Toshizou Hijikata ♦ 土方 歳三 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
koukai_kirai) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thenearshore2017-06-22 01:48 pm
koukai_kirai) wrote in thenearshore2017-06-22 01:48 pm
I Ask for Nothing, I Can Get By [OPEN]
Who: Hijikata and you!
When: July 26th-28th
Where: The Near Shore - Kamakura, Kyoto. (Open to Wild Card options, too!)
What: Hijikata runs himself ragged using his power to bless his faithful; Hijikata tries and possibly fails to take a little care of himself, too (by which I mean he gets drunk and nostalgic at the Gion Festival and that could be either good or bad); catchall for wildcards.
[I. - The Near Shore - Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, Kamakura - July 26th-27th, any time during the day]
[The hydrangeas in the valleys are past their peak, but Kamakura is flush with tourists, all the same.]
[It's not a city Hijikata got to know in his life, but as a god, he's been making an effort to visit as many of his shrines as he can manage (a bit of a tall order for Hachiman of all gods, honestly -- he does have twenty-five thousand of them, and this is one of the biggest ones.)]
[It's a little bit bizarre to watch the worshipers at a distance. Plenty of them are just swinging by one of the big local landmarks since they happen to be in town, looking for an interesting picture or feeling like they probably ought to see such a famous place or something.]
[Others make their way more purposefully to the offering box where he's taken up hanging around invisibly right off the bat. Some of them are just the sort to do things properly, but most of them have something to say to him.]
[Help me find the strength to leave him.]
[I can't fail this test. They'll be so disappointed.]
[Please, let my child grow up strong and healthy.]
[Unseen and invisible, eyes full of a tired sort of compassion, Hachiman stands at his own altar and listens. And when he hears someone asking for the right things -- help me protect him, help me do the right thing, help me stand fast -- he reaches out to them with his power, giving them what he can.]
[He grants his followers resolve, strengthens the best of what's already inside them. To the new parents presenting infants at the shrine for the first time, he focuses on their desire to teach and protect and help their children to grow. To faltering students, he grants focus and motivation. To those facing greater struggles, he calls on the courage that carried them far enough to reach his doorstep, on their love for the things they have to survive for, on the righteousness that can move them past their fears.]
[He pours the strength of his own heart into them, and leaves the rest in their hands.]
[Periodically, he has to take a break, all but collapsing onto a bench in the shade for a few minutes at a time, gulping down bottles of water from a nearby vending machine. It's never for long, though.]
[His people need him. And he's not in the habit of giving any less than his all for the ones who believe in him.]
[II. - The Near Shore - The Kamo River, Kyoto - July 28th, afternoon or early evening]
[After a couple of days of using his power as much as he can manage, even Hijikata knows he ought to take a break.]
[There's reason to believe that this isn't really the way he should be going about it, honestly. Kyoto is a city full of memories for him, and the Gion Festival, stretching all through July, is tied up with a lot of those, too.]
[But he can't just ignore every place he's got memories of, can he? And he can't quite resist the siren call of the familiar traces of his old Japan, from time to time.]
[He veers away from the hustle and bustle of the festival's main drag, but stays near enough to hear it -- the cheering, the bells and the flutes and the drums, the distant rush of too many voices all blurred together. He wanders past one of his smaller shrines, picks up some sake that someone left him, and takes it to the riverbank with him.]
[By the time the sky gets dark and the fireworks start, he's had enough to get a distant look in his eyes, a small smile on his lips that looks outright painful up close.]
[III. - Wild Card!]
[OOC: If you've got something else you'd like to play out with Hijikata, I'd love to hear it! Hit me up at![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
cognitiveleague, PM me, or run it by me OOC on this post, and I'd be happy to work something out and use this post as a catch-all.]
When: July 26th-28th
Where: The Near Shore - Kamakura, Kyoto. (Open to Wild Card options, too!)
What: Hijikata runs himself ragged using his power to bless his faithful; Hijikata tries and possibly fails to take a little care of himself, too (by which I mean he gets drunk and nostalgic at the Gion Festival and that could be either good or bad); catchall for wildcards.
[I. - The Near Shore - Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, Kamakura - July 26th-27th, any time during the day]
[The hydrangeas in the valleys are past their peak, but Kamakura is flush with tourists, all the same.]
[It's not a city Hijikata got to know in his life, but as a god, he's been making an effort to visit as many of his shrines as he can manage (a bit of a tall order for Hachiman of all gods, honestly -- he does have twenty-five thousand of them, and this is one of the biggest ones.)]
[It's a little bit bizarre to watch the worshipers at a distance. Plenty of them are just swinging by one of the big local landmarks since they happen to be in town, looking for an interesting picture or feeling like they probably ought to see such a famous place or something.]
[Others make their way more purposefully to the offering box where he's taken up hanging around invisibly right off the bat. Some of them are just the sort to do things properly, but most of them have something to say to him.]
[Help me find the strength to leave him.]
[I can't fail this test. They'll be so disappointed.]
[Please, let my child grow up strong and healthy.]
[Unseen and invisible, eyes full of a tired sort of compassion, Hachiman stands at his own altar and listens. And when he hears someone asking for the right things -- help me protect him, help me do the right thing, help me stand fast -- he reaches out to them with his power, giving them what he can.]
