thenearshore | [open + 1 closed + 1 semi-closed] a pocket full of posies

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[open + 1 closed + 1 semi-closed] a pocket full of posies

Who: A + B: Shun and anyone! C: Shun and Ren, D: Shun and existing CR
What: Shun attempts to relocate a substantial portion of his temple garden to his Near Shore shrine. This goes about as well as you'd expect.
When: June 22nd
Where: A: Nekhbet's Temple and surrounds, B + C: A seemingly innocuous Near Shore park (a.k.a. Nekhbet's shrine), D: Network/anywhere!

A + B: Open

[A: Morning, Nekhbet's Temple]

[There are a lot of things Shun could say about having a rapidly growing garden of funerary and death-themed flowers, and most of them are some form of complaint. However, with recent events on the Near Shore and disappearances on the Far Shore, he's decided it's about time he made his shrine look a bit more lived-in, and if there's any good way to do that, it's hitting two birds with one stone and thinning out his garden to use for decorative purposes. Ignoring the fact that he has no idea how to decorate anything these days, because he'll deal with that hurdle when he reaches it.

The strange hill-shaped temple isn't difficult to spot even from a distance, and the large, tree-enclosed garden to one side even less so. The dwelling vultures are a little agitated today, rustling wings and hopping from tree to tree as they try to get a better look at Shun, who's moving along the edge of the garden with a dagger in hand. With how much the flowers have grown out, there's only an incredibly narrow strip for Shun to walk on between them and the shallow pools flanking the main path, but as always, he walks as if his every step is certain.

At certain plants, he'll stop, either taking one flower stem or a few at once and pushing neatly through them with the knife in his hand. Apparently nobody ever told him pruning shears were a thing, or he just didn't want to bother with that.

There's already a budding line of flowers down the middle of the garden path, loosely arranged by type and then colour, which Shun goes back to add to each time he cuts more. It's probably obvious to most people that he has far too many cut for any purpose other than maybe starting a florist's, but he doesn't seem to care, and the garden barely looks like it's been pruned.

He'll acknowledge anyone who comes to the mouth of the garden...just maybe try not to do it while his back is turned, since he is still holding a knife.]

--

[B: Afternoon, Park/Shrine]

[There's a lot of nice parks around on the Near Shore, and the quiet ones can be especially nice. This one in particular is off a small and relatively low-density street, the entrance flanked by currently unlit lanterns, and looks like the kind of spot someone might elect to have a picnic. There's tables, a large and venerable-looking tree over near the back...and, of course, the tiny shrine building (more the size to house vultures than any kind of human) that looks like it was made by some very dedicated follower, built and painted simply and surrounded by offerings of flowers. Today, there's also a very eye-catching one lying across the shrine "balcony"; a large arrangement of purple and orange flowers, done with not the skill of someone who actually knows what they're doing, but the care of someone determined to do it anyway and make it good.

Also in the park today is Shun, who's commandeered a picnic table with his excessive amount of flowers and is currently sorting through them with a rather critical eye. When he comes across one that looks on the dead or dying side, he runs his fingers carefully up the stem, focusing intently on the flower, and after a few moments, the petals liven up and heal, the natural decay reversing to return them to full bloom.

Unfortunately, the need for focus means Shun isn't in a particularly welcoming mood towards distractions right now, so any Far Shore residents hanging around the park may or may not feel upon them the kind of stare that could probably bore through concrete given long enough.]

If you're just going to be a distraction anyway, you might as well put it to some use over here. [Translation: he's...asking for help. Kind of. Not really, but still.]

[C: Closed to Ren, late afternoon/early evening]

[After several attempts at putting together certain flowers and getting the impression they just look wrong (and that if even someone like him who doesn't really give a damn is noticing, then others certainly will), Shun decides to cut his losses and text maybe the one person he can trust to help with this and be a tolerable presence for the amount of time it will probably take.

So sometime later in the afternoon, Ren gets a text containing a picture of the table overflowing with sorted flowers, and Shun's shrine in the background in the hopes that he'll recognise it from that evening they walked back there.]

Need someone who knows more about how flowers go together than me. I'll explain why if you help.

[D: Closed to existing CR, evening]

[So as it turns out, Shun absolutely cut way too many flowers, and though he definitely knows one person who'll want them, there's still a ton that aren't really spoken for. So anyone Shun knows the name of (or god name, in those cases) and doesn't hate stands a chance of getting a very brief text containing an image of a table still covered in flowers, but with vastly less than there were earlier. There's quite a variety - roses, lilies, crysanthemums, orchids, and so on - and it might be hard to pick up on the funerary and death associations of every single one of them unless one is very well-versed in flower language.]

Trying to get rid of these. Pick some out and you can have them.

[[Any kind of death or funeral-associated flower is fair game to request, even if it's not listed there.]]

