foulplayed | INBOX

I'll do some digging.

I'd noticed he wasn't showing up for his shifts at Red's lately, but that's on me for assuming he'd just decided to get involved in some other kind of scheme. You know how he can be.

( Pot? Kettle? )

You did a good job letting me know. Thanks.

pretty sure that's why it took so long for anybody to say something. claude being claude

you know it wouldn't take me half a month to notice if it were you, right

We live together, Balthus. If it took you a month to realise you’d been sleeping alone, I’d go ahead and assume there was something wrong with you.

so maybe i'm just a little sentimental. you noticed when i was gone in about ten minutes, remember? came running like divine punishment from the goddess herself, too

oh uh

apparently she's here by the way
the goddess
she's real and turned up just like the rest of us, i guess

( There's a lot he could reply to there, but the bombshell of Balthus's final few lines means there're really only one option. )

... You're kidding, right?

i wish i was. she doesn't look anything like the statues, either.

Hold on a second - you've actually seen her?

yeah, she got her hands on one of these devices and used the little video things. went around calling herself "the beginning" and all that.

tell you the truth i almost didn't believe it myself, except that the professor recognized her, and i wouldn't really expect that guy to pull some prank like that, you know?

she's, uh.

you said she was lady rhea's mom or something, right? she doesn't look like a mom. just a lost little kid with an attitude.

Her mom, yeah.

She's the whole reason for all this, I suppose. Everything that happened. Seems like losing her drove Rhea some kind of mad — kind of like our good friend Aelfric's reaction to losing Sitri — and the rest ...

Well. That's history.

( There's a pause. Yuri wants desperately to believe that the Goddess is still real — still meaningful — and that he can be forgiven the sins that weigh on him every day, but for the time being? )

I'm keeping away from her.

yeah. i mean, i know what you said about it all being a lie cooked up by lady rhea, and i believe it, just

i dunno

there's a part of me that can't let go of the church so easily. you know? even after everything, i still...

i guess i'm just one of the suckers who needs something like that to come back to.

Even if the thing you're coming back to is just as hollow as everything else?

well...nobody believes in the goddess 'cause they actually think they're gonna meet the goddess, right? that she's gonna turn up and win some battle for them, or give 'em a dream of divine inspiration, or make the bounty hunters choose the opposite direction when you're hiding in a tree trying to shake 'em from your tail.

she's just supposed to be something better, i guess. when the rest of the world's letting you down, there's still that one thing out there that's better.

isn't that what we're all kind of doing with those three lords, claude and dimitri and that girl edelgard? hoping that one of them will turn out to be somebody we can believe in? that's a little like being the goddess in their own right, i think.

Nobody believes in her for that, huh?

I did. I was stupid — but I believed the Goddess was the only thing that could wipe out the names in my book and the stain of all my sins. To make me new, to make me better than this thing I've become. The things I've done, Balthus— the things I still do ...

But then I find out she's just some crazy lady's thousand-year mourning ritual, and then I find out that she's a lost little kid with an attitude problem.

Yeah. Really, really stupid.

yuri

[But his thumb stills on his device for a second, and wherever he's at right now, out and about making his rounds of the city and checking on all those under his care, it's high time to put that on hold and find a quiet place where he can sit and curl up with his communicator and try, somehow, to find a scrap of comfort to offer up for the duration while the physical distance still yawns between them.]

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. To make it worse.

But you don't need a goddess to be anything you want to be. Not you. You could grab hold of the moon and shake it 'till the stars fell from the sky.

Well hey, at least the stars might make me seem less filthy.

... Sorry.

This wasn't supposed to turn into a pity party - you know I hate those. I just have a lot to think about now that she's ended up here with us.

And hey, at least I heard it from you instead of walking into her somewhere else. I'm grateful for that.

You're not filthy.

Listen. You told me to be better way back when I first got here, yeah? Make a change, make something of myself. I didn't do it for me; I did it 'cause you thought I could.

So now it's your turn to listen to me like I listened to you. The things you've done are just things you did. They didn't taint you or make you rotten. They're just things you did, Yuri. And even if there's no goddess to save you, you've still got me, like I had you.

I know I've got you, B. I know.

Look, can we just put this behind us for now?

Yeah. Yeah, all right.

I checked in on Ashe and Hapi. Ashe is having a rough time of it with all the ghost stuff in the air, but other than that he's okay. Hapi too. So that's the four of us accounted for.

Alright, good. If they need anything at all, just use my credits and get it seen to.

Okay?

Yeah, you got it. And then I'll make my way back home?

Then you’ll make your way back home. I’ve got some more work to do, but I made dinner incase you haven’t eaten.

… And hey, if you have, at least you’ll know what you’re getting tomorrow.

Ahhh, I love it when you get all cute and domestic.

Now if I could just get you to greet me at the door in a sweet little apron and not much else.

Hey, go easy on the cute and domestic thing. I killed four guys for you not too long ago, remember?

( That said, Yuri doesn't think he can listen to Balthus be kind about his life and his past any more than he already has been, and the man's cheeky little comment gives him an idea of the perfect way to keep that conversation quashed for the night.

Or so he hopes. )

But if you hurry home, maybe I could take a little break and eat with you.

Edited 2021-10-16 12:00 (UTC)

Hey, I love it when you get all stabby for my sake too.

Really? You'll come eat with me?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[1/2]

[2/2]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject