fabrecation | 016 [Action/Video]

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016 [Action/Video]

[It had happened that morning. Luke, in this time period, had a much easier time of sleeping and waking early, and so he was in the weapon's shop when it hit him.

All those memories that had been buried thanks to the Malnosso. Traveling with Tear, meeting Jade and Anise, killing his first human being, Guy, Master Van...

Akzeriuth... Cutting his hair. Trying to save the world he screwed up. Killing his own master. And the long month afterward... He can even feel the link he has with Asch flaring to life again.

Luke freezes in his spot, holding a fancy sword in his hand. How... How could he have forgotten all of that? How could he have acted like such a jerk to everyone? Such an ignorant, thoughtless... He was so nasty to everyone whom he considered his friends, and now... they... who knows what they thought of him now? This boy who had to relive who he used to be, the person he's ashamed of.

The sword in his hands trembles, and without thinking it through at all, Luke suddenly brings the sword back to slice through his hair, cutting the back of his neck and leaving only a small piece of the long hair behind. The rest is clenched in his hand, his knuckles almost white from the strain. All those terrible things he said to everyone, to Xion and Asch and Ion and...

Noel.

"You're a criminal?"

His face pales, and the sword in his hand clatters to the ground. Thankfully for the staff of the weapons store, he doesn't drop the mass amount of hair.

But he does abruptly leave, and he runs back to Community Housing Building 2, head lowered the whole time so that no one can look at him. He doesn't want anyone to see him, the leftovers of a massacre that he created. Ashes of the sacred flame...

... Asch.

It's that thought which makes him pause just outside of the door to his apartment. He barely even realizes that he made it there until now. Would Asch accept him back? He hadn't tried contacting him since the link came to life again... What if he just ruined whatever progress he made in their already strained relationship?

But... this was still his home. So, he keeps his head low again as he knocks on the door, hair still unknowingly clenched in his other hand.]

[A few hours later, the video option of the journal is activated, and Luke's face appears on the other side. He's not looking at the journal, and he keeps brushing his hand through his now short hair, so very similar to how it used to be. He looks... tired, depressed and stressed, as if a whole ton of weight was just added to his shoulders.]

Everyone, I... [How does he even start? He didn't have to do anything like this after Yulia City.] I guess I don't really know what to say. Heh... pretty pathetic, right?

[No, that's not good enough. It sounds like an excuse to not talk to anyone. He shuts his eyes and takes in a deep breath.] ... I'm sorry. A lot of you saw me with long hair, and... I probably treated you badly. That...

That person was who I once was. The Malnosso did something to me to make me forget everything that happened back in my world. I... [Killed hundreds. Thousands. I was manipulated and betrayed by the only person I trusted at the time, and I was tossed away like a piece of trash, and I was abandoned...] ... went through a lot to make me who I am today. I'm still not a good person. But I learned in my world... I guess you could say it made me open my eyes to who I was.

I'm not going to be that person anymore. I promise all of you that. And... [I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry -] I know I can't apologize enough for everything I said or did, even though I want to. But I want to do anything I can to let everyone know that I won't ever be like that again. I'm not that person anymore. [I'm not even the real Luke.] So... If anyone wants me to do something for them, anything, or... has any questions, just... talk to me.

[He finally looks at the little camera.]

... I'm sorry.

[After another hour or two to himself, Luke walks out of the apartment building and tries to find whoever he met when he still had long hair. Whoever he was particularly nasty to... to apologize to their faces. To own up to what he did and take responsibility, not from hiding behind a book, but face to face.

He especially looks for Noel. After what he said to her... He needs to see her now.]

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[By the time Luke's finished, Asch has finished his snack, washed his hands, and located a few things: a sharp pair of scissors, a spray bottle (for keeping Star out of the houseplants, totally), a brush, and a comb. When Luke returns and fetches the chair, Asch just nods and steps past him, wandering out the door to stand outside one of the windows, setting up his little collection of equipment on the ledge.

HE IS READY FOR HAIRCUTTING. Are you sure you want to go through with this?]

[Luke follows him outside, and he stands still for a second, just watching Asch fiddle with the hair cutting equipment. Really, was he ready?

After all that's happened... yes. He definitely is.

He shifts the chair under his arm, and when Asch seems to indicate that he's ready to cut his hair, Luke nods, then sets the chair in front of Asch, sinking into it and straightening his back automatically. He places his hands on his knees, too, and shuts his eyes.]

... Okay. [Come at me bro.]

[So dramatic, dreck, over a little bit of hair. ~~because Asch would never be like that.~~ Asch doesn't respond, though, immediately going to work; dampening the hair first, then combing, then starting to trim.

He tries to push aside his irritation and lingering anger about the act itself; his replica, his stupid replica. Cutting the hair that showed his nobility to the world. Sure, it made little sense here, but in Auldrant...

...It's just infuriating, to see him discard something that Asch still clung to, despite having no claim at all.]

