* 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬 / 𝔯𝔢𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡

theodor oldenburg. crown prince of sweden. xxxii.

[theodcr]

lucadansembourg:

luca can’t help but smile at the little bundle in theodor’s arms. he was surprised that he’d gotten the call to come and visit little freddie this early, with everything going on - he’d assumed the new parents would want plenty of time to themselves, to get used to the new baby before they had to show him off to the world. it was exactly what luca did, before nathalie returned to work. he gives theo a knowing look, “ah, they always do. freddie’s just used to her - she has carried him around for nine months, you know.” he nods, putting on a smile, “i remember that, too. the girls were born early, they were so little. enjoy it while it lasts, you’ll miss when he was this small.” 

“sure,” he said, frowning a little, still. “he’s been getting a little better, with me. he doesn’t scream every time i pick him up, now. it’s more like... half the time.” he moved to sit down on the couch and worked at fixing the blankets keeping freddie warm. the baby’s eyes fluttered and theo froze, terrified at the prospect of trying to calm down yet another wailing fit, but freddie merely squirmed for a moment and then dropped back off to sleep. theo’s shoulders relaxed and his attention returned to his cousin. “i know. someday he’ll be a tall, gangly freak of nature just like his father, and i’ll not be able to lift him for anything.” and he’d be so proud to see his son standing tall and straight and proud, but almost certainly wistful for the days when freddie fit perfectly safe and small in his arms. “i’d offer to let you hold him, but if he starts screaming he’ll wake catherine up, and i don’t want to disturb her. we haven’t had a full night’s rest since he was born.”

[theodcr]

catherinestuart:

november 15th 2021 drottningholm palace, stockholm @theodcr​

everything was strange, she didn’t like to feel invisible. catherine dissected every small interaction, every single word said to her about her son — and it silently piled in her mind, one weightless straw atop another, waiting to break the camel’s back. the proud look upon her husband’s face was difficult to miss, a permanent display upon his features as he spoke to family members and politicians while she stood to the side. he had done his duty, and she had done hers; although it hardly felt that way. catherine even wondered bitterly if he might look the same way during the christening of their next child, scotland’s heir, if he would even love them the same. the mere thought caused her hand to shake in fury, and she had no choice but to set down her moisturiser. 

“my father asked if we’re going to spend christmas in balmoral this year. we are, yes?” it wasn’t so much as a question, after all, he owed her! “not coming back to edinburgh with freddie would be inexcusable, given what happened—” the protests, the blasted, damned protests. thinking too much about them might send her down yet another spiral. “—it’s not enough that father and effie are here, christmas at balmoral would be the perfect time for him to meet mother.” 

he was seated on the edge of the bed, feeling giddy and weightless after a long but satisfying day. he was hunched over with his arms outstretched, working on untying his shoes, when he heard the dull thump of the bottle she’d had in her hand. he looked over and studied her form, careful. in the next moment of silence, he took stock of her body language. his eyes darted across the tensed span of her shoulders, the tremble in her hand, and the look on her face, reflected back at him in the mirror. his face didn’t change while he went back to working off one of his dress shoes, but he prepared himself mentally for an argument.

her next words, though, surprised him. he paused again, caught off guard by the comment; it hadn’t been at all what he was expecting. and while he might not appreciate the presumptuousness with which she expressed in the question – not really a question, was it? – he saw no real issue with the notion itself. “i had assumed we would spend christmas both here and in edinburgh, like we did last year.” christmas eve at one, christmas day at the other. it had worked fine before, but he could see that catherine needed christmas in edinburgh far more than he needed christmas in stockholm. his approval rating was through the roof, and hers... well. “but we can just go to balmoral, that’s fine. your mother should meet him, you’re right. we’ll just need to come here afterwards, maybe on monday? to see my family.”

a pause. “do you want to stop by edinburgh before we fly back to tokyo? we can figure out new flights, and then you won’t have to wait another month before he sees scotland.”

