She visited me to make bread. [Her mouth opens at the end, like she was going to say something else. But then she holds back. Not going to mention her roommate's pranks and how some of the bread, looked strange.] You're. Harez Verg...That's what it sounded like.
[Leslie hadn't exactly said the name right, but Mikasa was cutting off the Emperor part. Then she nods slightly.] Mikasa.
[Leslie finished putting the bread away and was putting a kettle on to boil -- her housemates and Lorenz have lead her to view offering tea as part of being a good host -- when she hears voices from the adjourning room. Getting closer, she listens at the door and hears that Edelgard seems to have encountered Mikasa.
Since things seem to be going fine, she turns back to take out a third teacup, but before she leaves earshot, she hears Harez Verg and is instantly projected back in time to the first days of her arrival when she'd called Edelgard "Emperor Huh-rez-velk" before she practiced pronouncing Hresvelg enough to get it down.
She managed to avoid ever using it in front of Edelgard or anyone from Fódlan by calling her "Her Majesty," and has no chance of it happening again now that she calls her Lady Edelgard. She thought she avoided the embarrassment of the woman she respects so much ever finding out how her name got butchered by her ward, but now...
...now she's probably completely fine if she doesn't say anything, because Edelgard might think it's Mikasa's own mistake, but Leslie doesn't think that far.
In contrast to Leslie usual attempts to remain careful and unobtrusive in moving around the house, the door to the kitchen slams open and Leslie bursts into the room holding a (thankfully empty) teacup.]
Mikasa!
[She looks and sounds scandalized, bright red in the face, but she realizes she didn't think through what she was going to say when she got in there. After a moment, she half-mumbles.]
Her name is Lady Edelgard von Hresvelg. Not...that.
[Edelgard was just about to open her mouth to correct Mikasa, not thinking too much of it, when the door burst open and in rushed Leslie. The Emperor shot to her feet, already moving across the room to intercept the girl just in case something was wrong. She never acted like this before, and it makes her feel like something's gone terribly wrong.
And then it becomes clear.]
Leslie...calm down, it's alright.
[She shoots Mikasa a glance.]
...Sorry, I think that it's just a mispronunciation, but Leslie is...very proper.
[Mikasa doesn't stand, but her body tenses in the seat. Like she was about to lunge, before relaxing when there's no threat. Nothing to grab at. Then for once, since Edelgard had entered the room, she blinks. Still looking in Leslie's direction Tilting her head slightly. Pursing her lips. ]
That's what you said it was before...
[But she turns to Edelgard, still frowning lightly.]
[But, Lady Edelgard, something has gone terribly wrong.
Leslie does start to calm down. It seems like Edelgard thinks that she's just worried about Mikasa mispronouncing Edelgard's name...which she probably would be anyway, but not to this degree of clamour. She does actually manage to feel guilty about letting even a lie of omission stand, yet there's also some relief.
Briefly. It seems Mikasa remembers all too well. Leslie hides her face in her hands.]
...I couldn't pronounce Hresvelg right when we met first.
[Her somewhat muffled voice has a tone that most people would use to admit to a crime.]
[Leslie...Mikasa just nods her head in return to Edelgard.]
Mikasa Ackerman, if we're using full names. [A formality Mikasa wasn't bothered by. Especially not with what she'd learned about her name in the past few years.]
People used to say my name wrong too.
[But then Leslie is hiding and that's cute. It gets a small, muffled, gigglesnort. Sorry, not sorry. ]
oops, I thought I'd replied to this but it was just open in a tab
[Leslie does peek out over her hands thanks to the encouragement, but she still looks mortified.]
I still should have waited until I could say it better before I started using it in public, though. But...thank you, Lady Edelgard, Mikasa.
[She doesn't provide her own full name, though. She still doesn't feel like she can claim a family name she likes and she doesn't want to be associated with the one she legally has right now.]
