The Princess and the Prince

Oh.

I was starting to get my suspicions that you might have killed him off, but I wasn't entirely sure - I thought you threw him in Clockwork Castle to develop him a little more for your overall story, but that makes a lot more sense. Megara did need a little push.

Would you be down for somehow slipping in that little idea I had? Maybe Skull can slip off - not to find Fidel, but because he can see Megara has other things on her plate.

Sure. I don't really have many other characters in position for him to interact with, just half-baked ideas and placeholders so far, so my apologies on that front. I could just write the setting and 'NPC' characters that Skull interracts with for a while. Either that or he runs into the 'revolution' of sorts that I have set up so Meg can have an army of her own to combat her dad, and also to de-thronw pretty much every polotician in her world, but that's a long story.

Like I said, I don't really have any solid characters in there yet, so inconsisancies and such are inevitable, but if you want to go that route I'm up for it.

Okay! We could develop them if you want to, but we could also just say that Skull explored for a bit during the time he's not with Megara and leave it at that - it'll let us focus on Megara interacting with Nathaniel and Asmira.

Although him accidentally running into a revolution might be fun.

Yeah, that could work as well! Since I'm still working on the revolution and such, it might be best to stick to what we both know works, that being the characters we've written before. I'm writing a few questionably-canon short stories to develop the revolution and its leaders and such, so it's no real loss to me to keep them unincluded.

Would you like the newcomers to just run into Megara by coincidence, or do you have other circumstances in mind? Coincidence might be easier, but we could underline it with a location to increase probability? Say, one of those secret criminal-only parties Megara attends because she's a self-destructive little bean.

Or that could just bump into her on the street or something and get curious. Either way is perfectly fine.

The secret criminal only parties would probably be a lot of fun - it could explain why Asmira would get so on edge, and would explain why the two together are being so secretive.

Plus, it has the added bonus of ]really throwing Megara off if she thinks Nathaniel's Skull.

Okay then, let's go with that! In case you need to write anything pertaining to the actual system by which they operate, I'll give you the absolute bare minimum of what you need to know because, well, I don't want to be writing exposition all day.

1) They are owned and operated by Haven Keepers, called, in this capacity, just club owners by the patrons, who are contractors, Bonded, or just regular low lifes with connections. (Bonded are assassins who work specifically for one of the three leaders of the group Meg works for. She's Bonded to the Count)

2) Poison is on the menu, written and disguised as a regular drink. It's to weed out anyone who isn't supposed to be there. They order the wrong drink, they die. It's not the only defense against interlopers, but it's the one you should probably know about before having your characters order any drinks or anything. (They're written like special drinks invented by the house and listed among the genuine drinks of that variety, so one would have to be told by a regular which ones were toxic).

3) They're literally underground, under hotels/inns that also serve as safe havens for the morally unsound. The inn won't look it, though. It'll look really high-end and such. How your characters, newcomers, could have ended up in there is a little bit of a complicated question. Either they followed someone suspicious looking (who was probably about to be permanently kicked out for looking suspicious) and BSed their way in from there, a difficult feat but a possible one. Or they just popped up in, say, a closet inside the club when they messed around with magic and haven't been able to leave (it's open 24/7)

A closet sounds good to me! And thankfully Nathaniel and Asmira aren't really drinkers - they can easily avoid the poison. I could have them at the bar right next to each other whenever Megara comes, and Nathaniel could do the majority of the talking because Asmira's too overwhelmed.

(She's from King Solomon's time, so you can see why she'd be a little thrown off. )

Want to timeskip in your post?

All you need to know about Nathaniel and Asmira is that Nathaniel is in his late teens with short hair and a very mature face, and Asmira is in her early twenties. Nathaniel is a little bit more than pale, and Asmira has darker skin and long, dark brown hair.

Nathaniel has also been considered pretty attractive.

Okie dokie!