ahappylie | Appointments & Messages

[8( HE'LL SIT LATER. Maybe. When he's more comfortable and less inclined to bolt. But Souji's answer catches his attention and his eyes dart back to him.

Perhaps Earth was simply a parallel to Arcadia, completely different and yet with too many similarities to be called a coincidence.]

Do you care to elaborate?

[And, to his merit, he does sound genuinely interested, rather than just looking for some reason to deflect a question.]

[Oh, sweet. Souji smiles and motions to the seat across from him.]

If you care to have a seat.

[>:C

Oh, fine, have it your way. Ramirez will comply with the request, although he doesn't sit so much as he kneels down on one knee. It's a good position in case he feels the need to spring up quickly. :|a COMPROMISE or something.

STILL. Sitting. Sort of. He links his hands together and glances over at Souji, before Ramirez remembers he doesn't really like looking him in the face right now and promptly lowers his gaze down to the table.]

Better?

[SUCCESS.

Souji just smiles when he sees Ramirez's somewhat awkward sitting and staring at the table.]

Thank you.

The floating world exists in stories and most recently we've borrowed it to describe... [Well, urban life full of debauchery] ...life as we live it. Originally, however, there were tales of people living in islands in the sky. The stories are old, however, and most people have turned away from them in favor for the more modern interpretation.

[Souji is a jerk. 8( BUT HIS ATTENTION IS CAPTURED. This is actually a safe, comfortable topic and his guard is getting sufficiently lowered.]

And what sort of interpretation is that?

[DOUBLE SUCCESS.]

People today have reused the term ukiyo to mean the life of careless abandon that many people today have. Well, awhile back. I suppose it's less careless now with the war going on.

[He sips his tea.]

They float above the real world in a...certain sense of the word.

"Careless abandon."

[He repeats the words, frowning slightly at his linked hands.

The island-dwellers were shallow and petty, would destroy the world in an instant if it would further their own selfish goals. Arcadia needed to be cleansed from them, so it may start anew.

...Or so the Elders had always told him. Ramirez was never particularly fond of that belief.

He glances up again once Souji mentions war, but the topic is not pressed- not yet, anyway. He files it away for later. But his eyes don't fall back downward again and he instead actually leans forward in his interest, forgetting momentarily exactly why he had been so reluctant to accept the invitation.]

What sort of sense of the word?

[Souji regards him for a moment, noting the strange amount of interest he's paying and how easily he's following this conversation. Earlier he'd been so stiff and standoffish... Good to know.]

Oh, drinking, gambling, going to the theatre and the pleasure quarters; the things men and women do to distract themselves when the world seems grim.

[As said before, he regards this as a comfortable topic. There's little else to do in the Great Silver Shrine other than read the world's history and mythology, and wait to be called upon as a harbinger of death.]

Maybe they're not too far off the mark.

[...Or maybe they are. He's admittedly seen very little of the world and had the unfortunate luck to be picked up by Valuans. And Valua was never known for its hospitality toward outsiders. Or for its philanthropic nature.

But Upper City nobles still left their impression on him, and a part of him is so very, very disappointed that there are so many people who were exactly like the awful figures that the Elders had always described.]

[He laughs a bit and shakes his head.]

My country has been at peace for over 200 years. The arrival of foreigners has upset the balance we have enjoyed for a very long time. Recently, talk of the floating world has waned, but it is still there, like a flower blooming in the the growing dusk.

Poetic.

[...Oddly enough, that causes him to laugh, though there isn't anything particularly warm about it.]

That sounds familiar. Tell me, do you call them "Men from the East" as well?

I suppose it'd be "West" for you, but the direction is irrelevant.

[Whoa, a laugh. Souji smiles and nods.]

They came in black ships with cannons and guns threatening to destroy our ports if we did not open them to trade. And yes, they came from the east, from far across the sea. They call themselves the West, however.

["Black ships"

"Cannons and guns"

"Men from the East"

Oh, God, it was exactly the same. Maybe not from Ixa' Taka, but everything else was exactly the same.]

...That's terrible.

[He almost wants to apologize for them, but Ramirez bites it back. The Ixa'Takans didn't want apologies, nor did they want his sympathy. They wanted a savior, and they asked for something he couldn't give.]

[He can see something like regret? Sympathy? Empathy? in Ramirez's actions and feel it in his tone of voice. He can guess why, too. That Ramirez would ask about men from the east either meant he had experienced this same thing in his own world, or that he'd heard of it there. It was unpleasant and it meant wars and people dying, but Okita simply shakes his head and keeps the usual smile on his face.]

We could not avoid them forever and knew, one day, they would come. The world is changing...

[He picks up the teacup, looking into it as his smile fades faintly. The world is most definitely changing and he won't live to see it. That is up to people like Tetsu. People who have the hope of the future riding upon their shoulders.

A moment later and the hints of sadness are gone, replaced with his usual expression.]

It isn't so terrible though. That I'm able to help my country is a great thing. I've met my friends through it and I'm going to meet many more before my days are done.

