Steven 'Sharpteeth' Durante (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fingersandteeth) wrote2022-02-21 05:11 pm
fingersandteeth) wrote2022-02-21 05:11 pm
She's a sweet kid and she's had a hard life. A world where she doesn't have to be a child soldier is damn near paradise.
(I know she's a grown woman of university age *now* but even so.)
(I know she's a grown woman of university age *now* but even so.)
I wondered if it might be something like that. Like she can't imagine taking any of this for granted because it's such an improvement over what she had before.
Bro, seriously? I didn't tell you about Doppio to keep you safe from him. You seemed pretty unenthusiastic about getting your shit wrecked without warning, so forgive me for thinking you might not want to deal with that.
Yeah, well, I don't have any illusions about being actually close to you, either—even the first time I was here I know it was more that I was one of the people you sometimes tolerated.
[Jesus Christ, this is stupid. They're picking a fight over private thoughts that should have never been plucked from their heads in the first place. Ugh.
Well. One of them is going to have to make the first non-bitchy overture and it should probably be him.]
Look. I'm not going to apologize for whatever the damn Indeedee plucked from my mind to send to you, because I don't actually know what they sent. And I think I'm justified in being a little annoyed at you keeping me ignorant for my own good, even if your intentions were benevolent.
But as per the card I got, I *will* apologize for that whole 'crime family' thing from the first time I was here. It mostly came from me trying to shrink my need for a community to something small enough to be manageable at that point in my life and I wasn't thinking of how it might make other people (like you) uncomfortable. If it makes you feel better I've moved past needing to view most of my working relationships that way.
(... and I'll apologize for getting weird and twitchy back when I was over in January too, while we're at it. I hadn't prepared myself for your uncanny ability to press buttons without knowing they were there.)
[Jesus Christ, this is stupid. They're picking a fight over private thoughts that should have never been plucked from their heads in the first place. Ugh.
Well. One of them is going to have to make the first non-bitchy overture and it should probably be him.]
Look. I'm not going to apologize for whatever the damn Indeedee plucked from my mind to send to you, because I don't actually know what they sent. And I think I'm justified in being a little annoyed at you keeping me ignorant for my own good, even if your intentions were benevolent.
But as per the card I got, I *will* apologize for that whole 'crime family' thing from the first time I was here. It mostly came from me trying to shrink my need for a community to something small enough to be manageable at that point in my life and I wasn't thinking of how it might make other people (like you) uncomfortable. If it makes you feel better I've moved past needing to view most of my working relationships that way.
(... and I'll apologize for getting weird and twitchy back when I was over in January too, while we're at it. I hadn't prepared myself for your uncanny ability to press buttons without knowing they were there.)
What?
You're actually serious. Incredible. Un-fucking-believable.
Do you have any idea what I'm even protecting you from? Because I heavily disagree, I think a 'thank you' would be more than justified right about now.
But if we're really having a whole conversation about this, then all I know about your secret thoughts is that you apparently value the list of canons so much that you think our friendship is fucking over because I made the mistake of thinking that was worth more than another sneak peek at the meta.
You're actually serious. Incredible. Un-fucking-believable.
Do you have any idea what I'm even protecting you from? Because I heavily disagree, I think a 'thank you' would be more than justified right about now.
But if we're really having a whole conversation about this, then all I know about your secret thoughts is that you apparently value the list of canons so much that you think our friendship is fucking over because I made the mistake of thinking that was worth more than another sneak peek at the meta.
My fucking god, Dirk, did I even say that?
Look, yes, I am irritated, because you made a unilateral decision *for* me without consulting me. It's not that I value the list that much, it's that *not* telling me makes it feel like you don't trust me, which in turn makes me wonder how much we were ever friends in the first place. But since your own secret thoughts about me are bitching about how uncomfortable I made you, then chortling about how it's so *funny* that I spent those months hating Hades while assuming I was close with you--which I don't think I ever *did* because even *then* I knew you were close to nobody whose name isn't Connie Mahaeswaran--I think we're *both* being played for fucking fools by the goddamn Indeedee who are evidently in this to stir up as much shit as pokemonly possible.
