So yeah, I don't even know what this is. I just had the urge to write Hayate and Verossa in my 'verse, so I did. Lots of dialogue, but I liked working on it. Set after LDG as a whole, in terms of timeline.
Spoiler for Shadow's Contradiction:
Yagami Hayate was tired.
In light of that fact, taking time to review her usual load of Shadow cases before going to bed probably wasn’t the best decision she’d ever made; but when she had decided to act as Chrono’s “angel on the shoulder” so to speak, she’d known right away that she was definitely not making the best decision she’d ever made.
She sighed and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes, before she reached up to adjust the light of her lamp a little. Normally she would have kept the whole room alit, but her boys were sleeping just down the hall, and any small amount of brightness was enough to have them up and poking around. Honestly…. She loved her sons, she always had and always would, but sometimes she wondered where they had gotten their sense of curiosity and adventure. They were still young yet. Perhaps they would outgrow it in their teenage years, if she got lucky….
It was at that moment that Hayate noticed a warm pair of arms that hadn’t been resting on her shoulders before, a hand innocently toying with the top button of her blouse. She smirked. “Dear, if you’re trying to undress me, you’re doing a poor job of it.”
“I never do a poor job of anything.” Her husband grinned before he pulled back, and she turned the chair around to face him. In the dim light of the room, it didn’t escape her notice that Verossa was shirtless, and had she had some free time on her hands she probably would have taken advantage of that fact.
“Have I kept you up? I tried to keep the light down so you could sleep.”
“It’s fine, I’ve been awake for awhile.” He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Besides, I could hear you thinking from here.”
“Here me think—“ Of course he would, she thought with a small smirk. If there was one thing Verossa Acous was known for, it was his ability to read people even when they put on a mask. It was one of the reasons he was Chrono’s friend. “I’m sorry I was so loud.”
“I’m sure you didn’t mean it.” He patted the space beside him, a clear invitation.
Hayate knew him well enough to know that if she said no, he would understand; Verossa had never been the type to hold grudges. He’d married her knowing full well that in some cases, work would take priority over any family they had.
So she felt no guilt when she stood and crossed the room, sitting down next to him and resting her cheek against his shoulder, comforted by the warmth of his skin. She felt his hand settle on her shoulder and closed her eyes. “I feel like I’m watching a train wreck in progress.”
He gave her shoulder a soft squeeze. “The talk with Chrono didn’t go well?”
“It went fine. I didn’t stay very long once I knew he hadn’t sent Lutecia-chan out himself. I just feel like I’m on a hill watching two trains speeding right at each other, and I have no way of stopping it.”
It was an odd example for the current situation, but also very fitting; Verossa knew immediately what she was talking about. “No way of stopping it, huh?”
“Putting her under suicide watch wouldn’t work, though I know the medic threatened to. You can force Lutecia-chan off duty and into a psychologist’s office, but she’s a Shadow. She won’t talk if she doesn’t want to.” Hayate opened her eyes and shook her head. “She’s boxed herself in, Rossa. I don’t know what’s worse: that her superiors saw it and did nothing to prevent it, or that she worked so hard to get there in the first place.”
“There’s one way out of the corner,” Verossa offered. At that, Hayate grimaced.
“Of course. Send in her seventeen-year-old girlfriend to work through years of self-hatred and emotional confusion, when said girlfriend has, in the past few days alone, had her whole sense of morality questioned, learned about a side of Lutecia-chan that she never saw for eight years, and if things keep going at this rate, will never see Nanoha-chan eye-to-eye ever again.”
It was easy to understand Hayate’s frustration when she put it like that. In essence, they were using a teenager, someone who had really only started to learn about the world, to defuse a ticking time bomb that everyone else had willingly ignored since the death of Miranda Creed.
“I still think they have a chance,” he said softly. “Vivio loves Lutecia, and if anything, she’s inherited Nanoha’s determination. If she has to, I can see her dragging Lutecia out of that corner kicking and screaming.”
The image made Hayate chuckle, just as he had hoped it would. “Considering that growth spurt, I think she’s physically capable of it,” the brown-haired woman murmured. “The question is, once she’s dragged Lutecia-chan out of that corner, will Lutecia-chan be able to make it the rest of the way on her own?”
And that was what it came down to, in the end; not if Vivio could save Lutecia, but if Lutecia could come to terms with her own sense of self. Doing that meant taking a good, hard look at her eight years of service as a Shadow and deciding if she still believed enough in the ideal of it to keep trying in the field, or if she’d had enough and walked away from it completely to start over.
It was a risky chance; Lutecia had staked too much of her own worth into the job, had believed for far too long that she could do nothing else. Expecting her to look back on that time with a clear mind and rationally decide to completely throw it away was the same as expecting her to toss out a chunk of who she was. It wasn’t impossible—it had happened before, with many other people, and they had survived it well enough—but it was hard.
But even beyond that…
“Really,” Hayate sighed, “it’s a question of whether or not Lutecia-chan wants to follow in Nanoha-chan’s footsteps.”
At that, Verossa blinked. He’d been following his wife right up until her last statement. “Nanoha?”
Seeing she had lost him, Hayate chuckled again. “Yes, Nanoha-chan. It might be a bit of a stretch, but I’d say Nanoha-chan is Lutecia-chan’s ideal.”
“… I’m still lost.”
This time she couldn’t resist and laughed softly, leaning up and kissing him lightly on the lips. Pulling back, she smiled slightly. “Think of it this way, Rossa. You’ve read Lutecia-chan’s mission reports just as I have. Have you noticed a pattern?”
Verossa blinked, frowning slightly as he thought back on what he had read. Hayate had to resist the sudden and brief urge to jump him right then and there. “She saves people,” he said at last. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a civilian, a fellow agent, or even one of the bad guys who got caught in the line of fire. She tries to save as many people as she can.” While usually putting herself at risk in the process, but he knew he didn’t need to say that.
“Exactly. And who else do we know does her best to save people, even at her own risk?”
He blinked again; he was starting to get it, she could see it in his eyes, but some threads of it were still out of his reach. “Nanoha.”
“Again, exactly. Now, think of it like this.” Hayate took a deep breath. “Deep down, Lutecia-chan is a kind person. She always has been, so that’s part of what drives her. Then you take her and expose her to someone like Nanoha-chan, who has never hidden the fact that she believes you should find a way to save everyone without sacrificing a few.”
He got it now. “It would only strengthen her own urge to save people,” Rossa finished. “She’s already naturally inclined to it because of her personality, but spending time with someone who believes that would only make her inclination ten times stronger.”
“Right.” It was the equivalent of tossing gasoline onto an already burning fire; it would only make the flames stronger.
A moment later, though, Verossa frowned and shook his head. “That thinking makes no sense,” he muttered. “I don’t mean to sound cruel, but Lutecia is a Shadow, first and foremost. Shadows aren’t exactly the kind of agents expected to save people.”
“That wasn’t cruel, it was honest.” Hayate sighed. “And that’s where Lutecia-chan is getting all tangled up. Because of who she truly is, and because of her exposure to people like Nanoha-chan, she wants to do the heroic thing, the right thing, and save people without losing any of them. The problem is, the whole idea behind the Shadows is to save many while sacrificing a few.”
It was easy to see where the ideals clashed. It was a thought of saving people, with two totally different ideas on how to do it.
Verossa’s frown became thoughtful. “Do you think Nanoha knows, and that’s why she’s still having such a hard time accepting Lutecia?”
“I think Nanoha-chan knows that Lutecia-chan is the type who would save everybody if she could. I’m just guessing, but it would explain part of her reason why she can’t fully accept Lutecia-chan.” Hayate paused. “Well, besides the fact that she’s also by proxy exposing Vivio to all of this.”
Verossa winced and nodded; he was suddenly grateful their boys weren’t old enough yet to date.
“To Nanoha-chan, you could say Lutecia-chan is the ultimate contradiction. She wants to save as many people as she can, yet she does it in such a way that she’ll lose as many people as she saves.” Hayate shook her head. “It’s a major gray spot. Nanoha-chan always hated gray spots.”
“And now her daughter is dating the gray spot.”
Hayate snickered at that. “When you put it like that, it sounds funny; but it’s true. And what probably makes it even worse for Nanoha-chan is that Vivio’s accepted Lutecia-chan’s contradiction and loves her anyway.”
“…. Is there any chance we can just lock the boys up until they’re thirty or so? This ‘parents of a dating teenager’ thing sounds painful and confusing.”
“I’m considering it.”
The silence that followed after that was comfortable and warm; Hayate felt as if she could fall asleep at any moment. Finally, though, she got up and went over to her files, setting them away for the night and shutting down her system. “In the end it all comes down to what Lutecia-chan decides,” she said as she moved around the room. “So I guess worrying about it is pointless since it’s out of my hands.”
“You’re worried. It’s natural.” Verossa leaned back on his elbows, watching as his wife finished shutting down her work station. “Are you coming to bed?”
Hayate smiled wickedly.
“If I remember right, you didn’t do a very good job of undressing me.”
The ending line bugs me, but I couldn't think of anything better. Always fun to poke around and figure out Lutecia's mind from the perspective of other characters, though.
So yeah, I don't even know what this is. I just had the urge to write Hayate and Verossa in my 'verse, so I did. Lots of dialogue, but I liked working on it. Set after LDG as a whole, in terms of timeline.
Spoiler for Shadow's Contradiction:
*snip*
The ending line bugs me, but I couldn't think of anything better. Always fun to poke around and figure out Lutecia's mind from the perspective of other characters, though.
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
Soooo... I sat down to write, just on the off-chance that something would happen. And what do you know, something did!
Spoiler for Center Ring, Part 8:
Lutecia… I'm sorry, 'Dr. Veronica Klondike' sat down across the table from Vivio. "Now, as you are a minor, I have allowed your mother to be here."
"And also because she's still totally incoherent." Nanoha said bluntly, propping Vivio up so the girl wouldn't fall over and hurt herself. The combination of Lutecia's clownish aura of power and Vivio's painfully obvious and enormous crush had left the girl a complete mess. Nanoha had managed to get her... sorta... conscious again, but she was still completely useless for anything but spouting nonsense.
"… yes, that also." Lutecia admitted. "Now, I will show you a series of images, and you tell me what each one makes you think of. Do you understand?"
"She is passed out. She cannot hear you." Nanoha said.
"Very well, let us begin." Lutecia said, totally ignoring her. She held up a picture of a butterfly.
"Lguauu…" Vivio said.
"Thought of killing baby seals. Suspect displays an almost pathological need to inflict pain on others…" Lutecia said, jotting down some notes onto her clipboard.
"Eh? She didn't say any of that, why are you writing that down?" Nanoha asked.
"I'm not writing anything down." Lutecia said, writing something down.
"Yes you are, I can see you."
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. Now, Vivio, what do you think of this picture?" Lutecia asked, holding up an image of a kitten cuddling with a bunny.
