(no subject)
Who? Albel Nox and Rinoa Heartilly
What? Albel (the amnesiac) goes to visit Rinoa to discover a few truths
When? A few days before the event ended
Warnings None, just affection and nice guy Albel?
[22:59] AlbelTheTwisted: Good evening, Rinoa.
[23:00] EtherealxSage: Oh! Hey, Albel Nox!
[23:01] AlbelTheTwisted: Are you busy tonight by any chance?
[23:01] EtherealxSage: Hm? No. Not aside from homework. It's been done, though, so I was just watching the TV.
[23:01] EtherealxSage: What's up?
[23:04] AlbelTheTwisted: I just wish to visit. Memory or no memory, I do feel like you were a huge part of my life. So if I am to remember, I think it would be helpful if I spent some time with you, face-to-face.
[23:05] EtherealxSage: That's fine with me!
[23:10] AlbelTheTwisted: In that case, I'll be right over soon. I'll see you in a bit
Ever since Albel had "reawakened" without his memories, he had been receiving such...dreadful nightmares that seemed to haunt his sleep. Such vivid detail... that he could barely tell what was real and what was imagined at times. He saw people whom he could barely recognize, some not at all, fighting beasts and monsters and slowly becoming overcome by their might. A man much like himself... a blue-haired boy... And there he was, helpless to stop their onslaught. One-by-one, each of these people fell before the beasts while all Albel could do was to watch. And every single time, the dream ended when it was that girl's turn to join in the festivities...Rinoa.
...if Albel were to remember who he was, he needed her help. She was the key to all of this, he believed. He wanted to make sense of the dreams, to figure out why he felt so helpless during such dreams. And why he did the things he did here in Aegean. There was too many questions left answered. He simply needed to know.
The more subdued Albel Nox arrived at Rinioa's doorstep, wearing the most "normal" outfit that he could find: a white shirt, an unzipped purple jacket, a pair of tight-fitting jeans. Yet he still looked quite feminine even with this ensemble... Despite his self-consciousness, he knocked on the door, wondering what would be awaiting him on the other side.
Rinoa had been straightening up her dormitory while she waited for Albel's arrival. She worked a little too much sometimes to keep her things tidy. She was surprised that she hadn't been thrust out of her position just yet and thrown out into the hallway. Eventually that was going to happen. Then again, that Princess Peach person was pretty nice, so maybe Rinoa wouldn't end up out on her butt. On the other hand, she imagined Peach wandering in, hands clasped over each cheek and a familiar "Oh my!" echoing throughout the emptiness.
So in other words, Rinoa could have left the dormitory in a state where someone would be horrified by what they saw. But she hoped she didn't.
When she heard the knock, she approached the door, opened it, decked in her typical garb, as she didn't seem to like much of anything else. Even with Corsica at her disposal, Rinoa was interested in dusters, and that's exactly what she wore. Except it wasn't blue. She chose white. At least for the day.
"Hi you! You look in pretty good spirits. Come on in." She gestured to him with a hand, smiled widely, and turned her back to leave him to show himself in.
"Relatively speaking. It's just nice to see you finally in person. Again that is," he corrected himself. He let the door close itself shut as he stepped in and took in his surroundings. There wasn't anything that immediately caught his attention, nothing that would sparked his memory anyway.
She understood what he meant. Her head tipped to the side and when she turned back to him, her arms folded over her chest and she nodded slowly. "You seem like you're doing better."
Well, as good as one could do when he was missing his memories. She couldn't imagine too much what that was like. Well, sort of. Like when she didn't remember him at all. Except she wasn't distraught. She assumed it was to do with the environment and telling herself that was good enough.
"I've calmed down since then and come to accept that I might just be a bastard in my past," he said with a light snicker. "I might have been rather mean, but I am no beast. There must have been a reason why I acted the way I did."
A bastard, huh? That was one way of putting it.
Rinoa pulled a face, "Hm... Well... You've always seemed unhappy to me. And even when you were with me, you might have seemed happy, but you were still always rude to everyone else. I think it's more like a superiority complex. Someone else has to prove they're worth your time. You've made a lot of enemies because of that."
