Re: The world which dyed grey isn't real

by **Lynnea** Fri Aug 12, 2011 3:31 pm

Lucille let out a small sigh of relief as she finished another bite of sushi. "Oh, thank you." she said happily, switching back to the delicious pasta. She relished the taste, happy to not have to eat the sushi. She was practically shoveling the noodles into her mouth when Kako spoke. She paused, looking up at the others in the moment of silence. For a moment, she wondered if Ayumu would even answer. She seemed to be taking her time chewing her food, coming up with an answer. Lucille finished her own bite so she could speak if she had something to say. Finally, Ayumu finished her foor and began to speak.

"Oh, Ayu. I'm so sorry... It must have been horrible." she said, reaching out to rest a hand on her shoulder while she ate as if nothing had happened. She wondered if she would continue or if they'd have to change the topic. She quickly tried to think of the next topic to talk about, in the short amount of silence there was while Ayumu ate.

/Author'snote
Sorry it's short. Grandparents got here in the middle of me replying and I keep being pestered to get off. Sorry if it doesn't makes sense.
/endnote

by **Juliet** Fri Aug 12, 2011 4:25 pm

As Ayumu spoke about her family's deaths she flashed back to the momint Katsuo flatlind. As Lucille said, "Oh, Ayu. I'm so sorry... It must have been horrible." Her mind moved to the funirol where everyone was telling her how "Sorry" they were for her lose. But non of it did anything to make things beter. Only added to the pain some times. Death of someone so yuong dosn't make since, she was sure the death of her whole family made evein less since. "I undrstand your pain Ayu..." She finoly said knowing that was the only thing she really could say.

by **Rose Rathe** Fri Aug 12, 2011 4:53 pm

Ayumu chewed normally, trying to act as normal as possible. "It's fine Lucy, really. I've gotten through the majority of it." she said trying to be reassuring. She was no where near being through any of it.

Ayumu looked up at Kako slowly, taking another bite of rice, chewing and then swallowing. "You lost your big brother Kako, I understand that, we were all there. Katsuo was a very good person and lived a good life. I understand that he was the closest of your family and the biggest part." she said, taking time to get her breathe, "But not to be rude, but I don't think you could entirely understand it. I lost my brother, dealt with that. Dealt with all that came with that." she said, stopping to think of the fighting between her father and eldest brother, "Then I dealt with the pain of loosing my parents, my rock through all my life, along with my only remaining brother." she took another deep breathe, "Seiki was my mentor, my brother, my best friend, the only person who was truely able to be there for me when Jirou was taken, and the only person who I felt truly understood me. I apologize, but do not think you understand that fully." she finished, half choking on the names of both her brothers.

She took a breathe slowly, "I suggest we steer further away from this topic though, it is an unpleasant one for a meal." she looked over at Lucille, who had been rather quiet, unusual for her. "Lucille, how is France this time of year?" she asked, plastering a smile across her face.

by **Lynnea** Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:07 pm

As Ayumu had thought herself, Lucille had been uncharacteristically quiet. There'd been no reason for her to speak beyond more empty apologies. What could she apologize for? She hadn't caused the car crash to kill off Ayumu's entire family and theoretically herself. Of course, she hadn't called either to comfort her like a friend would have. But she wouldn't have been able to anyway. In all honesty, it was almost a lucky thing that she'd never called. Maybe she would have been notified of Ayumu's ''death.'' Of course, Lucille probably would have gone on believing that Ayumu was still alive, since no body could have possibly been found in the car wreckage. But still, Lucille would not have been here looking for Ayumu in the first place. She probably would not have gone after Kako either, she'd had no contact with her for even longer without a proper goodbye.

She had been about to add another ''I'm so sorry,'' and whatever more encouraging words came to mind, but Ayumu had spoken up again, quickly, not allowing any room for any interjections. And the tone didn't allow any room to argue against it. "I...uh," she'd been caught off guard by Ayumu's last words, a rare occasion for her. But she quickly recovered, something not uncommon for one who talked so much as her. "It's beautiful...or well...it was beautiful. It's full of flowers just in bloom, and the grass was so green...or...before the colors disappeared at least." each time she spoke of the colors, she'd subconsciously glanced towards Kako, maybe wondering if she'd flinch at the words or something.

