-Overflow- for 015 | Sky Full Of Stars

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Tanabata Festival
When: All day July 5
Where: The Near Shore
Summary: The Heavens are throwing a party and you're invited!

Continuing from HERE!

Comments

Schuldig

[volksdaemon]

Continuing threads.

Ross

[volksdaemon]

[[OOC: Cont. from here]]

That type, huh.

[He'd had a perfectly obedient shinki that was a doormat and he'd had a shinki that claimed to be obedient, but couldn't be bothered to come when called. So he supposes he's due for a stubborn brat. He starts walking after him.]

We can do this the easy way or the hard way, you know.

[He's just lazy enough to consider the hard way only because he thinks it'll be faster in the long run for him to just claim the shinki any way that he has to, the same way he's claimed others, even though this one is technically his. The 'easy way' - for Ross - just might take longer on Schuldig's end so he may run out of patience first.]

[shiitan]

["That type" was one way of putting it. In fact, Ross didn't even bother to turn his head when he heard Schuldig's voice following behind him.] I won't ever be making things easy for you.

[While his tone was neutral, that still wasn't the best way to greet his new god, especially when he didn't know whether he would be released if he asked. Though maybe it was a rather pointless distinction; asking nicely for things wasn't in his skillset. Magic, on the other hand, was. If nothing else, he had enough mana to teleport away if he needed to make a quick escape.

Of course, if he had known that Schuldig has psychic abilities, maybe he wouldn't have thought all that.]

[volksdaemon]

[For his part, Schuldig keeps trailing along, observing and listening and smirking like he does when he knows that he's not about to back down.]

Too bad. I'm not like other gods around here.

[And then he teleports in front of the guy.]

For one thing, I don't have to impress you. This can be business, plain and simple. Answer when I call for you to destroy an ayakashi and I'll take you places. Refuse, and I get to punish a disobedient shinki. Those are your options.

[shiitan]

[Ross stopped once Schuldig teleported in front of him, but he showed no sign of stepping back. Even in that respect he was being stubborn.] Sorry, I'm not good at following orders, so I won't pick either of them. I'd rather have you release me instead.

[Given how this was going, he doubted he was going to get his wish, but hey.]

[volksdaemon]

[He crosses his arms.]

No. What makes you think that any god is going to be any less stubborn than you are?

[He's not so much angry as incredibly skeptical of Ross's motivations and which one he can pick to successfully wield this guy as a shinki.]

What makes you think the people in charge are going to let you stay wandering and masterless for very long? They seem to loathe the idea, if you got assigned to me fast enough it wasn't even overnight like the others.

[shiitan]

Then I'll find a god who already has shinki to spare. Or a god who can't use my weapon form properly.

[Really, with that in mind, Ayumu had been the perfect god for him. She had Sakon if there was an ayakashi that needed to be rended, and his weapon form hadn't suited her fighting style very well anyway. Most importantly, he'd been able to come and go freely whenever he pleased.]

Or are you going to admit you need me to stay? I can go to another god, but if you don't have another shinki, there's not much you can do about ayakashi without me. You need me more than I need you.

[volksdaemon]

[Of course he's not going to admit that he needs Ross. Not out loud, anyway.]

What are you after? [He's a shinki. What could he possibly want? Schuldig dips into the other guy's mind after the question helps prompt some ideas to the surface.]

I can pay you in your favorite food, but I'm not going away. What is it - desserts? Those Japanese jelly square things?

[He's one step away from grabbing the guy and teleporting somewhere to talk at length, depending on how the suggestion that he's a telepath goes over. His patience is wearing thin.]

[shiitan]

[Ross visibly tensed. That was a bit too accurate for him to dismiss as a lucky guess.] Don't do that again.

[Though he wasn't quite sure what "that" was, and he didn't have a whole lot of faith in his request actually being honored. But he sure as hell wasn't going to let that go without saying something about it. If it was magic then he would have at least had a way to defend himself, but he couldn't sense any from Schuldig.]

...Pay me every other day and you've got a deal. [If he wasn't going to be released, he was just going to have to make do.]

[volksdaemon]

Fine, fine, whatever sweets you want, so long as you don't gorge yourself so much I can't call on you because you're throwing up in a bathroom somewhere.

[ He lets out a sigh of boredom, mainly. Of all the mundane things to have to placate a shinki with... but whatever, he supposed a sweet tooth was at least easier to procure payment for than someone like Farfarello, who wanted blood and mayhem. And he was fine with blood and mayhem, but in controlled situations where Crawford was aware of it. Not just because someone got an itch they couldn't scratch. He did that enough on his own. ]

So if I teleport you somewhere we can name you, that's your agreement.