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It'd work better than trying to list them from memory. [Especially given it's Ren's memory, which in Shun's experience can be a bit mercurial. He's not sure food falls among the things he'd remember more reliably.

Taking the next arrangement with a dry glance in answer to Ren's pouting, Shun shrugs slightly as he starts threading the ribbon through again.]

I can cook individual things fine, I just don't know what flavours go together. So it's not that different a problem to this. [He tilts the arrangement in his hand. He can cut individual flowers fine as well, but when it comes to mixing them, he's completely lost.]

[Food is definitely not among the things he remembers perfectly all the time, so if he did try to list everything from memory, he'd probably remember the last thing three days from now in the shower.

And he knows exactly what this last arrangement is going to be, so he gets right to work collecting red and orange flowers.]

Well, for stir-fry it doesn't really matter, but in general, it's pretty easy if you just listen to how the food wants to go together.

[Red and orange is at least a bit more of an understandable colour combination for Shun to follow, though it puts him in mind of fire more than anything else. It at least might be a good combination for the idea he was entertaining with the ribbon for the last arrangement, at least.

That answer, though, nets Ren a rather odd look. It's the kind of answer Shun would expect from Ren at this point, honestly, but it doesn't make it any less weird.]

I'm not in the habit of listening to my supplies.

[Ah, there it is, his second favorite look Shun gets on his face. if anything, it just encourages him to keep going, sounding as enthusiastically maybe-serious-maybe-not as ever.]

Then that's the problem. You should listen to them more. I bet you'd learn a lot.

[...Hard as it often is to tell whether Ren's screwing with him or not, at this point and in this particular instance, Shun has to err on the side of screwing with him. Not that it changes much about his reaction, which is still as flatly incredulous as ever.]

Maybe something that whimsical works for you, but it wouldn't for me. [Ren is a little better-equipped in the whimsy department than he is.]

[Well, he has a point there, screwing with him or not.]

Hmm, that's true. I guess I'll have to interpret for you.

[How long until he has to admit that he does genuinely know what he's doing in the kitchen and he's just messing with Shun for the heck of it? Hopefully not until he's picked up a few more flowers, at least. Still, he can't imagine that Shun hasn't figured it out by now.]

[Given Shun has severe doubts about the ability of even the most whimsical of people to cause food to suddenly develop enough sentience to tell someone how it wants to be cooked, he's mostly just going along with it because even the suggestion is silly enough to earn the reaction. And because it's Ren, and he figures even just pointing out he's talking nonsense is likely to get at least another few rounds of claimed innocence.

At this point, though, there's one glaring flaw in this entire fantasy that he feels he has to pick on.]

As impossible as it is to believe you talk to your food anyway, you realise that would mean you're eating something sentient enough to tell you what it wants.

[Shun, no...how could you...do you see this face. this is the face of a man who's not actually as alarmed by this revelation as he appears.]

I hadn't thought of it that way before...

[Thank goodness Asaka was too busy mooning over him to notice that either the last time he'd joked about that, and Tetsu had either not heard or not wanted to ruin it for her.]

I can definitely cook without listening too them too.

[Shun's general answer to "how could you" is "very easily", and it's no different in this situation. Especially given, as expected, Ren doesn't look so much like someone who had his bubble burst as someone who just realised he didn't think this all the way through.]

I'm surprised. Even by ridiculous fantasy standards, it's a glaring hole.

[At the very least, he doesn't sound derisive about it so much as laying the facts on the table. To him, sentient food definitely falls into "ridiculous fantasy" territory, even with his horizons expanded by the kinds of things he's seen in this place.]

Then that's fine. I can understand covering up how capable you are, but that's not the kind of thing it's really necessary for. [Because if there's one thing he's noticed in the time he and Ren have been friends, it's that what affectations and quirks aren't genuine seem to serve as disguise.]

The last person I tried that on wasn't thinking about it so much.

[Shun, please, if there can be talking cards there can definitely be talking food...

He pauses in picking up another flower as Shun goes on, and when he does finally take it up and tuck it with the rest, it's with a smile very much like the one he'd had earlier when Shun had given him that arrangement. He noticed...of course, Ren hasn't exactly been hiding that from him either, but he also hadn't hidden it from Hibari--who never seemed to understand--or Hakkai--who's never said anything.]

It's not, but sometimes it's more fun. Until you poked holes in it.

Obviously. [Also cards are more Important than food, clearly. In any case, Shun continues his weaving of the gold ribbon, going a little faster on this one than he had on the last one.

Since Ren's picking up another flower at the time he pauses, Shun's attention is on him, and he frowns a little in confusion when Ren smiles like that again. He has to guess that it's to do with mentioning he's capable, but he can't quite put together why it would make Ren so happy to have someone else notice when he's trying to hide it.

