Perks of dating a princess

Titania had given considerable thought to where she might take Aubrienne for a pleasant date. The problem was that most places in the city held the risk of running into someone they knew, or who would recognize her, and she didn't want to subject Aubrienne to that sort of scrutiny or have photographs of them end up in the tabloids - never mind the additional complications of dating someone who worked for her. But having 'dates' at her flat could get boring after a while, and she didn't want Aubrienne to feel like she was ashamed of her either.

Eventually, she hit upon a plan that she thought would work to get them both out of the house, while still preserving their privacy - and decided to surprise Aubrienne with it. Neither of them were what you might call 'morning people', so she made arrangements to pick Aubrienne up around noon. "Wear something you don't mind doing a bit of walking in," was all the hint she provided.

Aubrienne spent much of the day before getting Briza to help her select clothes for her 'mystery date." It was easy enough to get her friend talking about her own suitors, allowing Aubrienne to keep ambiguous the identity of her own date. Given the admittedly vague instructions, Aubrienne was a little wary of what Titania had in mind, but she hadn't steered her wrong yet.

So it was Aubrienne found herself the next morning, bundled up for the weather in sweater and (she felt) a flattering overcoat, with a sky blue cloche to match the sweater, waiting in a nervous manner she would never admit to. She'd given Jed a glare as he'd smirked at her over his coffee, forestalling any comments, as she settled in to wait as (unconvincingly) nonchalantly as she could manage.

Tits arrived at the appointed time, honking her horn so Aubrienne would know she was there and she wouldn't have to drive around trying to find somewhere to park (or go in and possibly run into Jed, requiring some awkward questions...)

She wore a sky blue scarf as a kerchief to keep her hair out of her face (and somewhat obscured), and a navy blue coat. In the back of the car, she had a few supplies... a couple blankets, and a covered basket.

Aubrienne jumped up, perhaps a little faster than she meant to, heading for the door. Practically flying down the stairs, she came to a halt just before the door. Readjusting her hat, she stepped outside with a wave to Titania.

She made her way down the outside steps, smiling to her companion as she got into the car.

"You look great," she offered, settling in. "And, we match. So, are you finally going to let me know where we're going?"

Tits smiled, putting the car into gear again. "Well, for starters we're going to the Hall of Worthies," she said with a wink as they drove off along the narrow street. "But don't worry, it's not for a civics lesson on Imperial governance or something."

"Well, thank goodness," Aubrienne offered. "Though I'm sure there's plenty you could teach me. What, pray tell, are we doing at the Hall of Worthies if not basking in the glow of politics and history?"

Titania shot her a grin as they headed towards the Bridge of Tears. "There's other stuff there besides politicians and nobles arguing with each other, fortunately. Like there's a skinny little staircase you can climb all the way up to the top of the dome, and down in the basement there are all sorts of weird pipes and ventilation shafts and boilers and stuff... but I'm not gonna take you there - today, anyway. I have something more fun planned."

Admittedly, Titania was making exploring the Hall or Worthies sound pretty fun, but apparently that would have to wait. Aubrienne cast a glance at the back seat, considering.

"Is it a picnic somewhere?" she asked, nodding her head towards the blankets and basket. "It's a little cold, so, you know, we'd probably have to work at keeping warm," she added teasingly.

"It might be," Titania said with a grin. "But keeping warm shouldn't be too much of a problem, I hope - although I don't object to the idea of heating things up further, by any means."

Crossing the bridge, she made a few turns, navigating more slowly around the Imperial Isle, where roads were better than in Rhenea or the Shade, but equally not designed for automobiles. Finally she drew up in front of the Hall of Worthies, and passed her keys to the valet waiting to conduct her car to... wherever the nobles parked when the Great Council was in session, presumably. The valet bowed respectfully to her, evidently knowing who she was.

She grabbed the supplies out of the back of the car before it was whisked away, and lead Aubrienne up the grand staircase and through the large, ornate doors. People mingled around in the lobby area, but they mostly made way for them, though without too much fuss or fawning over the princess-imperial.

