House of Cards

"Yes, we will. And yeah, I'm pretty used to it now." Ian told her, "It's up to you." He added, he didn't really have a preference of what they should do next. He had never been a picky person, and usually just followed along with whatever everyone else around him wanted to do. This usually made Ian very easy to get along with, unless it was times like this when he was asked to have an opinion.

"Well, I guess we know how to value life from now on." Anneliese said. "Up to me? But I asked for your opinion specifically. Entertain me, youngster!" she brandished her fist like she had won a battle or she was giving an empowering speech.

"Did you know that in most cultures, the elder of a group of people gets to make all the decisions, like what to do, where to go, that type of thing?" Ian asked, he was a nerd in his past life after all. Sometimes it came in handy.

"Yeah, except those rules don't really apply here. Hey, hold on.. did you just call me an elder?" she didn't stop to listen and messed up his hair all over again. "Idiot." Anneliese fell back on her chair, looking at this beautiful nest she had created on his head.

"Its considered an honor to be an elder in some countries! It's a compliment, damn it!" He laughed, trying to fix his hair. She had managed to ruin his hair worse then his sister had ever before, and she'd only knew her for a day. "I'm not an idiot, I'm actually quite smart."

"Yeah, except it doesn't apply in here!" she was mildly disappointed that he was trying to settle her artwork down. "You're a fast learner but you're also very very weird. A solid eight for you." Anneliese put her right thumb up and then down.

"Sorry? You're pretty weird too." He told her, with a weird look on his face. Why'd she have to rate him? "Well I don't know what we could do, so you should decide anyway." He really didn't know what else they could be doing right now.

"I know." she said firmly. Anneliese noticed a weird look on his face. "Man, the rate thing was a joke." she laughed before looking at the card house again. "10 points for us though for the patience." Anneliese clapped for both of them.
"Me, decide? Well, definitely not training, I just ate. I'm done with games. There is literally nothing to do!" she exclaimed dramatically. "Well, storytime. How did you die?" she asked, getting already a bit personal.

He smirked, almost awkwardly. "I ran into a burning building to save a family I didn't know. I got them out, but got stuck when the roof collapsed and got burned to death." He told her, "How'd you die?" He asked, hey if she was gonna ask personal questions, so was he. Only fair, though he didn't really mind telling her about it.

"Oh, OH! We almost died the same way! High five! Or whatever the kids do these days." Anneliese slapped his resting hand, like it or not. "So, it's a long story how I got in to that situation, but.. I had to save my fellow maids from a building set on fire by one of my aunt's henchmen and and and then I dragged all the girls out except for one and when I went looking for her she wasn't there and I kind of got trapped and died!" she didn't have time to even breathe and everything that she said probably did not make any sense.

Ian high fived her as best he could, not really expecting her to want to high five over something like this. For the most part, he got what she was saying, but he wasn't going to ask her to elaborate on why her aunt had henchmen. "Uhh cool?" He said, not sure if that was the reaction to have when you meet someone who died in a similar way. This was still a learning process... "Like cool we died in a similar way, not that you died in a fire... or that either of us died... I'm gonna shut up now..." He mumbled, the last bit.

Anneliese was struggling to be 'cool' and tried to let her old manners go. It wasn't really working. "Not really that cool. I had a nice life before my aunt screwed up everything. Well, what can you do." Anneliese shrugged the 5th time. "Yeah you do that. It's probably a good idea." Anneliese agreed.

"hmm... Sorry." Ian hadn't meant to offend her. His life hadn't been too bad, least he shouldn't have had a lot of complaints. He probably could've done without school bullies and stuff like that, but he still had, had it better than most. At least he had been given the chance to get back at the kid before he died. Which was a childishly proud moment for him.

"There's no need to be sorry. I kinda deserved it. I refused to get married and it backfired." Anneliese said in a dreamy voice, her thoughts not really focusing on what she was talking about. "You know I used to be a noble, but now I notice how much I missed the beauty of the world. Or something poetic like that." she sighed at the memories.

Ian gave her a small smile. "You didn't deserve it. No one should something like that, if they don't want to." He told her. "And yeah, I get that." He added as an after thought. He missed out on a lot of stuff he shouldn't have when he was alive.

