middaeg | the first thing i heard was a clattering sound....

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the first thing i heard was a clattering sound....

Who: Flat Escardos & You! (closed prompts and one open prompt)
When: Last week of March (or Aefenglom equivalent of)
Where: Mirrors, around Aefenglom.
What: Many things can happen in the span of two days.
Warnings: Talk of death, spoilers for Fate/strange fake vol 6. Will update as necessary.

1. closed to Cu Chulainn (Alter)

[ the sun hadn't yet come up when flat had disappeared from the house.

he did so quietly, almost as if in a trance. no, not even that, it was as if someone had planted a suggestion in his mind and erased every other thought that he had with it. his purpose right now--his only purpose--was to go to the mirrors. something was there, something was waiting for him and he needed to know what it was. even if he had a bad feeling about it, even if his heart felt like it was about to leap out of his chest, he went anyways.

what the mirror shows him...is the continuation of the grail war.

it's funny, how much can change in the span of a day and a half. he meets heroic spirits left and right, and gets swallowed into a dreamworld owned none other by death itself. he sacrifices another command spell throughout it, but that's alright. he fights along side the priest against a dead apostle, and comes out unscathed from the dream in order to meet his person of interest--ayaka sajyou. or, at least, the person that is sharing her name and face.

but it all goes awry rather quickly. he watches himself fall to a bullet wound to the stomach, horror painted on the girl's face and in jack's voice as they realize that flat was going to become no more than a casualty to the horrible grail war. the bullet to the head only cements that fact. and it's in that precise moment when, in aefenglom, flat's knees give in, collapsing in front of the mirror like a puppet with its strings cut. dead. should be dead, at least.

but then...someone...or something restarts. blue eyes open again to take a good look at their surroundings, and stand up with mechanical movements. one step. another step. rinse and repeat, learning to use every joint and flex each muscle one by one. and once they're out of the building, the mareuer rain does not shake them in the least. it soaks through their hair and clothes, but they do not feel the chill.

instead they stare.

and wait. ]

2. closed to Waver Velvet

[ it takes a couple of days for flat--or the thing that is controlling the body--to make their way towards inkchanted. In fact, they're not really sure what impulses them to go that way in the first place. using the memories of flat escardos would usually be a simple task, but with everything as shattered as it was, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

but they find themselves there, staring at the entrance. it's the evening, and the crowd is starting to dwindle...but they knock anyways. that is what people do before entering places, correct?

except they don't really stop knocking. in fact, until waver opens the door, they'll just be there, knocking. ]

3. closed to Diarmuid

[ it's been almost a week since flat escardos' disappearance from the house. they have wandered throughout the city, and the ache of their feet is something that they have never felt until before. they had never felt pain before, actually. it was an interesting sensation.

but this body was, in the end, human as could be. even if magic (a different magic than what they knew, what they were built for) could repair it and push it farther than normal humans, it still had a limit. and while they could very well sit down anywhere, there was not much else to look through in aefenglom. this town was quaint. boring. meaningless.

sifting through more information provided by flat, they realize that he had a house he lived in. that would have to do. they make their way there, opening the door to find a dog barking and growling angrily at them. blankly, they stare at it, door still open behind them. ]

4. for other or new cr

[ throughout the week, flat escardos can be found in various places in the city. perhaps he's in the borders of the city, watching with a distant, pitying gaze at the infected. perhaps, he is in diplomatea staring out the window, their tea having gone cold hours ago, almost as if it had never even been touched. perhaps it is late in the evening in the harbor, staring blankly into the sea with eyes that look more like empty holes that held nothing inside.

but when he turns towards you, the reaction will always be the same. a smile that would suit a wooden puppet better and a fixed stare. when they speak, their words are slow and heavily enunciated. whether you knew flat escardos or not, it doesn't matter--clearly, they don't recognize you. ]

5. Wildcard.
( ooc: if you'd like to discuss anything with me for any extra prompts, feel free to do so by contacting me on discord at tori#3410 or on plurk at

odasaku!!! or just comment here with your own prompt! i'll roll with anything! )

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Flat?

[The urge to wave her hand in front of his eyes is almost overwhelming, but she stifles it somehow. Something about that gaze strikes her, hard and deep; it's the blank sort of civility most of the NPCs wore, back in the Moon Cell. It's nothing at all like the excitable boy she walked with, who gushed over a toy candle, who managed to blend chipper and melancholy with unsettling ease.

She immediately nixes her plans for tea time, and tugs at one of her long forelocks.]

...if you're done with your tea, do you think I could cash in on that promise for dance lessons, today?

...?

