ic inbox.

[lucentia]

HELLO

"Greetings."

GOODBYE

TEXT | VIDEO | VOICE | ACTION

Comments

[lucentia]

I wish that you didn't have to be, though perhaps that's an empty sentiment.

[vacuous]

It's fine.

In the end, people will just assume things, like I'm crazy, or I'm degenerate, that I have ulterior motives...

If I can guide things along without them needing the full picture then they don't need to know anyway.

For a lot of people, the less they know, the better.

[lucentia]

[quietly,]

... You still deserve better than that, Tokinaga.

[vacuous]

I don't. But it's fine. It benefits me to figure out how to defeat the IPOs too.

[lucentia]

Why do you think that you don't deserve better?

[vacuous]

Why don't you?

[lucentia]

What?

[vacuous]

The way you answer things makes me think you wouldn't have a satisfying answer for that either.

[lucentia]

This isn't about me.

[don't turn this against him???]

[vacuous]

Sure.

Self-sacrificial...

[ ...Brat... Lucien isn't goblin enough to call him a brat but it's somewhere between that and 'kid'. ]

[lucentia]

[lucien can be a brat when he wants to be...]

I'm simply carrying out my existence as a prince. [it's not self-sacrificial!!!] This is a different matter from what you're dealing with.

[vacuous]

Probably not as much as you think.

[lucentia]

Then, will you answer the question?

[vacuous]

Only if you do.

I've already said a lot.

[ You truly have to pry it out of this guy with both hands... ]

[lucentia]

—As if I haven't said a lot either!?

[HELLO? FUCK YOU]

[vacuous]

I told you you didn't have to.

[ TO BE FAIR HERE. Tokinaga really mostly chose 'ya ok I won't'. ]

[lucentia]

Tokinaga...

[vacuous]

Lucien-kun.

[lucentia]

[...

he gives him a serious look. :/ ]

If I answer, will you really, or will you find a way to get out of it?

[vacuous]

This kind of thing goes both ways after all, don't you think?

[ Puts his hand on the wheels. Does a little shimmy. ]

How am I gonna get out of it, anyway.

[lucentia]

That's not a yes...

[distrust]

[vacuous]

You're probably just only going to worry more and I don't like worrying people.

But sure. I'll answer honestly if you answer honestly.

[lucentia]

[


this is so hard, actually, even as someone who thinks himself to be fairly open. but he's aware that if he doesn't answer, then tokinaga won't, and then he'll lose his chance and tokinaga will never open up again and also this road ends with tokinaga hating him, somehow,]

To "deserve better", that implies some sort of standard to be met, some unconditional affection that should be given, but... [a light frown.] I don't doubt that my mother cared about me, but I suspect she wouldn't have had me if she had the choice, and my father only liked me as a weak and pathetic "pet" he could dote on. My siblings hate or ignore me for being half-commoner.

[...]

You said it was brave to aim for the throne even if it meant attempts on my life, but it's the other way around. The only way I was going to survive was if I gained allies, and to do that, I had to be useful enough for my existence to have "value" to others.

... So rather than deserve better, I have had it impressed on me all my life that I don't deserve anything in the first place—not unless I have earned it.

[vacuous]

Two things can be true, you know. You can have made the decision out of necessity, and still be brave to do it.

And it feels like you've done a lot to earn it, from my eyes. As a person that doesn't know anything much at all about royal tensions and having to play crowds that way, anyway. I don't have any bias for that.

[lucentia]

Thank you. [said simply.] Though it's not the sort of thing where you earn it once and then never have to try again.