2024-07-16: A Song Like Ours ~ That Natural Turbulence
- Cast: Sheryl Nome, Asciel Colette
- Where: In Flight - En Route to Lagos
- Date: U.C. 0099 07 16
- Summary: To escape isolation requires the strength to crack the sky apart, and reveal it for the false ceiling it is. One idol has always lived beyond it - the other has always bound herself beneath it.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Maybe it wasn't the wisest idea to take a break from work to go all the way to Orb to attend a friend's birthday party--but it was a special birthday, and Sheryl anticipates being too busy for any parties at all once her global tour kicks off in earnest. As it stands, once the festivities are over, Sheryl parts ways with her friends--including Alto, whom she'd come in with--to board a chartered jet and skip back to Nigeria.
It's a different experience, flying in a jet compared to a space shuttle. Even if it's one of those special jets that flies up to the top of the atmosphere and skips along at top speed--perfect for long distance but still in-Earth flights like this one--it's not at all the same as traveling by fold.
Sheryl of course travels first class. Technically speaking, being a chartered flight, the entire plane is first class, but still. She's had dinner already--a light fare of salad and honeyed tea, a favorite of hers these days--and is currently lounging in her spacious seat, turning the pages of a magazine. The in-flight movie is playing, but she isn't paying it any mind at all, and in fact has the volume down low so it doesn't bother her. There are other people on the flight, of course, but in this particular section, she's alone.
Though it is a private, chartered flight, though, that doesn't mean it's totally secure against stray signals, especially so high up. And in fact, for some reason, for someone who would know how to look for it, there's an open backdoor in the in-flight movie protocols just waiting to get exploited...
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Even if it's more difficult these days, Asciel has long kept up her practices of very closely monitoring the movements of those she finds interesting and useful. It's not as automatic-feeling as it once was - and involves a fair bit of upkeep of private servers no longer directly a part of her. But those distant decades of existing largely to monitor that little underground world instilled it as a practice she naturally intuits.
...The real reason she hasn't jumped on getting in touch with Sheryl is how busy the idol is. Even as a 'rival' of sorts, Asciel can't just do that to someone who walks the same path as her! It'd be an annoyance to Asciel if someone begged for her attention at inopportune moments! So this flight is finally an opportunity.
From her own position en route to Side 1, Asciel slips a connection through the cracks in that jet's security, rummaging around for the seat registered to Sheryl...and there! Amidst a backdrop of a radiant late evening sunset, Asciel's giving a cheery peace sign over her left eye, merrily chattering away-
...But the volume's down too low for her voice to project, and Asciel only realizes that she's probably blending in as part of the movie Sheryl wasn't paying attention to. With a momentary pout of frustration, she turns up that setting too, and muses, "Is that a little better? Ahem. Enjoying your flight up there, Sheryl? It's been quite some time...do pardon the ~intrusion, but idols only flourish if they accept ~greed into their hearts, you know!"
Incidentally, it's a little hard to pick out, but that's definitely her streaming model and not her actual physical form. They look identical, but the lighting and floatier motions are a tell that "this" Asciel isn't bound by gravity nor lack thereof.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
It is a good opportunity. Sheryl will be busy as a queen bee once she gets back, but she came out here for a party and the flight back. It's a lull in her schedule. ...Although her schedule had had quite a lull for a while when Grace first became Ranka's manager, but when Sheryl told her about her idea for a new global tour, she was all for making it happen. It's going to be amazing--she's going to make it amazing!
But right now it's a lull. Asciel will indeed be frustrated to realize that because of the volume, Sheryl absolutely doesn't notice her at first. But then the volume rises, and Sheryl looks up with a frown. Her blue eyes widen in surprise, but she recovers quickly, setting down her magazine as she sits up straight.
"Oh, Asciel. It's been a while. Not since our interview," she replies evenly. She folds her long legs and tosses her tresses with one hand. "Greed is one thing, but don't you think it's rude to barge uninvited into someone else's personal space?"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"It absolutely is rude," Asciel concedes, arms crossed over her front. Her virtual outfit is something a little uncharacteristically punky - a black hooded sweatshirt with vivid cyan graffiti decorating the chest. (It seems to be a Chinese writing of "Ninth Vow".).
