were they wearing party hats?

"You can put that over there with the others, thanks," she said with a slightly forced grin. "Isn't Eamon with you?"


Derik nodded at William's answer. "Well, Jenni recruited me, and she's done her best to keep me sane since. Not her fault if there's no hope of that." He chuckled a bit darkly. In one of his abrupt shifts in demeanor, though, he looked toward Stephanie and brightened. "Cute kid. One thing I will say for this place, it understands the value of a creche. It's a life-saver in an environment like this, or a fighting Weyr."


Henry, meanwhile, had captured the ball and managed to get a grip on it sufficient to carry it around, with a huge grin on his face at his accomplishment. He couldn't see Artemis coming, of course. A collision was practically inevitable.

"I am nice t'babes," Kestrel replied, lowering Artemis into the playpen. "'Specially this'un. I loves 'im, I do."

Small black wings suddenly appeared, protruding from Artemis's back. Flapping them experimentally, he rose a few inches off the ground before tiring and touching down again. Looking somewhat disappointed, he gave up and glanced to his adoptive mother.

"Go on an' play, darlin'," Kestrel told him cheerfully.

With a squeal that sounded somewhat like "Play!" Artemis trundled after Henry's ball.

Stephanie, who was still hanging over the edge of the playpen, looked up at them solemnly with huge green eyes. "Fighting's bad when you do it to other people," she informed Kestrel solemnly. "'Specially babies. You're s'posed to be nice to babies."

Once more, the auditorium door opened, admitting a grinning, green-robed female ferret. Trailing behind her shyly was a blue-eyed, black-furred fox cub, who was fiddling with the messy bow on his present.

Perched on Agent Kestrel's shoulders, his small thumb tucked firmly into his mouth, was the roughly one-and-a-half-year-old Artemis Crowley. In his free hand was a cloth toy apple, which he chewed on absently.

"Ah, a playpen for the little 'uns," Kestrel noted, lifting him down from her shoulders. "'Ow'd yew like that, Artie? Yew feel like playin' wiv yore liddle messmates, do yer?"

"Um, Kestrel?" Kieran said hesitantly. "I dunno if that's a good idea. He's really, really good at starting fights."

Reptilian yellow eyes widened innocently at this accusation.

"Is 'e now?" Kestrel cast a fond glance at the innocent-looking child. "Doin' 'is dear ol' dad proud, then."

Artemis simply smiled back disarmingly and offered her his drool-covered toy.

Kaliel smiled. "It's a way to differentiate myself from my host, Maeryn," she replied. "However" --and here she softly cleared her throat-- "I can speak quite normally if I so choose. I've got to say, hearing your voice in my head is an interesting sensation. I'm only used to hearing Maeryn speak to me like that."

At the door to the auditorium, two more robed figures had appeared. One was tall, blue, betusked, and wearing his favorite purple robe with matching hat. He was also carrying what appeared to be a hastily wrapped present that had raptors drawn on it.

The other was, because of her short stature and slight frame, easily mistaken for a child, if an odd one. She was wearing bronze-colored robes and had her pink hair pulled into two pom-poms of the sides of her head.

"'Ey, Ilraen," said Agent Barid of the APD. "It's been a while, mon." He waved to the Andalite as passed on his way to hand off his gift to Jenni.

"Hello, indeed," said Voltarmi, as she eyed Agent Ilraen up and down... well, mostly up. "Not so well muscled as the last time I saw you, mores the pity." With a blown kiss to Ilraen, Voltarmi went in search of something to eat.

William shook hands with Derik without a hint of surprise at seeing the Agent's damaged face, smiling back. "Not really, no," he replied. "I'm William Marshall, currently DIC. I'm here mostly because of my niece." He nodded towards Stephanie, who had wandered over to Henry's playpen and was peeping into it. "And yourself?"

Cara was making similar introductions to one or two of the other adults nearby.

Jenni put Henry back down in the pen, where he contentedly toddled off to shove an inflatable ball around and chase it when it got away from him with the occasional shout of "Ball!" His mother rejoined the adults.

Ilraen gazed at Agents Mal with rapt curiosity. <Hello, Kaliel. I am Ilraen-Aroline-Fothergill, but you may call me Ilraen. I do not wish to be rude, but may I ask how you do that with your voice? I have never heard anything quite like that before.> He spared a stalk eye to return William's look, while the other one kept tabs on everyone else.

