"I don't know much of a way to put it, other than a sub-par set of circumstances... But, I think this is about the best way I could have turned out, false start or not." The Seraph noted, a yawn giving time for her audience to propose his thoughts.

"A sub-par set of circumstances? That sounds a tad deep, for not knowing how to put it."

"Yeah, well, live with it. If I could explain this in a less complicated fashion, I would, so cut me some slack."

"We gonna go on about how hard to explain it is, or are we gonna try n' get to business?"

"For the love of... FINE! I'll credit you for sticking to your word, 'cause that's something you meant for damn sure, apparently!" Lyric exclaimed to the entirety of the room. The Miscreant could tell a dynamic such as this would definitely take some getting used to, but he couldn't help feeling a tinge of excitement trailing behind that thought.

The Hope elaborated, finally.

"To start things off, my home life was a little... interesting. Yeah, we'll call it that. Long story short, my mother was a bit of a man's lady, if that role-reversal has a name yet; she slept around, while dad did the thick of the parenting. To give credit where it's due, my mom deserved every bit of the Chell that she eventually managed to con out of a guy with iron will like his, but we'll save that story for another night, 'kay?"

"I wish I could say I know how you feel with this one. My folks are doing alright, last I heard, but I wouldn't call them nearly as eccentric as the pair you've got."

"Eccentric's a great word for it, actually... I'll have to remember that for the next time I spin this one for somebody." A smirk found the Seraph as she examined his remark, nodding in what looked like agreement. "But, obviously, with that much bang, comes some buck to pay up, if you're reading me."

She paused as a somber coat weaved through her aloof aura. "Eventually, all that shagging ended up with the mother staking her claim on a little bundle of joy: a red-haired, green-eyed little girl. And, as you might figure, she had zero capacity to raise a kid, so she came back. My dad, the sweetheart he was, couldn't bear to hold it against her, and when she wound up forced to move in on account of that and being too dirt poor to keep up her usual antics, he welcomed her as though none of it ever happened, and they basically just forgot about the whole thing. And then, after a while, I came along."

Kyoya took whatever pause she'd adopted as an opportunity to sift through the information revealed. Lyric, too, had a sister.

Well, he thought, had may not have been the correct word, in her case. After all, he knew not of this sister's well being, and for all he knew, could be one of the strongest Reclaimers alive if relation to Lyric had anything to prove.

Soon enough, she continued. "For some reason, after I was born, my mom really changed; she never went out on any of her literal manhunts, and even took on the role of a mother. But, one of those changes was this serious superiority complex. My dad said it caught him by surprise, when she started telling him that she wanted me to be... Well, better, than the illegitimate child she'd had however long before. I never really knew what any of it all meant growing up, though. Hell, I was getting faster stronger, smarter by the day -- but looking back at it's been a real eye opener, honestly. Pop's always told me that it was regret for everything she'd done 'till then, and that she felt she'd owed it to us both to make me as superior to my sister as she could. On behalf of that belief alone, things started getting complicated."

"It already sounds like a handful... I guess I should've expected a persona as jaunty as yours to have had its ups and downs. I'm glad it's not all the pits, though. Who knows if I'd have ever gotten to meet you if things were any different-"

Kyoya stopped himself at the notice of a slightly wide-eyed Seraph staring him down, who in turn shook herself off and found a way to wrap the subject back.

"Yeah, well, things line up the way they do for a reason, so I'm sure we'd have-... Actually, never mind."

"Don't worry, I get it." The Miscreant returned a soft nod. "Don't take it to heart, ya hear?"

"Right... Whatever, Blue." She pouted, then returning to a less apparently troubling line of thought. "So, after a while of all the 'be better' jargon, it started to really get Pop worried. Like, really worried. I'm talking to the point that he lost sleep. By my thirteenth birthday, almost every other day I was either in training or teaching, or whatever else she could come up with. We'd literally have these practice conversations, where she'd turn wholesale compliments into insults and made me think of some comeback before she could count to ten, and if I couldn't, it was another round of sparring."

She narrowed her eyes briefly in his direction. "I'm sure you can see the results. Anyway, again, I never saw anything wrong with it, but Pop always seemed reluctant to see any merit in what his she was doing. He was an advocate of forgive and forget, about as easygoing as they came. I can only imagine how seeing the love of his life, so bent on what I can only see now as some kind of technical revenge on herself could have made him feel..."

After trailing off like that, Kyoya expected everything from then on to be fuel for his waterworks.

However, that somber spool quickly unraveled into the bright, hopeful smile he'd grown to even find his own comfort within. "But, thankfully, things ironed out not too long after I turned fifteen. That's because the man she'd had my sister with actually visited that year, and brought my sister with him. It was a reunion for the books, that's for sure. Of course it had to have been while I was away, but after she'd finally met my sister, it seemed like our family just... Turned normal, for lack of any better description. Whatever regret had welled up got stomped out, just like that -- or at least, that's what I was told. Even I'm not dumb enough to believe it was so simple, granted I was the centerpiece of her efforts -- but there was definitely a gradual change of heart. And, finally, she just up and asked if I wanted to go on with it. After a long talk with both my parents, I decided I didn't want to, and that what I really wanted was, well..."

She took yet another pause, a finger on her chin to suggest that she was thinking. "It was to figure out for myself what could make me the best me. And, as Fate would have it, I ended up meeting Alex, Altar, Solitaire, and Ryder after coming to fight in their annual tournament. From that, the Prophecy Princess, as she's known, discovered a connection between me and Lyrileas -- and that's how I ended up here... And it's also why I always take anything anybody says as a potential point of argument. How'd you say it? 'Don't take it to heart, ya hear?'" She echoed, sticking her tongue out at him.

Her gesture didn't distract him from the reality that there was tons to take in, just from that piece of her past alone. It occurred to him that from the way Lyric spoke of her, she'd never actually met her sister. In a way, that pained him.

Such an integral piece of her life, one that lead to both sorrow and success, left to wander in the depths of her mind. Obviously there was a stark difference in losing one's sibling, but that pang of sympathy rang for her all the same. At the very least, knowing some amount of what she might have felt did well to soothe him.

But, there was still something that left the boy in the dark. Solitaire?

"Hey, you mentioned a name we haven't met a second ago... Who's Solitaire? Don't tell me you literally met a card game-"

"For one, maybe you don't have as great of a dome as I give you credit for. For two, who's this 'we' fella? I've met her; Adventurer-Princess, Alexandria's older sister, and one of the greatest Heirs to Eternity you'd ever meet: Solitaire Albion."

The Miscreant thought on that. Hearing mention of another Heir to Eternity definitely got gears turning, so there was anticipation of another encounter beginning to build up, whether he liked it or not.

"I guess you really know the go-round by now." He rested with what all had been said, now able to resonate with his partner even more comfortably than before.

"I hope you're not complaining, because you'd be going through hell without connections like mine."

"Nah. I guess I'm just thankful. You've done a ton to get me where I'm at, even though it's all on little else than a hunch... So, thank you. Really. I know I've said it before, but, I'll keep doing my best. Especially in our fight tomorrow."

"Wow, Blue. I thought you were getting soft on me for a minute there. Way to bring it back."

"I'm better than I look at picking up on things. We'll see where that gets me."

"Yeah, okay, then I think the first place it should get you is in the washroom. It might just be me, but I know how much a real brawl can sweat out of somebody, and you just had a courtyard kerfuffle with a Demon. You might be fine right now, but if you reek tomorrow because you skipped a bath today, I'll freakin' kill you for making me fight a two-on-one against you and my own nose."

"Sheesh, loud n' clear. I'd already planned on getting in, y'know..."