BD scraps once again aaaaugh on block
Feb. 12th, 2015 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raajThe first thing is actually a discard at this point; the second I'd like to make work, it's just...hmmmm.
"It's impressive you're up so quickly!" Magnolia said. She was turned away from Tiz to keep an eye out for guards. As she seemed sure they had all run away or been killed in that strange monster's attack--a Ba'al, she called it?--Tiz was just glad he'd persuaded her to give him a semblance of privacy. The clothes he'd been wearing when he woke up were soaked from the fluids of the stasis chamber and clung to him annoyingly even as he peeled them off; the dry gray robes they'd found were a relief, and he was eager to change into them. "Weren't you in there for three years?"
He stumbled in pushing his arms in the sleeve. "...Really, you would know better than I could," he said hesitantly. He was aware he'd been in that chamber for some time. He wasn't sure how he knew that, though, and that the time he'd spent in there had been years? His mind was too foggy to even begin wrapping itself around that idea.
His mind... he felt like he was missing something important, like he was still half-asleep despite the Celestial having returned to him. He paused for a moment in straightening the pants and rubbed his temples, trying to get that nauseating feeling out of his head. "What's this 'nice place' you mentioned?" he asked. Up to this point, he'd been following Magnolia around like a gosling would its mother, simply because she seemed to know what was actually going on and two together were safer than one. Blindly following was dangerous in the long run, though. He remembered that.
"A friend's house is always nice, isn't it?" Magnolia answered. "Especially when your friend is the Grand Marshal."
Edea? Tiz perked up immediately, looking over to the white-haired woman to see her peeking over her shoulder with a knowing smile. "That would be nice," he agreed, trying not to seem too eager. "But how do you propose we get to Eternia?"
"Hmm?" The question seemed to confuse Magnolia, but only for a second; then she laughed. "Ohoho. How silly, Tiz. We're already there!"
"R, really?"
"Didn't you feel the chill when that Ba'al broke through the wall? I know I did. It's a good thing the people of Eternia are friendlier than their weather."
Tiz bit his lip. That was strange. He had noticed the chill, but it hadn't... registered against the idea already lodged in his head. "Somehow I was convinced we were in Ancheim," he admitted. "Because of all the gears..." He shook his head. His body was definitely ahead of his brain in recovering from the long sleep; he should have realized that Ancheim was never so cold, even at night.
"Gears?"
"They're distant, but... do you not hear them? They're still sounding," Tiz told Magnolia, and their confused faces mirrored each other for a moment before the woman laughed.
"Mm, maybe you're more sensitive than I am. You've been in here much longer than me, after all. If you're ready to finally quit this place, let's go!"
***
What with the new reveals, I think it's scrapped entirely for now; the underlying theory of it could still turn out correct in the end, I just don't have a working sequence of events I like. (The idea was that Tiz had been fitted with mechanical parts much like Emperor Oblivion, except his were internal, to support organs that would have otherwise failed during his coma. The "gears" he mentions hearing are in fact his own, and they start working against him when they face Emperor Oblivion.)
***
The first night is Ringabel's fault, and the man will readily admit it--there's nights he can't stand to even try sleeping, and while he refrains from waking Tiz every time he wants nocturnal company... well, Tiz is easily woken, and the younger man is good company, a calming influence when Ringabel feels he'll drive himself mad. A few hours of lost sleep is nothing for them; they'd tended to lose more on traveling nights before they obtained Grandship, when a watchful eye was needed to guard against the possibility of an ambush, and at this point they're simply used to operating with a little sleep debt on their account, to be paid back... oh, whenever. Heroes do not buckle to a little thing like weariness.
The second night is Ringabel's fault as well, though the man ensures the record will show he was injured blocking a burst of magic that could have hurt both Tiz and Edea had it gotten past him. If Tiz was feeling tired at that point, he hid it well under a pleasant attitude of gratitude as he used a combination of Spiritmaster and White Mage abilities to speed the healing of Ringabel's shoulder and back through the night.
The third night is Agnès' fault, and that's when things get a little hairy.
Tiz looks much grimmer than the night previous, and Ringabel cannot tell how much of that is accumulated exhaustion weighing him down and how much of that is because Agnès has yet to wake. The young woman took a heavy hit at the worst time for her. The four of them had been leaving the temple after the crystal's awakening when a golem caught them all by surprise, and Agnès, already taxed from the vestal rites, collapsed after a punch knocked her into the wall. Her bruises have been vanished through white magic, and her breath is much more even now than it was when they first brought her back on board Grandship. But she has yet to wake, and Tiz is beginning to look like death warmed over with the bags under his eyes. Likely they'd appear even more severe without the slender glasses resting on the boy's face, the frames taking some attention away from the dark circles underneath.
