The door in front of Lon swung open and she stepped back quickly, expecting someone to greet her, like a butler, since she assumed Lady A must have one. But instead of a tall stately man, she beheld two cats. She stared at them strangely as they looked up at her with wide kitten eyes. One of them meowed, and she smiled bending down and reaching out a hand to pet them. Oh, how wonderful! she thought The Grand Lady even has pets!

A cloaked figure rang the doorbell of the Castle of Ivory and Gold. She had finally come. All along she had known that heart she was not a minion of Booky or a Mercenary with the dreaded Joe, but a minion of Lady A. "I have come here at last," she murmured softly, while waiting for the door to be answered. "I have come."

Leia sat up on her hind legs, looking very much like a ferret, and enjoyed the love that was offered. Luke liked it so much he nearly started drooling, but caught himself before it got too bad. Suddenly, popped his head back out the door and meowed at the newest cloaked figure to come in. There was business to do.

The two kittens set off at a brisk trot, running back to the humans every few minutes to make sure they were still following.

~~

Lady A didn't reply to wolf's question, as, when she looked around, she saw no sign of the lady wolf. She shrugged, and placed her finger in one of the decorative ridges on the side of the table, the information about the wolf's whereabouts popping up on a screen under the glass tabletop.

"Hmmm...left permanently. Well, I'll put in the order to have Pippin's uniform ready for tomorrow. Ah, that reminds me, I need to make an announcement over dinner tonight. Come on, let's go. We'll be having pizza in the War Room tonight. We must plan."

As they stood to move into the War Room, the kittens bounded up, meowing wildly at The Queen. They jumped up into her arms, and the threesome carried on quite a conversation. The two then jumped to the ground, and ran off.

"Welcome to The Castle of Ivory and Gold," Lady A said to the two newcomers. "We were just about to have dinner. Care to join us?"

Once everyone had gathered into the War Room, Lady A stood.

"First of all, thank you for joining us for dinner this evening. There are several important announcements to make. First off, as many of you know, there will be a skirmish with Bookwyrm beginning tomorrow ((OOC: both IRL and in the RP.)). If you choose to attend, you will be fighting with me, unless you get a message over your Communicator that says otherwise. Secondly, make sure that when you leave you see the shoe-shiner. Currently, the entire castle was given a smoke-over by independent contractor DiGoRyKiRkE. The shoe shiner will be applying blue liquid smoke to your shoes, which will protect you from the effects of accidentally running into the smoke. Also, to all curious chemists: do not try replicating the smoke. Last time someone did that, they burst into cinders.
"Next, please make sure to stop by the tailor, also, so that we can put an order in for your custom uniform. The uniforms are made out of an amazing fabric that also doubles as armor. They should be in your private living room when you wake up tomorrow.
"Finally, everyone's point tally, which is now up to date. Rose is in the lead, with twelve precision points and five loyalty points. Mountie has eight precision points, and Lady Galadriel has three precision points. Silver has one precision point, and Georgie has one loyalty point. Good job, everyone! Now, have at the pizza!"

And with that, Lady A sat down, and pizzas appeared on the platters, with individual servings of ranch dressing and every person's favorite drink appearing above their plate.

"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we prepare for war."

~~

The Below Was Done by DiGoRyKiRkE, but recorded by Lady A, for posterity's sake.

Outside, a dark figure conjured smoke, setting up a smoke security system against a potential Wyrm invasion. and watched as it fell to its appropriate place over the kingdom.

The man quickly grabbed large phials of green smoke, and imbued the grass surrounding LA's fortress with it. The grass became ten times as green, making it quite irresistably green. He then waved his hands towards the windows, coating some with purple smoke, and some with cream smoke. At the same time, aqua smoke flew into the moat surrounding the castle, causing it to bubble vigorously. He then casts a giant cloud of orange smoke hurtling into the air above the fortress. It billowed like a cloud, poised to strike at any intrusion. Next came fifty bottles of yellow smoke, which causes sudden and violent flight, which were equipped in the kettles above the castle. A whooshing sound came from the fortress, indicating the security system is fully raised.

The man smiled.

"Ha. If any attack unprepared, they will get turned into a shrew-like appliance with boils and be automatically transported back to their home. This should keep the castle safe...for now."

And then in a plume of orange smoke, he vanished.

Rose happily ate a slice of pizza covered with extra cheese, peppers, broccoli, bacon, ham and onions, and hoped that this meal wouldn't be her last.

"What canst I do to help this good cause, Lady?" The dryad asked, swallowing. "Mine thorn-tipped arrows art sharp, and fear I know not."

Mountie had kept her thoughts to herself for much of the past few days. She had been too busy thinking to offer her conversation, and even now her mind was caught up in Lady A's latest announcement. War? So soon? Whatever could that mean?

She had finally decided to pick up a sword in the armory, being convinced that it would be the most useful at the moment. She fully intended to pick up a bow and arrow in the future, but she'd had experience with the sword in the past and there was no time to do any future training, so she settled for the sword.

She was overjoyed to see Lia and Lon, much like she had excited to see Lacy, and spent a few moments welcoming them to the castle. "Welcome! It's lovely to have you here. Lia, I was wondering when you'd join our side." She smiled at her dear friend.

