Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Hurt? No, I'm fine. Thank you for your concern, but it is not need."

Atsushi suddenly straightened up, his vocabulary clear and crisp. He adjusted his clothes to look nicer than they had been only moments before, and he once more ran a hand through his hair.

"Thank you for also telling me of this location. I've been here once, but only once. Mother didn't let me stay long, as we had a show to attend and he wanted to be praised for something or another."

It was almost a complete 360 from how he had been mere seconds before, from crouching over and muttering to himself, to now speaking in complete sentences and holding himself with a bit of grace. The acts he performed where not ment to be arrogant towards Shizuka, it was simply Atsushi's way of relaxing.

Atsushi bowed his head in thanks, moving to sit beside Shizuka in the shade of the tree. He took great steps of grace in moving and sitting, all because it was so natural he couldn't think to behave in any other way. Having a Mother that beat that into you had it's advantages...once in a very, very blue moon.

"For my name, I'm called Inui Atsushi. You can call me Atsu if you'd like, it's the nickname my father gave me. As for my Mother, he doesn't really acknowledge me. I'm more of a stepping stone for him to move higher into the ranks of society."

He stretched his arms above his head, taking care not to yawn or release any small grunt as his body shifted. Sound was important, always important. You chose your words and sounds exactally, or else you'll fall into something you don't like.

"Don't get me wrong, I love my Mother...but sometimes it's hard to continue things when you know your own life is on market every time you step outside. That's why I often mumble and crouch, to make myself seem unappealing. Do you think it worked?"

Atsushi turned and smiled at Shizuka, winking one eye.

"The flowers? Yes, they are...but seeing them makes me a little envious. It also makes me a little arrogant too, looking at their blossoms."

Atsushi bent one knee up, resting his chin against it as he sighed in thought. He didn't really like talking, but he also didn't like silence. Back home, Mother would always fill the silence that was left behind, and all Atsu had to due was fill in the silence before.

"You say that we have to fight, to protect them, but we also have to elevate them, show them off. We're trophies, nothing more and nothing less. But the flowers over there...they're eye candy too. But they're free, since no one can truely claim them as their own. A flower can be loved by more than one person without the fear of wrath raining down upon them. A flower though, it so much weaker. It can't defend, it can't elevate. Flowers die too soon, and come back later. We're forever, Gehaka like you and I, but that's the trouble with it all."

He sighed again, wondering if he sounded as stupid as he felt.

"Of course more than one person can love you, but only once can you be called loved. Your father loves you, right? Your brothers, and even your mother, when it's fit for him. But we can only be loved one, with the person we are sent to marry. They can love so many, but we can only love them. We can only be loved by them, though we are loved by others. Does that make sense?"

Atsushi actually wasn't normally this deep of a thinker. In fact, all he was amounted to a singer, a voice that enchanted on the command of another. Also he wasn't so deep a thinker because he seldom had the time TO think. His Mother always forcing him to sing song after song, measure after measure again and again.

"Also...our worth isn't decided by ourselves, our feelings about how we are. Our worth is decided by how we act, how we perform. What we can do, be it craft a boat or sing a song. Our appeal is through our skills, not our health and beauty. We are what we are, but we act what we are too."

He reached over and patted Shi on the shoulder, careful not to injure the already depressed gehaka. Atsu actually felt a twinge of pity for the creature next to him, in how Shi was unsure of his worth from the start. Condition or no, Atsu knew how to shine and how to cloud. Shi...shined, and he was sure of it.

"Anyway, don't listen to me. I hardly know what I'm talking about half the time anyway."

((I'm sorry but this is a little outrageous. As it is stated on the main shop forum, Haka are very weak, and usually only have one child in their lifetime- perhaps two. Three would be pushing it, but 6 would be extremely impossible. It takes a haka YEARS to gain enough strength for their body to accept carrying a second child, 6 would be quite impossible. a second or third child usually kills Haka. ))

A'rite A'rite... I'm on it...

EDIT: I don't think I'm gonna go back and change them all, but I won't use that line anymore and I changed it in his profile to the youngest of 3... how's that work?

Shi looked thoughtfully Atsu. His tone sounded as if singing was derrogatory. "What's so wrong with singing? I can't sing... that's a wonderful gift... and much more useful and charming than carving out boats... It can be enjoyed in a moment... a moment of beauty and bliss... it's a gift."

Shi peeked around into Atsu's eyes and smiled sweetly. "Be proud of that gift... I'm sure one day you'll impress a great Haka with your voice..."

A few moments of silence passed between the two. Then, out of the blue, Shi mumbled quietly, "Could you sing for me a little?" But it was barely audible. The wind could have carried it away with little effort.