smash_logs | Don't eat the food; don't drink the tea.

Entry tags:

Don't eat the food; don't drink the tea.

Who: Eirika and You, [Open]
When: Dec. 01 - Late Afternoon / Early Evening
What: The academy's custodian is down for the count. Eirika's gone to FDC to get him something—anything—that will help.
Where: Anywhere between the faculty quarters and into various places in FDC. YOU GET TO PICK THE PLACE. If it exists, Eirika has probably been there.
Warnings: Nope. This is CHILD-SAFE zone.

I can't believe what I made him made him sick. I was so certain I was improving my skill.

Not that it made any difference in the present. What happened certainly happened and questioning the how or the why was something she could think about when he was feeling better. And she wanted to assume anything exchanged between them was a consequence of some type of delirium. It didn't prevent her from excessively contemplating all that had been laid out. She'd have to investigate further when he felt better, she supposed, even if she didn't necessarily want to.

First thing was first, though. And that meant with all of the haste she could muster, getting to FDC's main department store. And not getting distracted by things along the way.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A change in behavior is close enough.

"I don't think it was your cooking, Eirika. I had... some problems lately myself, and I traced it back to the coffee at the cafe. I have a feeling there's something in the water around the school lately."

Some problems. That's a euphemistic way to put it. He could have KILLED someone during his freak-out the other morning, and it's possible she'd already heard of it.

"I don't think it was your cooking, Eirika."

Wait.

"I don't think it was your cooking, Eirika."

That's really the most important thing she's hearing. It isn't her. Possibly. Potentially. Hopefully. She forces herself to listen to the rest of what he has to say, despite the way her vain hopes are trying to choke her out.

"In the water...?" True, that she'd boiled the gnocchi. But... "I've had the water, though. I make tea frequently. I've not had any issues at all... But I suppose everyone could be different." Immune systems? She's so much more fragile than Connor. She has to wonder how a man of the land is capable of getting sick and she's been fine.

It could be that someone from Earth would have a harder time with, say, something magical than someone from a mana-soaked environment. It could be thoroughly harmless to her. Nevertheless:

"I... wouldn't for a while, if I were you."

After all, it's not just HER that has to metabolize that tea.

"In fact, I'd take the time to buy enough food and bottled water for a few days while you're out here... For you and Connor. If he makes a quick recovery, then we'll know for sure."

She nods slowly and eyes him for some moments, as if filing his sentiments away for serious consideration. In fact, her feet move before the rest of her is even ready to. But she waits because she's under the impression Gordon will come with her.

"That would probably be safest, yes. For Connor. I suppose me. Just because I'm fine right now doesn't mean I'll continue to be. And I shouldn't tempt fate."

Her eyebrows knit together, "Have you noticed anything else out of the ordinary? Did you sputter anything that seemed... off about you?"

"I did say lot of things I would normally keep to myself." He admits, slowly. "Also the preamble to the hallucinations were headaches and a lack of focus."

As she stares at it, it's as if she's trying to answer something deeper than that without actually asking him. Realising that she can't, no matter how clever or intelligent she is, Eirika nods once more. "Mm. Lack of focus I could see. The hallucinations... I wonder if that's a sign of things to come. The things you said, were they... truthful? Or were you just uttering nonsense?"

"They were for me. We've already discovered this stuff affects everyone differently..."

He stops staying down the dairy aisle in the distance and looks at her now.

"Eirika, did Connor say something that bothered you?"

She pauses in a manner that's akin to the way a person trails off in their speech. Her blue eyes rest on Gordon's face, not wanting to answer so succinctly, but not being able to think of another way, she finally nods.

"A few things," the princess admits. "I thought it would be more convenient if his illness was to hold responsible for it." Because truth be told, nothing Connor said is anything she wants to entertain and both things imply a great... betrayal of her person. To her person.

He... gets the feeling she's not going to divulge more than that. It's really none of his business anyway, even if he IS curious.

