Genevieve

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The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam...

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Crown Part 2
2001-05-09 - 1:10 p.m.

Sorry to cut you short last time, I had to boogie from work. I went car shopping with Wayne, it was a very nice crack pipe, I really want that Explorer, but I shouldn't, I know I shouldn't.... come back from the edge Gen....

Crown

So, of course I stay up until 1am again, mind you I've only had 3.5 hours of sleep the night before, sewing. I finished the hem and such on my dresses and started ironing and pinnning the hem, cuffs and neckline of the G63. Eventually my eyes close for five minutes in mid-stitch and I decide to put it down. The entire time Wendy and Rob are snoozing sweetly in the other bed, I'm trying to be quiet and not use too much light...

So, 7am comes around and the alarm goes off. Gen is a notorious slacker, at home and at work (Hi Barb!) and usually I let the alarm ring for about half and hour worth of snooze and then take too long to get out of bed and ready for the event, on a good day. If you share a hotel room with me, make me get up and showered first, trust me... So, amazingly I get up after only one tap to the snooze button and in the shower. The tension starts to mount, really. We get showered and get fast food breakfast and make it to site by 9:15am for Theo to open up the MoL table for checking in fighters and consorts. I'm dressed, I'm looking fabulous, I'm nervous as hell. I try to sit still under the dayshade and sew. I get a bit accomplished but then immediately get goobed, questions about this and that and homniey homney and hoofty froofty, and I just want people to leave me alone, really. But they wouldn't.

Then comes the consort breakfast. I have to give props to Her Majesty for this. This breakfast gave me a shot of protein and forced me to be civil to folks but also sit still at least half and hour that morning. Breakfast was a way cooler idea than a tea during the fighting or after the fighting, breakfast good. However after looking around at the table, we did get to thinking that perhaps the drinks for the consorts breakfast at the next Crown should be spiked with valium. We are all vibrating in place and most hadn't had that much sugar either. sedatives good....

After the breakfast Gen goes back to the dayshade to sew more and see if Robert needs anything. I'm feeling quite useless at the moment, but hey, what can a girl do. We start the dreaded line-up. First they put us in the wrong order, this part always takes so long, which I never understood since they have the list in order of Precedence already anyway... I follow Emma's good example and stay in the shade as much as possible. I am wearing cotton flannel, which is warmer than it should be but not too warm, really, the flush to my face was natural. I did make sure to grab my fan so I could try to keep us cool, Quentin for a while, god bless his soul, held the sheild up for a good 20 minutes to sheild me from the sun, but we still waited. Then came around the folks with the gifts for the other consorts. I thought of doing this but just didn't have time. So, the best was a single white rose from Keegan and Brenna. Easy to hold, simple, elegant, easy to acquire as well. Then I get this little black, white and red pin cushiony thing. special. Then I get a box, all tied up with yellow ribbon. I painstakenly untie the ribbon to take a peek at what is inside the cute little craft box, and it holds, air. That's right folks nothing, nadda... Now the box is kinda neat, but nothing inside, what a let down. Quentin very kindly takes the stuff, except the rose, back to the dayshade and we continue waiting in the sun for the heralds to do the voodoo that they do. Periodically folks come up to us to wish us luck, offer assistance should he win, hopes that Robert does win, etc... This of course gives me the confidence that should Robert win we would have the support of many and continues the delusion, which I love, that everyone loves me. Then again why shouldn't they? :)

So, we make our way to the front of the line, get announced, walk up to Their Majesties Havorc and Mary-Grace, we take the good omen that Havorc is wearing Rob's colors for a good sign, and say our peace. Robert swears his fealty, I pass off a fleur de lis pin to HRMMG as a thank you for the honor of being asked to fight/be fought for in this Crown list, and we move back out into the sun with the others. I don't remember if Kymber said this to me before the procession or after, but she said "We think you look the most nervous since you actually know the work involved." Ain't that the freaking truth. After the procession we head back to our dayshade to ready for the tourney to begin. The details from here on out are a little sketchy, but then again, I was so nervous I couldn't sew on the G63 so I just picked up my lucet and fiddled with that, a great way to keep my nervous hands busy without having to look down. I wish I had had it for the finals.

Round One: Robert is pitted up against Bryan of Sacred Stone, also known as Damuth. Now, Rob and Damuth have been fighting each other for a long time. Actually the night I met Rob, I met Damuth at the same time. long story, that's not my elbow... So, being that they know each other, their fight lasts a long time which is tense, especially for the first round. Essentially Rob is in better shape so he wore Damuth out and then killed him. YAY! proceed on to round two...

