I’ll bet it’s more in character than the first script appearances he had. And, Jandalf, any comfort and you have Ariane closer to her character than I had her in her first appearances as well.
This is a purposeless rambly POVish scene which makes no sense, has no purpose, and is… boring. Snrk. But it introduces Elachi to the wonderful world of my brain.
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Disclaimer: This is not Jandalf’s Elachi Kyrie. Please hold his actions explained by the fact that this is a… fanfiction of a sort. I felt like explaining Ariane through his eyes, and with the character switcheroo… whee.
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There is a strong incongruity in existing; but yet one even stronger in attempting to twist your personality around something so utterly foreign that not even your mind can accept it as existing. There is something alien in accepting a perspective which doesn’t conflict and then hide in terror, instead falling silent.
Yet not silent.
Even in comprehension, it is still alien.
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It is very strange to exist and be feared, and yet be humbled by one thing. Perhaps as Elachi had grown older, this had changed, but nonetheless in his life, there had always seemed to be at least one thing that could humble him. No matter what external appearances said, there was always something to bring someone down. In his case, it was something as simple as a fear of lizards, as tiny as they might have been.
It branched out far beyond that, though.
Perhaps, in a way, he was afraid of his wife.
To him, she was an alien. Not by race. Most certain, she wasn’t a human by birth, race, or rights. That had never mattered, though so often she protested otherwise. She never had quite understood things from his eyes, as if she refused to even try to bend while he tried forcing himself through her square hole in the circle knotted board.
She scared him.
Elachi existed as a six foot seven human with piercing and startlingly blank gray eyes. Well built due to a need to keep himself physically fit, he was strong, tall, and an imposing figurehead in society. People listened to him, gave him sideways glances while walking through the streets. They were _afraid_ of him. On the opposite hand, Ariane was tiny, dark haired and eyed, and barely noticeable when she wasn’t attempting to make a scene. Unable to outwardly control due to a continual line of people taking her ill-seriously, she was a master manipulator of things not noticed.
And she turned that ability against herself. She manipulated to an extreme where he had to fight to restrain the urge to simply bat her away. And yet that desire wasn’t there at all. He _loved_ her, and love didn’t bring about the need to physically harm someone. So why she continually seemed to try force it upon herself, to try strain things, was beyond him.
And there was a theory he could not grasp. Why someone could be forever wounded by an emotional hurt when those left no scars…
“Ironic, isn’t it? Some of us never get to talk.”
He paused, having been unaware that he was even walking at a brisk pace down…
…a long and what appeared to be unending road in the Shadow Realms. An alley, certainly, overhung with tall and rusty buildings and scattered garbage littering the lane. It seemed to stretch on and on; there was no sky with the firm blackness overhead and dim glow of volcanic light. The pressure was overwhelming, something utterly beyond his ordinary stretch.
“Did they pull another switch?”
“What?” He turned; the face that stared up at him was an amber-blue eyed female with vaguely recognizable features. Elachi took a moment to place her. Ryian.
She smiled at him dryly. “Ariane. Are you Ariane?”
“No.”
“Well, of course not, she wouldn’t sound that stuck-up if she tried.”
The moment’s flicker of an insulted expression touched his eyes, but it was only there for the sharp-sighted. She hadn’t been searching for expressions or nuances, and didn’t particularly care. It was a different area, after all. A different person. “As I said. We’ve never talked,” she repeated. “When they did the switch thing, Ariane was you in here for a while, and she’s used your body for amusement’s purposes. But you’re not her, are you?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Amusement?”
“She thinks it’s easier to argue with Tiana in your body.”
“Where is this?”
Ryian blinked. “N2’s head, where else?”
“Ah.”
“Shadow Realms, to be more specific. Yrkia. It seems to be a bit of a random thing to happen, her own amusement where people talk.” Ryian’s eyes narrowed. “Speaking of which, you really don’t belong here. Even if it’s just a setup conversation, and not _really_ inside her head.”
He had given up trying to comprehend a word she was saying. It was a ramble of a sort, different than what Ariane would’ve given him, but as strange as had the woman been speaking Ekaeli-old. There was a long silence, during which Ryian came up with chairs and a table from a nearby wall (again, he didn’t question this, for the sake of his own sanity) and tossed them down to the alley roadway.
“You were complaining that she got emotionally hurt too easily.”
He sat down after a while. “Yes.”
Then there were no thought barriers here? It was different, then. Far different.
“’S easy. Ariane’s Calthye. She hears thoughts, but doesn’t make sense of them. For her, getting physically hurt’s a sort of reminder that she’s real. It leaves scars, sure, but not the same type, you know? When you walk away silently, she feels abandoned.”
He frowned. “Were it that easy, this would hardly be taking place, now would it?”
“No, of course not.” Ryian smiled. “You wouldn’t even be here. My narrator doesn’t take freedom with godmodding in writing. But you know.”
“No. I don’t know.”
“You _are_ annoying. Cheesh. Get used to it, anyway. She’ll develop you pretty well. It’ll be a pain, but good for you.”
At Elachi’s silence, Ryian smiled. “And this is why you fail. You’ll get used to it yet.” She stood up, and vanished. Somehow, he had a feeling that such occurrences were an ordinary occasion in the mind of one drastically different from his previous _writer_. A writer. It disgusted him, their lack of respect.
And how the two narrators tolerated each other, with such differing opinions on silence, perspective, and style, was beyond even him.
Even one who relied on a relationship with someone his utter opposite couldn’t yet understand. Not yet. But he would, if it took a death to prove it.