"Ffjajllla..." Vivio said.
"Image made her want to burn down a hospital. Suspect may be incapable of feeling empathy for other human beings..."
"She didn't say that! Stop writing!"
"I'm not writing anything." Lutecia said, jotting down some final notes.
"I don't like you." Nanoha said, eyes narrowed.
"Suspect's mother displays open murderous intent, brags about the time she kidnapped and ate a dozen orphans. Clearly this sociopathic behavior is genetic..." Lutecia said, continuing to jot down notes.
"We're not even related by blood!"
"New hypothesis; clearly this sociopathic behavior is linked to how the suspect was raised, and most likely routinely abused, by the horrible monster I see before me..."
"Vivio? Please wake up soon. I begin to suspect this interrogation may be rigged against us."
"Suspect's mother is incapable of trusting another human being, in keeping with the other warning signs that mark her as a homicidal madwoman..." Lutecia said.
***
"So... um... in my... m-my..." Nove said, blushing furiously. "... I... my... um... p-professional... professional..."
It had been going so well, until now. They had all successfully (for a certain value of 'success') managed to infiltrate local law enforcement. They had Yagami and her circus successfully imprisoned, where they couldn't interfere with the Doc's plan. They had the oh-so-dangerous clown helplessly in Lutecia's clutches (it helped in that case that Vivio had obligingly decided to do nothing but spout nonsense and drool). Then, however, the time had come to commence the actual framing and make sure that Yagami's stay in prison lasted for the rest of her life.
Quattro had done just fine. But then it was time for Nove and Wendi to play their parts, and Quattro had learned something about her sisters: they couldn't act their way out of a wet paper bag.
Quattro rubbed her temples to fight off the headache. "Opinion! The word you're looking for is 'opinion'!" she snapped.
"Right, right, my professional opinion. Um... uh... that girl... who's-her-face, she did it. On purpose. And you all... you helped." Nove said weakly.
Chrono clapped slowly. "Wow. That's just... wow. You're clearly the cutting edge of law enforcement. Tell me, what evidence brought you to this conclusion, Agent McBeef? Or are we just working on a gut feeling, here?"
"... ... ... ... ... ... ..." Nove said, freezing up like a deer in the headlights.
Wendi smacked her upside the head. "Dummy, you're doing it all wrong! Here, watch me." She cleared her throat.
"GATHER! And I shall tell you now, a story of crime most foul." Wendi said, throwing her hands dramatically into the air for emphasis.
"Oh, God..." Quattro said.
"Yea, and the victim, an innocent, harmless young lady, enter into yon den of inequity, seeking only to see the pleasures of the circus, as any girl would." Wendi proclaimed grandiosely. "But upon her arrival, found only the black abyss of evil."
It should be noticed that she pronounced that last word 'e-veel'. In fact, she seemed to be over-pronouncing a lot of words, and probably using more elaborate gestures than relating a crime scene strictly required.
"Are we really listening to her...? She's treating this like a high school production of one of Shakespeare's more annoying plays." Teana said.
"Oh, just let her finish. She's only going to put on sunglasses if you don't." Chrono said.
"And YET!" Wendi screamed, probably for dramatic emphasis, "The girl sought only to escape, thinking of her desperate need to survive and see once again her boyfriend, Marco the poor busboy working to support his ailing mother, and her kitten Bootsie."
"... wait, what?" half the people in the room said, including both of Wendi's sisters.
"Idiot, this isn't an improv! Stick to the scrip... er, the crime scene report!" Quattro said.
"But what if they want to know the victim's backstory? Supporting cast are important. They flesh out the character via their interactions." Wendi said.
"She doesn't need to be 'fleshed out', she was a real person!"
"Are you sure? 'Cause I had this great scene where she gets home to find Bootsie is sick, and she can't afford a vet so Marco steals a diamond necklace from their rich neighbor, and..."
"Just say what happened at the frickin' circus!" Quattro shrieked.
"Really. Nobody cares." Teana agreed. She sounded a little shocked that she agreed with Quattro, but also seemed to be learning to live with it.
"Is... is Bootsie going to be okay?" Subaru asked, tears in her eyes.
"And what about Marco? If his crime is discovered, what will he do? He can't afford a lawyer with his mother's medical bills to pay!" Verossa said.
Teana and Chrono looked at each other, with a look that said, without words, 'I know your pain, and I share in it'. "Should... should we even bother?" Chrono asked.
"I think it would probably be a waste of time." Teana said sadly. "Just let them stay off in their own little worlds. Most likely they're happier that way anyhow."
"Fair enough. Miss Evelen, please continue." Chrono said.
"Very well!" Wendi said, snapping instantly back into drama mode. "She walked from tent to tent, each new step bringing with it new horrors... horrible, monstrous beasts!" She snapped, pointing at Caro the animal tamer.
"My babies are very well behaved!" The little pink girl protested.
"Heartless killers!" She continued, pointing at Vita.
"Hey, I don't kill anyone! Hospitalize, sure, but..."
"Twisted, vile experiments in mad science!" Wendi went on, pointing at Shari.
"Hard to argue with that one." Hayate admitted, clamping her hand down on Shari's mouth before she could make things worse by being herself.
"And then... just when she believed that she was doomed, she saw the greatest horror of them all: a child, trapped among this den of horrors. Trapped, and all alone!" Wendi said dramatically. "Her heart filled with love for her fellow man..."
"HA!" Most of the room (including, notably, Nove) said.
"... she went to rescue this poor, innocent child. Yet only then did the 'helpless child' reveal herself a viper in disguise. For she too was a member of this Circus of Terror, and when our kindhearted victim picked her up... the horrible devil-child drove home the cruel knife into her heart, a smirk of wicked glee upon her deceptively angelic face. And that... was how this crime occurred, gentle viewers."
"... 'gentle viewers'?" Teana asked dryly.
Chrono rubbed his temples. "I'm going to give you five minutes," He said coldly, "To spot what is wrong with your story. If it takes you the whole five minutes, something is very wrong with you."
"Eh? Did I do something..." Wendi began.
"Due wasn't killed with a knife, you moron. She was the one holding the knife." Quattro hissed, murder in her eyes.
"... can I start over?" Wendi asked. "Because I think I was going pretty good up until that last part."
***
Nanoha began to seriously wonder if maybe Verossa wasn't a better indicator of the general quality of this town's police force than Chrono was.
So far, Lutecia's 'simple image test' had declared Vivio to be a Murdering Thieving Rapist Sociopathic Arsonist, (and possibly a Vampire). This in spite of the fact that Vivio had not actually answered any of the questions. And Nanoha's request for assistance against this clearly biased test had resulted in the attending officer proclaiming that 'Psychological mumbo-jumbo' was best left 'to the brains', and walking out. It had taken all of Nanoha's willpower not to smash the man's teeth down his throat, but that would have only helped confirm Lutecia's analysis of her as a Psychotic Drug-addicted Child-abusing Cannibal (and possibly a Witch, further tests would be required to be certain and no ducks were currently available).
So yeah, things were not going well.
"All right, next image." Lutecia said, holding up the next card. "What do you think of this?"
Nanoha braced herself for two things; Vivio sputtering nonsense, and the urge to crush Lutecia's face.
"It's wrong." Vivio said.
Both Nanoha and Lutecia reacted as though they'd been bitten. The two women instantly turned their eyes to the card that had finally, finally provoked a reaction from the non-responsive girl, to see an image of a brightly dressed clown, holding a bunch of balloons and handing them out to children.
"It's wrong. His shoes are too small, everyone knows they need to extend a minimum to 1.5 feet beyond the edge of the toes. His makeup is unsymmetrical. His wig is the wrong color to off-set the polkadots on his shirt, Clowns should have clashing color schemes to draw more attention to them." Vivio said. Bizarrely, her eyes still looked distinctly unfocused; it was as if she was speaking without actually waking up. "His rubber nose is too small for his face. His pants aren't baggy enough, they don't offer sufficient hiding places for props. And those balloons! Helium balloons, really? Just round? What self-respecting clown doesn't even make balloon animals?!"
It was bizarre, to Nanoha's eyes. As Vivio got angrier and angrier, she seemed to grow in both size and in brightness, becoming somehow more defined against the room. Lutecia, on the other hand, seemed to shrink, to fade into the background. The only part of her that still seemed distinctive was her face; her exposed skin had gone from 'white' to 'ghostly', and her eyes were quite obviously filled with genuine fear.
"Why would you show me this? Why would you even have this image?" Vivio demanded. "You, of all people, should know what an insult this is! How could you possibly expose a fellow clown to this... this mockery?"
"... Vivio, clowns are supposed to mock things..." Nanoha felt compelled to state.
"In their acts, mother, yes. But this... this is a mockery of clowndom itself! She has spat on the essence of 'clown', and she... she, an elite clown, a clown among clowns, should have known better! How dare you, Lutecia Alphine? How dare you?" Vivio snapped.
"I... I'm sorry, I..." Lutecia stammered, before standing up and running out of the room. She ran down the halls, shoving past confused police officers, tears... tears!... running from her eyes. What was... what just happened?! She thought, when she was again capable of conscious thought. Just the sight of the girl had filled her entire being with terror. So overwhelming was the child's aura of clownish rage that Lutecia would have been on her knees praying for mercy had she stayed in that room a second longer. Lutecia was a clown of unsurpassed skill, raised and shaped to be one for years. How had she been overcome so easily?
And why, now that she was away from that all-consuming presence, was the thing she felt most not fear, but... sheer, simple awe?
***
Back in the interrogation room, Vivio stood before the empty space where Lutecia had once been, solemn and silent. Her presence alone seemed to make the mostly empty room feel somehow crowded, as though it were an ancient pharaoh's crypt, heavy with the weight of history and reverence. When she finally moved, after nearly an entire agonizing minute, it was to pick up the sub-par portrait of a clown and tear it in half. She looked at the next portrait in the stack and said, in the same imperious tone she had used to chastise Lutecia, "The next image is a horsie. It is nice."
"... yes. Yes it is." Nanoha said, not quite certain what else to say.
"I like the braid in the tail." Vivio said.
Spoiler for Author's Note:
Why is it, every time I write a chapter in this story, I feel compelled to remind the audience that yeah, even I'm not 100% sure when it went from 'normal' crazy to 'extra-special-super' crazy?
Soooo... I sat down to write, just on the off-chance that something would happen. And what do you know, something did!
Spoiler for Center Ring, Part 8:
Lutecia… I'm sorry, 'Dr. Veronica Klondike' sat down across the table from Vivio. "Now, as you are a minor, I have allowed your mother to be here."
"And also because she's still totally incoherent." Nanoha said bluntly, propping Vivio up so the girl wouldn't fall over and hurt herself. The combination of Lutecia's clownish aura of power and Vivio's painfully obvious and enormous crush had left the girl a complete mess. Nanoha had managed to get her... sorta... conscious again, but she was still completely useless for anything but spouting nonsense.
