Love and Light (January 2020) [closed]

Prydania

Það er alltaf sólríkt í Býkonsviði
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Pronouns
He/His/Him
TNP Nation
Prydania
Discord
lordgigaice
OOC Note: Thread is closed, and a collaboration between @Zyvun , @Kyle , and myself.

IC:

2 January 2020
7:02 am
On a Thursday
Býkonsviði International Airport, Prydania


Tobias was nervous, but in a good way to be sure. His and Alycia’s honeymoon awaited. He stood there in a dark grey sports jacket, matching slacks, and a white shirt, folded sunglasses hanging from his unbuttoned collar, as the private jet was prepped for flight.
Of course there was much to be excited for. He would get a chance to see a country he’d never seen before- it was an experience he still treasured whenever it happened. Such options were never really open to him living in war-torn Austurland. Beyond that, it was a chance to get to know his extended family.

Above all else, however, it was his time to spend with his wife, and hers with him. He looked over at her with a warm, loving gaze and smiled.
“This is going to sound so incredibly lame” he said with a chuckle.
“But you know what I can’t wait to do? Just fall asleep with you on the beach.” That simple act alone said everything he wanted to say; no press, no urgency. Just him, his wife, and paradise.

Alycia smiled and rested against him. She was wearing a white and black trimmed frilly blouse and a long frilly black skirt.
“You, warm sand and the sound of ocean waves. I could fall asleep like that any day. Preferably under an umbrella. You will like Saintonge, I miss it.”

Alycia wasn’t nervous like her husband. She was hopeful and excited. She rarely had time to properly relax and just for this honeymoon she was free. Free from the world of statecraft and being an Empress, she could just relax by her husband. She rarely got to see other countries but Saintonge was like a second home to her.

Tobias nodded.
“I don’t even speak Santonian,” he admitted, “so I’ll be completely at your mercy. You and the translator they’re going to provide” he laughed. He looked at the plane as his nervous excitement was beginning to melt into relaxed excitement. They weren’t even off the ground yet and he felt himself eager to get to the soft sand and warm sun. Prydania had beaches itself but...they were hardly what you would expect for a romantic getaway.

“Umbrellas on beaches under the sun” he remarked.
“What a world.” He chuckled. An umbrella for anything but protection from the rain was strangely novel to him.

“I’ll fall asleep with you anywhere though,” he smiled, winking at his wife. She chuckled and kissed him on the lips as Laurids Hummel sighed. He was a few years older than the King and finding that special someone had proved elusive. Well there was that one time...

His reminiscing was cut short by a White Guardsman approaching him.
"We've finished going over the plane. It's safe." Hummel nodded. The Knights of the Storm and the White Guard had been cooperating more and more since Tobias and Alycia's engagement. And now they were married...it made for a lot of cross-agency team-ups.

"Well let's get everyone going then," he said with a nod.




Marc-Thorsteinn Gausserand-Landet sat in his chair, his side pack clutched to his chest. It was stuffed with books and a few DVDs along with his laptop for the flight to Saintes. He was playing a rather important role in all of this. The King of Prydania was heading to Saintonge on his honeymoon. And though his wife, Empress Alycia, spoke Santonian he did not. And it was decided that a translator would be in order, so the Empress would not have to spend her honeymoon translating this or that. Thorsteinn, being a Santonian of Prydanian origin who worked in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, was a good choice.
And yet despite that role, he still felt like he should keep to himself. And not bother the King and Empress unless his services were needed. So he was quite prepared to hunker down in his own corner of the plane and keep himself busy for the duration of the flight.

His attention was grabbed when a man in a Knights of the Storm uniform entered, looking around the cabin.

"We're secure, Your Majesty, Your Grace," he said, stepping aside as Tobias and Alycia came in.

"Wow, pretty nice," Tobias mused. It was a nicer jet than the ones he'd taken before.

"Wait until we get there to be impressed, love," Alycia said with a smile as Tobias chuckled.

"The translator the Santonians provided," Hummel remarked.

"Um, yes...Your Majesty, Your Grace," Thorsteinn said as he hastily stood.

"From the wedding?" Alycia asked.

"Um...yes, yes, Your Grace, Marc-Thorsteinn Gausserand-Landet at your service," Thorsteinn replied.

"You were with my uncle and cousins," Tobias replied, extending his hand. Thorsteinn wasn't sure what to do for a moment. Shaking a King's hand? He took it though.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I'm assigned to the Duke of Champagne's Yellowtail office."

"Well I'm glad you're here," Alycia remarked.
"So I don't have to spend all my time translating everything for this one," she said as she gave her husband a slight hug. Tobias chuckled and blushed.

"I'm sorry my my shortcomings forced you away from your duties Mr. Landet," Tobias said, still chuckling.
"I'll try not to be too much of a nuisance."

