dissonates | [Written...? / Action, May 20th and beyond]

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[Written...? / Action, May 20th and beyond]

[It starts with a hum.

It's quiet, barely perceptible, like a fruit fry buzzing away in someone's ear. Across the village, it starts flickering to life in the mind of one Luke fon Fabre, miles away, awake and unaware and waiting for it.

The hum becomes a whisper. Wordless noise. An echo of something that used to be alive and loud and binding. Intrusive, almost, and yet not- because something missed, needed, eagerly and anxiously awaited is rarely unwanted.

The whisper becomes words, messy and jumbled and confused, a thought process born of desperation, fear, pain, loneliness. The words of the dead, or the dying, or the living. Of all three at once.

I'm here.

imhereimhereimherereplicaimherewhereareyou

help me

Alive. Alive.

And calling for him.]

[It's much later - after he's found, after he's awake and aware of his new situation - that Asch finally touches the journal. He toys with the controls, flips through the pages quietly, listening to everything that's open to hear. It feels... startlingly normal. Just your average day in Luceti. Life does go on without you- but then, he knew that long ago. This is nothing new.

...Well, almost nothing. It's hard to do much of anything when you can't see the world you're used to seeing around you. Not for the first little while, anyway. By touch and trial-and-error he finds the camera eventually, and he scribbles out a bit of nonsense in what he thinks is the entry area that almost looks like words, he sends out a few misfired comments to complete strangers, and in the end he thinks the entire journal system isn't nearly user-friendly enough. Eventually he gives up and sets it aside, leaving it open. Just. Listens.

It's not much. But for the moment, it'll do.]

((ooc: okay so here's the deal- Asch is back from the dead and blind. He'll be in the clinic for a while while he gets used to it, so feel free to use this post as a catch-all in case people want to visit/stumble upon him for the entire week. His scribble entry is also sort-of posted with a slightly-obscured picture, so if you'd rather use the voice function to bug him, feel free |D Word will probably get around that he's back one way or another.

Luke may or may not be with him depending on the time of visit; more often than not, he will be ~~attached at the hip~~ keeping an eye on Asch and helping him to see. He might also be asleep or taking a break. Feel free to specify; if he is there, he probably won't speak much (to save Kukki's inbox and to simplify things), so it's just a matter of whether or not your character will be seen.))

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[She does manage a small, sheepish laugh at that.]

I won't force you into anything you don't want to do. But if it'll make you happy, of course I will.

I doubt there's much that'll make me happy at this point.

[There is twist of unease and resignation in his tone, finally getting a bite of the pie. He's not really giving her a clear answer of yes or no, though- he'll leave that up to her. He's still got his pride, dammit.]

...Your baking's good.

[She doesn't like the sound in his voice, but the comment about her baking makes her brighten a little.]

You think so? [There's the sound of a smile in her voice.] I'm so glad.

[Sorry, Rapunzel, he's a tough sell when it comes to pleasant conversations. In fact-]

I'm not... very good at this. [He makes a vague gesture- this. Socializing. Conversation. Smiling when he offers weak compliments. Normal.] Fair warning.

That's alright! I'm not very good at it, either. I mean...I never talked to someone who wasn't my mother before the day before I got here. Oh--and Pascal. But he doesn't really talk back.

You don't seem like someone who'd be antisocial.

[Far from it. Far, far from it.]

Oh, well...I'm not, really. But I wasn't allowed to leave my tower, and it was exactly easy to make friends from up there.

...Someone had you locked up?

[His tone isn't as incredulous as one might normally expect.]

Yeah...[A pause. Should she tell him this? It's still strange to be open about it, even if she realizes now she has no reason not to be.] My mother. Or, at least, that's what she called herself.

But she's not your real mother. [It isn't a question, but his tone makes it clear that he's actually interested, probably for the first time since her arrival. This goes deeper than just a story about her now, though.]

Edited 2012-06-19 02:55 (UTC)

That's right. [Her voice betrays a wistful sound; for as glad as she is that she's free now, she had really loved Gothel. Knowing all that love had been spent on someone who had lied to her all her life...it was painful to face.]

