2011-03-19 - A Brother And His New Sister

It's been a day, but the pain Seril felt within Yatagarasu is still a pretty sharp memory. She hasn't slept well, and doesn't feel particularly tired as she wanders through the Cradle. At least, unlike certain submarine commanders, she had the sense to dress herself before she set about wandering in a daze. She finds herself in the hanger, staring blankly up at the reposed form of Yatagarasu, but this doesn't last long. Shaking her head, the girl turns away to resume her half-sensible wandering.

It's a few hours later, when the base is starting to awaken, that Seril pauses and looks up. A door. How did she get here? And more importantly, how did she find *this* door, labelled A. Luddite? Her senses start coming back to her, such that they are, but the girl still dimly reaches up and raps on the door. Maybe she's a little shellshocked, since it certainly feels like someone else is moving her limbs for her.

After having that evening drink with Seril, Lethe and James, he'd holed himself in his room up on the bed. As much as there'd been some sense of soul-healing, the moment he'd closed the door, the loneliness had simply returned to him. That mask of happiness he put up in front of others shatters, and his perplexion had fallen between that of an emotionless state and one of sadness. Ever since then, he'd been sleeping. A small datapad lays next to him, breaking the darkness of room he owned in the Earth's cradle.

It was a very small room. A bed, a desk and a suitcase was all he had. There was an office chair that looked fairly comfy though, hiding partially under the desk. "I'm fine, Duat." Ascian whispers to the datapad. The A.I. was connected through a wireless system to the datapad. A very simple communication program had been installed that allowed for this ease conversation between him and the semi-sentient Metatron Computer.

Then suddenly, a rapping on his door. Knock knock knock, it goes. He blinks. The bluehaired framerunner was not expecting any visitors. He kicks off the blankets and quickly calls out; "Just a minute!" Looking around quickly, the first thing he manages to find is his Framerunner suit. It's very tight and bodyfitting, but it's what he's used to wearing. After a few 'puffs' as small electric systems activate and lock the suit in place, he walks up to the door and opens it up... and stares straight over Seril. It takes him a moment to actually look down.

Of course, a smile appears on his face. "Ah, what a pleasant surprise. Hello little miss Vaskell." He quickly looks around the hallway, left and right, to see if anyone else was there. "Sorry for the long wait. Did you need me for anything?"

She looks tired. She doesn't feel it, but she certainly looks it with that almost empty look in her eyes. It takes a minute for her to even register that someone's answered the door. Seril shakes her head, clearing out the bats as it were, "Ah.. I couldn't sleep.." Looking aside, she tugs her arm against her side, "Bad dreams.. So I was looking around, and ..wound up here." Looking up at the framerunner, the girl seems more 'there' now, "I.. I was wondering, though. Since I'm here.. What did you mean, that I could call you 'big brother'?" It's probably too damn early for a conversation like this, "You're... not my brother. He died."

Ascian continues to look down at Seril with that masked smile of his. It was hard, perhaps especially for one as young as Seril, to see the pain behind those blue eyes of his: one slightly lighter than the other. He recognized this though. When he'd been younger, he and his sister had sometimes slept together in the same bed to keep eachother company. "It's alright. Come on in." He moves a hand behind her and gives a gentle nudge before he steps in himself.

"You can leave the door open if you want." He wanders over to his desk and pulls out the office chair and puts his knee on it. He then pulls on the handle and lowers it for her, before rolling it over to her. Office chairs were toys to girls like her - so was his logic. "Unless you want to lay on the bed." He offers. After all, she couldn't sleep. The young man then leans back on the desk itself and looks at her.

Eyes remaining on the younger girl now, he nods at her. "Ah. I see. Yes. I'm not your actual brother." He chuckles faintly, raising a hand to rub away at his eyes. Sleepysand. He barely registers for now that she claimed her brother was dead. Normally he probably would have given her a hug. And he might later. "I just mean - if you want, I can fill in the role of a proper big brother. Protecting you, treating you if you win in a fight, cheering you up. The good stuff." The stuff he knows someone like Seril might need.

