re: Bard's Poor Attempt at a Combined Marvel/DC Universe (an ongoing project)

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Not yet, just life and migraines just getting in the way.

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I'm just fricking with you.

Hope you feel better.

Bright lights suddenly appeared from behind Clark, even Juggernaut noticed through his haze. It seemed to heighten his fear. Clark turned Juggernaut over then drifted up with his opponent held out in front of him. He wasn’t going to be sucker-punched by this man again. Above the crater Clark was confronted by three men, equally spaced in front of him. Auras of light and power surrounded them.

The man to the left was clad in blue cloth trimmed in gold with a long, flowing gold cape and a gold helm which had only eye slits. Clark was struck by the sense of benevolence the cape seemed to engender in him. To Clark’s right was an older black man in white robes. His long white hair and beard bespoke of great age while the staff he held crackled with power. In front of Clark, the slim and elderly man in the center was Asian with a sort of well-maintained goatee.

The man in the center spoke, “Greetings and peace, son of Krypton.” Clark was taken aback by the title, only he and his parents knew the truth about his planet of birth. “I am known simply as The Ancient One and I have taught and practiced magicks for centuries. To my right is Doctor Fate, the representative of Nabu of the Lords of Order. To my left is the wizard Mamragan, also known as Shazam, the last of the Keepers of the Rock of Eternity. We are members of a magical society which seeks to limit and restrain harmful magicks, especially those from outside our dimension.”

“The man you have before you has been empowered by a being from the Crimson Cosmos named Cyttorak as part of his plan to return to this plane of existence. Nabu’s previous champion and Shazam’s fellow Keepers sacrificed themselves millennia ago to banish Cyttorak and thus end his tyranny. We are here now to insure he stays banished.”

Clark could feel the power exuding from them and while he was skeptical of them, they were talking instead of attacking. He also didn’t see any other options. “How can I help?”

In a voice sounding as if many people were speaking at once, the man on the left, Doctor Fate, spoke loudly and clearly. “You have done well thus far. Cyttorak’s bond with his champion is absolute as long as Cyttorak is pleased with him. Cyttorak despises weakness in his champions and he sees fear as a grave weakness. Your defeat of this man and his belief that you will kill him has inspired enough fear that Cyttorak’s favor begins to wane. This gives us a chance we otherwise would not have.”

To his right the wizard Shazam brandishes his staff out in front of him as the other two began making elaborate gestures. “Hold him steady, do not let him go,” he said in a voice deeply graveled by age.
Juggernaut struggled in Clark’s grasp but he had no leverage. Light encompassed the three mages then shot out to encompass Clark’s captive. Clark could feel their magicks pulling something from the man, or at least trying to. He was fighting it but he was losing. Suddenly he jerked stiff as a board and a deep and resonating voice came from him. “YOU HAVE WON THIS DAY, LITTLE MAGI, BUT YOUR SOCIETY IS IN SHAMBLES AND YOUR LORDS HAVE ALL BUT ABANDONED YOU. WE. WILL. RETURN.”

Suddenly Helmut Grule was a foot shorter and far less muscular. Instead of armor Clark was holding him up by a normal shirt which then ripped, sending Grule tumbling into the crater. A large, ruby-like gem floated where Helmut had been, it pulsed with power once then disappeared.

Again, the wizard Shazam spoke, “Our task is done here, I return to the Rock of Eternity to contemplate other matters.” With a brilliant flash of lightning, he disappeared. Clark marveled that he was able to feel a slight burn from such power.

The Ancient One nodded toward Doctor Fate and then to Clark. “I too must return to my home. Students left too long to their own devices can cause much trouble.” And with that, he too was gone.

As his cape flowed gently in the wind behind him Doctor Fate responded in that strange, too-many-voices sort of way, “I shall remain.”

He turned to Clark. “For millennia the Elder Gods warred over this plane. Beings known collectively as The Lords of Chaos, beings such as Cyttorak, Trigon, Dormammu and others, sought this realm for the power of faith that comes from those they can force to believe in them. Nabu, the Vishanit and other Lords of Order stood in opposition of them and eventually won out. This was but one battlefront in a far larger war. For one to turn their eyes back to a long-lost land after so long is cause for concern.”

“I have become aware of others like yourself, beings on this planet of considerable power and prowess, beings we will need as the influences of Chaos grow. Fare well, Superman. I feel we will meet again.”

