you board deiktis's ship. you know this conversation probably won't go smoothly, given what your brother is like (blunt, fearless, straightforward, shallow), and yet...
when the memory ends, it transitions into another.
you enter anticheiras's room to the sound of his subordinates pleading with him for orders. your brother's behaviour isn't that surprising; he's always been a coward.
despite everything, you love your family—your father, your brothers. you know they will never return that love. even so, all you can do now, as you've decided, is devote your life to their well-being, along with that of your people. as long as they live, and are happy, then that's your happiness.
There's plenty of things I don't need or want other people to do for me. But that's not always the way the world works.
[Wow, that was a line for somebody way older than him. Being in proximity to all these old men and overly responsible youngsters is aging him in real time--
Speaking of time, let's perform a really abrupt and interesting jump right into Rochalizo's personal chronology! Hot damn, that sure is some sibling bonding(???????). Suigetsu surfaces from it the way he would from a wave, with a long sigh and then a noise that's both cheerful and inquiring.]
... Well, didn't expect one of those again. Your family's all over the place, huh.
... My brothers have their flaws [and those memories didn't even include the one who's really an asshole to him] but they're my dear family, nevertheless.
[That's fair. He should really be more sedate on death row, but alas, that is not how this shinobi rolls.
Or maybe this counts as sedate for him?]
Yeah, yeah. You're really the type to live in their shadow, huh.
Older brothers are way more useful than that, you know.
[Sure, we will go ahead and will memory shards into being because we might as well; it's not like they aren't scattered everywhere in this city, everywhere in trial and all over the place, and the shark by his side is still nosing about, exploring the nooks and crannies of the place on its own time.
A breath of not-especially-fresh air, and: they dive again.]
[It's not at all unusual to have siblings; as a well-known shinobi clan, families are expected to have heirs, and then backups to those heirs in case of war or assassination or natural disasters (as opposed to the man-made ones, that list goes on forever). And then backups to the backups. It just keeps going until you have a whole clan (this is not how it works, but close enough).
The life expectancy for a shinobi is still not-so-up-there, after all, even if everyone's stopped dying after they graduated. Sometimes before. Kirigakure is a real good place for not seeing your classmates again after you all head out into the real world. It is what it is.
So: it's you, the little brother, and Mangetsu, the prodigy.
You're both prodigies in your own right, but you've always walked several steps behind him, still too small to see over his shoulders unless he bothers to bring you up to speed. That's not how you usually work, though. He moves, and you follow, like the perfect shadow of the moon, even better than his own. It's just the two of you blazing your own trail (singular) through the rising stars of your hidden village, and everything is as it should be. You're not a particularly picky child; you don't need anyone else. Your brother shines bright enough (a perfect remnant of the Bloody Mist, the Second Coming of Demon) that you need only move in his wake to make waves. Gather the Seven Swords. Join the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. There's no way the whole world won't know your names, even if you're still a step behind the whole way.
(Of course it's not quite enough, you both thirst ravenously, endlessly to make your own marks. Big brothers are there to cast the longest shadow, and little brothers are there to find the darkest of it, and make it their own. That's how you make it through the years.
You both graduate early. You kill only a few of your classmates, because you're usually a good child who listens to his elders sometimes, and your brother is really the only elder you listen to anyway. And it's not like he spared his classmates. The graduation ritual is over, but things happen. Missions collide. You become shinobi in your own right and you kill for the village. You topple governments. You assassinate people that you've shared a meal with, and you assassinate people you've never seen before except in the book you carry. And your brother becomes one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, the one who can wield every legendary sword and then some.)
You are still half a step behind, but it won't be for long. You already have a gleaming stepping stone, after all. You know how to reach for the moon in the sky; it's been reflected in the waters of your homeland all along.]
[... well. out of his brothers, one's a coward, one's an asshole, and one's kind of stupid, so while rochalizo looks up to them in some fashion, he's not sure how much he wants to be like them, aside from his attempts at mimicking deiktis's appearance.]
[That’s why when you have multiple brothers you chop them up possibly metaphorically and slap all the best bits together. Though maybe with the asshole you just throw that entire one away. That’s also a possibility!
Deiktis has great hair, though, do your best, curly rainbow child.]
Yeah? He died a while ago, perks of fame. Pretty decent death, though.
[Sort of thoughtful, sort of reminiscing, really these memory shards are turning them all into 80-year-old men it’s fine.]
