exsilium | I : video

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I : video

[Well, this is certainly a very shaky view of Kevin’s old fashioned dress shoes. And hey, now what seems like a thumb has blocked the camera. ]

…Hm? Oh! Is it working?

[He shakes the tablet, apparently under the impression that kinetic energy might help it function a little better. The sad truth is that it doesn't.]

Ah, I-I hope so. Hm, sir? Madam? My name is Kevin Cecil, and it recently came to my attention that now I can…heal minor afflictions and illnesses of different natures. If I can be of any assistance, do not hesitate to contact me. I’m currently at…Oh dear Lord, is that St Paul’s?!

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[Well, now it is time to tell half truths, but at least he is used to these.]

Ah, my mother comes from a family of priests, and my brother was supposed to be the next Reverend Cecil, but unfortunately he passed away during the Crimean war. I attended a theological college in Manchester while I served as a butler for the Twining family, but I never worked as a priest until a vacancy was open at my young master's boarding school. This way, we can remain close.

[And I can watch over him.]

( She nods, just accepting all of that. There's no reason for her not to! )

Does that ever get difficult? Like, conflicts of interest?

( She sounds genuinely curious as she continues to pry; a good natured, very nosy young woman. )

[The normalcy of her questions is extremely welcome.]

Well, in the beginning I tried to be hm...more aloof and professional, and stay away from young master, but the poor thing thought I was giving up my job as his butler, so we had to find a better arrangement.

[That and William suffered so many threats Kevin could not bear to stay away.]

What exactly does it mean, to be professional as a butler? Are you a friend and confidante as well as, you know, kind of a personal assistant? I really don't get butlers. Priests, either, but that's something different.

[There is a small pause.]

A butler's main responsibility is to make certain that a manor is running smoothly. Sometimes, as it is my case, those responsibilities extended to the outside estate and its financial affairs. However, my relationship with young master is a little...atypical. He lost his parents when he was still very young and I have been taking care of him since them.

Would you say he's like family to you? Or you to him?

[Kevin laughs softly.]

That would be a tad impertinent on my part, but perhaps accurate enough.

I'm sure if you've been with him so long, Will has to think of you as important like family. I mean, it's not like all family is blood related. Why bother taking anyone in when you marry them, if it was?

[Kevin is the closest thing to family William will ever have, and they love each other dearly. It is an amazing mess.]

...Do you have anyone you consider family?

Of course!

( The she doesn't immediately volunteer who. It's with a half-laugh, like she needs to fumble in to an explanation, that produces: )

I've got my brother, and his wife. Which is about half of both kinds, I guess! Related by blood and related by marriage.

( She doesn't rush to defend where he left to. Here, no one knows. Here no one even considers. And it doesn't need to mean anything if she clings so hard to the people she finds, only letting go because it's inevitable that everyone will leave. )

[He looks away, a little embarrassed about his own curiosity. He should not probe that much. God knows what means to be here for too long.]

...Are they in Exsilium?

( That gives her pause. )

Ah... no! No, they haven't ever been. ( Between that hesitation on her part, and how he looks away, she's quick to offer reassurances: ) I mean, I think it's for the best, Phillip would go crazy worrying about Anne no matter how much you'd tell him it's fine, time's not going forward at super speed, and if Anne was here that'd be a big mess, 'cause last I heard, they thought she was pregnant? I don't know for sure, they were in Germany by then, but I think that's what they were waiting on bloodwork for.

[Still, she is the one who is away from her family. He wonders if they miss her. And if his young master his looking for him.]

Please, tell me more about how time works in Exsilium. This might be...relevant for young master's well being.

( She regards him for a moment, the soft, somewhat amused smile she defaults to gradually growing warmer. It's nice to know people are cared for, and well cared for, out there. Kevin cares about William -- she hopes William has an idea of how lucky that makes him. )

Time works in a whole bunch of ways here, but the parts that'll be important to you are the kinds of things it took me a long time to believe and the proof... anyway, try to trust me on this one, okay? Whenever you have been taken from, that exact moment -- when you go back, that's where you'll return. Think of this like a really strange vacation that happens in a different place entirely than where you're from! The time that passes here doesn't reflect back there.

It's like when you go back, you're time traveling back to the same time you were pulled away from. So nothing's happening without you there, or anything. William's as okay as he was before, or if he was in danger, that danger won't be bigger or smaller than how it last was. So he's fine! He can't even notice that you're gone. 'Cause you've already gone back, you know? After all your time here ends, you already went back.

[Fortunately, Kevin is actually very good at having faith. There was a time when he knew and so faith was not necessary, but these days faith is all he has and he cannot live without it.

Her reply causes so much relief he has to look away when his eyes become suddenly teary. Good Lord, he has done nothing but worry about young master all along.]

( She doesn't laugh, because that would sound cruel, even if it was warm laughter. But she does smile: it matters so much to people when you worry about what it is you go back to, and who you have there, waiting, needing you. Whatever hangs in the balance... one boy, or one world, or something even larger. The entirety of a universe? )

Sure takes a load off your mind, huh?

[For a moment, he is more Uriel than Kevin Cecil as he turns around to hold both her hands in gratitude. His own hands are warm and smooth, and his touch is gentle like a blessing.]

Thank you, Miss Collette.

( Touch is something she appreciates regardless; and it always means something, to have someone willingly touch her like she is as normal as anyone else, forever seated in her wheelchair though she might be (by technicality and genetics).

It's the like a blessing that stirs a different memory of Mahdi the -angel-not-angel, and how some of his blessings have felt -- or even Ashraf, the holy-man-from-another-world. But surely that's just an association, probably one she makes because in his downtime, he's a priest. Her eyes widen in wonder, though she falls back on her smile, sincere as it tends to be. )

You're welcome, Kevin. Though really, call me Collette? I know it's hard ( for people from a given era ), but... I like it better without the Miss.

[This human is a keeper of memories, Uriel muses with a nostalgic smile. Not a long time ago, he could have considered making her his, like Ernest and the others, but this is a new place. As far as he knows, there is no war between angels and demons here, and he must tread carefully.]

...Collete. [He tries, still holding her hands.] I cannot repay what you have done, but I will do my best.

Edited 2013-09-09 00:22 (UTC)

( She gives his hands a squeeze, her own version of reassurance. )

Hey, don't worry about it! There's nothing to repay, I'm just filling you in like anyone else would, if they knew.

You were still the first.

( But never the last, she thinks to herself, and it's a good thought: Transports are more likely to find someone else who cares than someone else who'd enjoy watching them in honest agony.

Dishonest agony... well. There're a lot of teases around! )

Hey, anytime, you know? I do what I can. Plus, I like talking, so...!

( She doesn't mind being the information dispensory, best as she understands it. Explaining people or events is what she does. Self assigned, long in standing, creating a context for the world? She likes doing that, spinning toward the positive ends, without ignoring the realistic properties around her.

She'd be a worse liar when she lies if she ignored reality. )

[And Kevin will learn about such teases the hard way.

In accordance with her intentions, he has already decided she is a very reliable source of local knowledge. However, that leads to a less cheerful thought.]

C-collette...How long have you been here?

Me? Must be...

( She pauses, humming as she thinks. )

By now, a year and two months? Or close to that, since we're in September!

O( She sounds and is a little too okay with this fact; she's adapted better than perhaps she should have, but she's done so with what grace can pass for garbed in good cheer, vivacity, and a love of second chances. )

[He notices the excessive okayness and wonders what has happened to her all this time.]

I have never stayed away from my young master this long.

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