(no subject)
✖ PLAYER:
Name & LJ: Maki ( makech )
Birthdate & Age: April 17, 1989 (22)
Characters played in Zodion: N/A
✖ CHARACTER:
Name: Ace
Canon: Heart no Kuni no Alice
Info: Wikipedia
PB/Image: Here!
Canon Point: Chapter 33
Gender: Male/Male
Age: 23
Birthdate/Sign: October 23, Scorpio (not canon).
Chosen because the negative personality traits described (jealous, ruthless, sadistic, dangerous, obstinate, insulting, secretive, suspicious) seem to fit the part quite well, as do the positive ones (intense, sensual, dynamic, magnetic, concerned, protective, investigative, compassionate). As for the attributes, he embodies revolution, seeking information and most of all, change.
Tattoo: Scorpio symbol on his chest, right on the place where his heart should be; 4 inches in diameter.
Suitability: N/A
Power: The water sign's Flowing, as he has no canon powers.
Personality:
Ace appears to be a chipper, happy, sweet young man. His personality stands out from others in Heartland at first because of his sincere demeanor and the bubbly way he carries himself. He's as polite as Heartland admits, and he's usually willing to lend a hand to those who ask nicely. Almost childish, he strikes as the kind of person you’d meet in the real, normal world as opposed to the wacko place the Land of Hearts can be. He is usually seen smiling charmingly, and he has no problem talking to others, even those who don’t work for the Queen.
His “role” in Heartland is to be the Knight of Hearts, working under Queen Vivaldi, otherwise known as the Queen of Hearts and alongside Peter White, the white rabbit. In Heartland, everyone has a role they have to play, and straying from it is absolutely not allowed. The inhabitants of the place all know this, so they abide by the rules of the “Game”. People with no roles have no faces, so in this respect, Ace is one of the lucky role bearers and as such he does his job merrily and without question-or so it appears.
A very important aspect of Ace is that he is extremely directionally challenged. He gets lost every single day on his way to the castle, usually wandering into enemy territory-- more precisely, into the Hatter mansion aka the mafia. Lucky for him, Elliot March, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the mansion’s gatekeepers, already know him and his tendency to waltz right in there. Despite this though, they always feel the need to ask if he’s there to pick a fight, seeing as the four main locations of Heartland- Heart Castle, Hatter Mansion, Amusement Park and Clock Tower- are usually feuding (if the last maybe somewhat less, considering it’s neutral territory). Ace never seems to understand why he’s being questioned, and he insists that there is a shortcut from the Mansion to the Castle, despite never actually trying this path himself. He laughs off sheepishly his getting lost, and doesn’t seem too bothered by it.
Below this mellow surface, there’s the flipside of the coin. Ace harbors a deep hatred towards the Game and the role he was arbitrarily assigned. It’s not that he dislikes the role in itself and what it entails specifically, but he’d much rather have freedom. To this purpose, he acquired another job under the caretaker of the Clock Tower, Julius Monrey. Julius’ job is to repair broken clocks, which is not as simple as it sounds, considering clocks in Heartland are actually the hearts of people. Ace has the dirty job of bringing broken clocks for him to repair, and he obtains them from the dead who leave behind the instrument. Sometimes, shadows of dead people appear to try and get the clock to bring themselves back to life, or the friends of those who died try to destroy the clock so the person can’t be reborn, which is usually seen as mercy. Despite knowing this, Ace deals with them coldly, killing those who get in his way without batting an eyelash, even if it’s completely unnecessary most of the time.
Having a second job that is not related to being a Knight comes with a price, though. Ace has to hide his identity under a mask and a cape so nobody will know he’s straying from his original role, even though it’s fairly obvious that it’s him. However, it’s pretty much a don’t-ask-don’t-tell situation.
Just like everyone else in Heartland, Ace claims to be in love with Alice. Everyone falls in love with her because she comes from a different world, and outsiders, instead of clocks, have actual hearts in their bodies. Ace desires a heart, and so does everyone else, which is why they all want to be close to the one person with one, thinking this might actually provide them with a heart as well. Ace seems to be the only one who realizes this openly, however. Meaning he is conscious that the love he feels for Alice isn’t exactly real love, but yearning, and maybe jealousy. Because of this, he has no qualms about using her as a human shield when Peter White points a gun at him for spending time alone with her. He also claims to be envious of Peter White’s straightforwardness and purity, and he thinks that is the reason the white rabbit doesn’t get lost, unlike him.
