Post by usotsuki shijin on Aug 26, 2010 19:53:32 GMT -5
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NAME usotsuki shijin
KANJI 詩人
GENDER male
AGE ninteen
RACE ningen (cursed)
SEXUALITY bisexual
PROFESSION scribe, wanderer
ALLIANCE neutral
HEIGHT six foot five
WEIGHT one hundred fifty three
EYE COLOR fiery amber
HAIR COLOR black
demeanor
Sophisticated. Not as sophisticated when horny. Dangerous and merciless as an enemy. Criminal and intimidating. Regularly in a mood for sex. Appreciates things that are generally aesthetically pleasing. Makes a habit out of being a man-whore. Crafty and resourceful. Enjoys literature over other arts. Bored by the norm. Inconsiderate. Teases when bored. Gambler and pleasure-seeker at heart. Always selfish. Prefers to be alone if no one around is attractive. Likewise, avoids physical contact with others when not lusty. About as honest and reliable as the devil. Sadistic from time to time. Unpredictable at times. Laughs at perfection. Addicted to imperfection. Not very friendly. Cautious only around superiors in strength or otherwise. Finds it difficult to trust others. Remains composed in the face of an enemy. Does not fear death. Manipulates others at will. Eloquent speaker. Serious, cold disposition. Despises being teased, taunted, ridiculed, et cetera. Rough, selfish lover. Extremely impatient. Sneaky. A sore loser underneath it all. Notorious harbinger of personal vendettas. Salacious. Easy to bribe. Apathetic towards others. Insensitive. Throws childish tantrums when angered. Easily annoyed. Slick and serious. Curious and borderline respectful towards demons. Cryptic. Is rarely gentleman-like. Not exactly narcissistic but craves worship. Indomitable and intrepid. Tends to overindulge in the sins of avarice and lust. Indifferent about monks and priestesses. Ignores religion. Generally careless and violent when intoxicated. Well aware of one's own personality and actions.
Corrupt, Malicious, Poisonous.
Approximately: 90% traveling man-whore who will rape anyone with legs when bored; 10% cursed human poet.
assets
INTELLIGENT
Quite the clever, strapping young man, Shijin is very literate, and as such is able to acquire information he sees from time to time traveling (or by visiting a temple to read up on texts), and is also good at manipulating others into telling him exactly what he wishes to hear. Because he enjoys bars and brothels of the like, coaxing special information out of drunks is like a wonderful dream...of course. With a good memory and his ability to write, information is easy to come by and hang on to.
MID-RANGE COMBAT
When Shijin fights, he likes to be at a distance from his enemies. He uses whatever is at hand to attack at mid-range, for instance, flinging furniture or knives at the enemy. When drunk, mid-range combat is no longer his default mode of attack.
LITERATE
Reading and writing come in handy whenever people around him can't do the same. He makes money as a scribe, wandering from town to town. Also, being literate helps read signs that point to where the brothels are.
PERSISTANT
When Shijin wants something, he will continue to chase after it until things are just the way he wants them to be. Usually he does this at someone else's expense.
DECEPTIVE
If he somehow manages to gain someone's trust, breaking it without regrets is absolutely no problem for him.
INTREPID
Shijin isn't particularly afraid of anything except snow (see "vices" to know why), and startling him is slightly difficult as he's already seen things much scarier than a disembodied voice. Therefore, if bribed or intrigued, he can do anything you want him to do. Except suicide. He's much too proud to do that.
CURSES
Given superhuman abilities from an Akki (a wicked Oni spirit), Shijin is very much able to fend for himself, occasionally in excess. See "blood-written fate" and "precognition" for details.
vices
HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT
Shijin despises having to come into direct physical contact with someone, and will oftentimes avoid shaking hands with someone who is seemingly too eager to meet him. Hand-to-hand combat makes him feel annoyed more so than uncomfortable, and so will use mid-range and long-range combat. However, his favorite way to attack is through guerilla-based ambush, which does not require having to confront the person and communicate with them to start a fight.
DEMONIC POWERS && ATTACKS
Shijin is a mortal, although cursed. Demonic and superhuman abilities affect him by quite a lot if he cannot avoid them.
IMPATIENT
He's not the type who likes repeating what he just said, so he has little to no patience most of the time. People who just can't tap into their common sense all the time annoy him, and he looks down on them in turn. His temper is set off when his patience meter hits zero or below.
RAGEFUL
Little nuisances and insults will cause Shijin to lose his temper quickly. When he is undoubtedly set off, he will and yell and most likely attack the person nearest him, or more reasonably, the person who caused him to lose his temper (which occasionally does not occur as drinking is an issue). But, if it was an inanimate object that made him lose his temper, he'll yell as much to himself as to no one and probably ignore whatever mess he made. Yelling is not the only thing that comes after his anger. Fighting usually ensues after his temper is blown.
STUBBORN
Shijin will almost always turn down help of any kind from any person who will offer it. If people continue to ask him, he will tell them to stop pestering him. Likewise, he will not help anyone else in need unless it has to do with him.
COMMUNICATION
Not the most fun to have a chat with, Shijin will be more defensive and cutthroat if approached when he doesn't feel like talking. He will most likely try to avoid the conversation by cutting it short, or flat-out ignoring a simple "Hello," from someone even if they are friendly when he's definitely grumpy.
LUSTFUL AND GREEDY
Shijin is guilty of the sin of avarice, better known as greed. Whenever he wants something, he will brood and find out a way to obtain it that will cause more damage to the obstacles in his path than himself. These obstacles can be people or laws, and Shijin will not hesitate to murder someone if they keep him away from what he wants. Lust is self-explanatory.
NASY DISPOSITION
When he's his normal, brooding self, Shijin is rather awful to get along with unless you're just about as horny as he is. This genrally causes a chain of complications to occur.
INTOXICATION
When Shijin just has had too much sake, he has had too much sake. Rape-sprees are not uncommon for him while thoroughly intoxicated. The general hangover of the century follows after he passes out. He tends to act much more violently, vocally, and out of character all in all after he has shot his brain with alcohol. Shijin is also quite useless (aside from being able to brawl, shout, and rape) in his intoxicated state.
SNOW
Shijin has the rare fear of snow. This fear, called Chionophobia, causes him to experience numbness, nausea, double vision, shortness of breath, and even hallucinations of freezing to death in extreme cases. He can tolerate looking at snow and walking in it, but being near it disgusts him in general and the feel of it causes him to show symptoms of his phobia.
physiognomy
Tall, extremely fit, and well-toned with a face to please, Shijin is as eye-catching as can be. Especially with the ladies. He stands at six feet, five inches, which turns out to be very advantageous in the long run. His skin is a light olive, with black, edgy hair and reddish-amber eyes.
So. About the eyes. Originally he was born with blue ones, though through a series of events involving an Akki (an evil Oni spirit), kabafuda cards and a game of Oichu Kabu, his eyes were replaced with the Oni's. When especially angry, his eyes seem to light up into a bright gold-red—if he is in a calmer, more composed mood, the coloring is much less noticeable and they turn into a more subtle amber—coppery, actually. His pupils are also quite strange after his run-in with the Akki. Again, if angered (which is quite often), they contract to become thin slits. If he taps into his power of precognition, which he also gained after the incident with the Akki, the pupils disappear completely, rendering him blind to anything but visions of the near-future.
Conclusively, though, his eyes give him that “cursed” appeal.
On another note, Shijin likes to wear neutral-colored clothing, though he does wear black. His attire consists of a crimson haori, black zubon, a black obi sash where he places his daggers, and bearskin boots, dyed black. On top of all this, he usually wears a dark brown cloak.
blood-written fate
Ability gained through Akki curse. Read history for details.
Shijin is able to change practically around him, given that he must write it with his own blood. In addition, he cannot cause someone to die through this method; he cannot lengthen his own life; he cannot change others' emotions; and he cannot cause anything to happen without reasonable resources. A bonus downside is that he could die of blood loss if he overuses the ability. But with this power he plays the part of a god, per say, and he enjoys it wholeheartedly.
precognition
Ability gained through Akki curse. Read history for details.
