dissonates | [Action] (backdated to the 18th)

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[Action] (backdated to the 18th)

[Since this happened, Asch hasn't been entirely sure what to do with himself. He eats breakfast, he reads a little. He wanders through the village for a while, aimlessly and calm despite the bad news. It's a normal day. A nice day, even. Luceti is blissfully aware of his loss, and he likes it that way. There is no house to burn, no alcohol to waste, no friend to garner comfort from. There's the village, and there's the memories, and there's that coldness in his heart creeping up again. As usual. It's just another going-home situation, and that's become typical of this place. Maybe people are happy. She's gone back. She's free.

She's dead.

He needs to hit something, so he goes to the Battle Dome for a while. Normal. Everything is normal.

Eventually he'll make his way north- first to House 34, to get whatever Norma has for him. Then he moves on to the cherry blossom trees beyond the edge of the village. And then, finally, he finishes his wandering in the woods not far from the 2nd apartment building, tucked under a tree with a pad of paper and a few pieces of charcoal. He'll be there until the sun gets too low to see.

After that, well... who knows. But he won't return to the apartment until well after dark.]

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[If Asch is hoping to see someone at the cherry tree hill, he'll have to wait a few moment, Miyabi had been out shopping for groceries, a steaming meat bun clamped in between her teeth. She couldn't wait on the way over, and it smelled so good. Finishing the bite she had been chewing, and adjusting the bag on her arm, Miyabi puts her thumb and forefinger in her mouth and whistles.

And out from the roots of the largest cherry tree, perhaps just a few feet from Asch, bounds the Lucky Mallet (http://images.wikia.com/okami/images/e/e5/Mallet.jpg). It bounces around the girl in a circle, like an excited animal greeting its master, before bouncing ahead of her, back toward the tree. She'd need to shrink down once she got closer to her house.

She hadn't noticed Asch yet, shoving her meatbun back into her mouth as she inspected her foodstuffs. Good, the eggs made the trip okay. Looking up, she spies a familiar someone. And, muffled through her food, she blinks.]

Apphf?

[What are you doing at the cherry tree hill?]

[...What the hell is with that thing. Asch lifts a brow, observing its crazy bounce for a while and waiting until Miyabi notices him standing there. He nods slightly to greet her, but doesn't respond. Stupid, don't talk with your mouth full like that.]

[Of course Luke is still awake by the time Asch returns to the apartment. In fact, he's waiting in the living room, legs drawn up and arms wrapped around them. Asch can take care of himself and he knows it, and he also knows that the way Asch deals with losses like this is different from him.

Yet he still can't help feeling a little afraid. What if it was like with Guy? Luke isn't dumb when it comes to Asch and his feelings. If he decided to run away again... What if he can't get him to come back?

Just as he's thinking that, though, the door clicks, and Luke shoots his head up to look at who's coming in. Really, only one other person has the key to the apartment, but...]

[Asch is quiet as he enters, though he can't do much about the sound of the door- and in truth, he knows it doesn't matter. The light visible in the hallway under the door is telling, so unless Luke fell asleep on the couch-

...no, there he is. And as much as Asch had tried to keep the link between them suppressed today, the replica's presence is all too prominent. Dammit.

He barely looks at Luke, meeting the other redhead's gaze for just a moment before turning away to remove his coat and boots, setting a sketchbook and a tiny case on the table by the door.]

[CH2 is a little out of Grune's way, but today, she's been roaming far. She's lost in a different way than usual.

When she sees Asch sitting out with his sketchpad, she spends a little while watching him at a distance, trying to remember why he seems so familiar. Then she places him: This is one of Stella's friends.

And so she approaches and sits down underneath the tree with him.] Hello.

[And at the Battle Dome, he will find something to hit; or rather, someone, just outside of it. Van is sitting against a tree not far from the door and he looks to be infuriatingly at ease today. He's jotting things down in a plain little notebook, god only knows what he's up to now, and he even brought a snack.

He hears Asch's approach well before he's close -- Asch isn't the only well-trained soldier, after all -- and makes deliberate eye contact. And then, equally deliberately, he looks back down, turns the page of his notebook, and has a bite of his sandwich.

Asch has been deemed below his attention. Not worth freeing a hand for his sword over. Not even worth moving his legs out of the path for. Go around.]

