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Library, Wednesday All day

It had really happened. Really, really, really. She'd gotten a job at the library, just as she'd wanted. For one, it had been difficult for Sholeh to pay attention in class because of how excited she was to start working.

She paused in the doorway, taking in the sight of the library that was not her responsibility, and grinned in wonderment. Acres and acres and it's all mine, she thought, remembering the punchline of a naughty joke she wasn't supposed to know.

=You're not getting any work done in the middle of the doorway.= Zeela sounded amused.

*And there's already work to be done,* Zhahar added. *Look at the counter.*

Sholeh did as she was told and gasped. A whole slew of books were already waiting for her on the circulation desk. Except, rather than being strewn about randomly or laying in haphazard piles, they were all arranged to say, Welcome!

It was a good day to be a library aide.

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"I spent my childhood surrounded by people who'd remind me that who I was- who my family was, meant I was supposed to be better than everyone else," he admitted a little sheepishly.

"I'm pretty sure that if our mothers caught us putting on airs and acting like we were better than anyone else, the best we could have hoped for was being sent to bed without any supper," Sholeh said, making a face. "Extra chores and a wallop would be a lot more likely, though."

And there was that plural again. Ulrik couldn't contain his curiosity any longer, he had to say something.

"This isn't my first language, so I thought perhaps I was misunderstanding something, but- you use the plural form when referring to yourself quite frequently," he noted, not actually asking a question but with a definite note of question in his tone.

There was going to be a few squeaks right there. Yup. Definitely some squeaking. And maybe a quick sip of her soda to...totally not buy her some time to think. Nope! Just a dry throat is all! Which was why there had been squeaking.

"Umm, that time I was talking about me and my sisters," she said a moment later. "I have two, both older than me. None of us would be allowed to act all fancy and superior."

That was even the truth! The truth with a little bit of a hole in it, but the truth.

Ulrik was not entirely sure he believed that, but he was willing to let it slide... for now.

"My brothers and I were raised to be the leaders of our people," he explained. "Well, them more so than me, as I'm just a third son, but had things gone the way they were supposed to I would've been given a small province or the like to administer."

However could he see through her cunning...cunningness?

"Why does being the third son matter?" Sholeh asked. "I'm the third daughter, but that doesn't mean I don't get the same lessons as my sisters?"

She was so very clever, it was true.

"Well," he said. "My eldest brother, Christian, stands to inherit most of my father's wealth, as well as be elected king to follow him. Frederik- well, it was thought that should anything happen to Christian, it would be good to have someone else ready to assume the throne. No one really expected it to fall to me, however."

And now he stood to inherit three titles, two of which would put him directly superior to his older brothers. Awkward.

"But why does it matter what the birth order is?" Sholeh asked. "Just because your brother was born first, it doesn't mean that he's the best suited for inheriting everything."

She flushed and added quickly, "Not that he isn't! I'm just saying, that's a very weird way--err, that's not a manner of decision-making that I'm used to."

That's right, Sholeh. Insult Ulrik's cultural standards.

"That is technically why the election process exists," Ulrik admitted. "It's just that over the years it's become tradition that the eldest son be the one elected." Really, was it at all surprising that he'd been raised thinking there was nothing wrong with feeling entitled to things?

It made sense with his upbringing!

"So, your eldest brother will inherit your father's country," Sholeh said, between sandwich nibbles. "What are you and your middle brother going to do?" She tried to imagine what she and Zeela would do if Zhahar got to be someone special just because she'd surfaced first.

"Fredrik has recently been appointed Prince of a province in the United States of Europe," Ulrik explained. "And as for myself- in another timeline I simply became an administrator of a minor province, a ceremonial position more than anything. In the timeline that currently exists- my own country and a neighbouring one have formed a political union called the Union of Kalmar, in part due to a marriage contract between myself and the Swedish princess. I will someday be King of Sweden, High King of the Union of Kalmar, and Emperor of the United States of Europe," he admitted, looking a little sheepish. It was... rather a lot of titles to carry around with onself. Hence why he tended not to bring it up all that often.

Sholeh was blinking at him now. All those titles sounded rather cumbersome, especially all just for one person!

"No wonder you were so many steps ahead of the line," she breathed. "That's a whole lot! I was a few steps ahead and my mothers are only the leader of a village!"

Okay, and that village was sort of the head of Tryadnea, but since they only mostly saw other people of the village, Sholeh didn't think it counted for much.

