#when they stumble upon camille she is living as a royal in the capital of the empire which is INSANE to them

[metapoetix]

I LOVE CUNTY OLD MEN can weeee. perhaps get some more context on him (also camille. whats her deal she looks like the sort of lady that has a Deal)

HI OK YES YOU CAN. im gonna call the old guy merle for the purposes of this post because thats the name currently winning the poll i made on the dads server (the other option is noel)

so merle is like. a bit of a hermit essentially. he lives in a little hut in a place called mount terpe and mostly keeps to himself although he routinely goes down to check on the village and see if they need any help from him. because hes a nice person

hes highly educated & owns loads of books & grows lots of food for himself

crucially hes very skilled at martial arts and is a good teacher

the reason fubao & julia end up in his care is that the area around mount terpe has a period of conflict partly caused and massively exacerbated by the corrupt official governing the are and this conflict ends with a lot of people dying in clashes with the imperial military

one day merle sees a young girl sleeping in his orchard & he decides to take her in to look after her & teach her all he knows

this girl is called julia!!

he takes fubao in 2 years later under very similar circumstances (im still figuring out the specifics)

for the next like 10 years he acts as a father & a teacher & a best friend to them & they learn to fight incredibly well (fubao is something of a prodigy in this regard) & also gain a wide education

merle is. i mean hes wonderful. hes so good with the two of them and hes so funny and just. raises them well!!!!

we dont see that much of him in the story outside of flashbacks as the action all takes place after julia and fubao have left mt terpe with his blessing to forge their own path across the empire BUT his memory exerts a huge influence on the pair nonetheless & its clear how much they love him & how much their love for their teacher glues the two of them together

also its merle who encourages them to be free and travel around helping people!! he never ever tries to restrict them and instead takes them with him to help around the village. he never shies away from discussing violence with them etc. basically hes the best mentor anyone could have wished for

i think his biggest flaw is that despite his kindness he has this 'i cant save everyone' thing going on which results in him distancing himself from situations in which he has to make that choice/leaving it up to 'fate' (we even see this in the fact that he saved fubao and julia but left a lot of other people living nearby and involved in the conflict to suffer alone and only reluctantly takes in the two girls because they come to him and therefore he sees it as fated

and similarly often if hes working on a case involving violence he will stand by while someone becomes collateral damage because he believes that its pointless to try and save them

he still helps saves SO many people tho. i want to be clear about this. merle is a hero most ways that matter and his heart is always in the right place. and he loves his students so so much and no matter what happens he is always always on their side

NOW. CAMILLE.

here is where i confess that i have actually been witholding some important information from you: fubao and julia are not in fact merles only protegees

he takes a third girl in a few years after fubao and julia

this girl is camille

shes much younger than the other two but they absolutely dote on her & treat her as their little sister

she isnt as sharp witted as them either but she is sweet and her intelligence in the humanities merle teaches them makes up for her relative lack of skill in fighting

and anyway fubao and julia are determined to always protect her!!! :)

but one day the imperial guard shows up at mount terpe and seize camille. they give no explanation for this and are gone as quickly as they appear

fubao and julia try desperately to fight but ultimately are overpowered

they never see camille again

now. obviously this fucks them up on a huge scale. and camille will haunt them for basically the rest of the story!!!!

after this they never talk to each other about her

well. spoiler alert. camille reappears eventually (this is one of the major moments in the story) but its not exactly a happy family reunion..........

camille is like. an incredibly important character in the way she chooses to live her life and how markedly different it is to fubao and julia. and also just how deeply they fucking miss her