thenearshore | Hello! My name is Elder Sha (open log)

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Hello! My name is Elder Sha (open log)

Who: Gojyo and whoever he runs into!
What: Snooping around the Far Shore to try and learn more about why they're all here
When: The days following the temple fire (March 27-31ish)
Where: All over the Far Shore and select spots on the Near Shore
Warnings: will update

Gods and shinki both are disappearing, the priest had said. And nobody knows why. As if being told that he was a) dead, and b) a shape-shifting monster hunter wasn't bad enough (although, to be honest, he was really on board with the monster hunter thing. How cool was that?) Without any memories to draw on -- without even really knowing what he knew and didn't know -- he didn't see a lot of options available to him.

(open to anyone:)
1. He could go talk to Amaterasu. She was the head god around here, as far as he'd been able to determine, and given that somebody had just set her house on fire with her in it while papering the neighborhood with DOWN WITH AMATERASU flyers, he was going to go out on a limb and guess that she knew something about the whole mess he'd found himself in the middle of.

Now if he could just find her.

(Open to anyone:)
2. He could -- and he really loved this word -- crowdsource. Whoever was responsible had to be watching the network -- they'd be a fool if they weren't -- so in-person conversations was the best bet. And yeah, okay, he felt a little stupid at the idea of walking up to one random temple after another and asking the gods and shinki there what they knew about the disappearances, but he also turned into a goddamn staple remover, and there was nothing stupider than that.

(Locked to Yuri and/or Neji and/or Hakkai:)
3. He could feel out the resistance. Sharak Sanzo had all but dumped an invitation into his lap, and she'd made it pretty clear that the swamp elf was a part of it, too. Confronting the guy seemed like a potentially dangerous way to spend an afternoon, but he was already dead, right? What harm could it do? And eventually, if he asked around, somebody would have to know where the creepy smiling guy covered in plant tattoos lived.

(Locked to Sharak:)
4. He could blow the whole goddamn plan off, and go find someplace to get a drink.

(ooc: If none of these prompts work for you, feel free to wildcard and make your own!)

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His lesson had ended at three, and, lost for more useful ways of spending his time, Hakkai had headed back for Yuri's temple. He tried, occasionally, to clear out the nooses dangling from her trees, even if they always reappeared. They'd grown particularly thick lately.

It was an uncomfortable reminder of the forest yesterday, he admitted to himself.

Besides, Ayumu had said she might be interested in macrame. He could bring her a double armful of free rope.

All of which was to say that, when he spotted a familiar lean redheaded figure approaching the temple forest, Hakkai was balancing fifteen feet off the ground on the limb of an old chestnut with a folding knife in hand, sawing through the mossy knot on an empty, dangling noose.

He jolted backwards, and only a desperate last-minute scramble kept him on the branch. Leaves, twigs, and his dropped knife all plummeted to the ground.

Over the ridge, and you can't miss it. It's the suicide forest. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, but the girl's friend had confirmed it -- Cho Hakkai, the guy with the vine tattoos and the pointed elf ears, lived in the temple in the suicide forest.

As if he needed more signs that this was a terrible idea.

But he'd thanked them, and headed on, doing everything he could to ignore the churning in his gut that -- he could only assume -- was his conscience telling him to turn back. Or maybe he shouldn't eat eggs, he snapped angrily at himself, stop being such a chicken, you're a demon hunter now, act like it! Whoever Sha Gojyo had been before, this version was brave and focused, and wouldn't let a little thing like butterflies in his stomach turn him off his path.

A little thing like a dense, dark forest festooned with nooses, on the other hand...

He rounded the curve in the road, and stopped, staring in horror at the forest before him. Sure, they'd said 'suicide forest', but, well, that could have meant a lot of things! It was the location of a double suicide a hundred years back, there was a cliff that kids joked was a good spot to jump from, old man Victor Suicide had a farm there back in the year dot. Anything other than the quietly creaking horror at the end of the road.

