[Well damn. Claude's brows raise in surprise before he smirks and crosses his arms, considering her words more seriously.]
Didn't expect that from you.
[He'd have thought being a shut in and having limited interactions with others, especially politically, would make her naive or too trusting. Not savagely realistic.]
But that's the question, isn't it? How long is their good will going to hold out before they try to start forcing our hand. They're already tracking so much of what we're doing and have access to, it wouldn't be hard. I think, honestly, it's less about giving us a handout and more about making us reliant on them.
[A heavy sigh, shaking his head, lips thinning into a frown. They need to be careful.]
[Okay he absolutely has to laugh at that, startled and, honestly, thrilled.]
Very observant, Bernadetta. But this isn't that simple. This isn't just one person (sure maybe someone that will eventually be important but still, realistically, we were kids) being impressed by someone talented. This is an entire government body.
It's... more like Rhea trying so hard to get on Teach's good side just so she could use 'em, y'know. Not as a person but as a political tool.
And to try to control the Captain, too. [The more he talks about Rhea the more his expression darkens. Gods, that woman is a monster.]
Especially if everyone that ends up here is going to have these advanced powers, I dunno if you've noticed anything but I sure have, they might be trying to endear themselves to us to use us as some sort of military power down the line. Who knows. Maybe they just want to use us as some sort of arcane power source. Either way I don't like the idea of being treated like fuel.
So, um, more everyone after the Bl... the Blade of the Creator showed up.
[She nods slightly, either to herself or along with him. It's hard to say just which one, right now.]
Well, they didn't...they didn't do anything to me, even when I-I was in the hospital. Or, um, the other people that... that would've just died. More than, um, the... people arriving nearly did, I mean.
[She pauses for a moment, but her expression grows strained, for a moment, like she's not satisfied that she's actually getting her point across. She takes a steadying breath and tries again.]
The ones, that, um. Th-that they could've just... pretended they c-couldn't have fixed, even i-if they tried. We're, um. We're still here, and not... disappeared, somewhere. So. So... um, whatever they want from us, they, um, they can't force it. ...y-yet, at least. Or, um, something... like that.
You're right. Probably they need a lot of us and they might not be able to force it exactly but the more dependent they make us on them the easier it'll be for them to revoke their handouts until we comply.
[His expression deepens to something nearly a scowl for a moment.]
The fact that what they want involves this "synchrony" makes that more than a little worrisome.
[His immediate thought is to simply show the gem that's now embedded in his skin by way of explanation but he hesitates, so many years of covering himself so completely in some futile attempt to make all the subtle differences less obvious stilling his hand. Even after weeks of being home he's still so cautious about it, maybe even moreso because weeks under the desert sun means the color of his skin has deepened and that will only make everything he's been hiding all these years more pronounced.
Fate really has dealt him a shit hand this time.]
Maybe... But it sounds like this isn't the first time this has happened and... we do all have something marking us as now. Those crystals, y'know?
[Bernadetta von Varley is no stranger to hiding oneself, to shifting away from glances and perceived judgment. She has an inkling about him having a similar hesitation now, but she can’t even begin to fathom why and so let’s the thought fade rather than following the thread. Instead, kindly, perhaps cruelly, because he likely knows where the fatal blow struck, she acts instead.
She lays a flinching hand over her own chest, where the Blade of the Creator struck deepest, where there’s now a seam of glittering purple gemstone, a little less than a handspan wide, slashed between her breasts.]
...y-yeah. Um, I just... I, well, I don’t know how they knew ours can do what they want.
[But that's not how he remembers it at all... he remembers Raphael trying to get up to the hill to remove her. He remembers the look on the blond's face when the entire hilltop went up in flames, caught between ducking away from the edge of the fire and trying to muscle through it to get to her. Ingrid had made that decision for him. The worst part was that she didn't even scream... just... was swallowed up by the fire.
So when her hand lifts to her chest he frowns, wonders at the deeper meaning of where her stone must be.]
Maybe they did do some testing, maybe they're making assumptions. Who can say? But those scholars up there sure did a lot of poking and proding at everyone.
