[He huffs, tension rigid in his shoulders. Hubert understands the tactic. He himself has allied with much, much worse.]
You're still presuming I would trust you to stop him. [Granted, he truly doesn't expect Lorenz would stand aside, but there were too many variables. Too many unknowns in this damned world.]
[But apparently, he's stirring the mixture a hair too vigorously. It turns yellow-ish, and Hubert scowls.]
No-- but I'm not doing this with you or Edelgard in mind.
[Lorenz leaned back, easily slipping back into the haughty, distant role of a Noble he had honed for years, as if it had never left him at all.]
Him going rogue gets in the way of the overall goal of us coordinating as a whole if we find ourselves in crisis. And, going by the little he's told me of his history, it seems that I owe him as much.
[He hasn't forgotten what Sylvain had said when they met-- that he ought to be dead, because 'I killed you myself.' As touching as it was that a sometimes friend took the time to fell him when his own father had placed him in a precarious position, it still was still not easy to forget. Although a part of him found a strange comfort in knowing there was at least one person in town who could and would take him out if he went Feral, Lorenz knew the weight of such sentiments.
It was complicated. Like everything connected to Fodlan.]
I do not do this because I assume you trust me to do anything, Hubert. If he goes rogue, I certainly will stop him.
[It was a twisted sense of duty that drove him-- duty to Fodlan, duty to those he hoped to call Friend...
But, most importantly, it was a duty to himself that he needed to fulfill.]
[Hubert's still scowling as he dumps a palmful of charcoal chucks into the ruined mixture, turning it grey and inert.]
As a wolf chastising his pack, then. Almost fitting. If only you were to take such problem-solving acumen and resolve to your other problems.
[And leave him in peace. Starting again—spring water, a cube of something clear-ish, and an effort of magic. Stir, and left over the burner again.]
[The grey rat was pawing at the latch to is cage. Notably, said latch had been tied down several times to the cage bars with thick twine, like this has happened before.]
[Though the echo of another conversation that he had heard in Hubert's voice was strange and unsettling. Claude himself had compared Lorenz to a fox among the deer-- a cunning predator. Perhaps, that was true. To hear refrains of those words from a very different person with very different circumstances was beyond previous expectations.]
...Your helper seems to be trying to tell you something. [Lorenz commented, eyeing both the rat and the twine around the latch.] Perhaps he thinks you're working with something you shouldn't?
Hubert-- I am not the Lorenz that you know. Although I realize now that he may have indeed made the better choice out of the many possibilities, there may be things I know that he doesn't.
...Like there may indeed be something your little helper is trying to tell you. Is cleverness really such a bad thing?
[Hubert pauses in his task, sharp eyes flickering over to and lingering on the faun. It wasn't uncommon for them to speak about several things at once, but this conversation was beginning to take on too many layers.]
At times, [the mage says with a subtle sense of finality, like a parent asserting themselves into an argument.]
Cleverness is a tool; it can be of endless utility, or squandered to rust, or misused to the point of detriment. That vermin falls under the later. [Because it was clever; he'd been shocked by the degree. Painfully so, given that its prior escapes. Those could be... disastrous, if Hubert wasn't careful.]
[He shakes his head.] And where you fall remains to be seen. Just as you seek to control Gautier with the Bond, don't think I'm blind to the way you bow your head and offer endless honey to me.
[Ears drooped at the thinly veiled accusation, and Lorenz heaved a sigh in disappointment.]
... Is it really that hard for you to believe that someone wants to get to know you without any ulterior motive?
[Perhaps the idea was too difficult to grasp for someone so unused to trust. Perhaps Lorenz tried too hard. But with Hubert's dislike for tea and socializing Lorenz was left with little option but to try to meet Hubert where he was.
In that forbidding environment, with all the cloak and dagger tactics that they employed as people who often found trust to be too difficult to consider as an option for anything in their lives.]
