[ one x one; adoraтιon and arabmorgan ]

[adoration]

{ That's actually a pretty good idea. c: Haha, I hadn't really thought of that exact of a reason for his execution, but that'll work perfectly. Are they going to figure out about him while the execution is taking place, or will they perhaps see { for Colette, hear } him being brought away by some city soldiers? Encountering him during the execution would have a big impact on Colette especially, but I'm fine with doing either idea, since they'll both hit her rather brutally. }

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
ＣＯ Ｌ Ｅ Ｔ Ｔ Ｅ Ｊ Ｓ Ｙ Ｌ Ｖ Ｅ Ｓ Ｔ Ｒ Ｅ
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

cxcxＷｅ ａｒｅ ｍａｄｅ ｏｆ ｓｈａｔｔｅｒｅｄ ｐｉｅｃｅｓ.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

His plan sounded farcical indeed, and she couldn't help but give him a indecisive glance; maybe it was just her. "I wouldn't be too surprised if that had been your plan," In such a big city, a symbol of wealth and establishment that loomed above the ground, how could she not feel so anxious? The tall skyscrapers, the florid lights - the motivation of the city itself was not the goal of expanding, but reaching the heavens itself. The important rich men, with they're lavish daughters and pretentious sons, wanted to hold domination in the palm of their hands, like the key to the nebulas that shone so clear and wispy in the sky. And she wasn't one of them; she had been raised from the very ash that blackened the skin of workers, and her father had given her the passion and determination of the coal that burnt in the burners that made up the city's foundation.

But what worth was that now? Here she was, almost acting as if Alex's hand was her last grip on the world. And everything around her seemed to be nothing. She was still drowning in that infrangible darkness, while she couldn't see anything. But she could feel it - she could hear the echoes of the steam that wafted from the city's streets, along with every footstep she and Alex took. If only she was more decisive, for she couldn't tell whether it was better to be able to see diminishing illusions, or hear the heavy-handed lies.

Being tugged from her unbearable feeling, she pushed it back down as Alex gave her hand a small pull after her shoulder collided with that of another. In all honesty, she was grateful for Alex. Who knew how many countless days she had spent in that exile camp? And even as they proceeded into the city, the most dangerous place they could be right now, he kept his spirits high. But she wondered; was that really all that was going on within his mind right now? Everyone in this time had their own motives, and him having his own was inevitable. And even if she had a sense of his, she kept forgetting about it.
'I just didn't want them to have you, perhaps to create more people like you.' Yes, that was right. That was it.

Pulling out the wallet with a nod as he brought it up, she reached over to his other hand and slipped it into his palm, all while keeping her right hand inside of his. She noticed how his hand was sort of clammy, but she didn't mention it. For all she knew, her's was probably the same way, since it wasn't well... a normal, or adequate thing for her. But it was almost reassuring, in a way. Warming and comforting; an unspoken promise of return, that came with the heating of her cheeks. "It seemed to have a decent amount in it," she informed, recalling when she had felt around the scattered bills. "But I couldn't really tell for sure, because, well, you know. 'Complications'."

She kept quiet as she followed him to the third motel, breaking out into a cold-sweat upon their arrival. She hadn't a clue of who would remember her, and who wouldn't, and not being able to see was like an intolerable nail upon this fact. Safely checking out a room was a relief to her, even if Alex had done all the talking.

Once inside the room, she ran her hand along the edge of the bed, with a softly-colored quilt laid out upon it. They must've been on the west side of town, for she could feel rays of light streaming in from a single window and dancing out upon her skin. The sun never rose in the West, anyways; it rose in the East, where many wealthy people inhabited the city. She could remember that unfolding sight from her old home - sun would always hit the golden-like buildings in the morning, sending milky rays winding along them.

She gingerly sat down on the side of the bed, brown locks of hair resting against her back. "Unless you want go hungry after all of this," she said, with a light hint of sarcasm. Maybe she was starting to feel better. Just maybe. "I'll wait here while you do, since I probably wouldn't be able to help."

