A Peek: The Pauper Princess and the Way of the Trilobite
Not sure when this will be finished - or started, for that matter - but here's a scene I've got to include somewhere in that story. The title might end up changing, too.
If you haven't read any of the other PP stories, here's the least you should know:
--Princess Mara Mouseheart is in the world of Girl Genius.
--She's reluctantly accepting that she's a Spark (because they're all craaaaazyyyyyyyyy)
--She's about as close to a literal Disney Princess as you can get. In fact, she runs a GG-version of Disneyland (but called "Mouseheart")
--At the end of the second story, Agatha H. offered to be her mentor.
Legal disclaimer stuff:
"This story is not approved by, sponsored by or affiliated with Studio Foglio LLC or Airship Entertainment."
A Peek: The Pauper Princess and the Way of the Trilobite
Prince Kelvin was taking a mid-day break from running the kingdom. He was in his parlor, lunch half-eaten, feet propped up, and he was on page seven of the Guildern Gazette, reviewing the latest sporting results. The day was cold but the sun bright, so the curtains were drawn to warm the room.
He heard a slam on the bedroom side of the suite. Not a slam, precisely, but a more forceful shutting of the door than usual. A loud shutting of the door. Kelvin glanced up, but then resumed his reading. He heard a bit of pacing in the other room and lots of sighing and fretting. Finally, his wife peeked her head in the doorway, then came in to do some more pacing. He did look her way, but until she started speaking, there was no point in asking. He turned to page eight. Hm, a sale at the tobacco shop-
"She's going to drive me insane!!" she said finally. An odd thing for a Spark to say - going to? - but he calmly folded the newspaper and laid it on his lap. The Princess continued pacing while talking. Er, ranting.
"If she weren't my mentor, I would-!" she sputtered, then stopped and tried in vain to compose herself. "She's just as bad as any of those Sparks I tried to work with, then had to fire!"
He made a pained expression and sucked in air quickly. "Oooo, honey, a bit harsh, you think?"
"Is it?" she said, bobbing her head at him, then resumed the pacing. "Everything I show her, she goes on and on about weaponizing them and kingdom defense and 'going past my limits' and blah blah blah! Everything! Must everything be a potential weapon to those people? She's just as bad as any other Spark!"
"Even that Italian fellow with the mechanical spider legs?" he asked. She gave him a blank look, then suddenly remembered "that Italian fellow," and shuddered. Then she remembered more, and shuddered louder and more violently.
"Fine, not any Spark," she grumbled. "Yes, she's my cousin and my mentor and yes, I love her dearly, but-- She's-- It's just-- Nnnnngh!"
"Dear, why don't you-?"
"Here's an example!" she said, pointing at him. "I showed my designs for 'Journey to the Atom,' and she insists that I actually shrink visitors for it, instead of the perfect illusions I've designed! Totally disregarding the dangers that could occur! Never mind getting them there - different pocket dimensions of relative sizes to our own, so it's not shrinking them so much as dimensional travel - but making sure it's done safely, and sequentially, and without bringing anything alien back with them, i-i-it's the risk is too great for what's supposed to be a nice, educational journey through a simulation of the universe's building materials!"
"Well-"
"But noooooo, for SCIENCE, she thinks I should endanger our visitors time and again for an experiment that, yes, I have plans to conduct, but not on hundreds of people every day, for goodness' sake! That would be totally irresponsible!"
"Did you just say you have plans to-?"
"It's still SCIENCE to come up with a way to actually photograph those things, you know! I've filmed the elements all the way down to the atomic particles! How is it not SCIENCE to surround people on all sides with those images? To-to-to fully envelop them in the experience, so they may as well be shrunk to that size? How is that not SCIENCE, too??"
"I wouldn't-"
"And-and don't get me started on the 'Rocket Ride to the Stars!' " she ranted. "Again, simulating an exciting trip through space, but oh, no, no, she's not satisfied unless I actually send people there and back, hundreds of times a day!"
She folded her arms and glared at nothing.
"Sweetie-"
"Which I could do," she said, "But it's a vacuum up there! No air, nothing to gauge one's speed! All the objects out there are so far away, they could be riding 30,000 kilometers an hour and not notice any movement at all! It'd be the most boring ride ever!"
"Even if they were actually in space-?"
"It is not easy to create a completely dark environment, and still have a 'sky' full of stars and other objects! And don't get me started on what would happen if those rockets reached 99% light speed!"
"I won't."
"I'd like to see her run this place, even for a week!"
"Honey-"
"On second thought, I don't want her anywhere near my designs!" she ranted. "She'd turn the place into some twisted fortress, like that abominable castle of hers! Or open a Jägerland or some such nonsense."
Kelvin chuckled. "Heh. 'Jägerland.' Now that would be-" He got her full Look now: raised eyebrow, flared nostrils, wide eyes, the slightest sneer in her upper lip. He shrank back in his seat. "Of course it's a completely awful idea," he said. "Utter nonsense. Um... but you know... technically speaking, you do have a claim on that 'abominable castle.'"
Mara was quiet a moment, then scoffed and waved it off. "She can have it," she said. "And that insane family legacy of hers. Ours. Whatever! I asked what she wanted from me as a Heterodyne. Insanity? Domination over all enemies? Weapons and creatures that God Himself fears? Do you know what she said?"
"All of the above?"
"All of-!!" she said. "Oh, you guessed it. Specifically, 'a little bit of each.' Pfft! Guildern doesn't even have enemies! Do you know that, when I showed her our construction suits, she thought they were for our army?"
"Well, that's - Wait, they're not?"
"Oh, you, too??"
"Mara, those suits are indestructible!" said Kelvin. "They increase strength dozens of times! They fly! They have energy weapons and shields!"
"Cutting tools," she said. "No one working on my designs will be hurt, not on my watch! All of those features are to keep our workers safe; you know that."
"They'd keep our soldiers safe, too!" he said. She looked away and became somber.
"I will not become a Lady of War," she said. "I-- I don't want that as my legacy. I don't want to be feared. I want to be the one who... brought smiles to people. Who left them happier than when they came. SCIENCE can do that, can't it? Can't it? Why won't she be satisfied with that? Why can't I reach my limits and beyond... to entertain people? What does she want from me??"
Mara closed her eyes and rubbed her face with one hand. Kelvin set aside the newspaper, popped a morsel of his now-cold lunch into his mouth, and went to his wife. He put an arm around her and kissed the top of her head.
After a long silence, he said, "Would sex help?"
"God, yes."