#divinitysheart

First, there had been pain. Being stabbed from the back, front, and all around by Oracle Knight replicas had been about the worst way that Asch could think to go. Pain had been followed by acceptance. Asch knew that he was going to die one way or the other. He just happened to go out being unable to get to Van himself, and had needed to tell Luke that everything was up to him. In those final moments, he’d accepted Luke. That was what counted in the end, he supposed.

Finally, darkness.

...And then, light again. Asch could feel the warmth of the sun shining upon him, and confusion began to fill his clouded mind. How...?

“Ugh...” Asch had opened his eyes for just a moment, only to be blinded by the light of the world around him the moment he did. Pain was quick to follow from his body as well as he tried to get his bearings. Minutes passed, and he started to adjust to the light. When he did he finally was able to take a look around. He seemed to have been propped up against a tree on the outskirts of some kind of village. A quaint little place from the look of it. But... it didn’t look like anywhere in Auldrant.

Had Lorelei done this? Was it Yulia’s will that he be given another chance, or... was it something else? Because Asch was terribly certain that he had passed away.

“What... is this place?” He tried to stand, but pain took hold of him anew and he was forced to stay still again. It seemed a majority of his stab wounds had been erased somehow, but the first one he’d endured still seemed to remain in some capacity. Okay, so he was still wounded and he had no idea where he was. But it certainly wasn’t Eldrant.

The thoughts drifted away quickly when he noticed movement from the corner of his eye. A village resident, perhaps? Or someone coming to check if he was okay? Either way, Asch wasn’t about to stay quiet.

“H-Hey...” Asch lifted his head a bit and looked in the newcomer’s direction. He looked like he was a couple years younger than Asch, wearing blue and gold clothing too. Though Asch didn’t know who he was, he didn’t have a lot of choice in who to ask for help.

Shujin Academy was certainly not what he’d expected. Barely here a month and he was already the black sheep of the school. His record wasn’t supposed to be something that anyone knew about, yet somehow the entirety of the school knew that he had been arrested. He wasn’t really sure how it spread, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Sojiro’s words about staying on the up and up rang through his head as he was bombarded with whispers and questions on his way to class.

Akira’s only saving grace was that the hot head who he’d been warned away from. Ryuji wasn’t in his class, rather was in one down the hall, but he gave the boy something to listen to that wasn’t rumors and attacks on his character.

Too wrapped up in his thoughts, he accidentally ran into a girl, another blonde though not the one that he’d seen the day before. Akira’s arm moved almost without thought, reaching out to steady her before retreating just as fast.

“Whenever you get stressed, you do this thing with your hands. What is it?” - lumine

“Ah.”

Sometimes, there were things even he didn’t notice. But he supposed everyone had their little quirks, their little tells. He’d been clenching his fists on and off for some time now, flexing the muscles in his fingers in a way that hurt them, rather than limbered them up. 

Lifting his hand up, he stares at his palm, before back looking back up to Lumine.

Aerith liked to dance around the point of things. It was, of course, just as easy to ask someone outright what their whole deal was, but - well, where was the fun in that? Well, maybe in some situations it was better to get right to the heart of the matter, but Lumine didn’t give her the feeling of being a danger, of something to be worried about.

She considered herself a good enough judge of character to assume as much, anyway.

But, she did get so very curious sometimes.

So, when she plops herself down next to Lumine in her garden without a care, joining her in watching the little river that curved its way through the Gainsborough residence, she plays it cool for as long as it takes her to tuck her skirt beneath her knees, at which point she just pointblank questions,

There were circumstances where quick decisions needed to be made on a whim, when careful planning was not an acceptable choice if success was the endgoal [or SURVIVAL at that!]. Considering the future consequences of said choices wasn’t something that ran through the mind when danger was nipping at the heels.

Confronting danger was the name of the superhero game, but it also wasn’t something that was without its fair share of complications on occasion. One potential complicaton: a foe that was mightier than said super hero, who didn’t quite possess the strength necessary to confront it alone. 

Chat Noir was running [barely evading being obliterated himself!]. Chat Noir intended to hide.

Chat Noir [perhaps] stupidly decided to ‘break and enter,’ or rather.... enter an open window into a place that did not belong to him, flopping onto the floor inside a room that was not his.

Hey, he wasn’t thinking logically, he was trying to survive. If he were of sound mind, he may have been immensely embarrassed by his actions [or quickly amended the steps to take him some other more reasonable place to hide]!

He leaned, back pressed against the wall, turning his head a slight just as a mighty winged creature took off, flying right on by - out of sight [but certainly not out of mind].

Chat heaved out a mighty sigh, thankful he evaded that bullet, but it didn’t change his responsibility. He was tired, exhausted, Ladybug not yet able to arrive on scene. Calling out to her met only with dead air which could mean she hadn’t transformed yet, or she was somewhere where she simply didn’t know they were under attack. Wonderful! That left him on his own to defend the city against the flying akuma. And him with an irritating allergy that rejected close proximity to it.