Open Post / Overflow / Voicetesting

[flamesofperdition]

- Flexible on canon point - Will warn for spoilers - Can avoid spoilers for those who prefer that - Open to canon, cross-canon, and AU alike

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[flamesofperdition]

[A promise seems so easy to make, though Clive occasionally wonders if he can keep such weighted things. What if he were to somehow fail to live up to one? What if he were to disappoint another? Hadn't he already thought he failed his own flesh and blood?

Perhaps sharing cups of tea will be an easier thing than to be the shield. Not that he's ever backed down from a challenge. He doesn't intend to start now.]

I can do that. It's the least I could do. Tea, when this is all over. We'll deserve something to take the edge off.

[empyreancatastrophe]

Then it is decided. We celebrate victory together with tea over swill.

[The smile spreading across Joshua's face, lost in thoughts of a happy future with his brother and the comrades they hold dear, holds as he entertains the imagery.]

[If his brother promises it, then he truly believes it possible.]

I trust you, Clive. We can do it.

[flamesofperdition]

[Does he truly believe they will be victorious? He'd like to think so. They've come too far now to give up. There can be no surrender. Clive has to see every last bit of this through, regardless of where it may take him. He has his own uncertainties, locked beneath the calm and sometimes quieter composure he holds together just barely by the grace of all who have helped him get to this point.

Things are so different now. He is so different now. And in some ways, so very much the same.]

Truer words couldn't be spoken. We'll see it done. It's a road that I can't travel without you. I thought once, it was meant to be that way. But I think we both need to see it.

[empyreancatastrophe]

I agree. No matter what happens, we will see it through together.

[Even if Joshua knows he can’t guarantee that their mutual trust will ultimately bear success, he’s missed Clive far too much over the years to so much as consider leaving his brother’s side. Of course, there’s the higher priority of mankind’s overall fate, their role in it, and how it looks like it is only through the strength of their bond and the bonds they’ve formed with their friends and comrades that they can even hope to yank it all back from the brink of destruction. Joshua fully understands that familial sentiment falls to the wayside when it comes to the benefit of protecting Valisthea’s future.]

[However, for as long as he draws breath, he will fight to remain at Clive’s side.]

But first, shall we procure some water for you? To rid yourself of the taste of regret?

[…just as he’ll fight to take care of his brother in every way possible.]

[flamesofperdition]

[If he could have it his way, he'd almost prefer not letting Joshua get involved at all. That feels like a luxury he won't be able to afford. When he was younger, that would have been easier. Now, his brother has become wilful. A blessing and a curse to protect someone who is stalwart in just such a way.

But perhaps Clive's desire to guard him is a little more selfish. A desire to feel needed. Self-punishment? Restricting himself to something he feels he's only barely deserving of? He could get lost in that.]

Concerned I'm unable to get water for myself now? I won't have you needlessly worrying over me.

[empyreancatastrophe]

Must needs it be worry that drives me to help my brother?

[Stubborn as Joshua has grown to be, he's had a fine role model to guide him. Part of what made, makes, him idolize Clive so much is how ready the elder Rosfield is to stand by his beliefs and dig in his heels when the time comes for it.]

[Joshua finds it difficult to be as brazen as Clive. Ever since he was a child, he lacked that special kind of mettle, but he's apt enough with words to express his tenacity another way.]

It's only water. Allow me this chance to take care of you, as you have always done for me.