thenearshore | (no subject)

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Who: Yona, her shinki, and others happening to be wandering by her temple.
When: Mid-to-late July (following certain conversations among her shinki)
Where: Yona's Temple
What: Information (and volatile emotion) is being shared among Yona's three shinki and it has some less-than-pleasant side effects for their goddess.

[ It had been a few days since she'd revealed the truth behind her nightmares - and the happenings that haunted one particular chamber within her temple - to Shizuo after he'd pressed for her trust and it had given her a lot to think about as well, revisiting that place and the memories of that night. Not that she didn't still see it so vividly in her memories and nightmares, but here... she hoped that being here might be able to give her new perspective on that night.

So far, she wasn't having much luck finding it. But she hadn't spoken any more about it to anyone either, spending a few days quieter than normal and immersed in her own thoughts as she dealt with her own emotions and the grief Shizuo told her she needed time to accept. It's distracting enough that she doesn't immediately realize how much it's affected her first shinki until she feels the sharp stinging pain that she knows come from him, but feels it much more intensely this time than she has before. Giving a yelp, she drops the book she'd been holding (and definitely not paying attention to enough to be reading) to rub at the sharp pain in her upper arm.

Well. That had been decidedly unpleasant. And far worse than the stings she'd gotten from her shinki before. Troubled by that, she debated what to do and whether or not to confront him over this one, but as it seemed serious, she finally pushes herself to her feet to go looking for him. Unfortunately, he proved rather difficult to find (because she hadn't thought of the roof) and while she looks, her other two shinki have, in the meantime, discovered him. And the hole he'd left in the wall. And then got the story directly from him about why it was now there.

Which is why, in abrupt succession, There is more stinging, each more painful than the last but still annoyingly in the same spot on her upper arm as tempers flare and the negative emotions created by the information has a direct physical effect. Shizuo's own is still mixed with the guilt of having damaged her temple and the effect rebounds between the three until Yona gives a soft cry, clutching at her arm near the entrance to her temple as she staggers for a moment and leans against one of the bright crimson pillars.

Her arm throbs in a way it's never done before, the pain deep and aching, and without thinking, she draws the sleeve of her dress up to reveal the dark discoloration of Blight now staining her skin and she stares at it in alarm, completely caught off-guard. ]

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[He waits until much, much later to confront her, having noticed Yona being more emotionally distant than her usual self the last couple of days. He isn't sure why but he has a few guesses in mind and is willing to place his bets that at least one of them is correct, and as much as he wants to approach her right away, he gives Yona her space... not for long, though.

It's when the sun is completely set and the moon is out in full force, bathing the temple in its white light that he finds her at the ponds alone. When he'd caught a glimpse of the discolouration on her shoulder, it made his stomach twist and turn uncomfortably and had almost made him turn around and leave, but... there's no point in him hiding that he's there. She could probably feel his presence coming from a mile away, so he approaches loud enough to make himself known, just in case she hadn't been paying attention.

When he pipes up, there's no effort to mask the displeasure or disgust in his voice. Not with her, but with himself. His anger and jealousy played a part in this and it only continues to spiral out of control as he tries to figure out why.]

It's ugly.

[He's talking about the blight...]

[Look, periodic wellness checks on his king-miss is part of his job as a dragon warrior. Especially with a murderer running around. Shizuo, Hak, and Jae-Ha are all very cute and very capable, but none of them can shield her the way Ouryuu can.

So he feels a strong chill deep in his bones when he sees her leaning against the pillar staring at her arm.]

Miss!

[Zeno breaks into a run. And when he sees the blight for himself, he... recognizes it.]

...if one of those boys is jealous of Zeno spending time with miss, Zeno will go knoc some sense into him.

[That was the case when Kaya blighted him, after all.]

[Honestly, it's not surprising that Izumo would be around Yona's temple on some days. Whenever he needs a break from his own temple and whatever else, he's always around Yona's temple at some point. It's just luck so far that he's managed to avoid Hak and Jae-Ha, occasionally Zeno and Ki-Ja, whenever he stuck around.

However, when he also happens to be nearby when he hears her cry out, immediately walking over to her.]

Yona? What's--

[He stops once he notices the blight on her arm.

A frown appears on his face before he walks closer to her.]

Come on, let's get you inside and seated.

[Don't tempt him into carrying you, too, Yona. You look like you could barely walk due to the pain.]

[[ OOC: If anyone would like to confront Shizuo about this situation, either before or after he and Yona come across each other, feel free to toss that over at Shizuo's log or reply under here. Either way! ]]

[ There was a post about a kind of blight that came from shinki, and it honestly wasn't so long ago. Given that they hadn't even been around a month, everything could be considered pretty recent. Yet Shizuo couldn't say if it warned that the behavior that would sting their god could spread to other shinki doing similar.

Either way, Yona had learned this personally.