"I guess that's the modern opinion. I agree though. You can't really force people to do anything." Anneliese nodded to show agreement. "Hey Ian, what kind of a childhood you have?" she started prying private information.

"I lived with my dad, step mom, twin sister, and younger siblings. I didn't have too many friends in school, I was kind of quiet. I only started to make friends right before I died..." Ian told her, he didn't have a lot of private things. His childhood had been moderately normal compared to most, aside from being a demi-god. He didn't really have to many complaints, nor should he.

"Oh, that sounds so intriguing." Anneliese said. "Oh, you had a twin? So is she here too or.." still alive. That's what she meant. "Well, you're about to get lifelong friends. Literally." Anneliese chuckled at her really bad cheesy joke. She was still a bit jealous deep inside of his simple life.

"She's a Valkyrie. So, yeah she's here too." He said, then chuckled. "What was your childhood like, if you don't mind me asking." He didn't want to pressure her into telling him, just cause he told her. Especially if hers wasn't anything like his. Ian didn't know too much about nobles other than what his school teachers, and textbooks said, he knew that they were usually rich, which would point at an easier lifestyle, but that didn't mean anything. She had already told him that her aunt had someone set her home on fire, so it couldn't have been that great.

"Oh, that's sweet. I wish I had siblings." she tapped her jaw wondering what it was like to have siblings. "Oh, sure. I was born in Prussia. My dad was a doctor but he died from a heart failure when I was 6. Ironic, isn't it?" she laughed before continuing. "So I moved to my aunt to Austria where I had a pretty nice childhood I guess. I had a lot of cousins who were like sisters and brothers to me. But then I reached the age of 16 or 17 or something like that. Austria got in to a war with Prussia and the economy collapsed so Auntie wanted me to get married with a higher up to get familiar with the money. I didn't want to, so I escaped back to Prussia! I got to be a dressing maid, kinda funny when I used to be a noble. One time my auntie's henchmen set fire on my lady's building so I had to save all of them! I kind of died in the process so it was a failure." she laughed at the idea of her dragging people from a building on fire, hiding pain from her voice.

"Wow, insane. Still brave though, even if you think it failed. I'm sure you saved as many as you could. Fire is unpredictable." He told her, "A few days before I died, I punched the school bully in the face. He was this kid who picked on everyone, not just me. So I was a school celebrity for a whole three days before I died saving this family from a fire. They lived down the street from us, and my one sister used to babysit for them, so we knew them pretty well. My sister and I ran inside to get the two kids and their mom out, and the roof collapsed on me and the youngest. Apparently I landed in a way that saved the kid from getting burned to death also." He added to his life story. "At least I don't have to take that chemistry test I never studied for."

"1800's were insane." she pretended to have a handheld Brisé fan fan and she aired her face. "So much gossiping and backstabbing, stupid rumors and stupid life." she laughed. Anneliese was actively picking up information from Ian. "Wow, punching! I wish I could have tried that when I was still alive! Some people really deserve it." she said with a grin splashing on her face. "But it is very brave for a 16 year old celebrity to run inside a burning house. I wonder what was going in your head when you did that! You see, they say heroes never have anything in their mind when they sprint in to action. It's automatic!" Anneliese giggled.

"So the 1800s weren't that much different from today then..." Ian said, there was still a lot of backstabbing, and rumors that went around. "I wouldn't say I'm a hero. But I don't remember exactly what I was thinking about when I ran inside." He told her, "Were you thinking anything in particular when you saved your friends?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Here those things play a big role. You can't really escape a lifelong reputation." Anneliese said, warning for him to be careful with words. "You wouldn't say you're a hero? You ran in to a building on fire. That's pretty heroic if you ask me" she almost scolded him. "I was thinking about how I needed to get out there. Kinda cowardly but hey, what can you do. Human nature." Anneliese said scratching her neck.

He shrugged, "I guess I mean, I don't feel like one." He explained. "Ahh I was definitely thinking the same thing at one point. So you're still a hero too, even if you think that thinking that was cowardly. Like ya, said, human nature. Its human nature to want to protect yourself, so if you can bypass those feelings then yeah, you're a hero." He almost scolded her back.