"… yes, that also." Lutecia admitted. "Now, I will show you a series of images, and you tell me what each one makes you think of. Do you understand?"
"She is passed out. She cannot hear you." Nanoha said.
"Very well, let us begin." Lutecia said, totally ignoring her. She held up a picture of a butterfly.
"Lguauu…" Vivio said.
"Thought of killing baby seals. Suspect displays an almost pathological need to inflict pain on others…" Lutecia said, jotting down some notes onto her clipboard.
"Eh? She didn't say any of that, why are you writing that down?" Nanoha asked.
"I'm not writing anything down." Lutecia said, writing something down.
"Yes you are, I can see you."
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. Now, Vivio, what do you think of this picture?" Lutecia asked, holding up an image of a kitten cuddling with a bunny.
"Ffjajllla..." Vivio said.
"Image made her want to burn down a hospital. Suspect may be incapable of feeling empathy for other human beings..."
"She didn't say that! Stop writing!"
"I'm not writing anything." Lutecia said, jotting down some final notes.
"I don't like you." Nanoha said, eyes narrowed.
"Suspect's mother displays open murderous intent, brags about the time she kidnapped and ate a dozen orphans. Clearly this sociopathic behavior is genetic..." Lutecia said, continuing to jot down notes.
"We're not even related by blood!"
"New hypothesis; clearly this sociopathic behavior is linked to how the suspect was raised, and most likely routinely abused, by the horrible monster I see before me..."
"Vivio? Please wake up soon. I begin to suspect this interrogation may be rigged against us."
"Suspect's mother is incapable of trusting another human being, in keeping with the other warning signs that mark her as a homicidal madwoman..." Lutecia said.
***
"So... um... in my... m-my..." Nove said, blushing furiously. "... I... my... um... p-professional... professional..."
It had been going so well, until now. They had all successfully (for a certain value of 'success') managed to infiltrate local law enforcement. They had Yagami and her circus successfully imprisoned, where they couldn't interfere with the Doc's plan. They had the oh-so-dangerous clown helplessly in Lutecia's clutches (it helped in that case that Vivio had obligingly decided to do nothing but spout nonsense and drool). Then, however, the time had come to commence the actual framing and make sure that Yagami's stay in prison lasted for the rest of her life.
Quattro had done just fine. But then it was time for Nove and Wendi to play their parts, and Quattro had learned something about her sisters: they couldn't act their way out of a wet paper bag.
Quattro rubbed her temples to fight off the headache. "Opinion! The word you're looking for is 'opinion'!" she snapped.
"Right, right, my professional opinion. Um... uh... that girl... who's-her-face, she did it. On purpose. And you all... you helped." Nove said weakly.
Chrono clapped slowly. "Wow. That's just... wow. You're clearly the cutting edge of law enforcement. Tell me, what evidence brought you to this conclusion, Agent McBeef? Or are we just working on a gut feeling, here?"
"... ... ... ... ... ... ..." Nove said, freezing up like a deer in the headlights.
Wendi smacked her upside the head. "Dummy, you're doing it all wrong! Here, watch me." She cleared her throat.
"GATHER! And I shall tell you now, a story of crime most foul." Wendi said, throwing her hands dramatically into the air for emphasis.
"Oh, God..." Quattro said.
"Yea, and the victim, an innocent, harmless young lady, enter into yon den of inequity, seeking only to see the pleasures of the circus, as any girl would." Wendi proclaimed grandiosely. "But upon her arrival, found only the black abyss of evil."
It should be noticed that she pronounced that last word 'e-veel'. In fact, she seemed to be over-pronouncing a lot of words, and probably using more elaborate gestures than relating a crime scene strictly required.
"Are we really listening to her...? She's treating this like a high school production of one of Shakespeare's more annoying plays." Teana said.
"Oh, just let her finish. She's only going to put on sunglasses if you don't." Chrono said.
"And YET!" Wendi screamed, probably for dramatic emphasis, "The girl sought only to escape, thinking of her desperate need to survive and see once again her boyfriend, Marco the poor busboy working to support his ailing mother, and her kitten Bootsie."
"... wait, what?" half the people in the room said, including both of Wendi's sisters.
"Idiot, this isn't an improv! Stick to the scrip... er, the crime scene report!" Quattro said.
"But what if they want to know the victim's backstory? Supporting cast are important. They flesh out the character via their interactions." Wendi said.
"She doesn't need to be 'fleshed out', she was a real person!"
"Are you sure? 'Cause I had this great scene where she gets home to find Bootsie is sick, and she can't afford a vet so Marco steals a diamond necklace from their rich neighbor, and..."
"Just say what happened at the frickin' circus!" Quattro shrieked.
"Really. Nobody cares." Teana agreed. She sounded a little shocked that she agreed with Quattro, but also seemed to be learning to live with it.
"Is... is Bootsie going to be okay?" Subaru asked, tears in her eyes.
"And what about Marco? If his crime is discovered, what will he do? He can't afford a lawyer with his mother's medical bills to pay!" Verossa said.
Teana and Chrono looked at each other, with a look that said, without words, 'I know your pain, and I share in it'. "Should... should we even bother?" Chrono asked.
"I think it would probably be a waste of time." Teana said sadly. "Just let them stay off in their own little worlds. Most likely they're happier that way anyhow."
"Fair enough. Miss Evelen, please continue." Chrono said.
"Very well!" Wendi said, snapping instantly back into drama mode. "She walked from tent to tent, each new step bringing with it new horrors... horrible, monstrous beasts!" She snapped, pointing at Caro the animal tamer.
"My babies are very well behaved!" The little pink girl protested.
"Heartless killers!" She continued, pointing at Vita.
"Hey, I don't kill anyone! Hospitalize, sure, but..."
"Twisted, vile experiments in mad science!" Wendi went on, pointing at Shari.
"Hard to argue with that one." Hayate admitted, clamping her hand down on Shari's mouth before she could make things worse by being herself.
"And then... just when she believed that she was doomed, she saw the greatest horror of them all: a child, trapped among this den of horrors. Trapped, and all alone!" Wendi said dramatically. "Her heart filled with love for her fellow man..."
"HA!" Most of the room (including, notably, Nove) said.
"... she went to rescue this poor, innocent child. Yet only then did the 'helpless child' reveal herself a viper in disguise. For she too was a member of this Circus of Terror, and when our kindhearted victim picked her up... the horrible devil-child drove home the cruel knife into her heart, a smirk of wicked glee upon her deceptively angelic face. And that... was how this crime occurred, gentle viewers."
"... 'gentle viewers'?" Teana asked dryly.
Chrono rubbed his temples. "I'm going to give you five minutes," He said coldly, "To spot what is wrong with your story. If it takes you the whole five minutes, something is very wrong with you."
"Eh? Did I do something..." Wendi began.
"Due wasn't killed with a knife, you moron. She was the one holding the knife." Quattro hissed, murder in her eyes.
"... can I start over?" Wendi asked. "Because I think I was going pretty good up until that last part."
***
Nanoha began to seriously wonder if maybe Verossa wasn't a better indicator of the general quality of this town's police force than Chrono was.
So far, Lutecia's 'simple image test' had declared Vivio to be a Murdering Thieving Rapist Sociopathic Arsonist, (and possibly a Vampire). This in spite of the fact that Vivio had not actually answered any of the questions. And Nanoha's request for assistance against this clearly biased test had resulted in the attending officer proclaiming that 'Psychological mumbo-jumbo' was best left 'to the brains', and walking out. It had taken all of Nanoha's willpower not to smash the man's teeth down his throat, but that would have only helped confirm Lutecia's analysis of her as a Psychotic Drug-addicted Child-abusing Cannibal (and possibly a Witch, further tests would be required to be certain and no ducks were currently available).
So yeah, things were not going well.
"All right, next image." Lutecia said, holding up the next card. "What do you think of this?"
Nanoha braced herself for two things; Vivio sputtering nonsense, and the urge to crush Lutecia's face.
"It's wrong." Vivio said.
Both Nanoha and Lutecia reacted as though they'd been bitten. The two women instantly turned their eyes to the card that had finally, finally provoked a reaction from the non-responsive girl, to see an image of a brightly dressed clown, holding a bunch of balloons and handing them out to children.
"It's wrong. His shoes are too small, everyone knows they need to extend a minimum to 1.5 feet beyond the edge of the toes. His makeup is unsymmetrical. His wig is the wrong color to off-set the polkadots on his shirt, Clowns should have clashing color schemes to draw more attention to them." Vivio said. Bizarrely, her eyes still looked distinctly unfocussed; it was as if she was speaking without actually waking up. "His rubber nose is too small for his face. His pants aren't baggy enough, they don't offer sufficient hiding places for props. And those balloons! Helium balloons, really? Just round? What self-respecting clown doesn't even make balloon animals?!"
It was bizarre, to Nanoha's eyes. As Vivio got angrier and angrier, she seemed to grow in both size and in brightness, becoming somehow more defined against the room. Lutecia, on the other hand, seemed to shrink, to fade into the background. The only part of her that still seemed distinctive was her face; her exposed skin had gone from 'white' to 'ghostly', and her eyes were quite obviously filled with genuine fear.
"Why would you show me this? Why would you even have this image?" Vivio demanded. "You, of all people, should know what an insult this is! How could you possibly expose a fellow clown to this... this mockery?"
"... Vivio, clowns are supposed to mock things..." Nanoha felt compelled to state.
"In their acts, mother, yes. But this... this is a mockery of clowndom itself! She has spat on the essence of 'clown', and she... she, an elite clown, a clown among clowns, should have known better! How dare you, Lutecia Alphine? How dare you?" Vivio snapped.
"I... I'm sorry, I..." Lutecia stammered, before standing up and running out of the room. She ran down the halls, shoving past confused police officers, tears... tears!... running from her eyes. What was... what just happened?! She thought, when she was again capable of conscious thought. Just the sight of the girl had filled her entire being with terror. So overwhelming was the child's aura of clownish rage that Lutecia would have been on her knees praying for mercy had she stayed in that room a second longer. Lutecia was a clown of unsurpassed skill, raised and shaped to be one for years. How had she been overcome so easily?
And why, now that she was away from that all-consuming presence, was the thing she felt most not fear, but... sheer, simple awe?
***
Back in the interrogation room, Vivio stood before the empty space where Lutecia had once been, solemn and silent. Her presence alone seemed to make the mostly empty room feel somehow crowded, as though it were an ancient pharaoh's crypt, heavy with the weight of history and reverence. When she finally moved, after nearly an entire agonizing minute, it was to pick up the sub-par portrait of a clown and tear it in half. She looked at the next portrait in the stack and said, in the same imperious tone she had used to chastise Lutecia, "The next image is a horsie. It is nice."
