lumberlady | Noctium

Konoha? Is this a good time to call?

[Someone has just discovered Chiron's absence. And someone knows that the first thing that the centaur would want him to do is check in on his roommate and keep an eye on her for the remainder of the time they both are present in this world.]

[A stab of guilt strikes a jinba some miles away. She'd meant to contact people, to reach out once she'd realized Chiron was gone to tell his students, his fellows, but-]

LORD EL-MELLOI
hello
yes i can speak now

How are you holding up?

[He's not going to remind her about the II. Not now. She was closer to Chiron than he was, so...]

[She's so sorry... the II is so hard to remember... Why isn't it Lord Go-El-Melloi...]

Me... ? I'm alright.

[Which is a lie and honestly sounds like a lie even though she tries to pass it off like she doesn't know why he's asking... But of course she knows, and she doesn't even bother trying to keep up the ruse, instead following up with a little sigh,]

I'm not the one who vanished, so...

I know...

But in many ways it's harder to be the one left behind. [There's a deep ache in his voice that he doesn't bother to disguise. He knows what having a relationship, any sort of a relationship, with a Servant means.] How do you feel about takeout?

… That’s true, I guess.

[The bad thing about voice is that she can’t disguise the threat of emotional spill in her voice. She should have stayed with text maybe…]

I just can’t… When other people leave I can say “they have a duty to see to back home”, or “they have someone waiting for them”, but Chiron…

[…]

Take-out like… food?

... is back on the Throne.

[He'll let that hang to encourage her to continue. He doesn't know what she knows. So he has to handle this gently.]

Yes, food. Have you tried Indian?

… is back on the Throne.

[And she almost wishes she didn’t know. Because that… ? To lose everything and become some… some blank, summonable slate again? It seemed so cruel… to them, to him.]

… No, I don’t think I have. What’s it like?

[Oh.

oh.

That says it all. It's cruel knowledge to be left with.

Digesting that, Waver's slow to respond.]

Sweet, smoky, and often earthy, given all the spices used together. Meats are often cooked in a variety of creamy sauces of different spiciness, or incorporated with rice. Plenty of vegetarian and seafood dishes as well. It's served with breads like naan or roti.

It's delicious.

[When he’d shown back up at the barn with two legs instead of four… There’d been no hiding certain things. He’d told her what she needed, or perhaps just what she wanted, to know.

And how sad… to know. More sad than living a lie spun of ignorant hope? She’s not sure.

At least when you died proper… You returned to the earth. To be denied even that…]

I don’t know some of those words, but… It sounds really delicious?

Should I set the table… ?

Yes, please. I'll be around very soon with some dishes that have been hits with Flat and myself.

[How he knows where the barn is... perhaps Chiron told him? Or is it just Servants keeping tabs on each other due to certain, inescapable truths.]

… Thank you.

[She appreciates this for what she thinks it is. She can’t, won’t, turn it away.]

If there’s anything of his you want…

[How sentimental are others? She can only vouch for herself.]

You're welcome.

[...

... he never thought about that. Would there be anything he wants? There's only one thing he's seen the Archer with...]

...

... his lyre, if that's alright with you.

Edited 2021-09-09 04:05 (UTC)

Oh, you can play, too… ?

[That beautiful sound that she hopes she can commit to memory. How lovely it had seemed beneath the linden tree.]

Mmm. If I can have it if you get to go back home?

[Because surely he’s not a Servant… he’s just a mage, right? Him going home would be a good thing… right?]

[... oh Konoha, very few people get a happy ending in Fate.]

Of course.

[Well... Zhuge Liang's the instrument player, not him, but since they share this Servant container, they share skills, so...]

Well... I'm alright on a guqin, which is very much like a koto. [Which causes the spirit within to roll his eyes in hearing that. He is more than alright, thank you much.] I thought I could try my hand at learning this too.

[Surely… someone… ? No?]

I’d love to hear you play, then… Sometime.

[A soft, lilting scale is picked up by the phone as her fingers gently move over the lyre strings.]

I’m a bit hopeless. I only learned a simple song. But if you know something like koto… Maybe you can play it like it deserves.

[... maybe Rin.]

I'll have to see if I can find a guqin and show you, then.

[Though it might be an odd experience playing it, relying on another man's muscle memory.]

Mm... I will certainly do my best to play it with the skill it deserves. But why don't we try learning together? I think he'd like that.

They have lots of musical instruments in the city at the fancy shops… Maybe they have that one. I saw what looked like a shamisen, once…

[But his proposal… Ah. If she did that… Maybe then she could-]

… You think so? If I won’t slow you down…

I’d like that.

Trust me, you won't.

[Gently assuring.]

I'll have to take a look downtown, then. I admit I haven't been the most adventurous that way. I've probably missed quite a bit.

[He doesn't really do major poking about the shops unless they're secondhand thrift for the most part - he's careful with his money and Flat and him aren't exactly rolling in it to begin with.]

… then, mm. I’d like that.

[And not just because it would mean having company, company that knew the person that lyre had been crafted by.]

Ehe, I haven’t done much in the deep city either… it’s a bit noisy for me. A little crowded.

[rural 1620’s Japan don’t have nothing on this…]

Yes, it truly is. [A bit of wry laughter.] It reminds me of London.

Is London your city... ? I've never heard of that one.

That's right. It's the capital of England and the United Kingdom.

Very busy. Very loud. [A wince.] Very expensive. It's where a lot of the world's business is done.

[So many names, as usual, that she doesn't know, and yet... Well, she tries to place it. Someone had told her "England" was in the world with "Japan", even if she hadn't seen it or ever imagined it herself, but...]

Is it anything like... Kyoto? Do you know Kyoto?

[Not that she's ever been there, either, but it's the capital... She's heard stories.]

I've heard of it. [A pause.] Mmm... it's a bit like Kyoto in a number of ways, especially when it comes to being a leading center of things like culture.

Also like Tokyo, too - you would know it as Edo; it's now the capital - when it comes to being a commerce hub and seat of power.

Voice; sometime soon after Chiron's departure

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