ohmyarceus | January - February Test drive

[As always, it is difficult to read her properly as they stand there in silence. He doesn't think she will refuse him, exactly, not when there are not many others from Fodlan who could tell her more about this strange land, but... Well, that doesn't mean he has any idea on what her reply will be either.]

[It feels a bit like being tugged off-balance slightly by the wave - her initial words, the smile, the actual agreement. They almost seem in contrast to each other, somehow, or maybe that is merely his own unease at seeing such an unexpected figure here.]

[Well, it is not as though he can let himself be in that state forever. Dimitri nods, leading her over to one of the picnic tables. Politely, he waits for her to sit down first, as only seems proper.]

[Their titles may not mean anything here, with his own might even on level with hers according to some, but still. It is only polite.]

[He follows soon after, with Kent gently floating down towards the tabletop once Dimitri is seated properly. Unlike his trainer, he doesn't seem particularly bothered at all by the current events. Instead, there's still just that sleepy and calm expression on his face as he tilts his head up to look at Rhea with a kind of idle observation.]

I understand this may be sudden, and difficult to understand at first, but I have a question, Lady Rhea. What was the last thing you remember in Fodlan, before you arrived here...?

[He leads and Rhea follows, still cycling through the potential plethora of questions he may offer in her direction. With some care, she seats herself, and it doesn't take particularly long for her ralts to find way into her lap, where she protectively holds it. She finds her attention lingering between Kent and Dimitri with contemplation. Eventually, it halts on the former and curiously she offers over her hand to the munna with patience that he might get to know her, or acquaint himself at his leisure.

When Dimitri next addresses her, eventually her eyes fall back onto him. A heavily-weighted question for certain, though she supposes there are a great number more that could be more so. A woman never quite so free with her information, she does not feel, even in the present moment, that changing such habits would be beneficial. Although she suspects who she is, what she is, these things in this world may not matter. Perhaps they do not exist at all. There are few ways to determine the truth of things, and surely not ways to do so inconspicuously.]

Well—

[Her head tilts and she thinks before she finds her voice once more.]

Are my memories so important? It would seem you may intend to use them for comparison purpose. I remember you, though not quite like this.

[Not a particularly enlightening answer, he has to say... He supposes that is also not surprising. Even back down in the holy tomb, it seemed as though Rhea kept things close to her chest. Even with the Professor sitting upon that throne, her reaction back then...]

[If he asked her about that, would there be a point? An answer? What if she has not even reached that part of her life yet?]

[He can't let himself get sidetracked.]

They are indeed, Lady Rhea. This place... deals with more than the travel between different lands. People can arrive here from the same place, having spent most of their lives together, and yet recall very different points in those same lives.

For example... One person can come from the start of a war, and another can be from the aftermath.

[He glances back down to Kent, who has taken the time to shift forward just enough to extend his snot for some short sniffs. Perhaps it is mere bias, but he likes to look to his Pokemon to see if things are going well. Kent doesn't seem particularly bothered, or distrustful... But then, Kent doesn't seem bothered by much, often.]

...It has been five years since I last saw you, Lady Rhea, down in the tomb.

[What sort of aftermath lies at the end of whatever the Empire's ultimate goal is? What sort of world does Edelgard hope to create? What sort of future? Little more than to undo all of Rhea's timeless attempts to where she has driven the masses toward.

Mere recollection stirs her. She knows very well of what he speaks. Of how she thought her very heart might burst when Byleth took the throne of her mother. The reflection of that warmth she has, for so long, gone without, despite the presence of Seteth and Flayn at her side. How pieced together will she remain here without them?

Rhea hardly wishes to find out.

The smile she offers to Kent is a subdued one, though no less kind than it has been since crossing fated paths with Dimitri.]

I remember of what you speak. [She confirms for him.] I am here now, am I not? As I have only arrived recently, allow me time before you should think to press me for much more. Regardless, it seems we remember things as they were, the Empire's animosity. A grave betrayal that I never foresaw.

...If I may speak frankly, Lady Rhea, I have pressed you for very little. But very well.

[At least this much is... something. The start of the war is clearly in the past for her. Was she captured? Did she go into hiding? Some other mystery, much like what happened to the Professor?]

[Dimitri doubts he will be the one to get such answers out of her. While he was raised in politics, Rhea is clearly a woman who is not unused to them, if her careful way of speaking is any indication. Perhaps that is something that comes with being the leader of an entire religion]

[He will simply leave that task for Claude, and see if he fares any better. Claude has quite the talent for hammering out secrets, after all, and he is more than persistent enough.]

