March - April Test Drive

[indigo_league]

➞ Post with a character you wish to test drive in this game's setting.
➞ Tag other people's starters and thread out shenanigans!
➞ Invite your friends! Try out new characters! Come play with us!
➞ Have fun!

NOT SURE WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR TEST-DRIVE JOURNEY?
CHECK OUT ALL THE LOCATIONS WE HAVE AVAILABLE IN:

JOHTO | KANTO | SEVII ISLANDS

Feel free to make various prompts in multiple locations!

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OTHER USEFUL LINKS:
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Comments

[pegasinister]

[The obvious threat with the cheer of an idiot- if there was any doubt this was Claude von Riegan it's gone now. Just pleasant enough that no one could call it a threat to his face without looking paranoid, but still exactly that.

Hubert hates it. He couldn't have the decency of at least being direct. It's genius in the exact way Hubert could never pull off. Not with his personality and... everything else. he leaned into his own strengths and he supposes Claude was doing the same.]

... I'll take it under consideration.

[vrdantwind]

[For all that Claude may be more adept at pulling off this kind of implicit threat than Hubert, the fact is that he's not nearly as interested as Hubert would be in doing so. He truly would rather get along with Hubert - and Edelgard, and everyone he can. He'd had enough hatred and people trying to kill each other before he'd ever even arrived in Fodlan. There's better ways to explore, better ways to be than that.

So when his threat clearly lands, and Hubert has no response to it...he can't help but feel a little bad about it. Strategically, the move was impeccable - it's why he chose to make it - but in terms of compassion, it's not great. Claude was the only Deer in this world for a long time, and it's not a great feeling being isolated even if the only people you know aren't necessarily hostile to you. He's not thrilled weaponizing that. And Hubert just got here. It's harsh hitting someone like this under these conditions...especially when what Claude ultimately wants is to not engage in aggressions with them.

So he tries softening his tone. Not in pity, because he thinks Hubert would have some kind of violent allergic reaction, but something a little more friendly, a little more welcoming.] It's a warning for your own good, y'know. Dimitri's here, and I can't say for sure that he's not still convinced Edelgard was somehow behind the Tragedy of Duscur. At the very least, he knows she was working with the people who were, and you get why that'd enrage anybody in his position. I honestly don't know how he'll react to you being here, but it probably won't be good for either of you until - unless - he understands some things better. With a little more nuance. That might be possible now in a way that wouldn't have been before, but it's gonna take some delicacy to get there. I wouldn't just spring yourself on him without warning. The other people in from the Kingdom who are here...well, they've got their own resentments regarding the Empire that they can hardly be blamed for, but how reasonable they will or won't be is a little harder for me to predict. Discretion's definitely not gonna hurt anybody here, though.

I'm willing to work with you here, Hubert. Not against anyone else, but with you all the same. I don't think there needs to be an 'against' anyone else, especially here. And I don't think the disconnect between us and Edelgard - and you - is as big as people have made it out to be. But everyone - Edelgard especially - has been pushing too hard, not explaining themselves, doubling down on the things they already think without letting any new thoughts in, and nobody's on the same page anymore. There's so much I'd like to know about where her head's been at, why she decided it was necessary to do the things she did. Obviously you aren't her, but you've got to know her and her reasoning better than anyone. There's a lot you could tell me, and a lot of good that understanding could do. Even for Edelgard herself.

[He grins a little.] And if you're worried about telling me things somehow betraying Edelgard, or giving me or anyone else an edge over her, you don't need to be. What happens here will only affect here - whether you consider that fortunate or not. But if she shows up here...well, for the reasons I already mentioned, it'd be to her benefit as much as anyone's to establish some diplomatic groundwork.

[pegasinister]

An exchange then? You want information in return for holding the Kingdom hounds at bay? How magnanimous of you, Claude.

[He knows that's not the truth. or at least not all of it. But he's... well, he's hurting. Seeing Byleth tore at something in him he didn't realize until now was exposed, and he wants to cause hurt in return. He doesn't need Claude's so called kindness or to get along with any of them. The Empire has already won- all he needs to do is maintain until he can return to his people. The real ones who truly matter to him.]

[vrdantwind]

No. I'll encourage them to try for diplomacy with you no matter what you do.