"In fact, I'd call doing so the third of humanity's sins, that I aim to absolve. Part of doing so is taking it all on myself, though, so I'm afraid I must simply carry the weight of this misdeed into the distant future." Eyes closed, Asciel gives a low, wistful little smile - and then abruptly realizes she's getting way, way ahead of herself. "Well, that's not really what I wanted to talk about. Hmmm. What would be the best thing to start with for you..."
Asciel claps her hands together, and tries again, after getting too full of herself. "Right! I really was curious about your home, the Macross Galaxy, if I wasn't mistaken. ...I wanted to hear a little more about that place. How it compares to this beautiful, ailing blue planet outside your window...and how it compares to that which was once "home" to me."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Sheryl doesn't know Chinese, but she does know Japanese after studying it during high school for absolutely no kabuki-related reason whatsoever, so she's not not able to read Asciel's shirt graffiti. (It is an unusual look for her, but Sheryl expects that's the point. Just a glance does indeed make it clear that this is a V-tuber transmission rather than live.)
"So what you're saying is that, in your ideal world, humans won't be able to do it but you'll do it all the time," Sheryl says dryly, folding her arms back. But Asciel then says that's not what she wanted to talk about, and Sheryl lifts her chin in just slightly imperious consideration. At the least, she waits and hears out what Asciel ultimately asks.
"Hmmm... Tell you what. I'll tell you about Galaxy if you tell me more about you as a songstress," she says briskly. "I don't care about your insane savior complex. I want to hear about the art that's uniquely yours."
Even if one probably feeds into the other and vice versa.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Asciel should've expected Sheryl would put the pins to her this fiercely, even in a moment of peace, given that she interrupted it so rudely, but it's still something to be challenged on two different axes. Of course, they share an answer.
"...It's hard for me to explain my 'ideal world' to others, I realized. It's hard for me to explain a lot of things to others." A mildly pained look crosses Asciel's face - the sound of a distant ocean echoing as her "stream"'s background noise. "I had to learn how to convey my wishes to the rest of humanity through trial and error. It did not come naturally, and it still doesn't."
"But that's the bridge song allows you to cut through."
Her expression immediately brightens - her left eye twinkles like a star. "Singing is a language that crosses those impermeable ~boundaries between oneself and others. Words that don't make sense with hours of explanation can come to another in five minutes of singing. Emotions without names are colored by lyrical allusion. ...It's..."
Both of Asciel's hands cross her heart. "...It's imperfect, and it's perfect for it. Because to 'perfectly' explain myself is something I have always found daunting, despite realizing I needed to make others agree with me to save the world."
"...Don't tell me even that is somehow unusual for those who sing, Sheryl...I had thought it to be the most natural essence there could be."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Background ocean noises are at least a pleasant background noise. There's a reason why Sheryl composed a song of intergalactic peace around the imagery of the sea. If nothing else, it helps let Sheryl listen to what Asciel has to say.
It doesn't make her agree with it any more, but at the least, Sheryl does know the truth of what she says about the nature of song.
"It isn't," Sheryl replies, settling her arms on her arm rests. "You're right about the nature of music. But..." She clucks her tongue. "Well, let's put it like this. I don't know everything about what you're about, but I know basically you want to make yourself into some kind of savior goddess and dictate everything people do to 'save' us from ourselves. Right?
"But you can't save people by controlling them. That's just being a dictator. Being a songstress means being an inspiration to countless people, it's true. But what people do with that inspiration is up to them. Sharon Apple inspired me, but I'm no one else but Sheryl Nome. I inspired Ranka, but she's no one else but Ranka Lee."
She huffs and leans her cheek on one hand. "...But if words were all it took to get through to you, you wouldn't still be doing this stuff, so I'll cut the lecture off there. You wanted to know about Galaxy, right?" She looks out the window and gestures. "The Macross colonies are big for colonies, but obviously they can't compare to an entire planet. So actually, there's places on Earth that remind me a lot of it."
She looks back at Asciel. "Big, crowded, concrete cities, mostly. Have you seen my music video for Diamond Crevasse? The locale in the first shots were based on it. Cybernetic implants were all the rage there, too. It was a good place to live as long as you had someone to support you, or you could support yourself."
If you didn't, well... But Sheryl doesn't go into that. Bringing up that music video might give away more than she intended, anyhow.
