Posted by Civilian Seamus McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Earth - I’ll Make ‘Em An Offer They Can’t Refuse

Posted by Civilian Ragna Idun McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Earth - I’ll Make ‘Em An Offer They Can’t Refuse

Posted by Civilian Seamus McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Earth - I’ll Make ‘Em An Offer They Can’t Refuse
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
That made Cuyler pause, that wasn’t Revna, “Good music and something worth drinking isn’t Revna’s thing? That’s bull. But a problem for another time.” Cuyler grinned drawing out the wait because he could, “By virtue of your marriage to your oh so lovely princess you, my son, are now a prince.” Cuyler laughed so hard he almost fell backwards off the log.

Cuyler

Mike watched him laugh, took a drink, and then pushed him so he did fall off the log. “Laugh it up, Pops. Go on.” and he chuckled. “Just remember, Prince I may be, but that reflects on you. Don’t push it with the belly laughs, old man.” and he smiled and held a hand out to Cuyler.

Mike

Cuyler hit the ground flat on his back, legs still hooked around the top of the log and laughed…Looked at the bottle in his hand that he managed to keep upright as he fell over, that was empty. “HA! Not on me, sonny, she got the title from her mum, that’s all Helka’s doin’. You should see your face…” more laughter. “Hey where the bloody hell is Seamus? If I’m getting drunk with my son it should be both!”

---

Revna had been sitting in her Da’s office since they had returned, pouring over the files Tara had been sent. Revna was looking for two things. She was looking at the time stamps to determine when the files were recorded and collected but also the last time they were accessed. The records had been recorded over years, and that wasn’t surprising. What told her a mountain of information on this mysterious person was the last bout of activity. It had all been ordered, linked, filed, and organized right at 2 hours. Whoever had done this wanted Tara to be able to quickly come to the same conclusion he or she had without having to wade through all the information.

Revna also wanted to examine the communications to see if she could determine for Tara who the cousins would put up to replace her. That was also done for them. One Hamish McKenzie. She took the time to do a search of the records on Hamish…he wasn’t quite as bad a Argyle, or it appeared he was better at hiding it. If this didn’t work, she wasn’t sure how they, the Edman’s, would manage it, but they would take in all of clan McKenzie. They couldn’t be left to the likes of Hamish and Argyle.

She made a call, a favor, to an officer in Intel seeing if they could tell her who sent the files. They weren’t able to tell her anything. Their best guess was the files were on an air-gapped server and pulled from there onto a disk, and the disk was uploaded to her PaDD from a computer they can’t track because the id port designator is morphing every .13 seconds. For Intel to get the right number, their systems need .15. So she had them run a background check on the name Tara had given her - Capall McKenzie.

He graduated 2 years early, and then worked for a Cambridge professor that has ties to SF Intel on an unknown project. In the past 3 months, his behavior has been normal for the most part. But there has been a huge uptick in his research of clan history (both), individual records on everyone, the police report of Mike’s dad, financials of Mike’s dad liquor distributor business and Mike’s bar(s), and the finances of the cousins. But in the past month, he has taken great steps to move a lot of his personal holdings from family control, and has been much more sporadic in his communications with his family. Capall was the only one with the training and knowledge to do that.

Then she looked into his childhood. “Oh you poor lad. They’ve been emotionally abusing you for years in order to manipulate your genius, rather than see you for your own worth. That’s alright though, I see you and you won’t be left in the dark with those monsters.” She made a quick call to the comm she left with Tara, told her what she found and then went to find Mike and her Da....

---

About the time Cuyler started yelling about where Seamus was, Revna walked up and stopped. They were both drunk, her father was hooked backwards over a log where he’d fallen over, tickled over something because his roaring laughter carrying back towards the village, and Mike was…giddy? By the gods....well at least they hadn’t made it to the meadery. She knew those laughs though and she was really tempted to turn around and walk away. Instead she stood there, silhouetted at the crest of the trail, breeze blowing her hair away from her face, watching them draped over the log, laughing, and happy, except for the hang over they’d have tomorrow. She tried to bite back the laugh, but it didn’t work. “Mike! You didn’t save me any.”

Revna

Both men froze and they whipped their heads to face Revna, and then…

“PRINCESS!!!” they both yelled in unison and began laughing so hard Mike joined Cuyler on the ground, pounding his fist against the dirt as tears fell down the cheeks of both.

Mike

The smiled left her face with all the speed of flipping a switch, the glare she leveled on them was all for naught with their tear accented laughter. She wasn’t sure why she hated the term so much but she always had, with an anger that was so foreign to her. She turned walking back towards the village, and when out of sight of them, she screamed. No words, just the sound, fueled by her utter frustration at the term, the turmoil surrounding both clans, the non choice given to Mike, the assault on her sister, Mike kissing her then disappearing into the transporter, the innocent McKenzies hurt by selfishness and greed, and curse the gods, in two days she was going to have to walk into McKenzie manor dressed like the princess she was.

Oddvar paused in the forge hearing the scream, Terje too. Helka and Runa walked out of the main house and looked up the trail, and Ragna paused right in the village center where she’d been walking. Door opened, faces appeared in windows and from around the edge of buildings. They all knew who made the sound, though it had only been heard once, maybe twice. “Revna?” Helka asked watching her oldest come back down the path. Revna didn’t even pause, “Your husband and Your son are drunk.” Runa didn’t even try to stop her, she knew Revna too well.

Seamus, walking with Ragna, looked down at her and said “Dunnae worry, lass of mine. I’ll go see the boys are taken care of.” and he looked at her and grinned. “Think Micheal saved any ‘a that brandy?” and he winked and started walking up the hill towards the faint sounds of laughter.

Ragna laughed, “He better not have, being totally sloshed is the only thing going to save him and Da from Revna’s temper…and ya’ll thought I was bad.” Seamus left and Ragna made her way over to her mother and sister. “I’ve only heard Revna yell like that for one reason.” Runa nodded and they all looked at each other, “They called her ‘princess’,” and they all laughed. Those in hearing distance grinned and went back to what they were doing. Helka led her daughters away and they started prepping for the next night.

Moments later Crescent, Revna seated bareback, thundered and rumbled out of the barn and back up the path. Racing past her father and her husband, and she rode until she could laugh at their behavior and find joy in it.

Revna

Seamus made his way up the hill to find the two men still laughing so hard they were crying, laying on the ground. Putting his hands on his hips, he shook his head. “Lookit the two of ya. Grown men, drunk like schoolboys at a wake.” he moved up to them, Cuyler first, and lifted them to a seating position on the log. “Dunnae know what ya said to yer wife, Michael… but she let loose a banshee scream and then grabbed that horse ‘a hers and bolted up the path. Hope you have the nastiest hangover ever in the morn’… otherwise she’s gonna make ya pay.” and he started to laugh along with the two drunkards.

Seamus

Cuyler looked at Mike then to Seamus and back to Mike and started laughing again. Cuyler wiped his face takin’ a deep breath and looked at Mike, “You didn’t do a thing to my little princess, did ya Mike?” And he started laughing again.

Cuyler