piratejournal | [Voice & Written]

Here's an idea, drop the flowers, the peace, the ducklings and the government, the later if possible in a pit of fire. The others can be dropped wherever you please.

[Deadpan tone, please, please, please, don't be nomming flowers when he arrives. Please don't be eating flowers when he arrives. Please don't be-]

Fuck.

[Ikki just stands there looking at Marco nomming on a flower.]

[He still has half a flower in his mouth.]

[And offers another one up to Ikki.]

Want one?

[Although it's muffled so it might come out as "Muunnffuun?"]

I'm seriously tempted to just drown you and put you out of this misery right away.

[Ikki's the best brother, seriously considering murder as an acceptable solution to this.]

[LAUGHS, and tugs Ikki into a one-armed hug.]

Shhhhh.

Shhhh.

It's okay.

See.

I get it now.

[No he fucking doesn't. He's high on flowers and lack of sleep jeez.] It's like.... all the world is a flowerbed, and I am the weaver of crowns.

[Whatever that means.]

Oh, of course, I hadn't realized that.

[DOWN TO THE POND WITH YOU. Why yes, he's literally pushing you there even if he has to go down himself.]

[SPLOOSH.]

[This will not sober him up.]

[Just so you know.]

[It just makes him wet and grumpy.]

[He HATES being wet.]

[Why do you and Namur always gotta resort to water?]

[YOU at least should know that phoenixes hate water.]

[Also plz to be letting him up now so he can breathe, okay?]

[Ikki knows how he hates water. Ikki himself doesn't enjoy it that much, even if he doesn't hate it as much as Marco. But nope, he's going to try and climb over the other to keep him down... Or well, wait, what if that's enough to sober him up? Pulling Marco up for a moment.]

Still feeling like the weaver of crowns?

[Oh good.]

[He can breathe now?]

[Have a massive headbutt to the face with Marco's own face.]

[Okay, he has GOT to stop doing that. Bad enough enough he did to Thatch even though darkness devil fruit made that hurt them BOTH, but phoenix to phoenix doesn't make it exactly cushier.]

[And then Marco just flips Ikki back with a full body slam tackle.]

I'll weave your fucking fingers if you ever do that again!

[He's still doing his best to hold Ikki down, but the flare of temper is already fading, as much as he wants to hold onto it. Gah, this is driving him nuts.]

[Have the full weight of Marco's stare. He's losing his grip; whatever little he had to begin with, and it shows.]

Don't you feel it though?

This forest... fuck.

I'm not a heron. I can't handle it like Leanne. [An irritated growl, because he's so confused. He know how it affected Thatch, and Logan, but Ikki... isn't perturbed at all? Is he even touched? What does that mean then?]

[He shimmers full blue for a second, and then switches to birdie mode--]

[And pecks Ikki's nose.]

[He has to hold onto the anger... just a little longer... or it'll be gone completely.]

[He groans at the headbutt, but it's actually welcomed, along with the threat. Now that's more normal.

And of course it doesn't last. He growls loudly at Marco's next words. Feel it? Is he seriously asking if he feels it? Bird or not, Marco's getting another body slam tackle.]

Of course I fucking feel it!!

[He doesn't burn, but his voice suddenly shows more rage than he would like. He realizes it and shuts up, pulling away from the phoenix to just... Sit in the pond, he's already soaked anyway so what does he care.

When she speaks again his tone is more contained though he still snarls at the other.]

There's no way I wouldn't notice that shit, it's just like her. But worse because I can't just tell it to cut it and leave me alone.

[Tackles Ikki back towards the land so they can wrestle.]

Which her?!

[Because there's a bunch of them it could be, and first he thinks Athena, but then maybe it's Leanne, and either way, at least they can both wrestle each other and prove they won't go down easily.]

[If it's wrestling what Marco wants, it's what he's going to get. If it allows for him to be more... Marco than whatever that flower crowns weaver was. He pushes at the other with all his strength, though this time it's not towards the water.]

Athena!! That fucking pure and warmth aura that tries to soothe everything and slips even into your soul, I have lost count of how many fucking times she tried to do it with me!! As if that would just erase everything!

[As if his wounds could be healed. As if he wanted her of all people to heal them.]

[Sucks in a deep breath, still trying to be mad.]

[Mad for Ikki.]

[Mad at Athena.]

[Mad at the island.]

[Mad at himself.]

[Mad at everything.]

[How can it usually be so tempered? How can he enjoy this peace when his 1596 brothers are home thinking Ace and Thatch are gone forever?]

[But he's losing some of the intensity already.]

[It isn't fair and yet...]

Selphie's happier here.

[Maybe that'll make Ikki angrier and a million times worse; and so much the better. Or maybe it won't. But it needs stating either way.]

[His eyes narrow at the mention of Selphie, which is all the warning Marco gets before a punch is thrown his way.]

Why the fuck can't you control yourself? I know what this place tries to do, but how can you let it do it like that?!!

What about the wars back in your world? What about those two being gone there?!! What about the brothers that aren't here and don't have a father now?!! How can you just be happy and make flower crowns as if there wasn't anything better for you to do just because of this place?!!

[He doesn't mention Selphie. He ignores the comment about Selphie. If she's indeed happier on the island then they should just leave here there to root with a hundred of romantic novels for her to read and dream with.

Instead, he focuses on Marco, on how he notices him losing intensity as if he was a balloon with a leak. And that's what drives him angrier.]

[Good, that's what Marco needed.]

[He just takes the punch and then grabs Ikki's wrists, flipping him back over again.]

Do you think I can ever forget that?! Even for one second?! No matter what I do that carries with me deeper than any scar or mark!

