smash_logs | YOU DIDN'T THINK I FORGOT, DID YOU

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YOU DIDN'T THINK I FORGOT, DID YOU

Who: Everyone ever. It's mandatory or you're banned for two minutes.
What: Fireworks are a little late this year...
When: The night of July 14th
Where: Campus, generally. But you can see them out in the city.
Warnings: Colours and explosions and probably dumb kissy stuff somewhere in here.

It was usually the evening of the second of third; a tradition that began five years prior due to some silly boyish dare, that continued for the sake of sentimentality and tradition. Even if the culprit no longer attended Smash Academy, he made sure his legacy lived on each July.

This year it was a little late, because strange robots were patrolling the city and were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that didn't stop the mission from being fulfilled! Just... delayed. It was probably for the best, since loud noises and bright lights wouldn't have been well received by the more feral-minded creatures during the whole bake sale debacle. In a way it was a pretty convenient setback.

Anyway, when the night finally came for the tradition to continue, it started... with a bang. Duh.

There was no small smattering of tester rockets to ease into the display. Just a sudden burst of red and white in the sky, Smash Academy's emblem glowing brighter than the stars for a few seconds before petering out. After that it was just burst after burst of an assortment of colours and shapes, each its own unique size and brightness, the resounding explosions echoing throughout the campus like gunshots.

Good thing nobody at all would be trying to sleep, right?

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"Computer... Oh! Those kiosks in the library." Yes, okay. She knew what those were. Or she knew of them, at least.

The sleeves still had most of her attention, now that one was on full display. "It seems like a comfortable tradition. Is it... ah, no, that's not Chinese..." she said out loud as she stopped her thoughts. At least not from what she could tell. "Then again I only met one."

Was it super obvious that she was a bit lacking in some knowledge departments yet?

Elizabeth's ignorance earned a light chuckle from Naoya. She must have been very sheltered indeed - and from the sounds of it, hailed from an earlier age.

If she wanted to hear a story, then perhaps this would entice her better.

"Japanese, please. This," he gestured with the haori in question, "is a style of kimono. An overcoat, to be precise. Not a very traditional pattern, mind."

Folding his arms across his chest and into his sleeves, Naoya looked out over towards the bright bursts of light that coloured the sky, letting his imagination return to Tokyo.

"Hanabi is what we call fireworks - 'flower fire.' Every year, food vendors and stalls fill the streets, illuminated by paper lanterns. People would go out, sometimes taking the opportunity to dress in colourful cotton kimonos for the occasion - and when the sun went down, the sky over the river was filled with even more lights.

"The smells and sounds, the sights... they were the very height of summer."

"Ah. Japanese. Sorry." She felt a very smidgen bit stupid. Just a little. It was a feeling that quickly passed. Ignorant she might have been, but willing to stay that way she was not. What he had to say was more interesting than the fireworks she already knew, and he had her bright eyed attention as she listened intently to everything else.

Strange words and strange imaginings, but the beautiful sort. Things she might have seen before, but just beyond the edge of a window. Elizabeth took them in to remember them, placing him amongst them in her imagination as she tried to picture it all.

"It sounds wonderful...! I'd like to see something like that someday, I think."

She joined him in looking back towards the lights, wondering briefly just how many of those things she could see now. It might have been a tad bit overwhelming.

"Do you miss them?"

Naoya's mind, for that short moment, had wandered again to the life he had only a few short years ago. An easy, simple life with a little brother who loved him. It had been dangerous to lose himself completely in the mundane, he had to remind himself - idyllic memories would only come to haunt him. That's why he had to tear it out at the root.

But when Elizabeth made her inquiry, his mind was very much still focused on the family he had so briefly had. It managed to sting. Peaceful days were over - he had killed them with his own bare hands, after all.

"Yes," he answered after a stretch of silent thought. A distant expression was on his face, one that was difficult to pinpoint - but there was fondness, and there was ice. "The simpler days... I allow myself to miss them, from time to time."

That said, he downed the rest of his cup, flinching at the taste.

