Gethsamene Chapter 1 [Act 27]
Jan. 19th, 2008 03:48 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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tutufansNow that that's said...those who love stories, gather near.
Title: Gethsamene: The Tale of a Duck and a Raven
Fandom: Princess Tutu
Warnings: Spoilers like hell
Characters/couples: Fakir/Ahiru, Mytho/Rue, OC/OC
Summary: Once upon a time there was a writer who finished another's story, and then had to write a story of his own. If he only knew how to finish the story of another...what would a story all of his own imagination contain?
Rating: PG-13
Notes: "Gethsamene" is the title of a song by Nightwish that I think fits well with the path the story will take. All of the music is intrumental, even if most of it comes from movies or musical artists and not ballet.
~*~
Once upon a time there was a writer who started a story. The last story the writer worked on was a story started by a storyteller long dead, and chronicled the happy ending of a prince and a princess…and the sacrifice of a duck. The duck and the writer looked optimistically toward the next story they would write…but a troubling thought…the writer only knew how to finish the story of another…what could a story of all his own imagination contain?
Act 27: Darkening Clouds
**First Snow**
Mist held everything under its dreamy sway. The blades of grass around the edge of the lake stood out in its faint dark green against the muted white, and the water of the lake beyond it held the white of the mist in its rippling blue, making it appear as ice.
Abruptly from the mist came the shape of a man with long hair garbed in a dark ballet uniform, turning and leaping across the lake in a danseur-worthy style. He pirouetted gracefully, his left leg extended in back of him, as his arms moved gracefully from an arched position above his head to a crossed position across his chest that was known as the ballet mime of love.
Floating in the water near the far bank was a small duck, looking out across the misty lake at the figure dancing across the frozen water.
The duck gave a faint sound like a sigh. "Quack…"
‘…I want to dance,’ she thought to herself a bit sadly as she watched the danseur on the lake. ‘I want to dance too.’
The danseur gave a tours en l’air, a great twirl in mid-air, before landing on the lake’s surface once more, his left arm arched away from himself like a great wing and his right bend inward toward his chest. The duck gained a sad look in her eyes.
‘…But I’m just a duck.’
Then, to the duck’s surprise, the danseur stopped in his dance. As if he had heard her thoughts, he turned to look at her through the mist, and somehow the mist cleared just enough so that one could see his eyes…beautiful green orbs, filled with passion.
Entranced, the duck stared with her feathery cheeks warm as the green-eyed danseur arched his arms above his head and moved his hands around each other in a circular motion before reaching his left hand down to her.
‘The mime for "will you dance with me?"’ the duck thought, knowing the mime very well herself.
The green eyes bore into her, pleading, wishing…
"Ahiru…Ahiru…"
"Ahiru. Ahiru!"
Ahiru jerked awake with a loud "QUACK!", scrambling around desperately and splashing water around frantically amongst loud, confused quacks as she struggled to figure out what was going on. ‘W-what, did I fall asleep while swimming again? W-who said-‘
"Baka, don’t make a fuss, it’s only me."
The yellow duck looked up at the source of the familiar voice, and gave a duck’s version of a smile.‘Fakir!’
Fakir was a handsome young man with long forest-green hair tied back in a ponytail, sharp emerald green eyes and, at present, a scornful expression. He was bent down on the edge of the dock beside the lake, the strap of a brown satchel hanging on his shoulder. Although he was a student at the town’s Academy, he no longer wore the uniform, preferring his own choice of a brown leather vest with a collared, long-sleeved white shirt underneath and a pair of black pants.
Thinking on it clearly, Ahiru felt a bit silly that she hadn’t known immediately it was Fakir; no one else in Kinkan called her Ahiru. For that matter, no one else in Kinkan knew her as anything but Fakir’s pet.
"Baka, what have I told you about falling asleep during one of your swims?" Fakir reproached dully. "One of these days you’ll drown if you’re not careful."
"Quack," Ahiru responded in slight irritation. "Quack quack-qua quack!"