"But that's kind of why I'm here, actually..." she'd come to some sort of mini epiphany that this would be the perfect time to bring up her mission. The one she'd been avoiding nearly the entire time. But now she'd started, so she trudged ahead, deciding not to change track. "I've been doing some research for a couple months now...maybe a year. I can't really remember... she spoke slowly, focusing on her chopsticks as she stirred her noodles around her plate. She wasn't looking up at the other two for now, not wanting to see their faces. "Well, you see... The thing is...it's been on the colors." she looked up now, wanting to see how they'd react to her so called ridiculous theory.

"We did this project at school, and I was looking some stuff up on the internet. -and I checked this on many sites so I know it's not some conspiracy people came up with...or maybe it is, but it was on a dot org site, so I don't think it's fake. There's this rose, the white rose. Supposedly it can capture color, like, take it away. Hold it hostage, one could say. And I read that it was kept somewhere, here...in Japan. And, if you've watched the national news, they've done stories on it. Supposedly, they traced the beginning of the color drainage to a small town in Japan called *Chichibu (*AN below)" she paused taking a short breath before she began the part that was her conspiracy theory.

"Okay, so I was thinking...what if...what if this rose thing is real? And it's being held in that town...and if we take the rose, maybe we can get the colors back...." she finished, having difficulty swallowing. Would her old friends ridicule her? Say she was crazy and take her to a nut house? Maybe it was drastic, but it wasn't unheard of. She hoped they wouldn't dismiss her theory as ramblings that she was known to have. She looked between the two, worried how they would react or what they'd think. But only time would tell as she bit the inside of her lip

/Author'snote
I googled some small towns around Tokyo and got Chichibu. Did you have another town in mind for Kako to have lived at or in a different area? If you did, I'll edit. I just went ahead with this one as a general one
/endnote

by **Juliet** Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:28 pm

Kako had taken Ayumu's words to hart. Neather of them undrstood the other, maybe that's how it was ment to be. She stayed quite as she felt like she was being chowed out, the way her father did when he was unhappy with her performence and home or school. She didn't make eye contact and remand quite as the conversasion continud to something else

When Lucille began speeking of the colours Kako flinched each time she said a colours name. Then she herd it. "A small town in Japan called Chichibu" Kako snaped her head back up. Her face was pail and her hart was so loud she was sure the nabers would hear. She looked like she migh pass out. "Wh- wh- what town?" she asked not wanting to belive this.

by **Lynnea** Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:45 pm

Lucille had noticed Kako's flinching, but had gone on without truely acknowledging them. She made a silent pledge to herself to get rid of Kako's 'fear' of the words and making her used to them. They weren't bad words, there was nothing wrong with the words, there should be no reason to flinch like this. It wasn't like she was screaming profanities at her, or getting up in her face. They were simple little words, that shouldn't have done her any harm. "Er, Chichibu? Have you heard of it before?" she blinked, caught off guard by Kako's reaction to the town's name being mentioned.

/Author'snote
Oh phew, I was scared this would be a one-liner for a moment there T_T I managed to extend it to a paragraph though roflol. *goes about business*
/endnote

by **Juliet** Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:07 pm

Kako droped her chopsticks and coverd her eyes. "Herd of it!?" she almost snapped not meening to be rude. "I live there Lucille!" she said. Now she felt light headed. This had all been happning right there? She swalowed hard, "Are you sure... Are you sure you know what your talking about..." she asked, "Lucille... You have to be sure!"

by **Rose Rathe** Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:50 am

"Oh, it sounds beautiful Lucille." Ayumu commented when Lucille told her about France. She stayed quiet, caught slightly off guard, as Lucille began to speak again. She politely ate her meal while Lucille explained why she had come here. Thoughts were going through Ayumu's head, none of them pleasant.