"I'll watch over her," Ringabel offers. "I do have white magic as well. Go to bed and sleep, Tiz. Did you get any rest at all last night?" Ringabel himself couldn't claim to have slept like a baby, but he had at least dropped off in the middle of a spell, lulled by the soothing healing waves, and had napped through the early morning before finally being woken to prepare for the day's travel.
"Of course I did," Tiz says, and very obviously does not offer how much. "I wouldn't be able to sleep, leaving her like this." Ringabel sighs. "Besides, don't think I didn't notice your shoulder still isn't healed completely. You need to sleep more than I do."
Argh. Bad enough that Edea had caught his twinges; apparently Tiz had as well. Ringabel would argue it's still Tiz who needs to rest more, he has always had the hardest time sleeping out of all four of them and the past few days have not been kind to him, but Ringabel can also recognize when his friend is prepared to dig his feet in. Especially over Agnès. "Can I at least get you something?"
"...Coffee."
Which means he's of a mind to stay up even longer. "At this rate I'm going to make yours black."
"I don't mind," Tiz answers. "It'll keep me awake better. That's the point right now."
Yes, there's evidently no changing his mind right now. Ringabel fetches Tiz a cup of coffee, pitch-black, which the boy drinks without hesitation (if with some wincing as well). From there at least one of them heads to bed. Only for the moment, however. The vagrant knows well enough from experience that he won't sleep solidly through the night with his shoulder in this state. Just one roll would be all it takes to wake him, and when it does he can check on Tiz again.
He actually surprises himself somewhat by sleeping a whole two hours before jarring himself painfully back to awareness, and from there he pads down to the third room in the inn's hall. The first is used by the ladies'; the second across is for him and Tiz. The third, which he expects to find Tiz and Agnès still occupying, is a sort of makeshift infirmary, always kept ready in case they need a clean bed or two and some spare supplies.
Tiz and Agnès are still there, right as he expects them--Agnès asleep on the bed, Tiz hovering over her protectively--but with additional company in the form of Edea, sitting on the other bed in the room. As the only one of them who does not have much practice at all using the mage asterisks, Edea accepted early on in the evening that there was little she could do for her friend after she'd aided in getting the vestal to the safety of Grandship and the comfort of a soft bed. Thus his angel actually has gotten a good few hours' sleep, looking bright-eyed and calm as she speaks to Tiz.
"You're jittering. How much coffee have you had?"
"I'm not drinking any more."
"I know you're not drinking any more, I heard the Proprietress cut you off and I'm sure she's hid the stuff," because the Proprietress is very shrewd and not above hiding coffee beans or alcohol when she thought one of them was being overused, as the younger adults have learned to their great chagrin from a few occasions. Edea tilts her head at Ringabel. "Your shoulder wake you up?"
"It hasn't quite yet realized it should be good as new," Ringabel admits.
Tiz just...sighs, pushing his silver-rimmed glasses back up on his face. The gesture tickles at Ringabel's returning memories; the Spiritmaster Victor S. Court must have done it many times where Alternis--where he could see, and the manner wasn't unlike how Tiz just did it. "Maybe you should stay in bed, then?"
"Do you really think you have any ground to start on that topic?"
Edea just rolls her eyes; she's never been one to stand for their arguments over who should take night shift and who would be able to sleep, always finding it dumb that they were both so eager to sacrifice the night hours. "You two," she mutters, before pointing at a patch of blanket alongside her. "Ringabel! Sit down and let me see it."
"What are you going to do?" Not that he would say no to her request; he's already walking over and sitting down for her, turning his back toward her and lifting up his shirt so she can inspect his shoulder to her satisfaction.
"Punch it," she deadpans, but in fact her hands are very gentle when they touch on his shoulder, and he nearly melts when she starts to knead with both her thumbs rubbing against the back shoulder blade, working out a soreness that magic hadn't been able to erase. Then the heat rises in his cheeks at how close she is, though he quickly tries to fight that back down. Edea's mentioned that she learned how to give simple massages by doing favors for Mahzer, whose chronic illness often left her body sore. He's fairly certain Edea will actually punch him if he says anything to make this seem something other than a friendly favor, and he doesn't want to risk another hit to his shoulder.
But it is very flustering, and he frowns at Tiz when the younger man gives a short laugh at the look on his face. Only to see Tiz falter and place a hand on his own face, which is not funny at all. "Tiz, Agnès is likely simply exhausted. She will not be pleased if she wakes to find you've worked yourself into the same state. Go. To. Bed." How many times must he repeat himself?! There's a good chance it'd be easier to physically wrestle Tiz to the mattress.
