voicemail.

[coastal]

[Following the "record your voicemail at the beep" message--]

What? Who gave you the right to order me around? -- W-Wait, was that the beep?

I wasn't prepared--!! [a whispered hiss:] How do you get this thing to stop-?!

[Beep!

You know the drill! IC Inbox for voice/video/action threads for whatever occasion.]

Comments

[newtimes]

( It's strange because if Mutsu should hate the idea of being left behind too. It's easy to forget now after all of these years but he can remember a time when Sakamoto was growing, his views shifting and changing to what they would ultimately end up becoming, and Mutsu can remember feeling the way the others did. It was... scary? Definitely scary. But in the end, he knew he wasn't going to be scrapped or thrown away. He was loved and it's something he can say without a doubt despite everything. Of course, not every sword can confidently say they're treasured and will be cared for with certainty.

Mutsu listens to Lili. He doesn't know a whole lot about her if he's being honest. Yeah, he's pretty good at reading people and seeing their potential but that doesn't mean he knows anyone's full story. )

Yeah... he was always thinking real big. It's why he left home! The guys he was working with were thinking too small for him. They wanted to change the domain but he was thinking about changing the whole country. So he left even if he didn't have permission and that meant he'd be a wanted guy. Hmm... the Shinsengumi were also like the special police where Ryouma was making the most trouble. ( And he pauses for a moment, giving her a glance to see if she's following. So far we have a wanted rebel reformist versus a traditional special police force. Surely that should be able to explain everything for now? ) Ryouma was too good for 'em though. They could never catch him, heh.

Lessee... ya'd never think a guy like that'd come from the bottom of society, right? In Japan, merchants are pretty low. Lower than peasants. But they worked real hard and managed to buy themselves s samurai title. That's how they got me! They became samurai and got a sword to celebrate... but they were still at the bottom and got treated as such. It wasn't fair. Like Ryouma? He was a genius but none of the big guys on top would ever give him the time of day 'cause he was born a nobody.

So he worked to change that too. He worked real hard and got real lucky and managed to find some guys that would listen and back him up. Then he finally got enough support he was able to start making those changes. ( But only start because he died before he could ever see that world come to be. ) Ya couldn't just be born with power anymore... ya had to work for it and ya had to work hard to keep it. Even a low merchant could make his way up to the emperor's side... and even a guy from the slums could become a general if he worked hard and was good enough.

... He was a big dreamer and he wanted to share it with everyone.

[coastal]

[Politics are easy for Lili to understand in comparison to everything else. The idea of feelings, of embarrassment, of friendships and the like have always eluded her - she's never been able to form those types of connections because everything was seen in a political lens for her. The idea of exchanges, of hierarchies, and preferences. She's always been at the top.

But this, she understands perfectly well.

The upward mobility of social class is a novel idea but not one that's impossible - rebel groups had killed the queen of her country not too long ago, after all. Imagine if they were successful in overturning the government and instituted those changes so it's not just the high and mighty (like herself) that made changes. For some reason, she doesn't know how she feels about it.

There's an attachment to the idea that her father will always be safe, but this sort of thinking doesn't guarantee that, even if she does believe that titles and positions should be earned. That people should be worthy of their stations rather than sitting around and twiddling their thumbs.]

... Mm, I see.

[Any anger that might be expected from her - from a noble being told of a world where nobility in its purest form through inheritance doesn't exist - isn't there. Rather it's replaced by quiet complacency, some distant and detached sort of understanding that she's not ready to unpack yet.]

So he was able to make that kind of change, even from the bottom...

[Well. Then as someone sitting at the top, shouldn't she be trying that much harder?]

1/2

[newtimes]

That's ri~ight!

( He's swelling with pride and if he was following Lili before, he's practically skipping ahead now. Of course, he doesn't even think about how a princess like Lili may feel about this sort of world-- to be fair, it wasn't something that Sakamoto had been able to think about before his death either. And maybe some day, a few days from now, he'll sit and reflect on the conversation and realize his choice of words and go into a small panic of sorts before trying to fix things because wasn't it this sort of thinking that had gotten Sakamoto in danger? )

Without ever drawing a sword! And it took everyone a while to see but... he's a hero now. A great, big hero! Over a hundred years later, people ask, "What would he do?"

( He's certainly heard enough praise while at the museum and even in this life, when he was summoned, others recognized the name of his former master the moment he yelled it for everyone to hear. As much of a "father figure" Ryouma may have been for Mutsu, taking him as a young sword and helping him grow into what he is, it's very much buch the opposite as well. After all, Mutsu had watched him grow from a tiny crybaby boy into a fine man. )

[newtimes]

( But, oh, he was going somewhere with all of this and he slows down his step some, )

But some things never change. Like the foods people eat. ( Those sweet, heavy loaves of cake, for example. ) This cake... it was popular where we worked.

( In the ports of Nagasaki where Ryoma's fleet was. )

[coastal]

[Don't slow your step, Mutsu?! They're almost to Lili's work... but regardless she's glancing back at him - even if she's not necessarily going to slow her roll because she doesn't like being late for work. But then it all clicks together and she looks back between the castella and him. Castella. Him.

A pause.]

Mm, no wonder it's precious to you then.

[Distantly, she thinks back to the incident with Mutsu and Kashuu and the strawberry cake--

People's favorites really are indicative of bigger pictures, aren't they?]