Seril's eyes follow Ascian's hand when he reaches, and she moves where gestured without letting him touch her back, "Ah, thanks.." Inside the room, she stands somewhat awkwardly, fidgeting with the edges of her coat before she actually finally sits down. The chair moves, and this attracts immediate fascination. It's short-lived, but she still leans aside to look down at the casters as she wiggles. "Oh, it's a moving chair." With a little puff, she closes her eyes and leans back, nibbling her lip as she listens to the explaination, "Oh, oh.. Like a mentor or something?" She tilts her head thoughtfully from one side to the other, "I guess... I don't have any real friends here yet. It would be nice to have someone I can count on." After a bit, she opens her eyes and nods once, "Okay, it's decided then. I'll be your little sister! Please, call me Seril." She rests her hands on her knees, swinging the chair from side to side on its swivel, "All the servants back home called me 'Miss Vaskell' and I hated it."

Ascian takes note of the fact that she'd tried to stop him from touching her back, and it lightly 'adds' to the fact that the girl was again fidgetting with her coat. A coat he'd once seen move before, oddly that is. Or at least, something beneath it. Was it connected? He didn't know, and decided not to pry. Besides, it was probably nothing. As much as he had an incredibly eye for detail, he also knew that sometimes he saw too much detail - noise which meant nothing.

Watching the little girl play with that rolling chair however, does cheer him up a bit more. "Yep. It's an office chairs. It has wheels underneath, it turns. And you can even move the height up and down." He explains to her. Again the young man pauses them, as she speaks. Like a mentor. "Well, a bit more close than a mentor, I think. But I guess it's a close enough analogy..." Wait. That was a hard word. "That means it's similar." He tells her. "But you probably knew that." As if allowing her to sound smart.

"But. Very well then. /Seril/." The youth man chuckles. "Guess you get to be my little sister then." His heart warmed up a bit. Ascian actually was quite happy about this fact. He was a strange young man, perhaps, for getting happy about such things. And people on the outside might misinterpret his reasons for this whole spiel. But his heart was pure when it came to this subject. Well... mostly pure. "So, tell me." He pushes himself off of his desk and grabs his pillow - pushes it against the wall, the settles on his bed and leans against it. "What had you have trouble sleeping? Had a nightmare?" He inquires, patting the bed in case she wanted to settle next to him.

The girl seems oblivious to how this whole situation could be misinterpreted, a bit more interested in the miracles of her seat than the goings-on outside that open door. Having already figured out the wheels and the swivel, she leans from side to side, peering down, "It goes up and down too..?" Easily distracted girl, this one. This works out quite well though, since she barely listens to him explain what she'd already figured out. But when Ascian puts extra emphasis on her name, she looks back up to him, "Nyu?" "Well.." She lets out a sigh, "It's... it's Yatagarasu. Remember, I said it talks to me?" She looks down, returning to swinging the chair from side to side, "It wasn't very happy when I gave up... And it hurt so much, I just... couldn't clear my head enough to sleep." With a little breath, she adds, "And my teeth... and some other things going on... I'm a little afraid of Yatagarasu right now."

"It goes up and down." Ascian replies in acknowledgement, watching Seril play around with that chair with that smile of his. "Though I think it'd be safer if you leave it down. Besides, the way it works, it won't really go higher than you can reach with your legs." The youth pauses again and continues to watch him until she makes that cute little sound she makes when she catches something - or gets confused. At least, so he has noticed so far.

But when she gets into a more serious topic, the smile fades a bit. Yatagarasu, that was the name of her machine. "I remember you saying something like that." he replies when she comments about last day. There was something good about knowing something about sentient beings though. Sure, he didn't pilot a god machine. But Amenthes sometimes was fussy enough to think to be similar. "Does it hurt you when the machine gets damaged?" Ascian sounds worried about that part however.

He knew of machines that caused feedback onto their pilots, but to force that on an innocent sixteen year old was just too harsh to him. He blinks and lays his hands on the bed and kind of 'claws' at the covers whilst putting his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. Ascian calms himself. "Come over here for a moment." The young man then comments. He quickly moves his upper body forwards and grabs something that looked like a piece of paper off of the desk, and holds it to his chest. "I want to show you something."

Listening more closely this time, Seril nods once, "It is a bit tall already." When the question of feedback comes up, she nods again, leaning back in her seat and looking down, "The Yatagarasu... becomes my body, when I pilot it. So I feel what it feels, and it does what I do." raising a hand, she taps the side of her head, "Kind of like this, I guess." She lowers her hand thoughtfully, resting it in the center of her chest for a moment. Ascian's activity gets her attention more than his voice does, when he starts messing with a sheet of paper. Glancing over either side of the chair, she uses her feet to scoot it across the floor so she's closer to the young man without getting out of it. Once there, she looks oddly self-satisfied at her cleverness, mixed with the curiosity in those big blue eyes, "What is it?"

