TSUYUKUSA

[foreversweaterweather]

Comments

[foreversweaterweather]

Whoaaaaa. Cool! Can you show me?

[branches]

[Shakes his head.]

I don't have access to any of my powers here, so I'm stuck like this.

[foreversweaterweather]

So...if your tree isn't here...and you can't do any of your magic tree stuff...and you look like a human...

...then you're a human!

[branches]

[HE'S SO OFFENDED BY THIS???]

Wh- Of course not!? I still don't need to eat and besides my teeth are different than yours??

[foreversweaterweather]

If you don't eat, then why do you have teeth at all?

[branches]

[Listen.]

.... I don't know, I guess so I can bite people?

[foreversweaterweather]

[ given that this is happening w0, this is gonna be very oddly prescient in like 3 days IC time

Mabel laughs ]

What, like a tree zombie?

[branches]

[Weidly he flinches at this? Huh.]

What?? No, just like, just like any animal with sharp teeth would use them to defend themselves?

[foreversweaterweather]

What are you defending yourself from, other trees?

[branches]

From humans.
[HE KNOWS MABEL IS TELLING A JOKE BUT THAT WON'T STOP HIM FROM RUINING IT.]

[foreversweaterweather]

Wait, why are you biting humans...?

[branches]

Because sometimes they come into the forest and threaten the ayakashi that live there.
[Sighs.]

I know now that not all humans are like that, but I used to hate them all, because I didn't know.

[foreversweaterweather]

Is ayakashi what you call all the other tree people...?

Well...now you know better! And technically, I'm a tree person too, you know--my last name is Pines!

[branches]

[Blinks, then actually laughs.]

I guess that's true, you are a tree person. A tree human instead of a tree spirit.

But no, tree spirits are just a kind of ayakashi. My father was a snake demon and my brother is a bird demon, they're ayakashi too.

[foreversweaterweather]

That's me! A tree spirit's best tree human friend!

...how do you get a tree from a snake demon and a bird demon? Are you technically a demon too?

[branches]

[Well he doesn't have any other tree human friends so that's hard to dispute.]

We're not blood related. But I guess? Spirits, demons, ayakashi, ally pretty much the same thing?

[foreversweaterweather]

Huh! So if you're not blood related, do you just get to...point at a random spirit guy and decide he's your dad now?

[branches]

[Good job Mabel, you've offended Tsuyukusa!]

What? Of course not! But Byakuroku raised me since I first sprouted, so that obviously makes him my father!?
[MABEL HAVEN'T YOU HEARD OF ADOPTION?]

[foreversweaterweather]

Oooohhhh! So it's more like a random guy gets to pick you as their kid! Okay!

[branches]

[I'm in tears.]

I-it wasn't random?? My predecessor was his master, so he was tasked with planting my tree and raising me from his master.

[foreversweaterweather]

Huh! Neat. So where'd the human-looking body come from, then? I get trees getting planted, but did you like...grow on the tree? Or just pop out of a hole in the dirt?

[branches]

How should I know? Do you remember being born?

[HE WAS THERE BUT HE WAS A BABY!!]