"... yes. Yes it is." Nanoha said, not quite certain what else to say.
"I like the braid in the tail." Vivio said.
Spoiler for Author's Note:
Why is it, every time I write a chapter in this story, I feel compelled to remind the audience that yeah, even I'm not 100% sure when it went from 'normal' crazy to 'extra-special-super' crazy?
*Scratches head* I'm currently trying to figure out who I should feel sorry for...
Oh! I know! I know!
I feel sorry for Bootsie!
Spoiler for Minor correction:
Vivio said. Bizarrely, her eyes still looked distinctly unfocussed; it was as if she was speaking without actually waking up.
Should be...
Vivio said. Bizarrely, her eyes still looked distinctly unfocused; it was as if she was speaking without actually waking up.
__________________
My fics Due to certain things, I am not here, find me over on TFF.
Soooo... I sat down to write, just on the off-chance that something would happen. And what do you know, something did!
Spoiler for Center Ring, Part 8:
Lutecia… I'm sorry, 'Dr. Veronica Klondike' sat down across the table from Vivio. "Now, as you are a minor, I have allowed your mother to be here."
"And also because she's still totally incoherent." Nanoha said bluntly, propping Vivio up so the girl wouldn't fall over and hurt herself. The combination of Lutecia's clownish aura of power and Vivio's painfully obvious and enormous crush had left the girl a complete mess. Nanoha had managed to get her... sorta... conscious again, but she was still completely useless for anything but spouting nonsense.
"… yes, that also." Lutecia admitted. "Now, I will show you a series of images, and you tell me what each one makes you think of. Do you understand?"
"She is passed out. She cannot hear you." Nanoha said.
"Very well, let us begin." Lutecia said, totally ignoring her. She held up a picture of a butterfly.
"Lguauu…" Vivio said.
"Thought of killing baby seals. Suspect displays an almost pathological need to inflict pain on others…" Lutecia said, jotting down some notes onto her clipboard.
"Eh? She didn't say any of that, why are you writing that down?" Nanoha asked.
"I'm not writing anything down." Lutecia said, writing something down.
"Yes you are, I can see you."
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. Now, Vivio, what do you think of this picture?" Lutecia asked, holding up an image of a kitten cuddling with a bunny.
"Ffjajllla..." Vivio said.
"Image made her want to burn down a hospital. Suspect may be incapable of feeling empathy for other human beings..."
"She didn't say that! Stop writing!"
"I'm not writing anything." Lutecia said, jotting down some final notes.
"I don't like you." Nanoha said, eyes narrowed.
"Suspect's mother displays open murderous intent, brags about the time she kidnapped and ate a dozen orphans. Clearly this sociopathic behavior is genetic..." Lutecia said, continuing to jot down notes.
"We're not even related by blood!"
"New hypothesis; clearly this sociopathic behavior is linked to how the suspect was raised, and most likely routinely abused, by the horrible monster I see before me..."
"Vivio? Please wake up soon. I begin to suspect this interrogation may be rigged against us."
"Suspect's mother is incapable of trusting another human being, in keeping with the other warning signs that mark her as a homicidal madwoman..." Lutecia said.
***
"So... um... in my... m-my..." Nove said, blushing furiously. "... I... my... um... p-professional... professional..."
It had been going so well, until now. They had all successfully (for a certain value of 'success') managed to infiltrate local law enforcement. They had Yagami and her circus successfully imprisoned, where they couldn't interfere with the Doc's plan. They had the oh-so-dangerous clown helplessly in Lutecia's clutches (it helped in that case that Vivio had obligingly decided to do nothing but spout nonsense and drool). Then, however, the time had come to commence the actual framing and make sure that Yagami's stay in prison lasted for the rest of her life.
Quattro had done just fine. But then it was time for Nove and Wendi to play their parts, and Quattro had learned something about her sisters: they couldn't act their way out of a wet paper bag.
Quattro rubbed her temples to fight off the headache. "Opinion! The word you're looking for is 'opinion'!" she snapped.
"Right, right, my professional opinion. Um... uh... that girl... who's-her-face, she did it. On purpose. And you all... you helped." Nove said weakly.
Chrono clapped slowly. "Wow. That's just... wow. You're clearly the cutting edge of law enforcement. Tell me, what evidence brought you to this conclusion, Agent McBeef? Or are we just working on a gut feeling, here?"
"... ... ... ... ... ... ..." Nove said, freezing up like a deer in the headlights.
Wendi smacked her upside the head. "Dummy, you're doing it all wrong! Here, watch me." She cleared her throat.
"GATHER! And I shall tell you now, a story of crime most foul." Wendi said, throwing her hands dramatically into the air for emphasis.
"Oh, God..." Quattro said.
"Yea, and the victim, an innocent, harmless young lady, enter into yon den of inequity, seeking only to see the pleasures of the circus, as any girl would." Wendi proclaimed grandiosely. "But upon her arrival, found only the black abyss of evil."
It should be noticed that she pronounced that last word 'e-veel'. In fact, she seemed to be over-pronouncing a lot of words, and probably using more elaborate gestures than relating a crime scene strictly required.
"Are we really listening to her...? She's treating this like a high school production of one of Shakespeare's more annoying plays." Teana said.
"Oh, just let her finish. She's only going to put on sunglasses if you don't." Chrono said.
"And YET!" Wendi screamed, probably for dramatic emphasis, "The girl sought only to escape, thinking of her desperate need to survive and see once again her boyfriend, Marco the poor busboy working to support his ailing mother, and her kitten Bootsie."
"... wait, what?" half the people in the room said, including both of Wendi's sisters.
"Idiot, this isn't an improv! Stick to the scrip... er, the crime scene report!" Quattro said.
"But what if they want to know the victim's backstory? Supporting cast are important. They flesh out the character via their interactions." Wendi said.
"She doesn't need to be 'fleshed out', she was a real person!"
"Are you sure? 'Cause I had this great scene where she gets home to find Bootsie is sick, and she can't afford a vet so Marco steals a diamond necklace from their rich neighbor, and..."
"Just say what happened at the frickin' circus!" Quattro shrieked.
"Really. Nobody cares." Teana agreed. She sounded a little shocked that she agreed with Quattro, but also seemed to be learning to live with it.
"Is... is Bootsie going to be okay?" Subaru asked, tears in her eyes.
"And what about Marco? If his crime is discovered, what will he do? He can't afford a lawyer with his mother's medical bills to pay!" Verossa said.
Teana and Chrono looked at each other, with a look that said, without words, 'I know your pain, and I share in it'. "Should... should we even bother?" Chrono asked.
"I think it would probably be a waste of time." Teana said sadly. "Just let them stay off in their own little worlds. Most likely they're happier that way anyhow."
"Fair enough. Miss Evelen, please continue." Chrono said.
"Very well!" Wendi said, snapping instantly back into drama mode. "She walked from tent to tent, each new step bringing with it new horrors... horrible, monstrous beasts!" She snapped, pointing at Caro the animal tamer.
"My babies are very well behaved!" The little pink girl protested.
"Heartless killers!" She continued, pointing at Vita.
"Hey, I don't kill anyone! Hospitalize, sure, but..."
"Twisted, vile experiments in mad science!" Wendi went on, pointing at Shari.
"Hard to argue with that one." Hayate admitted, clamping her hand down on Shari's mouth before she could make things worse by being herself.
"And then... just when she believed that she was doomed, she saw the greatest horror of them all: a child, trapped among this den of horrors. Trapped, and all alone!" Wendi said dramatically. "Her heart filled with love for her fellow man..."
"HA!" Most of the room (including, notably, Nove) said.
"... she went to rescue this poor, innocent child. Yet only then did the 'helpless child' reveal herself a viper in disguise. For she too was a member of this Circus of Terror, and when our kindhearted victim picked her up... the horrible devil-child drove home the cruel knife into her heart, a smirk of wicked glee upon her deceptively angelic face. And that... was how this crime occurred, gentle viewers."
"... 'gentle viewers'?" Teana asked dryly.
Chrono rubbed his temples. "I'm going to give you five minutes," He said coldly, "To spot what is wrong with your story. If it takes you the whole five minutes, something is very wrong with you."
"Eh? Did I do something..." Wendi began.
"Due wasn't killed with a knife, you moron. She was the one holding the knife." Quattro hissed, murder in her eyes.
"... can I start over?" Wendi asked. "Because I think I was going pretty good up until that last part."
***
Nanoha began to seriously wonder if maybe Verossa wasn't a better indicator of the general quality of this town's police force than Chrono was.
So far, Lutecia's 'simple image test' had declared Vivio to be a Murdering Thieving Rapist Sociopathic Arsonist, (and possibly a Vampire). This in spite of the fact that Vivio had not actually answered any of the questions. And Nanoha's request for assistance against this clearly biased test had resulted in the attending officer proclaiming that 'Psychological mumbo-jumbo' was best left 'to the brains', and walking out. It had taken all of Nanoha's willpower not to smash the man's teeth down his throat, but that would have only helped confirm Lutecia's analysis of her as a Psychotic Drug-addicted Child-abusing Cannibal (and possibly a Witch, further tests would be required to be certain and no ducks were currently available).
So yeah, things were not going well.
"All right, next image." Lutecia said, holding up the next card. "What do you think of this?"
Nanoha braced herself for two things; Vivio sputtering nonsense, and the urge to crush Lutecia's face.
"It's wrong." Vivio said.
Both Nanoha and Lutecia reacted as though they'd been bitten. The two women instantly turned their eyes to the card that had finally, finally provoked a reaction from the non-responsive girl, to see an image of a brightly dressed clown, holding a bunch of balloons and handing them out to children.
"It's wrong. His shoes are too small, everyone knows they need to extend a minimum to 1.5 feet beyond the edge of the toes. His makeup is unsymmetrical. His wig is the wrong color to off-set the polkadots on his shirt, Clowns should have clashing color schemes to draw more attention to them." Vivio said. Bizarrely, her eyes still looked distinctly unfocused; it was as if she was speaking without actually waking up. "His rubber nose is too small for his face. His pants aren't baggy enough, they don't offer sufficient hiding places for props. And those balloons! Helium balloons, really? Just round? What self-respecting clown doesn't even make balloon animals?!"
It was bizarre, to Nanoha's eyes. As Vivio got angrier and angrier, she seemed to grow in both size and in brightness, becoming somehow more defined against the room. Lutecia, on the other hand, seemed to shrink, to fade into the background. The only part of her that still seemed distinctive was her face; her exposed skin had gone from 'white' to 'ghostly', and her eyes were quite obviously filled with genuine fear.
"Why would you show me this? Why would you even have this image?" Vivio demanded. "You, of all people, should know what an insult this is! How could you possibly expose a fellow clown to this... this mockery?"
"... Vivio, clowns are supposed to mock things..." Nanoha felt compelled to state.
