smash_logs | [Open Log] Ch-Ch-Cherry Blossoms

[Open Log] Ch-Ch-Cherry Blossoms

Who: You!
What: Cherry Blossom Festival
When: April 10th - 18th
Where: All over town & campus. Wherever you find a cherry tree. Probably even up there on that mystery island for whatever reason, if you're so inclined.
Rating: Flower power.

Pink is everywhere. No matter where you look, you're sure to see the signs of soft pink and white blossoms. There's a fresh spark of life filling the air and just beckoning for everyone to come outside and enjoy the sweet scents of spring. Well, except for you, people with springtime allergies. They just want to make you miserable. But perhaps for everyone else, it was a wonderful amazing time to be had.

There are wonderful spots for picnicking! Frolic inducing atmosphere and the space to do it! Every so often you will see vendors selling treats for the event! Cosplayers taking advantage of their natural environments for photo ops! Hot date spots! Blossoms! Sparkles! Everywhere! Even when it rains.

This log is completely open! You can do whatever you'd like with whomever you'd like whenever you'd like. Just start up a thread and go!

Have fun! Don't forget to add your character to the entry tags! ♥

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Life in a world so peaceful it hardly needed them to be the soldiers they'd once been was not a frightening prospect in and of itself; it was the sort of dream they had been striving for from the beginning, wasn't it? It was the idea of life devoid of purpose that seemed daunting to him. Zero was right: peace meant swords must be put away. ...A thought that was just as unsettling as it was inspiring.

What did that mean for them, then...? It wasn't impossible to think that he could adapt, but the line that Zero continued to draw in the sand separating himself from the rest of them continued to add to Harpuia's sense of unease.

Harpuia understood Zero was striving to settle his anxious heart -- though the why of it remained strange to him -- but in the same breath that he offered hopeful words, he separated himself from it entirely. How could he talk of rebuilding when he spoke so lifelessly of the place he'd been living in much longer than either of them? Harpuia watched in unhappy silence as the petals Zero had collected slowly drifted down, fated to either decompose where they landed or be scattered by the wind again.

"Shall I do so by following your example?" Harpuia suggested. "We're not on opposing sides here... or rather, neither side exists anymore. Don't ask me to place any trust in the things you say if you're going to put yourself at arm's length from us."

Zero blinked, slightly taken aback by the idea by the guardian's forthright accusation. No one had really put it in such cutting terms to him before, despite how obviously he set himself apart from others. Even if it was true that they weren't enemies, it still felt like a stretch to call the other an ally - especially Harpuia of all people, who had been utterly nauseated at the idea of being helped by him before. Zero had no expectations for being treated any particular way to begin with, so to suddenly get a lecture for his own behaviour was jarring.

Whatever trust he had in the guardians was an understanding of what they would do for the sake of their ideals - ideals that happened to line up with his own at times - not because of any particular bond he had with them. For all his combat skill, Zero was no leader. He'd always been most comfortable going at things solo, taking risks alone, saying little and doing what needed doing. The trust and respect he had from the Resistance was certainly not a result of him opening up to them. So for someone that was once his enemy to ask so much from him was distinctly uncomfortable.

"I never expected you to follow me," he said, frowning, hands balled into fists at his sides. "I don't even think you should. Why would you?"

Edited 2015-04-12 05:44 (UTC)

"That would be unfathomably foolish," Harpuia agreed flatly. "You've already decided you're going to be left behind."

Harpuia had left the Resistance base as soon as he'd been able; he knew nothing of how well Zero got along with the rest of its members, but he suspected that it must be much easier than this. Still, what else could he expect from someone he'd spent so much time fighting? Not much, and that was exactly what he was getting. Even so, Zero was talking to him, at the very least... though even that much made his motives all the more puzzling.

Harpuia already had Fefnir -- and by some strange extension of DNA data, he supposed, Rock. This, like all other things, was not a hurdle he was facing alone. No matter how melancholy the situation may have felt, Harpuia was not so delicate that he would crumble without reassurance from all sides. Any degree of sympathy from Zero, of all reploids, was neither asked for nor necessary. So why even bother to have this discussion if Zero saw no point in calling their objective the same?

"Don't misunderstand me, Zero. What you intend to do with yourself makes no difference to me whatsoever. What I don't understand is why you would take the time to tell me we can adapt at all if you clearly don't believe it yourself."

