LOG: COMPLETE

[dysthym.livejournal.com]

When; June 6th
Rating; G
Characters; Luc dysthym & Viki waffu_reffu
Summary; After the boom of magic and the trickle of side affects crept into the city, out comes, the two meet. If this had been anyone else, you'd be dying from the sap but since it's Luc and Viki you probably might be making wibble faces instead.
Log;
Too close, the storm of wind and the call of souls, they'd barely brushed by her when she'd put herself dead in the middle. Viki knew the sounds well, as well as she knew Luc and Ted's voices but it still scared her. She'd heard those screams before since she'd been there each and every gathering but the fear was never quite numbed, same as how the sight of blood still disheartened her when she paused to think.

No. No, no, no, she said it out loud and to herself and to the runes and to Luc and Ted. "…stupid. You're not supposed to be STUPID! STOP IT!" It was hard to tell if Ted and Luc could hear her but maybe the True Wind Rune did.

When Luc used to get quiet and her own rune too, Viki would talk to it. The whole history of the world from start to something far beyond what any of them could see, the runes remembered it. That's why they were so incredible. If her voice had a fraction of that power she'd feel less helpless.

She did it instinctively, throwing them both away from where they stood, pulling them apart before souls could pour out from Soul Eater and before the windstorm cut the atmosphere.

Decay most certainly did not have an interesting aroma to it. It was fowl, disgusting and absolutely vulgar, the worst part was that it was how his hands and his legs now smelled. Luc could barely feel his appendages thanks to that wretched archer. Him and his rune, they were eating away at his body, at his soul. Yet he was not the only one that was damaged in this battle, the archer was bleeding nicely. Even if he had reflected quite a bit of Luc's wind, there was still enough of it left to slice him into ribbons.

Luc was prepared to deliver his final blow but an unforgettable frame and voice came between the duelists. Viki … she had shouted something at them then another familiar feeling overwhelmed him. Luc had been teleported away from his combatant. Trust Viki to be the only one able to appear between death and a gale storm and execute her task without fail.

Landing on loose sand, he toppled over face hitting the ground hard. Ah well, this was expected. The only thing that kept him up during the battle was his wind after all. Luc stared at the sand making no motions about either getting up or moving. Luc needed a moment ' s rest before he tried to use his wind again, or at least wait till the pangs in his chest stopped.

She knew Ted would be okay. Ted was special, all of them were special but Viki admitted without hesitance that some were more so than others. There would be people to find Ted and watch him but Luc… Where was it that she'd sent him, again? She had faith that she hadn't somehow dropped parts of their body in the teleportation process but she hadn't given it much thought beyond getting the two apart.

"Uwa? Huh… forest a-and the ocean? Okay! I can…can get there." Thank heavens for the voice that reminded her things when she forgot and for reminding her to wait until her legs stopped shaking and her eyes were open to try to use the blinking rune. A moment to catch her breath and shake off the black fingers that had clung to her dress. "I can…yes, I know. Shh…quiet for a moment, I c-can't do it with you talking."

Ready. Set. Go.

A stumble and a wobble as the light cleared, was she walking on water or were her legs really just a jelly like consistency? Her wand didn't prop her up so well in the sand, shifting against the soft, uneven surface. "Uwa, I'm wet…" she mumbled to herself as she stumbled and fell to her knees tiredly, the ebbing water lapping at her. It was kind of nice actually, she didn't realize how hot her body had felt, hot and weird from the backlash. "Luc…is around here somewhere? Mm…I hope so too, wa… Oh no, the medicine!"

She pat at her pockets to make sure she hadn't lost that teleporting, granted she still had Healing Wind with her cyclone rune but she really wasn't in any condition to use it.

Eyes shut and his body relaxed, Luc could feel the water lapping at his dying body. Wretched, cursed, vile rune. Luc cursed Soul Eater far more than ever; he had known about its affects and what it was capable of, but targeting his limbs was cheap. A low blow. And yet he could not blame Ted for being a reasonable good strategist. He wouldn't applaud him for his efforts but he would acknowledge him. "His bite is just as bad as his bark…if not worse." Luc sneered at his own commentary. Summoning a gust a wind, the magician lifted himself off of the ground. The wind was weak, barely able to raise the child-like man off of the sandy shores.

His chest throbbed, the rune inside him ached, and Luc continued to curse his combatant. A hand held limply over his chest, Luc hovered and stared into the ocean. The sun was setting and the rays burned his skin. His face would always be unchanged. No matter how many years he spent alive and no matter how many sunrays kissed his face, none would change it. Immortal and destined to live as he was and how he was. Trapped.

Luc wanted to free himself from all of this, and in so able to take a hold of destiny itself. Was his goal just that radical? Or perhaps they're all still too busy being blinded by the poppycock known as 'believing in others'. Disgusting. The magician could feel the death creeping up his arms and legs, traveling throughout his body claiming bit by bit. He could also feel his own rune battling the spread of the disease. If only he had the strength to cast a healing spell onto himself, then he'd rid himself of the curse and his limbs would return to normal.

"Luc!" She would have run to him but it was easier to just blink. For a moment at least she didn't feel like she was going to sink into the sand and fall asleep. Viki reappeared in front of Luc in her typical flash and arches of light.

Oh no, what to say, how to start… medicine!

"…medicine! W-wa, I brought um…" she fumbled at the pockets hidden in the layers of her dress. Didn't she have more pockets before, did she lose some? Ah there--

"…there it is! Uu…" words that were barely thought were mumbled quietly as she held out the mega medicine she'd brought with her. She hadn't been able to stop the fight before it started. She knew Ted was probably still stubbornly bleeding but she also knew she could trust Tyr to take care of him and everyone as well. His blackened, ill limbs had to be in a lot of pain. Viki had been hit by the immediate backlash but it was nothing compared to what the two combatants suffered.

"Use it…I brought it for you." Viki tried to school her features but failed, she had no idea what she even wanted her expression to say. It just settled honestly as it always did, brows furrowed in worry for the two of them and her lips in a quivering frown that made it seem like she wasn't sure if she wanted to yell at them or just cry. But she was so tired of crying, she'd done her share already and it changed nothing.

Luc stared at Viki, his emerald eyes lost to the world never to glow quietly yearning for life but instead begging for its death, half in question and half mesmerized of how ridiculous she was. Reaching out with dying flesh, Luc's hand grasped first at Viki's face before slumping down and taking medicine that she had offered. Her sweet naivety was really sickening. Sickening to the point where his chest hurt. Why did it always hurt? Wasn't there a time where the pain was replaced with some comfort? The only time he could remember were the short moments where Viki decided to have a conversation with his rune. Oh how she rambled away, on and on and on about nothing. So many times did Luc wish that she'd just shut up, but he swallowed those words for in those moments, his chest didn't hurt.

"Why? I tried to kill him…" Luc questioned his voice unchanging and flat, but his eyes. His eyes were still fixed upon Viki's face. Her trembling lips, and her creased brows. Luc read it all as he thought. Ted had mentioned how her tears were hard to see. How he wouldn't do anything to see her face in anything but blissful cheer.

It didn't take him long for him to use the medicine, Luc was not about to inhale another moment of rot and decay and waiting for Viki to answer didn't exactly sound to appealing either. As strong as the medicine was, it was not able to completely cure the damage inflicted upon him. Parts of his fingers still remained numb to him and even though he had set himself down back onto the ground, he couldn't feel the sand's softness.

The hand against her face was stiff and dark, cold. Like the bodies she'd seen lying on the battlefield afterwards. Why did that gesture make her flush? They…t-they…

Viki rubbed at her eyes furiously once Luc took the medicine from her hands. They'd tried to kill each other, she hated thinking about that. Even if she thought it was more about what had happened or would happen and what was thought than it was about hating each other. Still, they'd tried to kill each other. She was done crying, how was it possible for there to be more water in her, she'd cried far too much the last little while.

