bunnylord phd, doctor of extremely good philosophy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
existentialcrisis) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thenearshore2016-09-29 07:37 pm
existentialcrisis) wrote in thenearshore2016-09-29 07:37 pm
[closed]
Who: Ukoku and some people
What: things
When: 29 April-2 May, whenever works!
Where: places
Warnings: mentions of suicide in Yuri's thread.
Yamato (2 May)
[ The hospital staff have been ignoring Ukoku's wandering, but he's spent the last hour or so in a white coat anyway. Together with the minor effort he put in before leaving his temple—he actually bothered to button his shirt to the top and do his tie right (just a white-on-blue geometric print, unless you look closely enough to notice the rabbits)—he looks like a doctor.
But he ditches the white coat just in time, as it happens. With an insulated lunchbag and a thermos stolen from a staff lounge (and repurposed—guess what's in them, it's not lunch), he heads past the desk in the lobby. It's calm here, at the moment; no ayakashi to be seen except a little guy so tiny and harmless it's almost cute, chilling in the juncture of seat cushion—but he pauses. Is that Yamato?
He never did get to meet the fabled Commander-kun, would-be destroyer of Heaven.
Ukoku heads over to him, smiling. ] Yamato-kun?
Yuri (30 April)
[ At some point he shows up at Yuri's temple—and since Yuri always lets herself in at his place, he does the same here, a little too deliberately quiet.
She's told him she's not afraid of much, but that doesn't mean she can't be surprised. He shuffles through the temple without announcing himself until he's close enough to sense her presence, and then his voice is innocent: ]
Anybody home?
Kija
[ Ukoku's at the back of an electronics store, drenched in nausea-green fluorescent lighting and inoffensive jazz, picking up coils of wire and disparate, esoteric parts of uncertain purpose. Naturally he notices Kija first (who has hair like that), but he heads over to pick through things he doesn't need from a rack opposite him instead of making it obvious. His very first accomplice! This is nostalgic. ]
Hakkai (1 May)
[ Although the daylight doesn't make Ukoku's gnarled dead trees any prettier, or the crows in them any less ominous, it does lend a kind of shabby harmlessness to his temple's facade: it seems to shrink in the middle of the orchard, and the chipped paint and the cheerful orange of the few persimmons on his one living tree are brighter. Ukoku himself is sitting on a flat rock in the shadow of the porch, dressed like a responsible adult (having come back from pretending to be either a doctor or a professor, not that most people on the Near Shore notice him) except for the sandals and his rolled-up sleeves. He's hunched over a notebook, sketching and scribbling. ]
Sanzo (3 May)
[ When Sanzo showed up Ukoku was already outside. He'd been lying on a flat rock on his back, his black priest's robes half dissheveled, as if he'd just woken up in them. He'd had an ash tray on his chest and a sake set on the dead leaves beside him—two cups, in case someone decided to join him.
And then someone did, of course.
He pours Sanzo a cup of sake. The bottle is between them, along with the ashtray and a polite distance. The moon is a sliver in a thick dark sky. ]
So. Have you remembered anything else?
What: things
When: 29 April-2 May, whenever works!
Where: places
Warnings: mentions of suicide in Yuri's thread.
Yamato (2 May)
[ The hospital staff have been ignoring Ukoku's wandering, but he's spent the last hour or so in a white coat anyway. Together with the minor effort he put in before leaving his temple—he actually bothered to button his shirt to the top and do his tie right (just a white-on-blue geometric print, unless you look closely enough to notice the rabbits)—he looks like a doctor.
But he ditches the white coat just in time, as it happens. With an insulated lunchbag and a thermos stolen from a staff lounge (and repurposed—guess what's in them, it's not lunch), he heads past the desk in the lobby. It's calm here, at the moment; no ayakashi to be seen except a little guy so tiny and harmless it's almost cute, chilling in the juncture of seat cushion—but he pauses. Is that Yamato?
He never did get to meet the fabled Commander-kun, would-be destroyer of Heaven.
Ukoku heads over to him, smiling. ] Yamato-kun?
Yuri (30 April)
[ At some point he shows up at Yuri's temple—and since Yuri always lets herself in at his place, he does the same here, a little too deliberately quiet.
She's told him she's not afraid of much, but that doesn't mean she can't be surprised. He shuffles through the temple without announcing himself until he's close enough to sense her presence, and then his voice is innocent: ]
Anybody home?