She stole me when I was a baby. Because of what my hair can do. She wanted to use its powers to keep herself young forever.

[...Ah. That's... familiar. And he's somewhat disturbed now by the fact that they have something in common. For a while, he can't say anything; he simply looks thoughtful, bothered by her words more than he's interested in saying.

No one should have anything in common with him, dammit.]

Edited (grammar is for people who write good) 2012-06-19 05:06 (UTC)

[She doesn't say anything, so she decides to go on. She wants to keep the silence filled, and this is sort of nice to talk about, really. She hasn't had many chances to.]

She never told me who I really was, or that she wasn't my real mother. She only told me I could never leave my tower because of how terrible the world outside would be if they found out what I could do.

So I didn't. I stayed there for eighteen years, but...I didn't want things to be like that forever. Despite what she told me, I wanted to go outside. I wanted to be part of the world.

[A small, sad sigh.] I thought I was the one who'd betrayed her when I left. But I found out the truth, about who she really was--about who I really was.

[If nothing else, Asch is a good listener. He's quiet, he's patient (when not dealing with replicas) and he appreciates the truth with zero pussy-footing. So as she speaks, he just waits in silence, staring off at nothing until she goes quiet again.

Eighteen years... much longer than him. And a different situation, granted, but still... unpleasant.]

...Who did you realize you are?

[She's quiet a moment before answering. She can still hardly believe the truth herself.]

The lost princess.

[The lost princess... telling a story like that to the lost crown prince. Well, almost prince.

h e h

He smiles faintly - and briefly - unable to help feeling disturbed by the tale. it's nostalgic, and he hates nostalgia.]

So there are people like that on other worlds... of course. But you've managed to find yourself anyway.

I wouldn't have been able to do it on my own. I had a friend to help me.

[She has to wonder. If Eugene hadn't showed up in her tower that day, would she ever have left on her own volition? She's...not sure.]

[Is that the difference? Having friends?

He doesn't smile this time. Their situations are too different- she actually wanted to go back. He didn't have that luxury. So it's okay that he couldn't.]

So what happened?

Well...he was a thief. He came across my tower looking for a place to hide, and I knocked him out!

[She sounds rather chipper about that. Even if Eugene became her friend, she was still proud of that one.]

I hid the treasure he had stolen in my tower and told him he had to take me to see the floating lanterns before he could have it back. [The lost princess' crown. Her crown.] So he did. We left my tower while my mother was away and traveled to the castle town where they release the floating lanterns--every year, on my birthday.

Floating lanterns? Is that how you found out about the lost princess?

That's right. They held a festival in the castle town on that day in her honor, and they sent off the lanterns at night, hoping its light would guide her back home some day.

[A faint smile.] I guess it did.

[Ha... must be nice to not be replaced.

No, no, don't start thinking like that, you'll never stop.]

Congratulations.

[He even tries not to sound bitter about it. She's a nice girl; she deserves a happy ending.]

How does it feel, then? To be a princess.

It's weird. [It's as honest of an answer as she can give right now, anyway.] I only got to meet my parents for a few hours before I was sent back here. I don't really know anything about being a princess, but my friend Arthur says it's the duty of royalty to be brave for their people and make whatever decisions are best for them. He said we can't make mistakes.

[The thought of that kind of pressure is a little terrifying. At least her kingdom seems like a reasonably peaceful place.]

...That's a stupid thing to tell someone.

[Asch scowls faintly, leaning back in the bed and shaking his head.]

There's no such thing as a perfect ruler. They're human, and all humans screw up sometimes. You prevent mistakes by having people around who can support and criticize your decisions.

[He's a hypocrite, saying something like that, but it's necessary. People are imperfect beings, and that's a fact. Striving for perfection just causes more problems.]

I think he just meant...if a ruler fails, their people lose faith in them. [Because it could cost people their lives. Livelihoods. It's a lot of pressure that she just doesn't quite understand.]

If I'm even in a situation like that, though, I'll be sure to keep people around me who can help. That's what friends are for, after all, right? To help keep you right.

action;

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action; and then forbidden friendship started playing on my computer

action; ....perfection. now I have to play it too

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