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[A: Video: Well now, he has to taunt everyone, but just how to do it...]

Seems like everything is getting a little interesting again, eh?

And for all those who don't find it so, check out the After Life Nightclub for all your nighttime and clandestine adult needs.

[Holds up a finger.] Except prostitution. Because my wife will kill you. And I'm not kidding.

[B: Library: Marco has always been a little bit of a bookworm, despite what some of his family might realize or think, but he's still boring his way through tomes and volumes, trying to study and glean all the universe's knowledge at once and comparing maps to try to put together a compilation. There's a good fifteen books stacked to his left, and rather than bother with ballpoint pens, he's using a quill to make his varying notes, please don't spill his ink.]

[C: Later at the Nightclub: He's hanging out near the bouncer, reading a book. In a nightclub. He also may or may not be sporting glasses frames that have no lens. Because he's a giant freaking dork from hell. But no, he's totally on the job. Totally.]

[D: Dungeons: You know what is the worst place ever to try to fly and fight? A dungeon. Why is he in the ruins again? "Training?" This was a bad idea. There's a blue phoenix kicking skeletons and bugbears and occasionally swearing loudly in squawks. He misses fighting at the Garden.]

[E: Private for Espio:]

Kiddo, we need to talk.

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So?

Maybe I can't get it all... and there's things about my world you probably wouldn't get, but...

[Hands him a straw for mock mini-sword dueling across the table.]

I'm a phoenix, Espio. Losing everything and everyone and outliving all of them...

[Face falls into his careful deadpan.] Let's just say that's been an ongoing experience for me for as long as you've been alive.

[Waves the hand that doesn't have his straw-sword.] Not that I expect you and Grell to suddenly have heart to hearts, but she's not too far removed from the experience either, eh? She usually only meets the dead.

Thatch was the first person to really make me human again, eh? He bridged the gap for me. Made it hurt less to bother trying.

None of us were with you over there, but we've seen the end of things. And I daily doubt reality in any form. Remember how you had to literally kick me when we all wound up in that place during the Lunar Cry? I couldn't place... anything. It was like I finally had infinity in an endless loop, but I couldn't make sense of the connecting points. [Sighs.] There's things I won't get. But that doesn't mean you have to deal with it alone. There's things I always think no one else can get, but when I try, they surprise me. Ace especially. I never know what he understands or doesn't, but when he gets things on an emotional or instinctive level, he gets them even better than I do.

[Holds a finger over his mouth.] Don't tell him I said that, it'll go straight to his head.

[...why the straw. Espio takes it automatically, but he just sort of... holds it, vaguely wondering why, and is quiet for a long, looooong moment.]

I can't keep hold of anything, I can't make sense of anything, and just when it feels like things have settled I'm thrown into something else. I can't trust reality, or that the people I meet are even real, never mind whether or not they're going to stay.

I see you all again, but everything just feels wrong. It's like I'm always walking on an edge.

And, y'know, if I can't trust in anything's existence...

[Soft grin. Nah, he gets it. He's the same way. He only JUST STARTED believing it was real here again because of who was there and how things were falling into place. And that was why he told Namur he had no idea how long it'd been. Three or four months?]

Especially since it might all fall away again like a dream, aye?

I had the same problem when I first got here. And the Garden. And Ceres. Actually it was worst at the Garden. Ace being a marine and all. And Ceres and here I had Grell and you. [SWORD DUELS THE STRAW!! FIGHT HIM!! Hold like chopsticks, and only with two fingers, it's all in the wrist.]

You don't have to trust it though, eh? [Laughs and facepalms quietly.] At home on the Moby Dick, sometimes I didn't think it was real either. Same with Zou.

But you know, when you're dreaming and start realizing it's a dream, it becomes easier to wake up, eh? And sinking deeper into the dream, forgetting that it's a dream again becomes hard. Reality is... I won't say it's like that. Because it's not. But it shimmers. Reality is not as tangible as we always assume. It's strangely easy to warp.

[Drops the straw sword down for now and presses his fingers together to give Espio a serious look.] The bigger question is, what do you want it to be?

You still think if you start hoping to get the Chaotix Crew back you'll go mad, right? But how stable do you really think you are now?

[Marco what are you doing? Espio gives the most half-hearted slap of a straw Marco could possibly have anticipated.

And no, he's not stable. He's not been stable for a long, long time.]

I'm not.

But that just means I have to hold on harder. What else can I do?

Change the universe. Take control of time and space and make it how you want.