"Because..." Zero hesitated, brows furrowing as though trying to remember something. A hazy feeling bubbled up in the back of his mind, without shape or substance, but something that he'd undoubtedly felt before. Familiar to the point where it was easy to rationalize it as fact. Empty, but accepting - to the point of being content with death.

It was already uncomfortable enough discovering what he had been created to do, but to then know that he'd go on to outlive Rock, X, and even the descendants of X's DNA... even the fact that he got to meet the family that X had never known, it all felt unfair. Perhaps it was a little unsettling how at ease he was with the idea that others could carry on without him.

"At the very least... you should live."

That by itself wasn't likely to uncloud Harpuia's confusion, though. The guardian had only ever known him as a warrior, and to that respect he considered them on equal footing. It didn't seem like he was the type to relent when he still had questions unanswered either, no matter how much Zero preferred to keep them to himself.

With reluctance, he began, "I still barely remember anything before waking in 23XX. But the reason I was created... I discovered..."

A self-directed scowl grew across his face as he paused, growing in hollow bitterness. "I was built to destroy Rock, by his greatest enemy. To become everything Omega was. Three hundred years of that curse... and all I could do was change from being one weapon to another."

Maybe the truth was he couldn't change after all. Was he even a reploid to begin with?

The legendary reploid, Zero... it was true that there were many things that were unknown about him. He had to be ancient, without a doubt, to have fought beside Master X in the countless wars that had come before Neo Arcadia's creation. But three hundred years old... the first Reploids had only been created in 21XX, following the discovery of X's sealed capsule. For Zero to be as old as Rock? Maybe even older than Master X himself? A Reploid... no, not an iteration of X's template, something different entirely?

The ramifications of that were staggering to consider, but more than that, it underscored just how deep the legacy of violence that surrounded Zero ran. Harpuia's own life and death had only been a fleeting instant in comparison to that. He had known warfare firsthand, but to imagine it on such a long-lasting scale was almost unfathomable. It was one thing to know objectively that the world had been caught up in a repeating string of wars for centuries, but to consider being a part of each and every one...

Maybe if it had been X or even Ciel that Zero had been speaking with, they would have had a comforting response to offer. But as much as Harpuia may have been renowned for his mind, there were limits to the things that he understood, and he knew that. In the time that he had known Zero, regardless of the righteousness of their motives, it had inevitably been as a pair of weapons clashing against each other. To pretend otherwise would be a lie, and certainly not one that would fool Zero for a second.

The beauty surrounding them was momentarily forgotten; Harpuia's wide eyes were fixed only on Zero, struggling with the magnitude of that disclosure. For quite possibly the only time since they had met, Harpuia had no answer.

Feeling Harpuia's eyes on him through the stunned silence, Zero gazed back at him expectantly, waiting for a response. He was almost reminded of how Rock had looked under the mistletoe, that same expression of shock mingled with the horror of understanding as everything they knew about the reploid in front of them fell away.

Zero couldn't exactly blame them. Even he had been happier not knowing, despite living without a past. At least back then he could more confidently say who and what he was, without being chained to his twisted origins. But now that he did know, it was impossible to look away - no, it was irresponsible to. Ignoring it would've been denying his hand in all those centuries of bloodshed.

Voice low, Zero broke the silence as he asked, "Does that answer your question?" About why he constantly kept everyone at a distance. Why he had such little faith in his own capacity to change. What good was opening up to people when it only burdened them with things they had no way of relating to?

Either way, he had no interest in delving any deeper of his own accord. It was what it was, and perhaps anything Harpuia could say would only be empty. The quiet just suited him better. It felt more honest.

Zero's gaze drifted back towards the cherry blossoms first. "I have to believe the future can be brighter for everyone else..." What else did he have other than that hope?

What would X have done in this situation? Much more than this, without a doubt. The peaceful world that he had wanted to rebuild surely hadn't been meant only for the ones who had been designed to live in it.

But as for Harpuia... blind belief had never suited him, least of all when it stood contrary to the facts. Zero was held in high regard by all of the Guardians -- perhaps not in ways that were necessarily healthy, considering how much of it hinged on fighting him -- but what business of his was it where Zero went or what he did? They may not have necessarily stood as enemies right now, but if he didn't plan on following the same path they did, then Harpuia was the last reploid on earth to want to waste much effort convincing him they ought to hold hands and work together.

