ohmyarceus | January - February Test drive

[The Ruins of Alph are one of Felix's favorite places in Johto, because that's where the greatest wild population of Honedge and their evolutions live. So once in a while, he likes to travel here and find some who will duel with him and his Doublade.

That is, in fact, the scene Rhea will come upon as she moves further into the ruins: Felix, wielding a sturdy wooden training sword and dueling with a wild Honedge while his Doublade takes on another Doublade nearby.

Eventually, Felix and his Doublade win the fight, leaving the wild Pokemon to slink off into the ruins and lick their wounds, figuratively speaking. He tucks the wooden blade into his belt and turns, only to stop and stare at the woman standing there. He hadn't even noticed anyone there, let alone--]

Archbishop??

[She expects to find historical tales, runed architecture, and other related fields of knowledge. What she finds instead, purely by sound alone, is Felix. Doing precisely what she's known him to do. That is, he has a reputation, and it seems regardless of where he may be, he's still living up to it.

Rhea watches him quietly, seemingly content enough to take in the sight. It's familiarity. In familiarity there is comfort. Stability. Security. Although his own thoughts of her, whatever importance or lack thereof that she may hold to him, she doubts he would mirror the same. There always was a line drawn between herself and the students under tutelage.]

Felix.

[She acknowledges him with a nod, taking the moments to examine him. Not unlike Dimitri, there are some... changes. Some. Although he looks very much the same as he did when he was younger.]

I see that even here, you are making a habit of this.

[Training. Sparring. Duelling. Whatever one may wish to call it.]

Edited (wrong 'here,' you didn't see that) 2022-01-14 22:01 (UTC)

[Felix has generally never given the Archbishop much thought. He's not particularly devout, and she always seemed to keep her distance from almost everyone. More recently, Rhea came up in discussions of whether the army should march on to Enbarr with the tenuous hope of finding her there or retake Fhirdiad first. Felix never made a secret of which side of that debate he was on, though he never wished the woman ill. She was just less important than the entire Kingdom; not important enough to risk their victory for.

He gives a nod to his Doublade, which sheathes itself in the scabbards on his belt, and approaches a bit closer. She looks exactly the same as she always did.]

Even in a place like this, I would be a fool to allow my blade to dull. It could be needed at any time. Did you only recently arrive?

[Barely a pause, before he goes on--]

Is Seteth with you?

[She takes several long moments to assess his Doublade. It suits him. Did he pick it himself, she wonders? It wouldn't surprise her to know that he had. If it was granted to him purely by coincidence, it would prove to be a point of amusement.

When he moves closer, she feels her posture—already proper, already straight—only intensify. Even in the face of the kindness she's worn on the outside, she has understood well enough that when she must carry herself strong and imposing, it is a necessity. It would be all too convenient for others to perceive her and find weakness. Of all the things Rhea is, weak is not one of them.

She nods to the first question, and to the second—]

Regrettably, he is not. [Not that she's expected him to be. There is a certain kind of comfort and stability she finds in the presence of those she would consider family. Without them, even she must admit that she feels only in part herself.] I was unaware you were so close with him.

[As much as she's unaware of most things dealing with the students who once were under her care. Purely... self-imposed.]

[Felix is surprised to find, as he comes closer, than Rhea is no taller than he is, if he doesn't count her hat. From a distance, she always looked so much taller and more imposing, like a statue. But here, closeby and just standing in some ruins rather than at a pulpit or up on a balcony, she looks a lot more like an ordinary person.

He doesn't bother to hide his disappointment upon hearing her response, not that he really expected it to be anything else.]

He is...a mentor, I suppose.

[That's a significant understatement, but whatever.]

Shall I assume Flayn isn't here either?

A mentor.

[She regards him with some thought. Perhaps she finds in it a pleasant surprise. Seteth would likely be flattered to be thought of like so. With her hands carefully clasped together, she finds her head shaking once more.]

She is not. It is only me.

['Only.' As if she is some very mere presence. In this world, she suspects she may very well be precisely that. Mere in the broad spectrum of things. Her feelings on things being as they are, are conflicted at best. Her homeland lacks what little guidance she can provide without her presence, and in this place she has no power.

A powerless feeling is a strange one to experience.]

I believe I would make for a poor sparring partner.

[But she does manage to wear a small curve of the mouth.]

Hm. Not exactly 'only' you. There are many of us from Fodlan here.

[Felix gives her a wry little smile in return.]

Flayn is hardly what I would call a good sparring partner, either. Still...her insight is valuable. Particularly in a place like this, where there's little fighting to be done.

[He tilts his head, thoughtful.]