This ability has very much to do with the nature of his eyes. They are, in fact, the eyes of the Akki. Shijin's eyes were given to the Akki in exchange as these filled their place. The Akki eyes are usually a coppery color with human-like pupils, though if Shijin is in a particularly strong mood the eyes adopt a beast-like, slit pupil and turn a scorching, fiery amber.
But the function of these eyes are to allow Shijin to see the near future--an ability known more specifically as "precognition." When using this ability, the pupils of the eyes disappear, and Shijin is blind to the physical world around him. However, he can see visions of the near future—generally the timespan is from the next few moments to a whole year—for as long as he wishes. But it's just a matter of time before, let's say, and accident occurs while he is temporarily blind and he gets hurt. The temporary blindness is a downside to this ability as the further he wishes to see into the future puts him in an unresponsive, obviously blind, trance which can last up to several hours.
sai daggers
* CLICK *
Shijin carries with him a set of six sai daggers, all of which are strapped to his belt, sheathed, of course. He is fairly skilled with them, though he's not what you'd call a master.
narrative
So...where shall I start?
I suppose where my memories began.
I was born as Koijito Azuma, a name I chose to leave behind.
We weren't a noble family, we weren't a poor family. We were a small family that lived in a conveniently small village established in a valley within the central mountain chain of Japan. It was just us—my mother, father and myself. I had no other siblings, and no real friends (not that I was in need of any at the time).
I suppose I was the type of child who never liked to socialize too much—well, not without a good reason anyway. I never talked much to the other children in the village, unless I either needed something or just passed by to have my curiosity quenched. If you said I was a troublemaker of sorts, you'd be only half-right. I would become bored easliy as I was distanced from children my own age to keep me company, so I would put on a performance, or get to scheming to get the attention I so craved.
I remember my mother was kind to me, always warm and tender. She was Gamabyara Shizui, a beautiful woman with an equally beautiful heart. She was raised in a noble household, and when she was of age, she married Koijito Ryoha, who, from my mother's words, was once a respectable, kind man.
But my father grew to become harsh and demanding after my parents had me. From then on, he was usually a barbarous sort of silent unless he had something to yell at me or my mother for. I remember that he always had a bottle of sake at hand. No, he rarely ever used violence as a means of justifying his anger (although he would come close to using it nearly every time we did something he saw as “wrong”). Instead, he would go off and shout horrible things to my mother, and treat her as garbage instead of his wife. But he wouldn't stop there. Praying for the gods to curse his wife and child were in his repertoire of what he called “punishments.”
Not that anything serious happened to me or my mother when he did call for curses—though, it was enough to frighten my mother and generally traumatize me as a child. But the fear I had for my father was short-lived. It soon turned into hatred, but before I was old enough to actually realize that I no longer feared my father, mother decided to escape with me into the mountains.
She packed money, food, clothing, and whatever else we needed into the small cart we owned. Under the cover of night we left, while my father was out on the floor with a bottle of sake in his hand. I recall that I was about seven years of age when mother took me with her. Winter had not yet come but its gentle breath already clawed off leaves from the trees.
So we traveled north, and within a week we reached a temple. My mother was terribly exhausted as she had been the one who stood vigil while we slept, sensitive to whatever dangers were around us. The priestesses there were kind to us, and gave us shelter and food after our story was told to them. Shortly after we were shown hospitality, my mother said to me that I was old enough for some education, and so she proposed she would work around the temple in exchange for the priestesses to teach me how to read and write—skills I took to naturally.
I finished learning how to read and write quickly and I probably stopped learning the basics within a year (as the classes took up nearly all the hours of the day), but the art of poetry was an entirely new concept to me. I remember composing poems about anything that interested me, no matter how naïve the thoughts were. The art of language simply fascinated me, and stirred in me a creativity that I could not have acquired in my younger years back home.
I would create stories and poems at large, but what I yearned for most of all were new riddles to recite.
“There are four brothers in this world that were all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good.”
This was a riddle I learned while examining the temple scrolls back then. The answers are “water, fire, earth, wind” in that order.
We remained with the priestesses for the course of two years, but soon my mother decided to take me west through the mountains. She said she knew her family would welcome us with open arms. She was so sure we could have a new beginning together, that I remember she took me to a spring festival shortly after we made plans to leave. We had grown attached to the peaceful life at the temple, and so carried the feelings of sadness and nostalgia with us. Immediately after our farewells were spoken, we left in the same horse-drawn cart that helped us leave Koijito Ryoha.