And as expected, Tiz stubbornly shakes his head, though with a bemused smile. "Nothing's wrong. It was a--strange thought. Hm. You look about to pass out already!"
Ringabel whines grumpily, but there's no denying that his angel's touch is heavenly right now. Her usual force is tempered by the skill she learned for Mahzer's sake, and he's already idly dreaming of myriad ways he could ask for more massages from her before she directs him to lay down on his stomach.
With his eyes starting to close, he only realizes what a sappy, silly smile he's got on his face when Edea mentions drily to Tiz, "Well, you're in good company. Ringabel has a whole load of strange thoughts."
"You are an inspiration, my dear," he answers, and the smack on the back of his head is much softer than it could have been and puts him out only because it means the massage is paused. "Please don't stop."
"I'll stop if you keep talking like that."
That, in itself, is incentive to keep quiet, and with his lips no longer moving and Edea easing knots out of his muscles, he finds himself growing sleepy again alarmingly quickly. As soon as Edea stops, he promises himself. Edea will surely grow bored of this soon enough and want to go back to sleep, and when she does he'll take the red mage asterisk and strong-arm Tiz to bed with the assurance that Agnès will be well-cared for, everyone needs to get at least some rest and the young shepherd has not properly counted his sheep in quite some time, and... ... ... sheep... lamb would be delicious for the next evening's dinner... he should ask the Proprietress...
...
Ringabel is annoyed with both himself and the passing of time when he next wakes up. The sky is just beginning to lighten, though at least dawn is still far from breaking. He hasn't slept the entire night away, but Edea has been absent from his side for some time, without his notice. Careless of him. Someone is pacing within the room, though he can't place the stride until he actually looks up and sees that Tiz is still awake and has to ask himself who else he thought would be awake and in this room at 3 or 4 am. But the way Tiz strides is off.
That sounds absurd, but Ringabel is very certain: Tiz's pacing is usually quicker, frenetic, punctuated by his weight hitting the floor harder than it needs to. The pace he's taking now is strangely light and long for him, rolling from ball of heel to tip of toes in each step and it just sounds very different. Tiz looks very different, somehow. Like he isn't himself at all.
Ringabel contemplates the idea that he needs to go back to sleep if he's having such strange thoughts, but he knows which one of them hasn't been sleeping at all. "I am amazed you are still awake, Tiz."
If the boy heard him, he's not acknowledging it; instead he steps over to the bedside table, beginning--resuming?--to write something.
"Which I'm willing to bet is only because you've stayed on your feet this entire time," Ringabel says, more pointedly. "I'm sure all you need do is sit down for a moment, and you'll be out like a--"
"Please cease your idle chattering dim."
"Come again?" Ringabel asks, at a loss for an actual retort just because Tiz's words are so unexpected: it's not like him to be so rude, and 'chattering dim'?
The drowsy amnesiac only realizes he was being addressed by his old name when bloodshot brown eyes glare at him through the spiritmaster's glasses, and Tiz repeats: "Cease. Idle. Chatter. Dim."
That isn't just rude--it's deliberately distant, as far as Ringabel can tell, and he doesn't wish to be hurt by it but he is far too tired to try to brush it off. Alternis Dim has been their enemy. Ringabel is one of them, and he's never once asked to be called otherwise by his friends. It stings to have the old name used in such a pointed manner, and that sting quickly turns to irritation, considering he's only been trying to look out for the younger boy. He surges to his feet, grabbing Tiz by the shoulder. "All right, you've proven you can go without sleep long enough to turn yourself into a perfect ass. You're going to bed now, before dear Agnès has to deal with this attitude."
Tiz slips out of the spiritmaster coat, though, and his staff rattles against the wall before levitating and flying through the air to his hand, narrowly missing Ringabel's side. The way Tiz is staring at him, Ringabel doubts that was accident.
"Holly's care seems to have invigorated you; you obviously do not require further attention," Tiz says with a tone overly civil, and simmering with a very real madness underneath. "Leave. Victoria and I will not be disturbed again."
The words make so little sense that Ringabel finds himself glancing down at Agnès in the bed just to make sure she hasn't spontaneously turned into a diminutive witch. 'Victoria'. Victoria? And that way of speaking--it's like Tiz believes he is--
Ringabel backs off from Tiz at the moment he realizes just who the boy's altered personality reminds him of, grasping at his pockets for the red mage asterisk.