Then she gestured with a hand, "Oh. And the whole 'maggot' and 'worm' thing."
"That would imply that I thought that you were worth my time," Albel smiled as he turned away to pace around the room. "I read some of my old journals. It goes along with the superiority complex I suppose. It seems like I was more interested in picking fights than anything else. Likely in a gesture to prove myself to them."
"Well, sort of like that," Rinoa admitted. Though she considered how they had been when they first met. And how much he'd irritated her. Of course at the time she was a lot easier moved toward that aggravation.
She nodded when he continued, "Something like that. You've always been competitive with me. I cheated once on a game to win against you and you got maaaaad."
Albel considered how he himself would feel if someone had cheated against him in a competition. "Hm...yes, I would get mad," he replied. "All I would want is a fair game. To prove my strength because..."
...because of what? He understood the logic of the so-called "mean" things he had done to others around here. But that meant nothing if he couldn't understand the reasons why he thought that way.
She'd never asked why he wanted to be better than everyone else. It was more like the idea that she just thought he had that superiority complex. He wanted to be better for the sake of being better, right? It sounded as logical as anything else.
"You got mad over lots of things. Almost everything. Or you took things too personally. I guess it makes sense, though. It's sort of weird. You've always been extremes. There's no in between with you, Albel Nox."
Albel still felt that there was a little more to his desire for strength than simply for the sake of being better. There was something else that made his search for power...personal.
"Prideful little thing, aren't I?" he snickered. "Honestly, I do you put up with me. It seems like everyone would have abandoned me as soon as I make that horrible first impression."
Rinoa's cheeks began to fill with a variety of shades of pink. She scratched her cheek lightly and she found herself chuckling weakly. "Yeaaaaah... I wonder how I managed to put up with it..." Something about love, right? Of course, she wasn't about to say that to him.
Albel turned his head slightly askew when he saw the slight flushing of her cheeks. What was that about? "Well, you are patient. First with my antics and now with my memory. I'd have a lonely existence otherwise."
Well...he would be lying if he said that he didn't have any ideas, but he didn't think that he was in any positions to believe that she was thinking of him in...that manner.
: "Well, I hear one good turn deserves another. I went through something like you are now and you were totally distraught over it. I figured it's not really fair to freak out, especially when weird things happen all of the time. We're friends, right?" She shrugged at him nonchalantly, trying to make it seem not so large, "We're supposed to be there for each other like that."
So she had lost her memory as well? Well...yes, he would be distraught if such a close friend were to forget all about him. But he was amazed that she was so mature as to accept the situation and be so positive, to be as helpful as she was now. He was mightily impressed in fact.
"That is so true. You have earned my trust and friendship so completely and thoroughly. I wouldn't abandon you as you wouldn't with me. That is the simple truth of the matter."
Optimism was very much close to Rinoa's metaphorical middle name. The only time she wasn't bubbly and cheerful was when she had been pulled too much into her own thoughts. Like when she'd come across Albel again. And especially when she thought of Laguna, who she hadn't seen in quite a while.
"Then there you have it," she pointed out with a hand gesture. A smile crept across her lips and she nodded, "I was hoping you'd say that."
Someone whom he could depend upon no matter what. Albel liked the idea very much. Albel approached her and took her into a kind embrace carefully in his arms. It felt like an appropriate thing to do to show his appreciation.
"Thank you, Rinoa."
It wasn't unlike her redden, which was exactly the initial response when he reached for her. Her expression softened and after a few moments of simply letting him hold her, she lifted her arms and slipped them around him.
"What's that for? You don't need to thank me..."
Even though this was his first experience embracing Rinoa, the gesture didn't feel foreign. In fact, he was quite comfortable being this close to her.
"Somehow, I don't think I would be too inclined to voice something like that as I were before. I might as well say it while I still have the chance...for my gratitude from now and beyond."