[This is uncharacteristically direct and honest for Claude, but that's the whole point - putting his cards on the table so that Hubert can see he's got nothing up his sleeves. He wants to keep the peace here; whether or not Hubert cooperates isn't really a factor in his own actions.

He's not hurt by the suspicion, or the accusation. Honestly, he'd have been more surprised if Hubert had immediately taken him at face value. But he is committed to convincing the man regardless of those suspicions, and the best way to do that is to give him truths he can't poke holes in.]

I want to learn more, and I'd like you to work with me - maybe help us all reach a level of understanding we've been missing this whole time - but I'm not holding anything for ransom to get it. I don't believe that's the only way left for us to cooperate.

[pegasinister]

Yet you said yourself: things that happen here only matter here. Is it memory loss if and when we return? Or something more insidious? Regardless, why bother with any so called 'peace' that won't matter where it truly counts?

[vrdantwind]

And what, you don't think the here and now counts for anything? Because I do. We have opportunities here we never had at home, and it'd be ridiculous to waste them no matter how temporary they might be. After all, what did any of us want back home? A bright future for Fodlan? Peace? To rid the country of the problems we saw with it? Those are all noble goals, and we threw everything into them, didn't we? But no matter what we achieved, it wouldn't last forever. New wars, new problems...they're all inevitable. Even if we win everything we could ever want in our lifetimes, it won't last forever. But that doesn't make whatever we can accomplish to make the world better in the time we have, with the power we have, meaningless.

That said...maybe it won't last. Maybe everything we do here, everything we learn and do and find here, will be lost when we return home. As you say, maybe it's memory loss, or maybe we're rewound to before it all happened, or something else. [Having learned certain things from Byleth, the idea of rewinding time isn't so strange.] But who knows? Maybe not. If it's a loss of memories...we may not consciously remember any of this, but maybe there will be lingering subconscious effects that will cling to us. Maybe those memories can be recovered. I'd like to think that if something matters here and now...it can never truly be erased. Not completely. But we'll never know what effect it could have in the long run if we don't bother doing anything important now because we're convinced it won't matter later.

Besides, are you really going to waste your time here just twiddling your thumbs, not bothering to do anything worthwhile, not trying to sell or explain Edelgard's ideals and motivations to anyone, waiting to go home to where doing those things will matter again? Sounds pretty boring. Even if none of it matters in the end, don't you want to see for yourself what you can accomplish here when you've got the chance to find out?

[pegasinister]

[Hubert listens to this without interruption, not even with his expression. He simply sits, his hands lacing together in front of his chin like he's watching Claude make a move in chess, not discussing the ramifications of their strange circumstances.

When he finishes Hubert still doesn't say anything or move, maybe still thinking. Maybe wanting to make him squirm. Eventually, just after it's been long enough to be uncomfortable:]

Very well. While I can't say I'm convinced by your arguement, you do have a point that I am not a man to sit idle. If you wish to hear what I say I suppose I'll answer your questions for now. But not over this device. In person, or not at all.

A without your new northern hounds as well.

[vrdantwind]

[Claude grins, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. 'Not convinced by his argument', huh? As though Hubert would go along with this, tell him anything at all, unless Claude's arguments had swayed him fairly significantly. As though Hubert has to indulge Claude's requests just to 'not sit idle'. Maybe the man's clinging to the plausible deniability of having some lingering doubts, but he's obviously more than convinced enough.

But Claude's getting what he wants from a notoriously prickly individual, and as tempting as it is to tease him, he's well aware that one wrong move could snap Hubert shut like a clam. He wouldn't put it past the man to get huffy about his bluff being called and change his mind just to prove how not convinced he is...or maybe just out of petty spite. Not worth risking just to have a laugh at Hubert's expense.]

Hey, c'mon, do you think I'm totally classless? Of course this is too important a conversation to have over the network. So how about tea? Just like the old days. We can even play a little chess, if you feel like it. I won't say I haven't missed our games.

Pretty flattering for you to call the Lions mine, though. I'm an outlier here, just like you. If anyone's adopted anyone else, it's probably the other way around. But I wasn't planning on bringing any of them along, don't worry.

[pegasinister]

[the corner of his mouth curls up a bit at the idea of chess]

I'd be agreeable to that. I've been lacking in passable rivals since the war started.

[he pauses, thinking]

As for if they are "yours" or not, we will see.

[is his opinion of Claude that high or of the Lions that low?]