He feels absolutely no regret in dropping Tiz like a bag of bricks with a sleep spell. Once the first panic has passed and he has the chance to reconsider his actions, Ringabel is of the mind that he should have in fact dropped Tiz hours ago, considering the boy seems to now be hallucinating that he's Victor S. Court, and very much hopes that that... little display was just sleep-deprived hallucination, because if they can be possessed by the asterisk holders they've killed there are some asterisks they are going to have to permanently ban using, say, most of them. Particularly the asterisk he himself is using right now. Ringabel appreciates DeRosa's abilities. Not how the man thought they should be used. And it's bad enough Tiz somehow thought Agnès was Victoria; if she ever thought she should be Victoria... He'll just be grateful it's Yulyana's asterisk she currently has equipped. There hardly seems to be any risk of possession there. To be on the safe side, the blond crouches down by Tiz and pats until he finds the spiritmaster asterisk in his friend's pocket, setting it on the table in case it did have any influence. Tiz's note is sitting there still, and Ringabel glances at it.
It's Tiz's handwriting, mostly. It's not Tiz's lexicon, made up of longer words than the boy would usually use, specific medical ones that Ringabel hadn't even thought Tiz would know, and though the way those words are strung together is not exactly anything intelligent or even intelligible, some distant memory scratching at the back of the former dark knight's brain says that yes, this is very much like how the intellectual's notes would start to ramble right before Braev would grant him a leave from duties for him to not have a complete and final meltdown from exhaustion.
So there's that. He really does seem to be alone at 4 am with an unconscious vestal and an extremely sleep-deprived shepherd who's begun to channel an equally sleep-deprived Victor S. Court, a situation that can be eloquently summed up as: "Crystals have mercy, Tiz, you better not wake up still like that."
At least Agnès looks better in her appearance now, her cheeks rosier. Even being so severely addled as to seemingly call her Victoria, Tiz hadn't neglected her. Well, of course, Victor would never neglect Victoria's health--Ringabel quickly decides he doesn't want to ponder too long on the workings of Tiz-as-Victor's mind. Not now. At any rate, perhaps it would be safer to rouse him once Agnès is awake and can point out when he is being entirely unreasonable and unlike himself without him getting snappish about it. And he'll just... leave Tiz be on the floor until then, because moving him would break the sleep spell.
Ringabel pulls up a chair so he can watch over them both. His vigil lasts about twenty minutes before staring at two sleeping people has him intensely uncomfortable, especially considering he has no idea at all what sort of mood or even mind one of those people will wake up in.
Instead, he goes to rouse a third sleeping person.
"Edeeeeaaaaa. Dearest angel. Light of my life--"
"If it isn't light outside I'm going to kick you."
Which would make it wise to step out of the range of her legs. Thankfully hers are a bit short.
After a moment, she can tell he still hasn't gone away from her bedside and decides to open her eyes to squint at him. "Well what is it? Is Agnès awake?"
"Not quite yet," he admits. "Tiz is--asleep."
"Oh, finally. He has the weirdest way of showing his crankiness, he kept calling me 'Miss Lee' and being overly formal. And then he called me something else 'Lee', but I didn't catch it. Not sure I wanted to."
"He wasn't calling you anything rude," Ringabel said. "He was calling you 'Holly'. As in Holly Whyte."
"...Are you sure that isn't rude?"
The vagabond sighed. "He wasn't quite in his right mind, Edea. I put him to sleep after he referred to Agnès as Victoria."
"Oh. I'd say I got the better comparison, then."
"Yes."
"He called her Victoria?"
***
When I showed this to Koma, she thought it was interesting! She also thought it was the beginning of a thing, when in fact by the original plan this should have been 90% done at this point (Tiz was supposed to wake up normal, if confused and embarrassed; while there is a bit of quirkiness with the asterisks' mechanics going on here, the episode was mostly caused by sleep deprivation). So I have to figure out if I'm making it longer or reworking what is already there or...what.
"It's impressive you're up so quickly!" Magnolia said. She was turned away from Tiz to keep an eye out for guards. As she seemed sure they had all run away or been killed in that strange monster's attack--a Ba'al, she called it?--Tiz was just glad he'd persuaded her to give him a semblance of privacy. The clothes he'd been wearing when he woke up were soaked from the fluids of the stasis chamber and clung to him annoyingly even as he peeled them off; the dry gray robes they'd found were a relief, and he was eager to change into them. "Weren't you in there for three years?"
He stumbled in pushing his arms in the sleeve. "...Really, you would know better than I could," he said hesitantly. He was aware he'd been in that chamber for some time. He wasn't sure how he knew that, though, and that the time he'd spent in there had been years? His mind was too foggy to even begin wrapping itself around that idea.