[ He selectively uses his teleportation this time - not forcing Ross to come with him. But if he chooses to go with Schuldig, they'll end up inside of the front entryway of his temple. It doesn't have any obvious entrance or exit. That's why he teleports people straight in when he knows he's about to make a clandestine deal. ]

[shiitan]

[Fortunately Ross had a black hole for a stomach, so making himself sick wasn't likely. Not to mention that Schuldig saying "whatever sweets you want" were the kind of words that would be burned into his memory and ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice.

He offered no response to those words, but he didn't hesitate to go along with the teleportation either. When he said it was a deal, he meant it. It wouldn't have been terribly difficult to mess with his new god either, but that fact that he didn't even try was not a good sign, as counterintuitive as that sounded.]

Is this your temple?

Prayer #34 Start

[volksdaemon]

It is. I'm a god whose followers value privacy, so the temple is tucked away and there's a strict No Visitors Without Permission policy. I'll know if there's someone else here. Sometime later I'll introduce you to the only other god who comes and goes here at his leisure - sometimes without notice. But for now...

[The words he has to say aren't any easier to say now - those sappy things he doesn't feel, which are purely business-sounding in the case of Ross. He just can't change the phrasing without risking the Naming process going wrong. He doesn't hold onto the spiral of colors any longer than necessary this time. Flecks of yellow and orange light start to appear around them.]

Spirit, you are lost and adrift
You have nowhere to go and nowhere to return to
Thus I grant you a place to belong!

[His eyes start to glow brighter blue than the color they already are.]

My name is Loki!

[That's when, instead of random swirls, Schuldig starts to draw the character between himself and Ross, roughly the size of Ross himself. It shines bright orange and yellow as Schuldig paints it in midair.]

Kid Loki

[volksdaemon]

[[OOC: Cont. from here]]

[Since some of his probing gets through on the young man in the similar-tinted yukata, he hovers nearby.]

Well now... a strategist by the way you keep staring.

[Schuldig chuckles from behind the kid, not feeling too bad if this means he gets to mess up the boy's aim.]

Better than the shotgun approach to keep trying everything like some of these folks.

[changeanddie]

Augh!

[And as a matter of fact, his throw is his worst one yet. Which is saying a lot. He turns around to see the source of the creepy laughter. Loki's instinct is throwing some red flags, but he has associated with people who looked much more alarming. When you're Loki, stranger danger is part of the game. And who knows? He's not one to judge people just because they give off a weird aura.]

Unfortunately, my eye is not too keen for spotting any weak points to this game. I have yet to find a sweet angle that results, and mysterious background chuckles do not aid.

[volksdaemon]

Nor does being a man out of time, by the sounds of it.

[Schuldig walks a little closer, now having something of a bead on his personality and mannerisms, at least.]

Not the only one around here, actually. There's a handful of 'em... runnin' around with swords and spellbooks instead of cellphones. So who knows!

[He shrugs despite his hands in his pockets.]

Maybe you just need some more practice, huh?

[changeanddie]

I'm from the year 2012, actually. Not that far, just 4 of difference. It's just my folks who are very rooted in old tradition to the point of tedium. Not me. I had a great Starkphone back home and the best apps installed, I'll let you know.

Like with everything, I suppose... [That or an easy way to cheat, he thinks.]

[volksdaemon]

Rooted in old tradition? Are you from Europe then?

[Because 2012 and knowledge of apps, yet talks like this... could be Secondary Language English like himself. At which point he might lay off the kid. Depends Schuldig can be very prone to mood swings depending on how much he likes a person - which is rare.]

[changeanddie]

Not exactly. We live over Oklahoma. [And when he says "over", he means floating a couple of inches above American territory.] But you may say my family has Norse roots of a sort.

How about you? Obviously not Japanese either.

Jay/Farfarello

[volksdaemon]

[[OOC: Cont. from here]]

Oh hey there horrorshow, long time no see. That's how Schuldig reacts simply to sensing the viewpoint of the fesitval-goers as demons and the way their bodies get manipulated. He doesn't even know at first where the nightmarish daydreams are coming from - they're just such a stark contrast in this milieu of fun and fancy free that he can't help but be drawn to them. These are the types of tendencies that got a person targeted by Schrient for their daddy's experiments. He's not thinking of anything so grand for whoever's brain is the container for such intense visual imagery, but he would certainly like a face to go with them.

He just doesn't expect the guy to direct any attention at him.