"I-I'm angry at both of you!" It was stupid what they did, there was no point in fighting here and they both hurt people that were very important to her but… "…but that doesn't mean I hate you or him."

Wa, she could never hate Luc. She didn't know how to and Viki was right, it was doubtful she'd ever learn to.

"That doesn't mean I want to leave you hurt…" she said softly, watching him apply the medicine where necessary. It wasn't gone yet but at the very least a healthier colour began to return to his skin. There was something else too but Viki's thoughts were already scattered normally, looking at Luc like this eye to eye only made it that much harder to gather herself. She was still scared but more than that she missed... "I missed…I-I…wa, that's not what I needed to say. I needed to… Luc's smart, I always knew that. Luc's not like me, Luc's smart and I know you don't need me to talk to you or tell you anything because I know you'd already know it."

If Luc would just talk to himself he would understand, Viki believed in Luc as much as she believed in everyone else. And she believed in him harder than almost anyone else because, "Because I love Luc…"

As she shouted and yelled at him, saying all the things he knew she'd say, Luc stood there unmoving and physically unfazed by all what she was saying. After all, he knew all of this was coming. Either from her or from McDohl. And currently, he would have preferred McDohl, at least then he'd be able to tune some of it out. Her eyes were still watering. Even though Luc could tell she was done crying about what just happened, her eyes still showed remnants of it. Are her tears really that painful? A thought that would never leave his mind; not at least till he answered it.

"You really do set yourself up for these sorts of things don't you?" Those tears, that face… everything about her. It seemed like no one could ever drop it. Why did they always have to bring it up with him? Yes, perhaps he did have some sort of fondness towards Viki all those years ago, but that was in the past. He threw that all away. It was too late; no one could help him now or even save him even if they wanted to.

His chest feeling a lighter and the pain fading away a bit more as time went on, Luc turned around after Viki's last statement. He remembered hearing it once before, but she had muttered it the first time so he had dismissed it, but now. Again. She said it again. That she loved him. Foolish girl, you love everyone. So don't say things like that. Luc thought to himself. "Love me? There's nothing to love here." Perhaps if things had turned out differently, then maybe he wouldn't have discarded what he once held dear. If only someone had told him something. Talked to him, but that was in the past. He held no more ties. This magician had done his last trick and now it was time for the curtain to close on his show.

That wasn't true. Nothing to love…not true, wa.

How was she supposed to explain that? Viki wanted to, she wished she was like Jeane or Ted or anyone not herself that could actually put these things into words. Luc was the only one that… the only one… "I want to stay here, wa…" Because Luc was here she didn't want to go to the next gathering. She didn't want to go home even, not if she couldn't see Luc there. Because Luc, she loved Luc.

Not the way she loved everyone else. There was only so much time she was allowed with the people she met, she needed to care intensely and then let them fade into bare flecks of her memory. But Luc… "I won't ever forget Luc, I don't want to either," even if it meant she missed him ten times as much as she missed anyone else if not more. If she could only explain it so that Luc would stop ignoring it. Even if Viki loved easily she wouldn't be able to feel this way for anyone else. It was a feeling that only existed because of Luc.

She pressed her lips together, falling silent for a breathless moment. Viki patted at her dress, it was still damp from when she'd stumbled on the shore of the beach, dusted with sand and the wet cloth clinging to her legs but she barely noticed as she searched. Always, always she kept it with her. She thought there wasn't anyone to give it to but she understood now.

Ah, her belt, yes that's where it was. She pulled the Blinking Mirror from where it was fastened to her belt. She could give it to who she wanted here, she could. The way her fingers quivered slightly as she clutched the plain, magical hand mirror had little to do with the weakness in her body. It scared her a bit to give it away but it would explain everything. She hoped anyways and she wanted to even if it was scary.

