[ well, despite the initial unflattering angle, fidelio is just relieved to see that this isn't some sort of emergency call, especially after last month's fiasco. the question isn't one he was expecting, though, and he brings his phone up closer to his face and squints to get a better look. ]
...Huh. Yeah, it does, far as I can tell.
But— you think it's actually his? Not sure how much variety there is in the designs of these things.
Thought it looks just like it, but what d'you reckon? Lessee if I can just...
[He's figured out cameras enough to know that if he brings the bracelet closer, it brings the detail into sharper focus... until he gets a little overzealous and puts it too close, so it just becomes blurry again.]
Bleedin' thing! You saw it for a sec, right? Has wings on it. [Now he's waving it about as if that will magically get the camera to work properly. So helpful.]
You were holdin' it too close is the problem, stop moving.
[ but there was a brief moment of clarity where he got a decent look at it, and that design... he remembers now, stealing a glance at it on louis's wrist and thinking that it sort of matched his breastplate. probably not something everyone would have had on theirs, is it? ]
...Reckon you're right though, yeah. That's it.
[ weird as hell when you think about it, actually, the way people left these things behind and disappeared, like bugs shedding their shells. he keeps that image to himself, though; he figures neither louis nor junah would much appreciate the comparison.
...anyway, settling that question invites another. ]
You gonna hold onto it?
[ a couple of months ago he's sure they both would have, given the chance. they would have kept it with them and looked to it for inspiration in his absence when things got hard and they needed a reminder of just what they were staying strong for.
but now, after all basilio's questioning, and after what they'd both heard louis say so casually about that village... as much as he hates thinking it, he has to wonder whether that reminder might just weigh them down rather than lift them up. ]
[The fact that Fidelio is asking him that question, not instructing him as an order, is telling on its own, and Basilio flips the phone away from the gold cuff and back to his face so he can get a good look at his older brother.]
Kinda wanna throw it away, to be right honest.
[The same way he'd had that gut reaction to take Fidelio and leave, pretend they never saw him, when they'd stumbled across him by chance at that café. If there's one thing that's saved their skins countless times before, it's trusting that instinct.]
This place don't need someone like him. People here are like Will and his friends -- they look out for others, no matter the danger. They don't crush others so they can be on top. Even now that Vaeros bloke is dead, people aren't fightin' to take his place, just helpin' each other.
[ he averts his eyes, furrowing his brow. even if he was leaning toward the same answer himself, somehow it still feels a little like a slap in the face to hear it. the result of tying himself so closely to louis all this time, he supposes; believing that his ideals and goals were theirs, and that anyone who opposed him was their enemy too.
and complicating it all further... it would never be as simple as just going their separate ways. even if fidelio could put aside the debt he felt they owed to louis, even if it didn't eat away at him whenever he considered how much of the blood that had stained their hands over the years might have been spilled for the wrong reasons, he knows louis doesn't take betrayal lightly. maybe basilio doesn't see it that way; maybe he doesn't understand that for people who've been in louis's inner circle for so long and know so much, there's probably no leaving it alive.
even here, now that he's shown up once, fidelio is going to be living with the constant worry that they might one day turn a corner and find themselves face to face with louis again. what would happen then? if he lets himself drift too far, would he still even be able to play his role and pretend nothing had changed, like he'd just barely managed to do this time?
...it's his own problem, though. he doesn't know how the hell he's going to deal with it when the time comes, and the uncertainty gets a little worse every day that he thinks about it. but it's not on basilio; he doesn't need those thoughts looming over him too, not when there's been so much here that he's been eager to experience (even if those opportunities might seem less attainable now than they did a few weeks ago). ]
Mm. [ the closest he'll get to conceding to the point out loud. ] S'pose it wouldn't hurt anything none if you did.
Del... [Basilio had just been voicing his honest thoughts with the expectation of pushback, as always... but for once he doesn't get it. He doesn't have to be a mindreader to guess what Fidelio's being so reticent about, though. Their argument at the end of their stay on the island, his behaviour when Louis briefly reappeared here, is enough for him to guess. Fidelio's -- afraid, now, isn't he? Afraid of what a future could look like without Louis in it. Or confronting the reality that he does appear back in it, long after a yawning gulf has ruptured between their ideals.