[theodcr]

catherinestuart:

catherine let out a loud whoop of laughter that she could hardly control, as her son was unceremoniously deposited back in her arms. “you’re so cute!” she cooed, tearing her eyes from freddie to glance up at her husband. “the way you jumped! ah- people might think that you’re handling a bag of explosives.” if they were that kind of couple, catherine might have forcible pulled him down to kiss him squarely on the lips — instead, she settled with a little glittering look. “you have to show him who’s in charge here,” turning back to focus her attention to the little bundle in her arms, she began speaking in a stern voice, as if her son would know exactly what she means. “now, now, you don’t want to piss off the future king of sweden, don’t you?” frederick looked up at her quizzically, his brows remained knitted together from his intense wailing. “go on, you be nice to daddy or he’ll cut you off in the will… come theo, i think he’s ready to try again.” take two!

“he is a bag of explosives!” theo insisted, drawing his arms tight around his torso, defensive. “christ, the lungs on him. i’ll be deaf by forty if he keeps that up.” and the look sort of stopped him dead in his tracks, and didn’t that look always? she had a way of cutting her eyes at him that made all coherent thought leave his head. it was terribly infuriating, but then she’d quirk her lips up and he couldn’t find it in himself to be quite so upset. “i think he’s in charge. clearly i’ve lost all control,” theo groused, watching almost petulantly as catherine calmed freddie down with seemingly no effort. he paused, hesitant, but relented. “fine,” he said, and took the baby from his mother with no small amount of trepidation. when, this time, freddie stayed quiet and happy in his arms, a mix of emotion he’d never felt took hold of theodor’s chest and refused to let go. “oh,” he said, and his voice was nearly softer than it had ever been. “he’s – oh.” he was perfect. // end.

[theodcr]

catherinestuart:

“the doctor says we can fly as soon as a week is up, so he’ll be at the mercy of all his swedish relatives for the christening.” catherine turned to coo again at her baby, voice sugary sweet. “or else you’ll burn in hell, my boy!” at least that was exactly what her mother and more stringent catholic relatives might say, those who has gotten over her marrying a lutheran, that is. “oh don’t be daft, he’s a baby — he doesn’t like anyone who wont give him food.” she waited until the swedish prince bent a little lower from his towering height to properly receive the little bundle, there was only a small part of her that felt terrified at the prospect of him completely fumbling. “he’s smaller than you think so you have to make sure he doesn’t slip past—” catherine could barely finish her barrage of warnings before frederick let out a wailing cry. 

“oh, joy. i’ll have to hold linnea off with a stick.” every swede with even a distant claim to a title would be clamoring to see and hold the new baby. he frowned, then. “i’ll give him food. just not from the source. which you won’t give him, either.” that was a playful jab, more or less, and he softened it with a smile; they’d already had that debate, and she’d already won it. “yeah, i know, i’ll be –” and then frederick was screaming, and theodor jumped so thoroughly that he very nearly did drop him. “oh, christ, good god, take him back –” he fumbled through the process of passing him back to his mother, and frowned when freddie calmed down almost immediately. “see. i told you he wouldn’t like me.”

[theodcr]

ebbv:

“ that baby is more organized than i am ! ” ebba laughed. a secretary ! she would have taken it as a joke had theo not sounded so serious. “ remember to say no too. you two don’t need every well-wisher in your apartment. ”

“catherine and i just didn’t want to deal with it,” he admitted, sheepish. “we wanted to focus on freddie.” he nodded. “it’ll be hard. everyone on the planet wants to meet him. but we’re trying to keep it limited to close friends and family for now.”

[theodcr]

@lucadansembourg​

“here he is,” his voice was soft and quiet, both to avoid waking the sleeping bundle in his arms and his sleeping wife in the other room. “the fact that he’s still asleep is a miracle. normally he starts screaming as soon as i’ve got him ten feet from his mother.” another sore spot for theodor, though he supposed it was only natural. hopefully he’d grow out of it. he crossed the room and turned so his cousin could see freddie’s face through the swaddle of blankets. “he’s got catherine’s eyes, when they’re open. and some little tufts of hair. and he’s so small i thought i’d break him when they first handed him to me.”

