a s t o r i a

Charity: Huh

Charity: I guess it just felt natural to think you attended all of the events that our family held

Charity: For many reasons. He hates Isle kids and anyone who's able to use magic. He comes off as arrogant and normally has an unpleasant attitude. I'm brutally honest and sometimes come off as rude. He just comes off as an asshole most of the time. I've just recently seen his charming side

Charity: Yes!!!!

astoria: i did not. narnia is much too far from here for my father and i to have bothered with auradonian royal events.

astoria: charming side?

astoria: it sounds like there is nothing charming about him.

“ah, so what is it, then? personal project? plans for world domination?” he tilted his head to see one paper and caught the word ‘narnia’, and other words he presumed were places or names, but none that he was familiar with. “oh! right, of course, how rude of me. otto white,” he smiled, extending a hand for her to shake.

“earth has many wars. you could consider this auradon vs villain thing a war. i would.” people weren’t sending out troops, but there was an obvious struggle and an obvious division between the isle and auradon, and with good reason. darcy didn’t agree with the villains and what they did, but he could understand why they would hold a grudge. he probably would too. “yeah, it was. what maleficent did to my mother is the biggest thing to go down in aurorian history, so it makes sense.” when astoria crinkled her nose, he crinkled his. it didn’t sound right. “it makes him sound so pretentious. which he is, but his era of reign is going to go down in history as being bad decision after bad decision.” darcy didn’t think he would be able to wait for his parents to talk with him about inheriting and responsibilities and the like. he’d want to know everything as soon as possible so he knew what he was getting himself into. it didn’t help that his parents just loved to keep things from him, even if they weren’t all that great at keeping secrets, at least from him. “that makes sense. humans are earth creatures, and narnia isn’t earth. i understand what you mean, though. i can’t say i know much about narnia, but i wouldn’t want anyone going in and out of my secret place as they please if they don’t have any reason to be there. but at the same time, just shutting the gates?” he just shrugged. it wasn’t his decision to make.

darcy cracked a smile at astoria’s joke as the neared the training room. “i would hope it’s an important matter, otherwise i’d be concerned as to what sort of life you’ve been leading,” he said, stepping inside and turning the lights on.

“true. even if there’s no, like ... combat. there’s an obvious division.” she nodded slightly. it had been going on for years upon years, she almost wondered if it would ever come to an end. she nodded slightly. what maleficent had done was terrible, of course, but she had always wondered why people found her so particularly evil. she never dwelled on it too much, though. “he’s probably the most pretentious royal in auradon, and that’s saying something. i don’t have much faith in dominic de villeneuve’s era of reign being any better, though.” she rolled her eyes in annoyance. she had little to no faith in the majority of auradon’s royals. “exactly. as humans are to earth, narnia is to narnia --- and, though humans were the ones to save narnia from it’s hundred year winter, there are many humans here that i just ... wouldn’t trust in narnia.” she bunched her lips at one side. “it is a big decision to make. i’m not looking forward to discussing it with my father and caspian.” she sighed.

he paused, pulling a face to show he wasn’t completely sold on it. “…just as a heads up, i think i’ll test out asty tori for a while.” admittedly, it was harder to smoothly say than her actual name but, in the boy’s mind, it was hilarious. at the squint, he wiggled his eyebrows, a knowing smile on his face. “fiiiiine. just darcy and astoria. darcy and astoria…” he repeated, wondering if she was catching on. 

dignan pouted a little as she rejected yet another nickname of his creation. “stori? the story of stori,” he grinned.  “i could call you stori?” he asked, though he knew he was now going to change her name to ‘asty tori’ in his phone contacts. dignan stretched his arms up, then pushed his books forward so he could prop up his elbow on the table, leaning his chin on one hand. “…darcy and you could have, like, a million nicknames. for darcy, it’s like ‘darce’ or ‘arcy’ or ‘dee’… ‘big d’,” he couldn’t suppress his laughter for that one. “okay, okay, but seriously – oh! you could even mix it up like a dynamic duo thing: dastoria? as-tor-cy?” he pulled a face, sounding out the syllables.

he waited to see if she would take it. otto had on that practised face of calm, that face that said ‘it’s aaall for you’, but there was a falseness in his eyes that betrayed him. in that moment, he was a salesman. “you’re very welcome. if anything, you’ll have more supplies to help you with…” he gestured at the papers, glancing at them, “whatever all this is. is this all for uni?” he ignored her last question, crossing one leg over the other as if to signify he’d be there until he wanted to leave.