Kija
[ Ukoku's at the back of an electronics store, drenched in nausea-green fluorescent lighting and inoffensive jazz, picking up coils of wire and disparate, esoteric parts of uncertain purpose. Naturally he notices Kija first (who has hair like that), but he heads over to pick through things he doesn't need from a rack opposite him instead of making it obvious. His very first accomplice! This is nostalgic. ]
Hakkai (1 May)
[ Although the daylight doesn't make Ukoku's gnarled dead trees any prettier, or the crows in them any less ominous, it does lend a kind of shabby harmlessness to his temple's facade: it seems to shrink in the middle of the orchard, and the chipped paint and the cheerful orange of the few persimmons on his one living tree are brighter. Ukoku himself is sitting on a flat rock in the shadow of the porch, dressed like a responsible adult (having come back from pretending to be either a doctor or a professor, not that most people on the Near Shore notice him) except for the sandals and his rolled-up sleeves. He's hunched over a notebook, sketching and scribbling. ]
Sanzo (3 May)
[ When Sanzo showed up Ukoku was already outside. He'd been lying on a flat rock on his back, his black priest's robes half dissheveled, as if he'd just woken up in them. He'd had an ash tray on his chest and a sake set on the dead leaves beside him—two cups, in case someone decided to join him.
And then someone did, of course.
He pours Sanzo a cup of sake. The bottle is between them, along with the ashtray and a polite distance. The moon is a sliver in a thick dark sky. ]
So. Have you remembered anything else?
May 2nd if that's okay!
But Yamato is blissfully aware of-- well. Pretty much everything regarding Ukoku's Ukokuness?? He'd had no idea any other gods or shinki would be here, honestly, as he'd come to visit without telling anyone (except Shepard, of course, and even then he'd been vague). The fabled Commander-kun is the entire reason he's here, after all, puzzling over a CPR poster on the wall with a paper bag of medicine in his hand. Where did he get it? What's it for? So many questions, so little time...
He turns at the sound of his name, startled, but Ukoku is easy to recognize and he smiles in greeting.] Oh, hello, Ni-sensei. I didn't realize anyone else would be here.
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[ He doesn't look directly at the bag—that would be rude, and more importantly, if memory serves, Yamato is alarmingly honest anyway. ]
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Oh, yes, we're fine... [But that's a rather lackluster response, and it's clear from his face that there's something on his mind.] I came to learn how to take care of someone who's injured, actually. I thought you could do that in a hospital, but maybe I should go to a school? [HE DOESN'T KNOW WHERE TO START... help him.]
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Really? You would? [Yams isn't small or cute enough to pull off the sparkly-eyed apprentice look, but his face is hopeful and bright anyway.] If it's okay with you-- oh, but, don't we have to be in the hospital for this?
[Sick or hurt people go to hospitals, so he just kind of assumed this was where you came to learn first aid...]
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Not really! We'll come back here if we need anything. [ He heads for the doors. ] So: what prompted this?
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But since he has no reason not to trust Ukoku, he simply follows along, figuring Ukoku'll know better than him. He came to learn, after all! All the better if his teacher is a Far Shore resident.
He looks a little hesitant to speak up, which is rare; but after a short silence, he seems to decide confessing is the best option. If it'll prevent Shepard from dying on his watch, he'll spill the beans.]
When Commander-kun came back to this place, she was heavily injured. I wasn't there to help her then, but I don't want to let anything happen to her ever again. [A childish wish, perhaps, but he's a shinki--it's his job, his entire reason for existing, to protect her.] If she gets hurt, I want to be able to tend to her immediately.
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[ He holds the door for Yamato. (The tiny ayakashi from the seat cushion is cautiously following them; Ukoku attempts to hold the door for that, too, but it stops a safe distance away and waits for them to head across the street.) ]
I'd say you could take a class, but it'd be pretty hard to ask questions, wouldn't it? [ And judging by that nearly-disastrous chemistry class, well. Anyway: ] Is she feeling better?
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Yes, she is. She doesn't like staying home and resting, but she isn't completely healed yet, so I thought this would be a good time to try and learn about all of this. [Y'know, before she can get up and stop him and insist she'll be fine... because then he'd be obliged to believe her and he'd probably lose his chance.]
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[ There's nobody really chilling in th coffee shop; everyone's just getting their coffee and leaving, which is ideal. Ukoku gets in line. Right now the itinerary is: get coffee, dispense wisdom, go back to the hospital to grab some basic excuses to drop by Yamato's god's temple later, something something Commander-kun, punchline. ]
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[So Yamato doesn't even have "get someone smart" under his belt. He understands, on some level, why they didn't just let him sit at home and wait around for her return, when they'd all been convinced she wouldn't be returning. But that doesn't ease his guilt much.
Ukoku's asked a good question, though, and Yamato tilts his head, thinking; it's been at least a week, and he'd been a little distracted by her general presence to take proper stock of her wounds. Not to mention, his grasp of the human body is... questionable.]
She was bleeding. [That's a good place to start, right?] But it didn't look like she'd been stabbed or cut with a blade. And bruises, she had bruises. And it hurts her to move, still. It looked like-- like she'd gotten into a fight she couldn't possibly have won, but she did it anyway.
[Yamato's had limited experiences, if that wasn't obvious when he almost blew up a high school classroom.]
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I think we can work with that. [ He pulls out his phone and pokes around for images. ] Did she say anything about what happened? That might help.
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[So not a sea battle, probably.]
I know how to protect her if we're in a battle together, but if I'm not there... what can I do? [He's looking at you with them big ol eyes now, Ukoku. GUIDE HIM.]
