keterclass (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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kaisou2025-06-06 09:37 pm
keterclass) wrote in kaisou2025-06-06 09:37 pm
Video | un: thenecromancer
WHO: Nephrite Curtiss and anyone
WHERE: Libra network
WHEN: Now
WHAT: Asch's dad has showed up to check on his kid
WARNINGS: None yet
[There are many ways Neph could go about this. It would probably be more proper if he reached out directly to his son, or to other Black Order members in town, letting everyone know that he's arrived and is setting up to be based here for a while. But he honestly does want to know how Asch has really been doing, and he isn't going to find that out just by asking people who know both of them already, or giving people time to prepare stories.
And maybe he also wants to jumpscare everyone who might recognize him. A man's got to find his fun somewhere.
So instead, you're getting a smiling, cheerful man with red eyes showing up on the network in a video feed. His demeanor oozes insincerity.]
Hello, Kaisou!
I do hope you all might indulge a concerned father for a moment. You see, some months back, my son Asch moved to this city. Now, he's a wonderful young man, but very independent, and he doesn't always come to me when he has problems. So if anyone can tell me honestly how he's been doing in his time here, I'd very much appreciate hearing it! Now that my work has transferred me here as well, I hope that we can all get along more closely.
[Is he threatening Asch? Anyone who might have been mean to Asch? All of the above? ...Let them guess, and let's see what comes of it.]
WHERE: Libra network
WHEN: Now
WHAT: Asch's dad has showed up to check on his kid
WARNINGS: None yet
[There are many ways Neph could go about this. It would probably be more proper if he reached out directly to his son, or to other Black Order members in town, letting everyone know that he's arrived and is setting up to be based here for a while. But he honestly does want to know how Asch has really been doing, and he isn't going to find that out just by asking people who know both of them already, or giving people time to prepare stories.
And maybe he also wants to jumpscare everyone who might recognize him. A man's got to find his fun somewhere.
So instead, you're getting a smiling, cheerful man with red eyes showing up on the network in a video feed. His demeanor oozes insincerity.]
Hello, Kaisou!
I do hope you all might indulge a concerned father for a moment. You see, some months back, my son Asch moved to this city. Now, he's a wonderful young man, but very independent, and he doesn't always come to me when he has problems. So if anyone can tell me honestly how he's been doing in his time here, I'd very much appreciate hearing it! Now that my work has transferred me here as well, I hope that we can all get along more closely.
[Is he threatening Asch? Anyone who might have been mean to Asch? All of the above? ...Let them guess, and let's see what comes of it.]
no subject
Hi, Nephrite! Yeah, I'm Belle. Give me a second, I've gotta put this down near the pride display.
[When she does, she lets out a sigh of audible relief.]
Urgh. Usually Eous does that, but one of my promoters is sick for the moment so it's out doing promotions instead. [She wipes some sweat off her forehead, and straightens up.]
Anyway. Hi. Come into the back room with me, this is...what I'm going to tell you is sort of a lot to drop on someone. [She holds up her hands.] But I promise Asch isn't in trouble!
no subject
It's all right if he is. I'm aware that he's less than diplomatic at times. [Keeping the same bland smile on his face, he'll follow her into the back, radiating mild curiosity but no real concern. Whatever secrets this stranger has to offer him aren't likely to be worse than what he deals with inside the Black Order, after all.]
no subject
[cough. Anyway, the back of the store is a cozy little place for the staff to rest, with a sofa, a TV, and a minifridge. Belle grabs for a pack of apple juice, wincing as she does so because honestly, she would've preferred to do this with better drinks, but here they are.
She hands him a juicebox, and gestures for him to sit. Once she's settled down as well, she lets out a breath.]
...so, uh. I'm just going to rip off the band-aid. [A breath.] Asch is—my brother. We share the same sperm donor, but not the same mother. My older brother Zelos and I, we didn't know until he came here. We suspected we had other half-siblings out there, but Asch [and Luke] showing up was a surprise.
no subject
Realization quickly dawns, and he doesn't seem shocked to hear the news.]
So you're the blood family.
[His expression shifts minutely, a tiny bit of genuine warmth entering his practiced smile.]
