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Jun. 23rd, 2006 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spokeI'm not entirely sure what to think of this, except it possibly needs beta-ing before I go and post it to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
30_kisses
A tiny bit of background info for BoF IV, even though I could go on and on. Especially while I'm trying to write for it, since that always seems to involve me trying to pick apart things to see how they work. This is a world where the people (or a select tiny ...erm, monastery? in mountains in the back of beyond) summon gods to take care of them.(Even though those gods seem to stay pretty distant, influencing things simply by existing.) Only, once upon a time some people who shouldn't have been messing with this tradition tried to bypass the trained summoners in the mountains and do it themselves.
This resulted in a lot of screwed up things, but as it's relevant to the game and to this fic, one particular screwup - Fou-Lu/Ryu. Was supposed to be the Yorae Dragon(god), summoned once every thousand years to adjust the course of the future. Got torn in half due to the faulty summoning, Fou-Lu being drawn into the past and Ryu into the future - exactly one thousand years apart. It seems to be a fairly well-defined yin-yang split: Fou-Lu is emotions and darkness and water, Ryu is action and light and fire.
An interesting thing is that while Ryu seems innocently unaware of the lack at first, Fou-Lu never is. He speaks of himself as 'we' unless addressing something that's particular to him, or speaking with Ryu at the end. I'm not sure if I'm conveying that right. That and the fact that he speaks in this not-quite-right Middle English. Argh.
Opinions, mocking, anything? I'm fed up with trying to figure this out myself.
14. Radio Cassette Player
(song from BoF IV soundtrack) #20. Out Of His Mind
***
"What... be this thing?" Fou-Lu asked, turning a rather bizarre object over in his hands. It was made out of some kind of metal that reminded Ryu vaguely of the countries he had come through before reaching home, but the way it was put together seemed Hesperian.
Ryu was tempted to ask Fou-Lu how he thought he should know this when his elder self did not, but he knew better than to point out these gaps in Fou-Lu's logic. He walked over to himself instead, trying to take the thing, but Fou-Lu kept moving it away. His glare going unnoticed, he grabbed it instead and laughed at Fou-Lu as he ducked into a closet with the thing.
Ignoring Fou-Lu's attempts to coax him out of the room was easy enough, but he wasn't having anymore luck with getting the thing open than he'd already had. Then a thought occurred that made him go still, blinking down at the device. He called something distracted to Fou-Lu, who had already felt his confusion, and came back out without concern that he might get into a fight.
He lifted the thing, their eyes meeting in a rare moment of mutual embarrassment, and pushed the tiny silver disc protruding from its side. Mercifully, the faintly glowing image of a young woman in foreign clothes cut off their vision of each other for a moment.
"Ahem. Wow I hope this thing is working. I suppose I'd better talk before it runs out of room though." The figure paused to adjust glasses on her nose, and the twitch of her ears made it seem for a moment as if they had vanished. Ryu could feel Fou-Lu's amusement as she continued speaking, this time with an attempt at formality. "Honored Emperors of Hesperia and Levant, I send you greetings from the province of Wyndia. I... have no idea how to say this in courtly fashion. I miss Nina, you know, she never insisted on formality and it made things so much easier. ...maybe I shouldn't leave that on."
The image bent down a bit, and seemed to have picked up the device - at least their view of her was abruptly closer to her face than they might have wished. The image vanished, accompanied by metal sounds indicative of some kind of tinkering that caused Fou-Lu's eyes to light up with interest. Ryu shook his head, suspicious of what might come of this.
When the image returned, it was much clearer, but she was holding it at an odd angle as if still examining her work. So they had a clear view of what might have been a workshop before something had exploded in it. Possibly several somethings. She seemed to have been frustrated by whatever she had been attempting, or maybe just by her earlier attempt at formality. She also started out talking to herself.
"Well, here goes. What's the worst that can happen, Honey? These 'gods' will kill me for insulting them? Ha! We've faced down a god before... sort of. We had all our friends there, too..." She paused, and they saw her hand briefly as she touched something on the device. The picture vanished while her voice continued, and they listened in a silence weighted by the implications of her words. "Emperors of Hesperia and Levant, this is Momo of an entirely different place, maybe even another reality. I don't belong here, and I'm kind of hoping that you could maybe help me get back home, please? As a sign of goodwill and proving that I'm not crazy or anything, I send you this voice-recording device! I'm pretty sure it's not like any technology that exists in this world. Took me forever to make it too, I had to figure out all the electronics from scratch, there aren't any engineers around here! Um. Anyway, I hope you accept this gift and will send word if you would be willing to help me get home?"
After a brief and uncertain pause, she continued. "Or just zap me out of your reality, I won't mind I promise. Thanks."
The device went dead in their hands, and Ryu let Fou-Lu take it. "She doth think she hath withstood the fury of a god?"
Ryu was shaking his head before he heard himself speaking, and replied out of a disturbed feeling of familiarity. "If the gods in her world were different than ours? Or if it were an older god, one that had lost most of its powers..."
Fou-Lu's eyes were closed, his expression calmly sever. "She hath betrayed a god of her world, or he hath betrayed her. Either way, she and her companions hadst the power to withstand the fury of a god?" He slipped into a smile more frightening than his severity as his eyes met Ryu's. "I wouldst hear this woman's story before I doth pass judgment upon her."
Ryu nodded, needing no thought to agree with that sentiment. His head tilted as he considered, and spoke perhaps a little more slowly than he would have if not held back by that odd sense of knowing. "Maybe... General Yohm? He has enough skill with summons to handle whatever she might throw at him alone."
