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So, if Edarial wasn't sure that his wife hated him before, he's really, really sure of it now. It's pretty usual that if they're in the same room, he feels nothing but silent, seething hostility from her. Usually, his reaction to this is a poker face followed by running. He doesn't like having someone hostile just - there at the dinner table, glaring at him with her hissing familiar.
Zevros doesn't hate him, Edarial's certain of it, but he's not helping. He's literally never seen his twin this angry before. This is coming from someone who has seen his twin be angry loads of times. At meals, he just - sits there. Stabbing his food and glaring at Edarial while he does it. He gets why, he knows that Zevros is furious with him for the whole 'cold political marriage' thing. It still hurts, though, to have his immediate family just be so openly hostile.
He gets more withdrawn. Meals get delivered to his room rather than him eating with Iobel and Zevros right there, being near-openly hostile. He stops sparring with Zevros nearly entirely, spends an unhealthy amount of time in either his office or his room, and Berathyme spends all her time coiled around his shoulders, offering what little comfort she can.
She's pretty terrible at advice, but at least he has someone that doesn't actively hate him nearby.
He throws himself into being a king, gets lots of things done, and is generally considered by the public to be good at it. A good king. It's sort of tainted by bitterness, now. But the country does not fall apart, it does not break down into civil war - he handles it. The education system gets a shove in the right direction, the canals get cleaned up, various unemployed people get jobs. He wonders what on earth he's done wrong when he's doing good in the world, but he supposes it doesn't matter.
He knew what he was getting himself into, when he made this choice. He knew that Zevros would be upset with him. Maybe to the point where their camaraderie will just never recover. He doesn't know. From the beginning, he knew that he'd be shackled to someone he doesn't love. Edarial hadn't been expecting the random hatred from his new wife, but he certainly wasn't expecting to be happy.
Just, well. He wasn't expecting to be so miserable, either.
It shows, the misery. Dark circles under his eyes, the withdrawn, blank expression, unkempt hair. He loses some weight due to skipping meals just to avoid his close family. Or, other times, he just forgets, burying himself in work so he doesn't have to think 'What did I do?' over and over again.
But he's a good king. So that's something.
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royal_obligation
come_midnight
Iobel looks at him for a moment, then reiterates: "I don't hate you."
come_midnight
"I seem to be in much better emotional condition than you. If there are any - royalty-ing matters - that you could do with having off your plate so you have time to work through your issues in whatever way works for you, I'll take them."
come_midnight
"You're welcome."
And her guess is that she should get out of his way, so she turns and goes, Cricket trotting at her heels.
And her guess is that she should get out of his way, so she turns and goes, Cricket trotting at her heels.
royal_pain
His brother lingers at the door.
"... You think I don't care about things?" he says quietly. "You're hurting that much?"
"... You think I don't care about things?" he says quietly. "You're hurting that much?"
royal_obligation
Edarial looks down. "Yeah. I - am extremely bad. At political marriages and - and feeling like everyone in my close family hates me."
come_midnight
Iobel makes no attempt to approach Edarial again. She attends meals, she takes the list of names and addresses of the other queen candidates mentioning that some treasonous behavior that might have affected them has come to light and asks if they suffered from any coercion prompting or prolonging their stay at the palace, and she keeps an eye out for any queening that she can do.
royal_obligation
Edarial is generally very withdrawn. He does actually start showing up to meals again, though he still skips about half of them and has them in his room, instead. His default seems to be 'quiet,' rather than 'let's talk about ways to fix me.' Occasionally, when Iobel or Cricket enters the room, he stiffens a bit and starts looking for a way to politely flee. Like he did when she was spending all of her time glaring at him. But it becomes less frequent, slowly, and instead of politely fleeing it becomes a little shy wave, or an attempt at a smile.
He sends her a few things that could require queening. Shyly, with 'You don't have to deal with them if you don't want to' caveats on every one. It turns out that he was doing a lot on his own, once Iobel starts helping with his workload. He can manage just fine with it, but he feels guilty for not teaching her how to be a queen.
