The City of Light, Afternoon
Jun. 19th, 2007 02:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dark_slippy_thingWhen Valentine had finally caught up to the police, they had already arrived at the Palace. Helena, stupid girl that she was, had been taken away into a different room, and Valentine, lucky man that he was, was made to keep the company of a disgruntled chicken and the illustrious Slimy, the slug who was apparently in charge.
Joy.
Valentine did a great deal of pacing about, taking in the scenery of the palace. The whole place was so white that it was as though reality itself had been formed on a sheet of bleached paper, and he found it almost unsettling.
Finally, Valentine could wait about in the lobby with the accumulated mob of riff-raff and ingrates no longer, and he pushed past the lineup of people holding whatever they figured could pass as 'charms' and made his way up the stairs, where the Prime Minister and Helena were finally making their way out of the other room. He didn't know really what was going on, but he was fairly certain that it would be safe to assume that everyone here was nuts.
The Prime Minister cleared his throat and addressed the crowd.
"If I can have a little quiet? This young lady... What is your name, my dear?"
"Helena." She seemed just a little bemused at the whole situation. Whatever the reason, Valentine was pretty certain he didn't blame her.
"Helena?" The Prime Minister paused for a moment, considering. "Rather a common name, isn't it? Yes. Well, she is going on a quest, to find the charm!"
"You are?" Valentine pulled a double take. Fantastic. Helena was another Will, wasn't she? No idea when to stop and sniff the non-whip low-fat soy latte and always running into things that might just get her killed. Stupid girls anyhow.
"She is!" The Prime Minister, at least, seemed thrilled about it.
"Is there a reward?" Something had better make this all worthwhile.
~~~
"So." Valentine and Helena were sauntering down the streets, both of them somewhat thrilled that they were not still in the palace. Both probably for different reasons. "Did he mention a reward?"
"The reward is, we wake the Queen and save the world!"
...
"Nonononoo!" Clearly, something here had been lost in communication. "Reward. Money! Jewels!" Valentine scoffed down at her as they walked. "You can't commit to these quest things without your manager present."
"You aren't my manager." There was a definite scoff in that somewhere. If Valentine wasn't so very important, he might even be insulted.
"Uh, well, we'll sort out the triflin' stuff after, huh?" He looked around for a moment. "Where are we going, again?"
"Well," came stupid hero-girl's reply, "we need to find out where the charm might be. Where do you go for information?"
"Oooh, the library, of course," Valentine was pretty certain that this should have been a no-brainer. "It's full of books. And... Well. Predominantly books."
~~~
It was a stunningly short walk to the library, and Valentine contented himself to walk behind Helena as she made an idiot of herself, speaking aloud to the librarian, who just shushed her relentlessly.
This was not working, of course, so Valentine decided to contribute, bouncing over to the desk.
"Charm. Information. We're saving the world." Again. "Help us, or I start singing. Loudly. A-one, a-two, a-one-two-three-you-put-your-right-arm-in--"
The librarian snatched something out of thin air, and Valentine's voice went silent before the librarian went about directing them to 'information, paperbacks, top floor,' and informing them that they would be in need of a net.
And then he went right ahead and ate whatever was in his hand. Creepy.
And so, net in hand, Valentine and the stupid girl in the bunny slippers made their way up the huge spiral staircase. And Helena decided to pass the time by annoying him all of the way up.
"The princess they were talking about, did you ever meet her?"
"To be honest, all you people look alike to me. Without proper faces, you could be anybody."
"Hang on, I've got a proper face!"
Uh-huh. Valentine was not so convinced.
"Can you do this?" He peeled off his mask-face, revealing a somewhat smug expression underneath, identical to the one he had just removed. If that wasn't proof enough that his face was somehow superior, he didn't know what was.
"No," Helena replied thoughtfully. "Can you do this?"
She then proceeded to cross her eyes and stick out her tongue, and Valentine's hand shot to his face as he cringed.
"That's disgusting!"
Ugh, ugh, icky half-formed faces doing icky, half-formed face-things! What was wrong with these people?!