What ideals, though? There are people here who had extended him kindness, with no thought to tribal barriers. The doctor who offered to fight in his corner so he could get an education he never had. The girl who laughed with him in a bar and showed him how to use the Oracle, becoming his first real friend here. Then, even when he hurt her, that cannon-arm man who saved her life and spared his, instead of putting him down like a mad dog.
And Will, of course, the one who has saved so many. The one who, when he reached out his hand to help once again, Basilio had pushed it away over his loyalty to his brother. As if they hadn't been living and coexisting together as allies -- friends, even -- building a life here together without Drakodios or the throne or anything else back home tying them down.]
How about this. [Basilio fixes his eyes on the screen, on Fidelio, intent. He's not exactly the plan guy, but since this was all his dangerous idea to begin with, maybe he really should be the one to take responsibility for a change.] I keep the thing, just for insurance. He shows up again, we present it to him, show it as proof we been loyally waitin' all this time. Then... we got a window to plan whatever we do next.
[ fidelio isn't sure what he was expecting basilio to say in response (maybe not a surprise in itself when there are so few things he has been sure of lately), but it definitely wasn't that, and he blinks as he looks back at the screen in his hand. it's a pragmatic suggestion, and— well, frankly, a manipulative one. the kind of thing he might have suggested himself if he had his head on straight.
shite. when did basilio grow up this much? fidelio has been trying so hard to shield him from everything all this time, because he's his little brother and it's his responsibility to protect him. maybe he'd never been able to keep him fully safe from injury or loss or prejudice, but he could at least handle carrying out the dirtiest work and making the toughest decisions himself so basilio could have as carefree of a life as their circumstances could allow. the least he could do after all his fuckups, he'd always figured.
instead, here he is, having to step up to compensate for his older brother's weakness, volunteering himself for a position fidelio had deliberately never prepared him for. maybe he's been doing him a disservice this whole time, treating him like he's still that lovable dunce of a little kid who can't face the world without him.
[Basilio's serious expression is soon gone, replaced by a wide grin. It's not visible, but it's not difficult to imagine his tail wagging offscreen as he puffs up at the praise.]
Guess you can't call me daft no more! [Teasing aside, more than anything, he's just happy to be useful and take some of the burden off his brother, particularly after the trouble he's caused him recently. With that decided, he pockets the cuff.
A weight he can carry, for a change.] If you don't know what to do, you can ask your genius bro anytime.
[ it doesn't change any of the thoughts that just went through his head, but seeing basilio so easily snapping back to his goofy, cheerful self does wonders to lift the mood back up. the tension that leaves fidelio's shoulders is visible, and though he puts on an unimpressed face at the gloating, there's warmth behind it. ]
All right now, let's not go overboard over one good idea.
[He looks about ready to climb on the nearest rooftop and declare himself the smartest bugger alive, because Del said so, but at least he's remembering enough to keep a low profile not to get too carried away.]
Lady Junah had one of those bracelet things too, yeah? You got hers safe an' sound?
[ ugh, this callout... his feelings about lady junah had gotten more complicated over this past couple of months too, and yet he's been carrying her old bracelet around in his backpack since the day she left. ]
...Yeah. Got left behind right there in the house, that one.
Not that it would've been hard to recognise no matter where it got dropped.
[ what with the way she took a hammer to the damn thing. ...which makes it all the more obvious that he's holding onto it for embarrassing personal sentimental reasons, when she'd been so eager to get rid of it herself. ]
True. It looked proper dinged up, like. [He's almost on the verge of teasing him like he normally might, but he's a little worried about Junah since she vanished, which surely has to mean Fidelio is too. All he can do is hope that there's not much to worry about.]
Least it's in good hands. You should tell Will, if you haven't already.
[Since he's friends with Junah too? Co-conspirators? Whatever's going on with them that they don't want to share, anyway.]
[ it's not like fidelio actually has any objection to telling will where that bracelet ended up, but he has no desire to initiate a conversation about it. he doesn't owe him that when lady junah's been with the two of them so much longer.
