Revolutionary Boy Taiki [Azores]

Long, flowing spiraling hair, that's Taiki's most distinguishable feature. He has an almost legendary, impossible to forget voluminous mane that goes as far as to cover his shoulders in emerald-colored swirling locks, shinning so intensely, so healthily that you can't help but to wonder if there really exist any scizors that can cut it. Taiki takes great pride on his hair so its always kept on top condition.

Besides that, the little face you can catch a glimpse of behind the layers of this wondrous whool has sharp, clearly defined features on a visage of optimal length and width, what makes it a remarkably expressive face, that conveys emotion very well. Specially remarkable are his eyes, not because of their pretty apple colour, but because of that vivacious, cunning shimmer they've got to them. Besides that his lips are quite thick and fleshy, plump and soft like peaches.

Physically Taiki is a bit shorter than average. Standing at merely 1.73 meters of height, Taiki has to look up to look at many of his classmates or even juniors. Perhaps to make up for this he compensates by manyaining a healthy, pretty athletic physique, although it isn't nothing outstanding either.

From having always lived by the sea, Taiki is pretty tanned, ranging from the colour of wheat or a light shade of gold in winter to a slight bronze shade at summer. Finally, despite practicing boxing, his hands are actually pretty smooth and delicate-looking, though he does bite his nails a bit too much.

Its also worth noting that his voice is very high pitched almost comically so, and that on top of that he is so expressive that its almost as if he was singing, what makes it sound like someone was trying to play a song only using squeaking rubber ducks everytime he opens his mouth.

When using his Persona, letters spelling the word T-U-R-B-O appears on Taiki's left iris, each letter disposed so to form a pentagram. The symbol "XX" also appears underneath, engraved on his left cheekbone on a bright, golden colour.

Taiki is a very quirky young lad. I say this because, somehow, everything about himself seems to be a total contradiction of almost completely irreconcilable traits that despite not making any sense exist simultaneously nonetheless. Not that he seems to mind and even wether he does even notice is unknown.

On one hand, he is a very kind person at heart, there's no denying that. He is very kind and giving person, the kind that enjoys taking things nice and slow and spending alone time doing nothing but whatever they want, be it something creative, thinking or just playing around. On the other he can be a very proactive, sociable person, a go-getter with a strong, volatile temperament and an aggressive streak that can make him difficult to deal with at times. There's no telling how Taiki will respond to something, because it only takes so much for him to switch from one state to the other, to the point it's befuddling.

This is because Taiki is the kind to feel emotions very strongly in an explosive manner, that is, for a very short period of time. Then he just either gets over it or simply forgets. Even then its impossible to tell if he's truly happy or upset because he's fond of faking either state only to slap his interlocutor with an even sharper contrast so to accentuate his real emotions whenever he drops his façade.

Albeit apparently quite self-absorbed, Taiki keeps present in his mind the interests of those he appreciates the most and even at his most pissed, harshest tone his words are full of a 'kindness' that can be misunderstood but that nonetheless proves the best that he DOES care. To put it in his own words, 'Some care enough not to want to offend you, others, enough to do so despite of it'.

Another trait that should be highlighted is his sly, mischievous nature, poking at others and using word and mind games for his own amusement, always within reason however. It wouldn't be any good if he were to mess with others excessively or in a bad way, though even then Taiki can be the kind that often tests his limits which can be annoying.

Besides this, Taiki is incredibly intelligent and crafty, in fact, so much that he gets quite a bit of credit for it despite only getting above average marks. He enjoys conversing about everything and anything, as long as there's fun to be had or as long as his fickle attention span will allow him, though he dislikes more serious subjects, specially political ones, such as politics or economy.

He also greatly enjoys spending time reading information on several subjects, so to accumulate pieces of knowledge, trivia and popular wisdom. As a matter of fact he used to spend all his time doing this very thing when he was younger, so at this point his knowledge is nothing short of encyclopedic. He likes to ponder over the things he has learnt, trying to deepen his understanding of what he's read, and maybe, just maybe, see the world better with a but more clarity, or, at the very least, uncover some beauty in it, even if its just a smudge.