Doctor Fate made a symbol with his fingers, spun his hands in an oval manner and a circle of light opened beside him. Clark nodded to him as Doctor Fate floated through the circle and disappeared, his cape was the last to go.

Staring at the spot Doctor Fate had disappeared into Clark mumbled to himself, “I need one of those.”

Thanks :) I'm trying to get my notes together and flesh out the next story, which will be Namor/Aquaman.

Instead of being taken to the throne room where those of court could see her, Alanna was brought to the private chambers of the king. She knew the area well, she had grown up in them. Now they seemed strange, slightly off, like someone's poor impression of her descriptions. The furniture and decorations looked the same but now felt alien to her.

The doors opened and in walked the most... unremarkable... man she had ever seen. He was of average height, hair normally dark, his skin was neither too pale nor too dark (and certainly was not the blue of the Lemurians), he was not unattractive but he would also never be known for one to have woman fawning over him and of a build that was neither large nor small. He was -in every way she could tell- average.

He was accompanied by two women in the flowing, scaled robes of the Xebellian Silent School. High Magisters, if she was reading their ranking stripes correctly.

"Princess Alanna Fen, I am Orus Rath," a deep, smooth voice called out. "We thought you long since perished or simply lost to us forever in the wild lands of the greater ocean." For all of his unimpressive traits, his voice was definitely not one of them. It was a deep, rich baritone with an underlying sense of genuine concern and tinged with the certainty of one who is used to giving commands. The two Magisters moved to the sides of the door but stayed near the wall as the Regent-King... "imposter king," she mentally berated herself, came to stand before her.

"While you have been away, many great and wonderful things have happened, please sit while I tell you all that has transpired in your absence." Her initial reaction was to balk, to assert her station, to call in the guards and demand to see her brother. She hesitated. His request for talk seemed reasonable and it may give her answers she needed to act on instead of acting out of ignorance. She followed him as he sat, putting her back to the Magisters.

"While you were away Atlantis and Xebel entered into a most wonderful alliance," behind her she noted the rustling of a cloak, she turned to see the Magisters still standing in the same places but were moving their arms in slow motions. Their hands were hidden by the large robes but nothing seemed amiss.

And why would she care? The Silent School was a place of learning and of magic. Something about that nagged at her briefly, then was gone.

"As I was saying," the Regent-King said, drawing her attention back to him. If he said anything after that she did not remember it. As he spoke her mind wandered and as it wandered she forgot who she was talking to, where she was or even that her mind was wandering. She simply was and that was all that mattered.

The days passed. Or was it weeks? The two lady Magisters became her friends and constant companions, but she could never remember their names nor their faces.

The last thing she thought might be a memory was of Vulko. That old seabag of hot water. He had given her something to drink, something secret... shhhh, musn't tell... and then she slipped back into her stupor. From then on time had little meaning.

In a very detached way she understood that she had married Orus, that he had come to her on their wedding night and they had produced a child. His name was... Namor? Yes, that was it. And later there was... Orin? No, that was to have been for another. Orm? Yes, Orm.

And Vulko. He was with her now, holding her hand while discussing how Namor was taking to his lessons, especially those on how a ruler should carry themselves, but that he could have a terrible temper. As he talked, the haze in her mind was slowly lifting. She began to look around the room but her attention was pulled back to Vulko as he squeezed her hand.

He was now speaking of Orm, such a precocious child. Vulko's eyes were a mix of pleading and warning as he relaxed his grip once again. "Guard," he began as he turned toward the guard stationed at the door, "might we have some time that I can speak to her openly of things known only within the royal family?"

Alanna kept her face still, betraying nothing as the guard looked at her, nodded to Vulko then left the room.

Vulko turned back to Alanna, his face returning to the old lecturer she knew well. "We don't have much time. It's taken much time but I've been able to gain enough trust from those newer members of the royal staff to secure my old teaching position and to begin seeing you. Within minutes the guard will return and I'll have to go back to pleasantries so listen closely..."

Alanna couldn't wait, "how long?"

"Alanna, we don't have ti-"

This time more sternly, "How. Long."

Vulko's expression fell a bit, making him look old and tired. "It's been seven years since you walked in from the wilderness, it's been three months since I was able to begin seeing you regularly."

