[ he answers with an aggravated noise, because she's right. even in a state like this, he can see she's right. but he also has to get to enbarr, so there is no helping his restless energy. ]
Then I find who brought us here and make them send us back.
It has never been a matter of whether I can. I must.
[ he'll keep moving until he can't. he'll keep trying even if it's impossible. he is logically aware of how powerful any enemy must be to snatch him from time and space, and it simply does not matter. ]
[it's hard to master her feelings for that one, and a shadow of concern flickers across her face. for all he chided her for not feeling enough, now it almost feels too much.]
It doesn't have to be just you. We can work on this together.
[ these days, he doesn't wait for her to lend a hand, or coordinate their movements in battle. he simply charges on, and for whatever reason, she chooses her path to align with his.
and maybe because of that, and because part of him knows he really has no idea what to do here, free-spinning without an axis when his motivations teeter between guilt and revenge... he asks her a genuine question. ]
Each Dormitory has a leaderā€”I'll speak with them.
[it's... a relief, just to hear him ask her anything at allā€”although the only way it reflects outwardly is a twitch of the towel, raising it just a touch more towards him.]
[ he only answers with silence before he finally takes the towel, fiercely ruffling it through his hair. standing around in the rain one moment, now toweling off in what seems to be an entire different world.
it's enough to leave the earth unstable beneath anyone's feet, but he simply can't ever seem to find his his footing. he wonders if they've buried rodrigue without him. if they let him bleed into the dirt. ]
[he takes the towel, and Byleth drops her hands to her side. usually, she wasn't the mainā€”much less onlyā€”person pressing a point with dimitri. usually it was three, ten, fifteen others, depending on who was present for the council, all much more verbose than her. she could always tweak her plans to fit the situation, organize group management for each mercurial changes. with their string of victoriesā€”and lately, with Rodrigue aroundā€”things had even been going well.
yesterdayā€”and it was yesterday, nowā€”had changed everything. now, things once managed felt raw again, dangerous, outcomes teetering on a knife's edge. and for byleth, it felt as if things were falling apart in slow motion in front of her.
this was their second one-on-one confrontation in as many daysā€”and the only two they'd had since she'd found him in Garreg Mach nearly half a year prior.
last nightā€”and it was last night, nowā€”had been their first. she'd been the only one to notice Dimitri slip away in the aftermath, a pit opening in her stomach as she'd shadowed him through the halls. it was a confrontation she'd anticipated, but not between just the two of them. and not with Rodrigue's blood still wet on his cheeks. they'd had no time to think, much less to mournā€”and then, all at once, things got much worse. barely a word in, and they were waking up a million leagues away, soaked in nothing but memories.
We'll find a way. Another way. And another. It was a promise to herself as much as it was to him. As much a plea as it was a reflection of her own dogged determination to persevere. She had toā€”or be forced to watch everything they'd fought for slip through their fingers.]
[ The rain dries out of his hair and off of his face and hands, but there is still a mending stab wound in his back from a young girl's blade, one that she'd twisted and made hurt. But it hadn't killed him. She didn't want to kill him right away, he knows.
Still, he should've died. Instead they're here, wherever here is, and left to find answers to new questions before the dust had even settled in their last battle. Rodrigue is still dead, Dedue and the others are gone, and he is—very close to where he once was. Alone, with nothing but memories.
But as bafflingly as the first time she'd appeared after five years, Byleth is here. She may not ever have many words to offer him, but her presence was the steadiest thing he'd ever had. Even now, she...
He runs the towel along his neck, which is largely exposed with his armor gone. ]
Easier said than done. But there is little point in speculating. They would not bring us here without a reason—one I suspect we will be forced to realize soon enough.
[he's drier, nowā€”so that's at least one of her concerns addressed. it's pithy, in the scheme of thingsā€”he wasn't going to catch a cold that quickly, or care what anyone thoughtā€”but it's at least something she can help him with, affect change on.
a direct reaction to exactly what she wasn't able to do here. dimitri was rightā€”like it or not, they had no power in this scenario, and for all her words, she had nothing to elicit them with. the sobering truth, as he'd pointed out, was that for now they were forced to simply wait and see.
byleth nods, once, and folds her hands in front of her. time to work on things they could manage.]