[Really, this is just a bit silly, okay? Don't be like this. In fact, she's going to step in, and gather Leslie up against her in another one of those hugs she's getting somewhat more comfortable giving.]
It's a foreign word and you had just learned it, and there's no harm in saying it wrong.
[Mikasa was still giving that almost smile as she relaxed back into her seat.. Well that sure changed the mood in here.]
When I was young I had trouble saying some words too. [Granted for a very long time. She'd only had two people to talk to, by the time she had more she didn't want to talk.]
...Did you manage to find somewhere for the bread?
[Leslie might still be a little slow to start initiating hugs, but she's growing comfortable with receiving them pretty quickly, returning this one after maybe a couple of more seconds of embarrassed face-hiding. Edelgard probably has about five more stamps on her hugs card before Leslie reaches the tipping point where she gets comfortable enough to start initiating hugs, in which case get ready for Leslie to glom onto Edelgard regularly.]
Yes, I put the bread away. Um, would you like to try some, Lady Edelgard? I was going to be making tea, too.
[A good part of Leslie slamming the door open like that is that it'll be easy to hear the kettle whistling if Leslie gets distracted for too long and forgets she already put it on.]
[She'll be waiting for that day, but for now she's content to slide free and take a stance to the side so she's not obstructing the view for Mikasa. Honestly, this child is too cute.]
I'd love to. Thank you.
[Ah...right, the whistle.]
Perhaps go check the kettle? It seems to be ready.
[Enjoy that unobstructed view of Mikasa's pupils just completely covering her eyes as she watches the scene, Edelgard. Because Mikasa enjoying the cute. Even if she wasn't on the receiving end of the hugs.
Though the sudden whistle makes her head snap around to look back at the door. Her short antenna dancing at it. Only pausing when the word kettle is mentioned. She couldn't smell a fire-]
I think you're more used to how the fires work here than I am...
[Doctors in Aefenglom recommend two doses of Leslie per day for your mental health needs.
Leslie's smile widens, but ah, there's the whistle. She disengages from the hug, though she freezes for half a second at the word "fires." She understands what Mikasa means once the parts of her brain other than her stem catch up, though, so it's just a momentary stutter.]
Bernadetta has been teaching me. I'll be back with tea! And bread.
[She hurries into the kitchen, but pauses long enough to properly close over the door to the kitchen at a non-embarrassment-panic-induced pace. She'll be back in a bit but it might be a two person thread again for a bit.]
[Mikasa watches the door for another moment. Then turns back to respond.]
Before that, we met in the dream. If anything, I'd say I was the trouble. [Mikasa might have been taking the comment seriously, or she was joking. The sigh is also returned, though it's a much more somber.]
It seems like magic is common in most places. She had to warn me about that.
It's not a thing at all...If it is I've never seen it. [There was quite a few things that hadn't been explained yet. But most of those had just become a part of life for her. Titans were humans that had been changed. How she didn't know, it involved an injection. But the same could be said for phones.
She knew there was a scientific explanation. But Mikasa was just a farm girl who didn't understand it. But Edelgard's last words get her a pause and an evaluating stare.] You're a monster?
[Mikasa blinks, leaning forward in her seat to look. Rood. She'd heard of vampires, briefly. Only the basics, that they didn't like the sun, drank blood.]
...You don't seem to have changed very much.
[She still looked more human than Mikasa did at this point. Unless she'd changed a lot and this was the end result.But Mikasa had no way of knowing that.]
It's hard to notice inside changes... [She'd noticed little things, being hungrier than normal. How things smelled. The odd, slight hum that seemed to pulse through some items and beings.
Whatever else she was going to say to that is lost though.]
You don't look very dead...I've seen corpses less than a month old and they're different. [Unless this was more magic, the answer to everything.]
You're pale...[No blue or black patches forming in some areas, or funky smells.
But Mikasa does as she's asked. Right arm stretching out, sleeve sliding back enough to show some of the bandages covering her forearm. Taking the cold hand with her much warmer one.