"In their acts, mother, yes. But this... this is a mockery of clowndom itself! She has spat on the essence of 'clown', and she... she, an elite clown, a clown among clowns, should have known better! How dare you, Lutecia Alphine? How dare you?" Vivio snapped.
"I... I'm sorry, I..." Lutecia stammered, before standing up and running out of the room. She ran down the halls, shoving past confused police officers, tears... tears!... running from her eyes. What was... what just happened?! She thought, when she was again capable of conscious thought. Just the sight of the girl had filled her entire being with terror. So overwhelming was the child's aura of clownish rage that Lutecia would have been on her knees praying for mercy had she stayed in that room a second longer. Lutecia was a clown of unsurpassed skill, raised and shaped to be one for years. How had she been overcome so easily?
And why, now that she was away from that all-consuming presence, was the thing she felt most not fear, but... sheer, simple awe?
***
Back in the interrogation room, Vivio stood before the empty space where Lutecia had once been, solemn and silent. Her presence alone seemed to make the mostly empty room feel somehow crowded, as though it were an ancient pharaoh's crypt, heavy with the weight of history and reverence. When she finally moved, after nearly an entire agonizing minute, it was to pick up the sub-par portrait of a clown and tear it in half. She looked at the next portrait in the stack and said, in the same imperious tone she had used to chastise Lutecia, "The next image is a horsie. It is nice."
"... yes. Yes it is." Nanoha said, not quite certain what else to say.
"I like the braid in the tail." Vivio said.
Spoiler for Author's Note:
Why is it, every time I write a chapter in this story, I feel compelled to remind the audience that yeah, even I'm not 100% sure when it went from 'normal' crazy to 'extra-special-super' crazy?
The more I read, the more I feel that we are truly witnessing the beginnings of an epic romance rooted in clown auras, questions of sanity, women who love to tell dramas that put Shakespeare to shame. And in it all we see Vivio's true clown aura beginning to emerge, and all I can think to ask is... will Lutecia truly be able to handle Vivio's power?
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nanya01
*Scratches head* I'm currently trying to figure out who I should feel sorry for...
Oh! I know! I know!
I feel sorry for Bootsie!
Spoiler for Minor correction:
Vivio said. Bizarrely, her eyes still looked distinctly unfocussed; it was as if she was speaking without actually waking up.
Should be...
Vivio said. Bizarrely, her eyes still looked distinctly unfocused; it was as if she was speaking without actually waking up.
Somewhere, I think Chrono is sputtering in useless fury before walking off to find a stiff drink.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiantBeam
The more I read, the more I feel that we are truly witnessing the beginnings of an epic romance rooted in clown auras, questions of sanity, women who love to tell dramas that put Shakespeare to shame. And in it all we see Vivio's true clown aura beginning to emerge, and all I can think to ask is... will Lutecia truly be able to handle Vivio's power?
The more I write, the more I wonder how much this story is truly 'rooted' in anything .
Location: Place of rocks and trees, and trees and rocks...and water.
Age: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiantBeam
So yeah, I don't even know what this is. I just had the urge to write Hayate and Verossa in my 'verse, so I did. Lots of dialogue, but I liked working on it. Set after LDG as a whole, in terms of timeline.
Spoiler for Shadow's Contradiction:
Yagami Hayate was tired.
In light of that fact, taking time to review her usual load of Shadow cases before going to bed probably wasn’t the best decision she’d ever made; but when she had decided to act as Chrono’s “angel on the shoulder” so to speak, she’d known right away that she was definitely not making the best decision she’d ever made.
She sighed and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes, before she reached up to adjust the light of her lamp a little. Normally she would have kept the whole room alit, but her boys were sleeping just down the hall, and any small amount of brightness was enough to have them up and poking around. Honestly…. She loved her sons, she always had and always would, but sometimes she wondered where they had gotten their sense of curiosity and adventure. They were still young yet. Perhaps they would outgrow it in their teenage years, if she got lucky….
It was at that moment that Hayate noticed a warm pair of arms that hadn’t been resting on her shoulders before, a hand innocently toying with the top button of her blouse. She smirked. “Dear, if you’re trying to undress me, you’re doing a poor job of it.”
“I never do a poor job of anything.” Her husband grinned before he pulled back, and she turned the chair around to face him. In the dim light of the room, it didn’t escape her notice that Verossa was shirtless, and had she had some free time on her hands she probably would have taken advantage of that fact.
“Have I kept you up? I tried to keep the light down so you could sleep.”
“It’s fine, I’ve been awake for awhile.” He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Besides, I could hear you thinking from here.”
“Here me think—“ Of course he would, she thought with a small smirk. If there was one thing Verossa Acous was known for, it was his ability to read people even when they put on a mask. It was one of the reasons he was Chrono’s friend. “I’m sorry I was so loud.”
“I’m sure you didn’t mean it.” He patted the space beside him, a clear invitation.
Hayate knew him well enough to know that if she said no, he would understand; Verossa had never been the type to hold grudges. He’d married her knowing full well that in some cases, work would take priority over any family they had.
So she felt no guilt when she stood and crossed the room, sitting down next to him and resting her cheek against his shoulder, comforted by the warmth of his skin. She felt his hand settle on her shoulder and closed her eyes. “I feel like I’m watching a train wreck in progress.”
He gave her shoulder a soft squeeze. “The talk with Chrono didn’t go well?”
“It went fine. I didn’t stay very long once I knew he hadn’t sent Lutecia-chan out himself. I just feel like I’m on a hill watching two trains speeding right at each other, and I have no way of stopping it.”
It was an odd example for the current situation, but also very fitting; Verossa knew immediately what she was talking about. “No way of stopping it, huh?”
“Putting her under suicide watch wouldn’t work, though I know the medic threatened to. You can force Lutecia-chan off duty and into a psychologist’s office, but she’s a Shadow. She won’t talk if she doesn’t want to.” Hayate opened her eyes and shook her head. “She’s boxed herself in, Rossa. I don’t know what’s worse: that her superiors saw it and did nothing to prevent it, or that she worked so hard to get there in the first place.”
“There’s one way out of the corner,” Verossa offered. At that, Hayate grimaced.
“Of course. Send in her seventeen-year-old girlfriend to work through years of self-hatred and emotional confusion, when said girlfriend has, in the past few days alone, had her whole sense of morality questioned, learned about a side of Lutecia-chan that she never saw for eight years, and if things keep going at this rate, will never see Nanoha-chan eye-to-eye ever again.”
It was easy to understand Hayate’s frustration when she put it like that. In essence, they were using a teenager, someone who had really only started to learn about the world, to defuse a ticking time bomb that everyone else had willingly ignored since the death of Miranda Creed.
“I still think they have a chance,” he said softly. “Vivio loves Lutecia, and if anything, she’s inherited Nanoha’s determination. If she has to, I can see her dragging Lutecia out of that corner kicking and screaming.”
The image made Hayate chuckle, just as he had hoped it would. “Considering that growth spurt, I think she’s physically capable of it,” the brown-haired woman murmured. “The question is, once she’s dragged Lutecia-chan out of that corner, will Lutecia-chan be able to make it the rest of the way on her own?”
And that was what it came down to, in the end; not if Vivio could save Lutecia, but if Lutecia could come to terms with her own sense of self. Doing that meant taking a good, hard look at her eight years of service as a Shadow and deciding if she still believed enough in the ideal of it to keep trying in the field, or if she’d had enough and walked away from it completely to start over.
It was a risky chance; Lutecia had staked too much of her own worth into the job, had believed for far too long that she could do nothing else. Expecting her to look back on that time with a clear mind and rationally decide to completely throw it away was the same as expecting her to toss out a chunk of who she was. It wasn’t impossible—it had happened before, with many other people, and they had survived it well enough—but it was hard.
But even beyond that…
“Really,” Hayate sighed, “it’s a question of whether or not Lutecia-chan wants to follow in Nanoha-chan’s footsteps.”
At that, Verossa blinked. He’d been following his wife right up until her last statement. “Nanoha?”
Seeing she had lost him, Hayate chuckled again. “Yes, Nanoha-chan. It might be a bit of a stretch, but I’d say Nanoha-chan is Lutecia-chan’s ideal.”
“… I’m still lost.”
This time she couldn’t resist and laughed softly, leaning up and kissing him lightly on the lips. Pulling back, she smiled slightly. “Think of it this way, Rossa. You’ve read Lutecia-chan’s mission reports just as I have. Have you noticed a pattern?”
Verossa blinked, frowning slightly as he thought back on what he had read. Hayate had to resist the sudden and brief urge to jump him right then and there. “She saves people,” he said at last. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a civilian, a fellow agent, or even one of the bad guys who got caught in the line of fire. She tries to save as many people as she can.” While usually putting herself at risk in the process, but he knew he didn’t need to say that.
“Exactly. And who else do we know does her best to save people, even at her own risk?”
He blinked again; he was starting to get it, she could see it in his eyes, but some threads of it were still out of his reach. “Nanoha.”
“Again, exactly. Now, think of it like this.” Hayate took a deep breath. “Deep down, Lutecia-chan is a kind person. She always has been, so that’s part of what drives her. Then you take her and expose her to someone like Nanoha-chan, who has never hidden the fact that she believes you should find a way to save everyone without sacrificing a few.”
He got it now. “It would only strengthen her own urge to save people,” Rossa finished. “She’s already naturally inclined to it because of her personality, but spending time with someone who believes that would only make her inclination ten times stronger.”
“Right.” It was the equivalent of tossing gasoline onto an already burning fire; it would only make the flames stronger.
A moment later, though, Verossa frowned and shook his head. “That thinking makes no sense,” he muttered. “I don’t mean to sound cruel, but Lutecia is a Shadow, first and foremost. Shadows aren’t exactly the kind of agents expected to save people.”
“That wasn’t cruel, it was honest.” Hayate sighed. “And that’s where Lutecia-chan is getting all tangled up. Because of who she truly is, and because of her exposure to people like Nanoha-chan, she wants to do the heroic thing, the right thing, and save people without losing any of them. The problem is, the whole idea behind the Shadows is to save many while sacrificing a few.”
It was easy to see where the ideals clashed. It was a thought of saving people, with two totally different ideas on how to do it.
Verossa’s frown became thoughtful. “Do you think Nanoha knows, and that’s why she’s still having such a hard time accepting Lutecia?”
“I think Nanoha-chan knows that Lutecia-chan is the type who would save everybody if she could. I’m just guessing, but it would explain part of her reason why she can’t fully accept Lutecia-chan.” Hayate paused. “Well, besides the fact that she’s also by proxy exposing Vivio to all of this.”
Verossa winced and nodded; he was suddenly grateful their boys weren’t old enough yet to date.
“To Nanoha-chan, you could say Lutecia-chan is the ultimate contradiction. She wants to save as many people as she can, yet she does it in such a way that she’ll lose as many people as she saves.” Hayate shook her head. “It’s a major gray spot. Nanoha-chan always hated gray spots.”
