revenance_comms | 001 ▲ video.

[ All she wants is for him to say that he's sorry. She wants him to admit that what he did was as stupid as what she's doing right now. That he should have said something and he should have laughed and danced with her and they should have drank and raised their glasses together or something. He's so hard to read sometimes. ]

...then tell me.

[And all he wants is for her to read his mind and understand what he means instead of what he says! That's not unreasonable, right?]

What, you think Cecil the paladin is going to ask you to turn away from what you want? Or Rosa the white mage? Kain doesn't count because he doesn't know what he wants, but think about it! Baron, Fabul, Damcyan, Mysidia, anywhere could have used someone like you to help rebuild. But after everything we went through, who had the right to tell you not to do what you wanted?

[Eblan is very specifically not listed and thus very specifically the 'anywhere', of course. And Edge, of course, doesn't consider that he could've changed her mind... because as a King and as a man he couldn't beg, and once she'd decided what she wanted to do, begging was all he could have done.]

[ The gist of it is: they're both idiots in their own special way. ]

I'm not asking about everyone else.

[ Well, look at that. Miracles do happen. Albeit minor and not incredibly specific ones. She didn't even want anyone to ask her to stay. An invite was all she really needed and she'd gotten them from Cecil and Yang and Edward. Palom had opened his big mouth, too, and asked if she could come train with him (and then Porom had whacked him on the head and apologized for how brazen he'd been). And she would visit them all eventually because they were as much family as the ones who had taken to raising her after Mist's destruction.

But he'd ignored her. It still stung. ]

Why wouldn't you look at me.

[This is true, but it's hard to argue that he isn't the bigger idiot.]

[After all, he's convinced she knows what she could have, if she only asked. Hadn't he made it perfectly clear? By his standards, he sure had. So why didn't she understand that he wasn't happy that she'd turned him down? How is he supposed to react to that?]

Didn't want to spoil the wedding, that's all.

[ In the same breath that he'd flirt with her, he'd flirt with Rosa. It wasn't the same thing at all. How was she to know he was serious about her? In the same conversation he'd say something cheesy and stupid, something that felt lacking in any sort of genuine feeling and then he'd call her a child or insult her. ]

I thought we were friends.

[ She had no idea that he couldn't even talk to her without a whole evening being spoiled. ]

[Flirting with girls who are married in everything but name doesn't count!]

[If he were capable of admitting that he'd spent so very much time dwelling on her after she left, things might be different...]

I didn't expect you there. You caught me by surprise. I didn't even realize they could get a message to you.

[This is a truth, though, if not the entire truth.]

[ It does count and maybe they would be a little different if he were more honest with her -- in the dictionary definition of the word, not Edge definition of it. ]

That's no excuse.You could have said something! Everyone else talked to me -- Yang danced with me, even!

[ It's not good enough. She isn't sure what would be. She just thinks he was being a stubborn ass, feeling snubbed that she left. Or, maybe that he doesn't think too highly of the Feymarch, that he looks at them as monsters. ]

...I'm trying to understand you right now, I really am. [ She thinks it's being stuck here, with him. Although she could just as easily throw her hands in the air and leave it as it is. She doesn't need more stress right now. ]

[Sadly, the life of a clan leader and royalty doesn't often allow for honesty like that. You can't tell your men you're scared, or that you don't know how to get through a crisis, no matter how true it is.]

[He runs a hand down his face, though, because he knows the answer to this one.]

If I'd asked you to dance, you'd have just rolled your eyes and said something about how I was just trying to add one more girl to my dance card.

[ Spoilers: Rydia is not one of your men. ]

How do you know? [ No, he's probably right. ] And would you have actually asked or would you have said something stupid like you did when I first showed up here!

[ Basically, she knows he wouldn't have just asked. He would have said something that made it seem like it was a privilege to be asked by him or some stupid, cheesy pick-up line that she knew he didn't mean. ]

[Nope, but when your teams consists of people like Cecil and his brother issues, or Kain and his mind-control issues, it works out the same in many respects...]

