This is all horribly backwards.

[pretentions]

Who: Tokiomi Tohsaka (pretentions), Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi (enjoymyatelier
Where: Route 30
When: ...I will edit this later, I need to verify the date because I'm an airhead and forgot to ask, uh
Summary: Kayneth and Tokiomi are spoiled aristocratic mages who spend like 90% of their time indoors. Now that they're both depowered and expected to fend for themselves on the routes...well. Needless to say, their bodies were not ready. Or something. Welcome to episode one of Mage vs. Wild.
Rating: P...G...? I never know how to do this
Log:

Well, it's a short while into his Johto...adventure, and Tokiomi is still facing the situation with composure and grace; however, it had only taken maybe the first night for him to realize that composure and grace can only get one so far when one has no wilderness survival skills whatsoever. The situation hasn't exactly improved, but overall, it could be worse; it's been reasonably warm, and he still has a means to make fire.

Speaking of, the little...shrew-thing he'd been given seems to be doing well; she seems to thrive off of battle, at any rate, which is proving to be quite useful when it comes to fending off the insects and the birds and the...ferret abominations.

As obnoxious as the local wildlife is, however, he can't say that it's entirely unwelcome; if nothing else, the constant fighting is providing a convenient distraction from focusing on...just about everything else. It's a challenge to be faced down and overcome, and more importantly, it's an immediate issue; the rest can be focused on when he finds he can focus on it.

At the current rate he's going, that appears to be sometime between now and "never," but...

Either way, he has ferrets to destroy and a lack of sleep to fight through, because these routes are absolutely horrible; the current stretch seems to be far longer than the last, and Tokiomi can't say that he's pleased to see it. Regardless, he's facing it with a calm composure and a decided lack of outward annoyance; however, his expression is so serene it manages to cross the line twice clear back into being so deliberate that it has to stem from annoyance.

Clearly, he is going to composure and grace the hell out of this region.

Comments

[enjoymyatelier]

Composure and grace were nice and all, and Kayneth would totally be all over that idea under normal circumstances... however, well.

These circumstances were about as far from normal as they could get, and that wasn't even taking the things that were actually strange about it into account. Sleeping anywhere but a nice, soft bed had been completely anathema to Kayneth, and even after dealing with the sparsity of an abandoned factory he was completely unprepared for this. He'd only slept about a half an hour the previous night, and that had been ruined by waking up to see some rat stealing his food, which his amorphous blob had been completely useless against.

...so about four hours into today's leg of the adventure, Kayneth had collapsed in the middle of the road from a mixture of exhaustion and hunger.

...this was off to the greatest start let me tell you.

[pretentions]

...well, that's about as far from composed and graceful as one can be, yes...

Finding someone collapsed in the middle of the road hadn't been anything that Tokiomi had planned for; it's more than enough to get him to leave the shrew to her own devices (simple enough, as she seems to be having a grand time stalking one of those tremendous caterpillars) for the sake of investigating. He can hardly leave the person here in complete good conscience; were the place less abandoned, he would be perfectly content to leave it to the authorities, but...

As he approaches, he's definitely taking in what he can about the person; it isn't long before there's a sudden sense of oh for the love of god is that really -

"Lord El-Melloi?" The recognition will get a bit of a quickened approach, if nothing else; this is managing to be simultaneously completely unexpected and yet not a surprise at all. It's actually not an insult against Kayneth, necessarily; however, from what Tokiomi does know of him - and there was a good amount of information being thrown about before the Holy Grail War started - it's a reasonably safe assumption that Kayneth wouldn't exactly be prepared for something like this, either.

[enjoymyatelier]

Well, that voice was... really vaguely familiar, but even though Kayneth was slightly more awake, it really took him far longer than he would have liked to actually pick himself up and...

...oh.

Well.

This was embarrassing. Also somewhat dangerous, but then, Tohsaka hadn't seemed particularly interested in continuing the war here.

Really, though, in his current state, all this could elicit from him was "...ah."

[pretentions]

Whether they were on opposing sides in Fuyuki City or not was really more or less a moot point in Johto; without access to magecraft, Servants, weapons or...well, anything besides a small flaming shrew and an amorphous purple blob, really, there wasn't much to be done. Tokiomi was fully aware that in the current state Kayneth was in, he would be easily finished off; at the same time, there would be no honor in that whatsoever.

And besides, even if they did continue their battle here, that would be a fight better left to a later date; as it stood, Tokiomi had no intention of standing around while the shrew whacked Kayneth into submission with her face in an attempt to Tackle him to death or something.