It's unbecoming to ask questions for which you already know the answer.
[They were alike, in that regard, growing up in an environment where everyone was polite and respectful and hid fangs behind blunted teeth. He might be a Crestless heir and his House devoid of any holdings, but the Vestras dealt in priceless knowledge and puppet strings and the hidden workings of the Empire.]
[As far as Hubert was concerned, ulterior motives was the only reason. His value as a piece was immeasurable, and his value as a person... less so. The look that crosses Hubert's face is the same one as when Lorenz praised him under the full moons, something equally indignant at the thought of his words being disingenuous as sincere.]
[But sometimes's different this time, something so subtle it could be imagination. Accustomed to social intrigue as he was, Lorenz might be able to spot the hairline fissure in Hubert's composure: uncertainty.]
[While he's busy glaring at Lorenz, the grey rat gnaws at the twine.]
[The pawing goes unnoticed-- for Hubert was right. Lorenz did know the answer to his own question. After all, the only denominator for Lorenz in every iteration of Fodlan was the power plays enacted by his own father, the current Count Gloucester. What was he to be, but a pretty puppet to place wherever was necessary on the board?
A puppet though he ultimately was, he was thankful that he was graced with the ability to observe and the wit to understand. Perhaps, just perhaps, this was getting somewhere.]
...A wise person once asked me what I thought about the possible benefits of crossing the threshold between that which I knew and into places that I didn't yet understand, and if there wasn't any benefit in communicating with the people there to bridge the distance between us.
At the time I didn't entirely grasp his meaning, but it was an idea I pondered quite a bit over the course of the last five years-- one that I ponder still to this day. Perhaps there truly is benefit in such optimistic sounding niceties. Perhaps, in talking to others, breaking bread, or solving problems together, a greater understanding can be found.
....Ultimately, I do not know the answer. I'm hoping to find it.
There is always benefit in further knowledge, and the shoring of weaknesses through collaboration.
[That was never a question to Hubert. He was raised to be a shadow by the spymaster whose duty he'd inherited; it was a very different framework, but still one of observation and understanding and networking. His long contention and eventual cooperation with Ferdinand was a painful lesson in that shared understanding and bridging, but that was an opportunity few and far between. Hubert shook his head, as if explaining something to an inattentive student.]
What you are describing is a luxury I do not have. Many of our number may be content, even eager, to forget Fódlan's limitations and politics for a time, but I cannot. One of us must remember that the history many of us know has been twisted. Or even what is at stake in residing within Aefenglom's walls with those that would put blades through our necks. Perhaps there is freedom in such forgetfulness, but it is my role that I cannot.
[Ceaseless, tireless vigilance. If Edelgard and Bernadetta saw fit to explore these new freedoms, then all the more reason he could not waver.]
Cooperation you shall have. But you are an unknown to me. As far as I'm concerned, we've only met, and talk as you will about a wavering heart to Claude's cause, that is not something I can validate.
So long as I cannot validate that, you are a variable, and a threat. [To Edelgard, goes unsaid. After years of cooperating with the snakes in the dark, Hubert failed to see why alliance and friendship couldn't be mutually exclusive.]
[But for all the tension, Hubert's voice was not angry.]
[Unspoken was the fact that it was Ferdinand who had put forth this notion for Lorenz to consider. At the time Lorenz had brushed it off with a quip about a common-bred child asking him where h is tail was, but in truth he had needed further time to consider the deeper ramifications. Such a notion had the potential radically alter everything he had based his beliefs and actions on.
And, after conversations with sweet tongued young women who called him out on his own biases, those preconceptions were long swept away. Like cleaning off so many years of dust and patina that had built up within a locked library, Lorenz found himself with a world that was overflowing with knowledge to be uncovered.
Nodding quietly, he listened to Hubert's words-- quietly musing that this may have been the most words he had gotten out of the man at one time.]
