middaeg | Intro Overflow: May

[The question brings out another pensive look and he makes a gentle, noncommittal humming sound as he considers it.]

... I'd grown to accept that there was nothing I can do about it- it was just another part of me, regardless of feelings.

[Like hating your height or eye colour. Maybe in his first life he became too complacent, took it for granted that removing the charm was an impossible feat, but in his second as a Servant, he has to be more mercenary. Like it or not, it's another potential weapon- albeit one, he's learned the hard way many, many times, that can so easily be turned inward.

Never gets any less awkward to explain, though.]

Before I arrived here, any woman who laid eyes upon this mark- [He taps his cheek lightly.] - would fall for me. Supposedly, it was a blessing but curse is more apt. You can probably understand why things are easier this way.

Yourself?

[It's not particularly clear- but enough for Thancred to give Francel a concerned look.

It doesn't seem like the kind of danger he was thinking of, and Thancred frowns, before shaking his head and offering Francel a smile.]

Well, I suppose that's good news, really. But I suppose this means whatever common thread has brought us here is likely something else, then. I suppose- perhaps we might have been called for something here.

Isn't that the story of my life.

[HAAAaaaaa.... Anyway-]

A stable? What for?

[That's what happens when you want to be a hero, Zack.

Well. Zack was going to find out eventually... Better to do it before they move in together.]

I have a chocobo who came here with me.

[This entire place wasn't on his agenda. It's fine.]

...... [Welp. Cloud feels like this is the story of his life. No one having a plan.]

Do you have catnip or something if it doesn't work?

The hell? For real?!

[How does a chocobo even fit through one of those mirrors?]

Is it okay? Didn't get ... squished?

There's always a reason to drag someone into a strange place. We just don't know what it is.

[The story of Cloud's life is getting dragged into things he doesn't want anything to do with.]

[...........

Sorry. Cloud is going to let out an annoyed sigh.]

Sounds like back home. Great.

[Just keep petting the chocobo. Might be easier for Astral to find Yuma standing still.]

Are you here alone or do you have an adult?

[Is Astral the adult?]

[He snorts a bit.]

What? Like walking into a kitchen and having cooking spoons chase you out? No thanks.

[Following, he takes a better look around.]

A world called Gaia. It's nothing like this place.

She's fine. She came out how we did, without a problem.

[Besides, Sunshine is durable.]

( from here. )

I don't think they'd waste time shacking us up for a night or two if there was actual danger lurking around the corner? Other than those... people... creatures lurking around, I guess... but they seem for the most part pretty tame?

[ No one seems to know exactly why they're here, and while it might seem like a form of comfort to others to have something so simple in common, to Kaoru there's nothing worth it about this situation at all -- not when he's in the camp of wanting to go back as soon as possible.

Passing through a mirror's never been at the top of his list of priorities. ]

Hmm... in the middle of... -- a date, so it's not like I'm extra excited about this or anything. Breaking a promise is one of the worst things you can do to a girl, you know? Now I've got to think of a really good excuse for why I just up and vanished... which is such a pain.

Edited 2019-05-17 15:52 (UTC)

[She. Alright, Cloud has a female chocobo. He grins.]

Didn't peg you as a chocobo breeder, Cloud. But I guess that explains the hair.

[Chocobutt hair.]

[Surprise flickers across Justine's features and then understanding. She is very familiar to what he is describing. An ache twists in her chest as her heart throbs for a life that had only been a day dream. Something about this world changed people and that change gave her a painful hope that she knew as fruitless.

Hope is a dangerous creature.]

I understand. [It's apparent from her tone and expression that she truly does.] I am happy that you are freed of that here.

And thank you. For telling me. This isn't something that you're comfortable with. I can tell.

[Wooooow]

Barrett said the same thing.... and I bred her for a reason.

[Chocobo racing is serious business.]

—Children? [Salieri nearly chokes out the word, looking very close to dropping both his own ice cream and the proffered one still being extending to Francel. Between his somewhat distinguished appearance and his obvious much older age... well.

He supposes he can't blame him. He sighs, nudging the ice cream in his direction once more.] I'm no parent, I assure you.

I merely thought tonight I would indulge... considering the circumstances. [He glances over the healthy bonfire, to the smattering of locals and strangers alike all talking among themselves. After a beat he glances over to him.] And you may call me Salieri.

[Now take the ice cream before it melts... !]

[Whoever Barret is, he knows what's up.]

What's the story?

[Zack realizes again that there seems to be some gap in time that he's missing. Cloud has a chococo and apparently knows how to breed the birds and when did he gain a skill like that between leaving him and getting to Midgar? Or was it after?]

A little...