Another thing he can't quite put together is the odd feeling in his chest at having caused that expression again. For now, though, he ignores it, instead letting out a slight, maybe amused huff at Ren's not-quite-a-complaint.]

You know how I am about fun. [It's a bit sad that he's at least half serious. Fun doesn't tend to last long in his presence.]

[He does have a point there, but Ren's not going to give up on that quite that easily. Shun was a normal kid who had fun once upon a time, and that normal kid has to still be in there somewhere, really, really, really deep down.]

One of these days, you're going to have fun and you won't even realize it until it's too late.

[With a face like that, it's hard for Shun not to cast Ren a wary look, because that's the kind of expression that makes him feel like Ren is going to personally make sure this happens.

On one hand, he's pretty sure sounding vaguely like a threat isn't how most people propose fun, but on the other, Ren does have some unusual ideas of what constitutes fun.]

We'll see about that. It's not like you can force someone to have fun. [...He thinks.]

[What do you mean framing it like a threat isn't how normal people propose fun...]

Who said anything about force? You wouldn't really be having fun if I had to force you.

[Yes, he's absolutely going to personally make sure this happens. Assuming someone like Hajime doesn't get there first. But he's pretty sure Shun would have more fun with him than almost anyone else.]

[It takes Shun a moment to decide whether he really wants to point out what Ren's kind of walked right into there, but he doesn't have any other meaningful objections to that point yet, so his response comes rather dryly as he starts the final line or two of weaving.]

No, but you probably would be. [From his tone, it's easy enough to tell this isn't any kind of sincere worry as opposed to Shun giving him the usual grief for his enjoyment of pain.] Anyway, it's not the sort of thing you can guarantee until it happens.

[Not that he expects that's going to deter Ren any, but at least he can say he tried to save himself from wherever this ends up leading.]

[...Did you really have to take it there, now he's going to have that thought in his head for the rest of the day. Not that it isn't also his own fault a bit. And this putting together this particular set of flowers isn't helping either...]

Not as much as I would if I knew you were actually enjoying it too.

[Sure, he'd have fun sending Shun to his knees sometime, but he'd have more fun if Shun wanted to be there.

Still, none of that is going to happen any time soon, probably, so his next smile is a little more innocent.]

But you're right, we won't know until it happens.

[For what it's worth, Shun has no idea that the remark would be so distracting to him. As far as he's concerned, the only reason Ren would have a particular focus on him when imagining something like that is because he's the person they happen to be talking about right now, and it's not something he'd consider to be worth lingering on the thought of.

For a very brief moment, though, Shun's repeated and constant pattern with the weaving falters slightly. He's always thought of that kind of thing in the context of being defeated by an enemy - someone who would want to kill him, or at least crush him utterly and without regard. As much as he's gotten used to Ren's attitude on giving and receiving pain, the idea of it coming from a friend, from a place of trust, is still wildly unusual to him, and he hasn't considered until now the possibility that he'd do anything but hate it the same way.

But he knows a loss isn't the same when it comes from a place of even something as simple as respect. And when it comes to taking a defeat from someone who doesn't want his life along with it, he knows it's easy to find some kind of satisfaction in it, because he's done it before. It's hard to say without being there, but he wonders, just for a moment, if he might feel enough about Ren putting him in that position to call it enjoyment.

None of this moment of reflection is allowed to show through, though. Perhaps his weaving is a little distracted for a few moments, perhaps the lines of his expression change that little bit to indicate he's giving the matter thought rather than immediate dismissal, but when he does reply, it's soon enough to not even be hesitant, and as controlled as ever.]

That's hardly a surprise. [It matches what he knows of Ren and the subtleties of that attitude, after all.

By this point, Shun's finishing up the weaving and about to tie the bow at the end, so he at least spares Ren more of a glance by the time his smile becomes less suspect.]

I suppose it can't be as annoying as having people who barely know me try to inflict whatever is fun for them on me like it's going to work.

[He does notice Shun's stead weaving falter a bit when he says that, but that could have been for any number of reasons. Maybe he hadn't thought Ren would just along with that. Maybe he'd gotten overconfident and his fingers tripped over each other. Neither possibility seems very likely, but Shun isn't giving him enough to figure out what it really is.

Which is fine, he's allowed to have his secrets, and it doesn't seem like it was a big deal anyway.]

I can't promise I won't try that a little bit, but if you don't have any idea what's fun or not, you'd have to start somewhere.

At least you might have a better idea of whether what you find fun is something I'd even tolerate, instead of acting like I should be interested in parties or whatever other gathering of noise and people others have tried to push me into.

[Because honestly, that's been his majority experience with people trying to find fun things for him. Hajime had at least said she'd try to find something they could both have fun doing, but she hadn't managed to follow up on that yet.

