Words, words, words!

[littleladyluck]

I am presently feeling seventeen different emotions all at once, I know nothing that happened last Jaunt as clearly as I'd like, and I think that a handful of the people here may need to speak to someone to work out their own feelings regarding... everything!

Because I was lucky enough to keep my Champion of Sound powers, I can help some of you, hopefully. I can completely isolate your voices while you speak so only I can hear you, or whoever you would prefer to speak to. I know, the psychic network is similar, but face to face chats are important. To me they are, at least.

Let me know if you're interested. Anyone and everyone who needs me, I'll try to be there!

Comments

[littleladyluck]

[Genevieve gives him a brief squeeze, enough to let him know that she's strong enough to take any hug, no matter how tight.] Leonardo, fiorellino mio, I am here for you. No one will hear a word unless you want them to. [She's strangely quiet when she speaks, even after the wrought-iron curls of the sound barrier curl around them.] You gave me the strength to let myself be weak. I want to do the same for you, if you'll let me.

[howexciting]

[He's not letting go any time soon, Genevieve. Further, when she speaks to him in Italian, he gives a weak laugh, before he squeezes her just a little tighter, for a few brief moments. When he speaks again, he speaks to her in Renaissance Italian.]

Genevieve... given how many Travelers feel the need to protect me, I am always weak. I want to be strong for just a little longer... please, let me help you, first.

[littleladyluck]

[She nuzzles her face into his shoulder. All the comfort for precious beretbuddy. She decides, thanks to how much Alcuin comforted her with a deliberate language switch, she'll swap to Renaissance Italian too.]

It's not so much your weakness as our unwillingness to see such a wonderful person get hurt, I believe. You'll always be strong. Look at what you've been through! Lesser people would not be able to bear this. I won't pry, but... my offer will stand until I fall. You and Alcuin have helped me, and I want to give back what I can.

[howexciting]

Wonderful...? Lord above, no. If anything, my time spent this month proves to me that deep down, I am...

[He pauses his words, not wishing to continue. Instead he draws away, his eyes not daring to meet Genevieve's.]

That man I inhabited, Blitzkopf. He was an awful, awful man. But he was not so different from me, in truth. And I am beginning to think it was the same with Leonard.

[littleladyluck]

Not everyone can be easily herded into black or white, Leonardo. I understand. Well, as much as someone with mostly harmless alternate selves can.

[She reluctantly lets the hug end, but... keeps a hand on his arm.]

I know nothing of Leonard, but I do know that Blitzkopf made mechanical kittens and, in the strangest possible way, saved a girl's life. Gavriella was sent away form her father, unsure if he was even alive, but helping Blitzkopf made her feel like she was helpful, and that's all she wanted. Even if he was impersonal and ambiguous in morals, he wasn't irredeemable. I can agree, he wasn't exactly pure in his ideals, but no one is completely made of heavenly purity and sculpted sugar.

Leonardo, you don't use your knowledge to harm people intentionally. You want to help others, you want to create, you want to gain as much intelligence as possible and show others what you can do. I can hardly call that awful.

[howexciting]

Leonard... he was far worse than Blitzkopf. He was not amoral, but evil, wanting nothing more than to watch the world burn. At least Blitzkopf did not care whether or not the world burned because of his actions. Leonard was intending it. He was a master manipulator, and a selfish man, and a callous scientist - just like Blitzkopf was. If it was only the one, I would believe you... but two begins to form a pattern, a pattern which worries me and makes me doubt myself.

... in the pursuit of knowledge, the only thing I have learned is that there is truly some knowledge which is not worth knowing. Such a revelation is something I had not learned at home. What if... what if, when I go back home... I end up like them? Unfeeling, egotistical, only interested in learning more, and more... dedicated only to that knowledge, unconcerned when people are hurt in the process...

[His shoulders shake, suddenly, as he draws in a breath, and his eyes begin to grow misty. He blinks away the tears before they form, but it is clear that he is still upset.]

... the Sun said we were drawn to our greatest resonances when we are Infiltrating. What if my greatest resonances truly are heartless madmen?

[littleladyluck]

[Genevieve goes up en pointe and touches her free hand to his cheek.]

If Leonard is that bad, he doesn't deserve to share your form. He doesn't deserve to share your mind or your heart, and he certainly doesn't deserve the right to make you suffer this much. Everyone makes mistakes. No one ever said the Trumps were flawless or truly all-knowing, hm? All that tethers you three together are a fondness for experimentation.

[She feels the need to make it light-hearted because she can't stand to see him cry. Fingers crossed she doesn't offend him.]

I'm thinking that resonance explanation is because there are truly few people in any world like you, and the Trumps were scrambling for a match who met the very minimum requirements and landed far off the mark with the rest. "He's a tall scientist. Close enough!"

[Back to calm. She tucks his hair behind his ear, then back to his cheek.]

I don't think you will. If you're anything like the Leonardo my brothers knew, you'll still be you. Besides, you have a colossal heart of gold. Though you're strong, it's both a curse and a blessing. You're doomed to care, no matter how these worlds try to keep you from being kind. A soft heart's the best thing you'll ever hate.