thenearshore | This is fine. Nothing is on fire. (closed)

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This is fine. Nothing is on fire. (closed)

Who: The Teacher (Cho Hakkai), Team "Our Teacher Fucked Up" (Chikusa Kakimoto, Yukine, Kairi), and the Peanut Gallery (Ken Joshima, Brad Crawford, Kyoya Hibari)
When: Forward dated to July 8
Where: Hakkai's School
What: Chikusa just wants to test a new poison on Hakkai, a sentence that totally won't have any horrific consequences at all.

The day starts out relatively normally. A little more confident in his cooking skills, Chikusa sets up a very basic bento for his god to eat later, packs some things he's kept secreted away in his room, picks his hat for the day, and leaves a note explaining he'll be at the Far Shore's sole school, and sets off. He doesn't ask Ken to come, but the other shinki comes anyway. It's not really something they really think about anymore, even Chikusa. Ken at his side just feels... natural.

All he wants to do is test how his poison will work on someone else. He'll start with a relatively small dose, so.... it should be fine, right?

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[A quick phone call is all it takes for Chikusa to confirm that Hakkai is at the school, and, after letting Ken wander wherever he wants to, Chikusa himself slouches throughout the building looking for the older shinki. When he finally does, he just... lingers around until Hakkai looks at him.]

I want to talk to you in private....

[MISTAKES WERE MADE]

[Perhaps it was a good thing he decided to stick around when Kairi and him stumbled upon that blighted shinki, and for more than just making sure no ayakashi suddenly spawned. It means he knows what to do when it becomes apparent that no amount of holy water is going to help Hakkai, and Chikusa immediately tears out of the room into the hallway. His phone is already in his hand, dial tone going, and he's yelling- a far cry from the teenager's usual lethargic murmurs.]

KEN!!

[Anyone is free to hear the call, lined with panic, but Chikusa is mainly concerned with finding his partner. If they can't find another two shinki for an ablution.... Then the best choice is for him and Ken to retreat. The sound of the line connecting on his phone gets his attention, and he's immediately speaking into it.]

Kairi, are you at the school?

Edited 2017-04-10 18:08 (UTC)

[Well. Here they are. The proper amount of shinki, arranged correctly and at the ready. Getting ready to draw his line, Chikusa ignores Yukine for the time being and instead glances to Kairi.]

Do you remember the incantation...?

[SO. An ablution is happening, and it's.... going to take a while. While the three shinki involved in the ablution will be plenty occupied, that still leaves four people to just... hang around, apparently. Feel free to react to what happens in the ablution, get popcorn, chat amongst each other... Whatever you want, if you really want to stick around.]

[GOOD JOB, TEAM. YOU DID IT. And some of you just stood on the sidelines like jackasses, but that's fine too. But now what?]

[Well, time to wrap things up. Want to go and try to kick Hakkai's ass? Bug the shinki involved in the ablution? Whatever it is, put your top levels here.]

[Hakkai is in one of the classrooms, jotting notes with a few books open on his table, and he glances up with his eyebrows flicking upwards as Chikusa slouches into the room.]

Close the door. ... What is it, Chikusa?

[Making sure the door is shut tight behind him- do they lock? he sure wishes they would- he shuffles closer to Hakkai.]

I want to test a poison on you.

[JUST. JUST COMING OUT WITH IT, I GUESS. YEP. After a pause, however, he continues to explain.]

I can't use it on myself.... I don't think I would be able to take note of the effects accurately. [It hasn't escaped him that feeling pain is a problem... So who knows what else is wrong with his body? Best use an outside source.] I don't plan on using a lethal amount... and I have a remedy on hand.

I thought about who would be best for this kind of thing... And you seemed the most sensible...

[By which he means he's fairly certain that out of all the people he knows, Hakkai is the least likely to sell him out or try to convince him not to pursue this research.]

You want to test a poison on me?

[Don't mind him setting down his pen as his eyebrows soar up behind his bangs. What on earth?

Or in Heaven, he supposes, and sits back in his chair, blinking. He can't deny that Chikusa's correct that poisoning himself would interfere with his ability to observe the effects, but it's a strange request regardless. Although, he supposes, it's a relief that Chikusa isn't asking Hakkai's permission to poison him fatally.

That's something?]

Is it going to affect your results that I'm not human?

No.

[And that, he can answer confidently. After all...]

[From the bag around his shoulders, he carefully starts to go through it. The first thing he sets out is a bottle of holy water. That alone isn't unusual- Hakkai has already seen that Chikusa carries such a thing around with him constantly. Just in case.]

[However, it will take an entirely new meaning when Chikusa takes out a small square container, undoes the latch.... And plucks out a small glass bottle, the length of his palm, and sets it with a decisive clink onto the desk.]

[The absolute abhorrence Hakkai feels should tell him immediately what the colorful twisting liquid inside is.]

This should work on anyone in the Far Shore... regardless if they're human or not.

[Hakkai stills for a moment, and then reaches out to take the bottle, turning it so that the rainbow-streaked liquid inside catches the light with a viscous glitter. It's like holding an ayakashi in his hand: the same instinctual revulsion... but there are no eyes in there. Only liquid.