Though he ties the bow as resolutely as ever, Ren's also chanced on something else the other people who've tried don't seem to have accepted either, and after a moment or two, Shun figures he might as well admit as much.]

And accepting I don't know what I'd find fun is a step further than most people.

[Oh, it's hard not to laugh at that idea. No, that doesn't seem to be the way to get Shun to have fun at all. Frankly, he's amazed Shun even comes to the various gatherings put on by the Heavens, and he wouldn't be surprised if the only reason Shun went to them was for information gathering.]

You don't have to worry about me trying something like that.

[Much. Maybe if it was a small party with only a few people that he liked the best.

Oh, and Shun is pretty much done. Ren isn't quite satified with the fiery set of flowers he's working on, though, so Shun's going to have to wait a bit this time.]

Most people here don't know you as well as I do.

Edited 2017-04-01 00:11 (UTC)

[That is pretty much exactly why Shun goes to them. Information gathering, meeting newcomers, keeping an eye on people he knows, and even then he's hard-pressed to be called "tolerating it" when it's things like the beach party from a few weeks ago. Also known as the one where Shun was network commenting about how much of a waste of time the party was from the party.

At the very least, it's somewhat reassuring to hear Ren isn't going to be trying that. Somewhat. He still doesn't know what else he might try.]

Then maybe you'll actually make some progress. [Shun knows well enough that he's not incapable of having fun with something, it's just (very) infrequent and he doesn't really know what it is that usually piques it. Ren already sounds like he's coming at the challenge a lot more sensibly than anyone else who's taken it up.

He has a valid point there, though, and Shun nods slightly as he places the finished arrangement alongside the other three.]

And the only other person who should doesn't remember it. [Which means Ren has somewhat of an advantage there.]

Well, I already got you to have fun once, didn't I? So I think I already am.

[So maybe that was an optimistic way of looking at that one race, since Shun had been pretty noncommittal on whether he'd actually had fun or not, but it was close enough for him to be satisfied that it counted as progress.

At that mention of Yuto...he wondering how many of the others would say something like "you never know, he might remember sometime!" Ren isn't convinced that the bits of memory shinki have been getting is harmless, though, so he won't be saying anything like that.]

That's true. But maybe you'll get lucky and someone else will show up.

That's a little optimistic. [Not quite naive, because Shun did say that he'd thought he'd had fun, but optimistic. Shun's not entirely sure how what they'd done in that race would adapt to other things Ren might be able to try, but he has his doubts it's well enough to make the progress noteworthy.

When Ren suggests someone else might show up, Shun lets out a harsh breath and turns his back, leaning against the table in a manner that makes it very difficult to see his face from where Ren's standing.]

There's about two people in my world who know me as well as Yuto does. One's captured, and one tried to kill me the last time we met. I'd have to get ridiculously lucky in more than one way for either of those to work.

[And there's a weight and tiredness to his voice that says he doesn't expect the universe to hand him anything that good that easily. He trusts the Lancers and people like Crow who they've met across the dimensions, sure, but he wouldn't say they know him like Ruri or Kaito would - and even the latter of those two is a not-insignificant stretch in terms of knowing him "as well as Yuto".]

[Guess which of those two options he's actually going to comment on. Sorry, Ruri, you're probably great too.]

Trying to kill you last time you met doesn't mean they'll still want to next time.

[He is absolutely speaking from experience on that one, and looking over the bouquet in his hand a little too fondly while he's doing it. But he's going to try not to spend too much time wishing one of his beloved rivals would show up, since Shun only just got him back on track from the last time he got sidetracked by those kinds of thoughts.

This set of flowers finally seems to be enough like a fire to satisfy him, and Shun has his back turned, so this is the perfect time to hold the arrangement out for him to take.]

But I see your point. I guess you're stuck with me, then.

Edited 2017-04-01 09:51 (UTC)

[Commenting on the one that isn't Ruri is vastly less likely to get him punched for misstepping the comment in any way, so there's that. Shun raises an eyebrow at him, but can't actually argue that as much as he'd like to.]

Only because someone talked him out of it. [Because that would be a great way to start things off here. Then again, here Shun would have the advantage of time spent and knowing how things are done and how his powers work, so he doubts any potential confrontation with Kaito would end the same.

At the rustle of flowers, Shun turns his head back towards Ren, reaching over to take the offered bouquet. It really does look a lot like fire, but given the terms in which Shun's heard Ren describe his friends before, he can't be too surprised at the choice of style.

It's the remark that catches his attention more, though, and he shrugs slightly as if to dismiss it.]

"Stuck" makes it sound like I don't want to be. [Shun's been genuinely stuck with people before, and he's hated it. He might be stuck in terms of only having Ren for now, but stuck with Ren just seems...wrong to him, somehow.]

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