For all that their designs might have been further along than Skael’s, Esben was increasingly convinced that working on Valheimer firearms was a miserable task. Not for any increased complexity—at least, not with the revolver
he’d kept, he didn’t want to figure out the innards of the rotary cannon—but for the state of the ammunition. Perhaps the quality of the metal used. Perhaps
both.After dinner, as the rest of the Kirins went to their own separate edges of the camp to take advantage of the remaining daylight to do whatever work they could, seeing Éliane cleaning her gunblade reminded him of the extra cleaning he needed to do with the pistol he’d claimed aboard the Valheimer airship. The first project awaiting him after he’d healed enough to do much of anything was scouring away the bit of rust that had developed while he was convalescing. Something corrosive, either in the propellant or the primer.
That was one of the earliest things that Skaeller gunsmiths and chemists had decided to
fix. Before rushing ahead to try and develop ways to deliver faster and more sustained fire, effort was put into making sure the ammunition used wouldn’t render the weapons unusable. For Valheim, it was almost unthinkable to him—he had to imagine the imperialistic invaders still relied on conscription. They had to be training their soldiers to clean their weapons more than on actually using them.
At least it wasn’t impossible to deal with if he kept on top of it; now dried and oiled, he could be reasonably sure the pistol wouldn’t try to rust again by the next time he went to use it. He moved to pack it away, only to freeze as a hand roughly grasped at his collar.
”Esben. Are you finished?”Something about her tone made it sound like she didn’t really care what the answer was.
”Izayoi. Is something wrong?” Given what he’d already noticed in her tone, he shouldn’t have been confused at all with the derisive snort that followed.
”I didn’t try to keep you from leaping off after Reisa, I really have no idea what I’ve done this ti—””Rudolf isn’t the only foolish boy in our midst, and for a self-professed spy, you’ve become so comfortable with us that anyone with their eyes open could discern your ridiculous mood!” He blinked once, placing the pistol back within its holster slowly.
”Is that why you’ve been giving me these odd looks lately?””Get. Up.” She pulled at his collar, threatening to drag him along. He scrambled to his feet, though unsurprisingly, she didn’t release him.
”I’ll not have the man that preached at me about group morale acting so cowardly.””What is your game here?””I will ensure you won’t have a single uninterrupted night of sleep until you talk to her, buffoon.”They continued across the camp in stony silence, Izayoi releasing him and pushing him forward towards where Éliane sat, nursing a thermos full of coffee. He stared reproachfully at the retreating samurai, before turning back to the no-doubt
curious guardswoman before him. Possibly confused...or just amused.
”...Éliane. Mind if I join you?”“...?”
The pink-haired woman had been nursing a sip from said thermos, where it remained strategically applied to her face as she watched in confusion as Izayoi placed a random Esben in front of her before leaving without a word. It was obvious that she had much on her mind to think about lately, but something like this was easy enough to jar her attention.
Blinking several times at what she had just seen, she finally processed Esben’s words and slowly nodded, her face still half covered by the thermos. After another beat, she finally lowered it, canting her head to the side in confusion in the way that he was probably used to by now.
“What did you do this time?”
Esben lowered himself down next to Éliane, looking out and away from the rest of the camp.
”I was asking her that myself,” came his reply.
”At least every instance before now I knew the reason ahead of time. I guess she decided it was time to try and surprise me.”And for all that, he hadn’t actually answered the question yet. Still, he knew that if he turned away he'd probably find the samurai in question glaring at him and ready to make good on her threat, which left him no choice in the matter about what to actually do.
”She seems displeased with the amount I've been talking to you lately.”Adjusting her position so that she was facing Esben as he sat down, Éliane raised her eyebrows at the revelation. A moment later, she raised her thermos again, taking another sip.
“The amount? You’ve barely spoken to me recently,” she very astutely pointed out.
”Yes, I think that's exactly it.”“...”
Éliane stared back at him. “Why not, then?”
