Media Swarms
About a week after Daphne's party, Bloom still hasn't let Daphne out of her sight any more than absolutely necessary. Her attempt at sacrificing herself to keep everyone else safe did not go over well with Marion and Oritel either, but Bloom is being more than a little clingy right now - something to do with the fact that she nearly lost her sister not 24 hours after breaking the curse on her.
Bloom took Daphne out on Ember, going for a ride faster than even her Speedix wings could go. Daphne had to beg her to stop the flight, fortunately they were near the palace by then. She could see Bloom was loving it though, and so was Ember - they're both speed demons, apparently.
Almost as soon as they landed, the two princesses were summoned for an interview - like the reporters mobbed at the front gates weren't enough.
The day after the party to welcome Daphne back, Bloom told them at breakfast there was a mob of people at the front gates. When they went to investigate, she was right - it was a mob of reporters wanting interviews. They are being kept out of the palace itself, thanks to the guards, which means it's a good thing the courtyard is big enough for Ember to land in.
Bloom doesn't know why they held off until two days after Daphne returned - at least they weren't in the way of the Beast of the Depths though. But now, they are in the way of everything from breakfast to time with Daphne. And they're swarming both princesses, and asking the most ridiculous questions doing it.
One person asked who is going to be Crown Princess, Daphne said that decision hadn't been made.
Another asked how Daphne's experience as a spirit and Bloom's growing up with no knowledge of her powers or heritage would affect how the kingdoms they eventually rule will be run. Bloom said they'll find that out when they are on thrones - and then one reporter asked if meat weakened Bloom's powers, which earned him a very confused look from both princesses and silence.
The first time Bloom and Sky left the palace riding Peg, Bloom's horse, they literally had to fight their way through the massive crowd of media reporters to get back to the gates afterward - plenty of them discovered Bloom's elbows are very sharp and she has no problems using them to get through a crowd.
When Bloom and Daphne get into the room with their parents, there's only about eight reporters present. Only one of them has a camera though, the rest have notepads.
The questions are, surprisingly, a lot smarter than most of what they've heard. Nobody asks if certain foods weaken one of the princesses' powers - seriously, what? - and it seems like the reporters are actually thinking about their questions before they ask them. That is, until the reporter with the camera asks what Bloom might do if Princess Daphne gets the throne now instead of Bloom.
The entire room goes silent, waiting for a response. Bloom hotly asks "What?"
The reporter is getting a glare of death from Bloom, and swallows nervously as she continues. "Are you suggesting I might, oh I don't know, do what Tritannus did and try to kill my sister?"
All the other reporters back away from the man, they can tell he seriously screwed up. Daphne tries to put a hand on Bloom's arm before she does something rash, Bloom teleports forward a moment later. Oritel is glaring at the reporter, but he can't match Bloom's. Marion and Daphne are looking at Bloom worriedly, and not without some sympathy, but she's on a roll now and they know she's got no problem giving someone a piece of her mind.
"If you seriously think I've spent the last five years looking for a way to give my sister her body back, only to try to kill her over a throne, of all things, then you have another thing coming!" She snatches the first thing connected to the reporter - who'd only heard stories of her famous temper until now - and crushes it with one hand. Pieces of the camera fly everywhere, but Bloom hardly even tried.
She grits out "Interview's done." and teleports over to the door before anyone can say another word. The doors open by themselves, and Bloom angrily stalks out as they slam shut with her on the other side of them.
Daphne coldly says "My sister loves me, she'd do anything to protect me. She told me herself she wants me to have the Throne of Domino."
Marion says "That question was not only extremely poorly-thought out, given the circumstances of the last coronation it was completely inappropriate. Bloom freed Daphne and restored her body - do you honestly believe she'd do all that if she wanted to make sure she had Domino's throne?"
They can all see her point, and Oritel says "Princess Bloom was right, this interview's over."
Daphne tells Marion "I'll talk Bloom down. She's still in the palace, I'll find her." Daphne runs out of the room, wishing she was wearing a riding outfit like Bloom was instead of a formal dress. Bloom's riding outfit has boots, Daphne's in heels - not ideal for running.