Well... maybe they poked and prodded while I-I ws... out of it, b-but, um—
[On cue, there's a small chime from her device, gently reminding her of an unmet quota.
She ignores it, staring somewhere over Claude's shoulder as her cheeks burn.]
...Is this... something the native people do? OR... or can't do? Or, um, used to be able to do? Will we... stop producing wh-what they want from us, e-eventually, like, um, like a mine picked clean? Or, uh, or do we need to keep touching so, um... well, like livestock do, I-I mean?
[Bringing up wetnurses seems way too scandalous, in this case.]
[That shrill little chime is anything but gentle and it's clearly something that is synced between their devices as his does too and he flicks a little glare downward, even though it's tucked neatly in his pocket.
He's picked up answers for the first couple of questions she has, or at least the politically correct responses. But the rest... He'd said earlier they were using them like some sort of fuel. A mine picked clean was another option but a mine emptied of its contents was still a mine, the stone structure remained. Maybe hollowed out but it was there. Once a fire burned through all it's fuel there was nothing left but ash.
If that wasn't bad enough comparing them to livestock... well it was a nauseating thought, even if he couldn't exactly say she was wrong.]
I... I don't know, Bernadetta. But I'm sure as hell going to try to find out. There's too much they're hiding for me to trust this at all.
[In true Bernadetta fashion, she's kicking herself as soon as the words leave her mouth. That was too much, too gloomy, too dark; what kind of twisted weirdo just up and says something like 'oh, what if we've gotten dragged into a magic people farm?'
Stupid, stupid Bernie.]
Just, um.
[It feels so weird, to say this to somebody she can't remember ever properly meeting before. Somebody she might have fought against, if she ended up surviving just a little longer.]
Just... b-be careful? I... guess?
[She knits her fingers together again, then glances down at them in a stuttered, uncertain moment, and her guilt at making things even more awkward threatens to swallow her whole, for a moment.
So, in true Bernadetta fashion, she blurts out the next thing to cross her mind, to change the course of this downer of a conversation.]
D-Do you! Um... Do you... want to, uh, try it? To, um, see how m-much they get from... s-simple things.
[No, not stupid Bernie. She's almost too clever and Claude is always one to plan for worst case scenarios. He's going to be mulling that over for a long time yet, thanks Bernie. But there's a looming tension that needs to be broken and he's considering making some sort of joke, something about always being careful-
And then she makes that offer. His brows shoot up in surprise that he can't hide, a startled little sound that might be a scoff or might be a laugh escaping him.]
Wha-? Figure I should be the last person you want to run tests with but...
[He glances around, shaking his head a little and giving her a look that clearly says not here. But then he turns, offers his arm like a proper gentleman (possibly the first time he's been proper.... ever) and nods towards the door. They can test and get the hell out of here at the same time.]
[Fair enough; it's not totally paranoia if you aren't sure they aren't out to get you.]
I-I'm sorry, that... that was a bad idea, wasn't it?! ...way too forward, completely untoward, rude...
[She falls into a series of self-castigating mumbles, but a lifetime of reluctantly absorbed etiquette training kicks in, and her hand is lightly curled in the crook of his arm apparently without her actual intent or acknowledgement.
When he moves, she'll follow in step, but he'll need to get her attention back if he wants to continue their doom and gloom spitballing.]
[He pats her hand gently, leads her out into the city and immediately directs them towards a less densely packed area nearby, where ever there aren't going to be too many ears listening or too many eyes on them to make her more nervous.]
No, Bernadetta, it was a good idea.
[A glance over his shoulder.]
Just probably not the place to talk about all the horrible things they might be planning to do to us, y'know?
[He keeps his hand over hers, holding her hand to his arm as they walk, both to comfort and to... see what this whole synchrony thing does with just a little casual contact like this.]
Mmm... it's one thing to discuss the... common objectives of governments in general but speculating too far into the more despicable things they could plan for us, eventually, is probably more than the average person is going to think of. Especially when we're so likely to be watched. And watched carefully.
