april catch-all!

[feintofhart]

Who: Claude & Various
Where: Around Aldrip!
What: Claude and his encounters around town.
Warnings: None anticipated! If you'd like to hop in on a log, however, please feel free to PM/DM me or hit me up on plurk (here!), and I'd be happy to whip up a starter for you, or you can just wildcard me in here! Claude will be going about his business exploring the new Aldrip, fumbling around with new technology, running the apothecary, training, riding his wyvern, etc., etc., so if any of those appeal, feel free to jump on in. :)

Comments

[feintofhart]

Hah, you don't dance around the subject, do you? [ Claude's eyes dance with guarded amusement. His goals as a leader are the one thing that he can't afford to be transparent about. The more people know about him, the less he'll be able to achieve what he sets his mind to. He knows that his dreams are things that others would call improbable, impossible, nothing more than the fancies of a little boy and now a full-fledged leader.

They may be right. But he still intends to try. ]

I'm the leader of the Leicester Alliance, yes, though it's largely ruled by roundtable. [ It's more challenging than being the sole leader in the same way that Edelgard or Dimitri had afforded to them by their birth, the only feasible heir to their respective positions. There's a court filled with angry old men who hate him, dogging his every step, blocking his every move. ]

Right now? What I want from my legacy is peace. Our lands have been at war for years, and it's a war I intend to stop -- intended to stop, before I was brought here.

[ It is not the truth of his greater dreams. But short-term, it's all that consumes him. He cannot end the discrimination between the two halves of his soul if everyone in Fodlan is either dead or have bowed in deference to Edelgard's rule. ]

The Leicester Alliance is the youngest of the nations of Fodlan, and arguably the weakest, but I don't intend to allow us to be crushed underneath the Empire's thumb. [ He glances out at the peaceful street outside of his Apothecary, so different from the world he'd once known. ] There are troops to rally, an army to overcome, what ought to be our greatest ally in shambles and in dire need of assistance. When we win, there will need to be a rebuilding effort for the villages razed to the ground, for all of the crops gone scorched-earth.

[ Claude rubs his forehead. When he thinks about all of the people going unhoused and hungry, it makes his heart ache, but it makes his head ache too, trying to think up logistics as to how to house them all. ]

Getting everyone safe and fed takes precedence. Everything else I might want to do has to come after.

[invinciblemikey]

Why would I dance around anything? Sounds stupid not to ask what I want to know.

(but if claude doesn't tell him, there's no worries there. it's his damn legacy, after all. this is a conversation. of course, it would bring perspective and newly understanding about the man in front of him - war does things to people, responsibility over it even more so.)

So you're going on a last journey for freedom. I like the 'when', I'll tell you that. Sounds simple, but it definitely ain't.

... But you know? You're great. I think you'll get it done. Just ain't gon be easy, from what you're telling me.

[feintofhart]

If you fight a war thinking you're bound for failure, you've already lost. The troops need to see that the person leading them believes in them for them to believe in you too. I think you know a thing or two about that.

[ At Manjiro's vote of confidence, though, he gives him a little grin. Manjiro doesn't know him well enough to say all that. He doesn't know him very much at all, he thinks, but nobody does. Not in this world, not in his own, not in the next. It's by design.

But it doesn't feel so bad to hear it anyway. ]

But... thanks. I appreciate that. It may take years to come, but we will be victorious in the end. I just wish I could be there instead of here. No crime I could be deemed guilty of is worth jeopardizing a whole nation over. And not to go bragging about my own successes -- but if we're going to win, they need me there, front and centre.

[invinciblemikey]

... I think you just won me a little bit more. Good answer.

(because that's exactly it. manjiro is the type to arrive, look at a sea of people, and offer them a fair fight - him versus all of them. 20? 200? manjiro stands tall in front of his people. it's the way to be, if you want them to move forward, you can't falter yourself. he's rather content with the answer.)

You're right. All we can hope is that time moves differently, or whatever bullshit, and that can still pick it up from where we left off. Otherwise, with all the hero types in this place, ain't we all ruined everywhere?