"Knowing Connor, it's probably the illness. I don't think the man could say anything to upset you if he tried, if he were of sound mind."

She knows he's waiting for more. Or at least something a little more clear. But Eirika's always been a 'keep to herself' kind of gal, unfortunately. On the other hand, he doesn't press her for information, which leaves her faintly relieved. Just faintly.

"That is not true," she corrects him. "Connor has upset me before. A few times, at least. It isn't impossible for him. I think he was keeping something from me and it wasn't something he should have kept. He owes me honesty and open behaviour. And he didn't seem to have plans of saying it before—not without outside assistance. That's how it sounded, at any rate."

What, Connor? Keep something important to himself that he really should have talked to someone about? Come on, Eirika, there are Ursarings that shit in the woods with less reliability.

"All the same, I don't think he meant anything by it. He's the kind of man that thinks about what he says before he says it. Sometimes that takes longer than others."

"I wish I could believe that," she admits with a slow nod. "In fact, I would rest easier if I did. The nature of what he said, however... It's too important for me to just ignore. Although I've... been trying to pretend he didn't say anything at all."

Because I still don't know if I should even make mention of it. What kind of relationship is it that we're in if we're keeping secrets from one another? Not a very good one. If a future is what he wants out of me, we are better off no longer hosting hidden things.

"That is to say, I'm a bit frustrated and conflicted. Politically. Emotionally. Physically. Mentally. The only thing I don't seem to have issues with is a type of spirituality. Who even knows why, considering everything else that's different between Connor and me."

"...Would it be too much for me to ask what it was about?"

BECAUSE DAMMIT, HE CAN'T HOLD HIS CURIOSITY with the way you're phrasing all of this.

She's expected this at some point. "Um. Well... Do you remember when you told me not to worry about when I would lose Connor, for if I did, I would go mad? I had resigned myself that whatever lies between him and me would be fleeting. I had assumed as much. For though I wanted to find a way to make him a part of my world, it occurred to me that to do so would mean him being treated as I am in Magvel. So I declined from any such thing. He... there was some mention about ancestry lines and Desmond Miles and what he was doing before he came to this academy."

Eirika shakes her head. "If it is a ploy, it is a very good one. Connor has always had more faith in our relationship than I have. He is the kind of man that could make me lose a war. Influence doesn't exist unless I give him the power to influence me. He said that I... appear to be crucial for his future." It's the only way she knows how to put it, but even she seems perplexed beyond belief.

OH GOD. So that's what he was trying to tell her. Gordon doesn't want to be the one to break the news to her--it seems like the kind of thing she shouldn't hear from her physics professor in the middle of a supermarket. However, he reaches over and plucks an nondescript box from the shelf and drops it in his shopping basket. They're probably going to need one of these eventually...

"What do you mean, he'd be treated like you are in Magvel? He may be the kind of man that can live with very little, but I doubt he'd mind being treated like royalty."

"You would be surprised," Eirika mutters under her breath. "Being royalty isn't a rainbow, Gordon." She shakes her head as her posture straightens. "Being royalty means needing to do what is best for a collective and not one's self. I still live in an age where I should marry for political diplomacy. I want to inspire hope and prosperity and providence for my people. That is what weddings are for. They are meant to distract from the truth of things, like war and loss."

Her head tips as she eyes Gordon with some thought, "There is very little freedom that comes with the position I hold. At the very core of things, I am to choose between my heart and my obligation. My duties are to my crown and to my people. I will always have to choose them over Connor. And he will not fit into my world, but he cannot ask me to abandon my kingdom or my brother. Yet the future is not so simple any longer, if anything Connor said was true. Kings can have—and are almost expected to have—illegimate children all the time. Queens cannot. It is a corner I cannot escape from and I should hope for my sake that Connor didn't mean any of it."

Oh. Maybe he doesn't have to tell her after all.

"...I see. Well that's enlightening... you already know my position on the dichotomy of princess and human being. That hasn't changed. Also I've seen some inescapable corners already escaped from in this world."

