(open) this time i know

[sparsity]

Who: mikazuki augus (sparsity) & various & you!
What: january catch-all, open prompts/closed quests.
When: throughout the month.
Where: mostly wyver, a smidge of olympia.
Warning(s): none as of now!

I. WITHIN WYVER

A. ODD JOBS:
[ Calling Mikazuki a workaholic wouldn't be an understatement. He seems to sleep as little as he can possibly get away with and spends the rest of his time either training in the jungles or picking up odd jobs around the dense, vibrant marketplace. Constant movement comes to him easier than being inert, though no one would really figure him for a restless sort. Whatever the case is, he's been hefting deliveries for different shops, earning some silver and a snack or two along the way.

His current task, one that has him parked outside a café with a carved facade depicting a dragon and a few spartan teacups wreathed in steam, sees him cleaning up a pretty tenacious gnarl of plantlife. Foliage grows freely in Wyver, but overgrowth can be a nuisance. He doesn't seem to mind doing the job barehanded, peeling back vines and thorns from bright red blossoms. Luckily his hands are tough and show he's been at this a while as a result: dirt darkens his wrists, fingertips sticky with sap. At his side is very small deer who daintily steps over the carnage, picking up fallen leaves to chew on. With a flat look, he reaches up to push at its nose. ]

Cut it out. You'll get a stomach ache.

[ While most of the unruly vines have been snapped and put aside, there's a pile of flowers neatly laid out, separated from the bulk. Mikazuki sits back on his knees if approached, reaching up to wipe beneath his bangs with the back of his wrist. There is now dirt on his face. ]

Take them if you want them. [ He places another one down. ] It's a waste to throw them away.

B. FIELDS OF THE EXALTED:
[ Working with animals had taken some more getting used to. Mars had no animals to speak of; insects and birds were rare, strays and rodents a little less so. He'd never seen livestock or working animals, so the abundance of wildlife on El Nysa had been drastic change in pace. But Mikazuki seems to thrive on new things, even (or maybe... especially...) when they're wild, strident, and bloody. Which is why he's parked on an outcrop of rock in the fields where he has his main job babysitting dragons. He tends to be not so good with small or sick things, so he spends his time with the older beasts. They're a pretty cavalier bunch, proudly turning earth and whipping the air with their wings. Squabbling over the last sheep, things like that.

Right now, it's fairly peaceful as the early afternoon sun arcs overhead. Mikazuki lets his legs dangle from his perch and watches over the windswept fields below where the dragons come and go, some napping, others blustering about proudly. He's never really approached one, but he's patient. ]

I heard you could bond with one. [ Whether it's a coworker within earshot or a visitor come to sight-see, it's the same statement. ] Somehow.

[ Though he looks relaxed, he's pretty alert, considering where they are. ]

C. LHONGHA STABLES:
[ Things Mikazuki has done: knife fight moon-crazed wyverns in his underwear. Things Mikazuki has not done: actually ride a wyvern. He's interested in seeing more of the place he's chosen to live, but the insistence on it being done with mounts leaves him skeptical. Still, it was supposed to cost lots of money to do this normally, and maybe he won't get the chance to again. Not that this makes him look any more sure about it despite the calm lay of his features. He lingers outside one of the pens where a wyvern is lashed to its fence. It dips its head over the side and tries to take clips at the edges of his hair with its pointed snout.

He doesn't look nearly as alarmed as he should at being so close to an animal that could fit his whole head in its mouth. ]

It's not that I haven't flown before...

[ Just, you know. A talented pilot doesn't necessarily mean he'd be a talented rider. ]

D. LAGOONS:
[ Whatever or whoever convinced him to go, Mikazuki did in fact take to the wilds with a large reptile creature in tow. Whether he actually rode it or just walked it along with him isn't immediately apparent, but he's stopped by the lagoons for a spell. He's left it tethered to a tree where it idles with brief flexes of its pliant wings. For his part, he's, well. Poised over the edge of one of the cold springs, his head entirely underwater. It's a sight.

With some bubbling, he finally pops his head above water with a breath and a splash, not unlike a dog shaking off. Sorry if you get the brunt of that? Glancing over his shoulder, hair now dripping and mussed every which way, his gaze hones. ]

What? It's hot.

II. WILDCARD

[ what to do something else using the jan outline or unaffiliated quests? go for it! plotting comment here or hit me up at rivalry! ]

Comments

[catfident]

[ That earns him a steady look, long and assessing. He hadn't struck her as the offensive type over a cursory glance, small as he is, but there's an ease with which he holds himself, and a steady confidence that only comes with experience.