No-- your position is valid, and likely more necessary here than any of us realize. We do not know what lies ahead; but, likewise, we cannot forget from where we came.
[Because, Hubert's words were true. He did seek to control Sylvain in a small way through their bond. As much a strange comfort that it was to know that Sylvain had felled him before he could commit other acts he'd regret, Lorenz did not know the full extent of how Sylvain thought. They had a rapport, but Sylvain in many ways eluded him more than Hubert did.
At least Hubert was rational. Sylvain was far more prone to impulse than he had realized, and a Bond was the only real way he had found to safely keep tabs on the man.
In the end, he truly was a predator among the deer. He sought to protect them, but that alone did not change the kind of person he was.
As admirable as Hubert's stance was, Lorenz knew better than to say such thoughts aloud-- lest he risk seeing a glimpse of something less controlled in Hubert's demeanor. Instead:]
Unless something happens that brings significant risk in this realm, [Unspoken was the reference 'to Edelgard',] There is going to be no way for you to validate anything. I will not ask you to trust... but I do like these conversations with you. There are few who use words quite the way you do.
[Another shake of his head.] I imagine there are many that consider such a blessing.
[Felix might rip out his hair if there were more people that spoke like Hubert.]
I would not grow accustomed to them. [They were the same kind of predator, in that regard. Even these "friendly" conversations gave away too much of each other and their inner workings.] Perhaps—
[A little sound, a creak of hinges, pulls Hubert's gaze back to the cage—the door swung open, the brown-and-white rat standing precariously atop the ceiling bars, sniffing the air. Hubert spun back around, finding the grey one zipping towards the cracked cellar door.]
You little devil! [His hand flung out, and with a pulse of magic, the rodent floated into the air, feet still scampering for a moment before her tail started wheeling in panic.]
[Where Hubert made for the one scurrying for the door, Lorenz moved to secure the little brown and white rat sitting upon the cage before it could go any further. Though he had a distaste for rats as pests, clearly these were in more controlled settings-- and smart.]
That little one is too smart for it's own good!
[Lorenz blurted, careful not to hold the confused and squirming rat too tightly in his hands. The snuffling of it's little nose at his thumb and fingers was almost charming.
This, [Hubert hissed as the telekinetically-seized rat floated toward him,] is exactly what I meant.
[He returned to the table with his prisoner in tow, glancing at Lorenz. The spotted rat's squirming died down after a moment; the creature twisted about in his hands, head poking out and forepaws feeling along at his fingers. Little curious eyes looked up at the deer-man as it tried to squirm out onto his wrist.]
[The squirming would get the little creature nowhere. Escape had eluded the rat once now and would continue to do so until a solution was found-- no matter the depths of the innocent curiosity that lurked in it's beady eyes.]
If you want to stop the escapes, they need a different habitat or more tasks.
[Lorenz said, watching the telekinetically floating rat squirm in mid air.]
They're fairly intelligent, which is why they can be so difficult to get rid of if an infestation occurs. They're also persistent.
Yes, yes, you do not need to lecture me on the vermin. I'm quite accustomed to eliminating the beasts.
[Hubert's scowling as the little grey one floats back into the cage, as if it would understand scolding.]
This is where they will stay. A "different habitat" is not an option. [The Witch examines the frayed twine, shaking his head before digging through his things. There; wire.]
[Was Hubert seriously this stubborn? Perhaps-- but this was also ultimately Hubert's project. While Lorenz was busy acclimating his cat to a lead so they could walk safely outside of the home, not every cat owner had the patience for such matters. Likewise, no two rodent keepers were the same.]
If you insist then, maybe try copper wire in the future. I've heard tales from farmers suggesting that the little things don't like it, for whatever reason.
[Then again, copper was a curious compound. Liquids stored in copper vessels tended to stay clearer for longer than in other kinds of containment.]
Nodding, Lorenz took the suggestion and gently deposited the little rat back into the cage with it's partner, taking a moment to watch the two creatures sniff at each other after the escapade before returning his attention to Hubert.]
