It's quite the tale, all told. Taking on minor adventuring tasks, singing in taverns (and when had Gustavain ever been allowed to sing, other than in worship services) sometimes for his supper, scraping together enough to pay for travel to the next town, his early days spin out for what seems like an age, one story to the next, up to trading his spear in for a bow and never looking back.
He doesn't talk about why, about the journey that led him back to his roots, about the Eye, about a strange man that came into and out of his life like a ghost. There's nothing to say about his time with a weapon forced on him by his parents and the pressure of his life here, or how the thing pursing it further taught him was just another layer of freedom. He could walk away. Other people couldn't.
Instead, he talks about song, about a discovered love for stories and the people who tell them. He shows off his Bard stone, once common enough, now desperately rare, hopefully soon to be more common again. He talks about meeting the Scions in the woods of Gridania and traveling the breadth of the land with them, the way they've opened up the world for him. He talks about slaying the early primals, about Ifrit and Garuda, Titan and Ramuh... and then, suddenly he stops, mid-way through a sentence about Little Solace, and just stares down into his glass for a long moment, before finishing it, abruptly.
"... but I've talked your ears off, I'm sure," he segues, suddenly, and only because Phillip knows him is he able to see it as any kind of avoidance. "You must also tell me about yourself. Are you still entertaining?"
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2021-04-10 12:45 pm (UTC)He doesn't talk about why, about the journey that led him back to his roots, about the Eye, about a strange man that came into and out of his life like a ghost. There's nothing to say about his time with a weapon forced on him by his parents and the pressure of his life here, or how the thing pursing it further taught him was just another layer of freedom. He could walk away. Other people couldn't.
Instead, he talks about song, about a discovered love for stories and the people who tell them. He shows off his Bard stone, once common enough, now desperately rare, hopefully soon to be more common again. He talks about meeting the Scions in the woods of Gridania and traveling the breadth of the land with them, the way they've opened up the world for him. He talks about slaying the early primals, about Ifrit and Garuda, Titan and Ramuh... and then, suddenly he stops, mid-way through a sentence about Little Solace, and just stares down into his glass for a long moment, before finishing it, abruptly.
"... but I've talked your ears off, I'm sure," he segues, suddenly, and only because Phillip knows him is he able to see it as any kind of avoidance. "You must also tell me about yourself. Are you still entertaining?"