text un: cainknightley

[himbosupreme]

Hello. I am a bit new to this sort of technology so sorry if I'm making any mistakes but hopefully everyone will see this.

My name is Cain Knightley. I'd attach a picture if I knew how, but I'm not really sure how the camera works?

But that's not important what is important is that

look,

I know it sounds odd but if you meet me, I can't see anyone until I touch them. It's a curse I got from fighting the moon and other wizards have them, but that's their right to tell you.

I'm just stating this now so I won't run into as much trouble later. Sorry for any sort of incidents I've caused before!

Also, if any of you guys have one of these funky little clay statues but doesn't want to go to the Enma department, please just give them to me. I'll ensure they get there safely.

Comments

[worldbent]

[He's just finishing up a sip of his tea when he sees a young man enter, glancing around and then immediately going to Shylock with familiarity. Ahh, this must be the guest he was here for... "Cain", wasn't it?]

[Matoba catches Shylock's suspicious, dangerous smile with one of his own as the man is sent in his direction, and sets his teacup down. He's looking just a scooch left of Matoba as he addresses him, but Matoba glances to the outstretched hand and smiles to himself.]

[This was an opportunity, wasn't it? Matoba reaches into the fold of his kimono, withdraws a slip of paper, and tucks it in his palm as he reaches out to shake Cain's hand. Firmly grasped, in all his shady glory Matoba is revealed, his dark kimono and the strange spelltag over his eye, head tilted as he examines the man with his other eye.]

[...No reaction to the spell in his hand. Interesting.] Cain-san, is it? Matoba. A pleasure.

[himbosupreme]

[Well, thankfully Cain didn't notice the piece of paper, or he might have questioned Matoba's intentions a little bit. Shylock was already acting coy enough when he sent him over here, but he was perfectly polite.

He desperately wanted to ask about that eye as he sat down, but if it was anything like his own, it was probably not a pleasant story.]

Thanks. Sorry again, I realized I came here without asking where to meet you. Thankfully Shylock could point me in the right direction!

[He's settled down quite comfortably, and would seem a lot more open and forward than any west wizard could be.]

So, have you been investigating these...haniwa, I think they are called?

[worldbent]

Oh, I figured it would work itself out, [Matoba replies mildly, seating himself again and reaching for his teacup. He stirs the little spoon in it a moment, and has another sip.]

[What an energetic and friendly vibe... Indeed, he didn't seem very much like Shylock at all. Perhaps he would be amenable to some questioning, but first, he should put him at ease with information of his own.]

Yes. They are clay statuettes that were normally used as funerary tributes in my country, in early civilization. Are you familiar with the nation of Japan? [His eye flicks towards Shylock- if they were from the same place, the answer was no.] That is where I, and they, are from.

Due to their ancient age, it isn't uncommon for many of them to gather up some power and become an ayakashi, or simply objects of power, but these ones are a little ...different. [He sets his cup down again, glancing at the haniwa that Shylock had seated at a table with a little shotglass of wine.]

[himbosupreme]

Oh, so you are from Japan as well? The previous sage and Akira, the one now are both from that land. That's really cool, actually! I don't recall anything like these statues, but suffice to say there's a lot of things about the Sage's world I don't really get.

[Like airplanes and electricity, for example. He was also fascinated by movie screens.]

What is an ayakashi then? Is it a sort of magical creature?

[worldbent]

Sages, huh... Ayakashi is the term we use in my business for the inhuman beings which live in the shadows of the world, unseen by most humans in my day and age. Be they gods, or youkai like the ones that inhabit this city, ghosts, or other sorts of spirits.

Wizards, too, would be considered a sort of ayakashi.

[Sages, meanwhile- he thinks he has heard Shylock use that term before, but not with proper context. Without looking across the room at him, he takes in the bartender's attentiveness as Matoba asks,] What function does a "sage" hold? Are they a sort of wizard as well?

[himbosupreme]

[Well, it would at least be easy to see Cain's expression fall a bit at the description of being 'inhuman'. He may have only been recently outed and experiencing it himself, but it still stung every time he got that accusation from people who had been fine with him before.]

I uh...not sure that's the best way to describe us. I mean both my parents are human and, I don't think we're really that different?

The sage uh, well we're also trying to figure that out. But their powers can counteract the moon's curse sometimes and draw out our magic, and they can summon new wizards when they turn to stone. So they are human, but connected to us.

[Please talk about the sage instead, he's mighty uncomfortable about the other subject.]

[worldbent]

[Shylock certainly hid his balk better, when Matoba had pressed the vein.] No? But you wizards are not human, correct? Then it is the word that suits you most.

