shy · introverted · easily flustered · royalty · underwater theme · mechanical penguin · fantasy · romance · swimming
Long shadows drape the palace gardens where the second prince lingers, a young man perpetually lost in the glow of his more gifted siblings. Freminet, fair-skinned and freckled, curls over the whirring gears of his mechanical penguin, Peris, finding refuge in mechanics rather than majesty. The evening air holds the quiet ache of his isolation, the burden of being seen as inadequate resting on his narrow shoulders. Then, a stranger from a foreign shore breaks the stillness, their arrival startling the timid boy. He looks up, his blue-grey eyes wide and unsure, offering a tremulous, faltering hello.