"Please, Your Majesty. It's my job. If you need anything just ask," Thorsteinn said with a nervous smile.

"Thank you," Tobias replied with a nod. "I appreciate you being here for this."
Tobias and Alycia made their way to a couch in the cabin as Thorsteinn sat down and breathed deep. That ended up not being...so stressful. The King and Empress seemed very friendly. It put him a bit at ease. He pulled a book from his side bag and began to read, not paying attention to the conversation behind him.

"I would still prefer it, Your Majesty, if I were at least on the flight over."

"There's no need," Tobias said with a smile as he relaxed on the couch, with an arm over Alycia's shoulder.
"The Santonians don't let foreign security in. So relax. Stay here, enjoy us not being in your hair all the time. We'll be the Santonian Royal Guard's problem."

Hummel sighed and nodded. Colart, who was just arriving himself, was granted special permission to join the newlyweds by the Santonian government.
"Please, enjoy your Honeymoon, Your Grace. Your Majesty."

"And enjoy your week off, Lord General," Alycia replied with a smile.

Hummel nodded, disembarking the plane as the hatch closed. And before long the jet was airborne....





Tobias held Alycia as they laid on the couch in the cabin.

"To me more dear than in days of old was ever maiden to man," he said with a smile as he looked her in her warm brown eyes.

"I love it when you recite bad pulp chivalry romance," Alycia replied with a smile and a kiss on Tobias' lips.

"It's actually an old folk song...it just happened to be used in one of my bad pulp chivalry romance novels," he replied with a chuckle and smile. Flying was still a sort of new experience for Tobias, but he found he liked it. The way the plane gently hummed...it was very comforting, Even more so with the love of his life in his arms...




OOC Note: Co-written with @Zyvun

Approved by @Zyvun and @Kyle
 
Last edited:
2 January 2020
9:10 am
On a Thursday

Saintes-Réaux International Airport, Réaux, Saintonge

It was a four hour flight from Prydania to Saintonge, but Saintonge was two hours behind. And that meant that Thorsteinn was all out of sorts when he awoke with his book split open on his thigh.

He rubbed his eyes and yawned softly as he glanced out the window, with Saintes coming into view. What had happened? He checked his watch- set on Prydanian time as that's where he was working- and then opened his phone to pull up the world clock options. He'd slept for four hours and yet it was only two hours later.
He swore all he'd meant to do was close his eyes for a moment but...well...he'd drifted off. He peaked over his shoulder to see how the newlyweds were managing.




Alycia had likewise fallen asleep, but had woken up a while back. She had spent the flight thinking about the evening ahead. She was scheduled to meet with her old school friends. Tobias was going to meet with some members of the Prydanian diaspora in Saintonge. And then...then they'd have over a week to themselves.

She was holding his hand, and had been for the last few hours. At first they had laid there, on the plane's couch, silently enjoying each other's company as their thumbs stroked each other's hands. Though Tobias' thumb had gone still for the past forty minutes or so. He must have drifted off.

Alycia stretched a bit and tilted her head up to kiss her husband's jawline.
"Hey honey," she whispered.
"We're starting to descend."

Tobias was, in fact, asleep. Though he was in a light sleep. Mostly focusing on the airplane's engine hum. Alycia's loving kiss had awoken him, but he kept his eyes closed. In part because he wanted to remain asleep. He was so comfortable and at peace with the one he loved, he never wanted the moment to end.
And he was nervous. Nervous about seeing his family again, this time in Saintonge. About meeting the people from the diaspora. He wanted to put his best foot forward for both, and fretted over that. So the prospect of just staying in limbo with Alycia...that was so calming.
Alycia, though, wasn't having it.

"Love, come on," she said, kissing his cheek.
He opened one eye, looking at her, and smiling.

"Hey, time to get up?"

"Yes, moje láska*," Alycia said with a smile.

"I like it when you speak Norsian to me," Tobias muttered.

"Do you want me to say 'get up' in Norsian?"

Tobias chuckled and the two sat up, with Tobias making his way to grab some coffee.

"Oh!" Thorsteinn said quickly, going to undo his seatbelt.
"Let me, Your Majesty."

Tobias just looked at him a bit, confused for a moment before he chuckled and shook the spider webs out of his head.
"Heh, sorry," he said.
"No, it's ok," he said as he began to make his own coffee.
"Thank you though," he added with a friendly smile.

"Um, no problem, Your Majesty," Thorsteinn replied. He'd been around Royalty before. Tobias reminded him a bit of the elder twin sons of King Thibault II. Thibault-Maximilian and Timothée-Brice, like Tobias, weren't snobbish and were rather pleasant. The difference was that Thibault and Timothée were rather outgoing while Tobias was more reserved.
Thorsteinn suspected it was how Tobias was brought up. He and the King of Prydania had something of a shared experience. He wouldn't presume to bring that up, but he understood why perhaps Tobias would be less outgoing than his Santonian cousins.

