This takes place after the last chapter that was on the island. There's only one more chapter until it's caught up? I hope?
"So, what do you think of the new model?" Tao said after jumping down at the helicopter, grinning at Takeo and M-21.
Takeo saw he was also keeping an eye on Rael and Regis, and gave him a disappointed look for the 'new model' quip. The Union killed old models to bring in new ones.. Oh, it was a reference to Frankenstein taking down the previous owner of the soul weapon. It was still in poor taste, enemy or no enemy.
M-21 seemed amused, though, at the thought of a Union Elder being the inferior model to a throwaway experiment.
While Takeo was still examining Tao, Rael rolled his eyes. "If it worked, it's better than not being a clan," he allowed, still sounding disgusted.
The three enhanced humans looked at him.
"A clan is not a clan unless it has a clan leader and a soul weapon," Regis explained. "That's why Seira was recognized as a clan leader even though she hadn't reached her majority, so the traitors wouldn't have destroyed the Loyard clan even temporarily."
"All of the clan leaders had to take responsibility for some of the nobles who belonged to the traitors' clans. As though my brother and Ludis don't already have enough to do," Rael said, arms folded.
"I get an entire clan?" Tao asked, practically bouncing in place.
"Won't they mind that he's an enhanced human?" Takeo asked before Tao could get too excited.
"Not after an enhanced human slew Ignes Kravei," Regis said firmly.
Rael took a step back, alarmed. "What do you know about Ignes?" he asked Regis, moving forward again to loom over him demanding answers.
Takeo frowned. It was nice to see Rael worried for Regis, but the fact there was something that made him show that much worry for the little noble…
"My parent brought me when he visited because Clan Kravei didn't have any children and wasn't making any more until Ignes was in eternal sleep."
"Why would Sir Rousare be visiting the Kravei?"
"Because everyone knew they were under Clan Mergas' protection, because they live off the coast of Lukedonia."
The head of Clan Mergas was in charge of Lukedonian National Security, so yes, he was the logical choice for jurisdiction over the people closest to the border, which might bear the brunt of Union raids and attacks.
"So Ludus asked my parent to be the one to help them move and remember where their new homes were."
"Good thinking!" Tao said. "But can't nobles sense where other nobles are?"
"They live in Sanctuaries," said Regis. "And hopefully it will be hard even for Lagus Tradio to find the entryways through that much seawater. Especially without Roctis and Ignes to help him."
"They live in the water?"
"Of course not!" Regis said, annoyed. "Under the water, not in it. That's why they live in Sanctuaries, so the water doesn't get everywhere. That's why it was faster if a clan leader helped them move. They don't have a clan manor – they live by themselves, like the Ru. My parent said that when he was made they lived in a clan manor, but all of them except Roctis and Ignes left before the Previous Lord went into eternal sleep."
"And no one wondered why… Right, nobles." M-21 snorted.
"No one asked," Regis agreed, nose wrinkled with displeasure. It would have been beyond scandalous to pry like that, but he agreed it would have been really good to know, in hindsight. "How old are you?" he asked Tao.
"Late twenties, why?"
"More like mid-twenties," Takeo corrected him. "Our memories go back around two years."
Rael and Regis looked at each other, then realized what they were doing and looked pointedly away.
"Clan Kravei will most likely ask for you to be raised by them in Lukedonia." Regis' hand reached up to touch the point of his hair protectively. Did the Kravei ruffle his hair without asking when he was younger? Or had he let them even though he didn't like having his hair or anything messed with because the Kravei didn't have any children of their own?
"If they want me in charge of people I'm staying with Boss to get an education, but I'll visit, though," Tao said cheerfully. He leaned towards Regis, rubbing his hands together. "How are they at spoiling?"
"Can you even summon the soul weapon?" Rael asked.
Tao reached up. "C'mon, Cetus!" he called cheerfully as his arm snapped forward, the whip appearing near the end of its arc.
Rael didn't flinch: it wasn't moving fast enough he couldn't tell it wasn't going to hit him.
"C'mon, Cetus?" M-21 folded his arms.
