@Sparrow | Video

[arcadedragon]

[The video opens with a view of a bright blue sky with some white puffy clouds floating by before Genji picks up the comm from where it had been laying on the ground. He's kneeling in a meditative pose and behind him is what appears to be a Japanese temple with many trees in full bloom. A riot of pink sakura blossoms swirl in the wind in a scene that is absolutely tranquil.]

I do not think this is real, but there is a part of me that wishes it were. This is Hanamura, it was once my home.

[He reaches out to catch one of the flowers before it floats to the ground, rubbing the petals between metal plated fingers.]

Is this happening to others as well?

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[arcadedragon]

[He laughs at the absurdity of transporting fish in a thermos, but he is a little intrigued. It would be easy enough to dig another pond, but he'd have to figure out what to feed them. Back home he'd simply bought them pellets and he's not really sure what's actually in there other than they smelled terrible.

The fish had loved them though.]

Last time I was here they were much bigger than that.

[He sets his tea down so he can hold his hands about six inches apart.]

But they were the size of the last joint of my thumb when I won them. I had no idea fish lived so long. Someone told me they can last for over forty years!

[braidmage]

Forty years?!

[ Reynir's surprise is only too obvious in his voice. He might not know a lot about fish but that seems very long, to him. His standard of comparison, as is so often true, is sheep, and they usually didn't make it much past a decade. So the idea that some fish that started out smaller than a thumb could live four times that much? Peculiar!

Now he really wants to see if he can find a way to smuggle them out, and he is trying to think up possible solutions for transportation - as well as good places for a pond - as he pulls out the various snacks he had shoved into his bag so they could celebrate this little spontaneous festival together.

When they are done, Reynir goes with Genji to check for the fish, and they are, indeed, there - five of them, half a foot long and speckled in black and white and bright orange. Their coloring reminds Reynir of Kisa, but he's never seen that sort of fish before. He tells Genji to wait, and sprints off on his long legs, looking for something, anything, that he might use to safely transfer the fish to a more permanent home in the Anchor.

In the end he returns carrying a huge plastic cooler, the sort with a lid and two handles. It's easy enough to carry, while it's empty, but he knows he will need Genji's help with it when it is full of water and precious fishy cargo.

So he sets it aside and turns his mind to the cuttings of the cherry tree. This, at least, is something Reynir has done before. Still, though, this place is Genji's, and he turns to Genji to ask, before he makes the first cut: ]

Are you sure this is okay?

[ It wouldn't harm the trees, but even so... ]

[arcadedragon]

[When Reynir returns he'll find Genji kneeling by the pond hand in the water letting the fish nibble on his fingers. He's taken the armor off his left arm, exposing his one remaining human appendage, a few deep looking slashed scars along his forearm mixed with some strange circular ones where tubes used to be.

There's a distinct hesitation when he asks about the tree. It seems almost... offensive to damage the trees in any way, and he'd grown up his whole life knowing that dozens of people tended to the trees. There's no other way to bring one back to the reality that is Anchor though...]

Even if this is my home brought here, no one lives in this place anymore. I don't think anyone would notice.

[Thirty-five years old and still afraid the clan elders would scold him for doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.]

It will be fine, and then we will have a tree where we are. Perhaps there is something to make it grow faster.

[With all the future technology around it wouldn't surprise him if they had something like that. While the place is in disrepair, a lot of it seems more advanced than even the horizon lunar colony from his time.

While Reynir takes the cutting, Genji starts filling the cooler halfway with water. Enough to cover the fish once he catches them, but not so much that they won't be able to carry it. He may be mostly metal but that did not come with super strength.

He really should have asked Mercy for some upgrades.]

[braidmage]

[ By this point, Reynir has gotten used to Genji's face, the green hair and the scars alike. It's not a surprise, exactly, when he comes back and Genji has taken off a little more of the armor, and Reynir sees more scars, deep and old. Of course, Reynir wonders what happened to him. How could he not?

But he isn't going to ask. If Genji ever seems to want to tell him, he'll listen, but until then, his parents taught him better than that.

Once he has Genji's permission, Reynir approaches the cherry tree. He has a tool with him, one used for pruning, but that will work nicely for this. Reynir's movements are confident. There are plenty of things he's not so great at, but he has experience with this. The wood is harder than he expected, but he manages, carefully, and then says: ]

I can help it grow faster with magic. I know runes that can help it take root, and thrive. I learned... a lot of plant shit at school.

[ Despite the somewhat mocking name Reynir gives it, he sounds grateful to know it, now.

