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(no subject)

Who: Jules and OPEN
What: Glass residue and glass making
When: May
Where: The beaches of Enso
Warnings: Typical Jules warnings that he purposefully pushes people's buttons if given a reason to do so. Please don't tag him if you're concerned he will bother you.

Those who commonly wander the beaches of Enso might have discovered an interesting new phenomenon. For the past few days one part of the beach has been littered with fragments of glass. It's not your typical clear, sharp edged glass, but more of a beach glass variety. Little nuggets that are rather opaque with blunt edges. There's even one section with a huge divot in the sand that's nearly covered in the strange glass. Most days there's no explanation for the presence of the glass, but if someone gets lucky they might discover exactly what's causing it.

Jules knows the general principles behind making glass. It's only super heated sand, after all. Apply enough heat and it should presumably form glass. His fire is certainly hot enough to do that. The last few days have proven it. He's been rather successful melting the sand down into what resembles glass, but the problem is the glass isn't in any useful form. Glass chunks aren't going to create windows or bottles or anything else. The most they could be used for is throwing at someone, though that's hardly useful given they'd have the safe effectiveness of throwing a pebble.

Maybe he can shape it with a knife while it's still hot? That would be easier than using his mental abilities, though he's willing to try that if he gets desperate. He builds a small mound of sand in front of him before opening his second lungs and spewing out a burst of white hot fire. He manages to draw it down to a small stream after a moment and crouches down to continue heating the sand in a more controlled fashion. Eventually, when it's molten, he pulls back to stare at the glowing bundle. Not willing to sacrifice one of his good knives, he pulls out the one he's fashioned from chipped rock. Very gently he starts poking at the molten glass ball, seeing if he can affect the shape. As focused as he is on his work, should someone approach nearby he'll know in an instant. Overly heightened hearing and a history of paranoia and attempts on his life make identifying nearby people rather easy.

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There was a faint hesitation, Tachibana fidgeting slightly before he let out a slow, deep breath.

"Sayoko's gone," he explained, voice soft before a small, mirthless chuckle escaped. "I kept saying if I had a second chance, I wouldn't hesitate so damned much, and yet, both times..." he trailed off unhappily.

"Yeah, okay, that just... sucks doesn't even seem like a good enough word for it, but that's the one I'm going with. Minsid hell you got fucked over."

He can't even imagine what he would be like if he'd lost Ushara the way Tachibana had lost the one he loved. Jules is only functional because of his wife.

Tachibana had lost quite a lot when Sayoko had died in his arms. The only thing that had kept him moving had been needing to take revenge on the bastard who had killed her.

He let out a long, slow sigh. "I did at least get to tell her..." he trailed off, looking to the side. "Kinda of pathetic, really. Took until she was killed for me to realize how I felt... and both times she found me in another world... barely had the time to tell her before she was gone again." There was a faint, bitter huff. "Twice engaged, never married. Absolutely pathetic..."

"That barely even registers as pathetic. I was engaged three times and all of my should have been wives killed themselves rather than marry me. Happily married now, but pretty sure I still get first dibs on the pathetic title there."

It hurt less now that he knows Ushara, but that part of his past still stings.

Tachibana looked up, eyes wide in stunned shock. "All of them...?!" he repeated. "Why the hell would...?!"

"Because I'm a hybrid life form. They didn't really need any other reason than that. The tipping point of the whole thing was that to consummate a marriage condoms couldn't be used and none of them were willing to run the risk of that."

He sounds incredibly nonchalant about it even though the experiences have left a major mark. Having three wives prefer death over marriage with him is bad enough. Knowing that was the case when the would have been marrying the crown prince of the Andarian and Triosan empires only made it worse.

This just. Makes no sense to Tachibana, what so ever, and it shows on his face.

"...even if the pregnancy would have killed them, why..."

Even when he had been perfectly fine with the idea of dying and been suicidally stupid, he had never even considered taking his own life. The thought of someone giving up their life because of something so... so... trivial as marriage....!

The fact that Tachibana is so appalled actually makes Jules feel better. It's such a common thought on Andaria that it doesn't sound so wrong anymore.

"That's one of the things they were worried about. Hybrid life form once again. The creature could have tore it's way out. It would also be incredibly disgraceful."

"But that isn't how hybrids work. Even if there isn't advanced prenatal care or surgical options, there'd still--" Tachibana broke off, pressing his lips together in frustration.

"To throw away your life because of something like that..." he shook his head. "Utterly ridiculous."

"You're forgetting they're hybrid Andarions. Humans generally believe we'll rip our way out of the womb since we have claws. Andarions just view mating with a hybrid as degrading and highly distasteful. Birthing a hybrid child would be cause of removal from the family lineage, which is the biggest disgrace in Andarion culture."

He's still being so matter-of-fact over something that impacts him way too directly.

"...is there much study of the natural world where you're from, that they would think that anything with claws has them fully formed and solid in the womb and would destroy the mother in birthing?" ~~Because that's not how that works. There's no evolutionary preference for guaranteed matricide regardless of--~~

He let out a long, deep breath, shaking his head, running his hand through his hair. "Utterly ridiculous..." he half muttered before looking up again. "Glad you're away from that, for the time being. Something like that..."