Part of me wants to protest doing this synchrony thing at all but it seems a bit like it's.... too ingrained in the whole process to completely avoid. Or maybe they just want us to think that?
[The hand is distracting, because that was never in the etiquette instructions. It implied a level of basic consideration and esteem she rarely received back then. Ferdinand has done this for her before, of course, because he’s something out of the most sterling courtly tale come to life, but it’s hard to really put Claude in the same mental box as Ferdinand von Aegir for... a variety of reasons, really.
Still, what he just said is enough to snap her attention back to him and she blinks up with large, puzzled eyes.]
Um, is it? I’ve gone entire years without touching or being touched by... anybody at all, really. As long as they don’t, um, don’t tie us up or something, it... doesn’t seem that hard? Though, um, the messages are... a little bit annoying.
[And this would be where the average person would be absolutely horrified. Shocked and appalled at the level of neglect that implied of someone of their young age, worried for her well-being perhaps.
Yet Claude simply nods as though it is both expected and perfectly reasonable. Years without being touched, at least in a positive way, yeah. He gets that. The rest of the Deer were pretty affectionate, save Lorenz and his godsforsaken propriety, but until Teach came back he was up to his eyeballs in bureaucracy and hardly ever got to see them, especially when it wasn't Lorenz or Hilda coming to a Roundtable Conference to represent their Lord. (Oh and he's certain Holst was thrilled when he got to make Hilda go in his stead.)]
Yeah if it's something more... uh... intimate, sure, but the way they talk about it seems like just... being near people, having some sort of connection with another person, is enough to do at least a little bit.
[Like even now there's something that he can't quite define, something it would be easy to dismiss as his usual fascination with new puzzles and mysteries were he not actively looking for it and, to his surprise, even removing his hand from covering hers there's still just... almost a little hum of background noise.]
[The hidden price of a position of power: sometimes you're literally untouchable, rather than just metaphorically.
She shifts as they stroll, but her hand doesn't pull away from his arm; there's a thrumming, almost magnetic undertone to that little connection, and it's nice and understatedly pleasant in a way that's both thrilling and a bit scary to somebody who usually hides away.
The thought of what it would feel like if they weren't wearing gloves prickles at the corner of her brain, and she crushes it immediately but unsuccessfully at the sheer impropriety.]
That's... weird.
[Her tone is slow, and thoughtful.]
Is that...
[She falls silent, beneath the murmur of the other pedestrians and the tap of their boots on the pavement. But, Claude has been unusually supportive of her usual paranoid ramblings, so she screws her courage together and tries, anyways.]
Do you think that... that might be why we remember things differently? To, um. To have at least a little bit of a connection, I-I mean. Like... l-like how, um, how you recognized me, but I... couldn't.
[It's hard for Claude not to just pick up with more conspiracy theories. Not that he doesn't want to hear what her thoughts are just that it's difficult for him to silence his own mind. Still he bites his tongue, literally in fact, until she collects whatever was meant to come after that aborted question.]
It might be why everyone remembers things differently... so there's less animosity between those of us from different countries. But I'm not sure if that goes so far as...
[He trails off with a little smirk, giving her a look that is clearly playful but also teasing a little. It's fine, Bernie. It's cool. You don't have to remember him. Not like he's important or anything, gosh.]
[This is a powder keg of rampant imagination and paranoia ready to blow, and they're both the equivalent of those joke candles that only burn brighter when you try to blow them out.]
Well, n-no, I didn't... I didn't mean less animosity. One of us would, um, one of us would remember me joining you o-or you joining Edelgard, if that was the case. I, um, I meant... this weird sort of mystery.
[She gestures between them, discretely.]
It, well, it's... it's compelling. Like, how a plot twist in a novel brings characters together. Trying... trying to figure this out is literally bringing us together, right now.
[But then she catches up with his trailing implication and she gives him an affronted, wide-eyed look, cheeks slightly puffed into a pout and more than slightly red.]
H-Hey! I... I could've recognized you later!
[Nah.]