Perhaps you should come to dinner at my place, to make up for this inconvenience.
[Lorenz said suddenly, smiling.]
Not now, of course. Unless you wish to get your laughs out at my expense tonight.
[He leveled a brief Look at Lorenz as he wrapped the cage's latch shut with the wire. The sudden bright tone has Hubert suspicious.]
Listen to yourself—offering recompense for a distraction with more lost time. What reason do I have to accept that? Besides the fact, I can laugh at your expense at any time.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bloodypath) wrote2019-10-03 11:06 am
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[A frustrated sigh. A wave of his hand.]
It is barely a defense, but I wasn't in my right mind at the moment. The Moons here are a terrible influence, not unlike wine and marriage decisions.
...I did not expect him to find Lapis, though. She's ordinarily so private.
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[Another shake of his head, a little more agitated this time.]
You've Bonded with not only a shameless hedonist, but one that has openly stated an interested in coming after Her Majesty's head.
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[He didn't trust Sylvain anymore than they did-- but, in many ways, it was easier to manage him this way.]
He defies rationality, but at least this way I will know if he takes a more active role in matters.
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You're still presuming I would trust you to stop him. [Granted, he truly doesn't expect Lorenz would stand aside, but there were too many variables. Too many unknowns in this damned world.]
[But apparently, he's stirring the mixture a hair too vigorously. It turns yellow-ish, and Hubert scowls.]
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[Lorenz leaned back, easily slipping back into the haughty, distant role of a Noble he had honed for years, as if it had never left him at all.]
Him going rogue gets in the way of the overall goal of us coordinating as a whole if we find ourselves in crisis. And, going by the little he's told me of his history, it seems that I owe him as much.
[He hasn't forgotten what Sylvain had said when they met-- that he ought to be dead, because 'I killed you myself.' As touching as it was that a sometimes friend took the time to fell him when his own father had placed him in a precarious position, it still was still not easy to forget. Although a part of him found a strange comfort in knowing there was at least one person in town who could and would take him out if he went Feral, Lorenz knew the weight of such sentiments.
It was complicated. Like everything connected to Fodlan.]
I do not do this because I assume you trust me to do anything, Hubert. If he goes rogue, I certainly will stop him.
[It was a twisted sense of duty that drove him-- duty to Fodlan, duty to those he hoped to call Friend...
But, most importantly, it was a duty to himself that he needed to fulfill.]
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As a wolf chastising his pack, then. Almost fitting. If only you were to take such problem-solving acumen and resolve to your other problems.
[And leave him in peace. Starting again—spring water, a cube of something clear-ish, and an effort of magic. Stir, and left over the burner again.]
[The grey rat was pawing at the latch to is cage. Notably, said latch had been tied down several times to the cage bars with thick twine, like this has happened before.]
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[Though the echo of another conversation that he had heard in Hubert's voice was strange and unsettling. Claude himself had compared Lorenz to a fox among the deer-- a cunning predator. Perhaps, that was true. To hear refrains of those words from a very different person with very different circumstances was beyond previous expectations.]
...Your helper seems to be trying to tell you something. [Lorenz commented, eyeing both the rat and the twine around the latch.] Perhaps he thinks you're working with something you shouldn't?
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[Like Lorenz. In his cellar. Hubert waves a hand dismissively at the cage.]
It wants out. Nothing more. The vermin really is too pointlessly clever for its own good. That it is a working beast is its only saving grace.
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Problem, or opportunity?
Hubert-- I am not the Lorenz that you know. Although I realize now that he may have indeed made the better choice out of the many possibilities, there may be things I know that he doesn't.
...Like there may indeed be something your little helper is trying to tell you. Is cleverness really such a bad thing?
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At times, [the mage says with a subtle sense of finality, like a parent asserting themselves into an argument.]
