IC Inbox

[vrdantwind]

"Hey, this is Claude! Pretty sure I'm doing this correctly. You can leave me a message here, and I'll get to it as soon as I can. Talk to you soon~."

Comments

[vrdantwind]

You can't complain about not knowing me well enough and say you don't care about my personal secrets within the same 12 hours, I think the Hypocrite Squad will come collect you.

Mostly, though, I was explaining why I'm willing to tell you guys this much without actually telling you everything I've been holding back. Because I thought you'd grumble about it. If you don't care, then I guess I worried for nothing.

[bestswordmaster]

[Felix huffs.] That's ridiculous. You shouldn't have to deal with that from him. Or anyone. Especially after you've been keeping the Alliance safe and intact for five years. He should be grateful.

Grant, huh? He seems reliable. But we both need more sleep. So I'll see you tomorrow. [He doesn't get up yet, though.]

[bestswordmaster]

ha.
with how much you overthink everything I'm surprised you don't worry for nothing all the time.
speaking of getting to know you
you said you wanted to spend time with me.
when?
doing what?

[vrdantwind]

[Claude bursts out laughing.] Hah! Count Gloucester, grateful? To me? I've been half expecting him to send assassins for years. He wanted my grandfather to die without an heir, and to take over the leadership of the Alliance when he did. He'll resent me until the day I die for popping up with such suspicious convenience, and I don't think any amount of accomplishments on my part will ever change that. He's trusted me even less than anyone else...although, to be fair, I think he'd have tried to call anyone in my place into question, if they were the obstacle to his ambitions. My being genuinely mysterious actually gave him a halfway decent excuse to doubt me at every opportunity.

[Claude's eyes twinkle at Felix.] That said...I'm flattered you appreciate me and my accomplishments, at the very least.

[vrdantwind]

Aside from pokémon training? I guess it could be anything. Grabbing lunch, going on walks looking for new pokémon to catch, shopping...or just talking like this. Although talking in person's probably better when we can manage it.

[bestswordmaster]

[Felix feels his face flush again and tries to ignore it.]

The Alliance sounds awful. Derdriu is nice, though. I've been there a few times. It's not far from Fraldarius, across the water.

I appreciate your accomplishments. Whether or not I appreciate you remains to be seen. [He smirks.]

[bestswordmaster]

no I mean
when more specifically?
oh but aren't we leaving for azalea today?
I guess we'll have to settle for walking and talking and catching pokemon until we get there.

[vrdantwind]

Oh, the Alliance is a great place if you're not running it. [Claude chuckles.] But we've got our fair share of stupid, petty, self-serving nobles, just like anywhere else. The main difference is that, unlike in Faerghus where the king gets to make the decisions and the nobles can only weigh in to varying degrees, and you may not have to see the worst of them more than a few times a year...in the Alliance, you have to deal with them all the time, and whenever you need to make a decision of any significance you have to somehow convince at least the majority of them to sign off on it. And if it's a big enough decision, you need unanimous agreement. It's like trying to thread a haystack through a needle.

[He winks at Felix.] Well, in any case, you'll probably appreciate me a lot more on a decent night's sleep. Weren't you going to bed?

[vrdantwind]

Yeah, once you guys are done shopping and Dimitri's done sleeping. I told his Pignite not to let Dimitri out of his room until at least 2 PM, so we'll have a late start, but...he needed the sleep.

I might just have him sleep on that sled of his, too. He tried to convince me to let him do that earlier, and I insisted on his having a bed for awhile, but I never said he couldn't sleep on the road as well. Maybe he and Sylvain could take turns.

[bestswordmaster]

That sounds like a nightmare. I'd have killed them all by now.

[Oh, look, he's blushing some more. Yes, this is probably a good time to leave, before he embarrasses himself further.]

Yes. Good night.

[He does get up this time. He stands and stretches, catlike, with a yawn before heading back out into the hall and back to his room.]

[bestswordmaster]

that sled is so ridiculous.
so is his army of rats.
dimitri always needs more sleep.
sylvain's fine.
we took a nap earlier.
before the match.
maybe you should sleep on the sled.
sorry for keeping you up so late.

[vrdantwind]

I think his rats are pretty cute...the smaller ones, anyway. The big one's a little intimidating. The sled's...definitely unusual, but I won't argue with results. Or convenience.

Was it a decently long nap, or only a couple hours? Because Dimitri's going to get at least four or five under his belt, so unless you were able to sleep that long, Sylvain's probably gonna run out of juice later unless he can snooze a bit more.

And don't worry about me. I didn't sleep enough, maybe, and I've had a headache from the alcohol, but I'm still doing way better and got more sleep than Dimitri or Sylvain. I've survived much rougher days than this with no ill effects.