The room she brought Aubrienne to was large, and seemingly quite empty. A squad of bored-looking guards outside snapped to attention as they approached, and a woman at a small booth glanced up. "Names and destination?"

"Titania Kizer and guest, and I'd prefer not to say," she replied, and the woman blinked a little, realizing who she was speaking to.

"Of course, your highness - go right ahead."

Within the room, it became clear that it wasn't empty, or at least not entirely. The floor was covered with circles, each with the name of a city inscribed around the edge. "Teleportation circles," Tits explained with a smile. "For a picnic someplace warmer."

"And now I feel over-dressed," Aubrienne replied with a smile, "though I suppose that's easily remedied."

She took an appraising look around the room.

"You know, I've never actually used one of these before, though I've always been kind of curious.  These were such a major undertaking.  I mean, the expertise and resources it took to build this many portals..." Aubrienne trailed off sheepishly.  "Sorry.  It's impressive is all.  Can you use these whenever you want?"

"Well," Tits said with a sort of modest shrug, "I guess so. The fam have some private ones that we can use for vacations - we did that more when we were kids, really. They don't get used as much now unless Dad needs a break from the city for a bit. But these ones have more places to go, and less risk of running into my relatives," she said with a smile. "Dad knew they would be a big investment when he had them made, but charging people to use them has actually turned into a pretty good revenue stream..."

She strolled over to the circle marked 'Samante'. "Shall we?"

Aubrienne gave a quick look around before leaning over, giving Titania a quick kiss, transferring the covered basket to her other hand and taking Titania's.

"Lead the way," she said happily.

Tits gave her hand a squeeze as they stepped into the circle. Almost instantly, they were in another room, smaller and less ornate, but still supervised by a pair of guards who came to attention as they arrived.

"Good afternoon, ladies," one of them said.

"Good afternoon," Titania replied politely. "We're just here to have a picnic. I hope that's no trouble."

"Well, the weather's a bit cool for it," the guard replied, relaxing a little, although perhaps looking a little surprised that someone would use the teleportation circles for such a mundane purpose. "Enjoy your stay in Samante, then."

"Thank you," said Titania, stepping out of the circle. One of the guards held open the door for them to leave. It seemed that the building they were in was near to the train station, a kind of secure little fort.

As they stepped outside, the change in the weather was striking. Despite the guard's claim that it was cool, it felt warm to someone who had just come from Diablotin, like a pleasant fall day rather than nearly winter. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze that carried the scent of the sea. "I thought we could head down to the beach," Tits suggested, gesturing in that direction. "It shouldn't be busy today - a different story than in the summer."

"Sounds nice," Aubrienne replied, setting off with Titania.  "You know, I might be more of an outdoors person if the weather were more like this back home.  Do you get to do this often?  I love the club, but if I could just 'port off somewhere whenever I wanted, I'd be gone every week. What's the best place you've been?""

"Well, I don't have as much time to take vacations as I used to," Tits replied. "The club keeps me pretty busy, and traveling alone isn't as much fun as bringing friends along, but everyone else is busy too..." She shrugged. "I try to get away a few times a year, and it does make it a lot easier to be able to use the circles, although them you're kind of limited to the larger cities." She gestured to the streets of Samante, which was clearly a decent-sized city, although not as large as Diablotin.

"It'd be hard to pick my favourite places. When I was a kid we used to go to Nys to visit cousin Livianne, and they have - had, maybe - some pretty amazing sights there, the old palaces and stuff. Of course, as kids, our favourite part was the huge baths, which are so big you can swim in them if you're short. And then, the Iles Furneaux are gorgeous - you really feel like you're in a foreign land there, it's so warm and things like the trees and the animals are different too. And then, we have a ... kind of vacation place, I guess, in the middle of nowhere in Friaul, on Lac Briarel. Some people like it for the hunting or fishing on the lake, but I mainly like the beach there, and going swimming or boating." She paused. "I probably sound pretty spoiled, huh?"