[theodcr]

nctasja:​

“sorry the gift is late. do you know how hard it is to track down a book of icelandic folktales in swedish?” nearly impossible, actually, but natasja had been determined. she’d come up with a run of the book from the 1980s released exclusively in stockholm, and then had tracked the threads to an antique bookshop in london. the book was surprisingly cheap, after all of that work. she’d thrown a moomin plush into the bag just for good measure, and to make up for her lateness, “i wanted to make sure you could read it to him in swedish, before he ditches the nordic accent for catherine’s scottish brogue.” 

“why am i afraid that this is going to be full of stories about monsters from the tundra?” the tone was teasing, as if the gift didn’t make his heart swell and warm uncomfortably. he inspected the book and the plush, a fond little smile on his face as he did so. and then, more earnestly: “thanks, nat.” he flipped through a few of the pages while she continued, pleased to find that the book’s contents were at least bright and colorful, even if a few of them seemed a little on the scary side, for a child. his eyes darted up from the book, though, and his jaw tightened. there it was again, the notion that his heir would be a scotsman. he was unable to hide his annoyance about it. “he won’t ditch the nordic accent. if he ever gets the idea in his head, he’ll be staying with josefina and my mother until he learns better.”

[theodcr]

catherinestuart:

catherine sighed, taking a finger to gently stroke at the baby’s cheek. “he’s a scotsman, he’ll learn to swear far too young and be inherently good at it.” even her sainted mother had been known to call a few members of the house of lords ‘bloody bastards’ in very special occasions. “i do have effie, katja, and uncle robbie here, so you could probably have some of yours to pop in discreetly.” she paused, finally letting her head fall comfortably on the pillow in order to bring her gaze up to his. “i don’t know if any of mine would like to fly in… maybe just očka. mother only called charlotte to see how we’re doing and went about her day.” her tone was flippant, it was extremely like queen mary to behave in such a way. instead of explaining further, catherine turned her attention once more to the dozing baby in her arms. “he’s so well behaved, it’s disconcerting… do you want to have a go?” 

he made a sound something akin to a grunt, more annoyed at the notion that his son was a scotsman than that his son would learn to swear. but he refocused on frederik and the irritation was stomped out almost as soon as it had come, a comment about how he can say fuck all he likes, but he’ll be a swede while he does it dying before it could pass his lips. “i only have luca and ebba here right now. and freja, i suppose it would be good practice to let her meet him.” he hadn’t spoken to his cousin in quite a while, but maybe it was time. he should maintain at least some positive relations with her, especially with france seemingly put down for the time being. the mention of catherine’s mother drew theo’s lips into a thin line, but he knew better than to press at the sore spot. instead he said, “well, i’m sure we’ll have an entire clan of swedes breathing down our necks as soon as we say they can. they’ll want to meet him before it’s safe to fly with him.” and in a few months’ time, they’d bring him to sweden and let him meet his people, which had theo’s stomach swooping with a thousand emotions. he frowned, suddenly nervous. “i don’t know. what if he doesn’t like me?”

[theodcr]

thcrc:

“ welcome to the best club you’ll ever belong to ! seriously after seeing all those pictures of baby freddie, i’m having a bit of a baby fever. remember to complain a lot about the lack of sleep so i don’t do anything rash. ” | @theodcr​

“god, i haven’t slept a wink.” he’d seize any opportunity to complain about the sleep deprivation. god knew catherine certainly didn’t want to hear about it. “he screams half the night. and he doesn’t even like me! it always takes catherine calming him down.” it figured. “i’m not going to talk you out of it, though. do you think tekla would be open to more? i’m sure nilsa would love a little brother or sister. and if you have them soon enough, they can grow up with freddie.” theo had been lucky to have plenty of other scandinavian royalty his age growing up, and they had remained friends into their adulthoods. he hoped the same for his own children. strong friendships meant strong alliances, after all.

[theodcr]

krstoffcrs:

        “    do you know how strange it is to think of you as a father?    ”    almost as strange as it was to think of theodor as a husband, but he supposes that he’ll get used to it all the same.    “    anyway, i think a congratulations is in order.    how does it feel  ?”        /  @theodcr​

“not as strange as it is to think it about myself, i imagine.” it was so strange; like nothing had changed and everything had changed all at once. “thank you. it feels... good. strange, but good. they’re healthy, which is really all i could ask for. what about you? i’ll have to think of you as a father sometime soon, won’t i?”

