[Video] / Action

[fierybluebird]

[It's Marco's voice, but somehow with a darker tint to it. And it looks like his hair's been dyed black? That's not the strangest change though. The tattoo on his chest is completely removed. There's a rough scar where it used to be though, it's not bleeding, but it's clearly still healing.]

Can you believe the arrogance of those fools? First they drag me away, then they removed my father's mark, and gave me a mockery of it. [Oh yeah. He's deadpan, but it doesn't take a lot of knowing Marco to recognize that he is thoroughly pissed off. More angry than he's ever openly shown in Luceti for that matter.] But the joke's on them, oh yes. [His eyes glitter darkly, burning blue for a second, as they might have done before.] Just because my healing is slowed here doesn't make me any less a phoenix. They can remove my tattoos and piercings but that's a simple thing to restore.

Watch and learn fools. Watch and learn.

[LUCKILY the next part is filtered away from kids ten and under, though no doubt many adults would have preferred not to see it either.]

[Marco props the book up on the edge of the fountain, and leans back to lowers his neck into the water and uses a knife to carve an old school manji symbol in it, line by line. Those familiar with the nazi swastika and not the manji symbol might confuse it for that. Marco doesn't make a sound however, but his blood is clearly revolting against the treatment, blue flames trying to battle the water, and the most they can do is hold back the damage. As he finishes, Marco smirks, grabs a bottle of blue ink from a broken pen and pulls out of the water to throw the ink into it. At that he lets out a feral sound, something like a loud crow's caw, and he shakes off the rest of the ink with a smirk, the skin already still stitching over his chest and trying to cover his neck, but hitting a barrier where it's inked.]

[He fiddles with the journal again to turn off the filter and grins.]

There. I don't know about you, but I feel better already! Now who wants to get on my good side and help me find some earrings?

[[ooc: Marco's returned from Mallynap in "evil" mode! He'll have black hair, be a lot more emo/depressed/dark, and comments will come from evilfierybluebird and fieryblackbird respectively!]]

Comments

[voice] - filtered; 30%

[evilfierybluebird]

She changed it about five times, but that is the one she settled on. I suppose I am rather fond of it, truth told.

[Video]

[evilfierybluebird]

[He spreads his hands with a shrug.]

Wise beyond your years and too jaded for one so young.

[video]

[evilfierybluebird]

[He folds his arms.] Who are you protecting from such a visage that is so incapable of protecting themselves?

[spohkh]

Your... secret is safe with me Sa-kai... [Spock put his hand over his mouth and stilled...]

My apologies.

You carry a great burden Marco... It is my greatest hope that you and Miss Robin find the happiness together that you deserve.
[To carry the lives of everyone he loves... never alone... yet at the same time...

....incredibly alone.

It must be so hard. But you would never know it the way Marco goes about his daily life.]

[evilfierybluebird]

[A sigh.]

Thank you.

Everyone has something hard they must struggle with, no? I do not know how to explain these things though. And perhaps worrying about explaining it makes it harder for others to understand.

Is Robin concerned about the lifespan aspect... or is it another?

[spohkh]

She does not appear to be concerned at all...

...rather, she is painfully aware of the circumstance.
It is the fact that makes her...

[Spock tries to think of a proper word.] It is not 'sad'... But at the time we were sharing 'tragedy' stories.

[It would seem that Robin thinks it's a 'tragedy'... ]

[Video]

[mikanphones]

[Heh, Marco is good. It has been a long while since he felt close to be exposed with anyone that wasn't Anna or Hao with their ability to read mind and hearts. Still a feeling is just a feeling, it's not as if he really is exposed and even if he was what Marco seems to have picked up is far from being something worth to worry about.

And so he meets the answer with a cheerful and amused laugh, as if Marco had just shared the best joke ever.]

I don't think that counts as a type of spirit, Marco-san.

[video]

[breaks_destiny]

What the... And how do you think can anyone protect themselves from such a spectacle?? By not looking? It's easier said than done, by the time they would realize what they are about to see it would be too late for it to not have consequences! Heck the shock may just make them unable to stop even if they wanted to!!

[Action]

[uccellodifuoco]

[Ikki just gives him a look. Sure, Marco wouldn't die from what he had done, they just can't die from something like that. But they can't expect other people to realize that. Not when people can't really get to understand what being a phoenix means for them.]

[Action]

[evilfierybluebird]

I mean you.

[Among others. His point is that he's more than willing to sacrifice his life, but he cares about people like Ikki who don't want to see him hurt.]

[video]

[evilfierybluebird]

Truly? [Arches an eyebrow.]

How docile of a world do you come from that such a thing is so horrifying? Better that they learn the lesson now than out on the battlefield, I say.

[Video]

[evilfierybluebird]

No? I suppose being a phoenix does not either, lad, but it is why I have lived so long and have the experienced I do.

[evilfierybluebird]

I see. Do you think it makes her feel... burdened? [This does worry him though. He doesn't like the idea of something about him weighing on Robin, much less something he can't change or fix.]

[Action]

[uccellodifuoco]

I'm flattered.