"This." The young man lets out a sigh, then hands it over to her. "This is a picture of me and my sister, when we were both quite a bit younger." Ascian comments, smiling somewhat sorrowfully whilst looking at the picture. "As you can tell, I look a bit different now." He reaches his hands up and pulls his hair back, showing the 'scars' under his eyes - which are slightly glowing... like lit up blood flowing through them. "I'm not quite in the same situation you are in..." But he hoped that it was similar enough. That, or at least get some kind of response out of the fact that he was literally glowing.

"The girl, my sister, actually has blue tatoos..." He pulls up his sleeves and draws lines over them with the tip of his finger -- making rather intricate patterns. "And her hair turned entirely white." Ascian lowers his both hands onto his lap and gives Seril a good look. "Change isn't always bad. It can be scary though - definately. I mean, when I suddenly had scars under my eyes and was /glowing/, I freaked the heck out." He chuckles bitterly.

"Though... I admit, I do worry that you feel its pain." The young man gives her another investigating look. He hadn't quite understood the motion of tapping her head and chest though. "What else is going on that makes you so afraid. You said there was something other than the teeth?" He pauses. "Oh wait, as for him scaring you." He taps on the datapad, and pulls up an image of Amenthes. He shows it to her. "She's alive too. And sometimes, she gets rather harsh on me. She gets angry if I retreat too at times. But sometimes, you must understand one thing. Without you, they are /nothing/. She sometimes makes me feel like I need her... but you must understand. It's them who need /us/."

Seril accepts the photo, looking at it curiously. At least photos don't seem to be beyond her understanding. After a moment, she comments, "You two really looked alike.. Before you and she changed, huh..?" Attention is drawn to the faintly glowing metatron scars, and the girl actually shies away a little once she realizes what Ascian is pointing out. "It's... not the same." She draws on the edges of her coat, pulling it a bit tighter around her, "You say it needs me... but without it, what purpose do I have? I can't do anything else." The girl sighs, "Without Yatagarasu... I wouldn't have..." Her expression starts to crack, "...G..Gira would still.." at this point she probably won't finish the sentence no matter how much time she's given to stumble through it. Her voice is a mixture of regret and guilt. The end of the sentence is probably pretty obvious.

"It's not the same." Ascian replies, shaking his head a bit. He gives her a gentle look, but does seem a bit hurt when she shies away from him. "It's alright. I just look a tad different. But yeah. We looked alike - we are twins." He adds, nodding at her. Again he catches her drawing on her coat, pulling it closer around her. He lays his hands to his legs again, after putting the notepad next to him.

But when that uncomfortableness within her grows, the finicking and everything. It's not hard for him to catch the breaking down of the girl. He quickly gets up from the bed and kneels before her. He was tall, it worked, even with her on that chair. He does pull on the handle so she lowers all the way, so that he is sitting on his knees before her. Ascian hesitates. He'd noticed how she had shied away from his hand when he'd touched her back before.

"It's alright..." He whispers, opening his arms, assuming that Seril surely would know what a hug is. "Come on. Come here." He tells her gently. "Come... give your big brother a hug. It's part of my job to comfort you too, you know?" He tells her. He can't really smile though. He's too worried. "Just cry it out if you want to. I'm not going to judge you."

"No," Seril starts, "It's..." But that's about all she wrote. The girl completely breaks down. Fortunately, Ascian is right there, so she slumps against him and just lets the tears go. She completely forgets to defend herself, and just wraps her arms around the blue-haired runner's neck, burying her face in his shoulder. Between sobs she chokes it out, "I..I did it..! I killed him..! I had to... If it wasn't for him... t-they could love me..!" Sounds like an admission of guilt. But after a bit, the choked words stop and she just shakes against Ascian. After the initial break, she seems to be recovering somewhat quickly. It's a bit longer, when the girl leans back and wipes her cheeks with her gloved hands, "... Th... thank you... Please don't hate me...."

"It's okay..." He lightly moves his hands towards her back, but ends up laying one to the back of her head, and the other just kind of hovers behind her. He pets her head very gently, and lets her cry against his shoulder. "It's okay..." Ascian tries to take in just what exactly she is saying. 'I killed him'. Was Gira the one she had killed? Puzzlepieces that don't quite match start beginning to flow together. This girl had gone through some kind of mental trauma that had caused her to take a severely wrong turn in life.

