CHAPTER 1: Day after
This story will explore how Charming became the dictator-like figure he emerged as in Double Trouble. It'll jump ahead in the future at some point to fully show his rise. For now, this first chapter, 'Day after', takes place the day after Charming had that tower dropped over his body from Dragon, where he was defeated, but had survived due to falling through the window of said tower.
Sleeping in an alley-way amongst the tall buildings of this kingdom did no wonders for Charming, who felt weak at a trembling level, as tears had ran right down his cheeks. The concrete was hard, cold, and the environment was somewhat deserving for Charming given his failure last night at becoming the new king of Far-Far-away. As he sat up against the cold brick wall, he studied the morning sky; it was grey, like a depressing atmosphere. Charming was more than depressed, however; he felt like an absolute failure in the eyes of his long-gone mother, Fairy Godmother. She would've wanted him to become king, yet last night he came so close but so far.
"H-hi mother...if you can hear me..." Charming weakly stuttered, wiping his eyes, "they all turned on me...they made me look like a fool...I've let you down, but...but..." Charming once again wiped his tears before sniffing briefly, "this won't be the last time Shrek sees me...he's the reason I failed, mummy, and when I see him again, I'll be much stronger and capable...watch me...and...and...now, Far-Far-away has a kid as a king, you know? it's disgusting...but again, mummy, once I clear my tears, I am going to do all I can to avenge myself, you, so we can both have our happily ever after...they might've knocked a tower over me, but I'll come back into their lives like an avalanche, and when they suffer what they're deserving of, we'll be the ones reigning in proudness...I love you, your favourite and only son..."
Charming, in his red leotard, stood up from the concrete. He wanted to get out of Far-Far-away to plot his revenge, and that meant that he had to go to somewhere else that had a kingdom of this size, so he can possibly create his own support base that'll eventually grow into rebellions against the newly crowned Arthur Pendragon. Charming walked out into the morning light, as the kingdom's citizens seemed to be roaming casually with their lives. He was wondering if he'd be recognized from last night. He briefly placed his hand at the top of his hair, feeling emptiness from the crown that he wanted at first.
As he walked down the concrete path surrounded by various buildings and palm-like trees in the middle, holding an arm across his ribs from feeling so empty, a couple of big-looking men, in their archaic clothing, approached him from the side. Both of them seemed to be close friends.
"What happened to you?" one of them asked.
"Don't push me, I've had enough of debacles.." Charming replied.
"Oh, we're on your side, uh, Charming..."
"You're on my side? let me guess, you're going to make a mockery out of me, and then you'll most likely call me a fool. I want revenge, to put it simply, but I'm not gonna get it from here, I need to work on it myself-"
"We wanted you to be king..." they interrupted.
This stopped Charming in his words.
"You what?"
"You heard us. Listen, you might've put our kingdom in a coup, but the last thing we wanted was a kid, who probably doesn't even know how to use a carriage, let alone run a kingdom, as king. You sounded motivational, and quite honestly? like a guy we could get behind.."
"Oh my, are you sure about this?"
"Hey, we're a bunch of guys who want masculinity in our kingdom. If you need our help, count us in. Forget the past, we don't care, we look to the future..."
"Why don't we...go for a stroll, so I can tell you my ideas?" Charming asked.
The men obliged.
They all walked down the concrete path leading towards the lower parts of Far-Far-away, and it was about ten minutes into the discussion Charming was having with the men. He went all out in his intentions, and he also didn't hold back in revealing them in all of their detail. He was revenge-driven, avenge-hungry for his mother and himself, and most importantly, hungry to give Shrek the payback he deserves.
"And then, we will embark upon a journey that will see us build up our own type of movement, where we can overtake Arthur..." Charming finished, as they got to a giant palm tree surrounded by three wooden benches, with the sun shining its vibrant light.
As he was saying this to everyone, though, more and more of the citizens had overheard their discussion, and at this point, about ten of them had surrounded his bench. Charming was surprised at the attention he was getting; even if these ideas appealed to them, he was nowhere near ready to make them a reality. That is, if these people aren't going to spread his ideas and help him out.
"Well, you know what? and I'm sure I speak on behalf of all of us here...when you invaded our kingdom, we were terrified, but then when we saw you on stage that night...we grew some admiration for you. It's not easy trying to save the kingdom from a little kid ruling over it, as we have now, but what made it worse was that you were stopped...by that kid, and a green, filthy orge...is that just unfair or what?" one of the men said, as the surrounding citizens nodded.
"You know what? my mother would have said the exact same. But everyone forgets that all it takes to change things, things of a significant nature, is the will of a single person...I am that person, I am wanting to change this kingdom, and the first thing I'll want to do is rid it of that god awful Arthur. If we, as a collective one, build ourselves up and get our message across, we could very well start something special...no to kid kings, and how about me?"