Faint amusement apparent on his features, Fakir decided to disregard reprimanding her and instead straightened up and turned his back, looking back at her with a wry smile.
"Well, come on, baka. Don’t make me late for class."
Ahiru flapped herself out of the water so that she could land on the shore with a soft flump, before scrambling to her little webbed feet so that she could hurry after Fakir as he made his trip into the already busy town.
Kinkan Town was the sort of place where normalcy ruled and people and places remained the same for years. Even though Fakir and Ahiru remembered when Kinkan was the setting of fairy tales and magical madness, they had to admit anything out of the ordinary happening in Kinkan was unlikely now. Not only were the people quite nosy and prone to get into the business of everyone else in town, they were also very simple-minded, only focusing on the material things in life…hence why Fakir stood out like a sore thumb with his writing and "pet" duck.
In a way, Ahiru mused, this Kinkan was a place she didn’t know, since the Kinkan Town she knew had been where she had been able to transform into a girl and help save the town from a Monster Raven. She wondered how odd Fakir felt in Kinkan now; Fakir had lived in the old Kinkan his entire life, and had lived most of his life with the knowledge he was the knight of a heartless prince.
‘But Mytho’s gone now, with Rue-chan,’ Ahiru thought to herself vaguely, ‘and Fakir’s Kinkan Town’s writer…everything’s different than it was. Pique and Lilie don’t remember I was even around…and Neko-sensei…’
Ahiru dwelling on her old feline professor right then was horribly ironic, for at that moment, the duck suddenly heard a quite loud "MRRRRROW!" The next moment Ahiru had to jump out of the way and flap around frantically to escape the fury of a dark gray cat with white paws.
"Q-QUAAAAAACK!!"
Fakir whirled around, his eyes widening, before he began running angrily after the cat chasing Ahiru.
"Ahiru!"
Fearfully Ahiru flapped around the morning crowd of townspeople and dived underneath moving carts, and the cat just dashed after her, meowing loudly. She tried everything, trying to escape from her furry pursuer, but to no avail.
The poor duck finally became so desperate that she plowed through a tightly knit group of Kinkan Academy girls, who cried out in surprise at the cat chasing the duck and moved out of the way, and dived into the water of the church fountain. The cat realized too late that its prey had jumped into water, and so when it tried to follow her and slipped into the fountain, yowled in fear and clawed its way out, shaking itself in immense displeasure.
At last Fakir caught up, shoving his way through the group of Academy girls to the fountain where Ahiru rested. He bent down and picked Ahiru up out of the water, panting slightly and his eyes gruffly serious.
"You all right, baka?"
Ahiru sighed in relief. "Quack."
Fakir got to his feet and placed Ahiru securely in his open satchel with a soft pat to her feathery head, before he started back toward the Academy, ignoring the squeals and whispers of the girls, who obviously seemed to belong to the school’s infamous "Fakir Faction."
"Always getting yourself into trouble, baka," Fakir muttered to Ahiru. "I guess I have to carry you in my bag just to keep Neko-sensei away from you?"
"Qua quack qua," Ahiru answered sourly. "Quack-quack qua quack." ‘It’s not like it’s my fault! I don’t ask him to chase me.’
Fakir gripped the strap of his bag tightly in his hand as he moved through the gate into the Kinkan Academy grounds, and headed toward the ballet building. Before he entered, he paused for a moment so Ahiru could jump out of his bag, flapping her wings so that she landed on the ground gently, and Fakir gave her a slight smile.
"I’ll see you after school, baka."
"Quack!"
Patting the small duck on the head softly, Fakir retreated into the building as a faint rumble of thunder echoed in the distance, his eyes losing their happiness once he was out of Ahiru’s sight.
~*~Meanwhile, deep inside of this story so barely begun, the frozen gears changed their focus from Fakir and Kinkan to characters in a different place. They gained the image of a blond young man and a dark green mallard leading a golden swan-drawn carriage through a shining white portal in the sky to escape a black flock of red-eyed ravens.
And only then, as the carriage appeared in a circular town under a darkening sky, did the gears begin to move.
