[19:22] Siegfried says, "Hey, Lea."
[19:22] Lea Elisheva says, "Hi."
[19:23] Lea Elisheva asks, "What did you wanna talk about?"
[19:23] Siegfried says, "That's always just an excuse to spend time with you."
[19:24] He grins wolfishly, places his arms behind his head, and gives her the smuggest of facial expressions.

"Sorry if I got 'yer hopes up or anything. I never actually have any reason to bug ya'."

She had to be a busy woman these days, but he was a selfish piece of shit at times, and this was one of them.
(Siegfried)
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[19:27] Lea shrugged, sat down, and smiled right back.

"It's okay, I like spending time with you too. I am kinda busy lately."

She had a dozen better things to do but chose to stick with this. Maybe she was sometimes selfish, too.

"How have you been feeling? You drinking any more? Or less?"
(Lea Elisheva)
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[19:32] "Not at all," he answers, honestly. It was surprising...but he felt as if he were better off like this. Sharper, without the liquor. More aware.

Less of a dumbass.

"Oops, I lied, there are some things I can talk to ya' about. Okay, so...I tried to capture Isaac's daughter, but she was somehow tipped off about the attempt and wouldn' go anywhere with me," he rattles off like this was the most normal, most casual thing imaginable, and nothing was in the least unusual about it, "I talked to Adonis about startin' a revolution. Came to peace with my dad, one o' Huangzhou's chancellors. Uh...got the shit kicked outta me by an old shaman whose got soul arms."

He isn't sure if any of that interested her.

"Any o' that interest you?"
(Siegfried)
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[19:33] Siegfried says, "Oh...an' I should mention she seemed like she had a contingency to whoop my ass. Was readin' somethin' when we were alone together."
[19:35] Lea appeared flabbergasted at the sudden onslaught of information, her eyes widening. While he said it was casual, every single one of those events was a conversation in and of itself, and because of that, she didn't really know where to begin. All she could do was weakly utter out an...

"A-all of it...?"

She didn't even know what to ask about first. She couldn't prioritize what the most important thing was.
(Lea Elisheva)
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[19:42] "Okay, so there I was, staring down Isaac and his daughter. She didn't want to be alone with me, at first, but I was like, hey, come with me, an' she went. It was a very difficult task," he embellishes. It wasn't difficult at all, really, which'd been one of the tip-offs that something strange was going on. "An' then, when I get her alone, we started talkin'. I was chattin' with her..."

Siegfried is stirring up a cup full of lemonade, and then, abruptly, he kind of just stops.

"Oh, shit, you want anything?"

Before she could even answer, he already takes the pitcher of lemonade and pours it into a cup, sitting that cup down in front of her, and then goes back to talking.

"And well, I told her I wanted to rejoin the city. Help improve things."

He takes a swig of the lemonade, swishes it around in his mouth like it was mouth wash, then swallows. He opens his mouth, looks at the glass like he'd just drank poison, and then sips some more. Then, he looks at Lea.

"That's when she told me I was banned from Huangzhou. My own hometown...jus' when I finally decided to go back there. Can you believe it?"
(Siegfried)
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[19:48] Lea took a swig of the lemonade, too, and put the glass back down. She didn't know how to process that story, like, at all. Were she a different character, she'd probably have started to wonder whether or not the two fucked, but Lea still believed in the goddamn stork, she didn't know about any of that. Lea, being someone who absolutely loves sweet things, drank the lemonade in a few big gulps after that, then gaze back up at Siegfried, and...

"I see."

...took everything he said at face value?

Well, no, she could tell something was wrong, but she was so hopelessly clueless as to what it could be that she didn't even know where to begin.

"And... the other things?"
(Lea Elisheva)
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[19:53] Hey, that wasn't how this worked.

As he drapes a leg over a leg, grinning nautically at the woman the same as he had since the two of them were teenagers, he just whimsically hums a tune while she processed. And when she at last utters her request, he shakith his hair back and forth.

"Nope, nope. 'Yer gonna have to tell me something next. Equal exchange an' alla' that."

He crunches loudly on some ice.
(Siegfried)
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[19:57] "I'm learning how to harmonize with the universe from a big snake man."

Lea also had the habit of saying extraordinary things in complete deadpan.

"I do it by dancing. I could show you if you want, but we'd have to go to the beach. I still need a bit of practice, but... I think it's pretty cool."

She seemed eager to show him, actually, but she was also far too curious about the rest of Siegfried's Adventures™ to allow it to end there. If shit was about to go down, she really wanted to know.

"You next."
(Lea Elisheva)
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[20:02] "That's cool, but...how the hell does big snake man know how to do all of that?"

His hands raise up to his head, and he massages his temples. Beautiful women dancing? Sounds like a surefire way to get him in trouble, kind of like how Declan always managed to maneuver himself into trouble. Speaking of Declan, where had that old fart been? He hadn't seen a whole lot of the man lately...

"Well, right before this, I told little Adonny that I want to kick off a revolution. He sees himself as starting off Agartha's renaissance. Bringing passion back to the people. I like his vibe, but he's seekin' thrills just to seek 'em, far as I can tell."

His eyes turn serious. The burning revolutionary comes out.

"I want to kill some tyrants."
(Siegfried)
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[20:08] I want to kill some tyrants.

Lea sighed and looked down. With what was on her mind lately, she really didn't like the sound of that, even though she acknowledged that it was probably necessary, to some degree. She knew that some people couldn't be reasoned with, although perhaps the fact that she lacked a true understanding of that idea was why she had a knee jerk reaction against it.

"I wanna do the opposite."

She loved people. She loved them a lot. She loved them so much that the thought of killing them, no matter how much they needed to be killed, was something she couldn't get behind.

She has a few harsh lessons left to learn, doesn't she?

"I really just wanna bring the whole of Agartha together, you know?"
(Lea Elisheva)
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[20:23] Siegfried'd been like this, once.

And that's why he has no energy for it. As soon as the words leave her mouth, the expression that flashes across his face is just one of pity. He seems tired. Siegfried's never looked at her like this before...it seems as if just hearing her say that she wants to unite everyone, in a world like this one, just...

Kind of nauseates him.

"Allowing a murderer and tyrant to act unopposed in the hopes that one day he will change, when one has the power to stop him, makes someone a bystander. And I won't be a bystander anymore, Lea."

He looks away.

"Sorry."
(Siegfried)
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[20:29] "I know you can't. I know I can't. And I know a time will come when I have to do the same."

She was nothing if not self-aware; the events with Godfrey drilled this into her. But despite all of it, Lea was still Lea. She was still the kind of person that wanted to show love and kindness to everyone, even the most horrible of people. Not because she thought it was a good idea, or even because she thought it was a way to change them in a better way.

It was her nature.

That love was her instinct.

"But I can't go against who I am. This is me. You are you. We do different things. And that's okay."
(Lea Elisheva)
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[20:39] "It's not okay," he says softly. "Because those who fight alongside Isaac will not hesitate to kill innocent people, and trample on everything it is you dream of, and fight for, Lea. Your neutrality is what allows their dictatorship. It's hardly a step above apathy.

If his own wife can't change him, what hope does anyone else?"

And on that note, he unlocks his door.

"We'll talk more about this later, but I have to go. There's somethin' I need to get done."

It was time for him to potentially die...

Again.
(Siegfried)
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[20:40] Lea Elisheva says, "You might be right."
[20:40] Lea Elisheva says, "But I know I'll step up when it matters the most."
[20:40] Lea Elisheva says, "It's just who I am."
[20:40] Lea Elisheva says, "Good luck, Siegfried."