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Who: Ankh and YOU!
When: IC 7/18
Where: The Zoo + Around Town
What: Ankh is a bird and also they love him
Rating/Warning: None

A. Morning: Near his apartment

[Ankh had scoffed at the idea of taking any of the jobs that had been suggested to him, but after a couple days of there not being any birds around the city, and a few thoughts that had come to mind when he found some living ones at the zoo, the idea of being a zookeeper ended up not being so unappealing. Right now, he's leaving his apartment with plenty of time to get over to the zoo... which wouldn't be noteworthy except for the part where his version of going out the door is jumping off a balcony a few floors up. And unless you're paying attention to what's happening above you and see that his wings are the source of the mysterious red feather drifting by, the first thing you'll notice is someone landing - surprisingly gently - behind you. His wings disappear as soon as he lands, and by the time it takes to turn around, he'll look for all the world like he's just been standing there this whole time. Where did he come from?]

B. Late morning: Zoo

[Some of the habitats for the birds are the kind where you can walk into a room and they'll just be flying around. With most people, they'll just mind their own business and casually avoid the humanoid in the room. That's a little different if you happen to be a zookeeper with food, and even more different if you happen to also be Ankh.

In this exhibit currently, there will be quite a variety of small colorful birds that have attached themselves to one very put out zookeeper. Some of them are climbing over each other to get to the bag of feed in his hand, but the rest just seem to think he makes a nice perch.]

Oi. [He brushes his hand over his shoulder, unseating a couple birds... who then immediately land right back where they were. Have fun watching him attempt to shoo all the birds off of him in the hopes of someday being able to leave this room.]

C. Afternoon: Zoo

[All the birds that need food have been fed, and somehow Ankh has managed to escape from them. At this point, he's just familiarizing himself with everything else. The cybuddy birds don't seem to have nearly the same attachment to him as the live ones, though they seem to respond to Taka. At the moment, he's leaning against a railing, idly watching the zoo's robot bird apparently playing some sort of game with his own somewhat less realistic robot bird. He seems far less amused than they do as he mutters to himself]

Why have robots at a place like this, anyway?

D. Evening: Around town

[Walking around the city, you may find yourself nearly getting hit with a popsicle stick. Or maybe actually getting hit with it if you happen to be unlucky. It's not readily apparent where it came from until you happen to look up and catch a glimpse of Ankh sitting in a tree nearby.

Yes, that was his. And there's a trash can not far beyond where it landed, so you're welcome to assume he had been aiming for that and missed. The truth is he just tossed it over his shoulder and didn't pay any attention to whether someone was walking by over there.]

E. Wildcard. Feel free to make something up.

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[Being a monstrous shell of a human that had been trained to react offensively for most of one's life has given him some interesting reflexes. Which meant that as soon as the air was disturbed by something heading for his head, he brought his one hand up to block it while his other hand went for his weapon. At least Jinga noticed that the offending object was just a piece of wood and he was between whoever threw it and a trashcan. But still, there was a moment of him tensing for battle before he straightened from his stance.]

You missed.

[It was more luck than anything that Ankh even saw any of that. He'd turned to look because he recognised a familiar presence. The comment got something that was almost a laugh in return.]

Maybe I wanted to see you react like that.

I could have cut your head off.

[He might have been joking about that, though he does use his sheathed blade to flick the discarded stick into the trash. That done, he placed his weapon back where it belonged and walked over to a nearby tree so he wasn't at least yelling up at him. After a moment, he actually just swings himself up onto a branch so they were more or less level, the move not exactly human, but he doubt that he needed to hide that from another monster.]

Is this what you do on your day off?

[Joking or otherwise, Ankh seemed unfazed by the comment.]

Sometimes.

[He happened to make a hobby of sitting in trees. Though right now, there was a particular reason for him not being on the ground, namely that the fox had joined him up there. For now, at least, it seems to be on a branch well away from where Jinga has chosen to sit.]

Right now, it's an easy way to avoid getting too close to people. [Which should be understandable, since he'd run into enough instances of random memories being shared to determine that these weird spirit animals were an epidemic. He gave Jinga a pointed glance.] You might not want to sit there.

I admit it is much better then bar crawling.

[He doubted that Ankh would do such a thing. For one, he didn't seem like he needed the kind of contacts that one got in a bar like he had. For another, he gave the impression that he was drawn to other kinds of vice then Jinga was wont to use.

Giving the tree he was in a look, Jinga snorted and leaned against the trunk, crossing his legs at the ankles as he balanced quite well for someone that was not inclined to being a bird. Then again, as a demonic winged thing, he probably could perch in worse spots if need be. Meanwhile his goat had somehow managed to get in the tree as well, and looked about ready to settle down for some chewing on leaves action.]

It seems safe enough. Why? Are you worried about something happening?

[He raised an eyebrow at the question.]

Do you not have one of those stupid foxes following you around, then? [He assumed it would be a fox. Both his and Eiji's were, and he hadn't bothered discussing the particular form of anyone else's.] Or do you just not mind having your memories shared unwillingly?

Fox? Is that what they do?

[He looked over at the goat and snorted to himself. Figures. He would have to get something other than a fox.] And here I thought it was around to be a pest.

That's a good word for it.

[The question was a bit of a surprise, though. Had he really not had his run into anyone? He might be unusually lucky.

