nuvellity | IC Inbox

Good! I was hoping I had the right number. How are you, Constance? Looking as lovely as usual, I'm sure. Oh, you, as perceptive as always! I just had a question or two and I think you might be just the person who might be able to answer them.

[ Yes Constance is perceptive, but he's also using his last name as a handle. She could have guessed wrong, this could be a very elaborate ploy, and she wouldn't know it. ]

What is this about? [ Is it gossip. Please spare her the small talk and pleasantries and say that it's gossip. ] The chocobo stables? How magic works in this island? The status of Lady Edelgard's and Lord Dimitri's relationship?

Edited 2021-10-26 07:17 (UTC)

[C'mooon, it's Sylvain and he wants something from her, of course he's laying it on thick. But he's not wrong, she narrows it down quickly.]

Oh shit! So it's true? Or? Just rumors? Like have you seen them together?

[ Constance is immune. IMMUNE. Ok, maybe not completely, but rumors get to the Abyss which includes Sylvain's proclivities. And her heart is still pure (and dense, mostly dense), and she's still hit or miss when it comes to reading people's intentions.

NEVERTHELESS!

She turns on the camera. ]

We must meet in person.

[No one is immune >:| just give him time. Buuut it seems as though he doesn't need to sneak his way past her defenses, she wants to talk about this. Which is great, by the way, because he absolutely wants to hear about it.

He struggles to figure out the whole video thing at first but, after what might feel like an aggravatingly long delay, he gets it.]

Sure, of course. Where?

[ Sylvain needs to update his technology game so he can expand his... scope? Strike zone? Horizon?

But yes, she does wait for a frustratingly long enough time. ]

Do you know where the chocobo stables are? I could prepare some tea and snacks to have at my office. [ And they definitely won't be drugged.

As for her office, just look for accounting. Someone has to do the ~~boring payrolls~~ exciting arithmetic problems. ]

[Teach him, Constance. Show him the magic of emojis and dick pics.]

Uuuuuuuuuh, maybe? What's a chocobo, that might help? Oh! Or you could send me the coordinates, right?

[He waves the phone to indicate it to her except the camera is the phone, so the world whirls around sickeningly before focusing on Sylvain's face again.]

[ Constance is looking away from all that waving. So she does loop-the-loops on her pegasus sometimes. That doesn't mean that she's immune to motion sickness. ]

They're these large, long-legged, yellow, flightless raptors that people from other worlds ride instead of horses. There is an entire stables dedicated to taking care of them and other fantasy mounts.

[ She sends him the coordinates when he's done shaking the screen. ]

I have sent you an interactive map. If you find yourself in an open field, and hearing a lot of kweh ( she does her best with that impression of a chocobo ), you are most likely in the right place.

Yeah, got it. I'll be there in a bit. [He starts to ask her, only half jokingly, if he should look for her outside but stops himself.] I... should probably come find you inside, huh? [Way more tactful. Yup.

As promised, it doesn't take him long to find the stables. In fact, he's pretty sure he'd been around this area before. He ends up spotting one of the huge birds before hearing any of their calls and makes his way toward the main building.]

Constance? Miss Nuvelle?

Sylvain!

[ Constance meets him by the hallway, takes him by the hand and leads him to her office. It's a room that's meant to be bright and airy, with flowers and cozy, rustic decor. But it's the middle of the day so the curtains are drawn and it's darker than it should be.

But there's a fresh pot of tea on her table, and cookies to share. ]

How long have Dimitri and Lady Edelgard known each other? Did they have feelings for each other since then? Tell me everything.

[ She should be offering him a seat, but this is more important. ]

Edited 2021-11-06 16:25 (UTC)

Ah, Miss Nuvelle.

[He flashes her a bright, charming smile as he does a lazy bow.

It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dimness after being outside in the bright sunshine of the island but he manages and finds a seat, immediately stretching his legs out comfortably.]

Uh, a long, long time. Kind of. From what I know, they knew one another when they were young but then lost touch until they met again at Garreg Mach. I don't think he recognized her at first.

[He pauses to snag a cookie and take a bite, finishing the mouthful before continuing.] He might've had a bit of a kid-crush on her when they were both little but at the academy...? I don't know, his majesty is weird when it comes to liking people. He's just his usual polite self.

[ And she would chide him for taking a seat before it was offered but... Dimitri and Edelgard knew each other as children? Intriguing!

She pours him a cup of tea to help wash that cookie down. ]

Reunited childhood friends! How romantic! Did he ever confess his feelinga before they were cruelly ripped apart by fate? [ Constance, knowing next to nothing about her empress' past, is exaggerating for dramatic effect. ] Did she?