Fou-Lu's laughter was silent, always an asset when he insisted on trying to kiss Ryu while laughing at him.
30_kisses A tiny bit of background info for BoF IV, even though I could go on and on. Especially while I'm trying to write for it, since that always seems to involve me trying to pick apart things to see how they work. This is a world where the people (or a select tiny ...erm, monastery? in mountains in the back of beyond) summon gods to take care of them.(Even though those gods seem to stay pretty distant, influencing things simply by existing.) Only, once upon a time some people who shouldn't have been messing with this tradition tried to bypass the trained summoners in the mountains and do it themselves.
This resulted in a lot of screwed up things, but as it's relevant to the game and to this fic, one particular screwup - Fou-Lu/Ryu. Was supposed to be the Yorae Dragon(god), summoned once every thousand years to adjust the course of the future. Got torn in half due to the faulty summoning, Fou-Lu being drawn into the past and Ryu into the future - exactly one thousand years apart. It seems to be a fairly well-defined yin-yang split: Fou-Lu is emotions and darkness and water, Ryu is action and light and fire.
An interesting thing is that while Ryu seems innocently unaware of the lack at first, Fou-Lu never is. He speaks of himself as 'we' unless addressing something that's particular to him, or speaking with Ryu at the end. I'm not sure if I'm conveying that right. That and the fact that he speaks in this not-quite-right Middle English. Argh.
Opinions, mocking, anything? I'm fed up with trying to figure this out myself.
14. Radio Cassette Player
(song from BoF IV soundtrack) #20. Out Of His Mind
***
"What... be this thing?" Fou-Lu asked, turning a rather bizarre object over in his hands. It was made out of some kind of metal that reminded Ryu vaguely of the countries he had come through before reaching home, but the way it was put together seemed Hesperian.
Ryu was tempted to ask Fou-Lu how he thought he should know this when his elder self did not, but he knew better than to point out these gaps in Fou-Lu's logic. He walked over to himself instead, trying to take the thing, but Fou-Lu kept moving it away. His glare going unnoticed, he grabbed it instead and laughed at Fou-Lu as he ducked into a closet with the thing.
Ignoring Fou-Lu's attempts to coax him out of the room was easy enough, but he wasn't having anymore luck with getting the thing open than he'd already had. Then a thought occurred that made him go still, blinking down at the device. He called something distracted to Fou-Lu, who had already felt his confusion, and came back out without concern that he might get into a fight.
He lifted the thing, their eyes meeting in a rare moment of mutual embarrassment, and pushed the tiny silver disc protruding from its side. Mercifully, the faintly glowing image of a young woman in foreign clothes cut off their vision of each other for a moment.
"Ahem. Wow I hope this thing is working. I suppose I'd better talk before it runs out of room though." The figure paused to adjust glasses on her nose, and the twitch of her ears made it seem for a moment as if they had vanished. Ryu could feel Fou-Lu's amusement as she continued speaking, this time with an attempt at formality. "Honored Emperors of Hesperia and Levant, I send you greetings from the province of Wyndia. I... have no idea how to say this in courtly fashion. I miss Nina, you know, she never insisted on formality and it made things so much easier. ...maybe I shouldn't leave that on."
The image bent down a bit, and seemed to have picked up the device - at least their view of her was abruptly closer to her face than they might have wished. The image vanished, accompanied by metal sounds indicative of some kind of tinkering that caused Fou-Lu's eyes to light up with interest. Ryu shook his head, suspicious of what might come of this.
When the image returned, it was much clearer, but she was holding it at an odd angle as if still examining her work. So they had a clear view of what might have been a workshop before something had exploded in it. Possibly several somethings. She seemed to have been frustrated by whatever she had been attempting, or maybe just by her earlier attempt at formality. She also started out talking to herself.
"Well, here goes. What's the worst that can happen, Honey? These 'gods' will kill me for insulting them? Ha! We've faced down a god before... sort of. We had all our friends there, too..." She paused, and they saw her hand briefly as she touched something on the device. The picture vanished while her voice continued, and they listened in a silence weighted by the implications of her words. "Emperors of Hesperia and Levant, this is Momo of an entirely different place, maybe even another reality. I don't belong here, and I'm kind of hoping that you could maybe help me get back home, please? As a sign of goodwill and proving that I'm not crazy or anything, I send you this voice-recording device! I'm pretty sure it's not like any technology that exists in this world. Took me forever to make it too, I had to figure out all the electronics from scratch, there aren't any engineers around here! Um. Anyway, I hope you accept this gift and will send word if you would be willing to help me get home?"
After a brief and uncertain pause, she continued. "Or just zap me out of your reality, I won't mind I promise. Thanks."
The device went dead in their hands, and Ryu let Fou-Lu take it. "She doth think she hath withstood the fury of a god?"
Ryu was shaking his head before he heard himself speaking, and replied out of a disturbed feeling of familiarity. "If the gods in her world were different than ours? Or if it were an older god, one that had lost most of its powers..."
Fou-Lu's eyes were closed, his expression calmly sever. "She hath betrayed a god of her world, or he hath betrayed her. Either way, she and her companions hadst the power to withstand the fury of a god?" He slipped into a smile more frightening than his severity as his eyes met Ryu's. "I wouldst hear this woman's story before I doth pass judgment upon her."
Ryu nodded, needing no thought to agree with that sentiment. His head tilted as he considered, and spoke perhaps a little more slowly than he would have if not held back by that odd sense of knowing. "Maybe... General Yohm? He has enough skill with summons to handle whatever she might throw at him alone."
Fou-Lu's laughter was silent, always an asset when he insisted on trying to kiss Ryu while laughing at him.