Just look at Connor's mother.

"I don't think you're taking this as seriously as it ought to be taken." It's simply said and straight forward. She's unamused by the mere idea. Not of children, but of having something kept from her. And she's seriously unamused by the ideal of the Brotherhood.

"I'm not interested in living a life based on secrets kept or dishonour. And I'm certainly not interested in creating a future for something that is fleeting and brief. I accept that there are too many differences to logically make any of this work. Maybe you should try convincing Connor, because he won't dare listen to me."

"...Tell you what. When Connor is well again, why don't you both come over to Ziio's and my apartment? I'll pick up some extra food and water, so Consider this a dinner invitation. We can all talk then."

She eyes Gordon blankly for many moments. "...By 'Ziio...'" Looking aside, she folds her arms over her chest with some consideration. "You mean his mother... right?" Because Eirika's never so much as exchanged a single word with the woman. In fact, she's done just about everything to avoid crossing her path.

There's something nerve-racking about talking to the woman who birthed the son she's grown attached to. An unhealthy attachment, at that. "If... Connor wants to, that's fine." Because she's banking on him turning down the offer and saving her what could prove to be an awkward experience.

He picks up on her mother-in-law jitters, and it surprises him. "You've never met her before? Don't worry, Eirika, she's, uh..."

Blunt? Opinionated? A little bit vicious? Rather intimidating?

"...She's a very strong woman, but she's thoughtful and she really cares about people. I, ah, wouldn't be with her if she didn't." He adds, scrubbing his hair and glancing aside.

Excuse her, she's got some crazy in her ear—or so she thinks. "You are courting his mother??" In fact, she asks it so incredibly fast that she doesn't have time to lasso out diplomacy and consequently it sounds transparently further confused.

What a convoluted mess. Gordon and Connor's mother. Connor and the... Brotherhood? Is that what he called it? Something about a creed... Connor and her? Desmond Miles???? Nothing makes sense anymore and none of it is anything Eirika's familiar with. Now's the time she wants to tap her shoes together like the girl in that book and just go back to Magvel.

And finish the war.

"I... Connor never said anything to me," she confesses, still reeling with some stupid amount of shock. "Not a surprise. Of course he didn't." Further emphasising her point. "I've... got absolutely no words for any of this."

Her reaction is so extreme and sudden, and such a one-eighty from everyone else's lack of surprise (Or worse, their chorus of "Yeah, dude, we already know.") that he can't help the laugh that escapes.

"She's younger than she would be in Connor's time, if that makes it any less strange." No, no it doesn't make it any less strange, does it? He coughs.

"Connor was just as surprised as you are when we finally told him--Ziio wanted to keep it quiet. I had to be the one to tell him, actually... I guess you can say that it runs in the family."

Of course she's younger. Because Connor was a boy when she died. He never knew his mother as a woman. Until the academy, anyway. And maybe that adds to the awkward factor. She can't form a relationship with a mother when the man who needs a mother may not have much of one. Except it opens a bunch of additional doors of topics that Eirika's not bothered to bring up to Connor. Sacred subjects, she supposes.

"...I... see." She shakes her head slowly. Like mother, like son, I suppose. It's not difficult for her to piece that all together. If she's a part of Connor's future, it'd make Ziio her mother. If Gordon and Ziio are a part of one another's futures, it would make Gordon her father of a sort. Suddenly jokingly about Gordon treating her fatherly isn't half as amusing as it once was.

"Sorry. That was in a category of things I wasn't expecting to hear. On top of everything else, I'm beginning to wonder if there will come a point that nothing will surprise me."

Gordon could sympathize with her. He's already had his freakout at the whole thing a while ago. He'd rather still think of himself as her uncle, however. One removed a few times.

"There probably will be. Truthfully, I've learned to just roll with it and see just how bizarre it all gets."

Don't eat the food; don't drink the tea.

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