"That's not the final version; I haven't had time to think of something cool yet!" Tao protested. "It has to go with the masks, RK has our style to think about!" He looked around. "The original four members are here: we can have a meeting." He fished his cellphone out of a suit pocket. "I'll send you the list of stuff Boss and the others want, Rael."
Instead of protesting, the noble said, "See that you do," and made his annoyed escape before he could be dragged into this. He paused by the door. "Have fun, Regis." He was gone before Regis could retort that no, it wasn't a little kids' club, or was he going to imply something about RK when Seira was a member?
"We'd better go down to the lab," Tao said, still tapping away at his cellphone. "I'm going to have to set up the security measures Boss had so no one could get into his manor while they were gone and a hologram projector so it looks like the house is still in this dimension.'
"We're all going out to the island?" Takeo wondered.
"Well, I'm supposed to leave Rael, but father-son bonding time!" Tao grinned at Regis' expression. "The more time Boss gets to work on him, the less annoying he'll be."
From Regis' sideways glance, true, but, "There are limits." Even if it was Rael.
"It's for his own good, Number 3," Tao said, nodding. "If he's in the lab getting patched up he won't be able to annoy Miss Seira. She can send him to meet his dad!"
"Yes," Regis was forced to admit. "She hasn't done it yet, but Sir Rajak is Sir Karias' friend. I have an obligation to my teacher." So it was one thing for Regis to get in fights with Rael, another for Rael to annoy Seira and end up in eternal sleep?
"What? No, not like that! Well, yeah, she can do that too," Tao said, and Takeo had to agree that Seira would have little trouble defeating Rael when Rael was still getting his priorities straight, "but I met the Fourth Elder! If she can do that, then she could send Rael to talk to that guy who crushed on Boss!"
"Sir Ragar," Takeo remembered. It was possible for Rael to see the father who left him so young again?
"Right!" Tao agreed. "So he needs to stop ticking off Miss Seira! If he does it now, she might not ever help him with that!"
"Seira can send people to speak to soul weapons?" Regis' eyes were wide.
…His father, Takeo thought, looking at Regis sympathetically, then hurriedly looking down at his gun again to spare the noble's dignity.
Regis went on, almost tentatively. "I wonder if…"
"I'm sorry Number 3!" Tao wailed, roping Regis in with the whip and squishing him, cellphone vanished from Tao's hands. "Seira sent me to talk to a stupid Elder just so I could have a soul weapon when you haven't gotten to see your dad!"
"What? No!" Regis said, offended. "I'm asking about Grandfather!"
"Something happened to Gejutel?" Takeo asked, hands freezing.
"Not Regis' Grandpa!" Tao sounded horrified by the idea, but not really afraid.
That was right, Takeo realized. If something happened to Gejutel, this wasn't how they would find out about it. Regis wouldn't be acting like normal if he knew he'd lost his grandfather.
"The clan leader was very busy – he had to make arrangements for the Previous Lord's entry into Eternal Sleep, help instruct the new clan leaders in how to perform their duties and then my parent created me." It was a relief that Regis didn't look guilty, just miffed. "He and Father were going to spend time together later, when it wouldn't undermine Father's authority for people to think he needed his parent holding his hand all the time, but then the traitors sent Father into eternal sleep. I am fine, but if it is possible, I would like Grandfather to see his child."
Takeo smiled. Regis was a good kid, he thought, as Tao hugged Regis tighter and started talking aloud about what a good kid Regis was as Regis permitted it and waited for the noise to stop.
"Shouldn't you start on the security so we can get going?" M-21 asked finally, trying to pretend it wasn't for Regis' sake.
"Right!" Tao straightened up, letting Regis go. "Preparations for our RK mission?"
"What mission?" M-21 demanded as Takeo took care not to frown and make Tao think he disapproved of Tao having ideas, but was still considering damage control.
Going along with what Tao wanted was usually the best strategy, he'd found. Tao was much happier now that he was able to be assertive, and it wasn't… Tao's ideas may seen as ridiculous as Frankenstein wanting them to taste test ramyeon seemed ridiculous, but Takeo would rather live in that ridiculous world. Regis' world with knights, Frankenstein's world where people took care of each other.
