[closed]
Who: Luke and the Doctor (open to Asch)
What: The Doctor has an idea for controlling Luke's hyperresonance
Where: The Fountain
When: Now
( Read more... )
What: The Doctor has an idea for controlling Luke's hyperresonance
Where: The Fountain
When: Now
( Read more... )
It surprised him that, even in this place that didn't have the fonstone belt, wasn't Yulia's creation, and didn't seem to have fonons in any number, he could still sense the replica's presence.
It irked that the idiot had been able to locate the fountain before he had - but at least he'd been able to find the fountain now that the replica was there. The idiot's presence seemed to grow as he neared - if Asch could put words to the feeling, it was almost like being able to hear snatches of a song that was almost too soft to catch, a harmony that grew in complexity and tone as he homed in on its source.
...That was until it went dead.
Asch paused in shock, the silence in his head almost deafening.
Luke--
--He arrested the immediate surge of protectiveness when had this happened this place was driving him INSANE and strangled it into submission. A dim part of his mind was horrified, caught off-guard by this unpleasant surprise from his subconscious. The rest of his mind was still reeling.
He felt his heartbeat soar as he tried to re-establish that link with his replica - once, he had been able to give the idiot mind-blinding headaches and hold whole conversations with him, mind-to-mind. Once, he had been able to delve into his mind and bring the replica's consciousness with him as a passenger in his head.
But now...
Absolute nothing. Trying to contact the other felt like smacking his face against a brick wall.
Even if the replica was unconscious, Asch should have been able to sense him. If he had dropped entirely off the map, the only reason could be --
--that he was dead.
Blind instinct took over. Blind rage. Motive didn't matter. Reason didn't matter. Asch ran, the distance between him and the fountain mercifully short. As he screeched around the corner, he saw a flash of red hair - the replica - and another man.
The replica, it seemed, was still alive; but the connection was still dead. Fonslot seal? he wondered, but even a fonslot seal shouldn't have been able to do this. Whoever it was who had done this to the replica had to be a master of hyperresonance.
Nightmare images of Van manipulating Luke into destroying an entire town flashed through Asch's mind.
Metal sang as he drew his sword. He stepped forward, keeping the blade levelled at the stranger.
"Get away from him."
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The look he gave the sword wielder -had to be Asch- was startled but otherwise unafraid. Still, he backed away from Luke, rather than provoke the newcomer.
The cat scrabbled in his arms, hissing and trying to get at the threat.
No, he sent his gestalt, firmly, along the connection between them.
"Asch, is it? I'm the Doctor. I don't mean any harm to Luke, or to you."
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"Asch! You--what are you doing?" He gaped at the sword. "Put that down. Are you crazy?"
He paused. Asch had gone kind of crazy last time they were here, and that had been the fault of the atmosphere. The air wasn't thick with blood-red smoke the way it had been last time, but it maybe he'd wandered into Red Zone or something...?
No. Asch wasn't being affected by outside forces, at least not in a major way. This was coming from within. Despite how little time they'd had together, Luke felt he knew Asch well enough to know the difference.
"Asch, there's nothing wrong!" he said, slightly more soothingly. "This man -- this is the Doctor. He helped me. He helped me by neutralising my hyperresonance."
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Right. Because everything he did was crazy, even when he was trying to save the stupid replica's ungrateful ass.
Calm, he tried to tell himself, and got ready to launch into a lengthy lecture on how it wasn't a good idea to consort with strangers who might have ulterior motives and it was always best to be on your guard - given how this place had a tendency to drive people crazy, and you never really knew--
He opened his mouth. The words tripped over themselves. The only ones that emerged were: "Shut up, you moron!"
Damn.
Wait, wait, neutralised the hyperresonance? He shot an incredulous look at Luke. He couldn't sense anything from the ... "Doctor" - damnit, he really hated these doctor types, what with Jade Curtiss, and Dist, and Spinoza and the rest of those idiots - which meant that he couldn't be a Seventh Fonist, which meant...
"What did you do to him?" he demanded of the Doctor. "What kind of fonslot seal is this?!"
He was always so much better at words when it came to people other than the replica.
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"You ever have one of those moments where you see someone do something, and you remember a time you did something a bit like it. But seeing it from the outside makes you want to go back and slap yourself? I'm having one of those moments" He shook his head, slightly. "But that doesn't answer your question, does it? I have a tool that emits sound waves. I made a counter resonance. Not that complicated, really."
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"It's okay," he said carefully. "The Doctor didn't do anything wrong." His words were aimed at Asch, but it was the Doctor he was looking at.
He moved closer to Asch, and very slowly placed his hand on the blunt edge of Asch's sword, preparing to very gently push it away.
"I couldn't control my hyperresonance. I was worried that I might destroy things again, or end up hurting more people."
He shot Asch a pleading look. Surely he would understand. It was Asch of all people who knew that he wasn't strong enough or smart enough to deal with his power. Sure, he had practice in the past, and he'd gained a fair amount of control at times, but he was a replica, and replicas were by definition inferior. Everyone always said so...
"I needed help, so I asked for it. And he helped me. And now I'm okay."
Luke took a deep, nervous breath. He had a feeling that later, he might just regret his next words.
"If you want, Asch, the Doctor might be able to help you too."
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That, and the Doctor's cryptic comment - which Asch couldn't quite figure out, but was at least 99.53% sure was a backhanded insult of some sort.
"You remember," he growled at Luke, "What happened the last time you just blindly followed someone around?"
And once the words were out, Asch found that he just couldn't control it, more words just tripping over themselves in their haste to get out. "After all of that, you still run stupidly to anyone and their damn cheegle - damnit, you don't even know this guy! - and just idiotically fling yourself into their hands instead of asking someone else you know? Do you want another Akzeriuth?"
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Asch's accusation had hurt, real bad, not just because he felt Asch was being unfair but because the more he thought about it, the more he could see that Asch was right. He had been taking a risk. He may have been desperate, but they would have been in really big trouble if the Doctor had turned out like Van...
He swallowed audibly. "Please..." He thought of something, then turned to Asch.
"If the Doctor was going to do anything bad he would have done it by now," Luke suggested. Asch would listen to logic, surely?
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Asch glanced at the Doctor, eyes narrowed, and his voice fell until it was outright frigid. "That is none of your damn business." Because stupid as the replica was, Asch wasn't about to shoot his mouth off about his previous mistakes. Not for the idiot's sake - Asch just didn't want possible enemies getting any ideas.
"You don't know that," he snapped at the replica, his tone returning to annoyed. "Do you even know if it can be undone?"
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"My hyperresonace...it's been essential in the past to reprogramme the passage rings and safely lower the outer lands, but it's also what destroyed Akzeriuth."
He bit his lip. "I wonder...would it really be such a bad thing if I lost that power? It's unlikely there's going to be any need for it in the future and if this place can cause it to go out of control...well, I guess the risk just isn't worth it."
He shrugged. "It may be selfish of me but I really don't want this burden. In fact, I'd be happy not to have it."
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