'Course. Same as any other shinobi -- that's what we train our whole life for, so why wouldn't it be the way it ends?
If I'm supposed to die because some random bozos signed pieces of paper with no idea what they were doing, then I'll make 'em regret it. No matter the outcome.
[His pleasant tone but sharp grin says there's no resignation to his fate here.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[but then... wow! what's this? who knows if memory shards are even here, but if not, they are now.
a memory plays.
when the memory ends, it transitions into another.
...]
no subject
[Wow, that was a line for somebody way older than him. Being in proximity to all these old men and overly responsible youngsters is aging him in real time--
Speaking of time, let's perform a really abrupt and interesting jump right into Rochalizo's personal chronology! Hot damn, that sure is some sibling bonding(???????). Suigetsu surfaces from it the way he would from a wave, with a long sigh and then a noise that's both cheerful and inquiring.]
... Well, didn't expect one of those again. Your family's all over the place, huh.
no subject
... My brothers have their flaws [and those memories didn't even include the one who's really an asshole to him] but they're my dear family, nevertheless.
1/2
Or maybe this counts as sedate for him?]
Yeah, yeah. You're really the type to live in their shadow, huh.
Older brothers are way more useful than that, you know.
[Sure, we will go ahead and will memory shards into being because we might as well; it's not like they aren't scattered everywhere in this city, everywhere in trial and all over the place, and the shark by his side is still nosing about, exploring the nooks and crannies of the place on its own time.
A breath of not-especially-fresh air, and: they dive again.]
2/2
The life expectancy for a shinobi is still not-so-up-there, after all, even if everyone's stopped dying after they graduated. Sometimes before. Kirigakure is a real good place for not seeing your classmates again after you all head out into the real world. It is what it is.
So: it's you, the little brother, and Mangetsu, the prodigy.
You're both prodigies in your own right, but you've always walked several steps behind him, still too small to see over his shoulders unless he bothers to bring you up to speed. That's not how you usually work, though. He moves, and you follow, like the perfect shadow of the moon, even better than his own. It's just the two of you blazing your own trail (singular) through the rising stars of your hidden village, and everything is as it should be. You're not a particularly picky child; you don't need anyone else. Your brother shines bright enough (a perfect remnant of the Bloody Mist, the Second Coming of Demon) that you need only move in his wake to make waves. Gather the Seven Swords. Join the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. There's no way the whole world won't know your names, even if you're still a step behind the whole way.
(Of course it's not quite enough, you both thirst ravenously, endlessly to make your own marks. Big brothers are there to cast the longest shadow, and little brothers are there to find the darkest of it, and make it their own. That's how you make it through the years.
You both graduate early. You kill only a few of your classmates, because you're usually a good child who listens to his elders sometimes, and your brother is really the only elder you listen to anyway. And it's not like he spared his classmates. The graduation ritual is over, but things happen. Missions collide. You become shinobi in your own right and you kill for the village. You topple governments. You assassinate people that you've shared a meal with, and you assassinate people you've never seen before except in the book you carry. And your brother becomes one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, the one who can wield every legendary sword and then some.)
You are still half a step behind, but it won't be for long. You already have a gleaming stepping stone, after all. You know how to reach for the moon in the sky; it's been reflected in the waters of your homeland all along.]
no subject
well. that sure is a ton of murder! rochalizo's disoriented for a few moments, before he tries to think of something to say.]
... And what use was your own brother to you?
no subject
Suigetsu’s teeth gleam in the low light when he grins, next to the ripples where his daemon lurks.]
He was a pretty good reflection. And what I wanted to be. Gets you where you want to go most of the time.
no subject
... "Was"?
no subject
Deiktis has great hair, though, do your best, curly rainbow child.]
Yeah? He died a while ago, perks of fame. Pretty decent death, though.
[Sort of thoughtful, sort of reminiscing, really these memory shards are turning them all into 80-year-old men it’s fine.]
no subject
Decent death, was it? And what constitutes as one for you? Dying in battle?
no subject
'Course. Same as any other shinobi -- that's what we train our whole life for, so why wouldn't it be the way it ends?
If I'm supposed to die because some random bozos signed pieces of paper with no idea what they were doing, then I'll make 'em regret it. No matter the outcome.
[His pleasant tone but sharp grin says there's no resignation to his fate here.]