Tch. Hadn't even really known her a month before we came here, had he?
[ though he tries to say it casually, it's easy to tell it's a little defensive. he's sure will already knows things about her that she never let on to them, and it bothers him more than he'd care to admit. ]
Aye, she took to them right quick. But I don't think you gotta be jealous -- I can't forget what she told us after you confronted her.
[About wanting to give them more than just despair. Fidelio's better at reading her than he is, but Basilio thinks she was speaking sincerely, then, whatever ducking and dishonesty Fidelio thinks she did through the rest of the conversation.]
You won't remember it all, but she fretted over you when you were down with your bad foot, too. Even pulled strings to bring Saint Rella along, check you were sound, didn't she?
I'm not jealous. And I know she feels somethin' for us, even if she's hiding her real motives.
[ it's not like he's forgotten what she'd said back then either; and he may not remember much from during his recovery, but he remembers enough from before and after to be pretty sure it wasn't all an act. wouldn't have been any sense in any of it if she hadn't been acting on genuine concern. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
video
...Huh. Yeah, it does, far as I can tell.
But— you think it's actually his? Not sure how much variety there is in the designs of these things.
no subject
[He's figured out cameras enough to know that if he brings the bracelet closer, it brings the detail into sharper focus... until he gets a little overzealous and puts it too close, so it just becomes blurry again.]
Bleedin' thing! You saw it for a sec, right? Has wings on it. [Now he's waving it about as if that will magically get the camera to work properly. So helpful.]
no subject
[ but there was a brief moment of clarity where he got a decent look at it, and that design... he remembers now, stealing a glance at it on louis's wrist and thinking that it sort of matched his breastplate. probably not something everyone would have had on theirs, is it? ]
...Reckon you're right though, yeah. That's it.
[ weird as hell when you think about it, actually, the way people left these things behind and disappeared, like bugs shedding their shells. he keeps that image to himself, though; he figures neither louis nor junah would much appreciate the comparison.
...anyway, settling that question invites another. ]
You gonna hold onto it?
[ a couple of months ago he's sure they both would have, given the chance. they would have kept it with them and looked to it for inspiration in his absence when things got hard and they needed a reminder of just what they were staying strong for.
but now, after all basilio's questioning, and after what they'd both heard louis say so casually about that village... as much as he hates thinking it, he has to wonder whether that reminder might just weigh them down rather than lift them up. ]
no subject
Kinda wanna throw it away, to be right honest.
[The same way he'd had that gut reaction to take Fidelio and leave, pretend they never saw him, when they'd stumbled across him by chance at that café. If there's one thing that's saved their skins countless times before, it's trusting that instinct.]
This place don't need someone like him. People here are like Will and his friends -- they look out for others, no matter the danger. They don't crush others so they can be on top. Even now that Vaeros bloke is dead, people aren't fightin' to take his place, just helpin' each other.
no subject
and complicating it all further... it would never be as simple as just going their separate ways. even if fidelio could put aside the debt he felt they owed to louis, even if it didn't eat away at him whenever he considered how much of the blood that had stained their hands over the years might have been spilled for the wrong reasons, he knows louis doesn't take betrayal lightly. maybe basilio doesn't see it that way; maybe he doesn't understand that for people who've been in louis's inner circle for so long and know so much, there's probably no leaving it alive.
even here, now that he's shown up once, fidelio is going to be living with the constant worry that they might one day turn a corner and find themselves face to face with louis again. what would happen then? if he lets himself drift too far, would he still even be able to play his role and pretend nothing had changed, like he'd just barely managed to do this time?
...it's his own problem, though. he doesn't know how the hell he's going to deal with it when the time comes, and the uncertainty gets a little worse every day that he thinks about it. but it's not on basilio; he doesn't need those thoughts looming over him too, not when there's been so much here that he's been eager to experience (even if those opportunities might seem less attainable now than they did a few weeks ago). ]
Mm. [ the closest he'll get to conceding to the point out loud. ] S'pose it wouldn't hurt anything none if you did.
no subject
What ideals, though? There are people here who had extended him kindness, with no thought to tribal barriers. The doctor who offered to fight in his corner so he could get an education he never had. The girl who laughed with him in a bar and showed him how to use the Oracle, becoming his first real friend here. Then, even when he hurt her, that cannon-arm man who saved her life and spared his, instead of putting him down like a mad dog.