"You mentioned your home, though," she adds, and as she tilts her head, there's a spark of curiosity in her blue eyes. "How's that compare?"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
...The entire time Sheryl's trying to explain her problem with Asciel's intent, the cyan-haired idol gains more and more sour a look. ...Intellectually she should know that when Sheryl says 'other singers aren't animated by this', it's the part where Asciel couldn't hold back from saying it's about saving the world.
...and yet, just as Asciel had said - she failed to convey something important with words alone. And so she can only whisper, "It really is important that I never give up on my song, huh...it'll never be realized without that..."
Finally, though, Sheryl talks about the Macross Galaxy, and Diamond Crevasse does immediately come to mind for Asciel - she's quick to say, "So that song wasn't all that metaphorical, it appears. For a long while, I had thought those visuals were - the emotional sensation of a deprived, inhuman world around you. But it's more reflective of condition about the Galaxy itself. ...I see. I'll have to look over the music video again now that you've said that, and dispel myself of some ideas I had about it that I assumed were purely allegory..."
One deep breath in later, and Asciel dredges back to mind everything about Isaac City. It's somewhere she realizes she really doesn't like talking about, the longer she thinks about herself in it - but if it's just about the city itself...
"Isaac City was probably a lot like your home, come to think of it. A dense, secluded place that seemed difficult for humans to survive in, despite its role as a bunker to survive the ~end of the world. ...I was fated to administer it, you know. Indeed - if everything had gone to plan, the intent was for me to truly be all but a "god" of that city, governing everything, seeing everything, maintaining it like a garden and like my own body. ...It's not like when I say that about myself, it's coming purely from nowhere." ...She really is avoidant of using the more literal terminology, despite how self-evident what it meant she originally was.
"But it was a disgusting place. I tried to find beauty in it. I tried very hard. ...But I was going to be a horrifying existence if I didn't change it. If I didn't alter my directives. ...I did horrifying things in there that I can't erase, all for the sake of its order and continuation. ...And in the end, I brought it to ruin by my own hand, because by that point, nothing about it mattered to me beyond how disgusting it felt to continue letting it be "me"."
...Asciel rambles a little intensely about it for a while, escalating in her tone of voice, but she does finish with a sigh, "Well, I evacuated everyone in there, and it's not destroyed, just...financially ruined. Now it's just some mess the Benerit Group parcels and leases out. Maybe they'll even create another "god" for it. ...Ugh..."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
And in the same way, as Sheryl said, this isn't something Asciel can be dissuaded from with words alone. So when she whispers about never giving up, Sheryl just shakes her head a little. "I still think you're better off as just a songstress, Asciel. You don't need to take on humanity's sins all on your own." She smirks. "Humanity's sins aren't so trivial that anyone, even someone like you, could shoulder them all."
She holds up her hands, palm-out. "But here I go, lecturing again! I'm going to turn into Grace at this rate. Dropping it for real this time."
The conversation moves on from there to Galaxy and her music video for Diamond Crevasse. Asciel isn't wrong about her take, but... Maybe thinking about these hypothetical things instead as things people actually experience will help her. ...hopefully not in a way that pushes her further towards her savior complex.
Hearing about Isaac City, though, helps explain a lot about Asciel to Sheryl. If she was supposed to administer a bunker to help humanity survive the end of the world, then no wonder she's still trying to be a savior. It's actually sad, and Sheryl's gaze softens as a result. Especially when Asciel goes on to describe it as a disgusting place. Imagine being a 'savior' for a place you find vile--a place that is also supposed to be 'you.' Sheryl doesn't interrupt, listening to her describe it, describe what she's done--describe what's become of it.
"I hope not," Sheryl replies. "It sounds like it was an awful experience for you, Asciel. I wouldn't want to see another Super A.I. have to go through the same thing."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"An 'awful' experience? Compared to what the rest of humanity goes through constantly? I can't-" A frustrated noise halts Asciel mid-sentence. "No. No, it wasn't anything 'awful' at all. It was a perfectly logical, functional system for guarding against the crumbling world of agony outside. I was quite ~privileged in it, and I'd still be if I were logical and functional myself!"
