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

[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?

[doitrockapella]

I think it's largely dictated by what you want.

[explosivecombat]

How so?

[doitrockapella]

Bear with me while I try to find a good way of putting it into words.

It's...in a way, as though you've set the ground rules and I play within them. You're generally willing to sit back and let me push things one way or another, within reason and within the implicit bounds that have been set. But sometimes I wander outside those bounds, and when I do, you crack down on me for it.

I think the best example of it is when I do something that you read as trying to change you. You'll give me free rein to tease you or poke at you to a point, but as soon as I toe over wherever you've perceived the line, you don't hesitate to put me right back in my place.

So I'm hesitant to say what we are, because whatever it is, I'm fairly sure it's one of those foundational rules that you generally tend to dictate. That's part of it, at least; there are other things that tie into that, but if I tried to explain those at this point as well, I'd end up wandering around on the topic for awhile, and we usually do better when I try to keep things neat and focused until we both have a good sense of what we're trying to say to each other on each individual piece of it.

[explosivecombat]

Allow me to rephrase, then.

Ideally speaking, what would this become eventually, were it up to you?

[doitrockapella]

Ideally speaking you'd become my partner in crime, embrace my guiding principles, discover an alternative and generally more benign means of feeling alive, and live happily ever after.

But since "wouldn't it be nice if..." tends to be reserved for alchemy and not for relationships...something that leaves us both happy would probably do.

[explosivecombat]

Understood, then.

It's still a bit idealistic for my liking, but I can live with it.

[doitrockapella]

"Understood"?

What are you doing?

[explosivecombat]

Nothing, Locke.

They're just questions.

[doitrockapella]

What's suddenly gotten you onto this line of questioning, then?