His mind... he felt like he was missing something important, like he was still half-asleep despite the Celestial having returned to him. He paused for a moment in straightening the pants and rubbed his temples, trying to get that nauseating feeling out of his head. "What's this 'nice place' you mentioned?" he asked. Up to this point, he'd been following Magnolia around like a gosling would its mother, simply because she seemed to know what was actually going on and two together were safer than one. Blindly following was dangerous in the long run, though. He remembered that.
"A friend's house is always nice, isn't it?" Magnolia answered. "Especially when your friend is the Grand Marshal."
Edea? Tiz perked up immediately, looking over to the white-haired woman to see her peeking over her shoulder with a knowing smile. "That would be nice," he agreed, trying not to seem too eager. "But how do you propose we get to Eternia?"
"Hmm?" The question seemed to confuse Magnolia, but only for a second; then she laughed. "Ohoho. How silly, Tiz. We're already there!"
"R, really?"
"Didn't you feel the chill when that Ba'al broke through the wall? I know I did. It's a good thing the people of Eternia are friendlier than their weather."
Tiz bit his lip. That was strange. He had noticed the chill, but it hadn't... registered against the idea already lodged in his head. "Somehow I was convinced we were in Ancheim," he admitted. "Because of all the gears..." He shook his head. His body was definitely ahead of his brain in recovering from the long sleep; he should have realized that Ancheim was never so cold, even at night.
"Gears?"
"They're distant, but... do you not hear them? They're still sounding," Tiz told Magnolia, and their confused faces mirrored each other for a moment before the woman laughed.
"Mm, maybe you're more sensitive than I am. You've been in here much longer than me, after all. If you're ready to finally quit this place, let's go!"
***
What with the new reveals, I think it's scrapped entirely for now; the underlying theory of it could still turn out correct in the end, I just don't have a working sequence of events I like. (The idea was that Tiz had been fitted with mechanical parts much like Emperor Oblivion, except his were internal, to support organs that would have otherwise failed during his coma. The "gears" he mentions hearing are in fact his own, and they start working against him when they face Emperor Oblivion.)
***
The first night is Ringabel's fault, and the man will readily admit it--there's nights he can't stand to even try sleeping, and while he refrains from waking Tiz every time he wants nocturnal company... well, Tiz is easily woken, and the younger man is good company, a calming influence when Ringabel feels he'll drive himself mad. A few hours of lost sleep is nothing for them; they'd tended to lose more on traveling nights before they obtained Grandship, when a watchful eye was needed to guard against the possibility of an ambush, and at this point they're simply used to operating with a little sleep debt on their account, to be paid back... oh, whenever. Heroes do not buckle to a little thing like weariness.
The second night is Ringabel's fault as well, though the man ensures the record will show he was injured blocking a burst of magic that could have hurt both Tiz and Edea had it gotten past him. If Tiz was feeling tired at that point, he hid it well under a pleasant attitude of gratitude as he used a combination of Spiritmaster and White Mage abilities to speed the healing of Ringabel's shoulder and back through the night.
The third night is Agnès' fault, and that's when things get a little hairy.
Tiz looks much grimmer than the night previous, and Ringabel cannot tell how much of that is accumulated exhaustion weighing him down and how much of that is because Agnès has yet to wake. The young woman took a heavy hit at the worst time for her. The four of them had been leaving the temple after the crystal's awakening when a golem caught them all by surprise, and Agnès, already taxed from the vestal rites, collapsed after a punch knocked her into the wall. Her bruises have been vanished through white magic, and her breath is much more even now than it was when they first brought her back on board Grandship. But she has yet to wake, and Tiz is beginning to look like death warmed over with the bags under his eyes. Likely they'd appear even more severe without the slender glasses resting on the boy's face, the frames taking some attention away from the dark circles underneath.
"I'll watch over her," Ringabel offers. "I do have white magic as well. Go to bed and sleep, Tiz. Did you get any rest at all last night?" Ringabel himself couldn't claim to have slept like a baby, but he had at least dropped off in the middle of a spell, lulled by the soothing healing waves, and had napped through the early morning before finally being woken to prepare for the day's travel.
"Of course I did," Tiz says, and very obviously does not offer how much. "I wouldn't be able to sleep, leaving her like this." Ringabel sighs. "Besides, don't think I didn't notice your shoulder still isn't healed completely. You need to sleep more than I do."
Argh. Bad enough that Edea had caught his twinges; apparently Tiz had as well. Ringabel would argue it's still Tiz who needs to rest more, he has always had the hardest time sleeping out of all four of them and the past few days have not been kind to him, but Ringabel can also recognize when his friend is prepared to dig his feet in. Especially over Agnès. "Can I at least get you something?"