"Parents' Day on the island!"
Why did Tao want to prepare for that now? May 8 was months away, their lives weren't stable enough to try to pin anything down that far in advance. It was more Tao's style to know that, and plan to be in a position to pull off an elaborate Parents' Day with only days or hours of prep time.
Would they even all be alive on May 8? Would a pre-arranged Parents' Day then remind Raizel and Frankenstein of the lost, make them think when they'd failed them when it was already a miracle that Takeo was still alive? He was living on the time they gave him.
Just like Raizel was living on the time Frankenstein gave him.
"That sounds nice." Takeo smiled. "I wouldn't mind celebrating Parents' Day now." When they were all here. While they were all alive to thank Raizel and Frankenstein, and they were here to be thanked. "We'll follow your lead, right everyone?"
Tao grinned to see Regis nod firmly, without Tao even needing to say that this was about showing respect to the homeowner and the Noblesse. Regis knew about a lot of cultures because of his coming of age trip. M-21 looked like he knew he was going to regret this, but gave a nod that was half-shrug anyway. It was good to see that of course they would, both for Boss and because they were willing to listen to Tao. "So, I'm thinking we need a cake, and balloons – he'll like those, even if Boss might be worried they'd pop and make a mess. When we get there we'll start by cleaning the entire base so Boss doesn't have to lift a finger, and make them breakfast in bed – We'll take care of everything the way they take care of us!" They'd need wrapping paper for whatever they got for him, but Tao knew he wouldn't rip it and make a mess when that would bother Boss…
"But not doing any work was a punishment for the homeowner!" Regis objected.
"…Right," Tao said. Drat. So taking care of everything on the island and doing whatever chores the Boss wanted while he relaxed might not be a good Parent's Day kind of thing to do, even if it was traditional. He'd thought all that might go wrong with the plan was sitcom hijinks, and Boss trained them too well for that! There was no way they'd mess up cooking and cleaning, not and disappoint the Boss! "Can we make more work for Boss…"
From the winces, Tao wasn't the only one thinking of all the paper on Boss' desk, or the consequences of throwing dirt on the floor so Boss had more cleaning to do. "Well, we can bring the games for him, and…" Tao's eyes widened in realization. "Quick, Number 3! What kind of games do noble kids play with their parents?"
Even M-21 shifted closer to Regis – they all seemed to agree Tao had just had a brilliant idea!
Regis looked thoughtful. "Sir Raizel enjoys the Choosing Game."
"Choosing Game?" M-21 blinked. "The shirts… That's a game?"
With a firm nod, Regis told him, "It helps develop proper elegance." And Sir Raizel was very elegant.
Tao was quiet to let Takeo ask, "How do you play it?" Takeo seemed interested, and Tao didn't want him to end up like the nobles, not asking questions because he had Tao doing it before he could get a word out all the time!
"You have some things, often gifts, examine them and pick from among them." Simple, in Regis' mind. "Our parents played it with us." His and Seira's.
Thaaaat sounded noble-simple to Tao, the kind of thing where there actually was a simple, practical reason in there somewhere but you had to look sideways to see it if you were from the Union and weren't going to live forever. He thought of asking, 'do they explain why they picked that one?' but that would be making noise and nobles didn't question each others' decisions. Was there scoring? That would imply that someone making a bad or even less good choice could happen, though…
"Seira and the homeowner play it with you all the time," Regis added, in case they hadn't gotten it yet. "Seira's parent also made human foods for us to choose from."
Boss and Miss Seira were playing with them when they made a bunch of different dishes and everyone got to serve themselves what they felt like eating? Boss Tao could see playing with them absolutely, especially without telling them that was going on until they figured it out themselves if they wouldn't ask. Miss Seira was playing with them like they were kids too?
"Games are training," Takeo said slowly, staring at Regis like he'd had an epiphany.
"Counterstrike is training, sure," M-21 said, "but the other games the kids play?"