And Will, of course, the one who has saved so many. The one who, when he reached out his hand to help once again, Basilio had pushed it away over his loyalty to his brother. As if they hadn't been living and coexisting together as allies -- friends, even -- building a life here together without Drakodios or the throne or anything else back home tying them down.]
How about this. [Basilio fixes his eyes on the screen, on Fidelio, intent. He's not exactly the plan guy, but since this was all his dangerous idea to begin with, maybe he really should be the one to take responsibility for a change.] I keep the thing, just for insurance. He shows up again, we present it to him, show it as proof we been loyally waitin' all this time. Then... we got a window to plan whatever we do next.
no subject
shite. when did basilio grow up this much? fidelio has been trying so hard to shield him from everything all this time, because he's his little brother and it's his responsibility to protect him. maybe he'd never been able to keep him fully safe from injury or loss or prejudice, but he could at least handle carrying out the dirtiest work and making the toughest decisions himself so basilio could have as carefree of a life as their circumstances could allow. the least he could do after all his fuckups, he'd always figured.
instead, here he is, having to step up to compensate for his older brother's weakness, volunteering himself for a position fidelio had deliberately never prepared him for. maybe he's been doing him a disservice this whole time, treating him like he's still that lovable dunce of a little kid who can't face the world without him.
he scoffs softly, shaking his head. ]
Since when were you this cunning?
no subject
[Basilio's serious expression is soon gone, replaced by a wide grin. It's not visible, but it's not difficult to imagine his tail wagging offscreen as he puffs up at the praise.]
Guess you can't call me daft no more! [Teasing aside, more than anything, he's just happy to be useful and take some of the burden off his brother, particularly after the trouble he's caused him recently. With that decided, he pockets the cuff.
A weight he can carry, for a change.] If you don't know what to do, you can ask your genius bro anytime.
no subject
All right now, let's not go overboard over one good idea.
no subject
[He looks about ready to climb on the nearest rooftop and declare himself the smartest bugger alive, because Del said so, but at least he's remembering enough to keep a low profile not to get too carried away.]
Lady Junah had one of those bracelet things too, yeah? You got hers safe an' sound?
no subject
...Yeah. Got left behind right there in the house, that one.
Not that it would've been hard to recognise no matter where it got dropped.
[ what with the way she took a hammer to the damn thing. ...which makes it all the more obvious that he's holding onto it for embarrassing personal sentimental reasons, when she'd been so eager to get rid of it herself. ]
no subject
Least it's in good hands. You should tell Will, if you haven't already.
[Since he's friends with Junah too? Co-conspirators? Whatever's going on with them that they don't want to share, anyway.]
no subject
he shrugs. ]
If he asks about it, I will.
no subject
[Not as much as Fidelio, no one can top that -- but it's just he kind of person Will is.]
no subject
[ though he tries to say it casually, it's easy to tell it's a little defensive. he's sure will already knows things about her that she never let on to them, and it bothers him more than he'd care to admit. ]
no subject
[About wanting to give them more than just despair. Fidelio's better at reading her than he is, but Basilio thinks she was speaking sincerely, then, whatever ducking and dishonesty Fidelio thinks she did through the rest of the conversation.]
You won't remember it all, but she fretted over you when you were down with your bad foot, too. Even pulled strings to bring Saint Rella along, check you were sound, didn't she?
no subject
[ it's not like he's forgotten what she'd said back then either; and he may not remember much from during his recovery, but he remembers enough from before and after to be pretty sure it wasn't all an act. wouldn't have been any sense in any of it if she hadn't been acting on genuine concern. ]
I'm not arguing otherwise.
no subject
[All their arguing lately doesn't sit right with him, so he won't drag the conversation out.]
Might be for the best she's not caught up in all this, anyway. Got enough goin' on at home without her in harm's way here, yeah?