[OOM] Eiattu - Royal Apartments

[fighting_mad]

Plourr keeps her clothing loose, outside of the apartments (though there's really not much she can do to keep it between them much longer, not really), but inside -- not much need, is there? She's sprawled on her back across the sofa, her legs hanging over the armrest and her arm across her eyes. She got as far as removing her jewelry, changing her tunic (exchanging a flowing royal purple top for an old, fitted undershirt), and kicking off one shoe, before she flopped down on the sofa with an inarticulate noise of disgust, and stayed there.

State dinners are the pits.

Comments

[eiattu_pride]

"That was so important."

Beat.

"The pepper shakers were vastly outnumbered, and the marmalade was coming up on the left flank."

[fighting_mad]

"Uh huh," says Plourr, pursing her lips doubtfully.

"If I offered you more than a credit for your thoughts now, I wouldn't be getting more breakfast battle plans, would I?"

[eiattu_pride]

"It's not breakfast now," Rial points out sensibly.

That's a roundabout 'yes', by the way.

[fighting_mad]

Plourr is fluent in parsing Rial-speak, by now.

She snorts, then one side of her mouth twitches upward. "How's a couple thousand sound?"

[eiattu_pride]

"Done." A pause, and his expression sobers, leaving him to glance thoughtfully away from her.

"There will be - for the child, I mean - the question of royalty. Whether or not he should inherit the throne."

[fighting_mad]

She shakes her head sharply, once, almost before he's finished speaking. Her eyes are serious and dark, inches from his thanks to the way they're tangled in each other. "Absolutely not."

[eiattu_pride]

Now he's looking uncomfortable, and not only because he can't move away without half-falling off the couch.

"Plourr, it'd be a good idea. You'd have a fixed heir, if something were to happen there'd be no chance for someone else to take the throne."

[fighting_mad]

She stares at him. "Rial, I saw what my eldest sister went through, I know what I've gone through, and I am not forcing the throne on any child of mine."

[eiattu_pride]

"It'll be open to attack. Vulnerable. There are hundreds of sun-clauses that'll let whoever damn well feels like it take your throne from you once you're dead and gone, so who's to say that you won't be even more of a target?"

He sighs, and pinches the bridge of his nose. "All I'm saying is let it go down through the royal family. The eldest inherits, then the second eldest, and so on. Saves wear and tear all around. Plus, who exactly is going to take the throne after we're gone if the kid decides he doesn't want it?"

[fighting_mad]

Plourr sits up. It takes some effort to keep from knocking Rial off the sofa, but she manages it, and quickly, too.

She shakes her head. "I don't know. I don't know, we'll figure it out, we'll figure something out," she says, talking more to the air than to Rial as she gestures, "but I won't put that kind of pressure on a kid. 'Hey, here's responsbility for an entire planet, take it or we'll disown you'?"

[eiattu_pride]

Rial sits up as well, awkwardly. "It's your decision, I guess."

Maybe a hint of something bitter. Maybe a definite hint of something childish and annoyed.

[fighting_mad]

She sucks a breath in through her teeth, then releases it. "No. No, it's not. It's our decision." She breathes sharply, in and out, again. "You would really want to do that?" She forces a breath one more time, and her voice is noticeably calmer this time, if tight. Her eyes are serious, and directly on his. "All I'm saying is that I want to give the kid a choice."

[eiattu_pride]

He could say a lot of things. He could be petty and angry and demand to know if she was the one who spent her entire life here and knows how it works, or if she's the one who has had to see people on the throne that don't belong there.

Instead he breathes, takes a second, and then nods slightly. "I - think it's the best course of action, for now. At least, the best course of action for Eiattu."

A moment, and then, "I don't know if it's the best thing for a child."

[fighting_mad]

"It's a kriffing terrible thing to do to a child," she snaps, and then she shuts her mouth.

She looks at him a long moment, and then she glances down and brushes her fingers against the back of his hand. "I really don't want to do this, Rial," she says, voice low.

[eiattu_pride]

"Yeah." Yeah, he's getting that. She really doesn't want to do this. Maybe she's right. But even if she is - who's to say it won't be the wrong decision?

But he still tangles his fingers up in her's. "Well," he says, and looks down at their entwined hands. "Then we won't."

[fighting_mad]

She watches him quietly, holding his hand. "Because you agree with me, or because you don't want to fight?"

[eiattu_pride]

She's annoyingly perceptive sometimes.

"I don't want you to do something you consider wrong."

[fighting_mad]

She tucks a leg under herself, and says, reluctantly, "I don't want you to, either."

She just wants him to agree with her. Easier said than done, she's starting to think.

Doesn't mean she's giving up. Not by a long shot.

"What if we went your route?" She pulls her other foot onto the sofa. "We said, 'No choice, you're doing this,' and he said, 'No.' What then, Rial?"

[eiattu_pride]

Rial clenches his jaw for a minute, takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. "What if we went your route, and he said no anyway? Either way there's a chance we'll be left with an empty throne, and by offering him no choice, it's less likely that he'll refuse."

Glancing away for a second, forcing himself to relax at least a little, "Plourr, I know how this works. I've been groomed to be your consort since you were born, and that included lessons in how to rule a planet."

[fighting_mad]

Her mouth sets at the last. "So we come up with some alternative. We put it on the books years before the kid comes of age," she says.

Her chin rises, stubborn and mad. "I can't imagine that those were very thorough lessons, considering that the emperor and empress were in perfect health, and you were set to marry the youngest of three princesses, sweetheart."

[eiattu_pride]

"And then some overenthusiastic sniper decides to take us out, or there's a freak speeder accident, and then what?"

This time he digs his fingernails into his hands until his knuckles go white, and looks her straight in the eye.

"Funnily enough, dear, I seem to recall you, as the only one alive of the original three princesses, leaving us with no one on the throne. And while you were off kicking around the galaxy, I was still technically betrothed to you, and therefore considered a possible candidate for the throne. So yes, actually, they were rather thorough lessons."

[fighting_mad]

Her mouth opens and shuts.




"Kicking around the galaxy?"

[eiattu_pride]

Rial doesn't move, even though he knows he has most definitely overstepped his boundaries.

Doesn't say anything either, though.

[fighting_mad]

She remains silent for a moment, and her voice is not tight or controlled the way she has learned to be thanks to her duties, when she says, "I was running for my life. I was hiding, terrified that somebody was going to haul me out of my bed in the middle of the night again.

"I was a kid, Rial. The only thing that scared me more than the Priamsta possibly finding me, was the idea of coming back here and having to take charge of a world full of people."

[eiattu_pride]

"It won't be like that this time," he says, but stands and makes as if to leave. They're getting nowhere. This is pointless.

"I'm going out, I'll be back later."