Looking up at him, Rinoa simply stared, as though lost in a vague admiration for him. It was strange to see him, and at the same time, not see him. Like she was looking at a picture of him and staring through him. "Well, I know you're grateful. Even when you don't say it. You've got odd ways of showing it. Biting, playing, rough-housing, calling me little nicknames..."
"It's almost as if you're describing a dog, A loyal, albeit mean dog. Which I personally don't mind, Maybe if I was happy enough, I might even lick you,"he spoke in jest.
"Ah..." she began, somewhat uncertainly. "I can't say I'd really like that. In fact, it sounds kind of gross." The good thing was that she knew he wasn't serious, and she was relieved, to say in the least.
"They say that a dog's lick is simply a kiss on their terms. It's not as gross if you think of it that way."
Rinoa laughed and she wiggled out of his grasp. "I have a dog. I know what it means. What a dog does is different than what humans do. I don't appreciate guy tongue on me. And you're not my dog and never will be my dog, so... There's no comparison."
"Better me as a dog than...as a worm or maggot" he replied with faint shrug of his shoulders. His attempt to offer her a kiss on the cheek had been rejected. No matter. She got the gist of what he had to say.
"Between the two of us," she gestured to demonstrate, "I'm the worm and maggot. You're just Albel Nox, the very perplexed guy. I think you're putting the pieces together, you know? How do you feel?"
"There is one final piece of the puzzle to tie everything together. But I have yet to discover that truth. In due time." Or so what everyone had been telling him. "For now, I should return to ponder over what pieces that I've discovered so far."
Rinoa nodded to him and approached her door to open it for him. She wasn't sure what he meant, but she wasn't going to question him on it. There were just some things she didn't need to know. "I gotcha. I hope you'll figure it all out soon. If you need it, I'm sure there are tons of others who can help."
"You've helped far more than you even know..." he replied with his characteristic smirk as he stepped through the door. "I'll be seeing you soon, dreamer."
And she supposed he was right with that sort of expression. Her lips upturned into a smile and she simply nodded to him, "Come see me when you remember things. We'll talk again then."
Albel raised his hand as he walked away to acknowledge her words and left for his dorm room.
What? Albel (the amnesiac) goes to visit Rinoa to discover a few truths
When? A few days before the event ended
Warnings None, just affection and nice guy Albel?
[22:59] AlbelTheTwisted: Good evening, Rinoa.
[23:00] EtherealxSage: Oh! Hey, Albel Nox!
[23:01] AlbelTheTwisted: Are you busy tonight by any chance?
[23:01] EtherealxSage: Hm? No. Not aside from homework. It's been done, though, so I was just watching the TV.
[23:01] EtherealxSage: What's up?
[23:04] AlbelTheTwisted: I just wish to visit. Memory or no memory, I do feel like you were a huge part of my life. So if I am to remember, I think it would be helpful if I spent some time with you, face-to-face.
[23:05] EtherealxSage: That's fine with me!
[23:10] AlbelTheTwisted: In that case, I'll be right over soon. I'll see you in a bit
Ever since Albel had "reawakened" without his memories, he had been receiving such...dreadful nightmares that seemed to haunt his sleep. Such vivid detail... that he could barely tell what was real and what was imagined at times. He saw people whom he could barely recognize, some not at all, fighting beasts and monsters and slowly becoming overcome by their might. A man much like himself... a blue-haired boy... And there he was, helpless to stop their onslaught. One-by-one, each of these people fell before the beasts while all Albel could do was to watch. And every single time, the dream ended when it was that girl's turn to join in the festivities...Rinoa.
...if Albel were to remember who he was, he needed her help. She was the key to all of this, he believed. He wanted to make sense of the dreams, to figure out why he felt so helpless during such dreams. And why he did the things he did here in Aegean. There was too many questions left answered. He simply needed to know.
The more subdued Albel Nox arrived at Rinioa's doorstep, wearing the most "normal" outfit that he could find: a white shirt, an unzipped purple jacket, a pair of tight-fitting jeans. Yet he still looked quite feminine even with this ensemble... Despite his self-consciousness, he knocked on the door, wondering what would be awaiting him on the other side.