Meanwhile, Derik turned his attention to William, since it seemed likely he wouldn't get a chance to speak to Kaliel (or Maeryn) for a little while, at least. At least William was someone closer to his own age. He didn't know precisely what that was, but definitely in spitting distance of forty, one way or another. "Hi," he said with his damaged smile, offering a hand to shake. "Agent Derik, DMS. You're a friend of Jenni's?"

Stephanie had hurried off to put the present where Jenni had indicated, and then wandered off to locate other people her own age within the Auditorium. She waved to Miriam as the young woman entered, recognising her mother's partner, and promptly ignored the rest of the adults.

Cara flashed Miriam a smile. "Wondered if you'd wake up in time. Didn't want to wake you beforehand - I know how grouchy you get when you're woken up early, so I took Steph round to William's to get her ready."

William was looking around with undisguised fascination at the others in the room; his natural curiosity was at work already. He hesitated before approaching Ilraen slowly, glancing at a few other people.

"Good, thank you," Maeryn said, and then wandered over to where the other presents had been put and depositing her contribution on the small pile. Once that was finished, she returned to where the others were, coming to a halt near Ilraen and Derik.

With a brief dip of her head, Maeryn ceded control of her body over to Kaliel, as the Tok'ra symbiote wanted to say hello as well.

"Hello," she said, smiling politely at Ilraen and Derik. "I do not believe we have met. I am Kaliel. And you are?"

(( Safe to assume post titles aren't part of the narrative, I think. {= ) ))

"Hi, Maeryn, Kaliel. How's your little one coming along? Right over there is fine for presents." She pointed at the aforementioned spot by the wall, then was obliged to turn her attention to Miriam.

"Glad you could make it! No worries; I know how it is for you agents." She grinned, but temporarily traded it for a confused look at the commotion outside the auditorium. "What's going on out there?"

"'Scuse me, sorry. Pardon me..."

The sounds of someone trying to squeeze through the crowd in front of the auditorium continued for a few moments, before another young woman half-stepped, half-stumbled through the doorway. Apparently having second thoughts about lapsing into Sindarin vulgarity at a party meant for small children, Miriam Collins smoothed down her own robes and headed over quickly to the other adults, occasionally pausing to avoid tripping over the baggy fabric.

"Trust me to oversleep the one day I need to keep an eye on the time," she muttered, brushing a bit of hair out of her face as she offered a slightly sheepish smile to Jenni. "Hope I've not missed too much of the fun; I did a bit of shopping around just for all this."

At this last, she produced yet another box, wrapped with paper with pictures of puppies on it and containing more than one item judging by the heft. "I wasn't too sure what would be a good present, so I got a few things instead of just guessing."

The door creaked open once more, admitting a lone woman dressed appropriately in black robes. A small box was tucked into the crook of one arm; it was wrapped in a shiny bronze-colored paper with a similarly-colored ribbon tied in a neat bow at the top.

"Hello, everyone," Maeryn said, a broad smile forming on her face. She came to a stop near the others, holding up the present. "Where can I put this, Jenni?"

"Hello, welcome!" Jenni called, grinning at the new arrivals. "Say hi, Henry!" She waved the boy's hand for him. He stared at the group for a moment, then buried his face in her shoulder.

"He'll come around." Jenni smiled. "Thanks for coming, and thank you for the nice present," she said to Stephanie, reaching down to lightly ruffle the girl's hair with her free hand. "Could you put that over there by the wall for me?" She gestured to a relatively visible but out-of-the-way spot.

"Help yourselves to snacks," she said to the adults. "I'm expecting a few more people before things really get going. Oh, and if you haven't met, this is Ilraen, and Derik, and the lurker up there is Nume. He's our designated party pooper."

<Hello,> Ilraen greeted. Derik stepped forward to shake hands. Nume ignored everyone.

The door creaked open, and three more people entered. The first was William Marshall of the DIC, looking slightly amused. Beside him was Cara Fielding, who looked slightly uncomfortable in her plain black robes and was having trouble not tripping over them. She was carrying a small wrapped box.

Riding piggyback on William was Cara's daughter Stephanie, wearing a miniature Hogwarts robe, a brown plait and a huge smile. She clambered down on seeing Jenni and Henry and bounced over, beaming. "Hi!" After a bemused look at Ilraen and Derik - having missed spotting Nume completely - the two adults followed.

"Hello there." William gave Jenni a smile. "I thought I'd come along and see how things turned out; it's not often we hear about occasions like this."

