"This is the voicemail of Irulan Corrino-Atreides. Please leave your message after the chimes. Thank you."

That had been an interesting trip back home...

Irulan surveyed her home and smiled but it was good to be back in Fandom.

A storm hit my country pretty badly and most of Manila is underwater. Fortunately my family and I were unaffected by the flood but I probably won't be around a lot. I'll still pick-up pings albeit very slowly.

This goes for Dani Reese and the Fire Nation princess.

Irulan was enjoying a restful sleep when an ear splitting shriek woke her. She leapt to her feet but was almost immediately hit with a profound wrongnesss it staggered Irulan.

And then her head started to hurt.

It probably had to do with the book her servant threw at her head. And the shoe. And the--

"Stop this!" Irulan ordered, using the Voice.

Her servant stopped, frozen in place.

"Why are you attacking me?" She demanded. Or... she would have said had she not realized that her voice was not her voice and... Irulan looked down in horror, her body was not her body.

Unfortunately for Irulan, the effect of the Voice was temporary and her servant was a Fremen woman. The next thing Irulan knew her servant threw her out into the sidewalk, screaming: "Leave this place! Never sully my mistress's home again!"

Then she slammed the door on Irulan's face.


(Establishy!)

We're currently experiencing power outages and Irulan and Dani Reese probably won't be around tomorrow unless our local power company fixes the problem soon :(.

Sorry for dropped threads!

And ugh, its sooo hot without any electricity around.

Uh.... so am I the only one getting not LJ notifications? Or is this the side effect of LJ going down?

She was afraid to sleep but sleep came far too easy these days. The dreams kept getting odder, there was Leto as a vampire, taunting her. And there was also the unpleasant feeling of the pervasive Spice withdrawal and the fear of death. There were dreams were she spoke to people she never saw before or hadn't seen in a while.

What in the name of the holy mother was happening to her?

Before that thought could even process she was asleep once more.

Irulan left Leto a message informing him off his gift. She had a gift for Ghani as well.

Although, at the moment she had a trying time convincing her servant to leave the house. Apparently, the random burst into song and dance really unnerved her.

"Would it help if I increase your salary?"

She only shot Irulan a sour glance.

"It really isn't an ordinary occurance, the singing..." Irulan trailed off at the stony glare. "Am I right in thinking I'll have a better chance convincing a worm to turn than convincing you to leave the house?"


Irulan sighed.


(Open!)

Early morning in the Atreides Residence and much to her relief there was no urge to sing. It's been a busy and interesting month. It was past time for her to update her journal. She switched on the infernal machine and started a document.


( Beginnings and endings hold a special significance )

(Epic linkdrop is epic!)

Irulan woke-up feeling a little strange and chalked it up to having learned her stepson was now a tree. She stood-up and suddenly music started playing.


Irulan looked at her iPod but it was turned off. Irulan opened her mouth to speak instead this came out:

"I am indeed a cat," Irulan startled but it seemed whatever was happening to her wasn't finished yet and to her horror continued on with accompanying instrumental beats, "And this, indeed, is a hat!"

( In English: cat, hat; in French, chat, chapeau it really is quite obvious, don't you know? )

(OOC: Open! Lyrics cribbed from here)

Irulan entered her walk-in closet to retrieve the hat she would wear for the day. Instead of her collection, what met her was this:

( a gaggle of women )

( The Princess Irulan )

( The Hat Shop )

Irulan studied her iPod and then the audio dock. This shouldn't be hard, she belonged in the future, she traveled in spaceships. Yet Irulan found herself puzzling over her iPod and the newly acquired speaker. After much puzzling she finally figured it out. She connected the iPod to the dock, that seems right and all she need do was turn it on.

She smiled to herself, it was nice to be reminded technology wasn't so bad. She was near the door when Irulan turned and pointed the remote control and pressed 'Play'.

"THEY CALL ME STACEY / THEY CALL ME HER / THEY CALL ME JANE / THAT'S NOT--"

Irulan flung herself across the living room and frantically turned off the blaring speakers or attempted to but it only kept getting louder, she let out an expletive that if the Reverend Mother were around would get her a strict reprimand. But she wasn't around and Irulan was a grown woman with stepchildren and it was far too early in the morning for such noise.

"Infernal machine!" She cursed, Irulan was seconds away from smashing the cursed machine and then it switched off. She glared at the speaker. "Now I recall why I dislike machines."

((Open!))

It was moving day, boxes were brought in and furniture pushed this way and that while Irulan supervised. She was determined to finish by this afternoon.

"Careful," Irulan cautioned as she watched her servants install a stain glass window. The stain glass was specially designed with the Atreides standard shaped proudly at its center.

The window could easily be seen upon entrance. It wasn't subtle and it wasn't meant to be. This was to be an Atreides household and all who enter would be under the Atreides banner.

The servants worked diligently until the stain glass was properly installed.

"Well done," she complimented. The servants stepped back and sunlight pierced through the glass, yellow light filtered in from the stain glass. She nodded again and turned her attention to the objects cluttering her new home.

"Now, let us move these boxes."

((Post is open! Anyone is welcome to frazzle Irulan!))

