upmoving | COURT: Heart Game!

COURT: Heart Game!

[Your consciousness drifts in to the sound of discordant whispers. It sounds like a hushed argument in another room, something you can't quite catch. You're cold. Your skin tingles slightly, and then...]

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[Huh. Hanging back to observe the argument a while?]

[It's a fluffy teenaged Ariel and a more built old Ariel, in heated argument. And you know you'd think the older Ariel would be giving the little one shit, because that was the arrangement as you saw it and heard about it before, but at the moment he seems really... off. Like holding his head and snapping and seeming awfully harangued, while the young one's being really insistent. They both look distressed. It's hard to hear what they're actually saying, though. They're a little hushed, like they're trying to be private.]

[It's tempting to go push old Ariel over. But no, he approaches them.]

Excuse me.

[You catch just a snippet of the argument:]

I don't know, shut up!

Well don't expect me to sort it out. Maybe you shouldn't have--

[Then they both look up suddenly, when Sion approaches. Older Ariel looks warily at him, barks one really unstable moment of laughter, then just waves a hand and turns around, obviously dismissing the conversation, while trying to be haughty about it. Nope no. Younger Ariel looks really confused and exasperated about this.]

...Hello?

Hello.

[Looking at the older one like. Maybe? Maybe. He glances at the younger Ariel and makes a questioning head slicing gesture. DO YOU WANT ME TO MURDER THAT??]

...I wouldn't stop you, but I think even an injured heart would protect its core.

So is this your true heart, then?

Mm. Ours.

[Other Ariel seems to have decided this conversation is unpleasant and is stalking off to sit in the stands. Really tho he's just getting as far away from Sion as possible.]

...Explain?

...It wasn't entirely true, that time I told you we're not the same person. We're not, but we are. He lived his life, and then it was reset, and "he" was replaced with "me". But he woke up again, recently, so here we are. He's not wrong, saying it was his body first, but all the same I'd rather not cease to exist, or allow him to do what he likes on principal, so we fight. All the time. Trying to push each other into disappearing. To him, I'm just a shell imposed on him. To me, he's just an invasive memory. But we're not wholly separate.

I see...

[That's a bit different than he thought.]

I could still try to kill him if you want.

[You know, being helpful here.]

You can try.

[What would that even do he's a little worried. But maybe it'd make him go away entirely. That'd be nice.]

Do you think that would help?

I don't know what it would do, or if you could even do it. He's already acting all messed up.

Good. He should be messed up.

Well... It isn't undeserved. And it's a less horrible noisiness, now.

But will it stay that way?

I don't know. You did nice things, too. You know, the big difference between us was just that I could love. No matter how different our lives have been, we couldn't have turned out like each other, only because of that one thing. He never felt anything like that. But I guess... It looks like you switched that on, all the way. So maybe it'll stop the rest from changing back. I don't know. He's not a kid, you know.

He was more tolerable as a child I think.

The bad experiences certainly didn't help his disposition.

Sob stories don't render me very sympathetic to sadism. You're too compassionate.

I'm not being sympathetic. I'm just agreeing with you. I can remember what he remembers.

[Looks over at him again like, clearly. Wondering if murder would work. Murder's a really good solution to a lot of problems.]

That must be unpleasant. Reincarnation always struck me as stressful.

It was less reincarnation and more that someone forcibly reset it. That is, we had the same family, and the same start. But... in effect, I suppose the problems are similar.

.......That sounds familiar.

[THANK YOU DAD. He crosses his arms and frowns a bit.]

So why did you end up so different? How did you gain the ability to love?

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