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

[revolutionfalcon]

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.]]

Comments

[revolutionfalcon]

[While Shun's smiles tend to be short-lived just by his nature, Ren's choice of response does work in some sense - while the outright smile only lingers a little longer, he still looks much more content than he usually does.

Though he's already starting to figure out the new method of weaving he'll need to combine the colours, he parts his hands a bit when Ren comes over so he can see it better. Since he's been watching Ren actually do the arrangements, he can't really begrudge him taking so much interest.

Nonetheless, he still doesn't really take the compliment outright, simply shrugging slightly as if it's not that big a deal.]

It's not that different to things I've had to do with rope and whatever else before this. I just have to be more careful with it. [Since twists in the ribbon wouldn't look particularly good for something like this.]

I was going to do it on the last one anyway, but the colours you picked fit. [At least, to his eye, which he has previously explained to be terrible at this.]

[shadowrevenger]

That doesn't mean you're not getting good at it.

[Come on, Shun, you can accept a compliment every now and then. He isn't too surprised by Shun's attempt to deflect it, though, so he sounds more amused than anything else.

He is pleasantly surprised by Shun actually having an opinion on how well the colors match, and he's more than happy to compliment him on that too, especially since he had seemed somewhat interested in learning and getting batter at it.]

They really do, don't they? See, you're getting better at that too.

[revolutionfalcon]

That's not saying much. [As Ren may have noticed, the point of "having an opinion on it at all" could be considered an improvement given what Shun's normally like about this sort of thing. He has his doubts about how accurate that opinion might be in situations outside of this one, though, and he still doesn't imagine he'd be all that likely to want to give it.

This entire exchange is raising one thing he's had a bit of trouble figuring out with Ren before, too, and after a moment or two more of weaving, he glances over at him with a bit of a curious look.]

I still don't understand why you do that. You don't need to look for things to be nice about, and you know saying things just to make someone feel better doesn't work on me. [There's definitely something about his tone that says the concept of compliments of themselves kind of confuses him. He's all for pointing out facts about people's skill or whatever else that might happen to be positive, but he doesn't tend to frame them or consider them as compliments.]

[shadowrevenger]

[Ren sighs a little, because he should have seen that coming, but he has a fond smile to go with it.]

I'm not looking for anything, and I'm not saying it just to make you feel better. I'm saying it because I want to and it's true.

Anyway, you've complimented me before, so I'm paying you back.

[He's really tempted to pout as he says that last bit too. The biggest difference between their compliments is that Ren is cheerful and smiling and Shun is very matter-of-fact about it, but otherwise they're almost the same.]

[revolutionfalcon]

No I haven't. [For a moment, Shun looks outright confused at the implication he's complimented Ren - or complimented anyone at all, for that matter. And then he figures out what he's talking about, and just sighs slightly instead.] Those things were just stating facts. If those facts happen to be a good thing, then that's just how it is. What you're doing is different.

[Or at least, it feels different to Shun, though he's lacking a little of his usual certainty in that last sentence. Possibly because he doesn't want to think about the implications of "I want to and it's true" about the previous times Ren has complimented him on things somewhat more personal than how good he is at tying ribbon into flowers.]

And you keep saying it about unimportant things, so you'd have to be going out of your way to notice those. [Well, unimportant by Shun's point of view. He still has difficulty with the concept of people just naturally noticing certain things that he doesn't.]

[shadowrevenger]

[Oh no, he really didn't realize that his compliments were actually compliments. Well, Ren had wondered about that. it doesn't make them any less nice to hear, though, and that's the really important thing here.]

It's not that different. I'm just smiling when I'm saying them. They're still facts, and facts can be compliments.

[Granted, some of his compliments in the past have definitely been more opinion than fact, but that definitely wasn't true of these last ones.]

I pointed out the thing with the colors because you were trying to learn more about it. It wasn't that hard to notice.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Though Shun still doesn't look quite like he's ready to believe that, he at least lets it slide for now, though not without his frown lingering a few moments longer. Eventually, though, he shrugs, and turns his attention back to the weaving. The idea that he's been complimenting Ren this whole time...doesn't really bother him that much, though he feels like it would if it were someone he didn't know as well.]