Oh, talking about beauty, it should be mentioned that Taiki is a person that greatly values the aesthetic qualities of things, which is not only limited to material things, such as works of art, but also actions and events. To him, existence is a narrative flow and everything within it is susceptible of possessing beauty within. Because we are capable of doing so, its our duty as human beings to search for this intrinsic beauty and, should we be unable to find it, redefine the object in our own terms and giving a newfound aesthetic virtue. In a way Taiki considers beauty to be a moral value in itself, capable of having substance and existential value in itself.

In reality the real Taiki is a far cry from this façade. He has worked very hard to not only convincingly wear the mask he wears before others, but to actively become what he represents. He does so of his own, conscious will, since he believes that's the sort of person with qualities and ideals such as his should be, in other words, he pretends to be, and through that become, his ideal self.

To be honest, its undeniable that he has had a sizable degree of success in this endeavour, but, rather than ceasing to be one to be the other, you could say that Taiki's self has bifurcated, the traits of both selves existing within him. This other Taiki is a tremendously insecure fellow, unable of doing things right or by himself, always screwing up at all times and, worst of  all, excruciatingly self-centred, childish and apathetic. These are all things Taiki has to watch out from resurfacing, though at times he can't help it, what causes a fair share of internal conflict.

And it is that Taiki is always at odds with himself. On one hand he feels infuriated towards everything he does that so much as reminds him of his previous self, what leads to him having strong self-destructive tendencies that push him to act foolishly, without any regards for limits or his own well-being. Unable to really let go, one of the most important factors in Taiki's quest for constant renovation is that huge grudge he harbours towards himself.

On the other hand Taiki isn't truly satisfied with his current situation. Sure, each day brings him closer to who he set out to be, but it's all a huge artifice. Hardly do things come naturally to him and even his studied beauty feels at time like a huge charade lacking any sort of authenticity, which he finds to be quite depressing.

In the end, beneath the permanent glitter freeze shielding him Taiki is an immensely unsatisfied person, unhappy with how he is in the inside, unhappy with how he is on the outside and unhappy with his situation and the world around him, all adding up to a boy that doesn't really like the life he leads and that can't run away from it as well. So, what does he do?

Easy, he keeps pushing forward.

Through his short life if there's something Taiki has learnt that's perseverance. In the family he grew up it was his only tool to deal with any sort of problems, to steel your heart and never stop walking in hopes better times come. Its the only thing he can think of doing, but despite or maybe because of doing it his entire life he can't tell how much he can go on, since even if things are looking up compared to how they used to be they are still a complete disappointment compared to what he expected. He is horrified these are all the fruits of his labor he is ever gonna get.

The son of a sailor and a big-city woman, Taiki is half Japanese, although for all purposes he has inherited the looks of his Mother, meaning  other than his name, inherited from his paternal grandfather, he looks native to Azores.

Due to his father's job in the sea he was raised exclusively by his mother, a woman that, despite of loving his child very much, was terrible with children in general and even worse with someone as troublesome as Taiki. Maybe its because of this that he always felt drawn towards his father and, by extension, the sea. With him, he had fun. He was this big, hero that wasn't scared of anything, not even the endless oceans. He felt than he was with him, he understood him, that no matter what, he could always rely on him.

Intending to do what he did when he grew up, he took every chance he had to go out sailing on a small wooden boat property of his family whenever he came back in the weekend, holydays or whenever the weather was good. This habit carried on into his adolescence with him learning to control the boat all on his own and his studying of aeronautics, in his dreams he was a ship capitan, comanding his own cargo ship (or maybe even a warship as a captain of the navy?) and sail across the seven seas from harbour to harbour, visiting all sort of places and meeting all sorts of people. To him, that was the true man's life.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. At sixteen years of age Taiki witnessed his father departing towards America, never to return. He, his ship and the rest of the crew dissappeared in a sudden storm without a trace, not a body, not a scrap of iron, nothing they had simply vanished like a fleeting dream.

Taiki learnt of it in the news the very day it happened, everyone knew he wouldn't take it well, but no one expected what he did.

Unable to accept his father's demise, he rushed back home, went to the inlet by his house where the family boat was anchored, boarded it and went deep into the ocean after his father.

