victory_road | [closed] February Catch All

"I don't need your assistance to carry anything. Just get moving, already."

Although he does surreptitiously put Ordelia back in her ball for now, since this dumbass plan would probably dislodge her.

"Brace yourself when you reach a point level with me. I'll jump across to you."

"If you insist." At least Felix is sensible enough to put Ordelia away. As for him, Dimitri looks over the obstacle before him, and then holds out his arm so that Gremlin can scurry down it. It takes a little bit of searching to find a place that will hold even a Rattata's weight.

After that, it's relatively simple. They simply do what they've been doing with the floorboards: Gremlin searching out the different areas to see which ones look sturdy enough. Befitting his kind, Gremlin is rather quick about it, darting here and there with the Gear light bouncing around from his mouth.

Soon, there's a series of squeaks, the the light bounces in the gloom from Gremlin's own excited jumps. Dimitri nods, and starts to carefully clamber along what he can: the bits of stairs that are holding up good enough, exposed or broken pieces of wood that can be used as a handle for just a moment, and even a part of the second floor once he gets high enough to start hauling himself up.

He likes to think he's become quite good at climbing, after having to live on his own for five years.

"Quit jumping, you're making me dizzy with that light." He isn't trying to be rude to Gremlin, he's just...irritated. Mostly at himself.

He crouches there, watching Dimitri's ascent, until he reaches a point almost level with the height of Felix's perch. "I'm jumping now."

And then he does, without waiting for a response--he jumps from the railing onto Dimitri's back, holding on with his arms and legs like a koala (if Felix knew what a koala was, which he does not).

"Wh-" Felix, he didn't think you would jump before he could be in a prepared position for it.

Fortunately, the wood is as sturdy as - well, maybe not as sturdy as Dimitri is. But it manages to hold when additional weight is suddenly added, and Dimitri grunts just a little bit. This isn't really the most comfortable position, but, he'll put up with it.

"So you did need help!"

"I told you I was going to jump when you were level with me. It's not my fault you didn't listen. And you asked if I needed you to carry things. Obviously, I don't."

(You know, except to carry Felix. But that's just semantics.)

Felix huffs, annoyed, into Dimitri's hair, because from this position that's pretty much his only option.

"Just climb."

"I assumed you meant when I was on my feet, and could properly catch you," Dimitri counters, grumbling himself. Honestly, Felix is so stubborn sometimes. He knew that rail walking trick wouldn't get him anywhere!

"Do you think it might be easier for you to just climb atop me, and reach sturdier floor? I'm not sure how well the wood will hold with both of our weights added together."

"Ugh, fine." Because, of course, Dimitri's right about that, but Felix isn't going to say so. "Hold still."

He clambers up to crouch atop Dimitri's shoulders and looks up, searching above for something sturdy enough to climb on. He's just tall enough to reach up and grab the edge of the landing from here. Once he does, he pulls himself up and over, rolling away from the edge before he gets to his feet and dusts himself off.

Then he peers back down to watch Dimitri's progress.

Well, it's certainly something, being used as a ladder. It actually is a little bit uncomfortable, without his Crest to shrug off any weight that bears down on it. Dimitri muses on that, as he often does, before he feels Felix lift off of him. Breathing a sigh of relief, Dimitri looks up to find Gremlin again, who helpfully shines the flashlight down along the path he needs to go to.

Unlike Felix, he's not going to risk going too fast. Instead, he carefully makes his way across the wood so that he doesn't break anything by mistake or clumsiness. At a certain point, heralded by Gremlin's squeaking, he finds a sturdy enough place to reach up and haul himself up the rest of the way.

Crawling away from the edge, he takes a brief break so that he can sit down, roll his head back, and say, "You are ridiculous, you know."

Felix looks down at him, folding his arms. "I'm ridiculous? You're the one who brought us to a dilapidated and forbidden ruin before the sun came up for a date. Besides, I thought you liked hauling me around." He rolls his eyes.

"And I thought you liked adventure," Dimitri counters, pushing himself up while Gremlin scurries up onto his feet. More of the walls are down this high up; they probably couldn't get to the next level if they tried.

But most importantly, there is the frame of a window and some attached wall still standing, and it's facing the exact direction he needs it to. Smiling, Dimitri offers his hand to Felix.

"Besides... I think you will find the trip worth it."

He hopes he does.

"Pff. 'Adventure.' Nothing but a word used by authors of insidious bedtime stories to goad people into doing stupid things for the worst reasons."