Not long after we began what was our second trek through the mountains, my mother fell ill. She tried to comfort me, tell me she was going to be fine, that it was only a small cold—but I had my doubts. I began caring for her as much as I could, fetching water whenever we stopped, tending to the horse and giving her food. As time passed it seemed that my mother would only grow weaker. My doubts became irrefutable when I saw she had trouble breathing. At first, she would cough up blood only occasionally, perhaps being launched into a spell of spitting it up once a week or less. But over time it then became a horror I saw daily.
My mother had endured perhaps seven months of ill health before the first snows fell, and our outlook for the winter to come was grim. During the last precious days I spent with her, she continued to tell me that our destination was “just over that mountain, just over that mountain.” And that whatever would happen to her, I was to make it there safely.
But soon I was convinced I wasn't trembling from the frigid air around me. I felt I was shivering because I would always see my mother's blood on the snow. More and more of it was abandoned on the sides of the road, always in pools. Knowing she wasn't going to make it, my mother gave the reins for me to hold. Still worsening our grief, a blizzard was coming. The blinding white consuming the horizon was a harbinger of a frozen hell. We couldn't turn back, and we could barely move forward considering my mother's condition. So we sought to make a sufficient lean-to shelter until the storm passed.
We expected to finish in time.
Before we were able to create a decent pile of branches alongside a large stone, a ghastly, howling mass of white swept over us. The gusts literally pelted me and brusquely pushed me to the ground. In seconds, it was impossible to see my hands. Immediately the blizzard separated me from my mother. I screamed for her in the midst of the snow, and a few times I heard she called back to me, each time more faint than the next, yet as I tried to walk towards where I saw her last, I could not reach that spot without being hurled in an offset direction onto the ground.
WORKING ON IT
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NAME usotsuki shijin
KANJI 詩人
GENDER male
AGE ninteen
RACE ningen (cursed)
SEXUALITY bisexual
PROFESSION scribe, wanderer
ALLIANCE neutral
HEIGHT six foot five
WEIGHT one hundred fifty three
EYE COLOR fiery amber
HAIR COLOR black
demeanor
Sophisticated. Not as sophisticated when horny. Dangerous and merciless as an enemy. Criminal and intimidating. Regularly in a mood for sex. Appreciates things that are generally aesthetically pleasing. Makes a habit out of being a man-whore. Crafty and resourceful. Enjoys literature over other arts. Bored by the norm. Inconsiderate. Teases when bored. Gambler and pleasure-seeker at heart. Always selfish. Prefers to be alone if no one around is attractive. Likewise, avoids physical contact with others when not lusty. About as honest and reliable as the devil. Sadistic from time to time. Unpredictable at times. Laughs at perfection. Addicted to imperfection. Not very friendly. Cautious only around superiors in strength or otherwise. Finds it difficult to trust others. Remains composed in the face of an enemy. Does not fear death. Manipulates others at will. Eloquent speaker. Serious, cold disposition. Despises being teased, taunted, ridiculed, et cetera. Rough, selfish lover. Extremely impatient. Sneaky. A sore loser underneath it all. Notorious harbinger of personal vendettas. Salacious. Easy to bribe. Apathetic towards others. Insensitive. Throws childish tantrums when angered. Easily annoyed. Slick and serious. Curious and borderline respectful towards demons. Cryptic. Is rarely gentleman-like. Not exactly narcissistic but craves worship. Indomitable and intrepid. Tends to overindulge in the sins of avarice and lust. Indifferent about monks and priestesses. Ignores religion. Generally careless and violent when intoxicated. Well aware of one's own personality and actions.
Corrupt, Malicious, Poisonous.
Approximately: 90% traveling man-whore who will rape anyone with legs when bored; 10% cursed human poet.
assets
INTELLIGENT
Quite the clever, strapping young man, Shijin is very literate, and as such is able to acquire information he sees from time to time traveling (or by visiting a temple to read up on texts), and is also good at manipulating others into telling him exactly what he wishes to hear. Because he enjoys bars and brothels of the like, coaxing special information out of drunks is like a wonderful dream...of course. With a good memory and his ability to write, information is easy to come by and hang on to.
