003 ☀ Kyle Dunamis, Otome Yanagiya

[souhajin]

Comments

[mombastic]

No, even as a passing comment... you have to be careful.

[ ... how did her day end up like this? ]

[souhajin]

[because today happened to be the day she met sunshine jr.]

Huh... okay. I'll try to remember that, then! [somehow, it's more impactful when she says it than when loni does.

though maybe that's because loni was the one always trying to drill it in, all the while talking about her like she was someone worth dating. which... for kyle, clearly had the opposite effect of drilling in how Not Good that way.

whoops. at least he'll explain himself pretty earnestly.]

Loni always says stuff like that, but he also tries to date every woman he meets. He even talks about Mom and her friends like that. "Oh, Miss Philia is such a beauty! Miss Mary was a vision when she came to visit!" It's kind of hard to take him seriously...

[mombastic]

So it comes across as not taking a woman seriously...

[ Well, she knows the type. Daichi had gotten slightly better, and Joe was a married man now and knew better. But Otome stops, suddenly. It's not as though she knows the people he's talking about.

... But something about those names-- ]

Your mother-- what's her name?

[souhajin]

[it honestly doesn't strike kyle as strange. philia was one of the great heroes, after all, and mary was practically as well known.

so for someone to ask who his mom is when he says he knows those people is pretty normal.]

Rutee Katrea! Eheheh.... [he's proud, okay. his mom may be old, but she's still a hero, even if he's seen her much less heroic side.]

[mombastic]

...

[ She's heard those names before, and as she takes a closer look at Kyle, considering-- her eyes suddenly widen. ]

Stahn...

[souhajin]

[oh! she does recognize rutee's name if "stahn" is her reaction, right? kyle brighten a bit hear her say his dad's name.]

Uh-huh! That's... my dad.

[he won't think about the worst parts of this, because he figures she doesn't know. nobody really does, after all.]

[mombastic]

I thought so! You look just like him!

[ SHE IS NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT HER SON HAVING A SON AND WHAT THAT MAKES HER, NOPE. ]

[souhajin]

People say that a lot... Even people who know him say I'm just like him. Ehehe, it's pretty cool, I want to be as great as Dad is one day!

[that's what he's fighting for in a sense, though he obviously isn't going to say that.]

[mombastic]

You will. You've got that air about you.

[ Really, why hadn't she noticed the resemblance sooner? ]

[souhajin]

Air?

[that seems like a strange thing to say. not that he doesn't know what it means, but that implies—]

Eh?! Do you... know Dad? [that's the kind of thing his friends would say when they met him, people like Philia and Woodrow.]

[mombastic]

... Yes. Stahn is a very important friend of mine, but it's definitely been awhile since I've seen him.

[ Not like... years, though???? ]

[souhajin]

An important friend...

[this is the first time he's met someone that was like that. the friends of stahn's kyle had met before were swordian masters, or people from his hometown in leane.

it makes him wonder if maybe this could be a clue to when he is, though.]

When was the last time you saw my dad?

[mombastic]

Mm... about two years ago?

[ ... And unless he'd already had a kid, which should technically be impossible-- ]

[souhajin]

Two years ago...

[kyle frowns for a moment, because that really doesn't answer too much about when he's from—aside from the fact that it had to be at least eight years ago.

and probably more, if she didn't know who he was, since she seemed surprised to know that stahn had a son at all.]

This might sound weird, but... [it's definitely going to sound weird, but kyle is not the brains of the party, and without judas to nudge him to shut the hell up? he just goes with his gut here.] How old was he the last time you saw him?

[mombastic]

[ That's... not a question she hears often, and Otome carefully tilts her head, pondering it and what it means before she answers him. ]

Nineteen?

[souhajin]

Nineteen...

[kyle needs a minute to do math, counting on his fingers—of course, it doesn't take long for kyle to figure out that it was eighteen years before his time...

which is also how old he was when he became a hero.]

Eeeeeh?! [he's so, so much like stahn sometimes that it's uncanny.] You knew Dad then? That's when he became a hero!

[and she's treating it so casually? otome, what kind of person are you!!]

[mombastic]

[ Someone who's saved the world twice, honestly-- ]

Mm, that doesn't surprise me at all. Stahn was always trying to look out for everyone else, doing whatever he could to help.

[ Totally a hero in her eyes. ]

[souhajin]

...You don't know about it?

[uh-oh. now kyle has no idea what kind of timeline he's in. and he's probably not helping himself here because he's not exactly smart enough to play things down right.]

[mombastic]

Your father and I are from different worlds. Which would probably explain why you're lost, and how you got separated from your friends.

[ ... Although she's not that used to people from other worlds ending up in hers-- still, it's not impossible. And it's why Otome will even say that much. ]

[souhajin]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeh?

[different times, he's ready for. but this?]

Different worlds?! [just like dad, honestly.]

[mombastic]

Mm-hm! I know it sounds a little farfetched, and it's a long story, but that's how it happened.

[ To put it simply. ]

[souhajin]

...Could you tell me more about it? I want to hear more about dad! Mom never said anything about... anything like that...

[but there had been a lot rutee never told him, even if he knows that it had been because she wanted to protect him from remembering some terrible things.]

[mombastic]

... Your father never said anything either?

[ For that matter... wouldn't Kyle more know about Stahn at this point than she would? He is his son. ]

[souhajin]

[oh.

right, kyle nearly forgot that she wouldn't know. even back home, most people really didn't know what happened to stahn to his knowledge. of course, he'd been kept in the dark for a long time—but what happened to him was still a few years after otome had last seen him.

if there were really things like separate worlds that separated them on top of some kind of timeline stuff, she really couldn't know. kyle's expression falls just a bit—he doesn't want to get too down about it.]

I don't really remember a lot about him. The last time I saw Dad was... ten years ago. [he was too small to have very vivid memories of anything like that.]

[mombastic]

Ten--??

[ Kyle is... most definitely a teenager, but he's still young. At his youngest, had he been a toddler when Stahn had disappeared? Assuming Stahn had disappeared, and that he hadn't died, or been killed - and something a lot like maternal panic rises up in her throat until she forces it back down - but she doesn't want to think like that yet.

Something tightens in her chest, nonetheless. ]

... May I ask what happened?