Felix thinks he knows why Dimitri's saying this, though. A lot of what they used to do as children was the sort of thing that many people would describe as 'adventure.' But what Felix never told anyone was that he didn't actually like doing it for its own sake. It was only fun when Dimitri was there. The good part of discovering something new wasn't the discovery--and in fact, when he was a kid, Felix often didn't like the thought that there was so much out there he didn't know about, because what you don't know can definitely hurt you--but seeing Dimitri's reaction to it. Watching Dimitri's pretty eyes light up with glee and wonder, seeing his sunny smile, that was the part Felix wouldn't have traded for anything in the world.

So he takes Dimitri's hand, ready to find out what they're here for. "This isn't adventure. It's a date. So show me what we came to see."

"Hush, you know that's not how it is," Dimitri says fondly, even as he tugs Felix closer to himself. He wants them to be right next to each other as he gingerly makes his way across what floorboards can still hold his weight. At least that's a little easier for him to make out, now...

But soon, they're right there are the window frame, and Dimitri lets out a slow breath of relief. He can just see where the dark of night is starting to ease up into purple... So he puts his bag down, and starts to sink down to the floor himself. "Sit here. This is the perfect view. Look at how much of Ecruteak you can see from here." There are still lights scattered throughout the city, on the street if nothing else so that people don't get lost stumbling about in the dark.

Dimitri rather likes that. When he returns to Faerghus, when the war is done... He'll have to see if he can't figure out some way to find a way to do that himself, even if it's just organizing mages and scholars.

Felix does not, in fact, know any such thing, but before he can do the opposite of 'hush,' Dimitri's pulling him closer and they're making their way carefully across the room, so he drops it in favor of paying attention.

"We came all the way up here just for the view?" But Felix puts his bag down, too, and sits close beside Dimitri to peer out over the city. He likes the nighttime lights of Ecruteak better than the ones in Goldenrod, which robbed the night of its darkness entirely and turned midnight into noon. Here, they're just electric lanterns guiding one's steps along the roads.

"...it is a nice view," he admits.

Hearing the compliment draws out a bright smile from Dimitri. "It doesn't have as grand a nightlife as Goldenrod," Dimitri says, undoing his bag and digging through it. There are a couple of things that he's glad they haven't had to use, like the escape rope, or first aid kit... but there's something else he wants to use. "It was much grander during Halloween, another holiday of theirs..."

There it is. As the sky slowly creeps into shades of reds and oranges, Dimitri holds out a bento to Felix. "I thought we could have breakfast here."

Edited 2021-03-09 22:20 (UTC)

"Hmph. Goldenrod can keep its grand nightlife. It's too bright."

He glances over and takes the bento with a small smile, opening it up right away--he's pretty hungry, actually. "All right. What sort of holiday is Halloween?"

"It is a festival in the middle of autumn, a little towards the end," Dimitri explains, pulling out a bento with much the same food as Felix's. It had simply been practical... and, frankly, he rather likes that him and Felix can match this way.

"I am afraid I do not know the purpose of it, or its history... But children are encouraged to dress up in various costumes, or pretend to be a certain thing, and they scamper about. At various businesses, and homes, they knock on doors, and are given treats." He pops off the top of the bento with a slight smile. "That part was... nice." It had almost been enough for him to ignore the other part of the holiday, which is...

"Besides them, there seems to be an interest in frightening stories.... Ah, I suppose it is good that Annette and Ashe were not here, during such a holiday."

Felix starts eating immediately while Dimitri talks. Ah, a holiday for children.

"At least it's not yet another gift-giving holiday," he grumbles. "I've had enough of those for one year already." The thought that they might still be here come the end of autumn is...a strange one, but not unpleasant. Especially now that Annette is here.

"It is. Lysithea, as well. But what do you mean, that part was nice? I didn't think you hated frightening stories."

Dimitri chuckles. "I do not mind them... but it is very hard to deal with them when we still have so little." Well. He does. He knows Felix isn't experiencing that particular financial hardship. As he picks through his food, he thinks of the wooden dagger he has back in his own hotel room, and smiles.

Hopefully Felix won't mind a little more gift giving.

"It isn't that I hated them," he murmurs. "But they stirred up bad memories at the time." He glances up at Felix from beneath his eyelashes. "...You weren't there." A slight smile. "You would have hated it, with all the sugar about."

"We don't, you just insist on saving up all your money for some mysterious reason. Sometimes I think Claude's rubbing off on you too much." Felix shakes his head and pops another shrimp into his mouth.