"Dare I ask what happened, or..."

[enjoymyatelier]

Really, Kayneth didn't want to admit what had happened, because it was far too embarrassing and having to beg for food from another mage would be almost as bad as death from a flaming shrew, but, well...

"...There were some issues with the food," he replied, after a second or two of consideration.

It wasn't exactly false, anyway. That rat was going to regret ever crossing Kayneth El-Melloi.

[pretentions]

Well, that told him absolutely everything and nothing at once, didn't it...

"...tell me it wasn't poisoned, or something along those lines?"

[enjoymyatelier]

"I didn't get a chance to find out," said Kayneth ruefully, deciding that was vague enough. Thinking about it that way, he almost hoped that it had been...

[pretentions]

"...I see." The reply was even, calm, despite the fact that no, really, he kind of didn't see.

...right. Well. Aside from begging the question of exactly how Kayneth had already managed to screw himself over horribly when they weren't even an eighth of the way into this...journey they were supposed to be on, there really wasn't anything to be done about that. If Kayneth was unwilling to say anything on the subject, there wasn't much sense in continuing to press him - whatever he had done, it hardly mattered now. He shifted a bit, clasping his hands behind his back; he knew he probably should leave Kayneth be and let him work out survival on his own. If he couldn't, well, that was Kayneth's problem; they were all at an equal disadvantage here, and if circumstances, a lack of familiarity with the surroundings, or...whatever this was (basic...incompetence...?) was enough to destroy the man, then Tokiomi should probably allow it to happen.

At the same time, Tokiomi wasn't entirely without compassion; this was pitiable. And besides, these routes were terrible and he didn't have much else to do outside of try not to strangle some giant caterpillars. Human companionship would definitely be welcome.

"As hideously backwards as this place has decided to be, I suppose it shouldn't come as any surprise that we're expected to locate our own provisions. Another challenge to be overcome, it seems."

...that was as close as he intended to get to directly offering assistance. Best not to make Kayneth's pride suffer any more than it already had; he didn't need to render his company intolerable so early on.

[enjoymyatelier]

...really, as much as Kayneth was loath to admit it, an alliance could be useful here. He certainly didn't think it was necessary, but it would probably make the going a lot less painful until Kayneth could capture some creatures that weren't completely useless, at which point they could presumably part ways. If nothing else, it would help offset the spate of uncharacteristically bad luck he'd been having.

So, perhaps it would be useful to try and strike up an alliance here, but that... could wait until after the immediate situation had been addressed.

"I had considered that. Given the abundance of these creatures, I would presume we're intended to hunt for food using the creatures we've been given. Unfortunately, the one I was given seems to be unable to do anything except transform into a worse version of whatever it's fighting."

...no, he most certainly wasn't bitter about the situation, why would anyone think that.

[pretentions]

Oh, what...

Tokiomi was beginning to see why Kayneth had called this place ridiculous at first; at the moment, he found himself incredibly inclined to agree. "That's literally all it does?"

[enjoymyatelier]

"One would presume that something that appears to have the capacity to mimic practically anything would be more versatile, but that is apparently not the case," said Kayneth, who would probably be better at masking his irritation at everything right now if he weren't starving and exhausted. "I've attempted to teach it other skills, but all it does is sit there and stare vacantly at me."

He was at least glad that he could stick it in one of those "Pokeball" things so he wouldn't have to look at it.

[pretentions]

All right. From the sound of it, Kayneth was starving, worn-down and incredibly bad at Pokémon. Were Tokiomi more pragmatic when it came to dealing with individuals that he was currently speaking to, he would have seriously been questioning his decision to attempt to aid this cause at all due to that last point alone; however, he had always been the sort to require extensive planning to...well, socially function at all. As such, he took in all of that in silence, and made a successful attempt at not facepalming.

"For the time being, then, we can utilize mine; she's at least proven capable of handling the local wildlife. When it comes to yours, you can't simply teach it to do whatever you like; they don't learn from repetition. Believe me, I've tried - it seems that they gain new skills through battle experience only."

It went without saying that that required one to actually win battles.

[enjoymyatelier]

"Is that really the case? I couldn't bring myself to believe that when I read it in the handbook we were given. They're literally unable to adapt unless they manage to win fights? How do these creatures even survive...?"

Kayneth did not quite facepalm, but he did pinch the bridge of his nose. What the hell was... any of this, really?

"Well, given that you're apparently supposed to have more than one of them, I suppose I'll attempt to capture one of those rats or something after we've managed to hunt something else down."