But he'd come this far. The goosebumps were just from the cold. He could do this. Gojyo lifted his chin and stomped onward... but before he could set a single foot into the somehow wet-looking shade beneath the first tree, there was a crack like a gunshot and a rustling of leaves like something was about to leap out of the tree above him. Something bright caught his eye (briefly, since he was in fact leaping backwards himself), and a second later it registered.

"Hey!" he hollered up into the canopy, where he could just make up a pair of legs wrapped around a branch. "You asshole, did you just throw a knife at my head?!"

"I didn't hit you, did I?" Hakkai called down, clinging to cheerful bravado as his mind whirled through panicked options. The knot was almost sawed through; he leaned over, grabbing the rope, and severed the last few strands with a neat stroke of his claws. Having that fall on Gojyo's head wouldn't make him feel any more welcome.

Was he welcome? Hakkai wasn't sure. It felt too soon. He couldn't imagine why Gojyo was here; their first encounter had been so brief and unwelcoming, and Hakkai had been trying to avoid him since. Had Ekko sent him? The young man had seemed more interested in his shinki's safety than anything else, but -- it was hard to be sure, after all. He was no mind-reader.

He slung the noose over his shoulder, judged the distance, and swung down to the ground.

"Sha Gojyo," he said, and straightened up, dusting the bark fragments off his palms. "--isn't it? What brings you here?"

["The resistance" is a whole lot less organised than Sharak would like, and whole lot less active. For the most part, as far as she can tell, it involves listening and putting yourself in a position to listen. For most, the best way to accomplish that would be... being a well-behaved, reasonable, hard-working member of society. A good goddess. She has to rebuild credibility- no one here gives a shit about "Sanzo". Being polite and friendly in public is easy and a habit (according to her). Prayers are still new, but Aditi doesn't get anything too objectionable. Mostly parents worrying about their children, or family members worrying for a pregnant person. There's not much she can do for some of them, but she can make an effort. She can show up.

It's not like she has anything better to do.

But after a day running around, doing what she can for Aditi's followers, she figures she's owed a some quiet on her own. The temple is a little too quiet at the moment, but a bar where everyone ignores her but continues to chatter around her is just about perfect. Sharak has found a small tavern on the Near Shore with decent drinks and claimed a spot at the bar where she can people watch. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, with nothing but nameless strangers and her own thoughts to keep her company.]

Of course it was that Cho guy throwing knives at him. Of course it was.

Gojyo took a step back when he saw it was Cho in the tree, and he took another step back when Cho jumped down and landed in front of him with a noose half wrapped around him like some kind of macabre scarf.

"Sanzo sent me," he offered, still fixing Hakkai with a dubious sideeye. The second the other man lunged, or made like he was going to throw that rope, or anything else that looked suspicious, Gojyo was going to punch his face in and take off running. Probably in that order. "So you're a youkai, huh?"

[ He couldn't say what drew him to the bar. There's a club a few blocks to the north that has flashing lights and scantily clad girls and a base thump that you can feel all the way on the other side of the street, and the idea of getting lost in the noise and heat of a crowd sounds better with every step he takes toward the entrance.

But then he keeps going, hands stuffed in his pockets, face turned into the cool evening breeze -- he wanders aimlessly until the club is nothing but a memory and the sidewalks clear of people. There's a neon sign in an otherwise blacked out window up ahead, the white and green of a martini glass blinking the international symbol for come drink here. It looks like the kind of place that nobody outside of a three-block radius would ever look twice at, where the regulars all know each other's faces but not their names, and where every shelf is the cheap shelf.

He couldn't tell you why he goes in. But he's got three bills in the local currency burning a hole in his pocket, and they'll spend here as well as anywhere.

The door squeaks when he enters, and he makes his way straight to the bar, slapping down two of the bills to get the bartender's attention. ] Beer. [ He's discovered already that Ekko had been right -- the living really don't see them, so if he wants a drink, he'd better get it in that brief window while the bartender's still looking at the door to see who's coming in.

Being dead is a pain in the ass, sometimes. ] And keep 'em coming! [ --he calls, as the money vanishes off the bar. He'll go nab a bottle from behind the bar himself if he really needs to, but it's better to try and do things legally first. It just feels right that way. ]

[Sharak and the bartender look up at the same time towards the door, but the reactions are slightly different. The bartender mumbles something and goes to do his job, Sharak tenses up and closes her eyes for a moment. Damn it. So much for a relaxing evening.