She turned her gaze to Kako when she had a small outburst. "Well... Isn't this an interesting day." she thought to herself. "It's too bad the colors can't come back..."

by **Lynnea** Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:01 am

Lucille jumped at Kako's words, they had been the loudest she had heard her speak in their last few hours together. She had not expected this twist, not at all. "Er, yes. I'm positive it's Chichibu, I wrote it down in my notebook..." she nodded to Ayumu, excusing herself momentarily from the table to run to the coat rack. She dug out her notebook and started flipping to one of the first pages as she walked back, trying to find where she'd written it. "Ah, here it is: see?" She held up a page of her notebook with many scribbles filling up the page, but notably large in the bottom left corner was a quick note; Color drained Chichibu

"But, Kako, why are you acting so scared? It's not like you did it. If anything, you having lived there could be a good thing! You could help us get around...in fact...You were there when the color drained weren't you? Do you remember anything from the days before? Something insignificant that with a little bit of afterthought you realize should have been an obvious hint? Kako, this is perfect! her speech rapidly picked up pace in her excitement, probably morphing into some psychobabble to the other two. Her smile had grown too, as she realized these new factors in her plan. She'd not bothered to look up anything much about the town, figuring she could do that with Ayumu once she'd gotten here.

by **Juliet** Sun Aug 14, 2011 12:28 pm

Kako only felt evein more sick when Lucille showed her the note. She didn't know why she was acting this way, maybe in a way she was afraid someone she card about had something to do with this. But as Lucille spoke she saw how much she would be needed. Neather of them were anywhere near being prepard for Chichibu. She looked down at her food, her apitite gone. "Uhhmmm.." she studerd, "Lucille... I was there a week before, yes... and I remeber the day it happend, But I had just been moved and cut off from everyone and everything I had ever known." she said, "Plus I had just lost my brother... That whole week was a blure." she exspland her voice coming back down to her normol soft calm tone. "I remeber that I was in art class when it happend... I was painting and I tried to cetch the col- with my brush..." she added. Kako kept her head down. It wasn't what hapend before but what had happend after, and was still happnining. Funny how one could go so long thinking something was normle when it wasn't.

by **Rose Rathe** Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:46 am

Ayumu sat quietly while the other two spoke. She didn't feel she had anything good to add to it. Old words rang through her head, "Once something very impotent is lost, it can never be gotten back!" she paused, remembering the time those words were said to her.

Did Lucille really think they could get the colors back? Did Kako believe it too? Ayumu knew better than to believe it, she had learned better a long time ago. It made her sad, and she missed the colors, but she knew they were never coming back.

by **Lynnea** Mon Aug 15, 2011 11:37 am

"...Oh..." was the only quiet word Lucille could manage, her earlier excitement melted, and her smile fell. The corner of her mouth twitched, feeling odd that it wasn't smiling like it usually was, but Lucille couldn't find it in her to fake a smile. She was genuinely sad about this, she thought she might be able to get somewhere new by announcing her plan to her two friends, and just when she had been getting good results they'd disappeared as quickly as they'd shown up. She bit the inside of her lip, an action she'd taken to instead of actually biting her lip. There she went again, not saying the color word.

"Kako...why won't you say 'color'?" she put a slight emphasis on the word. For some reason, the fact that Kako refused to say color or anything related to it annoyed her to no ends. She almost had to literally hold her tongue to prevent herself from screaming 'Colour, Colour, Colour, Colour, Colour!' at her. "There's nothing wrong with the word, is there?" in the back of her mind, she quietly noted that Ayumu hadn't spoken in a long time and seemed to be caught up in a world of her own. She gave herself a small reminder to get her back into the conversation, she was curious to what she was thinking, but for now she wanted to focus on getting Kako to say 'color'.

