[Video]

[loyalraven]

[Gilbert has made the mistake of taking a nap in the middle of the day. He hadn't meant to. He'd been reading, and drifted off. Further compounding this mistake was his choice to do such in the living room on the couch. But the fire in the fireplace was warm, and the couch was comfortable. And it's only now as he shifts and his communicator topples

Comments

*TURNS ON FLOODLIGHTS*

[loyalraven]

[It takes Gilbert a moment to hear him, strange as that is. His thoughts are twisted in on themselves at the moment, down pathways they haven't gone for a very, very long time. So when he glances up to catch sight of Naoki, he's almost startled by his presence, and it shows with a faint widening of his eyes. He smiles though, or tries to, the expression faint at best.]

:3c *noms on*

[loyalraven]

[Gilbert blinks once again as Naoki walks over, and maybe there's the faintest bit of relaxing in Gilbert's posture as he approaches, at the touch to his hair. He looks up at him and nods slightly.] I'm fine. Just... things on my mind that shouldn't be. Not after all this time.

sorry e_e I have no explanation for myself at the best of times

[loyalraven]

[Gilbert turns into that touch, eyes falling shut just briefly. He's glad for Naoki being there, being close. It's grounding. And right now he needs that.] Mm. Maybe. But it's been a long time, since I was that lost child with no past. Since then, I've...

[The dream. That question has him shaking his head.] Things that couldn't be... My childhood. But it's just my imagination. [A pause.] Have I told you before, about Sablier and Jack Vessalius?

hooray *clings to*

[loyalraven]

[Maybe it's just a little bit startling, how grateful Gilbert finds himself for that hand in his own. And he curls his fingers around Naoki's quickly, tightly.] Over a hundred years ago, Sablier was one of the greatest cities there were. But something happened. The Baskervilles, someone, opened the door the Abyss, and the entire city and everyone who lived there was destroyed or dragged into it. Jack Vessalius stopped it from becoming worse, ended the tragedy. Oz is his descendant. [A pause.] More than that, Jack is... in Oz.

I've spoken to Jack Vessalius, a shade of him, in one of the fragments of Alice's memory, so that's why... that's why I must have dreamed of him being there, with Vincent and me.

[loyalraven]

[Gilbert's gaze drops down to their joined hands. He nods just a little at Naoki's suggestion. Really, if he's going to tell anyone the details of this, the ones that have him so unsettled, it'd be Naoki.] Mm. I think you're right. Maybe it....

[A deep breath, meant to be steadying. It was a dream, why is he dwelling on it?] There wasn't much. I was a child, with my brother. And... Jack Vessalius, he found us, took care of us. And brought us to meet... [Here. Here is the weirdest part.] Alice. In Sablier. But we didn't get along...

[A pause.] Do you think... do you think it would change who I am, to remember those lost years?

[loyalraven]

[Gilbert is trying his best not to be thoroughly clingy at the moment. But he's shaken -- after a short dream, which makes him a mess, doesn't it? or weak -- at the moment, and he's so glad for the touch. Gilbert blinks at the question, looking startled by it.] No... I don't... I wouldn't want it to. I've lived a life since then. And I'm... [He looks at Naoki, and maybe there's a little bit of desperation behind it. He's himself, and flaws and all, he has his master, he has Naoki, and he's forged those bonds himself, somehow.]

[loyalraven]

[So Gilbert won't try to pretend he's not relieved by that conclusion. He shifts closer to Naoki at that, unconsciously, but he nods a little at that.] Mm. It can't... no matter what happened in those years they can't change everything that's happened since. [Even so, it doesn't mean they won't have an effect. And part of Gilbert never wants to know, wants to push it far down and away and never think on it again. And part of him wants to uncover it all finally so there's no more guessing or half-formed fears. So he's torn.]

[loyalraven]

[Gilbert holds his gaze as he speaks, and the words mean a lot. He nods just slightly at that, swallowing back rather thickly, and then chiding himself for making such a big deal of this He's almost startled by the hug, but that doesn't stop him from wrapping both his arms around Naoki tightly.] No matter what? [He echoes the words quietly, arms tightening around him.]