...o-or, if I had heard you drawing your bow, I-I definitely would! I ran away from the training fields any time it sounded like they were occupied, and p-people have... have really distinct shooting styles!
[Literally bringing them together. It's a good point. Dammit why did she hide in her room all the time?? She's good at this shit.
Of course the very idea of him joining Edelgard makes him laugh before he can stop himself, a loud, abrupt burst of laughter that he is quick to quiet into more of a chuckle, still teasing, carefully avoiding commenting on any of that.]
Later! You thought I was Grandad! [But he's grinning wildly even as he gives her grief for it. Clearly not upset at all. The comment about shooting styles makes him pause though, surprised.]
I was gonna say that's just because Failnaught's huge but... that was before I had it. You could really tell that?
[She hid in her room precisely because she was too good at this sort of thing, and surrounded by powerful and dangerous people.]
N-No! I just... thought you were trying to trick me!
[Which is... better?
She rubs her cheek, glancing away, but nods slowly regardless.]
I... y-yeah. Um, I knew what Leonie's bow sounded like, and, uh.
[She purses her mouth.]
You, uh, you waxed and tuned your string in the Almyran style, right? Which, well... um, it makes sense. Looking back. With, uh. Relevant facts now known.
[Namely him having clear Almyran heritage.]
I-It's got a certain pitch to the release. If, um, if you've... got an ear for that sort of thing.
[Okay he'll buy recognizing Leonie's bow technique, the power she put into her shots was impressive.... and painful. She was so used to working with short bows for hunting that he cringed every time she drew on a long bow, just waiting for it to snap. Girl is too powerful for her own good.
Ignatz she'd probably never even hear the string, just the thunk of the arrow hitting the target. It was a little eerie. But him? There wasn't anything-
As soon as she says it "makes sense" she'll be able to feel a subtle shift in the tension in his arm beneath her hand, that subtle pleasant resonance of the synchrony silencing instantly, like a bubble popping. There one moment, gone the next instant. As pleasant as all of this has been the sync isn't really something that can be maintained when there's nothing but panic screeching through his mind, regardless of how carefully neutral he keeps his expression, his body language. As though he can just freeze everything in the moment before she spoke.]
Relevant facts? What're you talking about, Bernadetta?
[There's still an edge of laughter in his voice, dismissive and amused. His expression hasn't changed in the slightest, his body is held a tiny bit tighter but that is the only outward sign of the internal turmoil. If it weren't for the sudden loss of the bond it would probably be enough to fool most people.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 03:12 pm (UTC)Didn't expect that from you.
[He'd have thought being a shut in and having limited interactions with others, especially politically, would make her naive or too trusting. Not savagely realistic.]
But that's the question, isn't it? How long is their good will going to hold out before they try to start forcing our hand. They're already tracking so much of what we're doing and have access to, it wouldn't be hard. I think, honestly, it's less about giving us a handout and more about making us reliant on them.
[A heavy sigh, shaking his head, lips thinning into a frown. They need to be careful.]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 11:04 pm (UTC)I think... we're, um, like the P-Professor.
[She pauses, swallowing a lump in her throat.]
Um, a-at the very start I mean. People... people with abilities, a-and shadowy pasts, a-and, um. And.
[Her confidence is faltering, but she pushes through even as she wilts.]
Edelgard and Prince Dimitri a-and, um, and you too; you... at the s-start, you all tried to put your best foot forward. To... make use of that person.
[A strong, powerful mercenary. That was all they were, before any bonds were forged.]
S-So. Isn't... isn't that happening here? And, um, now?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 04:10 am (UTC)Very observant, Bernadetta. But this isn't that simple. This isn't just one person (sure maybe someone that will eventually be important but still, realistically, we were kids) being impressed by someone talented. This is an entire government body.
It's... more like Rhea trying so hard to get on Teach's good side just so she could use 'em, y'know. Not as a person but as a political tool.
And to try to control the Captain, too. [The more he talks about Rhea the more his expression darkens. Gods, that woman is a monster.]