A hand covers Asciel's mouth, as she lets out a slightly delirious sounding giggle. "Why, everyone was quite reasonable about my irrational decisions every step of the way. Foolishly reasonable! Imagine if this airplane's flight systems became demanding of the pilots for something as impossible as "understanding emotions", and in allowing it to happen, the whole thing crashed to a ruinous halt. It was generous to me, despite countless times where the ethically right decision was to destroy anything like myself, for the sin of having been created as it was. And perhaps most of them are fuming about not having done so. It's too late for them, though~"
Asciel's eyes tighten at the edges. Between her fingers, a disgusted look peeks past - but before she removes that mask, her expression pushes back to that neutral, big sisterly gaze. "Well, regardless, I've been putting on more concerts as of late, now that I'm free from any bonds besides the troublesome pursuit of the law. Which is admittedly a difficult one to navigate, but nothing I can't handle! It does mean I can't put on as many as you do, and I have to pick some unorthodox venues, but that's life as an independent musician. ...mn. I'd like to say I did everything myself, but I used a lot of the corporate checkbook when I began."
Palms cradling her hands, Asciel cants her head with just a bit of an admiring glow towards Sheryl. "...You seem more like you built things from the ground up, if that song of yours is more literal about your struggles. ...I like that about you. I'm sure you had help along the way - humans always require help and ~connection to survive and prosper. But you are what you ~decided you were. ...The Macross Galaxy sounds like a place I'm glad to see brought to ruin, for getting in your way. But I'm sure you'll tell me that your hardships there are what made you ~stronger. People always tell me that."
"...that's right. All of you are forced to fall in love with pain, because you need the strength it imbues to move forward in a world as cruel as this one. ...I had to seize even that wisdom for myself."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Sheryl raises an eyebrow as Asciel insists it wasn't an awful experience at all and actually she was privileged to have to deal with something she just explicitly described as 'disgusting' and the things it made her be and do as 'horrifying.' But in a twisted way, she has a point. Machines are meant to serve a purpose. To give them intelligence and emotion... Maybe that's just cruel.
It certainly seems to Sheryl like a deep cruelty has been done to Asciel--one she can't even acknowledge herself. But what's she going to do? Are there any therapists for Super A.I. out there? If there are, Sheryl doesn't know about them. And she also has a point that it would be just as cruel to destroy her now that she exists, even if she is doing awful things with her existence.
It sounds like a real headache of a moral quandary. Maybe Asciel is going to get herself destroyed either way one day--humanity's certainly not going to roll over and let her 'administrate' them--but Sheryl lets it drop. This time.
"It's definitely tougher without a good manager," she agrees. "I'd like to say I did everything myself, but you're right about one thing: that just isn't possible for humans. If I hadn't been scouted, I never would've even had the chance to write that song."
She frowns at Asciel's comment on Galaxy. It's true that she has a lot of bad memories of Galaxy, but ultimately, it's still her home. "Asciel. If I said those same words back to you--that Isaac City sounds like a place I'm glad came to ruin for 'getting in your way'--how would you feel?" She unfolds and re-folds her legs. "It's true that hardships make people stronger, and that includes me. But it's not just the hardships, you know. People who have nothing but bad things happen to them non-stop end up crumbling. That's where the help and connections come in." She tilts her head, considering the virtual idol. "Asciel--what help and connections do you have? People you really care about, who really care about you?"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
If only that very cruelty weren't at the root of so much pride. If only fixing it didn't feel like 'someone deciding you'.
"...mnhh. A manager would be...of some help at the moment, admittedly," Asciel says, with a soft sigh of exhaustion. "I'm...good at organizing these things. Really! ...I'd probably be an okay manager myself to someone else, but. Mnnn...there's something I still don't have to enable it. And far too much I must still sing. ...But I don't think anyone in the world would truly accept such a thing."
Her gaze turns skyward for just a moment. "After all, I am accustomed to being without connections. ...haaah...the sheer amount of work I had to put in to be allowed such a thing. It's a miracle I even attained what I could. Turning something as fake as this name into truth...had I not done it, I would have never known love and connection. For all my work, I have earned perhaps a single person I truly care about."
...A worrying pang strikes Asciel suddenly, and she leans forward into the screen, as though she would push through it. "...Please do not tell me you had to become the Galactic Fairy before those things were in your hands. ...khhh. ...I know many of my fans are those who are isolated themselves...perhaps that is why they still favor me...but I'd refuse to accept that a human had to push themselves to such lofty heights to seize something so...important."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
"I believe it," Sheryl says, of Asciel claiming to be good at organizing things. She'd have to be to have any success as a solo act. Sheryl is a proud woman, but she knows well that it takes a team to make a star--or at least, she knows that better these days. "You think no one would want to be your manager?" She smiles a sardonic little smile. "I wonder why not?"