Rinoa had been straightening up her dormitory while she waited for Albel's arrival. She worked a little too much sometimes to keep her things tidy. She was surprised that she hadn't been thrust out of her position just yet and thrown out into the hallway. Eventually that was going to happen. Then again, that Princess Peach person was pretty nice, so maybe Rinoa wouldn't end up out on her butt. On the other hand, she imagined Peach wandering in, hands clasped over each cheek and a familiar "Oh my!" echoing throughout the emptiness.
So in other words, Rinoa could have left the dormitory in a state where someone would be horrified by what they saw. But she hoped she didn't.
When she heard the knock, she approached the door, opened it, decked in her typical garb, as she didn't seem to like much of anything else. Even with Corsica at her disposal, Rinoa was interested in dusters, and that's exactly what she wore. Except it wasn't blue. She chose white. At least for the day.
"Hi you! You look in pretty good spirits. Come on in." She gestured to him with a hand, smiled widely, and turned her back to leave him to show himself in.
"Relatively speaking. It's just nice to see you finally in person. Again that is," he corrected himself. He let the door close itself shut as he stepped in and took in his surroundings. There wasn't anything that immediately caught his attention, nothing that would sparked his memory anyway.
She understood what he meant. Her head tipped to the side and when she turned back to him, her arms folded over her chest and she nodded slowly. "You seem like you're doing better."
Well, as good as one could do when he was missing his memories. She couldn't imagine too much what that was like. Well, sort of. Like when she didn't remember him at all. Except she wasn't distraught. She assumed it was to do with the environment and telling herself that was good enough.
"I've calmed down since then and come to accept that I might just be a bastard in my past," he said with a light snicker. "I might have been rather mean, but I am no beast. There must have been a reason why I acted the way I did."
A bastard, huh? That was one way of putting it.
Rinoa pulled a face, "Hm... Well... You've always seemed unhappy to me. And even when you were with me, you might have seemed happy, but you were still always rude to everyone else. I think it's more like a superiority complex. Someone else has to prove they're worth your time. You've made a lot of enemies because of that."
Then she gestured with a hand, "Oh. And the whole 'maggot' and 'worm' thing."
"That would imply that I thought that you were worth my time," Albel smiled as he turned away to pace around the room. "I read some of my old journals. It goes along with the superiority complex I suppose. It seems like I was more interested in picking fights than anything else. Likely in a gesture to prove myself to them."
"Well, sort of like that," Rinoa admitted. Though she considered how they had been when they first met. And how much he'd irritated her. Of course at the time she was a lot easier moved toward that aggravation.
She nodded when he continued, "Something like that. You've always been competitive with me. I cheated once on a game to win against you and you got maaaaad."
Albel considered how he himself would feel if someone had cheated against him in a competition. "Hm...yes, I would get mad," he replied. "All I would want is a fair game. To prove my strength because..."
...because of what? He understood the logic of the so-called "mean" things he had done to others around here. But that meant nothing if he couldn't understand the reasons why he thought that way.
She'd never asked why he wanted to be better than everyone else. It was more like the idea that she just thought he had that superiority complex. He wanted to be better for the sake of being better, right? It sounded as logical as anything else.
"You got mad over lots of things. Almost everything. Or you took things too personally. I guess it makes sense, though. It's sort of weird. You've always been extremes. There's no in between with you, Albel Nox."
Albel still felt that there was a little more to his desire for strength than simply for the sake of being better. There was something else that made his search for power...personal.
"Prideful little thing, aren't I?" he snickered. "Honestly, I do you put up with me. It seems like everyone would have abandoned me as soon as I make that horrible first impression."
Rinoa's cheeks began to fill with a variety of shades of pink. She scratched her cheek lightly and she found herself chuckling weakly. "Yeaaaaah... I wonder how I managed to put up with it..." Something about love, right? Of course, she wasn't about to say that to him.
Albel turned his head slightly askew when he saw the slight flushing of her cheeks. What was that about? "Well, you are patient. First with my antics and now with my memory. I'd have a lonely existence otherwise."