He shows minimal signs of empathy, despite his cheerful nature. Life has little value in Heartland because people can be reborn as long as their clock is intact, so just like everyone else, he considers those with no face to have less value than role bearers. Deep down, he is also quite nihilistic, believing that there is actually no difference between loving Alice or killing her.
He yearns for change, and he is aware that so does everybody else in the land. He tells Boris, the Chesire cat, that the reason people want to be close to Alice is because she comes from an ever-changing world and everyone here, in their yearning for change, want proximity with her because they believe that by meeting her, their lives will change as well. However, although Ace’s drive at first appears to be only his love for Alice-- and he seems to be not much different from everyone else with a face in that respect-- with time he comes to the conclusion that not having a heart means not being able to have genuine feelings of love. Wanting a heart, wanting Alice… it’s the same thing. Of course loving Alice is merely a subconscious way of compensating for their lack of feelings and maybe if they can make Alice love them back, it’ll be just like having a heart. These kind of thoughts make him the somewhat smarter participant of the game, if maybe also the most bitter, and his love for Alice wanes quickly.
So yes, Ace wants to have a heart and everything it entails more than anything in the world, too, but he takes a different approach from the others; instead of remaining hopelessly in love with her, he decides he wants to kill Alice instead to find out if that will bring about any sort of change. Lucky for her, it takes him a long time to find his way back to the Clock Tower, and Boris stalls Ace by challenging him to a fight. Just when Ace was about to destroy his clock directly, Boris makes a run for it to warn Alice about it. In the end, Ace finds his way back, but just as he is about to deal a blow to her, Alice scolds him for it and says that if he meant to kill her he would have done so already-- and that in all of Heartland, he's the only one who seems to actually enjoy getting lost. These words resound in Ace's head deeply, making him desist. And just like that he reverts back to his cheerful nature, saying he likes Alice just as much when she’s alive, but that he was serious about killing her and that the only reason he desisted was because he wouldn't be able to hear her heartbeat again. So as you see, if you like him and if he likes you and you offer him change, you better deliver, lest you want to end up dead.
He’s selfish, and everything he does is for his own satisfaction. The other roles, perhaps maybe just because it’s part of their roles-care for the members of their own affiliation, but Ace has no strings attached other than the ones the Game demands. He tends to be displeased with other people showing off loyalty, mocking them while smiling and generally giving signs of disapproval in passive-aggressive ways. Speaking of which, this kind of attitude strongly collides with his bluntness, making him more of a cynic than anything. He has his own way of seeing things and is decidedly not open-minded enough to accept the views of others, however he flaunts his point of view quite openly and frequently.
Despite his usual confident and whimsical way of talking to others, it’s not that hard to see through the meaning and true intentions behind his words-mostly because he makes no real effort to hide them. From an outsider’s point of view, he can come off as ignorant and uninformed, almost like a child full of curiosity. Because of the way Heartland is, he tends to not be able to fully grasp how other worlds work, especially in matters of compassion and self-sacrifice. But it’d be a mistake to consider him such. Being the only one aware that things in Heartland don’t necessarily spell the way things are everywhere else and specially in Alice’s world-- judging from how she is so against murder-he has taken a liking to preaching his nihilistic views to those who have been intoxicated by her words. People like Boris who now refuse to kill because it would make Alice sad are his usual target, but it’s not exclusive. It’s kind of ironic that Alice has been able to touch the “hearts” of everyone she has met and change them with her compassionate point of view yet she couldn’t do it to Ace, who wanted change the most. He instead opted for being jealous of her for possessing such a mentality, blaming her beating heart, instead of actually giving himself a chance to change for good, like he would have wanted.
Even though I'm taking him from the manga instead of the visual novel, I think another important point to mention (despite it being more obvious in the game) in case the situation presents itself in Zodion and it appears to be baseless- is that Ace is extremely possessive, extremely jealous and most of all, more than a little prone to sexual harassment. His yearning for Alice sometimes drives him and most of his actions, just like the rest of the men in Heartland, except he's one of the few that has no trouble making physical advances, even in public, regardless of Alice's attempts to free herself and get away. Ace takes advantage of whatever situation he can to compliment Alice or touch her... even leaning her down on a kitchen table while cooking is no problem for Ace when he wants to get what he wants. Again, just like every man in Heartland, he wouldn't actually do anything Alice was completely not okay with, and he bows to protect her from harm for as long as he possibly can-- spoken like a true knight.
