PROMO: Different Person

[Guest Thoth]

Do you like your life? Does your livelihood make you happy?

 

Do you have any regrets?

 

And if you could change anything, would you? Knowing that doing so would make you a different person?

 

Can you look at that different person and like him?

---

The latest exploit of Yuuichiro Kaesame, with the help of the native Japanese of Aechiba, is to lay a level of bricks, and put gray, soupy concrete on top of that layer. And then, they put another layer of bricks. And then more concrete. The concrete is not coming out of a nearby truck with one of those twirly cylinder things. No, they have to wheelbarrow it back and forth about a quarter mile. A quarter mile isn't really that far, but it's tedious work; and it makes the progress slow down a great deal. Summer hits the island community quite hard. Entire green fields of grass turn yellow due to the arid conditions.

 

Somehow, it's a perfect day to be building. Yuuichiro has his shirt off, letting his sweat blow free in the sunlight. His muscles have shrunk a small amount, having been out of the business of lifting people and dropping them succinctly. However, constant bending over to pick up things is strengthening his abs, and also taking a toll on his back. He's learning to lift with the knees.

 

Some would consider it a boring job; but Yuuichiro sees it as a meditation. And maybe a way to pay penance. Every moment is a moment to think. The repetition of movements is a hypnotism that lulls Yuuichiro's mind into the alpha frequencies, a state in which consciousness exists, but the owner of said brain is not aware.

 

In other words, daydreaming.

 

Nathaniel has been gone for several days now... Yuuichiro knows what happened, but he has not seen the SWF lately. In fact, he has not seen television lately. Too busy making his home a better place to live.

 

Now the sun has gone down. The workers are going to go home, and go to their wives and children. There will be a hot meal for them waiting, cooked with care and love. But the problem is, Yuuichiro has no wife. He has never been in love.

 

He puts down the shovel he's been using to dig a foundation, and sits down. He looks at his calloused hands, caked with dirt. He rubs them against each other, and feels the tough skin struggle to wipe past itself. He's growing a beard; he needs to shave. The craggly hairs shoot out every which way from his chin, and rub against it. He can feel it on himself.

 

The foreman, a man of about 50, but who still has most of his natural hair color, makes his presence known by standing in Yuuichiro's light.

 

"I wanted to come talk to you after everyone left for home. I didn't want to cause a scene."

 

Yuuichiro looks up at the foreman, whose eyes and face are dusty with a thin layer of dirt. "The money that we've saved up for the repairs is running out. We're having to cut back on the pace of development."

 

"I'm sorry to hear that," Yuuichiro replies, "But why does it concern me?"

 

"The money primarily came from that which you donated to our cause... which I believe is a result of your time of employment in the SmartMarks Wrestling Federation." The foreman speaks the name of the SWF in a butchered Japanese-English combination, but ironically, a form which is considered proper in Japanese speech.

 

"I know what you're asking, foreman," says Yuuichiro, adding a -sama at the end to indicate his respect, "But I can't go back there. Too many bad memories. Too many things I did, and too many people I hurt. If money is an issue, I'll get a job somewhere else."

 

The foreman's gaze averts down and to the right from Yuuichiro's eyes. "I figured you would say that. Come with me, I have something of interest to you." The foreman leads Yuuichiro back to his house, which has a TV with a VCR. He pops in a tape. Yuuichiro already knows, intuitively, what it is. The SWF.

 

Nathaniel Kibagami wrestling Judge Mental.

 

"That bastard..." Yuuichiro says softly, trailing off. He knew it, he knew it all along. Why else was he going to the PPV? If the contract was going to run out, he could've sat here and let it.

 

But deep down, he knew why Nathaniel had to go back. Because of Silent. It's the same for him. It's everything he can do to try and keep Thoth suppressed, but it yearns to be free, to roam wild, and clash wills with those who would clash wills with it. While watching the videotape, long-hidden emotions bubble to the surface. A tinge of excitement appears on Yuuichiro's face. A tinge of excitement appears on Thoth's face.

 

"How typical," he thinks. "He even loses his first match back," watching the result of the match unfold.

 

"So..." the foreman says, as the tape of the show continues to play in the background. "Will you do it?"

 

"Nathaniel may be my brother, but he's his own person. Whatever reasons he has for being back, they don't concern me. My personal demons were put to rest long ago."

---

You'll never be as powerful as me!

---

"I wish you wouldn't say that so soon... the SWF would pay a lot of money, probably more than you could make taking any jobs around here, or even on the mainland. The country is still in the midst of what could be an endless recession."

 

The tape keeps playing, and out of the corner of Yuuichiro?s eye... is that Janus?

 

"I'll think about it, foreman," he says decisively, before leaving to return to his own home.

Edited May 24, 2003 by Thoth

[Guest Beezel]

Somehow, through the ethers, I felt this coming. I hope it becomes what I think it will. Excellent promo as usual Yuuichiro.

[Guest Ace309]

That's a really interesting promo, Thoth. I really enjoyed the bit about considering the heavy manual labor - which is, implicitly and obviously, below him - a form of meditation. I've always enjoyed that aspect of the Thoth character - seeing him violent and short-fused in the ring, but meditative and intelligent outside.

 

And, of course, the story development. (Y)

[Guest Kibagami]

Curiouser and curiouser.

 

K.

[Guest 5_moves_of_doom]

I'm enlightened, Orochi.