Ridiculous Research (Open)

[James Florian]

James wasn’t sure where the stereotype of Princes not having to work a day in their lives came from, but wherever it’s origins may be, they could most certainly not be found here at Seacombe Halpworth. He couldn’t honestly remember the last time there wasn’t some impending deadline slowly creeping up on him, whether it was a paper he had to write or a presentation he needed to prepare for. It seemed like when he completed one thing, all he would have to do is turn around and there would be another assignment waiting for him. Plus they were always about the most tedious of things, like that one time he actually had to write a paper about his own family’s story and explain why true love’s first kiss broke the spell. That was just plain awful, to be perfectly honest, no kid wants to think about that kind of stuff, let alone defend it in an argument! Besides, the whole topic of curses and counter-curses was something he would much rather not think about due to the fact it just was an extremely uncomfortable topic for him at the moment; especially after what had just happened to Eli. However, even before that, it wasn’t something he enjoyed in the slightest. As a prince, there was too much pressure on him to know all these curses and how to break them, plus he also needed to know how to simultaneously slay the dragon or beat the witch. Then on top of all of that, he’d probably have to know how to save an entire kingdom too. It was too much for any seventeen years old to bear, even if that seventeen-year-old already had the weight of being a king’s heir on his shoulder.

Luckily though for Jim the latest assignment he had to do had absolutely nothing to do with curses or anything of the sort, but instead it was, even more, stomach churning. It wasn’t as disgusting as writing about his parent’s first kiss, thank god, but instead he had to do a research paper on some forgotten leader and how he was able to successfully rule his kingdom. It was tedious, it was dull, and honestly Jim would rather be anywhere than sitting here in the library at one of the many tables reading through the many treaties his king made to consolidate his power. His mind was wandering to the barn and the paddock, to what he would much rather be doing, and there was no way he could focus on what was in front him. However, he knew that leaving the library would most likely mean he’d forget about the work, so a friendly face that could be both a motivator and distraction would most certainly be welcomed by this distracted prince right about now.

((Sorry it's a mess. It's been a while since I've started a thread lol.))

[Azalea]

Azalea, on the other hand, was over the moon to have another research project to do, and one about a forgotten royal was right up her street. She was getting to be good at finding the hidden passages, books and stores of the school, so finding information on a forgotten royal was going to be a piece of cake (or so she thought).

As a matter of fact, her arms were so laden with scrolls containing every family tree of every kingdom she could find, that Az didn't notice James sitting at the table, and nearly fell over him as she moved to set them down on the table.

"Sorry James!" she squealed, tumbling into the chair opposite him and clearing the scrolls from the top of the book he was most definitely not studying.

[James Florian]

James nearly jumped out of his seat in surprise when a mountain of scrolls and other ancient texts fell on the book he was supposed to be reading. He looked up to see a familiar face across from him, causing a large grin to break out on his own.“Wow Az,” He started to say with a light laugh as he helped her gather up the loose documents, “How on earth were you so quiet with all of those scrolls?” It was a rhetorical question of course, like his mother, Jim was known to zone out every now and then into his own thoughts, so much so that literally anyone could sneak up on him if he wasn’t paying attention. He picked one of the scrolls at random and looked it over before handing it back to Az. It certainly looked old, though maybe it was just wore down from students constantly handling them. It made him wonder if they possibly came from his era and if they would have the familiar, but nearly illegible, fancy latin writing he was used to reading back home, but he knew the odds of that were probably slim. He had yet to run across anything similar to the text he had grown up with.

“Let me guess you’re doing the paper too?” He said with a sympathetic expression on his face. Naturally, he was assuming that she found the task to be just as torturous as he did. Though for the record it wasn’t necessarily the assignment itself that was incredibly dull and tedious to him. He just wasn’t enjoying the fact that he was being told what to look into. Jim was a curious lad, he liked being able to explore history at his own leisure, letting him discover the many twists and turns that led to each outcome. Every event, no matter how significant it was, had a ripple effect on those that came after it and he absolutely loved being able to identify exactly what happened and why it occurred. It was crazy to think that one day he and his friends would be leaving marks like this on history, each ripple they made being like their own fingerprints on the future. Any split second decision they made would hold so much weight on how history itself unfolded. It was mind blowing to the prince and if he had been given an unlimited amount of research time he would have gladly searched endlessly to discover every factor and detail that went to this royal making his decisions, but, unfortunately, due dates plotted against him. He didn’t have the time to lose himself in this story. He needed the facts for an argument and he needed to find them now. He wasn’t to look too deeply into it. James needed to only skim the surface for his paper, and no matter how tempting it was, he couldn’t afford to let himself dive into the water.

However, his brain was having none of it. His attention span had long ago decided that if he couldn’t lose himself in it, that there was no pointing even looking into it at all. Thank god Azalea arrived then, maybe seeing her do her own work would kick into high gear… or maybe not. James was honestly starting to think that the adage, “Due tomorrow? Do tomorrow” was going to be his motto for this project whether he liked it or not.

“Who do you have?” He asked as he peered at the scrolls she had, curious to whether or not if they were really as old as they looked before finishing with, “I have to do Theobald the Second of Blois.” From what James could tell that he wasn’t that bad of a ruler. He found it really interesting that his mom, Adela of Blois, had been the one to make him the heir though over his brother. His own mother certainly didn’t have that power, even though she was the Queen and Adela was merely a countess. Beyond that though, he still had a lot of research to do.

Luckily though he now possibly had a study buddy to help him get through it. Also who knew? Maybe Azalea knew more about Theobald or maybe he knew more about the royal she had to look into?