Ace is also very comfortable with taking off his clothes, and the most minimal misunderstanding leading to him removing a piece of his clothing can end up with him making lewd comments while removing his jacket.
He is definitely smart and calculating, despite what his outer bubbly appearance might dictate. He likes being in control-- of his life and of situations; very few people seem to actually notice this, though. One of them being Julius, who remained completely oblivious to the fact that Ace once made up his mind to kill Alice in his very own house, and who has plenty of trust in him as a worker, just as Ace has trust in him as a boss.
Last and quite least actually, he can hold his liquor ridiculously well. As Julius said at the Queen’s ball, Ace had drunk so much that he should be choking in his own vomit. What a nice mental picture. He drinks until he's drunk then drinks some more to sober up and somehow it makes sense because he really is never seen drunk. Also, he’s the only guy in Heartland whose gun originates from another weapon: his sword.
✖ SAMPLES:
First-Person Network Entry:
[ the camera is clumsily focused on the ground of the recognizable meridian temple before a soft, sheepish voice can be heard. it's a young man's voice, and he sounds somewhat confused, yet not rattled at all by the abrupt change in scenery. ]
Hm... maybe I really shouldn't have taken that shortcut, huh?
[ truth be told, ace gets lost so often this is nothing out of the ordinary for him. he finally brings up the device to take a good look at it even if he doesn't quite understand there's a camera. still, it shows his reflection and it has a very peculiar shape and weird-- what are these? buttons? anyway, he's idly playing with it while talking to himself and scouting the surroundings. ]
I don't recognize this place . . . --Hey! Maybe I finally wandered into the Queen's forbidden garden!?
[ his eyes widen with self-surprise at that thought, and immediately after, so does his smile. ]
. . . Haha! She's sure gonna be angry!
[ --not that he sounds too disappointed about it. after all, it was just some stupid garden. what could she possibly be hiding there? he looks back down to the device, absently. apparently his laughter didn't quite last that long, but his smile is still there, if maybe fainter. this wasn't technically breaking the rules of the land, was it? yet still, there was one particular girl who had access to the garden just for the mere fact of being a foreigner, and that-well. That didn’t quite make ace happy, for some reason. ]
. . . I wonder what Alice would think of this?
[ then he starts squeezing the device, little by little, as if testing its threshold. ]
Third-Person Network Entry:
To say Ace got lost often would be a huge understatement. But this was nothing he wasn’t used to. The Luminar, though, now that definitely was something new. He freezes in place for the second it takes him to realize he wasn’t just lost in the woods like usual, then turns to look around for any signs of familiarity.
“Ah. . . wrong turn, I guess?”
And really, it is just a guess. But what else can he think when one second he’s walking and the next he’s in some clearing with some rocks and water and little-uh. Whatever that thing on top of the pillar was.
He tilts his head to take a better look; it’s not every day he encounters something that glows, after all. And if he hasn’t approached yet, it’s not because of lack of courage, but rather, because he’s busy still scouting the surroundings with his eyes.
Once it’s made obvious he’s not going to find answer by standing around, he finally makes up his mind to walk closer and inspect the box.
The echo of his boots resonates, making a little splash after crossing the water ring. And just like a trigger, as soon as he steps inside the circle he finds himself surrounded by tall walls of water from every direction.
“Whoa-“
There’s no time to panic (not that he ever does), but he is quite taken aback by his own nude reflection. His knees grow weak, threatening to bring him down severely into the ground, at the same time that a sudden sharp pain throbs on his chest. He holds the pillar with one hand, not allowing himself to fall, then lifts his face to look at the wall of water that showed something underneath his hand grasping his chest.
It’s a foreign symbol, one he can’t exactly recognize. Normally he’d wonder how it got there or what it is for, but the thing that manages to take his attention is the placing.
It doesn’t take long to somehow regain control of his body, still breathing with difficulty and sweat pooling on his forehead. Heh. Thinking about it, he never really broke a sweat in actual battle ever, huh? This was truly a first.
He manages to sit down and lean back on the pillar, throwing his head back to rest it while he undoes the buttons of his jacket and his uniform. Once he can feel his bare skin through his gloves, he turns his gaze down to look at his chest.
There it is. The symbol in the reflection.
He huffs a smile, laughing softly and almost bitterly while closing his eyes. Of course the one time he gets something foreign on his chest it happens to be a tattoo and not a real, beating heart.