You just answered your own question with your second statement.

[His exasperation is tempered by being right, which is something. He's finding it a lot easier to stay irritated when they talk by communicator, actually; it leads to less, uh, distraction on his part...]

No, I didn't.

[ All she did was get him to admit that he'd say something stupid instead of just asking her like a normal human being. Then again, that would mean he'd have to had something to her at all that night. She tries not to sound or look too bitter. It's not really becoming of her. ]

You ignored me. Do you think I approached you because I didn't want to see you? [ She's so stuck on this. It feels like she can't move forward until there's some sort of resolution. All she wants his him to admit he was wrong. ]

...I think the fact that I didn't hit on you as soon as I saw you confused you terribly.

[Okay, this is kind of honest and even a little self-aware. Lately he'd been hitting on girls purely for the sake of form, like a comfortable routine to convince himself that everything is normal and all right. It didn't work at all, and it had kind of clued him in to how much he'd flirted with her before.]

Right. That's it. That's my real problem, Edge. You didn't say something that made me uncomfortable or upset and that's what I'm angry about.

[ It's true, to some degree. But it isn't that he didn't flirt with her, it's that he didn't say anything at all. She's being honest here, for the most part. At least as honest as she's currently emotionally aware of. ]

When you're willing to admit that you were a jerk and apologize to me, you know where to find me. [ She doesn't think that it's much to ask. She pauses, deciding that it doesn't matter if it fits in or not. It's true. She'd wanted to say it then and she wanted to say it now, so she will. ] I missed you.

[He's kind of getting mixed messages here. Which, in his opinion, he's been getting from her since almost the beginning...]

[He looks down and away again.]

When you left for the Feymarch, I figured I'd never see you again. Seeing you at the wedding... was a shock. [To put it mildly.] You just get used to the idea that someone's gone forever, and then they pop back up. And you know once they leave again, then you're never gonna see them again. How do you pick up for just one day?

But seeing you here... again... I started to get the feeling our story isn't quite over yet.

[It's a complicated and extremely roundabout way of explaining himself -- both why he'd tried to avoid her at the wedding, and why he hadn't here. Is it an admission he was wrong? Well... not in HIS mind, of course, but he's not going to avoid her a second time.]

[ She's kind of been getting them since the beginning, too. To her, he's just a flirt. He's friendzoned because of the behavior he so frequently displays aside from that, the mixed signals, the bragging, the inability to say something that feels real, and of course, the way he gives himself so easily to anger. If he put forth any effort, really, that was his ticket.

It seems like he might be learning. Growing up just a bit. ]

All you had to do was say "don't be a stranger." Or, or something. [ Maybe her parents were right, maybe she did belong with humans. At least part of the time. If her desire to see him, see Cecil, see everyone again was so strong, who was she to deny something so simple as being in another person's presence? ]

You make a choice. You either make the most of that time and hope it leads to more of it or you can turn away and regret it. [ She doesn't mean to be conceited, but she'd like to think that he would have. And that he'd dwell on it. It bothers her that she cares at all. ] What was I meant to think other than you hated me? No one else had avoided me.

[ Edge was the only one she was certain would feel the same about her. He was the only one she thought she could count on to remain the way she remembered him. Funny how that went. ]

...you'll be seeing a lot more of me, so I'd like it if you could attempt to stop acting like that. Maybe be a little more honest. At least for a bit. [ She neglects, again, to inform him of her situation. She's feeling him out first. ]

[Sighing, Edge reaches out a hand; his Hebby Repp passes him the swords he'd dropped what seems like a lifetime ago. He sheathes them, using the gesture as an excuse not to look at the communicator.]

Maybe you'll be less of a stranger when you haven't lived months from one day to the next... Maybe it'll be easier to make the most of our time when we have a little bit closer to the same amount.

[If not for the time difference between the Feymarch and here, he might have taken things much differently. Convincing himself she'd come back would have been easy, after all, with the right combination of willful denial and egotism. If she'd gone somewhere he could have visited himself, even easier; what girl could resist a dashing monarch swooping down on her to give her a ride in the Falcon?]