~*~
Fakir, now garbed in his usual blue tunic and black leotard, leggings and ballet shoes, placed his leg on the bar behind him and bend his torso forward to begin his usual stretches. Although his body was preparing for dance, however, his mind was still hopelessly elsewhere, despite the writer wanting to focus on class and not on the little yellow duck he had just left behind.
‘As always, that moron can barely take care of herself,’ Fakir thought to himself tiredly. ‘It’s not like she was so much more capable as a human, but…’
Fakir glanced at the beginners’ class practicing on the opposite bar, full of the same girls it had had before, although it was now short a crocodile.
Most of them were deep in conversation, saying something about a carriage without horses, but when Fakir had looked up, some of them started giggling and whispering amongst themselves again, obviously thinking he was interested in one of them. In reality Fakir was deep in thought, and he wished that, for a moment, he hadn’t imagined Ahiru stretching between the pink-haired and blond-haired students that had been her best friends.
‘…It is strange, not having her around,’ the writer admitted to himself.
Trying to shake himself out of this chain of thoughts, Fakir turned around and placed his other leg on the bar in front of him, and he focused his thoughts instead back to the paper, quill and ink in his bag.
‘As the writer of Kinkan Town’s story, I really should be writing, shouldn’t I?’ he thought absently. ‘The question is…what kind of story should I write now? Mytho went back into the story…the Monster Raven is gone…"The Prince and the Raven" was completed, and completed happily for everyone…’
Then a nagging voice in the back of his mind poked at him. ‘Not everyone…’
Fakir considered this. ‘Yes…Mytho, Rue, Kinkan…even I lived and got a happy ending…but Ahiru had to give up everything…her human self and all that came with it…just so that we could have it.’
His mind again went to the little duck that was his constant companion. ‘Am I supposed to write her story next…?’
Sighing slightly, Fakir lifted his leg off of the bar and sat down with the rest of the ballet students as the gray-haired, human ballet instructor began his lesson.
~*~
Ahiru watched the class from the window, sighing slightly as she remembered that she had once danced in that classroom with that same class, though it was now short Mytho, Rue and a crocodile. But now, being a duck, there was no way she could be allowed in, particularly when she was considered to be Fakir’s pet. If all else, all the ballet girls would coddle her and pet her like she was a dog.
The duck gave a sweatdrop at this thought. Fakir wouldn’t like that at all.
The human teacher, very different from Ahiru’s teacher who was now a cat who liked to chase her, started his lecture on the pas de deux, and Ahiru’s eyes wandered to Fakir absently. The forest-green-haired danseur, although he was facing the professor, had vague eyes as though his thoughts were elsewhere.
‘I wonder what Fakir’s thinking about,’Ahiru thought to herself. ‘Whatever it is, he seems really focused on it…maybe his next story?’ she considered with a duck’s smile. ‘I wonder if I’ll be in it! …Then again,’ the smile left her face, ‘a story with a duck wouldn’t be very interesting, would it?’
She sighed, before thinking brightly, ‘Nah. A duck wouldn’t be a good main character in any story Fakir might write. Oh well…I’m sure it’ll be fun to read anyway! I can’t wait until Fakir writes it!’
Suddenly the instructor’s lecture was interrupted by the sound of the classroom door opening, and the students turned around and Ahiru looked up in surprise at the arrival.
~*~
Fakir turned around dully, at first thinking it must be a student coming even later than Ahiru used to. When he saw the person who entered, however, he could guess otherwise.
It was a boy who looked no older than fifteen years old. He had innocent purple eyes and shoulder-length blond hair, and he was dressed not in the Academy uniform or in ballet ensemble, but in a rather tousled white collared shirt with tears and stains and formal white pants with a severe rip in the right leg.
Most odd of all, though, to Fakir’s immense surprise, was what the boy was holding in the crook of his arm: a mallard with several dark green petal-like feathers that lay gently around its gray eyes.
