thenearshore | -Overflow- for 015

[Of course he's holding on for dramatic tension. And to be an asshole. He doesn't take orders from his shinki. A bunch of friends in the middle of a petty argument have all made different Tanabata wishes that their other friends will suffer equally petty repercussions, like "trip over their own two feet." That's the kind of thing he can help with.]

What do you care what the prayer's about if it's not attacking an ayakashi, anyway? Not like they can hear you.

[He teleports over to the opposite side of the building, where one of the kids is leaving the gym and heading back into the main building to leave for the day. He starts scanning the kid, getting a handle on the situation.]

I care because I know you're keeping me in my vessel form for no reason now.

[Given his position, it would have been a better answer to say something about he was supposed to be his god's moral compass and he had to answer moral prayers or whatever, but meh. Holier-than-thou was definitely not a phrase that was best used in describing him.

The kid had was sporting a sour look, complete with his hands in his pockets and him kicking the ground in frustration. Given the latter, it wouldn't be so difficult to send him flat on his face.]

"I didn't do anything wrong. Why do I have to apologize..."

Not true at all!

[He chuckles a little before approaching the kid.]

Far Shore gods can sense other Far Shore folks... but ayakashi are a bit different than that.

[He's covering for his telepathy a bit.]

Can't sense them nearly as well. Who knows when they'll just pop right up!

[Which is true, he can't read their minds, but he CAN sense a giant spot of raw emotion every now and again.]

Now settled down and let me see if this new prayer involves an ayakashi or not. Could just be a bunch of brats dealing with stupid high school drama for all I know - with you yapping in my ear.

[Ross didn't particularly do well with taking orders, even thought that was part of his job as a shinki. Especially since he was sure he was being talked down to. How much of all that was true, even?

...Yeah, he was basically sulking by this point. Stewing in his own irritation was also a valid descriptor. But instead of complaining any more he was just going to find out whether he could still take a nap in this form.]

Alright then. Gonna earn those sweets I see.

[Carrot and stick.]

Alright - sure enough. The kids are fighting over petty crap and all they wanna do is get in each other's faces a bit, like spray-painting a locker or getting their house keys left behind at school or tying shoelaces together. Stupid crap like that. Now, I'm not interested in helping kids egg each other's houses, but...

[He starts listening around the school, see if he can find the other friends.]

A good old fashioned shouting match or water balloon fight or something might do the trick. Maybe pebbles if that's all that's around. These kids won't have the guts, but if they have the opportunity it'll make 'em think.

[...Dammit. So much for that nap.]

I'm interested in helping kids egg houses. [Or things in general, really. Oh, and by "houses" he about half meant that as "Schuldig's face." How dare you threaten to take the sweets away!]

You're that sure they won't have the guts?

Guess we'll find out.

[Schuldig uses his power to bring the kids together in the courtyard, where they all start to stare each other down, waiting for one to make the first move.]

Except we don't have all night.

[To excuse his powers, he kicks a pebble towards the middle of the three of them. That should get them all thinking a little more about things.]

They should just start a yelling match. First level of getting things off a person's chest. Just screaming at the top of your lungs.

If that's how you do things, I'll have to get earplugs. [Earplugs would probably be a good thing to have anyway, actually.

Of course, the pebble rolling that way just started an argument about why one had clearly kicked that pebble toward them on purpose, while the other insisted on their innocence. Things just snowballed from there. The yelling was quickly getting to the point where the kids coming to blows over this wasn't out of the question. Eggs or water balloons probably would have been safer...]

Try kicking a bigger pebble this time. Sounds like they've still got a lot of things left to get off their chests.

Nah. Probably not a pebble big enough.

[Schuldig hears Ross's thoughts and decides hmm, sure, not a bad plan. He teleports into the school kitchen and finds the cafeteria fridge, where he can take eggs out of.]

Here we go...

[And when he teleports back in, he pops one egg in each kid's hand.]

Go on, let em fly.

[There was a silent, baffled moment where the kids wondered where the eggs had come from or perhaps more importantly, why, but that only lasted until one of them decided that throwing was a better idea. All it really took was one egg to the face before all hell broke loose. Oh, the eggmanity!]

I changed my mind, this was worth staying awake for.

[This was almost as good as almost setting Schuldig's hair on fire.]

Heh. You're welcome.

[Oh he's not about to let Ross live that thought down, but hey at least the kids are beating themselves up now. They keep throwing things until at last one of them yells for the others to stop, asking what exactly everything is about. Why are they egging each other? Why are they fighting?]

