I suppose that's fair...although at the same time, it's pretty impossible to ask a question like that without announcing your intentions. I always pictured that being the point of a proposal, but then again - we come from completely different backgrounds. Between my own parents' engagement being pretty sudden, and Almyra's being worlds more informal than Faerghus, it couldn't be more different from how things are done among Faerghus nobility. I mean, Ingrid was engaged to someone she didn't even choose herself from when she was a little kid, now that I think about it. You must be accustomed to entering into formal planning for marriages years in advance, with their being political arrangements first and romance as a kind of optional bonus.
[Now that Claude's recovering from the shock, he's able to more properly consider not just Dimitri's question, but the context of where it - where Dimitri - is coming from. This is just another element of how painfully restrictive nobility in Fodlan is, isn't it? Sylvain and Felix hadn't followed the trends, but then both of them hated Faerghan traditions, and they'd grown up with a bit more freedom to reject those traditions than the crown prince himself.
Dimitri, in considering how Almyra does weddings at all, is already being far more progressive than he was ever taught to be by anyone. If it lacks some of the spontaneity and romance Claude might have expected by his defaulting to planning before, say, proposing - well, those expectations are a little unfair to Dimitri. He's doing his best, isn't he? And the fact that he wants to marry Claude - and there are no doubts to be had that it's purely for love - should be what really matters.
So he smiles, reaching up to cup Dimitri's cheek with one hand.] I'm sorry, Dimitri. I just realized I was kind of expecting you to do things like an Almyran even before you asked how Almyrans do things. Even I'm not immune to only seeing things through the lens of my own culture, I guess.
[Still, he can't help cocking an eyebrow at that last remark of Dimitri's.] Oh? And what's been holding you back? The fear of losing me?
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[Now that Claude's recovering from the shock, he's able to more properly consider not just Dimitri's question, but the context of where it - where Dimitri - is coming from. This is just another element of how painfully restrictive nobility in Fodlan is, isn't it? Sylvain and Felix hadn't followed the trends, but then both of them hated Faerghan traditions, and they'd grown up with a bit more freedom to reject those traditions than the crown prince himself.
Dimitri, in considering how Almyra does weddings at all, is already being far more progressive than he was ever taught to be by anyone. If it lacks some of the spontaneity and romance Claude might have expected by his defaulting to planning before, say, proposing - well, those expectations are a little unfair to Dimitri. He's doing his best, isn't he? And the fact that he wants to marry Claude - and there are no doubts to be had that it's purely for love - should be what really matters.
So he smiles, reaching up to cup Dimitri's cheek with one hand.] I'm sorry, Dimitri. I just realized I was kind of expecting you to do things like an Almyran even before you asked how Almyrans do things. Even I'm not immune to only seeing things through the lens of my own culture, I guess.
[Still, he can't help cocking an eyebrow at that last remark of Dimitri's.] Oh? And what's been holding you back? The fear of losing me?