The Dark Mage

Chapter 31: Finnigan Fennec

     After hearing what had happened to Natalia and Buck from both Fr. Victor and Todd Reddington when Finnigan asked them over the phone, Finnigan knew what he was going to do. He was going to free them from Inari's comfortable captivity, and now it was just a manner of how. He too was very much hated by Inari for being friends with Tanukis and treating them like people and having no respect for Kitsune culture he believed didn't serve what he thought made sense or tangibly see.

     Finnigan knew that there wasn't a chance he could take on all the Protogen guards in Inari's palace nor was there a chance Inari would let him go if she captured him too. But this was for Natalia and Buck whom he knew did nothing wrong and didn't deserve what was happening to them. And despite the Kitsune clan being the country of his birth, Finnigan was a red-blooded American Fennec Fox and had no feelings for the Kitsune clan after all the evil it did in stealing his youth and a prosperity he would never experience himself.

     He was born on February 7, 1923, during the Long Depression (1921-1948) and the collapse of traditional Kitsune culture that was destroyed shortly after. He also at that time, along with his generation, were regularly insulted and derided by the older generation for daring to ask for the basic necessities of life only to be told, "work harder", "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", "get some marketable skills", and so on and so forth by a generation that was already established and hoarded their wealth for themselves and left Finnigan's generation with nothing. And they weren't lazy or incompetent either and were willing to do what it took to improve their situation yet for all their efforts it would never amount to anything, because there was never a means for their efforts to have a meaningful impact. And seeing the wealthy elite hoard their wealth while the masses suffered and the mass exploitation of workers in the main industries of Kitsune society all for the increase of capital, Finnigan for a few years became a member of the Communist party, because the Communists were some of the only groups that attempted any collective action against the abuses of the capitalist class of industrialists.

     And the slogan of the Communist party within the Kitsune clan was, "The gentle laborer shall no longer suffer under the greed of the capitalists." Finnigan would later go on to organize some of the logistics in the Huli Jing province for the seizing of the means of production from the factory owners believing that he was creating a better future for his people. But when he saw the leaders of the Communist party were hardly better than the capitalists, he turned on them and joined Inari's ranks and destroyed the Communist revolution before it could successfully take over an important province.

     And despite Finnigan having a comfortable life serving Inari, he didn't feel any different about the wealthy elite that destroyed his generation's opportunity and shamed them when they never even had a chance to build their own prosperity. And when some of these wealthy elite died young from their lives of excessive hedonism destroying their bodies, he would visit their graves and piss on them. And although Finnigan had a weak intuition and was terrible at reading between the lines, he knew enough to know wealth in the Kitsune clan was not gained through hard work and merit but inherited and being born in the right place at the right time. Because if it was really based on merit and hard work, Finnigan's generation would be one of the wealthiest to ever exist and Inari would be poorer than dirt. And from this, Finnigan learned not to judge other people for their financial situation and other generations and refused to shame them for the hard times they went through.

     It was also during this time that Finnigan was part of the cult of okami Inari and despised Fr. Victor under the perception that all he does is eat and pray and not contribute to society in any meaningful way. After all, monasticism according to the cult of okami Inari, the most widely practiced religion in Kitsune society, was seen as a failure and something shameful. And it was seen as shameful because the solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience were opposed to the cult's values of material prosperity, pleasure, and pride as the highest goods. And the only other religion that was native to Kitsune society that was not the cult of okami Inari was the cult of the warrior spirits of where there was once a great shrine in the Yako tribe. And the values of that cult of warrior spirits was much more ascetical and to which Souzun Yako belonged to before he was a Christian. And Souzun Yako, son of the patriarch of the Yako tribe, was involved with Fr. Grigori in destroying the altar in that shrine and converting it into a church.