#jaisnt

He doesn’t remember how long he’s been in his shop. The day rolls by and only a few customers have come by, but only to look around. Today he has been out of it completely. Jaisnt covered the bottom half of his face with his scarf, leaving out his eyes as he stared at the wall. It only took him long enough to realize that he should close his shop. Getting from where he was, he walked to the front and flipped the sign from “open” to “closed.”

He walked back to his counter and sat on top of it, looking at the people walking by from the window. leaning back and grabbing his sweater, he puts it on and continued to space out.

It is night, snowing softly as the snowflakes danced in the wind, falling on the ground outside. Inside his room, Jaisnt looked over through the window next to his bed. He felt off the past few days. Though he doesn’t know why he feels the way he is. He looked like he was in a trance until he was startled by knocking from downstairs. He looked out from the window, seeing his friend, Claire, peeking out an waving to him.

He rolled his eyes, walking downstairs and opened the front door. “So you don’t come and visit me anymore?” She chuckled, hugging him as he returned the hug.

“I just need time alone. Sorry, Claire. Come in.” He said, moving aside as she walked inside, closing the door and both of them sitting on a couch.

“So what’s up?” She said. “Haven’t seen your face around lately. “

“You should know that I do own a store. That’s where I usually am.” He said, Claire sticking her tongue at him playfully and laughed a little.

“I sometimes forget. But seriously, how’s it going!” She said excitingly.

“Just... nothing. Been busy with some of my work. Been working on some things that some clients needed. Typical jewelry.” He said as he stared off at the wall.

Claire only looked at his expression, frowning a bit. She hasn’t seen that sad expression for a long time. “Jai... hey, are you okay? Is there something wrong? You know you can tell me. I’m your friend.”

He only glanced at her and looked away, contemplating on whether or not he should talk about it, but looking back at her face, he could see how worried she is. Letting out a sigh of defeat, he finally talked. “I... haven’t felt myself lately. It’s been effecting me a whole lot and especially on my work. I mean... I’m happy with everything that I have. My lusus came back, I own a store. I should be happy with the things I have.”

It didn’t take long before Claire realized he didn’t mention something else. She took a chance and responded. “Jai... do you miss them?”

At that point, he was silent, knowing what she was talking about and only nodded. “I try not to think about it all too much. Though sometimes I find myself thinking about them. my moirail... my matesprit. I often feel like I might be going crazy because I keep thinking they’re here.”

“Didn’t this happen before?” She questioned. “Didn’t you have a moirail once before along with a matesprit?”

“Yes. In one of my previous lives, but I haven’t seen her since even after I finally gained memory of what she was to me. And the same thing with my matesprit. We were together and she just suddenly disappeared, too.” He explained. “My second matesprit... well... we broke up. I wasn’t allowed to see her again even to call ourselves friends. I guess I broke her heart that much...”

“Don’t be hard on yourself, Jai.” She said. “I know... that the people you cared about randomly leave, but I’m sure it’s not because of you if you’re thinking that. Listen, it’s almost 12th Perigees and I have a present for you. So can you please come over to my hive on Perigees? I’m sure it’ll make you happy!”

He stayed silent, but eventually cracked a small smile and nodded to her. “Sure. I’ll be there. But no pranks this time. Last time I went to your home, I got water dumped on me. In the cold.”

“Oh come on! It wasn’t that bad!” She laughed, getting up and walked to the front door. “It was nice talking to you, Jai. See you next time!” She waved and he waved back, watching her leave. Hearing the door close, he lets out a heavy sigh.

“Why the hell did I decide to come here? There’s no point for me being here.” Jaisnt said to himself, groaning as he entered the place, getting through the crowd. Wearing a grey suit vest, he maneuvered away from everyone as he got to a corner where he stands by, watching over everything. Everyone is happy. Smiles across all faces with the woman wearing the most magnificent and well designed dresses anyone has ever seen.

Peaceful. It’s something he would say though there could be many words to describe at the current moment. Finding a chair, he sat down, humming as music played in the background. Despite arriving at the place, he doesn’t feel the same kind of happiness that everyone else is feeling. He feels he doesn’t belong there in an odd way. Or it could be just him thinking that. Half of it could be an excuse of wanting to leave.

Walking up from his cellar, Jaisnt looks back at it, turning off the lights and closed the door behind him. He went to his room as his pet bunny, Xanor, perks its head up from the cage it’s in, looking at him. “Hey there, little guy. I told you I wasn’t gonna be gone for long.” He smiled, opening the cage door with his hand open as it hops onto it.

