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[portolan]

"I'm only here to see how the story unfolds."

Comments

[helpdesk_hero]

[David is asking, but he’s also offering. Offering SO MUCH.]

Wonderful. We’ll need food to cook and so much wine to share by the fire. Good news is with a camper there is no sleeping on the ground OR cooking without a stove unless we want it. So much more comfortable for long soul searching journeys. Or short ones.

[portolan]

[ He...knows that offer is huge. Wants it so badly. But they're in territory where words fail him and he doesn't know how to navigate.

Let him be damned if he isn't going to try, though. ]

As long as you want. I'll bring the wine and the flying bike to show you the skies the way I see them. Any anything else you want help preparing.

[ A gap and then... ]

It means a lot you're suggesting this. I'll answer anything you ask, and I know there are some things I ought to tell you. That I want to tell you.

[helpdesk_hero]

[Oooh, the bike sounds good too.]

We're going to have the most decadent camping ever. I might buy caviar just to show off. But I'm also doing smores.

You're going to get to ask me as much as you want too. Anything. All cards on the table, nothing too much. If you want to know the awkward details of my first kiss, they're yours. I love you and I want US. And this might help us open up in the ways we need. Where we can't go off hiding from each other.

[portolan]

Please show off. It's charming when you do.

You really do think of everything. I don't want to hide from each other anymore -- even if I completely accept we're prone to it. So wine and caviar and smores and decadent camping and all the cringeworthy stories we can muster, and then falling asleep with you anyway.

Scions, I love you. I'd rather be a mess and a fool than risk us again.

[ And, as much as they've already come back from some of this, it makes his heart feel full how much David is putting word to action. He can meet that with discomfort and honesty. But, yes, removing the option to hide away is clever and appreciated. ]

PS I don't know what smores are.

[helpdesk_hero]

Well, maybe I will show off then. I've never had caviar though. I wouldn't know if it's good.

And maybe you'll explain why your curse is 'Scions'. We haven't touched much on Ivalician faith practices yet. You know I'm always interested.

[The other comment gets a laughing emoji.]

Chocolate, toasted marshmallow, graham crackers. They're amazing.

[portolan]

I like us trying new things together, too, so even better. Bring it, and I'll look up a wine to pair and tell you about Scions and Occuria and Espers, though I don't know if it counts as faith when I've personally interacted with most of them. I also absolutely do not pray to them.

[ Balthier definitely has not figured out emoji, but receiving one makes him chuckle. ]

Yes excellent I know what one of those ingredients is. Sweet tooth it is. Sounds like you.

[helpdesk_hero]

Sounds lovely. I'll keep you appraised of the shopping work. But we'll need to find some time to do it.

Honestly, I'm just sort of eager to be out of the city, given how they are reacting to Metas after that evil sprites thing. Fucking hell that was a mess.

[portolan]

Anything I can do to help, do keep me appraised.

I can't help feeling partially responsible for all this -- the sprites and the blowback. I know that isn't rational and that there are always going to be people targeting Metas but...fucking hell is right.

I went out without my suit. I'm getting weird looks and messages for the first time. I'm realizing why it's so important to you to keep them separate. Not that I didn't believe you, I just hadn't seen it the same way before. I'm passing mine off as sprite magic, but...Definitely rethinking how visible I'll be going forward.

[helpdesk_hero]

It isn't your fault, just like it isn't the fault of any meta, or non-meta, that they saw the horrors they did.

There's a reason I get so paranoid about this. I was KNOWN everywhere for what my genetics were, I could be searched for it. And people got hurt. My family got threatened. I'm not shocked this place is the same.

[portolan]

Would that something as simple as fault could fix things.

Whatever I can do to make you feel even a little more at ease, I hope you'll always ask. I'm sorry you had to live like that.

[helpdesk_hero]

Now I live like this, hiding who I am in a whole different way. But it's not like I can move from Excelsior. This place is right for me.

I just have to do my best.

[portolan]

No, you have to come away with me for awhile and drop everything and be as messy as you need to, and if we're lucky, maybe even heal a little.

And then we can go back to dealing with everything else when our wells aren't so dry. Together.

[helpdesk_hero]

When our wells aren't so dry. I think I really like that metaphor, darling.

I'm still looking at campers. I'm going to get us all geared up.

[yes, he's going to blow some of his savings on this. Dammit they deserve a vacation and he can afford and justify this.]

[portolan]

If you want to select things and have me acquire them I can also do that.

[ They're a team, and he's used to splitting costs and profits -- labor or monetary. ]

[helpdesk_hero]

I can send you a list. Maybe I'll leave food supplies to you and handle the other stuff. Might be a more fair split.

[portolan]

Send me that and if you decide you need help on something else, send me that too. I'll let you know if there's something I can't handle.

[ He likes being a team. Quite a lot. Their dinner party was lovely because they did it together, and he's happy to do the same for this. ]

[helpdesk_hero]

Alright, thank you.

And I know you can handle anything I can throw at you. We both know that.

[portolan]

Shush. I was being charmingly humble.

[helpdesk_hero]

You're always charming. But humble? please never be that.

[portolan]

Arrogant it is. And a good thing, too, to keep up with your demands and excellent tastes.

[helpdesk_hero]

You are my taste, and you are excellent, Yeah, that works.