[And still not happy, it's not as if he's worried specially now that it seems clear that Marco isn't crazy enough to really kill himself. But even so he just doesn't like what the other did even if he understands it and all. Unfortunately it doesn't seem Marco is in a condition in which he will be able to understand what Ikki means and trying to actually explain it would involve something like being honest with his thoughts and feelings and those things Ikki only does when Kotomi is around.]

[video] - Private

[breaks_destiny]

[Keiichi just rolls his eyes, anger boiling inside of him as the other proves unable to just get the point. He sets his next reply on private, just in case.]

You have no idea what kind of world I come from or what kind of shit we both have had to go through. Just because I don't want more outside of a battlefield doesn't mean we don't know our "lessons" as you say.

[His tone is angry but calm, annoyance and disapproval laying right under the surface of it.]

I guess there is no point in arguing. You don't seem like the type of guy who gives a crap about what consequences his actions have or who gets hurt. I bet you would just laugh and enjoy the sight of a child having a mental breakdown and tearing apart her own throat in panic because the sight reminded her of things she has been trying to forget in order to live on, wouldn't you?

[video] - Private

[evilfierybluebird]

[His eyes narrow. That's not completely the case, no. He's pretty apathetic to the plight of other people around here, and he's pretty sure he did a perfectly fine job of keeping it from kids, but still... This clearly goes personal for the younger man.]

Let me ask once again, is there someone you are specifically protecting from that exact thing?

[His words are crisp, each one individualized and separate, just so that they are extra clear.]

If so, I will apologize. I believed myself to have taken enough precautions, but to protect one's loved ones or family from such a thing, I can, and do respect. However, if that is not the case, and this is merely based in a groundless fear and supposition: Get. Off. My. Back.

I will not apologize to those merely disturbed at the sight of this when I already locked it away from children, and you are clearly not a child.

[Video]

[mikanphones]

I think being a phoenix counts though. Except that I don't really think that is possible, that's the whole point of phoenixes, right? They keep living even when they die they just resurrect again.

[A pause.]

It must be painful, I'm sorry.

[Action]

[evilfierybluebird]

You sound it. [Deadpan lying/joking.]

Are you all right, little brother?

[video] - Private

[breaks_destiny]

I'm not protecting her. I already said that I can't protect her from something like that unless I lock her in her room without her journal and take turns with Ange to keep an eye on her. And I know I can't protect her completely from everything either, it's just...

[He sighs but his tone doesn't lift.]

You believed to have taken enough precautions? That's funny, I keep thinking the same every day about many things and yet I've enough experience that there's never "enough" with that. You're out in the open, do you at least realize how many things could have happened that made your filter useless?

[Action]

[uccellodifuoco]

Do I look as if I'm not?

[He will get better. As will Marco, it's a little comfort. So little that it doesn't do much to quell Ikki's general anger issues but he can live with that.]

Shouldn't that be my line anyway? Though I think that I can guess the answer.

[Video] 1/2

[evilfierybluebird]

[His eyes narrow.]

Quite.

[He gets the feeling that the kid knows exactly what he's doing, which would mean he said that on purpose to try to make Marco back off. Very well then, Marco would back off.]

[Video] 2/2

[evilfierybluebird]

[But he gives an evil glittering grin in any case.]

Living is pain, you see, but perhaps that merely goes hand in hand with consciousness of existence.

[video] - Private

[evilfierybluebird]

[This kid...]

[He's a kid protecting an even smaller kid. And even warped and fucked up like this as he is, Marco really does feel a lot of sorrow on his behalf, despite still being brutal and cutting.]

You cannot protect her from everything, no. You cannot save her from seeing things, nor stop her from going out into those battlefields and wars.

What you must do, is help her to be as strong as she can before those things happen, and help to heal her after those things inevitably do.

Striving to prevent those things from occurring at all is impossible and a waste of your energy. A natural urge, aye, but useless.

I am sorry for worrying you, however. No children saw, I promise. I do not wish to have children around me this day, I am too raw and angry right now, but even I would never hurt a child. Not even accidentally. My father would be disappointed in such a thing.

[Action]

[evilfierybluebird]

[A grin!]

Likewise. But we are phoenixes after all, will we not always look all right? [Even if they're not, even if they never will be.]

[Video]

[mikanphones]

[The times when Yoh says something without a purpose are actually very few even if many don't really notice it behind his smiles and calm attitude. His own smile doesn't waver at Marco's answer, it remains in place, calm and serene as he replied in an equal tone.]

I guess it is both pain and a pain. No one really asks to be born, yet we are all thrown to it whether we like it or not and have to endure it. It's natural that it will end being pain and a pain if you're stuck with it for who knows how long with no chance to stop it. That's definitively something no one on their right mind would want to experience.

[He wants to, though. Unlike many shamans he isn't stupid enough, nor has been lied enough, to believe that there isn't a great price in exchange of becoming the Shaman King, the new God. Though his chances for it have never really been that big and he's aware of it now at long last.]

Though if spirits exist it doesn't really matter in the end if it's all tied to consciousness of existence as you say, spirits are conscious as well even if no longer "alive", aren't they?