[ She can barely contain her excitement, but she tries. Nary a spill as she quickly fills her own cup with piping hot tea. ]

[Sylvain says a quiet 'thanks' as Constance pours him a cup of tea, taking a sip after he finishes the cookie.]

Heh, actually that's a funny story. He... did... kind of, in a very Faerghan way. From what I was told, he found out she was leaving and gave her a dagger, which might as well be a marriage proposal in Faerghus. Though, his majesty will claim he didn't realize that.

[Sylvain makes a face because suuuuure Dimitri didn't know what giving a girl a blade meant.]

[ A proper lady, Constance does not slurp her tea. But she does let it stay in her mouth one second for too long before swallowing. How improper. ]

Well. I was planning to surprise you with news about Dimitri and Edelgard's brief engagement and now nullified wedding, but apparently it's not the first time that your Lord proposed.

[ Ugh, what gossip will she share about now? ]

And really? A dagger?

[ A spear would be much better, wouldn't it? ]

Engagement? Here? [He shakes his head at himself because, yeah, idiot, of course it was here, they certainly weren't engaged back home.]

That's wild. Why was it brief? Do you know? Seems like a strange thing to back out of. [Sometimes Sylvain's bullshit is almost too much for even Sylvain. He can definitely think of a hundred and one reasons to back out of a marriage.]

But he claims he didn't know what giving her a dagger meant. But he was ten. I feel like everyone in Faerghus knows that giving a blade to someone like that is like practically proposing.

Edited 2021-11-18 04:57 (UTC)

Assuming that that one anonymous network post regarding the veracity of marriages conducted on this island while under the influence of questionable substances was from Dimitri, he wanted to make it work. Lady Edelgard, on the other hand, had a more rational opinion on the matter.

[ She's sure it's Dimitri. Because it's more fun if it's Dimitri. Also by process of elimination, it wasn't Ferdinand, Lorenz, Claude or Felix. ]

Weeks later, the Augur gave us these Navigator profiles, which registered Edelgard and Dimitri using each other's last names.

[ She wants to know what a notorious playboy like Sylvain would say about the matter. Are Dimitri and Edelgard married? Should they stay married? Constance just exhudes curiousity. ]

Hmm, the solution to that whole thing is super obvious. [He pauses to sip his tea for dramatic effect, or maybe it just tastes yummy.] 'Island-married' has got to be a thing.

[He can't help the genuine little smile when he hears that Dimitri had wanted to make it work. Of course, he had. It's kind of cute in a sappy way.

His eyebrows shoot up at the last bit of juicy gossip though.] Using each other's last names? My, my, my. So the island obviously thinks they should just get over their hang ups and be honest. [He snickers, chomping on another cookie.]

Would you island-marry anyone?

The two of them did seem to be very good friends when they visited the Abyss in the past. Not that they remember it. [ Constance nods. They do make a cute couple. And maybe, just maybe, they could have avoided this entire war if the two of them got together.

Yes, she is enjoying this conversation with Sylvain up until that last question. Because that blindsides her. And she wishes she didn't immediately think of someone, but she did. And then she blushes. She can't help it, honesty is one of Constance's few constants. She will have to down this entire cup of tea to compose herself.

Ah, not at all refreshing. She clears her throat, partially because it hurts from drinking all that in one go. ]

I refuse to consider any prospect of marriage, island or otherwise, no matter how favourable it might be to my goals, until I have restored House Nuvelle. Moreover, any sort of permanent romantic relationship that requires the utmost loyalty is dentrimental to surviving on this island.

[ Oh, she hurt herself with that last one. Maybe this cookie will help ease her pain. ]

They don't remember visiting you in the Abyss? But... I remember when the trip down there happened, everyone was talking about the rumored fourth class that lived below the monastery. Then, turns out, there were people living under the monastery. Crazy stuff. How do they not remember that?

[He understands that different people remember slightly different events but that seemed like a major one to him.]

But it's not married-married, it'd be island-married. I dunno, someone you'd want to island-commit to. I mean, as best as we can around here.

Once you go back home, then you'd do all that nobility, house restoring, stuff. [Sorry, if he sounds like he thinks the idea of restoring her noble house is a dumb thing to devote her every waking thought with.]