See, I thought that something like this would get them talking. Now to see if there's an ayakashi behind this.

[He hopes there is.]

[No regrets! ...For now.]

Can you tell if there are any other arguments happening nearby?

[It seemed unlikely that this was the first one if there really was an ayakashi causing the problem. And if there were other strange arguments happening, the ayakashi was probably close by too. That made the most sense to him, if no one else.]

Sure can.

[Not gonna explain why. Just that he can. He teleports up above the rooftop since now the kids have moved on to hashing out their issues.]

And somewhere near that should be whatever's causing it. Schools are apparently notorious draws for ayakashi. Who knew.

[He knows, of course, because of his interactions with the Demon.]

Give me another chance to take out an ayakashi too.

[It's a fun experience, all of that raw emotion just fading away into nothing.]

[He didn't answer right away. None of the gods he'd been assigned to before were terribly thrilled about running into ayakashi, so Ross had to wonder what the motives behind that last statement were.]

You sound so surprised. [A sigh.] Let's just get this over with.

[Unfortunately (or probably fortunately) he couldn't share his god's enthusiasm on that front.]

That's a good attitude to have. All business with us!

[It's a fine arrangement, as far as he's concerned.

He jumps - actually jumps - from one part of the school's campus to another, until finally there's a screech above them.]

... Well hello there. It's a devilbird.

[The thing is coasting along at a pretty high altitude right now, but he can tell it's definitely an ayakashi.]

...Why a bird?

[Seriously he didn't get it. "How are we going to attack it" was also one of those questions floating around in his head. Ross was pretty sure he could hit it if he had access to his magic, but this form made that difficult, let's say.]

I can't help you if you jump up there and something goes wrong.

I don't know. Maybe it was offended by all the eggs getting thrown around.

[He chuckles a bit. He almost said that it was the egg pun, but that was in Ross's head. Not someplace he's supposed to know about. Yet.]

Either way, this armor is damn heavy. I'm wondering if I can just send it slamming into the pavement. Rend it from there.

[From above, not below. Yay teleporting.]

[Hearing that answer just made him want an omelette, really. "Shame" was not an often-used word in his personal lexicon.]

If you're going to slam into the pavement instead while you're doing that, change me back first so I can tell everyone about your noble sacrifice.

[THAT gets a laugh out of Schuldig. Nice and loud.]

Sacrifice? Me? No way. I'd teleport out of the way before I hit the pavement. Done it plenty of times before.

[Granted he was wearing Jennifer's boots that last time, but hey, details.]

I'm not sure I can believe that without seeing it.

[Yup. This line of conversation was definitely going to go well. To his credit, he was at least keeping an eye on the ayakashi in case it decided to go around to the other end of the school. Or worse.]

Good, because that's the only way I can fly, hover, or otherwise get in the air. And I don't feel like getting blighted by a damn bird.

[He prepares the words to Rend the creature, charging the arm with power before teleporting above the creature by about 30 feet.

Enjoy the view for a split second, Ross. He's about to punch the bird out of the air.]

[Oh geez. He was fortunate enough to have a quick reaction time, although it was only his lack of memories that made it feel like good fortune. When he was doing his own teleporting with his magic at least he knew exactly when to expect it.

The ayakashi let out a horrid screech as the punch connected and sent it into a tailspin down toward the pavement.]

These ones really aren't putting up a fight.

[True to his word, Schuld first uses REND! against it, and then teleports to safety as it skids along the street.]

Haha. Sweets Boy is eager for a fight now, huh?

[He tucks into a crouch and then looks around.]

Maybe next time we'll find one up to the challenge.

[... Ah. Spoke too soon. The bird starts shaking off the impact and standing on its own two huge feet.]

Hmm. Alright, one more Rend it is.

Don't use that nickname again. [C'mon man, you can do better than that.

So, the ones skulking around the school were hardy enough to take more than one Rend to the face. Huh. He wasn't particularly worried, mind you. It was more of an intellectual curiosity. Nevertheless, he took a breath and focused. He wasn't in the mood for playing nice with ayakashi.]

Now we know. Devilbirds are stronger than ducks.

[Even he can admit that. Yeah, he can do better. He's just distracted right now.]

And the bigger they are, the harder they fall -- yeah yeah, spare me.

[Meanwhile he throws that godforsaken heavy arm out to the side and charges it again. He's basically taking power from the both of them to do it when he used to rely more on his shinki to power the spell but...... imaptience is the mother of invention and all.]

REND!

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Prayer 37 go! (1/15)

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