Round Two: Robert and Logan. This is dreaded. Also a long fight. For details you'll have to ask Rob, but I just couldn't watch and yet couldn't not watch. agony is a good word for this. Robert eventually conceeds to Logan and moves over to the losers bracket.

Round Three: Robert and Mark d'Abigny are matched up. Mark has been looking pretty good this tourney, holding his own against Logan for a while, but this was the only short fight Rob had. He caught Mark off guard and single shotted him and proceeded on.

Round Four: Robert and Mungoe got at it. They used to be in Marinus together, so since they are both big guys and know each others moves, this is also a very long fight. Robert eventually triumphs and moves on to round four, taking Mungoe out of the list.

Round Five: Robert and Alriker, a big dude from Sacred Stone and House Corvus take the field. We know the story, this too is a long fight. Now I'd like to interject here that Gen rarely gets tha chance to watch the fighting except at Crown. I don;t often watch Alan fight or anyone else, so I'm not used to watching fights intensely, much less long ones.... Alriker has already broken one sword and breaks his other one on Rob, so Rob loans him his second sword, which gives Alriker some time to get used to it. After a lot of fighting, and at least one marshall talking to about what I don't know, Rob kills Alriker cleanly and proceeds onto the semi-finals.

Round Six, the Semi-finals: they crossed over the losers and winner bracket here instead of for the finals and Robert is matched up with Galmr. Oh geez. Robert has to win twice to proceed to the finals, Galmr has to win once. This was also a tough and long fight, neither Galmr nor Robert were giving anything away. Finally Galmr hits Robert with a head wrap that was clean and Robert dies gloriously and is out of the Tournament.

Gen's tension begins to ebb a little. We head back to the dayshade, I thank Rob for fighting so honorably for me this day, he sits to rest and takes off his armour and relax finally after doing a good days work. I fan him a little to lower his core temperature, he admits that while he hates losing, he's glad that Galmr still has the energy to go to the finals.

The Finals: I head over to stand with Quentin and Galmr's household for the finals between Galmr and Logan. This is where I forget to bring the lucet. No losses are carried to the finals, so best two out of three is the winner and claims the prince's coronet. Quentin and I are still nervous since if Galmr wins he'll be the Princess's sig-O and that can't be easy and Gen has already promised Aryanna that she'll be her head lady in waiting. sheesh, does it never end?

Galmr and Logan step into the list. The first fight is long, hairy, intense, blocking and blocking and it's amazing they can still stand, and finally Galmr strikes a winning blow. I think the first winning blow was with the thrusting tip on his sword, a thrust to the body. One win down one to go. Squires go running out onto the field with water for a very small break. Second fight continues much like the first. In some ways the stakes are lower, if Galmr loses, he still has one more chance to win overall, but neither of them are looking like they could handle a third fight which is one of Galmr's advantages. After much stick flying, Galmr legs Logan and Galmr takes this opportunity to take a break. I believe the quote was, You can try and chase me, but I'm gonna rest a bit now where Logan got up on one leg and started to hop around much to our amusement. Eventually Galmr killed Logan and the Tournament was over. whew, but wait, more work for the next eleven months, yikes!

Prince Galmr is crowned on the field and given the Princess's coronet to pass on to his inspiration from afar. Oh, did I mention that Aryanna wasn't there since she had a work conference in Italy, so it really was inspiration from afar.

Galmr has put up pictures here of the fighting, procession and afterwards. No good pictures of me though, which my vanity is suffering from, sigh...

After the tourney I head out to the suburban to change into a different underdress and use my current underdress for an overdress. I went to use the facilities in the Royal cabin and afterwards collapsed in the cool of the cabin on a spare mattress and swapped stories with Quentin, recounted the day and made some small plans for the next eleven months of our lives.... That was the first relaxing thing I had done in almost a week. After that I don't remember much more than me constantly saying something rude and Theo looking at me and saying "Oh yeah, your QoC is so far away!" There was Court, there was a seperate dinner with Anne and John instead of feast which was very pleasant and relaxing and fun. Then Rob and Wen and I drove back to the hotel and sacked out like potatos.

The next morning we showed up on site around 9:30 to take down tents and dayshade and strap the table back to the top and head on up the road. We left around 10:30 and Gen drove, blew through one stop sign, made it three hours up the road, had fun driving the big truck and we stopped for lunch at Denny's and shopping at JR's outlet of tacky stuff, and such. The trip back was equally uneventful, Rob/Roland and I splitting the driving so that Quentin who drove the whole way down could rest. Of course there was more to it, but just to tease, what's said in the bus stays in the bus.

And that my dearies was my adventures at Crown Tourney...

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