Aubrienne gave her companion an indulgent smile.

"You are a princess, after all," Aubrienne replied. "It's probably be kind of strange if you weren't, at least a little." She gave Titania's hand an encouraging squeeze. "I only had to share with one sibling. For my family, I'm considered pretty spoiled, too."

"I've just tried, when I can, to put that stuff aside... to not take advantage of it, or go on and on about it and make people feel like I'm rubbing it in their faces," Tits said more quietly. "I know my upbringing was... weird, and incredibly lucky. And even if sometimes I want to smack some members of my family, I do love them. I miss my mother every day. Beneath all the trappings and ceremonies, I don't think my family is that unusual... it's just all sort of smothered under layers of wealth and protection and not having to deal with the real world if we don't want to. My siblings have kind of gone in different directions with that, but at some point I just felt like I needed to get out of it. It's been strange, and I know I can't ever really get out of it entirely, but it's also been very freeing. Even just choosing things for myself, like what to eat for lunch or what to wear, was exciting at first." She trailed off a bit, as they headed down the steep street towards the ocean.

Aubrienne frowned as Titania spoke, worried that she'd upset or insulted her with her flippant comment. She released Titania's hand, somewhat awkwardly putting her arm around her companion's shoulder to give a brief hug.

"I'm sorry if I was insensitive just now," Aubrienne offered. "I don't actually think you're spoiled, and, honestly, you work harder than almost anyone I know. You have every right to be proud of what you've built, and you built it. I can't say I can entirely relate, but I know family shapes everyone, and, while I know it can't always have been easy, I for one am happy with how you ended up." She gave Titania's shoulder another squeeze, letting that hang a moment as they walked together.

"So, I'm happy to change the subject if you like, but now I am kind of curious," Aubrienne said after a few beats. "Did you really have people who told you what to wear?"

"Oh, yeah," Titania said with a smile. "I didn't shop for my own clothes or anything like that - there were dressmakers who did it all. And then my maids would lay out what I was going to wear for the day. It would be several different outfits, most of the time - something for lunch, something for tea, something for the evening... because there was always something going on, that I was expected to show up for. Sometimes I might say that I'd rather wear the blue than the green one, or whatever, only to be told that I needed to wear the green because Mother was wearing a matching shade. The maids always knew what everyone else in the family would be wearing, so they could make sure none of us were horribly clashing," she added with a grin. "I think they must've had a chart."

She squeezed Aubrienne's hand. "I'm not upset at you - it's just hard to talk about how I grew up without it sounding kind of... well, crazy and bizarre. I guess I'm a bit self-conscious about how it looks to other people, after having some harsh awakenings when I was younger."

Aubrienne gave Titania a quizzical look in response to the last part, but gave her hand a reassuring squeeze in return.

"Well, for what it's worth, I happen to like crazy and bizarre, and this is just a new flavor," she offered with a grin. "Besides, maybe sometime you can meet my family and learn an appreciation for other versions of family insanity. I mean, I'm pretty sure your generation of your family doesn't number in the dozens."

"No, definitely not," Titania agreed. "So your family is pretty large? I thought it was just you and your brother..." She squeezed Aubrienne's hand gently, knowing that her brother was a sensitive subject. "Do you have a lot of cousins and aunts and uncles?"

"Yeah, my immediate family is really small by our standards," Aubrienne responded, "but my parents both have a lot of siblings. My dad is the youngest of eight, and my mom is the oldest of six, and my aunts and uncles kind of took their cue from their parents. So, yeah, it was just me and Jean-Faust, technically, but we had several cousins around our age. Looking back, I kind of feel bad for our older cousins. They got saddled with looking after us a lot, and let's just say I have never been one for quiet fun, at least, not when I have an audience." Aubrienne smiled mischievously.

"How about you?" she continued. "You mentioned the tunnels under the Hall of Worthies earlier, so I can only assume you had your share of childhood misadventures."