MID-RANGE COMBAT
When Shijin fights, he likes to be at a distance from his enemies. He uses whatever is at hand to attack at mid-range, for instance, flinging furniture or knives at the enemy. When drunk, mid-range combat is no longer his default mode of attack.
LITERATE
Reading and writing come in handy whenever people around him can't do the same. He makes money as a scribe, wandering from town to town. Also, being literate helps read signs that point to where the brothels are.
PERSISTANT
When Shijin wants something, he will continue to chase after it until things are just the way he wants them to be. Usually he does this at someone else's expense.
DECEPTIVE
If he somehow manages to gain someone's trust, breaking it without regrets is absolutely no problem for him.
INTREPID
Shijin isn't particularly afraid of anything except snow (see "vices" to know why), and startling him is slightly difficult as he's already seen things much scarier than a disembodied voice. Therefore, if bribed or intrigued, he can do anything you want him to do. Except suicide. He's much too proud to do that.
CURSES
Given superhuman abilities from an Akki (a wicked Oni spirit), Shijin is very much able to fend for himself, occasionally in excess. See "blood-written fate" and "precognition" for details.
vices
HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT
Shijin despises having to come into direct physical contact with someone, and will oftentimes avoid shaking hands with someone who is seemingly too eager to meet him. Hand-to-hand combat makes him feel annoyed more so than uncomfortable, and so will use mid-range and long-range combat. However, his favorite way to attack is through guerilla-based ambush, which does not require having to confront the person and communicate with them to start a fight.
DEMONIC POWERS && ATTACKS
Shijin is a mortal, although cursed. Demonic and superhuman abilities affect him by quite a lot if he cannot avoid them.
IMPATIENT
He's not the type who likes repeating what he just said, so he has little to no patience most of the time. People who just can't tap into their common sense all the time annoy him, and he looks down on them in turn. His temper is set off when his patience meter hits zero or below.
RAGEFUL
Little nuisances and insults will cause Shijin to lose his temper quickly. When he is undoubtedly set off, he will and yell and most likely attack the person nearest him, or more reasonably, the person who caused him to lose his temper (which occasionally does not occur as drinking is an issue). But, if it was an inanimate object that made him lose his temper, he'll yell as much to himself as to no one and probably ignore whatever mess he made. Yelling is not the only thing that comes after his anger. Fighting usually ensues after his temper is blown.
STUBBORN
Shijin will almost always turn down help of any kind from any person who will offer it. If people continue to ask him, he will tell them to stop pestering him. Likewise, he will not help anyone else in need unless it has to do with him.
COMMUNICATION
Not the most fun to have a chat with, Shijin will be more defensive and cutthroat if approached when he doesn't feel like talking. He will most likely try to avoid the conversation by cutting it short, or flat-out ignoring a simple "Hello," from someone even if they are friendly when he's definitely grumpy.
LUSTFUL AND GREEDY
Shijin is guilty of the sin of avarice, better known as greed. Whenever he wants something, he will brood and find out a way to obtain it that will cause more damage to the obstacles in his path than himself. These obstacles can be people or laws, and Shijin will not hesitate to murder someone if they keep him away from what he wants. Lust is self-explanatory.
NASY DISPOSITION
When he's his normal, brooding self, Shijin is rather awful to get along with unless you're just about as horny as he is. This genrally causes a chain of complications to occur.
INTOXICATION
When Shijin just has had too much sake, he has had too much sake. Rape-sprees are not uncommon for him while thoroughly intoxicated. The general hangover of the century follows after he passes out. He tends to act much more violently, vocally, and out of character all in all after he has shot his brain with alcohol. Shijin is also quite useless (aside from being able to brawl, shout, and rape) in his intoxicated state.
SNOW
Shijin has the rare fear of snow. This fear, called Chionophobia, causes him to experience numbness, nausea, double vision, shortness of breath, and even hallucinations of freezing to death in extreme cases. He can tolerate looking at snow and walking in it, but being near it disgusts him in general and the feel of it causes him to show symptoms of his phobia.
physiognomy
Tall, extremely fit, and well-toned with a face to please, Shijin is as eye-catching as can be. Especially with the ladies. He stands at six feet, five inches, which turns out to be very advantageous in the long run. His skin is a light olive, with black, edgy hair and reddish-amber eyes.
