Rockatronic [Serin/Ishi]

[Ishi]

The Jiangshi wasn't necessarily old, he wasn't young but he didnt have the same age and wisdom as an elder. He came to look this way from his transformation. Somewhere between life and death his hair and eyes turned white, his skin turned grey and withered. His frame dwindled into a semblance of a skeleton.
 
Ishi placed a grey palm against his withered chest. "Ishii, Jiang.sshi"  With the same hand, he extended it toward the woman. "Human. Name?" Serin had more questions for him. How long had he been rocking earth magic? That was a difficult question to answer. Ishi climbed out of his grave using the earthen magic. But since then, how much time had passed?  Somewhere between ten seconds and a thousand years. He had been so many places but they all seemed to run together in the current instant. It was a curious phenomenon. But surely Serin didn'tmean to give the Jiangshi an existential crisis in asking a simple question. "Sssome.. Time." Was his answer.

Now, since that question was sufficiently answered Ishi took his time to answer the follow up. Was he from around here? Depends on where he was. He didn't know where he rose from the earth but he knew that he emerged from beneath the ground. Seeing as he still touched said ground, he came to the conclusion that he couldn't have come from too far away. Ishi looked toward the ground, then back up. Then back down. Back up once more. "Yesss. From near."  Ishi wanted to reciprocate the question but didn't have a way to do so eloquently. He still hoped the woman would enlighten him with such information.

[Serin]

"Ishi Jangshi. Huh. Thats a weird name." Hm... that last half was supposed to be thought not said, wasn't it? Ah well, live and learn. Or don't learn! Whatever the case, the upbeat fox didn't worry overmuch about Ishi taking offense to her comment, mostly because she didn't care what he had to say about it, but partially because she was still trying to figure out what kind of unloving parents would name their kid that. THAT part she had the sense not to share with the older(?) man; she certainly wasn't in her official fancy-pants 'I am the shrine maiden here to bless your fields' bullshit persona but that didn't mean that all of her wit dripped out of her ears.

Just most of it.

Serin accepted his outstretched hand with a genuine(?) smile, not totally enthusiastic about his halting and confusing answers but satisfied that he was making the effort and willing to accept his attempt as it was. At least she was pretty well used to meet-and-greets and his hands didn't seem to be made out of swords or claws or severed kitsune nipples, so that was as good a sign as any! "Name's Serin. Decided village life wasn't for me so I'm out to see the world." Technically true. Missing a few minor details about how she had run away from home and shirked her life responsibilities and wasn't human, but hey, 1 out of 4 wasn't bad by her standards. "So far I haven't run into any dragons, youkai, angels, or demons, though. I mean, I don't DISlike humans," she trailed off a little, retracting her hand and waving it casually, "just thought it'd be more exciting out of the valley than walking and overly curious people tryin' ta cop a feel." Of her ears, she meant, but it wasn't like Serin had ever exactly been too worried about specifying things when she didn't actually have to.

"I bet you're on some kinda adventure yourself, amirite?"

[Ishi]

Ishi shook his head slowly. "Not right." He knew what his name was, he just had to convey it in a better way. "Ishi Jizoku is Jiangshi. Jiangshi is Youkai." At least he had gathered as much throughout his moments of existence. Ishi had also not intended to greet the woman with a handshake when he gestured toward her, but she was so quick to grab it that Ishi's muscles tensed in surprise. Ishi relaxed and spoke after Serin had introduced herself. "Meeting Ssserin. iss nice." Breathy speech aside, he was actually happy that she had gone into detail about her backstory.

She mentioned that she didn't dislike humans, Ishi didn't either, but he had come to a certtain understanding of the creatures. "Humans are... worrisome." Ishi was quick to generalize the entirety of humanity with a few words, but in his experience it was true. Now then, Ishi's mind slowly shifted gears to answer the next question.

"Ad..ven.ture?" Not quite. Adventures had some sense of thrill seeking or progression to them. Ishi didn't really care for either, but he did travel and he did enjoy his time on the road. So maybe it is some sort of adventure in the 'life is an adventure' sense. That said, Ishi also walked a strange line between living and being dead, so maybe that doesn't apply to him either. Ishi remained in contemplation for some time.

What was it that Ishi did exactly? He came up with an answer for the colorful woman.  "I wander, I wonder." Succinct enough to be uttered in the same breath, it was a good mantra for the Jiangshi. He would have to remember that.

[Serin]

Ok. So he wasn't Ishi Jangshi, he was Ishi Jizoku, and also a jiangshi. Serin was fairly certain that he HADN'T mentioned the name Jizoku before but unless he was bullshitting her, he had probably just forgotten about it, or didn't think to share it. He seemed to do that a lot. Not like she was anyone to judge, admittedly - something not even the occasionally vapid foxgirl could entirely ignore. Well, she COULD, but she would have to actively ignore it rather than, like, passively ignoring it. Nevermind. "...So... what's a jiangshi," she offered instead, her brow furrowed in a mite of confusion. Serin didn't like admitting to being dumb but "how to take care of corn 101" didn't include any lessons in weirdo species names that sounded like they were from some far-off language that had no business being used in proper Common.

On the flip side, if he WAS a youkai, that meant she didn't have to be on guard (probably), which was actually nice. For a... brief moment in time, she was almost grateful.

It didn't last long.

"Well if the cat's out of the bag on that, guess it wouldn't hurt to say I'm a kitsune either," she continued a little hesitantly though not so much from fear as the realization that she simply... hadn't really had to explain it much before. People either... knew who she was or... well, no, they just knew who she was, the shrine had been a fixture in the valley for centuries. Meh. Serin shrugged, one tail after another unfolding from behind her, seemingly out of nowhere; an iridescent swathe of once-white fur dyed in rainbow hues by shimmering magic. Powerful magic. Old magic.The magic faded, each of the four tails dying down to their natural starkly alabaster hues, but none remained quite still regardless, constantly waving back and forth as if animated by a will of their own. They weren't, probably, but she wasn't the best at standing totally still.

Honestly, she was feeling a bit more comfortable with this guy in general now though, if only because he was the first youkai she'd met since leaving town. Eeeeeven if he was kind of a weirdo and not exactly a hot guy. But he seemed harmless, anyways. "So you're like, the live and learn type, huh? Following your rainbow and all that?"

[Ishi]

"Youkai... Jiangssshi... died.... I... died" And now he lived. Not quite, but, he existed. The Jiangshi tilted his hooded head and leaned in. He wanted to know what she thought. He wanted to know how she handled a variable. What better variable than a living dead man? There was much to learn here. There was much to be seen. All Ishi had to do was invoke the necessary conditions.Similar to how he had challenged the woman to expend her magical expertise in skipping solids off the surface of liquids.

Ishi watched Serin's flourish of tails and colors. He turned his hooded face away. Ishi didn't have the same colorful capability. His powers ended with grey skin and a slight control of earth.Ishi's hood turned back toward the woman. He placed a gray finger on his gray wrist. "No... pulssse" No life. Ishi extended his wrist toward Serin, in case she was interested in feeling his lack of heart.

"Kit" Ishi started to learn how to pronounce the woman's race."Sssu.nii" This meant fox person or subhuman or something like that based on the literature that Ishi had read. Ishi didn't comment. He didnt think humans were the greatest. They treated him poorly. No reason to follow their lead.

Ishi preferred to live his life on the edge of tomorrow, in a sense. If only he could raise chaos in a garden. Alas, he wasn't able to act in such a timely manner."You... Cat...Ani-mal" Ishi didnt want to offend but he has almost certain that he did. He placed a palm against his hidden face.