"Calculating odds. Adjusting to strange situations with different rules and figuring out a winning strategy," Takeo said. "Regis said it helped develop elegance, remember. At Ye Ran, there's teamwork practice. Practice tracking and manipulating moving objects." Right, Takeo kept an eye on the soccer fields. "Noble's parents help their kids practice making choices?"
Regis nodded. "If you do things without thinking like Rael does, you could choose to do something really inelegant. Or even something that goes against who you are." He made that eww expression. "The better you know your own will, the more likely you are to know what the right choice is even if you don't have the time to contemplate it." Like if you were in the middle of a fight.
A grin spread across Tao's face as he realized what Takeo meant. "So that's why you're so stubborn! I bet your dad worked really hard to find time to play with you!"
Regis gave him a suspicious glance in case he was trying to imply that there was ever a possibility that Regis' father wasn't great at taking care of all his responsibilities, but nodded anyway and accepted the compliment on his father's behalf.
If it was a game, then knowing nobles they wouldn't be keeping score by counting. The fun part was weighing the options… Oh! Like when Tao had multiple good plans and he got to go over them to figure out which one was the best and most fun without it being urgent or desperate. It was good practice and fun. "So we'll go get sets of three objects that it would be a tough decision for people to choose between! We should all get a set for Boss and him, but they'll want to play with us!" Tao opened up his cellphone. "Let me see what the budget is…" Was there enough for – let's see: four of them; sets of three so that was twelve; BosshimRKSeiraShinwooRael was nine; Regis wouldn't be getting a set for himself and the rest of RK wouldn't either, so that was minus four sets of three. Ninety-six things – was that doable?
"You've spent all your salary again."
Tao looked shifty, which was admitting M-21 was right.
"We'll pay for your share," M-21 said without needing to look at the other two. "You're the one organizing all this."
"M-21!" Tao cried, because M-21 respected that his planning was work instead of just taking it for granted while thinking it was worthless because it wasn't fighting!
M-21 even held still and let Tao grab him! He had the best comrades! Or… family?
Tao felt emotions welling up, but they needed to get going! "I'll put cake on the list of things for Rael to get! Everyone's packing extra shirts, right? We can put anything breakable in the shirts to keep it safe!" Then again, shirts broke really easily…
"Of course," Takeo said. "Should we get going?"
"Right!" Tao stood straight. "RK, move out!"
The helicopter landed a little before noon the next day. Frankenstein and Raizel were there to greet them – the dust cloud in the distance showed where Seira and Shinwoo were.
"Hey, Boss!" Tao waved. "I'm fine! Nothing wrong with me that wasn't already!"
Frankenstein considered taking umbrage at that, reminding Tao that there was a lot less wrong with him than there was when the Union botched his enhancements. He did need to hammer in with them that they didn't owe the Union anything and their 'weakness' had nothing to do with them, it was the fault of those idiots.
He could sense Seira and Shinwoo had stopped their spar and were coming here. Seira must have sensed Regis and Rael. Or heard the helicopter even over the noise of their fight.
Sure enough, she landed next to him lightly on the tip of her foot, holding on to Shinwoo's hand. He could sense her power around Shinwoo momentarily, keeping him from hitting the ground hard enough dirt could fly up and land all over them.
"Hey, Shinwoo! I made you a mask!" Tao said, waving it in the air. "Now you're SK-01!"
Frankenstein shouldn't have expected Tao to forget about knighting Shinwoo, but he'd expected it to wait until they got back to the mainland. No, of course Tao had thought ahead and packed those supplies.
The boy had the sense to look at Seira and tilt his head before saying yea or nay. From the slight smile she wouldn't mind.
That was going to add to the trouble when Rael heard about it, Frankenstein noted, hoping Master could head it off. Contracts were forbidden and romantic relationships were a rarity on Lukedonia while he lived there. Romance seemed to be mostly considered an exotic human thing that was somewhat in fashion because the Previous Lord favored it, but from what he understood all nobles experienced clan and fealty relationships except those like Ignes Kravei. Frankenstein declaring himself Raizel's 'loyal servant' while clearly play-acting the role had driven Urokai into frothing jealousy as he fantasized about defending Raizel from the evil human. Who knew how Seira being in a kind of relationship he understood (clearly he hadn't known the first thing about romance) would interact with Rael's parent issues?
