plots and plans

[Guest]

The white board was blank. As Shay leant against a table tapping the board pen to his lip. He was trying to design a new train regime from his observations. His journals sat open all on the desk with analysis on each member. A record of strengths and weakness. notes on what needed to be trained and improved.

The boy sighed tapping his chin slowly. He had a blank. This was no good....he had promised to somehow prove his worth. This just proved how useless he actually was. Uncapping the pen he walked over to the vast shiny white board and pressed the nub to it. Leaving a dot of green. Eyebrows knotted as he stared at the board. He was not going to let it defeat him. "Come on..." He hissed.

Suddenly it came to him. In quick sweeping actions of his skinny wrists he started the design for a new assault course. One that would possible push Fiachra past his limits. He smiled softly as the pen was swapped from green to blue to help point out area's. He checked his notes and soon the board was filled with detailed plans, points and sketches. In neat cursive that clearly belonged to the boy. He couldn't contain the smile that brewed on his lips. Would Brendon approve? Would his father like it?

[Brendon Etheridge]

It...Had been a long day to say the least, meeting after pointless meeting, speculation after speculation and argument after argument. All in all it had been eight hours of tedious boredom with nothing getting done. The prince walked the halls, his gaze far in the distance paying no real head to where he was going. It had been on a spring day much like this one that he had first been told of his fathers death, the air had been sweet with the smell of the morning dew and the birds had sung a sweet melody as he had received the news. The prince is dead...Long live the prince.

It had been a sad day, maybe the saddest in his young life. His father had worked him self into an early grave and when he passed he passed with a smile on his lips, his fingers locked around a pen. Bren could only smile bitterly at the thought, at least he had died doing what he had loved. If only everyone could be so lucky. Though he would admit to him self, if to no one else...He missed his father, missed him terribly.

With a sigh and a shake of his head he cleared those rather repressing thoughts from his mind and continued his stroll not hurrying any where and enjoying the rather languid feeling he had coming over his body.It felt nice to walk after the hours of sitting, to feel the strength return to his legs, it was an oddly good day to be alive.

Eventually he found him self standing out side a slightly open door. He could hear the sound of a scratching pen on white bored and he could see someone moving around inside the room. He slowly opened the door and saw...Someone...They had been at the meeting but he couldn't but a name to his face. The young man never really spoke up....

He quietly walked into the room, not drawing any attention from the man who was busy at work...Making battle plans? Ahh....Attack plans for someone coming at his nation....Must have been an exercise of some sort. Otherwise this boy would have been the worst saboteur in the history of the world. He could see the strategy behind it...A classic hammer and anvil strike...With a rather nice added twist. He had a third force of mechanized infantry sweeping along the coast to block any chance of retreat...Nicely done, nicely done indeed...In fact he could only see one or two problems with the over all tactics...."How do you plan on dealing with the aerial support thats sure to come?"

[Guest]

He was defiantly happy. Finally able to show some worth to himself. Though...he had to meet Doctor Cassidy later. There was a chance maybe. He looked to the board again spotting the mistake. Tapping the pen to his chin as he tried to think about it while reaching back for the book on engineering he had.

"How do you plan on dealing with the aerial support thats sure to come?" The voice behind him made him jump harshly knocking the whole array of books off the table. Including his personal journal as he squeaked loudly turning round in a blind panic. "Ah Lord Etheridge....Sorry was it your turn to use the war room?" He said flustered and embarrassed. Of course his training plan was stupid and flawed. "I'll just clean up and be out of your way..." HE didn't look up as tears of humiliation prickled his eyes. Reaching for the board cleaner he hadn't noticed how fatal his freak out had been.

Lieing on the floor at Brendon's feet lay the personal journal with the DNA results he had sneakily gotten. After all he had struggled to see the resemblance between him and Fiachra. And to his luck during a massive bear hug and freak out one of Fiachra's hairs had snagged and caught on his jumper. It had clearly not been his with the vivid redness of the hair so sending that and one of his own to a DNA test the results were quick to return confirming a direct father son match. At least it proved it. Not that he intended Fiachra to ever see it. Hiding it in his journal had of course in his mind determined its secret to remain a secret.

[Brendon Etheridge]

Jumpy little guy wasn't he? Honestly you would think that someone who had spent a considerable(Ish) amount of time dreaming of and planing for war, death and destruction would be better able to control their reactions to something of as little significance as he, social standing mattered vary little on the battle field, bullets would kill a prince just as well as they could kill a common man, in fact they seemed to seek him out more often. He couldn't help but shake his head in exasperation...The kid needed to learn some self control.

"Ah Lord Etheridge....Sorry was it your turn to use the war room?" With a sigh he bent over and started to pick the books up."No, no it isn't i just saw that the door was open and thought id drop in and say hello to who ever was managing to get some sort of work done." He went to grap one last book....and something just caught his eye..Some sort of test results, Quickly he scanned the page as he reached for it....This....This tiny guy was Fiachra's son? Now wasn't that interesting.....

