coastal | voicemail.

More people need to go through the process of earning it.

[Or at least... that's what she thinks. It's what she's trying to do -- even though she's not sure if it counts for much anymore. Yet far too many people are just comfortable sitting on their asses.

She really needs to learn how to hold her opinion back but instead she goes on.]

Being seated in a position of power can lead to complacency. I just don't understand how some can be so comfortable watching corruption happen and not lifting a finger to do anything about it. It's absurd.

[Ah, right.... Corruption. Leon's more than familiar with that, too, but he doesn't actually care that much. Which sounds terrible, but... it's just a fact of life, as far as he's concerned. There are good kings, and bad kings, but there will always be corruption regardless of the state of kings. In the church, in the other members of power-- there is always someone.

It's the human condition.]

That can hardly be considered surprising.

[Oh...]

People can hardly be trusted as it is. Why should they be trusted in a position of power?

[Her answer comes just as easily and confidently:]

Sometimes people need a leader, you know.

[And... it's hard for her to say. When she met Soo-won, she had no idea that he was the king who had usurped Yona's throne from her. Yet there's no denying that he was able to help her accomplish her goal of removing nadai from Sensui. It's... complicated to think of whether or not he's really a bad person.]

.... They just need to be the right kind of person.

[Unlike her father.

But how overconfident was she to think that she could be any better?]

It does not always have to be the leader who is corrupted.

[Hugo hadn't been a leader. Hugo had just had the king's ear, while he lived his life as CEO of a corporation, and from there, he'd been able to nearly destroy the world. To think that everything hinged on whether a leader was a good or bad person.. it's naive.]

There are others. Advisors, attendants, people in other positions of power, or who just have the ear of the king. From there, it is all too easy to cause even the "right kind" of person to make the wrong choices.

[ . . . . she blinks once. Twice.]

Does it ever exhaust you to think of the worst case scenario all the time?

[Just... saying.... But she's just going to shake her head.]

So one should learn to surround themselves with trustworthy people. Or those who are corrupt can change or be removed from their position.

[It is naive. It's also very simple - but Lili does tend to ram into things headfirst.]

[No........ it's just how he functions........ sorry, Lili.]

... You are too naive.

[Yeah. It's a solution--but it's too simplistic, and he can't bring himself to believe it would ever work.]

[Immediately:]

Shut up. You don't know anything about me.

[It actually manages to piss her off a little bit, if her narrowed eyes and straightened shoulders manage to say anything about it. It's far too similar to what her father would tell her - she doesn't know anything, so it's time to go sit in her room and be locked up for a week.

So her next words are snappy and emotional, despite her attempts to be cordial thus far-]

At least I haven't given up. What's the point in your complaining if you don't plan on doing anything about it?

You can think what you want about me.

[He doesn't care!!! (Okay, he cares a little, but he knows that he has plenty of reasons to not try to change things at this point. It's... not his role.)]

Besides which, I did not say that it cannot be changed. But it is something that has to be acknowledged.

[And... it's not for people like him to change this. That's for people like Stahn, and Woodrow, Philia and Rutee. The heroes.]

I think that you spend your times pointing out all the ways that people are awful without considering the ways that they can be good -- and it's exhausting to hear when you're actually capable of doing something about it.

[SHE'LL EVEN INFORM YOU OF HER OPINION, LEON.... Which is judgmental as fuck, but she actually really hates it. What can't he do? He's not a people person, no, but he actually has the strength to back up his words. It's more than she has and she doesn't dabble in jealousy, but she does dabble in resentment.]

Consider it acknowledged and waiting to be changed, then. I don't plan on resting any time soon.

I don't consider the ways that they can be good. [That's not his role. That's Stahn's role--Stahn who believes in everyone, and is the light he wants to see in the world. It's Leon's role to suspect, and see the bad in people, because that's all he's ever seen.

For the most part, that's all he has to contribute, and that's what he accepts. Regardless of what she has to say about him.]

Don't expect anything more from me. [He doesn't believe he'll ever have it to give.]

I see you don't get exhausted of excusing yourself from responsibility either.

[Just saying. But Lili's just going to shake her head at that, unable to contain a small scoff.]

It just doesn't make sense. If you're so discontent with everything, why do you just accept it? You can do so much more than that.

[Though she doesn't seem to sound accusatory or like she's trying to pick a fight, despite her failure to choose her words in a more benign way -- she's just sincerely confused.]

I can't.

[He's tired of listening to her. He's tired of listening to her optimism, and naivete. She's so much weaker than he is, but she has so much more belief. When was the last time Leon truly thought he could make a sincere difference?