"...Coffee."
Which means he's of a mind to stay up even longer. "At this rate I'm going to make yours black."
"I don't mind," Tiz answers. "It'll keep me awake better. That's the point right now."
Yes, there's evidently no changing his mind right now. Ringabel fetches Tiz a cup of coffee, pitch-black, which the boy drinks without hesitation (if with some wincing as well). From there at least one of them heads to bed. Only for the moment, however. The vagrant knows well enough from experience that he won't sleep solidly through the night with his shoulder in this state. Just one roll would be all it takes to wake him, and when it does he can check on Tiz again.
He actually surprises himself somewhat by sleeping a whole two hours before jarring himself painfully back to awareness, and from there he pads down to the third room in the inn's hall. The first is used by the ladies'; the second across is for him and Tiz. The third, which he expects to find Tiz and Agnès still occupying, is a sort of makeshift infirmary, always kept ready in case they need a clean bed or two and some spare supplies.
Tiz and Agnès are still there, right as he expects them--Agnès asleep on the bed, Tiz hovering over her protectively--but with additional company in the form of Edea, sitting on the other bed in the room. As the only one of them who does not have much practice at all using the mage asterisks, Edea accepted early on in the evening that there was little she could do for her friend after she'd aided in getting the vestal to the safety of Grandship and the comfort of a soft bed. Thus his angel actually has gotten a good few hours' sleep, looking bright-eyed and calm as she speaks to Tiz.
"You're jittering. How much coffee have you had?"
"I'm not drinking any more."
"I know you're not drinking any more, I heard the Proprietress cut you off and I'm sure she's hid the stuff," because the Proprietress is very shrewd and not above hiding coffee beans or alcohol when she thought one of them was being overused, as the younger adults have learned to their great chagrin from a few occasions. Edea tilts her head at Ringabel. "Your shoulder wake you up?"
"It hasn't quite yet realized it should be good as new," Ringabel admits.
Tiz just...sighs, pushing his silver-rimmed glasses back up on his face. The gesture tickles at Ringabel's returning memories; the Spiritmaster Victor S. Court must have done it many times where Alternis--where he could see, and the manner wasn't unlike how Tiz just did it. "Maybe you should stay in bed, then?"
"Do you really think you have any ground to start on that topic?"
Edea just rolls her eyes; she's never been one to stand for their arguments over who should take night shift and who would be able to sleep, always finding it dumb that they were both so eager to sacrifice the night hours. "You two," she mutters, before pointing at a patch of blanket alongside her. "Ringabel! Sit down and let me see it."
"What are you going to do?" Not that he would say no to her request; he's already walking over and sitting down for her, turning his back toward her and lifting up his shirt so she can inspect his shoulder to her satisfaction.
"Punch it," she deadpans, but in fact her hands are very gentle when they touch on his shoulder, and he nearly melts when she starts to knead with both her thumbs rubbing against the back shoulder blade, working out a soreness that magic hadn't been able to erase. Then the heat rises in his cheeks at how close she is, though he quickly tries to fight that back down. Edea's mentioned that she learned how to give simple massages by doing favors for Mahzer, whose chronic illness often left her body sore. He's fairly certain Edea will actually punch him if he says anything to make this seem something other than a friendly favor, and he doesn't want to risk another hit to his shoulder.
But it is very flustering, and he frowns at Tiz when the younger man gives a short laugh at the look on his face. Only to see Tiz falter and place a hand on his own face, which is not funny at all. "Tiz, Agnès is likely simply exhausted. She will not be pleased if she wakes to find you've worked yourself into the same state. Go. To. Bed." How many times must he repeat himself?! There's a good chance it'd be easier to physically wrestle Tiz to the mattress.
And as expected, Tiz stubbornly shakes his head, though with a bemused smile. "Nothing's wrong. It was a--strange thought. Hm. You look about to pass out already!"
Ringabel whines grumpily, but there's no denying that his angel's touch is heavenly right now. Her usual force is tempered by the skill she learned for Mahzer's sake, and he's already idly dreaming of myriad ways he could ask for more massages from her before she directs him to lay down on his stomach.
With his eyes starting to close, he only realizes what a sappy, silly smile he's got on his face when Edea mentions drily to Tiz, "Well, you're in good company. Ringabel has a whole load of strange thoughts."
"You are an inspiration, my dear," he answers, and the smack on the back of his head is much softer than it could have been and puts him out only because it means the massage is paused. "Please don't stop."
"I'll stop if you keep talking like that."
