thusia | (no subject)

(no subject)

Who: Anyone
When: Day 28, Noonish
Where: Level 3!
What: Mingle~~

[So no doubt people are around doing various things, and that is cool.

But today is the day that the last of the vines and moss are pulled off the stairwell, revealing a huge number 3 on the back wall, formed of red rock replacing the usually gray stones.

Congratulations Thusians, you know where you are! (=]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[A slow smile, one almost out of place given the conversation.]

Also relevant would be where the foundations sit, and how deep they have sunk. And how fast that water may rise.

If this is marshland or became marshland with all the flooding. Might actually still be solid.

Either way, exploring how high this place gets is just as important. At least for short-term.

If it is marsh, there are enough here with experience in such areas.

There is a way out to see the sky, at least.

Is there? I wanna go!

I would too.

Ikki offered to show the way. The path is not yet through safe territory, but it's unlikely to be any worse than we have faced before.

Pfft. Like I'd let a bit of nature get in my way.

[you know for all of your concern, mafioso and former world sure are being agreeable about a certain idea...]

[Quiet, listening to them both.

Unusually so, actually—no cautions, no corrections. Not even any indications as to if Gilbert is saying too much, or not enough.]

[your babies have grown up and learned DIPLOMACY

sounds like they're reaching a deal]

[That is far from all it sounds like.]

Preußen.

[starts a bit at the tone but looking over to]

Honestly, Gilbert. I leave you alone for a few centuries . . .

[Reaches over and takes his hand, his hold the variety of firm that brooks no argument.]

How inclined are you toward food right now?

[Bzuh? O-okay, will follow with, then]

Um. Hungry, yeah.

Hunting first, then. And gathering. Ikki has volunteered to identify which species are best suited for consumption; we will go with him. After which, I would ask for some time with you, in as private a place as can be managed.

... sure. If the idiot crow doesn't think I'll cramp his style or something.

You have your sword, you're an excellent and experienced fighter, and if all else fails you can set things on fire.

You are not going to cramp anyone's style.

Tell that to him and his hang up about me changing his hunting style.

I believe, between the two, he's more concerned about your mothering style.

He's skin and bones and I'm not gonna sit around with it like that--hell, Gok--Nova and some of hese other brats, too--!

I know.

[Squeezes Gilbert's hand, solid and reassuring.]

It is not something we can affect overnight. But it can be changed, and we have within us the means to do so.

[the small return grip is probably the biggest giveaway about it being more than just health issues being he issue here]

Right... duh. Which is why I told him--

... maybe I shouldn't've hit him that hard...

Possibly not.

More than that, you will need patience. And I know how difficult that is, especially right now—but until he accepts that his claim on you runs deeper than any claim you have made on him, it will be far more difficult for him to accept or understand your feelings.

[quiet for a long long moment]

... it's like back then. 'cept it's worse. A hundred times so.

I know. More than any other here possibly could.

[Switches to soft German, his choice of pronouns for once unmistakably intimate.]

You are my country. Your people are my people, and your world, my world. Not because of circumstance, but because we chose each other. And we have worked together, and fought together, and I am as proud of you as I am any of my children.

I will not surrender you to another place so easily. Nor to another people, even if those people are also ones I consider my own. Even if it is your own wish, even if it is your own survival, if you are not equally valued for who you are as for what you can be, I will not abide by it, nor tolerate it.

Not even for them.

[another long silence, but almost inversely proportionate, tone and words are more respectful, quiet and dare one say a bit humbled]

My apologies... but as you are the only one here who knows me, I am the only one who knows what they became.

... would you risk losing that when I have so little?

Yes. But I am a proud man, born of a proud world. And I am not always well suited to forms of compromise that involve surrender.

However, I do not believe it is a large risk. It is yet the first day. And he is still a child, overeager and searching for hope, and blinded by his own ambitions. There is yet more than enough time for him to grow.

Until then, I wished only for you to know where I stand.