Even so, as irrational as it was, the feeling persisted. Zero, without a doubt, had it within him to resign himself to a war machine's fate. To live and eventually die alone, having done nothing but cut down whatever enemies appeared in front of him. It had never been Harpuia's place to decide otherwise, but all the same, it seemed... wasteful? Not right? For a life to give so much and yet receive so little seemed an injustice to him, even if it may not have been one that Harpuia had the power to set right.

"You deserve better than this." A quiet thought, spoken as Harpuia finally turned away from Zero. One that might not have offered much more solace than empty, insincere attempts at optimism, but for what little it was worth, Harpuia never had been the type to speak up unless it was something he believed to be true.

Strange. It didn't seem too long ago that those words would've seemed absurd coming from Harpuia. It still sound a bit strange, to be honest. Just another unexpected voice telling Zero that the lot in life he'd long accepted for himself was an unfair position to take.

There'd been a few of them lately. Telling him that the destruction that followed his life wasn't his fault. That he shouldn't keep punishing himself for what he was made to do. Even apologizing for what he went through. None of them had been obligated in any way to reassure him - he certainly hadn't asked for it - but they all believed the same thing.

But despite this, Zero's own self-perceptions had been engrained in him too deeply for him to share that trust, not completely. Without a moral pillar to guide him and give him purpose, like X and Ciel, whatever he tried to pursue by himself would still be the empty actions of a weapon.

He couldn't believe in himself, so he had to believe in others. He would fight for them and die for them. Whether he could live for them, he still didn't know. Did he had a choice but to try?

From the corner of his eye, he could see Harpuia turn away. The general was nothing if not a reploid of conviction, in both words and deeds, and for that, Zero could appreciate his bluntness. If he put his trust in that... and in Rock, and Gordon, and even Hajime, what would come of it, he wondered.

Quietly, with a faint sigh, he muttered, "Maybe." It was as much of a concession as he was able to make right now, but perhaps it was better than complete condemnation.

"Maybe" was more than enough; Harpuia asked nothing of Zero. Belief or disbelief was not something that changed easily, after all. If a single comment could have undone the thoughts centuries of fighting had cemented in place, then warmer souls than Harpuia's would have done so long ago. Hope, however tenuous, was still hope, and for anything but flat dismissal to come from Zero was worth something.

For now, little steps were more than enough. What else could they do, with all of this thrust onto them? Harpuia couldn't speak for any of Zero's previous years, but for the time they had known each other, they had never had to deal with anything like this. The demands on them were always clear, familiar, and constant: complete one mission, and another would inevitably pop up before there was time to let your guard down. The time that had been given to them now might well have been a blessing, but that would take time itself. The past wasn't about to let go that easily, especially now that so many things finally had the chance to catch up with them.

Time to reflect could be a painful thing, sometimes.

Still, time was all they had, at least until they could find something else they could call their purpose. Wordlessly, Harpuia sat down on the petal-strewn grass. The sky was still radiantly blue, the blossoms were still falling, and even out here, the distant noises of happy voices and birdsong could be heard. Whatever the weight on his mind, he intended to stay surrounded by all this for a little longer.

"Stay or go, do what you will." A very neutral invitation, if it even was one at all. It wasn't even all that certain whether either of them needed or wanted company, and Harpuia would hardly rank Zero as his first choice. But all the same... well, things were what they were.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was a long silence as Zero neither approached nor departed.

Dwell on the past too long, and it would trap you and drag you under. It felt like the whole of Zero's existence lay on the edge of that abyss. Even when he looked to the future, there would always be something crawling out of that hole to remind him of what lay right behind him. It was unrelenting.

But right now... the sky was blue, and blossoms were filling the air. To his knowledge, it was a sight that would not last the entirety of spring, and would not come back until next year. Even anticipating that he'd be there to see them next year was an unfamiliar thought - Zero had grown so used to surviving day to day that he never had the chance to take seeing 'next year' for granted. It wouldn't be that long until he was at Smash Academy for a full consecutive year...

Harpuia didn't desire his company, any more than he would reject it, he knew. It was obvious that the general was simply here to enjoy the flowers for his own sake, his own reasons, regardless of whoever came along. Hadn't Zero been out here doing the same? Even if they weren't friends of any sort, even if they agreed on nothing else, in this act at least, they shared the same goal.

