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Entry tags:
- (!) asch the bloody,
- (!) ikki,
- (!) ivan vorpatril,
- (!) maiza avaro,
- (!) maron kusakabe,
- (!) pilouette vivienne bonheur,
- (!) platina berlitz,
- (!) rorolina "rorona" frixell,
- (!) susanne fon fabre,
- (!) tear grants,
- birds of a feather,
- homesickness,
- let's talk about family,
- no crashes yet,
- obligatory action segment
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.]
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.]
[action]
[He glances around anyway, though, following the sound of the birds.]
Why are you so interested in the birds all of a sudden?
[action]
But you can still have an opinion about the idea. After all, it's not like you have to be able to see to use your head.
[Huh. Mmn...] It's been kind of quiet lately, you know? And birds always sound pretty cheerful, even when the weather's bad. I figured it might help.
[action]
...Hm. I don't have a problem with it as long as they don't cause a mess.
[He likes birds sometimes. Unless they're squawking in his ear at an ungodly hour or divebombing him. (That's happened. Stupid birds.)]
[action]
They're so small, though, how much of a mess could they possibly make?
[Ha ha, Ginji. Haha ha. (He has no idea.) The pilot'll survey the scene for a moment, satisfied that the feeder isn't going to flip over or move around too much.]
...Come to think of it, you don't suppose Tsuae will try and attack them, do you? Maybe I should've put it up a little higher.
[action]
I doubt it. He can't even catch his own tail, nevermind a bird. I'll just tell him they can breathe fire like Star and he'll leave them alone.
[action]
Well, I guess that'd work. And they do look like they could take off on a 10 gald piece. [Not like he knows, but it sounds like the cat's coordination isn't too great. The world of pets sure is mysterious, and it'll never make too much sense to him unless there's a pet out there you have to oil.]
[But as nice as all this is, since Asch is being noticeably less depressing.]
So what are you up to? Going for a walk today, Mr. Asch?
[action]
No. I was tired of sitting around inside, so I thought I'd go out for a little while. [He hesitates, then adds somewhat defensively,] If I'm going to be in the way...
[action]
...What? [He sounds genuinely perplexed by this reaction.] No need to get mad; that's not what I'm saying at all. I was just curious since you've been-- [uh-oh, better word this carefully.] well, not exactly like yourself.
[Like... double dosage of moodiness, maybe?]
Has something been bothering you?
[action]
...Guy's back. It's been- ...it's just awkward.
[action]
[So when Asch actually does answer, it's pretty unexpected.]
Ah? ...No, I think I understand. Even though he doesn't remember what happened, you haven't forgotten.
[And he thinks there's another part to it too. If it's "awkward" then there can't just be anger involved. Either Asch is afraid or worried or confused or... well, who knows? Maybe he thinks more highly of Guy than he lets on.]
[action]
It's just complicated.
[In more ways than one. He sounds bitter this time, but not as angry. He hates how frustrating the whole situation makes him feel, and that tends to show at the forefront much more than the misery that comes hand in hand with it.]
[action]
[Ginji heaves a sigh, crossing both of his arms and studying the redhead with a mixture of sympathy and exasperation. With Asch, everything is "just complicated".]
You know, Mr. Asch, it might be just a little less complicated if you worked it out instead of shutting yourself off for hours at a time. Doesn't it make you feel even worse when you finally come out of there?
[action]
[It's said a bit sharply again, and it takes Asch a moment to realize it, glancing away. He really should have just stayed inside, he just drags down the people around him.]
[action]
'Honestly couldn't tell you. It doesn't make much sense to me - being cooped up with all those complicated feelings whirling around. Maybe if you came out a little more often and tried to relax you wouldn't be so cranky, and you wouldn't keep snapping at Arietta and me.
We're with you, you know. Not the opposite.
[Honestly, he wouldn't have put up with all this for so long if it wasn't to help out a good friend. Even if Ginji's the only one who looks at it like that. It may even be a little sad to say, but Asch is the closest thing he's got to a family member here. Sometimes it even feels like Ginji's taking care of them - of Asch and Arietta. Sometimes. Even if it's a stretch. Even if it's the furthest thing from what his family back home is like.]
[action]
But Ginji's lost people too- just like him, just like Arietta. They've gathered together in a surreal little family of mismatched outcasts, and Ginji's with them, even though he's certain that the replica's friends would welcome him far more easily than he or Arietta. He's chosen this, accepted Asch's awkward and halfhearted invitation and stayed. For that, Asch owes him something. What, he's not sure, but it sure as hell isn't grief.]
...I know.
[He does know. He doesn't know what else to say, though, so he leaves it alone, stepping away from the house to approach until his hands hit the bark of the tree, and he turns slowly to lean against it. It's nice. Sturdy. Van picked a nice place to live, even if he's never really appreciated it.]
What kind of birds have been coming here? I can never tell by the sounds.
[action]
[As long as he knows he has people who're there for him, it'll have to be enough. After all, that's pretty much why Ginji chose this to begin with. Because Asch should know there are people who won't double-cross or abandon him, or so the pilot thinks. At least that's what he told Luke. Saying what he did may not solve much, it might not help in any large way or encourage Asch to be any less grumpy or closed-off, but at least he's said it.]
[And at least Asch has decided to stay and get some fresh air. A modest success, in Ginji's book. So he won't keep bothering him with so-called lectures. But. But, then again, this is the creature-challenged Ginji he's asking to identify animals here.]
Well, the soft-spoken red ones are the cardinals. They cheep every now and then, just one note at a time. Mhm...I'm honestly not too familiar with the names of the others. There's some fluffy little black and white birds with raspy voices, and there're gray ones with crests on their heads. And then we've got a bunch of brown songbirds with different markings all over them.
But this one brown looks like a different species. Sings real loudly and stands around kind of U-shaped with a longer beak than the rest. He's almost always out here. Occasionally there'll be some yellow and black birds out, too. They look similar to the ones people keep as pets.
No blue jays today, though. You can tell them by their voices; they sound like rusty old springs.
[[Complimentary Bird Identification Key: What Ginji would be seeing are cardinals, black-capped chickadees, tufted titmouse, a variety of sparrows, a house wren, and maybe some goldfinches.]]
[action]
[Not that he's an expert by any means, but Daath is a bland place to live when you're not interested in the church at all. And after everything he'd learned, there wasn't a thing in the world that interested him less.]
[action]
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?
[action]
[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.
[action]
[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.
[action]
[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.]
[action]
[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.