She squints for a second, hand moving slightly so her fingers could reach to check a pulse.
...
Welp, nothing. Her hand is just going to slip away silently.]
...But how are the vampires that have always lived here if you had to die to become one
[Edelgard's glove extends well, well up beyond her wrist. But there's definitely no pulse. She's. Definitely dead.]
...It's a kind of magic. When one starts to transform into a vampire, you die at the end of the transformation. I don't know how it works if one's born as a vampire in this world.
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She visited me to make bread. [Her mouth opens at the end, like she was going to say something else. But then she holds back. Not going to mention her roommate's pranks and how some of the bread, looked strange.] You're. Harez Verg...That's what it sounded like.
[Leslie hadn't exactly said the name right, but Mikasa was cutting off the Emperor part. Then she nods slightly.] Mikasa.
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Since things seem to be going fine, she turns back to take out a third teacup, but before she leaves earshot, she hears Harez Verg and is instantly projected back in time to the first days of her arrival when she'd called Edelgard "Emperor Huh-rez-velk" before she practiced pronouncing Hresvelg enough to get it down.
She managed to avoid ever using it in front of Edelgard or anyone from Fódlan by calling her "Her Majesty," and has no chance of it happening again now that she calls her Lady Edelgard. She thought she avoided the embarrassment of the woman she respects so much ever finding out how her name got butchered by her ward, but now...
...now she's probably completely fine if she doesn't say anything, because Edelgard might think it's Mikasa's own mistake, but Leslie doesn't think that far.
In contrast to Leslie usual attempts to remain careful and unobtrusive in moving around the house, the door to the kitchen slams open and Leslie bursts into the room holding a (thankfully empty) teacup.]
Mikasa!
[She looks and sounds scandalized, bright red in the face, but she realizes she didn't think through what she was going to say when she got in there. After a moment, she half-mumbles.]
Her name is Lady Edelgard von Hresvelg. Not...that.
[By now she has the pronunciation perfect.]
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And then it becomes clear.]
Leslie...calm down, it's alright.
[She shoots Mikasa a glance.]
...Sorry, I think that it's just a mispronunciation, but Leslie is...very proper.
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That's what you said it was before...
[But she turns to Edelgard, still frowning lightly.]
Which is it?
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Leslie does start to calm down. It seems like Edelgard thinks that she's just worried about Mikasa mispronouncing Edelgard's name...which she probably would be anyway, but not to this degree of clamour. She does actually manage to feel guilty about letting even a lie of omission stand, yet there's also some relief.
Briefly. It seems Mikasa remembers all too well. Leslie hides her face in her hands.]
...I couldn't pronounce Hresvelg right when we met first.
[Her somewhat muffled voice has a tone that most people would use to admit to a crime.]
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Edelgard von Hresvelg is correct.
[She gives the girl's shoulder a quick squeeze, and lowers her voice.]
Leslie, it's alright. My name was a foreign one to you, when you arrived. I knew that. You've gotten it down now, so there's no need to worry.
[Oh honestly this is all just kind of cute.]
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Mikasa Ackerman, if we're using full names. [A formality Mikasa wasn't bothered by. Especially not with what she'd learned about her name in the past few years.]
People used to say my name wrong too.
[But then Leslie is hiding and that's cute. It gets a small, muffled, gigglesnort. Sorry, not sorry. ]
oops, I thought I'd replied to this but it was just open in a tab
I still should have waited until I could say it better before I started using it in public, though. But...thank you, Lady Edelgard, Mikasa.
[She doesn't provide her own full name, though. She still doesn't feel like she can claim a family name she likes and she doesn't want to be associated with the one she legally has right now.]
you fool!
[Really, this is just a bit silly, okay? Don't be like this. In fact, she's going to step in, and gather Leslie up against her in another one of those hugs she's getting somewhat more comfortable giving.]
It's a foreign word and you had just learned it, and there's no harm in saying it wrong.
