Asch the Bloody (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bloodyashes) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
lazybox2020-08-14 09:58 pm
bloodyashes) wrote in lazybox2020-08-14 09:58 pm
our tears are painted in red
A shade of white fading away, and a severe feeling of deja vu, as the magic disperses...
But not entirely. And so Aodhan hovers on the wind, not even noticed, as the Crystal Tower draws deep, and this memory plays through to its conclusion. (He remembers thinking, at a time he was still too afraid to fly, how good the wind must be up here, at the Emperor's throne. Now, he knows it to be truth.
The scene plays out, and he takes the time, to confirm what he saw, a child left alone and then gone -
When it is just him, the Auri woman, and the crystalline figure of a friend, Aodhan takes the mask from his face. No reason to imply any alliance with the defeated and the lost. It goes on his belt, in front of the faint humming of the flight engine, which he flicks off with the turn of a switch.
And then he touches down, heels a distinct sound in the silence as they land on the stone. It's good as an announcement of his presence, before he actually speaks. A moment for her to react, to spin and see his hands held up without any obvious weapons in them. He considers several forms of address, but... There are none that aren't weird, in this situation, so better to leave all of them off.
"I hate to interrupt," he says instead, "but I'm afraid I must point out that the 'sending back' part of your summoning did not work exactly as intended." He gives her a weak smile, with enough genuine cheer in it to seem strange from someone who was swinging a greatsword and the powers of bone-deep hurt only half an hour before.
(He hopes she didn't look too closely at Asch. He'd die again before wearing a helm over his hair.)
Just another day and another problem for the Warrior of Something or Other to solve. Hopefully more quickly than the last few.
But not entirely. And so Aodhan hovers on the wind, not even noticed, as the Crystal Tower draws deep, and this memory plays through to its conclusion. (He remembers thinking, at a time he was still too afraid to fly, how good the wind must be up here, at the Emperor's throne. Now, he knows it to be truth.
The scene plays out, and he takes the time, to confirm what he saw, a child left alone and then gone -
When it is just him, the Auri woman, and the crystalline figure of a friend, Aodhan takes the mask from his face. No reason to imply any alliance with the defeated and the lost. It goes on his belt, in front of the faint humming of the flight engine, which he flicks off with the turn of a switch.
And then he touches down, heels a distinct sound in the silence as they land on the stone. It's good as an announcement of his presence, before he actually speaks. A moment for her to react, to spin and see his hands held up without any obvious weapons in them. He considers several forms of address, but... There are none that aren't weird, in this situation, so better to leave all of them off.
"I hate to interrupt," he says instead, "but I'm afraid I must point out that the 'sending back' part of your summoning did not work exactly as intended." He gives her a weak smile, with enough genuine cheer in it to seem strange from someone who was swinging a greatsword and the powers of bone-deep hurt only half an hour before.
(He hopes she didn't look too closely at Asch. He'd die again before wearing a helm over his hair.)
Just another day and another problem for the Warrior of Something or Other to solve. Hopefully more quickly than the last few.
no subject
Holminster Switch, that is.
The ruins are still ruins; there's little he can do for those. And the corpses are long since buried, after the coming of night.
But the buildings that are somewhere in-between, the ones with enough frame that something new could be built out of the wreckage - those are different, if one knows where to look. Stripped down of all the broken pieces and rubble. Those parts, along with assorted other debris - broken fences, shattered dreams, half a dozen vegetable patches worth of weeds - are piled in the yard where Philia once bellowed a challenge at the belighted heavens.
Few people have actually returned to the settlement yet, to live instead of burying their dead. So if the culprit for the work wasn't obvious by implication, then Aodhan's arrival back to the square - half of a shattered roof beam, longer than he is tall across his shoulders - makes it obvious enough. His wings are furled against his back but visible, helping to balance the wood he's carrying.
He isn't trying to hide, after all.
Era's arrival doesn't get so much as a greeting as he walks past her to deposit the beam against the pile. When the weight is off, he sighs.
"You know, usually I'm the one who gets off on the wrong foot with people." The accent is the strange and musical one, rather than the Aodhan who spoke before.
no subject
She wraps her arms more tightly around her legs and rests her chin atop her knees; a faint shudder runs through her, most notable in her tail as it moves to curl around a leg. Her Carbuncle remains alert and agitated, ever vigilant in the face of its mistress' unease.
The changes Aodhan has made to the 'arena' are catalogued and appreciated. Not so much for the benefit of the people (she wonders if this place will ever be more than a graveyard) as much as for how it helps remind her of the present.
"You speak as though you haven't this time."
no subject
Then again, what about these circumstances is 'usual,' really? It's just another in a long line of unusual happenings and circumstances.
He sighs. "To answer your question - and I wouldn't hold it against you if you've forgotten that you asked - most people call me Asch, if they know I exist at all. We don't exactly advertise it."
no subject
"You may as well for how poorly you hide it."
no subject