[Either Claude will get his answers, or Rhea will regret knowing other people. One or the other.]

[For now, Dimitri shakes his head.]

At any rate... How have you been fairing in this place? It is quite unlike Fodlan.

[And it is a hard thing to imagine someone like Rhea making her way through it like he did, or any of them did, before they came to rely on their Pokemon companions. He cannot envision her working on plumbing, or serving drinks at a bar, or...]

[...Hm. He is not sure what it says that he can imagine her taking Felix's way of beating others in battle for money.

[She finds no reason to argue or otherwise counter his sharp response. It is frank, at the very least. She has her own reasons for keeping her information to herself. Much of it, perhaps, is for the sake of maintaining her own restraint. Her other reasons for doing so...

Well. Unnecessary to dive into considering that Dimitri is willing to let it pass for now. That will not work a second time, she suspects. Although she is the archbishop, there will come a time, a day, in which Dimitri and the others will demand answers of her and she will need to have ready a worthy explanation. She cannot simply get away with having none to provide.]

It is very unlike our home. [She agrees with him, a gentle nod provided in his direction.] I am able to make my way as it is necessary, though it seems many have determined that I stand out. I am enjoying travelling, however. That was not something I could have done in Fódlan.

[Not entirely true. She could have, perhaps, if she'd genuinely wanted to. If she'd thought it was safe to do so. If she could have done so without escort.]

No... It is not. That is something I can understand well.

[Even if he had just been the prince of a kingdom, the one who would be its ruler one day, Dimitri knows that he never would have been allowed to wander so freely. That had only become more true with him being the last remaining holder of the Blaiddyd Crest, with his parents having been slaughtered like pigs in the mud. Who could let him go out on his own, lest the same fate befall him?]

[Funny, how that sort of thing had not mattered in the end - whether he went off on his own, or stayed in the Kingdom around those he could apparently trust.]

[Well... It was not as though he trusted most of the people who hung around close to Fhirdiad Castle anyway.]

Still... The woman whose home you awoke in, surely she must have given you a chance of clothing? It may very well not be what you are used to, Lady Rhea, but hopefully it should be serviceable clothing..

Yes, I suspect you very much do understand.

[A prince, after all. Regardless of Rhea's position in the Church of Seiros, she is no princess. No queen. And yet, this is something they can have in common. She wonders, for just some moments, if she had been more inclined to speak of her wants five years prior and then some, if she would have been able to form a better relationship with these students. She feels as if she is only just now getting an opportunity to know them.

...More than official documentation, that is.]

It was offered to me, yes. [Rhea nods with a small smile.] I am afraid that I am partial to my wear. Perhaps in time that will change. For now, however, I find comfort in the things that are familiar.

[Yes. She believes she can get away with allowing such truths to be free of her. Perhaps such things will 'humanise' her.]

If that is what you wish. [It isn't as though he can force anyone into doing anything else.] But if your health were to falter due to the winter chill, there are people who would be upset at such an event.

[~~And Dimitri doesn't want Catherine to murder him~~]

...What drew you to the Ruins of Alph, if I may be so bold as to ask? Simple curiosity? [Since she seems so averse to giving answers, Dimitri supposes he may as well give his own.] Kent is a native to these lands, so I thought perhaps he would like to see them again. It has been over a year... at least, for he and I.

[Kent blinks sleepily once more, making a soft noise of agreement.]

[His words of concerned reminder, which is how she chooses to interpret them, do not go unheeded. Rhea makes a note to perhaps see if there is a way to make something similar to her normal apparel, perhaps just a touch heavier to host her in the cold. He's right, after all. She suspects she has caused him and the others from Fódlan more than a little duress in her absence.

Rhea's attention turns onto his new line of questioning.]

It may sound a little silly for me to say, yet when I heard about the ruins, I thought a little of the Holy Tomb. I had thought coming to pay visit might have allowed me in finding a feeling similar to our homeland.

[In short, Rhea has been looking for something familiar. Something to stabilise herself in an otherwise uncertain world. True solitude is a feeling unfamiliar to her. She has had Seteth and Flayn for longer than most others would know and before them, there were others. And once, there were her brethren. A Rhea on her own does not necessarily know how to proceed on this pathway without the company of those she trusts.]