Alanna was stupified. Seven years had passed. While she was not as sharp yet as she had been, her mind was still dulled enough that she couldn't quite reach the justifiable rage she knew she should have. All she could must was, "how?"

In a flash Vulko switched back to the old lecturer she remembered. "At first they used two Magisters from the Silent School to muzzle your thoughts. They made you compliant enough that you wed Orus. They lessened their magicks once you were with child then increased them again once the child was born. Both Namor and Orm are being raised to believe that their mother is the victim of a stupor caused by her travels among the surface world.

The Silent School tired of having two full Magisters stationed here and eventually refined their mind-numbing magicks so that only a mere Adept is needed to come by once a week to refresh it. This allowed me time to test various methods of countering their spells until I found an alchemical compound that is proving successful.

In order to quell descension and confusion your continued absence has created Orus has begun using his fable surrounding your muddled mind to garner power in the form of support against the surface world. Rumor has it that he is conferring with his brother Callum, the Xebel king, on plans to attack the drylanders."

Before Vulko could continue the guard returned. Alanna didn't need to fake her look of placid confusion, going over Vulko's revelations was doing that on its own.

Vulko's expressioned had softened again to what it had been earlier. "It seems I've overtaxed you with my prattling, dear. I'll be off to let you rest. I'll return tomorrow once you've had your weekly visit with your Adept friend." Sly Vulko, finishing off their conversation in such a way as to keep the guard unaware of their deception.

As Vulko left Alanna laid her head back down, she had much to think on.

Whatever Vulko's trick had been, it was still working.

True to his word the Adept had come the next day and Vulko had followed not long after he left. Vulko had been able to talk privately with her again, detailing more of what had been going on in her... absence. The more she thought about what had been done to her, the angrier she got. Soon, she realized, she would no longer be able to hide her resistance to the mind-numbing spells. She would need to act now.

Under Vulko's careful manipulations the guards had begun stationing outside Alanna's room at night, "so as to be less likely to disturb her much-needed rest," he had explained. Once the guard left the room, Alanna made her move.

When they were growing up she and Orvax had spent many a day playing throughout the royal chambers. The castle itself had been one of the first buildings built after The Cataclysm, and as such had undergone many expansions and renovations over the millennia.

What many outside the royal family and servants did not realize was that there were hidden passages connecting every room, these had been built early on for the servants to get around more easily and without disturbing the royal family. Few servants who new of these passages remained, Orvus had been slowly weeding out Fen loyalists. Alanna knew the tunnels well for while she enjoyed the adventure of sneaking through them, Orvax felt them beneath their royal station.

Her lone wanderings through them had long ago caused her to stumble onto something lost to time and now known only to her. There were other tunnels, secret tunnels that attached only to the servant tunnels but had hidden entrances that could take her to places within the city and even one place well outside.

Alanna silently slipped from her dresser and drifted to her oversized armoire. She opened the armoire, climbed in, then closed the doors behind her. In the dark she felt for what would look to be an ordinary decorative ring. She pushed the center of that ring and the back of the armoire quietly opened before her.

She felt certain none of the current servants were using the tunnels but she still stayed vigilant as she crept through. It took time but she finally found the place she was looking for, an unassuming nook with some decorative shells built onto the walls. Touching the shells in the correct pattern caused a section of floor to unseal. She slipped below it and closed the opening after.

Alanna felt her way along the old, familiar passage. It had never had the benefit of light but there had also never been any obstacles for her to worry over. There would be plenty of light from the lichen at the end of the tunnel and just outside of it. Part of the tunnel's camouflage was that the exit was nestled into the end of a small, natural cave. The other part of the tunnel's camouflage was that the exit within the cave was covered by rocks which seemed large and heavy but were actually light and flattened to fit together over the opening.

The rocks covering the tunnel opening were covered by the same glowing lichen as just inside it. The light helped her with removing then replacing the rocks although she really didn't need it. She had long ago memorized their pattern and could put them back in the exact same places even in her sleep.

She was pleased with herself as she looked at her finished work.

A voice grumbled to her from behind, "Halt and identify yourself in the name of King Orus!" She had thought the danger of discovery lie in the tunnels, that the opening was too far outside the city to be of concern and that the shallow cave would further hide her activities. She had let her guard down while she focused on precisely replacing the rocks covering the tunnel opening. Foolish Alanna!