She'd probably take a shower; as Alex got ready to leave, she confirmed in her head that she would. It'd be nice to get the grime from the wilderness off of her skin. But as he was about to leave, something hit her; an inexplicable question. An unavoidable one. "By the way, if you hear any news about the Sylvestre family... Just, well, make sure to tell me."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ｗｅ ａｒｅ ｂｒｏｋｅｎ ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅ ｓｔａｒｔ.cxcxcx

{ Oh, or better yet; maybe while Alex is out getting food he witnesses the scene, but doesn't remember to tell her once he gets back. And then the execution would take place the next day, two days later, or sometime around then. }

[arabmorgan]

{ ooh yes okay! he probably wouldn't realise exactly who it is so he could come back and tell colette all about it, and they would only realise the truth the next day or day after. }

ｈｅ ｉｓ ｊｕｓｔ ａｌｅｘ
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Alex smirked lightly at her words. "If you're starting to be sarcastic you're probably not still frightened out of your wits. I told you I'd get us in safely," he said jokingly. "You can have a nice long shower when I'm gone. Just don't open the door unless it's my special knock, okay?" He had retrieved the wallet from her and took a good look at the notes in it, his eyebrow raising in surprise at the large denomination. Taking two notes out - there was no sense taking the whole wallet with him and inviting thieves - and feeling oddly vulnerable with the thin pieces of paper clutched tightly in his grimy hand, he was about to leave when Colette hesitantly voiced her last request, her tone fragile and laced with worry. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob, silent for a moment, before nodding solemnly. "I will, don't worry," he promised, before leaving the room without looking back.

Night had fallen darkly over the city, although street lamps lit every corner of the roads, each illuminating their own small turf. In this poorer part of the city, however, it only showed the cruelty and selfish desires of the rich - some of the homeless crouched folornly in the circular pools of light, still hoping for a donation from a passing passenger, although those who frequented this area of the city were unlikely to have any food or money to spare; others huddled in the shadows, their eyes glaring dimly out at nothing in particular. Unnerved, Alex folded the notes in his hand neatly, hiding them in his palm as he passed a troop of men, the stench of perspiration emitting strongly from them - probably workers returning from the richer part of the city after a hard day's labour, and little to show for it.

It was difficult to find cheap food nearby after dark, not when most of the stalls had began to shut down soon after sunset, their keepers unwilling to stay out late. Instead, Alex was halfway to the middle of the city before he found an open restaurant - not exactly the roadside stalls he had had in mind, but any food was better than nothing. The prices weren't exorbitant, thankfully, and he bought a box of spaghetti to share - it smelled heavenly after what they'd eaten for the past week - as well as some sandwiches for breakfast the next morning and a slice of delicious-looking cheesecake for dessert. With a small smile on his face, he walked down the steps of the restaurant with the plastic bags in hand, looking around for a moment before setting out back to the motel, hoping that he wouldn't get lost on the way - he'd never been all that good with directions.

He was only a few feet away from the restaurant, however, when the sounds of a commotion reached his ears. Immediately, stiffening, he glanced around nervously like a fool for a few moments before realising that it had nothing to do with him. Right after that, his natural curiosity surged to the forefront of his mind, and he shot a calculating glance at the food he held. I'll only take a moment to have a quick look, a really quick one, he decided, hardly hesitating at all. Hurrying forward, it wasn't long before he came across a small crowd, all chattering anxiously to one another. Pushing through to the front, he only caught a glimpse of a man being dragged down the street by a pair of city soldiers, his legs trailing on the dusty ground, already so far away their faces were indistinct.

"What happened?" Alex asked quizzically, not really addressing anyone in particular. A rather bulky man turned an eyed him before letting out a harsh laugh. "Didn't reach in time for the show? Just some man making a fuss at the Reich's mansion, the Reich's, can you believe it? Said they'd stolen his daughter away or something," he replied with little humour. "I wouldn't be surprised if they really did take his daughter, but he should know better than to confront one of the richest families around here." With a shake of his head and a roll of his eyes, the large man turned and left. Alex stared after him for a moment, shuddering at the thought of the power money could bring you in this place, before realising the crowd was beginning to disperse.

It didn't take him long after that to return to the room, and he immediately regaled Colette with the details of the fuss he had not-quite witnessed as he set out the spaghetti proudly, planning to surprise her with the cheesecake afterwards.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ｌｏｓｔ ｉｎ ｈｉｓ ｏｗｎ ｍｉｎｄ.

[adoration]

{ Yeah, that sounds like it would cause an interesting scenario. c: Perhaps a lot of later conflict as well, if Colette ever knows that he had seen it before. Anyways, should the execution take place the next day in the roleplay, or the day after that? I'm fine with either, though I'm leaning more towards the next day. }
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
ＣＯ Ｌ Ｅ Ｔ Ｔ Ｅ Ｊ Ｓ Ｙ Ｌ Ｖ Ｅ Ｓ Ｔ Ｒ Ｅ
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

cxcxＷｅ ａｒｅ ｍａｄｅ ｏｆ ｓｈａｔｔｅｒｅｄ ｐｉｅｃｅｓ.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"I'm not sure if you could call all of that 'safe," Colette returned to his joking demeanor as he gathered his stuff. But the statement itself was true - the way they had gotten into the city hadn't been safe at all. They had walked for about a day through the scorching desert, jumped onto a moving train, and stolen from a few people on the train. If they had been going for a safe and undeniable way into the city, they would've just gone trekking up to it with their hands raised in the air.