So. About the eyes. Originally he was born with blue ones, though through a series of events involving an Akki (an evil Oni spirit), kabafuda cards and a game of Oichu Kabu, his eyes were replaced with the Oni's. When especially angry, his eyes seem to light up into a bright gold-red—if he is in a calmer, more composed mood, the coloring is much less noticeable and they turn into a more subtle amber—coppery, actually. His pupils are also quite strange after his run-in with the Akki. Again, if angered (which is quite often), they contract to become thin slits. If he taps into his power of precognition, which he also gained after the incident with the Akki, the pupils disappear completely, rendering him blind to anything but visions of the near-future.
Conclusively, though, his eyes give him that “cursed” appeal.
On another note, Shijin likes to wear neutral-colored clothing, though he does wear black. His attire consists of a crimson haori, black zubon, a black obi sash where he places his daggers, and bearskin boots, dyed black. On top of all this, he usually wears a dark brown cloak.
blood-written fate
Ability gained through Akki curse. Read history for details.
Shijin is able to change practically around him, given that he must write it with his own blood. In addition, he cannot cause someone to die through this method; he cannot lengthen his own life; he cannot change others' emotions; and he cannot cause anything to happen without reasonable resources. A bonus downside is that he could die of blood loss if he overuses the ability. But with this power he plays the part of a god, per say, and he enjoys it wholeheartedly.
precognition
Ability gained through Akki curse. Read history for details.
This ability has very much to do with the nature of his eyes. They are, in fact, the eyes of the Akki. Shijin's eyes were given to the Akki in exchange as these filled their place. The Akki eyes are usually a coppery color with human-like pupils, though if Shijin is in a particularly strong mood the eyes adopt a beast-like, slit pupil and turn a scorching, fiery amber.
But the function of these eyes are to allow Shijin to see the near future--an ability known more specifically as "precognition." When using this ability, the pupils of the eyes disappear, and Shijin is blind to the physical world around him. However, he can see visions of the near future—generally the timespan is from the next few moments to a whole year—for as long as he wishes. But it's just a matter of time before, let's say, and accident occurs while he is temporarily blind and he gets hurt. The temporary blindness is a downside to this ability as the further he wishes to see into the future puts him in an unresponsive, obviously blind, trance which can last up to several hours.
sai daggers
* CLICK *
Shijin carries with him a set of six sai daggers, all of which are strapped to his belt, sheathed, of course. He is fairly skilled with them, though he's not what you'd call a master.
narrative
So...where shall I start?
I suppose where my memories began.
I was born as Koijito Azuma, a name I chose to leave behind.
We weren't a noble family, we weren't a poor family. We were a small family that lived in a conveniently small village established in a valley within the central mountain chain of Japan. It was just us—my mother, father and myself. I had no other siblings, and no real friends (not that I was in need of any at the time).
I suppose I was the type of child who never liked to socialize too much—well, not without a good reason anyway. I never talked much to the other children in the village, unless I either needed something or just passed by to have my curiosity quenched. If you said I was a troublemaker of sorts, you'd be only half-right. I would become bored easliy as I was distanced from children my own age to keep me company, so I would put on a performance, or get to scheming to get the attention I so craved.
I remember my mother was kind to me, always warm and tender. She was Gamabyara Shizui, a beautiful woman with an equally beautiful heart. She was raised in a noble household, and when she was of age, she married Koijito Ryoha, who, from my mother's words, was once a respectable, kind man.
But my father grew to become harsh and demanding after my parents had me. From then on, he was usually a barbarous sort of silent unless he had something to yell at me or my mother for. I remember that he always had a bottle of sake at hand. No, he rarely ever used violence as a means of justifying his anger (although he would come close to using it nearly every time we did something he saw as “wrong”). Instead, he would go off and shout horrible things to my mother, and treat her as garbage instead of his wife. But he wouldn't stop there. Praying for the gods to curse his wife and child were in his repertoire of what he called “punishments.”
