bloodyashes: (An overlook)
Asch the Bloody ([personal profile] bloodyashes) wrote in [community profile] exsiliumlogs2013-04-08 09:25 pm

[People to See/Things to do]

Date: The afternoon of the 8th; the evening of the 9th; throughout the day of the 11th
Location: Apartment 608 x2 combo; various shops and streets throughout Exsilium
Characters: Asch, Kido, and Elliot; two redheads and a colonel; and then, finally, Asch and whoever decides to hassle him.
Summary: An evening of cooking and recipe exchanges, as promised, plus maybe some roommate interference; Jade actually explains something; and then one redhead out on the town, celebrating being alive... sort of. You know, in the most tsunnish way possible.
Warnings: Talk of death possible in the open prompt, and certain in the second one.

Closed to Kido and Elliot -

[The kitchen is as clean as he can make it in an hour or two - really, Asch should have made Elliot learn to mop, but that's a lesson in self-sufficiency for another day. For right now, it's good enough for having a guest over, especially one who knows how inadequate Elliot is when it comes to housekeeping. Maybe the idiot will stick around long enough to learn a thing or two about cooking.

When he goes to open the door, his sleeves are uncharacteristically pushed up past his elbows, revealing a couple of scars across the back of his right hand and forearm. He's also very nearly smiling.]


Come on in.

[No standing on ceremony here; he doesn't wait for a reply before heading back towards the kitchen, although he does stop long enough to glance at the kitten curled up on the couch, fast asleep.]

Closed to Jade and Luke -

[He'd been expecting Jade to come calling after that encounter in the streets, and on some level Asch was waiting for it. He's still not exactly ready to answer the door when it's knocked on, with a bit of flour on his shirt and the kitchen still only half-cleaned up. His hair is pulled back with one of the elastic hairbands he'd picked up in the town, although a few strands of his bangs are falling into his face when he opens the door. His slightly frazzled expression becomes more serious when he sees the man standing in front of his door, and Asch winds up leaving a few streaks of flour across his forehead as he pushes his hair back in an attempt to make himself a little more presentable.]

Jade. It's about time. Mind the cat.

[The aforementioned ball of white fluff peeks around from behind Asch's ankle, looking curiously up at Jade with two differently colored eyes. Asch nudges her away from the door with one heel before stepping back to let Jade inside, gesturing towards the standard set-up of couch and chairs in the living room.]

I'll make some tea, if you can give me a few minutes.

[A pause, as he turns back to the kitchen.]

...If you want to bring Luke over, just bang on the wall. I already told him what I know.

[That the fonons of his body were leaving for his replica's - Asch's words aren't entirely free of resentment, but he manages to hide it by focusing on clearing enough space on the stove for a kettle. The kitten follows him there, winding around his ankles as he slides a few cookies off a cooling rack into a plastic container.]

Open -

[Someone got their obligations done early this morning, and seems to have taken a day on the town - Asch can be found poking through any number of the smaller shops today, but it seems like whatever he's looking for, he's not having much luck finding it. His search seems to be mostly through the more expensive jewelry in the antiques stores; it's the more old-fashioned gold that catches his eye, not the brightly colored plastics, although none of it seems to catch his attention longer than a few moments, anyway.

Later, he can be found inside a small bakery, looking over an assortment of cakes, pies, and other sweet things. For the most part, he seems to be making faces at them, apparently finding them all too sweet for his liking. Eventually, he points out a fruit tart, and once the baker has put it in a nice little box for him, he steps back out into the rain, settling down to one of the smaller cafe tables under a cover nearby to eat. There's a second chair there that he doesn't seem to be paying any attention to...

Finally, later in the evening, he's slipping around the back alleys of the city, a bit farther out from the Hold. For the most part, he ignores the buildings that are obviously occupied; instead, his attention is on the ones that don't have anyone living in them, most of which are in sore need of fixing up. He passes, and then comes back to, what seems to have been a restaurant of some kind in years past - the windows are broken through, however, and even from the outside the damage of a large fire is obvious. Asch doesn't look like he particularly cares, though - when he can't yank the boards from the door easily, he goes in through one of the windows instead, his boots crunching on broken glass.]
concealingeyes: ([let me explain you a thing])

[personal profile] concealingeyes 2013-04-09 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
[Likewise, even though Kido wears her usual hoodie, she has an apron tucked under her arm, sleeves already rolled up. In a weird way, this is kind of business, just a relaxing sort. She does, however, pause to look at the cat. She remembers it from Elliot's video.

She glances at Asch, before leaning down to look at it. She really wants to pet it but...that might look dumb.]


...Do you guys look after him together or is it mostly you?