[ they way that they tilt their head to the side is something that will surely be off to her as well. it's a slow, if not outright delayed response to her question, almost like a computer that is buffering.

sure, they could sift through hundreds, if not thousands of shards of flat's memories to figure out who this girl was, but that would be inefficient. ]

I apologize. Flat is not available right now. Nor will he be available for a while. [ they smile, soft, muted, and wrong. ] Are you...his acquaintance?

Edited 2020-03-23 17:43 (UTC)

If you're not Flat, should I... call you something else?

[Well.

That... is... unsettling!

But, it's far from the most unsettling thing she's ever experienced. It's not even as bad as when BB was going haywire. So aside from a brief, taken aback blink, she more or less takes this in stride.]

Something like that, yeah. Do you knowhow to dance?

I have another name, yes. [ they shrug. ] Not for you, however.

[ she is simply not important enough. an insignificant human, modified by this equally pointless world. ]

What a strange question. Why?

[Okay, first of all, rude.

Accurate, yeah, but rude.]

I've got time to kill, and you don't seem busy, by my reckoning.

Busy...no. Or perhaps I am.

[ they stare back outside the window, eyes fixed on the people that walk the streets. Monsters, humans, witches...they don't understand it too well. ]

Why do you believe I am not busy? Because I am not running to and fro like those outside that try to make the most with their pitifully limited lifespan? What do you think means to be busy?

Well, for one, you've been sitting here long enough for steaming hot tea to go cold. For two, you don't recognize me, or possibly anyone Flat knows here, so you're not waiting for someone.

[She ticks off her fingers.]

And for three, though this is a little tangential, don't even talk to me about 'pitifully limited lifespans' until you've had to budget out a number of days no higher than double digits.

[ flat--or, well, the thing possessing him, glances back to her with empty apathy as she ticks off her reasons.

it is only after the last one that they smile again. chuckling, even. ]

A thousand and eight hundred years. Does that sound long enough for you?

Roughly four months and an indeterminate number of days spent in an imaginary space.

[She raises her eyebrows meaningfully.]

Does that sound short enough for you?

Humans have lived shorter lives.

[ children that didn't make it to their first year. newborns that were dead before they could even take their first breath. ]

You should be grateful you lived that long, as torturous as being lost in the Imaginary Number Space might be. You must have struggled quite a bit to reach the level that you are right now.

Humans live all sorts of lengths. I was made from the Sea of Imaginary Numbers based off a girl who should have died thirty years ago, but she was preserved a lot longer than she might have been if nature was left to take its course. And I met a little girl who had been a ghost for a century. Life's wild like that.

[Her eyebrows creep higher.]

I am grateful, and I did struggle, though it wasn't unbearably bad over there. But, so what? That doesn't mean I won't want more time, or that doing something fun or easy isn't an option. So, let's go.

Is that the way of humanity? To struggle against all odds, and against their very nature? Did you gain your own consciousness throughout that time?

[ hm. perhaps this human is somewhat more interesting than what they thought. a human that is not human, but something close--just a few steps to the side of it.

they consider her carefully, from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. ]

I don't know how to dance. Nor do I have any interest in it. It is not what I was made for.

A 4.5 billion year old photon crystal supercomputer is a bit more tidy than that. It made me with a fully formed mind, but no personal memories, but I did accidentally end up with my own soul. There was one other like me, but he was... well, he was a problem. He's not, any more.

[She shrugs.]

Says who? I was only made to be a background character and get erased when I wasn't needed anymore, but that has literally never stopped me from doing anything I really wanted. I left that role and the thing that gave it to me light years behind, even before I ended up here. So, let's go.

Edited 2020-03-23 18:37 (UTC)

That's foolish of you. Do you think you are truly free?

[ there's a bit of a sneer on their face, as they watch hakuno declare that so brazenly. but even that doesn't last long as a dull surprise creeps on their face as she insists to go dancing. ]

I said I have no interest in dancing, so why do you keep insisting? There must be others.

If I wasn't, I'd already be dead. There's not really a gray area, since it was in the middle of erasing me when I was taken away from it by my partner. And sure, I don't know exactly how long I'll survive in a foreign photonics environment if we ever do leave this world, but really, who does? A person could die just crossing the street, on a normal day. At least I'm not dissolving in a cage anymore.

[Hakuno has been called a fool so often and in so many ways it just slides off now, completely unaddressed.]

I want to dance with you, is why. It's pretty foolish to decide you don't like it when you've never even tried, Donn't you think?

And yet your death might be essential to the life of others. Just as Flat Escardos' death was essential for my awakening. A single bullet to the head was enough to take him out of that world. Though due to...this farce of a world, it seems that he will still remain here for now.

