hotel: jiji

[shaft]

Comments

[shaft]

[ He thinks about it. ]

Are you a courtesan?

[unsaid]

I know too little about human bodies to excel in such a task. [he'll say it] Though I have been learning more since being granted this form.

Though... the woman I belonged to for a time was the wife of a warlord, a strategist and a revolutionary in her own right. Yet she too possessed a love for the arts and refinement, as my other owners did.

[shaft]

You didn't always have a human body? Why were you given one?

[unsaid]

Necessity, mostly. We have a series of missions that we must fulfill, and granting us our own forms best allowed us to accomplish them.

We have been granted life, though albeit on someone else's terms.

[shaft]

I think most people are granted life on someone else's terms.

[ No one asks to be born. ]

So, you just run missions? You couldn't just go off and do whatever you want?

[unsaid]

[ . . . ]

Well, we aren't meant to.

[shaft]

But...?

[unsaid]

But life would be dull indeed if we only did as others meant for us.

[shaft]

[ Perks up. ]

I like your attitude.

[unsaid]

Ha ha ha, thank you, thank you. I am fond of yours as well.

[shaft]

So what are you pursuing for yourself?

[unsaid]

What a grand question.

I could ask you similarly. What might any one human pursue for themselves? Love? Fame? Longevity?

Or are your desires more concrete? Tangible?

[shaft]

Oh, I'm still figuring all that out. Major life events can change your perspective, you know?

[unsaid]

Naturally so.

Might you possess any strong inclinations toward anything? Or perhaps, everything?

[shaft]

My life was a little one track before this.

I think the most natural thing would be to return to that. But it's sort of a lifelong commitment...

[unsaid]

Have you found another track that you wish to pursue?

[shaft]

I haven't.

I've only ever had one goal, so I never imagined another path, I guess.

[unsaid]

Is that so...

[mikazuki seems thoughtful, though he nods a moment later]

Then perhaps my own pursuit can be said to exist within that uncertainty. That all may seek to follow their own paths, singular or plural, at their leisure without feeling constrained to one.

And though this may be a matter up to their own will than mine, but I would like to expand upon the ways in which we find life to have meaning.

Though perhaps that errs a bit too much toward what one might call philosophy.

[shaft]

That sounds like philosophy to me, but I think you have a point. There isn't a reason to have only one path in life...

Though I'm also wondering if this a long winded way of saying you aren't sure what to do with your life either.

[unsaid]

Ha ha ha.

I wonder which it is.

[shaft]

Do you?

[unsaid]

I feel as though it may take away some of my mystique if I provide you an answer.

[shaft]

[ He laughs. ]

Okay, I won't mess with your... aura.

[unsaid]

You have my thanks.

Perhaps if you look closely, the clouds shall part and you will be able to see the moon in its entirety.

[i hate cryptic metaphors but i must write them]

[shaft]

How poetic.