[Luke stands once he sees that it's Asch outside the door, equally surprised and relieved. He tries not to let it show, though, and soon enough, it bleeds into worry, especially when he's so quiet like that... Granted, he usually doesn't have a lot to say to Luke, but... he expected him to say something. Anything. To make the stupid replica stop worrying.]

Asch... [He isn't even sure what to say.]

[At his name being called, Asch glances over at his replica again, shoving his boots to the side and straightening up to retrieve his book. He starts heading for the kitchenette area.]

Stop looking at me like that.

I...

[He was about to say that he's not looking at him like that. But then he sighs, and he reaches up to touch his face. Yeah... he is. He's worried, and it's obvious. Dammit.

After a pause, he follows after Asch. In a way, he doesn't want to let his original out of his sight. And once they're in the kitchen area, he holds the doorjamb with one hand as he watches what Asch does.]

I made some food while you were gone, if... you want any of it. [Thanks to Asch leaving him alone to eat some of the time, Luke has gotten better at cooking. He's nowhere near Guy's level, but at least he can make a few good dishes. Still, he'd understand if Asch didn't want any of it. Luke doesn't exactly have a good reputation as a cook.]

[It's always obvious; he's too untrained to hide such things from Asch. He gets no answer at first, though, as Asch fetches himself a glass of water, temporarily abandoning the sketchbook on the table while he drinks.]

Is it edible?

[Yep, normal. Calm, settled, the simple banter of every day. Nothing wrong over here, he's just. Home late. For some reason.]

[Asch glances over as she sits down, his expression wary. Whenever he talks to this woman, he ends up leaving in a foul and confused mood, and since he's already one of those... this might not end well.]

...You need something?

O-Of course it is! I tasted it and it was just fine.

[He's indignant over that, but his words aren't as forceful as they'd usually be in such a situation. While Asch has his back turned, though, Luke turns his head to look at that sketchbook. The temptation to flip through it and see what Asch has been doing is great indeed.]

[The mallet continues hopping around Miyabi, expecting to be used, but the girl extends a hand and kind of shoos it away. Undeterred, the glittering Mallet bounces off to hop in place under one of the smaller trees, waiting patiently there until its master was finished.]

Wuf-- [She puts a hand to her mouth, swallowing the bite in her mouth.] What are you doing here, Asch? ...Is something wrong? Are you okay?

[Because, bro, you never come to visit her.]

Hmm? [He gets a confused look.] Oh, no, I'm just fine.

Do you need something?

[....

He doesn't want to deal with Van right now. He really, really doesn't. He stops on the path, staring warily down at Van for a long, long moment. He'd earned himself the man's ire, he knows this, but it's something of a surprise that he gets ignored instead. He's not going to complain, exactly, but...

...oh, whatever. He doesn't have the time or the patience for Van's manipulation right now, so he steps aside and heads right into the Battle Dome. To hell with you, he has things to do right now.]

[...Ah. Why is he here... good question...

...and he doesn't want to say.]

How do you get so skilled at art? Is it something you've practiced for a long time?

[Feeehhhhh. He'll be the judge of that. Still, he goes to dig through the fridge, looking for something to heat up and munch on since he had no dinner. If Luke wants to sneak a look at the book, now's the opportune moment.]

What? No. You're the one who decided to sit here.

[So what does she want?]

[He can't help shifting slightly, to see if Asch might, might just pick the food Luke made. It'd be nice, to get his approval... But he sneaks another glance at the sketchbook.

... Ah, to hell with it. He knows he shouldn't, but if he doesn't his curiosity will kill him. So, he leans over and lifts up the cover and a few pages, to see if he can get a glimpse before Asch turns around again.]

[Asch does end up picking whatever Luke left for him, mostly because he's too tired to cook for himself, and if it tastes bad he can work off a little more steam by bitching about it. He's distracted with setting the food up on the plate and getting the microwave going, though, so his attention is still diverted.

Inside the sketchbook, Luke will find a series of charcoal drawings and sketches, some smudged and unrefined, others with a surprising elegance and accuracy to them. The first several pages are difficult to recognize: the simple curve of a face, a lock of hair blown back by the wind, several pairs of eyes, varying in size, detail, and intensity. There's no colour to them, so recognition is impossible.

