faterecanted | [action/accidental voice] backdated to the 12th

[action/accidental voice] backdated to the 12th

[action, for Nephry only]

[This morning, there is a suspicious looking Van lurking at the rear of the grocery store. A shady meeting has been arranged, you see, to pass over some goods. He's acting a bit twitchy, though. He'd really rather not be caught in the act. He's got one hand in his pocket, tapping his foot while he looks over the produce, pretending to be interested.]

[/lovebirds]

[Around mid-morning, there will be a sight potentially very disturbing to those familiar with both people involved: Van and Nephry, strolling down the riverbank, looking rather... cozy. He's actually offered her his arm. Which she has taken, without even hesitating to think about it. It isn't some sort of formal escort situation, either - she's leaning in, just enough to be conspicuous.]

I don't see any reason to tell them. [He actually laughs.] Not yet. I'll be your dirty little secret. Doesn't every politician have a few?

[Her return laugh is brighter than any of her friends might have heard in a long time.] Secrets of the state are usually less...incriminating. I do try to be honest. I suppose...just this once isn't going to hurt anyone. [Might help - she knows a person or four who wouldn't be pleased with this new arrangement.]

[He stops and pulls her closer, leaning in in a way that should be menacing, given just who it is doing it; but his expression is soft, and when he speaks, his voice is low and gentle with good humor.] Incriminating? ...That's one word for it. But not here. Not now.

No. [Ordinarily, being this close to the man who nearly succeeded in destroying her world would be something to fear. There is no fear, or even caution, in this smile.] This is...different.

[With a sigh, he wraps both arms around her, tightly. It's perhaps a bit forward of him... but then Van has always been bad about staying in his proper place.] Perhaps 'different' is what we all need in our lives.

[Now being an excellent time for someone to interrupt them and let them know their private conversation is being broadcast. Before they do something awful, like get even cozier and more contemplative.]

(OOC: Joint post! If you have a preference for which one of these unlikely lovebirds replies, please note it in the subject line. Otherwise, there's no telling who you may get. Remember to drive carefully, now, and watch for falling threadjacks.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Maybe the first ever and last ever time someone asks about Vandesdelca Musto Fende's history and giggles. He hesitates over that, with a pensive expression; but he can't shake the lingering feeling that if he can't tell this woman, then who can he tell?]

My past is largely... unpleasant. [As is his present, and his future.] But for you, if you truly wish to know...

I would wager that I know a bit more about you than you do about me. ...And no, not all of it is pleasant. [That hasn't managed to wipe the smile from her face, however.]

...I just believe in...hearing the full story. In trying to understand things from the point of view of all sides. [The hand now free of apple turnover rests against the arm in hers.] Don't feel forced to tell me.

[He finishes his own half of the turnover, using the time he needs to chew to really mull the situation over. This is all very personal; not that he's opposed to it, but in a way, kissing her would be less personal than this.

Eventually, he covers her hand with his own.]

No, I don't feel forced to tell you. Don't feel forced to listen. There are certain subjects... Some of what you know may be a lie. I wasn't always honest with Tear. I had my reasons.

I have it on good authority that Jade hasn't always been honest with me, either. ...And I could say the same for myself. So it isn't going to destroy my opinion of you.

[He takes a deep breath and, for the first time in a very long time, fights down that fidgety feeling of being about to screw something up badly. If both his hands weren't in full view, he might even be crossing his fingers right now. He doesn't think she's lying... but he really doesn't want her to think poorly of him. Or at least, not too poorly to keep him around, even though he's bad and she knows she shouldn't. He could live with that.

Instead, he leans his head down towards hers, in a way that still manages to look less confident than he wants it to. Telling, given what an accomplished actor he is.]

So. What is it you want to know? [It's only polite to let the lady ask first.]

[It's clear he's uncomfortable with this, even with assurance that he won't be judged unfairly. Nephry looks up at him with a calm smile.]

First, I want to know what it was that you wanted to know so badly.

[She's just so good. It makes him nervous, in the best possible way.]

I- Everything. [Doesn't he sound silly?] ...Your childhood, what was it like? What I know, I know about Governor Osborne. I'd like to know about Nephry.

I don't think it was...much more eventful than what you probably already know. Keterburg isn't always a friendly climate. ...My brother and his friends did the best they could, I think, with a little girl tagging along after them most of the time.

An eventful childhood isn't an enviable one. What did you do, growing up in that climate? I'll admit, I haven't seen much snow in my life.