She turned slowly to face the speaker and his two companions. Her spirits fell upon first hearing those words, knowing she had been caught and her efforts had been in vain. They fell even deeper when she saw the trio.

She could see the two in front the clearest as they were covered in the soft glow. The nearest to her, the speaker, seemed to be no different from the many guards she had seen over her life but his nearest companion was a different story. He was build was that of a racer, his muscles were the tight, sleek variety which spoke of shocking speed. His quick but subtle movements were fluid enough for Alanna to realize she would never outpace him.

If she did manage to somehow slip by these two there was still the third one who waited just outside the glow of the lichen. She could see his frame outlined against the lighter water outside the cave and he was a behemoth. Where the other two could float almost beside one another within the cave's walls, the third guard was much too broad for that.

The last time she had been in this situation she had gone along with feigned meekness then ended up put into a mental fog for close to a decade. That would not happen again, she decided, so she took a different route.

"I am Alanna Fen Rath, Queen of Atlantis! Who are you to question me!"

The two guards nearest her shifted uncomfortably, the giant behind them made no discernable movements. "You should return to the castle with us," the lead guard finally responded. "His Highness has made no mention of your being allowed outside the city."

Allowed?!? Alanna seethed.

Again the lead guard spoke, "I'm afraid we must insist" meanwhile the guard behind locked his eyes on her as he slightly lowered his spear. She had seen his type before, he had killed before and found he liked it. He would not hesitate to kill her if his orders allowed it.

She saw she had no other choice but to go with them. Again.

Alanna had never been able to get an answer from Vulko about what had happened to her brother and how Rath had come to power. She realized this was the time and place for her to get answers. She took a step toward Murk. She was within arm's reach now, having to float above the ground to look him eye-to-eye while he remained flat-footed and firmly grounded.

"Loyal Murk, your queen asks you know for something else." Her voice was pleading now, it should have been full of command. She knew it. She didn't care. "Tell me what happened. What happened with my brother?"

Murk stared for a moment, squinted at her as he studied her. "You really were kept mind-addled, weren't you?"

When put that way, so simply blunt, she felt ashamed. That didn't stop her though, "I was."

Murk nodded. "There are still a few of us in the castle who are loyal to Fen and Atlantis. Vulko was one of us but as he wormed his way into the new regime's graces he had to cut ties to us. It's been years since I've more than seen him from across a street. I figured if it was really you out and about, he had some sort of hand in it.

Not long after you left on your last trip, Xebel sent a diplomatic mission to Atlantis. I'm not privy to what went on with them but it went on well enough that Callum Rath, king of Xebel sent his brother Orus to Atlantis as his ambassador.

Within another year Xebel had an embassy here and Orus had dislodged Vulko as Orvax's chief advisor in all but name. Trade was strong and people were happy.

Looking back it seems ominous, but at the time there were no warning signs. Atlantis and Xebel had had problems over the centuries but little actual violence toward one another. It was under this climate that I took my leave of the guard for a period to return home.

From what I have pieced together it seems Xebel's king requested some sort of emergency meeting with King Orvax at somewhere along the Trench. Callum and Orus said loathsome beasts from the Trench came up unexpectedly and swarmed them. That Orvax and his guards held the line while they escaped to make Atlantis and Xebel ready to meet these creatures in battle.

With no other member of House Fen to assume the throne, Orus used the public's temporary sentiment to be placed on it as Regent to organize the resistance and to head up finding a suitable heir.

He spread his message of fear far and wide, it was a persuasive enough message that it allowed him to 'enhance' the guards of Atlantis and the castle with his own guards from Xebel.

It had been a year since the event, people were starting to tire of being constantly on guard and afraid, his power was beginning to wane and questions were starting to be asked as to why he wasn't doing more to find the nearest heir to the throne."

Alanna could see where this was going. "And that's when I reappeared." Murk's nod was all the confirmation she needed. She could now see the full picture.

Callum and Orus had lulled Orvex into a false solidarity somehow. When the time was right they had lured him out and killed him so Orus could assume the throne. The only flaw was that Atlanteans strongly tied rule of Atlantis to the House of Fen. The Raths had miscalculated this, without some tie to the throne the Atlanteans would eventually reject them.

