@igniida asked: "You're like a general out there.” Idia really had no interest in Magical Shift. It was a physical game created for brutes who had no interest in strategizing. Unless you were Leona. Who’d taken a brute’s sport and turned it into an intellects hobby. Just going through his playbook was proof enough of that. Though Idia had doubts that many people got to look into Leona’s playbook. If he truly was like one of the general’s Idia had seen in his games then he probably tried to keep his plans secret, close to the chest and close to his team. So did that mean anything when Leona had first allowed Idia to look through the playbook? No, certainly not. It was simply Leona trying to prove a point to Idia.
But now actively watching Leona work and watching him bring his strategies from page to reality showed the amount of thought he put into his work. Watching the way Leona commanded his teammates to follow his orders like rowdy soldiers falling in line to perfect battle movements right under the expert command of their leading officer. As though Idia’s games had come to life right before him with Leona at the controls. It was impressive to watch almost enough to have Idia appreciating the sport. Almost. He holds out the playbook he’d picked up to read when Leona is close enough to take it back.
“For someone so unmotivated you certainly have a way of motivating others.” He couldn’t think of anyone else who could get the Magift team to listen to them like Leona could. They watch him with a type of admiration that Idia can recognize all the way across the field and in the dug out. Idia was starting to understand where Leona’s surname came from. Leona’s mind worked like a scholar’s while when he wanted he led like a king. It was truly admirable. “Don’t let the teachers see too much of that, they might start expecting more.”
it’s a strange turn of events for both of them. leona never allows himself to let others in on the machinations of his mind, one to hold his innermost thoughts safe behind lock and key. while magift plays aren’t exactly important in the grand scheme of things — especially with leona being a prince — they’re still something to leona, as private as he is. and then there’s idia, who avoids people and avoids the outdoors and avoids everything he’s involved with right now, outdoors and sitting in on magift club instead of holing away indoors playing the same boring games over and over with that octopunk.
“ yeah. vargas sees too much and won’t get off my ass. ” leona takes the book held out to him back, pulling his shirt up by the bottom hem with his other hand to wipe some sweat from his face before he takes a seat in the shade of the dugout to sip some water. he doesn’t look at idia for a moment, his vibrant green gaze focused on the players in the club as they take their short break across the field. there’s something distracted in his expression despite a guarded edge to it.
after a moment, his attention breaks and shifts to idia as he leans into the bench with his arms stretched out across the backrest to either side of himself. “ i know what that motivation tastes like. i was never so wide - eyed and clumsy, but i know what they want from this. ” from themselves. there’s something hanging from the words, tucked into their letters. it’s an admission of sorts, but leona’s not the kind to admit to anything in any way as easily as stating it plainly. “ ’s not my fault you didn’t watch a single game your first year, radish sprout. ” that would be the year diasomnia crushed savanaclaw like they were nothing but ants in their path under the leadership of malleus — but there was still a light in leona then, when things didn’t feel so futile at first.