Cleverness is a tool; it can be of endless utility, or squandered to rust, or misused to the point of detriment. That vermin falls under the later. [Because it was clever; he'd been shocked by the degree. Painfully so, given that its prior escapes. Those could be... disastrous, if Hubert wasn't careful.]
[He shakes his head.] And where you fall remains to be seen. Just as you seek to control Gautier with the Bond, don't think I'm blind to the way you bow your head and offer endless honey to me.
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... Is it really that hard for you to believe that someone wants to get to know you without any ulterior motive?
[Perhaps the idea was too difficult to grasp for someone so unused to trust. Perhaps Lorenz tried too hard. But with Hubert's dislike for tea and socializing Lorenz was left with little option but to try to meet Hubert where he was.
In that forbidding environment, with all the cloak and dagger tactics that they employed as people who often found trust to be too difficult to consider as an option for anything in their lives.]
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[They were alike, in that regard, growing up in an environment where everyone was polite and respectful and hid fangs behind blunted teeth. He might be a Crestless heir and his House devoid of any holdings, but the Vestras dealt in priceless knowledge and puppet strings and the hidden workings of the Empire.]
[As far as Hubert was concerned, ulterior motives was the only reason. His value as a piece was immeasurable, and his value as a person... less so. The look that crosses Hubert's face is the same one as when Lorenz praised him under the full moons, something equally indignant at the thought of his words being disingenuous as sincere.]
[But sometimes's different this time, something so subtle it could be imagination. Accustomed to social intrigue as he was, Lorenz might be able to spot the hairline fissure in Hubert's composure: uncertainty.]
[While he's busy glaring at Lorenz, the grey rat gnaws at the twine.]
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A puppet though he ultimately was, he was thankful that he was graced with the ability to observe and the wit to understand. Perhaps, just perhaps, this was getting somewhere.]
...A wise person once asked me what I thought about the possible benefits of crossing the threshold between that which I knew and into places that I didn't yet understand, and if there wasn't any benefit in communicating with the people there to bridge the distance between us.
At the time I didn't entirely grasp his meaning, but it was an idea I pondered quite a bit over the course of the last five years-- one that I ponder still to this day. Perhaps there truly is benefit in such optimistic sounding niceties. Perhaps, in talking to others, breaking bread, or solving problems together, a greater understanding can be found.
....Ultimately, I do not know the answer. I'm hoping to find it.
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[That was never a question to Hubert. He was raised to be a shadow by the spymaster whose duty he'd inherited; it was a very different framework, but still one of observation and understanding and networking. His long contention and eventual cooperation with Ferdinand was a painful lesson in that shared understanding and bridging, but that was an opportunity few and far between. Hubert shook his head, as if explaining something to an inattentive student.]
What you are describing is a luxury I do not have. Many of our number may be content, even eager, to forget Fódlan's limitations and politics for a time, but I cannot. One of us must remember that the history many of us know has been twisted. Or even what is at stake in residing within Aefenglom's walls with those that would put blades through our necks. Perhaps there is freedom in such forgetfulness, but it is my role that I cannot.
[Ceaseless, tireless vigilance. If Edelgard and Bernadetta saw fit to explore these new freedoms, then all the more reason he could not waver.]
Cooperation you shall have. But you are an unknown to me. As far as I'm concerned, we've only met, and talk as you will about a wavering heart to Claude's cause, that is not something I can validate.
So long as I cannot validate that, you are a variable, and a threat. [To Edelgard, goes unsaid. After years of cooperating with the snakes in the dark, Hubert failed to see why alliance and friendship couldn't be mutually exclusive.]
[But for all the tension, Hubert's voice was not angry.]
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And, after conversations with sweet tongued young women who called him out on his own biases, those preconceptions were long swept away. Like cleaning off so many years of dust and patina that had built up within a locked library, Lorenz found himself with a world that was overflowing with knowledge to be uncovered.
