dissonates | [Voice]

[Silence.

There's too much of it. It burns into his mind, the echo of emptiness in the corner of it, that ache he can't seem to brush aside no matter how he tries to distract himself. He's tried going outside, he's tried burying himself in that braille stuff Xion gave him, he's tried striking up conversations with his housemates (even the animals), but he runs out of things to say far too quickly and in the back of his mind it's always there. The silence, the echo. The fact that something is missing.

Dead.

And then he's had enough.

The journal's camera is partially obscured when the feed flickers on, and what it does show is his face - eyes, a flash of red hair, his bangs down - just enough to make it seem like he's not quite himself. His voice, too, is softened; it's not as open and friendly as Luke would have been when greeting the village, but it lacks the usual anger or pent-up frustrations of the socially-awkward soldier. If anything it sounds... hushed, weary, tinged with a bit of desperation. He needs this. Whether or not he wants to do it is irrelevant.

It hurts. The silence hurts, more than last time when Luke had been sent home, and he honestly hadn't thought it would.]

Tell me about your day. Tell me a story. Talk about anything. Today I'm listening.

[He might not care. He might not be nice about it. He might not even remember it later. But he'll listen.

He just needs to hear something, so he can forget about the nothing in his head for a while.]

((Asch is blind, so all tags must be voice/action or he cannot respond to them!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Then, allow me to share it with you. It is a traditional tale of my homeland.

[She coughs, clearing her voice]

Long ago there lived a man named Jin, and he was friends with the governor of his prefecture, and every week they would go fishing for turtles in a nearby lake.

One evening, Jin had a dream about an old man, who said to him "Sir, the governor wishes to kill me and all my family. Can you help convince him to spare me?" Jin, being a kind man, agreed to try and asked how he could help.

"Please, when he comes to ask you to go out with him today, please decline. Surely that will spare my life."

Sure enough, the next morning the governor came to his house, and Jin feigned ill. The next evening, the old man appeared again to Jin, thanking him profusely. Except the old man wasn't a man this time, he was an ancient turtle. You see, the governor had come to invite Jin to go fishing, but had returned home when his offer had been declined.

As a reward, the turtle shared a secret tale with Jin, who's family lived in honor and wealth for all their days.

[Talking, dream-diving turtles? Sure sounds like a fairy tale.]

"Secret tale"? How would that make a family wealthy?

Yes, a secret. In my world, all turtles have a secret that they only share with one person in their entire lives. Sometimes, its nothing, other times its very important. In this story? The secret was the location of a gold mine.

Did you like my story, young man?

[She definitely looks younger than you, by the way...]

[Not that he can see, being blind for the moment. She doesn't sound that old, though, so it's puzzling to hear it.]

...It was alright. Did the old man give up fishing entirely?

Yes, he did. Wouldn't you, when you learned that turtles and fish can appear in dreams?

Depends on how much I liked eating turtles and fish, I suppose.

[Superstitions have little effect on him, admittedly.]

Haha, I would just buy fish and turtle meat then. I'm sorry if my fairy tale isn't the most exciting. Would you like to hear another? About heroes, or monsters?

As I said, talk about whatever you want. It's not so much about interest as having something to listen to.

[He knows it's a selfish request, but conversations on the journal are always easy to end, so if he offends someone they can just close it, right?]