Albert Silverberg (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chikaidestroyer) wrote2014-09-18 08:32 pm
chikaidestroyer) wrote2014-09-18 08:32 pm
∞ 106: Echoes in their absence
September 16
[While he had heard of the people -- echoes of people -- appearing around the village, Albert did not happen to see one right away. It's as he's taking a break outside of Celsius Tear that he takes notice of a teenage girl standing in front of the mural by the Welcome Center. He descends the stairs to watch her.
That had been ... almost three years ago now, he recalled as he watched the girl cheerfully set down a bucket of yellow paint. Without paying him any attention or seeing the completed mural in front of her, the girl dipped a paintbrush into the bucket and began making sweeping motions across the mural. Pao-Lin, he finally recalls as she bends over to dip her paintbrush again.
He watches for a while, eventually looking over his shoulder at the other mural that surrounded the fountain. That had been another of her projects with volunteers, done a year later.
He can't help but think about that saying as he watches her paint -- that art only found its value after its artist was gone.]
-----
September 17
[The fountain plaza proves to be a good spot to see the 'echoes,' and Albert decides to take his breaks outside to observe despite the weather looking increasingly storm-like. Sometimes the person he sees is only a flicker of movement, walking around the fountain or sitting on its edge, eating lunch. Once or twice he even sees a person seated or running across a rooftop, leaving him pondering what could have been happening at that time to lead to that behavior.
It's foolish to hope that he'll see a familiar face, he knows. But he still watches.]
-----
September 18, early afternoon
[It seems oddly fitting that he sees echoes of Nami and Yuber on the day of the thunderstorm. Nami, back before she had begun to grow weary of having such awful luck with picking fights with the wrong people. Back before she had been a threat.
...This must have been when Nami declared she would arrest Yuber, going by her uncharacteristic uniform, untouched by the falling rain. He certainly remembered that.]
[Albert can be found in Celsius Tear in the mornings or around the fountain plaza and its stores in the afternoons.]
-----
September 19, evening
Content warning: limb loss
[It happens when he is returning to the hot springs teleporter from visiting his giant owl. The headache comes out of nowhere, like a wave crashing over him, and he drops his journal from where he had been loosely holding it against his side. Shaking his head to clear the disorientation, Albert concentrates enough on Tsinku enough to summon a sphere of contained electricity to light the ground. Upon spotting his journal, he crouches to pick it up.
That's when he notices that there is nothing at the end of his shirt sleeve -- at both of his shirt sleeves.
Dazed, he lifts his hands up to the light to get a better look. But there are no hands. Just dark red masses of muscle and arteries that seem to be in a bizarre state of suspension. The muscles visible twitch as his forearms tense up, and he stares at them blankly for what seems like ages.
The ball of electricity fizzles and disappears as he passes out.
It's over an hour later when he finally wakes up again, his headache worse and his senses slow to reorient themselves. His ragged breathing is answered by a deep hooting noise, and he looks up to see Bilruben's large, glassy eyes reflecting what little light was coming from the artificially displayed moon. The giant owl doesn't move as he sits there in the darkness, a silent sentry while he tries to stop hyperventilating.
He can barely think. The confused, despairing noises he makes are largely incoherent, earning him a tilted stare from the owl as it watches. He doesn't know how long he sits there before he fumbles in the dark, half turned over in the wet grass, to try opening his journal.]
I need help.
[It's breathless and strained. Short and vague.]
[While he had heard of the people -- echoes of people -- appearing around the village, Albert did not happen to see one right away. It's as he's taking a break outside of Celsius Tear that he takes notice of a teenage girl standing in front of the mural by the Welcome Center. He descends the stairs to watch her.
That had been ... almost three years ago now, he recalled as he watched the girl cheerfully set down a bucket of yellow paint. Without paying him any attention or seeing the completed mural in front of her, the girl dipped a paintbrush into the bucket and began making sweeping motions across the mural. Pao-Lin, he finally recalls as she bends over to dip her paintbrush again.
He watches for a while, eventually looking over his shoulder at the other mural that surrounded the fountain. That had been another of her projects with volunteers, done a year later.
He can't help but think about that saying as he watches her paint -- that art only found its value after its artist was gone.]
-----
September 17
[The fountain plaza proves to be a good spot to see the 'echoes,' and Albert decides to take his breaks outside to observe despite the weather looking increasingly storm-like. Sometimes the person he sees is only a flicker of movement, walking around the fountain or sitting on its edge, eating lunch. Once or twice he even sees a person seated or running across a rooftop, leaving him pondering what could have been happening at that time to lead to that behavior.
It's foolish to hope that he'll see a familiar face, he knows. But he still watches.]
-----
September 18, early afternoon
[It seems oddly fitting that he sees echoes of Nami and Yuber on the day of the thunderstorm. Nami, back before she had begun to grow weary of having such awful luck with picking fights with the wrong people. Back before she had been a threat.