/Author's note
Don't mind the random change in how I spelled color, after typing it so many times in this dumb reply color didn't look like a word anymore so I added the 'u' so my brain would stop being stupid ^-^"
/endnote

by **Juliet** Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:17 pm

Kako winsed when Lucille pointed the fact that she would not say the word "Color". She fixed her eyes on her plate and forced herself to eat a little wile she tried to deside how to respond to Lucille. "Lucille..." she said desding to try and move the topic away from the words she couldn't bring herself to use. "What are you proposing we do... I meen you come with all this infermation, what did you have in mind?" Kako really hoped she wasn't planning on going to Chichibu, she wasn't sure if eather of them could make it with out getting themselfs aressted.

by **Rose Rathe** Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:47 pm

Ayumu was still eating, trying to keep her head level. "She's scared of the word, it's a fear that's been put into her. She has been told for so long that it doesn't even exist that it isn't even in her vocabulary." she said looking at Lucille, explaining the reason she thought Kako would not say color.

She waited for Lucille to see what she was going to say about why she did all the research about the colors. She was hoping it wouldn't be anything silly, like trying to go find a way to get them back.

Authorsnote
Short reply is short T_T
/Endnote

by **Juliet** Sun Aug 21, 2011 3:44 pm

Kako winsed when Ayumu hit the resson she wouldn't say color on the nail. A long pause folowed as if Lucille didn't know the annser to her question. This cosed Kako to listen closer to her siroundings. Her face pailed when she herd the fermiler cherp come from a wall behind her. She knew it was too soft for Lucille and Ayumu to hear. She quitly stood up and steped over the the wall. It took her a momint to find it in the folds of a kerton. But there it was, a small microphone, too small to be seen by an untrained eye. Kako could only find them becose she had spent seven years around them. "I was cold." Kako said in her normle tone shutting the window. Someone was tring to keep track of them, but Who?

"Hey! Do you girls remeber that old cabin we use to viset back in the day?" Kako asked sitting back down. She sounded like everything was normle. She evein looked convinsinly normle. "Wouldn't it be fun to go back for the weekend? Just the three of us! For old times sake." She had to play it up like she really pland on going there. If someone was really folowing them, then they'd be bugging the cabin while they were headded some place else. If it was the same peolpe she thought it was. Lucille was in sericse danger right now and Kako didn't want her to end up like Ayame. Her first friend back in Chichibu, who had been taken and reternd in a weel chair with no memory of Kako or the colors.

by **Lynnea** Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:15 pm

/Author'snote
I am incredibly sorry about not responding to the roleplay for so long, it's just been a bit crazy this week. We had to take the laptop into Best Buy and let Geeksquad take a look at it, so for a couple days I had little to no internet, then the next couple it was at Best Buy and I've been biking to the library. I just haven't been able to find a muse to put in a reply. Sorry ^-^
/endnote

Lucille was quiet for a moment, twirling the spaghetti around on her chopsticks absentmindedly. Wasn't her plan obvious? She wanted the color back, of course. Had Kako meant something else, or did the pair honestly not realize she was planning to get the color back. She'd just opened her mouth to form the letter 'I' when Ayumu suddenly spoke, switching Lucille's gaze from Kako to Ayumu. She blinked, feeling confused until her brain registered what she'd said had been commented on the previous topic. A quiet "Oh..." escaped her lips at Ayumu's explanation and she turned to face Kako once again, preparing an apology, but out of no where Kako suddenly stood, moving stiffly towards the window on the wall. She fidgeted with the curtain for a moment (an action, Lucille couldn't quite see clearly from her position) and Lucille spoke up "What are you-" "I was cold." a slight pause "Oh."

Then out of nowhere, Kako changed the topic completely. She blinked and shook her head, not a wild side to side motion more like a shiver of surprise. The topic had been changed so abruptly, her brain had to take a moment to process it. As a reaction, her words came out as a slight stutter. "I-er-what? The cabin? W-why?" she couldn't figure out why she'd suddenly want to go to the cabin. Lucille didn't have time for fun and games like that, she needed to either get Ayumu and Kako to help her on her mission, or go off and look for someone else to help her. She couldn't do it alone, she knew, but she would if she had to. She wished her big reveal had gone better than it had, maybe her presentation had been bad.

