[ OPEN! ]

[uglyinside]

Who: Johan Liebert uglyinside, The Gefion Park Carriage Driver He Named Otto, hotshit Claire Stanfield, and others!
What: The night of the Valentine's Ball, a carriage driver dies. His body is discovered in an apparent suicide. It appears that regaining your emotions brings along the ugly ones, too!
When: Feb 14th, 11 PM.
Where: The Arena.
Rating: Mature for ...death and stuff? idk, it's not that bad.



Like a watermelon hitting the ground.

The two of them sat at the edge. Johan had decided to give the carriage driver a name.

Your name is Otto, he said.


When the man's face started to appear, and his words were spoken with liveliness, Johan never bothered to find out his real name, and the man never bothered to tell him. They had spent every other night walking together. They talked about what Johan wanted to hear, and shared what Johan wanted shared. Grateful, the Driver seemed to form an attachment, one that Johan predicted and anticipated accordingly. That night, with the festivities of the Ball going on elsewhere, the two of them sat at the edge of the world. The carriage driver had no wife. No children. He didn't seem to have many people in the village that he specifically wanted to cure of their sickness. Instead, he was more focused on the man who had saved him.

"I've heard that people sink three times before drowning," Johan's words came out calmly, staring up at the stars with a distant wonder. In contrast, the man who sat beside him stared down at the ground with unease.
"You rise and sink three times. Imagine what it would be like to be doing that for years. Would air ever become less precious to you?"

The carriage driver quirked an eyebrow at Johan, his features a faded image on his face, but there.
"You say such weird things."

"I do?"

A comfortable silence cloaked the atmosphere around them, as the grey clouds above drifted across the moon. A pitiful light squeezed itself out in an attempt to reach the scene beneath it, but the carriage driver notices how much darker it's become.
"Isn't it strange?" Johan's inquiring words dripped with a soothing, almost hypnotic quality to the driver, as he listened and watched the man's lips. "How your illness is being cured, and yet you have no one?" He inclined his head, his hand moving over to cover the driver's and push his fingers in the spaces between his own.

"You're still all alone." He stated it plainly, tone flattened and without much sympathy.

"That's not true," Otto protested without a pause of silence, looking down at Johan's hand and then over to him with a gleam of desperation in his eyes. "I have you."

His eyes fell on the formerly faceless man in an unfocused manner, as if he were looking right through him or past him. Johan's hand slipped away from over Otto's, and rose to softly rest against his back.

"You're still all alone."


Like a watermelon hitting the ground. It was always the same sound. That same splash.

Comments

[uglyinside]

I don't see any glowing. [ He looks up at Claire a bit wistfully, before slowly putting his hand down. ]

It's late.

[hotshit]

It's been late for a while. [He gives a shrug, moving to circle around Johan.] I'm offering to take you home. Is this your way of tryin' to decline?

[uglyinside]

You can accompany me if you'd like. [ Johan begins to walk once again, towards the Heimdall District. ]

I'm just getting a bit sleepy.

[hotshit]

[Johan is in Loki, isn't he? Yeah, he'd walk Johanna to Heimdall, right up to the door, and probably linger outside until morning.]

Like I said earlier, I'm headed that way, anyway. Don't collapse on me, all right?

[uglyinside]

I'll try not to! [ He's trying to shut down conversation now -- Claire's persistence is far too suspicious in nature now, since it's not remotely romantic. And he has no problem with Claire suspecting things of him, but it was severely getting in the way of what he was supposed to get done that night.

So he tries to continue the walk in silence. ]

[hotshit]

[They walk in silence, I guess, then.

Then Claire takes something out of his pocket, offering it to Johan.] It's not much, but I hope it makes up for not being asked to dance at that ball.

[Its a V-day card Johan gave him...randomly in his pocket.]

[uglyinside]

Hmm. [ She looks at the valentine, but thinks nothing of it, quickly pocketing it and not showing that she's particularly affected by the insinuation. She continues to walk. ]

That girl's very important to you. Would you say you're in love with her?

[hotshit]

In love? I'd like to be, but at the moment, I'm undecided since she is as well.

[uglyinside]

I see. That works quite conventionally... [ He nods as he walks. Oops used the wrong pronoun up there but I guess both work... ]

So only if she's decided, will you be decided? You can't get your heart broken that way.

[hotshit]

Well, it doesn't quite work like that. See, I'm waiting for the right girl to give my heart to completely and utterly. I feel that what ever woman that agrees to be with me forever is who my world has intended me to be with. I wouldn't want my affections to waver at all. There's only one person I'm gonna love in my life.

[He spreads his hands, grand.]

[uglyinside]

What if a couple of women say yes at once, though? [ He watches his grand gesture as he walks, feigning amusement. It's a way to pass the time, and stay away from deeper subjects. ]

It sounds like your world could become quite messy.

[hotshit]

I never really thought about that. I suppose that's 'cause I only ask one girl at a time, so that seems to be an impossible situation.

[He looks over at Johan.] Have you ever loved anybody?

[uglyinside]

Yes. [ There's no hesitation in his voice as his thoughts immediately think to his sister. ]

My other self.

[hotshit]

[Without pause.] Family?

[uglyinside]

Oh wow, good guess! How did you know? [ He smiles. ] That other kind of love...I've never felt it.

[hotshit]

Intuition. I've got plenty of it.

[He shrugs.] Do they got a name? I'm guessing they're a sibling.

[uglyinside]

That's very intimate information. [ Johan says quietly-- gently, almost to himself. ]

I'm sorry, but I can't say anymore about it.

[hotshit]

Hm. All right, then, fair enough. [He slows his pace, falling behind him as he walks over to his other side.]

[uglyinside]

[ He just looks over at Claire and smiles...

As they walk... ]

How do you know? When you're in love. How can you recognize it?

[hotshit]

Well, I suppose it's comparable to the way you should love family, but it's different, of course. Once you meet somebody in the eye -- if you think you can be with 'em, you should automatically fall in love with 'em. The response should be immediate, just like when you lay eyes on a brother or sister. [He shrugs!]

[uglyinside]

[ He stares ahead, gaze unfocused and unfixed, as Claire speaks. His voice comes out feminine as always, but sounding much more monotonous and breathy at this point. ]

That's such a simple way of looking at such a grand thing. I think that would be nice to experience one day.

[hotshit]

I don't see it as simple. It's the way I operate in this world, and my world hasn't failed me as of so far, and I don't think it ever will.

[They're approaching the Heimdall house now.] It's too bad you probably will never get to experience the kind of love I have to offer.

[uglyinside]

[ ... Time to turn this to his advantage, as it was obvious to Johan that the power had slipped into Claire's control, and that he was most likely aware of his illusion -- his reflection. ]

That's... too bad. [ He looks over at Claire, wistfully. ] So you don't think I'm good enough for it, right?

I think I could offer you a great love, myself.

[hotshit]

Is that so? [Time to play gay chicken?] Would you ever consider marrying a fella like me?

[uglyinside]

[ He doesn't stop walking, though both hands clutch his purse now, almost bashfully. ]

Of course I would.