Especially if everyone that ends up here is going to have these advanced powers, I dunno if you've noticed anything but I sure have, they might be trying to endear themselves to us to use us as some sort of military power down the line. Who knows. Maybe they just want to use us as some sort of arcane power source. Either way I don't like the idea of being treated like fuel.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 04:17 am (UTC)[She nods slightly, either to herself or along with him. It's hard to say just which one, right now.]
Well, they didn't...they didn't do anything to me, even when I-I was in the hospital. Or, um, the other people that... that would've just died. More than, um, the... people arriving nearly did, I mean.
[She pauses for a moment, but her expression grows strained, for a moment, like she's not satisfied that she's actually getting her point across. She takes a steadying breath and tries again.]
The ones, that, um. Th-that they could've just... pretended they c-couldn't have fixed, even i-if they tried. We're, um. We're still here, and not... disappeared, somewhere. So. So... um, whatever they want from us, they, um, they can't force it. ...y-yet, at least. Or, um, something... like that.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 05:29 am (UTC)You're right. Probably they need a lot of us and they might not be able to force it exactly but the more dependent they make us on them the easier it'll be for them to revoke their handouts until we comply.
[His expression deepens to something nearly a scowl for a moment.]
The fact that what they want involves this "synchrony" makes that more than a little worrisome.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 05:34 am (UTC)[She knits her fingers together, anxious and sick at the very thought.]
That's... how do they know we can do that? Did they, um, test the first people to a-arrive, or...?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 04:16 pm (UTC)Fate really has dealt him a shit hand this time.]
Maybe... But it sounds like this isn't the first time this has happened and... we do all have something marking us as now. Those crystals, y'know?
[Don't ask where his is... please don't.]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 04:26 pm (UTC)[Bernadetta von Varley is no stranger to hiding oneself, to shifting away from glances and perceived judgment. She has an inkling about him having a similar hesitation now, but she can’t even begin to fathom why and so let’s the thought fade rather than following the thread. Instead, kindly, perhaps cruelly, because he likely knows where the fatal blow struck, she acts instead.
She lays a flinching hand over her own chest, where the Blade of the Creator struck deepest, where there’s now a seam of glittering purple gemstone, a little less than a handspan wide, slashed between her breasts.]
...y-yeah. Um, I just... I, well, I don’t know how they knew ours can do what they want.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 08:01 pm (UTC)So when her hand lifts to her chest he frowns, wonders at the deeper meaning of where her stone must be.]
Maybe they did do some testing, maybe they're making assumptions. Who can say? But those scholars up there sure did a lot of poking and proding at everyone.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 08:10 pm (UTC)[On cue, there's a small chime from her device, gently reminding her of an unmet quota.
She ignores it, staring somewhere over Claude's shoulder as her cheeks burn.]
...Is this... something the native people do? OR... or can't do? Or, um, used to be able to do? Will we... stop producing wh-what they want from us, e-eventually, like, um, like a mine picked clean? Or, uh, or do we need to keep touching so, um... well, like livestock do, I-I mean?
[Bringing up wetnurses seems way too scandalous, in this case.]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-22 01:36 pm (UTC)He's picked up answers for the first couple of questions she has, or at least the politically correct responses. But the rest... He'd said earlier they were using them like some sort of fuel. A mine picked clean was another option but a mine emptied of its contents was still a mine, the stone structure remained. Maybe hollowed out but it was there. Once a fire burned through all it's fuel there was nothing left but ash.
If that wasn't bad enough comparing them to livestock... well it was a nauseating thought, even if he couldn't exactly say she was wrong.]
I... I don't know, Bernadetta. But I'm sure as hell going to try to find out. There's too much they're hiding for me to trust this at all.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-22 02:21 pm (UTC)Stupid, stupid Bernie.]
Just, um.
[It feels so weird, to say this to somebody she can't remember ever properly meeting before. Somebody she might have fought against, if she ended up surviving just a little longer.]
Just... b-be careful? I... guess?
[She knits her fingers together again, then glances down at them in a stuttered, uncertain moment, and her guilt at making things even more awkward threatens to swallow her whole, for a moment.
