video; un: white_lotus

[pummelling]

[The magitek's pulled back far enough to feature not one, but two members of Audentes... or, rather, one of them striving vainly to nudge his teammate out of the feed. It's the tail end of the struggle, though, and Kung Jin is fighting a losing battle. It takes half a second for Asher Millstone to shove his way into view, taking up half of the screen and speaking up before Jin can truly get a word in.

The law student looks more excited than ever when he starts speaking, and even lifts his arms above his head in a “raise the roof” sort of gesture.]

It’s time to get wiggity wiggity whack, yo!

Don't. [He nearly slaps a hand over his friend's mouth, but reconsiders, elbowing him back instead.] So, Audentes. Since we're almost all set to leave on our next assignment, it's come to our attention that not everyone here is from a world that people like Asher or I consider "modern day".

Whoa, you? Wait a minute. Last I checked, there was nothing normal about you, man. People in your world, like, rip dudes’ spines out through their mouths and crap!

[After he says this, Asher immediately turns from Jin back to the camera, and waves his hands emphatically in its general direction.]

Don’t try that.

[Jin casts a dubious glance at Asher and moves right along in spite of all the interruptions.]

Even if you look the part, you’ve still got to play the part, too. If you're looking for any advice or tips to blend in properly on-planet, we’re pretty much experts-- so let us know if you need a hand.

[The paler of the two pops up right behind him, leaning on the other’s shoulder.]

That’s right, baby! We’ll teach you how to be 90s.

Comments

[moneyballer]

[He just makes a concerned face in reply.]

That's... That's it. You're doing it again.

[heelies]

There is nothing wrong with the manner in which I speak. If my words fall strange upon your ears, then it is no more strange than yours are upon mine. Or ought I to let loose all sense from my speech, that the men of this land may better understand me? Is this what you are saying?

[moneyballer]

[Asher lets out a loud sound, frustrated, but not totally irate.

He wants to make a point of this, to highlight how hypocritical it is for someone like Achilles to feel pissed about the cultural differences. Why then does he judge others so harshly by the rules of his own world?]

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the way you speak, fundamentally...

I'm just saying that if you keep talking the way you do, you won't blend in at all. People might have trouble understanding you. You'll blow it, basically.

[heelies]

[His stubbornness is the soil from which such hypocrisy grows, unfurling great and gnarled, an ugly weed that finds no shortage of nourishment to sustain it. For all that he dislikes the feeling of estrangement that has lately held him fast - he who in his homeland is revered, he who has risen to meet his glittering fate, fitting so precisely into the weave of time-honored heroes and tradition - he does not wish to be the one who must bend to others.]

What is it that I shall blow? I know not how I shall find time enough to worry for whether or not my words can be understood when I myself will be so occupied by attempts to decipher the speech of other men, if all of this land truly speak as you do.

[The frustration that twists his brow seems, at least, to be not for Asher himself, but for the immensity of understanding none and being understood by none in return.]

[moneyballer]

[Despite all his idiocy and petulance, Asher does try to understand the perspectives of others, even if he falls frightfully short most of the time.

This is the second instance in which Achilles has made things difficult for himself, but for the sake of the lives that are at stake, the law student decides to give the other a final warning.]

Cut the crap man, I'm trying to help you. I know you don't like me, but even if Jin's willing to try-

[Uttered more quietly, in a tone that's far more serious than anything the warrior has heard from him before.]

He has no idea what he's getting into. This world isn't like his.

[heelies]

[It is strange to see Asher, whom he has long regarded as a nuisance, inhabit so grave a mood. Thus Achilles gives no cutting words, but rather speaks plainly and with gravity to match.]

I shall say once again - well do I know how vast are the differences between this land to which we shall be sent and my dear native land, which lies far across the blackness in which hangs the stars. I merely ask what is at stake if I shuck not the manners of my fatherland to instead cloak myself in those of strangers.

[moneyballer]

[He can be serious when the situation calls for it, oddly enough.]

I don't think we'll really be able to change how you talk, and it's probably not that big of a deal...

[His voice trails off as he considers his plan of attack.]

But you can't just blow up at people or challenge them to duels in this world, 'cause you'll get arrested, straight up.

[Not to mention, Achilles probably carries some bigass weapon with him all the time, as he seems like that type of overcompensating nutjob.]

This place has laws that you shouldn't be breaking.

[Not without discretion, but Asher can't count on Achilles for that, so he abandons that angle.]

So... No stealing, no destruction of property, and no killing people, alright?

The last one is definitely a big no-no. Huge! Do not even try it.

[heelies]

You presume my land lawless merely because man civilized it long before any civilized your own dear native land, and therefore the laws that bind us are perhaps different from those by which you abide. You do lay insult against me if you think I haven't wit enough to learn the laws and customs of another country. When this crew was hurled down upon the islands of the cloven-footed Nalawi, did I not try to adopt their customs that we may better work together? And did I not seek to be suppliant to the goddesses who from the belly of the mountains and the waves once watched, although they were not among the gods I was taught to honor from birth?

Moreover, a man has right to take another man's property only when he conquers him in war - and we shall be allies of the people of Woodhurst, not their enemies. So too, a man has right to slay another only when the other's treachery demands it so: the scoundrel meets justice upon the blade of the one whom he wronged in his defiance of the law. Yet if in this city of Woodhurst there exists no just cause for such retribution, then I cannot seek it, lest I incur punishment upon my own head. Therefore you need not worry.

[moneyballer]

[Asher's teeth grit together sharply, as his first instinct is to bite back. Achilles will be able to see the fire in the other man's eyes while his chest heaves up and down, but also the way his neck moves as he swallows the small semblance of pride he possesses.

Annoying. How annoying it is for someone to just assume that other people know details about their personal lives-]

I wasn't here for that mission.

[The anger simmers down, however, when he processes the words fully.]

I'm sorry, you're right.

[That sounds like something he hates to admit.]

Some people make it sound like, their worlds are just a free for all-

[Read: post-apocalyptic wasteland]

So I just made my own assumptions and... Pffft, I probably shouldn't have.

[heelies]

[He seems appeased by Asher's concession, and so he continues at a pitch less impassioned.]

Loath though I am to assume false name and form, for I did once resolve that never again would I deny my father's worthy name - I shall consent to following the laws of this strange land until comes the time that they stand in opposition to those of my fatherland. Should the two clash, my obligation lies with the laws that are protected by Zeus almighty, the laws I have known since boyhood.