Well, she's not about to run off. Not only would that be suspicious as hell, but she was here first. Anyway, she's talked to shinki without turning them into blight monsters before. The tenseness is gone within a few seconds and when the bartender turns back to put a beer in front of whoever just gave him some money for one, she takes advantage of it to lazily raise her hand and get his attention.]

Here too, again.

[Not acknowledging Gojyo just yet.]

Really, the responsible thing to do when you first arrive, get assigned to some god and get placed in a 'temple' was... Well, really there was two things. Get to know the person that you're supposed to help and protect, and make sure the place that you're going to be living is comfortable. At least enough to get settled, and make sure that no one was about to fall through the floor or something.

Something like that.

The important thing is that Shizuo was aware that there were things he should be doing. Except it was so nice and sunny out, and just warm enough that he could just lay down on the lawn and soak in the rays.

In fact, that's exactly what he did.

It had been long enough that someone managed to put up another of those flyers on the gate. So, by ~~Gojyo's luck~~ coincidence, he would've just been walking by when the blond had started to wake and notice. And oh, what an awakening. He's had to deal with enough of those papers that the very sight of them was enough to bring his anger to a boil. There's little that he does to hide that when calling out at the redhead. "Hey! Are you the asshole leaving all this crap around?"

Gojyo looked ready to bolt at any moment.

Hakkai hesitated as he said, Sanzo sent me, visibly startled for a moment: but it must have been Sharak. Of course. She'd said she met him, but she hadn't said that she'd directed him Hakkai's way, and Hakkai was going to have to have words with her about deciding that behind his back.

He lowered his gaze, looking for his knife, and knelt down in the leaf mold to pick it up. It was possible, he supposed, that he would look less threatening that way.

"I'm sorry," he said, tugging his handkerchief out of his pocket to clean the dirt off the blade before he folded it back up and tucked it and the cloth both away, "I didn't know you were coming, or I'd have been more ready for guests. I try to clean these out of the trees every so often."

With a self-deprecating little chuckle, he added, "They don't help the atmosphere... and yes, I'm a youkai."

He sat back on his heels and glanced up. Gojyo hadn't recognized a youkai, then. He probably didn't realize he himself wasn't full human. After all, until his earcuffs were dislodged, Hakkai hadn't.

"I do have limiters. I can wear them around you if you prefer."

[It's really a good thing Yuri's been warned ahead of time that Gojyo's back or her reaction might've been a little different upon seeing the shock of red hair around her forest.

It's also a good thing the surprise she still shows (because it is still shocking to see him, regardless of how prepared she thought she was) can be easily explained away. After all, it's not as though she usually gets visitors or anything.]

Um.

[Eloquent. Yuri's brow furrows slightly in uncertainty and she looks around as if half-expecting someone else to come rescue her from this situation.] Are you lost? [Unless he's here to see Hakkai or something, but from what she understands the meeting hadn't gone too well the first time...]

The flyer on the gate had caught his eye all the way back at the turn of the road. Those Down with Amaterasu! flyers had been everywhere the night of the fire -- was this one a sign that the tenants were part of the conspiracy? It seemed too simple -- it seemed to stupidly obvious -- but it couldn't hurt to check.

He was at the gate, just about to ring the bell (assuming there was a bell) when some jerk started shouting at him. This was his luck, apparently.

"The only crap I see here is some blond jerk with a big mouth!" he hollered back, and damn. Apparently he's got a fiery temper. That's a good thing to know about himself!

[ she doesn't get many visitors? To her temple in the middle of a nightmare forest full of hangings trees? Gosh. You don't say. ]

That depends. [ He's paused in the doorway, not really wanting to come inside. Not really wanting to do anything other than turn and flee back to someplace that smelled less like despair. ] Does Cho Hakkai live here?

[ She doesn't need to acknowledge him. The pointed lack of acknowledgement is acknowledgement enough. ]

I'm not following you, okay?