[theodcr]

ebbv:

“ theo ! there you are ! congratulations ! ” she wrapped her arms around her cousin and gave him a very tight hug. “ i don’t want to impose but when are you letting people see him ? i assume family members get to see him first. ” she winked at him. ( @theodcr​ )

it was easy to return the hug, arms tightly encircling his cousin as a bright smile planted itself on his face. “thank you.” he stepped back and nodded. “of course. we got him a secretary to organize all the visitations, i’ll check in with them to make sure yours is sooner than later.”

[theodcr]

catherinestuart:

she was angry at him for coming in the nick of time, absolutely appalled at the fact that he had strolled in right as everything was happening, but as she looked down at the helpless bundle in her arms catherine couldn’t bring herself to care. “we have until tonight tokyo time to deal with all the witness statements.” she had been slipping in and out of consciousness for the past few hours, and still she never refused when the nurse asked if she wanted to hold her son. “like shite, obviously.” the wry smile never quite made it to her features as she looked up at her husband. “every single relative we have will want to meet him, we should make a schedule or…” she paused, searching the baby’s face as if he would have express opinions about the problems at hand. “… is he too young to get a secretary?” 

he hummed an acknowledgement and idly pushed some of catherine’s hair off her forehead, the touch light and lingering. “we’ll have the staff handle it, they’re more than capable.” his mother cared less about witnessing and more about meeting her grandson, and theodor didn’t care about anyone else. things like this were why he employed an assistant. the next statement brought a smile to his face. “language, catherine. you’ll teach him bad habits.” he nudged her lightly with his elbow to indicate a lack of seriousness, not wanting to risk getting into an argument now. and then he laughed, quiet but genuine, startled from somewhere deep in his belly. “no, i think hiring him a secretary would be perfectly in character for us, and god knows i don’t want to deal with the scheduling."

[theodcr]

@catherinestuart​

“josefina called,” he said, his voice quiet as he stepped back into the room where his wife held their newborn son. he hovered in the doorway for just a moment, taking in the scene in front of him. “my mother is dying to meet him. and the public are taking the news well, it seems.” he crossed the room to her, then, and settled at her side to peer down at freddie, bundled up in his mother’s arms. prior to this exact moment, theodor didn’t know it was possible to love something quite this much. “how do you feel?”

[theodcr]

hi guys so uhhh i’m back! my hiatus ends tomorrow so i’ll be posting a few starters today and hopefully chatting with some people about new plots, connections, etc! for now i’m dropping everyone except theodor and henri. i might pick up the others again or pick up new charas in the future, but i want to focus on just these two for now while i’m getting back in the swing of things. so feel free to like/reply to this post or hit me up in the dms if you want threads/plots with theo or henri! under the cut is what they’ve been up to during my hiatus (spoiler: it’s not much FHDSLFHSDJL). anyway uhhh yeah!

so both theo and henri have been back in sweden/france respectively

theo has been doing... government... stuff and working on stuff for plots that i haven’t plotted yet, so if you’re looking for some uhhh political intrigue feel free 2 hit me up for that. he’s been back in the program for a couple weeks now as catherine’s due date has been approaching

henri was literally just on vacation FHDSLJFHJLDS he got tired of the program and dipped out to his rural estate in brittany for some r&r. he’s just now coming back to the program, probably because he missed luca like an idiot lbr

[theodcr]

arturcii:

“hindsight is 20/20. this time you’ve got a good, clear vision of it, thankfully.” liquid swirled in the glass as he turned his wrist this way and that. “i know this might not be what you mean, theo, but is it truly necessary to be seen as a victor of a battle? not to belittle your decisions, of course. absolutely stellar, mind you, the clarity you’ve had through this –” and it was necessary to stoke his friend’s ego, such as a balm, “but do you think arnauld will just…sit back and let everyone regroup without due retaliation?” and art made it no secret of his hatred of the french. perhaps it would do well to stoke the fires a little more, just so he could enjoy the players dancing on hot coals without being one himself. it was proper entertainment for someone who found, quite recently, that he enjoyed the shadows of war more than its spoils. “now that you’ve gotten involved, will you continue on further, or let arnauld bring his own troops home and mobilise them again? reaction is less productive than action, i’ve found.”