[He grants his followers resolve, strengthens the best of what's already inside them. To the new parents presenting infants at the shrine for the first time, he focuses on their desire to teach and protect and help their children to grow. To faltering students, he grants focus and motivation. To those facing greater struggles, he calls on the courage that carried them far enough to reach his doorstep, on their love for the things they have to survive for, on the righteousness that can move them past their fears.]
[He pours the strength of his own heart into them, and leaves the rest in their hands.]
[Periodically, he has to take a break, all but collapsing onto a bench in the shade for a few minutes at a time, gulping down bottles of water from a nearby vending machine. It's never for long, though.]
[His people need him. And he's not in the habit of giving any less than his all for the ones who believe in him.]
[II. - The Near Shore - The Kamo River, Kyoto - July 28th, afternoon or early evening]
[After a couple of days of using his power as much as he can manage, even Hijikata knows he ought to take a break.]
[There's reason to believe that this isn't really the way he should be going about it, honestly. Kyoto is a city full of memories for him, and the Gion Festival, stretching all through July, is tied up with a lot of those, too.]
[But he can't just ignore every place he's got memories of, can he? And he can't quite resist the siren call of the familiar traces of his old Japan, from time to time.]
[He veers away from the hustle and bustle of the festival's main drag, but stays near enough to hear it -- the cheering, the bells and the flutes and the drums, the distant rush of too many voices all blurred together. He wanders past one of his smaller shrines, picks up some sake that someone left him, and takes it to the riverbank with him.]
[By the time the sky gets dark and the fireworks start, he's had enough to get a distant look in his eyes, a small smile on his lips that looks outright painful up close.]
[III. - Wild Card!]
[OOC: If you've got something else you'd like to play out with Hijikata, I'd love to hear it! Hit me up at
no subject
[He gives a small shrug of his shoulders, his eyes still on the display.]
Since I've seen the ones at Gion.
no subject
Toushirou spares him a quick glance before he looks back up at the fireworks.]
Times are changing if they can make firework displays even bigger now.
no subject
[Everything's changed, it feels like some days.]
I'm a little older than I look, I guess.
no subject
He gives a nod of agreement.]
It does seem like it.
no subject
[...Tokyo. Tokyo, not Edo, but honestly, correcting it seems like it will just draw attention to the slip-up, so he just lets it stand.]
no subject
...Sounds like you're not used to the modern times yet if you're still used to calling this place 'Edo'.
no subject
[He's learned how to use smart phones and everything!]
[...It's probably still a sign that he's had just about enough to drink, though. He usually doesn't let that sort of mistake happen nearly so easily.]
no subject
[A simple agreement.]
It can be difficult for me to do the same at times.
[He nods to the alcohol.]
You might want to consider to stop drinking.
no subject
It's almost empty. I won't go looking for more when it's gone.
[There's a convenience store around the corner, and he's got plenty of money, but it's probably for the best to listen right now.]
...Dealing with a bit of culture shock, too?
no subject
[He's dealt with people being drunk (see: Matsumoto), so he isn't exactly looking forward to that.
A brief pause before he gives a nod.]
It's not too different from where I came from, but it has definitely advanced enough where it leaves me uneasy enough to get used to.
no subject
[He doubts he'll be poorly off enough that he can't teleport himself close to a shrine, at any rate.]
It's the little things, more than the big ones. You never really expect the little ones to ever change, so somehow it's more of a shock when they do.
no subject
The fireworks are dying down, a dim glow.]
It is. Makes quite a bit of an impact once you realize just how much of it has actually changed from what you were familiar with.
no subject
[He hadn't really expected it to affect him as much as it did.]
You go around acting as if it's normal to have access to virtually any information on a tiny machine that's in your pocket at all times, and for every disease you can think of off the top of your head to be "preventable" or "easily cured", and for people to walk around in foreign-style clothes all the time, shaking hands and drinking coffee and talking about their trips overseas, and it's nothing you can't adjust to, and then all of a sudden you realize that no one calls each other -dono anymore, or that the theatre is expensive and classy all of a sudden, and it feels like the last straw, somehow...
[...Ugh. That all just sort of slipped out.]
no subject
It's a little unsettling.
Toushirou can recall the faintest glimpses of past times, understanding what the other man is talking about.]
Do you wish that this time is how it was back then sometimes?
no subject
I think some of the changes are for the best. They did away with the class system, and just about everyone is literate now, and if we'd had the sort of medical technology they have now...
[Then his mother, his sister, Souji... none of them would have had to die in lonely sickrooms, would they?]
...But it was home. It's hard not to want some things about it back, from time to time.
no subject
[To want things from the past. To keep moving forward.]
But, in a way, it's still home if you get past how modern everything has become. Truthfully, I have no problems with this time as it is now. As you've said, some of the changes are for the best; thinking about the past can make it easy to feel a little homesick.
[A pause before he lowers his gaze to the river.]
Even easier when you think about those you care about and wanting them here with you.
no subject
...Am I that transparent tonight?
no subject
no subject
[That's reasonable. Hijikata leans back on his hands, his eyes following the trails of smoke crisscrossing the sky in the fireworks' wake.]
...Tell me about them. If it helps, that is.
[Some days it does, and some days it doesn't, but it seems right to offer.]
no subject
Does he want to talk about them? He's not sure.]
I thank you for the offer, but I'll pass.
[Really, he is grateful that Hijikata offered.]