[ Yeah, he's sitting halfway down the bar from her, but it's not like the rest of the people in the bar are going to notice them, right? ]

I just wanted a drink.

Gojyo folded his arms and scowled down at Swamp Elf who, for some reason, was just crouching there on the ground. But he'd already figured out that this guy was weird.

"Limiters?" But as soon as he said it, he realized that this was something else he knew. Limiters were jewelry that youkai wore, to make them look like humans, because humans were afraid of them when they looked like themselves. Not knowing what he knew was really starting to be a pain in the ass. "Why the hell would I want you to wear limiters? I don't care how big your ears are."

[Shocking, right? At least the home itself was warm and inviting, and there's a scent of fresh brewed coffee hanging in the air. Yuri looks over her shoulder, as if half-expecting Hakkai to come waltzing out with an explanation so Yuri wouldn't have to keep this up, but he doesn't, of course.]

Yeah, he does. I'm not sure he's here right now, though I'm sure he won't be too long. [She looks back at him, eyeing him slowly. He looked... good. Better than she would've thought, really, and that's a relief.]

...I'm Kozukata Yuri, Hakkai's goddess. Did you want to come in? I have coffee. Maybe a beer if that's more your thing. [But she's not going near wine anytime soon, just in case, and she steps aside so he can walk in if he'd like.] ...Sorry, I'm not really used to playing hostess.

[Yuri's fairly certain that everything about her awkwardness can be explained away like this, and she makes a gesture out to the surrounding forest with a on apologetic little smile. 'As you can probably guess,' she seems to be saying.]

"I just thought I'd offer," Hakkai sighs, standing back up. Well. At least it was more personal than about his youkai features; it's not much of a relief for what it says about the impression he's making, but it's a little bit of a relief for what it says about Gojyo being himself.

Even for a shinki, it's hard to guess how much someone might change when they fail to remember who they were. He knows -- looking back at what he remembers -- that he, too, has changed.

"Well," he adds, and meets Gojyo's dubious gaze. "If Sharak Sanzo sent you, I'm sure you have something to talk to me about. Would you like to come in? I'll make tea."

What neither knew, or could remember, is that this was essentially the run of luck they had when alive. Misunderstandings rise further because there wasn't any denial of responsibility for those damn posters. The idea of how the girl, whom he's supposed to protect, would react from seeing this stuff come up again... He's not completely thinking.

"And I see some jackass that has no problem upsetting some new kid that's got enough on her plate!"

Not that Gojyo knew about that, much less the fact that this 'kid' was actually a teenager. Fiery temper meets explosive as, despite the fact that this guy is a twig, with a single hand he manages to pull up a tree (which was a good amount more grown than a sapling) out from the ground. Roots and all, and it might take a couple of seconds for him to wind into it, but it's clear that the blond was about to spear-throw the tree- dirt and root side first.

Step into my parlor, said the spider to the fly, [ --mumbled Gojyo under his breath. A moment later he realized what he'd just said -- and that it really had been out loud -- and he had the decency to look completely embarrassed. ]

Sorry. It's... [ He gestured to his own head, much the same way that Yuri had just gestured to the forest. ] I don't even know what I know until it's halfway out of my mouth. [ His gut says that this is still probably a trap of some kind, but he's getting really tired of his gut saying that. What the hell kind of person was he before he died, if he's always looking at everything in terms of whether or not he's going to get attacked? No wonder he's dead -- it was probably heart failure from all the stress. ]

I'd, uh... coffee sounds good. [ It's a little early for beer, but he doesn't judge. If he lived here, he'd probably get day drunk a lot, too. ]

"Oh shit," laughed Gojyo, in those sparse few seconds before Shizuo killed that poor unassuming tree. "Are you sayin' you're a g--?"

But the taunt died in his mouth, as abruptly as that poor tree died. How the hell...? But there was no time to even fully form the question, because that was a lot of dirt and tree heading right for him. Gojyo flung himself gracelessly to the side... or rather, the intent was graceless -- the actuality was that he dove onto the lawn, executed a perfect single-shoulder somersault, and landed back on his feet, hands raised like he knew exactly what he was doing.

