#(The most tragic part of the Neo World Program and messing with Sonia's memories)

[more-than-a-princess]

Well, shit. She'd only intended to attempt to diffuse the attention, taking a combined practical yet heartfelt approach about the fictional intimacy onscreen. Instead, she'd unintentionally spoiled the movie for him. Sonia's eyes widened, horrified at her own actions, and she felt her cheeks grow warm at his response. "Goodness, I really am sorry," She apologized quietly, not wanting to talk over the chaos unfurling in the film. By now, the ship had hit the iceberg and the first class passengers were under the assumption they'd be permitted back into their cabins shortly. "It is just that, in the beginning of the film, she is introduced as 'Mrs. Calvert,' I thought it must be intuitive." Even if it hadn't been a repeat viewing of the film for Sonia, these were the sorts of details she kept track of in movies. So when the masked killer in a horror movie or the culprit in a murder mystery were unveiled, she was often close, if not right on the mark with her guesses. Romance movies didn't offer quite the same amount of deduction, but she still tried not to ignore the little details present.

She wasn't about to confirm that sex could be beautiful. It had been once for her, before she'd even stepped foot upon the campus of Hope's Peak Academy. Growing up quickly was part of being royal, physical intimacy included: and yet she hadn't found herself engaged in such pursuits again until her time as a Remnant. Memories she wished she could forget and hadn't managed to, no matter how hard she tried. She couldn't remember all the names and faces she'd debauched, tortured, abused, and often killed in her quest for manipulation, fulfilling her sexual appetite, and despair. The ones she did were the ones she'd clearly hurt the most, Kazuichi amongst them.

She grimaced beside Gundham, not at the people making a jump for their lives off the side of the ship and Jack and Rose swimming towards a floating door, but at her own acts of brutality. People praying for their lives on-screen hadn't exactly helped: some of her victims had done the same before they'd died at her hand, or by those who eagerly followed her orders. "No, there is not," She confirmed to him, just as Rose let go. "Though I think I read once that plenty of experts tried to test the theory using people of similar builds on a similar plank of wood: it failed every time."

Even despite the ending, tossing the necklace overboard before greeting everyone who had died in the disaster in heaven, it had been a depressing choice of a film: a historical disaster within the frame of a doomed love story. Something she thought Gundham had been aware of when he'd picked it out, but instead as the credits rolled, her hand still clasped in his, Sonia could only stare before doing something she hadn't done in months, perhaps years.

She laughed. Truly laughed, at his assumption as to what the film had been about by cover alone. "An embrace...like that?" She said, the corners of her eyes crinkling as she tried to utter her words through giggles. "But that is a romantic embrace if there ever was one!" He'd let her hand go in the process, and she brought it to her mouth to stifle some of the residual laughter in an attempt to settle down. "I have never had a brother, but I certainly would not expect one to hold me like that, like he has searched his entire life for me and, despite the hardship they have faced and what lies ahead, he refuses to let me go." That was the sort of romance she'd once dreamed of and believed she deserved. Times, unfortunately, had changed.

She followed after him, gathering her own garbage and tossing it into the proper bin. It was a relief to be off the romance topic, if just for a little while: it was becoming difficult, to even speak of it in an abstract sense, or between two fictional characters, and not look into his multi-colored eyes, study the scars on his face, and still see something of the boy she'd met at Hope's Peak, with his army of hamsters and a kind disposition to all animals, even the ones many found frightening. She vaguely remembered him bringing a live bear to class once, showing his classmates how it mimicked his every pose and followed his every command. He'd been so darkly charming then, she'd gone tongue-tied in his presence. A rarity for her at the time.

"I am not sure how it is for you," She replied, wiping the last of the popcorn residue from her fingers into a napkin before depositing it into the garbage too. "But the Neo World Program supplemented some memories I had forgotten and overlooked others. There's things I want to recall but cannot, and then there are things like film trivia, which comes to me the more I watch the available movies and read the available books in the library. I think that is why I do it, to test the capabilities of my memory after everything."

One of them, anyway: the other was far more obvious. So she didn't have to focus entirely on her activities as a remnant. Without fictional stories to focus on and liquor to drink, she'd be in a constant state of nightmares, asleep and awake. "What novels do I enjoy?" She repeated, as if he'd asked her to choose a singular chocolate truffle in a dessert buffet. "Plenty really, sometimes whatever I can get my hands on. I like a puzzle I might unravel in a good mystery provided it does not resurrect things I would like to forget, but otherwise I have always enjoyed gothic novels, and gothic romance. Otherworldly adventures with a love story: those always took me away from a royal castle and into another sort of castle entirely. Haunted, by ghosts, secrets, and regrets. What about you?" An embarrassing question to be asking the person she'd been hopelessly in love with for years: she couldn't even remember what sort of books he'd liked. Something that would have been terribly important for the Sonia before The Tragedy to know. "What do you like to read?"