For once in his life, there was something that Frankenstein would rather not know, but it was his responsibility as Rael's parent.
Blasted Ragar. One of these days, when Rael least expected it, Frankenstein was going to melt down Grandia and feed it to Master. And blast the Previous Lord, he thought, rubbing his forehead, for knowing him so well when they'd only interacted a handful of times.
His bond with Master had kept him together through the centuries of lying to everyone he met, never able to show his true face, but children… these children were a blessing. Their happiness brought Master such joy.
Shinwoo held up a hand and Tao tossed it to him. Shinwoo put it on right away. "How do I look?" he asked Seira.
Frankenstein signaled Rael over to him when he stepped out of the helicopter. "Here's the list of supplies, sir."
"Good." Frankenstein nodded approvingly even though the list was in Tao's handwriting. "Once you've gotten everything stowed away, why don't we make tonight's assignment devising a supply list for Kertia on a six-month mission to the human world, with the reasons for each item? I'll look over it with you once you've got a rough list, and when you have something that looks good we can send it on to your brother. The human world is constantly changing, so I'm sure he'd value your insights."
There, that was Rael settled for the rest of today.
"Wait, Boss, could we maybe have a break this afternoon?" Tao barged in before Rael could react. "Shinwoo's here, so mind if we play a game?"
"Alright," Frankenstein said, and glanced at Master so they would think that he was the reason Frankenstein gave in. Even though the experience of someone striking his poor Master made him want to die. Master would enjoy it, Frankenstein could see the interest in his eyes, but Frankenstein wanted to look over Tao again and it would be a good idea to have Shinwoo, Seira and Rael in the same room, getting some practice being civil, before they returned to the mainland and his poor house.
Tao clapped his hands together. "Great! I'll get Number 3 and set up outside!"
…What game was this? But Tao was already bustling off as Takeo asked Rael, "Would you mind if I helped you unload the helicopter?" and thinking about it, Frankenstein appreciated that this social gathering wouldn't be taking place indoors.
Setting up turned out to be several blankets spread out over the grass, with snacks in easy reach and a stack of bags over to one side.
"What are we playing?" Shinwoo asked, sitting down between Seira and Takeo.
"It's a game Regis told us about."
"A Lukedonian game? Cool."
"Ta da!" Tao reached into the bag at a speed blending-in training taught him would be a blur to unenhanced humans.
Raizel stared at the three kinds of instant ramyeon placed before him, face growing pensive.
"The Choosing Game?" Rael complained.
"We wanted a game that parents played with their kids! Happy Parent's Day!" Tao told Frankenstein and Raizel.
Eyes still on the ramyeon, Master's cheeks darkened a little.
Parent's Day? Old habits made Frankenstein want to argue, say that he didn't care about them at all because children of his would never be safe, but do his best to communicate through words that had to be barbed that this didn't make them unworthy at all, he was doing this because they deserved to be well and happy.
He kept himself from saying that, but he still couldn't… couldn't quite bring himself to tell them yes. So he smiled up at Tao, saying, "You've made Master very happy."
From the others' smiles, they heard what he was truly saying there – because they knew that when Master was this happy, he was happy. Takeo's smile was bright and soft, and M-21 was smiling to himself in a way that couldn't even be called a smirk as the two of them put bags in front of everyone.
Oh no.
Rael had no idea what was going on. It was one thing to exclude Seira, when she was an adult and wouldn't want to openly acknowledge that she needed or wanted a parent figure. That would be a horribly loaded thing for a clan leader of Lukedonia to do, when the traitors claimed that someone even her parent's age was a mere infant, not able to take care of or make decisions for themselves. Seira wouldn't symbolically disrespect her peers or her Lord like that. But Rael wasn't a clan leader.
