Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (4/?) WiP (Patreon)

A Princess… a real, honest to god, princess.

My mind had struggled to register that. The past half hour alone was just about enough to overwhelm my head with an inundation of experiences completely removed from my reality. From magic, to mythical races, to talking birds, and an entirely alien civilization that I had no foreknowledge of let alone any context for, everything here was just about pushing the limits of my sanity.

But in a good way… A part of me thought to myself as I felt a mix of conflicting feelings bubbling up to the surface. There was that intrusive excitement that came with the novelty of it all, of actually being in a place that should have been reserved for the pages of a fantasy novel or the fleeting hours of a DnD session. It was sickeningly nostalgic, and provocatively exciting, but I had to keep it in check.

The reality I was in was nothing like those fantasies… despite my deepest desires to believe it. I quickly pushed aside those intrusive thoughts as I attempted to focus on the task at hand, which at this point was just trying my best to fit in, which was easier said than done given the suit, and my novelty here was reciprocated but in the worst ways imaginable by everyone around me.

“You know, where I come from, stories usually start off with the knight saving the Princess, and not the other way around.” I managed out with a chuckle, attempting to break the ice with my own off-brand humor which I think worked? It was difficult to really tell with a face that was dominated by a beak rather than a mouth or even a snout. Combine this with what was perhaps years of whatever manners or social training she received as a royal and it was clear that I’d have to be laser-focused on all of our discussions, or risk being lost in whatever minor social cues existed for royalty and nobility.

“Well you’ll be quite happy to know that those preconceived notions are quite well and alive here in the Nexus as it is in most adjacent realms.” The Princess began. Her voice was sharp, but rich, somewhere between a parrot’s mimicry and an owl’s deep hooting. There was a certain restraint she showed in the way she spoke, even with this little piece of banter. “Are you…” The Princess continued, her eyes clearly fixated on my armor rather than the person inside it. “If you’ll excuse my presumptuous line of questioning of course, but am I correct in assuming you’re a knight of your realm? Perhaps a squire, given how knighthood generally starts off far beyond the Academy’s age of matriculation.”

I blinked for a few moments, feeling as if I was thrust into an interview or a social function reserved for the Director and her military brass. If this were any other situation I would’ve just been done with it and answered with the first thing that came to mind, but this wasn’t like any other situation… so whatever answer I gave had to be heavily audited.

How would you even explain the concept of an ROTC cadet to someone from an era that didn’t even have the concept of a proper standing army yet… or did they? Wait, did they have standing armies in the medieval era? Could the medieval era even be used as a point of reference for the Nexus and whatever the adjacent realms were?

It was at this point that I sorely wished that the months of training had focused on what I could’ve expected on the other side of the fence, but then again, it was decided much early on that any prepwork for social integration training would be entirely fruitless. It was a hot topic in the institute, heavily debated by everyone from my training officers all the way up to the Director herself. The talks always boiled down to the same issue though: that any expectations that could be made of the world beyond the portal was ultimately just based upon a small pool of anecdotal evidence. So any training or prepwork for the Academy and the society it belonged to was ultimately going to be flawed, or at worse, entirely wrong. It was because of this that the decision was made to double down on the training that we knew would be useful, and that just boiled down to survival, combat, and maintenance with a few classes focused on social integration scattered about.  Classes that were extremely generalized and had been geared towards a modern civilization.

There certainly wasn’t anything in the massive SIOP (Social Integration and Operations Protocol) manual that could’ve prepared me to talk with royalty after all.

To their credit though, no one could’ve ever expected any of this.

“Knights and squires aren’t really a thing in my world anymore, actually.” I replied confidently, puffing my chest up as if to compensate for my utter lack of context of what constituted proper social etiquette here.

This answer proved to be… lacking, as the Princess raised a single brow in response, leaning forward in her seat as she allowed my words to linger in the air. It was as if she was going through and dissecting the implications of my claims methodically, her eyes not even making the effort to hide the analytical mind behind it. A mind that was more than likely going to throw some curveball of a question back my way.

“A-”

“A realm without knights and squires eh?” The wolf looking creature finally interjected, completely cutting off what was probably going to be a carefully worded line of questioning from the Princess.

This caught me off guard, as my attention was now squarely focused on this hulking mass of a creature. If Thacea was a Princess, what I assumed was a member of a royal household, then what right did this wolf have to interrupt her like that? The only assumption I could make was that perhaps he was higher up the ladder than she was, and that alone was definitely something to be worried about.

“Yes, that’s correct.” I answered curtly, making sure to balance my dislike of his interruption with a caution of what his place was in the social pecking order here.

“Hmmph.” He scoffed back, as he sized me up again, his predatory eyes even locking with my own underneath those opaque lenses. Something that actually sent shivers down my spine. “Yeah, nah, not buying it. You got a better cover story or are we going to be playing with a spineless liar and a charlatan here?” He boldly announced. Catching me off guard as I noticed the princess mellowing back into the background as the tension grew.

Part of me wanted to avoid confrontation, to just explain away the situation carefully. Another part of me knew however that yielding softly wouldn’t help matters. Especially not with someone who was clearly trying to assert themselves like this.

“Those are big words to throw around, pal.” I spoke, letting what little of a polite front I was putting up crumble away as I leaned in closer towards the table. “You caught that much just from one sentence alone, did you? Listen… I don’t take too kindly to being called a liar before I’ve even been properly introduced to the person throwing those punches, so why don’t we clear up the air a little here, start with names and introductions, then address whatever lies you think I’m spouting hmm?” I offered, making sure not to escalate the situation too far, but also making it clear that I wasn’t about to take his crap lying down.