Look. I get that you're protecting me. I get your intentions are good. I'm glad that you care enough for my safety that you tried to protect me. But people are allowed to be irritated that their friends keep secrets from them even if it's for their own benefit. I am *allowed* not to be entirely grateful you kept me in ignorance of the goddamn monomaniacal mob boss than's sharing Doppio's *head*. What if I'd pissed him off by *accident*?
Look, yes, I am irritated, because you made a unilateral decision *for* me without consulting me. It's not that I value the list that much, it's that *not* telling me makes it feel like you don't trust me, which in turn makes me wonder how much we were ever friends in the first place. But since your own secret thoughts about me are bitching about how uncomfortable I made you, then chortling about how it's so *funny* that I spent those months hating Hades while assuming I was close with you--which I don't think I ever *did* because even *then* I knew you were close to nobody whose name isn't Connie Mahaeswaran--I think we're *both* being played for fucking fools by the goddamn Indeedee who are evidently in this to stir up as much shit as pokemonly possible.
Look. I get that you're protecting me. I get your intentions are good. I'm glad that you care enough for my safety that you tried to protect me. But people are allowed to be irritated that their friends keep secrets from them even if it's for their own benefit. I am *allowed* not to be entirely grateful you kept me in ignorance of the goddamn monomaniacal mob boss than's sharing Doppio's *head*. What if I'd pissed him off by *accident*?
[To Steven's denial, he rolls his eyes with a shake of his head that implies he doesn't believe him. Fortunately, he doesn't say as much.]
Well, let me be the first to tell you, I don't have a good side. [Was he even listening? Can he listen right now?] But if you want to be on the good side of this nasty old bitch?
[He gestures at him as he says it, which earns him a stare that would kill if looks were capable.]
Be my fucking guest, but I have no interest in helping you earn your grubscout insignias.
Well, let me be the first to tell you, I don't have a good side. [Was he even listening? Can he listen right now?] But if you want to be on the good side of this nasty old bitch?
[He gestures at him as he says it, which earns him a stare that would kill if looks were capable.]
Be my fucking guest, but I have no interest in helping you earn your grubscout insignias.
You're a kid, Lanque. [God, he can't deal with you some days.]
But fine. [And he'll just. Stride forward and grab Lanque by the arm.] You're going home now, because you're wasted. I don't expect you to thank me for it, but I do expect your employers will.
[Just going to try to drag out the stupid kid.]
But fine. [And he'll just. Stride forward and grab Lanque by the arm.] You're going home now, because you're wasted. I don't expect you to thank me for it, but I do expect your employers will.
[Just going to try to drag out the stupid kid.]
Kid—oh you mean a wiggler? You're wrong, I'm eight.
[As he goes to say more, Steven's already grabbing him and pulling him?? Despite his slim form, Lanque is incredibly strong, seeing as he used to be a troll and all. However, being drunk as he is...well, he's not very coordinated.
So when he resists, he doesn't actually do what he imagines in his alcohol soaked brain. He doesn't powerfully and elegantly pull himself free from Steven's grasp, knocking Steven off kilter so he might fall on his ass, allowing him to stare down at Steven defiantly like he's lower than a mutated grub about to be culled.
Instead, what he does do is lose his footing, which forces his equilibrium to get entirely fucked by the sudden slip, and so it's entirely on Steven to keep him from busting his ass on the floor if he's so inclined.]
[As he goes to say more, Steven's already grabbing him and pulling him?? Despite his slim form, Lanque is incredibly strong, seeing as he used to be a troll and all. However, being drunk as he is...well, he's not very coordinated.
So when he resists, he doesn't actually do what he imagines in his alcohol soaked brain. He doesn't powerfully and elegantly pull himself free from Steven's grasp, knocking Steven off kilter so he might fall on his ass, allowing him to stare down at Steven defiantly like he's lower than a mutated grub about to be culled.
Instead, what he does do is lose his footing, which forces his equilibrium to get entirely fucked by the sudden slip, and so it's entirely on Steven to keep him from busting his ass on the floor if he's so inclined.]
