dissonates | [action/written]

[He's so stunned and disoriented to be alive again that he doesn't notice the lost connection inside his own head for at least three minutes.

For a while Asch just lies there in the grass, staring up at the sky and trying to figure out what the problem is. More specifically, what he's missing. He's not blind this time, that's a pleasant enough surprise. All his limbs and other senses are working. He thinks back to as many significant life experiences, pleasant or otherwise, and he can't come up with any gaps or missing memories. If he'd lost any, they weren't important enough to matter, apparently.

It's only when he finally sits up and tries to contact Luke and find out what's going on that he realizes he can't. He tries five times, wrestling with his fonons, prodding at the mental wall that used to be an open passage between his mind and his replica's. With that not working, it's easy to figure out what the problem is. He tries fonic artes- each of the four spells he's mastered, a few others learned from the Daathic books he'd gotten over the years. None of them work.

So. Answers that question. He'd kind of rather have taken the gap in memories, but it's not like anyone has ever asked him what he wanted.

Arriving at an empty house - aside from a noisy cat and a frantic cheagle - is just icing on the cake of his crappy life, so Asch wastes no time on sentimentality. Best to just get it over with: he opens the journal, jotting down a quick and emotionless note.]

I'm back.

Arietta the Wild has returned to Auldrant.

If anyone is willing to give me a debriefing on how the Zompania battle ended, I'd be grateful. I'll reopen Good Spirits tonight.

[True to his word, Asch'll be at Good Spirits that evening, though the atmosphere of the bar is significantly less cheery than usual. And with him tending the place, that's saying something.]

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[He's comforted by the fact that the cultists had their share of casualties, oddly enough. After years of fighting these people and dying at their hands, he's given up on sympathy.]

You should have it fixed as soon as you're able. There's no telling when we'll be called into battle next. I've heard the smithy's staff is competent enough.

I'll give them a chance. {Her armor was...special. To say the least. It had been forged by the goddess Etro and Lightning was fastidious about its care.} It was a gift. Letting it go to waste would be an insult to she who gave it to me.

Then ask them if you can observe their work before you hand it over. I doubt they'd protest if a new customer is cautious about their skill. Especially if it's for something that valuable.

[He knows he sure as hell wouldn't just hand over the Key of Lorelei to an amateur smithy, if it ever needed repair.]

You're full of good advice. I'm Lightning. {She's not good with lengthy intros, sorry.} I've been in the village for five months.

What about you?

Asch. [Clearly he's not, either.] This is my sixth year in Luceti.

[Technically more like three, for him, but there's no sense in confusing matters by trying to use the Auldrant calendar.]

{Five months versus six years. Lightning blows out a long breath. She doesn't want to be in Luceti that long. Each month has crept by sluggishly; she can't imagine thinking in years instead.}

Do you consider Luceti home or hell?

Edited 2014-06-07 07:03 (UTC)

[He scoffs at that. Are those his only options?]

Neither. I wouldn't call it a paradise, either, but there are worse places where one could be trapped.

{She hasn't met anyone who stands in the middle. Either they try to make a home or they want to poke and prod at the intricacies of the village in hopes of returning to their world.}

It sounds like you have experience with worse.

...Hn. If that's how you want to interpret it.

[That's as close to a yes as he's going to get with a stranger. Sorry, Lightning.]

I can say the same. {There's nothing wrong with keeping secrets. She isn't going to intrude.} Home isn't a place for me anymore.

[....

....

....

Huh. Interesting.]

You can't go back, or you don't want to?

I can't. {Her agreement with Etro isn't easily broken. Not that she wants to break it.} If I fail my mission, the place I called home will cease to exist.

{And even if it does somehow remain, she won't see it. All of those marked as l'Cies will follow in Etro's footsteps and either become monsters or be locked away in crystals.}

[Interesting, indeed. And more complicated than him- all he has to do to help save the world is go home and die.]

Doesn't anyone in this stupid place have a normal world to return to?

It isn't likely. We attracted the attention of this realm for a reason. Normalcy isn't what Luceti seeks.

Makes me wonder what's so special about this location in particular. The other enclosures don't seem to have anyone exceptional, really.

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