Yet there was a different kind of shame- not from the actions or thoughts he already had, but the ones he planned. Having resigned himself to probably crossing that line, should Soo-Won show up, Shizuo didn't particularly feel like being seen by Yona. Conveniently, there was a time they had crossed paths, but he already had to go out for other reasons. Aside from training, he's also been trying to work on fixing up Izumo's bar (now that there's a second floor.)

Depending on how long it is before they manage to catch each other, it's also been getting easier to pass off a few tiny lies- Shizuo's started to realize that, when he wanted to be, he was a pretty decent actor. It helped to alleviate some worries. ]

... Hm?

[ He was coming back late, the actual summer and temple's summer being enough that he had pulled his shirt off while coming up the stairs. Just to cool off a little before getting to his room- But something seemed to be nagging at him as he got to the 'communal square' sort of area. Something in his instincts.

It's certainly not the small, dark bruise below the base of his neck. ]

[ Yona had felt him coming, even if she hadn't heard him while being lost deeply in her thoughts, so at the very least, his voice ringing out of the darkness behind her wasn't as much of a surprise as it would have been otherwise. Instead, she just sinks down a little lower in the water, glancing over her shoulder at him.

The movement submerges the angry patch of Blight on her pale skin a little more but still doesn't succeed in hiding it from his eyes entirely from where it's spread back around her arm and up along her shoulder. ]

I don't think it's meant to look pretty.

Zeno?

[ She'd been so surprised by the Sight of the Blight that she hadn't even heard him approach until he was there beside her and she shoots wide, startled eyes at him, still struggling with the confusion of how this could have happened. ]

Jealous? What? [ Who would be jealous? And of what? ]

[ It takes her a moment to answer, because the pain and the understanding of the Blight on her skin had caught her wholly by surprise that his words don't sink in right away.

This was no ayakashi's fault, she was certain of it. but that left the stinging of her shinki...? Just what had happened?

Her expression hurt and confused, she lifts her gaze to Izumo's face as she drags herself back out of her own thoughts, still clutching at her arm. ]

Izumo? I don't know what's happened. Something must be wrong...

[ Bathing in the pool had not helped, despite the bright light of the moon overhead. So she had spoken first to Hak and then to Jae-Ha about what had occurred earlier. Shizuo, however, had been nowhere in sight and after searching the Temple, she had eventually settled down on the front steps, knowing that he would have to come back eventually.

She looks like she might have dozed off, cheek resting atop her knees and arms wrapped tightly around them to ward off the evening's chill, but in truth she was just deeply lost in her thoughts. But she hears his footsteps on the paved stones and lifts her head, eyes seeking him out in the light cast from the moon in the otherwise dark courtyard.

The Blight is hidden for the moment, but she's still obviously favoring that entire side anytime she moves, the Blight having spread up her arm and down the back of her shoulder over the course of the day, burning and throbbing with pain at random intervals. ]

Shizuo.

[ It was strange, most days he didn't see Yona hanging around on the stairs so late at night. While his instincts could scream that something serious was going on, there was a settled stubbornness which reasoned it into the probability that the other shinki were giving her a hard time. It wouldn't be the first time that Hak riled and teased their goddess into wanting to get some fresh air.

Yet her face seemed a little pained-

As it was already off, he wasn't going to put the shirt back on. Instead it was slung over a shoulder to hang around there instead.]

Had a rough practice at the archery range?

Calm down.

[Placing an arm around her shoulders, he carefully leads her inside.]

Was it an ayakashi or one of your shinki that blighted you?

[Because yes, this is a very important question. He's blighted Mikoto before, so he knows what a shinki can do to their god even without an aid of an ayakashi. At the same time, he tries to think about which of her shinki could have done this to her. He's not familiar with Hak or this Jae-Ha, which means there's Shizuo.

But knowing Shizuo, he might have felt bad about something anyway since his facetwin always seemed to feel bad about something.]

Do you have any holy water around?

There was no ayakashi.

[ Which eliminated that as an option.

She lets him lead her inside, still clutching her arm and moving carefully, because it stung and burned and ached and she bit her lip to stifle any involuntary sounds when it throbbed at her painfully. ]

I don't know. The pool in the garden, maybe? It's supposed to have healing properties, but only after dark. [ Which won't do her much good right now, as it's still early in the day. ]

They were stinging me earlier. At first, I didn't think much of it. [ Because Shizuo does that on occasion and she'd been doing her best to adapt to it as best she could. ] But it started getting worse. And then.... this.

[ She shakes her head and hesitates for a moment before reaching up and sliding the sleeve of her dress aside, revealing her shoulder. It was dark and discolored now, the Blight having spread much further over the course of the day. ]

No. I wasn't practicing today.

[He stops shy of a few feet from the pond and finds himself staring for a few seconds too long before realizing he has to look away when she shifts in the water, frowning to himself as he averts his gaze up to the moon instead. As if this couldn't get any more awkward...

Hak slides his robe off of his shoulders and tosses it in her direction, and it lands in a messy pile on the ground near the water, close enough that she should be able to grab it.]

Put it on when you get out or you'll get sick. It's chilly.

