ic contact;

[originallutece]

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[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

[originallutece]

I understand.

. . . Robert is the only reason I know. My parents were hardly loving, and the idea of imitating them was . . . I used to dread the thought of marriage. I actively feared it, never mind all the trappings that came along with it. I could think of no worse fate, and I refused it.

But I found a home in him. And I found that it's different when you're with someone you love, and who loves you. I found that what I was terrified of wasn't domesticity, precisely, so much as being forced into a cage and kept isolated.

[callbacks]

do you want to marry him?

[originallutece]

[That isn't quite the question that preys on their minds, but she won't mention that to Dave. Marriage is enough; the thought of children is too dizzying to share.]

I'm indifferent on the matter, truly. If he wishes to, I'll happily do it, but nor is it something I seek.

I suppose I grew used to the idea that we never would be. This is the first place we've been where we could celebrate it, never mind have people we'd actually want to attend.

[callbacks]

oh my god if you do please make fugo the flower boy

[originallutece]

I am not going to give anyone that role. If we marry, it's going to be something both quick and quiet.

[callbacks]

awwww
but i wouldve djed the reception and everything
would you at least let meridiana make you a dress

[originallutece]

She's made me so many already; that, at least, I would

[--agree to, she types, and then deletes that and says instead:]

happily wear that.

[callbacks]

you know shed love to do that for you
she likes you a lot