Had he thought he could, since the day Hugo had laughed at him when he'd said he didn't want to go along with his plan? Or had he given up long before that?

... There's a short huff, and he bites back anything else, stalking forward more certainly. They have to find wherever they're going so he can leave.]

How does it feel to have a stranger believe in you more than yourself?

[Just saying.

Of course it's the only way that she can express her belief -- which is harshly and perhaps with a bit of a dig in it. More than that, she's interested in pointing out the strangeness in the situation. She hates it. They both know that he's stronger than she is -- so why is he so stubborn about how much he can do?

It's perplexing... but she doesn't think they're going to get much more out of this topic, even it seems to keep circling back to how much he can do.

She flips her hair over her shoulder and adds shortly-]

I enjoy rain and solitude.

[BACK ON TO THINGS THAT SHE LIKES, APPARENTLY.]

[How does it feel?

It feels... like normal, really. Stahn believes in him. Otome believes in him. But Leon doesn't believe in himself, and Leon knows who ended up being right in the end. Leon--is the one who's right here. He's not capable of doing anything more than he did.

He was a tool to the end.

... There's a long pause after her words, but eventually, he responds, tone even and calm.]

I don't like rain. [He doesn't like being wet--especially now. But his tone remains calm; he's just offering that up, not denying her claim, especially when he follows it up with a sincerely curious:] Why do you like rain?

[ . . . well. That actually comes across as sincere so she'll give a little bit more information than she has been so far.]

... I'm the daughter of the leader of the Water Tribe. [An acknowledgment to her position of power, even though she doesn't think it counts for anything anymore after she's been exiled and kidnapped and apparently left for dead.] It rains constantly, and it's especially beautiful in the capitol. Sometimes it was all I could see from the window when my father wouldn't let me leave.

[The last bit slips out without her noticing - she's been more and more nostalgic for home lately, especially after being in this entirely different realm.

But she moves on quickly, trying to sweep it under the rug:]

Why don't you like rain?

[It's strange to think of a place that rains constantly--he thinks he probably wouldn't like such a place--but also a place where "tribes" are the norm. ...Strange.

But... it's pretty obvious why he doesn't like rain, honestly. The feeling of being soaked through, of water hitting his face, all of the little triggers that remind him--]

... I don't like to be wet.

[It's both the truth and nothing at all, really. But it's all Leon would ever admit to anyway.]

[ . . . well, it's an easy enough answer. Though that just makes Lili think of the ocean as well, something else that she's rather fond of. So she'll keep the conversation going in a direction that she's familiar with--]

Then you must not travel by boat often?

[Port towns.... which she's also fond of.

Why is she so homesick already?]

... I do when I have to. I'm not particularly fond of it, but at times it is unavoidable.

[That's really all there is to it. Leon'll do whatever it takes to take care of the mission, even though there's a faint, disgusted twist to his mouth.

He gets seasick so easily. Boats are the enemy.]

[ . . . . ah. Definitely doesn't like it then. Hm.]

That's a shame.

[Boats are really cool, Leon.... like. so long as they're not smuggling drugs into her country or anything.]

What is your land like then if it doesn't rain often or have a prevalence of boats?

[Boats suck okay.]

It is temperate, for the most part.

[She wasn't necessarily asking for climate, but climate is all he offers here.... oh ok.]

Though it is necessary to travel by sea occasionally, I do not live particularly near the ocean.

[Gotta travel to take a boat, at least a bit.]

[ . . . ah. Okay. That doesn't... tell her much of anything, though she can't help but wonder--]

Are you not fond of where you're from?

[It's such a clinical explanation....]

[He's fond of... parts of it. He's fond of Marian's garden and the dining room where he could eat her sweets and have her tea...

... But other than that, no, he can't say he's particularly attached, not in the way Lili seems to be to her own home.]

It isn't that I dislike it, but... [He's not fond of it, either.] It is simply the country where I live.

[ . . . She's not sure what she expected except perhaps.... more than that?]

No attachment to your hometown at all?

[????? even she thinks that's a little odd....]

...Are you going to make me repeat myself?

[... So yeah no. He's got a lot of attachments, but the place he was born and lived in has very little meaning to him. It was just a matter of circumstance. It's an important city--geographically and politically. It's a reasonably large city. It has its importance to a lot of people.

Leon just isn't one of them.]

Your hometown and your country aren't inherently the same thing, you know.

[Which is just her snappy retort. Really, his insistence on trying to make her feel dumb is so annoying...!!

. . . . though now she's pausing to consider where they are. It... is still bright and blinding and definitely doesn't appear to have any signs of green? So not the park.]

.... Are you certain we should've continued on this way?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject