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damalurbackupTITLE: The Execution of All Things, Pt. 3
CHARACTERS: Kurogane/Fai
NOTES: See part the first.
SUMMARY: Fai is dead. A world is ending. Kurogane copes about as well as you'd expect.
Act 3.
3.1 | spectacular views
If you stand at the base of Shirasagi Castle's main tower and look out over the gardens towards the ocean, Himeji spreads herself at your feet like a handful of flung pebbles. Buildings nestle into the landscape and streets wind lazily from district to district. The sun creeps over the eastern horizon, throwing the castle's remaining white walls into sharp contrast with the piles of ash and the protruding spars of blackened wood. The sharp tang of salt air mixes with the charred odor of the castle and adds to the haunted tenor of the grounds.
If you circle around the main tower and face the north, you'll see an ocean of another sort: waves and waves of white canvas tents, large tents, small tents, tents with families and tents with foreigners. Beyond the tents, so far away it's just a smudge on the horizon, is a smoky pillar; maybe a pillar, but maybe an eye, or a nexus -
- or maybe a door.
3.2 | the photograph's history
They were in Piffle, Kurogane thinks, but it might have been Edonis or Shara. It was before Tokyo, at least, because Fai still had two eyes: cornflower blue, Kurogane's mother would have said, and then she would have fingered the blue threads that shot through her robes. Cornflower blue, except really in darker lighting Fai's eyes were china blue, and in direct light they turned luminous -
Two blue eyes. (How do you like your blue-eyed boy?)
They were in one of the bright lands, and Sakura pulled them all out-of-doors, to a field filled with yellow flowers. They stripped down to thin shirts and pants and bare feet, even Kurogane, and dug their toes into the soil. Mokona climbed the tall yellow flowers and then jumped from one to the next, bounding like a supercharged ball of cotton. Sakura pounced on Syaoran and declared him "it," and soon Fai coaxed Kurogane into the game. Bare feet on the warm ground, bright sun, sun-yellow flowers framed in vivid verdigris; it was like something out of a book, or a painting, really, something that shouldn't happen in real life and especially not in their real lives.
After they collapsed together, one of them had snapped the picture with a wretched, rusty camera - Sakura, maybe, except Sakura was in the picture, so it must have been Syaoran - and somehow the resulting photograph made its way into Kurogane's pocket.
(He'd snatched it from Sakura's satchel before she noticed it was missing.)
(How do you like your blueeyed boy, Mister Death?)
3.3 | old spanish proverb
Blue eyes say, Love me or I die; black eyes say, Love me or I kill thee.
3.4 | horae
0530 the waking hour
- muscles sore, haven't moved all night, irregular sleeping habits;
- hangover;
- dreams, just remnants, but in that moment before full consciousness? reality.
-blue eyes.
0600 for muscle memory
- stretches, quads pecs gluts traps, same order every day;
- rhythm.
- practice. never with a wooden sword, because what good will it do to know a wooden sword in battle?
-blue eye.
- not thinking. lost. lunge thrust swing duck slash slice cut. more familiar than breath.
- rhyme. kids' rhyme. stupid thing. inhale oneforsorrow, exhale twoforjoy -
0700 with the princess
- no threat;
-gold eyes.
- (we don't protect gods, we protect people.)
A·poph·a·sis: n. denial of one's intention to speak of a subject that is at the same time named or insinuated.
3.5 | advent
Phoenix, the death-wish bird: union of flame and air and divinity.
In the land of Shara, the phoenix is a symbol of life's endless cycle, a messenger of the duel gods Yasha and Ashura. Ancient Egyptians named the bird bennu and equated it with the rising sun; in their Book of the Dead was written, "I am the Bennu bird, the Heart-Soul of Ra, the Guide of the Gods to the Tuat."
Celesians called the phoenix firebird, and saw it as a sign of warmth and hope; what else could a bringer of flame be, in a land of unceasing cold and wind and snow? But even as the firebird was a blessing, so too was it a portent of death for any that captured it. Life-death-rebirth; fire-ashes-air, and again, and yet again.
Some even draw a connection between the phoenix and the Chinese fenghuang. Fenghuang: the head for virtue, the wing for duty, the back for propriety, the abdomen for belief, and the chest for mercy. High virtue; high grace.
The fenghuang pairs with the dragon to symbolize the union of antitheses. Dragon-phoenix, active-passive, light-dark, day-night, north bank-south bank, masculine-feminine, producing-consuming: opposite, complimentary, and mutual, which means that some quality of each exists in the other.
So if, for instance, we think of Kurogane as a dragon -
And of Fai as a phoenix -
Do you see the end yet?
3.6 | three steps behind
Kurogane's been waiting for nearly an entire goddamn hour, and the little prick still hasn't shown. "Third hill past the stream, there's an alcove cut into the side," well fuck that. There a hundred, no, a thousand things he could be doing with his time rather than waiting for the leader of some stupid underground movement. He could be having a practice-match with Souma, or guarding Tsukuyomi, or, well, he should be guarding Tsukuyomi and there's a crack, a thud, a rustle through the trees -
He spins, sword already at hand, and takes up a guard position -
And Yamazaki Takashi bursts into the clearing.
"What the - you nearly got yourself killed," Kurogane growls, sheathing Ginryuu in one practiced motion. "Should have given me some warning, or something."
The man's bent over, clutching at his ribcage and wheezing. He makes a fluttering motion with his hands, wheezes again, and finally spits out, "Blue John!"
"That's who I'm here to meet," Kurogane says.
"No - " Takashi shakes his head wildly. "Blue John - he's with the princess. He has an audience with the princess. She said to get you."
"What? When?"
"Now," says Takashi.
Kurogane leaves at a flat run.
3.7 | bad ideas
1. Leaving the princess of your country with a man who might be a terrorist, when
2. You are that princess's primary defense, and
3. That princess often takes matters into her own hands,
4. Often to her own detriment.
3.8 | most unholy
Twenty minutes and he's at Engyou-ji, thirty more seconds and he's sprinting through the halls. There's the usual armed guard outside the large room where Princess Tomoyo is holding court, and Kurogane pauses just long enough that they can verify his face before sliding open the door. He does so very delicately, only because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself just yet.
The room is almost completely empty. Princess Tomoyo is seated on a dais at the far end. One level below her sits a person, a slender, almost otherworldly figure; Kurogane is reminded of Ashura of Shara Country, but there's still a definite masculine strength behind this stranger's grace. The man wears a long coat of rich crimson satin and heavy embroidery, and his head is bent toward Tomoyo. Kurogane cannot see his face.
Kurogane doesn't need to see the man's face to know him, though, because his eyes have already traced the familiar lines of the man's shoulders, because his skin remembers the feel of those svelte strong hands, because his fingers can recall the exact texture of the man's fine cornsilk hair.
Of course it's -
3.9 | interlude
If this story is a drama, there will be accusations, tears, a hard lesson; if this story is an adventure, there will be a duel, surprise attackers.
If it is a tragedy, one of the men in the room will be a murderer -
If it is a romance, they will fall weeping into one another's arms.
Life isn't a genre.
Life is this:
3.10 | something blue
"Fai," Kurogane says.
The blond head lifts, and something that is not quite a smile tugs at the stranger's lips, and two blue, blue eyes catch this world's finest warrior in the gut.
"Hello, Kurogane," says Fai.
<< | >>
CHARACTERS: Kurogane/Fai
NOTES: See part the first.
SUMMARY: Fai is dead. A world is ending. Kurogane copes about as well as you'd expect.
Act 3.
3.1 | spectacular views
If you stand at the base of Shirasagi Castle's main tower and look out over the gardens towards the ocean, Himeji spreads herself at your feet like a handful of flung pebbles. Buildings nestle into the landscape and streets wind lazily from district to district. The sun creeps over the eastern horizon, throwing the castle's remaining white walls into sharp contrast with the piles of ash and the protruding spars of blackened wood. The sharp tang of salt air mixes with the charred odor of the castle and adds to the haunted tenor of the grounds.
If you circle around the main tower and face the north, you'll see an ocean of another sort: waves and waves of white canvas tents, large tents, small tents, tents with families and tents with foreigners. Beyond the tents, so far away it's just a smudge on the horizon, is a smoky pillar; maybe a pillar, but maybe an eye, or a nexus -
- or maybe a door.
3.2 | the photograph's history
They were in Piffle, Kurogane thinks, but it might have been Edonis or Shara. It was before Tokyo, at least, because Fai still had two eyes: cornflower blue, Kurogane's mother would have said, and then she would have fingered the blue threads that shot through her robes. Cornflower blue, except really in darker lighting Fai's eyes were china blue, and in direct light they turned luminous -
Two blue eyes. (How do you like your blue-eyed boy?)
They were in one of the bright lands, and Sakura pulled them all out-of-doors, to a field filled with yellow flowers. They stripped down to thin shirts and pants and bare feet, even Kurogane, and dug their toes into the soil. Mokona climbed the tall yellow flowers and then jumped from one to the next, bounding like a supercharged ball of cotton. Sakura pounced on Syaoran and declared him "it," and soon Fai coaxed Kurogane into the game. Bare feet on the warm ground, bright sun, sun-yellow flowers framed in vivid verdigris; it was like something out of a book, or a painting, really, something that shouldn't happen in real life and especially not in their real lives.
After they collapsed together, one of them had snapped the picture with a wretched, rusty camera - Sakura, maybe, except Sakura was in the picture, so it must have been Syaoran - and somehow the resulting photograph made its way into Kurogane's pocket.
(He'd snatched it from Sakura's satchel before she noticed it was missing.)
(How do you like your blueeyed boy, Mister Death?)
3.3 | old spanish proverb
Blue eyes say, Love me or I die; black eyes say, Love me or I kill thee.
