025 - Keep For Me Your Sweetness - Accidental Video

[worldofourown]

[ Under a shady tree, alone and huddled, is a young man. ]

[ In the dim sunlight, his profile is the same shape as Karl's. But the expression - the rumpled clothes and tangled hair - is completely not. There's no elegance. No sneering confidence or knife-sharp grins. Pale and trembling and slick with sweat, he looks on the verge of hyperventilating. Eyes wide with a million prayers, all hopeless. ]

[ Hearing a far-off noise, he jerks. His face is seen, full-on. ]

[ Karl's face. Yet not. Even in his most abject moments, Karl has never looked so boyish. So... innocent. His round eyes keep darting everywhere. As if the bushes and trees will jump at him. Looking at his babyish face, it's easy to trace the erosion of time and madness in the present-day Karl. Somewhere along the years, the big eyes have become half-lidded, something secret and sinister flickering in them. His mouth too, has acquired the hard, vicious quality of stamped tin. ]

[ This isn't Karl. but a stranger in his skin. Shell-shocked. Clueless. And scared out of his wits. ]

[ Over and over, he mumbles: ]

...I want to go home....I want to go home...


[OOC: Hit with The Years That Never Were, Karl has been cursed to his human, harmless (and Moe!) self, had he never met Diva, been forced to become a Chevalier, been used as a labrat and slowly been driven insane. Replies will come from allmyhopes ]

Comments

[beyourarmy]

[Setsuna would be heartbroken to actually see Karl cry. But wha-? Then. Wait.]

.... See? Not dead. The City just picks up a lot of weird things, like half-angels, demons, vampires and Chiropterans.

[allmyhopes]

...

[ Staaaaaaaares. ]

I'm very sorry. I have no idea what you're saying...

[beyourarmy]

You don't know what demons and vampires are?

Or Chiropterans? [He started to suspect, but it still kinda sucks to confirm it.]

[allmyhopes]

I know what demons and vampires are, thank you very much!

[ Is that a pout? ]

But I've never heard of a Chiropteran. [ Pause. Watch him be booksmart. ] Unless you mean Chiroptera. The mammal order of bats.

[beyourarmy]

That's not what they are...but I guess they kinda are bat-like. [Thanks, Karl. You're educating him, and it makes SENSE to him, too.]

Chiropteran are like vampires, though. And usually human looking.

That also means you ain't one [yet] if you don't know what they are, though.

[allmyhopes]

[ Staring. Again. Is the boy mad? ]

Of course I'm not a vampire. Such things don't exist. They're fairytales mothers tell naughty children! To scare them into going to bed.

[ Pout. Pout. Pout. ]

...The study of science will dispel these silly superstitions. Mark my words.

[beyourarmy]

Oh? Aren't angels and demons the same crap, though?

[Science. Pfffft!]

[allmyhopes]

That's different.

That's religion and scripture. Passed down through decades. It's sacred.

[ Which, in his messed up mind, explains everything. ]

[beyourarmy]

[Twitch.]

Sacred? You mean, like God is sacred? The bastard that is trying to destroy the entire world just because humans didn't become what he wanted? Fuck that.

I've met them. Vampires are real. And even if they're not, you so sure about this place you want to wonder about it alone?

[allmyhopes]

You shouldn't be so blasphemous! And do please watch your language. It's unbecoming.

[ He hesitates. Any lightness drying up as the ugliness of his situation sinks in. ]

This place - is not home. The things here are unfamiliar to me. [ 8( ] I would - appreciate a guide.

[beyourarmy]

I'm not being blasphemous, I'm being honest. Remember the wings? Been there, met him. Seen Heaven and all that. And...you really are kind of a prude, huh?

I could give you more than a guide. A body-guard. I won't let anyone touch you that you don't want to. And I'll show you around. How's that?

1/2

[allmyhopes]

I'm not a prude.

[ HUFF HUFF. ]

And how can you have met God? Unless you had a religious vision. Or ...something.

2/2

[allmyhopes]

[ Softening. ]

I ...would appreciate that. Thank you. [ So very trusting. It doesn't even occur to him that anyone offering help so freely might have an agenda. ]

1/2

[beyourarmy]

[A sigh.] Why would I need a vision when I have wings? [They reappear.] I can just fly to Heaven.

[beyourarmy]

[Guess who softens as well.]

....

It's no problem for me. I offered because I want to. Thing is, where to start.... I guess the fountain is pretty near by. And I can show you the shops on the way. And the zoo.

1/2

[allmyhopes]

So you're really an angel...?

[ Awestruck. ]

But ... [ Hold on! ]... Angels don't swear.

[allmyhopes]

...The zoo?

[ Perking up a little. But still uncertain. ]

I'd like to see it. But - [ His voice drops nervously. ] This place doesn't seem very respectable. The ladies here - dress like slatterns. And there's too many lights.

[ Starting to wonder if he's dropped into a red-light district. ]

[beyourarmy]

Of course they do. You just heard me do it, didn't you? [Wings move a little.]

[Notices how Karl perks up at the mention of the zoo. Oh, that HAVE to go there, then.]

What do you mean not respectable? You're such an old man!

And what's wrong with lights? Lights are a good thing. They make sure we can see in the dark so bad stuff happens less.

[allmyhopes]

But swearing isn't - [ Holy? Divine? Sacrosanct? ] Nevermind. [ Mumble Mumble. ]

...I'm not old. I'm only nineteen!

[ pauuuuuuuuse. ]

You have a point. But it's just never so bright back home.

[beyourarmy]

You still talk like an old man! Not respectable. And woman dress like slatterns. Slatterns. I barely know what that word means!

[Shakes his head a little.] That's because in your time they probably don't have electric lights, do that? They make it easier.

[allmyhopes]

If you don't know what it means, you ought to read more! Don't you go to school?

[ Some things never change. ]

...We have electricity. But mostly in the big cities. And it's nothing like this.

[beyourarmy]

[Head in hands.] I'm not the reading type. But yeah, I got to school. And I DO know what it means. Just barely!

Yeah. In my time, we use lights more. A lot more. We try to make the night like day, really. Which is stupid. It blocks out the stars and the moon. But at the same time, there's nothing really wrong with it, or bad about it.

[allmyhopes]

How d'you find the means to generate so much electric power?

[ Utterly. Fascinated. ]

...Your time? What year are you from?

[beyourarmy]

Things called generators.

[Shrugs.]

...1999, in Tokyo.

Why don't we start walking, and I'll give you a proper tour? Come on.

[Inclines his head towards the direction of the zoo, gets up, and puts out a hand towards Karl.]

1/2

[allmyhopes]

...Generators.

[ Not a very good explanation. But angels aren't exactly scientific, are they? ]

1999? [ Shock. ] Tokyo.
Tōkei. You don't seem very Japanese, though...

[ More like one of the colon's children in Vietnam. ]