❦ 13th Record
Valeth-san, Target-san - I'm fit for duty again. Hope nothing dire happened while I was [slight pause] unavailable.
Sniper, Youth, Smoke, Snake, [pause] Silvar [little ink blot] you guys ok?
Lea, Castor, Pollux - [long, long pause] thanks.
[[Yeah, he pretty much booked it out of the Spa as soon as he regained his sight, lol. Now somewhere on ( Read more... )
Sniper, Youth, Smoke, Snake, [pause] Silvar [little ink blot] you guys ok?
Lea, Castor, Pollux - [long, long pause] thanks.
[[Yeah, he pretty much booked it out of the Spa as soon as he regained his sight, lol. Now somewhere on ( Read more... )
[The knight lay on the ground for a moment or two, either regaining his breath or figuring out how to stand back up in the armor. Finally, he got to his feet with many clanks, clatters, and groans.]
A foul blow, by gad! Zounds, I'll see you pay for that! [He ran over to where his sword had landed with his armor clanking all the while, puffing a little. When he reached the sword, he gave it a few tugs... but it seemed to have gotten stuck in the ground somehow.] Wizardry! Your tricks will get you nowhere, for Sir Cadogan needs no weapon to defeat ones such as you!
[Cloud sighed a little.] Right. I'm sure you'll defeat us no problem. You are aware you seem to be stuck inside a painting, right?
[Turning back to Sniper, he smirked slightly.] Sure, wandering is much better than sitting still. Though I don't know about raining on bad guys... why do there have to be bad guys in this story, can't it just be, I don't know... people?
Reply
Y-you're...
[He paused for another sharp burst of laughter to fall through. Eventually calming, he grinned at the picture.] Okay, so you're not so scary after all, Sir Cardigan. Why do you want to fight us?
[When Cloud pointed out that there didn't have to be bad guys, Sniper shrugged, still too amused to provide much of an argument.] Because that's how stories are.
Reply
[Said animated painting suddenly stopped shouting about cowards and clapped his hands together.]
A quest! A mighty undertaking, from which no true man would shrink! And I shall be your guide!
[Completely ignoring Cadogan, Cloud fiddled with the necktie of the outfit he'd been forced into, managing to undo it completely. Much better.] They don't all have to be.
Reply
See you later, Knight-guy. I don't think you can be our guide, 'cause we're moving away from your painting but it was nice dueling.
[He trucked eagerly onwards, too distracted by his delight with the painting to feel much apprehension about the admittedly creepy halls that greeted them.] I've never heard of any stories like that, [he reasoned. Idly, Sniper ran his fingers across the textured walls and found himself momentarily distracted by a suit of armor sedately walking down the hall.] What sort of stories are those?
Reply
On foot, then! Forward! In the name of Merlin! [And with that, the knight charged off the opposite edge of the painting than his pony had gone. Much to Cloud's bemusement, he turned up in the next one--actually, now that he was paying attention, there were a lot of paintings in this corridor... and most of them appeared to have moving things in them.]
...he's, uh. Following us. [As if Sniper hadn't noticed the clashing of the insane knight's armor on his own.]
[But the walking suit of armor in the corridor was very distracting. Cloud peered at it, wondering if there was someone in there.]
Stories, [he said, a little vaguely.] You know. About... people, living ordinary lives. And maybe someone... helps them with a problem that was making them unhappy, not a bad guy just a... like a sickness, maybe, and then once they're cured they're... [His voice trailed off as he thought of the woman from his memory. He'd told her there was no cure for her 'disease'... is that what mushi were, diseases? He frowned. It made a certain amount of sense, but at the same time... it wasn't right at all.]
Reply
[He ducked his head when he said that and realized that he was ducking his head to dodge a fist to the head that never came. He rubbed the back of his head, still half expecting it, but continued on. That was something that had always struck him as odd--he had regaled many people with his lies already, but none of them had actually hit him.
This was a source of some disappointment to him. It wasn't as if he particularly enjoyed getting hit as he generally attempted to avoid pain, but he liked annoying people to that point. It was one of his main sources of entertainment. Still, he cocked his head to listen as Cloud told him the stories he knew.]
Well, yeah, those stories exist, but there's not much of a point in them, is there? [He shrugged.] All that stuff's just like real life. [He scuffed his shoe against the ground.] Except the healing part, I guess. In real life, people die.