he frowned, his eyes narrowing in his friend’s direction. “empty ass-kissing, art, really?” weren’t they well beyond this? he didn’t want hollow praise from people he considered friends. “i’d like to be on the right side of history. when my name’s mentioned a hundred years from now –” and it would be, he would make sure of it “– i don’t want it to be said with disgust.” the question caused him to raise a brow. “he has nothing to retaliate with. his generals are being arrested, it’s safe to assume that the chinese have pulled his funding, and germany is knocking on his front door. if d’orléans tries something else now, he’ll be burned at the stake for it. we’ve put him on the defensive.” but... “i’m not totally out of the fight, anyway. i just don’t want my men dying there anymore, that’s all.” everyone else had things well in hand, and now that france’s progress had been stopped, theo had no leg to stand on when it came to military involvement. financial involvement, maybe, but that was a card he wasn’t ready to share just yet. “especially not with tensions brewing in the north. i’ve stirred the pot quite enough.”

[theodcr]

@wicbkc​

“thank you for agreeing to meet with me.” a rote beginning, maybe, but was worth saying. he gestured to the seat across from him and shuffled a few papers around on the table, setting them to the side for the time being. “i wanted to speak with you about france. i’m starting troop extraction from belgium as soon as it’s stable enough to do so, but with regard to alsace... i can appreciate what you’re doing there. and i was hoping you might accept my help.”

[theodcr]

catherinestuart:

catherine counted herself lucky, the big villain of her war had conveniently dropped dead. but for theodor, the light at the end of the tunnel certainly felt like it was slinking further and further, the long stretch of darkness making it all seem unattainable. she knew what it was like, the frustrating drop of her stomach when the legitimists took london — the absolute fire that made her see nothing but red. tentatively, she reached out a hand to squeeze at his arm; in what she hoped was a comforting way. “i don’t know if you could pulling them out would be the best thing to do — maybe … a tactical retreat? just to stay out of the city for a bit.” the death of a member of the royal family, no matter what their title was, was felt throughout the country and abroad. the only way arnauld d’orleans could control the situation is if he completely controls and annexed belgium, thus remaining the victor who could rewrite history as he pleased. of course, she couldn’t be quite so matter-of-fact out loud right at that moment. “it’s not going to look very good that he timed it when all the royals are there for the national day celebration. even world war two soldiers had a truce on christmas.” all of the countries will take it extremely personally, and will attack twice as hard. his excuses must be running ever thinner by the day. "i know i shouldn’t be the one saying this- but why in the world would he want to do a wedding in this climate? the conflict in england was technically a civil war, nothing like what’s happening in belgium.”

he felt some of the tension go out of his shoulders when she reached out to squeeze his arm. physical touch, as always, did him a world of good, though it wasn’t near enough to calm him down completely. “a tactical retreat... jesus christ,” he flopped back against the couch’s backrest and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying in vain to stave off the tension headache forming rapidly behind his temples. “i’m not going to pull them. even tactical retreat seems unlikely, the french have started putting up roadblocks. i think the only thing that’s left to do is stand our ground and wait.” the bombing seemed to have settled down for the time being, thank god. he laughed, cynical. “arnauld d’orléans is an arrogant, entitled bastard who thinks he can do whatever he wants. he is a selfish, egotistical megalomaniac, and i sincerely hope he falls into a ditch and dies.” he was breathing heavily, knowing that the words would do nothing to solve the problem but feeling better for having said them, anyway. “he’s just had a chunk of his own country annexed, and he’s lashing out about it. like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. except this toddler has access to weapons of mass destruction, and he doesn’t give a single flying fuck about any human life that’s not his own. i won’t go to his wedding, catherine, i won’t.” he would, probably, but he wouldn’t be happy about it.