That, in itself, is incentive to keep quiet, and with his lips no longer moving and Edea easing knots out of his muscles, he finds himself growing sleepy again alarmingly quickly. As soon as Edea stops, he promises himself. Edea will surely grow bored of this soon enough and want to go back to sleep, and when she does he'll take the red mage asterisk and strong-arm Tiz to bed with the assurance that Agnès will be well-cared for, everyone needs to get at least some rest and the young shepherd has not properly counted his sheep in quite some time, and... ... ... sheep... lamb would be delicious for the next evening's dinner... he should ask the Proprietress...
...
Ringabel is annoyed with both himself and the passing of time when he next wakes up. The sky is just beginning to lighten, though at least dawn is still far from breaking. He hasn't slept the entire night away, but Edea has been absent from his side for some time, without his notice. Careless of him. Someone is pacing within the room, though he can't place the stride until he actually looks up and sees that Tiz is still awake and has to ask himself who else he thought would be awake and in this room at 3 or 4 am. But the way Tiz strides is off.
That sounds absurd, but Ringabel is very certain: Tiz's pacing is usually quicker, frenetic, punctuated by his weight hitting the floor harder than it needs to. The pace he's taking now is strangely light and long for him, rolling from ball of heel to tip of toes in each step and it just sounds very different. Tiz looks very different, somehow. Like he isn't himself at all.
Ringabel contemplates the idea that he needs to go back to sleep if he's having such strange thoughts, but he knows which one of them hasn't been sleeping at all. "I am amazed you are still awake, Tiz."
If the boy heard him, he's not acknowledging it; instead he steps over to the bedside table, beginning--resuming?--to write something.
"Which I'm willing to bet is only because you've stayed on your feet this entire time," Ringabel says, more pointedly. "I'm sure all you need do is sit down for a moment, and you'll be out like a--"
"Please cease your idle chattering dim."
"Come again?" Ringabel asks, at a loss for an actual retort just because Tiz's words are so unexpected: it's not like him to be so rude, and 'chattering dim'?
The drowsy amnesiac only realizes he was being addressed by his old name when bloodshot brown eyes glare at him through the spiritmaster's glasses, and Tiz repeats: "Cease. Idle. Chatter. Dim."
That isn't just rude--it's deliberately distant, as far as Ringabel can tell, and he doesn't wish to be hurt by it but he is far too tired to try to brush it off. Alternis Dim has been their enemy. Ringabel is one of them, and he's never once asked to be called otherwise by his friends. It stings to have the old name used in such a pointed manner, and that sting quickly turns to irritation, considering he's only been trying to look out for the younger boy. He surges to his feet, grabbing Tiz by the shoulder. "All right, you've proven you can go without sleep long enough to turn yourself into a perfect ass. You're going to bed now, before dear Agnès has to deal with this attitude."
Tiz slips out of the spiritmaster coat, though, and his staff rattles against the wall before levitating and flying through the air to his hand, narrowly missing Ringabel's side. The way Tiz is staring at him, Ringabel doubts that was accident.
"Holly's care seems to have invigorated you; you obviously do not require further attention," Tiz says with a tone overly civil, and simmering with a very real madness underneath. "Leave. Victoria and I will not be disturbed again."
The words make so little sense that Ringabel finds himself glancing down at Agnès in the bed just to make sure she hasn't spontaneously turned into a diminutive witch. 'Victoria'. Victoria? And that way of speaking--it's like Tiz believes he is--
Ringabel backs off from Tiz at the moment he realizes just who the boy's altered personality reminds him of, grasping at his pockets for the red mage asterisk.
He feels absolutely no regret in dropping Tiz like a bag of bricks with a sleep spell. Once the first panic has passed and he has the chance to reconsider his actions, Ringabel is of the mind that he should have in fact dropped Tiz hours ago, considering the boy seems to now be hallucinating that he's Victor S. Court, and very much hopes that that... little display was just sleep-deprived hallucination, because if they can be possessed by the asterisk holders they've killed there are some asterisks they are going to have to permanently ban using, say, most of them. Particularly the asterisk he himself is using right now. Ringabel appreciates DeRosa's abilities. Not how the man thought they should be used. And it's bad enough Tiz somehow thought Agnès was Victoria; if she ever thought she should be Victoria... He'll just be grateful it's Yulyana's asterisk she currently has equipped. There hardly seems to be any risk of possession there. To be on the safe side, the blond crouches down by Tiz and pats until he finds the spiritmaster asterisk in his friend's pocket, setting it on the table in case it did have any influence. Tiz's note is sitting there still, and Ringabel glances at it.
