the fifth loophole

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

[Boy, last night was a really cool meteor shower, wasn't it? Not that the man in black really cared much- he had seen several meteor showers back on the island, and so yesterday's event was something not worth his time and interest.]

[Right now he's going around the castle grounds in smoke form, flitting to and fro throughout the underbrush. People nearby can catch glimpses of black smoke and the strange sounds of the smoke monster. He's bored. Incredibly bored. And suddenly, he spots something.]

[The duck pond.]

[Sometime later, people walking out near the grounds might spot a man dressed in black examining something red and brown in his arms while sitting by the duck pond. As you come closer, you may realize that he's picking off the feathers one by one off a rather dead duck. It doesn't look harmed at all, surprisingly. No wounds or cuts or anything.]

[He has his journal open next to him, and he speaks, still engaged in his task.]

It's been a while since I asked you people anything. So, here's another question to keep your busy.

[A pause.] If you suddenly saw somebody that you loved that had died a while ago one day, what would you do? Would you think that it was an illusion? A ghost? A mere hallucination of your already tormented mind?

For, it's not every day you can see the dead. But what if you could...?

[ooc: Feel free to run into him in his smoke form or wonder why the heck he's plucking a duck. Or just reply to his question. All up to you. :)]

Comments

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

Ignorance is found everywhere, whether you like it or not. It's something you can't change in people.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

Mayhaps. I am not so foolish as to believe there exists a land free from ignorance, nor that there will ever be. Yet it needn't prevail.

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

True. But what can you do? Go and tell people "stop being ignorant"? It's in their nature. A leopard can't change it's spots.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

Is it? I wonder that people so readily assign to nature what might be better put to circumstance and will. "I cannot change" is a far cry from "I will not change," yet it seems to me one is oft mistaken for the other.

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

Sometimes they're one and the same thing. But whatever the case, people are always the same, from generation to generation.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

In that they have equal chance to rise or fall as they will, you are right.

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

I guess so. I knew somebody who believed that everyone would be able to be redeemed in the end, be able to rise...

I don't know how much of that is true, to be honest.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

There are very few who are past all hope. But I do not mistake hope for certainty.

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

Exactly. You shouldn't blindly think that people will become better because of the way they are. In fact, quite the opposite. They're almost doomed to corrupt others.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

It is far easier to fall than to rise, I will grant you that. [She knows it too well. /sob]

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

[A slight sigh.] It really is. I know that from experience.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

You are not alone in that here, I am certain.

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I don't think that there's a single person who's been through what I have gone through.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

Perhaps not. Yet you may find more understanding than you think.

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be understood. I just want to go home where I belong. I shouldn't be here in the first place...

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

None of us should be here.

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

That could be true, but some are more willing to stay than others.

Besides, if I ever go back, I'd still be trapped. From the frying pan into the fire. I can't go home even if I return where I was before.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

[As an exile herself, that last sentence hits her rather strongly. Lórien had become home, it is true, but a part of her had always longed for the Undying Lands, moreso now as she felt the weight of her age.]

Then, I will hope you may make a home wherever you may find yourself.

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

I can't.

[His usually cold tone is sharp. Remembering that he was no more than somebody trapped within an impossibly invincible cage that was also an entire island was harrowing, to say the least.]

That place isn't my home. It never was, never has been. I'm being kept against my will, and no matter what I do, it never will be my home.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

[There's a slight pause, but otherwise no reaction to the shift in tone.]

Forgive me, I spoke without full understanding. It was not my intention to bring you pain.

[fumidus.livejournal.com]

No, it's okay.

[And again he folds the feelings into himself, hiding that rage inside so he can use it later when he becomes his other self. No need to be emotional while human.]

I wouldn't expect you to understand.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

It has been a pleasure speaking with you, regardless. [This weird turn in conversation is no excuse for ill manners, after all.]