[francel does not offer a definitive answer. his eyelashes flutter in the darkness, heavy with moisture; the touch to his forehead is soothing, and coaxes his eyelids shut. it's a warm spring night in geargadas, and as ishgardians, neither of them must be accustomed to the sudden change in temperature — but francel finds, to his surprise, that he misses the feeling of being warm beneath his sheets. why doesn't it feel as though he's getting any warmer?

unthinking, francel rolls closer to aymeric for no better reason than that he would siphon the lord commander's heat.

pressed close, at least, it is clear that the young lord is breathing, and if nothing else, his breaths are warm — it's just that his skin is cold.

there were rumors about francel in ishgard, following his trial. some people claimed that there had to be some mistake, that the renegade lord haurchefant had come up with some convenient lie to save the foppish young lord who had always followed his every move like a chocobo hatchling. others believed that he really was a heretic after all, that his piety had to be all an act, that no one could truly be so boring, so dull. still others, more prone to believing in grand conspiracies, claimed that the young lord truly had been pushed off the edge of witchdrop, that the being in his form was some sort of voidsent creature from the depths of that accursed gorge.

but such a thing would be preposterous. most reasonable, educated ishgardians believed the official camp dragonhead report on the matter, and all of it was settled after officials at whitebrim front confirmed that inquisitor guillaime had truly been replaced by an imposter.

all of it was settled.]

Of course... [though he worries what solas will think of the contents.] Er, here... but as I said, it's...

[it reads, in part, as follows:

...

— eighteenth of noveuer. cold and rainy.

i dreamt that my teeth were all cracked again. i'd broken them trying to bite into a piece of cake, and camden took one look at me and threatened to break off our engagement. i spent the dream begging him to reconsider. now that i'm awake, i keep checking my mouth to make sure all my teeth are in place. they look a little crooked. maybe one of these days i could pay a witch at the coven to help me line them into place, but i'm worried they'll mess up and just make them even worse than before. i wonder what this could all mean. perhaps i'm more self-conscious than i thought. i think perhaps i should put less effort into maintaining my appearance, that it's all making me a bit of a nervous wreck, but after remembering what my teeth felt like in that dream, i'm only more worried about them than ever before.

— twenty-first of noveuer. sunny.

at first the dream was very nice. camden and i were dancing in this grand hall, except that i was wearing this absurd bonnet with a giant frog in it. isla, who lives across the way, told me that wearing a large hat in a dream could mean that i'm anxious about being concerned and manipulated by others, like i'm being controlled by too many forces. i don't know what the frog means. but then the dream turned terrible, as when i went home, i came across an intruder and we struggled and i wound up with the woman dead at my feet. i don't know why she was a woman as most thieves are men anyway. in the dream, i wound up asking my father in a panic to help me do something about the body, but i feel disgusted now that i am awake, as i never thought i would be the sort of person to murder someone and then try to get away with it. isla told me that killing someone in a dream means i have some latent anger that i'm not addressing, and also that it's very rare, that most people dream about being killed instead. perhaps i have the potential to be a murderer. i don't know.

— twenty-second of noveuer. haven't looked outside yet.

lewd dream. shan't repeat the details here, save that both camden and alec were involved, and far more well-built than they are in reality, and now i can't look at either of them. they might be twins, merissa, but it's not a package deal! you are engaged to the one man and not the other! they're not even identical twins! am i attracted to alec? i'd never thought about it. what if this means i should break off my engagement? i must admit alec is quite the looker...

...

francel looks a bit sheepish.]

Edited 2019-05-17 20:14 (UTC)

[this is... an interestingly specific and pointed question, but not one that francel is unwilling to answer. after a moment, he nods. it isn't exactly information that he's ever had to keep secret, after all, and in a strange new world, why should it matter to anyone but himself?]

I am Lord Francel de Haillenarte, fourthborn son of House Haillenarte — ours is a noble family tied to the founding of our country. In the world from which I hail, I was in command of a military garrison at a series of fortresses known as Skyfire Locks.

[this makes it all out to sound a bit more grand than it really was, but again... what does it matter to anyone but himself?]

And you? Will you answer the same for me?

[he has no reason to suspect that l might lie about it.]

[it does, and francel finds himself smiling broadly again, his eyes flickering to izuku's face for a moment as he nods his head in quiet approval. in another world, he thinks, perhaps he himself would have received the same results. that, or francel would have scored nothing in everything.]

...You must be very kind.

[francel nods along at ryoji's description of iwatodai, which he understands in a flawed way as perhaps some port city in the far east, something like what he has heard of distant kugane. (he colors slightly at ryoji's mention of a lover's lane.) clearing his throat, francel takes another sip of their shared milkshake before he answers the question.]

I came from a city called Ishgard. I wonder if you have anything like it in your world? It is a city of spiraling towers and stone masonwork — we assuredly have some of the most beautiful castles and cathedrals in the world. Once upon a time our surrounding lands of Coerthas were lush and verdant highlands, but now they are blanketed in eternal snow and frost. It is cold, yes, but as you said of your Iwatodai, the skies are an endless blue and the mountains now are layered in pristine white.

[he sighs.]

Even with all the snow and ice... it would be beautiful if not for the dragons.

Oh, ha ha, uhhh... that's kind of never been my area, I pretty much just let the folks who're in charge of the mining get on with it? They like it better that way. Sometimes I invent things for them.

[ She still seems cheerful, but she's kind of bracing herself: she recognises this sort of confusion as a reaction that's usually judgemental, and she doesn't want this person who seems to Get Her and who she likes, so far, to be like that. ]

(original; new tag-ins welcome here or on his open log for things later into the month!)

Edited 2019-05-17 20:16 (UTC)

I guess..

[ Fang wasn't wrong there. They way they were being treated now was better than the alternative. ]

Then..will you be helping them fight that thing they were talking about?

Intro Overflow: May

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@ kurapika

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ritsu sakuma ★ ensemble stars! ★ puca

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