She nodded when it came to his directions, before anxiously listening to his answer to her request. He couldn't deny her that one task, could he? Her family conflict might've not been any of his business, but she was stuck in a peculiar condition at the moment where she could burden it no longer. If she went hastily striding out into the streets of the city in search of her father, she wouldn't be able to get nowhere, all because of her blindness. By this point, she couldn't even be of help to Alex.

Even when he agreed to her request, there was that debilitated feeling sinking in the pit of her stomach - biting at her sides as she was left alone in the deafening reticence of the motel room.

A minute or two after he had left, she had realized that she should've asked him where the bathroom was. With a sense of forlorn, it took two minutes of stumbling and delicately trailing her hand along the walls to find where it was, with an extra one to find the handle of the shower. But after doing so, she had turned around in the small space and placed one hand on the counter. And then she stood there for a second or two longer, before leaning over it and placing a firm hand against the mirror. Just like that, she longed to see once again. Maybe her hair had grown a little bit, or maybe her skin had started to darken from the lustrous sun of the desert, yet she had no ability to know this. And possibly, she might never again. She would never be able to see the light handprints that soiled the mirror's surface after she recoiled her hand - a mark of furtive wishes.

Taking a shower didn't take up too much of her time, besides for the small futile dilemmas that took place every now and then with her ineffective sight. Even so, it was still nice to take a decently lanky shower. After spending the beginning of the day in the sun, the roll of water down her skin was a luxurious treat to her, especially with the conditions she'd lived in for the past week.

Afterwards, she carelessly let her damp hair fall around her shoulders while she stretched out across the bed, after getting changed and drying her hair with a towel. She couldn't recall how long she'd spent in the shower, but she only guessed that Alex would get back soon enough. She dawdled with the time before that - spent it with sealed eyes, and passed the minutes by listening to the sounds that drifted in from outside. By the time he finally got back, she had almost drifted out on the bed.

Her eyes fluttered open when he came in, as she sat up. Turning her head in his direction, she couldn't help the curiosity that waltzed on her tongue about his quest to get food, "What'd you get?" Crossing her legs, she kept her fruitless gaze on him expectantly, though she didn't get the answer she had wanted at first. Instead, her expression fell when he mentioned the scuffle he had witnessed.

After mutely listening to his regal of the fuss, she let her face fall down to face a lose thread on the quilt. "A man lost his daughter, huh?" she murmured with a reserved tone, her voice laced with anguish. What if her father felt like that, at this very moment? Letting out a sigh, she drifted her hand over the quilt before fumbling with the lose thread. "It wouldn't be a surprise if she was taken for experimental reasons... The scientists are probably already attempting to recreate their success by now."

The recall was certainly a damper to her mood, but she was at least glad for the meal he had brought back. Saying she wasn't hungry would've been a lie, after aimlessly wasting the earlier time waiting for him. But as they started to eat, she couldn't help but bring up a few questions through their small talk. "You know, I never really asked you before - have you ever actually been in the city? Or, well, lived here?" As she sat across from him on the bed, the curiosity actually shone in her eyes, like a little child asking about every little detail of the world. It softened up the corners of her delicate features as well, as she leaned back while using her arms for support, and tilted her head back to the ceiling. "I've heard of people born in the Outside, but it was just a rumor. And the rumors you can hear in the city haven't always been too dependable..."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ｗｅ ａｒｅ ｂｒｏｋｅｎ ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅ ｓｔａｒｔ.cxcxcx

[arabmorgan]

{ derp late reply >< and yes the next day is fine! }

ｈｅ ｉｓ ｊｕｓｔ ａｌｅｘ
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was obvious that Colette had just finished her shower when he returned, her damp hair cascading down her back and curling slightly at the ends. Seeing her bleary expression, Alex held back a smile, but couldn't help asking as he closed the door behind him, "Did I wake you up?" The plastic bags in his hand crackled loudly in the small room as he set them down on the table, putting the cheesecake and bread aside for the moment. Almost immediately, she asked curiously about the food and he proudly took the lid off the cheap plastic box that held the spaghetti, allowing its delicious aroma to fill the air.

