Lord Tanuki - Secretary - RPLOG
From Flexible Survival
Participants
Date
14/1/2016
Log
Fenris trots along down the streets of Fairhaven, his spear and sword bouncing on his back as he goes. Somewhere, the tubby tanuki has acquired half of a police uniform. The upper half. Since the lower half probably wouldn't fit. His glittering badge is marked 'Sgt. Chubbs,' and one can only imagine where he managed to find it. He slows to a walk as he arrives at the little japanese shrine and approaches it meekly and not without some real trepidation. "Uhm," he says, and coughs before continuing, "I'm Fenris," he says to the shrine, or to the empty air, or to the statues, "I-I was hoping that I could get an audience with Lord Tanuki, uh, the Great Leaf." He bites his lip and looks around awkwardly. This was stupid. It would never work.
There is a stillness in the air, almost palpable before it's shattered with a soft breeze. Leaves dance and play, crisp and brown despite being deep January, circling around Frenris' feet a moment before they kicked up into a little tornado of force. Standing there as the leaves disperse is a slender female tanuki with a kindly smile. "Hello! His eminence is quite busy and can't see every petitioner." She reached up to adjust her glasses as she looked at a clipboard that wasn't in her paws a moment before. "Let's see... Ah. Perhaps I can assist? I may not have the direct bounty of The Great Leaf, but who does, save himself?"
Fenris bows low at the emmisary, stunned into silence and more than a little surprised that anything had happened at all! "Thank you for answering," he says, still bowed low, "I, well, I am not sure what exactly I need," he admits, "I recently began following the Tanuki way, with a little help from The Great Leaf and now. . . well, now I find that I am not sure what to do next. I have not exactly had any teachers or anyone to show me how to be a tanuki." He sneaks a glance at the woman and her clipboard.
She tucks the clipboard behind herself, and her hands come free without it. "You've chosen well. The Tanuki way is one of pleasure and delight, but also discovery, for yourself, and those around you." She bounced closer as if walking weren't good enough. "You have questions, and that's good! All good tanuki are full of questions and dares, of others and their own, but which answers will you find, hmm? The seeking is a great part of that fun." She leaned in closer, nose a few inches away. "What do you think, when you think Tanuki?"
Fenris straightens up, feeling the closeness of the other Tanuki. "I don't know," he says, thinking, "I guess I think friendly and welcoming? I mean, I think I like playing tricks on people too, but never to hurt anyone." He takes a deep breath, getting a noseful of the woman very nearly sharing his space. "I just wonder if there is something that I should be doing for the Great Leaf her in Fairhaven, is all." he says, "I mean, I know that other tanuki are out there, but I just don't feel like I am part of the plan. . ."
She smells of cedar with soft traces of a female, all under a bed of what smells like some kind of cherry perfume that gently tickles at the nose without being too bold. "These are good things, all of those things, but we don't play tricks just to play tricks, though a good laugh is sometimes its own reward." She tapped a cheek. "Better that lessons are learned, to say nothing of all the things we want to learn. Some say we are insane and reckless, but I'll tell you the truth." She leans in, snout almost brushing, whiskers tickling at his ears. "These are pranks we play on ourselves."
Fenris finds that he is leaning further and further back as the woman gets closer and closer until he tips back and lands on his well padded rump. "Oof!" he huffs, then blushes hard under his fur, "Then what do I do?" he asks, both embarrassed and hopeful, then he frowns a little bit in confusion, "What do you mean, pranks we play on ourselves?"
She points at Fenris with a little titter. "Well, look at yourself. You came looking for answers, and there you are, on your rump in front of one trying to help. Why are you in this shameful state when you should be leaning in to listen and speaking your questions in turn, hmm? This is part of being a Tanuki. Easy answers are boring. Easy life is boring." She spread out her arms. "The chase, on the other hand, there's great fun to be had, of your own, or convincing someone else to do the running." She reached back, producing that clipboard. "Do you understand?"
Fenris nods, gently hooks a pudgy paw behind the graceful tanuki's nearby leg and PULLS! "I think I am starting to get the idea," he says with a grin.
She squeals in surprise, her clipboard fluttering through the air, vanishing as if eaten away by something even as she collapses to the ground with a soft 'oof'. "You little rascal." She wags a pen at him she wasn't holding before. "Best watch it with that one, some get rather testy about falling." She moved to stand up, rubbing her bottom. "Tanuki are built to absorb a good fall, thankfully."
Fenris laughs warmly and stands along with the female. "I could not let a lady stay standing while I sat!" he says amiably, his contented smile finding its way back to his face, then he bows low again, "I apologize. It seems I have much to learn about the Tanuki way. I submit myself as a wayward student. What must I do?" He sneaks a glance upward, and tilts his head. "How do you do that?" he finally asks, nodding at the pen she was certainly not holding a moment ago.
She glances at it before offering it towards him. "Some of it has to do with where I come from." She put her free paw on her chest. "I'm from our home world, where there are many Tanuki, and much, how you would call it, 'magic'? Not so much here." She gestures to where the clipboard vanished. "Conjured things vanish without it. Shame too..." It seems only then that she notices she's being bowed to and reaches out, gently tweaking an ear.
"Ow!" Fenris cries, more from surprise than actual pain. "So I can't conjure thngs?" he asks, just a little disappointed, "I've figured out some of the shapeshifting, like turning into objects and I can turn into lots of other things using the nanites here, but mostly people here think that Tanuki are only good for their big balls!" He casually slaps his tanuki endowments. "I want to show people that the Tanuki way is more than that! What should I do?"
She waves a paw through the air. "What you call nanites is the magic of this world. The Great Leaf hasn't figured out much of it, but maybe you could help." She leans in again, nose coming close. "You said you were looking for a purpose. If you brought him the secret of this world's magic, well, that would make you a very important tanuki. He would throw a party for you like no other." She tapped her cheek. "He might even let you immigrate to our world, if you wanted to." A hand lowered and she brushed his engorged balls. "I'm sure many tanuki would be happy to see you."
