rendez-vous + APPOINTMENT POST

[tearmeanewone]

[This is an appointment post for Elizabeth at luceti.]

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[tearmeanewone]

...yes, I suppose I really don't know what I'm about to run into. I don't even know very much about wings, except that they're probably the most delicate organ any of us have right now. [So really, if someone came in missing a wing what could she even do about it? Watch them die, most likely.]

Would you run into something unfamiliar if Robert were about to?

[quantumgrammar]

I can't imagine why I would stop now.

[It may be a slightly coy answer, but the circumstances are so different that Rosalind frankly doesn't feel she owed them perfect gravity. She's followed Robert into uncharted territory more than once, anyway, just as he has done for her.]

[tearmeanewone]

Well, I mean, was it difficult the first time you did? [That's a better question, though Elizabeth is starting to get the impression that looking for practical advice from Rosalind has to be accomplished by asking very specific questions.]

[But, it was better than 'You'll be fine' and 'Don't worry'. Flippant reassurances did little for her nowadays.]

[quantumgrammar]

[Ah. Now there's a better question - one she does not already know the answer to. Rosalind leans back against the side of the desk, half-turned toward Elizabeth as she speaks.]

It was. To support him is in part a simple matter of self-interest, but not entirely. [She studies the floorboards for a moment, thoughtfully, eyebrows lifting and head canting to the side after a second, as if in allowance of the argument she knows Robert would make.] Really, everything we do is ultimately a matter of selfishness. We seek pleasure and flee pain. What we call character is simply a matter of what brings us satisfaction, and how deeply we fear.

[tearmeanewone]

[It isn't exactly a pretty explanation, but it's one Elizabeth understands and accepts as true. She was doing this because she was more afraid of Gai and Booker being hurt than she was for her own safety. Was that strange? They both brought her 'satisfaction' as Rosalind put it, and it would be painful if they weren't in her life. Especially if she could have prevented it.]

Robert seemed very lost without you, Miss Lutece. [She tilted her head up at the other woman, curious but hesitant.] Are you afraid of losing him?

[quantumgrammar]

[Little wonder Robert took to the girl so well - he was just as sentimental as she was. Unfortunately at the moment, she was rather incisive too, and showing very fine instincts for a girl who had been raised in isolation in a tower. Rosalind took her time in answering - it was hardly the sort of quastion one could rush into addressing.]

Worry is a waste of time. [She still isn't looking at Elizabeth as she answers, and certainly that is telling enough, the way she studies the middle distance with lidded eyes.] I cannot imagine a way he could be taken from me that I, with sufficient forethought, might prevent.

[She almost leaves it at that - another incomplete answer, another enigma. But then, on some silent and unspoken impulse, she does not.]

I find it difficult to imagine life without him, though.

[tearmeanewone]

[It was exactly what Elizabeth wanted to hear, strangely enough. Even if the situation isn't at all the same, something about Rosalind Lutece admitting that she cared about her brother makes Elizabeth feel less like she's made a mistake. She can't imagine life without Gai or Booker, and while she can imagine so many ways they could be taken from her that she couldn't prevent she felt better knowing she would be there at least.]

I won't worry, then. [She smiles slightly at Rosalind, hands resting properly on her knees.] That energy is better spent on preventing things, right?

[quantumgrammar]

Precisely.

[And just like that , Elizabeth comes right back to practicality, to simplicity, to sense. A neat little circle, reason to emotion to reason, and there's something perfectly-suited about how cleanly she ties it all together.

The common strain of humanity is a crude and unsatisfying thing, to Rosalind, who has always been drawn to the undreamed-of. But after everything that's happened, seeing dozens of dozens of iterations of the girl, there is an unanticipated, quiet pleasure in these quiet suggestions that Elizabeth is exceptional in a way unlike any of the men or women who have brought her to this point.

Perhaps it should not be so unanticipated. Rosalind, after all, has always gravitated toward the exceptional. She glances back at last, pushing lightly off the desk and clasping her hands in front of her.]

Preventing what you do not desire, and pursuing what you do. Not that you seem to have especial trouble with either.

[tearmeanewone]

[Elizabeth chuckles.] No, I don't have a problem with that. Hazard of being an only child, right?

[That was a sort of off-color joke, Rosalind might appreciate it? Strangely enough, Elizabeth doesn't mind Rosalind's extreme practicality on most things. Booker had a tendency to view things in a purely pessimistic way, and Robert and Gai would only tell her everything would turn out for the best. Rosalind was obviously the middle ground, and seeing that variation makes her smile in the face of walking into the unknown.]

I'll be in a desert, apparently. What can you tell me about deserts?

[quantumgrammar]

[She actually gives a soft noise for that, a little 'hm' that is as appreciative as it is bemused, as she walks over to have a look at Elizabeth's incompletely packed bags.]

The warm sort? That they know no forgiveness. Be as ready for the cold of night as you are for the heat of day. Drink as much water as you can bear. Keep the sun from your skin.