Valentine shook off the last of the nasty-face heebie-jeebies as they made their way into the room at the very top- paperbacks, information, yadda yadda, and Helena started to poke about the bookshelves. Needless to say, the girl had no idea how to properly treat the books, and they all took off around them at once, a flock of fluttering pages swirling around the room in a cloud.
Valentine put a hand on his hip and watched, unimpressed, while Helena swung her net around in a vain attempt to catch one.
"Valentine, I had no idea books had such different personalities."
Finally, she caught one; a book by the name of 'The Complete History of Everything.' And just as quickly as she had caught it, it flew into the hand of the librarian-- where had he come from? -- and he opened it and began to read.
"Arrrhhhm. In the beginning, she found herself in a new and empty space. And all was white, and the corners were a bit flaky, and the carpet was a bit manky, but it was a good space."
Fantastic. This old story. Valentine would have rolled his eyes if it was at all possible. He'd heard it. It had been done. To death. But Helena seemed interested, so he let it go.
"And she sat in the centre of it all and beheld a clean, white sheet of void. She held the charm to her face. And reflected in the charm was a city of lost horizons and tall and towering stories. And just as it had been reflected in the charm, so it appeared in the void."
The books that had been flying about were now perched on the wall, showing off images of a girl sitting cross-legged on the floor, drawing in circles around her. She looked like Helena, actually, but Valentine couldn't help but think back to Naminé mentioning how one day she had created a castle out of nothingness. For a moment, the whole story had begun to actually intrigue him.
"And when there was no more room in the void, she turned it over and continued on the other side.And so the void was filled from corner to corner on both sides, a city of front and back, a city of light and shadow. Then she rested on her bed and dreamed of her creation, and the lives that inhabited it. And in the days that followed, there were other voids and other lights and other shadows. The charm she placed beneath the sign of the Queen, to show the city that she knew it would never be finished, because the city was her life and her dream, and it would live forever."
"Thank you," Helena said, oblivious to a small red-bound book that had perched atop her head. "I think. I'm not sure I understood it all."
"Who does? I certainly don't." The Librarian, however, did take notice of the little book. "Hullo... I think you've made a friend."
Helena picked up the book and read the cover.
"It's a Really Useful Book." And she opened it up and started to read. "Remember what your mother told you. Why don't you look out of the window?"
What a ridiculous waste of time.
"Really useful? Utter piffle." Valentine was more than willing to point out that this was a ridiculous waste of time, yes. There were better things they could be doing than listening to crazy librarians read stories that everyone new and nobody understood. Like eating. He hadn't done any of that since he had left Fandom on Saturday morning. It was getting to be pretty high priority. "Sounds perfectly useless to me."
Helena was already looking out the window. Once again, Valentine was talking to himself.
"Placed it beneath the sign of the queen." Helena, clearly, was already in another world.
"It's all rubbish, isn't it?" And so there was Valentine, trying to snap her back into some form of sensible thinking. "Doesn't mean anything. 'Why don't you look out of the window?'"
"The Queen's sign is the sun," Helena mused, still ignoring him. Bah. "It was all over her bedroom. And look, Valentine!" She pointed off toward the glint of the sun, somewhere out there in the hazy sky. "We have to go there."
Fantastic.
"This is a really useful book, isn't it?" She was crooning to a book. Like this whole thing couldn't get any better.
Helena went to but the blasted thing back onto the shelf, but the Librarian stopped her.
"You'd better take it with you. If you leave it behind it'll just depress the rest of them, and before you know it they'll start moulting. Pages everywhere."
"That's very kind of you!"
"Sssh. Stop it." If the Librarian was trying to hide the fact that he was blushing and fidgeting sheepishly, he was doing a terrible job hiding it.
And if Valentine was trying to hide the fact that he thought that everyone in the bloody room, including the stupid little red-bound book, was completely and utterly off their chair, he was also doing a terrible job hiding it.
He wanted to have this whole mess be finished and over with and get out of there. This was just... just stupid.