He did tell me he'd made contact with you. Even before that, we knew you were out there to be found - when he first came into my care, I tried to seek out other relatives he might be placed with, including via DNA testing. Ultimately he declined to be adopted by anyone else, but...we've been aware for a long time that he had other siblings aside from his twin.
no subject
That's us. Me, Zelos, and Wise—but, uh, Wise isn't here. [Is still missing, in fact, god knows where he is. She hopes he's all right, she really, truly does.]
It was probably a good thing he stuck with you. Our father—well, calling him a hypocrite is a nice way to put it. You did a lot better than he could ever have. [She thinks of Zelos—the one she grew up with, the one she still misses. But that, she keeps quiet.] We met his twin, too, by the way.
[Pause. Then a chuckle.]
Funny story about that! They actually met back up in the store. There was a lot of yelling.
1/2
2/2
Considering how our past lives went, I should just be glad there wasn't too much property damage. ...They didn't break anything valuable, did they?
no subject
She shakes her head.]
They didn't. I did have to close the shop early because of all the yelling, but they didn't break anything.
...they're good kids, and their hearts are in the right place. It's just—It was a lot to drop on them out of nowhere, so I didn't want to do that to you too.
no subject
[He sighs, and the smile that returns to his face sits there rather awkwardly. Nephrite doesn't really know how to deal with people who are genuinely kind. It's not something that he's had a lot of experience with.]
I appreciate the consideration, and your efforts to take care of them. If they ever do become too much to handle, do feel free to reach out. ...I haven't actually met Luke myself [in this life, and he's ignoring the ache of that] but Asch has always been very reactive around him.
no subject
[So long as no one steals her pudding, she's set.]
Yeah, that became kinda obvious in...about five seconds of them being in the same room. [Belle, who usually gets along well with her siblings, had a very strange time dealing with that.] You should meet Luke, though. He's a sweet kid, if a little spoiled, and he could use more people in his life.
no subject
...How is he? Luke, I mean. [It takes him a moment to find the right words, carefully negotiating his way around revealing too much at once until he's sure he understands the situation.] I found Asch only after they were separated. We looked for him together, but couldn't find any trace of where he might have been taken. And then he simply...reappeared, years later. I have no way of knowing what might have become of him in that time.
no subject
Luke's fine. He's in college and everything. He was adopted by a fairly rich couple in town, and as far as I can tell, they really love him, they're just a little strict with him. [She pauses.] The rest of it...I'm not privy to all the details, but I know he was taken by a cult, left with some memory issues, and then nearly got kidnapped when he was young.
But here and now, he's doing okay. Probably he's the most well-adjusted person in this family, besides being a little bit spoiled.
[Belle is well aware she has some...issues, surrounding her inability to healthily handle loss.]
no subject
How these lives do rhyme with one another. [He can give her that much, since she clearly cares about both of the twins: their past lives contained an echo of these things, and Neph knows about it in detail himself.] It sounds like he's been through a great deal, but I'm glad he's come out the other side of it well.
...He wouldn't remember me from this life, but he might from another. And I don't believe those memories would do him any favors. ...It's probably inevitable, but...I want to give him as much time as I can.
[Because he got so little of it last time.]
no subject
Yeah. He's in college and everything—Kaisou U, the, uh, big tree university. I'd say he's done okay now.
[She's quiet for a long moment, before she lets out a tired breath.]
Me too. But this city is...it doesn't really take what we want into account, sometimes. I'm worried that not only is it going to happen, it'll happen in probably the worst way possible, and that's sort of my own personal nightmare. [A pause.] One of them.
no subject
Yes...unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean. Hence my desire to avoid triggering those memories myself.
[A pause, and then, because Belle is being so kind and especially to someone Neph cannot help but care about himself] But if and when they return to him regardless of our wishes...I do think that having family to support him will make all the difference to how well he responds.
no subject
[She sighs.]
I'm probably—no, definitely prying here, but I'm actually curious. How did you end up adopting Asch?
no subject
...The night when Luke was taken away to that cult, the two of them were separated. I found Asch...wounded [dead] from defending his brother. After he regained consciousness, the first thing he asked me was where Luke had gone.
[He sighs, shaking his head with fond exasperation.] The only way I could get him to come with me and accept further treatment was to tell him we'd look for Luke together. And you've probably seen enough of him by now to understand that he wouldn't release me from that promise even when I tried to have him adopted by a more ordinary family.
[So he kept the kid, and now it's been fourteen years, and of his many regrets this is not one.]