...This must have been when Nami declared she would arrest Yuber, going by her uncharacteristic uniform, untouched by the falling rain. He certainly remembered that.]
[Albert can be found in Celsius Tear in the mornings or around the fountain plaza and its stores in the afternoons.]
-----
September 19, evening
Content warning: limb loss
[It happens when he is returning to the hot springs teleporter from visiting his giant owl. The headache comes out of nowhere, like a wave crashing over him, and he drops his journal from where he had been loosely holding it against his side. Shaking his head to clear the disorientation, Albert concentrates enough on Tsinku enough to summon a sphere of contained electricity to light the ground. Upon spotting his journal, he crouches to pick it up.
That's when he notices that there is nothing at the end of his shirt sleeve -- at both of his shirt sleeves.
Dazed, he lifts his hands up to the light to get a better look. But there are no hands. Just dark red masses of muscle and arteries that seem to be in a bizarre state of suspension. The muscles visible twitch as his forearms tense up, and he stares at them blankly for what seems like ages.
The ball of electricity fizzles and disappears as he passes out.
It's over an hour later when he finally wakes up again, his headache worse and his senses slow to reorient themselves. His ragged breathing is answered by a deep hooting noise, and he looks up to see Bilruben's large, glassy eyes reflecting what little light was coming from the artificially displayed moon. The giant owl doesn't move as he sits there in the darkness, a silent sentry while he tries to stop hyperventilating.
He can barely think. The confused, despairing noises he makes are largely incoherent, earning him a tilted stare from the owl as it watches. He doesn't know how long he sits there before he fumbles in the dark, half turned over in the wet grass, to try opening his journal.]
I need help.
[It's breathless and strained. Short and vague.]
no subject
I didn't realize you knew her family.
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[Ace and Sabo for Luffy. ... seen Zeff for Sanji. Things that couldn't be except for this place.]
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I had little interaction with them while they were here. But they certainly made an impression.
[Even if the most prominent and likely to remain around was that mikan orchard. He frowns wryly as the weather reminds him of Zoro sleeping on top of his house during a storm.]
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They're rather good at that, I admit. [And there's a lot he isn't saying there.]
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My first encounter was with Luffy. The tunnels had just been revealed and there were a number of excited adventurers ready to explore them.
[He pauses and exchanges looks with Law.]
He jumped right into the hole. Promptly broke both of his legs. And complained.
1/2
2/3
... Strawhat...
Done
[EVEN AFTER LIVING AROUND YOU FOR YEARS, LUFFY, YOU STILL PULL OUT THE LINEFACE FROM HIM. B| ]
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It proved to be a quick way to see the effects of the tunnel, even though we had to rescue him from his own actions.
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That's a running theme with him. He never thinks. [He watches the girl until she fades away, and Nu smashes into the fountain, courtesy of the rubber pirate himself.] It's surprising how much good has come from that, though.
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[He blinks slowly as he recognizes Nu, frowning as he notices that she doesn't rise from where she landed.]
A very strong attack, that one.
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Not really, considering what he's capable of.
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[Luffy's rage is definitely something to see up close, even if he isn't physically there anymore.]
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[He's in Gear Second. Alright, there was a lot more power used, but he's not taking that comment back. It still stands, given what he grew into and is growing into.
He smiles a little as the apparition fades away.]
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Have you been seeing many of these?
[He hadn't seemed surprised, so he had seen at least one before now.]
no subject
[The house is difficult to be in at times.]
Though I didn't catch on right away given the first person I started seeing.
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[There were many ways that could be taken. Someone he knew? Someone who was dead? Or possibly someone who had only recently left Luceti?]
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It's a fascinating effect, however long it will continue. Almost witnessing an event, after the fact.
[Minus audio and sometimes other parts of the actual event.]
no subject
... it's certainly an enlightening window to the past sometimes...
[For example: here's a side of the Strawhats you've never seen before!
Complete with strains of eerily compelling music coming from the direction of the fountain.
Let's do the time shift again! Dance off style.]
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He says nothing, speechless at the display. He definitely doesn't remember seeing this, and it takes him all of four seconds to decide that was for the best.
...And yet there's that music. Why? The question comes unbidden, even though the scene should make some sense.]
What is that?
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[Immediate first thought as his foot begins tapping along all by itself.
... then when his hips want to follow suit and Law's finding himself fighting a losing battle to stop himself, he sighes.]
... and catching...
[In other words, caught in the same (timeshifted) experiment.
Nami gives them a extra sassy hip wiggle, with an sassy grin directed right at them, eyes locked with Albert, seconds after Law says that. The ghosts can't interact with the present day, but there's no telling that at this moment, with that timing, with that look.
One of us, one of us, one of us.]
no subject
He'll probably feel fortunate afterwards that this is his first experience with this effect, but that does nothing for the very ... exaggerated "dancing" that he finds himself participating in.]
...Not exactly something I thought I would be doing. In the rain, no less...