Video ; UN: P'Magnum

[50000baht]

Hi.

[Here is Kinn, waving a little haphazardly.]


So, I'm out of commission for a few weeks.


[With a wan smile, he lifts up his splinted arm.]


I guess I got off lucky. So what do I do to entertain myself while I'm laid up?


[and have a smarmy smirk with a wink]


I'm left handed, after all.

Comments

[safesex]

If it won't hurt your pride. That's how I started teaching Macau English.

[50000baht]

It won't.

[Hell, he learned to fish from Porsche, he could improve his English skills with Vegas. What else could he do around here, anyway? Not like he could even play the violin he bought recently! ]

[safesex]

Alright. When do you wanna start?

[50000baht]

Three days ago?

[BORED, Vegas!]

[safesex]

Alright, I'm on my way.

Action

[50000baht]

[ FINALLY. Lack of being bored. He doesn't even care what Vegas is going to bring to read, just the fact that he was coming was enough. ]

[safesex]

(( Vegas knocks and waits only a beat before entering the room. The knock was really more to announce that he's there rather than seek permission to enter. He's got a couple of books tucked under his arm and he walks over to take a seat next to his cousin. ))

What shall we start with?

[50000baht]

What do you have? What have you read more?

[ So it might not be the book that mattered, but the company. ]

[safesex]

(( He sets the books down beside him and turns them so the titles are visible on the spines. ))

I brought Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Shadow over Mars, the Left Hand of Darkness, The Children of Men, and The Three-Body Problem. Any you haven't heard of? I can tell you about 'em then you can decide.

[50000baht]

Island of Dr Moreau.

[Time for a decision. Because Kinn's getting impatient and if something isn't done to distract him, he's going to go do reckless things. Funny that, Kinn being reckless. ]

[safesex]

Good choice.

(( Vegas sets the other books aside and leans back. He opens the obviously second-hand book and runs his fingers fondly over the title page before flipping a few to begin. ))

'On February the First 1887, the Lady Vain was lost by collision with a derelict when about the latitude 1° S. and longitude 107° W.

On January the Fifth, 1888—that is eleven months and four days after—my uncle, Edward Prendick, a private gentleman, who certainly went aboard the Lady Vain at Callao, and who had been considered drowned, was picked up in latitude 5° 3′ S. and longitude 101° W. in a small open boat of which the name was illegible, but which is supposed to have belonged to the missing schooner Ipecacuanha. He gave such a strange account of himself that he was supposed demented. Subsequently he alleged that his mind was a blank from the moment of his escape from the Lady Vain. His case was discussed among psychologists at the time as a curious instance of the lapse of memory consequent upon physical and mental stress. The following narrative was found among his papers by the undersigned, his nephew and heir, but unaccompanied by any definite request for publication.

The only island known to exist in the region in which my uncle was picked up is Noble’s Isle, a small volcanic islet and uninhabited. It was visited in 1891 by H. M. S. Scorpion. A party of sailors then landed, but found nothing living thereon except certain curious white moths, some hogs and rabbits, and some rather peculiar rats. So that this narrative is without confirmation in its most essential particular. With that understood, there seems no harm in putting this strange story before the public in accordance, as I believe, with my uncle’s intentions. There is at least this much in its behalf: my uncle passed out of human knowledge about latitude 5° S. and longitude 105° E., and reappeared in the same part of the ocean after a space of eleven months. In some way he must have lived during the interval. And it seems that a schooner called the Ipecacuanha with a drunken captain, John Davies, did start from Africa with a puma and certain other animals aboard in January, 1887, that the vessel was well known at several ports in the South Pacific, and that it finally disappeared from those seas (with a considerable amount of copra aboard), sailing to its unknown fate from Bayna in December, 1887, a date that tallies entirely with my uncle’s story.

Charles Edward Prendick.'

[50000baht]

[As Vegas settles in, Kinn does the same thing. Most of the words he catches with just a few of the larger ones skating past his ability to translate quickly.

Please, no one but Pete tells Vegas that his voice is nice to listen to!

All of Kinn's attempts to stay up and pay attention fail as stress and exhaustion hit him. He hasn't really slept well since arriving here: bunking with Riley helped some but not enough for him to feel safe and secure. Knowing how dangerous Vegas is and given their new relationship here in Nippon, he felt like he could relax for a moment and give the torch to someone else for an hour or so. Curled up with his injured arm hugged to his body, he fights against his eyes closing for the longest time before he falls asleep. ]

[safesex]

(( Vegas keeps reading until he's sure Kinn's asleep. Even then, he doesn't leave right away. There's something to be said for knowing someone's looking out for you in a vulnerable time. Maybe in the past, that comfort wouldn't have come in the form of Vegas. But now? They're working on repairing their relationship. It takes work and Vegas has no reason not to put in that work. There's no one trying to pit him against Kinn now, but there's also little Kinn has that Vegas wants. So it all works out. ))