“i know some of ours are named after wars. the first world war, the second world war, the cold war, things like that. just… lots and lots of wars. in auroria, we sometimes refer to things as pre-maleficent and post-maleficent, but other than that, we don’t label much. sometimes in politics, we refer to each era by their ruler. like, this era would be called ‘the reign of phillip beau’ or something like that.” darcy wasn’t about to ask what cair paravel was. he assumed he was getting a bit annoying with all the questions. narnia was just such a fascinating place. “i’ll admit, i don’t really get it, either. maybe your father wants a break? and he has an heir, so he finally has someone he can leave narnia to? i’ve never met him, though, so i wouldn’t know.” it occurred to him that he would likely have to meet aslan at some point, if this arranged marriage deal was to continue, and the thought made him a little nervous. “so… you can still get into narnia, just in different, unconventional ways?” he wondered what entering narnia by painting was like. he’d never heard of that before. “so, you could basically only enter narnia if narnia had business with you, not if you had business with narnia.” that seemed incredibly one-sided to him, if he did say so himself. “then i guess i’ll just have to go to your father’s country.”

darcy stopped at the door to the training room and looked inside. no one was there. “people say they focus on the negatives to learn from their mistakes, yet they never actually pay attention to what they’re being taught. even in auroria, where people are supposed to be focused on learning, there are people who just can’t seem to grasp the idea of morals.” and he hated it, truly. all those stuck up scholars who thought they knew what was best for them all. “nope, it’s been a while. and the whole trying not to die thing kind of takes over your thoughts after a while.”

“ah, that makes sense. big historical events that just mark a place in an era --- earth has had a lot of wars, damn.” she made a face. not that narnia hadn’t had a lot of wars. “pre-maleficent and post-maleficent. that makes sense. that was the biggest thing to happen in auroria, right? it’s reasonable.” she nodded. “’the reign of philip beau’? so, auradon’s would be ‘the reign of adam de villeneuve’? that’s so ...” she crinkled her nose. “complicated. there are too many rulers for that shit.” she shook her head in disapproval. “maybe so. it’d make sense. it’s been centuries. i’m sure he’ll discuss it with me more as it grows closer to my coronation or whatever.” she shrugged. her father would know when the right time for such a discussion was. she trusted him to know as much. “exactly. mostly because humans aren’t really made for narnia. or, rather, narnia was not made for humans. if it was, it would have been made a part of earth.” she bunched her lips at one side. “it hasn’t been that way for two decades, though. i mean, it’s not as though everybody can just go in and out of narnia as they please, but ... people have gone there without having any business with narnia, which is not the purpose of the gates being open.” she sighed. “i guess so.” she hummed.

“uh – that’s my fish biology still getting used to warmer temperatures.” he tried to say it coolly but it just came out like an awkward blurt instead. dignan laughed as she poked his ear, gently swatting the pencil away. the moment left him a little happier, though, spinning a pen between his fingers as he thought about the boy. boys. and now it was asty tori’s turn. “okay, what about ria?” he asked. at her question, he hummed lightly, shrugging. “i dunno, you guys are close friends, aren’t you? close friends have nicknames. exhibit a: you call me dig. do you guys have nicknames?”