...or just not be sharing a small studio apartment with another person. That would help.]

Or maybe mine doesn't care for people.

[Some animals are social creatures by nature. Jinga wasn't sure what a goat was, but his seemed rather disinclined to bother people unless it really wanted to. Right now, all it wanted was to get at some leaves on the trees.]

Heh. Then you're lucky.

[Ankh's might be too social. Or at least it seemed very fond of bothering Eiji. He could hope that it would be less inclined to run into other people, provided he stayed away from crowds. And so far so good, as far as that went with Jinga, though the fox didn't seem interested in staying put, either, hopping between branches.]

I suppose so.

[Seriously this whole place was annoying at the best of times. It almost made him long for home or even the Makai world. At least the annoyances wasn't so unpredictable there.]

I take it you had a few run ins with people.

[He replies with a vague nod, and it is at this moment that the fox decides to helpfully illustrate the concept by leaping onto the branch Jinga was on and striking him with a memory:

It had come down to a showdown on a beach, him and Eiji finally having become enemies like they said they would for so long. Amidst the angry words and taunts and punches, the last thing he expected to hear was "thank you."

Ankh watched, a resigned sort of frustrated, as he noticed the fox too late and sat waiting for Jinga to come back to the present.]

[He could almost taste the salt in the air, feel the blows and the anger. Under it though came the shock, of hearing those words and knowing just how much he meant them, because that was how he always was. The stupid human and his empty smiles and his ridiculous underwear and yet... he felt so grateful.

When the memory let go, he took a deep breath and let it out through his teeth. His eyes opened and that was just in time to see his goat lose its footing and slide down the branch to hit Ankh.

It was an empty office building, the kind of place that had once been promoted to bring more jobs to that area only to fail and slowly crumble to the ground. He was trailing his fingers along the walls, feeling the seeped-in emotions of failure and disappointment and betrayal. There was a death there as well, some businessman unable to cope having hung himself in what had been the boardroom. All of it echoed as he and Amily walked along the empty halls, the years not having dulled any of the emotions buried just within reach.

He let the darkness draw him closer and he found the central point of both the Inga and the building. He pressed his hand against the wall, feeling it throb and glanced over to Amily as he stood back. Her hand rested where his was a moment ago and a pulse of energy leeched out. A blue glyph appeared and circled out and something dark and half-formed fell from it. His lip curled as it stood up on shaky legs then darted to the right. He followed it and watched as it grabbed a homeless person. Latching onto his face, the creature sucked, blackness spreading and growing then turning the human liquid.

Amily touched his shoulder and he pulled away, looking back on the portal. Nothing more was coming through yet, but give it time. The first creature, wearing its human skin was already leaving, so it was time for them to leave as well. Once outside, she created one of her butterflies and set it to watch even as they took to the air. In an hour, there would finally be food for them, but until then they had to wait.]

[He was more used to this, by now. Less disoriented. It still took him a moment to remember where he was and what conversation he'd been having once he came out of it. And then he looked over at Jinga, with an expression that might have been amused if not for how annoying the entire situation was.]

I did warn you.

[His fingers were still tingling. He gave the goat an unamused look and the thing had the decency to limp over to a clump of grass to chew on instead. Curling his hands he snorted, trying to make sense of the memory he had seen.]

So you did.

[And Ankh felt dizzy, the way he always did when someone ended up seeing one of his memories, but even that was starting just be familiar. There was a moment's silence as he thought over what he'd witnessed and waited for the world to stop spinning, then-]

What did you see?

You were fighting with that Os guy on a beach. You were enemies though I think you had been friends because in the middle of all it, he said 'Thank you'.

[He should understand it somewhat, but he wasn't going to. He didn't understand half of what Eiji had told him when he first met the guy, but a 'thank you' to Ankh did not sound too out of character for him. He seemed far too nice.]

What did you see?

[Stupid fox, sharing all the important memories without his consent. He took a moment to glare at what Jinga would see as nothing.]

You were following a... thing. I guess that's what you called a Horror before. Your wife was with you.

[He assumed that was his wife, anyway.]

[Stupid goat showing one of those kind of memories, especially since it was a hunting mode one. It should know better then that, after all eating wasn't nice for humans.]

Yes, they are called Horrors. It was probably still unformed if you saw it in that state.

[His wife... he missed her even in this state, he would always miss her.] Amily.

[Luckily for him, the person who saw it wasn't a human and didn't really care.

So that's her name, then.]

You want her to be here.

[It was probably an obvious conclusion even without his unique senses. The only odd thing about it is the certainty of the words.]

She is my moon.

[There is certainty in his words, the unshakable conviction of their bond despite the changes they had gone through.]

That is one thing that has never changed despite the Fall.

[How poetic. But the idea of an unbreakable bond, at least... Ankh can relate to that, a bit. And there are people he'd like to see again, too.]

What do you think happened to the places we came from? I don't buy the story about everything being destroyed.

What do I think?

[He stretches out on the branch, bracing himself with his foot and rolling his wrist to let it crack, the bones re-aligning back into place.]

I think that the official story is a lie. If the Makai was destroyed, then it would be something greater then the Messiah to do so, and there is none that can destroy it. All you can do is make it sleep. It is the source of all Horrors, and Horrors never die.

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d

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Shifting this to 7/21 it is, then

:3

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