"Take it." She held it out in the grasp of her small hands, doing something she'd never done before. Something she didn't think she'd ever do.

Don't say those things. Don't give that. I'll accept it and then I won't know what to do with it. That mirror. You're not supposed to give it to just- Don't give me that. Luc thought as Viki jabbered on and on. Her face dropped and her fidgets became increasingly apparent. He felt like calling her stupid, he felt like shoving the mirror back at her and telling her that the mirror was meant for the Tenkai that she'd go off and meet in a few years time or whenever she sneezed. Not to him. Not to some rouge magician. But those were the feelings that he abandoned. He was no longer the master's servant that did everything he was told. Luc no longer saw how it was possible for anyone to believe that they would change the future. From his past experiences, waiting only made things worse. All that they had would come crashing down on them someday soon. And in spite of everything that he believed to be true, the magician took the mirror. "I don't understand."

"This mirror…" Luc's voice trailed off as he examined the mirror. He had seen it many times but never had been able to actually hold the mirror. Luc stared at the mirror in all his simple beauty. How many wars has it seen that he did not know of? How maybe people have held this in its hands that were not those of the chief?

They were alike in many ways. Had he not decided to rebel and fight for his freedom, then he probably would have ended up with the same fate as Viki. Forever bound to be the guardian of the tablet as the Tenkan star, the star of idleness. There was no way that he would leave her side if he had not decided to take destiny into his own hands. "Even if you love me, this mirror shouldn't be in my hands." An unusual softness, at least, for those that were not that of a certain spirit. Luc held the mirror loosely in his hands and made a slight motion for Viki to take it back from him. He didn't need it.

She jerked away from that simple motion, refusing to take it back. No, no she wanted Luc to take it. He'd taken it and she wouldn't take it back, not like this. "Jeane told me that I don't have to give that to anyone. It's…it's my decision who I give it to." It was true, no one ever asked it of her, it may have been her role but it was also her choice. And now this was what she wanted to do. "E-even if you take it and throw it away because y-you don't need it…it was my decision. I won't change it." Uwa, did that make sense at all? But if Luc didn't want it…she didn't want it back. Luc didn't have to change his decisions, there wasn't anything Luc had to do.

That's what it meant to have free will, wasn't it? Even if Luc took it and she never got it back she wouldn't regret. Viki had decided that. She didn't believe that she was the one person that could change Luc or talk to him or anything important like that. But she knew that if she didn't say what she wanted and if she didn't do what she wanted she'd regret it. Regret it more than not saying goodbye each time a gathering ended. Regret it even more than the loneliness that came from her drifting fate.

"I want to be with Luc." Her staff that had been held close to her body, hugged to her chest, lowered. Viki shifted, step forward but drawing back immediately after that, swaying as if not too sure what to do. Yes, no, she wanted to, but she shouldn't. Should she? She blinked, closing the bare steps between them, it was just easier.

"I want to be with Luc," she said again as she hugged him, daring to lean against him, really, really hugging him. "I can't agree with what you're trying to do. But…I'm always waiting for you, I always want to see you. So I won't take it back even if you take it and just throw it aside."

Her nose pressed against the rough cloth of Luc's clothes she could still smell the faint stench of decay. It only made her want to cling onto him more tightly. If Luc was here it was okay if she never got to the sixth gathering. It was okay if she never got to go home… "It's okay… I want to stay with Luc as long as I can."

So that's how it'll be. Luc thought to himself, tucking the mirror away into a pocket located on the lining of his duster. He'd figure out what to do with the mirror at a later date, especially about the concern of whether or not he should use it. Though if she was so willing to give away something so important to him, why didn't she just support what he was doing. Viki did understand what he was trying to accomplish after all. But again, she chose to stand on the other side and fight him. There could have been bitterness had he cared enough about it. A few more stammers and uneasiness came from Viki before she attached herself to him.