With the heavy clank of his boots accompanying him, Zero walked closer and sat down a few feet away. Not close enough to even approach intimacy, but not far enough to say that they weren't keeping each other company. Little steps.

Harpuia said nothing about Zero's choice to linger; he didn't even bother moving his gaze away from the sky when the sound of metallic footfalls grew louder rather than softer. It wasn't something that needed attention called to it. They couldn't be considered together, distant and silent as they were. More... occupying the same spot, if anything.

But even that was a stark change, wasn't it? Harpuia was not quite as bad as Fefnir or Leviathan when it came to picking a fight with Zero regardless of the situation, but even on occasions where he'd spoken to Zero without turning a blade on him, it'd only been because he'd had bigger fish to fry.

...He couldn't say he'd been hoping either way for Zero to stay or go, but all the same, it wasn't such a bad thing to not be the only one taking the view in. He doubted he could get Fefnir to stay interested in the landscape for too long; given how restless he was by nature, even something like this couldn't get him to stay idle for long. Rock might have come along, but something like this must be a common yearly sight for him.

The flowering trees around them were no less strange and beautiful if he were the only one laying eyes on them for the first time, but... well, it wasn't awful to think that someone else understood what it felt like. If the image he etched into his memory of soft pink against blue happened to occasionally include a bit of blond hair at the edges of his vision, he supposed that didn't really take away from it.

From time to time, Zero found himself taking a quick glance in Harpuia's direction. It would've been very easy for the guardian to take to the skies and enjoy the cherry blossoms from the air. A view of the festival from the canopy itself was probably uniquely beautiful. Considering the guardian was mobile enough to do so, it was an interesting choice for him to stay here, on terra firma.

His way of acclimatizing to life away from what he'd been built for, perhaps?

Zero's mind also wandered to Ciel, and Area 0. Did they have flowering trees like these ones? Maybe it was an idle, frivolous thought, but he hoped they did. Having spent so long among them, Zero could imagine the reactions of all the Resistance reploids. Ciel especially would've loved the sight, and Alouette as well. It was hard not to see her face among all the pink petals, to hear whispers of her voice in the breeze. Despite himself, there was an ache in Zero's chest that missed them deeply.

They were... better off without him now, he was sure. They had Neige, too. Funny - the humans of Neo Arcadia would probably have a similar reaction to this sight. It was a first for everyone.

Lulled by nostalgia, Zero was a little surprised to find how comfortable he was becoming, even with Harpuia there. It was... not unpleasant to share something without words being necessary. In this small, frozen moment in time, he might've even described his heart as content.

It was a little surprising to Harpuia, he had to admit, that the minutes stretched by but the silence never quite slipped into being awkward. He had grown accustomed to noise, he supposed; Phantom had been the only Guardian prone to stillness and silence, and once he had died, the situation at Neo Arcadia hadn't allowed for much serenity or alone time. He would have thought that Zero's presence would make it difficult to let his guard down, or that the presence of another soul would have sooner or later made the silence stifling, but that didn't seem to be the case.

Maybe it was that words would have detracted from the moment. He certainly couldn't think of any that did justice to any of it. Little things like the feeling of grass and petals beneath his hands -- something that would have seemed insignificant if he tried to describe it, he was sure, but something precious to him. These trees didn't exist in Neo Arcadia; this, though it made his core ache to think, was not an experience he could have anywhere but here, and one he might never have again.

His eyes dipped down to his hand, fingers splayed in the grass, then over to Zero. He had never known Zero to be anything but alert, tensed, on the brink of action the moment it was required. The Zero he saw now was a million miles away, lost in thought, looking... more serene than Harpuia had ever seen him, actually. Harpuia didn't mean to stare, but he didn't quite look away, either. This, too, was a new experience, and one that he might not ever have again.

Zero hadn't noticed Harpuia staring at him until one of his brief glances over at the green general found those striking green eyes already looking back at him. In comparison, his own eyes were a dull, dark grey - only in the sun did a faint violet tint catch the light. A flicker of surprise crossed the red reploid's face, followed by a touch of wary confusion.

His first instinct was to feel like Harpuia was sizing him up the way any warrior did with an opponent, but that quickly passed. Nothing in his gaze, expression or the air about him suggested that Zero was being scrutinized. Just... observed. Confusion faded into curiosity - what did Harpuia see if the red reploid was no longer an enemy, Zero had to wonder. Perhaps he was trying to figure out what to make of this 300 year old maverick turned legendary soldier.