He filed the information away and snapped the book shut as he picked it up. He handed them all back over to Seamus with a small smile on his face."So this plan of yours...What exactly is it for?" He wanted to know exactly wh this boy was making plans for an invasion.....He couldn't know could he? No...No...of course not he was just being paranoid....Or was he? "Your plan shows promise...it just seems to be... incomplete...Would you mind is i added?

[Guest]

"No, no it isn't i just saw that the door was open and thought id drop in and say hello to who ever was managing to get some sort of work done." He flushed from humiliation looking done. "Oh...ok..." He felt at unease as he grasped the journal that was handed to him tightly thanking the prince lightly.

"So this plan of yours...What exactly is it for?" He looked up at the other. "It's...a training plan...." He said softly picking up the board marker. "I was trying to think of a new routine for the Faolchú ...the men seem to be getting bored and restless with the current one....Even Sergeant Major Brennan seems to be hunting for a challenge....I taught I would try and design something...." His face fell when he noted Brendon's expression. "But It wouldn't work....I'll just clean up and be out of your way..." Grabbing the board wiper letting his hair hide his face. Truly useless....

"How pathetic....your a liability...you'll end up being the death of our best men...You disgust us all....Fiachra most likely recruited you out of pity and the kings comments are all lies...."

Professors Cassidy's words echoed in his mind as he clenched the clothe weakly in his hands. "Your plan shows promise...it just seems to be... incomplete...Would you mind is i added?" He tensed more and slowly handed the pen and clothe to Brendon. "yeah....you might as well clean it off....it wouldn't of been any use anyway...." He shrank back into himself glancing at his phone. "I have to leave in half an hour anyway....." He wondered briefly....would he come back from this?

[Brendon Etheridge]

"I have to leave in half an hour anyway....." Well then that was another half hour he had to get to know this rather important individual, but from the look on the kids face it looked like the younger man was about to hope a fence and run, why? He was being friendly and showing interest in the other mans work...Why ten was he acting afraid? Brendon knew he was a prince and all but he had worked hard to make people see him more as leader and a soldier then as a prince....Hell he had even gone out with some of the more un of the mill solders just to get an idea for moral and whos lives he would be wagering if war did indeed come to this country.

"Well then, if you have a half hour left, why dont we get down to business and finish this up? I can see you already put a lot of effort into it....We cant let that go to wast now can we?" And it was true, the army could use a little surprise every now and again, laziness could get them killed they needed to expect the unexpected. So he reached over and gave the young strategist a pat on the shoulder before going on. "Now show me exactly what you had planed....Im a little drained from meetings today so im not seeing things as clearly as i should be."

Bren felt the need to draw this man into conversation, to get him to talk, or at the vary least stop him from running off like a scared rabbit, which may have been harder then he at first expected, the guy seemed frightened of just about everything. Ah well there was nothing for it but to try and break threw with a cheery smile, a cal laugh and kinder words. "Im glad some ones finally decided to go ahead and design a new war game....Diversity is the key to victory as im sure you know."

[Csilla Angelis]

{BUMP}

[Guest]

"Well then, if you have a half hour left, why don’t we get down to business and finish this up? I can see you already put a lot of effort into it....We cant let that go to wast now can we?" He tensed slightly nodding dumbly. He knew he would end up looking like an idiot in front of this man but refusing would be rude. "I...don't want to be any trouble..." He mumbled looking down. Eye contact being to difficult to hold with the man.

"Now show me exactly what you had planed....Im a little drained from meetings today so im not seeing things as clearly as i should be." He nodded picking up the board pointer. "Im glad some ones finally decided to go ahead and design a new war game....Diversity is the key to victory as im sure you know." nodding before gently tapping the end to parts of the board as he explained. The detail he went into showed his intelligence that Seamus himself had no faith in. Revealing that the man could indeed be someone that would gift the nation if his crippling self loathing didn't get in the way.

As he got near the more complex part of the training scheme the shrill cold ring and buzz of the cell phone on the desk interrupted him. It was defending and chilling as Seamus tensed his grip on the board pointer slacking causing the thin object to slip and fall with a loud clatter rolling out of his reach as he stood staring at the phone trembling a soft gasp escaping his lips. The reaction to the phone as if it had grew fangs and claws. Though the number wasn't saved he knew who would be ringing him. Was his time up already? No he still had 20 minuets....why would he be ringing him now? Should he answer...no he wasn't allowed to tell anyone what was to happen and the prince was with him in the room. Nervously glancing from the phone to the prince he reached out and grabbed it passing the call to voice mail and pocketing it.

"Um...where was I...ah I dropped the pointer." He fell to his knees and hand's looking under the desk desperately looking for the pointer. His heart was racing and he could heard his ragged breaths. Oh god...he was terrified and on the verge of a panic attack. His body trembling as he tried to reach for the pointer only for it to roll mockingly from his finger tips. Calm yourself Seamus....calm....He was sure his pulse was racing so much Brendon would hear it as clear as day.

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