Post by WickedElphie on Jan 25, 2009 16:06:32 GMT -5
As I was opening my file to continue BSS Chapter Nine I remembered a one-shot I had written a few months back. I found it, and decided I might as well post it.
A Scene From A Marriage
OR
In Which Ariel Hears the Call of Adventure and Eric Succumbs to His Inevitable Fate
Ariel entered the room with a brilliant smile on her face. Eric began to sweat.
He’d seen that smile before. He knew *exactly* what it meant. It meant he was royally plipped.
(‘plip’ is the sound a bubble makes when it bursts underwater. The phrase had long since made its way into Atlantican slang, with obvious connotations. Prince Eric, was of course, not Atlantican, but as a growing amount of his acquaintances were, he had begun to pick up on certain colloquialisms. Unfortunately, he had already occasionally used these accidentally in the earshot of his ‘uninformed’ human peers, which had resulted is some very odd looks and a very embarrassed prince. But that was irrelevant at the moment. What was relevant was that Prince Eric was, in fact, ‘royally plipped’.)
Ariel kept smiling as she fixed her sapphire-bright eyes on her unfortunate target. “Eric, sweetheart.”
He gulped. “Yes, darling?”
“I was thinking…”
“Oh?”
“It’s been so peaceful around here lately…”
Yes it had been. Barring that one incident with the Evil Manta, but no one had been seriously hurt, and Ariel was surprisingly effective at subterfuge and blackmail. The prospect of the entire surface-world finding out that Manta had had his tail handed to him multiple times by a teenage mermaid and her friends had been more than enough to send the oversized bully packing. Thank Poseidon…Eric realized that he was doing it again. Using Atlantican slang. He needed to stop doing that. Ariel was talking to him wasn’t she? He should probably be listening. That might be smart.
“So to make a long story short, I’m a little…well, bored.”
Worlds have been turned, or to be more precise, ended on such thoughts. (Somewhere in Japan, two to three centuries in the future, in an entirely different fandom, Haruhi Suzumiya sneezed.)
“‘I want to do something new’-bored or ‘Sorry honey, I‘m ditching you and going home to Daddy’-bored?”
Ariel looked scandalized. “Eric!”
He grinned despite his growing sense of doom, “What? You know I was kidding.”
“You better have been.” Her mouth moved in that funny little way that meant she wasn’t really angry anymore, but didn’t want him to know that.
Eric just smirked in the manner of a man who knows that he‘s already been convicted, judge, jury, and executioner, and so might as well commit the crime. “I assume you already have some plan to get un-bored, right?”
“Of course! I was talking to one of your sailors, you know the tall one who’s engaged to that girl in the flower-shop?” Ariel didn’t bother to wait for his answer before continuing on excitedly, “And he told me this wonderful story about a treasure, and you know, it sounded familiar. So I thought about it for awhile, and then I remembered! I had heard about it before, in Atlantica! What are the odds of a legend that exits in both our worlds not having some basis in truth?”
“Not very likely.”
“Exactly! So I thought, why not?”
He played dumb. “Why not what?”
“Try and find the treasure!”
Eric looked at Ariel’s bright eyes and dazzling smile. He was sure there’d be numerous hassles and obstacles of every kind. Some potentially fatal. And by the time it was all over he’d likely be battered and bruised and thoroughly embarrassed and, if he was very lucky, only been knocked unconscious once or twice, in pursuit of a treasure that had likely already have been found or might not exist at all.
He took a breath and made his answer, “So when do we leave?”
A Scene From A Marriage
OR
In Which Ariel Hears the Call of Adventure and Eric Succumbs to His Inevitable Fate
Ariel entered the room with a brilliant smile on her face. Eric began to sweat.
He’d seen that smile before. He knew *exactly* what it meant. It meant he was royally plipped.
(‘plip’ is the sound a bubble makes when it bursts underwater. The phrase had long since made its way into Atlantican slang, with obvious connotations. Prince Eric, was of course, not Atlantican, but as a growing amount of his acquaintances were, he had begun to pick up on certain colloquialisms. Unfortunately, he had already occasionally used these accidentally in the earshot of his ‘uninformed’ human peers, which had resulted is some very odd looks and a very embarrassed prince. But that was irrelevant at the moment. What was relevant was that Prince Eric was, in fact, ‘royally plipped’.)
Ariel kept smiling as she fixed her sapphire-bright eyes on her unfortunate target. “Eric, sweetheart.”
He gulped. “Yes, darling?”
“I was thinking…”
“Oh?”
“It’s been so peaceful around here lately…”
Yes it had been. Barring that one incident with the Evil Manta, but no one had been seriously hurt, and Ariel was surprisingly effective at subterfuge and blackmail. The prospect of the entire surface-world finding out that Manta had had his tail handed to him multiple times by a teenage mermaid and her friends had been more than enough to send the oversized bully packing. Thank Poseidon…Eric realized that he was doing it again. Using Atlantican slang. He needed to stop doing that. Ariel was talking to him wasn’t she? He should probably be listening. That might be smart.
“So to make a long story short, I’m a little…well, bored.”
Worlds have been turned, or to be more precise, ended on such thoughts. (Somewhere in Japan, two to three centuries in the future, in an entirely different fandom, Haruhi Suzumiya sneezed.)
“‘I want to do something new’-bored or ‘Sorry honey, I‘m ditching you and going home to Daddy’-bored?”
Ariel looked scandalized. “Eric!”
He grinned despite his growing sense of doom, “What? You know I was kidding.”
“You better have been.” Her mouth moved in that funny little way that meant she wasn’t really angry anymore, but didn’t want him to know that.
Eric just smirked in the manner of a man who knows that he‘s already been convicted, judge, jury, and executioner, and so might as well commit the crime. “I assume you already have some plan to get un-bored, right?”
“Of course! I was talking to one of your sailors, you know the tall one who’s engaged to that girl in the flower-shop?” Ariel didn’t bother to wait for his answer before continuing on excitedly, “And he told me this wonderful story about a treasure, and you know, it sounded familiar. So I thought about it for awhile, and then I remembered! I had heard about it before, in Atlantica! What are the odds of a legend that exits in both our worlds not having some basis in truth?”
“Not very likely.”
“Exactly! So I thought, why not?”
He played dumb. “Why not what?”
“Try and find the treasure!”
Eric looked at Ariel’s bright eyes and dazzling smile. He was sure there’d be numerous hassles and obstacles of every kind. Some potentially fatal. And by the time it was all over he’d likely be battered and bruised and thoroughly embarrassed and, if he was very lucky, only been knocked unconscious once or twice, in pursuit of a treasure that had likely already have been found or might not exist at all.
He took a breath and made his answer, “So when do we leave?”