“it’s a late welcome package, designed to fit the individual student, and i’m part of the student committee so i know these things,” he shrugged with a smile. it was half-true. he’d submitted his application to join the committee but hadn’t received an official acceptance letter. he was sure he had the event to thank for that. “…okay, so would you believe then that i just had a gift card for the stationary shop in town and i don’t even buy my stuff there? i was feeling generous, sue me,” he said, with his most charming smile. at that last word, he opened the box and slid it across the table to her.

“ages… so basically what we call the different eras here. like… like the middle ages, the renaissance, things like that. they just have different names because the history of narnia is different.” he was only half-sure of what he was saying, which was why he kept looking to astoria for confirmation. if he was going to get facts about narnia, he was going to make sure they were correct. as much as he disagreed with this arranged marriage of theirs, he did believe that astoria would be a good ruler. she was knowledgeable about her realm, she seemed to always be working on paperwork, so she was clearly dedicated. she had ideas of what she wanted to do. she hadn’t lost hope, as pessimistic as she seemed to be at times ( not that he was any different, of course ). when she explained the situation with her father’s rule technically continuing when she was queen, he couldn’t help but relate. although he wasn’t next in line, he didn’t want to disappoint his parents. “no, i understand. i don’t like going against my parents either, even if i don’t agree with them. still, there’s no need for any backseat ruling.” like backseat driving, but worse. “so closing the gates basically means no one gets in without permission, and that it’s likely that most people would be turned away anyway?” that’s what it sounded like to him, anyway. “they sound like fun, i’d love to.” he didn’t even think of the implications of meeting narnia’s residents.

“a lot of places are defined by the worst point in their history. for auroria, it’s maleficent’s curse, even though auroria is known for other things, especially when it comes to knowledge and research. everyone focuses on the bad. it’s just how humanity works,” he said, though he couldn’t say he was exempt from the rule. “sometimes i forget i have to return to auroria eventually.”

“yeah, exactly like that --- and i’m not sure how earth names it’s eras or whatever, but narnia names them based on what happened in that age --- for example, the age of winter.” she hummed with a nod. the comparisons between earth and narnia were close enough, she decided. “i guess you’re right, but ...” she made a face, sighing. “sometimes i wonder what’s the point if my father is immortal --- and then caspian is there to act as king at cair paravel.” she gave a roll of her eyes. “yeah, basically. that’s how it was before ... auradon, i guess. even he pevensies had needed permission to enter --- whether it be through a wardrobe, a train, a painting --- that is what my father wants to return it to, and i can’t say that i disagree, i guess, but ... i don’t want it to be as strict as it once was.” she bunched her lips at one side in thought. “i mean, before auradon, a human could only enter narnia if he or she or they had a purpose, and that just --- it seems tedious.” she tapped her fingers against the spine of her book as they walked. “great, of course, to meet reepicheep, one would have to go to my father’s country --- which is a bit farther, but all the more beautiful, if i do say so myself.” of course, she was more than just a bit biased.

Charity: Well I thought you guys had met before since he is a royal but I guess not

Charity: Oh gosh. Uh... You know what? Just forget I said that

Charity: He usually comes off as an asshole to almost everyone including his own fiancee

Charity: I bet Otto $50 that he would not be able to charm you

astoria: i'm not your "typical royal" i guess. my father and i rarely attended auradon events.

astoria: i mean, i hadn't even met darcy til' i came here.

astoria: alright. already forgotten.

astoria: what the hell? why?

at least someone had tried to do something, even if it wasn’t all that successful. it was a start. a bad start, but a start nonetheless. “then you can learn from his failures. and times change, even in narnia.” or at least he hoped so. narnia may have worked far differently than auradon and the rest of the world in general, but he didn’t want to shove the place under the ‘unchangeable’ label and leave it at that, not when astoria wanted to change it. “and no one’s ever tried to find out? or is it just that there are no leads to the truth?” auroria documented just about everything that happened in not just its home state, but all of auradon. the entire world, even. its libraries were second to none, and there were plenty of scholars around to tell you how things were hundreds, even thousands, of years ago. “do you think you’ll be able to have the freedom to change what you want, or do you think your father will continue to have the final say?” he knew that if he was a ruler of any kind, he would want to have the final decision, or at least be told what was happening and why. he thought it was better that way. “narnia’s talking mice, huh?” he wasn’t even surprised anymore.

he nodded slowly. “that’s the one i’ve heard the most. i think it’s the one that people know best, not just me.” he wasn’t sure why that was. he found all of narnia’s stories fascinating to some degree. the entire realm was intriguing. “peaceful. i wonder what that feels like.”