(NFB due to disance, NFI for the same. Once again, this is pulled in chunks from the MirrorMask scriptbook (which is why some of this might be new to some of you) and the movie, and only the Fandomy subtext and the fact that this is written from Valentine's point of view is mine. OOC comments are still appreciated, though!)
Joy.
Valentine did a great deal of pacing about, taking in the scenery of the palace. The whole place was so white that it was as though reality itself had been formed on a sheet of bleached paper, and he found it almost unsettling.
Finally, Valentine could wait about in the lobby with the accumulated mob of riff-raff and ingrates no longer, and he pushed past the lineup of people holding whatever they figured could pass as 'charms' and made his way up the stairs, where the Prime Minister and Helena were finally making their way out of the other room. He didn't know really what was going on, but he was fairly certain that it would be safe to assume that everyone here was nuts.
The Prime Minister cleared his throat and addressed the crowd.
"If I can have a little quiet? This young lady... What is your name, my dear?"
"Helena." She seemed just a little bemused at the whole situation. Whatever the reason, Valentine was pretty certain he didn't blame her.
"Helena?" The Prime Minister paused for a moment, considering. "Rather a common name, isn't it? Yes. Well, she is going on a quest, to find the charm!"
"You are?" Valentine pulled a double take. Fantastic. Helena was another Will, wasn't she? No idea when to stop and sniff the non-whip low-fat soy latte and always running into things that might just get her killed. Stupid girls anyhow.
"She is!" The Prime Minister, at least, seemed thrilled about it.
"Is there a reward?" Something had better make this all worthwhile.
~~~
"So." Valentine and Helena were sauntering down the streets, both of them somewhat thrilled that they were not still in the palace. Both probably for different reasons. "Did he mention a reward?"
"The reward is, we wake the Queen and save the world!"
...
"Nonononoo!" Clearly, something here had been lost in communication. "Reward. Money! Jewels!" Valentine scoffed down at her as they walked. "You can't commit to these quest things without your manager present."
"You aren't my manager." There was a definite scoff in that somewhere. If Valentine wasn't so very important, he might even be insulted.
"Uh, well, we'll sort out the triflin' stuff after, huh?" He looked around for a moment. "Where are we going, again?"
"Well," came stupid hero-girl's reply, "we need to find out where the charm might be. Where do you go for information?"
"Oooh, the library, of course," Valentine was pretty certain that this should have been a no-brainer. "It's full of books. And... Well. Predominantly books."
~~~
It was a stunningly short walk to the library, and Valentine contented himself to walk behind Helena as she made an idiot of herself, speaking aloud to the librarian, who just shushed her relentlessly.
This was not working, of course, so Valentine decided to contribute, bouncing over to the desk.
"Charm. Information. We're saving the world." Again. "Help us, or I start singing. Loudly. A-one, a-two, a-one-two-three-you-put-your-right-arm-in--"
The librarian snatched something out of thin air, and Valentine's voice went silent before the librarian went about directing them to 'information, paperbacks, top floor,' and informing them that they would be in need of a net.
And then he went right ahead and ate whatever was in his hand. Creepy.
And so, net in hand, Valentine and the stupid girl in the bunny slippers made their way up the huge spiral staircase. And Helena decided to pass the time by annoying him all of the way up.
"The princess they were talking about, did you ever meet her?"
"To be honest, all you people look alike to me. Without proper faces, you could be anybody."
"Hang on, I've got a proper face!"
Uh-huh. Valentine was not so convinced.
"Can you do this?" He peeled off his mask-face, revealing a somewhat smug expression underneath, identical to the one he had just removed. If that wasn't proof enough that his face was somehow superior, he didn't know what was.
"No," Helena replied thoughtfully. "Can you do this?"
She then proceeded to cross her eyes and stick out her tongue, and Valentine's hand shot to his face as he cringed.
"That's disgusting!"
Ugh, ugh, icky half-formed faces doing icky, half-formed face-things! What was wrong with these people?!
Valentine shook off the last of the nasty-face heebie-jeebies as they made their way into the room at the very top- paperbacks, information, yadda yadda, and Helena started to poke about the bookshelves. Needless to say, the girl had no idea how to properly treat the books, and they all took off around them at once, a flock of fluttering pages swirling around the room in a cloud.
