( video )

[suicideprototype]

It seems that no matter where I find myself, flowers always carry a significant meaning, huh...?

[Ritsu has tried to focus the video on Aldrip's flower field, but since he's using a device that's utterly alien to him, he's decided to err on the side of caution and spend maybe a little too long panning over empty scenery. You know, just in case he's too zoomed in, or the image comes out too blurry, or something else of that nature.

Eventually, though, he does adjust it to focus on himself.]

Where I come from, each day is associated with a flower, and if you happen to be born on that day, then that flower is designated your "birth flower."

If you're interested, why not tell me your birthday? In exchange, I'll tell you your birth flower and its meaning. Given the wide selection of flowers here... maybe I'll even be able to find it.

[He has completely neglected to introduce himself, but clearly flowers are more important.]

Comments

[suicideprototype]

[The most loyal servant of his generation... It sounds like there's probably quite a story there, but now isn't the best time to ask about it. Ritsu will have to remember to ask when he gets a better opportunity.]

That's quite a way to interpret it.

[He's impressed, truthfully. He'd entirely expected a reply like, "wow, that's pretty weird," rather than something so thoughtful.

For a moment, he's rendered silent. Seimei is almost uncomfortably on-point. He'd call it uncanny — but it's just an interpretation of a flower, right? He has no reason to think it's in any way accurate to Ritsu.

Ritsu laughs.]

Well, maybe a bit of both.

What about you?

[Deflecting? Him? Never.]

[emyoji]

[He's always curious. That was his greatest strength and greatest fault as an onmyouji. Asking too many questions, trying to push everyone out of their comfortable routines, even the nobility, in order to achieve better understanding.

Eventually, he just couldn't stay in the city.

And hundreds of years later, he's still trying to pick out meaning in what should be a a few trivia facts about flower meanings. Because if Ritsu said it, then it must mean something to him, right? But that is only a guess.]

Oh, I'm definitely seeking. There has already been plenty that I have left behind, I'd rather have more to keep for myself.

That must sound selfish of me.

[suicideprototype]

No. It just sounds honest.

[It would be easy to make the argument that honesty is often a faux pas. For some, maybe Seimei's answer would be included in that. Ritsu's own answer wasn't very honest, after all.

But he thinks he'd have been disgusted to hear an overly-fake answer crafted to show how virtuous or selfless one is.]

Do you regret leaving so much behind?

[emyoji]

[An honest answer that would have surely offended many people, if they were around to hear him. Luckily they aren't. Sometimes not choosing is the best response, isn't it? Seimei can understand Ritsu's reluctance to be honest with strangers. But if he could avoid trouble, maybe he wouldn't be here at all.

He mulls over that question, smiling wryly when he decides on his answer.]

I can't regret it. It was my choice.