wiedzminka | ❧ IC INBOX: Abraxas

[ The items he's carrying did make her hopeful this visit isn't of any alarming nature (one never knows, especially these days), and hearing him confirm it brings a smile. She opens the door further and steps back in invitation. ]

I'll be the judge of that. [ His guessing, she means, teasingly. ]

Are you sure it's not a bribe? [ For what...? ]

I was rather hoping you would, what with me being the one who chose them and all.

[ The grin's still present as Claude accepts the invitation to step inside while holding out the pastries for Ciri to take. And inspect, considering he fully expects that to also happen alongside (or as part of) the judgment. He'll hold onto the wine until she leads them to where they'll sit. ]

And it could be a bribe given the conversation I was hoping to have. [ He means that playfully to go along with the same bit of banter back and forth they usually have and now have here, but a second too belatedly it clicks there's multiple ways to take what he just said. Quickly Claude waves a hand in a gesture meant to wave it away, sort of. ] Not the conversation we had before and not anything dire, either. Just something else I was hoping to talk to you about.

[ Good save, Claude. Ciri quirks an eyebrow at him, momentarily distracted from her examination of the pastries. They seem to have been deemed acceptable, since she takes one out of the box to stick in her mouth while she leads them over to the table by the kitchen. Inside, the house is covered in Jaskier's plants, and the leosylph Coram peeks out from inside one of them, watching Claude suspiciously. ]

All right. Does this conversation require wine, or do you want coffee or tea for the pastries?

[ See, she can be a decent host. Doesn't have to be feral all the time. ]

[ The eyebrow quirk gets a faint smile from him, if only because Claude knows he's really selling where he's leading into getting to the actual conversation topic. Having too many winding paths to cross through first is a habit too engrained for him to entirely avoid it unless it's something dire.

He's pretty sure this doesn't completely qualify which is why he shrugs one shoulder rather uselessly as an initial response to yet another valid question. ]

I'll never say no to some tea since maybe that'd be best to start with and we can always break into the wine later, depending on your feelings on staying. In Abraxas, I mean.

[ As he absently scans his surroundings - yet another unbreakable habit - his gaze lands on the leosylph looking at him with a level of skepticism he's well used to from the two residing in the loft and he crouches down to offer a hand out for investigation to Coram. ]

[ Coram chirrups, wings fluttering, and leans closer to sniff.

Ciri watches them, but since Claude isn't looking, he might miss the flash of surprise across her face. So that's what he wanted to talk about? Why the roundabout approach and the bribe? She didn't think it was a secret how she felt.

Though some might consider it controversial. ]

Many of the memories from our time stuck slumbering near the Singularity have faded, but if you remember our time together then enough, my feelings were based on something real. They haven't changed.

I hope there is a time when the Summoned can make a choice for themselves.

Edited 2024-10-26 21:05 (UTC)

[ As Coram ventures forth bravely to investigate his hand, Claude holds still throughout the sniffing. There's maybe the barest of grins on his face - surely that's a safe movement which won't be too frightening or so he hopes.

Before he can offer some reassuring words to the leosylph to hopefully improve whatever assessment is being made, Ciri's answer comes. And she's right: he does remember. ]

I knew what you felt then, though... [ He trails off for a second, then shrugs one shoulder. He'll risk offending Coram first with that sudden movement and then another as he stands back up. ] Well. I also know what I felt then when I'd forgotten anything and everything about home. I didn't know if that'd shifted considering for me, after we came back? I wasn't sure at all about staying even though I had been before.

[ Though almost as soon as those words are out of his mouth, a humorless smile crosses Claude's face before he adds, ] Though that'd mean giving up everything here, which doesn't feel like much of a choice at all.

[ Ciri gestures him over to the table where she's laid out the snacks he brought, and then steps into the kitchen -- within view -- to get some water boiling. ]

My family is here. [ She says simply. ] I want to stay here.

I haven't had peace like this since I was a little girl. [ And yes, she means that. Even with the war, the gods, the bullshit the Summoned are put through. ] This place has become a home to me.

There are those from my world who would seek to use me for their own gain. They've been able to find me everywhere else-- but not here. So here I'll stay, if I have any choice in it.

But the choice is what matters, I think.

[ A beat. She gestures lamely at a vague kitchen drawer. ]

Tea or coffee?

...or shall we break into the wine?

I can understand that. Even with everything that's happened here, this is probably the first place I've been where I'm not having to look over my shoulder constantly... metaphorically and literally for whatever might be on my heels. I've gotten used to it when I never really thought would be a reality.