“. . . now this is just cruel.”
Name & LJ: Maki ( makech )
Birthdate & Age: April 17, 1989 (22)
Characters played in Zodion: N/A
✖ CHARACTER:
Name: Ace
Canon: Heart no Kuni no Alice
Info: Wikipedia
PB/Image: Here!
Canon Point: Chapter 33
Gender: Male/Male
Age: 23
Birthdate/Sign: October 23, Scorpio (not canon).
Chosen because the negative personality traits described (jealous, ruthless, sadistic, dangerous, obstinate, insulting, secretive, suspicious) seem to fit the part quite well, as do the positive ones (intense, sensual, dynamic, magnetic, concerned, protective, investigative, compassionate). As for the attributes, he embodies revolution, seeking information and most of all, change.
Tattoo: Scorpio symbol on his chest, right on the place where his heart should be; 4 inches in diameter.
Suitability: N/A
Power: The water sign's Flowing, as he has no canon powers.
Personality:
Ace appears to be a chipper, happy, sweet young man. His personality stands out from others in Heartland at first because of his sincere demeanor and the bubbly way he carries himself. He's as polite as Heartland admits, and he's usually willing to lend a hand to those who ask nicely. Almost childish, he strikes as the kind of person you’d meet in the real, normal world as opposed to the wacko place the Land of Hearts can be. He is usually seen smiling charmingly, and he has no problem talking to others, even those who don’t work for the Queen.
His “role” in Heartland is to be the Knight of Hearts, working under Queen Vivaldi, otherwise known as the Queen of Hearts and alongside Peter White, the white rabbit. In Heartland, everyone has a role they have to play, and straying from it is absolutely not allowed. The inhabitants of the place all know this, so they abide by the rules of the “Game”. People with no roles have no faces, so in this respect, Ace is one of the lucky role bearers and as such he does his job merrily and without question-or so it appears.
A very important aspect of Ace is that he is extremely directionally challenged. He gets lost every single day on his way to the castle, usually wandering into enemy territory-- more precisely, into the Hatter mansion aka the mafia. Lucky for him, Elliot March, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the mansion’s gatekeepers, already know him and his tendency to waltz right in there. Despite this though, they always feel the need to ask if he’s there to pick a fight, seeing as the four main locations of Heartland- Heart Castle, Hatter Mansion, Amusement Park and Clock Tower- are usually feuding (if the last maybe somewhat less, considering it’s neutral territory). Ace never seems to understand why he’s being questioned, and he insists that there is a shortcut from the Mansion to the Castle, despite never actually trying this path himself. He laughs off sheepishly his getting lost, and doesn’t seem too bothered by it.
Below this mellow surface, there’s the flipside of the coin. Ace harbors a deep hatred towards the Game and the role he was arbitrarily assigned. It’s not that he dislikes the role in itself and what it entails specifically, but he’d much rather have freedom. To this purpose, he acquired another job under the caretaker of the Clock Tower, Julius Monrey. Julius’ job is to repair broken clocks, which is not as simple as it sounds, considering clocks in Heartland are actually the hearts of people. Ace has the dirty job of bringing broken clocks for him to repair, and he obtains them from the dead who leave behind the instrument. Sometimes, shadows of dead people appear to try and get the clock to bring themselves back to life, or the friends of those who died try to destroy the clock so the person can’t be reborn, which is usually seen as mercy. Despite knowing this, Ace deals with them coldly, killing those who get in his way without batting an eyelash, even if it’s completely unnecessary most of the time.
Having a second job that is not related to being a Knight comes with a price, though. Ace has to hide his identity under a mask and a cape so nobody will know he’s straying from his original role, even though it’s fairly obvious that it’s him. However, it’s pretty much a don’t-ask-don’t-tell situation.
Just like everyone else in Heartland, Ace claims to be in love with Alice. Everyone falls in love with her because she comes from a different world, and outsiders, instead of clocks, have actual hearts in their bodies. Ace desires a heart, and so does everyone else, which is why they all want to be close to the one person with one, thinking this might actually provide them with a heart as well. Ace seems to be the only one who realizes this openly, however. Meaning he is conscious that the love he feels for Alice isn’t exactly real love, but yearning, and maybe jealousy. Because of this, he has no qualms about using her as a human shield when Peter White points a gun at him for spending time alone with her. He also claims to be envious of Peter White’s straightforwardness and purity, and he thinks that is the reason the white rabbit doesn’t get lost, unlike him.
