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!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Gosh get your mind out of the gutter, Asch. :T]

Well, don't spoil the ending for yourself! [She teases.] But the girl did as her sister advised, and lit a candle when the man came to sleep in her bed that night. As she illuminated the light, she saw that he was a very handsome young man, not a troll at all, but three drops of wax spilled onto him and woke him up.

But he was not upset with her, merely saddened. He told her had she been able to hold out a year, he would have been free from his spell, but since she saw his true form, he had to return to his wicked stepmother and marry her hideous daughter. And his word was true; in the morning, both the man-bear and the enchanted castle had vanished, leaving the daughter in the cold snow and wind.

Wouldn't it have been smarter to ask the bear why he kept sleeping with her at night? And that's a stupid prerequisite for breaking a spell.

[Asch stop overanalyzing the fairy tale.]

[...You know? She never thought about it before.]

Maybe he...was cursed so he couldn't answer that question! Or maybe he was too nervous to tell her he was really a human, who was ashamed to be a bear. [Makes totally sense.]

But you know how story book characters are. They always seem to do the thing you know they aren't supposed to do--but that's what makes it a great story.

It's not great if that's the end. Tell me there's more to it than that.

--Oh! No, that's not the end. There's much more to tell!

[She settles back into her storytelling voice.]

The daughter decided to try and find the prince, so she sets off towards the snowy mountain. She comes upon an old woman with a golden apple and asks her if she might know where the wicked stepmother's castle is, but she does not. Instead, she lends the daughter a horse to travel to her distant neighbor, as well as the golden apple. So she takes the horse to the neighbor, another old woman with a golden comb, who also does not know the way to the castle. So this neighbor also lends the daughter a horse to ask yet another neighbor, and gives her the golden comb. The third neighbor, who has a golden spinning wheel, also does not know the way, but lends the daughter a horse and the spinning wheel and tells her to visit the East Wind to find the castle.

[...Those are some very random items.]

The prince has some extremely generous neighbours.

I know! They must have been very nice people. [Kind of like the people here, she thinks.]

Anyway, the daughter goes to the East Wind to ask him if he knows the way to the castle. He does not, so the East Wind takes her to the West Wind, who also does not know the way. The West Wind takes her to the South Wind, who doesn't know the way, either. Finally, the South Wind takes her to the North Wind, who tells her he remembers once blowing a leaf to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon. He knows it will be an arduous journey, but he agrees to take her there. And so he does.

[Apparently she missed his skepticism. Or ignored it? People do that with him sometimes. It's kind of annoying, but he doesn't comment. Not everyone can be a ~~pessimist~~ realist.]

Wait, wait. She talked to the wind? And there's one for each direction?

Well, of course! How do you think ships sail if it didn't blow in all four directions.

[Logic. She has it.]

[That's not how it-

That doesn't even make-

That's the stupidest-

....

Facepalm.]

And?

[...

Oh, RIGHT. Derailed. Back to the story.]

Oh! Um--so the North Wind took her to the castle East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Once there, she takes out the golden apple, which the wicked stepdaughter--the one the prince is supposed to marry--sees and wants to buy. The girl agrees to sell her the apple, but only if the wicked stepdaughter lets her spend a night with the prince. [This all sounds much racier than intended.] The wicked stepdaughter agrees, but gives the prince a sleeping potion, so the peasant's daughter will not be able to wake him. The next day, the same thing happens with the golden carding comb, and she is once again unable to wake the prince.

But by the next night, the prince had caught on. So when the daughter traded her golden spinning wheel for a chance to spend the night with the prince, he was awake.

[Asch really isn't sure this is an age-appropriate story all of a sudden, and he's surprised that Rapunzel is telling it, but okay.]

And?

So the daughter goes to the prince in the night time, and he tells her of a way she might save him. He will declare that he won't marry anyone who can't wash wax out of clothing, a task which trolls could not complete. And since the wicked stepdaughter was a troll, she would not be able to do it. The daughter agrees, and they set forward in their plan.

...A romantic fairy tale is resolved by laundering issues?

[THIS IS A WEIRD GODDAMN BOOK, BLONDIE]

[THAT'S WHY SHE LIKES IT OKAY. It's a strange story.]

Shhh, this is the end! The prince makes his proclamation, and the wicked stepdaughter and her mother and unable to wash the shirt because they are trolls. But the peasant's daughter is able to do so, and so she will marry the prince. The trolls, in their rage, burst into flames, and the prince and his bride freed all the castle's prisoners, took the silver and gold, and left the castle East of the Sun and West of the Moon. They went off to be married and enjoy their fortune, and they lived happily ever after. The end!

[....Huh.]

That's a surprisingly simple conclusion. Couldn't he have just avoided all of that drama by declaring that he wouldn't marry a troll?

[Why did he have the power to put conditions on the marriage but not deny it altogether he doesn't understaaaaand]

But what would the fun be in a story like that? It'd be dull!

[Maybe you just have to be a fairy tale character to get these things.]

I'm sure the peasant girl would be happy to enjoy her dull victory.

Maybe, buuut we don't know a lot about her! Maybe she likes adventure. Maybe she thought the whole thing was very fun!

Doesn't sound like any peasant I've ever met.

[He did sort of surround himself with criminals and pessimists, though. And Ginji. Who's sort of like a waggly-tailed dog.]

Me neither! [...] But I don't think I've ever met a peasant. Not really.

[Even if she sort of was one in her Camelot life.]

You'll have to change that when you regain your position as princess of your kingdom, then. Commoners are the backbone of any kingdom, and serving them is the duty of any royal.

Wellll...I did meet a whole inn full of ruffians and thugs! Soooo, they're a little bit like peasants?

...I'm not sure you should be counting the criminal community in your list of citizens to serve, unless you want to bankrupt your own royal coffers.

Oh, but they're just misunderstood! Don't worry, we've worked it all out. Now they've righted themselves and are pursuing their dreams!

It's a pretty rad book.

clearly I need to re-read it someday

yes, yes you should.

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