Cho Hakkai (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
reformedsinner) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thenearshore2017-02-06 06:01 pm
reformedsinner) wrote in thenearshore2017-02-06 06:01 pm
Entry tags:
find me a find, catch me a catch (closed)
Who: Cho Hakkai and Kozukata Yuri
What: Hakkai discovers he has a new goddess. Maybe the fourth time's the charm?
Where: Yuri's temple
When: Morning, June 12th
Warnings: Mention of suicide/self-destructive tendencies.
[Hakkai rarely sleeps in, but for once, he finds himself floating slowly back to consciousness well after dawn. His half-open eyes register, blurrily, filtered sunlight lighting the room. The bed is soft, and he rolls over, tugging a sheet up over his shoulders.
The bed is very soft. Springs creak softly in the mattress as he moves, and alarm filters slowly down through his sleepy thoughts. He had not gone to sleep in a bed with a mattress, after all. He'd gone to sleep on a futon in the spare room at the school. It had not been nearly so comfortable, and the window was in the wrong place, and --
Like a fuse burning down to the charge, the alarm finally hits him and he is propelled violently to his feet, fists clenching as he stares around the room. He'd thought he had time. He had thought a few days without a god wouldn't be too much, when some shinki had gone much longer than that. He had been wrong, he admits bitterly, and looks down at his hands. The only markings there are his vines, winding up his wrists in a green so dark that it's almost black to disappear under the soft long-sleeved T-shirt he'd worn to bed in an entirely different place last night. There isn't a mirror in the room. If he wants to find his new name, he's going to have to leave it, and face his new god.
Who is his new god? Hakkai rubs the back of his hand over his left eye, brushing away the grittiness of sleep, and blinks against the blurriness left behind for a few seconds. He doesn't really want to know. He doesn't recognize the bedroom, but he hasn't seen the inside of many temples, either. After a second of indecision, he closes his eyes, opens them again, and walks over to the window, looking out onto the temple grounds.
A rotting noose hangs from a tree not ten paces outside the window.
This is Yuri's temple.
Panic surges back up to close icy hands around his throat, and he stumbles back until one leg hits the bed and he sits down hard. No. He doesn't want to lose another god. He doesn't want to lose another friend. If he's a curse -- and he is a curse, isn't he? The certainty, owing less to logic than he wishes it did, sickens him -- then there are gods who can handle themselves, and gods whose loss he won't mourn, and he doesn't care about going without if he has no other choice. But not her. He checks his hands again, as though a name could have appeared without his noticing, and then looks again out the window.
There's a faint image of his face reflected there, almost invisible, but enough to pick out a tracery of red down the right side of his face, across the lid of his false eye, curling around the end of the vine on his cheek. There's no doubting it: he has a new goddess.
Cold and faint, Hakkai closes his eyes again, and leans on the windowsill as he fights to pull himself back under control.]
What: Hakkai discovers he has a new goddess. Maybe the fourth time's the charm?
Where: Yuri's temple
When: Morning, June 12th
Warnings: Mention of suicide/self-destructive tendencies.
[Hakkai rarely sleeps in, but for once, he finds himself floating slowly back to consciousness well after dawn. His half-open eyes register, blurrily, filtered sunlight lighting the room. The bed is soft, and he rolls over, tugging a sheet up over his shoulders.
The bed is very soft. Springs creak softly in the mattress as he moves, and alarm filters slowly down through his sleepy thoughts. He had not gone to sleep in a bed with a mattress, after all. He'd gone to sleep on a futon in the spare room at the school. It had not been nearly so comfortable, and the window was in the wrong place, and --
Like a fuse burning down to the charge, the alarm finally hits him and he is propelled violently to his feet, fists clenching as he stares around the room. He'd thought he had time. He had thought a few days without a god wouldn't be too much, when some shinki had gone much longer than that. He had been wrong, he admits bitterly, and looks down at his hands. The only markings there are his vines, winding up his wrists in a green so dark that it's almost black to disappear under the soft long-sleeved T-shirt he'd worn to bed in an entirely different place last night. There isn't a mirror in the room. If he wants to find his new name, he's going to have to leave it, and face his new god.
Who is his new god? Hakkai rubs the back of his hand over his left eye, brushing away the grittiness of sleep, and blinks against the blurriness left behind for a few seconds. He doesn't really want to know. He doesn't recognize the bedroom, but he hasn't seen the inside of many temples, either. After a second of indecision, he closes his eyes, opens them again, and walks over to the window, looking out onto the temple grounds.
A rotting noose hangs from a tree not ten paces outside the window.
This is Yuri's temple.
Panic surges back up to close icy hands around his throat, and he stumbles back until one leg hits the bed and he sits down hard. No. He doesn't want to lose another god. He doesn't want to lose another friend. If he's a curse -- and he is a curse, isn't he? The certainty, owing less to logic than he wishes it did, sickens him -- then there are gods who can handle themselves, and gods whose loss he won't mourn, and he doesn't care about going without if he has no other choice. But not her. He checks his hands again, as though a name could have appeared without his noticing, and then looks again out the window.