But this isn't just a reunion. We have troubles here. There are dangers and enemies to face. Not every waking moment like old times, but we're needed here.

[He assumes she'll join the fight willingly and without hesitation... the same he'd assume it of anyone he liked and respected. Childish though he may be in some ways, Edge still has the ironclad determination and sense of right that makes some decisions easy for him no matter how conflicted others might be.]

[ For once, she's a little thankful for him to be avoiding her. For once, she's thankful that part of his expression is obscured by a mask. ]

Maybe you should try listening to what I just said. [ There's a bitter aftertaste in her mouth and her words are barked out just the same. Quick, almost ashamed. Not just that, though. She's still angry. He is still judging her, making judgements for her, acting as if he has the right to when he doesn't even hear the words she says.

Rydia folds her arms defensively, wrapping them a little too tightly for it to look like she's more angry than upset. ]

As far as I'm concerned, nothing is like "old times."

[ This time, she can't put forth the effort to sound bitter. It's just tired and sad. Rydia will fight (of course she will). She was thrust into this without a choice. Given one, she likely wouldn't turn around. She had abilities that could be of use and to deny them would be denying herself. For her, it is a natural choice. It's part of her self-identity. And she longs for those days where they would travel together and sleep beside the glow of a fire. This was the closest that she'd get to it. ]

Now you're the one who insists that everything be different.

[At this point it takes an effort of will not to draw his swords again, just because he's very used to having a weapon in his hands when his adrenaline is this high. But even angry, he knows that wouldn't be cool at all.]

Look, this isn't the wedding and things aren't like that. I'm not ignoring you now... [And he hopes he doesn't regret that when this all ends, and it's back to how things were, with him alone on his throne and her happy deep in the Feymarch.]

[His anger is always brief, intense flashes, and this one has peaked and is guttering out. Exhaling, he lifts a hand to his forehead as if to ward off pain.]

I never meant to upset you, you know. Not in my nature to see a pretty girl unhappy. If I'd known you wanted me to talk to you so badly...

[He can't finish this, because even he knows that after plenty of timing pining, he wouldn't have been able to deliver one of his usual lines like normal. Like he had when he'd first seen her here, which was only possible because he'd had so much to finally get his mind off her since he showed up here. (And almost no girls to flirt with, then despair because they weren't her.)]

[It's sort of an apology? At least he finally acknowledged his actions hurt her...]

And you're the one who insists on making it that way!

[ She can hear it in his voice. It's the same heated tone she gets. Sometimes she thinks they'd understand one another better if they took it to the battlefield instead of attempting to vocalize whatever current issue was at hand. ]

You can't very well ignore me now. [ Which is to imply that if they were home, if the others were here, none of this would be an issue. She legitimately believes that he would continue to avoid her to the greatest extent possible.

His anger is one of the reasons she doesn't take him seriously. Or, perhaps why she sometimes takes him too seriously. ]

There you go again. [ Maybe if he hadn't included the part about seeing a pretty girl unhappy, but that is in his nature. Even implying that it's only one-sided, that only she wants to speak to him. She'd have let it slide. She thought about everyone while she was in the Feymarch; admittedly, a great deal of those thoughts were toward Cecil. She tried not to think much on Edge, especially after their run-in at the wedding.

But he always popped up at the most inopportune times. Cooking, cleaning, playing with the children, eating. Thinking about anything other than him. What was he doing, what was he thinking, was he playing pranks on his seneschal again? Then his ninjitsu, how it's so scarily like magic but not. How she has only the vaguest memories of him without that mask of his on. She could read his tone, but there was always something in someone's eyes and mouth. She hates to admit that he's gotten under her skin, she hates that it feels like there's something missing and there's something they almost have, but not quite. She doesn't understand it.

She clears her throat and tries to look at him, but can't manage to look directly into the screen. ]

...when you get the chance, I would like to see you.