Not that anything serious happened to me or my mother when he did call for curses—though, it was enough to frighten my mother and generally traumatize me as a child. But the fear I had for my father was short-lived. It soon turned into hatred, but before I was old enough to actually realize that I no longer feared my father, mother decided to escape with me into the mountains.
She packed money, food, clothing, and whatever else we needed into the small cart we owned. Under the cover of night we left, while my father was out on the floor with a bottle of sake in his hand. I recall that I was about seven years of age when mother took me with her. Winter had not yet come but its gentle breath already clawed off leaves from the trees.
So we traveled north, and within a week we reached a temple. My mother was terribly exhausted as she had been the one who stood vigil while we slept, sensitive to whatever dangers were around us. The priestesses there were kind to us, and gave us shelter and food after our story was told to them. Shortly after we were shown hospitality, my mother said to me that I was old enough for some education, and so she proposed she would work around the temple in exchange for the priestesses to teach me how to read and write—skills I took to naturally.
I finished learning how to read and write quickly and I probably stopped learning the basics within a year (as the classes took up nearly all the hours of the day), but the art of poetry was an entirely new concept to me. I remember composing poems about anything that interested me, no matter how naïve the thoughts were. The art of language simply fascinated me, and stirred in me a creativity that I could not have acquired in my younger years back home.
I would create stories and poems at large, but what I yearned for most of all were new riddles to recite.
“There are four brothers in this world that were all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good.”
This was a riddle I learned while examining the temple scrolls back then. The answers are “water, fire, earth, wind” in that order.
We remained with the priestesses for the course of two years, but soon my mother decided to take me west through the mountains. She said she knew her family would welcome us with open arms. She was so sure we could have a new beginning together, that I remember she took me to a spring festival shortly after we made plans to leave. We had grown attached to the peaceful life at the temple, and so carried the feelings of sadness and nostalgia with us. Immediately after our farewells were spoken, we left in the same horse-drawn cart that helped us leave Koijito Ryoha.
Not long after we began what was our second trek through the mountains, my mother fell ill. She tried to comfort me, tell me she was going to be fine, that it was only a small cold—but I had my doubts. I began caring for her as much as I could, fetching water whenever we stopped, tending to the horse and giving her food. As time passed it seemed that my mother would only grow weaker. My doubts became irrefutable when I saw she had trouble breathing. At first, she would cough up blood only occasionally, perhaps being launched into a spell of spitting it up once a week or less. But over time it then became a horror I saw daily.
My mother had endured perhaps seven months of ill health before the first snows fell, and our outlook for the winter to come was grim. During the last precious days I spent with her, she continued to tell me that our destination was “just over that mountain, just over that mountain.” And that whatever would happen to her, I was to make it there safely.
But soon I was convinced I wasn't trembling from the frigid air around me. I felt I was shivering because I would always see my mother's blood on the snow. More and more of it was abandoned on the sides of the road, always in pools. Knowing she wasn't going to make it, my mother gave the reins for me to hold. Still worsening our grief, a blizzard was coming. The blinding white consuming the horizon was a harbinger of a frozen hell. We couldn't turn back, and we could barely move forward considering my mother's condition. So we sought to make a sufficient lean-to shelter until the storm passed.
We expected to finish in time.
Before we were able to create a decent pile of branches alongside a large stone, a ghastly, howling mass of white swept over us. The gusts literally pelted me and brusquely pushed me to the ground. In seconds, it was impossible to see my hands. Immediately the blizzard separated me from my mother. I screamed for her in the midst of the snow, and a few times I heard she called back to me, each time more faint than the next, yet as I tried to walk towards where I saw her last, I could not reach that spot without being hurled in an offset direction onto the ground.
WORKING ON IT
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[/COLOR] and I've been role playing for TWO YEARS and I'd like to say that I LIKE POCKY and my timezone is EST you can contact me at MY EMAIL, JUST ASK I've read the rules so I know the word is BITCHES I found this site through TSUZUKI and my favorite Inuyasha character is MOMO but on here I also play NOZOMI AYUMU, KOKOTO GINTA, & ITSUME HAKKAKU
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