(Untitled)

[rightawaydoctor]

Characters: Christine and Oliver
Location: a fairytale kingdom
Time: during the Solstice plot!
Summary: Christine believes herself to be the Light Princess and Oliver is her platonic prince friend who assumes whatever the Machine is pulling now will surely kill him.

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[oliverplus]

At the same time, Oliver Day was standing in a forest within the same kingdom, though he had no inkling that a friend was so close by. At first, he was very confused to find himself there. And, more than that, to realise he was dressed in what, to him, was a very Eastern style! His attire included a tunic, trousers, sandals, and a large turban. He fingered the turban for a moment, poking and pulling at it. Then he took an experimental step forward, surprised to discover that it didn't fall off.

"What is this?" he asked in a rather less-than-princely manner. "Where the hell am I!?"

But hearing no answer from the forest animals, he did the only thing he could do and started down the path before him. As he walked, he wondered idly what could be done to remedy the fact that he was completely lost. Then, curiously, he wondered why he was thinking about being lost when this was one's natural state in an unfamiliar world. However, a strange sensation was coming over him by then. This world was beginning to feel familiar--familiar, and yet he was surely lost at the same time.

The answer came to him all in rush, and Oliver gave such a start that he had to grab the turban--his turban, certainly--lest it topple off after all. "I'm a prince!" he declared. Then he frowned, for that declaration made no sense at all and yet made perfect sense at the same time. He stood for a moment on the forest path, considering his situation. "I'm looking for a princess to marry," he said to himself. "And I've lost my retinue in these woods." With every word, the story was becoming more familiar--and more true--to him. "Then I guess I should find a place to stay."

As this seemed logical to both the part of his mind that felt this was all quite natural and the part of his mind that nagged at him of other things, he set off to do so. And fortunately, at length, the footpath led him along the side of a large, deep, and beautiful lake.

[rightawaydoctor]

Christine managed to pull herself downwards by grabbing on to lower and lower boughs on the fir tree. Once she had her feet on the ground, she bent down to pick up several stones. They would keep her weighed down as she made her way over to the lake.

The lake was her favorite place. It was the only place in the whole kingdom where she felt truly free. Everywhere else she was held by tethers and watched constantly by her ladies-in-waiting or her father's horse guard. But in the water she could swim and dive to her heart's content. She didn't go flying into the air when she was in the water.

Taking funny leaping bounds towards the water's edge, the stones brought her back down so she didn't float away. But once she'd reached her destination she stepped in until her feet disappeared beneath the sand and silt, then her knees, then her waist. She dropped the stones and leapt back, laughing as she stayed in the water instead of taking off into the air.

She splashed and kicked, dove and twisted, and laughed aloud once her head was above water again. This was freedom, and she was going to enjoy it all day and all night until someone from the castle dragged her inside for bed.

[oliverplus]

As Christine was enjoying her swim, Oliver was still making his way along the path around the lake, lost in his rather-disjointed thoughts. He was still trying to reconcile the idea that he was a prince in search of a princess with the notion that he was actually quite common and shouldn't be in this place at all, which was an understandably difficult obstacle for his mind to overcome. However, he very soon got near enough to hear the princess's laughter, which tore him directly from that dilemma. Because, unfortunately, laughter without gravity can sound quite similar to screams--particularly when it is paired with the sight of someone in white who is under the water.

Without thinking and with little more sound than a gasp, Oliver tore off the tunic and kicked off his sandals. In the process, his turban took care of itself. He hardly noticed, as he was already quite occupied by diving into the lake and swimming out to the prone figure. He wrapped his arms around her and immediately began to swim as hard as he could for shore, hoping against hope that he was intruding on less of a disaster than he feared.

[rightawaydoctor]

Christine gasped as she was grabbed, and made a valiant effort to slip away from the man's grasp. She twisted this way and that, kicked her legs, and pounded her fists against his back.

"Naughty!" she screeched. "Let me go, you naughty, naughty, rude person!"

[oliverplus]

If Oliver had realised who this was, he would have been affronted by that reaction. As he didn't even really know who he was, however, he was just confused as to why anyone would want to drown. He held onto her valiantly--he nearly had her to shore anyway--and tried to shout back to her, but that only resulted in a mouth full of water that made his task even more difficult.