He was also the only biological child here… Or actually, no. According to a blood test, yes, but Frankenstein's genes had nothing to do with Rael's conception. Frankenstein's genes were part of what made up his body, yes, but it was rather like how donating an organ to someone didn't make you one of their parents.
That hadn't kept Frankenstein from acknowledging Rael as his son, and doing it very publicly to make a statement about human bodily autonomy. Tao knew that Rael was a child of his house, the same as Tao and his comrades, and he hadn't even informed Rael of this on the hours-long helicopter ride? This was an activity for the younger children and their parents and they'd left Rael out of getting to make his own selections to present along with everyone else?
Frankenstein was going to have words with Tao over this. About the difference between taking a prideful noble down a peg and making an insecure child's issues worse. Frankenstein would not let Tao have a hand in turning his brother into a second Urokai Agvain.
"The Choosing Game?" Frankenstein asked Rael instead of Tao even though Rael was on the other side of two blankets while Tao was standing right in front of him. He smiled sweetly up at Tao when Tao realized what that meant. How nice to have smart children.
Tao looked at him pleadingly, wanting forgiveness so this celebration of their family wouldn't end in drama, so Frankenstein smiled reassuringly. No, he wasn't going to let this be ruined for Master.
He would deal with Tao later.
"It's a test of intelligence-gathering and personality analysis skills," Rael told him. "You must demonstrate that you know someone else's style well enough to give them things that they consider almost equally suitable. They pick from among the objects, and if the choice is so easy for them that it's boring, you fail. It also helps children," Regis, "figure out their own personal style, by seeing what things they find fitting or unfitting and realizing why."
Now Seira was looking at Regis disapprovingly.
He'd let them pick a game that Rael must be absolutely terrible at?
It looked as though he'd be dealing with Tao and Regis later, if Seira didn't handle it herself. She was responsible for his conduct while in the human world.
"I see," Frankenstein said. "Giving gifts has more meaning if the other person put thought into them. If they can find things that are just right, it demonstrates that they understand and respect your will."
And now he felt like a bit of an idiot. He'd known that Master didn't mind how long he needed to choose shirts, and that Master found it challenging, but he should have put two and two together after sparring with Ragar and realizing that nobles actually could enjoy challenge instead of considering themselves always perfect with everything and seeing challenge (from a human, for example) as a threat to that self-image.
"Here are M-21's, boss?" Tao handed him one of the bags.
Opening the bag, Frankenstein put the three of them on the blanket in front of him and looked up at M-21, delighted.
M-21 smirked. "I just went to a print shop."
"Aww, no fair!" Tao exclaimed but couldn't put much real protest into it, mostly envy, because he knew they all knew he'd have done the same thing if he'd thought of using pictures from his cellphone.
That made M-21 laugh a little at Tao, because Tao was trying to tell the discarded Union experiment that things weren't fair? If anything, what was fair was the universe being unfair in M-21's favor for once.
"Oh, and Rael is the founder of the feast!" Tao realized. "He got the groceries and picked out the cake!" Tao pointed to Rael with a flourish, and fortunately Rael picked up the cue to… no, Takeo was the one to realize Tao was giving him the opportunity to step into the middle of the circle and present the cake to Raizel and clue Rael in.
Rael bowed properly to Master, who looked up from the ramyeon packets to watch as Rael lifted the lid off the cake box. Elegantly, and Frankenstein felt some hope that Rael might get to feel like he was a part of this day and have it as a happy memory.
Master nodded regally, and Rael bowed again, set the cake and cut Raizel a slice without smearing frosting or disturbing the frosting's two-color geometric design.
Bowing again, he delivered the cake into Master's hands, waiting for Master to take the first bite. He smiled when Master nodded his approval.
"Well, Rael, it seems as though you've done a good job learning Master's taste." Thanks to Frankenstein letting him have the honor of taking care of so many of Master's tea refills and treats.
Frankenstein watched Rael realize that yes he had, hadn't he? That Tao had sent him out to find the cake for such a special day trusting that Rael would choose the perfect one without needing to be told.
