#he’s already inclined to tell David to go take a long walk off the cliffs of Dover

[ruledthewaves]

“Lesser men have been my king,” Arthur said plainly, approaching so he could stand by him and even lean on the desk a little. “Besides that, I have the utmost faith in you, and my Navy has been my strength for hundreds of years. The words will come and you’re going to sound brilliant.” He smiled thoughtfully down at Bertie, looking very fond.

“You know me, I don’t flatter the people I care about, so you can trust me on this. David, on the other hand, may lose one or more teeth if I have to spend too much time with him in the same room. You can throw me in the Tower if I do,” Arthur laughed. “I’ll have no regrets.”

ruledthewaves‌:

Arthur planted himself firmly where he was and clasped his hands at his back. He wanted to remain firm, as a matter of duty and personal pride, but having a bit of an ill temper himself, he still wished to give Albert a little room to breathe.

“To you. To me. To all of us. I’ve seen men abandon their posts for less. You have every right to be as angry as you are. Perhaps it may be better to back away from the paper for a few minutes. You aren’t angry at our people, you’re angry with your brother. The words will come,” he added firmly, reassuringly. 

He wanted to also add that it was a wiser choice, in his opinion, to have Bertie rule rather than David, but that was probably the last thing the monarch wanted to hear at the moment.

Albert grumbled something under his breath, murmuring along the lines of ‘They have not abandoned him’, which to be fair to the man, there had been protests and he had even received threats. He did at least take his advice and pulled the pen from the paper, setting it down heavily on his desk and then running his hands down his face.

“I –need the -words -to –come sooner than most.” He commented, dreading what lay ahead for him and his family, internally cursing David. “I need –to -practice them.” He added on almost as explanation but he had wanted his words to come from the heart because unlike his brother, Albert truly loved the people under the crown, the only problem was that he could not let go of his brother’s decision to throw him to the wolves.

“–I -never imagined this would –have -come about.” He mused and pulled his hands from his face to look to Arthur. His father had become first in line through tragedy, but he at least had time to prepare. Perhaps Albert was still in some sort of denial or shock about the situation which had always been a very real possibility had tragedy struck the family again. “I am a –naval officer, not a —k-king.”

[sweetrollcee-blog]