Do you have your own separate sleeping space in the dormitory?
[ Is this her way of fussing over him? Gilbert and Dedue would do the same, but each of them approached it differently. Byleth tended towards persistent, but unobtrusive. A distinct lack of the subservient undertones that all his other relationships carry.
Could he still call it a relationship? He has rebuffed her so often—something he has only truly become aware with after Rodrigue's death.
He scoffs quietly. ]
I did not stick around for rooming arrangements.
[ they probably keep snacks in his bed, whatever ]
Do not trouble yourself with trivialities. I can survive without relying on our own captors.
[ Around. In general. He looks increasingly restless again, his energy coming and leaving in waves. His heart seems to pick up whenever it wants, reminding him that he is an in unfamiliar space, that he is not safe. He was displaced from Fhirdiad once before, and now he is removed from Fodlan altogether.
It does things to the mind to constantly be running. ]
I... [ he seems to mull over his words a moment, lost in thought but speaking aloud ] My sense of taste left me years ago. I cannot easily eat just anything put before me.
[ Because, well. Paranoia, and poison. It's something he very much keeps to himself for a reason, what with being a would-be monarch. ]
And I will never be able to shut my eye to a room full of strangers.
[she opens her mouth slightlyā€”and almost immediately closes it again, swallowing back any unnecessary questioning. he'd already answered what she'd asked, and moreā€”that was enough for now.
instead, she silently nods once, and crouches down over her backpackā€”extracting from within it a bottle of water, and a cheese scone, wrapped in a paper napkin.
she presses both into his hands, gently, but insistently.]
I ate one similar, but I understand if you can't. [can't eat it.
she'd have to bring him a blanket, later. was his injury okay? now wasn't the time to check it, but the dressings would have to at least be changed at some point...
there's a sharp pang of frustration, grief, at the end of that line of thoughtā€”that she hadn't been more attentive, that she wasn't faster, that she wasn't quick enough to kill the girl before her blade had found Dimitri, much less Rodrigue, in the first placeā€”but she bundles it all up, pushing it out of sight.
Dimitri, in the here and and the now, came first. whatever conversation she'd expected to have with him over it last night would have to wait.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
divineimpulse) wrote2021-06-05 06:42 pm
no subject
[she doesn't stiffen, or move at his wordsā€”just continues to hold the towel out.]
no subject
[ it's always enbarr. though even in his constant, determined march, he looks tired, covered in leaf litter by now. ]
But this place takes me in circles.
no subject
I don't think we're in FĆ³dlan any more.
no subject
Then I find who brought us here and make them send us back.
no subject
If they had the power to bring us across worlds, who knows they're capable of?
[she hasn't moved an inch.]
We need to properly analyze the situation, Dimitri.
no subject
[ he'll keep moving until he can't. he'll keep trying even if it's impossible. he is logically aware of how powerful any enemy must be to snatch him from time and space, and it simply does not matter. ]
no subject
It doesn't have to be just you. We can work on this together.
no subject
[ these days, he doesn't wait for her to lend a hand, or coordinate their movements in battle. he simply charges on, and for whatever reason, she chooses her path to align with his.
and maybe because of that, and because part of him knows he really has no idea what to do here, free-spinning without an axis when his motivations teeter between guilt and revenge... he asks her a genuine question. ]
How do you expect to proceed?
no subject
[it's... a relief, just to hear him ask her anything at allā€”although the only way it reflects outwardly is a twitch of the towel, raising it just a touch more towards him.]
We'll find a way.
