[To him, talking about the people he's lost back then, in the bandit days, feels like caressing an old scar. All his human siblings who couldn't survive as long as he did. Those are old hurts.
For Rupert, he imagines they're all much fresher.]
Knight captains are just like that, huh? [Cain is the same way.
His smile is a little softer than it tends to be, encouraging.]
[he thinks about it for another moment, deciding who to describe next.]
There was this kid named Wenceslaus who'd be staying with us for a while, too. His parents weren't around any more, and I'd met him a couple weeks before I came here, so he headed over to the castle to ask if he could stay with us for a while. [he laughs] Don't get me wrong, he was a real pill sometimes! Very snarky. But he could be really sweet, too. Really endearing, even when he was up to trouble. He never crossed any huge lines or anything... He was just the kind who needed a little bit of structure, some guidance.
[He nods to himself. Kids who are a handful tend towards being free spirits. He doesn't mind kids like that, who like to push their boundaries and see how far people will let them go.]
[he moves on after that, his expression growing a little more tender as he continues.]
Moving on to family, I guess... Well, we aren't related by blood, but - like I mentioned, I only met my dad once, and my mom and I had a kind of complicated relationship. One of the people who worked in the castle, though, the chamberlain... I didn't get a lot of chances to make friends when I was young, so I spent a lot of time with the people who worked here. You know, people who were paid to be nice to me. [he snorts.] I was a weird kid, though, and a lot of them would end up finding a polite way to say they were too busy or that they didn't have time to talk. He never did that, though. Not that he wasn't busy, but - he always found time to humor me, and if he absolutely couldn't take the time, he'd let me talk to him while he worked. I grew up with him right there, so - he was more like a father to me than my biological dad ever was.
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For Rupert, he imagines they're all much fresher.]
Knight captains are just like that, huh? [Cain is the same way.
His smile is a little softer than it tends to be, encouraging.]
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[he thinks about it for another moment, deciding who to describe next.]
There was this kid named Wenceslaus who'd be staying with us for a while, too. His parents weren't around any more, and I'd met him a couple weeks before I came here, so he headed over to the castle to ask if he could stay with us for a while. [he laughs] Don't get me wrong, he was a real pill sometimes! Very snarky. But he could be really sweet, too. Really endearing, even when he was up to trouble. He never crossed any huge lines or anything... He was just the kind who needed a little bit of structure, some guidance.
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Moving on to family, I guess... Well, we aren't related by blood, but - like I mentioned, I only met my dad once, and my mom and I had a kind of complicated relationship. One of the people who worked in the castle, though, the chamberlain... I didn't get a lot of chances to make friends when I was young, so I spent a lot of time with the people who worked here. You know, people who were paid to be nice to me. [he snorts.] I was a weird kid, though, and a lot of them would end up finding a polite way to say they were too busy or that they didn't have time to talk. He never did that, though. Not that he wasn't busy, but - he always found time to humor me, and if he absolutely couldn't take the time, he'd let me talk to him while he worked. I grew up with him right there, so - he was more like a father to me than my biological dad ever was.
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[If anybody should know, it would be him. In some ways, a family of choice feels better than one only bound by blood.]
Kind guy.
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[he pauses for another moment. one person left, but...]
Amir, he... [...] Sorry. I-I can't, not right now.
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How'd it feel?
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[and not in the context of what happened to them.]
So - thank you. Seriously.
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It helps sometimes.
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It's Tuesday...?
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[a pause, sympathetic.]
Do you celebrate every year?
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