eachdraidh | [Video | Evening, after the feast

[Arthur is still none too comfortable with this locket, in fact it takes some fiddling for him to remember that for visuals he need do more that just talk directly into it, thus for a moment or two only his mouth or a nostril are visible, his discomfort with this device clear upon his expression as it's revealed. Or perhaps that's worry, concern knitting his brow? Either way he's not too pleased, and there's a noticeable weariness in his blue gaze.]

Good evening, I use this in an to attempt to find the whereabouts of my manservant, Merlin. He appears to have misplaced his locket-- that or he simply will not respond.

[Arthur is really not well acquainted on how to address those not directly in front of him when anyone may view this. Even to address many, standing before him seems rather more natural than speaking into a piece of jewellery. Still, he turns thoughtful.]

Perhaps some of you may know him, however for those who do not, I suppose he's best described as awkwardly tall, quite shabby about his clothing--

[Arthur's tone is somewhat weary, isn't that the worst? What else?]

-dark hair, very probably unkempt, really there's every possibility he's set up in a tavern somewhere, he's been known to spend days there.

[In part said not only to aid his search but to convince himself that it could easily be a most valid explanation -- he's vanished without notice in Camelot.]

It's not like him to be absent for the feast.

[Food, it's not like him to miss out on food. Including food that isn't his. A slight frown tugs at the corners of Arthur's mouth, he not giving the impression he's concerned, at least not to an assortment of strangers and lets out an irritable sigh before the message ends.]

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[ arthur may not know his way around the locket, but his attempts at navigating it prove fruitful for him. zuko merely sucks at operating his. ]

[ it's the manservant that piques his interest, zuko coming to the conclusion quite quickly that arthur must be royalty. those who aren't don't have servants. zuko wonders where he can get one, if caer scima has merely opted to not give him one as an act of pushing him to tie his own shoes — or maybe they deem him capable of looking after himself, as he had proven to uncle iroh he was quite capable of serving tea without so much as spilling its alleged precious contents. either way, he wonders. ]

You have a

[ his text stops there as he wraps his fingers around the spikes and presses down hard in agitation. he begins to press buttons at a furious pace, ready to breathe fire if the locket so much as doesn't bend to his own will. he almost forgets he's in the middle of a conversation as he does so. ]

Ugh! Stop writ —

— ing what I say! [ zuko's frowning, expression one of anger, but the moment he realises his locket is no longer scribing what it is he's saying, the sharpness of his expression slips from his face and slackens, his mouth opening into an o. rather than be greeted with an angry tone in text, arthur's now subjected to an angry scar over zuko's left eye. his voice deflates. ] Oh.

[ zuko would apologise, but he hasn't done any harm to arthur, so the i'm sorry doesn't even begin it's ascent up the ladder of his throat. he thinks he's managed to turn it to visual. his tone is softer, conversational — and implies he hadn't just almost had a fit a few seconds ago. ]

You have a manservant?

[ does he even want a manservant? well, he thinks so, just to operate this stupid locket. ]

[It's curious this device, how it may go from words to be read, to the sound of a voice- to what looks, he thinks is scarred flesh --Arthur's somewhat disconcerted and he does not hide it immediately, though his good manner recovers, mostly.]

Indeed-- not that it matters so greatly when he's impossible to find.

[Arthur's brows arch a little, it's not difficult to notice this particular person is struggling somewhat.]

These lockets do take some getting use to.

[ the scar has been a defining point in his life for four years and counting. he remembers being in the earth kingdom, where lee had tried to touch his scar. but he'd become more than just the burn on his face to the little boy — before his firebending and proclamation of his birth had ruined it all. it's hard to be blind to those around him being unsettled by the presence of his scar, but zuko makes no attempt to brush his hair over his left eye. ]

[ he's somewhat comforted by the notion someone else has had trouble with the locket. but zuko's zuko. some part of him wants to have no trouble with it at all. ]

Did he help you with it?

[ wouldn't that be one of the tasks a manservant has been assigned with? ]

[Should Arthur's pride feel a touch too picked at? Perhaps not so much, if many struggle with the workings of the lockets.]

We have nothing like this in my world. At least nothing I've encountered, the means to contact someone days travel away in moments.

[Yes. That's reason enough isn't it? To have no idea what you're doing, and it wasn't as if Merlin figured it all out more rapidly- well, maybe it was.]

Initially. He did.

[Hence the somewhat unexpected view of Arthur's nostril, early on. However, his tone suggests that Arthur's mastered the art well enough now, mostly of his own volition. Even if he's not entirely comfortable with it.]

[ if they had these doovalacky things back in his world, zuko doubts he'd have had to chase aang all around the world. why do that when he could sit in a tea shop and skype him with threats? ]

[ but rather than affirm that he, too, is from a world that lacks whatever this locket truly is, he thinks his own poor demonstration of it and thus question says as much. ]

Is he a servant from this world?

[ it makes little sense if he had been from his. how can someone from a world with this contraption know how to work it if he didn't know how? ]

[Video | Evening, after the feast | Both Courts],

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