It wasn't long before he penetrated the storm. All around him the waters raged and the wind howled like a banshee, raising waves over fifteen feet tall that crashed against the deck, which cracked with sounds of wooden agony as it thrashed from side to side. On it Taiki stood, trying to control the sails, pulling from the ropes with bloodied hands as he struggled to keep the boat afloat and going While being throw around like a rag doll with each shake and each jump. He knew he would never make, that it was impossible. If a massive ship like his father's hadn't been able to make his itty bitty boat didn't stand a speck of a chance.

So why had he come here?, To die seemed like the only logical answer, but as the boy's battered, bruished body refused to give in, the blaze he felt inside pushing him right back on his feet, he knew that wasn't it. Maybe he fought because it was the right thing to do, maybe he did it out of pain or maybe he was fighting simply for the right to fight, but it didn't matter. The only thing that did was that he refused to surrender.

But then, reality imposed itself as a thirty feet wave came crashing down on the meager vessel, shredding it to pieces.

Taiki woke up with the gentle caress of the sunrays. Even through unconsciousness he had been clutching to a panel from the wreckage. Too small to stand on it, the best he could do was lie half submerged in the cold water and not sink. So, this was it huh?, He was dead meat. It wouldn't take long, less than an hour he estimated, for him to die from hypothermia, if by then the storm hadn't come back to drown him. Now he seemed to have reached the eye of the storm, but rest assured, it wouldn't last long. At least he did have this respite before he died.

Turning his aching body, he laid on his back over the wooden board and gazed at the reddening skies above. It was dusk and soon, night.

"And in my time of dying, I get to see the sunset one last time. Heh, how fitting..."

But as Taiki made peace with himself, he felt something touch his hand.

Lifting his head, he searched the source of the contact only to find... An eye. A human eye. Both horrified and somewhat mesmerized he found himself unable to push it away. The iris of the disembodied organ was of a soft almond color, but the most bizarre thing about it was that it seemed to have white letters engraved on it, arrayed in a pentagon shape around the pupil.

"What the...?"

"Tuur..."

Taiki's heart skipped a beat, just now he had heard a voice, he was sure of it but from where?

"T-U-R... B-O... Bo"

Suddenly his head started hurting so badly he couldn't help but to clench his head... But when he did, he felt something cold touch his left temple, something that wasn't him...

And when he looked at his left palm he saw it. The strange eye, it was attached to his hand, firmly logged in it.

But it wasn't over. Before the shocked Taiki could muster a reaction, the eye started moving up his arm, diving underneath his skin. The boy screamed in horror, clawing at his skin, trying to take it out, but it was useless, he could feel it going inside him, parting his innards, hitting against his bones and the only thing he could do was shriek helplessly while on his mind a voice roared louder and louder, "TUUR... TUUURRRRRRR... B-O.", the eye was now on his throat and it burned so hot, hot like fire, it burnt him, he could feel it burning his shivering, tender flesh and for a moment he thought he would throw it up, but it didn't want to leave his body, instead, it phazed through his chattering skull and into his left socket, it pressed against his own left eye, so much it felt like it was going to burst. The pain was maddening, Taiki rolled around, the pain from the bruises forgotten as he tried to somehow escape, his cries were now jagged as he breathed in and out rapidly and shallow between pain spikes, his head, his mind felt like someone was banging metallic cymbals with a baseball bat and they wouldn't stop resonating, drowning every of his thoughts but the omnipresent physical anguish, "T-U-R-B-O", "T-U-R-B-O", "T-U-R-B-O" was all he could hear as both eyes started dissolving, melding into one single one, and just like that, it all went away, leaving a trembling Taiki sobbing until the goosebumps finally forced him to throw up what little he had in his stomach.

But it wasn't over, oh no, it was FAR from over.

Slowly, Taiki began drifting in circles in the water. turn after turn, he steadily seemed to draft perfect circumferences, but he didn't seem to even notice. Not yet anyways.

Because as he went round and round, he also begun picking up in speed. accelerating steadily, what begun as a shy rotation ended up in a wild whirlpool that irresistibly drawn him in. Desperate, with his heart beating at 300 bpm, he tried holding it into the board, in a desperate struggle to preserve his life a little longer as he hit the center of the spiral.