He walks to his bed, resting Xanor on top of it as it hops around it for a bit and stopped, looking up at Jaisnt with its ears perked up. Jaisnt walked over to his closet, taking out his acoustic guitar which has been gathering dust for months now. “Haven’t used you in a long time, huh? Let’s get that dust off you.” He said, grabbing a small towel and wiped off all the dust, even blowing some of it off. He strummed it, hearing that it’s out of tune and began tuning it.

“Right... so... carbon plating... fitted and comfortable. Okay... alright- um do you think that’s- yeah, yeah, nevermind on that. Call me back when you have something that I can properly make. I’m not making a power armor, you know? Just a simple high grade armor... alright? Good. Bye.” Hanging up on the phone, he buries his face onto his arms that were on the desk, letting out a long groan as his pet bunny, Xanor, looked over at Jaisnt curiously.

Bringing his head up, he looks over at his pet, scratching it behind its ears. “Xanor, buddy, you’re the only thing I know that can literally relieve me of stress when dealing overbearing customers and their ridiculous ideas. At least you’re not like that. the only you ask for is lettuce and carrots rather asking for a high caliber rifle that can rip through time and space.” Letting out a sigh, he looks over at his blue prints until hearing some noise coming from upstairs.

Pulling out his hand gun, he slowly walked up the stairs and out of his cellar to see where the noise is coming from. From the sounds of it, it seem to be coming from the kitchen. Silently walking towards there, he peaked out from the corner to see who the intruder is and to his surprise, it happened to be a girl in not much of clothing, rummaging through his fridge and throwing everything out that doesn’t seem edible to her. She has a bow and spear which are both made out of wood. Seems to be a feral troll, he thought.

He accidentally stepped on some broken glass in which he stopped and the girl turned around, bow drawn and shot an arrow. He quickly moved his head, nearly missing the arrow which stuck to the wall three inches next to his head. “Woah, woah, woah. Calm down. Is there anything you’re looking for? Something specific?” He asked.

The troll girl kept her bow fixated on him and points down to the ground where there was a small puddle of water. At first he was confused, but then realized what she meant. “... Water? You’re looking for water?” The troll nodded, holding the arrow in place with her left hand and gestured eating something by hand with her other hand. “And an apple?” He asked, and she responded with a nod.

“For a feral troll, you don’t seem to talk much. There a reason for that?” He asked. The girl hesitated for a while, frowning, but nodded to the question. “I see. Um... well... there’s big glass of water in the fridge and the apples are in a bowl.”

The girl had a confused look on her, but puts away her bow and arrow and looks through the fridge and sees the large glass of water in there. she smiles, grabbing it and drinks from it. She practically finished the whole thing, letting out a content sigh, and threw the glass, letting it shatter. “No, no, no! God... damn it.”

The other troll looked back at him with a confused look and shrugs it off, waling over to the bowl and grabbing an apple from it. She takes a bite on it and sits on the counter, kicking her legs. “You’ve got to be kidding me. First of all, how did you get past my security defense? And second, why here of all places?!” He asked in an annoyed tone. She only shrugged, possibly not caring what he was saying.

Finishing the apple, she threw the core of it and stretched a bit and being prepared to take off her bra before Jaisnt could tell her to stop. “H-Hey, hey, hey! No! No, no, no!” Turning to look at him, she gave a confused look, watching him as he walked in front of her, but only for him to get turned on his stomach from her, falling to the ground and groaned in pain. “Oh... fuck.”

Taking off her bra, she lets it fall on him as she goes to the living room to stretch a bit. Jaisnt took a moment to recuperate himself, before finally getting up to at least talk to her. “Okay... listen lady, I don’t know where you’re from, but you should not strip naked in another person’s home.” The troll stopped what she was doing, deciding to pay attention to him and sit cross-legged.

He tossed her bra back her, which she catches it and sits on a couch and puts down his gun on the small table. “Let’s just get some things straight, okay? You understand me. Which means you know Alternian.” She nodded. “Alright. Though you have a reason why you don’t speak.” She nodded again. “And... you’re not familiar with the customs that every other troll has.” She nodded again, once more.

Thinking for a moment, he takes out a small sheet of paper and a pen, giving it to her as she looks at it. “If you know Alternian, can you write your name for me?” She looks up at him and nodded, taking the pen and paper and wrote her name, giving it back to him once she finished. He looks over at it and reads it. “Zenira... Aracni. From the looks of your eye color, you seem to be an orange blood and you used to be feral judging from the... bow and spear. Though you seem to know how to defend yourself pretty well.”

She nodded. Jaisnt thinks over for a minute and then decides on an idea that he thinks could help her get a better understanding on troll society and possibly some other thing he can try to teach her. “Tell you what, since it seems like you’re trying to integrate into regular troll society, I can try to teach you some things. Obviously you learned the basics and that’s good. You can stay over. Get a room to sleep in, some food, all that good stuff. Maybe I could also teach you how to use a different weapon other than a bow and arrow. You know how to use them, but for them being made out of wood, they’re not gonna last a while. Lastly, name’s Jaisnt. Jaisnt Rodnik.”