Reply
But that is the point... [Cloud started to protest, but then stopped and shrugged his shoulder a little awkwardly. That was why he liked those kind of stories, he realized suddenly--it was like real life. They were real stories... and of course, people died in real life. It was something to be avoided, obviously, but... that was just the way things were.] ...no one should live forever, you know. It'd be... too difficult. [Too painful.]
Reply
[Sniper understood that he was missing something integral to a point--of course stories that echoed reality had a point. He could see that much. But what he couldn't quite articulate was that people needed stories, in much the same way that people needed dreams. And these stories had to be fantastic, too fantastic, larger than life, even because people needed something great to believe in. Because if people could believe in that, then people could believe in anything. Like that King would find a way out of this place, or that everybody who disappeared went back home, or that he, Sniper, had once been a pirate.
It was about faith.
Of course, it was also about fun, and adventures--why else would he craft such ridiculous stories to regale the youth of Edensphere with? He fiddled with the zipper on the bag at his side.]
In stories - the ones that aren't like real life - the heroes die eventually, sure, but not like in real life. [After all, you didn't have to read to the very last page. And when they did die, it meant something beyond being a cruel twist of fate.]
Reply
Bah! Words on paper, impotent and useless! Stories matter not, it is in deeds that you must prove your worth!
[He shook his head (ignoring the insane knight) and smiled a little. This was a pretty stupid thing to get into an argument over, so Cloud changed the subject while it was still a discussion... though in his opinion death was death, and it didn't matter how noble the goals of the heroes had been or if they died for a reason. Once a person was dead nothing they had done in life really mattered, not to them. That said, of course there were perfectly good reasons to give up your life for others--but he couldn't think of any just at the moment.] You know, I bet this place has a library somewhere in it... it looks old enough. Wanna find it?
Reply
Oi, oi, don't badmouth stories, Sir Knight. [He leaned over and squinted at the painting in a way reminiscent of somebody intimidating another. On Sniper, it simply looked ridiculous--and as was the case most of the time, it was supposed to look ridiculous. That was the charm of stories.]
Can you tell us where the library is, story-hater?
Reply
The library! A noble goal! [The knight seemed to forget his dismissive words of a moment ago, springing into an ungainly run. This way, this way! Follow me! Sir Cadogan will take you there!
[Cloud sighed, and glanced at Sniper.] Want to run after him? Or let him go alone and find some other 'worthy goal'? [Cloud kind of hoped they'd seen the last of the clearly crazy guy in armor, but if Sniper wanted to go after him, Cloud would come with him. The last thing he wanted was Sniper to go poking around in a dark corner somewhere in the castle without thinking, and run into something big and nasty, probably with lots of teeth. This place seemed the type to have those kinds of things.]
Reply
[He charged after the knight--and not much more gracefully, but he was fast about it. He waved one arm in the air behind him, and instead of the dull sullenness that had been apparent in his voice only moments before, it was now lively with laughter.]
Come on, Cloud! You heard the knight! We're on an adventure!
Reply
Slow down, dammit! [At least they would be easy to follow, between the knight's armor clashing and Sniper's laughter.
He followed it down a few stairways, along several corridors, up another staircase for some reason, and finally down four more sets of stairs. By the time he caught sight of Sniper, he was completely out of breath and moving a lot slower--you couldn't really call it running anymore. He slowed further to a complete halt, leaned over and rested his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath. The knight was nowhere to be seen, apparently having run off to who knows where before Cloud arrived. Cloud coughed a couple times, then looked up, wiping at his sweaty forehead a little with his left hand, brushing the fringe of hair over his eye almost out of the way as he did.] This... [Gasp, cough. His voice was, not too surprisingly, rather breathless.] This the place?
Reply
It looks like you're going to have to try jogging sometime, [Sniper teased, but calmed down nevertheless to patiently allow Cloud to catch his breath.] Just don't let Youth see you running, or else he'll make you do ten laps.
[He pointed off into the distance.] The knight guy ran off into another painting shouting about something, so it looks like we're on our own again.
[He turned tail to open the doors to the library.]
And yeah, he said this was a library--whoa. Hey, look at this!
Reply
[He grunted a little.] Good. Annoying little... [He broke off to stare at the contents of the library. So many books... it was actually kind of familiar in one way, but it was distinctly jarring in another. Interesting...] Wow... how far back does it go?
Reply
Hmm.
[He looked up at it, apparently remembering their last conversation after allowing himself some peace of mind to think.] So, [he said, conversationally.] What are mushi, anyway?
Reply
Leave a comment