ic contact;

[echoistic]

❝Yoooo! Ain't here right now, which means I'm probably sleeping, eating, doing something I can't mention out loud, or something really awesome and attention-consuming, but whichever it is, I'm not here right now! Wait, I already said that. So yeah, do what you gotta do, which I guess is—❞

[ video | audio | text* | action ]

[ *Note that Rhys can't read very well, so texting him might, uh, not have the intended effect. ]

Comments

[discard]

[????]

Those are hardly reasonable standards. You must be nothing but a useless layabout with an attitude like that!

[echoistic]

Yeah? What kind of useless layabout works two jobs?

[discard]

You--

[... ???]

--what? If you mean here, I fail to be impressed; working extra as a lackey of this corporation does not make you any less useless.

[echoistic]

[He shrugs; it's hard to actually be offended when this guy knows absolutely nothing about him and Rhys feels no real need to inform him. He's fairly certain that even surviving in the Outside, particularly when it was only him and Alun, disqualifies him as being genuinely lazy and unproductive.

He wouldn't have survived a week as a kid if he were, after all.]

But I'm not a layabout, right? Though technically, if we're talking about back home, I'm always on the job... Anyway, what do you do, oh Sir of Being Highly Useful and Productive?

[discard]

[Yeah, Leon's a close-minded punk who knows basically nothing, Rhys is not wrong.]

I am one of the king's knight of my country, naturally. [he's a special snowflake knight, even!!] I did not have time to slack off or play around uselessly.

[echoistic]

Oooooh, ahhhhhh.

[Rhys says appreciatively, except:]

... So what's a knight?

[A "king", if he recalls correctly, is some kind of ruler—not that they exist in Naga, save for Elial, or so he thinks. Hell if anyone really knows anything about the Shielded City, considering that just about no outsiders are ever allowed in it.]

[discard]

... Are you making fun of me?

[He scowls at that, crossing his arms and looking away with a huff.]

If you do not know, you do not have to pretend to be impressed. A knight is a person of considerable skill with a sword who serves under the king to protect and serve the kingdom--in my case, Seinegald.

[echoistic]

Not at all! You seem proud to be a knight, so even if I don't know what it is, it's gotta be something impressive, right?

[Rhys can't say he really thinks much of royalty (no one in the Outside does anymore, after all), even if there'll always probably be a degree of viewing them as divinity; by association, he doesn't think much of someone devoted to protecting them, but he won't say that out loud.]

You are pretty good with a sword.

[discard]

Of course I am. It is not as though anyone lacking in skill with a blade could ever have my position.

[His skill with a sword is something he's proud of; it's something he's earned and gained all on his own, and nobody can take that away from him.

So... he seems a little wary--pre-bristling, almost--to see if Rhys is going to try to make light of that too.]

[echoistic]

Right, right. Understandable!

[Though he can't read Leon's wariness at all, fighting prowess is something that he can always respect, even if his default cheerful tone might not indicate it—as someone who's never really been good at anything but fighting, even when those like his brother at least have scholarly pursuits as well, it's not a skill that he'd ever downplay.]

Did you have to compete for the title?

[discard]

... Yes, in a way.

[Rather, through competing and showing off his skill, he was picked for the title. So it's close enough to competing for it--nonetheless, he had to prove his stuff before he could get it.

Slowly, Leon crosses his arms and arches an eyebrow at Rhys.]

What would you know of such things?

[It should be more judgmental, but...well, Rhys has been the first to seem to get it.]