  Irulan looked around her suite and at the number of luggage she had acquired. As lovely as the Arms Hotel was Irulan looked forward to finally moving to her new residence. It was not as grand as the palace she's lived in nor as spacious as Sietch Tabr but for her purposes it would serve her well. She smiled at the flowers she purchased the other day. Such a lovely color it was.

It also reminded her of one other thing, she rose from the divan and called Charlotte York. After that task was done Irulan returned to the divan. She hoped the move to the new house in Sphinx Street would go smoothly.

Immediately after that she would be busy with her new hat store. She smiled at this thought, she had met one of Leto's friends in the building and Irulan had taken a liking to her. She should tell Leto to invite Fiona when he visits her in her new place of residence.

Irulan awoke to a vision of water. She blinked twice, surprised at the sight and remembered where she was. Fandom. Of course. Irulan rose and pulled back the curtains and stared at the ocean.

She had been wandering around the past few days, trying to let the disorientation of traveling between worlds past. Aside from her brief visit in Salusa Secundus, oh so many years ago she had barely left Arrakis.

Because of her walk around the town Irulan had tasted two delicious pies this side of the universe, visited the beach and found a gallery where she could purchase a few art pieces for her new place of residence.

The biggest surprise for her was learning that Leto, a much younger version of her Leto was also on this island. She had not expected that development.

However, today was not a day for idle wanderings in a day's time she will be moving again but before that there is a matter she needs to attend to: Her shop, or to be more precise, the tasks at hand in order to open a shop. Irulan allowed a smile at this thought.

((Post is open!))

Irulan watched Leto run across the desert. He has changed so much, became so much more than she'd ever imagined. Irulan wondered if this was what Lady Jessica felt witnessing Paul's transformation from boy to god.

It's been years since Leto took the throne from Alia and Irulan accepted her stepson's changes but some times it was still surprising to see him worshipped as a god. Irulan moved forward until she caught sight of another figure just over the cliff-- Ghanima.

"I see you are here again, Irulan."

Irulan turned, smiling. "It is a hard habit to break, Stilgar."

Stilgar returned the smile. "Watching over Leto and Ghanima? Yes, I expect so."

"And anyway, it will be a while until I see them again," Irulan tightened her hold on her cloak as a wind whipped up the sand. The whirling sand did not bother Stilgar he was a true Fremen. For a second Irulan fancied that should the word Fremen appear in the Galactic dictionary Stilgar's ego likeness would appear underneath it.

"You are really leaving?"

"All the arrangements have been made," she confirmed. Irulan moved her foot from the sand, in the earlier years before Leto and Ghanima's birth she hated Arrakis. Hated it for the heat, the sand and for everything else it symbolized. It was only later, years later Irulan had been surprised to realize she'd come to like, even love the desert planet.

It was not an easy thing to realize.

"I will return," she promised, "when there are children again."

"Children." There was a note of amusement in his voice.

"Yes, children," Irulan repeated, letting her voice drift with the wind until she saw the minute twitching of Ghanima's shoulders. Irulan kept her smile to herself but Stilgar was openly grinning. He may not have the observational skill of a Bene Gesserit but he knew such topics were not something the twins, particularly Ghanima, liked to speak about.

Growing up Irulan was not the only person the twins exasperated with their mischievousness.

"Where will you go?"

"Somewhere both near and far," she answered. Stilgar raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm to go to Fandom."

Stilgar frowned and she could sense his puzzlement but Irulan pretended not to notice. 

Irulan felt the pulse of excitement and nostalgia. It's been decades since she returned to Fandom. She could have chosen Caladan or some other planet but the touch of the empire was vast and for the moment... for the moment Irulan was tired of it.

"I must leave," she said, remembering the time. She and the children have said their goodbyes and she was only lingering because of sentiment. "The Heighliner would arrive soon." 

"I understand," Stilgar said and added, "May Shai-halud clear the path before you."

There was sand in her eyes and Irulan blinked rapidly. "And yours." 

Irulan turned and started her journey away from the sands of Arrakis.


((Establishy!))

After resolving the clothes crisis Irulan had taken to meditating. The whole day. When the time finally came Irulan was dressed and ready and had calmed down reasonably. Instead of  having a compulsion to run around flailing her arms, she was now only mentally ringing her hands and praying she was wearing appropriate clothes.

So, now she was off to her date. Her first date.

[establishy!]

Several things happened since she decided to live her life to the full. First, River offered to help her with this project of hers, cooking would be one of the things they'll tackle. The second thing that was, apparently, on Friday she will be on her first official date.

As a Bene Gesserit trainee she was supposed to be versed in the ways of human intimacy and should look upon this as a sort of practice, a study of human affairs. She should be the center of calm, an oasis in a desert.  

She wasn't.

Her side of the room looked like a hurricane had stopped by: Clothes were littered on her bed, hats were scattered haphazardly on the floor.

She was a Bene Gesserit in training, she shouldn't be this nervous. It was just a date after all, her first date. A real date with Peter Petrelli, a really handsome boy who can fly.

"Agggh!" She threw another set of clothes on her bed, "What am I going to wear?"

At the back of her mind she knew she was overreacting, she ignored that part of her mind.  

(open!)