The Reason for Those Toilet Slippers

Cigarette smell, toilet slippers, dandruff of a most ungodly nature, all of these so unprotocol, how Konzen used to glare with irritation every time he made his entrance at the door. Konzen pretty, Konzen grouchy, Konzen was a boring soul, dying day by day, breaking monotony with a grunt of old-hag, and then building and maintaining the kill-joy all over again.

Ennui is a murderer; mortals have the comfort of escaping it with death. Gods have no death save for a once-and-for-all elimination, and no one wants that option. Ennui rests on the shoulders of the gods, thus the gods wreak havoc upon the Earth. Humans separate insect-leg and insect-body for pleasure, beautiful karma dictates that gods should destroy them collectively, watch them run about, yawn, and return to their bored lives. So Konzen made it his affairs to record it, so Tenpou made it his affairs to love it.

Books, scrolls, annals and endless notes, one pile atop another in the hopeless story of an otaku. Speak to him about the affairs of Heaven, and he says little, speak to him of the affairs of Earth and he would go on and on, down to the very last minute detail that no one would even bother to care, not even the gods – they commit, they forget, it is of none of their business to remember, and so long as they do their business that is all that matters to them. Life in Heaven is business bureaucracy, Tenpou is obsessive, just not the way that Konzen is.

Tenpou loves Kenren. Braggart and shaker-upper. Met him. Loved him immediately. Walk in. Cause trouble. Damn it beats protocol any day. He lets shaker-upper shake a bit more than he should. The reason surmised is hatred for the upper folks. The real reason is that Kenren is quite simply put, a lot of fun.

Kenren wonders why Tenpou would find paradise in books that speak endlessly of murder and pillage and plunder. Kenren sees bloodspill. Tenpou sees dreams. Pleasure and pain are twins wound together. Over wine and flowers he once told Kenren that if he'd have a chance to be born a human he wants more than to know, he wants to feel. Beats boredom, he believes.



Written: 26/10/2003

Revised and uploaded: 23/01/2004