Summoner's Situation (Ethan)

[Ziare]

"You are overstraining yourself, Zi." the booming voice came from above her.

Ziare lay in the giant paw of Armenius a book in her hands her long blonde hair falling through in between his massive digits as he held his bond summon gently. Ziare sighed and snapped her book shut as her ice blue eyes looked up into the fire blue eyes of Armenius. Her familiar, Kal a pheonix sat perched gently on the top of Armenius's massive red shoulder. Together they looked well matched.

"You are starting to sound like everyone else." she warned yet a smile was on her face.

"Only because it's true." he said as he lay comfortably in the grass like a cat absorbing the sun.

"I'm not giving up so shut it. You know that already. Quit bringing up old arguements Armenius." she said and opened her book once more.

Armenius leaned down and scorched her book turning it to ash in the young summoners lap. Ziare sighed and stood up letting the ash fall from her pale white sweater and her blue jeans. She sighed. Damn dragon was getting too cheeky.

"You're paying for that buddy." she said with a chuckle as she sat down once more in the large paw of her dragon.

She definatly had that look of someone that was trying to put up a brave front when in the face of something truly difficult. She looked up at the sky her eyes fighting back tears. The only reason she had been out here reading was because the nurses made her leave the hospital wing for two hours daily and if she didn't keep her mind busy she spent the entire time crying and worrying. And now.. her loving summon had burned her book. So what was she going to do now.

[Ethan Yukimaru]

Meanwhile, sitting a bit far away from this, Ethan sat down in a chair in the same room, his hands upon a Japanese Manuscript. Within it, there were a list of techniques that Ethan here could try to do. From learning how to use strings like a rope to elevating one's self on them to gain flight and an entirely new dimension of fighting. Such knowledge would become quite useful to the man upon his Homecoming.....for undeniably someone will try to assassinate the Heir to the Family for various reasons. Anyways, looking up, the man saw a giant....Pheonix burn the book of some girl. It was quite....interesting to see a gaint flame covered bird to burn the book of some hapless teenager.....however, Ethan felt a pang of Pity for the woman, unable to control her summon like that,

"Of course, if i were her I wouldn't be flaunting around my summons for too long. Pretty soon, they'll gain an attitude problem to which i would prefer not to be involved in"

With that, Ethan eyes glanced through the book he had....reading it as he absorbed the material quite quickly. Looking up for a slight moment.... Ethan soon realized that it was just him...and the summoner that were sharing this room, no one else. Quietly looking then back down, he Weaver hoped that she'll keep to herself as Ethan to him....For he doesn't want to talk today.

[Ziare]

"We have a spectator." Armenius said as he chuckled and the great dragon puffed hot smoke on Kal who looked down at him with disapproval.

"Do we now?" Ziare asked as she looked over at saw the man.

He was much older.. not much about five years or so if she had to estimate.. than her. Reading out here as she had been before Armenius had decided on his own form of intervention.

"You need human contact, outside a comatose man." Armenius said as he looked at his bond.

"Drop it!" Ziare said and with a flick of her wrist the dragon was gone and Kal alighted on her shoulder in her rightful spot. Thankfully Armenius could take a hint from the blonde and stayed quiet even in her mind.

Ziare reached up and pet her familiars soft plumage as she thought for a moment. She hated being reminded that she basically lived in the hospital wing but she would dare leave him. She wouldn't dare stay away too long. She looked over at the man reading and decided to at least say hello. She smoothed down her sweater over her thin frame and headed over to him.

"Luckily, you don't have a dragon to fry your script there." she said with a shy smile as she stood close to him. She wouldn't sit unless offered to as was proper and so she stood. She extended a hand.

"I don't believe I've had the pleasure. I'm Ziare Langely." she said softly with a smile as she held out her hand to shake.