I don't even understand the point of happiness when it's so fleeting! What am I supposed to say? 'Live free and be happy for tomorrow, ye all may die'?" I hate this place! It's pushing Thatch around, and no one has the right to do that! I wouldn't even let my Pops do that! And Namur can barely breathe for all the pollen! Ace is fuck knows where, and what have you been doing all this time?!

[Wrists trapped, resorting to headbutting, something he has less problems with than Marco.]

It sure fucking seemed that way with you being all "yay, Spring! Flowers om nom nom!"!! If we hate it this much why the fuck don't we just take a boat and leave until the rest is done in here?!

[He ignores the question about what he has been doing, it should be clear anyway. He has been alone. He has been ensuring that he's alone and not bothered. Other than a couple of brief interactions he has kept to himself even more than before the Selphie thing. And he has been very happy with it.

Until they arrived to this island.]

BECAUSE I'M NOT RUNNING AWAY!

[Growls and headbutts Ikki right back.] I won't run away from myself, or peace, or any of it! And the more I don't like it, the more I'd better face it! Because the next time I have to face it I won't have this extra spare time to deal with duckling baths and flower crowns, instead it might get someone killed so I have to do it now while I can!

Yourself? Are you telling me that your self is one that makes flower crowns, gives ducklings baths and is so fucking happy that he can't even stay angry or serious for more than one minute before you go all happy again?!!

Because let me tell you that being all fine and dandy with no worries is not myself!! And I'm fucking tired of this place and its people pushing me to be what I'm not!!

Maybe it's a part of me that I just don't want to face!

I'm tired of being pushed around too, but maybe that's what it means to live and survive! Push and be pushed! Kick and be kicked back!

A part that you don't want to face?! Sounds more like something you would use to run away from your real self!!

[And since you mentioned kicks, have one as well.]

You give me speeches about brothers and shit and now you claim that a part of you gives no fucks about any of that and just wants to play with ducklings and flowers the whole day? Just because this place's aura is pure and holy it doesn't fucking mean that it's good or any truth!!

[Guh, he actually stops at that and coughs hard.]

[Yeah.]

[He already broke down crying yesterday because of how much he didn't want to just forget his other siblings, his duty, the war, and yet, how a teeny tiny part of him did. His Pops wanted them to find peace, didn't he? But peace had to be fought for, and it wasn't that Marco wanted the peace, he wanted the others to have it.]

[Not that any of his brothers here wanted it, they were all twitchy about it...]

[Though none of them had completely reacted the way Marco did. Because none of them were a phoenix of course.]

[He coughs again before getting up and tackling Ikki all over again.]

So.

Fucking.

What?

Truth and good are overrated, but maybe I do just want to spend a day playing with ducklings and making flower crowns. Maybe I do want to forget about fighting a war on seventeen losing fronts and being the last defense between my brothers and certain doom. Maybe being stuck in this situation is shit! Fine, I wouldn't change it for anything, but if this is the only hand I've got the least I can do is bluff my way to a small fortune and I'll take whatever I can get! [Kicks Ikki back!]

[Ikki coughs and kind of doubles over himself, or at much as he can do in his current position and with Marco on top of him. He still snarls at the other, though.]

So it is a part of you that's just used to run away. So much for your claim of not running away, you just don't want to leave because here is where you can do that and forget!

Your only hand? Don't make me laugh! You're the one who is forcing the hand upon yourself just to run away even for a moment!!

[Nah, Marco just grabs a seat next to Ikki leaning with him for a second to think again.]

How can I run? It's not a new hand yet, and if I cash out, I'll lose.

[Maybe he's scared of losing though. Yeah, pretty much terrified of it. Losing is the worst.]

Phoenix instincts really hate this place, huh?

[Roughly pats Ikki across the shoulders and then punches him with another shove.]

[It's too confusing. Where there's life, there's death. But here it's it's all rebirth and obfuscated for those like Selphie who get to only see the new life, who don't have to carry the weight of the fallen. Who don't burn with each and every loss, with the agony of living a life bought and paid for by the blood of everyone gone. Or rather, though they know it... they're still free from its weight. Is it a weight he and Ikki choose to carry? Or do they do it because they must? Because someone should and they can? Or because it's there? Or because if they forget, who will remember? Who else will hold that pain?]

If we don't hold this hand, who will?

Lose what? What can you lose over not wanting to deal with this shit?!

[The way he sees it, it's by accepting this that they will lose. By letting the wounds close and the scars to fade, as if they had never been there. A happier life? A more peaceful one? The capacity to be "normal"? Who cares about those things? Who wants those things after everything they have dealt with? Of course it would be better that way, but how can he take that when the others can't? When Seiya is still in his world slowly dying, stuck in a wheelchair and unresponsive? When his brother is in the past fighting with Athena for a stupid and pointless hope of saving Seiya? How can he enjoy life when so many people who deserved better are now unable to because they died in those pointless wars?

What will be then of Esmeralda's death? Of the deaths of Kenuma and the other Black Saints who were stupid enough to follow him? Of the sacrifices of the Gold Saints? If he gave in, if he forgot and relaxed and healed all by himself... It would be the same as if those deaths never happened as if they didn't have a meaning or effect in his life. As if his life was just a book from which one tore away the pages they didn't like... As if there was no reason to despite Saori and Athena for what she did, for what she allowed to happen.]

Someone else will, forgetting about everything bad and losing oneself in stupid things isn't something that lacks people volunteering to do it. They even do it without the need of extra help like a place like this, just the excuse of it not being their world or whatever is enough for them. But that's their problem and their own stupid decision.

[Voice] -> [Action]

[Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action] 1/2

[Action] 2/2

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action] 1/2

[Action] 2/2

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]