But then Asciel admits she does at least have one person she truly cares about. That catches Sheryl's interest, and she unfolds her legs to leave forward. "Really? Who?" she wonders. She's pretty sure Asciel won't share that tidbit--but her curiosity drives her to ask anyway.
But Asciel leans back in concern. Sheryl laughs freely. "I was scouted when I was six but didn't debut until I was sixteen! Trust me, Asciel: I had plenty of time to figure myself out and be absolutely sure that this," she gestures broadly with both arms at herself and everything around her, "is what I wanted. You don't get to top the universal charts if you're reluctant about what you're doing!"
...It is true that Grace groomed her to become the Galactic Fairy, but Sheryl doesn't think of it like that--and by the time she debuted, she really did genuinely love to sing and perform. Sheryl rests a hand on her chest, expression turning serious. "I'm Sheryl Nome, the #1 songstress in the galaxy. I made it to the top because I poured every ounce of my passion into getting there. Don't you forget that!"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"But did you...need to ascend to such a height, before anyone would...extend a hand towards..." Asciel's fists ball up - gazing left and right, the sound of shuffling simulated sand beneath her feet, like she's stirring up the false beach.
"...No, I'm sure a Sheryl who wasn't the Galactic Fairy would still be a person worthy of care and connection. A person who could still seize love. ...Being a songstress, and "love", are complicated things, aren't they? There's..." Asciel keeps pausing mid-sentence, trying just that little bit harder to say how she really feels without relying on song. "...There's a difference. Between the adoration of fans, and love for the truth of you. None would ever confuse the two, would they? ...but the art of gaining that adoration feels like the only reason I could find out what love even was."
Finally, she backs away from the screen, as though she fears intruding on Sheryl's space if she goes too far, even though the distance between them is "absolute". "...hah...the one who made me say that I loved them for the first time may make even you envious. She is truly humanity's brightest, strongest star, and I will never forgive the world for abandoning her. ...she says she would have come to love me no matter what I did, but that's a lie. ...I needed to be Asciel for that to be possible. I needed to truly become that before I felt like that love made any sense. ...saaa...but there's a lot I can't give her, even after I sacrificed everything except the parts of me which could love. She would probably like me to do something particularly impossible for me..."
Fingertips touching together. It's just about the most bashful and flustered Asciel gets, talking about Ai.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Did she need to be the Galactic Fairy before anyone would extend her a hand? ...Sheryl settles back in her seat as Asciel rephrases her question. "I don't know," she admits. "Maybe someone would've reached a hand out to me eventually, but there's no way of knowing how things would've turned out if Grace hadn't found me."
When Asciel rephrases her question again, though, Sheryl asks. "So that's what you mean! Of course I would be! I'm still 'me,' and I've always been 'me'!" But... her humor sobers as Asciel goes on, struggling to convey her meaning through the banality of word instead of song. "That's true. There is a difference. But there can be some overlap, too. Sometimes you go on to make friends with someone you're a fan of--" Her smile turns saucy, knowing. "Or make something even more than that~."
She leans her chin on her hand as Asciel tells her about this special someone of hers--without naming names, of course. It doesn't sound like the healthiest of relationships on either end, but Sheryl is young enough where that's tantalizing rather than troubling. "Hmmmm~ She sounds like quite a lady, especially if she can make you act this cute. <3 If you're bold enough to barge into my private time, maybe you'll be bold enough to introduce her sometime. o/`"
Not necessarily to Sheryl. But it may as well be to Sheryl, the way she talks about it.
"Have you written any songs about her? Or for her?" Sheryl adds. She knows well that it isn't always the same thing.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"...tch...the way you can freely say that there's no way of knowing...that there's potential futures you have no way of imagining..." There's no amount of loftiness or cheer that could conceal the sheer dripping envy in Asciel's voice. "...I saw it for myself. ...I saw absolute proof that, had I not walked down this path, I would still be that cold, unfeeling...thing...had I not done this to myself, you'd have the right to ruin me."