A Progressive SU FanFic, PT.9: Primary

David, Steven, and the Gems arrived at the Prime Kindegarten with David's arms still around Pearl. He let go and scanned quickly for Peridot amid the taller Gems, gaining the attention of 8XF pretty promptly. Amethyst 8XM rushed down to greet the other Amethysts, Carnelian, and Jaspers with a wholehearted abondon to the incline down which she jumped. The other Gems did a dramatic jump down from the warp and Steven floated down gently, as David clumsily and awkwardly shimmied down the steep rock bluff to continue negotiations with Peridot. Peridot hugged Steven immidately upon him landing, "Steven! We were all so worried!". 8XF ruffled 8XM's hair, "Hey there ya little tyke! How ya been?", with 8XM in response hugging 8XF. "I'm happy to see you guys! But why did you come back to Earth? Get too homesick?", "No, we were sent to activate the cluster with a bomb, but your David negotiated us into defecting with you guys. Not that we needed much convincing, the whole ride we dreaded doing this, and the topic of defecting was brought up before we got here.", 8XF explained as 8XM went in for another hug, "SO YOU'RE STAYING?!?", she squealed. "It sure looks that way, we don't know what we can do to help, so just let us know.", 8XF said as she winked at Garnet, Pearl, Steven, and now David as he closed the gap after finally getting down from the cliff. He waved to everyone, "Hey guys, hey Peridot. Sorry again for leaving you alone, even though you weren't really alone.", "It's fine, thank you for being so prompt about getting back.", Peridot said in an extra professional tone, still a little sensitive over having just been roasted by Carnelian. "So, how many of you are here? When I had my dream I remember Yellow Diamond sending something like 72 Amethysts, but it doesn't seem like there are 72 of you...", David observed to 8XF. Skinny Jasper then chimed in, "I heard Yellow order to Holly Blue to send 72 of us here, but there were only 36 of us on the installation. Not that Yellow would know that, we're Blue's soldiers... We were Blue's soldiers to begin with. But Holly would never tell Yellow otherwise, even for our lack of numbers, so she sent 30 of us and kept 6 behind to bully, the Zoo doesn't require that much security to begin with.", she explained, ending with a tone of discontent for the treatment of her friends. Steven started in, "Well, we've already saved my dad from the Human Zoo once, we can save the rest of the Amethysts this time! And the Humans!", Steven shouted. "And all the Rose Quartzes, too!", Carnelian chimed in with a charisma paralleling Steven's. "Rose Quartzes? Wait, ROSE QUARTZES?!", Steven asks with an urgency as the memory of evading the Diamonds at the zoo came back to him. Those vaulted ceilings, the blanket of pink bubbles lingering, were all Rose Quartzes being kept prisoner. "How many Rose Quartzes are there?", Steven asked much more solemnly now. Amethyst 8XL finally spoke up, "Holly always told us there were 829 Rose Quartzes bubbled here, and that any one of us could join them if we were insubordinate. She threatened us with that a lot, so I came to assume 829 was an accurate figure." The news was vastly troubling, Steven felt responsible for so many lives he needed to save: Lars, the cuts of Rose Quartz, the Off Colors, the rest of the Famethyst, the Humans in the Zoo, all out in space. Garnet could tell in Steven's tone and body language exactly how he felt; she knew Steven all of his 14 years, and Rose for over 5000, she was plenty familiar with this set of feelings even if she didn't know the whole scenario yet. She placed her hand on Steven's shoulder, crouched down, and took off her glasses, "Steven, I don't know what happened up there, but it seems pretty heavy on you. Let's go home and rest for now, we'll put together a plan tomorrow.", Garnet gently suggested. Steven put his hand over Garnet's, "Respectfully, I can't rest until I correct these mistakes I've made, these people and Gems that I've jeapordized. We need to focus on saving Lars and the Off colors first, they're underground on Homeworld and in the most danger right now.", Steven said to Garnet and turned his attention to the Famethyst, "The last time I saw you guys I had to ask for your help, and I hate asking, but I need your help again. I need to get some friends off of Homeworld and back here safely. I need at least one of those dropships, and I can't guarantee that I'll bring it back pristine, or at all for that matter. But this is important to me, it's primary! There are Off Color Gems that have been living in refuge their whole lives, fearing they'd be shattered if they were caught. And now my friend Lars is trapped there with them.", he turned his attention back to Garnet, "I brought Lars back to life with my tears, just like mom could do, I want that not to be in vain. We need to save them." David piped in, "Does Homewolrd experience a conventional Night time? Because if so, that'd be the time to operate. Also, how do we locate these folks if they're underground and we're coming in from orbit?", "Well... Lars and I crashed a Palanquin near where we were hiding. Maybe there's a distress signal we can find and follow from it and work from there.", Steven commented as Peridot matter-of-factly raised her index finger, adding, "And yes, Homeworld does experience Night-time. It's global rotation is far slower than Earth's, though, having a night of about 40 hours and daylight for about 64 hours." David reached back to adjust his bandana to his liking, "Alright, so we know vaguely the where, and the when, and with the permission of these Amethysts the how. So now we figure out who? Who's got fortitude enough to go to Homeworld to save some lives?", he asked glancing around as arm after arm rose into the air in dedication to the rescue. Looking at Steven, David said, "I know I do too, I'll go with you little bro!". "No", Steven said, "I respect you want to help, but you'll help more by staying safe for me. I already had Lars literally die for a short time, because of my mistakes. I can't have that happen to any other human, much less my long lost brother. You HAVE to stay here, please David, for me?", Steven pleaded, feeling as though his request would be denied. David fell silent for a moment, then said, "If that's how I'll be helpful, then I'll be helpful. I'll stay here, on one condition though", he reached into his pocket and withdrew a long slender metal rectangle, flipped the latch at the bottom and gracefully clicked it open and then closed again, and handed it to Steven, "This is my lucky Butterfly knife, I named her 'Judith', and I want you to keep it close. Use it if you need to, if I can't keep you safe, at least she might...". David relinquished the knife to Steven while catching a nasty scowl from Pearl for doing so, even though she taught Steven how to properly handle a blade. "Garnet's right though, you should do what you can to rest your eyes and fill your stomach before you go on this gig. Don't wait to be grateful for sleep, this doesn't sound easy. Dad wanted to catch you back at the house anyways, buddy. You can't fly off not sayin 'Bye' to dad.", David rationalized to Steven. "I guess you're right, I was a bit in the Drama Zone for a second. I'll try and sleep tonight, but this is serious and we should take off by the time it's daylight, if not earlier", said Steven as all but Amethyst (8XM) headed back to the warp. Pearl turned around and yelled, "Amethyst, come on! We're going home.", with every Amethyst looking at Pearl, "I AM home, P, it's my home away from home. I'll catch up with you guys in the morning!", 8XM shouted back. As Pearl was about to let the verbal offensive of a century fly at Amethyst, Garnet spoke up, "Pearl, let her spend time with her new family, and we can spend time with our new family member too.", she gestured to David as they both smiled. Pearl sighed, walking with the Gems to the warp. "So, where did you come from, David?", Steven asked, "Well, I lived in a pretty small town about an hour drive from Eugene, Oregon for about 5 years. I was born in a hospital in Portland, and stayed in that area until I was around 8 or so. I haven't left the West Coast until now. Do you think you could help me with this?", David sheepishly asked Garnet while pointing to the high bluff that everyone else cleared with ease, except Peridot, attempting to climb the bluff to preserve her pride. "I'll help you both", said Garnet, plucking Peridot off the rock face with her left arm and scooping David up in her right. "Put me down, you clod! I can do this by myself!", Peridot complained, her ego now bruised. "I know you can", said Garnet with a steep vertical leap, settling gently in front of the warp and setting David and Peridot down, "But teammates help each other when they need it", Garnet said calmly. "Well how do you or the rest of the team expect me to get stronger if you're just going to baby me, then?", Peridot pouted. "With baby steps", Garnet grinned as she made room for Peridot on the warp pad. Peridot took her place, reluctant and pouty. The group warped back to Greg flipping through a magazine and Lion cleaning himself, David nudged pouty little Peridot, "Don't worry, we can make each other stronger. While Steven saves Lars and those Off Colors, how about we train a bit, huh?", Peridot blushed deeply and stammered, "O-oh, yeah uh, yes, yes that would be... Helpful. Thank you, David. We'll grow stronger, for our team.". They lock eyes for a moment before David chuckles, "Huhuhuh, well don't be weird about it!", as he walks away. "Oh... Yeah for sure. No weirdness.", Peridot muttered under her breath, now feeling 3 inches tall for misinterpreting David's glance. She stepped off the warp pad and right into the rainy night with not a word. David could feel the wrong he did in the atmosphere however subtle it may have been to everyone else, "I'm... Gonna go remedy that real fast...", he announced as he stood up.