noirges | yves & jacopo

I was kidnapped as a child.

[ Easily explains it all. ]

You may choose whatever you want. It doesn't matter.

[ ah ]

You say it so plainly but... I'm sorry, Jacopo. That must've been frightening when you were younger...

There's nothing to apologize for. I don't remember most of my childhood.

[ So like... It didn't even seem that bad to him? That's just life. ]

It simply made my life harder later on.

Because your learning curve was different?

Were you kidnapped solely for the purpose of becoming the lord...?

Yes, though there's the big hurdle of being illiterate.

[ So becoming educated, too. The education gatekeep of the old ages. ]

It was likely an assassination that became a kidnapping. [ He shrugs. ] Manual labor would earn the brigands extra coin. As long as their patron didn't know, I was as good as dead.

.... you talk so straightforwardly about difficult things, Jacopo...

Are you happy with where you ended up? Or... is happiness not part of the equation?

... It is what it is.

[ That's just HOW LIFE IS to him, so he isn't sure how else to say it than it being factual. ]

Duty and happiness doesn't always come hand in hand. If anything, I think it's uncommon.

... yeah. I think that's true. [ he's thinking of. an awful lot of people ]

Then does duty come before all else to you?

It did, but that was when I was alive.

[ Sometimes you die for duty. ]

Nothing to my name now, so I'm focusing on myself.

Ah...

[ understanding, and then... curious: ]

How has that been? [ a beat ] I feel... a little similar.

[ Instantly, ]

This place is goddamn awful.

[ help! he laughs ]

Not very conducive to soul searching, is it?

Not in the slightest. I don't know how they expect us to try to redeem ourselves under these conditions.

And these sweaters are ugly.

[ just saw the ugly Christmas sweaters. ]