driftfleet | 001: Video

Entry tags:

001: Video

Who: Lumiére and YOU
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: SS Marsiva
When: Right noe

[There are some things a person comes to expect in their life. Of course, magical curses that turn you and your colleagues into inanimate objects tends to move those goalposts a little, but you still expect certain things to remain the way they are.

For instance, if you live in an 18th century castle in the middle of France, you honestly don't expect to be suddenly not in that castle. And you absolutely do not expect to be suddenly in space. You sure don't expect to somehow understand, at least vaguely what space is. These are things Lumiére did not expect to happen to him today, and yet here they are, happening.

But then again, the Flooters probably don't expect to see a sentient candelabra shuffling in front of their screens as he presses his little candle hands to the window, staring out in the blank nothingness. Lumiére has no idea how he got here, he has no idea WHY he's here, but there's one thing he knows for absolute certainty-

Cogsworth is going to KILL him. ]

Zut alors! What is this place?

[He really, genuinely doesn't have time for this. Usually he's a big fan of all kinds of tomfoolery, but he's kind of on a really tight schedule right now and it's really, really not one he can shirk. He needs to get out of...whatever this is and get back. Like. Now. He turns, looking around him in the vast room, hoping for a sign of life.]

Hello? Anyone home?

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[He calculates in his head.]

About...a hundred or some odd years after I was forged then.

[Daaaang, candle-dude, you're in for a shock.]

Stuff here's a lot weirder than what you're going to be used to then. Technology went and got small and crazy convenient - stuff like electricity which is power you can use to turn on lights or other things whenever you want, or phones like these boxes. It's useful, but it'll be a little weird until you get used to it.

A long time.

[This is going to take a while to get his head around. ]

I can well imagine. Someone already mentioned something called light-bulbs? It is going to take me a while to get used to it all.

Ain't so long, but then I'm pretty much gonna be around as long as my swords are. It's already been six hundred years for me, but I know a couple swords that are nearing a thousand.

[aka practically immortal]

But yeah, light bulbs are a thing. So are TVs - moving picture boxes. I had to get used to it too when I joined the Citadel at first. You'll get the hang of it.

...That's an awfully long time to exist for.

[How long will he and the other staff last? If the spell is never broken? Honestly, it's that kind of thinking that can keep a man up at night. He decides not to dwell on it, he'll just bury that away and move on. ]

I am sure I will. I'm very adaptable.

[He shrugs.]

Comes from being a spirit and not a person. We don't age and die like you guys do.

[Or did? Would a candlestick still die if his original body was mortal??? It's a mystery.]

But I guess you gotta be since you're a candlestick now. That had to be a huge adjustment from human to...that.

[He doesn't plan to overly test that.]

It was very confusing at first, but I have been like this for...some time now. I got used to it.

People are pretty good at adapting, I learned.

[Although...]

Do you still get tired though? I always wondered if being tired was a human body thing or just a human thing.

[Since, you know, even if you're a candle, you're still a human in there, Lumiere.]

Well. I get tired, but I do not need to sleep, if that makes any sense? I think it is more that we expect to get tired and rest at the end of the day than any need to do so.

[If he were honest, which he rarely is, he'd admit there's a part of him that's a little afraid if he did go to sleep properly, that he'd never wake up. ]

Mrs. Potts puts her boy to bed every night, and he sleeps, to a fashion. Keeping ourselves human, I suppose.

[He listens and nods along, wondering if that's what happens to him. He sleeps now, but if he doesn't, it's not like he dies or gets sick. Could it be possible that sleep is just a function of the human psyche and not the body then? Because he certainly never slept as a sword.]

Guess so. Always thought it was weird that once I gained a human body, I had to go to sleep when it got dark out. As a sword, I was always awake so I've been adjusting to be more like...you, I guess.

[Human, he means.]

[When he says 'like you' and clearly means 'a human', really means a lot to Lumiére. That he's not just dismissed as something else- the acknowledgement that, inside, he's still very much a human being.

Books and covers, and all that. ]

It is not all that bad a thing.

Do you dream? In the human body?

[He gets you, Lumiere. He gets you.]

I dunno if I dream. Never had one when I was a sword, so not sure what they're like in a human body.

[Sometimes he sees things in his head at night, but those aren't really dreams so much as memories that are and aren't his at the same time. It's complicated.]

Do you? Dream still, I mean.

They're like...stories in your head. They play out and usually make very little sense. They tend to fade away when you wake up.

[He shakes his head.]

No. When I sleep at all I am just- not? [NOt alive. Not there. He's not quite sure how to explain it, even after all this time. ] It is like... stopping for a while.

[Lumiere, you literally just described his entire life.]

Ah.

[He also gets the "stopping" thing. He is and was, after all, an object for a long time.]

Like gettin' put on hold until you open your eyes again? Hn, guess when I sleep it's like that. Sometimes I get to sift through the memories of all my other swords, but it's disjointed and I ain't gettin' any new information. Before I got a human body, I never slept. Sometimes I was and sometimes I wasn't.

...

Guess that can be kinda weird for a human to deal with though.

[Yaaaay for him. Does he win something awesome? ]

I...do not quite know that turn of phrase [what's a telephone?] but yes...something like that.

It has taken some getting used to. I do not think I will ever be truly used to it. Though hopefully I do not have much longer before it will no longer be an issue.

Like you said - it's like stoppin' for awhile.

[Sorry. 2205 tech seeps into his brain no matter how dumb he tries to be.]

But you think your curse is gonna end soon?

It has to. We only have a few hours left before our window of opportunity is gone. If it is not broken before our master's twenty first birthday, it will be permanent.

[Hence why he really doesn't have time to be here. ]

....Hours? That's it?

So the day you left was his birthday?

Hours.

It was. Not that we really...celebrated it. For him, it was just another years closer to what he saw as a inevitability.

Damn.

[I mean damn. That really sucks. Hours away from the curse being permanent and this guy got stuck here. Doudanuki rarely feels bad for how human lives turn out, but that is one heck of a bad end.]

Sorry, just sounds like you guys're in a hard spot. How were you supposed to lift this curse?

[It's the worst. ]

He needs to fall in love with someone, and have that returned.

...I am sure we're very close to that. They are almost there.

[He knows the Beast loves Belle, and he's sure the girl feels the same- they just need to voice that. After that dance...well, it just had to happen, right? ]

[No, that's the worst. Doudanuki has 0 understanding of love.]

...So someone's gotta fall in love with an object?

[Good luck with that one buddy. He knows exactly how much humans love their stuff - which is only as much as when they need it. Then they forget about it or just straight up trash it.]

What? Oh- no no! The Master is not an object, that part of the curse was just for us servants. The Master is a...er for want of a better word, a beast. Not...all the way. Man-beast? He is...difficult to describe.

[Not that trying to get Belle to falle in love with the guy was any easier. The Beast's personality is usually a rather large tipping point. ]

....Oh.

[So....he's a beastman? That's. Wow. That sucks too, but in a different way.]

Uh, got it, I guess. So someone's gotta fall in love with a man-beast guy or you're all stuck like this forever.

...

Yes. That's...about it. Yep.

[Sweet lord when he hears it spoken out loud by someone outside of the curse it really does sound so crazy. ]

........

[He's heard weirder things, but...well???]

Good...luck...?

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