When she continues to shake against Ascian suddenly leans his cheek against hers for a moment - which of course causes his cheek to be wettened by her tears. "... I think I understand." Sure, he could not put himself into the same position. "I don't hate you, Seril." He softly utters her name and when she leans back, he gives her a soft look. He wasn't lying, so it was believable of a look. "Look." He moves his hands to a position before her and holds them out, for her to place her smaller gloved hands into.

"What you did, and what Yatagarasu caused you to do, was indeed wrong. People's lives were lost. But you were young, and still are. I don't mean to say you aren't smart, but young people make mistakes." He tips his head slightly to the right. "I am sure 'he' understands. Just as long as you are sorry, I am sure he will understand. But if you ever have such thoughts again. I want you to come to me, and ask me to make sure it is okay. Can you do that for me? I promise I won't hate you."

Sometimes all someone needs is a good cry. Seril already seems to be recovering, giving her face another wipe with the back of her glove, then accepts the invitation to rest her palms on Ascian's, blinking wetly at him in confusion. As she listens, she closes her eyes, bowing her head almost as if participating in a little prayer. At the end, she nods once, lifting her face again, "... Okay. I'll confide in you...." She hesitates, then closes her eyes with a little smile, "... Big brother." Cautiously, she retreats her hands to the edges of her jacket, looking aside again, uneasily. "C... could you close the door for a minute? If I'm going to tell you everything... th..there's something you have to know about me." After a pause, Seril fixes her eyes on Ascian again, her expression a bit more determined now, "... I..I'm sure I can trust you to keep it to yourself."

Before Ascian actually gets up to do as she asked, Ascian keeps leaning before her and looking at her with that kind look on his face - thought a bit worried still. He smiles again when she calls him big brother, and bows his head. "Thank you for trusting me." He puts his thumbs onto the tops of her hands, before he lets go and gets up. "You can trust me. Whatever you tell me, it will not leave my lips to anyone." He claims. "Or may God so strike me down." Oh, if only knew how true that probably was. The youth then nods once more time, moving around the girl and wandering over to the door and closing it shut. "Here." He then closes the latch. "Now it's locked. So your secret is now /extra/ secure."

He then wanders back over to his bed and settles back on it. It was still warm from all the sleeping he'd done in it, and he scoots back against the wall again. "Sit where you want to sit." He claims. "I will listen." And the young man moves his hair back a bit again so that they won't fall in front of his eyes, and she could see those glowing marks again. He might as well get her to be used to seeing them. After all, he wasn't really afraid of those fangs of hers. "I assume it has to do something with your coat, or what you hide underneath?" He then hesitantly guesses. Slightly pointing out she finicked with it a lot.

Looking down, Seril waits until the door is closed, nodding once when informed that it is locked. Taking a shakey breath, she lets it out slowly as if steadying her nerves. "The... fangs... aren't the only thing that's happened suddenly to me...." The way she fidgets with her coat is brought up, and she flushes a bit, "I..I guess I am a little obvious with trying to hide it..." Looking down again, she pulls the coat open and slips it off her shoulders one at a time. At first, it seems like there's nothing unusual, and she glances over a shoulder. A second later, they appear. Two tiny black-feathered wings stretch up just over either shoulder, then tuck back into a more relaxed position. They're slightly bigger than her hands at this point. Seril, however, seems incredibly embarassed by them. "Th..They were there when I came to my senses in the desert... In Yatagarasu..." Resting her hands on her knees, she focuses on them, "I..I'm human... I never had anything like this before I took Yatagarasu..!"

Of course, there is surprise in Ascian's eyes when the coat comes down and those little wings come into view. In fact, he's a tad /shocked/ she has wings; but... not as much as one might expect from a normal person. Perhaps because he's met Beastmen before? He bites his upper lip for a moment, and for a moment isn't quite sure how to respond to this. He blinks profusely for a moment.

"That's... kind... neat." He blinks again. "Kinda cute too." Again, you gotta keep in mind that Ascian is /not/ your typical person. His viewpoint on what is cool or uncool, cute and uncute, is incredibly skewed. "You can keep your coat off if that's more comfortable in this room, how about that?" Ascian suddenly claims, trying to get the girl to feel comfortable, and for her to believe what he thought of the wings. He tips his head a bit to the right along with his body as he tries to get a slightly different vantage point.

