fh_trips | The Crown Princess - Monday [Cabins and Lido Deck]

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spring break 2009: crown princess cruise

The Crown Princess - Monday [Cabins and Lido Deck]

It was a beautiful day in the Caribbean! The sun was bright in the cloudless sky, casting no shadows on the open section of the Lido deck: Sunbathers beware. Luckily, the Horizon Court offered umbrellas at some tables for the sun shy.

Near the pools were large lettered signs discouraging guests from diving or jumping into the water due to the lack of depth.

[OOC: Cabin Listing | Ship/Shore Post | Cabins Thread | Pool & Bars | Terrace]

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"Neither is a riddle, and my tale is both," she countered, seeming somewhat mollified. "You didn't say so, Highness, but your manners did. They've been suggesting you think me quite mad. I can hardly object: I am quite mad. But nevertheless, Queen."

Edited 2009-02-25 18:21 (UTC)

He opened his mouth to speak, and then seemingly thought better of it.

"You're right," he granted her, after another moment. "I apologise."

She had not expected an apology, particularly not one given freely. There was only one proper reply; bathing costume or no bathing costume, she was going to stand and offer him a quite respectful curtsy, with a low bow of her head.

"As do I," she said, seating herself once more, "for I was perhaps a touch abrasive in my manner, just now, and I do frequently speak in riddles. One sees how such can be confusing."

"One sees," Arthur agreed, with an amused little twitch of his brow. "The onslaught of this island seems to have leeched away most of my manners."

Not that he wasn't normally this rude, but... only to friends.

"Are you not accustomed to madness?" she asked. "Even madness has rules that it must follow. So long as you understand them, everything falls into place. It's simply a matter of seeing the pattern, that's all."

"Not this brand of it," he admitted. I still don't understand most of it, and yet people expect me to walk and talk as they do, Arthur didn't say, because whining about it was below his dignity. "It's taking some getting used to."

"Fandom itself?" she asked. "Simple enough. Fandom seems to be just sentient enough to exist with its own personality. As the only island of its kind, it seems to become quite easily bored. Therefore, it amuses itself in the only ways it knows how, by subverting reality at every turn. One person becomes another, for a week, or the island seeks out a warmer climate for vacation. It does care for us, the hapless residents, but it also delights in upsetting our understanding of normality, and enjoys our reactions to such. If it didn't care for us, the madness would be malevolent, and not playful."

Really, the island enjoyed rearranged the furniture whenever it found the drawing-room to be dull. It made perfect sense, viewed in that light.

"So you'd say the island itself is a creature?" Arthur asked, tilting his head. "My manservant came up with something like that, but you've more experience with it."

Which was a nice way to omit calling Merlin an idiot, he felt.

"I have to admit," he said, hesitating because when it came to magic, one couldn't speak too kindly, "that so far, these events really have been harmless." If confusing. "If annoying."

And once, winding up in him turning into a squirrel.

"It certainly behaves as one," Alice said, lifting her shoulders lightly. "If it isn't, then it suggests there's a being somewhere controlling it; the moves are too patterned to be entirely random, and as you noted, most of its peculiarities are harmless. If it were only happenstance, one would have expected an unpleasant, violent sort of oddity, now and again."

That... made an awful lot of sense.

"A creature, spawned of magic," Arthur said, twisting his cup around in his hands, "Housing a whole community of people. It's almost too mad to be believed, but... here we are."

"Exactly," she agreed. "It would be madness to call this impossible. Clearly, it's quite possible, as here we are. Unless I've gone mad again, in which case you're simply a figment of my imagination. But one can't live each day assuming one's in a madhouse, or one would never leave one's bed. Better to accept it and move onward."

His lips actually curled up into a smile at that, and he nodded. "Indeed," Arthur said, "Accept it, move onward, and hope there's something dangerous to slay the end of it, so that we may all have some fun."

"I haven't had a good fight in ages," she sighed. "What use is a blade if it's kept in a weapons locker?"

"You've a blade?" Arthur asked. By now, he was no longer surprised. "I haven't seen you about the salle yet. Perhaps I should."

Weapons: still shiny.

"Vorpal blade," she smiled, and her grin was nearly predatory. "A bit longer than a butcher's knife, and far more sharp. If one has good aim, it can be thrown at enemies, but then one has the difficulty of being unarmed until the weapon can be retrieved from the body. I haven't been to the salle; it seemed more for proper swordfights, I suppose. Is that your weapon?"

Alice's teachers had been desperation and need. She didn't know the elegant feint, and the dance of retreat. She knew how to carve and slice until her opponent stopped breathing.

Edited 2009-02-25 20:17 (UTC)

"Swords, lances, crossbows, flails, the spear..." he said, "It's expected of a knight to know any number of weapons." And Arthur may have prided himself on being the Medieval equivalent of a tank. "Have you seen a great deal of battle?"

That idea, he still had to learn to cope with.

"I should like to learn more weapons," she sighed. "A great deal, but only a short time period. Reclaiming the throne. I had few allies and few assets, so I fought with whatever I had. No proper training except that of survival. If one is still alive, one learns."

He was not about to suggest this. Dinah had merely been a project to stave off his own boredom and satiate his need for duty.

"I teach a pupil in the salle every Monday," he offered, earnestly, "If you're serious, you're welcome to join us."

"Are you sure it wouldn't be a bother?" she asked, hesitantly. "As I said, I've no formal training whatsoever. I might be such a novice that I would make a vexing student."

"Trust me," he said, dryly, "When I say that there's no bloody way you could be any more vexing than my current student. You've seen your fair share of a fight; I can hardly retract my offer."

Everyone was worth fighting for. Everyone was worth a chance to fight. Stupid, silly dreams.

Edited 2009-02-25 20:47 (UTC)

"That sounds like a challenge," Alice teased, "to try to make myself more vexing that your other pupil. But I shouldn't like to press my luck. Very well. The Salle, on Mondays? After clubs, or just classes? I have both Art and Entrepreneurship on Mondays."

"In the morning," he said, "No better time to get up and beat something in submission than right before having to face the light of day."

Arthur... really didn't believe in having a lie-in, no.

Edited 2009-02-25 20:58 (UTC)

"Metaphorically, or literally?" Alice asked. "Before dawn, that is, or do you allow for a bit of breakfast before we take weapons out and attack one another?"

Arthur feigned giving it some thought. "A bit of breakfast is all right," he said, "Any more than that, and I'll have to disqualify you."

"Is there a tournament, then?" Alice laughed. "Delightful. I shall be there bright and early, blade in hand. Don't imagine that I will go easy on you, King or no."

Prince, really, but Arthur wasn't the Once and Future Prince, so the other title stuck in her mind.

Re: Neptune's Reef & Pool [2/23]

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Re: Neptune's Reef & Pool [2/23]

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