Author's Note: Okay, so this here's the beginning of
Ar tonelico: Elegy of Sacrifice, part of the prologue set during the main characters' childhood to be specific. Not sure if what I've wrote so far is enough to give a good impression yet.
Had some anxiety when it came to writing this, partly from having to keep track of Ar tonelico lore (AT2 lore mainly), and partly because writing about trans characters pre-transition can be a little awkward, though writing in second-person makes pronouns slightly less of an issue
Ar tonelico: Elegy of Sacrifice (Excerpt)
You wanted to believe life was simpler back then. Compared to just what sort of life you led now, maybe it really was.
At the time you didn't even call yourself 'she', you didn't know what to call herself, but you got called 'he' and by the name 'Juhani Hartvig' by everyone else. Back then you were a spotty-faced, messy brown-haired child of ten, little different on the surface from any other child in your town raised to be a boy. You lived in a land called Metafalss, well what passed for a land anyway, that hung between a lofty tower and an endless expanse of sky.
Like most of the Metafalss Rim you lived in a rickety outpost town, though that day you were headed with your family to Enna, the only real city the Rim had. On foot too, since there was no way you could afford an airship. Most of the Rim was headed there that day too, or at least those who were able to go, as it was that day a grand visitation would take place.
On the dusty road leading closer to Enna, you had the chance opportunity to sneak off and run over to a boy you knew, a boy your age with long, dark-blue hair shrouding his face. He looked quite unlike other boys his age, but then what Reyvateil was ever raised as a boy?
"Hey, Sybil," you ran up to say, calling him by the name everyone called him back then, "What d'you think she's gonna be like, the Holy Maiden? Like I've only seen pictures of her-"
"H-Hartvig!" he scolded you, then rather than answer your question asked, "I thought your parents didn't want you seeing me?!"
"Ah, well, yeah, but…" you started mumbling, "Hey, what they don't know won't hurt 'em, right? 'Sides, it's not like my folks ever told me why I can't see you no more, so why should I listen to them, hmm?" you then grinned and placed your hands behind your head. "Anyway, she's really coming down to the Rim! So I gotta wonder what she's like?"
Seeing you weren't going away, Sybil said, "W-well, she is the Holy Maiden, all us Reyvateils are supposed to wanna be her, so she'd have to be someone really special. I mean, I imagine anyway."
"I know she's real pretty and all, like from what I've seen, Reyvateils always are," you smiled at Sybil, then had to ask the question every youngster in the world asked at some point, "Hey, how come us boys don't get to be Reyvateils, hmm?"
Sybil blushed at that, before he seethed out, "H-how I should know? I mean, they say there's this scientific reason, but like, n-nothing you're really told till you get… older," that last word seemed to shake him, for reasons that were also unknown to you.
You flinched a little and said, "Sorry, guess that sorta slipped outta me, it's weird adults not telling us though. Or 'bout much, really…"
It was then though that you nearly stumbled straight into another kid from your town, one you weren't so happy to see. He was Dyter, a hulking, spiky-haired kid a year older than you, who slowly turned around and gave a crooked-teeth grin down at you, then pulled at your collar. You tensed for a second for fear he'd pummel you, but he had another, not so physical tactic up his sleeve.
"Well well, if it isn't little Juhani, eh?" his barely cracking voice chortled as he then produced a set of pages in his free hand, all illustrations of Reyvateils. Illustrations
you'd collected.
"Wait, hey, give those back!" you screamed out to no avail.
"Really, Juhani, I'm doin' ya by takin' these from ya. It's like you're obsessed with dolls or somethin', ain't natural for us guys. Savin' ya some serious embarrassment," Dyter said before he shoved you to the ground.
All the while, Sybil had been trying to chant up a Song, but switched it to a healing tune upon Dyter letting go of you. "Sybil, t-thanks," you said, even if due to Sybil's young age it hadn't been much of a heal.
"
Figured if I did blast him he'd just complain to his parents," Sybil admitted in a hushed tone.
"Juhani!" you then heard your mother gasp out, with you turning pale on being found. She then rushed over to you, but rather than offer any comfort, instead narrowed her eyes and said, "I thought I told you to stay away from that girl!"
"Hey, Dyter was pushing him around, I was trying to save Juhani!" Sybil tried to insist.
"Aw come on, I was jus' helping Juhani out! Had to take away all his girly stuff to help him into society," was Dyter's… choice of defence.
"No, that's…" your mother looked down for a second, then said, "That's not what I was referring to," not saying what she was referring to. At least you could count on your dad to snatch your pictures out of Dyter's grubby hands when he wasn't looking.
"I am… so sorry my son bothered you," your mum then told Sybil, before she started dragging you back away. Sybil at least got in one last wave to you, Dyter one last glare.
Once your parents had taken you significantly out of Sybil's earshot, you caught your mum whispering to your dad, "
Should we tell Juhani already? I mean, he's going to find out sooner or later…"
"
I, I know what you mean, it's just," you heard your father sigh, "
how you explain something like that to someone so young- Oh, ahem, hey there son," he then said, once he saw you were looking their way. "Hey listen, you know all that Reyvateil memorabilia you like? Well, don't let that kid's words get to you, after all it's *ahem* perfectly natural for a boy your age to start taking interest in women."
You nodded along with him, managing a "Hey, thanks dad." But though you didn't say it, the point he was trying to make about your Reyvateil interests, well, you don't think it
quite matched up with what you were going through...
Author's Note: So if it wasn't clear from the text, this takes place in Nenesha's time as Maiden shortly before the invention of Diquility. That's what Hartvig's parents mean by not knowing when to tell: when to break how young Reyvateils die to their child. So what I wanted feedback on for now was how likely it could be that someone on Metafalss pre-Diquility could grow to 10 and still not know about Reyvateil lifespans?
As Juhani will become their deadname, I had planned to leave Hartvig's eventual name up to a vote, though I've personally been thinking something like Charlotta or Greta