[That nobility was a strong part of Luke's behavior. To claim that he was Luke fon Fabre, that he was wealthy and could deem anyone else unimportant... It was what he wanted to leave behind. He wanted to look at the world through the eyes of a normal person, not just a noble.

So as Asch trims his hair, Luke realizes that this time it's... different. He's not as attached to his hair as he was when it was longer on Auldrant, although he still cares a great deal about it. When Tear trimmed his hair, it was as if pieces of his life were being cut away. Now... It felt like he was slowly being freed.

He opens his eyes and stares down at the ground at his feet. He was expecting to feel sorrow all over again... but it's liberating, now.]

[Asch doesn't speak as he's cutting, keeping all his thoughts to himself- which is, admittedly, pretty normal for him, but he notices it with more prominence now because Luke is so quiet as well. He glances sidelong at Luke as he moves to the front to fix up the side bangs, but he avoids eye contact; he'll get irritated, he knows, and say something to start a fight, and... he just has no energy for it right now. He's still tired, and this past week has been especially strange for him. Too quiet, for one.

Was it Luke's absence? Was he unstable? Or the nature of their link? All he knows for sure is that it's bothering the hell out of him. And that's on top of the fact that he knew his replica was out there making a fool of himself...

...ugh, whatever. With a final snip on the duck-butt, Asch steps back, setting aside the scissors.]

There. If you don't like it, go cry to someone who's actually trained for this sort of thing.

[Luke doesn't want to start a fight either, for those very same reasons. He's tired, both physically and emotionally, and he doesn't want to raise his voice anymore. He's tired of it.

... And, quite frankly, he's missed Asch. He doesn't want to ruin it by starting a fight.

Once he's finished, Luke reaches up and tugs on one of the side tails of his hair. It's nearly the same, probably a little shorter than he wanted... but that's all right. It could always grow out a bit.]

It's fine. [The cut on his neck hurts a little now that Asch has surely passed his fingers around it, but he's dealt with worse. It's only slightly annoying now.] ... Thanks. It means a lot to me.

[Asch says nothing at first, weighing what he should say against what he shouldn't, and pondering both for a long moment. Mercifully he's distracted by something he notices now - two things, seeing one only by studying the other more closely - and steps back around to the front of the chair.]

...Get up. Turn around and sit on it backwards.

[This is not a request. :|]

Huh? Uh... okay.

[He's not really sure what Asch wants, so he raises an eyebrow, but he does what he says. Soon enough, he's straddling the chair and holding onto the back with his arms, and gives a little glance behind him.]

So... What're you going to do?

[Once again Luke is met with silence, as Asch rests his finger against the cut and makes good use of those seventh fonons to try and fix it up. Idiot cut himself while chopping off his hair, didn't he? Geez...

The cut is minimal, though, which is why Asch pays it very little mind; the source of his focus is the wings on Luke's back, which... are not looking terribly pretty right now. He brushes his hand through the feathers, looking vaguely irritated, flicking away a tuft of loose plumage near the base.]

You didn't mess around with your wings last week, did you?

[... Huh. The cut isn't such a pain anymore...

But that's forgotten in favor of Asch's fingers running along his wings. It makes him tense up, frown and... start to flap his wings. He lets out an irritated sigh afterwards - he knew this would happen. The only person who could touch his wings without them freaking out like they are now was Guy, and he wasn't here anymore... Of course they'd twitch and flap and evade Asch's touch.]

I might've gotten them kind of dirty... [More like he'd lie back on the ground, scowl, yet pay no attention as he'd relax outside or on the roof. They're probably dirty and ruffled, thanks to all of that.]

[Kind of dirty, he says. Geez, what a child. Guy used to do this for him, didn't he? And without Guy around he's just gotten lazy about it. He presses his hand at the base of the wings, where they meet in the middle, trying to halt the motion without just grabbing them.]

Stop moving, you'll just make this harder. You need to take better care of these things.

I can't help it, they keep moving on their own! And how am I supposed to reach back there?

[The pressure against his wings makes them stop flapping for the time being, but they do stick straight out and shake, as if straining. After only a few seconds, first one flaps, then the other, like they're trying to ward off Asch's hand. Hence the other reason why Luke barely bothers with it; they freak out on him, too.

Maybe he is controlling it, a little. He just doesn't like people touching them.]

It's because you have no self-control, dreck. [Asch's tone is impatient, and after a moment of watching the wings twitch and move around like that, he lifts his hand away, scowling.] They don't move on their own, they're a part of you. That's like saying your eyes move because they want to look around.

But they're sensitive! It feels weird when people try touching them or anything like that; don't your eyes blink when something gets near them?

[Now that Asch's hand is further back, the wings settle down, slowly tucking against Luke's back. His own tone sounds frustrated, though not from the argument. He's tired of his wings reacting this way, and he'd like to get a little more control over them. But damn, it feels weird when they freak out, too!]

Of course they do, but I actually took the time to learn how to control them.

[Well, so much for trying to help, not that he expected to get much done. Or even wanted to do. If the wings are going to flail around, it would do more harm than good to pick at them. He turns away, cleaning up the hair materials instead.]