I didn't think I'd ever see Ace, my Pops, or Thatch again.

Instead of looking backwards, start looking where you are and make it how you want it to be.

[Are you fucking serious.]

Marco?

I don't know if you noticed, but controlling reality is way, way outside my capabilities. I'm a tiny little lizard and I can't do jack shit.

Everyone seems tiny in comparison to the vastness of endless possibilities.

You're stronger than you have any idea of, eh. [Pokes Espio's forehead with the sword-straw!]

What kind of world do you want? You can start small. Cake. Something comfortable. Stop trying to make it harder on yourself as punishment, it won't bring other things back. But once the rest of you is taken care of, the way to do the impossible starts opening up.

[The flattest expression of disbelief is being directed towards Marco right now, because really?]

All I want is a world that won't keep fucking me over, along with everyone else I just happen to care about. But clearly wanting it and getting it are two entirely separate things.

Start.

Nothing will come to you, you have to get it yourself, but that doesn't mean you can't achieve it, yoi.

[This would be perfectly sound advice if Marco weren't talking about messing with reality.]

Y'know, there are things that can't be controlled!

[Hey. Messing with reality is a perfectly legitimate hobby.]

[And this is why Marco is not allowed in places where that is a thing that can be done.]

You'd think that, wouldn't you.

Marco. Don't forget I lived somewhere that ran on people's beliefs and delusions. It could decorate a house, but it couldn't make real seeds and real plants, or make the land alive.

Still sounds suspicious to me, but aye.

Just start small Turnip-lover. Experiment with this place. Figure out what you can't do if you don't know what you can yet. That's the only way you'll solidify your presence here.

You could create a turnip festival again. Or a turnip cart.

[But what's the point??]

Shouldn't I figure out other priorities first?

Like what?

[Like, say, talking to you guys instead of isolating himself? He shrugs.]

I think I'd be a lot happier if you start doing your best to make you feel better, eh?

I'll look at trying to get a bigger place, so Ace will stop sleeping in mystery places and rooftops, and you and Namur will be closer on hand.

But try to consider some kind of job or hobby, eh? Even if it's just rock-climbing. The longer you do nothing, the easier it becomes to stay like that, and the harder it becomes to do what you want. Especially when you still don't know what you want, aye?

They have flying ships here. Would you be interested in that?

There's also a dojo. And if you want to teach, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of openings, especially for your skills.

[He's quiet for another long moment, but then seems to relax a little - someone other than Marco might not notice. Hell, Marco might not notice.]

...shouldn't I start by finding somewhere to live?

[He notices, but he's not sure what he makes of it either.]

That depends. Would you be happier in a place on your own that Ace and Namur will probably crash at? Or would you rather I try to get us all a place.

I'd like to commission a ship to keep off port. Maybe set up a bar in it and everything, but --

[Grabs a napkin, and a bottle of ink from a pocket, and a quill, scribbling fast notes.]

It'll take me a bit longer. At minimum. Nam-chan would probably like that though. Kitten really likes her apartment. The robots give me the creeps yoi.

I dunno. I'd like to say my own, but my house didn't feel like a home before Dominic moved in - it was just a building I lived in. And I'd miss the mice...

[Hm. Right. And if it wasn't for Espio being Toby's roommate...]

Put up an ad and see if anyone's looking for a roommate?

You didn't have seeds for food, what did you all eat?

[Sex food? Was it sex food? :\]

I dunno about living with total strangers.

[And of course it was sex food.]

Some people were better at believing things into existence than others. They kept a storehouse stocked up.

That's something at least.

All right, then find out what Namur and Ace are doing, crash with them for a little, and I'll work on that pirate ship thing. Although it'll take a little just to get the commission filled.

Or you can crash on my couch with Ace. He's a space heater if nothing else. And he has his own money box, so I can set up something similar in the meanwhile.

[ALTHOUGH GRELL WILL BITCH BUT HE WILL HANDLE IT, IT IS FINE.]

No pup tents in the wilderness. I don't care if you can fight, you could get sick, and it's not healthy.

[Hush! If he wants to camp in the middle of nowhere, he will camp!]

Hmm... honestly I haven't worked out how to deal with Ace yet.

[Blinks.]

[Stares.]

[HEAD TILT.]

Why not?

[But. He's... Ace.]

[How does anyone not deal with Ace?]

[Until they know him well.]

[And fight.]

[Or do the Grell thing and--]

[Oh wait Ace is still in his pre-Hell phase.]

[HMMMM...]

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