It doesn't really matter to me anyway. It's not like I hand them out. [Which is true - Ren gets a fair amount due to how closely they work, but things like that he generally just offers to people who strike him as capable, and that's occasional at best.

At Ren's remark on the colours, though, Shun can't quite help but let out a faint snort and shoot Ren a significant glance.]

I didn't need to learn two of the colours here matched. [Given Ren wears enough red and black to make that particular match blindingly obvious.]

[shadowrevenger]

[Well, it's definitely true that Ren is more liberal with his compliments than Shun is. That said, Shun still hands them out more often than he'd expected.]

That's true, and I really appreciate every one of them.

[Okay, so he knows Shun doesn't necessarily want shows of gratitude anymore than he wants compliments, but Shun is just going to have to suffer with both of them today.

He blinks a little at the comment about not needing to learn certain colors, and then at the flowers for a second before he actually gets the why behind it and smiles mischievously.]

I didn't think you cared about what I like wearing.

[revolutionfalcon]

[That expression of gratitude, unsurprisingly, gets a sharp look from Shun, though it's not without the faintest element of confusion. The immediate desire he generally has to refute things like that or at least dismiss them seems to have disappeared momentarily - and that's not even starting on the faint impression he's getting that he's actually pleased to hear this - and as it is, Shun doesn't really know how to respond to that.

After a moment, he just lets out a sigh like he doesn't really get it, and continues weaving. He does actually answer Ren's follow-up remark properly, even if that smile makes him side-eye him a little at the same time.]

I don't have to care to notice. I see enough of you that I can afford to pay attention to things other than what's relevant to combat, especially when it's something you put on display so often. [Not that he takes as much advantage of that as he probably should.]

[shadowrevenger]

[Whatever he wants to call it, it still means he's been paying attention more than zero, which was as much interest he used to have in that sort of thing, so he's still pretty happy with that. Ren is also tempted to ask what other kind of things he's been paying attention to, but he's pretty sure he got part of that answer a little earlier, so he tucks that away to ask some other time.]

But you did have to learn the other colors...

[So he's pretty sure that still counts as worthy of positive observing of facts.]

[revolutionfalcon]

It's only two other colours. [Shun still doesn't seem to consider this remotely as much of a feat as Ren does, and there's a faint exasperation to his tone like he doesn't want to make a big deal out of it anyway. Still, he's not outright annoyed by it, which is something.

By this point, he's just finishing up the last few bits of the weaving, and draws the tails of the ribbons out of the stems so he can set about figuring out how to knot four ribbon-ends together. After a moment or two, he just decides to go with the obvious method, putting a gold and black end together in each hand and then tying the sets of two together as if they were just one ribbon.]

Anyway, speeding things up was mostly what I wanted out of this, and we managed that.

[shadowrevenger]

[Ren nods with a bright smile.] I'm glad I could help you with it. I've had a lot of fun.

[And he got some sweet flowers out of it. He rolls the lily he's holding between his fingers a couple time before deciding to just keep holding on to it. Shun still has more than he'll know what to do with anyway.]

And I'm sure your followers will like them.

[revolutionfalcon]

[At that, Shun pauses slightly, his eyes narrowing a little as if in thought. While he's not sure he'd use the word "fun" - since he's still a little iffy on what that really means to him - he has to admit that this entire experience has been much less grating than what it had been before he'd asked for the help.]

It was... [Another moment, like he has to find a way to word the sentiment.] ...better than I expected.

[Not that needing an extra moment necessarily meant it was going to be overwhelming praise, but oh well. A more characteristically reserved, but confident look comes onto his face at the second remark, and he inclines his head as he finishes with the bow, keeping hold of this arrangement for the moment.]

They will. [They're well-made, perhaps not professional, but vibrant and striking, and that's strong praise from someone like Shun who barely registers flowers as "nice" in any way most of the time.

Right now, though, it's a little easier to notice, having worked with them all day. It feels a little like there's an entirely new dimension to his shrine he hadn't noticed before now, and though his gaze lingers on it like it had earlier when he'd been looking back to the memorial arrangement, it's much more thoughtful now than it is sad.]