[ please play PIB when i play another furry like. freya ff9, that'd be the funniest team up ]
One of your best friends is... [ okay yeah sure she'll just go with that, it's fine. she's heard weirder. she sprawls in her chair, scrolling through her phone again. ]
Like, home, you mean. [ she says, and then: ] It's nothing to be excited about. The Undercity's dark and dirty and full of drug addicts and alcoholics. You work your fucking hands to the bone your whole life and you get scraps for it, while the Pilties have their little high class parties and make laws that don't apply to any of them.
[ woah ok calm down vi
a beat. ]
... Sorry, wish it wasn't so shit so I could tell you something nicer.
Rosamund's cheer seeps out. Not for any sort of glumness, but a knowing, serious glance. She shakes her head slightly, giving pause after Vi speaks.]
It's all right. I understand. Not everywhere's going to be a paradise. Most places aren't, actually. And sometimes the cost of having one is...making a lot of misery for someone else.
[Sounds like these Pilties benefit a little too much off the backs of other people. Her eyes flick away.]
...If it helps at all, my kingdom used to be covered in thorns for a hundred years. Everyone was either cursed asleep, or dead. And anyone who came in to fix it died in the thorns. [She sighs.] It wasn't much better anywhere else. Lots of war, misery. Things gone wrong. Very, very wrong.
Oh yes. There was a great deal of struggle involved, and a lot of...well. Pain. Loss. The sort of things you expect to happen, when you're fighting an impossible battle.
But it came out all right in the end. People are better off now. For now. I hope it can stay that way.
I was fifteen. I was going to make the bastards at the top respect us. I was going to make life better for my sister. Easy things to think can be achieved where you're young and stupid and haven't ever really been in charge of anything in your life.
[She crosses her legs, leaning over her knees a little as she listens. Vi stretches out, Rosamund curls up more. Her chin rests in her hands, framing the polite frown she wears as she hears a bitter tale.]
I don't think it's stupid to try to do better for the people you love. Even if it doesn't go the way you want, the intention was right.
...It's very hard to change a whole system like that, too. Especially when you're young, and you don't have much to begin with.
Hah. Don't I know it. My dad used to say - used to get on me, he'd be like you've got no idea what's goes into a revolution. I was so pissed at him for doing nothing.
To be fair, it's hard to do those things as a grown-up too...
[No matter how you slice it, it's an uphill battle. The sort that makes her a little leery of her own position, even if she's intimately familiar with rock bottom herself.]
I wouldn't be so hard on kids for dreaming, either. Nothing new gets done if no one thinks things could be better someday.
[She purses her lips.]
...I really pushed this conversation in a bad direction, didn't I? I'm sorry, Vi. Let's steer towards something else!
No, don't worry about it, that's on me. [ a hum. ] Steer somewhere else it is. Home's sort of off topic, I'm guessing, so maybe - tell me about your friends? From anywhere.
[But she'll concede. Brightening at the mention of friends, though she wonders how deep in the weeds she wants to get with it.]
Oh, I've gotten to meet some wonderful people. At the last place I was, there was a very savvy businesswoman named Margaret Encino? And a sweet boy named Shoma, who might have been the cleverest person there. Then there was Throné and Temenos, who were mysterious but kind, and Eunhyuk who was very quiet but secretly kind of funny?
And Sidon... [She halts, suddenly. Still smiling, but suddenly looking to her lap.] I was on my way to meet him again, actually. When I arrived here. Which is a shame, I haven't been able to see him or much of anyone since we went home. Had some things to take care of.
...But he was the best. A prince, actually, but not at all stuck up or pampered. He was so much fun. Sort of a giant, red shark? Do you have sharks, where you're from?
A prince that doesn't have a high horse? Huh. [ but: ] Sure, we have sharks. I've never seen one, but we have them. This Sidon guy's like a large fish person?
