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"Going History" (L'Renouille) Moonlight. Moonlight and starlight. Up here, that was all that existed. Moonlight, starlight, and himself. That... was what he was looking for, when he came up here at this time of night. The silent solitude was all he could ask for at the moment... He lifted his hands from the railing and stared at them, at their backs. The pale moonlight leeched away what little colour was left in them, leaving them a frosty, colourless white. Then he turned his hands over and stared at his palms. On the left, a faint tracery of a Rage Rune, on the right, a Thunder. Both mere pale outlines at the moment, but they both flared brilliantly when he worked their spells. He'd canceled a date tonight, or rescheduled at least, to give himself the opportunity to think over the idea that had come to him earlier that day, during that meeting... Not that it really mattered to him. None of them ever did... They were all just there for a night or two, and then gone... That's all it ever was with him... transient. And that really was the problem, wasn't it?
Dareka wo kizutsukete ubatta koi na no ni
Alain Jarret was, if you got right down to it, among other things, the unofficial Royal Highland Army slut(which was not to say he slept around with the most people in the army, just that he slept around more than anyone else in the army). He was also a moralless weasel, but that had nothing to do with anything at the moment. He'd probably been with more men than an old, successful hooker. Now, with most, this would not be a problem. However, Alain was the sort to spend long hours alone thinking. When you're the sort who considers a long-term relationship to be one that lasts a week, that is not a good thing. It got you thinking about things...
Hito wa doushite KISS wo shitagaru no
Sure, he was shallow. But shallow was... safe. Concern yourself only with the external moments, let everything else go... Never hurt, never be hurt... As the theory went, anyway. But that was all it was... a theory. People did get hurt, through no intent on either party. But what could you do? Lie, and let the potential for damage to be buried, where it could grow and let it come alive later? But it wasn't being hurt that made him think; he had never been, in recent memory, the one who had been hurt. His problem was with the shallowness itself. He had come to the hard realization that few shallow people ever come to: that this way is not better. Because he had existed on such a shallow level, he had forced away any sort of a deeper contact, but he had wrought too well his work. He was alone in this world, by conscious design, but he had hit the point where he knew a lonely life filled with people was not what should be. Maji ka wakaranai kokoro, nani mo iwanai The cat lying on her stomach growled slightly as she rubbed its back on the way to turn the page of the book resting on her knees. She gave the cat a light swat to the back of the head, which did nothing to deter its growling. Foamy was like that sometimes. When he was in a nicer mood. Selina reached into the box of chocolates just behind the book and groped around, realizing after a moment or two that it was empty. She cursed softly and returned to her book. Politely, it was called a romance novel, but it wasn't even the sort of book that people would sell at five for a potch. It was the sort of book that you had to go to a seedy store in a back alley and show identification that you were of age to buy. But she called them romance novels anyway, not out of any sort of tendency towards politeness, but rather because these lust-filled, bodice-tearing, lovingly-detailed, frankly-pornographic books were the closest thing she'd had to anything remotely resembling romance for the past four years. Kurushii hodo setsunai hodo
But that wasn't because she couldn't get with anyone, of course not. She was just... saving herself. Saving herself for a man she could never have. Sure. That worked. Half the truth was still the truth, right? But who was she kidding, really? Spinsterhood ran in the family. No one that she knew in her family had ever managed to form a lasting relationship with anyone. Her mother Diana? Hah. You didn't get knocked up at fifteen unless you were the resident slut, which she hadn't been. Selina had been as wanted as the attentions which had caused her to be born. Her grandmother, Luna? As far as Selina could remember, there'd never been a grandfather in the picture. And her thrice-damned great-grandmother Artemis? Oh, she'd been married, but that had only lasted a year and had only been for the money. She'd been too busy trying to seduce the whole of L'Renouille and piddling away her family's fortune to care about forming any relationship that ever came close to lasting. Curse that woman a thousand thousand times over. If it weren't for her, the Embery family might still be respectable. If it weren't for her, Selina might have had a shadow of a chance... But probably not. Hah. Machi ga umare kawaru kurai
So what did she have? A particularly nasty cat, an empty box of chocolates, and a cartload of pornography. How pathetic. So many people would have killed to learn the inner workings of the private life of Colonel Selina Embery. What would they do if they learned the actual sordid truth? Soshite itsuka furi kaereba
Selina blinked and realized she'd read the same paragraph six times in the past ten minutes. Wonderful. She couldn't concentrate on her book, and she doubted she could sleep; she'd tried that already to no avail. Dammit, she wasn't usually like this. She could go for months without thinking about what a pathetic, lonely person she was. So why'd this all kick in now? She wasn't even drunk, for crying out bloody loud... That was right. She wasn't. Selina stood up, ignoring Foamy's yelp when he was unceremoniously dumped to the floor. The empty box hit the floor, only to be crushed by her book with a resounding thump. But bet your ass she could be. History He gingerly laid down another card onto the now-towering stack. Carefully, carefully... He held his breath as he slowly, slowly took his hand away... There. The whole structure teetered slightly, but held. Kiba let his breath out. Unfortunately, he exhaled on his house of cards and it fluttered apart, leaving him with only a game of eighty-two card pickup. And a deck and a half of cards to seperate. But that wouldn't really be that hard; one was a nudie deck, a gag birthday present from Alain, and the other... well, wasn't. Of course, it might not even have been a gag. Every present Alain had ever given anyone always ended up pornographic. Another character flaw, probably. Still, it was likely the habit of his that Kiba had the least objection to. Giving pornography to your commanding officer for his birthday wasn't really on the same level as growing and selling your own nightshade. Besides, some of the pictures weren't half bad. And they did have the added bonus of reminding him what girls looked like. Denwa sae nara nai kyuujitsu no heya ni wa
Not that dwelling on things like that accomplished much of anything. Probably did more harm than good, if you got right down to it. He couldn't sleep; he'd tried, but he still didn't feel in any state that would be more likely to cause him to sleep. Which was rare; building houses of cards could usually put him out like a light. He decided to go for a walk. Silence. A sigh. A pause, then a slight rustling, like someone fumbling through pockets. Silence again. A tiny tongue of flame slightly brightening up the night as Alain proved once and for all that you can use a Rage Rune to light a Harmonian cigarette, accompanied by a golden flicker somewhat higher. His left eye, of course. The golden one, the one that glowed when he worked any sort of magic. That unnatural eye... But no use worrying about that, really. But now... He sighed again and took a drag of his cigarette. Maybe he'd go grab a drink, or something. Slowly, fluidly, he began to head to his intended destination. He could've closed his eyes, knowing the way so well. Sad, really.
yume wa doushite tooku e nigeru no
He was almost there when he saw a familliar figure. A famillar, bald figure. "General," He whirled around, obviously surprised, but relaxed, seeing Alain. Which wasn't usually smart, but nothing could really be done about that, either. "Oh, it's just you, Alain." "'Just me'?" His right eyebrow arched delicately. "I'm touched." He paused then, thinking. "You couldn't sleep, either?" "No," Kiba admitted, shrugging slightly. "I thought I might as well go for a walk." Alain smirked, not saying anything. He knew that a walk had been intended somewhere in there. As in, to the bar, and from the bar. "As you wish," he answered. "Though I think we're going for a walk in the same direction. Do you mind if I join you?" "I suppose not," Kiba said, then started walking in the direction he had originally be going. Alain followed, smoothly keeping up. He certainly could have said something, but he really wasn't in a talkative mood. The general certainly didn't seem to be either, which was fortunate. Alain hated being around people who wanted to talk when he didn't, as well as the reverse, for that matter. Maji ni naketekuru asu mo nani mo mienai Selina was there already. Alain didn't even realize it was Selina until she turned around; her normally rigidly-controlled(except for those four bangs) hair was loose and down, hanging around her waist and she wore a long, midnight blue dress, which was truly unusual because she habitually wore black. She was standing in front of the pool table, setting up a trick shot. "Selina," Alain said calmly, his eyes flicking up and down her. Odd. But, then, she'd probably had the same trouble sleeping, too. Things tended to go in threes. Or at least, it seemed that way. She nodded. "Alain," she acknowledged, then looked to Kiba. "Sir." "You couldn't sleep, either?" Alain asked calmly, heading towards his seat. Selina shrugged, tossed her cue down onto the pool table and sat down at the table that she'd probably arrange to have buried with her. "Naw... I've been doing some thinking..." "Like how we're in an army run by idiots? -- No offense intended to you, of course, General." Alain knew that wasn't what Selina had been thinking about, but that would be the best statement for all concerned parties. "None taken, of course," Kiba said, tossing himself into a chair. "To be honest, right now, I agree. This is ridiculous." Alain nodded, then began examining his nails. "It's silly. Any idiot knows that when you're mounting an attack against a force of unknown size, you send out around three times your highest projected figure, just to be absolutely sure, and not a hundred and fifty times your lowest... It's ridiculous." "Alain, no tea." Kiba didn't even blink as he told Alain to not take matters into his own hands. Which just wasn't fair, wasn't it Selina who had to be kept on the leash? "Of course..." Alain said. "Still... I could likely do this alone, you know that?" Selina nodded. "And the sheer cost of this little venture will be utterly ridiculous..." "It's like they have no conception of how to run an army," Kiba finished.