[And yet again, Luke wishes Guy were here. Guy would take up all kinds of measures; steam to open up the pores, a towel to distract the feeling of being plucked, and they'd talk about everything and nothing to distract even further... No wonder the wings would settle down around him.

But he isn't here, and he can't have that luxury. Thinking on it, that's exactly what it was: a luxury. Luke hadn't even thought of it like that, and here he'd been refusing the way everyone else had been doing it.

Sort of like how he was a few days ago.

With a frown to himself, Luke leans his head down to rest his chin on his arms, which rest criss-crossed on the back of the chair.]

Fine, I'll try to keep them still, okay? If they look that messed up, then I need to figure out how to control them and not let them get like that again.

[Asch's brows furrow, glancing over his shoulder at Luke. Well, at least he's being compliant instead of just arguing and making excuses. It was no easy task, looking after the damn things- and even harder was learning to deal with them in the first place. Luke's been here long enough that he ought to know these things. It's just... something that has to be done, that's all.

One more shot, and if it fails again, Asch is leaving it up to him to deal with it. He's not Guy, and he isn't some kind of damned nursemaid. The only reason he's doing this is because of Guy, anyway.]

Try talking. Distract yourself. I used to read while I was getting used to mine.

[Luke pauses for a second as he tries to think about just what to talk about. It was easy with Guy, considering they were both interested in each other's lives. Asch usually didn't want to hear what Luke had to say. And with that experiment being fresh on his mind... He's sure that Asch doesn't want to talk about how he was when he had long hair.

Maybe something about Auldrant, then? But that could potentially turn nasty, too... Nothing about Guy, nothing about Natalia, nothing about Luke's home life. Hmm... Well, he'll just talk about the first thing that comes to mind.]

Have you ever spent time in Keterburg? [He remembers seeing Asch there once, before they went off to fight Van. But it was only briefly and at dawn, so he isn't sure if Asch actually spent time there.]

[Asch lifts his head at that, glowering, though like probably can't see the expression. "Talking" did not mean "Make Asch talk", dammit. It meant "start talking so I can work and ignore everything you ramble about".]

Why are you asking me that?

I just wanted to know if you saw everything there. [He looks up at the window with a faint smile.] It's constantly snowing there. It's kind of weird... I asked Nephry if it ever stopped snowing, and she said it only barely did in the summer. The summer, Asch!

[If Asch starts working on his feathers now, Luke's wings tense and shake, and occasionally move away in a slow manner, as if Luke's trying to stop them from doing so. But at least they're not flapping wildly... Not unless Asch plucks one of his feathers, which would make even Luke shout and give Asch a look. For the most part, however, they're pretty still.]

I guess it'd be weird for the people there if they moved anywhere else... I know I didn't want to stay in Keterburg long. It got too cold! I felt like I was going to freeze my stomach off.

[Asch knows better than to pull out any feathers unless they're already loose and dead- you just don't pull out healthy feathers, that would be just evil. Even for him.

He does, however, sift his hand through Luke's feathers experimentally, checking what makes Luke tense up, how he reacts, if any are loose or in desperate need of cleaning. At least he got Luke talking.]

You wouldn't freeze your stomach if you knew how to wear a coat.

[When Asch's hand is at the end of the wings, there isn't so much of a reaction. It's when he gets closer to the base and the spine that they start to tense and shift. He makes a face, though whether that's due to the way Asch's is touching his wings or from the insult is up in the air.]

I know how to wear a coat! I'm not stupid!

[Before Asch can say that he is, though, Luke hurries on.]

They've even got a spa. Man, I wish I could go sometime... It sounds like fun! ... But it's probably cold, since it's in Keterburg... [Who would put a spa in Keterburg?]

Idiot, spas are built to be heated. The best place for one is a cold city.

[He fingers a tuft of small, downy feathers, noticing (and gently tugging free) a few that had obviously come loose. They're not in great condition, but at least his wings aren't falling apart. For the most part, though, he'll focus on just gently preening them. It's not that hard to take care of them properly, geez. Dumb replica, being oversensitive...]

If I knew that I'd spend all of my time at the spa...

[After all, being in Keterburg was the first time he'd even heard of one. Asch's movements make him shift his own shoulders, pulling them back and raising them up slightly with a deeper frown. It doesn't hurt as bad, but it still felt weird, like someone ruffling his hair a little too roughly. He doesn't like it, and that feeling transfers to his wings, which makes them push forward to try and get away from Asch's fingers.]

[He makes note of the twitch, laying his hand flat against the feathers until they go still. Still too sensitive- so he's not distracted enough.]

I've heard it's membership-only. You'd never get in. [Asch responds in a dry tone, and then, since that makes it sort of obvious that he's been there, adds-] I spent some time in Keterburg when I was with the Order. Couldn't afford the hotel, though.

[Overpriced luxury wasn't in his travel budget. The joys of working for a church.]

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016 [Action/Video]

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