But despite the physical struggle and his own fight against coughing, he managed to get her to shore. While pulling her out of the water with him, however, he very nearly let her go because suddenly--inexplicably--she felt like nothing at all. "Whoa!" he cried, his princely manner suffering a bit, it must be admitted, due to surprise. He coughed again, pulling her the rest of the way out as he remembered--though part of him insisted that he had never and should not know--that there was a princess who had no gravity. Clearly this was her.

"You okay?" he asked, letting go of her uncertainly, though at this point could feel no difference between holding her and not.

[rightawaydoctor]

Trying to get away once on the shore, Christine kicked away from the stranger and went floating up into the air. She crossed her arms, looking down at him angrily. The very nerve of him to come in and pull her about, ruining all her fun!

"I was perfectly ok until you pulled me from the water and tried to drown me in the process. How rude you are!"

Jabbing a finger downwards she continued, "Now put me back in right now, you fiend!"

[oliverplus]

Oliver absolutely gaped at the princess. "I wasn't trying to drown you! I was stopping you from drowning!" he protested. His bare feet scrabbled against the bank as he worked his way to his feet, reaching up reflexively to adjust a turban that was no longer there. He watched the princess float in some degree of consternation, not sure what his next move should be.

At her request, he just blinked at her. "Do what?" Then, as he got over his shock: "I'm not a fiend! I was helping!"

[rightawaydoctor]

"You were not!" she protested, stamping a foot in the air. "I wasn't drowning, I was swimming. Until you came along and ruined everything. Thoughtless man." Again she pointed to the water. "Now put me back in or I shall call for my father's guards."

[oliverplus]

"I didn't see any swimming!" Oliver protested back. But at the mention of guards, he fairly yelped. Being from a foreign land, he was certain the king would not look kindly upon his upsetting the princess--especially if she claimed he had attempted to carry her off. He could almost hear his death warrant being signed already. "I'm going to put you back in!" he cried.

But then, still not sure what to do, he watched her for a moment, floating, and considered his options. Then, remembering it surely made no difference when the princess weighed nothing to begin with, he reached out to grab her around her waist again. Holding on tight, he ran along the shore in the direction in which it sloped upward, and, when he judged it was deep enough, he gave a great leap to throw them both back into the lake.

[rightawaydoctor]

Unaware of what he was doing as he took off running, Christine was about to shout for the guards when she saw him head for the water and she inhaled a deep breath of air in preparation. In they went, and when Christine surfaced, her temperament had cooled down considerably. She let out a carefree laugh and began swimming backwards.

"That was fun! What do you call that?"

[oliverplus]

Oliver popped up in front of her, letting out the breath he had taken before he dove. He grinned back, feeling considerably more relaxed now that she was happy--and not threatening to have him thrown to the guards. But mostly because she was happy.

"Well, uh...falling in, I guess!" he said, idly wondering if she'd ever fallen before in her life. Could someone without gravity fall? "What'd you think?"

[rightawaydoctor]

"Falling in? I liked it very much!" She stretched her arms back behind her head in a lazy manner, swimming back. "It's a bit like going up, to me. How do you like it?"

[oliverplus]

Oliver swam after her, amused. "I don't think I've ever liked as much as I just did," he said, rather teasingly. "We should-"

But at that moment, he cut himself off abruptly. A haze seemed to lift from his mind, and his eyes widened. "Christine!? Wait, what are you--what are we..."

In his shock, however, he'd stopped swimming momentarily, and his head dipped just enough for him to cut off again, this time sputtering water.

[ooc: Let me know if that doesn't work for you!]

[rightawaydoctor]

Now that she was back in the water, Christine was completely content, and only half listening to the man, when he said her name and she lifted her head to look at him oddly.

"You shall address me as princess. It is the way of things."

[ooc: It works for me. :)]

[oliverplus]

"No, no you don't get it!" He swam closer to her, looking her in the eyes. For the moment, he was too intent on convincing her to even notice that his empathy ability was missing. "It's me--Oliver! Don't you remember? This isn't us, Christine. The Plane's...doing something..." He trailed off, his own thoughts growing less distinct even as he spoke. Why was he saying this? What exactly was wrong? He'd always been a prince. Hadn't he?

[rightawaydoctor]

For a moment, it looked as though perhaps Oliver had gotten through to her. She stared intently back at him, thinking over his words, but then the moment was lost as she laughed aloud. Twisting around, she dove under the water and kicked water into his face as she went.