Once the guy's on the move again, Schuldig dares to make a more concentrated sweep. He dares to actually scan the crowd with his eyes while he does it, catching sight of the very real flower crown atop a man's head and wow is that who he thinks it is. He can believe Farfarello showing up in the Far Shore. He can even believe that - god or shinki - the man wouldn't have come up to him specifically and instead made his way through the crowd, looking for any sort of target to stab in the back on a whim. Maybe he already did, in so deft a fashion that no one's even noticed yet and wouldn't find out about until tomorrow. He can even believe that maybe Farfarello's not acting that way because - last Schuldig knew - the man had settled down, but then again Crawford knew nothing of the sort. So what sort of Farf was he going to find if he peeked into that mind a little further?

Judging by the flower crown atop his head in sharp contrast with the horrorshow thoughts, while some things may change, some things are definitely the same about the man. Tailing Farfarello of all people is asking to get cut, but Schuldig's going to live dangerously for about 30 seconds with his mental trigger finger on his newfound Teleport ability, so he moves closer to the Wish board in a wide arc not directly towards his former teammate.

[rev13_3]

No, he's spilled no blood today. The desire to do so is a tight, sharp tension in his throat and the back of his skull -- he's gritting his teeth hard enough that it would register as pain for anyone who could feel such things. For Jay, it's merely a need. He stalks through the crowd, surface thoughts flickering with the what-if deaths of the braying crowd.

Beneath those simple bloody desires, though, is something glowing. Jay is a shinki, and has a shinki's patchwork personality. His mind churns with knowledge, but its knowledge adrift -- there's no recollections of the experiences that provided that knowledge. His whole self is a thinly stretched web, suspended over a white-hot core of faith and beauty and love and the certainty of Tot's ultimate divinity and truth. It burns, there at the center of his mind and heart. His body feels no pain but there's pain when he mentally reaches for that light -- which he does, over and over, a habitual action like tonguing the gap of a missing tooth, or the telling of a rosary. In his mind, Jay sears himself against Tot's glory, rejoicing in the agony her presence causes.

And every time he reaches for that light (a dozen times a minute or more, craving support and protection here as he navigates this festival pandemonium), his damaged (scarred, bruised, in some places surgically modified) brain shows him angels, in all their terrible beauty.

It's the angels who point out the lovers. A boy and a girl, grown but not yet adults, their faces bright with the colors of the festival and their obvious care for one another. Jay tracks them as they cross the street, heading away from the festivities. There are dark places in that direction, Jay knows. A park with softly rolling hills and hidden valleys, a grove of trees thick enough for a man to hide behind, a wall, a trash bin.

These two, he thinks, he won't label, and there's a flash of memory as he recalls the carving of DEATH TO AMATERASU onto the chest of the handsome young god. These two, he thinks, he'll leave pristine, and the angels howl their approval.

For you, Victorious, he mentally prays, gripping Tot's flame in his mind so tightly that he sways on his feet, mouth gone dry from the agony. No life without death, their flesh food for the bloom of your glory. The lovers vanish through the crowd, but Jay doesn't worry. He turns calmly on his heel and pads after them, keeping a distance well suited to avoid suspicion. The angels won't let him lose his prey.

[volksdaemon]

Schuldig was amused - at first. It was a daring telepath that wanted, genuinely wanted, to know where all of the little cracks in Farfarello's reality were and what they looked like inside of his mind. Whether it was angels or dancing lights or cobwebs or flower crowns, you could be sure that the landscape of his mind would be littered with imagery that would give a surrealist painter enough work for a hundred lifetimes.

Then he has to back off for a little bit because the thought of being that 'close' to someone's mind while they're in a flagellatory mood seemed like it would put a damper on his night. Sure, for Farfarello, it's probably like the closest thing to pleasure that he ever feels, at least from Schuldig's perspective, but he only had to feel the pain side of that once in the past to know when to back out.

What confuses him for a moment though is that his old teammate keeps thinking of himself but not with the name Farfarello attached to it. Shinki or not, it made Schuldig wonder if Farfarello had died in some sort of lovers' suicide gambit with his wife. Maybe that's why he's after the boy and the girl-- wait, it's the Bombay brat and his sister. Now, Schuldig's not about to defend them against the menace that is Farfarello's fixation on their demise, but... he doesn't even know them, right? He can't, if he's a shinki.

Schuldig dares to take another dip into the very surface thoughts of the other man's mind and manages to glimpse the DEATH TO AMATERASU part. Angels howling or not, he recognizes the words if not the body of the handsome... young... no, he does know that guy. That's the guy with mental defenses powerful enough to expel Schuldig from his library-like mind with the force of several thousand spiraling pages. He hated that guy.