Nodding quietly, he listened to Hubert's words-- quietly musing that this may have been the most words he had gotten out of the man at one time.]
No-- your position is valid, and likely more necessary here than any of us realize. We do not know what lies ahead; but, likewise, we cannot forget from where we came.
[Because, Hubert's words were true. He did seek to control Sylvain in a small way through their bond. As much a strange comfort that it was to know that Sylvain had felled him before he could commit other acts he'd regret, Lorenz did not know the full extent of how Sylvain thought. They had a rapport, but Sylvain in many ways eluded him more than Hubert did.
At least Hubert was rational. Sylvain was far more prone to impulse than he had realized, and a Bond was the only real way he had found to safely keep tabs on the man.
In the end, he truly was a predator among the deer. He sought to protect them, but that alone did not change the kind of person he was.
As admirable as Hubert's stance was, Lorenz knew better than to say such thoughts aloud-- lest he risk seeing a glimpse of something less controlled in Hubert's demeanor. Instead:]
Unless something happens that brings significant risk in this realm, [Unspoken was the reference 'to Edelgard',] There is going to be no way for you to validate anything. I will not ask you to trust... but I do like these conversations with you. There are few who use words quite the way you do.
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[Felix might rip out his hair if there were more people that spoke like Hubert.]
I would not grow accustomed to them. [They were the same kind of predator, in that regard. Even these "friendly" conversations gave away too much of each other and their inner workings.] Perhaps—
[A little sound, a creak of hinges, pulls Hubert's gaze back to the cage—the door swung open, the brown-and-white rat standing precariously atop the ceiling bars, sniffing the air. Hubert spun back around, finding the grey one zipping towards the cracked cellar door.]
You little devil! [His hand flung out, and with a pulse of magic, the rodent floated into the air, feet still scampering for a moment before her tail started wheeling in panic.]
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That little one is too smart for it's own good!
[Lorenz blurted, careful not to hold the confused and squirming rat too tightly in his hands. The snuffling of it's little nose at his thumb and fingers was almost charming.
Almost.]
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[He returned to the table with his prisoner in tow, glancing at Lorenz. The spotted rat's squirming died down after a moment; the creature twisted about in his hands, head poking out and forepaws feeling along at his fingers. Little curious eyes looked up at the deer-man as it tried to squirm out onto his wrist.]
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If you want to stop the escapes, they need a different habitat or more tasks.
[Lorenz said, watching the telekinetically floating rat squirm in mid air.]
They're fairly intelligent, which is why they can be so difficult to get rid of if an infestation occurs. They're also persistent.
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[Hubert's scowling as the little grey one floats back into the cage, as if it would understand scolding.]
This is where they will stay. A "different habitat" is not an option. [The Witch examines the frayed twine, shaking his head before digging through his things. There; wire.]
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If you insist then, maybe try copper wire in the future. I've heard tales from farmers suggesting that the little things don't like it, for whatever reason.
[Then again, copper was a curious compound. Liquids stored in copper vessels tended to stay clearer for longer than in other kinds of containment.]
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[The one in the fauns hand looked up, eyeing this antlers.]
I'll take that under consideration.
[He gestures to the cage. The other one, please.]
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Nodding, Lorenz took the suggestion and gently deposited the little rat back into the cage with it's partner, taking a moment to watch the two creatures sniff at each other after the escapade before returning his attention to Hubert.]
Perhaps you should come to dinner at my place, to make up for this inconvenience.
[Lorenz said suddenly, smiling.]
Not now, of course. Unless you wish to get your laughs out at my expense tonight.
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Listen to yourself—offering recompense for a distraction with more lost time. What reason do I have to accept that? Besides the fact, I can laugh at your expense at any time.
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[Clearly, they were not high priorities on Hubert's list. Lorenz could hardly imagine what a life like that would be like.]
How about an extra pair of hands, then? Clearly, an extra set might benefit you more immediately than a hot meal.
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