Cara nodded slightly. "It's nice to see a get-together like this." She passed Stephanie the wrapped box, and the little girl immediately offered it to Jenni.

"We brought a present," Stephanie announced proudly.

(( Hi, guys! Just a couple of ground rules to keep things running smoothly:

1. When you join in, post your response to the end of whatever the most recent post is, to keep just one string of sequential posts. That way it should be easier to keep track of what's going on, and thus easier to include everyone. When the string gets too long, we'll come back to the top and start a new one.

1.5 Don't worry about your characters being "late" if you can't get here until this has been going a little while. This is the PPC--Jenni understands that people can't always show up at one time. ^_~ But really, it's just a personal pet peeve of mine, 'cause I've seen it way too much in other RPs, so now it's just boring and distracts from whatever else is happening at the time.

2. Keep posts in past-tense. It's easier to read if everything is in one style, and it will make it easier for me if I decide to polish this up and post it later. {= )

3. No controlling other people's characters. Some may be okay with it, but I'm not (unless you have explicit permission).

And of course, OOC stuff gets marked somehow, but you all know that. {= ) So, here we go! ))


The Really Very Tiny Auditorium had taken on a distinctly Potterverse cast in the last few hours. Granted, the ceiling only had a bedsheet-painting of a fairly generic cottonball-cloud sky tacked onto it, and the floating candles were battery-powered. The red and green streamers were nice, at least, and the single long table, draped with blue and set with yellow partyware, was laden with snacks that looked to have never seen the inside of the cafeteria kitchen.

The four adults in the room, two of whom wore Hogwarts robes and one of whom was a blue alien, stepped back from the final streamers and surveyed their handiwork.

"You do realize," said the taller of the two robed people, polishing his glasses, "that he won't remember any of this?"

The other robed person, Jenni, folded her arms and tilted her head at Nume with an amused smile. "Well now, I think we both know that isn't necessarily true."

"You should hope for his sake that it is," Nume replied, sliding his glasses back on. "Now, I 'helped,' and if you don't mind, I'm going to be in the stands avoiding the rest of the farce as much as possible, thanks."

"You'll be back," Jenni called happily. "Even you like cake!"

Without turning around, Nume pulled a large book out of a robe pocket and held it up in a display of how he intended to ignore her.

"And he's your friend, is he?" Agent Derik said. "I've seen friendlier watch-whers."

<My partner is not a 'people-person,'> Ilraen said. <But we are his friends, and that means he has to come to Henry's birthday party.>

"Yep!" said Jenni. "It's good for him. Now then... how's my kid?"

She crossed to the far end of the room, where a fairly large area had been fenced off, the floor padded, and strewn with the few toys any one RC had room to keep. In the midst, the purported center of attention was chewing on the tail of a brown stuffed fire-lizard, happily oblivious to the strangeness of adults. Henry Rowling Robinson wasn't precisely the most beautiful child in the world, having taken rather after his father, Severus Snape, but he did have one or two saving graces. The first of these was a pair of large green eyes, clearly the mark of his other father. The second was an adoptive mother who loved him and made him smile.

"There's the birthday boy!" Jenni said, stepping into the pen and scooping him high in the air, making him squeal and giggle before catching him up again. "Your friends should be here soon. It's going to be big fun!"

It's not much fun for me anymore, even with this subplot I've set up.

The howling died down after half a minute, and a man began to speak. For the first time, SttQ could understand what she heard. Weird; she could actually tell he was throwing down way too many capital letters.

"Faithful chosen Sues and Stus. Lieutenant Mary Sue, praise be Her Glory, Whose voice I am, thanks you for these signs of your devotion. Soon, loyal ones, the Mother of us all will take Her rightful place as Goddess of this vile, imperfect world, and reshape it in Her own image."

(My color-blind eye, thought SttQ.)

"And rest assured, loyal ones," the voice continued, "the barbaric wretches who call themselves the Boarders, merciless butchers of our kind since the Great Lieutenant appeared in this world, will be the first to fall victim to Her might. But see, the Beautiful One is clement, and will not kill even these. No, loyal ones, She will merely take their minds, and make them Her faithful servants."

(Slit my own throat before I let that happen to me.)

"Now, loyal ones, we will all offer up another prayer to Her Greatness, and..."

Another voice spoke then. For a non-Suvian, listening to it was about as sweet as having boiling honey poured into one's ears. It was the Lieutenant herself.

