Newlywed Life (Jenna;TiffTiff)

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

"I didn’t mean just with making furniture" Jenna replied quietly once the Griffin was done with his explanation of his capability as a carpenter. "Besides that, that all seems fine. We don’t need fancy things, at least not to start out with. The more specialty stuff like bedding and cookware we’ll have to trade for, but surely someone will want some chairs or a table or some such." There was little more to be done with that, though, until everything was finished. Then there was the matter of going out and gathering wood for her husband to fashion into their furniture. They would probably have to spend another night in her parents’ home before things were completely settled here, but maybe not…

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

"Given the architecture of this place, I doubt whatever I make will be of high sale value..." Griffin replied. "As I said, I'm awfully terrible." he stated. "If I just made a bunch of them, they wouldn't sell much, and I'd have to guess that demand would drop pretty quick for them...Though it wouldn't hurt to make a few things and see how they take."

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

"Hmph" Jenna muttered, "might as well try something. Besides, even if it’s bad there’s probably someone who’ll barter for it because it’s different and novel for being made by a human." That would be more or less the last bit of this conversation from her, she wanted to buckle down and get this done. If Griffin had thought she moved fast earlier, she was certainly moving faster now, her full focus on the act of digging without any messing around talking. She could tell that she had been at it a fairly long time by the time she had finished, probably into the afternoon. Not really a long time given all the stone and dirt she had displaced, but perhaps longer than the average because of how ambitious her floor plan had been. The lizardgirl wasn’t terribly tired, though she had managed to break a bit of a sweat, and she would take a little bit of time to relax in the bare den of her new home.

"I suppose" she would say quietly after a time, "I ought to try and… ask my mother to begin teaching me magic. As horrible as she is, and as obnoxious as she makes herself, I do need to learn, and she’s quite good at it… I just wish we didn’t bump heads so much." Jenna hugged her knees again, her tail lightly swatting at a wall. "I don’t want to fight with my parents, I want to be close to them… Especially dad, I missed him a lot. But mom makes it so fucking hard!" She would get up quickly then and try to push it from her mind, clenching her fists and steeling herself for what was to come. It wasn’t a long trip, perhaps her parents were still at home… If she did happen to find her mom at home she would walk up to her and quietly say "I would like you to teach me magic."

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

"Your mother actually seems kind to me." Griffin announced. "She's much like my own father, very militant. It's natural for a parent to want their child to follow in their footsteps, so I'd expect someone like that to be hard on their child. It's to toughen them up." he explained.

When Jenna walked into her parent's home, she'd find her mother looking rather sweaty and her father making some food. With a smile, Jenna would be invited to share in the meal, while her mother would look a bit shocked that Jenna asked her to be her teacher. "... You actually want me to teach you?" her mother inquired, her own tail swinging about. "How long has it been, Jenna? Since we last trained?" she asked, but it was very far back, difficult for one to remember. "Not once have you come to me to be trained... It's good to finally see you improving." she commented. "How much do you know, Jenna? I imagine not much."

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

"Dammit, stop siding with her" Jenna replied sharply, "the two of you get along waaaay too well." She eyed her husband somewhat suspiciously, having seen a few of their interactions… Still, she shrugged it off fairly quickly as she headed into the home of her parents. As usual her father was cooking breakfast, her mother standing a little ways away looking sweaty. Morning exercises, or perhaps a particularly strenuous sex session? It hardly mattered. The lizardgirl would accept the offer to sit down to a meal, though only a small one since she had eaten already not so long ago. Still, all that digging had made her want a bit more food…

Her mother, of course, was quite surprised that Jenna wanted to learn magic from her, or at least she seemed it. "Yes, I want to learn… And it’s been a very long time. Probably years" she replied, keeping her voice quiet. She wanted to try her damndest to get along for a while at least, not to say anything too off-putting. "I don’t know a lot. Really nothing at all about magic" she continued, her tail lightly thumping the ground in annoyance at having to say so. "I’ve spent a lot of time meditating, though, so I know how to clear and focus my mind. I think I’m pretty good at it."

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

"I'd say we're more indifferent than anything else. I don't know her, so I'm not going to show disrespect until I have a reason to do so." he said flatly.

Meanwhile, Jenna's mother didn't seem quite convinced about her focus. "We'll find out about that when the time comes, but before we can discover how well you can focus while weaving... We need to teach you how to weave. The first thing children do is that they enchant their weapon." She began, grouping Jenna in with the children. Usually at about three years of age (at which point, they appear as old as a twelve year old girl), lizard kin begin learning how to enchant their swords. Since Jenna had a falling out of sorts, she is still sitting on a regular blade. Despite how embarrassing it may be, she'd have to start at an elementary level. "Let's get on teaching you the basics..." Her mother sighed, inviting Jenna to sit down with her on a carpet used for guest-host conversations in their home.