Somehow she was going to need to get the topic back to the colors, "I mean...the cabin is nice and all, but don't you think it's a bit too far away? Perhaps we could go to Chichibu instead....I'd really like to look into the White Rose more." she paused, an odd look had come over Kako that Lucille couldn't really place. She was completely oblivious to the fact that they were being watched; that there was a bug in this very room recording their every word....

by **Juliet** Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:52 pm

Kako took a breath and said politly, "This Whight Rose you keep going on about is nothing more then a fairy tail." she said reaching to take Lucille's notebook. She pulled the pencel she always kept behind her ear out and wright in french so Lucille would undrstand beter. "We can talk later... Agree to the cabin." Kako smiled acting like everything was fine, "I'm sorry Lucille! But it's true... It's only a fairy tail peolpe made up to exsplan things." she ripped the paper out and tore it into tiny peaces so no one would see it later. She glanced at Ayumu, comunicating the same thing on the paper to her with her eyes. "I can pay a cab to get us to the cabin tonight if you want too." Her voice sounded normle but her face begged them to agree.

by **Rose Rathe** Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:16 am

Ayumu raised an eyebrow. There wasn't a cold breeze coming from the window... Why had Kako said that she was cold? Then suddenly she changed topics. This was uncharacteristic for Kako. Something was up.

Ayumu watched both Lucille and Kako carefully, figuring out slowly what was going on. She grab a piece of sushi and ate it slowly so her mouth would be full and she wouldn't have to speak.

Kako drew a note, Ayumu noticed it was in French, she recognized the way the language looked written, but not very many words. She saw one she did recognize. "Agree."

Kako showed the note to Lucille and then quickly tore it up. That was a bad sign. That meant Kako didn't want anyone else finding it later on. But why?

"I'm sorry Lucille! But it's true... It's only a fairy tale people made up to explain things." Kako said. "Yes, of course Lucille. A mystical white rose, it's just like the children's stories adults tell kids at bedtime." she agreed, both to play along and because she believed it was true.

"The cabin sounds like a wonderful idea though! I haven't been there in years. You think it's still there? I'm sure it probably is... Come on Lucille, my house is boring, don't be a party pooper. Just go along with it for once!" she said turning to Lucille. She had added the last line as a sort of warning to Lucille that she thought it was important to play along, but in a way anyone else probably wouldn't notice. She was also talking with added personality that didn't normally belong to her. She knew it would probably catch the other's attention to let them know she knew what was going on.

by **Lynnea** Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:15 pm

/Author'snote
ROFLOL I just realized why I've always thought Lucille's name felt familiar to me. Apparently, there's a french actress (french, go figure ) with the same name....just thought I'd share the fun fact~
/endnote

Lucille opened her mouth to respond, feeling incredibly indignant. How could they say it was merely a fairytale? She'd done the research, quadrouple checked it, then checked it another five times. You couldn't call that a simple fairytale! "What? No! What are you doing? That's-" Now Kako was stealing her notebook from her, how dare she? The other girl wrote something down, and Lucille stood to take back her notebook. What was she doing? Kako showed her the notebook and Lucille skimmed over the words, her eyes narrowing. She raised an eyebrow, glancing towards Ayumu, then back at Kako when she began to speak again while ripping up the note. She wondered why they were being secretive like this.

