[closed]

[powertotearer]

Who: Eiji (powertotearer), Ankh (notsogreeedy), and Cole (fadeling
When: IC 7/24
Where: CERES Food Stop
What: Someone's got to do something about all of the feathers Ankh keeps leaving everywhere
Rating/Warning: None so far

---

[Eiji has an idea.

It's not a good idea, but it's not a terrible one either. But it does mean he's trying to sew together some plush fabric together while he and Ankh are eating lunch.

Right now, he stops for a bit so he can eat, looking the project over.]

A little uneven, but not bad for a first try. What do you think?

[He's doing this on purpose, Ankh.]

Comments

[notsogreedy]

[Ankh, meanwhile, has been focusing on his food and pretending Eiji's sudden fascination with trying to make pillows is a thing that doesn't exist. When Eiji asks him that, he looks up, barely glancing at the attempt at a craft project before turning his gaze quite seriously to his face.]

I think you're an idiot.

[But you knew that already.]

[fadeling]

[Cole wanted to forget about their last conversation--it had hurt like so many other things here--but give how badly it had gone, he needed to keep it, to at least try not to make the same mistakes again. Not that he knows--even now--what those mistakes were.

And yet, the man feels fascinating. Interesting and different enough to keep drawing him in. Spirits are funny that way, predictable and unpredictable all at once like the sea. Or a storm.

He hadn'tmeant to stumble across him again, and yet here he is. Most of him says he should leave, but he stays anyway, almost hiding, hovering around the edges. He knows he'll be noticed, but he's almost afraid to move closer.]

Oh. Sorry. I'm going.

[powertotearer]

[Eiji's just about to be completely not an idiot and stick his tongue out at Ankh when he sees Cole. Or rather, sees him shying away.]

Oh, no, it's okay. There's room here.

[notsogreedy]

[He glances over at Cole, eyes narrowing, though he doesn't say anything, especially since he seems to already be intending to leave. Which begs the question of what he's doing here in the first place, but he doesn't care enough to put much thought to it.

Eiji, of course, is going to be the idiot he is and invite Cole over, so Ankh does the mature thing and kicks him under the table.]

No, there isn't.

[fadeling]

It's alright. [In a way, at least. He doesn't necessarily like the whole situation, but he can understand it--a feat in and of itself.

He almost leaves, too, but pauses, then holds out a handful of feathers.]

They fell off, I think. You lost them.

[powertotearer]

[Eiji looks at Ankh curiously. Those are unmistakably his feathers--red and curly.]

You've met before?

[He does say it cautiously, at least. With Ankh, meeting someone usually means it didn't go well. Not if they're returning feathers?]

[notsogreedy]

[The flash of red catches his attention and for a second he looks nothing short of confused. He's really not sure he understands someone who takes away feelings but brings back feathers.]

Yeah. [And both the tone in his voice and the wary way he glances from the feathers up to Cole say it didn't go well, but he's not going to say anything beyond that right now. At least this time, he's less inclined to start immediately yelling at him.]

What's that about? It's not like I need them. [The fact that he drops them everywhere is what got Eiji muttering stupid things about pillows in the first place.]

[fadeling]

They're yours. [He says it like it answers everything. It does to him, anyway. But then, not a whole lot of what he does makes sense to most others.]

They're not mine so I can't keep them.

[powertotearer]

Thanks.

[Eiji's the one who reaches out for them--after all, they make such comfy pillow stuffing. Even when he's well aware this will earn him another kick.]

But why come all this way to give them back?

[notsogreedy]

[Yep. A kick for Eiji and a suspicious look in Cole's direction.]

Good question.

[fadeling]

Because they're not mine. They're yours. [It's as simple as that, really.]

[powertotearer]

[This time, Eiji kicks Ankh back, scowling. He's just trying to help!

Ankh can handle the next part of the conversation. Eiji's busy being a child.]

[notsogreedy]

[Yes, very mature Eiji. As if Ankh didn't start it. He shoots a brief sharp look at Eiji before looking back to Cole.]

So you gave them back. Why are you still here?

[fadeling]

You keep asking questions.

[powertotearer]

That's a little...

[Eiji ignores the glare and just looks between them for a minute. Ankh, asking questions? Hard to believe.]

What exactly do you want? I mean, you had to know that Ankh was going to, well, react like this. What's going on?

[notsogreedy]

[He crosses his arms and looks away from Cole with a vague "hmph". Eiji can ask the questions now. Ankh doesn't have anything else he wants to say, anyway.]

[fadeling]

I help. I said I wouldn't look so I didn't know. They're yours so I don't need them.

[powertotearer]

[Suddenly, he realizes this never had anything to do with the feathers, and he thinks he understands why Ankh's so prickly.]

Ankh's what, exactly? What are you trying to help with?

[notsogreedy]

Now you want to know why I didn't want to see him.

[He mutters that much, then adds addressed to Cole.]

Go on, then. Tell him how you help people.

[fadeling]

The feathers. I couldn't tell.

[But he looks at the ground when he answers the rest, hat obscuring his face.]

I help how they need it, but...I can make them forget it hurt, too, when it gets stuck, when they cling to poisonous pain like pleasure and kill themselves from inside, they should forget.

I said I wouldn't. I didn't.

[powertotearer]

[A way too familiar sense of dread settles in Eiji's stomach.]

You take away people's memories? To try to take care of their pain?

And this can now be a two person log

[notsogreedy]

[It's almost satisfying, watching the look on Eiji's face.]

See?

[He pushes himself back from the table, standing up and giving a pointed look to the hat Cole is hiding under.]

He doesn't listen, either. He's still talking like it's a good thing.

[There's your context, Eiji. Maybe now it makes more sense how Ankh could so easily say he didn't think there was anything wrong with appreciating having all the bad memories back, because he'd already yelled that out with someone else. And he's said all he's going to on that subject already, so he doesn't see any need to stick around. Eiji can keep talking if he wants to. Ankh will be walking off somewhere else.]

[fadeling]

[He doesn't look up.]

Yes. Sometimes. But I don't hurt people. I help. I fix what breaks and I untie the knots. Sometimes they need to forget.

[powertotearer]

[Eiji really wishes Ankh hadn't left--not just because Ankh is being really rude, thanks, but because this isn't a conversation he wants to have on his own.

But alone he is, and it means he has to think of something to say. Cole's reasoning doesn't sound malevolent, at least.]

How do you make that decision? Or, I guess, what gives you the right to make that choice for other people?

[fadeling]

They do. They want to forget, sometimes, so I let them. But I don't make them less and I don't make me more. I'm not a demon. I don't hurt people.