“And now her daughter is dating the gray spot.”
Hayate snickered at that. “When you put it like that, it sounds funny; but it’s true. And what probably makes it even worse for Nanoha-chan is that Vivio’s accepted Lutecia-chan’s contradiction and loves her anyway.”
“…. Is there any chance we can just lock the boys up until they’re thirty or so? This ‘parents of a dating teenager’ thing sounds painful and confusing.”
“I’m considering it.”
The silence that followed after that was comfortable and warm; Hayate felt as if she could fall asleep at any moment. Finally, though, she got up and went over to her files, setting them away for the night and shutting down her system. “In the end it all comes down to what Lutecia-chan decides,” she said as she moved around the room. “So I guess worrying about it is pointless since it’s out of my hands.”
“You’re worried. It’s natural.” Verossa leaned back on his elbows, watching as his wife finished shutting down her work station. “Are you coming to bed?”
Hayate smiled wickedly.
“If I remember right, you didn’t do a very good job of undressing me.”
The ending line bugs me, but I couldn't think of anything better. Always fun to poke around and figure out Lutecia's mind from the perspective of other characters, though.
The opening line really reminds me of "Sailor Nothing", in its utter deconstruction of a magical girl heroine . Of course, it's not Hayate who is being deconstructed in Shadows-verse, but Lutecia, so I had lots of fun making neat parallels in my head ^^.
Er....back to the story .
I'm delighted to see Hayate and Verossa mention the parallels between Lutecia and Nanoha , it's something that I love for the heartwrenching-ness and the irony XD: Lutecia wants to be like Nanoha, but fails...and yet Nanoha disapproves of her, for the fact that she fails!
I have to wonder, and it's totally not important for the story, but...what are Hayate and Verossa's sons' names? I'm so oddly curious since I don't believe that's ever been mentioned....(Not that it matters to the series....but I'm curious!)
The ending line seemed fine to me, but I see what you mean--I think, that if the short was about Hayate and her POV of the whole Shadows/Sunrise/LDG events, then the ending fits. If this short was to deal with Lutecia's issues from a different perspective, then yeah, the ending line might not be the best one to use since it doesn't leave an impact about Lutecia.
Nice short! ^^
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moczo
Soooo... I sat down to write, just on the off-chance that something would happen. And what do you know, something did!
Spoiler for Center Ring, Part 8:
Lutecia… I'm sorry, 'Dr. Veronica Klondike' sat down across the table from Vivio. "Now, as you are a minor, I have allowed your mother to be here."
"And also because she's still totally incoherent." Nanoha said bluntly, propping Vivio up so the girl wouldn't fall over and hurt herself. The combination of Lutecia's clownish aura of power and Vivio's painfully obvious and enormous crush had left the girl a complete mess. Nanoha had managed to get her... sorta... conscious again, but she was still completely useless for anything but spouting nonsense.
"… yes, that also." Lutecia admitted. "Now, I will show you a series of images, and you tell me what each one makes you think of. Do you understand?"
"She is passed out. She cannot hear you." Nanoha said.
"Very well, let us begin." Lutecia said, totally ignoring her. She held up a picture of a butterfly.
"Lguauu…" Vivio said.
"Thought of killing baby seals. Suspect displays an almost pathological need to inflict pain on others…" Lutecia said, jotting down some notes onto her clipboard.
"Eh? She didn't say any of that, why are you writing that down?" Nanoha asked.
"I'm not writing anything down." Lutecia said, writing something down.
"Yes you are, I can see you."
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. Now, Vivio, what do you think of this picture?" Lutecia asked, holding up an image of a kitten cuddling with a bunny.
"Ffjajllla..." Vivio said.
"Image made her want to burn down a hospital. Suspect may be incapable of feeling empathy for other human beings..."
"She didn't say that! Stop writing!"
"I'm not writing anything." Lutecia said, jotting down some final notes.
"I don't like you." Nanoha said, eyes narrowed.
"Suspect's mother displays open murderous intent, brags about the time she kidnapped and ate a dozen orphans. Clearly this sociopathic behavior is genetic..." Lutecia said, continuing to jot down notes.
"We're not even related by blood!"
"New hypothesis; clearly this sociopathic behavior is linked to how the suspect was raised, and most likely routinely abused, by the horrible monster I see before me..."
"Vivio? Please wake up soon. I begin to suspect this interrogation may be rigged against us."
"Suspect's mother is incapable of trusting another human being, in keeping with the other warning signs that mark her as a homicidal madwoman..." Lutecia said.
***
"So... um... in my... m-my..." Nove said, blushing furiously. "... I... my... um... p-professional... professional..."
It had been going so well, until now. They had all successfully (for a certain value of 'success') managed to infiltrate local law enforcement. They had Yagami and her circus successfully imprisoned, where they couldn't interfere with the Doc's plan. They had the oh-so-dangerous clown helplessly in Lutecia's clutches (it helped in that case that Vivio had obligingly decided to do nothing but spout nonsense and drool). Then, however, the time had come to commence the actual framing and make sure that Yagami's stay in prison lasted for the rest of her life.
Quattro had done just fine. But then it was time for Nove and Wendi to play their parts, and Quattro had learned something about her sisters: they couldn't act their way out of a wet paper bag.
Quattro rubbed her temples to fight off the headache. "Opinion! The word you're looking for is 'opinion'!" she snapped.
"Right, right, my professional opinion. Um... uh... that girl... who's-her-face, she did it. On purpose. And you all... you helped." Nove said weakly.
Chrono clapped slowly. "Wow. That's just... wow. You're clearly the cutting edge of law enforcement. Tell me, what evidence brought you to this conclusion, Agent McBeef? Or are we just working on a gut feeling, here?"
"... ... ... ... ... ... ..." Nove said, freezing up like a deer in the headlights.
Wendi smacked her upside the head. "Dummy, you're doing it all wrong! Here, watch me." She cleared her throat.
"GATHER! And I shall tell you now, a story of crime most foul." Wendi said, throwing her hands dramatically into the air for emphasis.
"Oh, God..." Quattro said.
"Yea, and the victim, an innocent, harmless young lady, enter into yon den of inequity, seeking only to see the pleasures of the circus, as any girl would." Wendi proclaimed grandiosely. "But upon her arrival, found only the black abyss of evil."
It should be noticed that she pronounced that last word 'e-veel'. In fact, she seemed to be over-pronouncing a lot of words, and probably using more elaborate gestures than relating a crime scene strictly required.
"Are we really listening to her...? She's treating this like a high school production of one of Shakespeare's more annoying plays." Teana said.
"Oh, just let her finish. She's only going to put on sunglasses if you don't." Chrono said.
"And YET!" Wendi screamed, probably for dramatic emphasis, "The girl sought only to escape, thinking of her desperate need to survive and see once again her boyfriend, Marco the poor busboy working to support his ailing mother, and her kitten Bootsie."
"... wait, what?" half the people in the room said, including both of Wendi's sisters.
"Idiot, this isn't an improv! Stick to the scrip... er, the crime scene report!" Quattro said.
"But what if they want to know the victim's backstory? Supporting cast are important. They flesh out the character via their interactions." Wendi said.
"She doesn't need to be 'fleshed out', she was a real person!"
"Are you sure? 'Cause I had this great scene where she gets home to find Bootsie is sick, and she can't afford a vet so Marco steals a diamond necklace from their rich neighbor, and..."
"Just say what happened at the frickin' circus!" Quattro shrieked.
"Really. Nobody cares." Teana agreed. She sounded a little shocked that she agreed with Quattro, but also seemed to be learning to live with it.
"Is... is Bootsie going to be okay?" Subaru asked, tears in her eyes.
"And what about Marco? If his crime is discovered, what will he do? He can't afford a lawyer with his mother's medical bills to pay!" Verossa said.
Teana and Chrono looked at each other, with a look that said, without words, 'I know your pain, and I share in it'. "Should... should we even bother?" Chrono asked.
"I think it would probably be a waste of time." Teana said sadly. "Just let them stay off in their own little worlds. Most likely they're happier that way anyhow."
"Fair enough. Miss Evelen, please continue." Chrono said.
"Very well!" Wendi said, snapping instantly back into drama mode. "She walked from tent to tent, each new step bringing with it new horrors... horrible, monstrous beasts!" She snapped, pointing at Caro the animal tamer.
"My babies are very well behaved!" The little pink girl protested.
"Heartless killers!" She continued, pointing at Vita.
"Hey, I don't kill anyone! Hospitalize, sure, but..."
"Twisted, vile experiments in mad science!" Wendi went on, pointing at Shari.
"Hard to argue with that one." Hayate admitted, clamping her hand down on Shari's mouth before she could make things worse by being herself.
"And then... just when she believed that she was doomed, she saw the greatest horror of them all: a child, trapped among this den of horrors. Trapped, and all alone!" Wendi said dramatically. "Her heart filled with love for her fellow man..."
"HA!" Most of the room (including, notably, Nove) said.
"... she went to rescue this poor, innocent child. Yet only then did the 'helpless child' reveal herself a viper in disguise. For she too was a member of this Circus of Terror, and when our kindhearted victim picked her up... the horrible devil-child drove home the cruel knife into her heart, a smirk of wicked glee upon her deceptively angelic face. And that... was how this crime occurred, gentle viewers."
"... 'gentle viewers'?" Teana asked dryly.
Chrono rubbed his temples. "I'm going to give you five minutes," He said coldly, "To spot what is wrong with your story. If it takes you the whole five minutes, something is very wrong with you."
"Eh? Did I do something..." Wendi began.
"Due wasn't killed with a knife, you moron. She was the one holding the knife." Quattro hissed, murder in her eyes.
"... can I start over?" Wendi asked. "Because I think I was going pretty good up until that last part."
***
Nanoha began to seriously wonder if maybe Verossa wasn't a better indicator of the general quality of this town's police force than Chrono was.
So far, Lutecia's 'simple image test' had declared Vivio to be a Murdering Thieving Rapist Sociopathic Arsonist, (and possibly a Vampire). This in spite of the fact that Vivio had not actually answered any of the questions. And Nanoha's request for assistance against this clearly biased test had resulted in the attending officer proclaiming that 'Psychological mumbo-jumbo' was best left 'to the brains', and walking out. It had taken all of Nanoha's willpower not to smash the man's teeth down his throat, but that would have only helped confirm Lutecia's analysis of her as a Psychotic Drug-addicted Child-abusing Cannibal (and possibly a Witch, further tests would be required to be certain and no ducks were currently available).
So yeah, things were not going well.
"All right, next image." Lutecia said, holding up the next card. "What do you think of this?"
Nanoha braced herself for two things; Vivio sputtering nonsense, and the urge to crush Lutecia's face.
"It's wrong." Vivio said.