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One of your best friends is... [ okay yeah sure she'll just go with that, it's fine. she's heard weirder. she sprawls in her chair, scrolling through her phone again. ]
Like, home, you mean. [ she says, and then: ] It's nothing to be excited about. The Undercity's dark and dirty and full of drug addicts and alcoholics. You work your fucking hands to the bone your whole life and you get scraps for it, while the Pilties have their little high class parties and make laws that don't apply to any of them.
[ woah ok calm down vi
a beat. ]
... Sorry, wish it wasn't so shit so I could tell you something nicer.
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Rosamund's cheer seeps out. Not for any sort of glumness, but a knowing, serious glance. She shakes her head slightly, giving pause after Vi speaks.]
It's all right. I understand. Not everywhere's going to be a paradise. Most places aren't, actually. And sometimes the cost of having one is...making a lot of misery for someone else.
[Sounds like these Pilties benefit a little too much off the backs of other people. Her eyes flick away.]
...If it helps at all, my kingdom used to be covered in thorns for a hundred years. Everyone was either cursed asleep, or dead. And anyone who came in to fix it died in the thorns. [She sighs.] It wasn't much better anywhere else. Lots of war, misery. Things gone wrong. Very, very wrong.
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Not that it helps, but yeah. [ she gets the sentiment. ] Did anything change? You said used to.
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Oh yes. There was a great deal of struggle involved, and a lot of...well. Pain. Loss. The sort of things you expect to happen, when you're fighting an impossible battle.
But it came out all right in the end. People are better off now. For now. I hope it can stay that way.
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Sounds like the kind of story I'd tell my sister at bedtime. I don't know if we lived happily ever after is a thing that actually happens. [ haha, ]
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...It doesn't. Not truthfully. Not in any way that's worthwhile.
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[ ... ]
I used to believe in it more.
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Was it something you were trying to find?
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[ a sigh, and she stretches out. ]
I was fifteen. I was going to make the bastards at the top respect us. I was going to make life better for my sister. Easy things to think can be achieved where you're young and stupid and haven't ever really been in charge of anything in your life.
no subject
I don't think it's stupid to try to do better for the people you love. Even if it doesn't go the way you want, the intention was right.
...It's very hard to change a whole system like that, too. Especially when you're young, and you don't have much to begin with.
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[ ... ]
Anyway. Kids, right? With their dreams.
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[No matter how you slice it, it's an uphill battle. The sort that makes her a little leery of her own position, even if she's intimately familiar with rock bottom herself.]
I wouldn't be so hard on kids for dreaming, either. Nothing new gets done if no one thinks things could be better someday.
[She purses her lips.]
...I really pushed this conversation in a bad direction, didn't I? I'm sorry, Vi. Let's steer towards something else!
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No, don't worry about it, that's on me. [ a hum. ] Steer somewhere else it is. Home's sort of off topic, I'm guessing, so maybe - tell me about your friends? From anywhere.
no subject
[But she'll concede. Brightening at the mention of friends, though she wonders how deep in the weeds she wants to get with it.]
Oh, I've gotten to meet some wonderful people. At the last place I was, there was a very savvy businesswoman named Margaret Encino? And a sweet boy named Shoma, who might have been the cleverest person there. Then there was Throné and Temenos, who were mysterious but kind, and Eunhyuk who was very quiet but secretly kind of funny?
And Sidon... [She halts, suddenly. Still smiling, but suddenly looking to her lap.] I was on my way to meet him again, actually. When I arrived here. Which is a shame, I haven't been able to see him or much of anyone since we went home. Had some things to take care of.
...But he was the best. A prince, actually, but not at all stuck up or pampered. He was so much fun. Sort of a giant, red shark? Do you have sharks, where you're from?
no subject
A prince that doesn't have a high horse? Huh. [ but: ] Sure, we have sharks. I've never seen one, but we have them. This Sidon guy's like a large fish person?
[ she knows of those - a few live in zaun. ]
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[Rosamund nods.]
Mmhmm! He did have arms and legs, but he was very tall. Practically twice my size in fact.