Those looked real alright. "It seems like Yatagarasu is changing your body." He then states and gets back up from the bed and leans down a bit in front of her. "Show me those fangs again?" He asks, wanting to take another look. "It's quite amazing in a way." Realizing that might sound a bit creepy, he quickly smiles after that. "But nope. As much as Yatagarasu may try, you're definitely still human. You just have some... extra features. It makes you more unique. But, if you start noticing other changes, do tell your big brother, okay?" He moves a hand out towards her wings and then finally can't help but ask. "But ehh... to a more serious topic. Can I... touch them?"

Cute. He called them cute. Seril's mind flashbacks to the day before: He called her new fangs cute too. But in this case, she seems to take it a bit differently, "But they don't belong there..!" Her voice is full of defiance, but at least she's not about to cry again. Lowering her voice, she lets out a little sigh, "At first I thought they were fake, but they wouldn't come off." Though she is looking at the floor, she turns her head slightly, her eyes searching thoughtfully, "You.. Maybe you're right.. But why would Yatagarasu do that? He calls me his Divine Flame.." Raising a hand, she looks at Ascian as she points, "That.. callsign I signed up with? That's where I got it from." She doesn't even think about the day before, when she disembarked her thousands-of-degrees-hot machine and climbed down it bare-handed. Blink, "Wha..No, you may not touch them!" Her voice just got louder again. There is a significant chance someone on the other side of the door is now looking at it with a bewildered expression.

When Seril gets defensive about the wings not belonging there, he gives her an understanding nod. "True. If you were a 'normal' person, they would not belong there." The framerunner agrees with her. "And they don't look fake... those are definitely real." After all, they'd moved and somewhat 'fluttered' in his eyes when they had settled to a more comfortable position.

He follows her continued, very expressive, motions - especially her eyes, as she then speaks of Yatagarasu and the name given to her. "Divine Flame?" He repeats her, almost as if asking it. "Well, it almost did seem like the incredible heat the unit gave off did not phase you. Perhaps you are in fact so unique, that you are the only one who can pilot him. Perhaps that is why he tries to change you - or you change in general?"

Then that sudden loud 'no, you may not touch them.'. Ascian's hand jerks back, and he looks surprised for a moment, before giving another understanding nod. "Okay. I won't touch them then." He says. "If my little sisters says her wings are not to be touched, then I won't touch them without permission." He repeats, making sure she understands his reasoning. "But ehhh." He keeps kneeled before her, so that their heads are at about the same level. "

You must understand. As much as you may not be... 'normal', there's nothing wrong with that. You understand? No matter what anyone ever may tell you otherwise. Just tell them that your big brother will beat them up for bullying you. Okay?" He smiles. "You can count on me. I know it may not be normal, and you think they are not supposed to be there. But they make you - you. Wings or no wings." He tries to poke his chest, about where her heart is. "You are Seril. Never forget that. Divine Flame or not, you are Seril. You don't have to do what Yatagarasu tells you. And if you feel like he is wrong, or that something you might want to do would make your big brother angry, just don't do it. Or ask me."

Outside the quarter, the soldier blinks quizzically, scratching the back of his head. After a moment, when he's sure things have quieted down, he resumes his patrol, glancing over his shoulder further down. Seril listens, focusing again on her hands, "They're real.. I keep them pressed against my back..Under my coat, so nobody sees them. It doesn't hurt or anything, but sometimes they move when I don't want them to." That must've been the deal with her jacket yesterday, and why she's always self-conscious about the coat. Quietly, she tightens her hands up, nodding once, "You're right. Th..these are just a part of who I am." She raises her face to Ascian's, "I am Seril Vaskell, first daughter of the Palace of Earth. And nothing can change that!" She nods once more, as if assuring herself, "That's right.. No matter what happens to me, I will always be myself." Oh this is the exact kind of dialogue that sets up Bad Ends for girls like Seril, damnit. After a moment or two, she leans off the chair and gives Ascian a more affectionate hug. Not the embrace of a sobbing girl, but the thankful hug of a friend, "Thank you so much!" Like that, she doesn't even bother keeping the little wings from fluttering, "I'll..keep them under wraps, still. But I think I can learn to accept them."