Oh, I definitely think that was part of it.
And honestly, part of why *I've* adjusted so well to being here is that when I was here before it was during my lowest point or nearly so. You have to understand, I was really fucked up at two months out of Arcadia. It had been two months of backbreaking day labor and being terrified of being reported to ICE and having to watch to that hunk of trash spew out *utter bullshit* while wearing my face. I was attempting to be a good little Winter courtier because I figured I owed it to Georg for putting us up like he did, but I didn't *want* to make a new life. I wanted my old one back. The night before I woke up in the work dorms I'd snuck onto my old facebook because the damn fetch didn't change his passwords and I saw Mom talking about when you were supposed to declare someone dead as opposed to missing and—
Well. It made this all so much easier. Even if I'd been taken in an uncomfortably familiar fashion, I had my own identity again, more or less. It was a better situation on the whole than I expected to be in—I mean, even my part time job I got when I first arrived had a desk. And I didn't have to enduring all those weeks of camping in the cold, since I was already in Goldenrod. I was happy, grateful even to be here, even with being press-ganged.
I don't think I'd have adjusted nearly so well if I'd come here for the first time at the point in my life where I woke up on Armin's houseboat. I was happy, after all. Sure, I was in the middle of a dry spell, but *that* was utterly self-inflicted. And with Fantomas calling me about helping him get an old friend from Arcadia readjusted to the world outside now that he was in the future, I had the promise of a new project for my off hours. I'd have been so *furious* to be ripped away from all that just to play petty criminal inside one of Charley's kiddie video games... honestly, there's a part of me that *is* slightly annoyed I was pulled back, but it's tempered by the fact that this place is full of people I care about and who I would have missed, if I'd been able to.
... and we're supposed to be talking about Scorpia, not me. My apologies.
And honestly, part of why *I've* adjusted so well to being here is that when I was here before it was during my lowest point or nearly so. You have to understand, I was really fucked up at two months out of Arcadia. It had been two months of backbreaking day labor and being terrified of being reported to ICE and having to watch to that hunk of trash spew out *utter bullshit* while wearing my face. I was attempting to be a good little Winter courtier because I figured I owed it to Georg for putting us up like he did, but I didn't *want* to make a new life. I wanted my old one back. The night before I woke up in the work dorms I'd snuck onto my old facebook because the damn fetch didn't change his passwords and I saw Mom talking about when you were supposed to declare someone dead as opposed to missing and—
Well. It made this all so much easier. Even if I'd been taken in an uncomfortably familiar fashion, I had my own identity again, more or less. It was a better situation on the whole than I expected to be in—I mean, even my part time job I got when I first arrived had a desk. And I didn't have to enduring all those weeks of camping in the cold, since I was already in Goldenrod. I was happy, grateful even to be here, even with being press-ganged.
I don't think I'd have adjusted nearly so well if I'd come here for the first time at the point in my life where I woke up on Armin's houseboat. I was happy, after all. Sure, I was in the middle of a dry spell, but *that* was utterly self-inflicted. And with Fantomas calling me about helping him get an old friend from Arcadia readjusted to the world outside now that he was in the future, I had the promise of a new project for my off hours. I'd have been so *furious* to be ripped away from all that just to play petty criminal inside one of Charley's kiddie video games... honestly, there's a part of me that *is* slightly annoyed I was pulled back, but it's tempered by the fact that this place is full of people I care about and who I would have missed, if I'd been able to.
... and we're supposed to be talking about Scorpia, not me. My apologies.
[Claude listens intently, head cocked to the side, looking thoughtful. Once Steven finishes, though, he has to shake his head.] No...that's not a language I've heard, unfortunately. And I've heard the languages of Brigid, Dagda, Almyra, and Fodlan...it's not really one I recognize from any of them.
[Unfortunately not many details on Brigid's and Dagda's cultures, and neither Claude nor his player are the people who should be making up headcanons about them, so for now they are simply being assumed as 'they're based on something probably from the real world, but the language is likely not Spanish'.]