Further in, though, more detailed sketches begin to appear- the largest of Amaterasu's cherry blossom trees, Miyabi standing in the grass, a pair of tomcats facing off against one another. Three pages of mixed rough sketches, obviously hasty drawings of people passing by.

And then, at the end of the set, there are four portraits, with the most detail, the most skill, and the most care. Lady Fabre, seen only from the back, gazing out at the sea from an open window. Natalia, standing on a dock with the sunrise at her back, proud and tall. Guy, his head bowed slightly, like a servant on his knees, his smile content but his gaze shaded dark and conflicted, his eyes drawn so dark they're nearly black. Stella, with a steady, kind smile and honest eyes as they gaze out of the page. A symbol is sketched out beneath her shoulder line, where the portrait ends, right where her heart would be, and there's a a scrawling of Ancient Ispanian on each of the four pages, too rough to decipher.

The last page with anything on it is ruined by a scribbling of charcoal all across the page, coating everything in a fine black powder, so dark and roughly-scrawled that it tore through the center of the page and sullied the one behind it. That page has nothing more than an imprint of both image and words, but in the dim light it's hard to make out.]

Oh, all right.

[She leans back against the tree, quiet for now.]

[... Even the unrefined things are better than his own best tries, heh. It's just an idle thought that comes to Luke's mind as he quietly flips through the pages, though he pauses at the more detailed sketches. The tree, Miyabi, a couple of cats, half sketches of people - did he go to that cherry tree?

And the portraits make him pause even longer. The first one... his mother. Their mother. It's at this one that he stays the longest, and he can't help the smile coming up at the corner of his mouth, or the slight burning sensation in his eyes. He misses her. He misses her more than he thought. How's she doing? How would she feel about what all he's gone through, back at home and here in Luceti? He has so much he wants to tell her...

Thankfully, that sensation in his eyes goes away as soon as it comes up. He turns the page, glancing up to see if he still has time - good, he does.

... Natalia. Another woman he misses. Asch drew her perfectly, proud and tall as a princess should be. Heh, Natalia was always so much better at this royalty thing than Luke... And he finds that he misses her, too. Would Asch be happier, if she came back here?

Another glance, another page. Guy... all these people, close to both Luke and Asch. Guy, Luke's best friend and Asch's... errr lover. Unfortunately, it was still a little awkward for Luke to think of the latter fact. Still... Guy was the only one Luke could really open up around. He's kept a lot of things hidden because of that, and... it might sound silly, but he really misses the roughhousing.

Another glance. The next page... ah, right. Stella. The smile she's drawn with makes Luke wish he knew her better, but... she always seemed so untouchable. Asch was friends with her, close at that, and Luke didn't want to wedge himself into the middle of that with their complicated relationship. In a way, he's glad. Asch had that chance on his own, not a friend who started out as Luke's, not someone who's friends with the both of them. She was Asch's. But in a way, Luke wonders if him staying away from their relationship was the right thing to do. Now that she's gone... Asch is much quieter. And it makes Luke feels so conflicted...

He turns to the last page... and he narrows his eyes slightly. Obviously there's something in back of there, but... Luke can't tell what it is. No matter how much he squints, in this kind of light he can't see anything except the indication that there is something there.

It's with that that he closes the sketchbook and straightens, hands behind his back and looking at Asch. Hopefully his original didn't see what he was doing...]

Edited 2011-10-20 18:10 (UTC)

[Van waits for ten minutes after Asch goes inside, continuing to write and eat and generally appear to not give a damn. And then, precisely ten minutes later to the second, he gets up, brushes himself off, and heads inside. Relocating doesn't sound like a bad idea. To the viewing area, perhaps.

What can he say, he's an inquisitive man.]

[When Luke looks back to Asch, he'll see that his original is facing him this time, arms crossed, leaning against the counter. His gaze is hard, expression stern, and he's silently watching Luke.

Just how long as he been watching Luke? Well. It's anyone's guess, really.]

[......Um.]

What are you doing here?

[AND WHY AREN'T YOU LEAVING.]

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[Action] - /jedi magics that meatbun into a bean bun.

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[Action] bean buns are way better

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[Action] /tl;dr asch is an artsy-fartsy

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[Action] /laps it all up and send some back bb

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[Action] oh snap /BRINGS IT DOWN TO THE MINIMUM AGAIN

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