From that point on, Jenna would be educated in versatility. The point of her blade being enchanted was so that she could cut through both the physical and magical. Lizard kin were renowned for being versatile fighters. Weavers unable to handle their quick physical prowess, and masterful warriors swept away by their magics. To that end, their kind had no true weakness, but neither did they have an overwhelming strength. Their main ferocity lies in the fact that they can easily confuse foes who try to predict their movements.

Just after the bit of training that she got, able to make her blade glow like her mothers, and everyone elses, she was taught how to channel her magic through her now magical blade, and cause it to light up with fire. With such an ability, the fight with the orc would have gone better, perhaps.

"Picking up quickly. That's good." her mother sighed. Hours had already passed.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

Jenna was quite annoyed that her mother compared her to a child when talking about magic and learning it, and yet… it wasn’t untrue. Most children of an age just a little older than Gren would have a decent chance in a fight with her actually, something she would have to work hard to correct. She had probably set herself back about a year or so by running off. She probably could even have learned these things before she had left home if she hadn’t butted heads with her mother so often. She would have to start from the very beginning now, and she needed to make up for lost time. She took the offer to sit down with her mother on the carpet and begin to learn about the flow of magic, of concentrating magic into the blade so that she would not only pack more punch, but also be able to fight against more magical entities and have success. It took her several hours to get the basics down, enough to make her sword glow faintly, and then to make it burst into flame. It was pretty good progress in her mind, and even her mother seemed to be praising her… maybe. "It’s not like I’m an imbecile" Jenna said, ready and sort of eager to keep going. She could feel herself improving, and she wanted more.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

"We've trained long enough. Practice what I've taught you some more if you wish. We can continue tomorrow." Jenna's mother announced, standing up and looking to Jenna's father, expecting some food to be cooked up. Meanwhile, Jenna was free to share in the dinner being prepared. Griffin seemed inclined to do so, mostly due to his lack of reason not to. Jenna was welcome to visit her mother every day if she felt the need, and catch up on long-overdue training.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

Jenna grumbled just a little about the halting of training, but she accepted it well enough. She would only have rejected a meal cooked by her father if she had gotten into another fight with her mother, and Griffin seemed to be quite ready to sit down and eat, so that was an extra incentive. She would continue to come to her mother for training every day unless there was a major incident, especially as she began to feel the improvement she was making. All the while she would slowly release the magical hold she had over her husband, trying to make sure she attended to his wants and needs properly throughout this time; she felt that she had to work at earning his love because of the way they had been married, to make sure she didn’t overburden him with her desire for his body that she felt was likely far in advance of his desire for hers among other things. She would also begin the process of furnishing her home with the most basic of comfort pieces, trying to find a way to either transport her old bed to her new den or to obtain a new, preferably larger one.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

With a bit of shabby work from Griffin, Jenna had a basic furniture set to use. There was much room for improvement, mostly in the comfort area, but otherwise it was functional enough. The bed was thankfully his best attempt. It was indeed firm, but also padded with a great deal of weresheep wool so that it wasn't too uncomfortable to sleep in, especially since weresheep wool was assured to help you sleep. In order to pay for all the wool however, Jenna and Griffin had to work a great deal in order to acquire enough trade.

Meanwhile, Jenna was getting training when she could. A monumental moment came when it came to be that Jenna finally could inscribe runes into her blade, and provide a constant flow of magic into her weapon. "As you're likely aware, we are versatile fighters. No foe is of a style of combat that is too much for us to understand or combat against. Use what I've taught you, engrave your runes into your blade, they are a symbol of yourself, so that no other blade may be confused with your own." her mother announced.

Then, using her magic alone, Jenna had to focus, and warp her blade to match her true inner self. No longer would her blade be just an instrument to fight with. It would become an extension of herself, as much as her tails and arms were. It was up to Jenna how she'd reshape her blade.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

For a few days Jenna went out and collected materials, and with some work from Griffin they had some rudimentary furniture. Serviceable tables and chairs for their sitting areas (though they weren’t particularly comfortable), a single dresser to hold clothing and things, and then a bed. He put a lot of effort into the bed at her urging, and he actually came up with something pretty good. It was perhaps a bit more than merely firm, but it was nice enough… and Jenna chose to really splurge on a mattress. It took a lot of hard work for the both of them to pay for it, but she was able to acquire a pretty large amount of wonderful Weresheep wool, guaranteed to help you get to sleep quick… if you weren’t engaged in other pursuits, of course. Well worth the trouble, at least in her opinion, because sleep was important after all.