Occasionally, rarely, he will actually make jokes. He is revealed to have a sense of humor. With Zevros. Iobel herself he doesn't quite know what to do with, so he leaves her alone. But he can joke around with his twin, again.
He sends her a few things that could require queening. Shyly, with 'You don't have to deal with them if you don't want to' caveats on every one. It turns out that he was doing a lot on his own, once Iobel starts helping with his workload. He can manage just fine with it, but he feels guilty for not teaching her how to be a queen.
Occasionally, rarely, he will actually make jokes. He is revealed to have a sense of humor. With Zevros. Iobel herself he doesn't quite know what to do with, so he leaves her alone. But he can joke around with his twin, again.
royal_pain
Zevros, for his part - stops being hostile and angry. The ritualistic stabbing of meals stops, though having his feet on the table doesn't. He does occasionally get a little too nosey or pressuring with Edarial, but stops if warned.
He's actually completely fine with talking to Iobel, and occasionally gives her status updates on his brother. "He actually went outside today," or "Edarial's staring at the ceiling again, do you think I should go poke him or would that make it worse," or "I'd drag him off to spar with me if he would stop making that face every time I suggest it."
But beneath the abrasive manner, rude language, lack of care for the country as a whole - it's rather clear that he does care about him, quite a lot.
He's actually completely fine with talking to Iobel, and occasionally gives her status updates on his brother. "He actually went outside today," or "Edarial's staring at the ceiling again, do you think I should go poke him or would that make it worse," or "I'd drag him off to spar with me if he would stop making that face every time I suggest it."
But beneath the abrasive manner, rude language, lack of care for the country as a whole - it's rather clear that he does care about him, quite a lot.
come_midnight
Iobel neither chases nor avoids her husband.
She accepts every queening task sent her way, takes copious notes, and has Zephrys recommend a co-worker to do more of her random tasks and free up more of her time.
She confines herself to smiling at amusing jokes; she doesn't think they're quite at a laughing stage with each other.
Iobel is fine talking to Zevros too; he kind of rubs her the wrong way, but not enough to prevent ordinary conversations. She certainly has no opinion on whether poking Edarial will make him worse. She knows almost nothing about him, certainly nothing compared to his twin.
She accepts every queening task sent her way, takes copious notes, and has Zephrys recommend a co-worker to do more of her random tasks and free up more of her time.
She confines herself to smiling at amusing jokes; she doesn't think they're quite at a laughing stage with each other.
Iobel is fine talking to Zevros too; he kind of rubs her the wrong way, but not enough to prevent ordinary conversations. She certainly has no opinion on whether poking Edarial will make him worse. She knows almost nothing about him, certainly nothing compared to his twin.
When Cricket finds out that Zevros is willing to teach him to swear in Marlese more than the incidentals he's managed to acquire from Iobel, he is most pleased.
royal_pain
Zevros actually is willing to teach some very choicy phrases, too. Violent ones. Because every familiar needs to know that, right? That's a thing they need to know.
One day, over lunch (with Edarial present) he says, "So apparently Nataliem is pissed because we threw him in prison and then ignored him. Does anyone care? 'Cause I don't."
One day, over lunch (with Edarial present) he says, "So apparently Nataliem is pissed because we threw him in prison and then ignored him. Does anyone care? 'Cause I don't."
come_midnight
"Does he actually have anything worthwhile to say or does he just want attention?"
royal_pain
Zevros shrugs. "Probably the second thing. Though I wouldn't know, I didn't go in there and ask him, 'Hey, do you have anything worthwhile to say?' So I could be wrong."
come_midnight
"I might look in on him at some point just in case, I suppose. It would be nice to know - why."
royal_obligation
"I suspect that it had something to do with a twisted desire to help Marlatia. Because obviously everything he did is exonerated because he was doing it in the country's best interests," deadpans Edarial. Sarcasm is also a thing he proves to be capable of doing, as demonstrated here.
come_midnight
"It's the escalation pattern that confuses me more than the result he aimed at. That and how he expected to go unpunished, assuming he did - as it happened we didn't notice for a very long time, but he didn't know me well or do much to prevent any impulse I might have manifested to go to you with my concerns directly."