broji | Eighth Crash [Action/Voice]

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Eighth Crash [Action/Voice]

{In today's episode Ginji can be found refilling a metal dish suspended from a tree with seed and peanuts. If you guessed "bird feeder", give yourself ten points! After making sure the feeder's still attached securely to its branch, Ginji will make himself comfortable on the lawn and pull out his journal. He'll sit there for a while, enjoying the fresh air and the milder weather, before starting a new entry.]

Hey everyone. So...what's it like for you back home? Do you come from a large family or a small one? Have you set out on your own or still live with your parents? Got any siblings? Kids?

I'd like to know.

[After the voice post is finished, he'll spend the next few hours watching any animals that might wander over to the feeder and run through a few sketches of different wing shapes.]

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... Welllll ...

[ ... ]

I'm really, really careful?

They're the only birds I know much about, since I wear one. [And, you know, since he was one.]

But, when you say it like that, just about anything could be excused by behavior; it's kind of a letdown. Like wouldn't it be cool if they did realize they lived somewhere important and thought they were the keepers of some giant stone monument?

[The suggestion's made lightly, but who knows. Maybe birds have special places, too. Ginji watches them again for a moment, mulling on what Asch just said. The guy doesn't say anything much about himself, usually... It's worth a shot in the dark.]

Did you visit the garden a lot?

Seemed like a pretty bad idea from the start... Rerouting stuff is tricky enough and can have dangerous consequences, but intentionally breaking them's never a smart thing to do.

Especially something like this...

[Wait.]

[Wait, wait!]

Appa the sky bison...? Ah! You mean Aang is your grandfather? But he...

[But he's just a little boy. Here anyway. Ginji rubs the back of his head and adds sheepishly:]

...W-wow. If he's as old as you're saying, he must've aged really well.

[Um... In other words 'no', right?]

Unexpected things can still happen even when you're really, really careful, though. I know this from experience.

No, I don't think so. You're saying people felt they'd grown up with everyone else all along, as one big community?

I think so, too, but I don't think he was really thinking up the best ideas, 'cause taking over the world doesn't really sound like a super good idea, you know?

[ Aang does look pretty good for a 114 year old man, Ginji. ]

He will be! He is, I mean. But I'm from seventy years ahead of him and grangran Katara and everyone! Oh, but he is actually probably 114 instead of just 14, if you count all the time he was asleep in?

Mm.

[He has a good point about the birds, so Asch doesn't argue, merely makes a noncommittal noise and tilts his head back, closing his eyes. He generally doesn't like to share such things, but talking about a garden is harmless enough.]

I used to. Because of who I was, Van assumed it would be safer if I was kept in seclusion until I got old enough that my presence wouldn't raise suspicions. My lodging was more or less in the middle of nowhere, one of the back gardens behind the church. Tourists generally weren't allowed there, so there was no chance of someone from Kimlasca recognizing me.

Yes, it was exactly as you say. Everyone in the village believed we were descendents of the first to inhabit Luceti Valley five hundred years ago, and we were all given memories to match them as we found ourselves part of a family without even questioning it. [There's a brief pause before she continues, but she decides to continue forward with what had happened. It wasn't as though she regretted that time, and she still saw them in that light somehow.]

Ion and I believed ourselves to be the children of Dist and Nephry, and Jade was our uncle.

[Though now she does pause for several long moments, the faintest of blushes appearing on her face for what she says next.]

... In addition, I believed myself to be married and with five children.

I-I know that ...! I've been an alchemist for at least ten years now! [... Which probably means she has no excuse for not being more careful. Erm.] But uhm ... I guess I should proooobably be a teensy bit more careful than I usually am ...

Yeah. But there sure are enough people who think that one up, huh?

[Yep, it's true.]

I'd say it counts.

So you're from the future. That's got to be pretty weird. Kind of interesting, too, I guess? To see how your family was back when they were kids themselves.

[Ffff...] Wow, that's a lot of kids.

And kind of nice, in a way. Bringing everyone together like that.

[Ginji thinks on this for a bit. A whole lifetime of implanted memories and an entirely imagined heritage. There and gone on a whim - despite breaking people down and welding them back together, and possibly even granting them momentary happiness and a sense of belonging.]

...It does make you wonder, though, doesn't it?

[Ginji just sort of plunks himself down there on the grass, arms resting across his knees. Turf is a widely underrated lounging option, okay.]

[But besides that, it's somehow not very difficult to imagine a younger Asch staying in just such a place.]

Sounds peaceful. And I'll bet it was nice to look at with all the flowers blooming.
Kind of lonely, too, though. I think I'd go crazy if I had to live by myself all the time.

Yeah, I've heard 'bout lots of those here, you know?

Yeah! It's weird, but interesting. Really the only person who remembers me is Bolin 'cause he's from the same time as me. But they all remember me now, from here!

Is that why you were so willing to come over here all the time when you were still in the apartment?

[He can sort of understand. The fact that he'd been... well, used to living with people is the main reason why he'd agreed to share a place with Luke when Guy had gone home the first time.]

What about? [The entire experiment left her with many things to ponder in the aftermath and even now, well over a year later, so she couldn't readily determine exactly what Ginji meant.]

No, not really. I'd have still done it, even if I lived in a house full of other people.

[Really, Asch, how often is this guy not willing to do things for other folks? ~~As long as it isn't handing over his airship, anyway.~~]

But I guess I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling a little down at the time.

[What with Noelle disappearing, and that whole scene in the rain, and Luke, and Guy, and Asch dying and coming back and. Taking that all in and then trying to get back into the swing of things hadn't exactly been a breeze.]

For some of us, life's just better when you're sharing it with other people. Besides, you seemed bored out of your head. I thought you wouldn't mind someone helping to break up the monotony.

Edited (repetitive words...) 2012-12-03 18:07 (UTC)

You know. Wondering what else is possible...and why it has to be used this way.

Edited 2012-12-03 18:21 (UTC)

Some information says that experiments are conducted by the Malnosso to try to find a way to return home, though other times it is the world itself that does them? Regardless, it can be of great inconvenience.

[...] But at the same time, there are people whom you become close to that you never would have had a Shift not occurred.

Bonding through circumstances.

Yeah, I bet I've met at least half of my friends like that.

So, in a way, good things can come from Shifts. But it still doesn't make it okay. I don't know what this world can actually do or about everything that's going on, but the Malnosso's technology is pretty advanced. They could probably conduct their research using just volunteers. Or start a joint project with some of us here. There's no excuse for them experimenting on innocent people; kids.

That's the thing about science. There's usually more than one way to get your results.

Edited 2012-12-07 22:28 (UTC)

So it seems, but who would volunteer for such experiments when the results could vary so drastically? [She hadn't told anyone outright, but she did keep journals she wrote in daily, and seeing the changes from who she usually is to how those Shifts affect her was unsettling, to say the least.]

Would you be willing?

[Ginji takes a deep breath and there's a long pause.]

...If it'd keep someone else from having to, then yes. I would.

I'm not saying I'd like it or even that I'd want to, but to help out even a little, I'd do it.

[It just happens not to be the Malnosso he wants to "help out even a little".]

... I don't know if I should call you a fool, or noble. [Despite her words, there's no real bite to the way she had spoken so softly. There was more respect to it than anything.]

But it's brave of you, even if it could be misplaced.

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