[Ethan Yukimaru]

Quietly holding his book comfortably in his hands, the man continued to read, his eyes barely glancing over to the woman near him. Instead, he mentally listened to a song, Merche Funebre by the famous Japanese Composer Hayato Matsuo, in his head by using a bit of imagination. Flipping through the pages, he learned the great secrets of his style. The book he held in his hands only came today....And yet, they taught him moves he would not have dreamed. Looking up, Ethan notice the woman talking to her summons.... In effect, it was as though she was talking to herself. Somewhere in life, the Weaver had read that Summons were like a part of you....existing within the confines of you soul or what not...

Regardless, soon enough she approached him, as he finished reading a technique intended to be more theatrical then anything else. Perhaps he could have fun with this..... Quietly raising his hands out, Ethan shot a good number of strings in all directions... The thickness of each on differing from the other. He had about four through eight strands clumped together in a group, and in total there were about two dozen groups. Lifting up two dozen strings, the man began to play Adagio for strings by Barber... It was a slow song...Slow and sad. It was not Merche Funebre as he had been imagining, but it was just as deeply moving. Ethan's eyes grew a bit content for a moment as the sounds of strings filled the room. Staring up at The woman, he got up formally and looked her deeply in the eyes, his own cold as ice.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Ziare, I am Ethan Yukimaru" The man began, bowing right after he said his name....

"So tell me, do you enjoy classical music?"

[Ziare]

The song he played struck a very strong cord in the young blonde. Tears streamed down her face as she was already thinking about the love of her life in a coma and here this man seemed to be playing into that very pain. She listened as the notes filled the courtyard area and just let the sadness play right into her. She didn't care if the man saw her cry there was no way she could have hold them back anyway.

When he finished she quickly wiped the tears off of her cheeks with her hands. She dismissed Kal with a mental command and the phoenix took flight and left most likely to watch over Jyo for her while she was taking her break.

"As a matter of fact I do, Ethan." she said softly. "And I must say you play beautifully. What a beautiful talent."

"May I join you?" she asked motioning to the other side of the bench.

[Ethan Yukimaru]

Ethan watched as tears rolled down the pure face of Ziare....Watching as she cried to herself. His music wasn't that powerful now...But there was probably another reason as he why she was crying so. Ethan could have asked...but such would be a lack of manners on his part. Quietly stopping his music after he finished Adagio, he bothered not to go into another song. However though, he left the strings out, so that when Ziare leaves or asks for it, Ethan can begin to play yet another song....Perhaps a nice, slow and sad song. Ethan did enjoy such moving songs more so then the happy and yet depth less compositions other have created.

Nodding at Ziare, he was amazed to find the young summoner take an interest in classical music. From the young punks of the Academy, rap, rock and pop seemed to be what was in. Ethan here, coming from a long line of noblemen, was conditioned to enjoy the meticulously placed instruments that formed a symphony and what not as oppose to the modern sounds one would heat today. Also, Ethan enjoyed the compliment that Ziare gave him. In his spare time, Ethan would be considered perhaps an artists of sorts and many others. A vivid write, a deep thinker, a imaginative artists and a master composer and musician.... Ethan was more then what appeared on his cold and emotionless surface.

"Of course you may sit down Miss Ziare" Ethan said, responded to the girl... "Although, do forgive me for intruding, may i inquire as to why you weeped through my Adagio? The song itself I have yet to truly master, so why did then did you find such sorrow in it?

[Ziare]

The song had indeed been beautiful and Ethan was a masterful player. She had enjoyed the highs and lows of such a beautiful song and the fact that he played it with strings alone was phenomenal. She nodded to him and crossed to the other side of him and took a seat on the bench.

He then asked about her tears and she smiled a bit. She looked up at the sky for a moment before she turned to Ethan. Did he really care? Or was this one of those 'just to be courteous' kind of things. She hadn't run into a new person that had asked yet. But what was the harm in telling him in the first place. The worst he could do would be to say he was sorry when he really wasn't. She didn't need pity what she needed was Jyo wake wake up.

"Firstly, you underestimate your playing. That alone, to a person who appreciates good music, is enough to touch the soul even on a subtle level." she said with a small and friendly smile to Ethan.