What's the last thing you remember from home? We've found that everyone tends to come from different points in time. Sometimes from different versions of Fodlan, as well, where events happened differently.

Are there?

[In the way she asks it, it's not her sceptical of his response. It's more contemplative in nature. Who. How long. Their own recollections of her. There are a great many things to consider. For several breaths, she simply rests on his words.

Her smile grows when he speaks of Flayn with such... Rhea chooses to perceive it as admiration.]

She would like it a great deal, if that is true.

[One could say that to fight, to battle is an evil necessity. Others can make the argument that there should always be another one. Sometimes idealism cannot be the path to travel.

When his question snags her attention once more, she watches him with a degree of care. She's watching his every reaction. Assessing. Gauging. Studying.]

I see. [She begins.] That must all be quite complicated. I could not claim to have seen you as you are now. Only that you have not changed so much. [It's not much of an answer at all, but perhaps that is to be expected.]

[Felix nods, far less contemplative than Rhea is. He sees no reason to keep things from her, but he's not one to think ahead in a conversation and offer answers before the questions are asked - that's just not the way his mind works.]

Nearly the entirety of the Blue Lion class is here, including the professor, along with Claude von Riegan. ...oh. And Gloucester, I suppose. Lysithea was here for a while as well, but she's since gone home.

[The disdain for Lorenz is clear in his tone, though he certainly had none for Claude or Lysithea.

Felix wouldn't say he admires Flayn, but she did make him rethink some important things about what his life might be like if he survives the war, and those things have helped him deal with living in a realm without true battle. He appreciates her, perhaps.

When he glances back at Rhea, she's watching him, and he doesn't like it. Doesn't like the way her eyes seem to pick him apart. He doesn't like her vague answer to his question, either, nor does he grasp what she's getting at. One thing she'll definitely learn about Felix by studying him is that he's extremely easy to read.]

I don't understand what you're saying. Speak plainly. As I am now? What does that mean?

[Rhea nods along, though there's something very similar to a subtle pause when he makes mention of the professor. Oh. Is that so...? Why so many from one particular house? Why so few of the others?

...No Edelgard or those who are a part of her own? It's not enough information for Rhea to determine whether what she finds out is troublesome or not. What is the state of Fódlan in their absence? It's easy to imagine it falling into disarray without proper guidance.

And control.]

How peculiar.

[It gives her quite a lot to think about. It is a normal thing for her to be consumed by thought, though like many parts to her, it's likely that's not exactly public knowledge.

The turn of his expression does not go unnoticed. If she would call it that. Perhaps less a turn of expression and more simply that she can sometimes tell when she causes discomfort in others. Oddly enough, it is simply by doing nothing. At his question, she motions toward him, sweeping with arm from head to toe.]

I recall a young man with youth in his features. That was all I meant. You look similar, and yet there are differences.

[Felix's brow furrows. She remembers him younger? That could mean...well, it could mean she's from Lysithea's Fodlan, in which it was the Alliance who joined forces with the Church rather than the Kingdom. Or it could mean she's from before the war even began. That's an unsettling thought. No one else from home has been that far behind before.]

The last time you saw me was at the academy, then. How long ago was that for you? It's been over five years for me.

Perhaps it has been about the same.

[Rhea replies with consideration, a patient turn in her expression. His estimate is likely accurate, though she seems disinclined to provide much additional information beyond that. For her to seem forthright, however, has not often been her prerogative.]

I can say with certainty that it has been some time. I remember many of you younger, though five years is hardly much time.

[For her, five years is merely the blink of an eye it seems. In many ways, time feels like an irrelevant idea.]

[Felix is not a patient man by nature, and archbishop or not, she's starting to annoy him with how cagey she's being. Which seems bizarre, to him; they're on the same side, why would she be so reluctant to tell him anything? Maybe she's thinking like Claude was at the beginning?]

If you're concerned about altering the future, it's not an issue. No time passes at home while we're here; we go back to exactly the same point we left, and we don't remember anything from this place. So whatever you tell me about how the war was proceeding for you before you came here doesn't change anything back home.

[But then it occurs to him that from his perspective, she's been missing for five years. Presumed captured. Somehow, the way she seems just as unflappable and serene as ever suggested to him that she couldn't be from a point in the middle of the war, but...]

I haven't seen you for five years, either, because you went missing after the Empire's attack on the monastery and no one's found you yet.

[The same point they left. And they remember nothing of this place.

How can such a thing be? For some moments, Rhea doesn't appear terribly convinced. It would be convenient to say such a thing to her simply to get closer to the things she holds to her heart. Suffice it to say, there is no shortage of those things she has bound herself to. Perhaps to the point that it would be considered an unhealthy attachment.