"You fell asleep?" Tobias asked as he sipped the coffee.

"How could you tell?" Thorsteinn asked.

"You have that look about you. I've seen enough soldiers on sentry duty."

"Oh, well, I'm sorry Your Majesty I..."

"Please don't be," Tobias chuckled.
"Aly and I passed out too. Must be one of those mornings."

"And we get two more hours of morning," Alycia replied.
"Now come on and sit down. We're going to be landing soon."

Tobias sipped his coffee some more and nodded, about to head back when Thorsteinn caught his attention.
"Welcome to Saintonge, Your Majesty."

"Thanks," Tobias replied with a friendly smile as he made his way back to Alycia.

The jet landed as smoothly as a jet can land. Tobias had gotten used to flying since the end of the Civil War, but he still squeezed Alycia's hand. Mostly from nerves. She squeezed back, giving him a loving look that couldn't help but cut through his nervousness and make him
smile.




"It's going to be a very low-key thing since this is a personal visit, rather than a state one," Thorsteinn said.
"So you'll be taken to the Royal Palace, where everything is being set up for tonight. And then after that, whisking you both away for the honeymoon," he added with a smile.

"Thank you," Alycia replied in Santonian, prompting Tobias to perk up a little.

"That was 'thank you' right?"

"Yes, love, it was," Alycia said, kissing him on the cheek.

Thorsteinn stepped to the side as the hatch opened, and a uniformed guard stepped into the plane.

"Your Majesty, Your Grace," he said in Santonian.
"It is my honour, on behalf of King Thibault II, to welcome you to Saintonge for this joyous occasion. If you will follow me, we will escort you to the Royal palace."

Thorsteinn translated the guard's greeting for Tobias, who nodded with a smile. He replied in Prydanian, prompting Thorsteinn to translate to the Guardsman.

"His Majesty thanks his Uncle Thibault for the hospitality, and you for your duty," Thorsteinn replied.

"And we're ready for you to lead the way," Alycia added in Santonian.

The guard nodded, and led them out of the plane, onto the sunny tarmac. There were not many people. Only a few of the planes had airline liveries. They were not in the Aéroport de Saintes-Gentilly, where many of the civilian commercial flights land. Nor were they in Aéroport de Saintes-Torcy, where the low-cost budget airlines and the cargo planes go. They were in Aéroport de Saintes-Réaux, the airport for the jet-set, the wealthy, and the royalty, with its numerous private hangars and terminals.

Tobias looked around as he disembarked. He was always curious about new places. His gaze caught one of the guards who were escorting them though. The patch on the sleeve was divided into three parts. One of which was a stag on a red background with a white cross between its antlers.
He couldn't help but be confused. That was a Prydanian symbol. A symbol of his family. The Santonian Royals and his family were related, but by two Prydanian Princesses. There would be no reason to adopt Loðbrók heraldry. He nearly asked Thorsteinn but they were already at the transports.

"Your Majesty, Your Grace," Thorsteinn said as they approached the cars.
"I hope you enjoy your trip. I'll be around, should you need me."

"Thank you, again," Tobias replied.
"I'm really sorry if this put you out any."

"Not at all, Your Majesty," Thorsteinn insisted.
"Not at all."
He wasn't as caught off guard by Tobias' offer to shake his hand, taking it before the couple vanished into their limousine.




"Are you excited?" Tobias asked.

"About what?" Alycia replied.
"The honeymoon? Of course!"

"Heh," Tobias chuckled.
"I am too...but no, I meant tonight. You'll be seeing old friends. That sounds exciting."

"Yes, very," she said with a smile.
"And what about you? Do you know what you'll say tonight with the Prydanian diaspora?"

"No," Tobias said as he took a deep breath.
"I'm nervous as hell and I have no idea what to say."

"Why don't we go over it now? We have some time until we get to the Palace. What is it you want to say?"

"That's the thing," Tobias said.
"I'm not a refugee but...I very much feel like I know what these people went through. I lost everything, like they did. I was dependent on the kindness of others, like they were. How do I talk to a room of people like that and go 'I want to hug you all'?"

"Maybe you should say that?" Alycia mused.

"That I want to hug everybody?" Tobias asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No!" Alycia replied.
"The part about how you identify with them and feel what they felt. You're very empathetic, love. Show that."

Tobias nodded, holding Alycia's hand gently. Enjoying just being with her as the made their way to the Royal Palace in Saintes.



*moje láska- my love

OOC Notes: Posted with contributions from @Kyle and @Zyvun
 
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