[ It fits with what Geralt's told him before that he's made the choice to stay and that it was a while ago. It's the sort of thing he's learned - or would like to think he has - about the witcher, that decisions are made deliberately and for reasons behind them long thought over. The same way Claude's arrived at this particular one himself, in some ways.
In others it'd taken longer: the realization of what would be lost if he was to somehow leave and return home without any knowledge of having been here, or what would happen if those he cared for and dared to label loved even with some of those needing be voiced aloud were the ones to vanish. Something that's happened before with Petra, Marianne, Felix, and that was nearly a year ago. Any loss now, he knows, would be multiplied tenfold.
Though he knows his answer to Geralt's question, Claude stays silent for another moment to test it back and forth to himself before speaking. ]
In some ways, certainly. But in others? Not so much. [ Though he was toying with his ale once more, Claude sets it down now. ] The most important of all being that should it come down to protecting what's meaningful to us, I wouldn't hesitate to join to keep it safe.
[ For himself, for others, for what they hold dear - for as Geralt said before, in that if there was a war which started over this, Claude would find himself on the same side as something immediately moving any other plans down to further outcomes to hope for in the process. ]
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In others it'd taken longer: the realization of what would be lost if he was to somehow leave and return home without any knowledge of having been here, or what would happen if those he cared for and dared to label loved even with some of those needing be voiced aloud were the ones to vanish. Something that's happened before with Petra, Marianne, Felix, and that was nearly a year ago. Any loss now, he knows, would be multiplied tenfold.
Though he knows his answer to Geralt's question, Claude stays silent for another moment to test it back and forth to himself before speaking. ]
In some ways, certainly. But in others? Not so much. [ Though he was toying with his ale once more, Claude sets it down now. ] The most important of all being that should it come down to protecting what's meaningful to us, I wouldn't hesitate to join to keep it safe.
[ For himself, for others, for what they hold dear - for as Geralt said before, in that if there was a war which started over this, Claude would find himself on the same side as something immediately moving any other plans down to further outcomes to hope for in the process. ]