"Wait," she said, making SttQ cringe. "I sense the aura of a low one outside the walls." There was a collective gasp from her worshippers.

It took half a second for her meaning to get through to SttQ. When it finally did, her decidedly unepic thought was: Oh, shit, I'm dead.

Once he was sure that the Stu and his lackey were out of the room, Wik ran inside the room, ready to do...something to stop their preparations before it was too late. He drew his sword, knowing that magic won't help him now.

The Mary Sue that was about to be sacrificed had already gotten up and sat on the altar, ready to impose her Mind Control on the next being who came near her. When Wik looked at her eyes, he was hit with the full force of her remaining power, his personality buckling under the strain.

"Boarder," she said in a lilting voice. "Why have you come?"

"I...I cannot tell...you."

"Why not? You already saved me from the usurper's plot, so why not do something more for me?"

"The enemy of my enemy...is not always my friend." Wik was sweating heavily, averting his eyes from the Sue's. But he could feel his mental defenses collapsing,and he knew that he did not have much longer to act.

He would have to attempt a blind strike. He then walked closer to the Sue while still averting his eyes, ready to bring down his sword at the last minute...

When SttQ finally lifted up her face from the night-cooled stones, where she'd laid it to ease the burning of her eyes, she found that she could, in some measure, see again. Everything was still a bit blurry and she seemed to have gone color-blind, but that last part was actually a blessing, in a way. At least now she'd no longer need her glasses for protection against the Suvian colors.

She'd just gotten started on the wall again, when the chanting on the other side rose to a howling crescendo. She could have sworn she felt a tremor go through the building. What on earth was going on in there?

[OOC: I'm very sorry for the delay, but I have been so busy getting into a new fandom lately, and writing a cracky PPC interlude. Hope you're not too angry at me for this.]

Wik found a Gary Stu clad like a Generic Fantasy King, clad in clothes that would have put Louis XIV of france to shame. He and another Stu clad like a Chancellor were chanting as they laid a Sue over an altar, clothed in simple garments that were obviously forced on her.

The Stu lifted up a knife of Emerald with a golden hilt embossed with onyx globes. It had several runes, hieroglyphics, and scripts written on it, and-

Wik focused. He didn't like the prospect of a Suevian World ruled by the Liutenant, but he didn't want one ruled by a virtual unknown either. He had to sabotage them, but how? Magic? He didn't know if he could match up to beings of such power.

Then he had it. A few minor spells, and the sound of gunshots and sirens resounded from the upper floors.

"What is that?!"

"Damn it! The Boarders must have been mustering an army all along! Let's go up and see what we can do."

They then teleported away in a blaze of Wilver light.

After two minutes or so, SttQ became aware of a strange sound, right at the edge of hearing. She raised her head. Hmmm, that was weird. A curious rhythmic droning noise.

She laid her ear against one of the as yet unstuffed cracks. Yup. A kind of low chanting, almost religious. To SttQ's frustration, it was impossible to make out the words. Perhaps it was just as well. She really didn't want to know what manner of creature those demons would worship. Nope. Definitely not. Not her.

She peeped through the crack at the brightly-lit room beyond. The next moment saw her huddled in a heap on the cobblestones, shaking so badly she was almost convulsing. She ripped off her sunglasses and pressed the balls of her hands hard against her eyes.

My eyes... Oh Eru, my eyes! Gah, it's like someone squirted Mace on 'em, I can't see! Curse your impossible, sight-scorching beauty, Lt. Mary Sue! Curse it, I say!

As her trembling grew less, a horrible realization crept up on her. How in the world was she going to finish this building if she couldn't even see it?

Wik's caution soon turned to boredom as he continued to do his work in his assigned building. As he moved to stuff more C4 into the cracks, he heard voices from across a corridor.

"So, is everything going on as planned?" A male spoke, his voice laden with hypnotic power.

"Yes, my lord, there has been no detection from the citizens of the Board."

"Good. Soon, the final stages of the ritual will be completed several hours earlier than planned, giving us a world where we get everything on a silver platter!"

"Perfect. Pun intended, of course. Now, what about the other rituals?"

"The Rubric of Usurpation is almost complete, as well as the Sacrifice of Unlawful Succession. Lieutenant Mary Sue won't know what is happening beneath her eyes. Soon, you will lead the New Suevian Order into gleaming perfection!"

The conversation continued for a while, and Wik can see the shadows of the speakers retreat as they moved to another part of the building. Wik followed...