expiationlogs | (no subject)

Who: Ethlyn & Claude
Where: The apothecary
What: A couple of old (game-old) folks having a cuppa
Warnings: Content warnings should be here. If there's explicit content in your log, it should be locked.

[Two years... two full years here in this place. Ethlyn is twenty-two now, two years older than she thought she would ever be when fate claimed her in the sands of Aed--or rather, not fate, but a series of mistakes and miscalculations that finally claimed her and her loved ones.

She's learned a great deal in that time. Of medicine and anatomy, and why the slip of paper proclaiming her guilty of "the crimes of the Grannvale Empire" could indeed hold truth in it. She owes that understanding to many experiences and many people, some no longer here... but one friend still very much is, and it's him she's come to visit this evening.

Somewhat uncharacteristically, she's brought a bottle of wine with her. Not to slosh around like her other-self had, of course. But she thinks they've both earned a little relaxation in moderation.

The business end of the apothecary is closed, but she gives the bell a tug anyway.]

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[ Ethlyn is right to believe that Claude would still be in the Apothecary long after closing -- he's just in the back, mixing up his potions and engaging in his experiments, as he is wont to do. There's caution in his expression as he looks around for who's calling him afterhours, but his expression brightens as he notices who it is and flings the door open with a sing-songy: ] Iiiit's Ethlyn, Ethlyn The Bold! Here she comes, out of the cold!

[ Which is to say, he's already hustling her inside. Spring has sprung, and the weather is warmer than it was, but there's still the bite of winter's dwindling grasp in the air. His grin freezes, only for a moment, as his eyes flick down to the bottle of wine at back to her face. ]

Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit? Nothing bad, I hope?

[ Are they drowning their sorrows tonight, Ethlyn? That's fine too, but you gotta let a guy know! ]

[Ethlyn of course has to laugh at Claude's impromptu ditty as he ushers her inside briskly.]

No, no, nothing bad. [She smiles.] Although I suppose that depends on your philosophical point of view.

No, it just occurred to me that I've come to my second year in this place.

...Actually it occurred to me a few weeks ago, but I've been too busy to do anything about it... but, I had a mind to spend a quiet evening with an old friend over it.

Philosophically, I would say that this marks nearly two years of our enduring friendship. Which means that we have to celebrate it!

[ Trust Claude to come up with a positive spin on things. His light tone belies his actual concern - if it were him, he would not possess the same strength as Ethlyn does to march in and confront the fact that he's been dead for two years - but he doesn't think that Ethlyn needs any help in being morose if that's the direction the evening is going in.

Which it might, after a glass of wine or two, but that's quite all right. They've got all night. ]

Come on up. This deserves finer lodgings than my shop.

[ Up the narrow staircase they go, into Claude's well-guarded private quarters. Ethlyn has been here a number of times now, which is why there's not even a trace of embarrassment in his voice as he goes to root around in his cupboards for a couple of goblets. ] Excuse the mess! I've been learning about horses lately. Did you know that their hooves are basically enormous toenails? Ghastly stuff.

[ He simply grabs the books on his table and tosses them on the ground before setting a couple of goblets between them. ]

There. I'll light us a fire, and we can sit and talk. I am glad you decided to come, you know.

[ To celebrate, to mourn, to philosophize. It's the most earnest thing he's said so far, letting some of his lightness slip so that Ethlyn knows that he's aware of the gravity of this moment -- just that he's trying to cheer her up anyhow. ]

[Ethlyn has to hold in a sigh as she looks around the state of Claude's little apartment. It isn't her job to manage him and the way he lives his life in private--not the way it was for her father and brother--and so the way he flings his books around, as much as she may feel that it causes her physical pain, is entirely his affair.

Instead, she just opens the wine and pours them each a glass once the table is sufficiently cleared.]

I don't think I did anything for it last year. I just... realized it, and then I was so busy with everything, and there was that mess with the memories and the town changing to a city overnight...

[It was quite a month, in other words.]

But we seem to have a little quiet this year, for now. And it isn't too long until your own anniversary, either.

[ The way Claude glances at Ethlyn is with clear amusement; he knows that the way he chooses to live bothers her immensely, and somehow he finds that it gives him great joy in a different way from the way he enjoys tormenting his tormentors. He has been a younger brother his entire life, but not one with the ability to harmlessly irritate his older siblings. Perhaps this is the appeal he's heard so much about.

Only instead of sharing a dreary childhood together, they get to come together in adulthood, over a glass of wine. A much preferable prospect, he thinks, picking up the glass with an elegance that is near comical against their surroundings. ]

No. I remember when I first arrived, I thought that you had been here an age. Even a week seemed like a week too long.

[ He offers her a wry smile, bittersweet. ]

Now, the month or two between us hardly means anything at all. Every time something happens here, it feels as though our days must be numbered... but nevertheless, here we are.

[ He tilts his glass towards hers. ]

To persistence.

To persistence.

[Ethlyn smiles as she clinks his glass, the expression more than a little wry herself. t isn't as though they have a choice to do otherwise, is it?

And when he mentions the little gap of time between them, Ethlyn fins herself unwittingly mirroring his thoughts--perhaps even in response to the terrible clutter that she knows he knows gets under her skin whenever she sees it.]

When you put it like that, it sounds like the time between siblings... and how important it may or may not seem to them. [She grins, remembering some arguments she'd had with Sigurd over who was older, and whether or not age was the right way to determine who should win the disagreement.] At this point, I'm inclined to agree that a couple of months doesn't mean anything when the months since then have been so full of incident.

I do wonder how much longer either of us will be here, sometimes... frequently, actually.

[ Claude laughs lightly at the comparison. Ethlyn isn't wrong; though their bond is ultimately built upon mutual respect and mutual weariness, he likes to think it's not so unlike siblings that had the good fortune of not being pitted against each other and were instead therefore able to cooperate even if one disapproves of the other's organizational habits. ]

I would have been lucky to have you as a sister. Though I don't doubt I would have been raised on a steady diet of nagging, [ Claude says, winking at her, lightning-quick. ]

We could be gone tomorrow, or we could be gone years from now, if this place holds out long enough. [ He laces his fingers together atop the table. ] It's not conceptually so different from any other place, but it's still different, somehow.

[ It's uncomfortable. He's used to there being a body to bury, a cause to point at, not people just blinking out of existence. ]

...if there comes time where we can escape from this place if we want to, or if we could stay here, what would you do?

[ It's been on his mind for a while. He doesn't want to burden Ethlyn with expectation, however, so he'll let her speak her mind first. ]

Only if you were as slovenly as my brother was! [...She looks around the room and at what Claude deems tidy enough to show his friends.] So yes, probably. But I don't just do it without good reason.

[It's quite a question. And it's definitely one that has sometimes kept Ethlyn up in the small hours of the morning, when the day has been too busy for her mind to rest... sometimes, worrying about who will still be in Aldrip tomorrow. She doubts that people are given a choice. After all, there was no choice given in coming here, was there?

Still, it is a question to ponder.]

...I've thought about it a lot.

I think I would want to go back home... after the battle was over, that is. So that I could find my children and protect them. I know they survived, but... from the few glimpses I've had of them, their lives have not been easy.

[Claude met Altena, others met Leif. She's seen them both. How old their eyes are.]