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fan_flashworks2015-06-04 08:23 am
redsixwing) wrote in fan_flashworks2015-06-04 08:23 am
Entry tags:
Ar Tonelico: Fanfic: Kagura
Title: Kagura
Fandom: Ar Tonelico
Characters: Misha Arsellec Lune
Content notes: No warnings apply.
Rating: SFW / gen.
Length: ~450 words
Summary: Misha discovers that singing Purger is harder than she expected.
Author note: Inspired by kagura, Shinto sacred dance. Footnotes and links follow the fic.
What they didn't understand about Purger was its difficulty. Misha felt her body start to crumple, and forced herself back upright. Her breath, her voice, had to carry on.
Misha considered herself a powerful singer, particularly after the restoration of her hymn - her curse, to stand and sing, day after day, without respite or even variation - and with it, her proper form. Ordinary Reyvateils' training involved the choirs of the Church of Elemia, solitary practice in insulated rooms, exams, and rare missions to push back a monster or save a fallen villager. Her training - the Star Singer's training - had been to download the Chronicle Key from its crystal, and to sing it flawlessly, half a day at a time, until she'd chant the harmony in her dreams as well.
She'd been bored by the third day, furious by the eighth, and yet she'd spent years in the Crescent Chronicle, holding the world together with the threads of a song.
Chronicle Key was a trial of endurance. Purger was an ordeal of power. The very being she'd held at bay with her voice was awake, was angry - and once again, Misha was the key to pushing the Mother Virus back. In the physical world, she gasped for breath between measures. In the virtual, the world of the Tower and its mighty songs, she danced, contained and serene.
She'd seen a traveling priestess, once, before she'd become the Star Singer and left the world behind. The woman had worn a brilliantly white tunic over red hakama, and performed a slow, solemn dance. Misha had stood in awe, and watched as much as she could before her guardians called her away. Human though the miko was, and though her song held no magic, her dance had been calming and exciting at once, soothing the spirit even as the eyes exalted.
She put that memory into the Purger, with all the frustration she'd known. Alone, trapped by destiny and bloodline to sing into emptiness for a lifetime, the anger and hatred she'd felt had nearly choked her. That, too, she wove into the song.
Her vision blurred. In her mind's eye she could see the matrix of Song Magic, and in it, the single rogue thread her Song would sever - the Virus' connection to the server. Around it swarmed multitudes, the functions of the Tower overrun and turned against her. She reached deeper, to the furnace of emotion within her, powering the magic that would distract them for the single, critical moment.
Watch my dance! Feast your eyes! Drink deep at this monsters' feast and commit yourselves to hell!
With unwavering focus, she gave herself over to the hymn, and thrust the demon from the heart of the Tower.
~~~~~
You can listen to Misha's version of Purger (EXEC_PAJA). This song is partially in Japanese and partially in Hymmnos, the conlang created for the Ar Tonelico games.
The lyrics include several phrases related to Shinto sacred dance, or kagura. Watch a segment of kagura here if you like.
Break commands are used to halt a program without allowing it to close down. This is analogous to Purger's function in the game.
Fandom: Ar Tonelico
Characters: Misha Arsellec Lune
Content notes: No warnings apply.
Rating: SFW / gen.
Length: ~450 words
Summary: Misha discovers that singing Purger is harder than she expected.
Author note: Inspired by kagura, Shinto sacred dance. Footnotes and links follow the fic.
What they didn't understand about Purger was its difficulty. Misha felt her body start to crumple, and forced herself back upright. Her breath, her voice, had to carry on.
Misha considered herself a powerful singer, particularly after the restoration of her hymn - her curse, to stand and sing, day after day, without respite or even variation - and with it, her proper form. Ordinary Reyvateils' training involved the choirs of the Church of Elemia, solitary practice in insulated rooms, exams, and rare missions to push back a monster or save a fallen villager. Her training - the Star Singer's training - had been to download the Chronicle Key from its crystal, and to sing it flawlessly, half a day at a time, until she'd chant the harmony in her dreams as well.
She'd been bored by the third day, furious by the eighth, and yet she'd spent years in the Crescent Chronicle, holding the world together with the threads of a song.
Chronicle Key was a trial of endurance. Purger was an ordeal of power. The very being she'd held at bay with her voice was awake, was angry - and once again, Misha was the key to pushing the Mother Virus back. In the physical world, she gasped for breath between measures. In the virtual, the world of the Tower and its mighty songs, she danced, contained and serene.
She'd seen a traveling priestess, once, before she'd become the Star Singer and left the world behind. The woman had worn a brilliantly white tunic over red hakama, and performed a slow, solemn dance. Misha had stood in awe, and watched as much as she could before her guardians called her away. Human though the miko was, and though her song held no magic, her dance had been calming and exciting at once, soothing the spirit even as the eyes exalted.
She put that memory into the Purger, with all the frustration she'd known. Alone, trapped by destiny and bloodline to sing into emptiness for a lifetime, the anger and hatred she'd felt had nearly choked her. That, too, she wove into the song.
Her vision blurred. In her mind's eye she could see the matrix of Song Magic, and in it, the single rogue thread her Song would sever - the Virus' connection to the server. Around it swarmed multitudes, the functions of the Tower overrun and turned against her. She reached deeper, to the furnace of emotion within her, powering the magic that would distract them for the single, critical moment.
Watch my dance! Feast your eyes! Drink deep at this monsters' feast and commit yourselves to hell!
With unwavering focus, she gave herself over to the hymn, and thrust the demon from the heart of the Tower.
~~~~~
You can listen to Misha's version of Purger (EXEC_PAJA). This song is partially in Japanese and partially in Hymmnos, the conlang created for the Ar Tonelico games.
The lyrics include several phrases related to Shinto sacred dance, or kagura. Watch a segment of kagura here if you like.
Break commands are used to halt a program without allowing it to close down. This is analogous to Purger's function in the game.