”It's difficult to just have a conversation when I'm stuck worrying about everything we're walking into?” Esben cocked his head back at her, mirroring her posture.
”Especially with the combined problem of Alex probably being behind some of it and the fact that she knows us.”Her frown was as obvious as the skepticism was in her reply. Éliane’s head canted even further. “That sounds like a textbook excuse. Especially when you’re making it a question.” Her eyes drilled into his, although the effect was ruined when she interrupted it to sip at her coffee again. “I’ve seen you talking to the others, now that I’m thinking of it,” she continued. “A lot more than me…?”
The statement would have been borderline yandere if it weren’t for her tone and the context of the situation.
“Hmm, ah… that explains Izayoi then,” she finally concluded, before fixing her eyes on Esben again.
Esben stared back, silent for the moment.
”Figured something of her mood that I haven't, have you?” he muttered.
”Would that I understood her so well.” Not that he didn't have his suspicions, but the team being what it was and what they were bound to be walking into...
”Been catching the strange looks from her too, I take it? Or just the here-and-now?” He straightened his neck, still pointedly avoiding looking in Izayoi's direction.
”I'll welcome any observations you have on the whole matter. Especially if anyone else has done similar at either of us. No doubt it'll find a way back to that why not, anyhow.”She tilted her head again. “Strange looks? No, it’s probably just you,” she shrugged, but then began to narrow her eyes, cluing on (at least partially) to what was going on between Esben and herself. “Hmm… Oh, I see. This something about Solitude, isn’t it?”
Tapping her finger against her thermos, Éliane began to recall their interactions. “Ever since the dinner.”
”...”Esben looked on in silence. Somehow, it seemed like he could never completely match his understanding with whatever Éliane was saying. Or vice-versa, he wasn't sure.
It only made sense, though; it wouldn't do to assume the flamboyant woman who had left the Garden over ideological and methodological differences to put much attention towards whatever others seemed to be thinking of her.
He sighed.
”Before, really, if you count how little I talked to anybody before we ran into Wulfric and Chèrle. Once I stopped having anything else to think about. Kayliss just made it worse, in a much more direct way.”Éliane frowned, staring back at Esben. It was not like she didn’t have more than enough to think about ever since the revelations with Skael– both of them. It was understandable even, but Izayoi had placed him in front of her like a lost cat for a reason. “If it was just that, then why this?” she gestured in the direction that Izayoi had gone. “The setup makes it seems you have something unresolved with me.” Another head tilt.
Esben canted his head back.
”Rudolf didn’t ask you anything odd right around when we ran into Cid and Ramuh, did he?” he asked, after a moment more of thought.
”For that matter, you didn’t catch the look from Kayliss when she was telling us all of what’s been happening?”If his head could tilt any further without sending him off balance, it likely would have, but he had to satisfy expressing his confusion with a couple slow blinks instead.
”I’d thought you had this figured out, what with the that explains Izayoi, then bit, no?”Clearly somewhat confused, she made a face as if she had bit into a sour lemon, although it came off as more of a pout from the pink-haired officer. “We’re communicating even worse than usual,” Éliane replied,
finally acknowledging, at least partially, how good their skills at engaging each other were. “Yes, I remember Rudolf had some odd questions… Kayliss…” she shrugged.
So Rudolf hadn’t
only come to him asking what he did, then. Or so it seemed. Still, he couldn’t help but smirk at Éliane’s pouting face.
”Do you think we’ll ever get better at it?” he wondered, before sliding right back to his first train of thought.
”What did he ask you?”She gave him another unamused look in return. “Something about favors and you talking a lot.”
”Just me? Surprising.”Éliane bobbed her head. “Rudolf talks too much too.”
Esben stared flatly at her.
The seconds passed.
”So, just to be clear, do you have any theories about what all this is for, or was that just a bluff earlier?”She stared back.
More seconds passed.
“...No.”
