adelphoi | (no subject)

[ being in insomnia again is.. strange. the city is the same as she had remembered, and yet so different, so strange after so many long years in tenebrae. this city seems so enormous and sprawling, sharp and stark in comparison, bright and chrome and full of people. though she remembers her time here, her earliest years, she was still quite young when her parents swept she and her brother back to the motherland, and those tender years of growth had been spent in a city very different, a home that she had grown used to, settled into.

and now they are here again, political tensions spurring her father to emigrate here, to lucis again. the empire has been still and quiet, and there have even been talks of treatise, but alisaie trusts her father's judgment, for all his political involvement. more than national pride, he hopes for his family to be safe and secure, and short of living in the bush, insomnia had seemed to him the ideal location. with the wall so strong, such a city must be impenetrable, yes?

alisaie does not know the details of it all, her father would disclose only so much - she and her brother were to focus solely on their studies, bettering themselves, and not to worry about such things outside of their control. lucis might not be a large nation, but insomnia is safe, and secure. it suits their needs just fine.

still, settling in, for alisaie, is not necessarily easy. unlike the rest of her family, smooth-talkers with political savvy, she has a hard enough time simply getting along with her own peers. her friends in tenebrae had been few and distant, their relationships thin and civil but little more. to have to start over again is.. a nightmare. but she is not here to make friends, she is here to finish her schooling, to graduate and prepare for university and beyond. there's nothing to be afraid of.

yet her knuckles are white around the books clutched to her chest as she climbs the stairs that first day, eyes forward, chin high, and it takes less than a week's time for her to earn a reputation as a haughty, conceited little snob, the little rich girl sort who is far too good to waste her time with those she deems beneath her - everyone, apparently. this is not entirely the case of course, but it suits alisaie's needs just fine. let them think what they want, so long as it affords her a wide berth and quiet time to herself, without the terrifying distraction of working her way into, and maintaining her place within, a social circle.

the weekend seems to take an eon to arrive, but friday is here at last. alisaie sits outside at a table on campus, alone, peeling the crusts distractedly from her sandwich, her advanced chemistry textbook open in front of her. three afternoon classes, and this horrible week will be over.. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Of course he remembered! He's hardly been able to think of anything else since they made their plan. However, in spite of that, he has no grand ideas for how to proceed. Mostly, he's just been nervous as hell. ]

J-just - wanted to see if we're still on for this weekend! But if you're busy, it's no big.

[ He has to offer her an out, just in case, whether or not she's really busy. He doesn't want to make her feel obligated to hang out with him, so it's only if she really wants to! ]

[ his nerves are palpable, but she cannot help but wonder if all of this sweet, shy boy persona is simply a ruse. how could someone so uncertain and kind be such an irreconcilable jerk? she'd seen it, she'd heard it with her own eyes and ears, the things he's said and done to his peers - how can she possibly believe him now?

it almost makes her sick, to have been so easily fooled. alisaie's face warms, not with demure shyness, but with fierce anger that writes itself into all of her features quite clearly. her eyes narrow and her shoulders stiffen, her arms clutching her books close to her chest, guarded and rigid. ]

I should think not.

[ she very nearly turns away on the spot, the audacity of it!! but she turns back at the last second, her nose wrinkled up and her chin thrust out, all but standing on her tiptoes to seem more threatening. ]

I can't believe you expected me to - too - oooh!

[ she's so mad!! ]

No, Mister Argentum, I would not like to catch up with you this weekend, or any other weekend, you absolute ass. To think I fell for it so easily -

[ ugh!! she's been holding this down all week, apparently, but she turns away now in her fury, charging away from him in a huff, her braid whipping behind her. hopefully whacking him right in the face. ]

[ ...What?

Maybe he had expected her to refuse. No doubt she's busy, it's a lot of time to ask her to make for him. Or maybe she's lost interest, no longer concerned with reconnecting with him, and he would understand that, too. He...is well aware that he's not really worth that much to begin with, and she probably just...realized that throughout the week. He would understand.

But this is so sharp, and he remembers her fire from the way she had stood up to those bullies so long ago but this is confusing, too. Was it something he had said? What had he done to offend her so deeply, so quickly, without even realizing it?

Was this just...how all his relationships with other people were destined to go? It would seem so. Noctis has been the only hold out, somehow.

His heart twists in his chest as her braid does indeed whip him right across the face. ]

I-I —

[ But she's leaving. Stomping away. Leaving him feeling cold and empty, like she has somehow exposed him as the fraud he is. That's it, isn't it? She's already seen past his facade. Didn't take long, but it shouldn't be surprising, with how perceptive she has always been. ]

Hah...guess that's a "no", then.

[ He doesn't follow her. He doesn't have the heart to. She's made herself quite clear.

(sad charlie brown music) ]