ADR's Grand Opening Mingle Post!

Welcome, inhabitants and visitors! Whether you are familiar with this land or just getting acquainted, your friendly neighborhood nexus might give off the impression of having shifted recently. Fallen limbs here, a few tipped chairs there. Nothing to worry about!

And why should you fret when there's a party going on? The sudden appearance of streamers and balloons and buffet tables loaded down with delectable goodies might be a touch disconcerting for some, but there they are! Just waiting for you to dig in and have a good time! There can't be any harm in kicking back to relax for a while, right?

Right...?

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[ Luke had made him feel an array of emotions over the years - annoyance, loathing, jealousy without a doubt, even a few things he found too embarrassing to admit - but rarely had Luke unnerved him like he was now. It was enough for Asch to stand up and hover alongside Luke for a moment. ...before smacking him upside the head. ] Of course I understand. It's the way I was brought up. That's what all rulers should endeavor for.

As for here, eh. It's nowhere. [ Really. ]

[ Luke narrows his eyes when Asch hits hs head, hissing slightly and clenching his left fist. But he doesn't retaliate. ] That's not what I mean. [ But he simply takes a few steps away from Asch. ] Because we stopped the Planet Storm, things started getting so messed up. No one's found a way to reliably reproduce the kind of power we had from all of those fonons and no one knows how to live without that level of fonon usage. It may not be what we intended, but...

We're not just going to sit around and let something like that go on, even if it wasn't what we intended. Besides, I think there's some way to make it work...

Then try being more clear next time if you don't want to be misunderstood. [ At least one of them has grown up in that respect. Asch rights the table he ruined earlier and perches on the edge, eyeing Luke hard. ] ...I can't believe I'm asking you of all people, but what idea do you have in mind? Unless you can't divulge that sort of information due to being "secrets of the future" or other such garbage.

Contrary to what you might think, I do care what happens to Auldrant.

Hmm~ [ Luke closes his eyes, turning his head upward again with a soft smile. ] It's tough to explain, really. Just an idea I have after I noticed something. And y-

[ Luke cuts off, swallowing hard and looking almost pained briefly, even with his eyes closed, before his smile returns. ] Asch agrees that it's something we should try looking into.

The Planet Storm's gone... pockets of fonons really shouldn't show up anywhere anymore since there's no massive amount of fonons traveling the world that close to the ground anymore. Right?

... [ The slip-up doesn't go unnoticed, though only Asch's eyebrows knit together. It's a mistake that's easy enough to make, but normally one that wouldn't bother someone so much. Odd. ] Just try your best. It's not like either of us are scientists.

That sounds right. I would assume even small pools of fonons would be limited to where the highest concentrations used to be: the sephiroth and other fon slots.

[ Oh, Luke just misses his original is all. But he somehow manages to sound completely carefree, humming again. ]

So why have we found some?

[ A wise move; Asch would tease his mercilessly about it. Once he gets through shaking the daylights out of the replica for sounding like one of his tutors from the manor. The way Luke questions him for the right answer earns a scowl. ]

How the hell should I know? You shouldn't have, unless there's another source.

That's exactly it. [ Luke turns to him, grinning. ] We shouldn't have, but we did. They pop up every now and then. So maybe the Planet Storm was the wrong way to go about things, but what if there's some other way of doing it.

[ Luke puts his hands behind his head, linking his fingers together. ] At least, that's what I've been thinking, and we even found something that looked like a lead. If we're right... well, if we're right, maybe we can fix things and it'll be all good. [ But there's something in Luke's eyes that says there's something more to this - something that makes him desperate for it to work - despite his apparently happy smile. ]

Glad to hear your search hasn't been in vain. [ Asch hardly needs to catch the odd look for him to think something is wrong; even for Luke he's just too damn chipper about the whole thing. It feels forced. Though that could simply be a horrible side effect of the dreck getting older. If that's true, he'd hate to see what Luke is like when he's thirty. ] I wouldn't doubt that there are more naturally occurring masses than we first thought, given how little information we have about Auldrant prior to the Planet Storm being made.

The more pressing question... [ He pushes off the table to stride over to in three quick steps, his face hovering mere inches from Luke's. ] ...is what are you so keen on fixing?

[ Luke flinches, looking away as his smile drops. ] That's...

[ He fidgets, not quite sure what to say or do as he looks about. Does he really want to explain this? He really views the state of the world as a reflection of their failure to truly fix things. But after a while, he finally speaks up. ] ...The things people will do to others just to keep using fonons... I- we... we want to stop that.

[ Asch's eyes follow each move Luke makes, searching for answers when none are forthcoming. But he doesn't push. Not this time. He'd made that mistake before, and instead just waits in silence for Luke to continue or dismiss the conversation. To his relief he isn't left hanging. ] ...it's impossible to police the whole world, you realize. Your heart might be in the right place, but that kind of effort could be a waste unless you approach the issue from several angles.

What about when you know there's one group responsible for the worst of it? What about when the people they target are the ones who can't defend themselves? Children and replicas whose education kept getting shunted because the world doesn't have the resources to really keep the promise we made to them anymore, the elderly, the sick... anyone who's just too weak to fight back, so they're an easy target...

[ For all the anger in his words, Luke seems to deflate almost immediately. There are tears in his eyes speaking of frustration and anger, of sorrow and desperation. ] Too weak to fight back, so they'll kill them just to take the fonons and keep using their artes and their fontech. Just to keep their lives easy...

[ Upon hearing what Auldrant's people have been struggling against, the color drains from Asch's face. It wasn't that he hadn't considered the consequences of stopping the Planet Storm; he just hadn't thought it would escalate so far. And what will Luke lacks, Asch more than makes up for in grabbing him by the collar with both quivering hands. ]

Are you telling me people have start cannibalizing each other? For fuel? For damn fontech?! [ ...Is that really what their efforts have wrought? What they fought so hard to achieve? What he died for? ]

...

[ Luke just stares at him, the tears still in his eyes - he refuses to shed them, as he's done for the past few years now. ] What I've learned in ten years is there are people worse than Master Van ever was - people so concerned with their own comfort that they'll destroy the lives of others. And I'm not going to say we've been perfect about it - I can't say we stopped it every time, because we didn't. But for as long as this keeps going on, Asch and I are going to keep looking for them; we'll get in their way every time we can. We haven't failed lately.

And that's part of why no one can know we're alive, too. If people know we're alive and then these... these bastards figure out who keeps getting in their way- Guy and Jade, Anise and Natalia, they can all take care of themselves just fine. Tear- [ He falters here because he knows he's not being entirely truthful on this one now. ] Tear can, too.

But what about Florian? What about Mother?! I can't- we can't let that happen to them. And for everyone else... for everyone else, they'll pay; we've been making sure of that.

[ For a while Asch continues glaring at Luke, too rattled to do much else until he calms down enough to let go and lean against the table. It's not like taking it out on him will do either of them any good. ] Of course there's worse people out there. Van's methods were twisted, but he didn't act for his own interests. [ Now Luke's what-if questions make sense. ]

...so it's only you and your original working against these people? Unless this group is small... [ He flinches at the mention of their mother and shakes his head, not meeting Luke's eyes. ] You won't get very far. Fon machine usage is too wide-spread-- there's bound to be hundreds if not thousands of people willing to do whatever it takes to continue on as they have. It's impossible for two individuals to stop them all.

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ADR's Grand Opening Mingle Post!

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wrong icon orz

Haha, but the first one was so epic.

A-at least it wasn't a smut icon, haha;;;

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