"Protests are certainly a route we will take..." one of the citizens responded.
"Then let's overthrow Arthur and get a masculine king, also known as myself, into power, ONCE AND FOR ALL!"
"AYEE!"
And thus, the start of what would ultimately become Charming's regime movement commenced.
Charming ended up in one of the houses of the citizens; they all realized that their numbers were simply too small to do such a protest in a large kingdom like this. That didn't stop Charming from getting his ideas into the other parts of Far-Far-away, though. He started writing a couple of books with two distinct titles, both of which contained his ideas for changing Far-Far-away and his own, where he can cement his own power whilst having the backing of people who refuse to live under a kingdom ruled by Arthur Pendragon. The first, and most important book Charming was writing up at the moment was called 'Don't let him stay', which, by the title, was about Arthur himself. Charming had only finished the first few paragraphs, and he was looking to extend it out to at least a couple more pages of paper. This is what it read so far:
It is me, Prince Charming, the rightful heir to the throne, before I was stopped by some green orge who supports a tiny little child ruling over a kingdom like this. Things need to be ran differently, and as somebody who wants to inflict revenge on the current king and that orge, it is my intention to give you all the change you want. You see, whilst I briefly held control over this kingdom with my coup, my so-called 'companions' fell into the trap set out by the orge and the kid, Arthur Pendragon, therefore abandoning me like they did last night. I am reaching out to you all, my hopefully upcoming supporters, to join me in putting a stop to the ascension of a little baby with the crown. I will make Far-Far-away an economic success, whilst banning orges from it, and ensuring that I, as Fairy Godmother's son, live up to her standards.
In regards to Arthur Pendragon, this is a kid who was bullied and viciously handled in his high school camp. Yeah, 'high school' is a weird thing to see next to somebody who's now holding royal power, huh? it'd be like putting a tiny baby in charge of a military. What is much more bad though is the influence of Shrek, and his family and friends, who've deliberately placed Arthur into the position so they could watch the kingdom crumble. I say, we protest in rage, anger, and especially for me, vindictiveness. Do NOT let a family of green, stinky creatures dictate the direction of the royalty. I will fight tooth and claw to ensure that we get our voice heard, and if it means we have to resort to physical action, then so be it. Shrek and his dragon nearly killed me, also, all because I wanted to rule over you glorious people, and if the child is king of Far-Far-away, imagine what he'd do to you? I WANT REVENGE, I WANT TO AVENGE MY MOTHER AND MYSELF, AND I WANT YOUR HELP TO ACCOMPLISH IT! OUT WITH ARTHUR PENDRAGON, IN WITH ME!
The other book that Charming planned on writing was going to be called 'Nerd in power' which would basically be full of humiliating facts about Arthur Pendragon, so Charming can not only come across as the better person, but he can also make the citizens want to oust Arthur even more. Charming never recalled though, that although his ideas were motivational and patriotic, not everybody would follow his side. But for the turnout he did eventually get, it was enough for him to move onto the next stage of building up his own regime, but that all kicked off when Charming led a protest towards the castle of Far-Far-away to get rid of Arthur Pendragon.
These two books written by Charming had became clear to quite a large number of citizens, and although they only ended up being ten pages long in a tiny leather book, the style and the formation of the ideas had motivated the citizens that were given the book. It seemed to come directly from somebody who should be king, and the ideas seemed to be from somebody of a high ranking status within the king's loyal knights. Because of this, they all rallied behind Charming, and as the number grew larger and larger, it was starting to get to the point that it was becoming a cult. A cult about Prince Charming, because he, based on these books, should be king, in the eyes of his supporters, and after he was lucky enough to have avoided being crushed by the tower by landing through the window section, he really, genuinely, and energetically wanted to avenge himself against Shrek. The problem was, by the morning, Shrek and his family and friends had left Far-Far-away to return to the swamp and whatnot.
Charming was stood amongst what was now a gigantic crowd, as he was in the middle; they all held up signs of a wooden material, which had been painted to state 'STEP DOWN KIDDO', which was referencing to Arthur.
"WHAT DON'T WE WANT?!" Charming yelled.
"OUR CURRENT KING!"
"AND WHAT DO I WANT?!"
"REVENGE AND AN AVENGE!"
"AND WHEN DO I AND YOURSELVES WANT THESE?!" Charming yelled.
"NOWWW!"
Of course, Charming knew he hadn't a chance at getting revenge against Shrek since the orge's gone, but he was sure that he'll come back here one day. Regardless of where Charming's future may take him, Charming himself had pledged to find Shrek one day, and get the revenge strike he's now wanting to get.