Ascian smiles when Seril makes her proclaimation and comes to an acceptance that those are simply part of herself. He doesn't know that this kind of dialogue sets up up to a 'bed end', he doesn't know 'girls like Seril'. Heck, why is he giving advice when he himself is rather in trouble with his own Orbital Frame. But, in the end, he means really well, and believes it is better for Seril to trust herself and have some self confidence, than for her to hate things she can do nothing about.

And as she then leans off of the chair and gives him that hug, he finally lays his arms around the girl properly - now realizing that the reason she'd denied touches to the back due to those wings. Of course, this action is still a slow one, to make sure he would not surprise her, but it is a warm embrace in the end, in which he pulls her tightly to himself like a proper brother and friend.

"You are welcome. Hey, it's what a Big Brother is for, you know?" He adds, and shows her a truly meant smile. "And keep my offer in mind. You can unwrap them when in here. If it makes you feel safer, just lock the door behind you. And also keep in mind." He raises his head a bit and tries to poke his nose to hers. "No keeping secrets from your Big Brother. No matter how scary or sad they are."

Seril muses, inwardly, that this is how the relationship with her own brother could have been like. In the end, though, he wound up with all the love and attention while she was mostly ignored. She frowns a bit when this memory resurfaces, and just pushes it back down so it doesn't sour the moment. It's a bit before she lets go of Ascian and stands straight on her own two feet, "I guess.. I never had a real big brother before." Her laugh is a bit nervous, "Or even a friend.. Thank you, again." She closes her eyes, providing the young man with a fanged, but cheerful smile, "It really settles my mind.. That I have someone I can trust and ask questions to here!" The smile disappears, and her expression is more one of curiosity now, "Back home, the horizon is totally different. Here, it bends like this.." With her hands, she makes a typical horizon curve, "..Instead of like this.." and it inverts. A concave horizon? She must be from La Gias! That might explain the unexplainable powers of her machine. "And it's cold up here." ...at a 70 degree thermostat? "I think I've kept you long enough though..." Seril collects her coat, flattening her wings and pulling it on over them, "So I'll bug you about all these questions later, okay?"

Ascian chuckles when she gives him that fanger and cheerful smile, and he bares his own teeth a little, just to be a bit playful with her. "I've never had a /little/ sister before. But I am glad that I can be your big brother - and with that, of course a friend." To hear that this girl, first daughter of the Palace of Earth, never had a friend before. Wait... waaaait a second. First daughter of a Palace? That means this girl was a princess. Second. Palace of Earth, yet she was pilotting a mech that was geared towards the sun? Something fishy was going on here. Of course, when she begins explaining that she is truly from La Gias, he nods. He figured that much. That's where most magical things came from after all.

"Cold up here huh? I guess it is. Though this rooms warms up when you are here, and your big brother's life gets a bit brighter." This was something not a lot of people heard from Ascian. Words of truth, conveying his emotions on such topics. This was a rather rare event. Though Seril might not actually catch this. After all, this whole time he'd been honest and warm towards her. "La Gias, is the world you come from. Or that's how we call it here." Ascian proceeds to explain. "It's on the inside of this world." He makes that same rounder shape. "We're here." He wags his hand on the outside. "La Gias here." And then he wags his fingers towards on the inside.

"As for keeping me. Well, if you feel like saving the questions for later, that's quite fine with me. Oh... and one more thing." He suddenly walks to his desk and grabs something. After some jingling of metal, he suddenly holds a key which he hands to Seril. "This is a spare key to this room. In case you ever need to get in here. And if you are having nightmares, or trouble sleeping - you can always wake me up, or if you need to, I'll keep you company - okay?" He didn't want to tell her 'come hop in my bed', in case that'd sound creepy, but he very clearly implied this with his words. All it'd mean was for a few extra blankets to be added. Or maybe he'd just sleep on the floor - so she just had someone with her in the room.

Of course, it might be a little chilly because of the time of year. But this is a girl who climbed off of a 'lights clothes on fire' hot chunk of metal and stone, bare handed, and didn't think anything of it. Chances are, her complaint about it being cold is because she's become adapted to extreme heat. Regardless, she watches Ascian's explanation quietly, nodding a few times, "So.. the kingdom I came from is inside the circle.." Looking down, she makes a curve with her hands again, "Hm..I see, that's why the horizon is so different. This kingdom is on the outside of the circle. I get it!" Having learned something, she seems awfully proud.