Mountie was in the middle of enjoying her meal when a private message from Lady A came in on her communicator. She pulled up her hood and left the room, going into the hall.

"Yes? Yes. Of course. Yes, I can do that. All right. Thank you." She hung up and then nodded with new determination, going off in search of the Rose-Tree Dryad.

Bringing her bow with her, Lady G had picked up a communicator on the way out of the armory and was now in the War Room with everyone else. They listened to Lady A's instructions. At the announcement of approaching war, Lady Galadriel could not help but be nervous but was determined not to show it in front of everyone else.

Promptly after eating she fulfilled the instructions, stopping by the shoe shiner and then by the tailor for her uniform. Then, hastily braiding her long hair to keep it out of her eyes, she returned to the others and awaited further instruction.

((OOC: This is going to be a bit of a catch-up post since I was gone on vacation, so bear with me. ))

The Silv'ry Wanderer heeded her horse's advice and searched all over the castle for the listed items, but locating them proved more difficult than intended. Finally, she managed to locate the ice in the castle's storage cellar. She picked it up, wincing at how cold it was, and raced to bring it to the kitchen - to be put into drinks at dinner - before it melted.

She then followed the others to the armory. Upon entering, she stared around in amazement at the vast array of weapons, some she had never seen before in her life. There were so many choices! As Silver scoured the shelves, looking for the perfect weapon, her eyes fell upon a rapier leaning against a wall. A rapier was used more for thrusting than slashing, but it still could still do a good deal of damage in the hands of a nimble warrior. Unsheathing it, she tested its weight in her hand. To her, it seemed light as a feather. It was simple in design but elegant in its own way. Yes, this would do quite nicely. Before leaving the armory, she retrieved a communicator and strapped it to her arm, just below her shoulder.

Silver listened quietly to the talk of the rogue mercenary, quietly contemplating what it could mean for her and her new-found compatriots. She was so deep in thought that she nearly missed the call for dinner. As she gathered around the table with the rest of the castle minions, she listened to Lady A's speech with a mixture of anxiety and anticipation. Was there to be a battle so soon? Her hand fell to the hilt of her rapier, and she ran her hand along its smooth, metal surface. She was not without training - her many years as a Wanderer had seen to that. She was perfectly capable of handling a blade such as this one. But never before had she actually been in a conflict. She had only watched from afar.

She ate her dinner quietly then slipped away to the tailor to be fitted for her uniform. Afterwards, she had the shoe-shiner apply the blue liquid smoke to the bottom of her boots.

Just as she was leaving, her communicator began to buzz. Remembering she had it set on vibrate, she pressed a button and listened intently to the voice on the other end. She felt her heart beat faster. "Got it," she said. "Thou canst count on me, m'lady."

Silver took off at a run to find the rest of her team.

"I love that title," said Pal grinning. "It sounds much better than something with chef or baker in it."
~~~~~
The new Royal Victualler joined everyone else for dinner. The talk of war made her nervous but not so nervous that she wasn't able to eat her pizza. Upon finishing dinner she rushed to the shoe shiner to have her shoes prepared. She didn't want to be turned into anything unnatural. She well knew the power of smoke. Then she went to the tailor. Finally, she joined the others to await instructions.

several hours later, Kat, who was now all sweaty, finally put away her blade-staff and wiped her forehead. She must get into a regular training schedule. After about 30 seconds she was good to go. She stowed her blade-staff and wondered off to the dining hall for pizza.

Lia (after being welcomed to the Castle by her dear friend Mountie) went off in search of the armory. She had very little experience in fighting at all, but thought, since there was a war and she was part of it, that this was a good time to learn.

Once in the armory, she chose a bow and arrow. It was her favorite weapon and finally she would use it for good.

After choosing her weapon, Lia wandered off in search of pizza, if that was in fact what she was smelling.

Okay, so, this is one big OOC post. In the future, this sort of post must be in the Cavern Tavern, but since many of you are new to Ditto Town, I'm bending the rules, just this once. So, kids, don't try this at home!

Unless you got a PM saying what exactly you plan on doing, you will be with me. Normally, I will PM each of you, so its a little more organized, but this one was sort of a spur-of-the-moment battle.

This battle will take place in the Fountain, and the first post is located here. Please, be sure to label your posts, so that everyone knows what you are writing for. Booky or myself will announce when the battle is over.

After getting her instructions from the Good Queen via the very hush-hush and groundbreaking technology of private messaging, the dryad hurried to get her shoes shined, and then hastily left to join the skirmish with a quiver full of arrows and her bow in hand.

Mountie wished she had had more time to converse with Lia, but that would have to happen after the skirmish. She smiled grimly in light of the battle that was going to take place. The air was tinged with both dread and anticipation, and she didn't know which feeling was stronger. As it was, she had to shove these things aside as she put her uniform on under her hooded cloak. She'd had both her uniform and shoes taken care of the night before, but she still couldn't bring herself to get rid of the hood. Probably due to the fact that it would be most useful in her current secret mission.

With that, she cinched her sword belt around her waist, then took off on foot towards the battle, quite possibly to meet her doom.

Early Valentine's morning, Lady Galadriel saw the others leaving and, adjusting her bow and quiver, hurried after, not far behind the Dryad and Mountie.

Pal puts on her uniform and specially treated shoes and gets ready to follow Lady A's lead into battle.