When she catches up with Bloom, she's in her room with Ember - lying on the bed and glaring up angrily at the ceiling. Nevertheless, she's rubbing Ember's neck, and getting mass amounts of thrums from the blissed-out dragon.
Daphne walks over and sits beside Bloom, and Bloom says "I can't stand reporters."
"Bloom, he just didn't think his question through."
"What would I do if you got the throne instead? Seriously, why would I go through all the effort to bring you back if I wanted a sure shot at the throne?"
Bloom has a point, and Daphne doesn't say anything as Bloom vents. "I want you to have the freaking throne, Daph. I told you as much, and I'll tell mom and dad to give it to you if they try to make me crown princess. But honestly, even if I wanted the throne as much as Tritannus wanted the one he might have had, why the freak would I tell someone I was planning on killing you if I didn't get it? Besides, unless SKy pops up with a relative close enough to his age, it's a pretty sure bet we're ruling Eraklyon when we get married and Erendor and Samara step down."
Daphne nods, that part was extremely poorly thought out. Anybody with half a brain would lie through their teeth to cover up plans to murder a sibling to get the throne.
"Honestly, do reporters have any brains whatsoever? That guy obviously didn't."
Daphne says "Well, he had enough brains to be scared, Bloom. From what Dad's told me, your temper is not exactly a secret. You don't have much patience for stupid questions."
"I don't have the patience to sit around talking about a problem instead of doing something about it - I swear, I was going crazy during the war councils. King Erendor and King Cryos refused to see that Tritannus threatened all of them instead of just one of them."
Bloom makes a noise of disgust and impatience in the back of her throat, and Daphne chuckles quietly. "Well, guess I'm a mellower version of you then. I don't blow up quite as explosively as you do Bloom."
"Well, look at it this way Daph. You can handle the situations where diplomacy is the answer, I'll take the ones where violence happens no matter what you try. Deal?"
Daphne's chuckling turns to laughter, Bloom's right after all. Bloom says "Tell you what, Daph. When you get named Crown Princess of Domino, I'll be your bodyguard for the whole thing. Anybody that tried to hurt you will get my knife instead - and not the hilt either."
Daphne knows Bloom's serious about that - she does not take threats to her family lightly, and she doesn't stop until she's sure they're stopped. Usually, that means killing the person threatening her family.
Suddenly, Bloom says "Let's get out of here, Daph. I really don't feel like being spied on by reporters anymore for a while."
Daphne has to agree, they've taken to putting their clothes on with magic after discovering flying cameras outside a window. And as for bathing, Bloom turns invisible and Daphne shuts all access to her room and closes all the curtains. All the media is getting beyond old, it's getting ridiculous really.
Both can only imagine that it will be worse than even for a while since the disastrous end to the interview - unknown to them, Oritel and Marion set it up with the agreement that the reporters would back off and stop swarming members of the royal family afterward.
Bloom teleports the three of them to Lake Roccaluce, planning on not coming back for a few hours until she's metaphorically and literally cooled off.
AN: Yeah, I can absolutely imagine there being a mess of reporters swarming to the resurrected princess - and, I can also imagine them asking a multitude of extremely stupid questions. And given Bloom's lack of patience for idiotic comments and such, that would get old much faster than for the average person. Of course, she's been attacked so many times that she has learned to pick up on things fast and accurately - so stupid questions don't really fit in there. Add in an Asgardian childhood, and being part-dragon and living on Pyros, and it all comes out to equal no patience whatsoever for too many not-thought out questions - especially when it's something like what her reaction would be to being denied the throne of her birth planet, which she still doesn't want. Anyway, enjoy! More chapters coming out soon! Also, if any readers are interested, found an interesting series of boards on Pinterest, under Tammy Pelkey - my life is so boring sometimes! If I'm not writing a new chapter, I'm either playing a computer game or looking on Social media for ideas for stuff - kind of depressing, when you think about it like that, I know. I don't care though. :)