chroma | catchall for estinien

[countermeasures]

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[countermeasures]

The taste is... a little more subtle than the smell.

[it's not quite as sharp. but the tea is fresh and flavorful, as he'll soon find out when she pours him a cup.]

...let me know how you like it. I'm growing a few new plants that can be used for tea this week, as well, so... this time next week, I should be able to blend a tea from several ingredients if you'd like.

[vedrskogul]

I didn't mean it in the bad sense.

[ He says so mildly, as he takes a sip. It's not too bad. He doesn't have strong tea opinions, but he thinks he likes this more than sweeter or fruitier varieties. ]

It's fine. [ Long pause. ] Palatable.

I am not picky when it comes to these things.

[ You don't have to do cool tea blends for this nutjob. ]

[countermeasures]

[she smiles]

Well, if you're sure...

[she won't insist. it's simpler not to blend them up, even if she's perfectly capable of blending things because she blends medicines all the time.]

I'm glad it's, ah... palatable.

[vedrskogul]

[ Jiuqing you're so talented. And here is Estinien... a potato. Who just looks down at the tea for a long time and tries to think.

What would Aymeric say... (WWAS...) ]

It's good.

[countermeasures]

[she giggles]

...you don't have to force yourself to say that. Just enjoying it is fine.

[vedrskogul]

I just simply didn't want to make it sound as if I didn't.

[ He's like, self-aware enough to know that he can come off that way. It's just a matter of whether he cares or not, and he might care a little bit here. ]

[countermeasures]

I know you don't dislike it... if you did, you wouldn't be drinking it, would you?

[jiuqing kind of figures he'd just set the cup down and Not Drink if it was something he didn't enjoy.]

[vedrskogul]

[ He just makes this kind of grump shrug. ]

Alright, you have me there.

[ Fair enough. If he hated it he really would just ignore it and leave it there. ]

You really are just that polite, aren't you?

[countermeasures]

[she sips her tea]

"Just that polite"...?

[vedrskogul]

You don't have any snide comments to make. No outward bitterness despite the life you've had.

[ Couldn't be him. How do people like you stay nice? ]

[countermeasures]

[hmm.]

It's not that I don't have any bitterness in me at all. But... you didn't do anything to me. Why should I be snide to you?

[vedrskogul]

[ He snorts. ]

You would be surprised at how many people like to be rude just for the hells of it. Many nobles... much of the Heavens' Ward. Myself.

[ That's about as close to a joke as he gets. But also tbf, Estinien is rude. He has been ruder, but he is default kind of rude. ]

It feels like kindness and patience are more a rarity than a default.

[countermeasures]

I'd describe you as gruff, not rude, though perhaps I haven't had the opportunity to see it.

[she hasn't really done anything to warrant him being rude to her, either.]

...but, you aren't wrong. There are many people in Daxing who are... [her voice trails off.] Thoroughly unpleasant.

I'll play their games with them when I have to, to defend myself, but truthfully... I don't want to be anything like them at all.

[vedrskogul]

[ He's always rude is the secret. ]

Nobles and their politics, I take it? I understand the feeling. I never cared enough to be remotely involved in their nonsense -- veiled words and manipulations.

The world would be much simpler if people spoke plainly, wouldn't it.

[countermeasures]

It definitely would.

[and also if people :/ stopped doing shady shit :/ like murdering her mother and then plotting to murder her :/ ]

[vedrskogul]

[ Lord is Estinien actually glad he's not involved in noble life, he is but a mere pointy boy who tended sheep or whatever. ]

What do you do now, actually?

[ He realised he doesn't know. ]

[countermeasures]

Well... right before we all ended up here, I was serving as a doctor for the army.

[vedrskogul]

[ Oh... huh. ]

Active duty?

[countermeasures]

[she nods]

...we were in the middle of a war. The other country's army was going to attack the city we were defending... by now, the battle has already finished.

I just hope the soldiers are alright...

[vedrskogul]

Unfortunate that your world also isn't free from war. [ But... ] I'm certain there are those who can fill in -- that your allies will persevere.

Hopefully, you'll return soon.

[countermeasures]

I think... wherever there are large groups of people, war - or at least some sort of fighting - is an inevitability. Or, at least... that's what it seems like, from what I've seen.

[...]

I've been missing for a month now. If they sent word to my mother, she must be terribly worried...

[unless we were told time stopped outside of the prism somewhere but if we were i don't recall seeing it]

[vedrskogul]

[ A pause of thought as he looks into his cup of tea, arms crossed over his chest. Seeming to think. ]

DO you think it's possible at all? For there to be a world without war at all?

And do you think it would be a happy place?

[countermeasures]

I would like to believe that it's possible.

[...]

But it's not anything I've ever seen. Even within families, there is conflict. ...but I think if people could work together to make a peaceful world, they would be happy.

[vedrskogul]

Mm.

I saw a dead world -- a shade of it, at least. The Dragonstar and what remained of it, of dragons who had completely lost hope and wallowed in despair, waiting for their time to run out. No small feat, given that their natural lives are close to immortal in man's terms. They had lost everything to war.

[ Just turning the tea around in his cup, looking at it... ]

Even as a shade, I saw the brief glimmer in his eyes when I told him their kind had survived on our star. He asked if they had ran into war on our lands as well -- and I told him they did. Took many of my men, who took many of their kind back in turn. As you saw, mine, too. And I oft think had our past never chosen war, my life would be rather different.

But then, I suppose, I wouldn't be who I am, not putting my resources to averting the Final Days. I could be blissful in ignorance, then, but as I am now, the thought is unthinkable.

[countermeasures]

[is it better, to live in ignorance?

perhaps. in some cases, a peaceful life - one without war, or murderous relatives, or anything in between - would be preferable. jiuqing had lived a life of blissful ignorance for many years, up until her time had run out. for the first part of her life, she'd been happy. and when she was miserable, she never lost hope that things would get better.

it had taken waner stealing her life from her, and confessing to her and her aunt's involvement in her mother's murder, for her to find the resolve to make things better, herself.

she's suffered. estinien has, too. but she finds herself nodding along with him.

as i am now, the thought is unthinkable.

jiuqing prefers the person she is now over the person she was in her first life.

and she likes estinien just as he is, despite the fact that it's his hardships and sorrows that have tempered him into the person he is today.]

Perhaps... this is strange to hear from me. [given, uh, the fact that she literally woke up in the past and changed her life.] But... the things that you've experienced have made you who you are, and there really isn't any changing that. The only things that can be changed are the things you haven't experienced, yet. Your future.

I think... as long as you keep working toward a better future, there's always hope that someday, there will be future generations who don't have to experience the difficult things that have made us who we are. They'll be able to be themselves in peace, without the possibility of that peace being stolen from them. That's something worth working towards.