End of written section. We now begin even more of the answer section. Also, so many face palms it’s not even funny. I didn’t have Matthew’s section fully planned, but a basic outline that was quite fluid, except where it intersected with Alfred’s story, thus there’s less detail here.
Matthew’s main character arc is finding out why and how he’s different from his brother, how he is unique himself as a person.
Matthew manages to convince Connall to go into Underhill with him, at least to retrieve Alfred if they are able. Connall takes another magic viewing amulet, and they use it to track Alfred. It, of course, leads them to the tree. Connall and Matthew come to the conclusion that Alfred must have been turned into a tree. So they decide to visit the resident expert on people turned into trees, Morgana, from Arthurian legend.
Morgana finds it odd that Alfred would be turned into a chestnut tree, as his tree according to the Celtic tree calendar is an apple tree. She gives them a spell to force a person from a tree. While there, they meet a beautiful fae with flaming red hair and a perfect complexion. She hesitantly introduces herself as Ginny. She is about to go on her way, when she suddenly asks if he is a man who has his feet in three oceans at once. True enough, Matthew says yes, and she immediately pledges herself to help him. Morgana is slightly disapproving, but says nothing to Matthew. He does issue a warning to Ginny, something about the ‘last one’. She takes Matthew and Connall to Trader Jack (Jack of all Trades), and buys a pair of six league boots (not seven) to get them back to the dryad forest. They lose Connall somewhere in here.
When Matthew and Ginny get back to the tree, they use the spell, and the dryad, very unhappy, comes out of the tree with the amulet around her neck. Now back at square one, Ginny gets the idea to ask a favor of a Cat. On the way to find him, they encounter Aengus and Adain, who mistake Matthew for something magicked to look like Alfred. They manage to find the Cheshire Cat since he wants to be found, and tells them that they can track his brother using his blood as a focus, since they are twins. Matthew dislikes thinking about how their bloods are becoming even more similar than that. But they do build a focus.
Matthew’s focus works much better, as it is blood, and they have a few side adventures on the way to Alfred, and Matthew falls in love with Ginny.
This is a Matthew stream of consciousness from this time.
Matthew, although he wouldn’t admit it, was jealous a lot of the time of Alfred’s and Arthur’s relationship. It wasn’t perfect, that was for sure. The amount of times that either of them had come to him seeking advice had made him want to start charging for marriage counseling. Alfred tended to view them as perfect, and Arthur as perfect, and usually had no idea why they had problems when they did have them. Arthur was more of a realist (pessimist), and didn’t understand the ins and outs of Alfred’s scattered mind sometimes. But they cared for each other, and they loved each other, and that usually pulled them through after some effort.
Matthew was forgotten by most people, overshadowed in the glory and the fireworks and the stars and stripes of his brother. And that didn’t lend itself very well to romance honestly. And if you thought too hard about it, Alfred and Arthur’s relationship was really weird. Matthew had been Arthur’s brother for a lot longer than Alfred had; it was only in the last forty years that he had truly come into his own, and Alfred hadn’t been Arthur’s adopted brother since the 18th century. And yet Alfred was his twin, his blood brother, and Freddie had been raised somewhat by Arthur. True, he had been cared for less than Matthew had with Francis, or later with Arthur, so Alfred felt that he’d raised himself. But still, if Matthew thought too hard, it was incest, and that squicked him out sometimes.
Crowe END/n
Matthew’s main character arc is finding out why and how he’s different from his brother, how he is unique himself as a person.
Matthew manages to convince Connall to go into Underhill with him, at least to retrieve Alfred if they are able. Connall takes another magic viewing amulet, and they use it to track Alfred. It, of course, leads them to the tree. Connall and Matthew come to the conclusion that Alfred must have been turned into a tree. So they decide to visit the resident expert on people turned into trees, Morgana, from Arthurian legend.
Morgana finds it odd that Alfred would be turned into a chestnut tree, as his tree according to the Celtic tree calendar is an apple tree. She gives them a spell to force a person from a tree. While there, they meet a beautiful fae with flaming red hair and a perfect complexion. She hesitantly introduces herself as Ginny. She is about to go on her way, when she suddenly asks if he is a man who has his feet in three oceans at once. True enough, Matthew says yes, and she immediately pledges herself to help him. Morgana is slightly disapproving, but says nothing to Matthew. He does issue a warning to Ginny, something about the ‘last one’. She takes Matthew and Connall to Trader Jack (Jack of all Trades), and buys a pair of six league boots (not seven) to get them back to the dryad forest. They lose Connall somewhere in here.
When Matthew and Ginny get back to the tree, they use the spell, and the dryad, very unhappy, comes out of the tree with the amulet around her neck. Now back at square one, Ginny gets the idea to ask a favor of a Cat. On the way to find him, they encounter Aengus and Adain, who mistake Matthew for something magicked to look like Alfred. They manage to find the Cheshire Cat since he wants to be found, and tells them that they can track his brother using his blood as a focus, since they are twins. Matthew dislikes thinking about how their bloods are becoming even more similar than that. But they do build a focus.
Matthew’s focus works much better, as it is blood, and they have a few side adventures on the way to Alfred, and Matthew falls in love with Ginny.
This is a Matthew stream of consciousness from this time.
Matthew, although he wouldn’t admit it, was jealous a lot of the time of Alfred’s and Arthur’s relationship. It wasn’t perfect, that was for sure. The amount of times that either of them had come to him seeking advice had made him want to start charging for marriage counseling. Alfred tended to view them as perfect, and Arthur as perfect, and usually had no idea why they had problems when they did have them. Arthur was more of a realist (pessimist), and didn’t understand the ins and outs of Alfred’s scattered mind sometimes. But they cared for each other, and they loved each other, and that usually pulled them through after some effort.
Matthew was forgotten by most people, overshadowed in the glory and the fireworks and the stars and stripes of his brother. And that didn’t lend itself very well to romance honestly. And if you thought too hard about it, Alfred and Arthur’s relationship was really weird. Matthew had been Arthur’s brother for a lot longer than Alfred had; it was only in the last forty years that he had truly come into his own, and Alfred hadn’t been Arthur’s adopted brother since the 18th century. And yet Alfred was his twin, his blood brother, and Freddie had been raised somewhat by Arthur. True, he had been cared for less than Matthew had with Francis, or later with Arthur, so Alfred felt that he’d raised himself. But still, if Matthew thought too hard, it was incest, and that squicked him out sometimes.