fabrecation | 029 [Action ; Voice]

[Action]

[... trash like you stole my family, my home... everything from me!

Every night since the draft, those words echo in his head along with images of what happened to both him and his original. Seeing Asch as a child, as the real Luke fon Fabre, happy and smiling, in the place where he belonged...

Then seeing it fall when Luke stole it away again. And having to see him kill their own mother, even though it was just a dream.

It's become even more of a chore to try sleeping. It's difficult when he keeps waking up from horrible nightmares, and when the darkness and silence lead to negative thoughts chasing each other and biting at his mind. It's a cycle that's been going on for a couple of months now, and has only gotten worse since the draft.

On such a night, he sits in the dark and looks down at the person sleeping beside him: his girlfriend, the love of his life. She'd miss him if he were to suddenly disappear and give Asch his title back, right? ... Right, he knows that.

So he disappears in a different way, merely getting out of bed, out of the building in general, to sit outside, pajamas and all, to lean his back against the wall and stare up at the night sky, cloudy and patchy that it is due to the previous rain. The stars he's looking at are fake, stupid and cruel, and yet somehow, he still finds comfort in them. They're of little use at the moment, and he finds himself at war with his own emotions, ones that keep making a wet, stinging sensation in his eyes that makes his vision blur and make him shut his eyes to try clearing them out and hold back the sensation, blocking his view of the stars.

Things are so messed up for him right now.]

[Voice]

[Going back inside won't help. Luke knows that he'd just sit there in the darkness and be unable to get some proper sleep again. So, might as well reach out and see if he can get some help with that.

He remembers long ago, when he had a similar sleeping problem. He'd asked over the journals just like this. A woman who dove into his dreams read him a book that made him fall asleep within minutes. The thought makes him give a fond little half smile before he lets it fall as he speaks quietly.]

Can someone talk to me? It doesn't have to be a story or anything, just... something. What you did today, what you want to do later, or – I don't know, what you were doing back in your world.

If... it's okay, anyway. You don't have to talk. I know it's late, and I'm sorry, it's just that...

I need to stop... thinking about things for a little while. That's all it is.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Well, if Luke isn't going to speak up, then Asch will- he isn't here to just stand around and wait for something to happen.

In a few short strides he closes the distance between them, standing near Luke and halting. Close enough, but not too much, and not allowing himself to be placed in a position where he can't turn tail and get out if things go sour. Not because he feels threatened by Luke, but because he knows he'll have no patience for hearing too much of what he doesn't want to hear. And he's pre-programmed to need an escape route, anyway.]

There must be something seriously wrong here, if I'm the one who has to go chasing after you for once.

[Luke raises his head as Asch gets closer, though his eyes look at anything but his original. The ground, the door near his side, his hands; there isn't much escape for him, really, seeing how there's a wall at his back and his original in front of him.]

A-Asch, I...

[There's a long pause as he tries to think of what to say. I'm sorry? No, Asch would call him an idiot despite the fact that Luke wants to say it a million times. Are you okay? No, it's obvious he isn't.]

... Did you want me to chase you?

[Dumb, dumb, Luke shuts his eyes the moment it leaves his mouth, it's so dumb.]

[Asch is quiet for a long moment at that, feeling much the same way about it. Stupid Fabre genes, indeed. He doesn't even want to dignify that with a response; they both should know the answer.

In the end, instead of speaking, Asch reaches his hands up. There's a rustle of fabric, then the clinking sound of metal on stone as he removes the silver pendant Luke had given him and tosses it at his replica's feet. His expression is a tempest of emotions: angry, frustrated, judgmental... disappointed.

Did he want Luke to chase him? Ha. He'd never admit as much, to himself or anyone else.

But didn't you promise me you always would?]

[He still doesn't look at Asch, but he hears the sound, and he sees the pendant at his feet. The one he'd given to Asch... the one he still wears for himself.

... Is that it, then? Is that how Asch is breaking ties with him? Luke certainly can't blame him. The whole ordeal with that Dream Shifter probably threw all the cold hard facts in Asch's face just as it had for Luke. It... It makes sense.

And yet he still can't stop himself from feeling that lump in his throat he's usually so good at holding back during moments like this rise in his throat, and his vision blurs before he squeezes his eyes shut, grits his teeth and takes in a sharp breath.

He'd jumped into Asch's dream so that he wouldn't lose him, and he lost him anyway.]

I'm sorry. [He reaches up to grip his shirt, right where his own pendant is, yet makes no move to remove it. Even if Asch rejected him here and now like he seemed to, even if he decided never to talk to Luke again, he'd keep wearing it.] I just thought...

You don't think. You never think things through, do you? You assume the worst of me, just like everyone else.

[Yeah, he was mad. He was furious. He was upset and distressed and it hurt to think about what had happened. He knows that he's a monster, a murderer, never again that foolish, naive child who thought he had everything he'd ever need in the world.

But Luke saved him. Pulled him out of a fake dream. It might have been perfect for a little while, but he knows better than anyone else that dreams never last. Sooner or later it all falls apart. And he could very well have died that day.

And here Luke is, apologizing...

He's not sure what he expected to happen after it was over. All he knows is that he doesn't like what did.]

[This time Luke does look up, eyes flashing with fear and worry and his unshed tears, because he at least has an easier time holding those back.]

It's not you! It's... I think the worst of myself. That's why I didn't chase you, why I thought everyone was-... [He kneels down, gaze falling away again, hesitantly scoop the pendant out of the wet dirt.] So - maybe you're right. I really never think things through...

[He slowly wipes the dirt away with care - it's true, he never thinks. This reminded him of that, the whole fiasco with the portal reminded him of that. He's just an idiot.]

Edited 2013-04-26 10:04 (UTC)

[Another pause as Asch watches him silently, waiting to see if he continues, and when he doesn't the original crouches down to be closer to eye level, glowering.]

Stupid replica. Why the hell are you apologizing for saving someone's life?

[He's reminded of Rapunzel, of the last day of the draft. Of cutting through her hair without hesitation, carrying her off to safety, away from the cultist and the explosions and the only power she thought she'd ever had.

He'd never apologize for making that decision. Why should he expect anything different from someone else?]

[His actions freeze at that, eyes going wide and a couple of tears slipping out on their own as a result.

Saving someone's life?

That's right. He did save Asch's life... But at what cost? Asch having to kill his own mother, even though it was just a fake world? Having to shatter that perfect peace that he achieved?

But still. Asch isn't bringing up the fact that Luke took away his happiness again, something that Luke thought of himself all the time. Or that it was his fault in the first place. In his own strange way, he's... thanking him?]

I...

[He ducks his head, his attention on the pendant wrapped up in his nightshirt, though he hastily wipes his cheek against his shoulder after realizing he let himself cry, if only a little.]

I am pretty stupid, huh? I just... [I just wish it wasn't me who had to do it. I wish there was another way. I wish I could've been the one do it, and yet I know I couldn't have.] That world of yours was... [It was the one thing I took away from you in the past and took away from you again.]

Why did it have to pick out something like that? [If it were someone like Van, it might've been easier. But their mother...]

[Asch goes still at that, looking for a moment like he might yell or lash out, but it passes and shifts quickly into resignation, and he sits down, facing the village instead of looking at Luke again.]

...I didn't come here to talk about that. It was a lie, a fabrication to make it impossible to escape. We did, and it's over. That's all there is to it.

[It wasn't real, it wasn't his life. It wasn't his world - not anymore.

By destroying that world he didn't lose anything that he hadn't already lost years ago.]

029 [Action ; Voice]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]