Well...he would be lying if he said that he didn't have any ideas, but he didn't think that he was in any positions to believe that she was thinking of him in...that manner.
: "Well, I hear one good turn deserves another. I went through something like you are now and you were totally distraught over it. I figured it's not really fair to freak out, especially when weird things happen all of the time. We're friends, right?" She shrugged at him nonchalantly, trying to make it seem not so large, "We're supposed to be there for each other like that."
So she had lost her memory as well? Well...yes, he would be distraught if such a close friend were to forget all about him. But he was amazed that she was so mature as to accept the situation and be so positive, to be as helpful as she was now. He was mightily impressed in fact.
"That is so true. You have earned my trust and friendship so completely and thoroughly. I wouldn't abandon you as you wouldn't with me. That is the simple truth of the matter."
Optimism was very much close to Rinoa's metaphorical middle name. The only time she wasn't bubbly and cheerful was when she had been pulled too much into her own thoughts. Like when she'd come across Albel again. And especially when she thought of Laguna, who she hadn't seen in quite a while.
"Then there you have it," she pointed out with a hand gesture. A smile crept across her lips and she nodded, "I was hoping you'd say that."
Someone whom he could depend upon no matter what. Albel liked the idea very much. Albel approached her and took her into a kind embrace carefully in his arms. It felt like an appropriate thing to do to show his appreciation.
"Thank you, Rinoa."
It wasn't unlike her redden, which was exactly the initial response when he reached for her. Her expression softened and after a few moments of simply letting him hold her, she lifted her arms and slipped them around him.
"What's that for? You don't need to thank me..."
Even though this was his first experience embracing Rinoa, the gesture didn't feel foreign. In fact, he was quite comfortable being this close to her.
"Somehow, I don't think I would be too inclined to voice something like that as I were before. I might as well say it while I still have the chance...for my gratitude from now and beyond."
Looking up at him, Rinoa simply stared, as though lost in a vague admiration for him. It was strange to see him, and at the same time, not see him. Like she was looking at a picture of him and staring through him. "Well, I know you're grateful. Even when you don't say it. You've got odd ways of showing it. Biting, playing, rough-housing, calling me little nicknames..."
"It's almost as if you're describing a dog, A loyal, albeit mean dog. Which I personally don't mind, Maybe if I was happy enough, I might even lick you,"he spoke in jest.
"Ah..." she began, somewhat uncertainly. "I can't say I'd really like that. In fact, it sounds kind of gross." The good thing was that she knew he wasn't serious, and she was relieved, to say in the least.
"They say that a dog's lick is simply a kiss on their terms. It's not as gross if you think of it that way."
Rinoa laughed and she wiggled out of his grasp. "I have a dog. I know what it means. What a dog does is different than what humans do. I don't appreciate guy tongue on me. And you're not my dog and never will be my dog, so... There's no comparison."
"Better me as a dog than...as a worm or maggot" he replied with faint shrug of his shoulders. His attempt to offer her a kiss on the cheek had been rejected. No matter. She got the gist of what he had to say.
"Between the two of us," she gestured to demonstrate, "I'm the worm and maggot. You're just Albel Nox, the very perplexed guy. I think you're putting the pieces together, you know? How do you feel?"
"There is one final piece of the puzzle to tie everything together. But I have yet to discover that truth. In due time." Or so what everyone had been telling him. "For now, I should return to ponder over what pieces that I've discovered so far."
Rinoa nodded to him and approached her door to open it for him. She wasn't sure what he meant, but she wasn't going to question him on it. There were just some things she didn't need to know. "I gotcha. I hope you'll figure it all out soon. If you need it, I'm sure there are tons of others who can help."
"You've helped far more than you even know..." he replied with his characteristic smirk as he stepped through the door. "I'll be seeing you soon, dreamer."
And she supposed he was right with that sort of expression. Her lips upturned into a smile and she simply nodded to him, "Come see me when you remember things. We'll talk again then."
Albel raised his hand as he walked away to acknowledge her words and left for his dorm room.