towerofanimus | Taking the long road home

Taking the long road home

Characters: Anyone. Everyone.
Setting: The few days after the event, throughout the Tower as you will.
Format: Mingle! Assign your own dates/locations/etc, tag yourself, do as you do.
Summary: Jason's dead. So are a lot of other people. Fallout and picking up the pieces.
Warnings: Discussion of death and cannibalism inevitable.

[Catch-all for events following the Event. Discuss Jason's death and its consequences, come back from the dead, party?, quiver in fear?, take a long, hot bath. Whatever it is you do, do it here.]

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Enoch knelt at the boy's side and reached out to draw him into a hug.

"I'm here, Taiki. Did someone else leave you?"

Taiki snuggled into his side and shook his head, "No... I just..." It was hard to talk when he wanted to cry so much.

"The others... it was bad..."

"I know...but that's all over now." Enoch had no idea of the true cause of Taiki's distress, and thought it was about the labyrinth in general. So he did as well as he could, rubbing the kirin's back soothingly.

Taiki shook his head, "I know..." He scrubbed at his eyes again, "But they still... they know she is bad... but they..."

He lost the battle with his tears and pressed his face into Enoch's side.

"Did as instructed? Jason has done horrific things to many of them, or their friends, or both. It is...understandable, that their anger, combined with the fear of their situation and an offer of exemption...they couldn't ignore the opportunity, if only because they were hungry, tired, and scared and wanted to leave."

"I... I know..." Taiki sobbed harder, his words muffled into Enoch's side. "In my head I know but... but it's bad..."

He shook his head, "Every bit of me says it is is bad, even with all those things they shouldn't have killed..."

"I know. It is understandable, and it does not reflect poorly on them as people. But that doesn't make it right, either." He petted Taiki's hair, as if he was his own child. "This world is complicated, Taiki. Sometimes, you have to do things that feel wrong to do good, or sometimes something that feels absolutely, unmovably right is bad. Sometimes, you don't know these things until you've done them. Sometimes, your mind says something is bad while your heart says it's good, and vice-versa."

His hand stopped, and he looked up at the sky. "Sometimes...sometimes, there's no easy way out, and no completely 'right' choice... Sometimes, the only way ahead is going to hurt you or someone else. It doesn't make you right, nor does it make you wrong."

He held the boy tight against his side, as if trying to protect him from this world he clearly wasn't made for, and looked down at him again. "I suppose what I mean to say most is, people do bad things sometimes. The most good thing you can do...is to try to understand why, and to forgive as well as you can, even if you can't condone what they did, yourself."

Taiki stayed pressed against Enoch's side, clinging to him because he was kind and nice and didn't get mad at Taiki even when Taiki didn't understand things or got sad or scared.

The world was complicated, more complicated here he thought, here where everything was bad and scary. At least in the twelve kingdoms things could only get so bad before the gods stepped in. If a King hurt his people then the Kirin was struck down, the King was removed and a new one found.

But here Ruana could do what she want, she was like a god and nothing they could do could stop her, and she had told everyone to kill and they had.

"I'm meant to stop people being hurt." He sniffed, trying to hold back the tears, "That's what Kirin do," Chose the king, keep them on a good path, stop violence, show benevolence. That's why Kirin existed and here he could do nothing to help anyone, all he could do was watch helplessly as wrongs were committed.

"But I can forgive them..."

To stop others from being harmed... Enoch kept trying to comfort the little Kirin at his side. This just wasn't a place where it was always possible... "You can't control the actions of others. But you can heal others. I think that's as close to what you're meant for as you can become, in this place. Do you have your true powers, Taiki?"

Taiki nodded softly, "I do..." He had changed over as soon as he could, and though the week without Gohran and Sanshi had been scary he was glad that his powers were now real. "It's harder to heal... um... I learned that here... and um... Aqua isn't here anymore."

"Aqua? Were they training you? I could introduce you to another healer I know..."

He'd met Aqua briefly, but had never learned her name, so he had absolutely no idea whether or not he was right here.

Taiki nodded, "Yes... she was teaching me before she disappeared..." He blinked at Enoch sadly. He would like to learn more if Enoch knew someone who could help and who wouldn't mind teaching him.

"You remember the person who led your collar research group? It was Naoya, wasn't it? He's a relative of mine, and he has a healing spell. He knows much about magic, and he might be able to help train you in its use."

Maybe he could even teach Taiki a protective spell or two. Their dwindling time just made it all the more important.

Taiki nodded, he remembered Naoya and liked him, he had been kind and he had known what kirin were. "Do you think he would?"

"I think so. I don't see why he wouldn't." Naoya could be stubborn and even rude sometimes, but was there really a reason he wouldn't help Taiki with a skill?

Taiki liked him, but he was quite scary and a bit abrupt and Taiki worried about bothering people even when he wasn't intimidated by them. "I would like that..."

"You should pay him a visit or send him a letter, then." He smiled and patted Taiki's shoulder.

"I could write a letter..." Much less scary than visiting. "Thank you Enoch..."

"It's nothing." He patted Taiki's head. "Whenever you feel lost like this, you can always turn to us, or to your training. Something is bound to help at least somewhat."

Taiki nodded sadly, "I will..." He tried for a smile, though it didn't really work. "Thank you..."

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Taking the long road home

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