She'd laughed, she spoke easily and openly when she hadn't done so in weeks, maybe even months, since she'd awakened from the program. It was both the strangest thing and yet the most natural, leaving the theater and walking beside him. As if they'd been to plenty of films together before joining Ultimate Despair, and they were simply picking up on where they'd left off. Even the night didn't feel quite as daunting: not as humid, not as a gloomy reminder that she'd soon need to sleep and be beholden to whatever horrible memory her brain decided to replay for her in vivid shades of red, the all-too-familiar copper scent, and the sounds of screams.

"The restaurant?" She repeated. She knew exactly what he'd meant, in the unique way he conveyed his thoughts and opinions. Sonia instead clarified it for herself: after a three hour film, she'd guessed he'd want to return to the animals, or his cabin, after what surely had been a long day for him. But Gundham had a point: all either of them had really eaten was popcorn, and her stomach rumbled at the thought of an actual meal. "Yes, I would like to eat something. But as you say, the dinner hours are over and our friends have found it fit to ban me from the kitchen. I kept wasting resources, as Hajime put it, after my fifth attempt at cooked fish. Fuyuhiko was sick for several days."

Gundham didn't think the movie could be that bad, so he went along with it after Sonia's assurances that she would be fine. She was fine, despite the fact that he could tell certain scenes reminded her of her past: When she was a Princess forced to endure a life that he couldn't even begin to fathom. Growing up impoverished instead, he could relate more to Jack, though he knew he was nowhere near as charming and confident as the other man was. However, he too had fallen for the rich girl way out of his league: A fact made only clearer by the way his heart picked up it's rapid beat when he took her hand.

Giving her comfort was an excuse. The main reason he did it was because he wanted to do so. Instead of the gesture soothing her though, it seemed to make her look a bit more sad if anything. He had a feeling that something reminded her of their past, as most things did. It was impossible to forget what they'd done, who they had been, even in quiet moments such as this one. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze in reassurance, despite the fact that a large part of him worried that her mood had soured simply because it was him touching her, instead.

The breeder's cheeks turned a deep red as the former Princess spoke so candidly about the sex scene. She said the word so easily, that he began to choke on a popcorn kernel. It wasn't as if he was a virgin, and he knew he shouldn't be as flustered as he was. As the Ultimate Despair, he'd taken what he'd wanted from a few women, but he'd felt nothing from the experience. The concept of intimacy with love was foreign to him, even though he knew that's how it was supposed to be. With Sonia, it was different. It felt new, and it scared him. "I suppose when you put it that way.. Perhaps such a gesture can be a beautiful thing after all. Although.. I do believe you may have just spoiled the ending." He chuckled softly, anything to get off of the subject of sexual intimacy.

He didn't have to try too hard to change the subject, because the film soon took a dark turn. As Rose and Jack tried to escape the devastation, his grip tightened a bit upon Sonia's. Even though he now knew that Jack would not make it out of this alive, he somehow wished that Sonia was mistaken, and that the pair could be together, happily ever after. He knew it was simply wishful thinking though, as Jack got quiet after awhile. "Is... is there not room for both of them on that plank?" It was too late for the poor man though, as Rose shook him, crying. Well, he sure picked a depressing movie. Probably not the best way to uplift their moods...

"I..." He stammered. He had seen the cover and the two embracing, and now it seemed incredibly obvious. "I believed it to be a woman and her familiar, or perhaps a brother..?" He certainly hadn't expected it to turn out like this, and he felt a bit overwhelmed. He endured the sorrow for Rose and Jack, the yearning he had to act on his own feelings, and the noticeable lack of warmth now that he'd unfastened his hand from Sonia's. He was glad when she began to talk of the production of the movie, holding on to her words as if they were a life line, despite not knowing much about the subject himself. "I see... So everything was not simply an illusion. That is quite impressive... There was not much of that so called CGI back then after all. Kehehe.."

Gundham collected his own trash, and he also dumped it into the can near the exit. Following her outside, he was surprised to find it was already quite dark out. Time had flown by while he'd sat next to her, enjoying the movie and the feel of her soft skin. "I do not think that you are taking it lightly. I find it inspiring that you are so knowledgeable about the makings of films... I myself do not know much on the subject. I can tell you are passionate about it though, so please do not hold back." He simply enjoyed listening to her speak of a subject that she found fascinating.

"I.. did not intend to select a romance." His cheeks pinked once more. "I am glad you find them more refreshing though. However... That one seemed to be quite devastating to me." He was worried that he'd selected a movie that would cause her mood to plummet, so he felt relieved that it didn't seem to do so. Perhaps, he couldn't say the same about his own mood though. "I do enjoy a good tome now and again to distract myself from those thoughts." He agreed. "What kind of novels do you enjoy?"

He made simple small talk as they walked, and all too soon they made it back to the hotel area. He didn't want the night to end yet, and all they had eaten was popcorn. "Would you care to accompany me to the dining establishment?" The hotel restaurant was nearby. He wasn't sure if there was food at this time of night, but that wouldn't be a problem. "If dinner hours are over, I may be able to create something for the two of us." Of course, it would be nowhere near Teruteru's level of cuisine, but Gundham was a pretty good self-taught chef.