mabushii hodo tsuranuku hodo
Alain sighed and shook his head. "I think we shouldn't even take all that Selina said could be ready; the annoyance of redoing the budgets alone..." Selina shrugged. "You don't have to do them yourself, you know." The hell he didn't. "The company accountant couldn't add to save his life. Of course I do." "Whatever," Kiba said. "Fine, it's your bright idea, then. Who do you want to be leaving behind?" Alain paused, biting at his tongue. "Welll..." he said. "We don't really need to bring along the other three guys... And if I was doing this alone, I'd take fifteen hundred mages, with token guards for them... So... since we take into account everyone else... say... a hundred and fifty on my part? And if Selina could do the same?" "Sounds workable," Selina said. Kiba nodded. "Fair enough. That should do, and it'll cut down some of the cost of this venture. Not by a very large amount, of course, but it should do. I'll take the blame for this idea, as well." Alain paused, then nodded. It was for the best, of course. At any given moment, he was on the verge of being ejected from the army. It wasn't that he was bad at what he did(quite the opposite, actually); if that was all it took to be kicked out, Selina would have been gone four years ago instead of being tightly leashed. It was that he did a lot of things that were, frankly, downright criminal, and while he did get turned a blind eye, him being openly behind anything, including causing a greater general efficiency would have him out on his ass.
kurushii hodo setsunai hodo
Selina stifled a yawn as Alain leaned back in his chair. "I'll take rearguard, if that works. I'm gonna be breaking out the fireworks, and I don't want to be holding anything up if it takes longer than I think it will." "What are you going to be pulling now?" A command, not a question. Alain shrugged and waved his hand dismissively, only to get quite thoroughly glared at. He shrugged again. "Some... advanced runic techniques. Precision targeting. It's a little more technical than you usually like for me to be explaining..." Alain knew that was the best way to avoid discussing That; his elephant-in-the-corner. Kiba nodded, thank all the gods Alain didn't believe in. He did not want to go into the topic of That Rune. Just let the matter slide, slowly, slowly... Selina fell face-first onto the table, snoring. "Damn," Alain said. "So much for her insomnia..." "Serves you right for mentioning the things you do with magic," Kiba said, causing Alain to pout theatrically. "But what should we do about her? I don't want to wake her up, but we can't very well leave her here..." Alain's left eye sparkled briefly. "If you're like that about it, you'll have to carry her home." He cut Kiba off as he started saying something. "Don't look at me like that; she weighs more than I do." Besides, Alain could work his secondary trade slightly by making Kiba carry Selina home. Being a professional weasel had its strong points, but a touch of amateur matchmaking was just so much fun and involved so much less work if what you wanted to do was ruin people's lives.
mabushii hodo tsuranuku hodo
Kiba grumbled loudly but couldn't really dispute the truth. "Fine," he said. "But you have to pay for my drinks for the next week." "Deal," Alain said. "But I suppose we should be going now... otherwise Selina'll start to look like she slept facedown on a table." He paused as Kiba started to pick Selina up. "Now, I just hope I remembered to reschedule all my appointments, there are quite a few that would be rather put out at me if I'd just forgotten..." "Fine," he said, blinking a little at Selina's weight. "She's a lot heavier than she looks..." He started walking away. Alain followed as an impulse struck him. Alain was not an impulsive person-- that is, he rarely got true, genuine impulses. As such, he believed when he did get one, if was for a reason and he invariably followed it, even if it did result in him being a prison bitch for six months. He followed Kiba out the door. "She likes you, you know." Kiba stopped dead. "What?" "Selina does, I mean," Alain said, shrugging slightly. "She has for years. She'd never dare say anything, though." His tone was calm, blasé, one you would use to announce that it was raining. "I see..." To his credit, Kiba managed to keep from looking anything but only slightly surprised. "But... why tell me this?" "Well..." Alain shrugged. "There are two schools of thought on the matter. One, and the more likely of the two, is that I'm simply trying to ruin both of your lives. The other... I may well, for the first time in my life, have good intentions." "I see..." Kiba started walking again. "But... assuming the second... What could these 'good intentions' possibly be?" Alain said nothing for a while, thinking, trying to figure out the right words. "You both... you're both horribly lonely people. So am I, for that matter, but I have my own ways of dealing with things. You two don't. So you stand around, suffering privately. I can't stand all this damn noble suffering anymore. You both need someone, anyone. You two... I think you could do well together. You get on well enough, and you're both in the same boat. Both of you could do a lot worse." Kiba didn't say anything, though he looked like he was thinking. He looked down at the snoring woman in his arms. "Anyway..." Alain said, "do what you want with what I told you. Just don't tell Selina that I told you this... She'll beat the crap out of me if she finds out." Nodding, Kiba said, "Well... I'll think about what you said, at least..." "That's all I can ask." History
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