“they do,” she hummed, nodding her head slightly. “there have been many ages in narnia, each one consisting of many different events --- we are currently in, what the narnians like to call, ‘the age of exploration’. i can only imagine what will come after this.” she gave a sigh. she was concerned for narnia’s future. so much had happened already, and with everything going on with her ( her weird episodes, the arranged marriage ), she wasn’t sure that she would make the best ruler. “t us believed that during the winter age, they suffered from the winter, as well. and so, during the telmarine age, the telmarines just ... ignored them. nobody knows the entire truth, though, because there is nothing to prove any of it.” she shrugged. “and i would ask a scholar here, but if i did that, i might as well just ask my father, but even then ... i’m just not sure.” she shrugged. she figured that if anyone knew, he would, but considering his absence during the winter age, she wasn’t sure that he would even know. at his question, she paused. “... honestly? i can’t be sure. i hope that i will be able to change what i want, but ...” but her father had sung narnia into existence. he’d known it from day one. “my father has been ruling over narnia for ... centuries. and, while i want to rule in my own way, i also ... don’t want to let him down by doing something that he may disagree with, you know?” another pause. “he wants to close narnia’s gates, though. he doesn’t want people just ... entering for no reason, and ... and i’m not sure if i agree with that.” she bunched her lips at one side, shrugging slightly as if dismissing her worries completely. “oh, yeah, the talking mice. reepicheep was their leader --- they’re all great. you should meet ‘em one day.”

“i’m never wrong.” a lie, and they both knew it, but all friends teased each other, right? even if he and astoria were more lowkey about it than others. a small part of him knew his parents would love to see them getting along, and as much as he wanted to prove them wrong, he wasn’t about to risk a friendship over it.

“i think i get it. it’s not riddles, but just plain tricks. every place has that.” some were mundane, some were magical. each place, auradon or not, had its dangers. that wasn’t about to change anytime soon. “i understand that narnia is big, but those islands are still part of it, and places only end up being lost causes when people forget about them or ignore them as they get progressively worse.” he didn’t want to outright blame the narnians, especially since he didn’t know the whole story, but every little part of narnia was still narnia. it was the same for everywhere else, even if the states of auradon were comparatively smaller. “well, at least you know what you want to do when you ascend to the throne.” a plan was always a good way to start, or at least that was what he’d been told. “so it was probably a mixture of exhaustion, frustration, and temporary anger that made them have a lapse in judgement.” it still didn’t excuse it, but at least it made more sense. “reepicheep?” that was an interesting name, and one he hadn’t heard before.

“a witch… i think i’ve heard that story, but it was a long time ago, when the three fairies were covering the basics of all the different places.” it had stuck out to him, mainly because it had been winter when the story was told to him, and he remembered thinking how he would hate to be stuck in an eternal winter. “that’s true. it makes more sense for narnia to have danger than it is here. i’d hazard a guess and say this place is more dangerous than narnia at the moment.”

“oh, never,” she jokingly agreed, laughing softly with a shake of her head. surprisingly enough, for the first time since finding out about it, astoria wasn’t dwelling on their current situation. it was but a distant thought in the back of her mind --- for the time being, at least. who know how long that would last, though?

