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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 27, 2019 19:43:25 GMT -5
“You need not flatter me-“
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Post by Teja on Mar 27, 2019 19:45:20 GMT -5
"I'll miss you," she forced herself to say, before the subject undoubtedly changed, resumed the slightly removed and artificial qualities his conversation preferred. "It's not meant to flatter you; it's true. I've - I've been glad to know you. It hasn't always been easy, but-"
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 27, 2019 19:49:12 GMT -5
The elevator doors opened. It was colder up here, and filled with a murky sort of blue light- light which, it turned out, was coming through all four walls at various levels of brightness. They were standing in a kind of glass atrium, dim with disuse.
“No,” he said. “I do not think you will.”
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Post by Teja on Mar 27, 2019 19:49:55 GMT -5
"I will," she insisted. "I have even over the last few months."
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 27, 2019 20:02:44 GMT -5
“Perhaps at first,” he conceded. "But in far later years, I expect you shall hate me."
He pushed one of the doors open, with a blast of cold wind. Outside, there was a broad rim of observation decks, paved with brown stones that looked paler in the moonlight and thin, arcing balustrades fitted with rusting telescopes.
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Post by Teja on Mar 27, 2019 20:05:03 GMT -5
Teja followed him uneasily and wonderingly out onto the deck.
"Johannes," she said with a crooked smile, "it's really very cold out here."
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 27, 2019 20:09:00 GMT -5
"One grows used to it," he said as he walked toward the edge. "And it would appear to be a rather hot time in the old town tonight regardless."
He gestured elegantly down at the city stretching beyond them- dotted with fires that looked like overgrown smoky cinders from this height and the sounds of sirensreduced to something eerie and wailing on the shrieking winds.
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Post by Teja on Mar 27, 2019 20:10:46 GMT -5
Teja shivered over more than merely the wind, tucking herself firmly beneath his arm.
"That's horrible," she said.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 27, 2019 20:14:11 GMT -5
"You do not feel the exhilaration?" he asked, looking askance at her. "This- embrace of one's true nature?"
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Post by Teja on Mar 27, 2019 20:14:43 GMT -5
"My true self isn't an arsonist."
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 27, 2019 20:16:02 GMT -5
He laughed at this, rather sharply.
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Post by Teja on Mar 27, 2019 20:17:23 GMT -5
"Can we go back in?" she asked. It hadn't taken much for her teeth to chatter, and Johannes, while a little warmer than she remembered him as being, was still no substitute for a good barrier from the wind; she was shivering violently.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 27, 2019 20:19:26 GMT -5
"I wish to reflect on the occasion."
He looked a little wounded now.
"Are my children so great a disappointment to you?"
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Post by Teja on Mar 27, 2019 20:20:16 GMT -5
"I'm not so s- sure it's them lighting the fires," she said grimly.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 27, 2019 20:21:21 GMT -5
"I should hope at least some of them are," he asked, with a mild frown. "I certainly did ask them to."
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