It's not as though he wasn't used to being stared at. That was the entry price of being an ancient relic living among a ragtag group of castoffs and refugees. Though considering their situation, they all rather belonged in that same category now.

So, what did Harpuia see in him? Zero passively accepted the other's gaze, asking only that unspoken question in turn. He certainly wasn't anyone to be looked up to, nor was he someone that wanted to be mourned. If anything, Zero had to wonder if he could just be someone to be understood.

Sure enough, serenity was a short-lived thing. It wasn't the least bit unexpected that it quickly turned into catlike wariness the second Zero noticed he was being watched. What surprised Harpuia was the permissiveness that followed. There was nothing defensive or guarded in the look he received in return. Just... curiosity. Not what Harpuia had anticipated, that was for sure; it wasn't that long ago they had been enemies, after all, and that wall was one that came easily to a warrior like Zero.

It was only a look, sure, but it was the sort of reaction that came naturally. Maybe Zero ought to have a little more faith in his capacity to adapt.

It was that thought that got Harpuia to look away at last, mouth pressed into an embarrassed line. That kind of soft thinking was nothing that suited a general, especially not when based on so little. But it had an undeniable truth underneath it: since coming here, Harpuia now had to see Zero not just as a force, but as a person.

"You almost looked relaxed," he offered, by way of explanation for his staring. It was only the barest morsel of an answer, but what he saw was still something new and incomplete. The fragments he had been given would take far more time to assemble into something whole. For now, he only counted on what the moment had offered: a surprising lack of animosity, and the distinct awareness of change.

Maybe it seemed a little contradictory, but it was a little easier for Zero to feel comfortable with another soldier than it was when he was with a civilian. The gulf between him and someone who had never known the touch of war was so unfathomably greater; the sheer difference of experience and understanding between them always meant Zero was more acutely aware of his own legacy. It was no question to him that what they'd see in him would be monstrous.

Despite their clashes in the past, Harpuia had come to Zero's aid against his greatest enemy, and died for it as well. That wasn't something he could take for granted - even if they had only been allies for a short time, it was a kind of bond completely different from anything he could form off the battlefield. That feeling of your survival being tied to someone else, no matter how briefly, stood out in his mind. It wasn't that he felt like he owed the guardian, exactly - that implied Harpuia did what he did in the interest of being repaid, which he wouldn't. It'd cheapen the actions of such a proud warrior. But a certain sense of obligation still lingered, whether Harpuia wanted it or not.

Zero knew he wouldn't be attacked without cause, and he was even a little reassured that the guardian would gladly strike him down if he ever went out of control. So maybe he was a little more relaxed than usual. Whether that actually signified any change in him, well... Zero hadn't really noticed. He only knew that they had those shared experiences that let them see the world in similar ways.

"I could say the same about you," he pointed out, eyes still fixed on the other reploid.

"Is that so surprising?" Well, yes, probably. Fefnir and Leviathan would probably have burst into laughter at the very idea of Harpuia allowing himself to be anything close to relaxed. He really only came in two flavours: rigid perfectionist or unsettlingly ardent. Had he really let himself relax so much...?

Or had there even been a need to stay tense in the first place? He would have embraced the chance to fight if Zero saw fit to draw his weapon, without a doubt, but the thrill the Guardians found in battling Zero didn't seem to be a mutual one. If he fought, it was only because they had placed themselves unyieldingly in his way. While Harpuia neither asked nor expected for his life to be safe in Zero's hands, it had somehow proven to be on more than one occasion.

"If you had wanted to do something when my guard was down, you'd have done so long before we came here." There'd been no shortage of opportunities, after all, when Harpuia had been a much easier target than this.

Even if Harpuia couldn't understand the reason behind all that mercy -- even if he might have resented it each and every time -- he had to acknowledge its existence. For whatever reason, Zero seemed to think Harpuia had more worth alive than dead. A bit of a grim basis for trust, perhaps, but a natural one for soldiers. While not a friendly presence, so long as their end goal was more or less the same, Zero's presence was nonetheless a surprisingly safe one. Just as much as Zero was reassured by the thought Harpuia would strike him down if necessary, Harpuia just as readily accepted that Zero wouldn't strike him down because it wasn't necessary.

