Third Floor Common Room, Tuesday Afternoon

[bitchprince]

After completing his go at Gun Club, Arthur returned to the dorms only to realise he didn't much feel like dealing with Leto yet. He'd come up with a proper revenge later. Right now, he craved a chance to sit somewhere, to fight off the sense that was dawning in the wake of yesterday's upset. He sat, and idly considered the Teevee.

Maybe she's just afraid to lose a friend, Merlin had said, and while Arthur was not going to stretch as far as to call her that aloud, he had to admit that the expression on her face had... seemed...

It was easier, dealing with sorcerers, when all you did was distract Father and find them quick shelter elsewhere. Here, there was little escape from them. No matter what he did, they would remain, and the honest truth was that he bore them very little ill will.

Wasn't his father. He'd seen too much damage caused by it not to be wary, but...

Of course, that made him think of Liir. He wasn't going to let thought of his conduct around him make him cringe.

So he sat. Subdued. Thinking.

[[ open common room! ]]

Comments

[bitchprince]

"Romeo," Arthur said, his head offering one gracious nod. "Afternoon."

It was his best attempt at a greeting. He was still preoccupied with entirely too much conflict to manage much better.

[withoutverona]

Romeo located a package of ramen noodles, and turned slightly toward Arthur with them in his hand. "Afternoon, Arthur," he said. "I can't be so bold as to call it good."

[bitchprince]

"Fair enough," Arthur said, with grace. "Had a rough morning?"

[withoutverona]

"A rough few days, I'm afraid," Romeo said. "It seems to happen when one accidentally gets married."

[bitchprince]

"...You were married?"

All right, that was strange enough to let the bottom drop out of his churning worry.

"Accidentally? How do you manage that, if you don't mind me asking?"

[withoutverona]

"Too easily, if you're me," Romeo answered wearily. "I was fighting with my girlfriend, I was drinking too much, and somehow marrying Angela seemed to make sense. I barely even know her."

[bitchprince]

Arthur could not in a million years picture himself ever getting married while drunk.

Of course, the idea of having a girlfriend was also something he had a hard time picturing.

"Will you be moving?" he asked. "That seems like quite a commitment for a single night. Where'd you even find a priest willing to marry you in that state?"

[withoutverona]

Oh, thank God, someone knew a priest had something to do with it. Romeo flashed Arthur a grateful look for not being a heathen. "The chapel on the cruise ship," he muttered. "It's not a proper church. I think if I had showed up with a pet dog and paid the fees, they would have wed me to the dog."

"Why would I have to move?"

[bitchprince]

"You won't be asked to return to your homeland, then?" Arthur asked. He chalked it up to yet another cultural difference he didn't quite comprehend. "Then again, if it wasn't a proper church..."

[withoutverona]

"My father would much rather I was here and not there," Romeo said, a touch of bitterness in his voice. The Montagues were happy to have the problematic heir on the other coast.

"We're having it annulled -- canceled. I'm told not being in a church doesn't make a difference here, but ... other things needed for a marriage did not occur, and she's not quite of age."

[bitchprince]

"So essentially, you wandered into a farce," he said, with a wince of sympathy. "Here's to wandering out with as little damage done as possible."

[withoutverona]

"That would be the nut of it," Romeo said, with a small nod. "And thank you. I'm trying to repair the damage, at the least."

[bitchprince]

"With any luck, it'll be nothing more than an embarrassing story to tell at feasts," Arthur offered. "You'll do well, I trust."

[withoutverona]

"An embarrassing story, and a reason to keep away from strong drink," Romeo said firmly. "How have you been, in any case?"

[bitchprince]

"Thoughtful," Arthur admitted. He cast Romeo a look. "Do you know many magic users on the island?"

[withoutverona]

Romeo had to think about that and his mun is so sure he's gonna forget someone. "Not many who I know well," he ventured. "I have friends from worlds where healing potions work, but they wouldn't call it witchcraft."

[bitchprince]

"Healing potions," he repeated.

He thought of Guinevere's father again.

"And none of them have done you any harm?"

[withoutverona]

"I've only taken them once, but they helped to get my shoulder back to itself," Romeo reported. "I would take them again, if I had an injury as grave, or let Ino try to heal me."

He shrugged. "It's another tool, from what I can tell."

[bitchprince]

"I meant the sorcerers," Arthur said. He'd grown subdued, his voice edged with a wary kindness. He took a breath. "I know they're not all bad."

[withoutverona]

"No one's ever used magic against me as a weapon," Romeo said firmly. "It still worries you?"

[bitchprince]

"It's dangerous," he said, but he knew he'd already told Romeo that; didn't have to give him the lesson again.

Arthur wasn't sure how to explain the problem without paying worse treason to his father. "Nevermind." It wasn't the magic that worried him.

[withoutverona]

Romeo looked at him askance. "I won't worry about it overmuch, then."

He was curious, but he was too distracted by his own troubles to pry.

[bitchprince]

Something for which Arthur could only be grateful.

"Mm," he said, "Good advice between the two of us."

Arthur worried in roughly the same fashion most people took to breathing.

[withoutverona]

"I think I have to worry, if I'm not to do something quite so stupid again," Romeo admitted.

[OOC: Crashing out for a nap! Later!]

[bitchprince]

Arthur laughed. "Well," he said, "There is that."