genessia | Tears of a Clown [Action, Open]

A. Genessia Public Library

[The assault on Winter hadn't gone so hot, and they were currently in the planning stages of what to do next. Ted's not much for grand stratagems, though he'd review any romantic novels to see what tactical brilliance they had to give. Like Layamon's Brut, for example.

This is what led to him quietly sobbing to himself on a desk, book in hand.]

"Oh, Lancelot, you rat bastard! Was Guinevere so lovely and Camelot so worthless to trade the latter for the former? What terrible creatures women are, and the men who fall for them."

[These literary lamentations are just quiet enough to avoid the ire of the librarians. But if you, unhappy reader, wish to keep Ted from talking to himself, by all means.]

B. Outside the Library!

[Somehow he perseveres over the sorrows of Arthur, choosing instead to reflect upon the joys.]

"Well, for all Arthur's calamities, he did have a few things going for him, like his birth. Even if Merlin did...help his father fornicate with another man's wife..."

[That was a little disturbing. Wasn't he here to think positive?]

"But after that! Like, say, when the elves robbed him from the cradle to give him his virtues, and such."

[He sighed dreamily.]

"Why couldn't I have been kidnapped by elves? Is that so much to ask?"

[Again, he's not talking to any but the ether. Again, you're free, brave pedestrian, to change that.]

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[He wonders whether it was right to inquire after all. She was around the Attleton Guardian Office at all times, wasn't she? A half-dozen people must have done this very thing. Perhaps they were exhausting her, not giving her the loneliness she really needed. Yet she sounded so desperate and confused, even still.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time he'd tried to offer plain, if bitter, truth. His voice is small and tender.]

No; loss like that isn't made easier through repetition. Heh, you can trust me there.

I don't know about "letting go"; I doubt you could even if you wanted to. Good or ill, the memories will abide. But yes, you move on. There's naught else to do.

This may be a silly question, but have you grieved properly?

*Sonico bowed her head and nodded - yes, she knew that moving on was what she was supposed to do. And she would try but, right then it was hard to see how things would go back to normal without him*

Grieved?

*She slowly lifted her eyes to him again, wondering if he couldn't tell how exhausted she was, how pale and drawn she looked*

I didn't know it was physically possible to cry as much as I did... Everything ached for days. I have only very recently had the energy to even leave the house. Isn't that grieving?

Aheh, it certainly sounds so. I ah, know what that's like.

[He didn't know if her room was the best place to do that, given Memoria Park, but for one as important as him she'd likely be thinking about that loss there often anyway.]

Well, I'm...sorry for your loss. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

[He feels a little guilty bringing it up, for it seemed as if she was making a pass at normalcy. All he can do is offer the blind courtesies of ritual and hope they help.]

Oh...

*To hear that he knew what it was like startled Sonico for a second - what she was feeling was awful, so to think that he knew what it was like was quite sad*

I'm sorry... that you know... It's not - it isn't easy.

*She doesn't say more on the subject, because she doesn't feel it's her place to ask any more than that*

Please don't be sorry; it wasn't your fault. But thank you. If I can think of anything, then I will let you know. Right now... I don't really know what will help. I suppose that's why I have these.

*Sonico gestures to the paperbacks on the table in front of her. It seems that she has finally clicked that she has picked up some books she has no interest in*

[He makes another light laugh and smile.]

Oh, don't be. "Better to have loved and lost", as the cliche goes. No one's getting out of this without scars, eh?

[He looked over her selection, figuring it was as good a time as any to switch subjects and take her mind off things.]

Huh, I didn't know your interests were so broad.

[He wouldn't have a clue what to make of someone that enjoyed all three of those things at once. What composite personality could be composed of such diverse parts?]

*Laughter and smiles go some way to making her feel better - lately, her friends have been around her with more sad faces and doom and gloom to mirror hers*

That's what they say. I suppose I will find out if that feeling is true.

*Sonico looks at the different novels and shakes her head. She picks up the sci fi novel and blinks at the cover, then looks to Ted with some confusion*

I do like to try different things but... I don't think I've been paying much attention to my choices today.

[That may be because her friends know to "weep with those who weep", whereas Ted can't find it in him to put off laughter for too long. It happens again when he discovers her choice of literature was made absentmindedly.]

Ahaha. Not very discriminate, eh? Well, there's no story quite like the founding story of Britain. The language is a little archaic, but worth parsing. You could borrow my copy, if you like. If your choices aren't quite conscious, perhaps my own might serve in their place?

*Sonico just shakes her head, bemused at what she'd picked up off the shelves. She tilts her head at the suggestion but doesn't dismiss it*

Hmm. I don't much about Britain at all. Maybe it could be interesting?

*Then she picks up the pink novel*

'The Romance of the Sweetest Cupcake Shop in the World'. I don't suppose you'd be interested in that. Oh - but it isn't mine, of course - it belongs to the library!

[Despite the somber subject matter, Ted continues to chuckle at Sonico's relentless girlishness.]

Pffhaha. Your subconscious selected that one, eh? It knows you very well. Or maybe it wanted something with where the cover matched the curtains.

[He pointed at her hair, then laughed as she felt necessary to explain that library books did, in fact, belong to the library.]

Oh, thank goodness you told me, else I'd have absconded with it like a thief. Well, I wouldn't presume disinterest too quickly. I should be very interest in the romance of shops, whom I've never known to be very interested in courtship. A book exchange, then? Tit for tat?

Ah - no. I think...

*Sonico smiled shyly at his comment about her hair and nodded gently*

Maybe that's what it was.

*She sat up straight in her chair, almost alarmed that he might think such a book was her own. She shook her head and waved her hands in earnest*

Oh, no. This isn't... I wouldn't usually read this kind of thing. In fact, I don't often read fiction full stop.

*Why was he talking about shops courting? Sonico looked again at the title of the novel and giggled quietly; that was silly*

Well, okay. That could be a good idea. I'll read about Britain and you can read about...romantic cupcakes. But you need to tell me your review once you have finished.

[She seems awfully nervous about her alleged taste in literature. Aw.]

Perish the thought! Well, there's some debate over how fictional Brut is.

[All that stuff about King Arthur probably didn't happen. But boy did Ted ~~think~~ wish it did.]

But if you like new things as much as you say, you're bound to like that. I'll do the same, and be sure to share my thoughts on bathetic bakeries.

I do. New things are always interesting to read.

*Especially when one is cooped up in her bedroom thinking that she is forever alone - in that instance, new reading material was always welcome*

Alright then. That's a deal.

*She had no idea what a 'bathetic bakery' was, but she smiled softly and nodded all the same. And while he may not have noticed the pale and tired on her expression before, her general demeanor had quite improved*

[Ted's not much for small details, but he does get the feeling that her day's brighter. Doing good deeds is more than enough to brighten his own.]

May we enjoy our novel novels.

[Ted chatters for a few minutes more before bidding her good day, smiling that slightly infuriating smile all the while.]

Tears of a Clown [Action, Open]

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