"Did you save her?" Sholeh asked. "Your princess, I mean? One of the books I first read when I arrived this summer was full of stories about youngest princes riding off and saving princesses from horrible things."

If that was true, Sholeh wanted to hear all about it!

"Well," Ulrik mused. "After a fashion? There was an assassination attempt last year, although Kristina was hardly some helpless maiden during the ordeal. She scratched at one's face with a hairpin," he recalled with an amused smile.

Wow. Ulrik was a hero, right out of the books. Sholeh hadn't heard anything more romantic in her life.

"And then did she swoon and declare her love for you?" she asked. "No, I don't think anyone who scratches assassin's faces with hairpins goes for swooning," she decided a moment later. "What happened? Did you rush in on a white horse and scoop her up and, uhh, take the assassins prisoner?"

=Killed 'em most likely,= Zeela said with a nod. =Assassins aren't the type you keep hanging around for awhile.=

"Not as such," Ulrik admitted "After my man Baldur and I, uh, dispatched of them- well, I'd taken a gunshot wound myself, you see, and had lost rather a lot of blood," he rubbed absently at his right shoulder, at the place where the bullet had hit, "I passed out."

=See?= Zeela said, sounding smug. =Told you they'd killed them.=

Sholeh figured she probably shouldn't keep referring to it as being romantic, after he'd gotten injured badly enough to pass out. "And then what happened?" she asked. "I almost wish I was writing this down!"

~~Then the player double-checked canon and found out the bullet had hit his ribcage, not shoulder. Sigh, me.~~

"Documents left behind where the assassins had been staying seemed to point towards a certain cardinal- a religious leader- as the mastermind of the plot, but that made very little sense," Ulrik shared with a frown. "As why would anyone intent on carrying out an assassination order bring with them documents that detailed the entire plan so thoroughly?"

"In books, that would mean someone else was trying to set them up," Sholeh said with a nod. "Only an idiot would put down his name when he was sending out incriminating documents. Mother's third eye, at least use an alias!"

"That was what we figured out as well," Ulrik confirmed. "Unfortunately we never really had the chance to investigate in-depth."

"Then what happened?" Sholeh asked. "Is that when you had to leave for school, or did someone try something else? Oooh! And what is the princess like? Is she pretty? Do you have a picture of her? Have you told her you love her yet?"

Way to make things awkward, Sholeh.

Edited 2012-09-01 00:30 (UTC)

"Unfortunately, her father fell ill and was incapacitated for a time, which caused something of a succession crisis," Ulrik explained, in an attempt to sidestep the questions regarding Kristina's beauty and/or any feelings he might have for her. "As one of his advisors thought to take the opportunity to seize power."

His life really was like a book. Sholeh was going to try and write down as much of this as possible when she got back to her room tonight. If she had popcorn, she'd be eating it by the fistful.

The sandwiches would just have to do.

"But then you and Kristina and...and your friend put a stop to that, right?"

"Oh, yes!" Ulrik nodded. "She was already quite popular in the USE. We just had to convince them that the two of us were the much better option. It's hard to stage a civil war when the populace is quite pleased with the current regime."

That only made sense. Sholeh could just picture it: a brave and beautiful princess, a gallant and handsome prince, a stalwart best friend to stay by them both...they'd probably stood on a balcony and waved to cheering crowds and assured them that everything was all right and they'd continue on to rule together...

"Do you think your princess will come to Fandom?" she asked, excited by the possibility. "Either for the visiting weekend or as a student maybe? I'd love to meet her!"

"She's a bit young to be a student, yet," Ulrik said, with just a hint of relief at that fact. "But I'm certain that the moment she finds out there's a weekend set aside for visitors from home she'll insist on it."

Too young? But Sholeh was only fifteen and she was here!

...Though maybe things were different in Ulrik's Landscape. After all, he was older and this was his first year.

"I hope she does," Sholeh encouraged. "You should write and invite her! If it's safe, I mean. If you're certain she can visit without someone conspiring against her."

Sholeh was in for a bit of a surprise when she finally met the nine- no, ten now, Ulrik realized- year-old princess herself.

"Things have calmed down enough at home that it should be," 'calm' being relative, of course.

She so was. But that was okay. So long as Kristina liked to read, they'd have plenty to talk about.

"Then write her! Invite her! The first one is in a few weeks, right?" She'd need that long to put her train of servants together or something!

If Sholeh had paper handy, she'd be shoving it into Ulrik's hands and writing the words for him.

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