"As for the tears, I'm sorry you had to see that. My life, these past three months has been rather hard on me. My boyfriend, he's been in a coma now for three months. And every day I fear that he won't wake up. I pray every day yet nothing yet. I spend most of my day with him coming out for an hour or two only because the nurses make me. Like now. And I was already thinking about him when you began to play. So it touched me more so than it might have had I not already been in this state." she said softly. She looked over at him and smiled.

"But here I am putting my burdens on you when you have no need to carry them. So please, if you don't mind my company I wouldn't mind your playing. I don't want to take you away from what you were doing. Please, don't let me stop you. Unless you no longer wish to play that is." she said with a smile returning to her face and her eyes as she pushed her issues to the back of her mind if only for a moment.

[Ethan Yukimaru]

Ethan quietly listened to Ziare....Absorbing in her sad story as he prepared his strings yet for another song. He was going to Pachen Bell Canon by Sebastian, a very calm and soothing song. Silently he lifted his strings up as he played the symphony, the calm, relaxing and soothing symphony which filled behind Ziare's voice. Slowly his eyes looked up at the girls....cold and unfeeling for her plight. In his life, he too had seen much worst stories, or stories much like this. It came off as no surprise to Ethan to hear this and not be in sorrow....but hey, he had lived life.....Lived a very dark, sad and yet worldly life. "So...she compliments my playing.... Hmmm" he thought, as he also absorbed her tale on her boy friend. "She has yet to hear a True Player of the strings...All i am is a impostor over the true magic of music..."

With that, Ziare stopped....As his song slowly filled the gap between the two people. lowering his arms, he used his dousing magic to continue the playing of the strings in mid air, as he had did before with Adagio. Sitting down upon the bench, he turned his unfeeling and cold face to Ziare. He did have something to say...but he wondered at how she'll take it. Bah, why should he dote over it, he was much older then her and had more experience. If she was truly well-minded, she'd take the advice of a elder without so much as a fus...Or so one should imagine.

"I see" He began, his tone the same as ever. "Well....I believe that you revolve too much around this boyfriend of yours. After all, one can understand being in there with your lover...But for everyday from morning to night seems a bit unhealthy. Your life must not just be a reflection of your boyfriends, you too need to live. Enjoy life, relax and feel the cool wind breeze. True, pain might be what makes life life.......But you must not forget that despite the pain which comes before you, you must enjoy life. Do not spend your youth over a comatose man. If you come there for like an hour or two each day i find no problem.....However, more then that is obsession...which is not particularly good..."

[Ziare]

Ziare knew that what he was saying was true. Yet, that didn't change the fact that she couldn't leave. In all her heart she just couldn't find the strength to only visit. She couldn't move on while he lay still in the mind set of three months ago. It hurt too much to think that he may never wake.

Most would think at seventeen she was too young to be feeling this strongly about someone. Yet, it was indeed what she felt. She and Jyo had connected on some deeper level and she wasn't going to let him go. Not yet, not while she still believed he could make it out of this. That he could heal and come back. That was all she truly wanted was him to come back. Even, if he didn't remember her it didn't matter so long as he lived. She nodded to Ethan.

"You're right. I suppose it is obsession yet I cannot bring myself to leave. My greatest fear, as that he will wake alone and not know that I have been there. I don't know if he can hear me when I read to him or feel me when I hold his hand. But I try every day to make some kind of connection. You're right though. Even the nurses say it is unhealthy. Yet, can I leave? Can I really bring myself to abandon him just because he is no longer conscious? I don't think I can." she said softly. "I used to think I was strong but perhaps I am weak after all. Because, I can't."

She took a deep breath and looked up at him. Why were his eyes so cold? Did he never feel anything? She wasn't going to pry but if felt that something in his past must have made him so very cold. He pretended to care yet his eyes betrayed otherwise.

"And what of you? Your eyes show nothing even when your words express otherwise? Is that, healthy?" she asked looking up into his eyes.