She won't doubt his words, whatever his background. ]

Are you planning on fighting soon?

[ There's conflict of some sort just hovering beyond the horizon, behind the sun, but that doesn't guarantee he'll want to participate in any of it. ]

[sparsity]

[ He's familiar with that look, though he doubts it comes from the same place as the people in the past. It's one thing he's getting used to here, even through the biting possibility of becoming enemies, one day. So many people have so much uncomplicated belief to give to others they barely know. The reasoning keeps flying by him. ]

I don't know about planning to fight. But I do know this feeling.

[ The pressure of tensions mounting. It's almost a physical presence, no matter the distance between the cities or whether the same sun sets between them. ]

So I will if I need to.

[catfident]

[ Better that he does and has some semblance of preparation under his belt. It's not the ideal, to be sure, to wander from one war to the next but if given the choice, she'd rather it be someone with experience rather than a complete civilian.

Still. ]

Need isn't the same as want. [ A fine line, not always easily distinguished. ] Unless this place is your home already?

[ Technically it's hers as well. It's not as though they have any place left to go. Even so, she feels no particular attachment to the peoples of Wyver or Olympia, and no desire to play knight in shining armor other than to prevent more pointless loss of life. ]

[sparsity]

If it happens, needing or wanting won't make a difference.

[ So he supposes he will without any qualifiers would have been a better answer, but he's never been great with verbally expressing himself when he tries. Fighting to exist is so written into the language of his blood that he can't distinguish the effect from the cause anymore anyway. Whether it's coursing through him or splattered somewhere, it's the same. ]

Home... sounds like an ideal, doesn't it?

[ Mikazuki turns his gaze on Yoruichi, like that's a genuine curiosity he has. He's fought for one but not the other.

They don't necessarily intersect. ]

[catfident]

An ideal?

[ She questions, expression furrowed. 'Home' had always been a concrete place, until she'd voluntarily forsworn home and family for exile. Things had gotten a little muddled the hundred years after that, but even so, 'home' had always been more a reality than an ideal. ]

You don't have a place or people you think of?

[ Not impossible, but strange all the same. ]

[sparsity]

Well... people. [ A confirmation that seems too simple, all things considered. ] Home is a place where you belong, right?

[ That sentiment reaches in a little deeper, more profound than a place where he could sleep or eat. He places a lot on the sentiment. All this time, that's only ever been his goal. He'd only been able to recognize that he had a place when it was taken away, but he'd never had any interest in adages, even if they were relevant.

Like, You don't know what you have until it's gone. ]

[catfident]

[ A valid question, one she doesn't blow off. At least, not entirely. ]

Depends on who you ask.

[ Like the concepts of truth, justice, love. Nebulous things with no real definition, or a different definition depending on the day, person, place. ]

Most of us would call this place home, after everything that's happened with the Storm.

[ She tilts her head up, stares at the sky. At the dragons circling far overhead. ]

Wonder how long it'll be before the Storm hits here too.

[sparsity]

I suppose, yeah.

[ "Depending" tends to be too broad a spectrum for him, even if it was contradictory. ]

I'm not sure I can belong here. But I decided to try it.

[ He made a choice, the same as anyone else. Many people would see it as having no choice in the matter, but even when the alternative is disappearing into those cosmic jaws without a chance to reappear as even so much as stardust, Mikazuki chose to say yes to Darma.

To live, for whatever it's been worth. ]

I wonder too. But there's not much of a reason to worry about it now.

[ If it happens, it happens. ]

[catfident]

[ "Not sure"? What strange phrasing. ]

You look enough like everyone else walking these streets.

[ Give or take some of the stranger ones with two tails or a third eye. But she's not one to judge, not after some of the stranger things Soul Society's produced. ]

Unless it's a personal choice keeping you from settling down.

[ She doesn't know him, can't even really begin to understand the complexity of his soul without another hundred hours of conversation. ]

[sparsity]

[ Hard to argue with. Mikazuki moves his shoulders, almost a shrug. ]

It's hard to explain well. It's more a feeling.

[ And he's about as used to talking about his feelings as he is... experiencing them i'm sorry he's the most mega of gremlins ]

Just living somewhere is different from belonging. I looked for it for a long time. [ He speaks slowly and deliberately, like he's being true to his word with not really doing this often. Not much left to lose for it, though. ] I don't think about it a lot here.

[ Or didn't? ]