“exactly.” she hummed with a nod. it was just like some of the places in auradon, she figured. it was simple enough. “well, yeah. i mean, my uncle caspian tried to retake them, but ... it didn’t really do much for them.” she made a face. as much as caspian was her favourite uncle, she didn’t always approve of how he ruled when he wasn’t voyaging. “for as long as almost anyone can remember, though ---” aside from, perhaps, her father. “--- they have been called ‘the lone islands’, and so no one really knows why they are lone.” she ran her fingers through her hair. “yeah, i’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. i don’t know when i’ll ascend, and i’m sure that my dad will still watch over narnia --- he created the damn place, after all --- because he’s not just going to just ... let it go, i guess? but, yeah ... i want to change things if i can. try to make it better." she just wasn’t sure where to start. “oh, yeah, reepicheep is the leader of narnia’s talking mice. he now resides in aslan’s country. he’s a good friend.” she nodded. there was more to reepicheep’s story, of course --- much more --- but she was trying to keep things as simple as possible.

“you’d tell me even if i didn’t care.” he was the same. they always seemed to just tell each other things, little facts or drawn out stories from history books. “but i am curious. i could always ask the three fairies if your way comes up dry.”

darcy didn’t know which was worse; being killed by a dragon or being turned into a dragon. considering his family’s previous collisions with dragons, he would vastly prefer neither. “everything is straightforward unless it’s not? i didn’t know narnia was a place of riddles. i thought that was reserved for wonderland.” wonderland, yet another place he didn’t entirely understand. he wasn’t sure if the people from wonderland itself even understood it. “people are captured and sold? and no one’s done anything about it? or was it just considered a lost cause?” perhaps he was young and optimistic ( okay, no, hardly optimistic, because darcy beau could never be described as optimistic ), but he liked to think rulers were supposed to look out for their citizens, or at least do what was right. “i wasn’t worried, i figured it was already gone. but okay, let me see if i’ve got this right – the green mist makes people’s thoughts become real, but doesn’t put them to sleep. the lord picked up the-knife-that-must-not-be-touched to fight the other lords. okay, i can believe that. but why was he going to fight the other lords? what was the point? the motive? or is it a mystery?” he had to admit, it was an intriguing story.

“i think that’s good, though, not being the same,” he said. “why would you want to be like this place? there’s constant danger in places where we’re supposed to be protected.”

“i mean, you’re not wrong ...” she said, with the slightest of smiles. truthfully, the two of them always seemed to just talking --- what about depended on the topic at hand, of course. “perfect. so, in case the fairy in my class fails me, we’ve got a backup plan~”

astoria briefly thought back to eustace and how he’d been turned into a dragon, and she crinkled her nose in amusement. “narnia isn’t a place for riddles, but like --- there are things that will trick people, you know?” she tried to explain, ultimately shrugging. “yeah, captured and sold --- some of them even used to be sacrificed to the mist. no one’s done anything about it because ... because it’s one of the lone islands, and those, altogether, are just kind of lost causes, you know? they’re the lesser-explored part of narnia. people stay away from them for a reason. and narnia is so ... big. even with my father and caspian, and sometimes the pevensies ... it’s impossible to take care of every little thing.” she paused, thinking. “i want to get rid of it, though --- when i become the goddess of narnia, and not just the goddess of the end of the world.” she smiled a bit. she nodded as he tried to make sense of what she’d told him. “precisely. and, from what i remember, the three lords who fell asleep were on a long exploration, and they stopped at my father’s table for a drink and a meal. they ended up arguing about what to do next --- one wanted to carry on to the utter east, another wanted to stay at my father’s table to eat the food every day, and the other wanted to return to narnia. they couldn’t agree on what to do next, so i guess he just got angry or something.” she shrugged. “--- and to use the stone knife is an absolute no, and violence is forbidden at aslan’s table, so ...” she shrugged. “but then they were awakened, though, by the placing of the seven swords and by reepicheep sailing to the very end of the world.”

Charity: ???? Haven't you 2 met before?

Charity: Uh good looking compared to most people's definition of good looking??? idk

Charity: Really?

Charity: ... omg I know what this is about XD

astoria: no??? i don't speak to many people, charity

astoria: ????? what is most people's definition of good looking?????

astoria: yeah idk is he supposed to be an asshole or???