(open) a wizard and a fox spirit walk into a void

[kimihiros]

Who: Kimihiro&You
What: Getting to know the Void, just generally being confused. Catch-all post!
Where: Around the Void!
When: November OOC
Content Warnings: Nothing!! Perhaps spoilers?

Comments

[bridge_princess]

[The way that she looked at him and nodded, it was clear that she accepted that explanation. Magicians, for example, were technically youkai who had once been human and who retained most of their humanity even as they became more or less spirits of magic and knowledge. So 'more than normal human' was a thing she could understand. Hashihime were sort of the same way.]

Fair enough. There aren't many spirits in this place, but wish granting isn't really that big either.

...

Though the shrine is there. I take prayers that don't involve breaking up these days. One of the others suggested it.

[kimihiros]

Being powerless wouldn't help business anyways.

(not to mention the lack of all the magical items he has at disposal back home, an entire storage room of them. it certainly makes wish granting much less demanding on him, he has come to notice.)

Nothing wrong with a change of business. Have you had many people come and pray? From another conversation I've had, believers truly are diminishing in numbers nowadays.

[bridge_princess]

Feh. We're not in Japan right now, but if we were you wouldn't be wrong. We all went behind a barrier to live apart from them during the Meiji. It'd gotten hazardous for us, and our kind ... weren't reacting well to humans' disbelie.

[In essence it had gotten violent and they were being forgotten en masse as the industrial revolution moved into the modern, anti-spiritual eras. Shinto still ran strong, but had become so much more of a perfunctory societal expectation than honest fear and reverence to the kami and youkai. the world had changed and outgrown them, so they'd made their own world.]

Here, they seem to recognize that I am what I say I am. The only doubter... heh, well. he knows the truth now. [Poor Kaiba'd had a rough day.] There aren't many people here period, but a few come. Tifa suggested I try it.

It's... weird. I'm not a kami. I'm youkai. But I remember people would ask for blessings sometimes, not just cuttings, so why not here?

[kimihiros]

I've been having that feeling as of late. My shop can't be seen by human eyes unless there's a wish to be granted, but I hear chatter from the spirits who visit.

(mostly from the ame-warashi, the rain spirit, with their little chat over the lunar callendar and his making of chrysanthemum wine to celebrate it. it's upsetting to see, when kimihiro walks among them regardless of his own status.)

Ame-warashi said that eventually, humans will pay for it. The universe keeps tabs, after all.

[bridge_princess]

That sounds like something an old spirit would say. But, if your shop was separated by that kind of barrier... you're probably in a different sort of Japan than mine. I think the problem runs throughout the human worlds of Earth. They get disconnected to their roots in the spirit world.

Karma's a thing, but I believe the powerful spirits put too much stock into it. It mollifies themselves to say "They'll pay for it." [She snorted and leaned against the old wood of her shrine. "A hundred and change years have passed since Yukari set the barrier up. They're still kicking around like the little ingrates they were. Karma takes longer than some youkai have lives to live. But I guess it makes them feel better."

"I've been around a long time. Makes you jaded to plenty of things, even ignoring the sorts of things I deal with. I don't bank on that comeuppance anytime soon." She glanced at him again, frowning. "Who or what owned your shop before you took over for them?"

[kimihiros]

I don't think she means it in a malicious way. (and he finally finds a place to sit on the floor, away from the shrine, careful with the edges of his traditional wear.

he's far as not to disrespect the environment when he finds two rocks to create a fire in the pipe he carries, taking a drag of the smoke and exhaling on the opposite direction of her.) It's hitsuzen. Inevitability. Things have reactions and fates are carefully threaded. There's no coincidence out there, so sure enough the universe will require payment for the neglect.

(she does like to ask questions that just give him a sense of discomfort, doesn't she? forgive him for looking distant as he takes another deep drag of her pipe.) Yuuko-san. She is known as the Space-Time witch.

[bridge_princess]

Well, you know her. I know a few bitter ones... but she's not wrong. Karma is very much a thing. Actions have reactions. There is always a price to pay. It's what happened to one damned fool a long time ago, which led to what I am when I paid my own price. So, I definitely know that.

[She frowned at his description. She'd never met her. Definitely another version, because someone with that kind of title would have been all over Genokyo, annoying Yukari or getting drunk with her. But...]

Sounds kind of like a youkai. A unique one. Every once in a while, a person or spirit just become unique and powerful. We've got a few like that. Master of boundaries, for example. So her place is out of space and time then?

[kimihiros]

She isn't one.

(he isn't as old as parsee. the wound of watching yuuko die before his very eyes is still very open, even if it was a hundred years ago to begin with. he still takes her with him, in his clothes, in his mannerisms, in the pipe he currently inhales from. he looks downright miserable, but should she point it out, he'd change the subject.

he's not exactly open to strangers, but she poked a raw wound.)

She's a human whose time stopped, much like myself. She's gone.

[bridge_princess]

... I see. That is ...

[She looked at him for a long moment, seeing the pain that he was in. She was a lot of things, but unsympathetic wasn't truly one of those things. She was a jealous woman, but she could understand pain very well, and that kind o look, was one of pain, not to mention what he had said hit a nerve.]

Unfortunate.

[And then she looked at him again and cleared her throat uncomfortably. Something dawned on her. He was a 'temporary' owner, which meant he was watching the shop of someone whose time was stopped, and yet now was ... no, she smelled tragedy. She smelled a very long tragedy.]

We can stop talking about that. I'm sorry.

