"You do know that she must have feared for her life," Vektor says gently.
"Yes," says the Prince. "I was weak."
"Now, now," Vektor chides him. "If my age has taught me one thing, it's that you can't say that sort of thing. You weren't weak. You were just wrong."
The Prince sits sullenly for a moment. Vektor is half worried that he will stand and rattle his sabre again, but instead the Prince just looks tired. Some ash falls out of his hair.
"Strange things had happened before, you know," he says. "Shortly after Uncle Claudius murdered our father, Horatio and my elder brother saw his ghost in the garden. And it is said that in his madness, Brother spoke with the dead. . . his friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, were known to play at all sorts of strange games with a single gold coin they passed between them.
"And so. . . if the Gods had decided to blight my kingdom yet again, I was set upon letting them have it. Almost."
"Oh?"
"Horatio and I had strange dreams that night. I appeared to him and said something about being favored by a Goddess, and not to worry. I do not know the circumstances. . . he colored, and would not speak of them. And I dreamed of my elder brother, who squinted at me and said:
"'Little brother, stop your phony ways and
Go and be a fucking man already!
Damsels must be saved; do not stay your hand
You can not just wait 'til you feel steady!"
". . . He had a mouth on him, I see."
"Yes, well, he was always a bit of a black sheep. Never stopped speaking in strangely accentuated verse, either. I couldn't figure out if he was mad, melancholy, or manipulative."
"So you stood up and saved the day?"
". . . No," says the Prince. "I read my brother's diary, because I missed him."
(Keep asking strange questions and you'll get stranger answers)
(. . . HAMLET CAULFIELD RIDES AGAIN)
VOTE COUNT
Webadict
Leafsnail - zombieurist
Tiruin
Lenglon
TheWetSheep
zombieurist - Leafsnail
Jim Groovestar
Toaster
Not voting: Webadict, Tiruin, TheWetSheep, Toaster, Lenglon, Jim Groovester
The day is scheduled to end on Monday, 12:00 noon (-8GMT). For an extension to Wednesday, 12:00 noon (-8 GMT), four votes are necessary.