trans_9 | Far below the rolling tide [Open]

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Far below the rolling tide [Open]

Strangely enough, even after the events of the past few days, Zouichi had not developed an aversion to the ocean. Or axes! Or giant squid! It helped that he, unlike some of the other crew, hadn't been in imminent danger of drowning. He was, however, busying himself with preparing some of the food they'd bought on shore leave, as well as supplies salvaged from the Deepstar 7. No sense letting it go to waste, right?

He'd started work in the early morning, and gotten so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn't quite notice that he was making more than was absolutely necessary. What? Cooking was relaxing. And anyway, he thought as he waited to pull a piece of battered shrimp out of its cooking oil, someone would probably eat it all. For the people living in the inn, he was careful to set aside boxes of prepared food. But there was an increasing amount left over...

Stop by, enjoy your ridiculously overprepared lunch. Or just a simple one, if you're an acquaintance. The front door's open!

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Hana suddenly felt himself shrinking away from Zouichi and his questions, feeling as if he were being accused of something.

"It's not like I don't care. I don't want to people to die..."

It seemed that he was being given the image of a bad person and he began shuffling uncomfortably and glancing at the door.

"I didn't say you did." What a curious reaction. "Only that your reactions are... unusual."

He folded his arms. "For example, I've killed people before. And I'm sure in many other people, having been responsible for someone else's death would have been a source of distress. Much greater than it is for me."

At the 'unusual' comment he shuffled even more and seemed ready to dart for the exit. This was what was wrong with his powers, they made things complicated, sometimes too complicated for others to grasp.

"I don't like it when people die but... When it's someone I don't know I just... I dunno. It's hard to explain. Besides, half the time it's not like they've even left anyway."

How could he explain his odd feelings and understanding of death when even he didn't quite know?

"I'd never want someone to die and I'd never want to kill someone but... Death happens."

"That's true." Death did happen. Especially in war. Though that sort of outlook was a little rare in teenagers -- in Zouichi's world, at least.

"Not like they've left? What do you mean?"

A shrug. "I guess I'm just more used to it happening and it being okay than others are."

Hana blinked and looked at Zouichi, confused. Surely he'd...

"Wait... I never told you?"

No. He must have. He remembered clearly...

... Telling him about the 'reviving the dead' thing... Once. On that mission. But he'd not explained it very well.

Heck, he hadn't even told Zouichi what he was let alone what it meant.

Well... This is embarrassing. Really, how could he have forgotten?

Or maybe he hadn't forgotten. Maybe he'd not wanted to tell Zouichi. It's not like he was keeping it a secret on the ship. But in comparison to Zouichis accomplishments and talents, Hana's 'powers' just seemed... Weird.

If he had told Hana, Zouichi had probably just been too busy shooting robots or zombies or whatever to really pay attention.

"Told me what?"

"Well... Erm... What do you think I do, exactly?" Hana couldn't help himself. "I mean, what do you think I am?" He was curious, did Zouichi think he was just a normal boy? A very loud one, yes, but 'normal'? Hana had never had that before.

But wait, Zou had seen him fight, right? Maybe he just thought Hana had grabbed a sword and started swinging it around?

"A human. Used to fighting. You obviously have some sort of ability that would be unusual in my world, but Allenby can jump about thirty feet into the air and shoot energy out of her hands, and she thinks that's perfectly normal."

In other words, it was quite possible Hana could more or less be a normal person. In his own world, anyway.

"Well, I am human. Biologically and all that but I'm not 'normal'. Not even in my world. I mean, there's alot of people like me but we're not the normal ones on our planet."

"You're a transhuman, then?" That was Zouichi defaulting to a scientific explanation. There were espers on his planet, for instance, with abilities far beyond those of a normal human.

...but they were still human.

"I guess you could call it that." He ran his hand through his hair and shrugged, giving a nervous smile. "But, back where I'm from we just call it being a 'Shaman'."

"A shaman." Zouichi blinked. "So... you can talk to nature spirits? Like Alastirra?"

The two of them were so different in appearance, but he supposed he could see some similarities in their manner.

"Yeh, well--Wait? Who? There's someone else on the ship like that?"

Hana leaned back in his chair looking thoughtful. "Huh, I didn't know that."

"But you're kind of right, but only a little."

"Yes. She's a tall Draenei woman with some spirit wolves as pets. Are you sure you've never seen her?" She was quite distinctive, you know.

"All right. Then what kind of shaman are we talking?"

"Huh, I'll have to go say hi sometime." He wondered where she hung out.

"Oh, you know, talk to spirits, see them, use them, summon them, sense them. The whole package really."

"What's the difference, then? That sounds like what Alastirra does." Zouichi didn't really know a whole lot about the finer details spirit handling. Although he was chased by ghosts once. Come to think of it...

"...wait, do you mean spirits or ghosts?"

Hana pulls a look of what can only be called 'dude, are you for real?'

"Well, obviously, ghosts are just one of the groups of spirits. Why do you think the names ended up being interchangeable?"

"Are they interchangeable, or is one a subset of the other?" Make up your mind, Hana.

"Yes... No... Kinda. There's stuff like nature spirits and human ghosts and 'god classes' and they all sort of connect and change and--" He sighed, rubbing his head, confusing himself.

"It's all just a hassle. We tend to just go with 'spirits', it covers everything. Because, well, we see everything."

"Ah. Spirits are... they don't exist where I come from. Or at least they can't be detected by reliable, reproducible means." But clearly Ildraniath believed in souls, and Alastirra talked to spirits. Hana's world, predictably, would be different from his own.

"Many people half-believe in them, though. Others think they're a hoax. I never had much call to think about it, myself. Is it... unpleasant?"

"Well, they're just sort of them. I've seen them all my life so it's not really something I pick up as different or strange."

Hana shrugged. "I mean, sure, sometimes it's not so great but that's life, isn't it? Good sometimes, bad others."

"That makes sense, I suppose." Well, except that everyone who couldn't see spirits would still consider it strange.

"Have you seen any aboard the ship?" Because Zouichi had!

Hana gave Zouichi an almost skeptical look. "You kidding? There's tons on this ship. Hell, Mindy and Ruffs place has at least a hundred. And that's just one building."

Zouichi frowned. "I've run into some myself. Do they have anything particularly pertinent to say? About the ship? The war?"

"Some of them do. But most of 'em like to talk so it's hard to tell the useful stuff from the crap."

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zouichi.livejournal.com - 2012-02-01 04:22 (UTC) - Expand

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