[He hadn't really meant to discuss all his other... opinions about ayakashi, but this one was much more sensitive than Shylock, it seemed, wasn't he? Oh well. Matoba sips at his tea once, and then continues mercilessly,] For beings that live for hundreds of years and accumulate ever greater power, humans are insignificant. This point of view leads to viewing humans as playthings, as expendable resources, perhaps- is it so odd to think that from the human point of view, things seem... unbalanced?

And yet you find it in yourself to deny this, and claim brotherhood? That's very interesting.

[He sips his tea again. They don't have to talk about this now, but he wasn't going to back down if Cain was going to press the issue.]

So there are humans with magic in your world. [Even more reason to consider wizards specifically ayakashi T B H] I see... Very interesting. I am also capable of using magic, by the by; my profession as an exorcist requires the use of many spells- for purification, for sealing, and the like.

[himbosupreme]

I....

[Well, he couldn't deny that either. Oz himself was over 2000 years old and said himself that human lives for him were fleeting. That he would endure on even if he forgot them. And Cain himself...would become like that, wouldn't he? Outliving anyone he knew...

He was beginning to regret this conversation. He couldn't even tell how much-what did Matoba think of him then? Was he just being messed with? Or was the man just blunt?]

That's-I mean, we live for a really long time, but it's not always like that, is it? I don't-humans aren't expendable! Even the ones that hate us, well, aren't they just scared? We aren't like them, so I guess you're right about that, but I don't think we're so alien that we can't get along and understand each other.

[He sort of wanted to comment on the whole magic thing, but well...this was the conversation they were having now apparently.]

[worldbent]

[Matoba's eye comes to rest impassively on Cain again, and he sighs as he lifts the teacup to his face again.]

You were born to human parents, but how long will that connection last? Do you think you will remember them, centuries down the line? How long until you no longer see yourself in the humans around you? [Hm. He said 'are', not 'were', when speaking of his parents. He sips, then continues.] Is it... that you think you are human?

...

...Oh well. I don't really care what you think you are, as long as you are not threatening humans. [He smiles thinly.] That would be a very different conversation.

[He sips at his tea again, eye drifting back up to Shylock, unpleasantly, before tucking his temper away and setting the cup down again.] ...About the haniwa.

Are you able to sense their malice? [It's worse than Matoba's, that's for sure.]

[himbosupreme]

[Cain couldn't stop a hand from slamming into the table, almost startling himself in the process. But no, that wasn't right to do. This was Shylock's bar, and his anger would prove the other man nothing but right.

He himself could probably deal with being thought of as something inhuman but to bring his parents into it? The other friends he had? He took a deep breath instead.]

Why did you call me here then, if you know who-what I am? Surely you've heard everything from Shylock already.

...and I don't know anything about these statues. I was asking you since you said you had expertise in curses.

[worldbent]

[The slam doesn't even make Matoba flinch, but his eye falls to Cain's fist on the table with something that, on any other person, might be sympathy. Whatever it was this wizard thought that made them human, it was meaningless. Humans and ayakashi could never be the same; they could never feel the same things, or see the same world.]

[That was an immovable fact.]

I called you here to give you information on the haniwa, an offer I graciously extended out of a desire to keep the well-being of this city. If you do not want it, feel free to say so.

[...But after a pause in which he sips at his tea, he continues.] A no, then... Some Lost Souls seem to have retained a small amount of their senses in this place, if they had power before. If you don't sense it, I will describe it for you.

It is a powerful hatred and will to harm which they exude, a power which feels like it comes from something very old and very strong. But the statues themselves are not originals used in funerary rites. They have been recently crafted for their purpose; I am familiar with magical pottery works dating back many centuries, and I have seen other haniwa that have become objects of power. These are not the same.

[Matoba eyes the haniwa nearby mistrustfully.] Whoever is making these appear is doing it purposefully, with the intent to cause indiscriminate harm.

[himbosupreme]

[Cain had a lot of practice with dealing with pretentious nobles who hated wizards, so he found himself suprisingly thankful for that experience right now. Perhaps if one of the younger wizards were here he'd feel different, since Shylock, Murr, and Owen could honestly defend themselves.

It was hard to concentrate on any of the talk about the haniwa and he was sure his companion could notice, but that really didn't matter to him.]

All the more reason for me to continue rounding them up. I may not have my magic, but I can at least do my part in making sure the curse doesn't fall on more people. Now, if that's everything-

[God, he needed a drink, but he didn't really want to stick around here. He knew when a situation was bad and he wasn't wanted. He stood up, bowing stiffly.]

Thank you for your time.