Sitting down opposite her, he placed a fork in her hand, directing it towards the food so she knew the rough position of the box. "Oh, I saw something interesting just now," he suddenly mentioned, glancing up at her. Personally, he wouldn't really describe it as interesting - perhaps disturbing was more accurate - but he assumed Colette would be eager to hear whatever he could tell her about her old home. As he spoke, though, her expression visibly grew dimmer, clearly lost in her own thoughts. Hesitating, his words slowed, unsure whether to continue, but she suddenly spoke then, her words quiet and filled with grief.

With sudden realization, Alex recalled what she had told him about her own father, paralyzed and helpless. That was probably why she had volunteered to be experimented upon, to support her and her father. Of course she would be affected by the thought of another father and daughter being separated. Inwardly berating himself for his insensitivity, he recounted his quest for food to her instead, trying to insert humor where he could and keeping his tone upbeat - mostly he complained ceaselessly about all the closed stalls and the immeasurable distance he'd had to walk to finally find an open restaurant. The casual chat as they ate was strangely enjoyable, and Alex suddenly realised he had never had a proper conversation with Colette before. At least, not one where they were exhausted and about to fall asleep in the cave.

One of her questions gave him pause though, wondering how best to answer without revealing his memory loss. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, but it was still a sore topic for him, something to private to be shared with anyone, and talking about it would only create more questions than answers anyway. "I lived here for a while," he replied truthfully, racking his brains for what little he could remember and the faint impression that still remained in his mind, like indistinct shadows, "but my family eventually grew disillusioned with the whole rich-equals-power way of life, so we left." He shrugged even though she couldn't see it, hoping she would sense that he no longer wanted to talk about his family - not because of any reason she might think of, but because he simply didn't know where they were now.

Instead, he turned his mind to her next statement, pondering in silence for a moment. "I'm sure there've been people born Outside. Why wouldn't there be?" he asked finally, slightly confused. "It's not like the Exiles don't have children or anything. Didn't you ever hear the young ones outside when you were in the exile camp?" Just about then, they finished off the last of the spaghetti, and he set the box aside, taking the slice of cake in its own little container out. "Ta-da, guess what!" he said, whipping off the lid and grinning, breathing in the sweet scent. Passing her a clean fork, he stood and went over to their bags to rummage for his clean(er) clothes, saying as he did so, "You can eat first, I'm going to shower. Just leave a few bites for me!"

The shower was refreshing and exhilarating; it felt as though be hadn't been clean in ages, and any chance to remove the accumulated dirt was precious. Grabbing a spare blanket from the closet when he came out of the bathroom, he lay down as comfortably as he could on the couch after polishing off the rest of the cake and seeing that Colette was safely in bed. "You should come out with me tomorrow, get a feel of how the city's changed in the few months you were gone," he mumbled sleepily, before falling into a peaceful slumber.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ｌｏｓｔ ｉｎ ｈｉｓ ｏｗｎ ｍｉｎｄ.

[adoration]

{ I'm really sorry that I haven't gotten up a reply yet. After my trip I was in a little bit of a procrastinating and relaxing state, so I didn't take the chance to reply to my longer RPs. I have exams this week, but I'll try to get up a reply after it's all passed. }
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[arabmorgan]

{ okay, sure! i'm glad we're still going on with this rp c:
all the best for your exams ^^ }

[adoration]

{ Jeez, I feel like such a ditz for not replying in forever, but Summer has been chaotic for me. I stopped roleplaying for a while with everything going on, and now that I'm back I have a lot to reply to. I absolutely love this roleplay though, so do you still want to continue it? The other day I was imagining the whole execution plan again, and I remembered that I have yet to reply! I'll try to get a reply up soon, perhaps tomorrow, if you're still up for it all. c: }

[arabmorgan]

{ oh yes, i would definitely still be up for this c: school starts in a few weeks for me though, so my replies may get a little slow then. }

[adoration]

{ Alright! c: I'm glad you still want to continue it. And that's perfectly fine, school starts in a month for me, so I'll probably be busy as well then.
I'll try to get up a post tonight; if not, I'll get one up tomorrow. It's pretty late where I am, so I'm a little bit tired and all. I'm sure I'll be able to rummage up something though. }

[adoration]

{ This post was actually super fun to write. cx Colette had a brief little look into Alex's memories as she was asleep, though she probably hadn't been able to tell they were his. Either way, sorry if the post's a little lengthy! cx I have a bunch of muse for this roleplay again, so I'm looking forward to continuing it. }