He sets it back down on the glass and lifts his gaze to Chikusa.]

Ah. You distilled your captive?

[Into a poison... which, if it means anything, means that there is an ayakashi in that jar.

Hakkai finds himself suddenly very interested in it. If this is possible... could it be how the chocolates were imbued with ayakashi, too?]

I hope you don't expect me to drink that.

[Contact with a few fingers, to see if it causes the blight that it feels like it should, ought to be safe enough. He'll wash it off with the water immediately, and it shouldn't be enough to meaningfully worsen his own blight, not when it comes from an ayakashi.]

Not just that one.... I've had to hunt different ayakashi for days now to figure out how to do it, and gather the resources.

[It's taken constant work, both in hunting down ayakashi, figuring out blight, and getting it down into liquid form. But, finally, well, here they are.]

[At the question, still looking a bit emotionless, he quirks up an eyebrow.]

I'm not trying to torture you... [So, uh, yeah, this is an idea he has considered. What would happen if you just forced an ayakashi into someone's insides? But that's an experiment for someone he wants to suffer, and Hakkai is the opposite of that.] Just a few drops should be enough to show effects, like any contact with an ayakashi.

And then we'll wash it off.

[Thus why he brought the shrine water.]

I only want to make sure it can work appropriately... That's all.

Well, I'm relieved to hear that.

[He didn't think he'd done anything to encourage Chikusa to try to torture him, after all. With a mild little sigh, Hakkai holds his hand out, palm up. A few drops on his palm shouldn't be a problem.]

Would you like me to describe the effects? I've come into contact with a few ayakashi in this form, if you would prefer a comparison.

If you could...

[See? This is why he went to Hakkai. He knew the older shinki would be sensible about this. Taking the bottle again, he removes the top and handles it with considerable care.]

Hold still...

[And with that, he gently tips the bottle forward... and the first couple of drops fall through the air, landing onto Hakkai's hand.]

[It burns. It burns with a sudden, shocking agony that lances all the way up Hakkai's arm, and his hand spasms as deep purple radiates out across his palm. He stifles a tiny sound in the back of his throat, and breathes as the pain jolts him again with the second drop, an instant after the first.

(there's fear, too, rising in the back of his throat and startling him badly: it's sourceless, but it winds around his thoughts, twisting chains of logic into little circular what-ifs, and he has to clear his throat twice before he can speak.)]

It's -- stronger than touching...

[His sentence is interrupted by a harsh, sudden inhale, and he ducks his head, hiding behind his neatly trimmed bangs.]

-- an ayakashi. It would be quite [another breath] distracting.

[Should it be this strong?

Is something wrong? The burning is setting in more deeply, not just in his palm, but searing across his back and down his spine, curling around his throat as if acid-dipped hands are threatening to strangle him.]

[Stronger than touching? Chikusa's brows actually furrow at that, and he's glad that he restricted it to only two drops. Hastily, he caps the bottle again, shoving it back into its place and then into his bag. If something happens- he doesn't want it breaking. Who knows what could happen then.]

If it's stronger than a regular ayakashi...

[Later. For now, he grabs the shrine water and opens it.]

Hand again. Only the hand, right?

[But even as he says that, he's investigating the hand himself. Hakkai had grabbed an ayakashi during that rash of suicides that go the Heavens' attention, but this...]

[Hakkai opens his mouth, trying to agree, but he chokes on the burning sensation that clenches more fiercely around his throat, and his head falls further forward. His hair is long enough to straggle past the collar of his shirt, but not long enough to hide the vivid color staining every bit of skin visible on the back of his neck.

His sleeves are long and buttoned neatly at the wrist, but the purple blotch on his palm is already reaching tendrils up along the skin, spreading like an infection along the lines of his youkai mark. The vines seem to break apart where blight touches them, turning muddled and inky on the corrupted skin.]

[Shit. This is really not good. No more hesitation- Chikusa reaches forward to fist one hand in Hakkai's shirt, jerking it open to expose more skin, and he pours the shrine water directly on the encroaching blight. However, in the back of his mind, the repulsion is strong, and he's suddenly realizing what this seems so familiar to.]

[Double shit. He can't have made the poison that strong, did he?]

[Ken is taking some significant glee in Chikusa having caused problems, in much the same way a younger sibling would be smug about the older one getting in trouble. Axel's exemplar screwed up, while Ken is the good one who has done nothing wrong ~~that anyone's caught him at recently~~. Life is good.

He's mildly concerned for Hakkai, who was informative and friendly enough to him and is at least a point of interest for Ken, but not much. After all, whatever Chikusa and the others are doing, it's supposed to fix the problem, so no big deal, right? Besides, this whole ablution thing is new to him, so he's observing with no small amount of interest.

His self-satisfied air over Chikusa being in trouble is a little incongruous to the proceedings, feel free to ask him about it.]

[Two buttons pop off Hakkai's shirt as Chikusa rips it open, and icy-cold water hits his skin, almost as painful and repulsive as the poison itself. He recoils, yanking his hand free of Chikusa's grip, and another button gives way with the recoil, pinging on the floor.