Both Nanoha and Lutecia reacted as though they'd been bitten. The two women instantly turned their eyes to the card that had finally, finally provoked a reaction from the non-responsive girl, to see an image of a brightly dressed clown, holding a bunch of balloons and handing them out to children.
"It's wrong. His shoes are too small, everyone knows they need to extend a minimum to 1.5 feet beyond the edge of the toes. His makeup is unsymmetrical. His wig is the wrong color to off-set the polkadots on his shirt, Clowns should have clashing color schemes to draw more attention to them." Vivio said. Bizarrely, her eyes still looked distinctly unfocused; it was as if she was speaking without actually waking up. "His rubber nose is too small for his face. His pants aren't baggy enough, they don't offer sufficient hiding places for props. And those balloons! Helium balloons, really? Just round? What self-respecting clown doesn't even make balloon animals?!"
It was bizarre, to Nanoha's eyes. As Vivio got angrier and angrier, she seemed to grow in both size and in brightness, becoming somehow more defined against the room. Lutecia, on the other hand, seemed to shrink, to fade into the background. The only part of her that still seemed distinctive was her face; her exposed skin had gone from 'white' to 'ghostly', and her eyes were quite obviously filled with genuine fear.
"Why would you show me this? Why would you even have this image?" Vivio demanded. "You, of all people, should know what an insult this is! How could you possibly expose a fellow clown to this... this mockery?"
"... Vivio, clowns are supposed to mock things..." Nanoha felt compelled to state.
"In their acts, mother, yes. But this... this is a mockery of clowndom itself! She has spat on the essence of 'clown', and she... she, an elite clown, a clown among clowns, should have known better! How dare you, Lutecia Alphine? How dare you?" Vivio snapped.
"I... I'm sorry, I..." Lutecia stammered, before standing up and running out of the room. She ran down the halls, shoving past confused police officers, tears... tears!... running from her eyes. What was... what just happened?! She thought, when she was again capable of conscious thought. Just the sight of the girl had filled her entire being with terror. So overwhelming was the child's aura of clownish rage that Lutecia would have been on her knees praying for mercy had she stayed in that room a second longer. Lutecia was a clown of unsurpassed skill, raised and shaped to be one for years. How had she been overcome so easily?
And why, now that she was away from that all-consuming presence, was the thing she felt most not fear, but... sheer, simple awe?
***
Back in the interrogation room, Vivio stood before the empty space where Lutecia had once been, solemn and silent. Her presence alone seemed to make the mostly empty room feel somehow crowded, as though it were an ancient pharaoh's crypt, heavy with the weight of history and reverence. When she finally moved, after nearly an entire agonizing minute, it was to pick up the sub-par portrait of a clown and tear it in half. She looked at the next portrait in the stack and said, in the same imperious tone she had used to chastise Lutecia, "The next image is a horsie. It is nice."
"... yes. Yes it is." Nanoha said, not quite certain what else to say.
"I like the braid in the tail." Vivio said.
Spoiler for Author's Note:
Why is it, every time I write a chapter in this story, I feel compelled to remind the audience that yeah, even I'm not 100% sure when it went from 'normal' crazy to 'extra-special-super' crazy?
Ah, did Vivio go all Sankt Kaiser at the end there? XD The pseudo-psychology is awesome, it's so over the top that it's absolutely hilarious.
Wendi's rant was funny, especially since she blew their whole lie in such an epic fashion XD. I liked her version of things much better!
Great chapter! The humour wasn't quite as fluffy as previous chapters, but still funny nonetheless ^^.
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
Quote:
Originally Posted by deathcurse
Ah, did Vivio go all Sankt Kaiser at the end there? XD The pseudo-psychology is awesome, it's so over the top that it's absolutely hilarious.
Wendi's rant was funny, especially since she blew their whole lie in such an epic fashion XD. I liked her version of things much better!
Great chapter! The humour wasn't quite as fluffy as previous chapters, but still funny nonetheless ^^.
The only thing certain is that Vivio has tapped a deep and potentially terrible well of clownish energies. What will become of her? Will she harness this clownery, Or be destroyed by it? Am I having too much fun with this?
I think Wendi relating a crime scene report like it was a dramatic reading was my favorite idea for this chapter. She and Nove are both lousy actors; it's just that only Nove realizes this.
For those interested in a less forum-based read, the chapter is up on FF.net as well.
can anyone recommend any LONG FeiNano fics with a lot of Vivio in em ? as in - Nanoha & Fate raising Vivio .. Vivio can be any age & it can be WAFFY-fluffy or angsty-wangsty, BUT LONG fics - I've read shorts & Satashis especially were very good but haven't seen any long-fic with NanoFei+Vivio family
So yeah, I don't even know what this is. I just had the urge to write Hayate and Verossa in my 'verse, so I did. :heh: Lots of dialogue, but I liked working on it. Set after LDG as a whole, in terms of timeline.
Spoiler for Shadow's Contradiction:
-snip-
The ending line bugs me, but I couldn't think of anything better. :heh: Always fun to poke around and figure out Lutecia's mind from the perspective of other characters, though.
Well, the ending line got a chuckle out of me, so I'd say it's pretty much fine - it does tie up a cute moment between Hayate and Verossa. Mind you, I can also see deathcurse's reasoning that it depends on who's meant to be the focus of the story... if you get a better idea, then go for it, but the current one doesn't particularly detract from the fic either, IMHO.
On a more general note, looking into the characters' psyches is always an interesting read - and the Shadowsverse is a rather spectacular exercise in digging into Lutecia's head as the poor girl is gradually broken by her job. I'm not quite sure whether to expect an eventual sorta-happy ending or a descent into tragedy; I do hear that you have something of a reputation for being, ahem, somewhat fond of angst, but on the other hand, there have been glimmers of hope, mostly in the form of Vivio serving as emotional support for Lutecia. Now to decide if you're just being a cruel tease with that, or not... :P
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moczo
Soooo... I sat down to write, just on the off-chance that something would happen. And what do you know, something did!
Spoiler for Center Ring, Part 8:
-snip-
Spoiler for Author's Note:
Why is it, every time I write a chapter in this story, I feel compelled to remind the audience that yeah, even I'm not 100% sure when it went from 'normal' crazy to 'extra-special-super' crazy?
Okay... I'm not certain if this fic can be described as anything but pure, distilled crack. Not that that's a bad thing.
I mean, the sheer bizarreness of the concept contrasted with the dramatic presentation is ample fodder for parody and absurd humor. Clowning as Serious Business and auras of clownish rage... it's all just too damn funny.
Some characters are far more exaggerated here than in Infinity, but... well, this is crack; it's forgivable here. Not to mention that ditzy!Subaru and clueless!Verossa/Vice are highly entertaining. And the Numbers' lousy acting. And Shari's Mad Scientist tendencies. And Lutecia's blatantly unfair psychological profiling. And... and I better stop before I list every single joke in the fic.
And as a closing comment, bonus points for the Monty Python reference.
__________________
A programmer is an organism that converts coffee into software.
Soooo... I sat down to write, just on the off-chance that something would happen. And what do you know, something did!
Spoiler for Center Ring, Part 8:
Lutecia… I'm sorry, 'Dr. Veronica Klondike' sat down across the table from Vivio. "Now, as you are a minor, I have allowed your mother to be here."
"And also because she's still totally incoherent." Nanoha said bluntly, propping Vivio up so the girl wouldn't fall over and hurt herself. The combination of Lutecia's clownish aura of power and Vivio's painfully obvious and enormous crush had left the girl a complete mess. Nanoha had managed to get her... sorta... conscious again, but she was still completely useless for anything but spouting nonsense.
"… yes, that also." Lutecia admitted. "Now, I will show you a series of images, and you tell me what each one makes you think of. Do you understand?"
"She is passed out. She cannot hear you." Nanoha said.
"Very well, let us begin." Lutecia said, totally ignoring her. She held up a picture of a butterfly.
"Lguauu…" Vivio said.
"Thought of killing baby seals. Suspect displays an almost pathological need to inflict pain on others…" Lutecia said, jotting down some notes onto her clipboard.
"Eh? She didn't say any of that, why are you writing that down?" Nanoha asked.
"I'm not writing anything down." Lutecia said, writing something down.
"Yes you are, I can see you."
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. Now, Vivio, what do you think of this picture?" Lutecia asked, holding up an image of a kitten cuddling with a bunny.
"Ffjajllla..." Vivio said.
"Image made her want to burn down a hospital. Suspect may be incapable of feeling empathy for other human beings..."
"She didn't say that! Stop writing!"
"I'm not writing anything." Lutecia said, jotting down some final notes.
"I don't like you." Nanoha said, eyes narrowed.
"Suspect's mother displays open murderous intent, brags about the time she kidnapped and ate a dozen orphans. Clearly this sociopathic behavior is genetic..." Lutecia said, continuing to jot down notes.
"We're not even related by blood!"
"New hypothesis; clearly this sociopathic behavior is linked to how the suspect was raised, and most likely routinely abused, by the horrible monster I see before me..."
"Vivio? Please wake up soon. I begin to suspect this interrogation may be rigged against us."
"Suspect's mother is incapable of trusting another human being, in keeping with the other warning signs that mark her as a homicidal madwoman..." Lutecia said.
***
"So... um... in my... m-my..." Nove said, blushing furiously. "... I... my... um... p-professional... professional..."
It had been going so well, until now. They had all successfully (for a certain value of 'success') managed to infiltrate local law enforcement. They had Yagami and her circus successfully imprisoned, where they couldn't interfere with the Doc's plan. They had the oh-so-dangerous clown helplessly in Lutecia's clutches (it helped in that case that Vivio had obligingly decided to do nothing but spout nonsense and drool). Then, however, the time had come to commence the actual framing and make sure that Yagami's stay in prison lasted for the rest of her life.
Quattro had done just fine. But then it was time for Nove and Wendi to play their parts, and Quattro had learned something about her sisters: they couldn't act their way out of a wet paper bag.
Quattro rubbed her temples to fight off the headache. "Opinion! The word you're looking for is 'opinion'!" she snapped.
"Right, right, my professional opinion. Um... uh... that girl... who's-her-face, she did it. On purpose. And you all... you helped." Nove said weakly.
Chrono clapped slowly. "Wow. That's just... wow. You're clearly the cutting edge of law enforcement. Tell me, what evidence brought you to this conclusion, Agent McBeef? Or are we just working on a gut feeling, here?"
"... ... ... ... ... ... ..." Nove said, freezing up like a deer in the headlights.
Wendi smacked her upside the head. "Dummy, you're doing it all wrong! Here, watch me." She cleared her throat.
"GATHER! And I shall tell you now, a story of crime most foul." Wendi said, throwing her hands dramatically into the air for emphasis.
"Oh, God..." Quattro said.
"Yea, and the victim, an innocent, harmless young lady, enter into yon den of inequity, seeking only to see the pleasures of the circus, as any girl would." Wendi proclaimed grandiosely. "But upon her arrival, found only the black abyss of evil."
