so hard to reignite myself

[hachitaro]

Characters: Taro and you!
Setting: Various places around the Tower.
Format: Action, though I can roll with prose if you really want.
Summary: Taro's wandering more or less aimlessly, trying to run away from his own issues and failing badly.
Warnings: Depression, talk of death. I'll edit in things if they come up.


[Floor 4]
[He knows the legends, he's read and heard them again and again, but that doesn't stop him from rereading them. Taro sits in a chair, curled up with a book of Japanese myths. He's got it open to the chapter of the creation of Japan - even if the Izanagi he saw isn't the god from his world, if he ends up following similar patterns it's good for a refresher.]

[Still... if there are others with this kind of power aside from Yu and Jun... if the gods act like the ones distributing power in the Underground there's going to be trouble. He has no illusions that he can stand against a god, either here or at home.]

[But that doesn't mean he can’t try.]



[Floor 13]
[He's never been religious. There was really no need, when he was supernatural himself. Sure, he questioned where he came from or why he was there - but that was just what people did, not just humans.]

[Still, Taro sits on a pew near the back, knees pulled up to his chest. Sound doesn't travel as well here, and this place is usually pretty quiet... which is why it's okay here to just put his head down on his knees and cry.]

[Even if his world isn't gone, he is. There's no real getting around that. And while he's lived for almost a hundred and forty years, he didn't expect it to end so abruptly. Sure, he thought poking around might have been dangerous, and sure he was flippant until the end, but that didn't stop the fact that he had been truly terrified.]

[He's scared. He's scared for himself, because where is he going to even go? He's been good-hearted, but he hasn't been a good person, and he has no idea if that even matters in the end. He's scared for Toshiko - even if she tries to finish what he started, that doesn't mean she’ll succeed. He's scared for the whole Underground - he tried to keep the power struggles to a minimum, but with this kind of interference a lot of people could get hurt.]



[Floor 30]
[Taro stands in tanuki form, surrounded by mist and shivering. His fur is matted, and he looks thin - he doesn't have such a round belly anymore. He knows it's a monster in the mist, he knows he has to break free... but he's so tired. And he can hear her voice, even if it's just an illusion and a lie.]

'You idiot. Why did you have to go and die on me? Now I have to deal with this myself.'

… I know. I’m sorry. I never meant to leave you...

[He needs to get out of this, soon, but he just feels like he's going to fall asleep where he stands.]



[Floor 38]
[Taro is on one of the couches, curled up in human form. He looks all right, though he's tired, but there’s a thin trail of blood leading from the door to where he's lying down. It smells like blood, too.]

[He’s quiet, but if you approach him he'll turn to look at you.]

Comments

[warriorscribe]

It's an illusion... *Enoch bends down to pick up the strange creature, since it didn't even move when he accidentally kicked it.* I've encountered these before.

*And now getting to the stairs down to the garden floor before it gives him a voice that holds more weight in his heart.*

[hachitaro]

Yeah. I know it is. She can't be here.

[He doesn't resist being picked up - he just seems to sag in Enoch's arms, sounding exhausted and weak.]

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch wastes no time in getting down to the safer floor, or as little time as he can waste. He falls to his knees when they're safely on the grass below, his armor having reappeared beneath Taro in a swell of soft white light in the interim.*

They shouldn't follow...

*Or if they have, they're now harmless.*

[hachitaro]

[He nods, and rolls out of his grasp, just lying there like a lump.]

Using illusions against someone like me is a dirty trick, dammit.

[warriorscribe]

Any sort of illusion that toys with the heart is... *A sigh, and he leans back, looking up at the darkness of the floor above.* Are you all right?

[hachitaro]

Yeah but using illusions on people who use illusions is worse.

[Speaking of illusions, he'll just put on his human one now. There.]

Yeah. I'll be fine.

[warriorscribe]

*There's some rapid blinking to adjust to that. Enoch certainly wasn't expecting something like that.*

You're some sort of spirit, then? *What he doesn't ask is what kind...he hopes this isn't a demon.*

[hachitaro]

Spirit, demon, yokai, monster, supernatural creature... there's no one term that's universally used. I'm a tanuki. Though there's an actual animal called a tanuki, but then there's the supernatural kind like me... sometimes they call us 'bake-danuki'.

[It's confusing okay. He prefers to stay out of those politics.]

[warriorscribe]

There's an animal with a form like yours?

*If it can't shapeshift how is it supposed to walk?*

[hachitaro]

Well it doesn't look just like me, it looks kind of...

[And suddenly there is a raccoon dog in front of Enoch.]

It looks like this.

[warriorscribe]

*...Oh. That's kind of cute. Good to know he doesn't have to wonder if God could get drunk or had a cruel sense of humor or something like that.

He refrains from offering a hand to sniff.* It's...endearing.

[hachitaro]

It is.

[He turns back into his normal illusion, shrugging.]

I haven't seen an actual live one in a while, though. I haven't been back to Japan for decades.

[warriorscribe]

That's the name of the nation you're from? It must be far from where I traveled; I never saw anything like it.

[hachitaro]

That's where I come from, but I've lived in the United States for over a century. I got taken in by a family and they moved there, so I followed along.

[warriorscribe]

I...haven't heard of that nation, either.

*Sheepish look now. He...really didn't move much even with three centuries to look in, huh? How's he supposed to know it didn't even exist?*

[hachitaro]

[... Welp.]

That's okay. You're probably just from a really different world. No worries.

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch nodded, leaning back to look up at what for all the world seems a sky, with a hole where the next floor connects through the staircase.

How strange that this shouldn't be completely alien.*

What sort of spirit is a tanuki?

[hachitaro]

[He tilts his head, trying to think of how to explain.]

We're sort of seen as tricksters, really. Well-meaning ones, but tricksters all the same. Kitsune, who are fox spirits, are seen as the more malevolent kind - or at least less benevolent.

Of course, you get all kinds in each species - I've met a few tanuki who are huge assholes and some kitsune who are really nice. In fact, my best friend and roommate is a half-kitsune.

[warriorscribe]

*Okay, that's a lot of information at once. So, first, they don't seem to be affiliated with either plane. Earth spirits, then? Rare enough, but not infeasible.

Second, they could have children with humans without any problems. Okay, definitely different from the only sorts of spirits he knew.*

So you are closer to humans...

[hachitaro]

[Some of them. It's probably better not to get into those mechanics.]

In a lot of ways, yeah. Kitsune are closer to the gods, since they're often servants of Inari - who's the god or goddess of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry, and worldly success.

[warriorscribe]

*That's an interesting set of traits - the mention of other gods didn't bother Enoch so much anymore. With the emphasis on evolution of society, all Enoch saw it as was simply the adaptation of the idea of God into whatever worked best. That everything traced back to what he saw as the truth.

Although...if they were from very different worlds, given what he learned in Meridian, maybe...maybe, well, this Inari really was their own being.*

That seems to be an interesting spread of traits...

[hachitaro]

Yeah. The gods aren't really... that benevolent where I'm from, though.

[... He seems to droop a little.]

[warriorscribe]

It seems to be the case in other worlds I've learned of. I'm sorry...

*Hand on your shoulder, Taro?*

[hachitaro]

Heh.

[He leans into Enoch a little.]

It's okay. We'll figure out what's going on.