Dearest Kitten,
I'm sure you're surprised to receive a letter, two hundred years out of date. I know I was when I got one from my great uncle, but the old fellow was excited about the Louisiana expedition, and I was happy for the old fellow.
Jape's aside I just wanted to convey how impressed I was with you in that first meeting. You're quite unlike the doves that fly around society. Indeed I've never known any woman to possess foolishness and thick headedness in the amounts I saw on display from you during our last encounter. I must confess it was quite annoying, and put us at a terrible disadvantage during the following conflict. Though fear not, for Nike has never denied me her blessing before.
It's a shame you were not there to see me, for without the evidence of your own eyes I must seem like a terrible braggart. Which of course I am. It's a well cultivated trait in my family line, like the deformed jaw of a certain Hungarian House. Though fear not, it's been diluted enough that it's not a crippling affliction. I would never brag about something that isn't true. So you can trust me when I say I afforded myself best of any of the mech drivers, and our victory was due in large part because of my performance. I've always been very good at everything I do, but it did come as a surprise when I held up so well when compared to my peers. I supposed their familiarity with your future technology would put me at a disadvantage. I'm happy to report that was not the case.
Ah, and what technology. I must say returning to my own time made Fort One Week seem positively provincial! The city lights around here are still gaslit, though there are plans for electric lights to be installed in a few years. Your city on the other hand, what majesty! With towers so high, lights so bright, planes in plenty. Quite frankly I'm jealous. I've never had anything denied to me before, and now I'm to know that there's an entire world out there that makes the way I've been living seem barbaric. It's maddening.
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But jealousy is not the lone emotion I've been feeling, and it's not pride either, if you can believe that. It's something surrounding you, my dear girl. I keep thinking of the way you just flew off, to save the world like some great metal Icarus. An apt metaphor you'll agree when confronted with the outcome of your task, but it is the sort of thing legends are made of. It was foolish, but at the same time I would have never even considered trying to destroy the comet before it could release those beasts. I admire the gumption, the Moxy inherit in your soul that brought upon such a revelation. Surely if the good Miss Sora had the same mind as you we all would have been capable of flight, and we all would have been there with you. Then we'd all be preparing for the next ball, rather than the next fight. By that mistake this war has been prolonged.
Her sin, not yours.
Which is all to say that despite the wonders and horrors I saw that day, the soul thing occupying my mind, and my heart has been you. I've never met a woman I know nothing about. Even your image escapes me, all I have in an unflattering metal monster flying into the sky, like some horrible angel. Yet I know there was a woman inside, giving it the grace to fly. I don't quite know what I'm feeling towards you, but as I have a reputation as a cad I suspect it's something romantic. I've never been much for romance, and from what I gathered about you, I suspect you've had little room for it either.
However, new experiences are the order of the day. Your dying for instance! What an experience that must of have been!
If indeed Miss Sora told the truth, and you are amongst the living, then I extend to you an invitation. Join me here in 1924 when the next wave hits. We shall do combat together and gain a measure of each other in that way. Though we'll have precious little time together, I would indeed consider it precious.
Of course if you have no desire to be courted by a braggadocios barbarian like me, don't show up. Then I will have received my first rejection, and with it a new experience.
Either way I win!
Your Hopeful Guardian,
Rex.
P.S. As I am a gentleman I will not have you be at the same disadvantage as me. Find attached to this letter a photograph of myself, and make for yourself an educated decision.