3.4 | horae
0530 the waking hour
- muscles sore, haven't moved all night, irregular sleeping habits;
- hangover;
- dreams, just remnants, but in that moment before full consciousness? reality.
-
0600 for muscle memory
- stretches, quads pecs gluts traps, same order every day;
- rhythm.
- practice. never with a wooden sword, because what good will it do to know a wooden sword in battle?
-
- not thinking. lost. lunge thrust swing duck slash slice cut. more familiar than breath.
- rhyme. kids' rhyme. stupid thing. inhale oneforsorrow, exhale twoforjoy -
0700 with the princess
- no threat;
-
- (we don't protect gods, we protect people.)
A·poph·a·sis: n. denial of one's intention to speak of a subject that is at the same time named or insinuated.
3.5 | advent
Phoenix, the death-wish bird: union of flame and air and divinity.
In the land of Shara, the phoenix is a symbol of life's endless cycle, a messenger of the duel gods Yasha and Ashura. Ancient Egyptians named the bird bennu and equated it with the rising sun; in their Book of the Dead was written, "I am the Bennu bird, the Heart-Soul of Ra, the Guide of the Gods to the Tuat."
Celesians called the phoenix firebird, and saw it as a sign of warmth and hope; what else could a bringer of flame be, in a land of unceasing cold and wind and snow? But even as the firebird was a blessing, so too was it a portent of death for any that captured it. Life-death-rebirth; fire-ashes-air, and again, and yet again.
Some even draw a connection between the phoenix and the Chinese fenghuang. Fenghuang: the head for virtue, the wing for duty, the back for propriety, the abdomen for belief, and the chest for mercy. High virtue; high grace.
The fenghuang pairs with the dragon to symbolize the union of antitheses. Dragon-phoenix, active-passive, light-dark, day-night, north bank-south bank, masculine-feminine, producing-consuming: opposite, complimentary, and mutual, which means that some quality of each exists in the other.
So if, for instance, we think of Kurogane as a dragon -
And of Fai as a phoenix -
Do you see the end yet?
3.6 | three steps behind
Kurogane's been waiting for nearly an entire goddamn hour, and the little prick still hasn't shown. "Third hill past the stream, there's an alcove cut into the side," well fuck that. There a hundred, no, a thousand things he could be doing with his time rather than waiting for the leader of some stupid underground movement. He could be having a practice-match with Souma, or guarding Tsukuyomi, or, well, he should be guarding Tsukuyomi and there's a crack, a thud, a rustle through the trees -
He spins, sword already at hand, and takes up a guard position -
And Yamazaki Takashi bursts into the clearing.
"What the - you nearly got yourself killed," Kurogane growls, sheathing Ginryuu in one practiced motion. "Should have given me some warning, or something."
The man's bent over, clutching at his ribcage and wheezing. He makes a fluttering motion with his hands, wheezes again, and finally spits out, "Blue John!"
"That's who I'm here to meet," Kurogane says.
"No - " Takashi shakes his head wildly. "Blue John - he's with the princess. He has an audience with the princess. She said to get you."
"What? When?"
"Now," says Takashi.
Kurogane leaves at a flat run.
3.7 | bad ideas
1. Leaving the princess of your country with a man who might be a terrorist, when
2. You are that princess's primary defense, and
3. That princess often takes matters into her own hands,
4. Often to her own detriment.
3.8 | most unholy
Twenty minutes and he's at Engyou-ji, thirty more seconds and he's sprinting through the halls. There's the usual armed guard outside the large room where Princess Tomoyo is holding court, and Kurogane pauses just long enough that they can verify his face before sliding open the door. He does so very delicately, only because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself just yet.
The room is almost completely empty. Princess Tomoyo is seated on a dais at the far end. One level below her sits a person, a slender, almost otherworldly figure; Kurogane is reminded of Ashura of Shara Country, but there's still a definite masculine strength behind this stranger's grace. The man wears a long coat of rich crimson satin and heavy embroidery, and his head is bent toward Tomoyo. Kurogane cannot see his face.
Kurogane doesn't need to see the man's face to know him, though, because his eyes have already traced the familiar lines of the man's shoulders, because his skin remembers the feel of those svelte strong hands, because his fingers can recall the exact texture of the man's fine cornsilk hair.
Of course it's -
3.9 | interlude
If this story is a drama, there will be accusations, tears, a hard lesson; if this story is an adventure, there will be a duel, surprise attackers.
If it is a tragedy, one of the men in the room will be a murderer -
If it is a romance, they will fall weeping into one another's arms.
Life isn't a genre.
Life is this:
3.10 | something blue
"Fai," Kurogane says.
The blond head lifts, and something that is not quite a smile tugs at the stranger's lips, and two blue, blue eyes catch this world's finest warrior in the gut.
"Hello, Kurogane," says Fai.
<< | >>
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Date: 2009-02-05 02:34 am (UTC)