So, in true Bernadetta fashion, she blurts out the next thing to cross her mind, to change the course of this downer of a conversation.]
D-Do you! Um... Do you... want to, uh, try it? To, um, see how m-much they get from... s-simple things.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-22 03:01 pm (UTC)And then she makes that offer. His brows shoot up in surprise that he can't hide, a startled little sound that might be a scoff or might be a laugh escaping him.]
Wha-? Figure I should be the last person you want to run tests with but...
[He glances around, shaking his head a little and giving her a look that clearly says not here. But then he turns, offers his arm like a proper gentleman (possibly the first time he's been proper.... ever) and nods towards the door. They can test and get the hell out of here at the same time.]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-22 03:08 pm (UTC)I-I'm sorry, that... that was a bad idea, wasn't it?! ...way too forward, completely untoward, rude...
[She falls into a series of self-castigating mumbles, but a lifetime of reluctantly absorbed etiquette training kicks in, and her hand is lightly curled in the crook of his arm apparently without her actual intent or acknowledgement.
When he moves, she'll follow in step, but he'll need to get her attention back if he wants to continue their doom and gloom spitballing.]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-22 03:41 pm (UTC)No, Bernadetta, it was a good idea.
[A glance over his shoulder.]
Just probably not the place to talk about all the horrible things they might be planning to do to us, y'know?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-22 03:54 pm (UTC)[She jolts slightly, jarred from her little spiral, and blinks up at him.]
I-It was?
[So much uncertainty, in so few words.]
...oh. Um, y-you're right. I mean, they... probably guess that a lot of us won't trust them, but, um, knowing e-exactly who... would be bad. ...right?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-23 04:46 am (UTC)[He keeps his hand over hers, holding her hand to his arm as they walk, both to comfort and to... see what this whole synchrony thing does with just a little casual contact like this.]
Mmm... it's one thing to discuss the... common objectives of governments in general but speculating too far into the more despicable things they could plan for us, eventually, is probably more than the average person is going to think of. Especially when we're so likely to be watched. And watched carefully.
Part of me wants to protest doing this synchrony thing at all but it seems a bit like it's.... too ingrained in the whole process to completely avoid. Or maybe they just want us to think that?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-23 05:51 pm (UTC)[The hand is distracting, because that was never in the etiquette instructions. It implied a level of basic consideration and esteem she rarely received back then. Ferdinand has done this for her before, of course, because he’s something out of the most sterling courtly tale come to life, but it’s hard to really put Claude in the same mental box as Ferdinand von Aegir for... a variety of reasons, really.
Still, what he just said is enough to snap her attention back to him and she blinks up with large, puzzled eyes.]
Um, is it? I’ve gone entire years without touching or being touched by... anybody at all, really. As long as they don’t, um, don’t tie us up or something, it... doesn’t seem that hard? Though, um, the messages are... a little bit annoying.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-25 03:22 pm (UTC)Yet Claude simply nods as though it is both expected and perfectly reasonable. Years without being touched, at least in a positive way, yeah. He gets that. The rest of the Deer were pretty affectionate, save Lorenz and his godsforsaken propriety, but until Teach came back he was up to his eyeballs in bureaucracy and hardly ever got to see them, especially when it wasn't Lorenz or Hilda coming to a Roundtable Conference to represent their Lord. (Oh and he's certain Holst was thrilled when he got to make Hilda go in his stead.)]
Yeah if it's something more... uh... intimate, sure, but the way they talk about it seems like just... being near people, having some sort of connection with another person, is enough to do at least a little bit.
[Like even now there's something that he can't quite define, something it would be easy to dismiss as his usual fascination with new puzzles and mysteries were he not actively looking for it and, to his surprise, even removing his hand from covering hers there's still just... almost a little hum of background noise.]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-25 05:09 pm (UTC)She shifts as they stroll, but her hand doesn't pull away from his arm; there's a thrumming, almost magnetic undertone to that little connection, and it's nice and understatedly pleasant in a way that's both thrilling and a bit scary to somebody who usually hides away.