[ It's alright, the denizens of the Abyss have made it very clear what they think about Constance's obsession with... stuff. She wouldn't be here if she cared about what other people think. (She also wouldn't be here if she didn't obsess about what other people think.) ]

The people from Fodlan who found their way here, they all remember the Ashen Wolves in different ways, if they remember us at all. Edelgard and Dimitri do not remember us at all. Lorenz and Mercedes, when they were here, remembered us as a part of the Golden Deer and Blue Lions classes respectively. Ferdinand remembers that we sided with the Black Eagles, but Ferdinand's version of events had all of us join the Black Eagles. [ Sylvain included, probably. Constance never really pried into Ferdinand's version of Fodlan. ] Personally, I remember joining the Black Eagles only because of our alliegance to the professor, but everyone else stayed loyal to their respective lords.

[ Oh no, why did Constance finish off all her tea earlier. Now she can only stall by refilling her cup, her brows knit. ]

Do you mean a relationship more akin to that of lovers?

[ Sylvain, please drink your tea and ignore the color that's rising to the tip of Constance's ears. ]

Well, yeah, and there was the whole thing where you joined our class.

[He nods, though his expression quickly shifts into a puzzled frown.] Felix mentioned something like that. People remembering different things. But... people just missing?

[He tilts his head a little.] The Black Eagles? Really? My memories line up with Mercy's.

... She's... not here anymore, right?

[He shrugs nonchalantly at her question, smirking a little.] Yeah, I guess. Just a little more, maybe? But sure, whatever label you want to stick on it. [He absolutely notices the flush creeping across her face and can't help but poke a little more.] So? Is there someone? You wouldn't hold out on me, would you?

She is not. [ And as much as Constance wants Mercedes to stay, this really is not a place for her. ~~And Constance has no idea how much kinkier Mercie is than her.~~ ] Save for a handful of us, the people from Fodlan tend to come and go. [ Especially Sylvain and Felix. How does Dimitri manage?

Constance frowns at him. If she's going to talk about this (and to be honest, she wants to. she has zero friends to talk about this to.), she might as well drag him down with her. ]

How do you do it, Sylvain? How do you manage to keep yourself from developing feelings for the thousands of men and women that you have intimate physical relationships with?

[ She asks, without malice, as if she's seeking help, as she refills their cups. ]

[Sylvain nods glumly but it's no surprise. He's sure he would've heard from her if she were here and, man, would he have been thrilled to know she was kinky.]

Yeah? [Again, this isn't really new information but it is something he'd put out of his mind right after learning about it. It's just a bizarre thing to think about - other versions of himself, other versions of the others.

Luckily, Constance immediately has his mind far away from trivial things like the existential dread that comes with learning that there are potentially hundreds of different Sylvains living different experiences out there and that they'd somehow come here before him and had subsequently gone back to their lives.

No, instead he happily focuses on her question and what a question it is. At first, he's convinced she's trying to flip the conversation on him but she actually sounds sincere.] Thousands of men and women? Thousands. [He echoes her words with an incredulous nod as he tried to quell the smile tugging at the corners of his lips.]

Uh... Alright. I'll be serious about this. I don't? [He shrugs, now having to force a faint smile.] They aren't purely physical. None of them have been. I... [He shrugs again.] I don't know. I thought I loved them all. Or could, at least, see myself loving them. But things just... tend not to work out. [Because he's never let them. In fact, he fell out of love almost as quickly as he fell in love. He was definitely in love with the idea of loving someone and being loved in return. It was something he both desperately wanted and ultimately felt like he didn't deserve and could never have. He was also completely terrible when it came to actually doing it, falling into the same self sabotaging traps he always did and then it was on to fall in love with someone else.]

Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Enough to make your reputation known to the denizens of the Abyss. [ So there may or may not have been some exaggerations going on, either way Sylvain's love life was a subject of gossip that Constance never really paid that much attention to.

Huh, he's taking her question more seriously than she thought he would. And his answer is unexpected. Constance was actually hoping for new useful data. ] It seems like you are not that much different from him, then. [ Minus the self-sabotage, maybe. Not that Constance is aware of Sylvain's tendency to do that when he seems so confident at all times. ] How fortunate that I am not the same.

[ Constance frowns at the window, waiting for it to burst open so she can open up more about her worries but she had sealed it pretty well. So she takes it out on this cookie, snapping it between her teeth. ]

Wooow, that's a lot of thousands. [He smirks, sipping up the last of his tea before leaning forward to set the empty cup down on the table.]

"Him"? [He raises an eyebrow but that's as far as he pushes despite his piqued curiosity.]

Not the same how? [His smirk is gone once again, serious, open expression back.] I mean, if you wanted to talk about it. [He shrugs, leaning back.] Up to you.

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