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
ＣＯ Ｌ Ｅ Ｔ Ｔ Ｅ Ｊ Ｓ Ｙ Ｌ Ｖ Ｅ Ｓ Ｔ Ｒ Ｅ
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

cxcxＷｅ ａｒｅ ｍａｄｅ ｏｆ ｓｈａｔｔｅｒｅｄ ｐｉｅｃｅｓ.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

For once, it was nice to have a casual conversation with Alex, who'd she come to know the slightest bit in a week and a half-- or, at least, sometime around then. Though dreary thoughts of her father hung in the back of her head like a phantom, he managed to momentarily pull her mind off of it with the criticism of food stalls and melodramatic tale of his hunt for food.
That is, until the milestone came; her question relating to his past seemed to bring back the dispersed feeling between the two.

"Oh," she replied faintly, noticing how he grew lenient and reserved at the question. It was bland to see how the two had something in common, even if their pasts set them so far apart; maybe it was their regret, their mourn, that inexplicable loss of knowledge about the ones they loved. Perhaps, only perhaps, did Colette feel a sort of relation to the boy sitting across from her as she listened to him, who she hadn't even truly seen before.

She let him change the topic; the vexation that came with the topic was almost unbearable. Even so, she carelessly smiled to herself-- for the first time in a while --at his answer about people being born in the Outside, even if it was only a little. Tilting her head downwards, she said, "I guess that was a stupid question." Of course there would be children out there; her mind must've been clouded with all the city's rumors of 'barbarous savages beyond the walls'. The people at the exile camp hadn't seemed too bad; well, besides the facts that they captured and blindfolded her, for selfish purposes. At least they were still human-- just like her and Alex.

Maybe her smile would've grown as he whipped out the cheesecake, if only she had actually been able to see it. Instead, she dumbfoundedly stared at him with her good-for-nothing eyes while he passed her a fork. She could only assume that it was food-- something sweet, due to the scent --but she couldn't place her finger on what it exactly was.
As Alex hopped off of the bed, her idle gaze followed him as she pondered over what it was. "What is it?" she asked after he had spoken, though to no avail; the door to the bathroom had shut before he could've heard her.

She prodded it with the fork at first, as if the thing might've been poisoned, before actually trying the slice of cake. It was luscious and thick, and melted on her tongue like honey. "Cheesecake," she assured to herself with rising spirits. For the situation the two were in, they were certainly developing a misplaced relationship in their bleak days.

By the time Alex came out, Colette had already gotten herself buried in the covers on the bed, leaving the rest of the cake on the bedside table. Her hair streaked out around her head in swirls and soon-to-be knots, while her eyes were glued shut. Truth be told, all the events of the day had left her exhausted; as she listened to Alex's last words of the night, sleep was persistently dragging her into a gentle and watery depth, filled with bits and pieces of memories which didn't belong to her, but to a little, brown-haired boy from long ago;
"Alright..."

------

Light spilled into the room from the feathery-- and rather pointless --curtains. Erratic patterns and blotches of sunlight streamed across the room, waking the slumbering Colette. As she blinked open her eyes, it took a while for the blurriness in her vision to fade away, leaving a clear view of the room.
She could see, but not for long. Rising up, she threw her feet off of the bed, and stood up. It was the motel room; that she knew. But it was empty-- empty, incomplete, desolate. Alex wasn't there, only the gloomy pieces of crooked furniture.

Nothing made sense; where was she? Bewildered and stuck in a daze, her first instinct was to head for the door. Stumbling over herself, the rusted knob was frigid and brisk against her toasty skin. Flinging open the door, she was greeted by a white, unwelcoming plain.
And suddenly, it bursted into an uproar of vibrant colors.

Ribbons of hues swirled together to form pictures and stories all of their own, as she was pulled into a trance. Brief images fluttered by; a younger girl breaking out into fits of giggles, passionate meetings between two young teenagers, an older couple fading into nothing. She was mesmerized, enchanted, all by this other life.
But this was not hers to see.

------

Once again, it was black. Colette's eyes flickered open, as she remained lying on her side in the motel bed. Staying motionless for a few moments, she soon sat up, her fingers delicately running along the crinkles in the sheets and blankets.
She was back in the motel room-- well, she had never left. It had been a dream. Even so, she was hesitant to speak;
"Alex?"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ｗｅ ａｒｅ ｂｒｏｋｅｎ ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅ ｓｔａｒｔ.cxcxcx