The thought of what it would feel like if they weren't wearing gloves prickles at the corner of her brain, and she crushes it immediately but unsuccessfully at the sheer impropriety.]
That's... weird.
[Her tone is slow, and thoughtful.]
Is that...
[She falls silent, beneath the murmur of the other pedestrians and the tap of their boots on the pavement. But, Claude has been unusually supportive of her usual paranoid ramblings, so she screws her courage together and tries, anyways.]
Do you think that... that might be why we remember things differently? To, um. To have at least a little bit of a connection, I-I mean. Like... l-like how, um, how you recognized me, but I... couldn't.
[No, Bernie, that one's entirely on you.]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-26 07:47 pm (UTC)conspiracytheories. Not that he doesn't want to hear what her thoughts are just that it's difficult for him to silence his own mind. Still he bites his tongue, literally in fact, until she collects whatever was meant to come after that aborted question.]It might be why everyone remembers things differently... so there's less animosity between those of us from different countries. But I'm not sure if that goes so far as...
[He trails off with a little smirk, giving her a look that is clearly playful but also teasing a little. It's fine, Bernie. It's cool. You don't have to remember him. Not like he's important or anything, gosh.]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-26 08:02 pm (UTC)Well, n-no, I didn't... I didn't mean less animosity. One of us would, um, one of us would remember me joining you o-or you joining Edelgard, if that was the case. I, um, I meant... this weird sort of mystery.
[She gestures between them, discretely.]
It, well, it's... it's compelling. Like, how a plot twist in a novel brings characters together. Trying... trying to figure this out is literally bringing us together, right now.
[But then she catches up with his trailing implication and she gives him an affronted, wide-eyed look, cheeks slightly puffed into a pout and more than slightly red.]
H-Hey! I... I could've recognized you later!
[Nah.]
...o-or, if I had heard you drawing your bow, I-I definitely would! I ran away from the training fields any time it sounded like they were occupied, and p-people have... have really distinct shooting styles!
no subject
Date: 2021-01-26 08:25 pm (UTC)Of course the very idea of him joining Edelgard makes him laugh before he can stop himself, a loud, abrupt burst of laughter that he is quick to quiet into more of a chuckle, still teasing, carefully avoiding commenting on any of that.]
Later! You thought I was Grandad! [But he's grinning wildly even as he gives her grief for it. Clearly not upset at all. The comment about shooting styles makes him pause though, surprised.]
I was gonna say that's just because Failnaught's huge but... that was before I had it. You could really tell that?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-26 08:38 pm (UTC)N-No! I just... thought you were trying to trick me!
[Which is... better?
She rubs her cheek, glancing away, but nods slowly regardless.]
I... y-yeah. Um, I knew what Leonie's bow sounded like, and, uh.
[She purses her mouth.]
You, uh, you waxed and tuned your string in the Almyran style, right? Which, well... um, it makes sense. Looking back. With, uh. Relevant facts now known.
[Namely him having clear Almyran heritage.]
I-It's got a certain pitch to the release. If, um, if you've... got an ear for that sort of thing.
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Date: 2021-01-26 09:10 pm (UTC)Ignatz she'd probably never even hear the string, just the thunk of the arrow hitting the target. It was a little eerie. But him? There wasn't anything-
As soon as she says it "makes sense" she'll be able to feel a subtle shift in the tension in his arm beneath her hand, that subtle pleasant resonance of the synchrony silencing instantly, like a bubble popping. There one moment, gone the next instant. As pleasant as all of this has been the sync isn't really something that can be maintained when there's nothing but panic screeching through his mind, regardless of how carefully neutral he keeps his expression, his body language. As though he can just freeze everything in the moment before she spoke.]
Relevant facts? What're you talking about, Bernadetta?
[There's still an edge of laughter in his voice, dismissive and amused. His expression hasn't changed in the slightest, his body is held a tiny bit tighter but that is the only outward sign of the internal turmoil. If it weren't for the sudden loss of the bond it would probably be enough to fool most people.
Most people.]
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From:very nice!
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