[ It's not really until he says the words aloud for the first he realizes they're true beyond a subconscious understanding - an oddity for a man who normally carefully weighs each word to make sure it conveys no less than what he wants to be said and reveals nothing else from it. What Ciri's said resonates; was there ever a moment he could relax in Almyra or in Fodlan? Even as he thinks it he knows the answer is no beyond distant memories.

Claude's quiet for a minute - a rarity most days when it's not also paired with being engrossed in some task, book, or project before him. It's the thought of family which has turned reflection inward further yet than what's already been said. ]

I'll take some tea if you wouldn't mind making it, though perhaps the wine won't be far behind. But it sounds like, [ to turn the conversation back to Ciri momentarily while he considers a few other things in the back of his mind first, ] you've not had much rest before arriving here either.

Wouldn't mind at all. [ He'd shown up technically uninvited, but Claude is hardly unwelcome. Ciri responds with a faint smile and a nod, turning back into the kitchen to put the water on.

Coram, meanwhile, ventures slowly from the plant and slinks along the floor, wings flat against his back, until he makes it under the table, after which he proceeds to sniff Claude's boot. ]

We have that in common, I'm afraid.

Don't get me wrong -- there are dangers here, of course. I know this as well as any of the Summoned. We are in many ways held prisoner here. The governments will seek to use us, as they did when they herded us all in the crater not so many months ago.

I understand why many want to find a way back to their lives and away from such threats.

[ And yet, the implication Ciri leaves hanging unsaid in the silence between them is that this remains preferable to whatever waits for her elsewhere. She'll take on the risks here not only by necessity, but by choice. She's made her decision.

It would only be more impactful if it was a real decision to make. It's why she fought so hard even though she didn't want to leave, in that dream-life they all shared, to give the rest of them a chance to choose. ]

And that's assuming they'd let us leave even if there was a way back.

[ Something which goes without saying, most likely, but the words slip out in an overly tired tone before Claude remembers to keep them back. They're at the whims of those in power here just as Ciri's said. Even patience for the right opportunity when it's served him so well before won't be of any assistance here without some major changes to make it an actual advantage.

Absently he runs a hand against his jaw while thinking. There's that small tug of not quite guilt, not quite responsibility as the idea of not returning home even if there was someday an opportunity for it sits with him for longer. While other times it might be fainter, today it's rather strong when this conversations winds threads of it into his words as he shifts his gaze to watch Ciri ready the tea. Perhaps it's this which makes Abraxas seem distant even as they're here in it and part of what brought him here. ]

If I go home, I'm signing myself up for more threats than ever before. The court I grew up in was a particularly unfriendly one - to me, specifically, and I doubt that's changed in the years I spent away. Going back will mean starting over in more ways than one even if it's my home, but it's still something I wish to see through more than anything.

[ The kettle will need a few minutes. Ciri prepares the pot, the sugar, the milk in a little decorative ceramic pitcher; her movements are clearly on instinct and habit, her eyes on Claude.

She leans on the counter, arms crossed atop it. ]

That's admirable. To care about your people and your responsibility so deeply.

[ She pauses, trying to figure out how to ask without it being awkward. Too many half-remembered conversations that never happened in real life. ]

...can you tell me more about it? Your home?

Edited 2024-11-24 22:47 (UTC)

It probably would've been more so if it'd started out as that rather than me being concerned about myself most of all rather than changing to be that.

[ Not nearly so selfless as his goals grew to be, even as he'd believed it would be best for everyone. But that'd been based on his experiences alone, and it'd taken a long overdue conversation with Cyril to realize the broader impacts - of things he'd never heard of from being removed from them in more ways than one, and what had made him all the more certain of the next part of his path. One still waiting to be taken if they do ever return or have the chance to when it'd mean leaving a life here behind, too.

Though he'd been watching Ciri making the tea it was without really seeing the actions, something with which Claude tells on himself by blinking back into the present at her questions. There's no hesitation before a smile spreads across his face in answer. Well, the first of them, anyway. ]

Of course. [ That leaves him with the dilemma of where to start as he leans back in his chair for a few seconds' thought. ] Almyra's hard to summarize between everything from deserts, forests, and mountains for the land and the many cultures which make up its people, but both make up some of what I love about it. I also used to love going through the markets to see what new things I could find when merchants would travel through. I grew up in the warmer part in the sands but my favorite thing to do was to sneak out and fly a wyvern to the steppes and the prairies. My parents were less pleased when they'd find me missing from wherever I was supposed to be.

❧ IC INBOX: Abraxas

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