dissonates | [Voice]

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[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!))

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I don't know many stories myself, but I can read to you, if you'd like? Though I'm not sure how interesting the books I have with me would be...

[A pause. He's taking note of a certain other person who's responded... maybe this was a bad idea, but if it was something that might cheer Asch up, even if only a little, then certainly it was worth the risk. It's not exactly something he's proud of, but then again, it's not exactly something he regrets either. They could both use something to keep their minds off current events, after all.]

...or I suppose could tell you about the time I punched Sync in the face?

...You punched him in the face?

[Are we talking about the same Fon Master here?]

That's right.

[With a casual tone as though this were some kind of normal occurrence.]

I don't think he was expecting it... though to be honest, I don't think I was quite expecting it either.

Why, exactly, did you punch him?

[HE NEEDS THIS STORY IN HIS LIFE]

[A short pause. He's either trying to remember, or hesitating to answer out-right.]

It was in the middle of the last village-wide experiment. Neither of us were affected at the time, but during the first few days, I was made to believe that I was someone else. And because of that, I was able to figure out where he had been living this whole time.

I think I wanted to talk to him. [Think.] Though I was fairly upset at the time. I only know that I certainly didn't go there with the intention of punching him in the face.

[This is like listening to a really long joke when the punchline was delivered up-front. It won't be as funny, but you can't help wondering where the hell the line came from...]

Why were you going, then? Why aren't you sure?

Well, to be honest I was rather hasty in deciding to meet with him. I was by myself, after all. But I was afraid if I waited too long, he would move again before we could have the chance to talk.

[Oh, his voice grows a bit more serious here. It's not an entirely funny story, after all. Perhaps more so seeing as the person he's telling this to is Asch.]

That is... I wanted to talk to him about what he did in May. And why he did it. Though I think I already knew in the back of my mind why... [Because he's Sync and he doesn't need a reason to do bad things.] ...but even so, I wouldn't have forgiven myself for not taking advantage of an opportunity to try and talk with him out in the open.

...You punched him because of the curse slot?

[This is new. And unexpected, actually. Asch's curiosity is piqued again; honestly, he'd never gotten any sort of explanation for the mess Sync had caused, besides the obvious one he'd already assumed was true - that is, that Sync is just a bastard out to cause trouble. That's basically a given.]

That wasn't entirely the reason, though that was a factor in why I was already so upset with him before I even arrived. I tried talking to him, but he's never been a very easy person to talk to, especially now that my patience for him has become rather thin.

From what he told me, it doesn't sound like he had any reason for what he did. Nor did it seem to be something he planned out at all.

[It's hard to say whether that's something they could feel relieved about or not. Had Sync actively been out to have them killed is one thing, but for him to do so only because he could is another thing altogether.]

Sounds like a big waste of time.

[Not that it was an entirely pointless endeavour, mind you; punching Sync is always a bonus.]

Things certainly could have gone better than they did. It usually takes a fair amount of antagonizing for Sync's words to affect me, but I was still feeling a bit... mixed up from the recent experiment. I'm sure if I had chosen to walk away, I would have been able to leave unharmed, but for some reason I felt as though leaving would be like giving up.

[Getting back into story teller mode here.]

The conversation wasn't too different from how our usual conversations go... that is, until he started to make threats. [...] Empty threats, I'm sure, but threats nonetheless.

[There is a silence from Asch for a long moment, and when he finally speaks, his tone is laced with caution and no small amount of danger. He doesn't care how blind he is, if Sync is threatening people...]

What kind of threats?

...he threatened to impersonate me to try and get to Anise.

[Tease her, taunt her, use a curse slot on her... they were all things Ion was sure Sync was capable of, but at the same time, he has a hard time believing that Sync would be so foolish to try the same trick twice. Guy had been a crime of opportunity, after all. Had the curse slot never been placed on him by the Malnosso, perhaps nothing like this would have happened...]

[But even so, just thinking about the idea that Sync had so callously threatened to hurt Anise... it was actually enough to make Ion start to remember just how angry it had made him. Though Asch can't see his expression change, the short huff he gives to try and calm himself down may be enough to indicate the change in his mood.]

[But the threats weren't the focus of the story, and at that point, Ion is sure Sync was only try to see how angry he could make him. He takes another breath, calming himself, and then...]

So I punched him in the face.

[...Wow. Uh.

Something about the tone of voice makes Asch inwardly think that it's better to let sleeping ligers lie, so to speak. Probably a good thing he can't see Ion's expression- it would have just made it worse.]

...Sync's never been known for his tact.

["Tempest" is really an all-encompassing title.]

Not exactly, no. [Siiiiigh.] Still, I can't exactly blame him for what happened after that, seeing as I was the one to punch him first.

[...what, you didn't think he walked away from punching Sync in the face scot-free, did you?]

[...Actually, now that he's thinking about it...]

I'm surprised that you're alive, considering.

There was a moment where I wasn't sure I was going to be able to walk away from things unharmed either.

He punched me back much harder than I had punched him, and after we started arguing again, he tried to choke me.

[Ion's tone is so matter-of-fact, you'd think he was just talking about the weather right now.]

[The calm way it's being discussed is actually kind of disturbing. He had no idea the Fon Master was so chill about a near-death experience. Or is it because he's already dead? It's a mystery.]

So how did you survive?

[In all truth, he's only chill about it now because... well.]

Master Toph saw what was happening and threw a rock at him before burying him in the ground.

Although I guess she didn't really "see" it since she's blind... so I suppose it would make more sense to say she "felt" it happening.

[SINCE THAT'S THE IMPORTANT THING TO CLARIFY HERE.]

[....wh...at...]

Alright, first: "Master Toph"? And second: how does someone "feel" something happening?

[And how can he learn to do it too, that sounds really useful.]

Oh, Master Toph is my teacher here. She gives lessons on how to be... tougher. You may have heard her announce them over the journal before...

[Though if he ever did, it would have been manliness lessons for sissies, so hopefully he'll just take Ion's answer and roll with it. He's not going to give him too much time to ponder that, anyway.]

As for how she does it, I don't entirely understand it myself. But she's capable of controlling the ground using something called "earthbending". The fight couldn't have lasted more than a minute before I looked up and the only thing I could see was Sync's head sticking out of the ground.

Oh, I know about bending. Or rather, I've heard of it. [And that mental image is going to stick with him for a long, long while. It's beautifully entertaining.] She was able to do that to Sync?

That's right.

[Just because he's embarassed to be taking manliness lessons doesn't mean he's any less proud to be her student. Lookit dat smile.]

Master Toph is the strongest person I know. I don't think Sync even managed to get a single hit.

That's impressive. [Colour him surprised; Sync is the fastest person he knows, after all. Bastard's harder to catch than a weasel.]

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1/2

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/applies liberal use of this icon

ion you troll

Troll Master Ion

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