It's Tiz's handwriting, mostly. It's not Tiz's lexicon, made up of longer words than the boy would usually use, specific medical ones that Ringabel hadn't even thought Tiz would know, and though the way those words are strung together is not exactly anything intelligent or even intelligible, some distant memory scratching at the back of the former dark knight's brain says that yes, this is very much like how the intellectual's notes would start to ramble right before Braev would grant him a leave from duties for him to not have a complete and final meltdown from exhaustion.
So there's that. He really does seem to be alone at 4 am with an unconscious vestal and an extremely sleep-deprived shepherd who's begun to channel an equally sleep-deprived Victor S. Court, a situation that can be eloquently summed up as: "Crystals have mercy, Tiz, you better not wake up still like that."
At least Agnès looks better in her appearance now, her cheeks rosier. Even being so severely addled as to seemingly call her Victoria, Tiz hadn't neglected her. Well, of course, Victor would never neglect Victoria's health--Ringabel quickly decides he doesn't want to ponder too long on the workings of Tiz-as-Victor's mind. Not now. At any rate, perhaps it would be safer to rouse him once Agnès is awake and can point out when he is being entirely unreasonable and unlike himself without him getting snappish about it. And he'll just... leave Tiz be on the floor until then, because moving him would break the sleep spell.
Ringabel pulls up a chair so he can watch over them both. His vigil lasts about twenty minutes before staring at two sleeping people has him intensely uncomfortable, especially considering he has no idea at all what sort of mood or even mind one of those people will wake up in.
Instead, he goes to rouse a third sleeping person.
"Edeeeeaaaaa. Dearest angel. Light of my life--"
"If it isn't light outside I'm going to kick you."
Which would make it wise to step out of the range of her legs. Thankfully hers are a bit short.
After a moment, she can tell he still hasn't gone away from her bedside and decides to open her eyes to squint at him. "Well what is it? Is Agnès awake?"
"Not quite yet," he admits. "Tiz is--asleep."
"Oh, finally. He has the weirdest way of showing his crankiness, he kept calling me 'Miss Lee' and being overly formal. And then he called me something else 'Lee', but I didn't catch it. Not sure I wanted to."
"He wasn't calling you anything rude," Ringabel said. "He was calling you 'Holly'. As in Holly Whyte."
"...Are you sure that isn't rude?"
The vagabond sighed. "He wasn't quite in his right mind, Edea. I put him to sleep after he referred to Agnès as Victoria."
"Oh. I'd say I got the better comparison, then."
"Yes."
"He called her Victoria?"
***
When I showed this to Koma, she thought it was interesting! She also thought it was the beginning of a thing, when in fact by the original plan this should have been 90% done at this point (Tiz was supposed to wake up normal, if confused and embarrassed; while there is a bit of quirkiness with the asterisks' mechanics going on here, the episode was mostly caused by sleep deprivation). So I have to figure out if I'm making it longer or reworking what is already there or...what.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-13 10:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-13 10:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-13 11:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-14 12:15 am (UTC)The first fic fragment is nicely creepy and would have fitted nicely with Ringabel playing at Alternis Dim - but yeah, pity that as of now, the situation is going to be quite different when he's rescued.
The second one does read almost complete - just that epilogue for Tiz being fine the next day would round it off nicely. It does seem unlikely they would pick up on the asterisk confusing the memories in just one usage. Maybe if Ringabel remembered odd little former moments when they've all adopted some slang or turn of phrase or something of the recently dispatched asterisk bearer (nothing overt, and something that might seem almost natural being picked up after confronting Holly and Barras for example. Or else the Black Mage user always starts a day using a wide range of spells, but the longer the day goes on/the more time they spend using the asterisk they always - always - begin to increasingly rely on fire).
Now I'm wondering if the interfering memories are part of the effect of using an asterisk? Like there's a sensation when they use them and when they gain the powers/knowledge that is weird and disconcerting the first time, but is the asterisk memories jarring with their own. So up until this point they've just attributed this to being part of using an asterisk (also on that note - were the asterisks designed to be used by many people or passed on as we see, or were they intended to be specific to their holder (for which an argument could be made)? By this I mean is the problem Tiz experiences a result of tiredness, but also longevity, that the memories inside were only ever intended to reflect the bearers? So when you have the Crystal Crew collecting/using them the effect isn't quite as intended, is negligible at first, but with sustained use becomes more and more risky) - and ignore the sensation. And maybe close to the end of the day there's a weird kind of tension headache developing that they can ignore, but is relieved by removing the asterisk, but if they push on like Tiz did, then the memories mix and the bearer's personality begins to take-over.
(oh - could it also be permanent? Say over a pretty long time-frame, but would you end up with a complete possession?)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-16 04:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-18 10:36 pm (UTC)