The Selection (Troyler AU)

♔Part LV♔

I don't have an excuse honestly.

Judging by the fact that I forgot what happened before this, I'll just refresh your memory bc I'm probably not the only one: Tyler ate dinner with his mother and the remaining Selected, Caspar delivered him a note from Troye during dessert that was a cute(?) little punny thing, Ingrid signaled Tyler that she has information from the rebels to tell him, and she and Tyler are going to meet together to discuss what she has to say during this chapter, while Tyler also expresses his concerns over what the rebels plan to do about the caste system, should they win.

Honestly I just need my friends to stop dragging me bc this is ridiculous at this point I used to be a daily updater the effects of high school man.

Tyler POV

After dinner, when everyone began excusing themselves from the table, I headed back to my room, but instead of actually going there, I doubled back towards Ingrid's room to meet her there.  After the incident with the leaked footage, I didn't want to take any more chances by following her directly to her room. 

Of course, I knew I was likely to be caught on camera anyways, since it was obvious there was one in the hallway where the Selected were staying.  But if I tried to disguise my visits, then it would look like I was trying to be more discreet about seeing Ingrid, which is what people would expect after the leaked footage.  If I were to make it obvious every time I went there, then people might start to question whether we were actually doing date-like things, since our privacy being revoked would make anyone think twice about what they were doing.

In other words, I'm doing exactly what's expected of me for once.  I just happen to be using that to my advantage.

When I arrive at her door, I knock a couple of times, waiting a beat before she opens the door.  She offers a brief smile before letting me in; at this point, there really wasn't much to say before diving in to whatever information we had, seeing as how routine this had become.  Besides, what was there we could say that we wouldn't mind getting picked up by the security cameras outside (I actually had no idea if they could pick up audio, but I had no doubt that someone in the Palace could read lips well enough to discern what we were saying, so long as it was angled right).

Ingrid had a small, round table off to the side of her room, with a chair on either side and a decorative lacy tablecloth covering it.  Pearly white cups, saucers, and dishes were placed on ornate placemats in front of the chairs with no traces of dust to be seen, despite the fact that they looked as untouched as they had every other time I'd been here.  It looked the type of thing young girls would use to have a tea party—a really, really fancy tea party—but every time I came here, Ingrid and I just used it to discuss the rebellion. 

I'm almost certain that's not its intended use.  Though I think if we did try to use it as it was meant to be used, we'd just end up breaking something that might cost more than my entire closet.

I sat on one side, looking up at Ingrid.  "Alright, whatcha got."

She sighed, sitting on the other end of the table.  "The rebels are considering sending people to spy on the Southern Rebels, to see if they might know anything about the Palace and it's people that we don't, but I don't know if it's a good idea," she told me, shaking her head. "Commander Phil doesn't think it is either, and almost everyone that came to us from them vote against it too, but there's enough people for the idea that it's getting a lot of attention. They think it'd be worth the risk. But these people are ruthless—it'd be too dangerous, and that's coming from a rebel living in the Royal Palace."