Rael vanished from the middle of the circle, quickly deposited cake slices in front of everyone and became visible again sitting next to Takeo, who turned to smile at him.
Why yes. Frankenstein was good at this.
Munching on a forkful of whatever kind of cake this was (M-21 was just glad it had a bunch of different flavors instead of being pure sugar), he stared down at the things in front of him.
They were Regis', that was easy to tell.
It was also easy to see that Raizel was having fun reading the ingredient labels and looking them up on his phone, or maybe looking up the manufacturer's practices or something, so they were going to be staying here until Frankenstein sent Shinwoo, or Shinwoo and Tao, to bed at least.
Huh. This was Raizel's kind of thing. He liked sitting in the living room, being at peace and being happy that other people were also at peace. People were there, but they weren't coming up to you or bugging you, it wasn't as noisy as the kids' games. Raizel would like it if everyone here had something interesting and fun to do.
Was this fun, though?
M-21 liked the idea of it, giving kids practice thinking about what they wanted, when the Union said that didn't matter. It wasn't hard to get why it was fun for baby nobles, when Regis was all about elegance. It would probably be fun for Tao too, when he loved overanalyzing stuff.
He was lucky he'd picked out Regis' bag first. Regis was the only one of them who'd ever played this before, so he might have picked out the best examples of how it worked? M-21 had gone with photos because he knew that Raizel would love those no matter what, so he didn't have to worry about messing up.
The first thing was a cat statue made of shiny black rock – the cat was sitting up and had its tail wrapped around its legs. It was cool and smooth to the touch and not heavy, M-21 was an enhanced human, but there was a weight to it that plastic didn't have. When he picked up and tossed it, it felt very real. Not like a real cat, but something that was definitely there, and solid even if he could crush it without a problem.
Why a cat, he wondered, and just asking the question made him realize the answer was 'because it's not a wolf.' Or a dog. Cats were proud and independent and there were stray cats.
A can of juice, the kind he got at work when he didn't feel like coffee. Had Regis gone by the school to get it there instead of at a supermarket where it would be cheaper? Probably. Why not coffee or tea – right. They had coffee and tea here, M-21 could get those anytime he wanted. They hadn't brought juice to the island. It wasn't even that M-21 liked the juice all that much.
Aside from the fact that he drank it at the school. And usually it was Takeo or Tao getting it for him. Why did Regis even know what kind of juice he got?
Maybe the practical one to pick was just the juice, since he didn't want to end up with his room covered in stuff like Tao's. He could drink the juice can and throw it away. Except that'd be kind of a waste when he had a cup of hot coffee right here.
He looked back at the cat statue. It was a knick-knack. What would he do with it? "I'll just toss it," he thought, but something felt wrong about throwing it away. The trash was for things that were broken, used up. Worn out.
The cat statue wasn't even chipped, and he remembered the feeling of weight in his hands. Weight, significance. You couldn't toss something like that in the trash. Or you shouldn't. Or you'd be an idiot to throw it away, when it was art or something and probably worth some money.
That kind of thing maybe belonged on a shelf somewhere, but there was no way he was keeping a can of juice. It'd be a waste not to drink it when that was the entire point of why people gave you juice.
What was that phrase, comparing apples to oranges? This was nothing like Raizel and those identical shirts. These things were totally different each other, so how was he supposed to pick? One was pretty to look at and the other was kind of nice to drink and use up.
So far, it felt like picking between them would be totally arbitrary, just what he felt like at the time.
Oh. M-21 smirked. Regis was good at this game. M-21 might only know two Landegre, but that was enough to know that they would have been all over teaching this kid to be stubborn. He bet the Kravei played it with him too, because their clan heir was Union while Regis would take it totally seriously.
Playing to win.
M-21 looked next to him at Regis and narrowed his eyes. Challenge accepted.
And he hadn't even taken a good look at number three yet.
A small black square box, the sides sleek and shiny. There was a click as he opened it. White cloth inside, with a button, held down by another lid so it didn't start unfolding itself. It had to be compressed pretty tight.