[they always have.]
no subject
it's enough to leave the earth unstable beneath anyone's feet, but he simply can't ever seem to find his his footing. he wonders if they've buried rodrigue without him. if they let him bleed into the dirt. ]
And if you find their answers unsatisfactory?
no subject
[he takes the towel, and Byleth drops her hands to her side. usually, she wasn't the mainā€”much less onlyā€”person pressing a point with dimitri. usually it was three, ten, fifteen others, depending on who was present for the council, all much more verbose than her. she could always tweak her plans to fit the situation, organize group management for each mercurial changes. with their string of victoriesā€”and lately, with Rodrigue aroundā€”things had even been going well.
yesterdayā€”and it was yesterday, nowā€”had changed everything. now, things once managed felt raw again, dangerous, outcomes teetering on a knife's edge. and for byleth, it felt as if things were falling apart in slow motion in front of her.
this was their second one-on-one confrontation in as many daysā€”and the only two they'd had since she'd found him in Garreg Mach nearly half a year prior.
last nightā€”and it was last night, nowā€”had been their first. she'd been the only one to notice Dimitri slip away in the aftermath, a pit opening in her stomach as she'd shadowed him through the halls. it was a confrontation she'd anticipated, but not between just the two of them. and not with Rodrigue's blood still wet on his cheeks. they'd had no time to think, much less to mournā€”and then, all at once, things got much worse. barely a word in, and they were waking up a million leagues away, soaked in nothing but memories.
We'll find a way. Another way. And another. It was a promise to herself as much as it was to him. As much a plea as it was a reflection of her own dogged determination to persevere. She had toā€”or be forced to watch everything they'd fought for slip through their fingers.]
no subject
Still, he should've died. Instead they're here, wherever here is, and left to find answers to new questions before the dust had even settled in their last battle. Rodrigue is still dead, Dedue and the others are gone, and he is—very close to where he once was. Alone, with nothing but memories.
But as bafflingly as the first time she'd appeared after five years, Byleth is here. She may not ever have many words to offer him, but her presence was the steadiest thing he'd ever had. Even now, she...
He runs the towel along his neck, which is largely exposed with his armor gone. ]
Easier said than done. But there is little point in speculating. They would not bring us here without a reason—one I suspect we will be forced to realize soon enough.
no subject
a direct reaction to exactly what she wasn't able to do here. dimitri was rightā€”like it or not, they had no power in this scenario, and for all her words, she had nothing to elicit them with. the sobering truth, as he'd pointed out, was that for now they were forced to simply wait and see.
byleth nods, once, and folds her hands in front of her. time to work on things they could manage.]
Do you have your own separate sleeping space in the dormitory?
no subject
Could he still call it a relationship? He has rebuffed her so often—something he has only truly become aware with after Rodrigue's death.
He scoffs quietly. ]
I did not stick around for rooming arrangements.
[ they probably keep snacks in his bed, whatever ]
Do not trouble yourself with trivialities. I can survive without relying on our own captors.
no subject
she blinks.]
You won't stay in the dormitory?
[...]
...What about food?
[although she has. a growing suspicion.]
no subject
[ Around. In general. He looks increasingly restless again, his energy coming and leaving in waves. His heart seems to pick up whenever it wants, reminding him that he is an in unfamiliar space, that he is not safe. He was displaced from Fhirdiad once before, and now he is removed from Fodlan altogether.
It does things to the mind to constantly be running. ]
I... [ he seems to mull over his words a moment, lost in thought but speaking aloud ] My sense of taste left me years ago. I cannot easily eat just anything put before me.
[ Because, well. Paranoia, and poison. It's something he very much keeps to himself for a reason, what with being a would-be monarch. ]
And I will never be able to shut my eye to a room full of strangers.
no subject
instead, she silently nods once, and crouches down over her backpackā€”extracting from within it a bottle of water, and a cheese scone, wrapped in a paper napkin.
she presses both into his hands, gently, but insistently.]
I ate one similar, but I understand if you can't. [can't eat it.
she'd have to bring him a blanket, later. was his injury okay? now wasn't the time to check it, but the dressings would have to at least be changed at some point...
there's a sharp pang of frustration, grief, at the end of that line of thoughtā€”that she hadn't been more attentive, that she wasn't faster, that she wasn't quick enough to kill the girl before her blade had found Dimitri, much less Rodrigue, in the first placeā€”but she bundles it all up, pushing it out of sight.
Dimitri, in the here and and the now, came first. whatever conversation she'd expected to have with him over it last night would have to wait.]