"Some day I'll have to take you to Helena and show you the four palaces! Maybe mama will forgive me if she sees how much better I am with Yatagarasu than Gira would've been." Chances are: no.

Seril is presented with a room key, blinking at it curiously, "Nyu?" And then it's named, "Oh, your key.." She fumbles for a moment, then pulls a thin necklace out of her blouse. Accepting the key, she sticks her tongue out the corner of her mouth as she fusses with the necklace clasp, then threads the key on and reclasps it. "There. I won't lose it, this way! Thank you, big brother." A bit redfaced, she smiles, "I'll.. I'll remember to ask you for help if I ever need a friend."

Ascian nods at Seril and smiles, as he's done quite a bit for a while now. He settles back on his bed and ponders for a moment though. "Seril." His voice drops a little, shaking his head a bit. "As much as I can forgive you. And you are sorry... that you killed Gira." He pauses. "I don't think your mommy will ever forgive you. A child is a very precious thing to lose. If Gira had killed you, your mother would never forgive him either." The young man was not aware that in fact, Seril perhaps believed that her mother only liked her son, and not her. Or rather, not to what extent she could potentially believe such a thing. "You must understand. To kill someone is..." He pauses. "Think if my sister suddenly came and killed me. What would you think? What would you do?"

He gives her a serious look, one of worry and sorrow. "Try to think about this. Taking a life should never be done in vain. I understand why you did it, but others won't think it to be a good reason. And it isn't a good reason. You should only kill in self defense, or if your superiors demand you do so. And even then, it is healthy to question their demands. Perhaps not out loud, but you should question them." Perhaps this was asking simply too much of Seril at this point. Again, he shakes his head. How to explain this to someone like her. He doesn't quite know.

Seril frowns lightly, looking down as she tucks the chained key back under the ruffle of her blouse. She seems to listen, but then she might be off in memory land again. After a bit, she just takes in a deep breath and lets it out as a sigh, "I understand, big brother. I do." She lifts her eyes to look right at him, those big deep blues of hers, "But she's my mom. And my dad. If I'm gone too, they might as well have lost two children..." Closing her eyes, Seril nods once, her voice growing more determined, "So I will go back, when I've mastered Yatagarasu. I'll show them I'm still alive..and tell them the truth. They deserve to know." Her eyes open again, along with a little smile, "Even if my mama and papa can't forgive me, they deserve to know the truth.. Even if it means I'm exiled, it'd be different than things are now."

When she looks straight at him, Ascian tries to grasp just how much she means of this. She seems to be honest.But due to her previous statement, there is a little worried voice at the back of his head. "You are right." But, he decides to trust her and gives her a more amiable look."That's a better way to go about it." He says. "And I'll go with you, just in case. Even if they won't believe you, maybe they'll believe me. Because... sometimes it is hard to simply trust a single person's words. You know?" The youth asks, without really requiring an answer.

"And you are right. They deserve to know the truth. But instead of waiting, instead of waiting for you to master the Yatagarasu..." He raises a finger into the air near his chest, then goes looking through that desk again... and finds a notepad and a pen. He then offers it to Seril. "Here, take this with you. How about you write a letter, telling them that you are alive. You don't need to tell them that it was your fault that your brother died, or anything like that. Just write them that you are alive, that they shouldn't worry, and maybe a thing of two that will convince them that it's you. I'll look over it with you later, and see what you came up with. How does that sound?"

Seril nods slowly, "If you want." After a moment, she nods again with a little grin, "... Yeah, actually... Yeah, I'll take you with me when I go! Then I can show you how great Helena is." Ascian brings up an alternative to waiting, which prompts a "Nyu?" and then she's presented with a pad of paper and a pen. Carefully, she takes these, one in each hand, and looks blankly at them as if they were completely alien artifacts. "Write a letter..." she repeats slowly, "...Okay. That sounds like a good idea." With that same dumbfounded expression, she moves to the door, then bows slightly, "I'll get on that right away! Thank you, big brother." With that, she unlocks the door and escapes. Out in the corridor, with the door closed behind her, she lifts the notepad and pen again and stares dumbly at them. Slowly, she makes a mark with the pen, then nods once. So that's how that works. Turning, she clutches the pen and pad to her chest as she heads for her own quarters. Now, all she needs to do is figure out how to write.