There's a faint image of his face reflected there, almost invisible, but enough to pick out a tracery of red down the right side of his face, across the lid of his false eye, curling around the end of the vine on his cheek. There's no doubting it: he has a new goddess.
Cold and faint, Hakkai closes his eyes again, and leans on the windowsill as he fights to pull himself back under control.]
no subject
[His thought echoes her words, equally startled, but with a thread of amusement running through it as he considers the mark that the chair had made on the wall. It had been thrown quite hard, hadn't it?
She could do a lot of damage with power like that.]
I think you're still going to need to do a little training.
no subject
Revert, Hakkai. [WHatevergo back to your real body and let her live.] Still, that's pretty impressive. I wonder what decides what a shinki will turn into for a specific god or what their ability will be. [She trails off, eyeing the mark on the wall thoughtfully]
no subject
... It's a good first step in a fight, at least. After that you may have to start hitting your enemy.
I'm not sure what determines it. It can't just be me, or I'd have been things that are... more alike. Perhaps it's based on the connection between us.
[He lifts a hand to his blind eye, fingers brushing skin that feels the same as always, but that, he knows, is now streaked with red as well as with the dark green vines of his youkai marking.]
Which character is it, by the way? I couldn't get a good look.
no subject
Yuri glances up at the question, and then looks a bit embarrassed.] Oh. Sorry, I-- ...I don't really like mirrors, so... [So she's removed them or covered the ones she couldn't, for the most part. But it's a little embarrassing, being that unnerved by mirrors, and Yuri runs a hand through her hair self-consciously. As for the question itself:]
It's geki. It sort of means-- Well... [She smiles a bit, but it's humorless and a bit apologetic.] Violence. Or to incite. If you're talking about when your blood boils when you get angry, it's the kanji used there too. I wonder why Heaven would stick you with that name.
[But it's said in a tone that suggests she knows exactly why, mr. "if the heavens brand me a traitor let me go"]
no subject
Oh, really? Maybe I should take it as a warning!
[Things she may notice he didn't say: "I will take it as a warning."
He's not sure if he cares all that much. What a harsh name, but accurate, he supposes, to the way he feels now.]
Do you mind if I keep a mirror in my room? [Letting the sharpness of his smile go in favor of a pleasantly rueful expression, he rubs a hand along his jaw.] I'm afraid I'll need one to shave.
[And check for blight. It's part of his morning routine by now.]
no subject
She shakes her head at the question] I don't mind. The bathrooms all have mirrors too, but you can do whatever you like to your room.
[Her gaze turns thoughtful as she tries to imagine him with a beard or a mustache and immediately she makes a face.] I'll work on getting you a mirror.
[There's a distinct buzzing noise from her cellphone, which she pulls out with a frown. She looks at the clock, then back at the phone, muttering to herself] ...This is the 4th one from Tokyo...
no subject
[Facial hair really would not suit him. Even the slight, irregular stubble that's clinging to the corner of his jaw now doesn't suit him, but at least it's easy to miss except when the light catches it just right.]
-- The fourth prayer?
[He frowns, leaning forward and clasping his hands together on the table.]
Is that unusual?
[Tokyo is a very large city, after all....]
no subject
[She frowns, speaking absently as she searches recent news for something that might've triggered this.] There are a couple of times a year when things spike. Exam times and holidays especially, but it's a bit unusual when it's the same city and there's nothing to cause it. And I wouldn't have taken much notice except this is the fourth one in a row...
[Lips purse and she shifts her weight, tucking her phone away again] It might just be a coincidence, but it's making me suspicious.
no subject
If you give me a little time to get ready, I might be able to come with you on this one.
Have you ever found someone ... praying to you ... who's been affected by ayakashi?
[It's the only time he's seen a sudden outbreak of suicide attempts himself: when the chocolates unleashed ayakashi on hundreds of mortals, all at once. They still don't know who created those chocolates, or why. If the technique has been refined, could something like that be happening again?
Four, though, is far too few to rest any conclusions on.]
no subject
[She then frowns, not suspicious exactly so much as surprised.] The last couple have, yes. It's... weird. They weren't the usual kinds of people that prayed to me either, but I didn't think much of it at the time. It was like the depression and urge to commit suicide came out of nowhere, but I could talk the one down after the ayakashi was destroyed.
no subject
[He shrugs, slightly, and glances away.]
There was a problem with "surplus" chocolates that had been infested by ayakashi. Mortals that ate them were badly affected.
no subject
How did everyone stop it? Just destroy the chocolate? Is it possible they've made more? [Again it's too early to jump to conclusions, but she'd lie to be prepared going in here]
no subject
[His gaze flicks back to her face, and he's silent for a few seconds before he scoots his chair back, legs scraping audibly against the floor, and gets up to take his cup to the sink and rinse it out.]
It's possible that they've made more. We were never able to find out who was responsible for the first set.