[It really isn't, but that's his awkward way of telling her to get out of the water.]

[He gets her to sit down, sitting next to her and making a silent inquiry if he could take a closer look at her arm.]

Usually when blight gets like this, it means your shinki are feeling strong negative emotions: guilt, jealousy, or whatnot. [All things that Izumo has seen happen before during his time in the Far Shore.]

When you have more than one shinki who are feeling such things, it can easily gather and worsen the blight.

[He studies the blight a bit more, almost grimacing when he notices just how much is actually covering her arm.]

If it's your shinki's doing, then you need to make him confess to you about it.

[ Well, that isn't what he was expecting. ~~Though maybe he should have, and deep down knew was a risk and probability.~~ Brow furrowing, Shizuo gets closer to see- Geeze, it got so far. ]

Did you go on a mission without me or something? You know by now to use holy water for this.

[ Her temple always has the warmness of summer, even at night, but she doesn't argue with his offer, merely glances from him to the robe he'd tossed at her. They've been in a situation like this once before, but he won't remember that, and for the moment she remains where she is, hidden by the dark waters of the pool for several moments longer before she starts to swim towards shore. ]

Alright. I'm getting out. [ That's all the warning you get to avert your gaze as she does so.

Her own clothes are not that far away but when she steps out of the pond, she reaches for his robe anyway, wrapping herself up in it and clutching it to her. It smells like him, and there's a sense of comfort in that. ]

Thank you.

[ She nods her permission, shifting her sleeve out of the way once more to reveal her upper arm and shoulder. ]

how do I know which one it is? What if it's all three? [ From the stings, it very well could be.

She gives a low sigh. ] I don't know what they're upset about, but I had a conversation with Shizuo the other day... [ If he shared that with Hak and Jae-Ha... It had never occurred to her to request that he not do so. Foolish of her, maybe. She knows how Hak gets about Soo-Won back home, but without those memories...? Had it been foolish of her to assume that they wouldn't be quite so volatile? Probably, considering how Shizuo had reacted all on his own. ]

[ She remains where she is, not moving as he approaches, watching him with a calmness she's no sure she feels, from the way her nerves feel so uncertain right now. She's still worried about saying the wrong thing or making this worse if she's not careful. ]

I didn't. This happened this morning. Holy water won't work. I tried already.

[ That just settled like a boulder in his stomach, though Shizuo is clearly not surprised. He shouldn't be. They were both around to see the post by Kairi and Yukine about blight and what this meant.

Even more, he knew what that timing meant.

Yet instead of confessing right away, like he normally would, Shizuo swallowed the gut reaction and carefully asked; ]

... Did you talk to the others?

Talk to all of them then. Confront them and get them to confess. If not, the blight will worsen and there's a high possibility that if the shinki doesn't confess, they might need an ablution.

[And that gets a slight grimace from Izumo.

He remembers the last time he's had to an ablution. That wasn't fun. He frowns a bit.]

Did you? Is it alright if I ask what it was about?

[He wasn't looking anyway, but he listens to her shuffling into his robes and he first takes a sideways peek to make sure he's clear to look again. He sits on the grass where he's standing and runs his fingers through his hair, pausing to look up at her with eyes signalling for her to sit.]

Why didn't you say anything earlier?

[Cutting right to the chase.]

[ She clutches his robe a little closer around her and moves to sit beside him, keeping her shoulder with the Blight farthest away from him so she didn't accidentally spread it to him. ]

I was planning to. The fact that I have it at all means I was going to have to address it with you. All of you. I just.... I thought, perhaps, it would be wiser to try and heal it first.

...Only that didn't really work. [ She gives a quiet sigh, ducking her head, the wet ends of her hair trailing against her shoulders. ]

An ablution? [ She pales at the idea, looking slightly horrified. ] Do you think it's truly become so bad as that? Shizuo... He's not bad. He just takes so much responsibility onto himself. I don't want to make that worse.

[ His question gets a quiet sigh from her and she fidgets for a moment, fingers threaded in her lap tightening to a white-knuckled grip for a moment. ]

Some... unpleasant things happened to me in the world I came from. Many of them started here, in this place. It was my childhood home, even though it's been some time since I've been back. When I arrived here to find this place was now my Temple... Let's just say it awoke some very painful memories for me. Shizuo picked up on it and asked me for the truth. I gave it to him, but I'm afraid it might have just made him very angry.

Yes. [ Her voice is soft as she glances up to meet his gaze. ] I tried to heal it in the pools, once the moon came up, but it did nothing. That's when I sought out Hak and Jae-Ha. And now you.

I see...

[ She could feel as the guilt started to build up- He knew, knew it was bad and felt bad about it. In fact, Yona could probably tell that the blond knew where this was going and his responsibility in it all.

The problem was, this behavior was the kind that would snowball. In fact, it would even change the way a shinki normally would.

Which is why he wasn't apologizing still. In fact, he pocketed his hands and shifted his weight a bit in uneasiness. ]

What'd they tell you?

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