So, I actually really like the name Ainsley, but I cannot picture a girl named Ainsley as anything other than a Mean Girl, or least the archetypal Valley Girl, so I would never actually name my real daughter Ainsley as much as I like the name.
Ultimately, Ainsley Lyte is basically the same joke as Egeria Valda has shaped up to been. Based on her mannerisms and speech habits, she seems like she should be an airhead, but she turns out to be a high-level scholar.
I really am the Rian Johnson of subverting expectations…
Incidentally, the woman in that header image coincidentally has exactly the hairstyle I imagined for Ainsley Lyte while doing this scene — though I don’t think they have jeans in Realmgard. Turns out that when you search for stock photos of a “Valley Girl”, you get a lot of young women standing in actual valleys.
“Like, omigosh, Cousin Nolan,” Ainsley Lyte says. “You have no idea how frustrating it is!”
“What is?” Nolan cautiously, watching his cousin pout.
“He is being such a butt!”
Nolan blinks in confusion. “Um, who is?”
“My thesis supervisor,” Ainsley says.
“Oh,” Nolan says. “That’s bad.”
Ainsley flings up her arms.
“It’s the worst, Nolan!” she exclaims. “He’s not convinced I’ve, like, adequately contextualised Macrinus’ apologia for virtue as an eternal and unchanging virtue, you know?”
Nolan does not, in fact, know.
Ainsley rolls her eyes.
“Ugh. Like, Cousin Nolan, come on. This is basic Middle Period Elven Imperial aretaic discourse.”
“This is basic?” Nolan exclaims.
“Honestly, we haven’t even got into looking into the Eternal Mind of God yet. And that’s all, like, whoa.”
Ainsley pantomimes her head exploding. Nolan worries he won’t have to pantomime…
Leave your body, Nolan, he tells himself.
Ainsley rolls her eyes.
“Like, Cousin Nolan, you could at least pretend to be interested,” she murmurs. “Oh. My. Gosh, Nolan. Rude!”
“You know,” Nolan offers. “You should probably meet Amara’s cousin Egeria. I think she, um, Philosophy-s, too.”
“Amara,” Ainsley says thoughtfully. “Is she the hot Elf you hang out with, with, like, the fantastic hair and the killer figure?”
“Yeah,” Nolan says. “Wait. No! I mean, um, I’ve never really, you know, paid attention to her figure, or anything like that. That would be weird. And ungentlemanly…”
Ainsley scoffs.
“Yeah, right. You’re not fooling anybody,” she tells him. “It’s, like, super-obvious that you’re crushing on her hard, Cousin Nolan.”
“Uh…” Nolan says.
Ainsley looks over her shoulder.
“Hey, Cousin Matilda?” she calls. “Like, how hard is Nolan crushing on that Amara girl?”
“Oh,” Matilda answers. “So hard. Nolan’s got it bad!”
“Uh…” Nolan says.
“I don’t know what you’re so embarrassed about, Nolan,” Matilda tells her brother. “It’s super-obvious she likes you, too. Just man up and ask her out.”
“Omigosh!” Ainsley squeals giddily. “That is, like, the cutest thing I’ve ever heard!”
Across Porthaven, Amara Valda sneezes.
“Bless you, Cousin Amy,” Egeria says.
“Thank you, Egeria,” she says, reaching for her handkerchief.
“Oh, I bet somebody’s talkin’ bout you, Cousin Amy,” Egeria says.
She grins and leans in close to her cousin.
“My money’s on that cute Nolan boy” she continues. “Sure as a stubbornfish goes against current, he’s got it bad for you, Cousin Amy. I bet he talks ‘bout you all the time.”
Her grin widens.
“Only good things, of course.”
“Yes, thank you, Cousin Egeria,” Amara says tersely. “But I can assure you my feelings towards Nolan are nothing but purely professional.”
Egeria continues to grin at her cousin.
“Yer awful defensive, Cousin Amy,” she notes. “‘Specially since I didn’t say nothin’ bout your feelins.”
Amara glowers at her cousin.
“Gosh,” Egeria mutters. “What are we gonna do with ya, Cousin Amy? Why, it’s like watching a pair o’ upside-down turtles. He likes you, you like him, but y’all are too bashful to admit how you feel ‘bout each other.”
“It’s unseemly for the woman to confess first,” Amara protests. “The proper protocols of etiquette dictate that I needs must wait for him to —”
She catches herself. And promptly turns beet-read.
“Oh, bother.”
“Sneezing when somebody’s talking about you” seems to be mostly an East Asian thing in real life, and pops up a lot in anime, so it doesn’t really fit, but I’ve mentioned numerous times now that I care more about banging 500 words for each of these short scenes than writing anything that’s especially coherent.
Also, Realmgard is a Fantasy setting, so it doesn’t have to be 100% realistic.
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