All the while Jenna trained, a bit with her father but mostly with her mother, learning how to focus her magic. She kept getting better and better, markedly so in her mind, until finally she was skilled enough to create a more permanent link with her sword, to personalize it as every lizardgirl did. She thought about it long and hard… The kind of sword she would warp her own into, the symbol she would use for it, it was sort of a big deal. Finally she would concentrate quite hard, and slowly her blade would reshape itself… It would grow a bit longer, just a tiny bit thinner, the edge becoming somewhat wavy, sort of a flamberge in design. She made the choice in part because she knew it would make crossing blades with her uncomfortable for her opponents and would help her in parrying their attacks, in part because it was a versatile enough design to both stab at heavily armored opponents and slash at those with lighter armor, and in part simply because she hadn’t seen it all that often, and it was certainly very different from the weapons wielded by her immediate family. As for the symbol… an elaborate pair of angelic wings spread vertically along the center of the blade, an image from her dream. At least part of it had already turned out to be prophetic, and about the very important matter of her husband, so she felt like it was a part of her in a way. A symbol of finding the one she loved… and of the possibility of a future full of glory.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

Jenna's choice in design was awfully specific. Moreover, the angelic wings on her blade seemed to almost raise alarms. Indeed, angels were a species that were often known to protect human, mostly through the extermination of mamono, a fact that Jenna's mother would make clear to her after a hard stare at the detail of her blade...

"... I want explanations, Jenna." Her mother demanded, switching her stance to a very serious one, folding her legs and putting her hands on her knees. Then she went silent, waiting for Jenna's reply.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

Somewhat predictably Jenna's mother was... more than a little disturbed at her daughter's choice of symbolism on her blade. Angels, after all, were not the greatest friends to the mamono under normal circumstances. "A while ago, I had a dream. There was a stained glass window with an image of myself and a human man wearing breastplate with a griffin on it. These wings appeared to either side of the window, and a woman told me that I would find the Griffin and make him my husband, and teach him that monsters aren't evil. That day I met him. There was more to the dream than that, but it's already been prophetic in the first part of it... I don't know why an angel would say such things or want to help me, but maybe it has to do with the other parts of the dream..." she replied, idly looking at her blade as she spoke.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

"You followed her advice?" Jenna's mother said with surprise, glancing at Griffin as if Jenna's marriage to him was suddenly a mistake. "Never trust an angel, Jenna. They are murderous creatures that despise all that which they don't deem pure." She advised Jenna. "Don't take her advice, you hear me? Never listen to an angel-"

"Unless the angel's intent was not to be trusted." Griffin suggested. "Wouldn't peace between your race and the humans be beneficial? Sounds like something you'd want to go for regardless of angelic interference." he spoke his thoughts on the matter.

"Siding with the angel?" Jenna's mother inquired.

"That would be very dumb of me, given I'm married to a mamono now. There's a certain line they don't like men crossing." Griffin countered.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

Jenna didn’t quite know what to believe at this point. She tilted her head, looking between her mother and her husband as they conversed back and forth. Finally, when they seemed to be done, she spoke up herself. "I don’t know… But for myself, I think it would be good to see humans and monsters fighting together. Think how much easier things would be if most humans didn’t hate us to begin with. Finding a good husband would be easier for everyone. Whether or not an angel actually wants to help us, it’d be good for humans to be at peace with us also, so… I’m at least willing to go along with things to that point" she said, nodding at the end of it.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

Her mother threw her arms up into the air. "Throw caution to the wind and act only on whims!" she announced with aggravation. "You're like Gren in that regard. So damn ruled by your own beliefs. If it turns out that this was some evil plot by an angel to kill us all, you shall not be remembered fondly!" she warned her daughter.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

"How could my husband even possibly be a plot to destroy us?" Jenna asked with an exasperated tone, "I think I have enough sense to tell when something will end up like that, too! Why don't you ever trust me at all to make sensible decisions?"

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

Tensions rose as Jenna's mother rose up slightly more, as if to show herself as taller over her daughter. "Because you *can't* be trusted to make sensible decisions!" she replied in a louder voice.

"Unfortunately for this argument's sake, what's done is already done. If the angel had an evil plan, it was already set in motion when Jenna and I got married." Griffin added to the argument. "The best course of action would be to act as we were and be prepared for any 'evil plans' to emerge from the woodworks." he advised.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

Jenna's eye twitched, and her tail thumped the floor heavily as her mother tried to puff herself up as tall as possible, yelling back at her. She was about to say something else when Griffin interjected, and she took a deep breath to calm herself. "Yes, what he said... We just have to be aware" she said, turning her side to her mother and walking over to her husband, wrapping an arm around his waist. "I'm quite happy with how things have turned out so far, but I'm not totally stupid. I think I can watch out for evil plots."

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Destined Union (Jenna;TiffTiff)

With Griffin and Jenna taking a side, her mother seemed to completely give up the idea of trying to convince her otherwise. "Good luck, then, following along the wishes of this angel. Pray that I'm wrong." she instructed.

"You have a god?" Griffin inquired.

"The Warrior Goddess Excalibur, the strongest lizard warrior throughout history." her mother replied.

"How long ago?" Griffin inquired further.

"Thousands of years-"

"So it was before the succubus corruption? How do you know it was a female?" Griffin inquired even further.

"Don't argue religion, you cheeky little cock!" her mother snapped at Griffin, who merely reclined a bit in a disappointed gesture.