He trailed off, blinking as an odd feeling of deja vu nagged at him. Hadn't he had this conversation recently...?

"There's not a lot of study on hybrid beings. Honestly, there's probably no study on hybrid beings. Pretty sure my brother and I were the first. All options about us are run by fear and hatred. There's no science involved in those emotions."

This older Jules is certainly taking the conversation much better than the younger version of himself did. At this age he just accepts what people believe and doesn't letter it bother him anymore. At eight he didn't have that hard of a skin yet.

Tachibana blinked a few times. "You..."

...were that child he had spoken to, when he had been... well, honestly, he had no idea how many years he had lived (or thought he had lived? He's still not quite sure how that had worked) at the point in time he had spoken with Jules's younger self. That whole functional immortality thing taking any and all aging out of the equation had made the question rather moot.

The realization leaves him... utterly unsure what to say. The young child still struggling to deal with the harsh fate dealt to him, and the man who had found a way to shoulder it were two very different people, after all.

...and it was never very easy to deal with the knowledge that your past and your soul had been laid bare for others to see.

Jules had promised himself he wouldn't go digging into Tachibana's mind, and he's sticking to that promise. With so much running through Tachibana's head though, the surfaces images flash through Jules' mind regardless. They're so jumbled that he can't piece together what's going on, though he has a vague feeling he recognizes a child in that onslaught of memory. A younger version of himself. How that's possible he has no idea, and there's no way for him to find out without breaking his own promise.

He rubs at his head in annoyance.

"I what?"

Tachibana looked to the side, pressing his lips together a moment. "...All that weirdness earlier with... people turning into older or younger versions of themselves. Do you. Remember anything from that?"

Garren, meanwhile, had gotten bored and hopped down from Jules' shoulder to carefully start arranging the bits of fused glass into pictures. He'd already gotten a large diamond shape and was working on a smaller one next to it.

Jules registered Tachibana's question, but at the moment it was not the most important thing to address. His eyes flickered down to Garren.

"Careful. Some of those might still be hot."

Once he was confident the little guy wasn't going to hurt himself, he focused back on Tachibana.

"No. Minsid hell, did something like that really happen?"

The fact that he literally did not remember anything like that was incredibly disconcerting. He'd had enough experiences in his life where he didn't have a full memory of pieces of time thanks to being drugged against his will.

Garren gives a thumbs up and then shows off his gloves. They're heat resistant! Very important when you have a gun that shoots fire! He's also gently pushing them into place, rather than trying to pick them up. Just in case.

Tachibana nodded. "Sayoko wound up as an old lady, with memories of having lived in this place for the years between.." he trailed off, pressing his lips together a moment, before shaking his head. "And I wound up feeling as if I'd lived... quite a long time," he finished a touch lamely.

"...and wound up talking to what was likely some sort of echo of you, when you were younger," he admitted, voice softening.

All the color drained out of Jules' face as the realization of what Tachibana had just said sunk in. Considering how dark a complexion he had, that said quite a bit.

"I dread to think what you ran into. I was not exactly the most well behaved youth at any moment, and I certainly would not have been a pleasant experience at any age, though certain ones would have been worse than others."

If Tachibana had met him in his early teens when he'd been drugged out of his mind and constantly contemplating suicide or familial murder...

A small, amused huff escaped Tachibana at that, and he shook his head. "Wasn't anything that bad. Seemed almost disappointed that he couldn't make me angry if anything else," he admitted with a small, wry smile. "Couldn't have been more than 10."

If he couldn't have been more than ten, chances were he had been somewhere between 6 and 8. Andarions were a lot bigger than their human counterparts of the same age. Six to eight generally hadn't been bad years in his life unless Tachibana had run into him shortly after he'd been forced to make his first kill. Given he was talking about little Jules trying to piss him off, chances were pretty good that wasn't the case.

"Yeah, sounds about right. I was a contentious bastard from a pretty early age."

"I've a lot of experience with dealing with those," Tachibana assured with a bit of a fond smile. Between Mutsuki under the Spider Undead's influence and Hajime's... everything.

"Must have if I couldn't manage to make you mad. That would have definitely been a first for me."

First and pretty much only. At least now when people are mad at him they're more upset with his stupid decisions and irritated with how annoying he could be. It was a loving anger instead of simple anger.

"If it had been 15 years ago, he likely would have gotten me at least once," Tachibana admitted, still smiling warmly. "Gotten a little better at that whole being patient thing, in my old age."

In some respects, at any rate.

"Must be nearly a saint now then. Even as a kid I had a talent at finding precisely how to annoy people. Partially because it came naturally and partly because I just listened."

It was amazing what people would say around a child that they didn't like and thought couldn't hear them.

"Only when it comes to kids. Especially ones who have a reason for lashing out."

Considering some of the things Mutsuki had done when under the influence of the Spider Undead... really, it was strange how he could be so short tempered on one hand, but infinitely patient on the other.