And he didn't sink, but raise.

Rising through the air, the board between Taiki's arms was shredded into oblivion, and it was then when he realized that he himself was spinning. Every single of his fingers, his limbs, his muscles, his bones and even his very cells, they were spinning in perfect synchrony. He himself was the center of the rotation and as he accelerated exponentially, rising through the air above the stormy clouds, his body started coming apart. suddenly he felt an indescribable electric feeling, as if he was a plate breaking against the ground into dust, as if a ten thousand needles had prickled every single atom of his body. For a moment, time and space dilated into infinity, and in this state of dying ecstasy, he saw the unblinking eye before him, larger than the universe itself.

Bewildered, he contemplated it for what seemed all of eternity as it poured an infinity of ever-changing yet immutable colors and shapes incomprehensible for the human mind that emptied his whole being, tearing down everything he was and refilling him only to empty him all over again, and at last, he heard it one. Last. Time.

"T-U-R-B-O"

And he repeated along, "T-U-R-B-O"

And then, nothing.

...

When Taiki woke up, he was lying on the shore of the beach, just by his house. He was completely destroyed, covered in bruises, his skin shred and his bones broken, but he was alive. Later he learnt that he had been missing for a week, and after a long hospitalization he rejoined school.

But nothing would be the same again, not as long as that the eye, that accursed yet marvelous eye, was inside him. He would frantically consume book after book, trying to grasp for a clue, any clue, day after day, night after night to no avail. Not once did he come across anything even remotely similar to what he had experienced that fateful day. Slowly it became more and more of an obsession, and even Taiki's vitalistic personality withered, joy sucked out of it by the crushing feeling of impotence, of utter failure.

His fears of not being good enough to reveal the truth behind the mystic eye realized, he slowly spiraled into depression, slowly getting worse and worse. And as he did, the world seemed to wilt along. What once once source of thrill and wonder became unknowable. Were Taiki had felt like a prince, heir to creation, he was now dwarfed by it, just a speck against the infinite vastness, unable to reach out to anyone. And in his loneliness, he felt scared. Scared of the dark, scared of himself and of loneliness itself. But most of all, he was scared of the future.

Soon enough, Taiki stopped showing up to club activities and before long he stopped showing up to class altogether. Now he wandered the streets a vagrant soul, no longer searching for knowledge, only understanding.

It was then when he started to notice that he was changing. At first it was barely noticeable, but as the days went on it became plain that something inside him was different. In the mists of dream, he heard voices. The voices of hundreds, thousands even. Some called for others, others, for God. Some were concerned about themselves and a few even called to him. Somehow, Taiki could feel their desire like it were an immense wild beast that swept him over, irresistible like fate itself.

One day after such a dream, Taiki woke up. He stayed sitting on his bed, just staring at the wall in front of him for a long, long while, his expression vacant. Then he decided he had enough.

He was sad, angry and tired. Tired of being afraid, tired of trying to live up to what others expected of him. He wanted out of all of that, to live true to himself.

And so, he decided to discard everything he knew, everything he was. For years he had been obsessing over himself, wallowing in resentment. Well, no more. From that day on it was back to basics. No more shame, no more theatrics, no more preconceptions. He was who he was and he wouldn't let anything or anyone stand on his path, wherever it took him.

Bolting out of the bed, he thrashed his room like a hurricane. His notes, his books, his possessions, all went out the window. By the time he was done the place didn't look habited at all.

The young man smiled to himself, for the the first time in a long, long while, he felt relief.

After a long talk with the police (and his mother) for disturbance of the public order and a weighty fine, Taiki closed the door of his room shut behind him. Sighing heavily, yet somewhat content, he begun cleaning up. There was still a lot to do.

The next day Taiki showed up to class. Yet, he was changed. To the rest, he was still the same guy. But there were subtleties. Like how he now looked much more comfortable in his own skin, or how he would be more open and willing to learn. It was just a small change of attitude, though nobody knew how deep the difference was.

And so, the show did go on. On a newfound stability Taiki tries to rebuild his life. Yet, he has not forgotten. The truth is somewhere out there in the immensity, and one day, someday, he'll reach it no matter what to do.