Prompt: "I've got one word for you: sing-along!" Tomix and Ask-Aspar. I'm so curious what you'll come up with for this.


He was born Aspar Dellarosa Kheyes, Jr. in a war-torn country. A young man of mostly able body (his eyesight was always a problem but as long as he wore glasses he'd be fine) it was expected of him to join the military and fight for his homeland. So Aspar did. And he did it well.

He became well acquainted with the many ways that one could feel pain, that one could be broken, that one could suffer. He became well acquainted with methods of resisting torture as well as doling it out, and of what he could give to his torturers when speaking was necessary.

His name, his rank, his serial number, and a seventy-two digit code that when translated from numerical script was nothing more than a childish insult.

Aspar kept them circulating in his mind as he watched the proceedings, though he wondered if it would be considered inappropriate to recite them.

He was in a school after all, not a basement.

"I've got one word for you: sing-along!"

He could see the gathered children groaning, and what respect he had for the public speaker standing on the gymnasium stage shot up quickly. There was an anti-tobacco campaign currently making its way through the area, and the Headmaster had been goaded by some of Parent-Teacher Board members into participating. Hence, the public speaker joyously strumming on a guitar and instructing the underclassmen to join in song like a chipper little maniac with no idea what real life even is.

He had to hand it to the strange man on stage, while his methods were crude, likely because he wasn't really trying to break the children splayed out before him, given a few hours they could probably crack a weak-minded soldier.

From the corner of his eye, Aspar could see something white moving, and snapped out of his daze just enough to see his young partner giving him a look of long-suffering and betrayal as his classmates half-heartedly chanted around him. Aspar shrugged in return and offered a small smile, sorry, nothing I can do, and Tomix huffed. At least he was here. Most of the other Spirits suddenly had various things that needed to be done the moment a school assembly was announced and the students in years Three and under were told to head to the Gym.

The strumming of the guitar had changed dramatically and Aspar found his attention fully on the man onstage once more. Yes, his methods were crude, but effective.

And if nothing else, the suffering built character.


NOTE: So did I tell you I run an Ask Blog for an AU in which Aspar legit was the Spirit of Kindness and not the King of Trash? Because that's a thing I do.