Now, the other person with that carved into them though... that makes him watch Farfarello disappear into the crowd with only a tangential tracker on him. His mind is refusing to put the pieces together, because it's just too outrageous and stupid and why would Crawford let this happen? Let their serial killer former teammate turned shinki kill his best tool for taking out ayakashi and playing nice with the heavens? BOTH of the Schwarz members that had abandoned the team turned up as shinki. How's that for karma? But that short tirade has him balking anyway. He's mad, but he's not mad enough to confront Farfarello and turn him ayakashi mid-Tanabata, tempting as it is.

No, he's just mad enough to want words with Crawford. Like, right now if possible, but if not... he's at least going to enjoy watching Farfarello kill the two "lovers" as payback for his losing Jennifer.

[rev13_3]

Something's wrong.

Jay freezes, just out of sight behind the stall selling children's toys in the shape of a holy man who crippled himself for his faith. The angels break around him in a wave of chiming light, assuring him of the joy to be found at Tot's feet, but he's not questioning his place beneath her blessed heel. No, he's questioning whether he's the only monster hunting this particular festival.

Somebody is watching him.

It's a feeling, nothing more, but with or without memories he's a creature of instinct. The metaphorical hairs are standing up on the back of his neck as he tilts his head gently one way, then the other, listening for any sounds that don't fit in with the brilliant chaos on the other side of this canvas wall. The angels shriek at him to continue in his pursuit of the young lovers, and it's with tangible regret that he loosens his grip on Tot's glory, the better to concentrate on his potential pursuer.

It's entirely possible that he's imagining things. He's figured out by now that he sees things others don't (thanks to the hand of the Most High), and this wouldn't be the first time that he's identified a threat where none exists. Her touch is a gift, and it's entirely his failing that causes that gift to sometimes show him things he cannot comprehend. Perhaps this is one such time.

Or perhaps there really is someone -- or something -- out there.

Where are you? he thinks, fingertips grazing lightly over the handle of the knife taped to his forearm. I know you're out there. Show yourself!

[volksdaemon]

He doesn't send it to Farfarello - to "Jay" - but he does think to himself, 'Not today.' He has too many questions and too much desire for retaliation. It's not out of some love for a former teammate either - he cares about his own skin first and foremost. If he's going to take a risk like that, he's going to do it when he's had more time to plan for how to avoid getting caught, just like 'Jay' had.

At least now he knows where to find Farfarello again, and how to twist him a little better if Tot's the one holding his leash these days.

His only other goal for today is to be sure that this is Farfarello's new favorite pastime - to make sure that when he kills the two kids, which will surely happen if Farfarello's already decided on it, that the state that he leaves them resembles how Jennifer was left. If so, then Schuldig's definitely got him and it's not just some kind of impression that his former teammate's got stuck in his head. How many times had they found or become copycat criminals in order to take down the real one? It would be more certain. But he had to keep hidden if 'Jay' had even a fraction of Farfarello's old senses to know when he was being watched, in particular by a nosy telepath.

Schuldig stays where he's at and tries to keep a visual on him, not daring to sneak any subtle cues into the man's mind and tip him off. Not yet.

wishes.

[untodeath]

[ Standing up on tip-toe, Grell reaches as high onto the stalk as she might, to place her wish. A red paper, tied with a cute little bow. It simply reads, May we remain together, forever♡ .

Of course, meaning William and herself.

She'd swooned over the man for what felt like centuries (Or had it been, truly?) and has her doubts that the change in scenery will have much effect. Will is a stubborn guy - but she likes that. Perhaps the chase is enthralling enough, either way? The pursuit, the need, the rejection, the impending pain. It's kept her entertained.

Yet, someone remains in the back of her mind. A beautiful face that had once unhinged her in the most spectacular way. At times, she misses what they had, what she thought that woman was - and sometimes, she wonders if she had done the wrong thing in killing her. There's a part of her that wants it all back.

Or, perhaps she doesn't know what she wants. ]

--Hm?

[ That's when a certain something catches her eye; the familiar scheme of fiery hair, and earthy green. Of course, the Hello Kitty mask and more subdued hairstyle might throw her off enough to grant a double-take, but that recognizably poor fashion sense might be the telling factor, actually.

Lowering herself, she turns to greet him with a pointy-toothed grin, and a hand to her cheek. ]

Ah, now the night's begun! What's a proper celebration without a bit of mischief, after all?

[volksdaemon]

[ Lucky for Grell, it's early in the night when she finds him, and so Schuldig is all in for mischief of a sort. He turns at her call and grins towards her. Of course he'd telepathically sensed her approach before she called, but he can act a little surprised, can't he? ]

Well now, look who it is - The Morrigan herself.

[ He makes a flippant sort of bow and flourish with one hand, the Hello Kitty mask not slipping from its precarious position on his head. ]

By all means, what sort of celebration would you like to get involved in tonight? Should we find a quiet little corner like some of the hormonal teen couples meandering around?