[It's hard to imagine Elliot taking care of something.]
clinical: (you whisper prayers into the dark)

[personal profile] clinical 2013-04-09 07:50 am (UTC)(link)
[At those last words, Jade doesn't let him say, "I wish you hadn't." It was already enough to correct the misconceptions of one. It would be tedious to amend the rest.]

[Jade takes a seat and clasps his hands on the table before him. The flour, the cat, the cooking materials are detailes filed quietly away for later processing, acknowledgement. There is none of that neither.]


If you're agreeable to it, I'd like to bring him in now.

[If that is not the correct course, it is still the only one. Jade cannot explain this to that face twice.]
arcanepower: (arcane blast.)

[personal profile] arcanepower 2013-04-09 10:43 am (UTC)(link)
[Being no stranger to skulking around unsavory places, Belthazar hardly seems bothered by the dilapidated parts of this neighborhood. If there's anything weird slinking around, he's always quick to dispatch it as part of his training. Today, however, he catches a glimpse of scarlet around a corner. Curious, he tiptoes after, and spies some human teenager breaking into an old building.

He circles around until he finds where Asch disappeared into. After a moment of consideration, long ears twitching, he noiselessly slips through the window, and lands lightly against the wall.]
chosenfake: (♪ confetti rainfall in a quiet street)

sorry about the delay, had a lot of shit to do today apparently

[personal profile] chosenfake 2013-04-10 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
[Luke doesn't usually take fon calls when he's napping, but a sharp pain jerks him right out of a vague, summer-tinted dream about the manor and right back into reality. He bolts upward on the couch and immediately regrets it, overcome with dizziness and everything else.]

Asch? What's...

[Ow. Fuck ow. Okay, something about Jade? He runs his hands through his hair to try and flatten it some, then hurriedly slips on his coat and goes next door. Due to the difficulties of a recent addition to his apartment, Luke has grown accustomed to slipping into Asch's so that he can use the facilities. It's unlocked for that reason. Unless Asch wants to deal with a shark-toothed alien and all.

Luke shuts the door behind him, expression tentative and worried.]


What's going on?
clinical: (you whisper prayers into the dark)

nonsense your tag is PERFECTLY TIMED for just as I got to my Jadetags <3

[personal profile] clinical 2013-04-10 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
[Jade stay silent ignoring both Asch and the cat. Not deliberately or consciously; simply because he can neither completely shut down nor fully process the situation. It is one thing to discuss theory with Dist and resolve that a friend will be lost forever. It is an entirely different thing to say this to Asch and Luke, surviving past their deaths.]

Luke. If you have a moment, I'd like to discuss a technical matter relevant to both you and Asch.
chosenfake: (♪ it's still winter in my wonderland)

EXCEPT IT'S RAID NIGHT

[personal profile] chosenfake 2013-04-10 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
[Luke wrings his hands for a moment, glancing between Jade and Asch like the answers will become apparent immediately. He knows Jade when he gets serious. There's not even a terrible joke to help the mood, and that makes him uncomfortable.]

... Okay.

[He's not sure what this could be about. Maybe it's about the difference in timelines, or the whole... resurrecting the dead thing. He won't know until he sits down. So, despite the hummingbird-beating of his heart, he takes a seat at the other end of the couch, and keeps his hands and knees to himself.]

Is this about the Initiative bringing me back?
arcanepower: (ok whatever.)

[personal profile] arcanepower 2013-04-10 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
[Belthazar isn't expecting the guy to be so observant. He considers fleeing through a portal, but decides against it. There's no reason why he should run-- he's not in any danger. Yet. And he can handle himself. And there's really no reason, except for his innate fear of social contact.

He steps away from the wall, crossing his arms.]


I saw you sneaking in here. What are you doing?

[One of those kids who doesn't like to answer questions, apparently.]
clinical: (why would you offer more?)

[personal profile] clinical 2013-04-10 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
Not precisely.

[He can't stop himself from noticing the way his mood has, in its way, affected each of them. He is sorry for that. He has no desire to cause pain to either of these boys.

But then, isn't that what he is about to do? There is something truly cruel in what he is about to say to them. If they were not both here, if there were no chance of it affecting them, then he would have held his tongue. It's tempting to do so even now.

Yet he must speak.

Jade sighs, shutting his eyes, as if tired of all this. When he opens his eyes and speaks, it is calmly, as if this were any other explanation. And yet he cannot quite manage dispassion.]


I understand that Asch has shared the details of his own fonon separation. Spinoza's explanation of the Big Bang, however, was misleading when translated into laymen's terms. Asch, you misunderstood him.

[Was he trying avoid saying it? How . . . pointless. He shouldn't put them through that agony.]

The proposed theory for the Big Bang is that, when perfect isofons come into contact, the physical and fonic strength of the original decreases, as Spinoza said.