He watches Dimitri until that glance, which prompts him to turn his own eyes back to the slowly brightening horizon. "I see. I suppose you did think you were all dead at the time. Although how you thought children dressing up in costumes and running around eating too many sweets was part of the afterlife, I'll never understand."

He plucks the broccoli out of the box with his chopsticks and drops it into Dimitri's. "The holidays here are strange. When you said it was in autumn I assumed it would be some kind of harvest festival. Though I suppose telling ghost stories is the same in Faerghus. It's a shame Mercedes isn't here."

"I want it to be a surprise!" Dimitri insists, leaning forward with his knee bumping against Felix's. "And I need to understand more about, well... I promise it is important." And he can only hope that Felix likes it. But that is something far off in the future.

For the time being, he just sighs and picks up the broccoli to hold out to Felix. "And, I simply assumed it was... something to make children happy." You know. Children he thought had died tragically young. But that's a rather depressing line of topic, so he keeps going. "Perhaps that is simply a recent development, however. This land's civilization has been about for a very long time. Who knows what has changed with its holidays? Grant and I were actually talking about something a little similar, you know, when he was sick..."

Felix rolls his eyes. "Keep your secrets, I don't care. But don't complain about how little money you have when you're just choosing not to spend it."

He pushes Dimitri's hand--and, consequently, the broccoli--back toward his own box without otherwise acknowledging it. "Oh? Hm. It feels strange not to celebrate our own holidays while we're here. Not that I care for the pomp and circumstance, but to have them simply pass by unremarked...it's hard to feel like time is really passing."

"It's easy to forget them, when so much has been happening here," Dimitri agrees, tossing the broccoli back into Felix's box. He will not lose this fight. At least, not immediately. "The founding of Faerghus is something we've missed... Same for the days of Saint Cichol and Seiros."

And the anniversary of Garreg Mach... At least in Johto. Certainly it hadn't yet felt that long back in Fodlan.

Taking some shrimp of his own, Dimitri hums. "Saint Indech's day is approaching, however, if I am doing the days correctly. Still, that was not a very active holiday... It is easier to check in on people with the use of our Gears, and I imagine it would be rather difficult to make the kind of feast that one is used to. One could say we feast every day, with how plentiful this land is..."

Felix rolls his eyes. "Founding Day, I can do without. Although..." He tilts his head, giving Dimitri a curious look. "You'll probably have to make the day we liberated Fhirdiad a holiday, too. It was the last day of Harpstring Moon. We should celebrate that."

Not that Felix is usually much for celebrations at all, but this? This could help Dimitri feel like that victory belongs not just to 'that other Dimitri' but to him, too. Even if it hasn't happened yet.

Only then does he notice that the broccoli has somehow made its way back into his box. He narrows his eyes at it, and then at Dimitri. "I'm not eating it. If you don't, it will just go to waste." He picks it up with his chopsticks again and moves to put it back in Dimitri's box.

At this talk of Saint Indech's Day, Felix hums in vague agreement. "The weather is so mild here, it hardly makes sense to check in on anyone anyway."

Oh. Dimitri spaces out for a moment, considering that. It's still so strange to think of Fhirdiad as liberated at all, not when his memories still bring to mind its capture, and arguing with his advisors on where to attack first. But Felix talks about it so casually... So matter of fact.

Fhirdiad was liberated on the last day of Harpstring Moon.

Hm.

He snaps out of it when Felix dumps the broccoli back in his box, and Dimitri sighs. "I had all of it made for you, you know... It isn't polite." Although with that said... He nudges Felix's knee. "Look outside."

The sunrise is starting, washing the sky with brilliant oranges that melt into soothing purples, chasing away the darkness. And from their position in the Burned Tower... They get to see how this light begins to softly brush against Ecruteak.

"Hmph. It isn't polite to put something I won't eat in my food, either."

But he does look outside. It's a sunrise, of course, and Felix supposes that it's pretty, but he's seen plenty like it before. Still, it's important to Dimitri, so he obliges and watches the sun come up over the city--at least, until he can justifiably shift his gaze to watch Dimitri instead. Unlike Felix, his prince has always known how to find beauty and wonder in even the smallest things. Felix thinks that once, he used to be able to see it too, after Dimitri pointed it out to him. Now, he's not sure he knows how anymore.

But seeing Dimitri happy is wonder enough for him.

[closed] February Catch All

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