The entire class dissolved into whispers; some girls were focused on how disheveled the boy looked, but most of them were laughing about how the mallard should "meet Fakir-senpai’s pet." This, of course, made Fakir shoot an annoyed glare in their direction; he did not see, though, that the mallard likewise seemed to be disgusted by the girls’ giggling.
The blond stranger nervously looked around at the ballet students, before hastily bowing to the teacher and excusing himself politely.
"Excuse me, sir, I-I didn’t mean to interrupt or anything…I only heard that I would find Fakir-sama here."
~*~
‘Eh?’
Ahiru thought in surprise. ‘He wants to see Fakir?’Behind the glass of the window in the classroom, Fakir got to his feet and gave the stranger a very suspicious look.
"What do you want?" the writer inquired a bit coldly.
The boy shrank back slightly at Fakir’s attitude, but he forced himself to regain confidence as he answered weakly, "I-I…I’m Adrian, sir…I need your help, sir…your and Princess Tutu’s help."
Ahiru and Fakir’s eyes shot wide open at this. The rest of the class started to laugh; after all, even when Kinkan had magic, Princess Tutu was considered only a story. Fakir and Ahiru knew better though. Ahiru, when she had been human, had become Princess Tutu to return the pieces of Mytho’s heart.
‘But how does he know about Princess Tutu?’
As the class continued to laugh, Fakir’s emerald eyes narrowed sharply, before striding over, roughly grabbing Adrian’s arm and pulling him backwards out of the classroom without looking at him. Adrian looked exceedingly nervous and the mallard in the boy’s arms quacked angrily at Fakir to release him, but Fakir paid no heed.
Ahiru ran around to the next window and rammed her head against the glass as hard as she could, desperately trying to make it open so she could follow Fakir and figure out what was going on.
At last the duck fell through the window, wings flapping everywhere, as the sliding glass finally gave way, and landed on the floor in a clumsy jumble. Nonetheless she picked herself right back up and ran through the closet out into the hallway of the ballet building after Fakir.
~*~
Ahiru wondered.Fakir’s mind was reeling as he pulled Adrian and his angrily quacking companion down the hallway.
‘How could he know about Tutu?’ he thought in frustration. ‘Everyone without knowledge of the story forgot that magic had ever existed…and no person without the knowledge of magic would carry around a duck like that. I don’t like this one bit.’
At last Adrian and Fakir rounded a corner, and the writer gruffly shoved the stranger against the wall, his eyes boring into him dangerously.
"I don’t know how you know about Tutu," he stated, "but you obviously have no idea about the gravity of talking about stories here. No one knows about the magic that used to be here, and I want it to stay that way. Understand?"
The blond boy nodded worriedly. "I-I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to cause any trouble, I only-"
"Quack!"
Fakir turned to see a familiar yellow duck flapping around the corner to them.
"Ahiru? What on earth are you doing in here, baka?" he inquired gruffly as he picked her up.
"Quack, quack…" Ahiru murmured sheepishly. "Quack quack-quack qua-"
"Never mind, baka," Fakir interrupted her with a roll of his eyes. "I’ll never understand you like that anyway."
"She said that she heard me talking about Tutu," Adrian said rather abruptly in an attempt of being helpful.
"Quack?" quacked Ahiru.
Fakir seemed to be conflicted between being amazed and being murderous. "You can understand what she’s saying?"
"Y-yeah," Adrian responded meekly. "I-I’ve been able to talk to birds since I was a little boy. Swan taught me."
He gestured to the little mallard in his arms. Fakir gave Adrian the kind of scornful look one might give to someone who claimed pigs could fly.
"A duck…named Swan," Fakir recurred dully.
Adrian blushed in faint anger. "Hey, I was only a little kid when I named him! And it’s not that bad of a name anyway."
Swan from his place in Adrian’s arms rolled his gray eyes derisively.
"Qua quack, quack," he said in a rather deep tone for a duck, and the blond went even redder.
"…I’m not a dork," he retorted weakly through his heavy blush.
Swan snorted faintly in a way that reminded Ahiru of Fakir, before he turned to Ahiru with slight derision.
"You’re Princess Tutu?" Swan asked in quacks.
