iconoclassist | mamoritai mamoritareru

[Shrugging.

And immediately just going for a right hook. W E L P.]

[He is not superhumanly fast, but he is obviously trained in a fight, and she'll find her punch shoved off-course with a forearm.]

This is far from the first time... Did you think that that being the king's son won me any favors with the other recruits?

Of course not. [She grins, pretty widely, and and goes for the leg sweep. Turns out, she is ridiculously fast.]

But this isn't about that! I don't care that Mathias is king now, or what bollocks fucking job he's done teaching you to be a regular person instead of just the Prince. This adventuring malarky is far from the stupidest idea he's had, but if he's put you in my hands, it's gonna be like this.

I'm not allowing any more talk like your future will only ever be grim and bleak. You've got decades, if not centuries ahead of you, why the hell have you already resigned yourself to overblown dramatic melancholy?

[The sweep gets instead a well planted leg leaning into it. He's not fighting back but he's got defending down to a fucking tee.]

You think this some affectation? Some ill temperate mood or youthful belief about my future? By the gods, the temerity of your assumptions is just--!!

[And then he realizes he's lost his temper and his fangs are out - whoever romanticized vampires as having these sleek, sexy little fangs has never seen the four, serpent like monsters that have extended on poor Konstantin here - and just stops.]

I see now this was a mistake on my own part.

Oh you blithering--

[Reaching for his collar to shake him, just a little.] Do I have to spell it out for you? What they fear and distrust of your father is only unfamiliarity and I have watched it wane year after year. Someone on the inside of that world couldn't see that, but I have the time and distance to observe. It might even be my job to watch things.

Do you think your father such an unjust ruler that such fear and unease will remain so strong by the time you take the throne? Or do you think that little of yourself.

I've much to consider... a very long time before I reach my father's place in the world. You may see some things clearer than I, but you also have only the vaguest inklings of how life happens within the halls of power.

Now. Unhand me.

...I'm going to guess you don't realize how much that sounded like you were looking down your nose at me while assuming I'm a commoner.

[Dropping him.] You may want to be careful about that. Elven hierarchy really doesn't work that way.

I know it does not, and I was not assuming you were a commoner. I was assuming you weren't a crown princess of some stripe, which feels like a safe assumption.

No, but the fifty of them do tend to run around in disguise in odd places. Like bars full of soldiers who tend to generally tend to be against the idea of conquering the human lands and subjugating.

Gets more people in to trouble that way, I swear.

[Shirin that was very strangely specific.]

Of course. Well, this has been... enlightening, but I believe I am ready to retire for the evening.

[Someone might be in an extra-sulky mood now.]

...[Sighing.] Before you go, one thing...Well, two things.

Baṛa kibhābē tārā cakamaka ujjbala dēkhatē pārē nā.

[Dropping cryptic shit in Elvish doesn't help anyone when you don't think he speaks it, Shirin--]

I have...been among soldiers for most of the last hundred years. For those who despaired, human or elf, better they be angry, and want to prove me wrong, than despairing and demoralized. Could be it's why I wasn't ever given command, it's true.

But it worked there...I suppose it's just easy, to go back to familiar solutions, even when they don't apply.

[...and that's probably the closest he's ever heard her come to an apology. Before she just. Walks back off towards the outskirts of town?]

[He does pause and consider this, and then, well. He's off to find where in the hell she is going when there was a perfectly good inn the opposite direction I mean seriously.]

[...She's headed for the treeline.

She can't seriously mean to sleep in a tree inste--OF COURSE SHE FUCKING COULD.]

...You realize it is well within my personal stipend to pay for a room at the inn for you, yes?

[He is far from understanding this notion but is amused by it.]

I could pay for it myself, too, I'm not sure what you're getting at?

[Okay, she's slept in inns before, it's been documented, so maybe not a totally feral thing?]

Then, beg pardon, why are you heading out into the woods?

Because, Konstantin, we are about two weeks from the nearest elf outpost and I am, in all likelihood, the first elf any of these people have ever seen. I have been stalked since we walked into this town by everyone from very bad scouts from what I assume was the local thieve's guild to small children, and frankly, I'm not going to get even what little sleep I need inside city limits.

No one here is even capable of killing you, and they're unlikely to try. Go find whatever inn suits your fancy

...I would be more at ease if you were to come with me. I think that staying nearby would likewise grant you some peace of mind.

I will take the floor if you would prefer the bed.

[In soviet elfland, ward protects you?

[Actually smiling when you do that is cheating!]

...Oh, now you're in a better mood? [Puffing out a cheek, but dropping back out of the tree after a moment.] I won't have peace of mind until we're out of this town, but I don't think I'm going to win this argument either way.

It is a bit more difficult to take my chiding harshly when I imagine you delivering it from a tree, yes.

[He sighs.]

And no, I won't broke any argument on the matter. Besides, if soemthing were to happen, I would rather we be close.

City-born brat. Show the poor tree a little more respect, would you?

[There isn't much heat to that, though, and she shrugs.] I'm not going to fight you on this. But you'll have to pick somewhere.

A city-born brat, am I? Fine, then, why not play the part?

[He will walk back into town and he will pick the most expensive goddamn inn he can find, then, and spare no expense on the room if she is going to be like that.]

...So making fun of me's what puts you in a good mood, finally.

[SHE IS UNSURE HOW SHE FEELS ABOUT THIS. Also, true to her observations earlier, everyone is incredibly flustered and agape at the Real Live Elf in their fancy in.]

I don't think I own nice enough clothes for a place like this.

Therein lies the hilarious part; when you can afford this sort of dalliance, you no longer care.

[GIVE ME THE FANCIEST ROOM I AM THE PRINCE. D:<<]

[Yes let's enjoy the entire staff getting the entirely wrong idea why the prince is taking an elf to his inn room. Keys are handed over, people are shown to incredibly ostentatious rooms, the entire staff seems flustered and kind of tittery.]

...I think they think you've got another kind of dalliance in mind, Princey. Don't care about that, either?

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