“So... are you sure this thing will work? It’s... not gonna explode my head or anything... right?” Linith said, her state of amnesia still in affect as she talked to Jaisnt.

“Of course it will work. Let’s just say it’s an invention you have made. Well, in the process of making it, but it was left in the rubble.” Jaisnt talked, placing a steel cap with light bulbs around it that had wires running through a generator near him. “I managed to rebuild it, made some few modifications, adjusted some wires and the circuits and it should work.”

“Have you tested this thing?!” She quickly asked. Jaisnt only gave a smirk, grabbing a remote and looked intently at her. “Well... we’re gonna find out.” He said, pressing a button on the remote as a wave of electricity goes through her head. Her eyes widened as images flies by, all of her memories, the good and ones each appearing in front of her.

Jaisnt watched, taking a moment until he pressed the button again for the machine to stop. Linith breathed in heavily and panted, shaking a bit. “Fucking hell, Jai! If you were gonna grab my stuff and build it up in your own fashion you should at least test it! What if you did make my head explode?!”

“Yup, that’s her, alright.” He takes off the cap as she got off the chair she was sitting in. “Sorry about that, but you should know that I make sure everything I build works right.”

“Yeah... I know.” She said, calming down and her shaking stopped. “Thanks though.” He smiled patting her shoulder as he walked to his desk.

“I seen what happened to your place. What did you do?”

“I... I tried to... kill myself...”

“You what?!”

“It didn’t work, okay! Something... happened to me. I... felt like I was dead. Then I met someone.”

“In the after life?”

She nodded, continuing to explain her story. “She knew me. Somehow. Her name was Varani.”

“Varani?! You’ve met her in the after life?!”

“You know her?”

“I met her once. I considered her a friend. One of my previous lives I have met her. She’s pretty much like a ghost that tends to disappear whenever though I know that she goes through dream bubbles and sometimes can see through people’s lives.” He explained

“Well... after I met her, I suddenly woke up. I created an explosion from my fire and I burnt it all down. I saw that my hive was all gone... due to me. After that, I began to walk away though I was slowly losing my memories. It wasn’t until I fully lost them and I was just... walking aimlessly, carrying a box... that... hold some memories, but even when I had amnesia, I wouldn’t even have known.”

“The same box you left me when you came over before, right?”

“Yes. The same box.”

“Lin.”

“Yes?”

“Did you kill yourself because of her?”

Linith didn’t say anything. She had told him everything of what had happened to her and her previous ex kismesis. Eltera. The two of them had an odd relationship which turn for the worst when she spoke to her after the large gap of not being able to talk to her. Mostly because she was afraid. She nodded. She remembered what happened very well. She most likely think that Eltera must not have cared of whatever happened to her. “Jai... can we not talk about that. Please?”

He nodded, walking up to her and embraced her into a hug. He patted her back until a minute later he pulled away. He turned over to his desk and grabbed a cylinder with a button on top and a small reflective glass at the bottom. “Here, I wanted you to have this.” He handed it to her only for her to be confused on what it is.”

“What is this?”

“Your invention.”

“Mine?”

“While I was at, whatever remained of your hive, I found a couple of blue prints that were somewhat intact. This was one of yours. The Scar Removing Tube, which you called it.”

“Really? Shit... that’s an old one. Thanks...”

“I figured I’d make it so you can remove those burn marks you’ve had. I know it wasn’t pretty when trying out the whole fire spin. So... you know.”

She nodded, examining the cylinder until an idea came across her head. She puts it away and hugged Jaisnt one more time before pulling away. “Thank you for everything. I never thank you enough...”

Remember when I said I needed to draw Jai a lot more?

This is my excuse

Other than that, I miss drawing the wolf troll. It’s been so long since I drew him especially since he’s the one character that is very well developed in both personality and just his whole character in general

It took at least... several sweeps to come to this decision, but he finally opened up a weapon shop. Jaisnt put the last weapon on display and carefully looked over at his shop for a moment. He could honestly never been more happier for this decision.

Though there's been many times someone has suggested him selling his weapons for money. He never opted to it since he didn't need the money, but thinking it over completely changed his mind. He goes up to the front door and puts up his "Grand opening!" sign. He was still unsure about this decision though. He doesn't expect that many people to be coming in.

Either way, this was worth a try than anything. Hell, he could get paid for helping anyone with a robotic replacement if they need repairs. Many pros and cons, but he keeps thinking over at the cons.