She has very little reason to think he would speak falsely to her. ...Doesn't she? It was Edelgard who had pressed her so. It was Edelgard, after all, who stirred her to the point of such...

Rhea shakes her head slowly. With whom are Felix's alliances. Dimitri, perhaps? Would that not be for the better?]

The monastery was no longer a safe place for me. [She admits quietly, knowing very well it was not simply an attack on Garreg Mach. It was not simply an attack on the Church of Seiros. It was an attack on her personally and everything she stood for.] I apologise for having caused you and the others such hardship. I can tell you nothing more and I would request that you ask nothing further.

[Felix doesn't really care one way or the other whether she believes him - it's not like he can prove it. He just figured it would ease her mind to know that nothing was happening in Fodlan without her, as it had for the rest of them, and that she wouldn't be making some grave mistake if she said the wrong thing to the wrong person.

He looks at her with confusion, and just a hint of irritation.]

You can, you're just choosing not to, for reasons I don't understand. But what do you mean, the monastery wasn't safe? It was empty. Until Dimitri turned it into his own personal abattoir for Imperial intruders, anyway.

['Dimitri,' not 'the boar,' and there's far less venom in his tone now than there would have been before - though who knows whether Rhea paid enough attention to any of them to know the change is notable.]

[Rhea does not bother to contest his reaction. Mostly because he's right. She could, theoretically, share with him any number of her grand designs for humanity. For the necessity that bears responsibility down upon nobility and crest-bearers. For all of that she holds back from those around her. For even the things she refused to fully divulge to Seteth.

She shakes her head at him.]

I do not expect you to understand. There are reasons I could not return the way I would have wanted to. When it is the time for you to know these things, you will learn them and more.

[She fails to specify whether such things will come from her or others.]

Until then, perhaps you can practise your patience. I do know that I can tell you I suspected I could trust my safety in the hands of Dimitri.

[She cannot say the same for Claude or Edelgard. A clever tactician or a woman on a rampage against the things she loathed the most? Both are dangerous options.]

[For his part, Felix doesn't really care about whatever grand designs she may have; he just wanted to know whether she's from the same timeline as the rest of them or a different one, like Lysithea. But if she's going to be this cagey about it, it's not worth his time to argue over it.

Besides, once Claude finds her, there's no way he'll let her get away with this. The thought is strangely satisfying.

Still, the way she's condescending to him rubs him the wrong way. Seteth never spoke to him like that. He sets a hand on his hip.]

Hmph. I don't care about your deep, dark secrets, or whatever it is you think I'm not 'ready' for. Forget I asked.

[He shakes his head.]

If you've come here only recently, I imagine you might not yet be familiar with Pokemon battling. I wouldn't advise straying from the beaten path if you're not prepared to battle.

[Of all things, she can appreciate his... candour, even when it is accompanied by how very serrated he is with her. Felix is as sharp as the blades he is so fond of. Rhea does not provide him argument or anything that might otherwise stand against him. His distaste for her antics is not what she would consider an attack on her person. It is merely a dislike for something that is innately her. If not a dislike, then purely impatience.

In the years of his youth, she wonders what might have happened had she the courage to sit and tend to lunch with the academy's students the way she'd wanted to. Would she have been as stilted and stiff as she is now? She cannot pretend to be close to any of them. She cannot pretend that she was anything more to them than the archbishop they have always known her as.

She could think on it for ages and she suspects that she very much will, even as he turns her attention. In a way, Rhea is thankful for it.]

I am not. [She confirms for him easily.] That is what you were doing when I arrived, is it not? Is that why you are here?

[As things were, Felix barely spared a thought for the Archbishop when he wasn't in her direct presence, back at the academy. Seteth was the one who interacted with the students, and he was the one who had cared enough to observe Felix and reach out to him when he was alone. To him, Rhea was just a distant religious figure.

He would have been a lot more interested if he'd known how good she is with a sword.]

In a way. People don't normally battle them directly. I have forged a particular understanding with one of mine, a spirit that inhabits two blades, and he allows me to wield his blades by hand as weapons. But mostly, it's only the Pokemon who battle each other. You have one that started with you, I assume?

[Given his explanation, she is unsurprised with what he chooses to share. A pokemon that allows him to wield the blades themselves. It indicates that he has quite the close bond with this one in particular.

When he inquires about her own, her gaze drops and she moves her skirts just so that the ralts that's been following her since her arrival. It's a small little thing. A bit shy and reserved. Or perhaps that's simply 'stranger danger.']

This one here. Although I must confess that though it seems adamant to stay near me, we do not know much about one another.

[Truthfully, the ralts likely knows more about Rhea than the reverse.]

January - February Test drive

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