Valentine put a hand on his hip and watched, unimpressed, while Helena swung her net around in a vain attempt to catch one.
"Valentine, I had no idea books had such different personalities."
Finally, she caught one; a book by the name of 'The Complete History of Everything.' And just as quickly as she had caught it, it flew into the hand of the librarian-- where had he come from? -- and he opened it and began to read.
"Arrrhhhm. In the beginning, she found herself in a new and empty space. And all was white, and the corners were a bit flaky, and the carpet was a bit manky, but it was a good space."
Fantastic. This old story. Valentine would have rolled his eyes if it was at all possible. He'd heard it. It had been done. To death. But Helena seemed interested, so he let it go.
"And she sat in the centre of it all and beheld a clean, white sheet of void. She held the charm to her face. And reflected in the charm was a city of lost horizons and tall and towering stories. And just as it had been reflected in the charm, so it appeared in the void."
The books that had been flying about were now perched on the wall, showing off images of a girl sitting cross-legged on the floor, drawing in circles around her. She looked like Helena, actually, but Valentine couldn't help but think back to Naminé mentioning how one day she had created a castle out of nothingness. For a moment, the whole story had begun to actually intrigue him.
"And when there was no more room in the void, she turned it over and continued on the other side.And so the void was filled from corner to corner on both sides, a city of front and back, a city of light and shadow. Then she rested on her bed and dreamed of her creation, and the lives that inhabited it. And in the days that followed, there were other voids and other lights and other shadows. The charm she placed beneath the sign of the Queen, to show the city that she knew it would never be finished, because the city was her life and her dream, and it would live forever."
"Thank you," Helena said, oblivious to a small red-bound book that had perched atop her head. "I think. I'm not sure I understood it all."
"Who does? I certainly don't." The Librarian, however, did take notice of the little book. "Hullo... I think you've made a friend."
Helena picked up the book and read the cover.
"It's a Really Useful Book." And she opened it up and started to read. "Remember what your mother told you. Why don't you look out of the window?"
What a ridiculous waste of time.
"Really useful? Utter piffle." Valentine was more than willing to point out that this was a ridiculous waste of time, yes. There were better things they could be doing than listening to crazy librarians read stories that everyone new and nobody understood. Like eating. He hadn't done any of that since he had left Fandom on Saturday morning. It was getting to be pretty high priority. "Sounds perfectly useless to me."
Helena was already looking out the window. Once again, Valentine was talking to himself.
"Placed it beneath the sign of the queen." Helena, clearly, was already in another world.
"It's all rubbish, isn't it?" And so there was Valentine, trying to snap her back into some form of sensible thinking. "Doesn't mean anything. 'Why don't you look out of the window?'"
"The Queen's sign is the sun," Helena mused, still ignoring him. Bah. "It was all over her bedroom. And look, Valentine!" She pointed off toward the glint of the sun, somewhere out there in the hazy sky. "We have to go there."
Fantastic.
"This is a really useful book, isn't it?" She was crooning to a book. Like this whole thing couldn't get any better.
Helena went to but the blasted thing back onto the shelf, but the Librarian stopped her.
"You'd better take it with you. If you leave it behind it'll just depress the rest of them, and before you know it they'll start moulting. Pages everywhere."
"That's very kind of you!"
"Sssh. Stop it." If the Librarian was trying to hide the fact that he was blushing and fidgeting sheepishly, he was doing a terrible job hiding it.
And if Valentine was trying to hide the fact that he thought that everyone in the bloody room, including the stupid little red-bound book, was completely and utterly off their chair, he was also doing a terrible job hiding it.
He wanted to have this whole mess be finished and over with and get out of there. This was just... just stupid.
(NFB due to disance, NFI for the same. Once again, this is pulled in chunks from the MirrorMask scriptbook (which is why some of this might be new to some of you) and the movie, and only the Fandomy subtext and the fact that this is written from Valentine's point of view is mine. OOC comments are still appreciated, though!)
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Date: 2007-06-19 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-20 08:35 am (UTC)