[Ethan Yukimaru]

"Weakness lies not in obsession....only despair" Ethan said silently. "Being obsessed is unhealthy...and co-Dependant much more worst... However, to give up is a defeat unto itself. Like the saying goes...Never say never again.... And just as Ethan was about to say something inspirational, instead he was cut off...With Ziare asking the questions. He did not mind, for he grew tired of talking. With that, he ended the Canon...the song finishing itself up as silence began to fill the courtyard. However, what she asked was quite amazing...for he had not yet find someone who cared enough to inquire. However, he knew deep within that someone will eventually ask...and he was ready for it....

"I can't say it is healthy now" He began, his tone remaining the same cold and emotionless tone it was before. "But i was raised this way. What you perceive as healthy and what I perceive are, after all, two different things. Where as the young think of this as odd, it is quite common among older people. Indeed, for all i am...I have experience and a mind way beyond that of this younger shell. Call it arrogance on my part, this is what I believe. Through the fires of war, the agony of death and the pain of loss, my eyes has seen it all. No longer do these hollow orbs reflect anything other then the vast void time and blood had created....."

With that, Ethan stood up, letting the light around his body envelope him. The sun broke out of the clouds nearby, attributing for this increase in sun as the lights reflected off his eyes....And yet, still nothing...merely a void. One could say he was depressed...but sorrow and experience are two different things. Ethan was not sad at all...but in fact, use to this fact of life, and has accepted it. He accepts his condition, and realizing it does not pose a threat kept it this way. Besides, he even doubts he can change this....And even sees no real reason as to why.... After all, is there a point to act like a common man when your duty is what binds you to this earth...and what binds around his soul. His life, the life of a heir, is nothing more then duty. He was born out of duty, and will die in it. His soul his bind to the decree of centuries past, and yet he accepts it for all it is.... He is bound, and he knows it, but equally embraces his fate as an old man embraces and possibly awaits death....

"All I can say" He began, his eyes still reflecting his nothing, his tone still an even flat. "Is that some of us are meant to be this way, while some other. You, through either destiny or mere chance, was intended to end up with your comatose boyfriend...as I was ordained to be nothing more but this reflect-less man before you... Be it healthy or not that I am this way, I embrace this fate as you embrace your love for him..."

[Ziare]

Ziare pulled her knees up to her chest wrapping her arms around them as the man next to her spoke. Her eyes watched him but mainly they watched his eyes. She had never in her life seen eyes so very lifeless. It almost hurt to look at them in a way. She almost longed to see exactly what it would take for some emotion to be put into them.

Did he actually feel anything or was he just walking through life? Why was he here exactly? She listened as he spoke and one thing caught her attention. He spoke of living in a younger shell and she was unsure she understood. Did he move his soul from place to place? Recently, having done a lot of reading she had indeed read on men that could do such and never die using body after body instead.

When he finished she looked up at him unsure of what to say at first. It fate had it that she would fall in love with Jyo only to have him in a coma then so be it. But to be fated to have felt every emotion, and to see everything there was to see, well now that was just a bad hand dealt by fate. Yet, she could almost not believe it was true. This man had alread accepted it yet, she felt that he could still find things in life to enjoy if he really wanted to.

"Is life that dull now? Does nothing new make you smile or your eyes sparkle for the smallest moment? If so, then I yearn to find something the can do just that. Something that would bring a true smile to a face so lost." she said softly her blue eyes looking up at him.

"Have you seen so much that life is uninteresting? Wouldn't that make life not worth living? I'm sorry if I'm asking dumb questions here, but I'm afraid I really don't see the logic in living a life that holds no excitement for you." she said softly. "What makes it worth living for you?"

[Ethan Yukimaru]

Ethan listened as Ziare talked about his philosophies and such. Indeed, about how his life was so pointless or something around that. Or about her trying to put a smile on his face. Well, he didn't care. If anything, he thought she was patronizing him.... However, he remained cold and emotionless.... Not a glint of annoyance or anger coming onto his eyes. Sure, every once in a while he gets a bit angry or annoyed....but other wise, he was like a robot. And what it took to piss him off...well, it took quite a lot of things. Not a lot as in many things got him angry...but you have to do something so horribly to him, that you could not longer call yourself a good human. Regardless, the girl soon finished, posing a question of some sort on him. Slowly he turned his eyes, looking darkly into the girl's softer ones...