[It was exactly the same, right down to their black ships and barging through foreign lands like they owned the place. Though there was less war with Valua and more an onslaught of massacre. He couldn't stand being a part of it and it makes him think maybe, just maybe, he's not fit for the role of blood and death that had always been laid out for him.

That sadness in his face is hard to miss, but Ramirez presses his lips together and makes no mention of it, letting his gaze drop down to Okita's hands and and pretending not to notice. He keeps it there, momentarily, before he remembers the way he had grabbed his hand and clung to him like a lifeline. His heart gives an unpleasant, lurching little pound and his eyes promptly drop down to the table again.]

You're some sort of soldier, aren't you?

[He raises his eyes and notices Ramirez staring at the table again. He can't allow himself to be so melancholy and picks up Ramirez's teacup, setting it in front of him.]

Not technically. I am a samurai, part of the warrior class, but not a "soldier" in an army as some would think it.

[Fair enough. He reaches out to take the teacup, but he doesn't drink from it just yet, preferring instead to let his fingers absently trace the rim.]

Explain.

We are born into a class based on our familial occupations. Mine was the warrior class, the samurai. Long ago we were warriors and soldiers, but until recently there were no wars to fight. Now, certain groups of us are moving under orders like soldiers, but my group specifically is not technically an army.

[You answer so easily, Souji. He's not sure if he could do the same.]

How so?

[It's part deflection that he keeps asking questions, and part genuine curiosity. There are striking similarities against the other cultures and situations currently pervading throughout Arcadia, but none of it is quite exactly the same.]

[It's easy to answer when he's not really giving any personal information away.]

Because it's not technically a war yet. There have been skirmishes and we stopped a plot by the rebels to burn the capital, but we are only a bunch of masterless samurai that the people see as ruffians and hooligans who just happened to fall into the right daimyo's favor.

[Ramirez continues to twirl his fingers around the rim, inclining his head and passively listening to Souji's explanation. "Daimyo" doesn't mean much to him, but he can guess the meaning through the context.]

Hmmm.

[He draws his hands back and looks up again, a funny, tight-lipped smile on his face.]

Even if they think that way, you are willing to protect them. That's honorable of you.

[Oh Ramirez, how ridiculously idealistic you sound sometimes. :C]

[That look on his face surprises Souji for a moment. Then he lowers his head, laughing softly behind his hand.]

It isn't that honorable. I don't much care for what they think of me. I'll always be a demon to them, but the time we live in needs demons like us so they can stay innocent.

[What are you laughing at. >:|]

Demons.

[He repeats the word with little inflection in his voice, but that's a highly unsatisfactory answer, Okita. He is clearly expecting him to elaborate. :|]

Edited 2011-04-13 05:38 (UTC)

[At how moetan you are. :D

When Ramirez questions (if that could be called a question), Souji just smiles and leans back, sipping his tea. When he sets the cup down, the smile vanishes and his eyes remain on the table.]

Yes. We're murderers with official sanction.

[And the smile is back.]

Or so they say.

[D8< NOT MOE.

...Oh, goddamn you, Souji. You said that word.

Murderers.

And Ramirez freezes, fingers halting on the edge of the cup. All at once, he can feel the color draining out of his face and a nervous, unpleasant twist in his stomach.

He had to grow up thinking like a tool for his Elders, a weapon that could bring about the apocalypse if they so chose to do so. How many times was he told that the island dwellers only left a trail of death and destruction in their wake?

Funny, now that he thinks about it, being told that by men who would just as quickly use him to eradicate the world's population if Arcadia was not moving according to their standards.

Ramirez had been raised to be a murderer, though he was not told as such in such layman's terms. Defecting to the Valuan Armada was certainly the lesser of two evils, but that didn't change the fact that they were certainly the most vicious of Arcadia's continents, bloodthirsty enough to enslave an entire group of natives to mine in inhumane conditions, all for Valua's profit.

Murderers. He had been stuck with this role twice, and both times he could not bring himself to agree with their ideals. They were both disgusting, no matter how you looked at it. And Ramirez went along with both of them, hating what they stood for but allowing them to dictate his actions anyway.

The knee he had been leaning on comes down, and Ramirez slides into a more complacent sitting position.]

That's a relative thing.

[Souji is smiling again, but he doesn't care. Ramirez's lips thin and his face sets into a firm, grim line before he speaks again.]

I'm not a native to your world, Souji Okita. I don't fully know the circumstances that lead up to your current situation at home- only that it's similar to Arcadia's.

So I will ask you one thing.

[Ramirez looks up at this, purposefully and directly at Souji, and there is nothing hesitant or reserved about this look; it's like he's forgotten Souji makes him so nervous, or has at least brushed it aside for now in favor of a more important matter.

In fact, remember that whole personal space thing? Yeah, forget that. Ramirez leans forward, arms crossed in front of him, and Souji may get the impression that if there wasn't a table separating them, Ramirez would be right up in his face with a stare that could burn a hole into the wall.]

Do you truly believe in what you are doing?

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