Indeed. Also, you can tell Flan is still feeling her way into her new world, or she would realize that if Remilia were angry with her about this, she'd have known about it long before now.

>I guess Remilia's reaction to Flandre's impossible circumstances will
>happen at a date to be determined. Now I wonder how long it will take
>anyone without a measuring tape to notice.

Won't be too much longer.

>I'm glad for Sakuya's sake that she did understand Italian,
>since Remilia the Elder was clearly so well practiced at appearing to
>be cold and terrifying that she comes across as more frightening than
>her ancient vampire lord of a husband.

She didn't actually mean to be terrifying, as such, but in her constant quest to be taken as seriously as possible, she often overdid it without realizing.

But yes, it's fortunate for Sakuya that she knew what was going on (and also for the audience). And it gave me an opportunity to get Signora Sapere a little screen time, so as to establish that there were at least a few people beyond her husband that didn't buy into Remilia the Elder's nonsense. :)

>One of those situations where I grumble about my lack of artistic
>talent, since I now have the image of Meiling delivering that line in
>traditional knightly armor carrying Sakuya in the most cliched
>princess dress imaginable. Funny thing, in my head full plate armor
>works really well on Meiling.

For complicated reasons, this ends up with me envisioning Sakuya and Meiling re-enacting the plate armor scene from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, complete with Sakuya screaming, "You killed Meiling, you medieval dickweed!" and attacking the medieval guard dude.

>>"As you wish," said Sakuya, and, with a movement almost to quick to follow,
>>she delivered. The throw was on target, the silvered dagger flickering across >the torchlit space and heading straight for Flandre.
>
>Was this just a literary flourish, or are Sakuya's daggers actually
>coated in silver for application against entities that are vulnerable
>to that metal?

They are, in fact, silver-plated. (This is why Flan even noticed she'd been stuck with one in Sakuya's first appearance. They don't do any lasting harm if they're removed right away, but they sting a lot more than a plain steel blade would.) For the record, this is not a measure she took just in case she had to take down her own employer some day; it's to make them more effective against other supernaturals, such as werewolves, boggarts, and the like.

>I imagine the 'light reading' line being delivered with just a bit of
>sarcasm. Though I also picture the book being set down with an audible
>thud so I may just have watched too many cartoons in my life.

It does whomp a bit, although it's not a huge book. (And being handwritten, it looks more substantial than it would be if it were typeset and printed.) The "light reading" part was definitely meant wryly, though.

>And here we see that overthinking and worrying about matters they've
>already been explicitly told not to is a trait shared by both Scarlet
>sisters. Which is a common enough trait among the general population
>of people truthfully, but it does contrast a bit more with Remilia
>given her usual self confidence.

She's particularly concerned about his reaction to some fairly specific parts of the book, primarily regarding details of vampire ecology she was reasonably sure he didn't know—his complete failure to address which in their follow-up conversation bemused her a bit, although he took the conversation in a direction that made pursuing specific points... difficult. She'll have to come back to at least one of them later.

As for her uncharacteristic uncertainty, well, this is a Big Deal, and it's a thing she's never been serious about before. It's comparatively easy to be self-confident about your dinner plans or what you're wearing. Selecting and being selected by a life partner is on a whole 'nother level, particularly when your lifespan is very, very long. Couple that with the fact that, although possibly not conscious of it, she's still slightly ashamed of the way she forced the very beginning of their acquaintanceship, and she's very aware—maybe a little too aware—of the gravity of the situation.

>Also at this point I suspect she sees it as tradition to playfully
>admonish G for his affectionate liberties. Much like with Flandre
>teasing her, if she ever didn't respond that way G might think she's
>come down with some sort of vampire flu.

Put it this way: Although the word is virtually always encapsulated in some kind of protest, he is rapidly coming to the conclusion that she only calls him "beast" when she really wants him to continue along the path he's currently on. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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