paradisalost | (no subject)

Entry tags:

ishtar,
miguel

(no subject)

Who: Miguel

royal_rebellion
What: Ishtar shows up to Miguel's room to show him around the castle.
When: Evening?
Where: About and around the castle
Rating: PG, but perhaps borderline PG-13 for language.

Ishtar ran a brush through her hair hurriedly, making sure she looked okay for meeting a new friend. Her meeting with Farfarello had made her a bit skeptical of her appearances so the emerald green dress she wore had sleeves to cover her shoulders and the neckline fully covered any and all cleavage signs. One could never be too careful.

After deciding she looked fine enough the princess hurried out of the room (locking the door behind her this time) and made her way towards the room Miguel had specified. Luckily, she had been getting better acquainted with the castle the past few days and found it without too much difficulty.

With a bright smile Ishtar rapped on the door. Miguel definately seemed like a nice guy, and it'd be even better to get to know him in person.

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Miguel had likewise been trying to spruce himself up. Not that he had much choice, really, since his new magic closet had only provided him with mostly the same clothes as he had on already.

When there came a knock at his door, he put on his best charming smile and opened it. "Hello, Miss Ishtar..."

Ishtar waved happily, more than relieved that he looked as nice as he sounded. With one of her cheeriest voices she responded, "Hello to you as well, Miguel."

She tilted her head to side, a few strands of hair falling in front of her face, and grinned as well. "And 'Ishtar' will do just fine. We're just two regular people after all."

Miguel tried not to stare. She was very, very pretty. "Ishtar, then," he agreed, his smile widening. "It's nice to meet you in person, finally. Of all the people who talked to me in that journal, you were definitely the nicest of the bunch."

"Maybe that's because you're a pretty decent person yourself," Ishtar teasingly replied, and then waved a finger near his face. "And you haven't gotten on my bad side. You know what they say: Sugar, spice, and everything nice."

With another grin she lowered her finger and placed a hand on her hip, bangles on her wrists softly clinking, as she continued to say, "Shall we begin our tour of this crazy castle?"

Miguel's smile grew slightly dreamy, and with a wink he asked cheekily, "So which one are you, sugar or spice?"

She wondered where she was from. She didn't look Spanish, although she had the dark hair for it. (Then again, if you went solely by hair colour, he didn't look Spanish either. Go figure.)

When she offered to start their tour, he gallantly offered his arm to her. It was the proper thing to do in 16th century Spain. He hadn't quite gotten a handle on the fact that not everyone had come from either the Old World or the New World yet.

Ishtar was a bit surprised by the offering, but wasn't about to reject it. He didn't look like a prince but he certainately had the charm to be one. At least he was more polite than some of the royalty she had the misfortune of being related to.

"You'll just have to find that out for yourself," she smoothly replied, a hint of a smirk on her lips as she linked her arm through his. "Can't figure me out that easily, I'm afraid~"

"I wouldn't dream of assuming that I knew you so well already," Miguel chuckled. "After all, there's no fun at all in that!"

If he knew she was comparing him to a prince in any way though, he probably would have had a heart attack. No, he was about as socially far a prince as he could get (even though he'd been worshipped as a god for the last little while.)

"So how did you get here?" he questioned as they strolled down the hallway, looking like a very proper pair indeed. "I mean, what was the last thing you remember? I understand it's different for everyone..."

As she used her free hand to push hair behind her ear Ishtar mulled over the question for a short moment. She remembered speaking with Duzell in her room about the recent turmoil building up in the kingdoms, and then...

"I was with close friend of mine before getting transported here," Ishtar replied, looking up a bit at him. "Just discussing a few things about the kingdom I come from, and then I was going to change into some traveling clothes." She gave a short shrug. "After that, I can only remember waking up here."

"Kingdom?" Miguel repeated curiously, "You mean, like England?"

If she was discussing matters of a kingdom, she was obviously very smart. But when she mentioned traveling clothes, he really perked up. Maybe she was an adventurer too?

"How long have you been here? If you don't mind my asking..." he added hurriedly. He didn't want to annoy her with questions or make her think he was nosy.

Ishtar couldn't help but chuckle at him. He really was a curious man, but in a good way. The type that was always eager to learn more about new places.

"I've only been here a few weeks, to be honest. I'm growing more used to it, but I do get homesick a lot." To address his first question, she curiously added, "Is England a kingdom in your world? Because I come from one called Pheliosta. Nothing too grand, more like a backwoods kind of place."

Miguel beamed; he'd made her laugh, and that was always a good sign.

"Yes," he answered, "England is part of the Old World, like the kingdoms of Normandy, and Spain, and others. And across the ocean, on the far edges of the map, is the New World. Most people think it's only full of savages, but... it's not true. There are people there who have the most amazing cultures," he smiled wistfully. He seemed to take on almost a storyteller's tone when he described these places, like he was trying to paint them for her.

"I've never heard of Pheliosta," he admitted. "But it sounds kind of like Greek." Not that he knew any Greek, that was something only scholars could read. But it didn't sound like Latin, that was for sure, and he knew a tiny bit of that from hanging around the cathedrals.