Huh. Neat.

"The hell is wrong with you, don't throw trees at people!"

Limiters. Give him a break. Just because Swamp Elf was the strangest youkai Gojyo had ever met didn't mean he was going to be a bigot about it, come on.

(Swamp Elf was the strangest youkai Gojyo had ever met as far as he knew. His memory wasn't really a memory so much as a couple seemingly unrelated points that felt like they weren't his at all. Like he'd read about these things in a book, rather than living them. Youkai had pointed ears and sharp teeth and sharp nails, and marks that indicated what family they came from, and humans were afraid of them because they were stronger and faster and just all around better at most things. ...Which, speaking of strange, was a strange thing for a human to think. Or was it? Maybe he was just a realist?

He'd have to ask Ekko about that later.)

"How about we talk right here?" he replied, not granting Hakkai a single inch. "Unless there's somebody else up in the trees spyin' on us?"

To be perfectly fair, that whole act sort of stopped Shizuo in his rage. Gojyo's not the only one wondering 'how the hell', and the only thing he could do was rationalize it the best that any other human could. That clearly it wasn't really rooted and that it must've been some sort of fake prop tree. It's not like it was heavy or hard to pull up, so that must be the case.

"Huh," was the only puzzled response to Gojyo's comment, though he stared at where the tree ended up landing. Until his brain catches up with this 'trouble-maker' that had dodged the tree like some cool martial artist or something. At least, it would be cool if he wasn't the person responsible for those flyers.

So Shizuo channels the side that thinks of what would be cool to do and say by adjusting the purple shades and giving a Most Serious look at the trespasser. ~~Except he's not really one.~~ "It's my job to protect the girl in charge of this place, even from all this flyer shit that's going around. I'll throw whatever the hell I've gotta at the people responsible."

There were certain things about Sha Gojyo, Hakkai reflected, that went deeper than memory. One of those appeared to be that he was abominably stubborn.

"Well," he said brusquely, "I'd rather not stand around holding a noose while we chat. I'm going to go put this away. If you'd prefer to wait here for me instead of getting a cup of tea, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Unfortunately, Shizuo's badass speech (and it was badass, make no mistake! The purple shades really added something) was totally ignored by Gojyo, who was far more interested in that tree. That tree that no normal human should have been able to throw. Which meant that Purple Shades was no normal human.

"Yeah, yeah," he said dismissively, waving his hand in Shizuo's direction to fan his words away. "This thing is huge!" It wasn't a hundred year old oak, but it was definitely bigger around than Gojyo's leg, which put it firmly in the 'huge' category. "How'd you do that?"

There was some place that counted as away for hanging nooses. Just when Gojyo thought he couldn't get any more creeped out.

"Fine." Follow the scary man into a potential trap, or wait in the murder woods for the scary man to come find him? It wasn't a tough choice. "I'll follow you." And step only where you step, you weirdo.

The forest didn't get any less creepy the further in they traveled. "So, uh..." Something hooted in the distance, and Gojyo all but jumped out of his skin. This was ridiculous. He was a grown-ass man in the middle of the day -- there was nothing to be scared of! "You and Sanzo, huh? Are you two, you know." And was that somebody standing behind that tree? ...No, it was just a trick of the light. Probably.

The atmosphere was a little creepy, but it also had the advantages of being quiet and peaceful, full of the little flickering shadows of sunlight through leaves and nooses stirred by the breeze.

Gojyo's question, after ten or twenty seconds of silence as they headed for Yuri's temple, startled him into a genuine laugh. Sharak Sanzo, of all people. He respected her, but --

"I think that's probably sacrilegious," he managed, clearing his throat to get the last bubbles of amusement under control. "No, we've just worked together a time or two. Why did she tell you to find me?"

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Hello! My name is Elder Sha (open log)

June 29

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June 29th??

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Sure! What is time, really.

Vaguely at some time around these days, I don't know what she's up to okay

2- this can straight up be any of the days

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June... (makes unintelligible noise)

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