ArchivedLogs:Welcome Back, Brother

Welcome Back, Brother
Dramatis Personae Akihiro, Anette, Killian
In Absentia	2016-06-26 Worst family reunion ever
Location <BOM> Garden - Ascension Island
It's pretty early in the day, a good portion of the island is still asleep. Akihiro isn't though, he's been up for an hour or two. If anybody cared to learn his pattern, it wouldn't be a surprise that he's tending to his quail and pheasants, currently cleaning the muck that has accumulated on the sides of their water dishes. "I hear you over there," he assures the small birds, "I'll have you some clean water in no time." It's deeply sewn habits that finds sleeping schedules skewed for the metamorph, treking around the Island at a wandering trot at such an hour. Bay breezes and the speed of four-legged pace brings gentle sway to long black and white coat, white-tipped tail hooked low between hocks in the focus that the canine has as it weaves between cabins and trees. The slow rounds it makes eventually skirt the garden's fenceline. Stalking poise with stark black nose angled nearly abrush with the ground is but natural. The familiar beast is hardly foreign, though he's been gone, too, the past few days into the inner city which has left the newer scents left on Ascension novel enough to distract him through the early morning hours. But as he comes across the fenceline, pace slows and then pauses, one paw still lifted as deep brown-golden canid eyes look through the gaps of the wooden slats. There's the sense of whether he's deciding to run or stay in the moments he hangs there in abrupt stillness, but eventually he places the last of his paws on the ground beneath him. His change comes rapid enough, until black fur melts into black jeans and t-shirt and man stands on the other side of the barrier, chilly light eyes watching the other tend to the birds. "Interesting hobby." Comes his gravelly, arrogant voice, subdued by degrees of reserve as notable in tone as in the distance he keeps. Anette and Akihiro have talked and Akihiro's promised a lot of things regarding leaving people alone and behaving himself. But Anette's known him long enough to not trust him. And since she spends most of her freetime flying, she might as well happen to do so while she happens to know Akihiro is out and about. And while keeping him within her enhanced eyesight. Just to be safe. Lucky for her, she's recently found herself with extra energy to burn so tailing him doesn't seem to bother her too much. She's been careful to keep her distance and perch downwind, ideally she'd rather he didn't know but she is aware of his own abilities so she'll settle for not being obvious. Just watching Daken, she seems calm enough. But as soon as a border collie crosses her line of sight her heart suddenly quickens. Eyes widen and she watches the scene unfold with an intense focus, taking the risk and spreading her wings to silently glide to a closer tree, landing softly and gripping a branch tightly as the collie transforms into the other man. Her position changes, kneeling as she prepares herself to drop to the ground at a second's notice. "Helps keep me sane." Akihiro replies simply, filling the now clean dish and screwing the bottom on. It goes next to the food dish, opening facing downhill. This morning he's dressed to work, white tank top tucked into a pair of jeans, and interestingly enough there's a pistol holstered at his side. He doesn't seem like he's going to draw it though, nostrils flaring slightly as he makes his way over to a barrel of feed, pausing a moment to secure his hair in a messy bun, "But we don't all kill for sport. So something has to." There's a quiet, unamused chuckle that Killian gives at Daken's words. It's breathy, short and given almost no substance as he sets a roughened palm on the fence post next to him. His glance strays towards the trees briefly, though if he sees Anette, he gives no indication of it. His fingers curl over the wood for a second of contemplation and then he pushes himself away from it to start walking in semblance of leaving, departing to simply go back to the compound proper. But one question nags at him enough that he doesn't manage to quite wayleigh the reason he approached the much older man in the first place. His jaw sets, the muscles flexing in the annoyance of the fact that he's lingering at. A hand is raised, a vague gesture of little meaning, "What exactly brings you back here, old man?" Listening intently to the conversation as it unfolds, Anette looks ready to drop, clearly not trusting either party. Killian turning to leave doesn't seem to relax her either and she doesn't look surprised when he turns around. Though, when Killian finally asks her question, something changes. She leans forward a bit, apparently changing her mind about that jump. She presses her lips together and watches the scene unfold, apparently just as curious for Akihiro's answer as Killian is. "We all come home eventually, even if the people we love have left." Akihiro fills his scoop with feed and heads back over to his birds, finishing his feeding up. "I had to leave to find myself, you knew me. I was toxic, everything I touched turned to shit. Besides, after spending all that time in the arctic circle, I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be." Aside from maybe dead. Words linger on a tongue that won't speak them, matters at hand that are sundered by the drop of his head and eventual turn away that allows passing seconds of possible guard-down wandering thought. Seconds sit in the interval that he considers that answer, one dark brow raised before that gesturing hand returns to his face to rub roughly over the rugged scruff there. A flicker of something more aggressive passes over the expression hidden beneath that hand, and is neutral again by the time it falls away back to his side with thumb hooking into pocket, "You plan on staying then, at least for now." It's almost not a question, the way he states it so flatly in his gravelly tones. "Not everyone's left." Killian waits for another moment, "Have you spoken to her?" Anette quickly looks down at the ground at Akihiro's answer. She also takes the time to weigh her option, think on the response and what it may really mean. She leans up against the truck, making herself comfortable as she waits for Killian's response. Once given, she looks up again, before taking a deep breath and dropping to the ground. Rather than flying towards them, she instead lands just below her and walks up towards them, not announcing her presence nor hiding it. This just feels like something she needs to be present for. Actually