She had unwittingly delivered to Orus a solid attachment to the throne of Atlantis right when he needed it the most. He began using Silent School sorcery on her mind the moment they first met. He had made her completely subservient. She had gone through with the marriage and had borne him two children with none of it being through her own free will. Orus had seen his attempt to gain power by setting the Trench as the enemy eventually fail. Alanna's arrival allowed him to craft a new enemy: the air-breathers. The watered regions had been wary of dry-landers since the Cataclysm, often using them as old wives tales to frighten children. She couldn't have made it any more perfect for him.

"My lady, there's more," Murk said through clenched teeth. "Had I not left, I would have been there with them. I could have saved your brother. My king." Murk all but shook with frustration and anger, this was as difficult a topic for him to tell as it was for her to hear.

She knew they were both heaping immense blame on themselves for what had happened. She also understood the futility in it. Beating themselves up over the machinations of others was neither healthy nor productive. Nothing positive would ever come of it and that played only into the hands of the Raths. That was something she would not do.

"Murk, I think I have an idea of how we can both make some sort of amends, if you're willing."

Count me on the list of people enjoying the hell out of this and regularly checking for your updates. TYFYS Mr. Bard.

Young Arthur Curry looked up from his book with yet another question. "So was King Arthur real or not?"

His father, Tom Curry, answered without looking up from his cooking, "That answer is lost to history, son. The better question may be 'do you want him to have been real?'"

Tom Curry had always been a simple man. He had never needed a big home nor a grand carriage to feel good about himself. He was a carpenter by trade but Tom's real love was the constant discovery he experienced from reading books of knowledge. Even now, Tom considered the book he had just finished, a book on tides, currents and their impacts on life in the oceans. Life in the oceans... Tom arrested those thoughts, there was no reason in going back there but sometimes the memories came unbidden on their own.

Like now.

It had been almost a decade since Alanna had left he and Arthur. He long ago decided that her not returning meant she was dead but that didn't dull the pain, even after all these years.

He had found her washed up on the rocks of his small, lighthouse island during a brutal storm. It had been pure luck he had been outside lashing down his supplies and looking her way when the raging seas spat her out like a soured grape. He thought surely she must be dead as there were no ships around for her to have come from and she landed head-first onto a large rock then lay there motionless.

Tom had thrown all caution to the wind as he scrambled down to her. He paid the blowing wind and stinging rain only enough attention to make sure he could make it to her without taking too much damage himself. He had found her then, lying on her stomach, facing away from him. Her shoulder-length black hair had washed around her face, some sticking to her strange, scale-clad garments. He rolled her over then felt a sense of growing urgency as he noticed the large and growing bruise on her forehead. He had seen the impact of her head against rock and was certain that no one could have survived that (even if she had somehow managed to survive adrift at sea in this storm). She had though, he smiled at that thought, at his naivete.

He had taken her back to the lighthouse then proceeded to watch over her until she woke a day later. In those early days she was often dizzy and apt to vomit when she rose from more than a seated position. Tom cared for her as she slowly mended. Being the only two on the island they had plenty of time to talk. As she mended, they grew ever closer.

This was the part Tom liked to remember, the days and weeks and months of their bonding, the day the priest came out from Boston and married them, the months of her pregnancy, the birth of Arthur, the few years they had together as a family. It had felt truly magical.

She had long since told him of her lineage. He hadn't believed it at first even though she had proven to be far stronger than he. It wasn't until that late spring afternoon when she submerged herself near the dock for an hour until he began to believe her tale as being more than just fanciful teasings. It was true, she really could breathe underwater and really did come from a realm beneath the waves called Atlantis!

He had been only slightly worried when she left. She had wanted to return home briefly, to contact her family and let them know she not only still lived but had now started a family with "the most wonderful man of the surface". He still remembered holding Arthur in his arms as they waved to her well after she had sunk beneath the ocean's surface.

"I think I want him to have been real," Arthur decided aloud and with a nod of his head. Arthur's words brought Tom back from the past, he found himself thankful for it but also a little sad. It was at that point Tom realized he had been thinking about Alanna more often lately and, more pointedly, about her Atlantean heritage as Arthur had recently begun showing those same abilities.

The boy was already as strong as a blacksmith and could stay above and below the waters as long as he liked with not a single ill effect. Tom had schooled Arthur to silence on letting others see what he could do. The witch trials in Salem had been long ago but people in these parts were still quick to label things they didn't understand as "witchcraft".

A knock at the door startled both Tom and Arthur. Visitors rarely came during the day and it was now after sunset. So new and uncommon was this event that neither did more than stare at one another with matching quizzical looks, almost as if each blamed the other for the sound.