However, the original does not die at the expense of the replica. Once the Big Bang begins, the original's fonons are drawn to the replica, causing the decrease in strength, until the original finally dies. At that point, the original will be reconstructed from the replica. The original survives. Only the replica's memories remain.
Edited 2013-04-10 04:02 (UTC)
chosenfake: (♪ my view is changing (me))

[personal profile] chosenfake 2013-04-10 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
[That's... a lot of information at once. Luke is still trying to process that conversation, the one they had about fonon separation, when Jade sweeps into an explanation of perfect isofons and their fates. And all at once, nothing seems to make sense anymore.

Luke is dead. He doesn't have a body. Is Asch-- is Asch supposed to have his body? Is that...

He looks at his own hands.

Asch is already asking the most obvious question, so Luke adds another.]


What do you mean by the replica's memories?

[His voice sounds weak and shaky even to his own ears. Worse than Asch's. He's already dead, but he hasn't quite dealt with it.]
arcanepower: (pondering.)

[personal profile] arcanepower 2013-04-10 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
[That gets him a weird look, and a cursory glance at the burned out lobby.]

You'd be better off with a cardboard box. It would leak less.

[He lifts a burned out board with the toe of his boot and flips it over.]

I think this was a restaurant at some point.
Edited 2013-04-10 08:00 (UTC)
clinical: (it's crystallized; so am I)

[personal profile] clinical 2013-04-10 08:11 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, Asch. That's correct.

[Jade sets his attention only on words, facts, figures. Everything else—everything else is impossible.]

As to your question, Luke, the original would retain its own memories but would also have those of its replica.
arcanepower: (unimpressed.)

[personal profile] arcanepower 2013-04-10 08:15 am (UTC)(link)
[The joke makes him snort. Also, you're welcome. He's just trying to figure out what this guy would want with a burned-out restaurant. An upstairs apartment makes more sense.]

Even if you fixed up the top floor, what would you do about this space?

[He ignores the crunching of glass as he walks toward the back. There has to be a staircase somewhere.]
chosenfake: (♪ call me close once again)

[personal profile] chosenfake 2013-04-10 09:02 am (UTC)(link)
[Luke doesn't need to ask if it's true. If Jade thought he should tell both of them, together, then it's as true as true gets.

He isn't sure how to feel. He looks at his hands as if they aren't familiar to him. There isn't a hair out of place on Jade, but somehow he doesn't make sense either. None of this makes any sense, and grasping it is as futile as trying to squeeze sand.

In the hollow space left by his shock, Luke can only process one thing.]


But-- Asch and I are different. You can't just put our memories together. [He just can't see it. Can't imagine it. Yet another thing about this world that doesn't make sense.] My memories are mine. All my stupid mistakes and all the things I loved...

Those memories are all I have, and you're saying-- you're saying he'll have to bear that weight for the rest of his life? In my body?!

If only one of us can come back, at least let him be himself!
clinical: (why would you offer more?)

[personal profile] clinical 2013-04-10 09:26 am (UTC)(link)
[Jade loathes the hopelessness in Asch's voice. He cannot stand the rising emotion in Luke's. But of course, those voices are the same.

He answers Luke first.]


That is simply the science.

[Science does not have compassion any more than it has cruelty. Just as he told Kido. It merely is.

Jade touches his fingers to his glasses.]


There is no way known. The second pair of isofons confirmed the theory, but your case has a number of variables that throw the theory into uncertainty. [He tells them this as much like a report as he can manage, but Jade knows that much of the uncertainty is his own desire. He wants them to be different. He wants to be wrong.] Asch's sword appears to be able to assist him, potentially postponing the event indefinitely. While we are here, I am willing to research a more permanent solution, however low the odds.

[Jade had accepted that fate cannot be changed. The dead cannot be brought back to life. All things come to an end.

The Initiative have taken that away. If death is not allowed, then Jade will take every measure to ensure that Asch and Luke can have the lives they deserve.]
Edited 2013-04-10 09:28 (UTC)
arcanepower: (nope.)

[personal profile] arcanepower 2013-04-10 09:36 am (UTC)(link)
Hmph. I can't really disagree with that. You know something about food?

[There's a bunch of debris piled up against a doorway, suspiciously. The elf boy examines it, then tries kicking it a couple times. He's not sure why he's helping this guy, but maybe he's curious too. He's never considered living outside the Initiative building before.

Boards split and fall, and enough light peeks through to show there's a staircase behind. He tries to move the broken countertop, but he's not strong enough. There is, however, a hole big enough for the kid to make trouble.]


This looks promising.

[He tests the shaky foundation with a foot, finds a good place to stand, and crawls through.]

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