Yeah, that definitely wasn't the attitude Harpuia had towards the other reploid's aid prior to arriving here. Zero seemed to recall accusations and disgust, both towards the Resistance and at himself, before immediately leaving despite their concerns. Yet here he was now, trying to brush it off all cool-headed and dignified. As if they didn't both remember how incensed the guardian's passions were during their confrontations.

Though it wouldn't accomplish anything to point that out, other than embarrassing Harpuia. Which he was probably better off avoiding. Still, Zero shot him a pointedly knowing look before returning his gaze back over to the flowers. "You weren't my enemy when your guard was down," he reasoned with a slight shrug.

Harpuia was not especially an unobservant reploid. The meaning behind that look was impossible to miss, even if he had been. He fidgeted where he sat, face reddening under the arrows stamped onto it. It was, admittedly, more than a little late to be posturing like he hadn't already shown Zero that his self-control was... maybe not as immutable as a servant of X's should be. Let's phrase it like that, shall we?

But all the same, his pride was just as prickly as it had always been. He sat up straighter, falling back even harder on the dignified posturing he was familiar with. As much as he was renowned for his mind, the perfectionist standards he held himself to left very little room for feeling foolish.

"I was still a Neo Arcadian, and you were still Resistance," he countered, perhaps a little more hotly than a perfectly composed person would have.

Zero made a vaguely amused snort that basically translated to, 'you're not fooling anyone.' Perfectly calm and collected people did not turn red and stiff when faced with a knowing look.

Neo Arcadian and Resistence - two roles that were basically defunct, both here and in their world. They became one and same the moment humankind made Area 0 their new home. And it was the same for the two of them. This was the first time they were really forced to cooperate, not because something was at stake, but simply for the sake of coexisting.

They were going to see a lot more of each other, like it or not. And while the reasonable solution would've been to try and become friends, the term felt too frivolous to cover the complicated ties that bound them.

After a pause, Zero questioned, "So... what now?" Harpuia seemed like the type to always have a plan. Not Zero's specialty - he only knew how to deal with whatever lay directly in front of him. He wasn't sure if it was even possible to pin down the future in this strange city, but maybe Neo Arcadia's great 'sage' thought differently.

Edited 2015-04-17 02:45 (UTC)

That, at least, was a question Harpuia was used to hearing. One that he certainly never stopped asking himself. Fefnir and Leviathan might have been content to simply do whatever their moods dictated, but Harpuia had grown very used to having to juggle all the pieces of the big picture.

That said... it wasn't a simple question, not by any means. One he was still formulating an answer to for himself. But coming from Zero... that he would even ask Harpuia that felt strange. Harpuia didn't exactly have high hopes that Zero would ever do as he said, no matter how many bossy tendencies might have existed within him. For him to even be asked in the first place was most definitely nothing Harpuia had ever planned for. Certainly, he had begun to suspect that Zero was the sort who needed someone to place his belief in -- to do the hoping for him. But was Harpuia the sort of person that Zero was looking for...?

Harpuia laced his fingers together, gazing down at them pensively. "What you do is not my problem," he announced. No use in trying the high-handed diplomatic act when Zero had already shot it down; with all the pride Harpuia had built up around himself, he wasn't a likely candidate to lower himself to extending an olive branch too commonly. "But I expect that now, I..." He trailed off, not especially wanting to voice what he expected to happen. Even if only for a little while, he expected to stop.

He had been running more or less nonstop from the moment that Zero had struck Copy X down. He was a soldier, and a proud one at that, but he wasn't immune to what had been lost in that time. He hadn't once dared to pause long enough to mourn what remained of Phantom, to let the loss of Master X sink in -- he couldn't afford to waste a second on personal weakness.

But now, with Neo Arcadia in ashes and the number of Guardians reduced to two, he no longer had urgent objectives pressing in at all sides, but the weight of war pushed down twice as heavily. Like it or not, this roadblock forced him to take a moment to stop and catch his breath, and that inevitably meant things catching up with him. For all his trying, the heart that hummed within him was not as impenetrable as he had strove to make it. He would grieve, because he had lost things he'd loved dearly and vividly.

His voice was tight when he answered, taut under the effort of staying detached and professional. "For now, it falls to us to accept things as they are. It's wasteful to try and move forward before you're prepared."

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[Open Log] Ch-Ch-Cherry Blossoms

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