"I'm looking for Tom and Arthur Curry," a voice called through the heavy door. It was a woman's voice, it was soft, it was timid and -even with the muffling of the heavy wooden door- Tom recognized it as the same voice he heard with both his head and his heart in every night's dream.

It was Alanna.

Life suddenly became a battle of dichotomies for Tom Curry. His mind was moving so fast he couldn't sort his own thoughts yet time seemed to stand perfectly still. His movements were too quick, giving him only a jerky form of control, yet he felt as if he were moving through thick syrup on a cold day. He was sure she had died, yet she was alive. He had just heard her voice! He was confused as to what he would say yet he was certain he would say it. So many thoughts and emotions raging and warring -and at such blinding speed- it seemed that with every step he was being swallowed more and more by the chaos of wild, unrestrained, unfocused emotions he would not, could not stop taking those steps.

"Dad?" Arthur was in the same position, holding his book and still with that questioning look on his face. At that moment all the clash and clamor in Tom's head and heart stopped, almost as if it had never happened.

Had he imagined it? Would she really be there if he opened the door? What if she wasn't? If it wasn't her but someone washed onto the island by luck? The chaos from a moment ago threatened to return.

He reached out his hand, undid the bolt and swung the door open and...

...there she stood. Alanna Fen, his lady of the ocean, his beautiful princess, his wife.

He was still processing that she was there, that she was really there when she crushed herself into him. He folded onto her instantly, not caring she was still soaking wet and shivering in the cold October night. A warmth appeared on his shoulder, this was quickly followed with the spams of sobbing as she gripped him tighter. Soon after, he was crying with her.

"Dad??" The call was distant, he almost didn't recognize it. He had long ago given up the foolish dream of seeing his beloved Alanna again, he had learned to live with the pain. He had learned to quickly forget the dreams of her which came in the night, to put them aside as the sun rose. Now she was here, in his arms and the world had been shut out for just the two of them to have this moment he thought lost to him forever. For a moment he didn't want to hear that call.

The moment passed.

He pulled back slightly from Alanna, she pushed in farther. She didn't want to leave that moment either. His heart ached to rejoin her but that part of their moment was over. He put his hands on either side of her face and gently turned her up to face him. Tears continued to stream down her face. She struggled to get the words out.

"I... I'm so sorry." Tom instantly knew what she meant. She was sorry she had not been able to come home sooner. She loved and had missed him every bit as much as he loved and had missed her and she felt a crushing guilt over it. He could see she was on the verge of another bout of crying, she was barely holding herself together.

He leaned in. "I know," then, gently, kissed her.

That kiss seemed to defuse her somehow, as if she had been a boiler of pent up anguish ready to blow. She returned the kiss, tentative at first and then growing in intensity. He matched her. He could feel...

"Dad!"

Tom turned to the shout of alarm.

Arthur had come from his chair in the kitchen and was now standing there, aghast, having watched his father kissing his mo... no. Arthur had been but three when Alanna had left. He didn't remember her and he too thought she was long dead. Tom knew Arthur would sneak out at night sometimes and swim for hours, he often wondered if he was looking for some possible trace of his mother.

Looking around Tom's shoulder, Alanna said, "is that... Arthur?" She said his name with what sounded almost like reverence. What could have kept her from her husband and son for nearly a decade? What must that have been like for her?

Tom, a smile breaking out on his face, took a step towards his son and held he hand out to him. "Come here, son. I have someone you need to meet... again."

Hesitantly Arthur came forward. He did not take his father's hand (he wasn't a baby, after all!). He was nervous and unsure of what was going on but he stood within arm's reach of this strange woman. His father would protect him and he would protect his father, as always.

"Arthur, by some incredible miracle, this is your mother." He didn't know what he had expected to hear from his father, but it certainly wasn't that!

Arthur stuffed down his initial urge to rush to her and hug her, much as his father did. One of them had to keep their emotions in check, this could be some evil witch or something. He appraised her with as much emotional distance as he could muster. She seemed sincere, his father had always been a good judge of character, but still...

"Arthur! At least say something, son."

Without looking at his father, Arthur bowed his head to his mother. "It is a pleasure to meet you, please come in and join us for supper." Arthur then turned, walked back to his chair, picked up his book and began reading it again.