NIETZSCHE; DEAD PHILOSOPHERS' INBOX

[explosivecombat]

[TEXT; LOCKED TO doitrockapella]

The offer for conversation is always open, should you desire to take me up on it; I can't guarantee that I'll respond immediately, nor will it necessarily be the response you want, but I'll always respond in some way.

In the name of enlightened discourse.

Comments

[explosivecombat]

With no ulterior motives? Probably not.

[doitrockapella]

I'm sorry the three-day blackout interrupted it.

[explosivecombat]

We still have Christmas, you know.

[doitrockapella]

Be careful or it's going to start sounding like you're looking forward to it.

[explosivecombat]

As though you aren't?

[doitrockapella]

Of course I am. But I'm the sentimental one, remember? It's hardly surprising for me.

[explosivecombat]

And yet I believe you were just talking to me about how I called you to my favorite city, just for the sake of seeing you for a while.

[doitrockapella]

Being sentimental generally comes with the prerequisite of having a sentiment in the first place.

[explosivecombat]

And what sentiments do you have in my direction, if I may?

[doitrockapella]

Shouldn't I be asking that of you?

[explosivecombat]

Perhaps, but I'm curious.

[doitrockapella]

Well, I do keep coming back to talk to you even after your smuggest and most superior moments, so I suppose I must rather like you, Major Nietzsche.

[explosivecombat]

I haven't been "Major" anything in years.

[.............wait.]

So you got my title out of me - am I to assume you got my name as well?

[doitrockapella]

If I knew your name, you'd have heard mine by now. We have a deal.

[... :|a ]

...I don't remember anything. That's strange — you must've...I'm sure you asked who I was, at least. You must've said something. But I don't...hmm.

Armstrong was a major. Maybe I guessed it from that, since you worked together?

[explosivecombat]

Ah, perhaps...at any rate, it's accurate. All State Alchemists are given that rank upon acceptance to the program.

Of course, it's been a moot point for me since Ishval.

[doitrockapella]

Oh? So does that make me a major now?

[explosivecombat]

I doubt you'd want to play by our rules; majors who obtain their rank by way of being a State Alchemist really get no more respect than captains unless they're extremely useful on the battlefield or get promoted by their own merits later. And you'd have to obey the military regardless of what they order you to do.

The funding is admittedly nice, however.

[doitrockapella]

Funding doesn't make much difference to me. I tend to have alternative revenue streams for that sort of thing.

Speaking of me, wasn't there something you were going to tell me?

[explosivecombat]

Was there?

[doitrockapella]

Sentiments you have in my direction?

[explosivecombat]

[...Ah.

There's a fairly large pause before he replies; there's something else he remembers from that three-day period, something...decidedly less comfortable as discussion goes.]

I think it goes without saying that I'm fond at this point; I've told you more than enough to imply that much, haven't I?

[doitrockapella]

[It's not like long pauses are particularly uncommon for the two of them, but this one is oddly placed; by about the third or fourth minute (or what seems like it, anyway) of waiting for a reply, it gradually hits her that what could've been banter or a deflection is probably going to end up being something particularly serious, instead.

At least that means she's ready for it, when it comes.]

You have. But you know I try not to assume.

[explosivecombat]

You really have learned well in that regard.

[doitrockapella]

Something's bothering you, though, isn't it?

Long pauses are usually my specialty, not yours.

[explosivecombat]

What would you consider our relationship to one another, Locke?