Gasping for breath, Hakkai grabs the edge of the table in an attempt to steady himself. His knuckles whiten, and his claws dig deep furrows into the wood.

Shock and fear are reverberating through his mind, and he flinches as water drips from his soaked shirt down across the burning blight, leaving little icy trails.

He has to get himself under control. He has to relax. He needs to let Chikusa finish cleansing the blight.

His claws cut deeper into the wood of the table, and the purple stains on his skin pulse and stretch further up his wrist and over his throat. There is a tiny tendril of purple following the dark-green mark across his right cheek, barely edging up over his jaw. Hakkai opens his mouth, chokes, and manages a single sentence.]

Please -- wash it off.

[The thing is.... Chikusa is starting to wonder if they can wash it off.]

[But then, he'd thought they'd have to murder a soulless shinki before Kairi proved them wrong, so. After warily keeping his distance from Hakkai, shoulders tense... Chikusa edges closer again and takes a breath. So long as he's not touched in return, he should be fine as well.]

[He brings the bottle close again, pouring the shrine water down the side of Hakkai's throat, and his jaw clenches as he watches as it washes over the blight. Will this really...?]

[Icy shrine water hits the blight again, and Hakkai convulses silently. The wood of the desk cracks as his hands close on it with all of his strength, buckles and explodes into splinters that leave his fingers bleeding as he fights for breath past the pain.

Control. Control.

The skin across his shoulders ripples, and five little eyes, jaundice-yellow around blood red irises, pop open along the line of the tendon that stands out on his neck. They roll to focus on Chikusa with an animal interest that has nothing at all to do with Hakkai's own mind.

The blight spreads in another lurch, accompanied by a shiver that rocks Hakkai's whole body, and he drags his head up, turning it with painful care until Chikusa, on his blind right side, comes into blurry view at the corner of his left eye.]

A success... I think. Please --

[He runs out of breath and voice together, and collapses forward in silence against the broken edge of the desk. There's a bigger eye right at the base of his hairline, almost human-sized, dug in deep and peering out through the soaked and straggling strands.

It looks hungry.]

[Chikusa takes a step back and draws a borderline between them.]

[Selfish and maybe a little cruel, but he has no interest in dying or, worse, having that blight spread to him and causing trouble for Axel. His voice is quiet, but alarm is laced throughout all of it.]

It's still spreading... The shrine water wasn't enough. Hakkai- you need an ablution.

[And then, because what the fuck, Hakkai-]

The blight in that bottle couldn't have been enough, what have you been doing?

[One of his knees hits the ground hard, and he clings to the broken desk as Chikusa's borderline flares up between them.

What have you been doing...

Hakkai starts to laugh, in a voice that's uneven and broken as he gasps for breath.]

That's -- long story --

[An ablution? The thought horrifies him, and he can feel blight flaring further across his skin, fed by his horror. There's no escape, if it's this bad. There's no other chance but to die here and now, and he doesn't want to.

He doesn't. It's almost a surprise. But, even if he comes back, he can't forget: not when he's the only one who remembers too many things now. He laughs, again, crumpled against the desk and with an increasingly hysterical tone in his voice.

Well.

He's made a mistake.]

[There's no time for any other questions. All Chikusa does is turn on his heel.... and run for help.]

[Everything is agony. She'd arrived thinking, maybe, she could-- What, help? She didn't really know anymore. But she'd arrived long enough to get an explanation and figure out this ablution thing was happening and it'd help, somehow, but god she hopes it helps faster.

She remains standing at first, but it's quickly become unbearable. She sinks to her knees after only a few minutes, hands pressed to the ground and... The ground is nice. It's cool against her skin as she gives in and lays down, feeling feverish and weak and if only it would all stop spinning the ground and her could be best friends.

It takes everything in her to push herself up again after a moment, half-worried that if she closes her eyes she won't open them again, but... Revoking Hakkai's name is absolutely not an option.

(Because if she does, and he dies, he'll die alone and she'd promised, right? And if it kills her, too, at least neither of them will be alone and--)

None of these are healthy thoughts. Watching Hakkai does little right now, so she turns her gaze suspiciously towards the other gathered people just milling about. The blight's spread up her neck and the front of her chest and partially over her face, making it painfully obvious just who Hakkai's god was here.

Who were these people and why were they there?? She opens her mouth to ask just that, but whatever's happening over at the ablution makes her sudden gasp and bow her head, teeth gritting and nails rasping against the floor as her fingers curl reflexively against the shock of pain.

Fuck.]

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Page 1 of 6

This is fine. Nothing is on fire. (closed)

(Chikusa and Hakkai) An event that will totally not fuck everyone up at all

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE (everyone, slapdash order)

Team "Our Teacher Fucked Up" (Kairi, Chikusa, Yukine, Hakkai, Yuri probably)

The Peanut Gallery (Ken, Crawford, Hibari, Yuri)

Wrap Up (everyone)

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Re: The Peanut Gallery (Ken, Crawford, Hibari, Yuri)

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