[kimihiros]

(she's right on track there. he's waiting for her, and had he stayed back home for a while longer, perhaps he'd get news on that. a butterfly is not just anybody's symbol, and it wasn't normal to see one in a dream twice.

kimihiro sighs, exhaling the smoke through his nose.)

I'm willing to answer other questions if you have any.

[bridge_princess]

I suppose... to change the subject abruptly, what do you know of bridge princesses? Just so I know what they tell you about my kind in your world.

[It was actually a more valuable reference point than she let on. If she could pin down the nature of the stories he was told, that along with the pipe fox that was with him would tell her a lot about what to expect around here.]

And... as a fair warning? I've seen at least one tsukumogami in town. I think they're my fault.

[kimihiros]

The The Tale of the Heike comes to mind. (he's still not as upbeat as he could be, but at least smoking keeps him occupied.) That would be the most famous one. I can retell it if you're not familiar.

(and at the last words, kimihiro snorts.)

I guess my work is not truly finished. I guess most people wouldn't know how to deal with one as we do.

[bridge_princess]

It wouldn't hurt to have someone else to watch out for them... little puns are needy bastards, let's be honest. Not really fair to anyone here, since it's not like it's their fault they got forgotten. Try to watch the broom at the shrine if you're here. They're needy.

[She gestured. If his sensitivity were at all aware, he'd sense the presence of the spirit within the broom. it couldn't manifest beyond that, but it didn't need to.]

I've warned a few people what they're like before they showed up, so... we'll see.

But that old rag? It's not ... all wrong, but I never remembered any crap about Yorimitsu, and there was only ever the two of them I punished at first. But the story got around and people set upa shrine. I guess... do it once, people think you know how to do it again, so they'd buy scissors to get my attention.

I think humans just liked the idea I got beaten down one day. They like their "Heroes."

[He might have been the first that she openly admitted that, yes. She was that one. How else would she have survived the trek to hell and found a new bridge when all the others were now long gone and forgotten?]

[kimihiros]

Y--

(ah. of course. all kimihiro does is nod, because he knows the story. the smoke leaves through his nose as he hums.)

I believe we just don't see a gray area. It's either good, or bad, when nothing is inherently either.

[bridge_princess]

There's a few other things. For one, guys always end up the heroes in that one, but that's a story for another day. [She grunted sourly.]

But that's where the word 'youkai' comes from. The black and whites, good and evil. Youkai don't mind being called it where I come from. Let 'em be afraid now and again. They remember us then, after all.

[kimihiros]

I too was a non-believer, or rather, I avoided it.

(kimihiro admits, tapping the pipe on his tray's ashtray to remove some of the burnt tobacco.)

I figure you already know why. (since she smelled the air around him not at all discreetly.)

[bridge_princess]

You're not now, and that's what matters as far as that's concerned.

[She wasn't going to hold it against people. The lack of belief was an old thing, and the responsibility shared by a great many different people over the centuries. His comment about the smell? Yeah, she'd smelled something. She felt like she could be forgiven for thinking he was a youkai for a bit there. She'd smelled the spirit on him, after all.]

I smell it a little, yeah. You're not exactly normal. I'm still figuring out the particulars. But that's not too important. This world only just seemed to remember that I'm a spirit, not a human anymore. I feel more like myself.

[kimihiros]

The particulars are too complicated anyways. (because she's right. he looks at mugetsu after the words, he's much more spirit than watanuki could be himself, but he has no frame of reference to feel that he too is now considered to be a spirit in the eyes of the void.) Hopefully the world at least gives Mugetsu his form transformation back.

[bridge_princess]

They only matter for what I'll politely describe as 'the customary reasons.' And I don't need them to fall into old habits.

[It was actually almost comforting to be around someone who grasped the nature of a creature such as her, and she just assumed he could handle being around a monster of jealousy. At least he knew how to keep things respectful without pandering.]

Powers have been... a dicey proposition. So far we've only seen them in our dreams. But I feel power now. Not much, but I feel it a little bit. It's... generic, which is strange. My power should feel more targeted. I wonder if the others like Cole feel the same thing.

[kimihiros]

Dreams are were I excel. (he's already ridiculous outside of them, inside even more so, even if recently he's struggled. the butterfly who won't give him its message easily escaping his traps, slipping right through his fingers right before he wakes up.) I haven't met him yet. How many others like yourself?

[bridge_princess]

Huh. I see. Lucky you. I'm sort of at their mercy in this place, though I can at least limit the damage when I'm in one. What's the worst that's going to happen?

[She grunted.]

I think Melinoe and Merlin qualify probably? I'm still trying to be sure 'what' they are. Gods may be considered spirits after all. Cole's a spirit of compassion. You'd know him if you met him. [Assuming he remembered him. That wasn't going on right now was it?]

[kimihiros]

Ah. Merlin.

(this one he has met. mel, he'd meet not long after this encounter. if parsee is concerned about what others are, kimihiro himself would be quite the trip to understand.)

I yet have to hear your name, Hashihime-san.

[bridge_princess]

Parsee Mizuhashi. Don't worry if you don't remember it in the history books. I'm not entirely sure we're from the same Japan, and nobody bothered recording my name in the Heike. [She snorted and smirked at him.] The hero was the important one, after all.

Don't mind Merlin... he's... just odd is all.

[kimihiros]

Perhaps we're not. It's not all impossible.

(and to that, he only shrugs.)

Is anyone like us normal in any way?

[bridge_princess]

There was a really normal guy for a while. Kind of pathetic actually. I miss him. He was ... surprisingly fun to be around, despite all that. Maybe he'll reappear with his brothers someday.