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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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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.

"Ah, fantastic! Means I won't have to put in very much effort now!"

He's certainly not going to let Tachibana win in the end. If his younger self couldn't pull off making him mad, then this Jules is going to step up to the plate to finish the job.

A small snort of amusement escaped at that. "Still going to try for it, huh? You'll definitely have an easier time of it than your younger self," he half chuckled. "Haven't gotten into a good yelling match since coming here. Might do me some good to blow off steam that way, if you're fishing for it."

"Pretty much have to now. I don't let anyone win. Ever. Completely against my principles."

And his auto-setting is basically annoying the shit out of anyone until they give up. He can't help himself.

Another small snort. "You and Hajime both." There's an almost fond note to the comment. "Likely for the best he didn't follow me here, wouldn't want to see that showdown. Though I assume you're more the verbal fighter than the sort to insist on a physical fight every waking moment."

Ah... no. He would be very, very wrong there.

"You obviously still haven't figured out Andarions very well. We're a martial culture. Generally speaking we don't even need a real provocation to fight. We pretty much just start fights. All the time. Then there's the fact that I'm Tavali. Pretty much guaranteed to lead to physical violence."

Tachibana was far more used to the Undead "shut up and fight me" urge that Hajime still struggled with. That Jules hadn't felt compelled to start a physical fight yet was a bit more subtle than he was used to.

He blinked a few times before a small, wry huff of laughter escaped. "Definitely glad Hajime isn't here, then...." he reflected before shaking his head. "Cultural studies wasn't one of my strong points in university, outside of mythological research, so I'm afraid I'm a bit slower to pick up on that sort of thing than most," he half apologized with a faint smile.

"If you say so. I wouldn't say most people are very good at picking up cultural differences like that. Not unless they're really trying to understand someone else."

And there's a pretty distinct lack of understanding across species where he's from.

"Even trying to understand, I miss things," Tachibana shrugged with a small, self deprecating smile. "Normally needed Kenzaki or Kotaro to point out the obvious, back home. And it took years, and a lot of shared history to actually get to understand Hajime." He paused before a small snort escaped him. "Not that I really understood him that well, but it was better than most, I think..."

"I'm probably one of those beings that you can only understand better than most too, so at least you've got some experience with something."

If Tachibana doesn't pick up on a lot, that's fine with him. So far he's picked up on the important things so that's really all that matters.