It sounds as though you and... Kent— [She turns her attention back onto his munna with a fond look.] —are close. You claim it has been over a year since you have come to this place. How long have you been here, Dimitri?

The Holy Tomb... I see. I suppose I can see that, in some ways. Yet, in my experiences, it is something much more different than what lay beneath Garreg Mach.

[Is there anywhere in Johto that would remind him of his own homeland? Of Faerghus? When it comes to the natural parts of the land, yes, but that is not quite the same thing, he thinks. No stone fortresses, no simple villages... Even the small towns have a style that is completely different from what he grew familiar with.]

[And the Ruins of Alph are even stranger and older than all of it. Would some of the truly old and abandoned valleys of Fodlan be comparable? He supposes that is the strongest point.]

[Kent blinks up when attention is focused on him again, making another low murmur of a hum.]

I have been here for... a little over a year. It was only a few months ago that it was that exactly, with my arrival having been in the middle of the autumn months.

[He rests his hand gently along the curve of Kent's body, stroking behind his head gently.] ...It is an amazing place. I would take its knowledge to Faerghus, if I were capable of it.

[Just the medicine alone... That would change so much about his kingdom. At least, so long as they could finish the war.]

[Without a doubt, his observations are on the mark. There's not much here at all that makes her think of Fódlan. It's an entirely fruitless endeavour to attempt finding something that should bind her to home. The Ruins of Alph are... only similar in the way that they are ruins. Beggars cannot be choosers and through no fault of her own, Rhea is not in a position where she can be particular.

Instead, her attention moves from Kent and onto Dimitri, taking in with care and thought the information he chooses to offer her. It is difficult to imagine any of them being missing for a year, though she suspects that it's not like that at all. After all, was it not five years at least in which she has not seen him, or the others? She shakes her head slowly. It's all a little difficult to believe, but impossible to refute given what she's faced with in the present.

This is no fever dream, as much as she might like to claim that it is.]

You seem to think of this place highly. [That's an observation only, though...] It sounds as if you intend to remain here.

It is hardly a choice of mine, Lady Rhea.

[And his desires are more... complex than that. He knows he has a duty to go back to Faerghus, to Fodlan as a whole, because he cannot make up for everything he has done otherwise. He cannot fulfill his promise to Dedue if he stays here.]

[Still... If only he could bring back even a portion of the knowledge in Johto back...]

[That is besides the point, really, and he surveys her as he tries to decide how to explain the bizarre situation that everyone here is in.]

Much like how you found yourself suddenly arriving here... People will often vanish, back to their own homelands, with no rhyme or reason to it. Much like the arrival, the departure is a mystery to those of us brought here. They find themselves right back in the time and place they last recalled.

[Hardly a choice of his and yet she suspects that with or without a choice, Dimitri is not at all clamouring to make his way back to their homeland. She doesn't know how she feels about that. Returning is about all she can think about, but that is purely from a self-centred point. Here, in this place, she has no power, no influence, nothing to sway others with. Here, she is met with a good deal of distrust—something she objectively deserves—and that only emphasises how out of place she is.

If she had to choose, the way forward would be utterly clear.

Her eyes linger on his for several long moments as he clarifies. If she's surprised, it doesn't show in her expression. The only thing she seems to display is a touch of wistfulness in the features of her face.]

I see. I had hoped such things were untrue.

[In this, she has no reason not to believe him. He stands to gain nothing from lulling her with falsehoods.]

It would appear I will have a great deal to learn about how things are in this world. At least, for the time that I will be in it. Perhaps for my sake, such a time will be brief. I am most of value in our world.

[Clamoring to get back home so soon... Not even a trace of interest for the incredible things in this land. Not technology, not people, not the creatures. Not even any of them arrived in this place to start with. Or perhaps her priorities are simply so much stronger than his own.]

[Is that admirable? As he looks across to the serene and carefully kept woman in front of him, Dimitri supposes it is. Many parents wish their children could find a goal in life, and push forward towards it. (As long as it's the right goal, that they approve of, of course.) And yet he wonders if there were any other chance for her.]

[...There are many things he disagrees with her on. With the Church of Seiros on. Small nests of bitterness and anger that dwell in his chest. Still, he also knows what it is like to be shackled to a road.]

Your absence will not be noticed, Lady Rhea. When you are taken back to Fodlan, it will be as if you never left.

...So you could do whatever you liked here, if you had not a chance to do it before.

January - February Test drive

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