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Let's assume, hypothetically, that she's conscious. If she's not conscious…
[ He gives Yamato a lingering stare. If she's not conscious, you've already failed. Failed!! Nothing will help. ]
She's conscious. [ He waves hypothetical unconsciousness away. ] So the first thing you need to fix is bleeding. [ He launches, then, into a long-winded explanation, punctuated by showing Yamato too-small diagrams on his phone, of veins and arteries and where pressure should be applied and for how long and don't forget about ischemia, and ischemia is when—
—when coffee happens. Ukoku only pauses briefly to get something for both of them, something cute like mint or chocolate, because Yamato is kind of like a puppy and presumably drinks adorable coffee. ]
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Despite Yamato's-- well, everything, he takes in what Ukoku says with complete seriousness, matching it to knowledge he somehow still has in his memory-less brain. He might not know a thing about veins and arteries, but he knows what happens when you get cut here, or stabbed there. He knows how to cause these wounds, so learning how to heal them isn't really that much of a leap.
And then coffee happens, and Yamato blinks, shaken out of his focus and back to the present. He lets Ukoku order whatever he wants, since he's never actually set foot in a coffee shop before and only knows what Shepard likes to drink.]
Will they remember to make our order? [He asks, because he has doubts for obvious reasons...]
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[ Congrats on being the only person who can't tell he's creepy!! ]
How're you doing so far? Everything make sense?
[ It's not surprising that he's attentive, but it would be sort of surprising if he understood everything. ]
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But he accepts that, since Ukoku's obviously been here plenty of times if he knows that so well! He nods in response to the question, adjusting the sleeve of his haori; and now the baristas are probably thinking "great, a creep and a cosplayer" so good job guys.]
Mostly. It's a lot to take in, so I'm not sure I'll remember everything... but it's good to know. Now I understand why certain places bleed more than others! [Yams, maybe you could. Like. Not sound so happy about it.] Of course, if you cut off someone's head I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I would never let that happen to Commander-kun.
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Have you, um, seen a lot of injuries like that?
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--and promptly closes it again, brow furrowing. That's. Well. That's something he's never really put much thought into; it all seemed like completely natural knowledge to have, something innate as a sword shinki, maybe.
So he shrugs, which is about as good an answer as any others he's given today.] I don't really know! I don't remember. I guess I must have, because ayakashi don't bleed and die the way humans do. [But then, the feeling of fighting "monsters" hadn't been terribly alien either; it had just seemed like a different sort of opponent, nothing mind-boggling about it.
He glances at Ukoku again, then, uncertainty on his face.]
Why, is it terribly odd?
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[ He makes a vague there you go gesture. It's totally not odd!! Except how Yamato talks about it. ]
And it's good to have an idea of who knows what, yeah? That way you know who to go to if there's a situation. [ Like a situation where someone needs a doctor, or a situation where someone needs to die, obviously. ]
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[And Yamato does look pleased! Just not relieved, exactly; it's not that he minds being weird, it's just nice to know when something he's said is "off". He realized a long time ago that he's probably from a very different time than a lot of his fellow gods and shinki.
But that logic makes sense, and he nods.]
Right! Of course. That's why I went to the hospital to learn about healing. [And walked off with some poor person's prescription... look, at least he didn't blatantly steal it from someone's bag, it'll be fine. Probably.]
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You know, speaking of which, we were talking about emergencies, but there's more to it after that—making sure everything's healing right, and stuff. I'm guessing Commander-kun's temple isn't stocked up, is it?
[ He gestures to Yamato's presumably random prescription. ]
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Yamato, in turn, takes his own cup and peers into the lid. It looks... just like any other coffee he's seen Shepard drink, albeit quite a bit lighter in color. Interesting.]
Hm? Oh-- [He glances at the bag in his hand, like he'd forgotten he'd been holding it this entire time.] Well, we have bandages and I know how to make an ice pack. She asked me to train her so they were important, but...
[But then she'd disappeared, and he'd been too much of a wreck to even continue with his general classes, so they still have plenty in stock.
Anyway.]
I don't have any medicine, you're right. The doctor at the hospital said this would help with pain, but I don't think it's enough on its own. [Whose pain, exactly...]
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Listen, I have to go make sure my shinki's doing all right. He was working on a little bit of a project. [ He has no idea what Guy's up to, but he definitely has to go put some of the stuff he just jacked from the hospital in the fridge. ]
I'll tell you what: the best way to learn this stuff is by helping someone else. [ Wouldn't Yamato make a cute assistant?? He sure would. ] If Commander-kun doesn't keep getting better, why don't you call me? And if she does—of course that'd be best—maybe you can help me some other time. What do you think?
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Oh, of course! [Yamato shakes his head, smiling a bit like someone told him he ought to feel sheepish. He does look genuinely happy for Ukoku, though, because he hasn't forgotten the last time they'd spoken.] I'm glad to hear you have a shinki now! Please tell me if there's anything I can do to assist him. [That shinki bias...
But he perks up at the offer, nodding immediately.] I'd like that a lot, if it's no trouble for you.
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