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'blue is the colour of the planet from the view above love live our reign, long live our love' — beautiful people beautiful problems
—Mar 1942
"Surely you have the hang of it, now." The man with the cane sighed, the only sign of animation on his features being the roll of his eyes. The two stared at him, quite tense.
"I've practised from my waking hour 'till sleep, all week, sir." A young boy with a memorable birthmark on his temple, of the surname Gagneux, breathed slowly, pelvis pressed up against his grandfather's craft, a long, wooden refectory table that instead sat in his family dining room. His hands pressed against its surface, as his frame shook.
"You do understand the risks involved, don't you? We have no use of plaintive acts you enjoy wasting our time with. It's pathetic." The other man in the room scowled as he looked away from the boy, his distaste evident on his features.
Gagneux snapped his eyes away from the man with the cane, "Vasilyev, I promise you I've been trying."
"I have no need for your promises. Children make promises. Will you offer me your pinky—?"
"—Vasilyev. Stop this foolishness." The man with the cane pressed his fingers to his temples in thinly veiled pique, "We'd originally come together to end the ineligible Sinagan rule over what was first ours."
The two men watched each other carefully as Vasilyev let a slight of chagrin in his eyes.
"Our ancestors did not die to be school teachers." The man with the cane tilted his head, a sternness in his tone, "That Sinaga should have been grateful he was taught the sacred ways of Vladlen Matveev, my 5th Great Grandfather. Oh, how his tale is tragic.."
"What? Sinaga killed him?" Gagneux stood up, more intrigued than he'd been previously.
The man didn't respond to the boy, "Do you think he'd be proud of us mouthing off the French?"
"Well, I was—," He stopped himself abruptly, "No, Matveev. I apologise."
"Right." Matveev clicked his cane against the leg of the table, "Let's see it, Gagneux."
The boy nodded, shutting his eyes and backing away from the table. The skin of his neck began to pull taut as it seemed his body dropped away, an unidentifiable organ rolled an inch, out of the luminance of the flickering lamp.
