[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]

I do. But it's still true. [Nanako has made the Friend List by this point as well, so that makes...two entire friends. One of whom is a six-year-old and interested in the typical kinds of things six-year-olds are interested in.]

[nopixiedust]

What kind of things do you like to do with your friends, anyway?

[Is there anything at all? She feels this is important to find out.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[There's a very long pause after that question which indicates Shun doesn't really have an answer to it, though he does try reaching for something once the hesitation becomes obvious.]

Training. [And there goes his single usual answer.] ...Learning new skills.

[Yeah, he's still not very good at this "doing normal person things" thing.]

[nopixiedust]

[holy shit shun]

[The only response Wendy can give to such a sad response is to pick up some of the flowers and wordlessly hold them out to him.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[For the moment, Shun doesn't take them, merely looking at the handful of flowers with as neutral an expression as ever.]

What? [He assumes she either wants them arranged or for him to try making one of those flower crown things, but the silence isn't helping.]

[nopixiedust]

[what, shun, can't you read her mind?]

You said you like learning new skills, right? You're not going to learn how to make these if you don't try it yourself.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Unfortunately, mind-reading isn't a skill he can train himself to have. Nonetheless, once she explains, he sighs quietly and takes the flowers, separating them and looking over the stems.]

Is it done like a hair braid? It looked a bit like you were doing it that way. [Which would make it much easier for him, because he knows those quite well.]

[nopixiedust]

Yeah, a bit like that. You just have to connect it in a loop.

[She continues to demonstrate with her own set of flowers, still carefully winding them together.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun hums quietly in apparent understanding, then eyes the flowers and Wendy's motions for a little longer before starting to do it himself. His fingers are quite deft at the motions, not least because he'd been braiding ribbon in a different way earlier this very same day.]

That's obvious. It wouldn't be a circlet otherwise.

[nopixiedust]

Common sense isn't so common. I'm just making sure.

[But then she lapses into comfortable silence, fine with continuing their little project and occasionally glancing over to see how he's doing.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I know that, but that's the kind of thing anyone should know. [While he doesn't always get matters of normal society given his background, if something's called a "flower crown" Shun has no idea how someone could miss that it needs to be circular.

Even if Shun isn't familiar with this use of braiding specifically, he knows the theory, so his progress is quick and confident, braids as neat as can really be done for something like this.]

[nopixiedust]

[Tiaras exist.]

[Still, she's not going to really argue about it, instead just doing her own flower crown and looking over to his.]

Good job. It looks like you've gotten the hang of it quickly. Now we just need to see if it'll stay in place on your pointy head.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Tiaras also work a lot better when made of something rigid.

Even though Shun's progressing well on the actual making of the flower crown, he hesitates a little at Wendy's comment.]

Just because I'm making one doesn't mean I'm going to wear one.

[nopixiedust]

Then how will you know it'll hold up properly and that you made it right?

[A sly smile. OUTWIT THIS]

[revolutionfalcon]

Put it on you instead.

[Outwitted, as far as he's concerned. The remark is made so neutrally it could almost be called deadpan.]

[nopixiedust]

[fuck]

And when I'm not here, what are you going to do? Put it on one of the vultures?

[revolutionfalcon]

It's exactly the kind of ridiculous thing my shinki or one of my friends would wear. I can just ask them. [Fubuki, Ren or Nanako would all absolutely wear flower crowns whether they were asked to or not, as far as he can tell.]

[nopixiedust]

....You're really adverse to wearing one of these, huh?

[revolutionfalcon]

I'm not interested. It's just a pointless decorative trinket. [And he kind of exhausted his patience for those making pointless decorative trinkets for his Near Shore shrine earlier in the day.]

[nopixiedust]

Well, your hair is pointless.

[Sick burn, she knows. Still, she doesn't push, just sighing and shrugging as she puts down her flower crown and starts to gather up some other ones.]

I'll only be able to take an armful right now, just so you know.

[revolutionfalcon]

We already had that discussion. [His hair grows that way, there's really very little he can do about it, and he prefers it to any potential alternatives. Not having hair has its own disadvantages.

There's a slight shrug as she makes that remark, and Shun starts connecting the ends of his own crown.] Any amount gone is fine by me. I already have someone willing to take all of what's left at the end.

[nopixiedust]

Really? [She glances up at him from the corner of her eye as she starts to set the flowers into small orderly piles.] Who is it? I wonder if it's someone I know.

[Not that she knows a lot of people, but hey]

[revolutionfalcon]

Suzugamori Ren. He was the one helping me arrange them earlier. [Once he finishes linking the crown, he puts it to one side and instead picks up a stem ending in two white lilies with bright yellow lines down the petals. It might need a bit more careful attention, but he has to wonder if he could make a workable crown out of something like that.] I already gave him some earlier as a bribe, but he'd take whatever's left as well.

[Because bribing your friends into helping you is definitely necessary.]

[nopixiedust]

...Do you regularly need to bribe him?

[revolutionfalcon]

I don't need to, but I figured he should get something out of it if I was making him help without any warning. That's basically the same as a bribe.

[Ignoring the fact that he'd once told Ren he didn't need to bribe Shun into hanging out with him, it had seemed logical enough to Shun at the time.]