[Voice & Written]

[fierybluebird]

[He's going to regret this later, but there's a bunch of excitedly high-pitched chirps like a bird singing a love song.]

[That's okay. It matches the background sounds.]

[But FAR more embarrassing is the scribbles he makes into the journal:]



[So someone has a case of Spring Fever. Or maybe just a fever.]

[And then in big bold colorful levels Marco makes sure to add:]

FREE FLOWER CROWNS FOR EVERYONE WHO SIGNS UP NOW.

[Yeah. He's kind of lost it.]

Comments

[Action]

[uccellodifuoco]

Okay.

[He nods, heavily.

It's really heavy. The pressure this place gives him.

But Marco has promised so he will take it, he will endure it.

He won't kill the ducklings, nor burn the forest, neither drown himself. Because Marco needs him. And even if he didn't need Marco, he would do anything for his brother.]

Go bath more ducklings if you want. I will stay here.

And keep it in.

[He won't give in. He won't join. But he will stay close. And he will rage inside, burn and fight.

Until they are out of the island. Until Marco is fine again.

Until he can smear some marine brains over the walls and literally bath in their blood.

There won't be flames for a quick, even if painful, death. There will be just violence and destruction. And even if there are flames they will be slow, so painfully slow that they will wish he would just smash their heads open.

It's a promise.]

[Action]

[fierybluebird]

I want.... this. Just stay at my back. And I'll hold the hum at bay even as it collects inside us, eh?

[Come night, he'll probably send Ikki back to the ship when he's feel better and when he can face the night head on alone, but for now, really just Ikki there, and knowing he's not the only one who feels it all at once is all he needs. He's been the only phoenix for so long that sometimes he can't tell what is Marco, what is Whitebeard, what is pirate, what is human, and what is bird.]

[And there's something peaceful in the knowing. In an actually goodish way. Less absolute than the peace the forest demands, and more heartening. Soothing.]

[So he'll collect the rage, compress it, and use it to dismember enemies. And holding that isn't fighting, but it's not letting the forest invade him either.]

[Action]

[uccellodifuoco]

Always.

[He can do that. Because he wants it too. Marco's weight on his back makes it a bit easier. Knowing that he's not the only one affected this way.

It's silly, but he still isn't used to it. The knowledge that there's another phoenix around. That there's someone who can understand him. He had come to accept it as being impossible, that no matter how much people tried to, or wanted to, or how much he explained... No one would really understand.

That he was alone. And would always be alone. Any and all interactions with others, the moments he spent with his brothers, were nothing but illusions. Brief daydreams that served for nothing but to fool himself if he allowed himself to believe them.

No matter how much everyone tried. No matter what Athena tried, or how much she sincerely wished for it. The phoenix is both a solitary and lonely creature. Always roaming the world, looking for a place to rest, looking for someone to understand it and being unable to find either because he was unique and his flames only stopped to burn when it died in order to start burning again, brighter and stronger.

He was destruction and death. The peace, the rebirth, those came only after the destruction and death, never before, never along them.

But here Marco exists. Here there's a phoenix and he doesn't have to roam the world alone. He has a place where he can rest in. Someone he doesn't have to be scared about hurting. Someone that understands.

That is a peace and joy he can get behind of. That's all the peace and joy he needs and wants.

He's still burning. He still hates this place. It still pushes and forces him, trying to make him bend. But he is better now, he collects it and keeps it inside, focusing on the true source of peace that stands in this island, even if Marco is as troubled and bothered as he is. He will hold his ground and stand right behind Marco, where the other needs him.]