There's a tea shop. [He says this so quickly he's obviously been thinking of it for a while now. And no matter how irritated or upset they might get at each other, he'll still absolutely leap at the chance to go out with her, questionable as that description might be.] I know, not the kind of place you'd imagine me in, but it's good. It'd be great.

...even if it seems more natural to go fight a bunch of Nightmares together.

[He doesn't really know much about her likes and dislikes, or what she's like off the battlefield. But then, he also knows Rydia is not terribly complicated. And he doesn't mean that as an insult, because to him it just means she's a sweet, kind girl but with plenty of spirit, through and through.]

[ For the first time since this conversation started, she smiles. Small, and gentle, only made more obvious by how she closes her eyes and nods. ]

No, I think it suits you. [ Somehow, it did. She liked to imagine that every now and then, even he tired of his own behavior and acted like an adult. ] I've always enjoyed being with everyone when we aren't fighting, you know. I wish we'd had more time together.

[ The second time, she doesn't mean everyone. Just him. As for her interests, most of them are very heavily focused to what he already knows: magic and Eidolons. She likes nature, she likes animals. She likes to read and she likes to fight. She isn't much of a cook, but she enjoys some of the things she's learned along the way -- how to bake bread, can fruit, or dry meats. Mostly, she doesn't think she enjoys staying in one place too long, despite the fact that she loves the Feymarch (and Mist).

She bounces a little, rocking on her feet. The kind of gesture she often saves for when she speaks to Cecil while looking a little starry-eyed. ]

I'd like to get a treat for this animal that's been following me first, though. [ She turns the screen to the Meow Wow that looks positively thrilled that she's showing it any attention. In that sense, he's like most people. ] From what I gather, he's mine. Cute, right?

[She's pretty when she smiles. She's pretty when she's happy. As pretty as any girl Edge ever knew, and then some. It's not just looks that keep him completely hooked on her, but they sure contribute.]

[Of course, he'd never guess she meant 'we' as 'her and him', since she... hasn't had any overt interest in that particular party configuration, not that he could tell. Then again, by now Edge's inability to read between the lines is perfectly clear.]

[Dream Eaters! Dream Eaters are a nice, neutral conversation topic! He practically jumps on it with relief.] Oh yeah, your Spirit. Here's mine! [He turns the communicator down to point at his Hebby Repp.] Great backup. Good companions, at that. Ha, come to think of it, I've been carrying the Figments around to make a couple others since I played that rigged game back at the party we had here...

[ She frankly has never really noticed that's how he feels. It's hard to pick through the flattery and find something that feels real to her. It's easier when it's just them, though.

Sometimes, she think he might not be too unattractive if she could see the rest of his face when he smiles. ]

Feels a little strange, everyone else having their own summons of sorts. [ Rydia holds her tongue and doesn't make a comment on the similarity between his spirit and a snake. She could tease well and fine, but after such a heated argument? They both could rest. ] Rigged? And somehow you managed to not be a victim?

[ A pause as she crouches to pet hers. ] I was thinking I might name him Von Muir. [ Of course she would name it after someone she knows. Whether she could get away with it or not was debatable... ]

Edited (I know how to use html, I swear.) 2013-11-01 16:53 (UTC)

Of course I was a victim! I didn't win the grand prize! [He might be a little petulant, but if she wants genuine from him, she couldn't get more genuine than his indignation at not winning a throwing contest. Of course, his only proof that it was rigged was his failure to win... but honestly, credit where it's due, that's probably proof enough.]

Guess I ought to go get the pieces made into something. Make introductions all around.

You sound a little bitter! [ She has to find out what kind of contest it was, now. She imagine it's something that would attack his pride: stealth, speed, ninjutsu or maybe throwing. Either way, she's enjoying it a little too much. It feels like they're on one of the airships again, discussing some event they stumbled upon in a town not long ago. ]

...Edge? How long have you been here? [ She'd been itching to ask the moment she found out that some people had been here for several months. It was just a little hard to do that when they were being unrelenting toward one another. But she's starting to move as she speaks, toward that tea shop. She doesn't know if he's there yet, but she can wait. ]

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