He shows minimal signs of empathy, despite his cheerful nature. Life has little value in Heartland because people can be reborn as long as their clock is intact, so just like everyone else, he considers those with no face to have less value than role bearers. Deep down, he is also quite nihilistic, believing that there is actually no difference between loving Alice or killing her.
He yearns for change, and he is aware that so does everybody else in the land. He tells Boris, the Chesire cat, that the reason people want to be close to Alice is because she comes from an ever-changing world and everyone here, in their yearning for change, want proximity with her because they believe that by meeting her, their lives will change as well. However, although Ace’s drive at first appears to be only his love for Alice-- and he seems to be not much different from everyone else with a face in that respect-- with time he comes to the conclusion that not having a heart means not being able to have genuine feelings of love. Wanting a heart, wanting Alice… it’s the same thing. Of course loving Alice is merely a subconscious way of compensating for their lack of feelings and maybe if they can make Alice love them back, it’ll be just like having a heart. These kind of thoughts make him the somewhat smarter participant of the game, if maybe also the most bitter, and his love for Alice wanes quickly.
So yes, Ace wants to have a heart and everything it entails more than anything in the world, too, but he takes a different approach from the others; instead of remaining hopelessly in love with her, he decides he wants to kill Alice instead to find out if that will bring about any sort of change. Lucky for her, it takes him a long time to find his way back to the Clock Tower, and Boris stalls Ace by challenging him to a fight. Just when Ace was about to destroy his clock directly, Boris makes a run for it to warn Alice about it. In the end, Ace finds his way back, but just as he is about to deal a blow to her, Alice scolds him for it and says that if he meant to kill her he would have done so already-- and that in all of Heartland, he's the only one who seems to actually enjoy getting lost. These words resound in Ace's head deeply, making him desist. And just like that he reverts back to his cheerful nature, saying he likes Alice just as much when she’s alive, but that he was serious about killing her and that the only reason he desisted was because he wouldn't be able to hear her heartbeat again. So as you see, if you like him and if he likes you and you offer him change, you better deliver, lest you want to end up dead.
He’s selfish, and everything he does is for his own satisfaction. The other roles, perhaps maybe just because it’s part of their roles-care for the members of their own affiliation, but Ace has no strings attached other than the ones the Game demands. He tends to be displeased with other people showing off loyalty, mocking them while smiling and generally giving signs of disapproval in passive-aggressive ways. Speaking of which, this kind of attitude strongly collides with his bluntness, making him more of a cynic than anything. He has his own way of seeing things and is decidedly not open-minded enough to accept the views of others, however he flaunts his point of view quite openly and frequently.
Despite his usual confident and whimsical way of talking to others, it’s not that hard to see through the meaning and true intentions behind his words-mostly because he makes no real effort to hide them. From an outsider’s point of view, he can come off as ignorant and uninformed, almost like a child full of curiosity. Because of the way Heartland is, he tends to not be able to fully grasp how other worlds work, especially in matters of compassion and self-sacrifice. But it’d be a mistake to consider him such. Being the only one aware that things in Heartland don’t necessarily spell the way things are everywhere else and specially in Alice’s world-- judging from how she is so against murder-he has taken a liking to preaching his nihilistic views to those who have been intoxicated by her words. People like Boris who now refuse to kill because it would make Alice sad are his usual target, but it’s not exclusive. It’s kind of ironic that Alice has been able to touch the “hearts” of everyone she has met and change them with her compassionate point of view yet she couldn’t do it to Ace, who wanted change the most. He instead opted for being jealous of her for possessing such a mentality, blaming her beating heart, instead of actually giving himself a chance to change for good, like he would have wanted.
Even though I'm taking him from the manga instead of the visual novel, I think another important point to mention (despite it being more obvious in the game) in case the situation presents itself in Zodion and it appears to be baseless- is that Ace is extremely possessive, extremely jealous and most of all, more than a little prone to sexual harassment. His yearning for Alice sometimes drives him and most of his actions, just like the rest of the men in Heartland, except he's one of the few that has no trouble making physical advances, even in public, regardless of Alice's attempts to free herself and get away. Ace takes advantage of whatever situation he can to compliment Alice or touch her... even leaning her down on a kitchen table while cooking is no problem for Ace when he wants to get what he wants. Again, just like every man in Heartland, he wouldn't actually do anything Alice was completely not okay with, and he bows to protect her from harm for as long as he possibly can-- spoken like a true knight.
