When Odile met Siegfried
Odile discovered that one of the cells was occupied. While carrying a bucket of blood, she noticed a black feather on the ground. There were no openings for a corbie to have gotten through, so what could have caused this?
“Are you the owner of this castle? I didn’t expect you to be so graceful.” Based on his tattered black wings and broken halo, he was a fallen angel. His silver-white hair was in a low ponytail, and a black gloved hand was gripping the prison bars.
Odile set her bucket on the ground and walked closer. “I am the owner of this castle, how did you even get in there?”
“My working hypothesis is that your psyche reflects an incredibly guarded and defensive nature, so all trespassers are automatically spawned into prison.”
“And to add insult to injury, you just had to be a shirtless tresspasser.” The low light obscured that fact from a distance, but the oil lantern she held revealed how douche-y her new prisoner truly was.
“I had a feeling you’d look,” he started chuckling once he thought up the right follow up line. “You’re free to touch as well.”
Odile felt her cheeks heat up but her dark complexion did not betray her true feelings. “No way! I’ve seen the Arnold Classic! Who’d be impressed by a stick-figure like you?”
He took the insult in good humor, laughing like an excited fox. “Might be hard to believe but I have a history of being irresistible to women.”
“But I’m not ‘women’! I’m Odile!”
“Siegfried, pleased to meet you.”
Siegfried attempted to pull her into a handshake but Odile swatted his hand away. “I don’t have time to deal with idiots like you.”
“Really? You’re taken?”
“Absolutely not! And if you think I’m easy because nobody likes me, you’re wrong!”
Siegfried feigned shock at her words. “First conversation with a boy and you’re already bringing up sex, how naughty!”
His laughter only made Odile more pissed off. Without thinking, she grabbed the bucket and threw the blood on him.
“How’s that feel, asshole?”
Siegfried went quiet, and licked the spilled blood off of his fingers. “This was from that girl you killed before. Minsoo, I think. A real screamer. Are you plotting to do the same to me?”
His voice had no trace of fear, which made Odile uncomfortable. She took a deep breath before speaking again.
“You’re another lucid dreamer, right?”
“Exactly.”
“That means that while in my Psyche, I can easily overpower you.”
“Correct so far, continue.”
“Are you addicted to pain? Or just danger? Because you’re smiling more than anyone should while trapped behind bars.”
Siegfried shifted, nervous. “Is this your way of flirting?”
“It’s a serious question, because you’re beginning to make me concerned.”
He laughed, but it was to calm his nerves this time. “Sorry about that, I’ve never been good at hiding what I’m thinking.”
“Can I ask you why you were flirting with me, then?”
“Because I’m lonely.” Siegfried’s casual bluntness surprised Odile, again. She paced, trying to think up a proper response to that, before giving up and deciding to walk away from the whole situation.
The risk of being left alone again caused Siegfried bang on the bars of the cell “Odile! Odile! Odile, don’t leave me here! I don’t like being alone!”
Odile tensed at the horrible noise, and some sympathetic part of her was affected by his pleas. Yet she kept walking.
“Odile! Please! I’ll do anything to stay by your side! You can do anything to me, burn me, poison me, gut me like a fish-as long as I’m by your side!”
No way he’d actually want me to cut his stomach open-what sort of fetish is that? Odile thought.
“I know that you’re being bullied, and I’m willing to help you get your revenge!”
Law 13: When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude
Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves. They always think of their own case as soon as ever any remark is made, and their whole attention is engrossed and absorbed by the merest chance reference to anything which affects them personally, be it never so remote.
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, 1788-1860
Siegfried was by no means a person who sought power, but one who sought attention and love. This wasn’t an offer Odile could ignore. A person who truly understood her desires and wished to help her, a companion she could share everything with. He’s good-looking, too. No, I shouldn’t think that, he might have an ulterior motive. More ulterior than wanting a girlfriend, I mean.
Odile unlocked the cell door to let Siegfried out, but he ambushed her with a hug. Standing up, Odile supposed that he was maybe a full one-hundred centimeters taller than her, maybe even more.
“Thank you, I was starting to worry that you would abandon me like everyone else.”
She fought against her instinct to hug back and pushed him away. “Don’t think that I did this because I have any sense of compassion, it’s only because you promised to help me get revenge.”
why does this (presumably white American?) man want to write historical fiction about a Haitian-Polish woman in the 19th century?
I treat historical fiction like OC fanfiction - real people can have fictional relationships and go on fictional side quests as long as you don’t mess with canon events lol.
he was dead-set on making it a romance between his female character and this beloved historical figure.
it’s already been done 
maybe he subconsciously picked up on it. He mostly told me that my fight scenes were reminiscent of those in The Inheritance Cycle ¯\_(ツ)_/¯