[Aggressive birds indeed. But who would be surprised? What else can be a creature that is made of flames? That burns through all eternity? Borns and dies in flames, lives in a blazing hell.
What other thing they could be besides aggressive?
Life is aggression. Everything needs to prey on something else to live, to destroy to live, new things are born from the destruction of others. Even flowers suck the ground dry with their roots, taking everything they need, everything they want. And when several flowers need the same thing and stand in the same place? They fight, several of them will die and only the ones whose roots grow faster, larger, will survive by overtaking everything in the ground.
A subtly form of aggression and hunting, but still one. Still destruction.
People revere the phoenix as a sign of rebirth, but they always forget that for its rebirth first it must die. To destroy. Without the destruction, without death, there's no need to rebirth, there's no phoenix.
Phoenixes can't have peace. Not the peace this place wants to. A peace that turns off their flames, that extinguishes their lives.
He should want peace, he knows that. He fights for it after all. But he doesn't want it, because he was born to fight for it. If peace ever really comes to be, eternal and unaltered, if life ever stops being aggression, burning brightly and wildly like a star... What will it be of him?
He will lose meaning. He will lose the sense of his existence. Because he was born to fight and destroy. His Cloth was born to fight and destroy. And no one seemed to understand. Not Athena, nor Shun, nor Shiryuu, no one did. No one realized what the Phoenix Cloth had been waiting for during all those centuries, for whom it had waited. They thought that Ikki's bond with the Cloth was the same as theirs, that the Cloth was just an armor, a help. But it isn't. The Cloth is him, just as much as he is the Cloth. Both are the phoenix. They can exist separately, he can exist without his Cloth and it can become nothing but a decorative object, but he will never stop being the phoenix. Ever since he wore the Cloth for the first time he knew, the reason why he could cast away the Cloth isn't because it's not important or vital, but because what was inside of it is now inside of him.
The phoenix. Burning. Soaring. Raging.
And will stay there, because that's what he is. He may not have a proper bird form as Marco, but he's no less of a phoenix than he is.
But then why is Marco affected by this place in such a way? Maybe because of their differences, as similar as they are the number of key differences is far too great. And while Marco gets intoxicated by the life side of this place, gets attracted to it. All that Ikki wants to do is kill everything.
He really needs to destroy something, it's the only way he can feel alive right now.]
Promise it.
Promise we will hunt them, us both. Without kids.
[Promise that something good will come from being here, from being pushed and forced. From being tempted to destroy himself because deep down, even the purest and holiest thing wants the destruction of the things that don't bow to it, that don't accept it the way they should.
If he has that promise he will have something to look forward to. And he will drag Marco to fulfill that promise the moment he gets a chance.
Revenge. Destruction. Let everything just burn.
Just let him burn.
And he will stay quiet, keep raging inside but quiet. He won't go, or leave or die, no matter how tempting it is, how much this place wants him to. Because Marco is there and he needs him the same way Ikki needs Marco. Ikki understands it.
Marco is being affected by and dragged to the life side of this coin. Ikki is affected and pushed to the death side of it. Ikki needs Marco in order to not just go drown himself, the pressure on his back is the only thing that has kept him from standing up and doing so. And Marco probably needs Ikki as well to not go too crazy with the dirty ducklings and flowers.
He wants nothing more than to just kidnap Marco and take him away, and Thatch and Namur and Natsuno too because he probably isn't taking this place well either. But he can't, he must not. So a promise of what will come will work. He will make it work.]
[Action]
What other thing they could be besides aggressive?
Life is aggression. Everything needs to prey on something else to live, to destroy to live, new things are born from the destruction of others. Even flowers suck the ground dry with their roots, taking everything they need, everything they want. And when several flowers need the same thing and stand in the same place? They fight, several of them will die and only the ones whose roots grow faster, larger, will survive by overtaking everything in the ground.
A subtly form of aggression and hunting, but still one. Still destruction.
People revere the phoenix as a sign of rebirth, but they always forget that for its rebirth first it must die. To destroy. Without the destruction, without death, there's no need to rebirth, there's no phoenix.
Phoenixes can't have peace. Not the peace this place wants to. A peace that turns off their flames, that extinguishes their lives.
He should want peace, he knows that. He fights for it after all. But he doesn't want it, because he was born to fight for it. If peace ever really comes to be, eternal and unaltered, if life ever stops being aggression, burning brightly and wildly like a star... What will it be of him?
He will lose meaning. He will lose the sense of his existence. Because he was born to fight and destroy. His Cloth was born to fight and destroy. And no one seemed to understand. Not Athena, nor Shun, nor Shiryuu, no one did. No one realized what the Phoenix Cloth had been waiting for during all those centuries, for whom it had waited. They thought that Ikki's bond with the Cloth was the same as theirs, that the Cloth was just an armor, a help. But it isn't. The Cloth is him, just as much as he is the Cloth. Both are the phoenix. They can exist separately, he can exist without his Cloth and it can become nothing but a decorative object, but he will never stop being the phoenix. Ever since he wore the Cloth for the first time he knew, the reason why he could cast away the Cloth isn't because it's not important or vital, but because what was inside of it is now inside of him.
The phoenix. Burning. Soaring. Raging.
And will stay there, because that's what he is. He may not have a proper bird form as Marco, but he's no less of a phoenix than he is.
But then why is Marco affected by this place in such a way? Maybe because of their differences, as similar as they are the number of key differences is far too great. And while Marco gets intoxicated by the life side of this place, gets attracted to it. All that Ikki wants to do is kill everything.
He really needs to destroy something, it's the only way he can feel alive right now.]
Promise it.
Promise we will hunt them, us both. Without kids.
[Promise that something good will come from being here, from being pushed and forced. From being tempted to destroy himself because deep down, even the purest and holiest thing wants the destruction of the things that don't bow to it, that don't accept it the way they should.
If he has that promise he will have something to look forward to. And he will drag Marco to fulfill that promise the moment he gets a chance.
Revenge. Destruction. Let everything just burn.
Just let him burn.
And he will stay quiet, keep raging inside but quiet. He won't go, or leave or die, no matter how tempting it is, how much this place wants him to. Because Marco is there and he needs him the same way Ikki needs Marco. Ikki understands it.
Marco is being affected by and dragged to the life side of this coin. Ikki is affected and pushed to the death side of it. Ikki needs Marco in order to not just go drown himself, the pressure on his back is the only thing that has kept him from standing up and doing so. And Marco probably needs Ikki as well to not go too crazy with the dirty ducklings and flowers.
He wants nothing more than to just kidnap Marco and take him away, and Thatch and Namur and Natsuno too because he probably isn't taking this place well either. But he can't, he must not. So a promise of what will come will work. He will make it work.]