Ace is also very comfortable with taking off his clothes, and the most minimal misunderstanding leading to him removing a piece of his clothing can end up with him making lewd comments while removing his jacket.
He is definitely smart and calculating, despite what his outer bubbly appearance might dictate. He likes being in control-- of his life and of situations; very few people seem to actually notice this, though. One of them being Julius, who remained completely oblivious to the fact that Ace once made up his mind to kill Alice in his very own house, and who has plenty of trust in him as a worker, just as Ace has trust in him as a boss.
Last and quite least actually, he can hold his liquor ridiculously well. As Julius said at the Queen’s ball, Ace had drunk so much that he should be choking in his own vomit. What a nice mental picture. He drinks until he's drunk then drinks some more to sober up and somehow it makes sense because he really is never seen drunk. Also, he’s the only guy in Heartland whose gun originates from another weapon: his sword.
✖ SAMPLES:
First-Person Network Entry:
[ the camera is clumsily focused on the ground of the recognizable meridian temple before a soft, sheepish voice can be heard. it's a young man's voice, and he sounds somewhat confused, yet not rattled at all by the abrupt change in scenery. ]
Hm... maybe I really shouldn't have taken that shortcut, huh?
[ truth be told, ace gets lost so often this is nothing out of the ordinary for him. he finally brings up the device to take a good look at it even if he doesn't quite understand there's a camera. still, it shows his reflection and it has a very peculiar shape and weird-- what are these? buttons? anyway, he's idly playing with it while talking to himself and scouting the surroundings. ]
I don't recognize this place . . . --Hey! Maybe I finally wandered into the Queen's forbidden garden!?
[ his eyes widen with self-surprise at that thought, and immediately after, so does his smile. ]
. . . Haha! She's sure gonna be angry!
[ --not that he sounds too disappointed about it. after all, it was just some stupid garden. what could she possibly be hiding there? he looks back down to the device, absently. apparently his laughter didn't quite last that long, but his smile is still there, if maybe fainter. this wasn't technically breaking the rules of the land, was it? yet still, there was one particular girl who had access to the garden just for the mere fact of being a foreigner, and that-well. That didn’t quite make ace happy, for some reason. ]
. . . I wonder what Alice would think of this?
[ then he starts squeezing the device, little by little, as if testing its threshold. ]
Third-Person Network Entry:
To say Ace got lost often would be a huge understatement. But this was nothing he wasn’t used to. The Luminar, though, now that definitely was something new. He freezes in place for the second it takes him to realize he wasn’t just lost in the woods like usual, then turns to look around for any signs of familiarity.
“Ah. . . wrong turn, I guess?”
And really, it is just a guess. But what else can he think when one second he’s walking and the next he’s in some clearing with some rocks and water and little-uh. Whatever that thing on top of the pillar was.
He tilts his head to take a better look; it’s not every day he encounters something that glows, after all. And if he hasn’t approached yet, it’s not because of lack of courage, but rather, because he’s busy still scouting the surroundings with his eyes.
Once it’s made obvious he’s not going to find answer by standing around, he finally makes up his mind to walk closer and inspect the box.
The echo of his boots resonates, making a little splash after crossing the water ring. And just like a trigger, as soon as he steps inside the circle he finds himself surrounded by tall walls of water from every direction.
“Whoa-“
There’s no time to panic (not that he ever does), but he is quite taken aback by his own nude reflection. His knees grow weak, threatening to bring him down severely into the ground, at the same time that a sudden sharp pain throbs on his chest. He holds the pillar with one hand, not allowing himself to fall, then lifts his face to look at the wall of water that showed something underneath his hand grasping his chest.
It’s a foreign symbol, one he can’t exactly recognize. Normally he’d wonder how it got there or what it is for, but the thing that manages to take his attention is the placing.
It doesn’t take long to somehow regain control of his body, still breathing with difficulty and sweat pooling on his forehead. Heh. Thinking about it, he never really broke a sweat in actual battle ever, huh? This was truly a first.
He manages to sit down and lean back on the pillar, throwing his head back to rest it while he undoes the buttons of his jacket and his uniform. Once he can feel his bare skin through his gloves, he turns his gaze down to look at his chest.
There it is. The symbol in the reflection.
He huffs a smile, laughing softly and almost bitterly while closing his eyes. Of course the one time he gets something foreign on his chest it happens to be a tattoo and not a real, beating heart.
“. . . now this is just cruel.”