thusia | (no subject)

[ ...looks at him again. ]

[Sorry were you expecting me to elaborate. Shrugs]

Believe me. There are no inevitabilities that I haven't already considered.

I've chosen to continue on in spite of that.

[ not expecting but pondering the possibility :|a ]

...in spite thereof.

[ holds up the box, studying it again. ]

Because of those things you hold most important of all.

[His eyes land on it again, though he still doesn't quite ask...]

When people care for you... You have to keep going for their happiness as much as your own, right?

...

[ his thumb smooths over the lid, to catch a faint groove on its surface and slide the wood open. Metal fingers reach in, carefully removing the object inside, and he slowly sets the box on the floor before standing it on the palm of his good hand.

A little clockwork bird, finely wrought in pristine, honey-gold metal, with eyes of blue glass. ]

[... There's no denying the mark of Pavo, even if he didn't already have a suspicion]

It's a beautiful piece...

[ if one's ears are sharp enough, they might catch the faint, faint ticking of moving parts within.

...puts his free hand against the floor, the light tapping of the pointer against the floor in matching time.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. ]

...wait a moment more.

[... Of course it's not just for show. Blinks, watching]

[ ...thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two--

the bird seems to come to life. It flaps its small wings, chirping a short trill of song, and folds them again at rest, as though waiting for an answering call. ]

Ten minutes, since you came.

[That aches, somehow]

...

It looks like such a simple thing on the surface, but... I wouldn't expect any less.

It still keeps time as it used to, when wound.

[ he sets the bird on the floor, the ticking still barely audible even in the quiet. Probably inaudible at all to most human ears. ]

A gesture every ten minutes. A call to mark the half hour.

[A demon's senses are an amazing thing. It really just adds to the beauty of it.]

It's been amazingly well-protected, to make it this far in that condition.

...if nothing else...

[ a glance at the battered metal hand at his side. ]

...of all the things that were taken away... this one, at least, was among those taken back.

Edited 2012-06-05 14:13 (UTC)

May I ask about its origin? Aside from... what's obvious, just by looking.

....

It was a letter.

Not that it isn't still.... I suppose.

...

A letter?

[ hrf... smiles a bit. ]

She... used to send me drawings. Without a written word. Diagrams.... blueprints, with ideas for improvement to this mechanism, or that system... I used to send some of my own back at her. Other things, besides.

We never truly wrote. ...though I suppose our friends would have said that was the only way of writing we knew.

[ running a light finger down the bird's tail. ]

One month, this was what she sent.

[He peers down at it again, for a long moment... not daring to touch it, but still taking in all of its features, the perfect rhythm of the clockwork inside it]

... Easily worth more than countless words on paper.

...beyond reading, at times.

[ he leans back against the wall, eyes closed. ]

Perhaps most times.

[He finally reaches a hand out to it, tentatively, like he's not sure he should]

[ there's no reaction, no movement from him. ]

[ that might be an answer in itself. ]

[He noticeably hesitates just before his fingers brush a wing, checking for a reaction, before letting them slide across it carefully, feeling the steady thrum of the gears inside it]

[ nothing but the smooth metal, almost warm to the touch, grooves in the lines and contours of feathers... and beneath, the regular ticking of parts a delicate heartbeat. A creature awake, but at rest even under the touch of larger hands.

he opens his eyes to look at him. ]

...it is not as fragile as it appears.

[He picks it up gently, cradling it in both hands]

It seems it's often the smallest things that have the most strength.

And we turn to them more than we realize.

...

Before... "the happiness of those who care for you, as well as your own", you said.

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