[bestswordmaster]

cute maybe if he had ONE rat.
not a steadily growing collection.
and one of them apparently plays games on his gear.
he tried to make me play one.
I almost smashed the damn thing.
the sled beats trying to carry him, I suppose.
does this world have horses?
the nap wasn't long.
maybe you're right.

[vrdantwind]

Hey, they're all cute, and they've each got plenty of personality. More to the point, I like that Dimitri's coming to appreciate the animals he's always either insulted himself by comparing himself to, or been compared to negatively. He won't be able to look down on himself for those associations anymore.

There are, actually! I've read about some of them. That said, most of them start out as foals that would have to be evolved before they could ever carry a person.

"Maybe you're right"...ah, those three little words that mean so much. But yeah, Sylvain should probably sleep more. See if you can bully him onto the sled while we're traveling, okay? Basque can knock him out with Sleep Powder if necessary.

[bestswordmaster]

oh.
that’s one of the things I need to apologize to him for.
I’m not fond of horses but dimitri is and sylvain usually fights as cavalry.
keep your sleep powder to yourself.
if he needs to sleep I’ll make him sleep.

[vrdantwind]

It can't hurt. I'm sure it'll mean a lot, too, coming from you.

I like riding a lot myself, although I admit I tend to lean more towards wyverns than horses...at least when it comes to fighting. Just for pleasure, though, I like them about the same. I wouldn't mind getting a horse of my own if we can find any. But since you mentioned it, I guess I've never seen you ride...

You can't just make someone sleep, Felix. I mean, you can make them try to sleep, but if the exhaustion hasn't caught up with Sylvain yet by the time we shove him onto the sled, I thought Sleep Powder could be useful in sending him drifting off at our convenience.

[bestswordmaster]

maybe.
it's hard to figure out how to feel.
I ride when I have to.
but I'd rather not.
I meant I'll make him sleep when he's tired.
not when you feel like poisoning him.
your obsession with poison is off-putting.

[vrdantwind]

Poison? Me? I don't know how you could make such a baseless insinuation! Sleep Powder is a totally medicinal sleep aid. Something is only poisonous if the effects are harmful and unwanted!

[bestswordmaster]

please.
like we didn't all know at the academy that you sent yourself to the infirmary at LEAST once with some stupid poison you were trying to make.
if sylvain asks for help sleeping that's one thing.
if not then congratulations
your sleep powder has become a poison.

[vrdantwind]

I wasn't actually trying to convince you with those denials, you know. I'm aware of my reputation.

That said, to be fair, have I ever actually poisoned someone that you can remember? Besides myself? I'm not saying I'd be above doing that in certain cases, but I'd never actually poison someone for any reason that wasn't genuinely important. Things like poisoning an enemy army so they couldn't fight to avoid bloodshed. And when it comes to friends, I'd never poison them at all if it wasn't explicitly for their own good in some way...like making someone sleep who was borderline sick with sleep deprivation. I don't just go around poisoning friends casually!

And in a case like Sylvain's, there's no reason I couldn't just ask him if he'd let me put him to sleep. I mean, sleep's not a bad thing, and if he'd already agreed to try to sleep on your behalf, what reason would he have to refuse?

[bestswordmaster]

I don't know if you have or not.
but I believe you.
just don't point your sleep powder at me and we'll be fine.
hey.
you know about plants right?
I caught a bird pokemon that can change its form when it eats different kinds of nectar.
the flowers for the form it's in now grow around here.
I want to collect some to take with me.
but I don't know the first thing about plants.

[vrdantwind]

Hah! My botanical knowledge coming in handy! Sure, I can help you collect some. How much do you need? Because flowers don't exactly give a high yield unless you've got some pretty significant amounts of them...and I don't know how much it takes to transform your pokémon with them. Or how much you want to save up.

[bestswordmaster]

[Felix just sends Claude everything the pokedex says about Oricorio.]

there.
I want enough to last a while but I don't even know where to find the others yet.
enough to be prepared when I do.
show me how to recognize the flowers and how to get the nectar out at least.

[vrdantwind]

You'd better hurry up the shopping with Sylvain, then. We'll need a bit to collect the flowers, not to mention finding the equipment to process them...I'm sure someone around here has it, you can't be the only one who wants to keep samples of the nectar on him, but I don't know where. And then we have to do the actual processing. And we're supposed to leave town at some point today...

[bestswordmaster]

I already told sylvain to hurry up.
we got
distracted.
a few times.
shut up.
he says he has one more stop to make.
then I have to pick up dimitri's gift.
then I'll meet you at the inn.
maybe the woman at the pokecenter who's disturbingly similar to the one in cherrygrove knows more about the nectar.