ic contact;

[originallutece]

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[callbacks]

[That's just about the loneliest thing he ever heard, and he's from half a humanity of four. Dave starts to type something, but then. Well.

She did him the courtesy of not asking, after all.]

youd be surprised how many kids neglected that vital part of their education
without our extensive climbing shit practice my crew would have definitely been constantly dead all the time

[originallutece]

And here I only ever used them when I wanted to read physics books without someone disapproving. Clearly my education must have been lacking. Certainly I wasn't half as good as you.

[callbacks]

no see then for you its clearly a
what do you call it
like integrated learning maybe?
where the junk you practice in one subject feeds the rest
physical science supported by physical education hot damn

[originallutece]

Truly, I was a wunderkind.

[. . .]

You can ask, you know. If you'd like. God only knows Robert and I have asked you far too much about your past and powers.

[callbacks]

nah
im a fountain of oversharing so its pretty likely everything ive told you wouldve come out unprompted anyway like a geyser of poorly edited syfy channel bullshit
so i never felt like you two were prying into personal shit
believe me if you ever hit on a topic i didnt want to get into youd know it on account of id have bailed faster than an upper class good looking white guy in prison
so its fine
im pretty staunchly anti-digging into peoples histories if its not something they want to bring up on their own

[originallutece]

[She laughs despite herself, because there's something utterly delightful about the way he phrases things. He is right, though: Robert had certainly experienced that firsthand, hadn't he, when he'd tried to offer sympathy.]

Fair enough.

[Does she want to tell him? Mm, perhaps. Certainly the memories are fresh in her mind, but she's also not seventeen anymore. There's a far vaster age gap between them, and what Rosie Lutece the teenager had felt comfortable sharing, Dr. Lutece the adult hesitates on. But finally:]

I was the only heir. She didn't want to risk my getting damaged in any way.

[callbacks]

alright
i get ya

[And then he adds, maybe because he's engaged to one Meridiana Everett, or maybe because of the girls he knew before her:]

ladies have it tough
im glad you found your own way off the shelf

[originallutece]

In one way or another, yes.

[Another thought occurs to her, and she adds:]

Are you two going to get married soon?

[callbacks]

pplll;;
what
what??
idk i mean we JUST got engaged?

[originallutece]

It's hardly an impertinent question, not when you two already have rings. Although I suppose if you've only just gotten engaged, not for a year or so.

[callbacks]

right yeah
dont people usually stay engaged for a while before they get married
i proposed on christmas so its not weird to still not know dates yet and shit

[originallutece]

You're asking the wrong person: I'm still not engaged. But no, I don't think it's particularly strange. It's only April.

Truth be told, it's not as if you two need follow convention. You could wait another two months or another two years; it's not as if anyone is going to disapprove of you two either way.

[callbacks]

pfft fuck if i know anything about convention anyway
i just


i dont know
maybe it IS something we should be planning already??
but having our wedding here just feels kinda............

[originallutece]

Wrong?

[callbacks]

our family isnt here
and
yeah it doesnt feel right to make it officially official in a place that feels so
temporary
like proposing i can do a thousand times and it still feels special and important but marriage is
i dunno
its something else
but i dont want to make her wait too long for my ceremonially slow ass either

[originallutece]

[Hmm. There's a bit of a pause before the next text.]

You know her far better than I. But I will say that given what I know of her, and a few of the things that have occurred to her, and our time period in general . . . there's a security to marriage that being engaged doesn't bring.

Which doesn't mean you ought to. Certainly not if you don't feel inclined to here and now. She loves you; she's hardly going to be displeased because you waited because you weren't comfortable.

[callbacks]

i know
but

madam lutece i barely know how to be a real person let alone someone who can provide that kind of secure and stable future
but for her i
you know
i want to be

[originallutece]

I'm familiar with the feeling.

[. . .]

Tell me: what makes you think you barely know how to be a real person?

[callbacks]

..........
i forget how much i told you about the actual circumstances of my world
like beyond our teenage superpower malarkey

[originallutece]

You said it ran on video game logic. And that you had a set goal.

[callbacks]

ok
thats a pretty good starting point actually
theres two things about that that can help explain where im coming from probably
one is that
growing up all my life towards this one thing i was supposed to be
doesnt do a whole lot for my being able to actually operate in a more open and "normal" world

[originallutece]

And the other?

[callbacks]

the game destroyed the earth
so from age thirteen on
the four of us and our handful of space alien friends lucky enough to survive their own session
similarly pubescent
we were responsible for all aspects of our own rearing and instruction on becoming adults and got about the results youd expect

[originallutece]

[Oh, she thinks, and suddenly understands why Robert had felt the need to offer his sympathies and a listening ear. But she knows better than to do that, and bites back on the impulse.

You both bear up, Robert had said. She wouldn't want someone offering her pity. But nor can she simply ignore these revelations.]

I see.

. . . we live in a strange place, Dave. There's no real culture or society to speak of, because all of us come from such vastly different origins it's impossible to establish one. And some of us-- you and I, Robert and Miss Everett-- have seen and done things so utterly bizarre and beyond compare that they make following rules and conventions pointless.

You think you don't know how to provide a loving home, because you were raised semi-isolated and among other children. You were raised differently than everyone else. But here, everyone else consists of people who come from all walks of life. There is no standard to live up to.

You're kind, and loving, and you care for her. You want her to be happy, and you work to help her achieve that happiness. That's all providing a secure and stable future truly requires: knowing that the other person is there for you, no matter what. The rest is simply details.

[callbacks]

[While he waits uselessly for a clever response to come to him, Dave ends up reading Rosalind's answer several times through. The last paragraph is hard to read--not because he's so self-unaware he thinks she's wrong, but because it's embarrassing, having the heart of him exposed like that so easily. Less embarrassing because it's Madam Lutece; she rattles off his squishier ingredients like facts, like steps of a chemical equation: Dave loves Meridiana, and therefore, this will precipitate from that solution. It's easier to focus on the result than on her opinion of him.

But it's the you think you don't know how to provide a loving home that gets him. She gets him. Even without lifting the curtain on the back end of his life, his beginnings with Bro, Rosalind named what Dave couldn't.]

well
sure
though having a nice house and a respectable job with insurance benefits probably doesnt hurt

[Even Dave knows that repartee's not up to his usual standards. He tosses his watch from palm to palm for a few moments, then adds:]

the only reason i know what a loving home can look like is because meridiana gave me one

when we get married
i want it to mean the same thing