wake up time

[cardinalsinned]

[ This is probably the second worst way to wake up, in a hospital bed with Juan there watching. ]

What... happened to me?

Comments

[maleborgia]

You know that is not the appropriate suggestion.

[foundjuanting]

Then what suggestion do you have? Nothing has changed in this home and nothing will change. This deals with the matter well enough.

[maleborgia]

Do you remember when you first visited this place?

[foundjuanting]

In parts, it's beginning to fade.

[maleborgia]

If it is fading, then let us remake it.

[foundjuanting]

Is that even possible? The landscape has changed in many ways.

[maleborgia]

You are clearly adventurous. Would you not see if you can navigate it?

[foundjuanting]

You know that I mean more than just the terrain.

[maleborgia]

It's a metaphor.

[foundjuanting]

Then I consider myself without proper supplies, men, and a map. I would know if it is even a possibility. I've been told more than once that there is nothing I have done to make the situation more... habitable.

[maleborgia]

I have ridden through the old streets of Roma, where the grass is thick over falling ruins and abandoned structures. I have heard that men meet there, some no doubt to plot crime, but others to stand in awe of the past and to hope to gain insight and inspiration from its presence. They may not know the names of the buildings that shade them or that they practice oration under, but they understand the importance of being there at all.

[foundjuanting]

But would you ride beside me Cesare? I've been riding by myself for some time, part of it even without knowing that I was truly alone and that the others in my party weren't simply lagging behind.

[maleborgia]

*silent for a moment*

I think often about that, about finding myself on a strange horse in a strange land and without the men I thought I had behind me at my back.

[foundjuanting]

That is where I was back in Rome near the end, and that is where I fear I may be now.

[maleborgia]

It's a fear, one that I perhaps understand now more than before. I would not have any of us face that end.

[foundjuanting]

So you understand why I would not make that trip again so soon, but with accompaniment it is not the same as before, is it?

[maleborgia]

It is not then the same trip at all.

[foundjuanting]

Exactly so.

[maleborgia]

*sitting back a little* I believe I still owe you something.

[foundjuanting]

Do you?

[maleborgia]

I stabled the horse for Cesare after I returned, but I never went over with you what I brought back from Navarra.

[foundjuanting]

They were only the supplies for the celebration, weren't they?

[maleborgia]

*nudging the leg of the bed with his foot* Don't say "only", they were more difficult to come by than you might expect. No, you might enjoy this. When you are released, I will show you.

[foundjuanting]

And not now? I fear they may keep me here for some time.

[maleborgia]

I could hardly carry it all with me. How does this sound: if you are still here tomorrow evening, I will have it brought over then. It did not sound to me as though you would stay here that long.