[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

[entreats]

[ .. Falsely cheerful. He wasn't falsely cheerful all this time, right? Even if he lost people just like her.. there's still things to be happy about. Really happy. She's sure of it. If someone as negative as her could still find happiness after everything, then surely he can too. But the question prevents her from arguing it much further - right now, at least. ]

He's fine. Someone from his world turned up, so she's staying with us too now. It must look sort of weird though, I guess, the two of us engaged and then living with a kid like that. [ Ange-mama and Keiichi-papa, right. ]

[evilfierybluebird]

[Indeed, normally he just can see the brighter side of things and enjoy the good things enough to override the bad.]

That sounds quite cute. How old is the kid?

[entreats]

[ Easiest to ignore that topic for a little bit either way. While she figures out just how exactly they messed with his head. ]

I didn't ask, but.. judging by the way she looks, I'd say she's probably about eleven or so?

[evilfierybluebird]

Fun. How does Keiichi know her?

[entreats]

She's his friend. I think they went to the same school, despite how much younger she is than him. [ Even though Keiichi is even older by now thanks to his years in Luceti, he was still much older back then than Satoko is now. ]

[evilfierybluebird]

I see. Such an odd thing to contemplate. Another lifestyle really. Schools.

[A weird grin about that.]

[entreats]

[ .. Marco, you're being so weird today. In a way she's not sure she can entirely understand, unlike usually. ]

What's so weird about schools? Don't they have those in your world too?

[evilfierybluebird]

Only for the rich and royalty. Or the marine academy, of course.

[entreats]

Ah, so it's like that.. At least you should be glad then that the rich and royalty get put seperately from the other kids into a school, those kind of people are usually just the worst.

[ She can tell, okay. Because she's super rich herself. ]

[evilfierybluebird]

As much as I appreciate how the tenryuubito do not even want to share the same air with the rest of us lowlifes, so long as they continue to think that is to their benefit, I will always want to burst their bubbles.

[This is more of a literal thing than just schools, but yeah. Marco doesn't have a problem with rich people, just tenyruubito.]

[entreats]

[ She shrugs a little to herself. Sure, sounds reasonable. She's not even going to bother with stuck up people anymore, but if someone wants to knock them down a peg that's fine with her. (Although like this she has to wonder with everything he says whether it's really him or what the Malnosso did to him..) But-- ]

The.. tenryuubito? What's that?

[fieryblackbird]

The world government's nobility. They believe themselves descendants of the Great Dragon, and therefore so much "better" than us worthless peons who live on the same planet. A tenryuubito's every whim is Law. They are the reason the slave trade even still exists. You see, every country in the world, even all of those allied within the World Government outlawed slavery, even of fishmen or giants. But the tenryuubito may do whatever they wish. So the marines have to look the other way while hundreds of fishmen and pirates or children and giants are sold as slaves. If a child goes missing, it's not pirates, it's slaver.

Oh, but let us not blame the poor marines, surely they must hunt the greater evil of pirates in the world!

[This is quite obviously not Marco's usual self. His words are true, but Marco doesn't normally speak the truth much for a reason.]

You know how the Malnosso only deign to come visit us to ask a favor and for the drafts? [He grins... kind of sadistically actually.] The tenryuubito do not deign that much. Tenryuubito have no need for lower species mortals. Except to own them as one might own a book or a carving. The tenryuubito only come into public to remind everyone that their whims mean more to the government than the entire existence of everyone's lives. And when the tenyruubito do venture out in public they dare not breathe the same air as us, so they wrap their heads in bubbles. A tenryuubito can kill a man for any reason they so please. If they decide a person should be their seventeenth concubine, it matters not whether they're married or have a family. And if someone was ever foolish enough to lift a finger against them, the entire might of a buster call could be called against them. Because a tenyruubito's whims and pride are more important than any island, of course.

[Marco's gone daaaark.]

[entreats]

[ Yeah, seriously dark. Not that Ange can't understand, she can. She's seen the worst parts of the world as well, even if her own world isn't as extreme. Well, as far as humans are concerned, they suck but they're not that bad.. usually. And she's gotten a lot better here herself.

But that's not the reason why she sighs instead of normally replying. It's more that she figures talking about this while he's like this isn't exactly a good idea. ]

I see. Thanks for explaining. At least you don't have to deal with that stuff here.

[evilfierybluebird]

Such things are inescapable.

[He says it so casually. As if mentioning offhand that he enjoys clouds or doesn't like pickles.]

[entreats]

Sure they are in this place, right? All of us who were taken here are the same. Even if people were rich back home or had a lot of power.. that doesn't matter here, they're all equal.

[ She can say it, okay, she had a lot of cash too back home. ]

[evilfierybluebird]

Hmmmm... You know, I had not quite thought of it that way, but I do believe you are correct. How curious.

[entreats]

It's why I like this place better than back home. [ She shrugs to herself. ] Although that differs from person to person, I'm sure.

[evilfierybluebird]

Indubitably.

Perhaps one day we should take a poll for science. [Science doesn't work that way Marco.]

[entreats]

[ It sure doesn't.. but fine, fine, this doesn't sound like it could be bad, at least. ]

Which outcome are you going to expect then?

[evilfierybluebird]

That people do not like it here. Few of them have actually experienced the loss and horror present in other worlds, and even for those that have, all too often, they are willing to alter their own memories for the sake of nostalgia and believe that the other side is always better than what they are in.

[entreats]

.. And then they call me a pessimist. [ She does know it's because of whatever is going on with Marco at the moment though.. ] I guess I can't say anything though since I'm used to so much bad stuff back home that this place is like paradise.

[evilfierybluebird]

[The mocking grin is really gone now.] It was for me as well. Once.

No, I am sure it will be again, but we must be the ones to make it so, no?

[entreats]

I think you'll realise it's better than you think soon enough.

[ When that weird effect wears out. ]

[evilfierybluebird]

Perhaps, yoi.

Perhaps.