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When I was young I had trouble saying some words too. [Granted for a very long time. She'd only had two people to talk to, by the time she had more she didn't want to talk.]
...Did you manage to find somewhere for the bread?
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Yes, I put the bread away. Um, would you like to try some, Lady Edelgard? I was going to be making tea, too.
[A good part of Leslie slamming the door open like that is that it'll be easy to hear the kettle whistling if Leslie gets distracted for too long and forgets she already put it on.]
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I'd love to. Thank you.
[Ah...right, the whistle.]
Perhaps go check the kettle? It seems to be ready.
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Though the sudden whistle makes her head snap around to look back at the door. Her short antenna dancing at it. Only pausing when the word kettle is mentioned. She couldn't smell a fire-]
I think you're more used to how the fires work here than I am...
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Doctors in Aefenglom recommend two doses of Leslie per day for your mental health needs.Leslie's smile widens, but ah, there's the whistle. She disengages from the hug, though she freezes for half a second at the word "fires." She understands what Mikasa means once the parts of her brain other than her stem catch up, though, so it's just a momentary stutter.]
Bernadetta has been teaching me. I'll be back with tea! And bread.
[She hurries into the kitchen, but pauses long enough to properly close over the door to the kitchen at a non-embarrassment-panic-induced pace. She'll be back in a bit
but it might be a two person thread again for a bit.]no subject
[Leaving Edelgard alone with Mikasa? Fair enough.
The emperor moves back to her seat, settling in with a pleased sigh, turning back to the young woman seated across from her.]
So, you met Leslie when she first arrived? I trust she hasn't been too much trouble.
[Plainly, she's teasing. Leslie is a saint.]
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Before that, we met in the dream. If anything, I'd say I was the trouble. [Mikasa might have been taking the comment seriously, or she was joking. The sigh is also returned, though it's a much more somber.]
It seems like magic is common in most places. She had to warn me about that.
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[Quite the opposite.]
And is it not common where you're from? It's...rather normal where I am from. Though my own magic is gone, thanks to my transformation.
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She knew there was a scientific explanation. But Mikasa was just a farm girl who didn't understand it. But Edelgard's last words get her a pause and an evaluating stare.] You're a monster?
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I am a vampire.
[Simple as that. No real reason to beat around the bush, there.]
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Rood. She'd heard of vampires, briefly. Only the basics, that they didn't like the sun, drank blood.]...You don't seem to have changed very much.
[She still looked more human than Mikasa did at this point. Unless she'd changed a lot and this was the end result.But Mikasa had no way of knowing that.]
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[Edelgard shrugs at that.]
I'm allergic to the sun, to the point where it can kill me, and I drink blood, as you might have guessed.
[She tilts her head to show the fangs better.]
And I died, last month. My heart no longer beats, and without food my body is relatively cool.
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Whatever else she was going to say to that is lost though.]
You don't look very dead...I've seen corpses less than a month old and they're different. [Unless this was more magic, the answer to everything.]
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[Edelgard holds out her hand, the one that hadn't been on the cup.]
Feel my hand, Mikasa.
[She's wearing a glove, because she always does, but it's...cool, if not quite icy.]
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But Mikasa does as she's asked. Right arm stretching out, sleeve sliding back enough to show some of the bandages covering her forearm. Taking the cold hand with her much warmer one.
She squints for a second, hand moving slightly so her fingers could reach to check a pulse.
...
Welp, nothing. Her hand is just going to slip away silently.]
...But how are the vampires that have always lived here if you had to die to become one
[Is this what those necromancers were doing?]
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[Edelgard's glove extends well, well up beyond her wrist. But there's definitely no pulse. She's. Definitely dead.]
...It's a kind of magic. When one starts to transform into a vampire, you die at the end of the transformation. I don't know how it works if one's born as a vampire in this world.
Honestly, I never thought to ask.
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Just talking bout Leslie behind her back ;-;
womp womp
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