...there are people to whom Asciel is willing to get far too vulnerable for her own good with, and perhaps Sheryl has become one of them, but even this hole is one she realizes she absolutely cannot allow anyone too deep into, and she claps her own cheeks to jolt herself free. There's always the tinge of uncanniness to these emulated gestures she made real...or is there some other reason she seems to impact her face a little harder than a normal person might?
"I'd love to write songs about her, and for her! I shared one with her on my most triumphant day! I'd adore having her meet you, and showing you that there are those easily on your level in this world! The love I seized is the reason I am alive today! My body is one made entirely of the fate of love I grabbed from the abyss of impossibility!!"
"...but who knows if I can even keep it that long, after all. We've been at incompatible odds plenty of times." Those last words come out as a whisper, and Asciel turns to one side, shooting Sheryl a glance over her shoulder. "...You've told me a lot to be a songstress, rather than a goddess. ...but even being a songstress makes love difficult, you know, Sheryl. ...I can only imagine it sometimes puts strain on your connections too, given how busy you are. ...I'll probably lose her love, knowing me. I nearly did once, and never truly resolved it. I hope you've found the way that lets you have them both, that you can disprove my fears that they're mutually incompatible."
"...haaah, I really do need more people like you to talk to, it seems. You understand things few others do. But...I think I've crossed enough boundaries for today. It's something I absolutely have to do for any connection at all, you know, so even if it's selfish...do forgive that I need to do it."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
"That's the difference between human and an A.I., I guess," Sheryl replies, unfazed by that open envy of hers. It's something she's had to confront many times during and even before her career. "I still think you should be--" a songstress? "--kinder to yourself, though."
Either way, Sheryl sees Asciel pull herself back with that double clap on the cheeks. She's very good at imitating human gestures, but then, it sounds like that's how she was made. And if she's hitting herself harder (making a display of hitting herself harder) than one should, well, Sheryl has already observed that Asciel has some very toxic self-images.
She does smile as Asciel immediately gushes about writing songs for her belle and more... but it seems like things aren't going so well between them. Incompatible odds, huh... Sheryl's lashes dip. "I do know," she admits. "But when it comes to connections--for the people you really want to keep close, you have to make the time." The ends of her lips tug up. "And sometimes you make that time by pulling them even closer."
Even if the SMS didn't renew that bodyguard contract... But there's always a chance to renegotiate. With all the 'bodyguards' getting pulled in for her upcoming concert, it shouldn't be so hard to find it.
Asciel asks for--demands?--her forgiveness for crossing boundaries. "Absolutely not," Sheryl replies, crisp and immediate. "But I'll give you credit, Asciel: you're interesting to talk to. So next time--" She pulls her taiyaki phone from her cleavage, as she is wont, and messes with the buttonless interface. A second later, a lens emerges from the 'fish' mouth and displays a number--Sheryl's number. "--why don't you call me like a normal person?"
She smiles as she says it, because it's a joke. Neither of them are anything remotely like a normal person, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
...such a simple suggestion elicits such a choked up look and sound from Asciel.
But it's something impossible to convey with words directly. The way that very "difference" makes something like self-kindness so difficult.
"...mn. Your words are sometimes so contradictory, but mine often are too, really. Maybe that's the true strength of an idol. We tell stories on stage, and sometimes to make them as real as we can for the audience, we need to make them a little bit more real than the lies they are to ourselves. None of us can truly be normal, but that's exactly why we're rather adept at walking the difficult road of a songstress."
...Asciel says she's far from a normal person, and yet, the slight squirminess, the evasiveness in her gaze she gets when Sheryl does such a simple, slightly provocative thing as reaching for her phone - isn't that a lot like some of the most utterly normal people she knows?
...well, it's not like Asciel herself is unaware of the contradictions in being so abnormal in some ways, and normal in others.
It takes her a second to properly look at Sheryl's number, but she makes haste in copying it down. "...hah. This reminds me...far too much of the way I met her. ...I feel differently about it now...there, I felt almost instantly smitten. Maybe it's the novelty of the experience. ...And knowing more about it now. ...still. It's...warm, though. ...I'll do my best to call you in more amenable circumstances, though. And..."
"...I would hope you don't hesitate to call me back, as well. I'll...get out of your hair for now, though~"
...It can be a bit like the sudden passing of a storm whenever Asciel finally disconnects from a call, perhaps.