[Unfortunately not many details on Brigid's and Dagda's cultures, and neither Claude nor his player are the people who should be making up headcanons about them, so for now they are simply being assumed as 'they're based on something probably from the real world, but the language is likely not Spanish'.]
Ah well. It would have been useful to have another Spanish-speaker around. Still, we did narrow down Almyran's counterpart and we know Fodlan's is English. That's definitely more than we knew before.
hey.
you said once that you missed your knives
and you'd be interested in wooden weapons.
fyi dimitri made me a wooden dagger for my birthday.
so if you still want one
he knows how to make them.
[This message comes with a photo of a well-made, sturdy wooden dagger that may not cut anything, but would certainly hurt if you jammed it into a sensitive place.]
you said once that you missed your knives
and you'd be interested in wooden weapons.
fyi dimitri made me a wooden dagger for my birthday.
so if you still want one
he knows how to make them.
[This message comes with a photo of a well-made, sturdy wooden dagger that may not cut anything, but would certainly hurt if you jammed it into a sensitive place.]
Oh Felix, that's *gorgeous*.
Yes. Yes I still want one. (Well. I want multiple ones if possible and I'll have to source the concealed sheaths from somewhere too, I suppose, but I'm sure I'll figure that out.)
When I get my hands on one or more, would you like a match? (I may be about to text Dimitri now.)
Yes. Yes I still want one. (Well. I want multiple ones if possible and I'll have to source the concealed sheaths from somewhere too, I suppose, but I'm sure I'll figure that out.)
When I get my hands on one or more, would you like a match? (I may be about to text Dimitri now.)
dimitri has become quite skilled with carving.
[Felix is weirdly proud of him for this; he's always been so frustrated at how easily he breaks things and how difficult it is for him to perform fine manipulations, so watching him flourish as a craftsman is--frankly, something of an inspiration.]
yes I would like a match.
we're in olivine right now but I plan to return to fight club whenever I have the opportunity.
[Totally not because he has a lot of frustration and helpless anger to work out after everything with Sylvain lately. Nope.]
[Felix is weirdly proud of him for this; he's always been so frustrated at how easily he breaks things and how difficult it is for him to perform fine manipulations, so watching him flourish as a craftsman is--frankly, something of an inspiration.]
yes I would like a match.
we're in olivine right now but I plan to return to fight club whenever I have the opportunity.
[Totally not because he has a lot of frustration and helpless anger to work out after everything with Sylvain lately. Nope.]
He has. Your new blade is really quite lovely and I envy it a good deal.
And I'll be happy to see you back at the Club--you're always fun to set myself against. Once I get my blades, you can come over before the Club opens and we'll borrow the pit for the fight. (Actually, Thace and I use it in the off-hours for our private matches all the time.)
And I'll be happy to see you back at the Club--you're always fun to set myself against. Once I get my blades, you can come over before the Club opens and we'll borrow the pit for the fight. (Actually, Thace and I use it in the off-hours for our private matches all the time.)
Trust me, I understand the feeling - my own "I don't want people to know about this" got sent as TWO cards already. If it's any consolation, most of these cards are hard to tell whom they come from - yours just happened to be incredibly specific. Mayhap your secrets, even if spilled, won't be understood by the recipient.
I can hope at any rate.
[At least when it came to things like, oh, the entire mess with Armin's Lapras.]
Some of mine are very obvious, but I'd say half are ambiguous? Like there's this one about how I talk too much. I've no clue who that is from. And then Thace and I got identical ones about how everyone's too nice here, even the people who run Fight Club are nice and that's spooky—I've no *clue* who that one is from and honestly, whoever wrote it isn't considering that we run a business. It's called *customer service*.
[At least when it came to things like, oh, the entire mess with Armin's Lapras.]
Some of mine are very obvious, but I'd say half are ambiguous? Like there's this one about how I talk too much. I've no clue who that is from. And then Thace and I got identical ones about how everyone's too nice here, even the people who run Fight Club are nice and that's spooky—I've no *clue* who that one is from and honestly, whoever wrote it isn't considering that we run a business. It's called *customer service*.