Ahiru was amazed; he’d guessed she was Tutu before she’d even had the chance to say anything. She nodded, and the mallard gave a face much like a human raising an eyebrow.
"Awfully small and yellow, aren’t you?" he quacked rather rudely.
Adrian gave a light bat with his fingers to the top of Swan’s head in response, giving him a purple glare.
"Be nice, Swan," he reproached. "Princess Rue said that Princess Tutu was also called Ahiru."
"Quack?" said Ahiru, her eyes widening excitedly.
"You know Rue?" Fakir unknowingly translated Ahiru’s question, though he was far less excited and more suspicious in his tone.
"Yes," Adrian replied, his purple eyes growing more serious. "P-Princess Rue and Prince Mytho were the ones who sent us to you in the first place. They’re the ones who need your help."
"What?" Fakir demanded, his voice becoming angrier as his concern skyrocketed. "What’s wrong? What happened to Mytho?"
"Quack," Swan advised Adrian quietly. "Qua quack-quack, quack."
The blond boy frowned slightly in thought.
"Yeah…I guess I should start at the beginning, shouldn’t I?" he asked Swan.
He turned back to Ahiru and Fakir. "Well…it all started when Prince Mytho and Princess Rue first came home, to Meruhen…"
~*~
I’m afraid that is all for today. Is a fun story awaiting us? A sad story? Or maybe…?Name Notes:
Meruhen- Japanese for "fairy tale"
Music Notes:
Arabian Dance: Plays during Ahiru’s dream. The dark figure appears at 0:07, with his pirouette and his arms crossing over his chest at 0:19-0:20. Ahiru is first shown after that at 0:24. The dancer gives his tours en l’air at 0:49, and Ahiru’s "I’m just a duck" chain of thoughts is at 0:55. The music then skips ahead after 1:00 to 2:09 for the figure stopping his dance, and the figure turns to Ahiru from 2:14-2:15, moving closer at 2:19 and his eyes becoming clear through the mist at 2:23. The figure circles his hands from 2:27-2:30 before reaching his hand out at 2:31; the music ends as the dream ends at 2:38.
First Snow: Plays during Fakir and Ahiru’s walk through town. Begins when Ahiru first sees Fakir, with Fakir’s reproach at 0:08 and him standing up at 0:13. Ahiru first start flapping about at 0:18 and landing on the shore at 0:27. Before 0:33 it skips ahead to 1:18 for when Ahiru and Fakir enter Kinkan Town. Neko-sensei meows loudly at 1:47 and Ahiru jumps out of the way at 1:49 before Neko-sensei starts chasing Ahiru around town, Fakir following at 1:59. Ahiru shoves through the crowd of girls at 2:30, she splashes into the fountain at 2:32 and Neko-sensei lands at 2:34, to scramble out at 2:35. Fakir asks Ahiru if she’s all right at 2:39, and he puts her in his bag at 2:46. They enter the grounds at 3:22, and the music fades out
Street Urchins: Starts as Fakir shakes himself out of his thoughts for the first time, with his foot being placed on the bar at 0:02 and him starting his chain of thoughts at 0:08. The "nagging voice" speaks at 0:23, Fakir wonders if he is supposed to write Ahiru’s story next at 0:45, and the piece ends at 0:53.
Dance of the Reed Flutes: Adrian’s theme. Starts to play at 1:58 at Swan’s first quacks, with Adrian’s "I’m not a dork" statement at 2:00. Ahiru shows her surprise at Swan’s recognition at 2:04, Adrian bats Swan lightly on the head at 2:09, and Ahiru quacks at the mention of Rue at 2:17, followed immediately by Fakir’s words. Fakir speaks more angrily at 2:26 and Adrian murmurs, "I guess I should start at the beginning, shouldn’t I?" before the last beat of the piece at 2:34.
The Arabian Dance and the Dance of the Reed Flutes are by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and are featured in his ballet "The Nutcracker."
"First Snow"is by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
"Street Urchins" is from the "Aladdin" soundtrack.