It should be noticed that she pronounced that last word 'e-veel'. In fact, she seemed to be over-pronouncing a lot of words, and probably using more elaborate gestures than relating a crime scene strictly required.
"Are we really listening to her...? She's treating this like a high school production of one of Shakespeare's more annoying plays." Teana said.
"Oh, just let her finish. She's only going to put on sunglasses if you don't." Chrono said.
"And YET!" Wendi screamed, probably for dramatic emphasis, "The girl sought only to escape, thinking of her desperate need to survive and see once again her boyfriend, Marco the poor busboy working to support his ailing mother, and her kitten Bootsie."
"... wait, what?" half the people in the room said, including both of Wendi's sisters.
"Idiot, this isn't an improv! Stick to the scrip... er, the crime scene report!" Quattro said.
"But what if they want to know the victim's backstory? Supporting cast are important. They flesh out the character via their interactions." Wendi said.
"She doesn't need to be 'fleshed out', she was a real person!"
"Are you sure? 'Cause I had this great scene where she gets home to find Bootsie is sick, and she can't afford a vet so Marco steals a diamond necklace from their rich neighbor, and..."
"Just say what happened at the frickin' circus!" Quattro shrieked.
"Really. Nobody cares." Teana agreed. She sounded a little shocked that she agreed with Quattro, but also seemed to be learning to live with it.
"Is... is Bootsie going to be okay?" Subaru asked, tears in her eyes.
"And what about Marco? If his crime is discovered, what will he do? He can't afford a lawyer with his mother's medical bills to pay!" Verossa said.
Teana and Chrono looked at each other, with a look that said, without words, 'I know your pain, and I share in it'. "Should... should we even bother?" Chrono asked.
"I think it would probably be a waste of time." Teana said sadly. "Just let them stay off in their own little worlds. Most likely they're happier that way anyhow."
"Fair enough. Miss Evelen, please continue." Chrono said.
"Very well!" Wendi said, snapping instantly back into drama mode. "She walked from tent to tent, each new step bringing with it new horrors... horrible, monstrous beasts!" She snapped, pointing at Caro the animal tamer.
"My babies are very well behaved!" The little pink girl protested.
"Heartless killers!" She continued, pointing at Vita.
"Hey, I don't kill anyone! Hospitalize, sure, but..."
"Twisted, vile experiments in mad science!" Wendi went on, pointing at Shari.
"Hard to argue with that one." Hayate admitted, clamping her hand down on Shari's mouth before she could make things worse by being herself.
"And then... just when she believed that she was doomed, she saw the greatest horror of them all: a child, trapped among this den of horrors. Trapped, and all alone!" Wendi said dramatically. "Her heart filled with love for her fellow man..."
"HA!" Most of the room (including, notably, Nove) said.
"... she went to rescue this poor, innocent child. Yet only then did the 'helpless child' reveal herself a viper in disguise. For she too was a member of this Circus of Terror, and when our kindhearted victim picked her up... the horrible devil-child drove home the cruel knife into her heart, a smirk of wicked glee upon her deceptively angelic face. And that... was how this crime occurred, gentle viewers."
"... 'gentle viewers'?" Teana asked dryly.
Chrono rubbed his temples. "I'm going to give you five minutes," He said coldly, "To spot what is wrong with your story. If it takes you the whole five minutes, something is very wrong with you."
"Eh? Did I do something..." Wendi began.
"Due wasn't killed with a knife, you moron. She was the one holding the knife." Quattro hissed, murder in her eyes.
"... can I start over?" Wendi asked. "Because I think I was going pretty good up until that last part."
***
Nanoha began to seriously wonder if maybe Verossa wasn't a better indicator of the general quality of this town's police force than Chrono was.
So far, Lutecia's 'simple image test' had declared Vivio to be a Murdering Thieving Rapist Sociopathic Arsonist, (and possibly a Vampire). This in spite of the fact that Vivio had not actually answered any of the questions. And Nanoha's request for assistance against this clearly biased test had resulted in the attending officer proclaiming that 'Psychological mumbo-jumbo' was best left 'to the brains', and walking out. It had taken all of Nanoha's willpower not to smash the man's teeth down his throat, but that would have only helped confirm Lutecia's analysis of her as a Psychotic Drug-addicted Child-abusing Cannibal (and possibly a Witch, further tests would be required to be certain and no ducks were currently available).
So yeah, things were not going well.
"All right, next image." Lutecia said, holding up the next card. "What do you think of this?"
Nanoha braced herself for two things; Vivio sputtering nonsense, and the urge to crush Lutecia's face.
"It's wrong." Vivio said.
Both Nanoha and Lutecia reacted as though they'd been bitten. The two women instantly turned their eyes to the card that had finally, finally provoked a reaction from the non-responsive girl, to see an image of a brightly dressed clown, holding a bunch of balloons and handing them out to children.
"It's wrong. His shoes are too small, everyone knows they need to extend a minimum to 1.5 feet beyond the edge of the toes. His makeup is unsymmetrical. His wig is the wrong color to off-set the polkadots on his shirt, Clowns should have clashing color schemes to draw more attention to them." Vivio said. Bizarrely, her eyes still looked distinctly unfocused; it was as if she was speaking without actually waking up. "His rubber nose is too small for his face. His pants aren't baggy enough, they don't offer sufficient hiding places for props. And those balloons! Helium balloons, really? Just round? What self-respecting clown doesn't even make balloon animals?!"
It was bizarre, to Nanoha's eyes. As Vivio got angrier and angrier, she seemed to grow in both size and in brightness, becoming somehow more defined against the room. Lutecia, on the other hand, seemed to shrink, to fade into the background. The only part of her that still seemed distinctive was her face; her exposed skin had gone from 'white' to 'ghostly', and her eyes were quite obviously filled with genuine fear.
"Why would you show me this? Why would you even have this image?" Vivio demanded. "You, of all people, should know what an insult this is! How could you possibly expose a fellow clown to this... this mockery?"
"... Vivio, clowns are supposed to mock things..." Nanoha felt compelled to state.
"In their acts, mother, yes. But this... this is a mockery of clowndom itself! She has spat on the essence of 'clown', and she... she, an elite clown, a clown among clowns, should have known better! How dare you, Lutecia Alphine? How dare you?" Vivio snapped.
"I... I'm sorry, I..." Lutecia stammered, before standing up and running out of the room. She ran down the halls, shoving past confused police officers, tears... tears!... running from her eyes. What was... what just happened?! She thought, when she was again capable of conscious thought. Just the sight of the girl had filled her entire being with terror. So overwhelming was the child's aura of clownish rage that Lutecia would have been on her knees praying for mercy had she stayed in that room a second longer. Lutecia was a clown of unsurpassed skill, raised and shaped to be one for years. How had she been overcome so easily?
And why, now that she was away from that all-consuming presence, was the thing she felt most not fear, but... sheer, simple awe?
***
Back in the interrogation room, Vivio stood before the empty space where Lutecia had once been, solemn and silent. Her presence alone seemed to make the mostly empty room feel somehow crowded, as though it were an ancient pharaoh's crypt, heavy with the weight of history and reverence. When she finally moved, after nearly an entire agonizing minute, it was to pick up the sub-par portrait of a clown and tear it in half. She looked at the next portrait in the stack and said, in the same imperious tone she had used to chastise Lutecia, "The next image is a horsie. It is nice."
"... yes. Yes it is." Nanoha said, not quite certain what else to say.
"I like the braid in the tail." Vivio said.
Spoiler for Author's Note:
Why is it, every time I write a chapter in this story, I feel compelled to remind the audience that yeah, even I'm not 100% sure when it went from 'normal' crazy to 'extra-special-super' crazy?
I can't believe I actually feel sorry for Quattro, even if it's just a bit. Even if everybody knew it was her, she at least played her part.
__________________
I hate sad and bittersweet endings. Why? Because I think the real world is sad enough as it is. Must our stories be sad too?
So yeah, I don't even know what this is. I just had the urge to write Hayate and Verossa in my 'verse, so I did. Lots of dialogue, but I liked working on it. Set after LDG as a whole, in terms of timeline.
[SPOILER="Shadow's Contradiction"].
Sweet, always good to see new stuff when I get back from a break.
On sNoble's comments, I kind of see the Shadowverse as one long break the cutie moment with regards to Lutecia. In a way I'm surprised it took as long as it did for the inevitable to start happening, but then the agents might not have that high a mission frequency either.
[QUOTE=Moczo;3240452]Soooo... I sat down to write, just on the off-chance that something would happen. And what do you know, something did!
Spoiler for Center Ring, Part 8:
.
And completely on the other end of the emotional scale, we have this. For the record, I'm of the opinion the Chrono is the most awesome character in the room during the beginning scene, but that is in no way a slur against Wendi.
I have to wonder, and it's totally not important for the story, but...what are Hayate and Verossa's sons' names? I'm so oddly curious since I don't believe that's ever been mentioned....(Not that it matters to the series....but I'm curious!)
The sons are named Light, Kage, and Justice, respectively. Yeah, corny names, I know. I have it in my head of a short for Vivio and Lutecia baby-sitting them and Nami (Miyuki and Yuuno's daughter), I just never got around to actually write it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sniperk
Hello people.
Back from the dead ( hopefully ), and with a lot of catching up to do.
Just posting to say that. ^^
Welcome back from the dead!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SNobleJr
Now to decide if you're just being a cruel tease with that, or not... :P
Am I really that infamous for my cruelty?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tabasco
I kind of see the Shadowverse as one long break the cutie moment with regards to Lutecia.
...
Would anyone believe me if I honestly said that it wasn't supposed to turn out this way for Lutecia?
Back from the dead ( hopefully ), and with a lot of catching up to do.
Just posting to say that. ^^
Welcome back!
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiantBeam
Am I really that infamous for my cruelty?
Yes. Yes you are.
Quote:
Would anyone believe me if I honestly said that it wasn't supposed to turn out this way for Lutecia?
Hey, I was around for most of the planning-phase discussions and ideas you had about all this so I know you didn't initially work it out like this...and yet I still have trouble believing you!
(Of course, that might be because I also know that you also juggled around the idea of "Sunset" being the true ending for a bit, there. )
Edit: Pageclaim for RB's Saber avatars!
Last edited by DezoPenguin; 2010-09-12 at 20:28.
Reason: Page claim!
2010-09-10, 12:47
Author
Lots of dialogue, but I liked working on it. Set after LDG as a whole, in terms of timeline.
. Of course, it's not Hayate who is being deconstructed in Shadows-verse, but Lutecia, so I had lots of fun making neat parallels in my head ^^. 
, it's something that I love for the heartwrenching-ness and the irony XD: Lutecia wants to be like Nanoha, but fails...and yet Nanoha disapproves of her, for the fact that she fails! 