"I live not for myself" Ethan began, his tone cold and yet regal and noble "I live for my family, for my people, not for my own selfish desires. Of course I might see to it i relax and enjoy myself, but all my long term goals belong to that of the family. I am bound by duty to rule and serve my clan, until the day of my death. Otherwise, life holds no other meaning for me..... Only duty and servitude..."

With that, he paused, letting it all sink in. She was probably not use to people like him...those willing to gladly put their lives down for someone else. Maybe she had seen them, but had she ever met someone truly devoted to that ideal. If she has, then they might be like Ethan....determined only to serve and lead. Of course, Ethan has to fulfill both roles....leading his family and at the same time serving them. To those who look around them, they see a glorious position of leader, but to those closer, they know the terrible yet needed burden.... A burdon Ethan has long ago accepted.

"After all, what happens to all desires and everything we coveted in time?" He then began, breaking the silence. "It all in the end turns to dust. Even we as humans, despite our power, are nothing more then worm food when we rest among our ancestors. As such, why try to attain such frivolous things in life when we can dedicate ourselves to so much more? And with that, this is what you shall see.... A man who bears no emotions, living only to serve and lead, yet embraces his cruel yet needed fate..."

[Ziare]

It was hard for Ziare to watch Ethan's cold and emotionless face. Long since had the spark died from his eyes and she wondered where it had gone and when it had been extinguished. She looked out across the courtyard as he spoke listening to his every word. If anything he was provoking a lot of thought to the young girl.

"What is your ultimate goal?" she asked softly turning her eyes and face back to the man beside her.

She knew that she could not make him smile probably not make him feel anything in the least really. She hated that he had given up on living with joy and feeling the emotions that were important, at least to her. A life without joy was not a life she wanted to live.

"I think it's noble really, that you serve and protect your family. Leading them to whatever means is at the end. I just wish you didn't have to sacrifice yourself in the mean time." she said softly.

[Ethan Yukimaru]

"But it is a needed Sacrifice" Ethan soon started, right as Ziare ended. "Even with my coldness, i have gained many things.... Emotions are, in the end, unnecessary things. Even if it is what makes us human, it is Human Err then. However, the main point to remember is that I do all this for the advancement of my Kindred. It is like my Legacy so to speak..."

With that, Ethan became quiet, his eyes drifting off toward the skies above him. Despite being so high, the clouds were still an enjoyable sight to behold this fine day, as he slowly began to play an improvised song...slow, yet relaxing and calming. Turning his gaze back upon Ziare, the man soon folded his hands and relaxed his body for a brief moment...

"For in the end, we all die" He then said. "Everything we held ourselves and then things we coveted will soon turn to dust. It is at least good to know that even when your body becomes dust, you shall leave behind a legacy of commitment and duty, not of selfishness and indulgance..."

[Ziare]

Ziare listened once more to Ethan. He was unlike anyone she had ever met before and had for once taken her mind off of Jyo and gotten it to think of something else. It was a nice reprieve to be worried so to speak for someone else. Three months of worry for one person was not healthy and so she was just happy to think of something else.

Yet, Ethan was bringing up a whole different train of thought. She wondered if he was really so happy living without any emotions. But even more questions ran through her mind.

"Why are you here then? What is it to acomplish? And .. why can't you make friends and do things that are fun while you are here? Live your life too. I can't imagine your family would want you to live without doing a single thing for yourself. What is life worth living if you can't at least enjoy some of it?"

She leaned back on the bench looking up at the same clouds that he did. She loved looking at the sky it was beauitful no matter what the weather. She even went as far as to lean her head gently on the corner of Ethan's shoulder.

"Friends are good things you know. You can confide in them, spend time with them, count on them.. so many things." she said softly as she stared up at the clouds.