Sighing, she played along to some plot the other two already seemed to know but hadn't bothered to share. They were going to explain later, she hated being left in the dark. "I guess you're right. I was just putting hope in the only evidence I had." she made sure to sound defeated, rejected, but the tone of her words didn't quite meet her eyes, which were confused and annoyed. Not angry, no, she couldn't be angry at her friends. Merely annoyed. "Alright, let's go to the cabin. I've missed the lake anyway...and the flowers..." she had trouble keeping the light, confused, I'm-Giving-In tone but she didn't let it slip too much. She pocketed her notebook back into her trenchcoat and slipped an arm into a sleeve while she spoke."Should we clean up dinner?"

by **Juliet** Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:15 pm

Kako handed Lucille her notebook back. She was releved at the fact that both girls seemed willing to play along although Ayumu had undrstood beter what was going on then Lucille. But Lucille had always needed things exspland strate out and honistly she didn't want them to know too much now. "Should we clean up dinner?" Lucille asked. Kako paniced staning up to look at all the food. "Uhh..." She said tring to desid what to do about that. "Gochusosama" she said polightly looking at Ayumu. She picked up her own dishes sighlently and mouthed, "I have to help."

by **Rose Rathe** Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:38 am

Ayumu looked up at Kako and nodded, "That's fine, the quicker we can get to the cabin the better." she said. She then mutter "Gochusosama." under her breath, eyes closed. She stood and gathered as many dishes as she could fit into her hands.

"Don't worry Lucy, I'm sure it will be beautiful." she said in her calmer, more usual tone, "I've been meaning to go there, maybe it'll answer a few questions that have been floating around." she said and smiled, winking at Lucille hoping she wouldn't get too upset at the fact she wasn't in the loop entirely.

Ayumu walked to the kitchen with her handful of dishes. She honestly wondered to herself if they were even going to the cabin. She somehow doubted it.

by **Juliet** Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:55 am

Kako presst her lips togeather and folowed Ayumu into the kitchen. She silintly placed them into the sink listning for the fermiller cherp of another bug. Back home they would only bug places they exspected peolpe to be talking. Since only the host was supost to be in the kitchen it was posible they didn't bother bugging it. After a minit with no cherp and got close to Ayumu and wisperd, "Fastist way out of Tokyo? I don't care where we go... Just not the cabin, and no cabs..." she made it ovise they had to wisper.

by **Rose Rathe** Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:59 am

"Depends." Ayumu whispered softly setting her own plates in the sink. "On weather you want public transport or not. We could walk, it would be quick if we wanted it to be and hardly anyone would notice. A train would be the public way, and also the quickest." she said, still as quietly as before while she carried on her business.

by **Lynnea** Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:10 am

"Gochusosoma" Lucille said quickly, as she picked up some plates, including her own. She'd nearly forgotten that word, she found it funny sometimes how polite the Japanese people were. But this wasn't a time to muse about being polite, she followed Kako and Ayumu into the kitchen. Her attitude had changed significantly out of annoyance. She tried to hide it, but the longer they were being weird like this talking about the cabin -which Lucille had a sneaking suspicion they were not going to visit- the worse she was going to feel. "Maybe." she said very stiffly compared to how she normally would've answered, but it probably would have sounded like a normal response from someone who didn't know Lucille.

She made her way to the sink, setting her dishes on the counter next to the sink, so as not to clutter up the sink so much. Kako and Ayumu were already whispering about transportation and Lucille sighed. Could they be heard in here too? She remembered the earlier loud music and turned to Ayumu, speaking casually. "Hey, Ayumu. Could we play some music? I really like the songs from earlier." She made her way to an opposite counter and pointed at the musical device next to her, shrugging as she did so. She slipped out of her trenchcoat as Ayumu responded, figuring she could head out front and grab the few leftover dishes. Three people didn't need to be at the sink at once.

by **Rose Rathe** Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:00 pm

Ayumu turned and looked back at Lucille smiling, "Of course, I just had it set to play that one song." she said and walked over, pushing the button to tell the music player to go on and play the rest of the CD.

Torn in two, she lies awake
The moon lights up the room like day
Another night she spends alone
Without his touch her skin's so cold

"So..." Ayumu said looking at Kako, "What do you think?" she asked.

Even though the world she loves,
It won't ever be the way it was,
And his heart of stone left hers breaking.

Every night she cries and dies a little more each time,
Say you love me (you love me),
Nothing left inside,
Say you love me,
And the silence will set her free.

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