Third || Video

[hyphenated]

I suppose it is time I introduced myself. It has been long enough.

[The woman in front of the camera looks prim and proper; a true lady with a massive ribbon on her chest. She's doing her best to look neat for the video. To hell with camping. Apt people might notice a leaf in her hair.]

After all, it seems we're going to have to put up with each other for a long while. My name is-

[The camera turns.]

No, Derry! Don't you dare-

[SMOOCH. That's bright pink lips right on the screen there.]

Derry! I told you to hold it up to me! How useless...

[She tugs it out of the Smoochum's hands (paws?) with a sigh.]

Ahem. As I was saying. My name is Sola-Ui. Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri, to be precise. I suppose we will see whether it is a pleasure or not in times to come.

...if a man named 'Lancer' appears here, please inform me.

[Nope, no idea about other Lancers. Too busy not dying of OH MY GOD SO MUCH WALKING AND WHY DOES THE WEATHER HATE ME, etc, etc.]

Comments

[video] Sob, I am so sorry for the delay. Computer is borked. I promise I haven't dropped anything

[hyphenated]

[It truly is a terrible name. But she appreciates it anyway. After all, not many get to be part of such a noble family. She nods approvingly at the name.]

The locals, I'm afraid, seem to be quite insane. Or severely damaged. It's hard to tell which. Perhaps they can be trained. Perhaps not. Some people cannot be easily handled.

As it stands, only my fiance here has shown any desire to be fairly tolerable so far.

No worries! I'm still around, it's fine.

[explosivecombat]

"Trained" is certainly one way of putting it, I suppose...and honestly, given how they are, it really does seem the most apt.

Might I ask who your fiancé is? I know a fair few in Johto; perhaps I know him as well.

[hyphenated]

Perhaps they aren't so different from those creatures.

...his name is Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi. I wonder if you might have met.

[explosivecombat]

[............................]

You poor woman.

[hyphenated]

[SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS.]

Ah, a victim of his temperament, should I assume?

[explosivecombat]

Ah, unfortunately I have more than enough experience with people like that - about the only positive side to it is it's led to my knowing how to get him to quiet down. But if I can be blunt, he does tend to be a bit unpleasant to deal with, if for no better reason than he takes himself so seriously; I find him a bit high-strung, however much he tries to act like he isn't.

[hyphenated]

[That earned him a slight smile.]

High-strung is a good word for it. For a man of his rank, he seems to be constantly foolish on account of his own emotional issues. On the bright side I know quite well how to silence him by now.

[Really, no man liked to be browbeaten by the verbal snubbing of an angry redhead.]

[explosivecombat]

[...oh, he likes you.]

A bit of a shame that you should have to resort to that at all, really - given his pride regarding that title of his, he really should know better, and he certainly shouldn't have to rely on you to save him from his own behavior. I certainly don't doubt your ability to do so, of course, but it's one of those things that shouldn't be necessary in the first place - he's your fiancé, not a child.

[hyphenated]

You're indeed correct; at his age he should have learnt long before now how to control himself. By the time our relationship progresses, at least, I intend to have taught him something in the way of self-preservation. After all, not only his dignity suffers when he acts so ridiculously childish.

[explosivecombat]

Why are you with him in the first place, if I may? I don't mean to be rude, but if you find him so insufferable, I don't see why you would stay.

[hyphenated]

Familial and political requirements, if I must be frank. With the loss of my brother, it falls to me to ensure the next generation via the most appropriate methods. In short, it is an arranged marriage to secure mutual benefits to both families.

[explosivecombat]

Mutual benefits to both families, surely, but I hardly see where you're benefiting from this. I mean, surely whatever talents Kayneth may have - I understand that he's talented with...ah, magecraft, I believed he called it? - can be found elsewhere; I doubt he's the last mage on the planet.

And I'll have to ask you to forgive me for this, as it's horribly crass - but this also brings up the point that you have to breed with him eventually. I mean, to each their own, but...

[hyphenated]

[Sola couldn't help the flicker of distaste on her face.]

True, but he is the one that my family prefers me to marry. As distasteful as I find it- [If her brother was alive right then she would hunt him down and brutalize him for this. Trust them to put their faith in a weakling like him!]

-I hardly have much of a choice. Magecraft is carried directly through the family line, passed on from generation to generation. Kayneth's own heritage goes back for quite a long time, making his bloodline immensely saturated with magic. Thanks to his heritage, it is unfortunately the option most likely to result in a talented child.

[explosivecombat]

Ah, that does complicate things.

Does continuing the bloodline mean that much to you, personally, then?

[hyphenated]

In its own way.

[With that subtle little comment, she glances away.]

Regardless, I find the decision to essentially reduce me to breeding stock a particularly unfortunate one. And I can hardly think much of Kayneth for encouraging it.

[explosivecombat]

I can't say that I blame you in the least...ah, but I'm not very well-equipped to answer for that sort of thing, I suppose. I've never seen much point in putting the needs of the group before the needs of the individual; after all, if the individual is important enough to be capable of rendering the group's goals impossible, then the individual should be seen to first, I would think.

[hyphenated]

[A low laugh escaped her at that.]

True enough, I suppose. At any rate, for now I have little reason to leave him, since he is one of very few faces I know from home. When we return-

[If. She had to remind herself of that.]

-then I may call it into question myself if he remains intolerable. But for now, it remains as it has been. If nothing else, I am both a Sophia-Ri and a woman. And as such, I have responsibilities.

[explosivecombat]

Do you really?

[That's...actually seemed to amuse him a bit.]

I don't see how you have any obligation to a family that isn't here, in a world that isn't your own, in a situation you may never leave, where magecraft is unusable and therefore Kayneth's talents in that area don't matter.

[hyphenated]

The problem there is that if I do leave, and I have set Kayneth against me, then things will go quite badly outside of this world. Still, it may well be that we do not. I will need to think further on this.

[explosivecombat]

...ah, has no one told you how time passes back home?

[jfc kayneth man he promises he is not trying to ruin your life

but your fiancée here is fierce and you are being an asshole in a way that kimblee actually does not approve of]

[hyphenated]

Kayneth implied that it does not flow the same way, if at all. But unless it erases his memory, then it is likely that he will remember what happened here.

[Poor Kayneth. Everyone is against him.]

[explosivecombat]

[Possibly the dumbest thing here is the fact that Kimblee legitimately doesn't hate Kayneth any, he just has fairly low tolerance for this particular sort of bullshit.

...it's the principle of the thing, and this is some weirdly specific bullshit.]

Well, I can't say for sure whether it does or it doesn't...but based on an acquaintance's experience, I have reason to think it might.

Unless he simply felt like walking into a situation where he would get himself killed that day, that is - I informed him that he would be killed back in our world, and I have reason to believe he experienced that when he returned.

[hyphenated]

Yes, it is true that if we follow the same path, we will both die upon returning. I do not know why - it is most likely the fault of Tohsaka or Matou.

[Really, who else is around and powerful enough, save that beastly man in gold that had been summoned as Archer? None that she is aware of are either so powerful or so reckless... save perhaps Berserker.]

Perhaps it may well be useless attempting to preserve the way things would be outside... especially if those ways are, shall we say, intolerable?