Entry #A-1: "A" [Accidental Video/Action After the Cut]
Despite the awkwardness and the trepidation, it had been a good night. L had fallen asleep in a bed, a rare occurrence for him, next to the person who had given him much patience, understanding, and help for half of a year, his body curled like a shell against hers. It had been their first time, and so they both knew that it likely could have been better… but so much of their time spent talking and traveling had revolved around the simple theme of in good time. Things would happen, good and bad alike, and forcing them was just asking for them to go wrong.
Which was what L initially wondered, when his eyelids opened against the darkness of an unfamiliar, high ceiling, with the slight weight of a rowan crown resting on his brow. He had not fallen asleep here. In fact, he had no idea where here even was. He raised himself uneasily, realizing with a jolt that he felt different, too. His back wasn’t curved with years of poor posture, and he was filled with the kind of energy that had fled him after his taxing career had bleached him like a bone of his youthful vigor. But there were drawbacks; every part of him was smaller and thinner than it should have been. At 24 years old, L had grown into his intelligence, but the way his mind flew now was raw, frenetic and unrefined. It was sharp and quick, but volatile, colored by a child’s fear and irrationality. Because it was starting to dawn on him that a child was exactly what he was; though his arm was still draped over an older teenager he’d engaged in very adult relations with the night before, L was a small, saucer-eyed boy of about seven. And though he was aware that he had been grown-up at one point, that reality seemed as far away now as Johto or Japan.
He struggled to organize his scattered, racing thoughts. Belphegor was here. He remembered her from their time together in Johto, so it wasn’t unreasonable to think that she might remember him, even if he was smaller than he was when they… did that. Last night. Eeeeeew.
He went through his pockets, taking off the rowan crown and setting it carefully aside. He didn’t find much; with a sinking feeling, he recognized that his pokemon, the creatures that had protected him for the last months, were gone. With the exception of one pokeball; he removed it, turning it in his small hands. Gamine. His Froslass. Of all of them, he had to admit that he found her presence the most comforting. Aside from the pokeball, he also found three bars of chocolate and what appeared to be another communication device. Slightly similar to the one in Johto, and slightly different... he places it next to the discarded crown, but his fingers are clumsier, now that he's younger. He doesn't realize that he turns on the video feed.]
[L touches Belphegor's shoulder tentatively. Though his hands are tiny, his fingers are still disproportionately long. He taps her, then shakes her briskly before withdrawing.]
Belphegor. Belphegor, wake up...
[Red eyes fly open as she quickly becomes aware of being prodded at, and her name in urgent tones on a child's voice.]
Lady Maria...?
[she asks, turning over toward the source and stopping short, blinking at the odd sight that greets her. NOT Lady Maria, most certainly.]
[L peers back at her with wide, dark eyes, set in a small, pale face. He's more recognizable than many children would be, to the people who knew them as adults; he has the same wild hair that looks like he cut it himself, the same clothes, the same mannerisms. He seems perhaps a bit more distracted and on-edge than his older self, but that's to be expected, isn't it?]
No, no, it's not Maria... it's...
[His voice catches. If his adulthood is far away, then so are his names.] I'm... [He covers his mouth with his hand, closing his eyes, trying to drown out the overwhelming pace of his young mind.]
Ryuzaki. I'm Ryuzaki....
[A pause and then she reaches out slowly, laying a hand on one small, bony shoulder as if confirming he's real]
What -happened- to you, Ryuzaki?
[she asks at last, moving to sit up, seeming to realize at the same time this is not the Azalea Inn as her eye is caught and dragged around the immediate surroundings of the silent stone chamber they're currently residing in. She seems unsettlingly-composed, given the massive influx of WTF she's currently being faced with]
[Ultimately, that composure goes a long way toward keeping L from completely losing his grip on the situation. He'd been getting used to Johto, he'd been doing well there, and now...]
Not just me, Belphegor, us, where are we? What we did last night, did that...?
[He sounds uncertain, as if well aware that indirectly accusing her of spiriting them away after sex is illogical. But then again, faced with the present situation, and MANY situations that had presented in the last months, it isn't as far-fetched as L would like.]
[She looks at him steadily, processing what he'd just asked]
No. I don't--
[Really, what kind of question is that anyway? She makes a flustered noise. It's not something she'd be eager to discuss with him under normal circumstances, let alone when he's an owl-eyed little boy.]
I'm sure that had nothing to do with it.
[She's getting her feet beneath her now and moving to stand, the crown of rowan slipping from her head as she does so. She reflexively picks it up, despite not knowing what it is or where it came from.]
... .... ... I've never seen this place before.
[L reaches for her shoulder again, resting his hand against it, standing; he is very, very small for his age, a little over half the height he was the last time Belphegor saw him.]
I have no reason to disbelieve you... but we need to find out. Even if I'm small, now, I am still myself... and Gamine is here.
[He slips the pokeball out of his baggy pocket to show her.]
[Following his example, her own hand wanders to her belt, feeling her stomach sink as every holster her fingers brush across that had once contained her team is found to be empty. When she finally finds a single pokeball, she brings it forward to examine it.]
Azrael...
[she murmurs aloud, mulling this over]
....it seems like a lot of trouble to go to if this was something personal. And there isn't much to explain you except... [she WANTS to say 'magic', but after so many months of going without and having to get used to it, she doesn't quite want to get her hopes up.]
Something personal? You mean... like a punishment from Beatrice?
[L's thumb wanders toward his mouth, while the hand still holding his Froslass's pokeball clenches the little object tightly.]
Is that what you mean?
[Its so quiet for a minute, one might wonder if the feed had lost sound.]
I-It doesn't seem like Lady Beatrice's style.
[she says at last.]
Her punishments are designed to fit the sins committed. She would need a reason to do something like this. [And as far as she knows, SHE'S stayed well in-line with her master]
[Having rationalized that much, she's reaching for one of his now-smaller hands] It's as you said, we should find out where we are...
You don't think that she had a reason?
[L asks, his voice soft, allowing her to take one of his little hands, preparing to follow her. One of his bare feet, however, brushes up against the communicator, dropped and forgotten next to his rowan leaf circlet.]
Ah...! Fuck, it's on...
[Distressed, and a little surprised at his impulsive language, he kneels to retrieve the communicator and the rowan leaves. The feed shuts off.]
[[OOC: Please feel free to respond to either Belphegor (red) or L (blue). They'll both be checking for text, audio, and video posts, and if you're in the area, respond with action if you'd like!]