Ishtar listened attentively as Miguel spoke of his home world, smile slowly widening. He was so learned in all sorts of adventure material! That must mean he was some sort of expert.

"Greek," she slowly repeated, trying the new word out on her tongue. Sounded fancy. "Well, I don't know if Pheliosta's Greek-like, but there's most likely a handful of similarities. Did you guys fight with swords, or even have a whole bunch of vampires?"

"Sure we had swords," Miguel began answering her question before the second half of it processed. "If I might be so bold, I'm not bad with a rapier myse-- what?"

The second half of her inquiry just processed.

"V-vampires?" he repeated. "Those aren't real... they're only stories... aren't they?"

But then, hadn't El Dorado only been a legend?

It was hard for Ishtar to understand that many people thought vampires were made up. In her world, it was rather frightening but still normal to hear.

Ishtar waved a hand slightly, briskly explaining, "Yeah, we got a whole bunch of them. A vampire king's actually trying to kill my great-grandfather's reincarnation, and I think one vampire had really wanted me dead. Kind of amusing now that I'm away from it."

"Your world sounds amazing," Miguel replied. "Not because it had vampires, that's... a little hard to explain, but a whole world that's not on any map."

He'd used to want to visit such a place, and then suddenly, he had. And it was everything he'd hoped for, and yet at the same time, had been nothing like he'd expected.

I can't even remember what happened when I left...

But before he could start thinking too much on it and get melancholy, he gave Ishtar a smile. "Well, even though you're not at home, it's good to know you're safe here. I can't imagine anyone who'd want to hurt you, vampire or not."

Pheliosta? Amazing? Something she admittedly hadn't thought of in a long time. The last time was probably when she was a child, but that quickly wore off. But it was possibly the same as wanting to see his world, while he wanted to see hers.

Tuning in to what he was saying, Ishtar gave a small grin. "I guess so. Over there I was threatened by my caretakers to get a stupid spanking for my little mishaps, and then poisoned by some power hungry relative the very same day. But, hey, that's life I guess."

Life for a princess, of course.

Miguel's eyes widened. "That's terrible!" he exclaimed. "You were poisoned? What kind of family did you have??"

Then he realized, that probably sounded horribly rude. "I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have... said it like that..."

Ishtar laughed. The activity of her family did sound rather strange to a stranger. But it did sum it up rather nicely.

"No need to apologize," she replied with an unusual amount of cheeriness for a person discussing poisoning. "My family's messed up, always doing strange stuff. I love a few of 'em to death, but many would rather see my death. As long as they sit on my throne, they'll be happy."

"Your throne?" Miguel repeated, his eyes widening immensely. "It's your kingdom?" Suddenly, the attempts on her life made sense. Well, some sense, as the vampires still didn't fit the equation. But at least the relatives fighting was sort of understandable, if a kingdom was going to be the prize. In the end, it sounded a lot like the kingdoms of the Old World he was familiar with.

Why do I always find the girls that way out of my league, the conman thought with a mental sigh.

"So you're..." He wasn't sure whether to guess a queen or a princess, and was worried that the wrong one might offend her. He settled with something safe, "Royalty. That's... unexpected..."

To say the least! Although she was certainly pretty enough to be royalty.

She blinked her green eyes momentarily, as if she didn't understand his reaction. But Ishtar remembered who she was talking to and gave a short nod.

"Uh... Yeah, I guess you could say that." A small frown played on her face. Was Miguel simply shocked, or was it...?

Looking off to the side, Ishtar did her best to sound casual as she asked, "Me being a princess isn't a problem, is it?"

"No no, it isn't a problem," Miguel was quick to deny. "It's just... well, I wouldn't have guessed it, that's all. Not that I have any experience with royalty, I just wouldn't have expected someone who rules a kingdom to be so... friendly."

I'm probably making the biggest fool out of myself, he thought glumly, even though he gave Ishtar a small smile.

Well, he'd at least be as honest as he could be. "I'm sorry if I sounded like I disapproved or anything like that..."

The frown on her face immediately shifted back to a beaming smile. Ishtar placed a hand on his elbow and happily said, "No need to be sorry."

She chuckled, removing her hand from his elbow. "Thank you, though. That means a lot. I just can't stand all of that princess crap though, so just keep on treating me like a normal person. We're all equals here~"

Miguel chuckled. "I can do that," he answered when she requested she be treated normally. Although that had kind of killed part of his planned conversation. He was going to ask what she did in her world. It seemed pretty obvious now. Then again, maybe that was a good thing, because then she'd probably ask what he did in his world, and he was probably sure that 'conman' had negative connotations no matter where you were from.

"So," he said, casting about for a topic of discussion. "Do you like music?"

"Music?" Ishtar gave it a short thought. She normally spent more time on her lessons (and ditching her lessons), but music wasn't really something a person could say they didn't like.

"If its played correctly, then yes," she replied with a nod. "You seem like the type to like music a lot, though. Do you?"

"I do," the blonde conman answered with a wide smile. "I always have, in fact, I play the mandolin." Then, on the off chance that Ishtar had no idea what a mandolin was, he added, "It's a stringed instrument. Kind of round-bodied, long neck..."