present. "Regan? No." Akihiro says, thumb jerking over to indicate the descending Anette. "Her? Yes. You know she wasn't gonna miss an opportunity to claw my eyes out when she has a good reason." He doesn't sound bitter, really more tired than anything. Soon enough he's back over at the cages, collecting eggs. "I told her already, don't know if she told you. But I ain't butting in. Blew my shot, so you don't have to worry about me fucking yours up." "I haven't spoken with her since you arrived." He shifts his weight, though even small motion is smug. "I caught wind of more than one thing that I wasn't intending to deal with." Killian can't help be allow the tug of a grin at the edges of his lips at Akihiro's first part of his response and the understanding of the truth behind it. But it is simply that brief, the metamorph not yet letting go of the cold nonchalance that betrays hints of tension that clings to him. "It's just that easy?" He asks, finally returning his blue eyes to the other as he continues about his simple business with the birds, collecting eggs. "You just-" There's a shrug that hitches his words lazily, a dismissive sort of tone about it, "Are done with it all?" That sounds to include more than just Anette who he knows is there. The heavy sigh that rises and falls his chest is notation of it, but only when she's closer does his head turn slightly in her direction. Not enough to see her yet, but listening, acknowledging. "I never clawed your eyes," Anette points out, casually walking up towards the two. She watches them closely, their pose, their demeanor, looking for any sign that may betray their apparently peaceful conversation. When Killian mentions catching a whiff, she suddenly stops midstep, gritting her teeth while her eyes dart to the ground again. A couple breaths, not sure quite sure how to respond to it before deciding to go with a soft and quiet, "I'm sorry." She eventually turns her direction towards Killian and walks up to his side. She stops a few feet away, not daring to stand close too close to him before turning to face Akihiro. "We've talked. He's promised to stay away. Though whether he'll keep that promise, I can't say," is all she says, speaking to Killian though her eyes remain on Akihiro the whole time, wary and distant. "You should have." Akihiro moves the eggs over to a table he has set up, proceeding to start the process of washing them off and readying them for incubation. "To answer your question," this is aimed at Killian, "No. I can't sleep. I can't stop working. I'm a mess. But that's not what's important." The egg in his hand is held up into the light for him to examine properly, it's large, possibly a double-yoker. "What's important is keeping my word, and not letting myself live in the past." Killian keeps his head tilted at that angle, a swallow offsetting the strain that sits in his jaw muscles. When Anette stops, he watches her for a moment, almost as if he hadn't seen her in ages. But it's not a good expression which threatens the neutrality he'd been trying to keep. His eyes close, just as flecks of other hues might sift across the ice that lives there, a second slow inhale is followed by a longer exhale. "Don't, love. Later." Later being minutes, hours, days, the shapeshifter is not specific. Nor would he be when dealing with one concern at a time. When he reopens his eyes, gaze shifts back to the one he knew as Daken, "You have one hell of a past, old man. If you're so fucking messed up, how do you expect not to fall into the ways you had before?" When Killian warns her not to bring it up, Anette merely nods and returns her gaze to Akihiro. She does spread a wing out, reaching around his back in a half-hearted attempt at a hug. At least, for a few seconds, before she pulls it back and presses it tightly against her back with its twin. "All I ask...is that everyone leave everyone be. Everyone has their own past and are messed up. I just...can't handle if you two decide you need to rip the other's throat out." She speaks firmly and almost confidently but as she does, she crosses her arms against her chest, positioned in such a way as it hide the inside of her forearms. Killian listens, or at least appears to be listening. Though nothing is inspired by those words in the look of him, even as he stares at Akihiro's back as he squats to deal with the flightless bird. "Death is easy." His tone is harsher, but lower, almost as if he doesn't intend to be heard. "I'll believe it when I see it. But I don't promise anything." The latter is notably angled to Anette, cold blue gaze sweeping from the older man to her. "I suppose we all deal with things in our own ways, and it doesn't matter what it does to anyone else." His brow is furrowed with those words, his temper seeping into the lines of face where pain had before threatened. And then he steps back, away from Anette and the fencerailing that had separated himself from Daken. His hand lifts to scratch at the base of his ear, an idle motion for some of the tightness that's started to build. "Welcome back, Brother." It isn't welcoming, those words, licked not with disapproval from what he's said, but from the disbelief of it. Regardless, the steps backwards would lead to him turning from the both of them unless otherwise stopped to stalk away back towards the cabins. "Dammit Daken, don't you start with that shit," Anette says, rather sharply as Akihiro begins with the pity, falling back on his former name. "Don't try to fucking pull this heartbroken sick puppy shit." She looks up to him, eyes narrowed, angry. That dies down once Killian speaks and back away. She turns, not just her head but her fully body to face him, the anger dissipating and replaced with pain. "Killian, please...that's not fair," she argues, her voice softening, her pain only seeming to increase as Killian seems to step away from her as much as the other. She glances back toward Daken, not bothering to hide her true feelings: confusion, pain, fear. Glancing back and forth between the two, apparently torn as to who to run to. Though with a final glance to Daken, she narrows her eyes in a glare before turning and literally running after Killian, having apparently made her choice. Akihiro closes his eyes tightly, fists clenching. The subtle sound of tearing flesh and the smell of blood accompany the production of his inner claw, though his wrist is at an improper angle causing it to punch through the skin and bones compossing his hand. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten." he assures the young emu through gritted teeth, claw retracting so he can get to watering his last bird.