[ there. it has been said. flat escardos is dead. they expect that to have some sort of adverse reaction, as most humans do. sadness, anger, anything of the sort.

if anything, as they say that, there's a lonely glint in their eyes as they glance away. ]

You want to dance with Flat. As I mentioned before, he will be back. That, I am sure of.

No, my death was definitely essential to the lives of others. that's how Elimination Matches worked; if you won, you survived, and if you lost, you didn't. Regardless, I survived.

[She's seen the dead alive and well before. Not even counting Heroic Spirits, of course.

She sighs, soft and low, and reaches down to grasp his wrist and tug him to his feet, absentmindedly putting money down for the untouched tea at the same time.]

I said he promised to dance with me. So, when he's back, I'll dance with him, too. Now, let's go.

Aah--?!

[ the surprise in their voice is still heavily muted in comparison to the original flat escardos. and yet their slightly widened eyes and the way that they stumble to their feet is the most amount of emotion that they have had in quite a while.

this girl...this almost-human...is incomprehensible.

but there's no escaping, is there? well, they suppose that they could use some magic to distract her. an illusion of pain or blindness would be good distractions, but that would be exerting too much energy for such a pointless thing.

it's just dancing, after all. ]

If...that is what you want. I will follow you.

I don't know how much more clear I could be about what I want, at this point.

[She laces her fingers with his? theirs? and heads out onto the street proper. It's a little crowded, so she doesn't want her hard work to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the early evening by chance, of all things.]

A few roads over, there's a street performer playing songs and people dancing. I'm good at spotting and remembering patterned movements, so I figure we can wing it. Flat says that sometimes, it's better to just move with the music, anyways.

Flat says--said-- a lot of things all the time. He was the one that...

[ their voice trails off as they realize that they're holding hands. the warmth is barely felt, and they don't really understand why they're doing this. perhaps so that he doesn't get lost. or maybe some form of sentimentality that he doesn't understand.

telling her the wish that they both had--that they had now undertaken--is not something they want to do. so they change the subject entirely. ]

Well, if it's about remembering movements, then I'd be able to do that efficiently.

And he’s going to say plenty more things in the future, too, when he’s back. So, right now it falls to us to test his claims.

[It’s basically fun science, put like that.]

Glad to hear it. Ah speaking of hearing, I think we’re close...

[There’s a man plucking a trilling, meandering time on a mandolin, and a half dozen or more couples swaying along to it.

Hakuno tugs their linked hands, leaving his on her waist, and reaching for his shoulder.]

Ready?

No.

[ it's an overly honest answer as they watch the others frolicking to and fro to the sound of the music. to a normal person, this may be rather lovely, but to them...

it didn't feel like anything at all.

however, this is what she wanted. while they were not meant for servitude, they were satisfied with fulfilling this girl's desires as they had none of their own--that they could accomplish now, at least. they observe the others and their movements for a few seconds, and then nods. ]

I am ready. It seems that I am meant to lead you, so I will do as such.

[ they take the first step. and then the next. will she follow along? ]

[The week passes with little appreciation for the normal flow of time, the days going by painfully slowly as Diarmuid and Berserker brood over Flat's whereabouts. Neither of them are known to be kind to themselves at the best of times and his disappearance, against all reason, feels like a personal failing and the witch feels the burden of every moment acutely through his bond too.

Which is why as soon he hears Coill's barking and the sound of the door, he springs to his feet. In moments, Diarmuid has rounded the corner into the hall, where, with a dizzying wave of relief, he finds a familiar face standing in the doorway.]

Flat-

[Immediately, his arms go around the young mage, holding him in a firm half-embrace- and it's only then, with his arms braced against unresponsive shoulders, that he realises something is wrong. At first he had wondered whether it was simply his scent after a week's absence that had disturbed Coill but there's something not quite right here. Even now, the hound, his back arched and ears flush to his head, continues to growl.

As he steps back and takes in the empty look in his eyes, Diarmuid's skin prickles with uncertainty.

He tries again.]

... Flat?

Edited 2020-03-23 20:33 (UTC)

[ the hug does not sway them in the least. neither the rigidness from being touched by what might as well be a stranger or the compassion of seeing a long time friend. diarmuid may as well have hugged no one at all.

the dog, annoying thing that it is, continues to make noise. but they manage to ignore it, in favor of this...person's question.

clearly they know flat. they must be an acquaintance, then, like hakuno and others. so they give him the same response they have given the rest. ]

Flat Escardos is not available for now. I suppose you know him?

Flat! Take hold of the two books on top of the stack I am carrying! I...!

[Because, thing is, Enkidu is carrying too much books. Normally the weight of books weren't a problem for them. But at this point, there are just too many books.

They're wobbling now and when they look at the other there's a bit of a helpless expression on their face.]

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the first thing i heard was a clattering sound....

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