The Princess and the Prince

Spoiler

An odd mixture of really formal, almost victorian clothing and more casual medieval-style clothes.

She watched him carefully.

"I'll...I'll leave." She got up to do so, hesitated.

"Is there anything else you need from me?" she asked, then cursed herself for sounding like a bloody maid.

"I'm good," I said, throwing open the closet and peering inside. She was being surprisingly nice right now - I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about that, but for now I'd focus on the outfits.

Some of it looked familiar. Too familiar. It was the sort of clothes I had seen rich people like Bickerstaff's group wear years ago. The other kind was older, and felt more like something from the more remote regions of my second world.

After eying it for a few moments, I grabbed everything that didn't remind me of home - none of it was as dark as I would have liked, but that wasn't the point right now.

I need to fit in.

And this seemed like the best way to.

She lingered, still in the doorway. Finally, she sighed and turned around, walked back into the room, and closed the door.

"Alright, here's the thing, I'm staying here. There's a lot to be found in rooms like this and I can't have you nosing around in things you're not supposed to know about, okay?"

It wasn't a very strong excuse, but it was passable. She'd be punished for not coming home, of course, but with luck, the physical exam would be forgotten.

I raised an eyebrow.

I could tell that she was just making excuses at this point, but I didn't mind it too much. Megara was the only person I knew here right now - I had been planning on getting help from her back when I thought she was Ivy, so it wasn't like there was much I had to change with my plan.

So I didn't comment on that.

I made a beeline for the bed and flung myself down on it, raising my head ever so slightly so I could see her near the door.

"So now what?" I asked.

She shrugged, "Do you sleep? Or are you like most restless spirits?"

She imagined that he would have a brief panic about the singular bed, but she had no intention of sleeping. This place was made for doubles, one to keep watch, one to sleep. She would take the former role.

Of course, there was the possibility that he didn't sleep at all. Then they'd both stay up. There was no way she was trusting him in a room where he wasn't supposed to be - or know about - with more weapons than most armories and her, unconscious and unable to keep him out of trouble.

Seeing that I looked like my actual self again, I was beginning to realize I would have to set some things straight.

"I'm not a ghost anymore," I said, pushing myself up into a sitting position with my legs crossed. "I still have some of the abilities I had when I was a ghost, but I'm alive. My body's doing all the things regular human bodies do."

I paused.

"So I do sleep," I concluded.

She nodded, "Alright. Then now you do that. I'll stand watch."

She wasn't sure what she'd do if he resisted. Briar was here last, so there ought to be some leftover paralyzing agents in one of the hidden compartments or something. If he really was alive, using one on him should work just fine.

I thought over what she said.

Then I fell back onto the bed, knowing that I didn't have any other choice. I had to do what she wanted.

Besides, she would have already tried killing me by now if she was going to.

"If you kill me in my sleep," I said as I stared at the ceiling, "I'm haunting you for the rest of your life and your afterlife."

She watched him for a second longer, then turned to the closet. She dug around in a dresser for a minute and produced a handmirror, speaking as she did, "If I was going to hurt you, all I would have to do is stop helping you."

Using the mirror and her free hand, she began to dig pins out of the base of the wig.

"Go to bed."

Spoiler

Sould we skip to the next morning, or do you want to do more in between now and then?

Spoiler

Skipping to the next morning sounds good to me!

"It's called a joke," I informed her, sleep already creeping into my voice as I started to close my eyes. It wasn't long before I was fast asleep, awkwardly sprawling across the bed - almost like my body wasn't entirely used to having to sleep still, and was trying its best to imitate what it should have been doing.

Then next morning, Megara shook Skull awake. She'd changed into a more comfortable set of black pants and a green tunic during the night and returned her curls to some state of order. Despite that, she looked tired. Very, very tired.

"Get up," she commanded, "I'm not going to let you sleep all day."

Overnight, she had returned home. After injecting Skull with a little something to ensure that he stayed asleep, but he didn't need to know that. After talking her way out of a physical examination and making enough excuses to make a guilty child look honest, she'd returned to find him still unconscious long after the effects of her little trick would have worn off.

I was blissfully unaware of what Megara had drugged me with - I already had a tendency to sleep in, so I wasn't surprised when she had to wake up the next morning.

It took me a second to get up when I heard her voice, but then it didn't take long for me to be moving about. My hair was probably a mess - not that I really cared - and one sleeve had gotten awkwardly rolled up in the middle of the night.

But I didn't focus on that.

I hopped out of bed and went over to Megara.

"So what's the plan for today?" I asked. "Are you about to kick me out?"

"I'm pretty sure you're about out of favors," she said, crossing her arms, "So yeah. I'll escort you out and you can work on finding someplace to stay while you concoct some plan to get wherever it is you want to go. Just get out of my world."

The instinct to keep him close, to keep tabs on him at all times, was immense. But her father wasn't so oblivious as not to wonder where she went when she would go to check up on him, and even this night wouldn't go unnoticed. She wouldn't have a proable excuse, so she'd be punished for wasting resources. If Joseph didn't keep his mouth shut, as he wouldn't the moment Briar arrived, she'd be punished for letting a stranger into a safe room. Then she'd be interrogated, and Skull would be tracked down.

She said none of this, of course. She didn't owe him that, no matter what was said or felt in that garden.

"No need to escort me," I said, grabbing the money from the outfit I had worn the previous night. I needed to sort through it at some point and figure out what I could keep and what I should get rid of - seeing that it was a little obsessive - but I'd work on that after Megara and I went our separate ways.

Of course, I didn't want to leave. She was my only help right now. But there were other options, too - I could try tracking down Fidel, or try finding some other way back home-

The word made me pause as I started to head towards the door.

Was I really starting to think of that world as my home? I hadn't had a home for a long time, but I knew that it didn't really fit the description.

Whatever the case was, I'd find my way back to it.

"Do you know where Fidel is, by the way?" I asked - hoping that it would hide why I paused.

Spoiler

What should we do next? I feel like Skull will theoretically try to find Fidel, but I'm not sure if you want to force him and Megara to interact more or not.

We also probably should figure out how Nathaniel and Asmira are showing up. It might be funny if it happens after Skull and Megara go their separate ways. We could have Megara mistake Nathaniel for Skull in another body, seeing that his name is the alias Skull used. We could make it even worse if Asmira is hiding somewhere nearby and starting to get a little nervous - she usually lowers the temperatures of the room and knocks out the lights, something that Skull definitely has done before. If Megara doesn't know Asmira is there, it could seem like "Skull" is the one doing it.

Spoiler

Um, so I know you said you don't like when other people kill off their characters, but Fidel is very, very dead. Hands to the gods, it had to happen. If Fidel doesn't die before Megara can undo whatever attachment she had to him, she never even begins to try to leave her father's little organization, let alone tear it down, as is her ultimate fate in her cannon.

Anyway, so either Meg reconsiders her decision to leave him to his own devices, or she's given a reason to stick around. That reason could be your other characters showing up. Like, they find them outside the inn (because Meg has to escort him out, she doesn't trust him not to talk to the wrong person on the way out and get them both killed/in serious pain.)

She stared at him for a second, her expression going blank.

"No, I have to escort you," she said, avoiding his other question.

Images flashed behind her eyes. Bloody. Why did they always have to die bloody?