doublefists | ★ ROXANA

[ what vi says makes her smile, and her emotions twist into something that's almost curious.

roxana remembers the glimpse in memories. ]

Is your city mostly underground? It's mostly that open fields like that feel less like a prison.

Yeah. There's bits that aren't, but I don't hang around those parts very often.

[ she digs through a box on one of the displays, looking through the brooches and things. ]

That's what I meant, though. Everything about you is locked away in a cage, so I get why you'd want to be somewhere that didn't feel like that.

You don't crave sunlight because of it?

[ she likes darkness as much as any gothic and edgy character, but she can't deny how nice the sun feels. ]

I suppose I can't refute that. I'd take my mother to a house hidden in the woods, if I could.

Sometimes.

[ the sun is nice, she won't deny that either. ]

What's stopping you? [ not in a like, just go and get it way, because vi figures if it were possible roxana would have already done it. ]

Politics is the simplest way to answer that. Without proper planning or support, my father would have interfered. Despite how he behaves, he is the head of a powerful territory.

[ a beat, and then with an annoyed and spiteful sort of emotion behind it: ]

You want to get rid of him, right?

[ there's a small ripple of appreciation. ]

I do, but what would cause him more misery is if another family took care of him, so I'll have to wait for that to happen. It shouldn't be too long.

Good. Fuck that guy.

[ bluntly. ]

Look - I believe you can do it by yourself. You're smarter than most people I know. But if you ever need someone to come in and rip up some carpet, I'm around. Jae-ha said he'd hop me around if I wanted.

[ that makes her laugh a little with the barest flicker of surprise. ]

The funniest thing about my father is that he's never considered I could betray him. [ she smiles. ] You'd do that for me, Vi?

[ that makes her snort, that first bit. but.

a little flicker of something that's approaching loyalty, and then: ]

Sure. Wahoos, right, they've got to stick together. [ flippantly. ]

[ it's not quite amusement, but it broaches it. ]

Wahoo... magnetic enough that we're drawing them all to this side.

[ it's a joke. roxana doesn't need to see more of them on this side. ]

Yeesh, I know. I didn't mean to start that spark.

[ dryly. ]

I wouldn't place the blame on you. You were the victim.

[ there's like. just the tiniest bit of... validation and like, bitterness there.

still... sort of dry: ]

Yeah, well. Aren't we all.

All of us but the young lord Childe.

[ faintly teasing ]

[ snorts. ]

That's a guy I wouldn't ever call a lord.

[ amused ]

That's what anyone is doing whenever they choose to call him Childe instead of Tartaglia. Both of his names are an entertaining choice for him.

How many names does this guy even have. How many do you need.

He and Scaramouche may be compensating for something. Different things, but still something.

[ SNORTS. she probably didn't mean that in the way vi thinks but she's still laughing.

but, also. after a second, a little more seriously: ]

I think they're both missing something, they just don't know what.

[ it was a little of both meanings. ]

They're both a bit more self-aware than I expected, but I think you're right. Whatever has led them both to have so many names means they're striving for something while hiding something.

Trying on masks until you find something that fits.

[ she tilts her head back. ]

Or just getting tired of being bitten over and over and deciding it's not going to hurt you anymore.

It could be a little of both although I don't know either of them well enough to know if it's more of one or the other.

[ she's not the type to shrug, but it's kind of that vibe. ]

But it's also not my business if it's either or both.

[ a half-smile. ]

Yeah? Don't care that much about their inner workings? [ a beat. ] Guess that tracks. You keep everybody at arm's length.

I'm curious, but I don't know if I want to put in that much effort. They keep people at an arm's length in their own ways, too.

It'd take more than asking a few pointed questions.

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