...What he hadn't learned about at mage school, however, is how to carry a still extremely-heavy cooler full of fish - going slowly, trying to slosh the insides as little as possible - without looking completely suspicious. He can Genji make their progress slowly, having to coordinate. It's a bit like the world's most high-stakes three-legged race, or some other festival nonsense. Which... is fitting, considering how their afternoon started.

Except that, despite Genji's reassurances that no one lived in his home anymore, Reynir feels a liiiiittle bit like maybe they're stealing these fish. Which means that, when they cross someone's path, his first instinct is to make an incredibly guilty expression and freeze in place.

Nothing to see here. Just... moving some fish. That belong to them, for sure. ]

[arcadedragon]

[While Genji doesn't feel so much like they're stealing, these are his fish afterall, he does feel slightly ridiculous as he and Reynir cart a cooler full of very unhappy fish across the compound. Armor and visor back in place, he's very aware that this looks incredibly suspicious: a completely armored ninja and Reynir with his long braid, slowly and awkwardly each carrying one side of a heavy cooler.

He freezes when Reynir does, because he has no idea what to say here. His standard mode of operation is to go silent and not explain himself but that's making the situation even more awkward.]

We are simply...

[Moving fish? Reynir is carrying a whole tree branch as well, pink blossoms occasionally falling off and leaving a trail where they've been.]

Going to the agriculture level.

[Nailed it. No one will suspect a thing.]

[braidmage]

[ Reynir is torn between feeling intensely awkward and being tempted to explain the whole thing and how heavy that cooler is, not to mention balancing the cutting from the cherry tree. In the end, the trembling of his arms wins out, and he starts moving again, more rapidly still than before, glancing between Genji and the person who spotted them and just keeping silent.

Except that moving quickly while carrying a cooler that is heavy and needs not to be jostled too much is a really ungainly and inelegant operation. That weird feeling of guilt and trespass don't go away, and as soon as they're far enough away not to be overheard, Reynir says, in a small but serious voice. ]

...we look like giant weirdos up to no good, don't we?

[ AS IF THERE WERE ANY QUESTION OF THAT.

At least they don't encounter anyone else, before they have reached the agriculture level. A little investigating leads them to the hatchery, which Reynir finds in good order. A lot of it is being used, but there is one pool that is empty of other fish, but seems to be set up to receive them soon. He looks to Genji, shrugs, a kind of question in it. It certainly will keep them safe, until he can make another pond for them. The only question is, does he feel good about the idea of putting them there? They are his fish, after all. ]

[arcadedragon]

[Just two guys with a cooler full of fish. Happens all the time.]

We very much do.

[At least he's used to being stared at, but generally he can dart away or keep completely silent and he's never been carrying something so heavy he couldn't take it with him. He's just going to resign himself to being the weird fish ninja from now on. It's fine.

Nodding at Reynir he hoists the cooler up as far as it can go so the fish don't have to drop very far into their temporary home. They're not exactly thrilled about this either, but hey, it's not a cooler. As for the branch...

He leads them to a quiet and out of the way area of the agriculture level where they can dig a little hole and plant it. Once it's in the ground he'll retrieve the tea and cups that Reynir had, pouring a little leftover tea into a cup and bowing his head before pouring it near the base of the stick as an offering to the baby tree.]

Thank you for helping me to do this.

[braidmage]

[ Reynir doesn't ask whether the little offering of tea is traditional or something Genji had made up, himself; either way it's a touching gesture, and makes him smile softly as he watches Genji do it. He waits until Genji is done before he pulls something from his pocket. It is a small square of cloth - just a scrap, taken from some tattered ruined sheets Reynir had found during his explorations of the Anchor. He has taken to carrying cloth, with him, because it makes it easier to do things precisely like this.

He has a small stub of charcoal in another pocket, and carefully draws out a rune, all arcs and soft spirals and fractals inside a circle. Once he is done, Reynir ties that scrap of cloth so that it hangs loose from a little fork in the branch. ]

To help it settle into its new home.

[ Reynir remembers how skeptical Genji was of his magic, when they had first met. He doesn't know if that attitude has changed at all, but even if it hasn't, he's okay with that. It had taken a while for his friends on the expedition to believe that he really was a mage and really could protect them with runes. They'd come around in time, and so will Genji. And in the meantime, the little cutting will benefit, whether or not Genji believes.

When Genji thanks him, Reynir looks over at him. The mask may be back on, but he remembers what Genji's face had looked like underneath it. Scarred, yes, but still handsome in its way, and animated, likable. Reynir smiles shrugging his narrow shoulders. ]

It was seriously my pleasure.