He wasn’t entirely sure yet if he should groan or laugh. He buried his face in one palm, debating with himself how even to proceed. As things were, he could probably just laugh it off and go back to normal, but if Izayoi had been paying any attention at all to the conversation—and despite appearances otherwise, he had no reason to think she
hadn’t been—that would, doubtless, put him under her ire again. If she didn’t have Rudolf, Chisato, or Miina to distract herself with, then his leaving a conversation halfway through would provide her with ample opportunity to fill her time at his expense.
”No way out but through, then,” he murmured, raising his head up to meet Éliane’s eyes again.
”You mean to tell me I’ve been feeling guilty this whole time and you haven’t even done me the courtesy of noticing? You’re so rude, Elly.”Éliane, of course, looked on curiously as Esben had his (rather visible, she could say) internal reckoning before she finally could match his eyes again. The exact topic at hand continued to elude her, though, and she only stared back at him. “...Rude? What haven’t I noticed.”
”My feeling bad.”“...Why are you feeling bad.”
”Guilt, like I said,” he continued to explain patiently, as though this were anything approaching a normal conversation.
”Every other time we talked in that jungle was an argument and that still didn't stop me from continuing to talk to you. Did you just figure I got bored with you?”She raised an eyebrow. “Esben, you’re saying all these words but they’re not…” Éliane gave him another
look. “What do you feel guilty about.”
This time, she looked satisfied that she had asked the right question, even if it was colored with some concern. Why, of all things, did Esben feel guilty?
”Alex was sloppy,” he replied with a shrug.
”And hindsight is always perfect. After Kayliss came to check on us, I should've thought a bit more about that conversation with the Grovemasters. Been more cautious about Isolde, as well—at least in the ‘standard Garden procedure’ sense.”He gestured with a thumb back over his shoulder, where Rudolf, Miina, and the rest of the Kirins generally were.
”We're lucky that two of them actually had the whole subterfuge uncovered, even if it was by accident. But now we've got a worse mess to walk into after dealing with more of a mess than we should have, not to mention the people at risk. Why wouldn't I feel guilty about that, when I could've put us on a much better footing if I'd just been a little more conscientious rather than dwelling on my own bad mood?”Éliane raised her thermos to her lips, taking another long sip of her coffee. “Esben. Yes, it’s a mess,” she freely agreed, the worry still evident in her tone, “But I can’t see how it is your fault. As aggravating as
everything was, especially with those awful Dranans, we had an entire apparatus headed by someone that knew our MO wielded against us.”
”Logically, sure,” he agreed.
”I didn't spend so long reassuring Rudolf of much the same after Isolde showed her true colors just to go and forget it. I don't have any delusions that I won't make any mistakes in the future, either. But it's only natural to feel a little bad, no?”She made a waffling gesture with her head at that. “Well… yes, but enough that Izayoi dropped you in front of me like a lost child?” Tapping her index finger twice against the surface of her thermos, Éliane shook her head. She changed tack, pushing out the bad thoughts of her own that had been percolating in the back of her head over the past weeks and shoving it in a tiny box.
“...Will bribing you with arlettes again help?”
”You really still don't...trying to buy my better mood with treats?”Esben cocked his head again, peering at Éliane curiously, before turning to look at the setting sun off to the west. After another second of thought he turned entirely towards it, before patting the space next to him and glancing over with an expectant look.
”Come sit over here, would you? The sunset is nice today.”Éliane offered him a helpless shrug at that reply, but her gaze followed his towards the dusky sky. A moment later, she shifted over next to him, facing the setting sun. “It is.”
Content for the moment as she settled in, he leaned back, propping himself up as they watched the sunset together.
”I’ll never turn down whatever more you want to bake for me, but this is good for now, I think,” he finally answered.
”Just so long as you don’t do something crazy like saying you like me and then ditching us at the next stop, ja?”Taking her eyes off the sunset, she looked at Esben and once again found herself canting her head. “Esben, you’re being weird again. I’ll make the pastries, though.”
”You’re so rude, Elly!” he half-jokingly grumbled.
Esben received a pout back in response.
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