Summertime [Open]

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi sat by a the mirrored black water of a small pond. Nearby, a wisteria plant was coming into bloom, dangling its delicate, curved violet flowers toward the earth.

As promised, a tray of chilled watermelon slices was set to the side, near the wooden steps leading down to the garden and free for any passersby to take. For his part, however, Zouichi occupied himself with feeding a small group of googly-eyed baby goldfish, who darted back and forth through the water to gobble up stray flakes of fish food.

It was nice to take a break from exploding ghost wolves lions once in a while.

Comments

[greeedycat]

A cause one would give their life for? So, the hobo and Maki. Greaaaat. And if Caz knew that order of concerned operations, he would have jetted by now.

Oh geez double negatives, his one weakness. He actually counted off on his fingers, speaking as quietly as he could. "Don't, not, so they cancel out." He actually seemed pretty mentally tangled by the discussion, as if the implications were sinking in finally, or something. Caz could be smart with things, but only when they didn't have to do with emotional response things...or grammar, apparently.

"...see, this is the stuff I don't get. Why would I even consider telling someone else~? If Doctor shows up, I don't want people knowing why I'd be using his blood to paint the town red, they'd just use it against me." Caz itched at his head, as if trying to shake out the bits of confusion. "But I feel all...wound up, not talking about it. I want to, I guess. But I don't want to tell people who...don't, care?" He was probably going to give Zou every possible avenue to escape the conversation at this point. "I don't like wasting time- yours or mine. Even if I'm doing it by being so back and forth about this."

A groan, and Caz pushed his hat over his face. "Aaaah, why am I still talking about this anyway...?~"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi was confused. Did Cazali want him to listen or not? Was he being told to leave? Finally, he offered, "If there's no one else you feel comfortable talking to, I don't mind listening. Maybe the process of discussing things will lesson your general sense of confusion, as it did for me."

Although at least Zouichi had been created for less sinister purposes.

btw have i mentioned im sorry caz sucks

[greeedycat]

Cazali has a better Tsundere dialect than Sensible, sorry Zou.

"...it worked for you?" Well, that was basically the deciding factor. No, for real this time.

"Eh, the meat of the problem with all this~ I never had regret before, you know~? Okay, steal some medals, backstab all the others, whatever- never bothered me. We were made to fight, we ran out of adversaries, so we fought one another. Mezul was useless without Gamel up her cape, and Uva would rather hide like the insect he's made from. Ankh...well, he's just an asshole. So, no loss, right~?"

A sigh. "Ankh gave me a lovely lesson in evolution when we woke up, so I sought to find some humans to work with. That's how I met Dr. Maki~ He wanted to study Greeed and destroy the planet for some...who the hell cares. But I just wanted his information. We worked pretty well, regardless~ I had to give him a kick in the ass, and he got pushy with me, but all in all it was a very beneficial partnership. He's the one that gave me the others' medals, and I experimented with them. Turns out if one Greeed took in a mass of core medals in a short amount of time, they'd go crazy and consume the world like Doctor wanted. I didn't want the world to end- duh, I wouldn't exist then either~ But I played along."

Caz pouted his lips, bit the corner of his mouth, shifted his hat, everything to keep from saying what he wanted to. "...I set it up so I could steal all nine of my medals from the others. I actually succeed, but...OOOs. Him and Maki both had medals in themselves, as well. The purple ones, the only ones capable of killing a Greeed. OOOs...shattered three of my medals, two shattered instantly. One of them was, me. My consciousness. I escaped, but...I was the first to feel that, really." Lost Ankh didn't count. "Maki found me. He...knew I would do it, and he took all my medals from me but my breaking one."

Caz had run out of things to fidget with.

"...I've been betrayed before, but that was different. Now I...I don't want to do that all again. I'm, tired? I regret being reckless, and...eh~ We're not supposed to feel this stuff, we're just supposed to want things and fight things."

Re: btw have i mentioned im sorry caz sucks

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Well, that was... a huge gush of information. "So, you've had your brush with cackling evil, got kicked to the curb, and now you're wondering what to do with yourself?"

Zouichi shook his head. "I don't envy you. But do you really want to go back to an existence of desiring things and fighting endlessly?"

[greeedycat]

"Well, I can't really fight it forever. The fact that I haven't gone around Yummying people and all that stuff is basically because I'm distracting myself. Eventually I'll get bored~ Run out of things to do~ It's just, nature or instinct. Evolution can't happen in a day."

In a weird way, Caz did feel..."better", but he wouldn't know better if it bit him on the ass, so the exchange hung a bit hollow. "To be frank, I know I'm eventually going to hurt people again. But I'm making a conscious effort to avoid that, for my own safety. Not theirs." The penultimate shrug; "I'm not a good guy~ But I'm trying this honesty thing out, so~"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"If you try and hurt the people here," Zouichi said with a frown, "I have to stop you. You do realize that, right? And if you can't help your own behavior, that's an even bigger problem."

[greeedycat]

"...I just have to keep busy, and keep distracting myself."

Caz tucked his hands behind his head, searching around for words for a minute before continuing. "...I don't want to burn bridges. Nor do I want to needlessly stick my neck out and give security a reason to put me an even smaller pen." He puffed his lips out, skewing them. "If we actually had something to fight, I'd feel better. I've never gone this long without sinking my claws in to something."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi snorted. "Believe me, I'm sure we'll be fighting something sooner or later. But I understand your feelings. There was a long period when I first got here in which I didn't get to fight any real opponents. It was... a bit of a transition from what I was used to."

[greeedycat]

"Maybe I can-" ...use the sensoriums? He'd probably get addicted if he ever used that damn thing. "...maybe someone on here wouldn't mind a spar or two~ The Riders already know I'm here, I might as well harass them about it~"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi nodded. "A good idea, I think. It's not quite the same as being in an actual battle, but it's better than nothing. If you can't find anyone to have a match with, I'll try and help out. I don't really know much about how you fight, though."

[greeedycat]

"Maybe I can just put up a comm notice or something- "Hey wanna spar?" Catch more flies with honey~" He however made a face.

"...well, I don't think anything here can hurt me. Conventionally. Kinda helps, not having nerves yadda yadda~ Greeed only stop fighting when they lose medals, and I dunno if anyone here is capable of that."

tl;dr hes being cocky.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi raised an eyebrow at him. "The point of sparring is to avoid hurting your partner, isn't it? But perhaps a Kamen Rider would be a good place to start. Maybe they'd be more familiar with your powers. Or maybe you can work something out with Ankh."

[greeedycat]

...work something out with Ankh.

"..."

Cazali shifted, pushing himself up to stand rather abruptly. "Maybe I should~ It beats sitting here, chewing your ear off, hm~?" Caz looked down at the plate, tipping the brim of his hat before slapping it on to his head again. "Thanks for the rinds~ Even if it was me who dropped in on you."

Cazali gave a snortish laugh, half-waving, and finally beginning to leave. "Ja~"

CONGRATS ZOUICHI, YOU SURVIVED HIS NONSENSE BABBLE! YOU GAIN +2000 EXP!

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

LEVEL UP

"All right," Zouichi said, raising his hand in a matching wave. "...Take care of yourself."