[ Sorry... She's seen your plain face before, Yingying, and she's not so easily flustered by anything but sincerity. Odile draws her closer and begins their walk outside the ceremony's premise, just for a bit... a little stroll... No one mind them.
... It will be once they are well out of earshot that she'll speak up again. ]
I was surprised, you know, when you agreed with me on the chances of "fate" mattering the way people think it does. I thought at first glance you would fall into the same pattern as others -- that it was a sure thing -- simply because of the way you held yourself before I asked your thoughts on it.
[ A simple glance, categorizing her briefly into one who would believe it, and then proven wrong a moment later. She huffs in amusement, tilting her head towards Yingying's. ]
"Fate is something you have to shape with your own hands." That is what you told me then, and it is something I believe wholeheartedly. In the same breathe, the same is true of our futures, of wishes, of anything we would like to see manifested in our lives -- including your own, rooted as you seem. As you feel yourself to be, the chance of a wish freeing you besides.
I, like many others, had been taken by your blossoms at first -- but in parting them I found not the delicate stem of a flower, nor a young sapling bent towards a stream, but the sturdy trunk of a tree that had long since been taken for granted by those who had forgotten what lay within. For its shade, its scent, its beauty... and left alone save for when one needed it. I know that you are genuine in your happiness to help others. Never again will I put it to question, and I should not have in the first, but...
[ She pauses, coming to a gentle stop. There is... concern, in a sense, in the words that follow -- but more in a curiosity way than anything pitying or dismissing of Yingying's feelings. ]
In your efforts to ease the burdens of others, to take from them their worries and see them smile... to whom do your own belong? Do your branches not weigh heavy with grief, with loneliness, with being "other" to the people who wish upon your kindness? You are genuine in your efforts, in your happiness, but such warmth is fleeting once the flame has run out and others forget to light it once more.
[ Odile does have more to say actually, but she'll give Yingying a moment to soak it in with a slight squeeze to her arm. ]
It is that "other"ing which relates you and Yi Sang to myself, and I felt it clearly when we spoke plain on the lake. I was touched that you'd ask my thoughts on a matter important to you, and while I could not answer your idle query then, I should like to now: You will go wherever you may please, and I would like to first and foremost offer you my own lands as your first stumbling steps to freedom. It is not so different than your own in many ways, and I'd be glad to have your companionship besides.
... I know there are others whom you may prefer, be it their company or world or whatnot, but I wanted to offer such to you before it was too late to do so. Because, just as I find Edamura companionable, just as I find Yi Sang the same, so too do I want for one like you: A companion who may read my heart, or give me time and reason to speak it honestly. You have done so in good faith. One who understands what it means to be 'other' amidst a crowd of those similar yet dissimilar to them, who has felt aimless and unsteady in realization. You have, though it is remedied here somewhat by our unknowing of you.
Most of all, however, [ and this is coming to the end of her many words it would seem, from the wry smile she gives the other woman, ] I'd like to see the kind of future you would imagine for yourself, and play a part in it as well. That is why I have considered you as strongly as Yi Sang for my own, Yingying.
god i'm so sorry jams
... It will be once they are well out of earshot that she'll speak up again. ]
I was surprised, you know, when you agreed with me on the chances of "fate" mattering the way people think it does. I thought at first glance you would fall into the same pattern as others -- that it was a sure thing -- simply because of the way you held yourself before I asked your thoughts on it.
[ A simple glance, categorizing her briefly into one who would believe it, and then proven wrong a moment later. She huffs in amusement, tilting her head towards Yingying's. ]
"Fate is something you have to shape with your own hands." That is what you told me then, and it is something I believe wholeheartedly. In the same breathe, the same is true of our futures, of wishes, of anything we would like to see manifested in our lives -- including your own, rooted as you seem. As you feel yourself to be, the chance of a wish freeing you besides.
I, like many others, had been taken by your blossoms at first -- but in parting them I found not the delicate stem of a flower, nor a young sapling bent towards a stream, but the sturdy trunk of a tree that had long since been taken for granted by those who had forgotten what lay within. For its shade, its scent, its beauty... and left alone save for when one needed it. I know that you are genuine in your happiness to help others. Never again will I put it to question, and I should not have in the first, but...
[ She pauses, coming to a gentle stop. There is... concern, in a sense, in the words that follow -- but more in a curiosity way than anything pitying or dismissing of Yingying's feelings. ]
In your efforts to ease the burdens of others, to take from them their worries and see them smile... to whom do your own belong? Do your branches not weigh heavy with grief, with loneliness, with being "other" to the people who wish upon your kindness? You are genuine in your efforts, in your happiness, but such warmth is fleeting once the flame has run out and others forget to light it once more.
[ Odile does have more to say actually, but she'll give Yingying a moment to soak it in with a slight squeeze to her arm. ]
It is that "other"ing which relates you and Yi Sang to myself, and I felt it clearly when we spoke plain on the lake. I was touched that you'd ask my thoughts on a matter important to you, and while I could not answer your idle query then, I should like to now: You will go wherever you may please, and I would like to first and foremost offer you my own lands as your first stumbling steps to freedom. It is not so different than your own in many ways, and I'd be glad to have your companionship besides.
... I know there are others whom you may prefer, be it their company or world or whatnot, but I wanted to offer such to you before it was too late to do so. Because, just as I find Edamura companionable, just as I find Yi Sang the same, so too do I want for one like you: A companion who may read my heart, or give me time and reason to speak it honestly. You have done so in good faith. One who understands what it means to be 'other' amidst a crowd of those similar yet dissimilar to them, who has felt aimless and unsteady in realization. You have, though it is remedied here somewhat by our unknowing of you.
Most of all, however, [ and this is coming to the end of her many words it would seem, from the wry smile she gives the other woman, ] I'd like to see the kind of future you would imagine for yourself, and play a part in it as well. That is why I have considered you as strongly as Yi Sang for my own, Yingying.