A shirt. Definitely. One he could probably keep in a pants pocket. Because M-21 kept getting his clothes wrecked and people might say that werewolf regeneration was the best but nobles could regenerate clothing too. Regis had snapped at him that it was inelegant to walk around shirtless after a fight, and he should have some self-respect because people might think he'd lost to Union scum, or got beat so hard it destroyed his dignity.
M-21 had told the noble brat that he didn't care what people thought of him, but Regis just looked annoyed at him, because the noble thought he was totally missing the point.
He could imagine Regis tossing this at him, going, 'Now you have no excuse! Put the damn shirt on!' Or that was what he would have said if he talked like a human instead of a noble.
Alright. A knick-knack (something real and dignified and beautiful that didn't care if he wanted it or not); a disposable tin can (cool on a hot day, Tao's and Takeo's hands, smiling kids all around them); and something that he could keep around so the noble didn't get prissy at him after the next fight (a reminder that Regis cared about an experiment's dignity and wouldn't tolerate anyone looking down on M-21).
M-21 glared at them.
Most of the time, it was easy to think of Regis as… not like the innocent kids from Frankenstein's school, but a kid, or not much difference between him and the experiments who only remembered a few years.
This was the first time he'd seen something that made it feel real that the brat was two hundred years old and had time to get really good at something, the way Frankenstein was better than everyone at everything.
He was sure Takeo had tried to do the same thing Regis was doing – Takeo noticed and remembered and cared about the little things about everyone – and Tao had probably aimed for funny stuff that would make people smile. M-21 had put the minimum effort into this, thought of what should have been a winning strategy and been overconfident. Regis could just have gotten three cans of juice from the vending machine, but no.
In the Union, they'd hammered it in his face that he was never going to be better at anyone who mattered in any way. Wasn't much point to getting competitive, although he didn't mind getting roped into board games. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon. He sniped at Regis, but that wasn't about winning, that was about getting to defy and tick off a noble and live – could worthless trash do that?
He was also used to people making him feel like they were so far ahead of him that he'd never catch up – Frankenstein and Raizel were just… But it wasn't a competition between him and them, because he wasn't crazy enough to think it would ever be. How could you be in the same league as that?
But Regis… M-21 thought of Raizel picking out his shirts in the morning and grinned.
Regis was going to be late for school. He'd be doing laps with Shinwoo or M-21's name wasn't…
It wasn't.
M-21 wasn't his name. It wasn't even a name.
He was still going to kick that brat's ass though, pureblood noble or not.
There's some speculation on Raskreia's lines in the Lukedonia Arc (although you have to be careful with anything based on exact wording because of translation issues) that makes sense if there's a way for Raskreia to 'make a clan no more' without 'forcing all its members into eternal sleep.' There'll be a lot of ? about what exactly a noble clan is until we find out what exactly non-pureblood nobles are, but a clan is still an organization, and you can shut down an organization without killing all its members. We don't know how many nobles there are that aren't part of a clan, and to what degree the clans are administrative units.
However, there is a line that pretty strongly implies that only clan leaders can go make a case to the Lord, so it'd be a good idea for the Lord to make sure that every noble has some clan leader that is responsible for them that they can go to in case of trouble. I'm guessing that with Lagus AWOL, Gejutel was looking after Clan Tradio, so I just decided that Raskreia probably made that a thing and made sure the other clans whose heads were jerks had representation in Lukedonia's government too.
The Western concept of play came out of 'religious rituals,' and the Latin word for 'play' also meant 'school.' In the animal kingdom play is used to teach or practice skills like fighting and hunting. Our brains reward play because it helps us learn – like the generation that grew up 'playing' on computers is good at making use of them.
The human Hierarchy of Needs is a lot of what makes us who we were – for instance, look at the need for food alone and what part of history, what aspect of every single human society and change in society hasn't it had a major impact on?
Nobles don't need food. So something that has shaped so much of human existence isn't shaping them. So what is their hierarchy of needs? How are they getting fulfilled/how are they shaping noble society/what are the Lords doing to make sure those needs are met?