FDR Campfire, Saturday Morning

[bitchprince]

Arthur's dreams last night had been full of strange images of old, powerful wolves and golden lion cubs that he chose not to consider further. It was Morgana who got the nightmares, not him; he'd always slept fitfully and where needed.

Still, they had instilled a sudden restlessness in him, and rather than turn to the salle as he generally would, Arthur's travels brought him no further than the campfire that morning. He had no meat left of his last hunt, nor any furry fish to roast, so instead he sat down by the edge of the pit.

He did have some dried meat, and a few more dates he'd nicked off Leto earlier (well, not nicked. Commandeered. Requested, maybe, with implicit permission). They'd do for breakfast until Merlin showed up to get him enough for a proper one.

[[ open like a campfire! ]]

Comments

[solo_sword]

"Oh, good," she said, genuinely glad to hear that. "Which one is she?"

[bitchprince]

"The Lady Morgana," Arthur said, "If you've met her, you'd probably remember..." She was, after all, incredibly aggravating.

[solo_sword]

"No, haven't met her yet," she said, thinking back. "I'll have to keep an eye out."

[bitchprince]

"If you do," Arthur said, after a moment of looking anywhere but at her, look after her? "Good luck. Although I suppose she's been settling in."

[solo_sword]

"There's not a single bit of what you just said that doesn't make me curious," she told him.

[bitchprince]

"It's..."

Cue the trail-off.

"...Morgana," he said, finally. He may have had nightmares about all the women he knew teaming up with her.

[solo_sword]

Jaina couldn't help but smile. She thought she could sort of figure it out by the lack of relative reply. "So I should be prepared, huh?"

[bitchprince]

"I'm sure she'll be nothing but kind," Arthur assured her, "As befitting a member of the royal court of Camelot." She had been obnoxiously cheerful being here, after all.

[solo_sword]

"That's no fun. But I'm used to dealing with royals."

[bitchprince]

"Are you implying we're hard to deal with?" Arthur asked, with a lift of his chin. "Because I am perfectly 'easy-going'."

Sure, Arthur.

[solo_sword]

"I would never imply such a thing." Out loud. "Interesting how you jumped to that conclusion, though..."

[bitchprince]

"I didn't jump to anything," he argued, "You were talking about 'dealing with' royals."

[solo_sword]

"I'm not generalizing," Jaina assured him. "My mother's a princess, one of my good friends is Queen Mother, and I've had my fair share of dealings with bad royals, too. All I'm saying is, I like dealing with the people, not the title. I prefer when the pleasantries and expectations get dropped."

[bitchprince]

Arthur, who was fairly much built out of expectations (if not pleasantries) may have had a hard time getting his head around that. Which is to say a really hard one. "That's your good right," is what he hence said, "Your mother's a princess?"

No, he wasn't going to address her by title over that. Probably.

[solo_sword]

She nodded. "On Alderaan. Her planet was destroyed years ago, but she still holds the title," she explained.

[bitchprince]

Oh.

Well, the only explanation that bubbled up in Arthur's mind for that was, "Atom bombs?" followed by, "I'm sorry."

[solo_sword]

"Death Star," she corrected. "It was long before I was born. I only hear the stories." And it was easier to be more detached from it when what was going on now seemed worse in ways.

[bitchprince]

Arthur looked like he was having some physical trouble keeping his face from going holy mother of god that is just wrong.

"Still, that's..." Insane and horrible? "An incredible tragedy."

Sure, he came from a wartorn past, but the excesses of now continued to astound him.

[solo_sword]

"My galaxy's really good at those," she said seriously.

[bitchprince]

"So it happens often, then."

Yeah, Arthur didn't have anything beyond 'I'm sorry' and a few crazy delusions about taking over places and setting things right that he wasn't going to deal with until he was a little older.

[solo_sword]

"Back in the day, the Empire used to have a superweapon for everything. That's what the Death Star was. That eventually stopped, but when we got a new enemy the mass destruction began happening even worse, and in different ways," Jaina told him.

[bitchprince]

"So the wars keep raging on," he said.

...It was, when he thought about it, a lot like home, except back home you didn't blow up other people's kingdoms. "But even an enemy would realise that destroying an entire planet is... something of a waste of resources." Beat. "Right?"

[solo_sword]

"These ones do. They change them over now," Jaina told him. "They enslave the people, and they change the gravity, the climate, the plantlife, all so it fits their needs. They just change the resources."