We went to school, and built things in the snow, and came inside well after we were too cold to play anymore. ...Not too long after the Professor's death, my brother and Saphir left for the capital. In many ways...it felt like "childhood" ended there.

[She couldn't have been more than nine.]

Were you... close to your brother?

[His voice has that cautious tone of someone still feeling out the situation. He's not entirely sure that telling her the truth is the right thing to do. One ruined sibling relationship is almost certainly enough for one lifetime. He doesn't need to shatter another sister's image of her beloved brother, if that's the case here.]

[The immediate silence speaks volumes, doesn't it?]

Jade is...difficult to be close to, on the best of days. It was worse, perhaps, when he was a child - but so was I, and what I remember is...tinted by being so young. We are closer now than we were, then; now that both of us know a little more about the world, and each other.

...Looking back on it, though...I can see where he was doing his best to convey...affection.

[She's probably perceptive enough to tell he's less than thrilled with defending Jade, however distantly.]

That's good -- that you're closer. [He supposes...] I'm afraid Tear and I may never reach that point. Being an older brother can be difficult; especially with no one else to aid you.

[Nephry knows that Van and Tear will never reach that point - because Van is going to die, and Tear will help it happen - and it comes out as a stammer of nothing sounds, before she gets her words under control.]

Your circumstances aren't ideal.

I made the best of them that I could. ...But this is unhappy talk, for such a pleasant day. I believe I owe you an answer, now.

[There are so many things she could ask. Any one of them would take a dark road out of pleasantries.]

Are you...willing to talk about your childhood in return?

[...

This sigh is the sigh of a condemned man.]

And what would you have me say about it? I was born on Hod, to a good family. My father was a strong man; a knight. My mother was gentle, and kind. Tear looks more like her every day.

The kitchen used to smell of mint tea and fresh apple tart, and every morning I used to sneak my breakfast out and eat it in the main house's garden.

I was put to work keeping the children of my father's lord entertained as soon as I was old enough to be trusted with the job. The elder would have been about your age, now. She hit me in the face with a ball once, and scolded me because my eyes watered.

[All of this being true, of course. And all of it skirting around the painful events that followed.]

Hod... [Yes, she was certainly of an age when Hod fell to...remember everything. That war brought Keterburg a great deal of its prosperity and recognition.]

So things...changed for you, fairly early in your childhood. Didn't they?

'Changed' is too mild a word. What were you told happened to Hod?

[He takes his arm back from her, but not for long; in the same motion he puts it around her shoulders, strangely protective considering they're discussing his pain, not hers.]

[The nature of her position and the changing world have led to some information being uncovered. She's not sure why, but Nephry chooses not to share everything she knows at this moment.]

The Score foretold Hod's destruction in conjunction with specific other events - events that would precede a war. ...The Order made it their responsibility to ensure those things took place - whether they might have on their own or not.

The Order? No. Malkuth ensured Hod was destroyed, and made no move to defend it. There wasn't a single Imperial soldier on the island when it fell.

...But that wasn't all they did. I could have excused that as simple cowardice.

[Oh, she knew her country was responsible; what she wants so desperately to add to that is in part. Clinging to the hope that they were prompted by the Order...helps. At least Emperor Peony hadn't been on the throne then.]

Malkuth, then. Yes. ...What else...did they do?

[She pulls away from his hold - but only enough so that she can see his face more clearly.]

They knew in advance. They could have evacuated people. Instead, they used the citizens as test subjects, in experiments on hyperresonance... [He meets her eyes, briefly, and glances away again.] ...and fomicry. The replica labs were empty, by the time Fabre attacked; but the hyperresonance research...

[He stops, and shakes his head.] That's why Hod fell. The Score may as well have been an excuse to them.

[Of course they knew. It was in the Score, for crying out loud - the words-in-stone that also, incidentally, ruined Nephry's chances at happiness.

Something about the way he looked at her is so, so telling. She actually stops walking.]

You were there, weren't you. ...As...an experiment.

[Fomicry. A pained look crosses her face and she looks away, eyes closed. We all know the people responsible for replication, don't we?]

[The way he isn't looking at her should be even more telling; or rather, the way he isn't looking at anything, just... staring off into the distance.]

'N.D. 2002; The one who would seize glory shall destroy the island upon which he was born, a land by the name of Hod.' ...My name isn't actually Van, you realize. It's Vandesdelca.

[...What a morbid way to find out if your date paid attention to her Ancient Ispanian lessons or not.]

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