Body stiff and his breath trapped at the back of his throat, a hug was the last thing that Luc expected Viki to do. Well, at least not a hug like this one but more like one of her usual brief hugs at best. Viki's nauseating naivety and sweetness had not failed to get to him and to bring back those feelings that he threw away. That one curse day that they shared together; the date, the dance, the...kiss. That… That stupid Viki. Reminding him of all the things that he no longer felt. "Viki..." His body still continued to be tense. Arms rising, he brought them up and mechanically placed his hands onto her petite shoulders. "I can't come back. Even if I did want to...I couldn't." For unlike Viki, he did want to leave. He did want make sure that everything he gave up wouldn't be for naught. His reason and his goals, no matter what she wanted, he couldn't give any of it to her.

Luc pried Viki off of him. No apologies. No remorse. His face had wavered and threatened to show how Viki's words affected him. But with a moment used to recollect himself, it changed to look as if nothing had happen, as if all that Viki said had not been said at all. A face that gave off a sense of coldness that was almost lifeless. "Shouldn't there be someone else to bother? A certain soul that bears the burden of the Soul Eater?" Luc spoke in an almost deadpan tone. "In case you didn't see, I sliced him with my wind."

A little hope went a long way. Viki believed it when Jeane said that, she'd seen it enough in the past to be hopeful. Perhaps to the point of foolishness but she didn't care. She'd heard Luc, she understood what he said, but...

"I won't stop hoping for Luc to come back. As long as I can I'll wait. And even when I leave I know I'll be wondering if I'll see you at the next gathering because I already did that." It was like how she'd explained it the first time she had told Luc how she felt. She did miss a lot of people, she realized this when she met them again but with Luc, always. She always missed him, always knew exactly what it was that she felt was missing standing by her mirror in the next headquarters.

She didn't resist when Luc carefully pried her from the embrace. She wasn't the smartest person or most attentive but she did see that brief flicker in his expression. And for that she managed to hold back the tears that somehow hadn't dried yet.

"Someone is already looking for Ted," Viki murmured in explanation, "I wanted to be the one to see Luc." Maybe there should have been some guilt in that admission, that she chose someone over her other friend but she'd grown used to the fact that somehow she'd placed Luc in a spot that no one else could quite reach. She did worry about Ted and even the people that might be affected by the magic but… "I can't, wa. I can't walk away from Luc so…please, you do it."

Must she honestly keep on saying those things? It tore at Luc each time she said those things and added calluses onto his heart every time he had to reject what he felt. It was funny how her words burned straight through him while other things slide right off as they are stated. Almost in the ironic way, but he really didn't account for it to be anything other than annoying. Distractions were not needed, not these sort at least. If there should be anything in his way, it would be something the magician could crush. He couldn't crush Viki's feelings; not in the way that he could crush a body or an ideal. However it could have been because it was just Viki. Out of everyone in addition to her feelings, he couldn't allow himself to hurt her. Not a slap. Not a punch. He couldn't do what he did to Ted to Viki.

The news of someone already going to rescue Ted didn't surprise him. McDohl was here after all and he'd risk life and limb to make sure that nothing ever happened to him. "Fine." Placing one foot before the other, Luc walked off from the shoreline and Viki. His back faced Viki and each foot print his made in the sand stood for how far there were from one another. One could say that where they first stood was where they had been and through the years and Luc's decision he drove them apart. But that'd be too easy to say, for at the same time there wasn't a way that Viki could stay with him either. What would happen to them would have had happened anyways even regarding the factor that Luc would too live as long as he still had the rune.

Viki watched Luc walk away, leaning against her wand. Coming and going always happened in an instant with her, so quickly, to see it drawn out like this was strange. Was this how normally people felt at goodbyes? At least until Luc walked far out of sight she could still see him and if he decided to…

"Wa…Jeane is probably working hard to help everyone," she murmured to herself as she slid to her knees, kneeling in the sand. She wanted to help too but she was still tired, still sad, and still lost as to what to do. "Y-yes…I know, just do what I can? Right? I can do that, I can do that, wa."