The silence drew Elizabeth's gaze back to the enigmatic man. She couldn't say she knew the expression he was wearing, but there was a somewhat innate sense that it was one she did not want to wear herself. Curiosity was getting the better of her though, for more than one reason. While she was fascinated by whatever mysterious substance had been in his saucer (was that his cup???), when she spoke it was to follow along with what he had said.

"Missing something seems like a strange emotion to experience," she said somewhat quietly.

Naoya wasn't going to ask her anything as inane as is there really nothing you miss, because frankly, she was better off. Either she came from a place where no happy memories were born, or she simply had no emotional attachments to them. The former was unfortunate, but no longer a problem; the latter was just sensible.

"It happens despite my best efforts. If you never know the feeling, you will be the better for it," was all he would say about that.

"I'm not sure if I do or don't," she admitted somewhat freely. "I don't know if its regret or if it is guilt... Though maybe they are just very similar." It hadn't been something she had been able to talk about with anyone, so it felt easy to talk about it now. Elizabeth had to wonder why this man would even care, and came to the logical conclusion that he seeing as he had no reason to, he probably did not.

So instead of letting her thoughts run away with her voice, she pointed at his cup.

"May I ask what you were drinking?"

"It's certainly coloured by the two," mused Naoya as he picked up the flask to pour himself another cup. "At its heart, the feeling is to know that the days of something - or someone you loved are behind you. And you are far from ever seeing its like again."

He smiled at Elizabeth - a thin, sardonic smile that was both bittersweet and taunting. There might have been some pinkness around the edges from the alcohol, but not enough to make him drunk. Just a little loose with his opinions, and liberal with nostalgia.

"It is both sweeter and sadder than naked yearning, Elizabeth. One is to look to the future with hope - the other, to the past, and what is gone. And this," he gestured with the filled cup, offering to her, "is what men drink to be rid of such woes."

Edited 2013-08-09 23:10 (UTC)

It was, all at once, much like speaking to Booker and not at all like speaking to Booker at the same time. One elaborated in pretty words where the other broke off to keep his regrets behind gruff replies. They stirred a feeling in her breast that she was not entirely sure she could identify. It was something a little queer, hovering between pale whispers of fear and a desire to hear more.

Maybe that was why she took the cup in her hand. Colors danced upon the surface of the liquid, making it seem like the beverage itself was just a pool of light. It had a scent that she could not identify, which also somewhat familiar and yet not at all anything she could place. Carefully, she took a very lady-like sip.

And promptly choked on it.

"Pfffbtbtbt," she sputtered.

Ah. She should have guessed.

"Hahahaha!" Have a good-humoured laugh at your expense, Elizabeth. At least he was being entertained.

"A liquor made of fermented rice." What a sly smile. He propped his arm against the ledge and rested his chin against his palm, red eyes glinting impishly. "Sake."

Elizabeth pouted as she held the cup back to him. "Your escape route seems to need an acquired taste, Mr. Naoya."

Let him take that horrid drink away from you, then.

"It was just a bit of fun," he teased. Adults were totally allowed to trick kids like that - what else would they do for laughs? Hopefully there were no hard feelings. With a shrug, he added, "I have nothing milder on the palate to offer you, unfortunately."

No, there weren't any hard feelings. It would take quite a bit more than a sip of some foul tasting liquid to actually upset her. Really she was just going to be a bit more cautious about proffered beverages from here on out. "I'll have to b more careful around you, it seems," she said light-heartedly.

In the light of a particularly bright explosion in the sky, another twinkle caught Elizabeth's eye. That sure was sparkling into view above his flask. She tilt her head, a bit of a mischief smile overtaking her pout.

"I think you might, actually, if you wouldn't mind me taking a closer look."

Light-hearted? HOW LITTLE YOU KNEW, ELIZABETH.

Naoya caught that sparkle in her eye, and raised his brow in keen curiosity in turn. Though he didn't know what she intended, he was definitely intrigued to see what she meant to do.

He gestured to the sake invitingly. "Be my guest."

SHE KNEW EXACTLY NOTHING.

She only knew the sparkles of tears and what to do with them. Having received his blessings to proceed, Elizabeth wasted no time hesitating before she slipped her fingers through the cracks. The window was another small one and was quite easy to open up. Between them suddenly was a small table top, on top of which was a happy teapot. It was cheerfully steaming, filling the air with the light, slightly fruity scent of tea.