Edited 2021-03-10 01:31 (UTC)
shame I can't show you my favorite sword from home.
it was made by our world's greatest master weaponsmith.
its craftsmanship is impeccable.
a perfect blade.
that sounds good.
today I spoke with geralt about perhaps breeding a honedge from my aegislash and his doublade.
if I do, I plan to learn to wield it by hand, as geralt and thace do.
then perhaps thace and I can spar that way, as well.
it was made by our world's greatest master weaponsmith.
its craftsmanship is impeccable.
a perfect blade.
that sounds good.
today I spoke with geralt about perhaps breeding a honedge from my aegislash and his doublade.
if I do, I plan to learn to wield it by hand, as geralt and thace do.
then perhaps thace and I can spar that way, as well.
I'm sorry I can't see it. There's nothing like a well-made weapon--the perfect melding of beauty and danger. (But then, I've always found dangerous things to be especially beautiful in themselves.)
I would love to watch you and Thace spar, Felix--it's already a treat to watch you two fight at the Club, but to see you both with blades in hand... my god, I'm smiling just to think of it.
[Not to mention that a good fight always put Thace in the very best kind of mood.]
I would love to watch you and Thace spar, Felix--it's already a treat to watch you two fight at the Club, but to see you both with blades in hand... my god, I'm smiling just to think of it.
[Not to mention that a good fight always put Thace in the very best kind of mood.]
[Felix isn't sure what's so 'beautiful' about dangerous things, but the phrasing puts him in mind of something Sylvain might say, except Sylvain wouldn't be talking about weapons but about Felix and that's a thought he just sort of tucks away for some other time.]
I look forward to it as well.
it has been far too long since I've wielded a real blade.
my aegislash was too eager to evolve.
and obviously now he's too big.
I believe thace was in some sort of military too?
I'm eager to see sword techniques from another world.
I look forward to it as well.
it has been far too long since I've wielded a real blade.
my aegislash was too eager to evolve.
and obviously now he's too big.
I believe thace was in some sort of military too?
I'm eager to see sword techniques from another world.
He was. He was an officer in his people's fleet and a very capable one—and quite the cunning strategist besides.
Me, I was never in the military. I just wielded my blades and gun at the request of my monarch.
Me, I was never in the military. I just wielded my blades and gun at the request of my monarch.
Fodlan's counterpart is English? I didn't actually know that until you mentioned it just now. [Claude looks intrigued.] How can you tell?
I mean. I've been assuming...
Ah, hell, maybe I'm wrong and it's all translation effect. Excuse me while I attempt to deliberately throw my first language at you.
[And it takes a hell of a lot of concentration to deliberately speak the language you default to without translation effect taking hold, but he's going to try anyway.]
Ah, hell, maybe I'm wrong and it's all translation effect. Excuse me while I attempt to deliberately throw my first language at you.
[And it takes a hell of a lot of concentration to deliberately speak the language you default to without translation effect taking hold, but he's going to try anyway.]
Greetings Steven,
Ordinarily I would not send such correspondence with the sole purpose of asking a favor of you, but I suppose circumstances are a bit queer at the moment. For the next several weeks I will be indisposed of, thus unavailable at my and Hythlodaeus' abode. However, Hythlodaeus will not be with me, but he will be home.
Well am I aware of your usual mid-week visits, but I had hoped that I may request you make more frequent visits. Little would I wish for Hythlodaeus to succumb to loneliness, or - worse than that - boredom. He is ever so fond of you, after all, and like as not could use the company.
Are you up for the task?
Ordinarily I would not send such correspondence with the sole purpose of asking a favor of you, but I suppose circumstances are a bit queer at the moment. For the next several weeks I will be indisposed of, thus unavailable at my and Hythlodaeus' abode. However, Hythlodaeus will not be with me, but he will be home.
Well am I aware of your usual mid-week visits, but I had hoped that I may request you make more frequent visits. Little would I wish for Hythlodaeus to succumb to loneliness, or - worse than that - boredom. He is ever so fond of you, after all, and like as not could use the company.
Are you up for the task?
Edited 2021-03-15 09:20 (UTC)
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