"Oh, yes, this is a good one," Elizabeth said idly as if this was all completely normal. (It was completely normal.) She gently picked the pot up by its handle and poured herself a cup. The table top zipped out of existence as if it had never been there at all, but Elizabeth casually set the teapot back down on the ground and took a moment to appreciate the smell of her tea.

WOW of all the things he could've expected, this was not on the list. Despite himself, Naoya's eyes widened in shock for a split second as he watched Elizabeth split a seam in reality.

But it didn't take very long for surprise to give way to intense study. Don't let yourself be overcome by the phenomenon, he reminded himself - rather, sink your fingers deep and grab this chance while you could. Examine it. And through understanding, learn how to conquer it.

Very quickly, his cool demeanor returned, and Naoya began taking in every minute observation he could from within this portal, from the fraying fabric of its edges and from Elizabeth herself. Even when the window closed, he remained, staring and compiling all the information he had gathered.

"How interesting," he quietly mused, as though thinking out loud. "That's quite a power..."

She took a careful sip, making her own observations as she did. (It was nice tea. Could have used some sugar though.) More importantly was his reaction. Or... perhaps his more over lack of one. Up until now, Elizabeth had always been greeted with a large show of surprise and loud exclamations whenever she had brought the notion of tears up with practical demonstrations.

It was a very different to have someone so curious.

"So I've been told. I was expecting a bit more yelling," she admitted with a chuckle.

Naoya smiled knowingly. "A show-off, are we?" He relaxed against the ledge again, regarding Elizabeth with his full attention - and while his movements were laid back and calm, there was now a bright and piercing eagerness behind his blood red eyes.

"How much do you know about it? The nature of this ability," he asked. "I'm curious."

"Maybe a little," she laughed. "I'm not used to having an audience."

Which was very different from her actual reality, but she certainly wasn't used to it. Faceless mysteries behind walls in her tower didn't count. They were creepy and bad and ran with the unsettlingly bearded crowd. Yipes.

"I'm just opening a tear, really." The way she said it made it sound like that should have been completely obvious, as if it was something as run-of-the-mill as making words appear on a piece of paper by writing them with a pencil. "It's like opening a window to another place or world." Elizabeth took another sip of her tea.

"I've been able to do it for as long as I can remember."

"Another world..." Naoya echoed her words, appearing deep in thought. It was a phenomenon that he was familiar with, but in his case, it was an opening into the demon world - an utterly different plane of existence. That was like a doorway, whereas this was a bit more akin to shearing away at pages in a book. Each one similar, but each one filled with different possibilities. What fascinating possibilities that presented.

"The power of parallel realities. That's extraordinary," he praised with a glowing smile. "You must have great control if you've had this talent since childhood. How does it work exactly?"

"Well, I can open them and I can close them whenever I like, but it's all fairly random." Elizabeth held her cup up as an example. "This could have easily been coffee or water instead. I can't really control when or where a tear appears anymore either... It's a bit like finding something that's been misplaced, or drawing back the curtains on a window you didn't know was there."

"Ah... but imagine the power at your fingertips if you could pluck your exact desires out from the multiverse," mulled Naoya. There was a excited gleam in his eyes, one that danced with thousands of untold possibilities that this power presented them. That it presented him.

"In theory, somewhere... there exists a world where all your wishes are truth, and where all answers are revealed. To grasp that power would be to have absolute freedom."

There was something about Naoya's look that seemed like it was important. Familiar? No, not quite. She really couldn't put her finger on it.

Instead she settled her cup in her lap as she spoke. "It is sort of like wish fulfillment already, so you're not really wrong. That's why I'm here, really, even if it was by accident."

Accident? How interesting. So her presence here was a matter of fate rather than choice. Naoya regarded her with an inquiring gaze.

"But where would you wish to go, if not here?"

YOU DIDN'T THINK I FORGOT, DID YOU

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COMMITS SEPPUKU

NO SHHHH

BLEEDS OUT OVER THE GREEN EARTH

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