Like the Barenaked Ladies

[bartenderizing]

Who: Shizuo and OPEN
When: August 7th-13th
Where: Specified with each prompt
What: Let's just say that it's been quite a week.



I. Ra's Third Destruction - August 7th (Temple of Ra)
[ It'd been a while, and Izumo hadn't shown up at the bar. Like at all. Which was starting to get Shizuo very concerned. Enough that he did something that he would otherwise never go about doing; Actually invite himself to Mikoto/Ra's temple. Imagine his surprise when there were two giant and neon purple, pink and green centipedes crawling all over the structure and already having started to break through the walls' integrity. ]

Ah... Shit.

[ There's no borderline, which meant something happened to Izumo. Which has the blond looking to see if he can grab someone to run assistance. And him without those damn gauntlets that were made for this exact thing. ]


II. Double Vision Delivery - August 7th (The Far Shore)
[ While not in the best state right now, Shizuo was walking down the paths and across the Far Shore with two people that were in far worse shape than he was. If being comatose and snoozing away counted as worse shape, at least. Which meant anyone could see the awkward scene of Shizuo trying to carry the two over one shoulder, as his other arm hung limp as a wet noodle at his side.

Look, it's weird and out in the open for anyone to see. That can't be helped. It's less awkward than the destroyed temple. ]


III. Double Cross's Delayed Debut - August 8th-10th (Double Cross Bar)
[ This was about the time that Double Cross was supposed to officially open for business. It was certainly supposed to be one of these days. However the bar had this thing going on where, despite the time it was actively being renovated, people could still be served if they showed up and Izumo was around. The supplies were in, everything was cleaned up and that wall of photos had started to get filled out.

Now there was a different blond in place, manning the bar. Not that everyone noticed when they first got in; after all, they looked similar enough for some people. The main thing is that they sounded different. Shizuo's voice was deeper, despite being the thinner/more waif of the two. The other is that this blond wore a black vest instead of a nice suit jacket, though both were suitable for a bartender's uniform. ]

Welcome.


IV. Poor Man's Football - August 9th - 13th (Abandoned Temples)
[ Hearing strange and loud sounds from the abandoned temples is nothing new. Unless you haven't been here for long, it was a regular enough occurrence that it usually meant someone was training or working on something.

This time, though it was hard to tell when or how he got them there (or from where,) there was a junk car and motorcycle on the temple property. Given the notice for being crushed, they weren't stolen from someone who would actually care enough to miss it. Neither had wheels, and judging by the lack of shattered fiberglass and filaments, the lights were also gone.

Today's disastrous sounds were coming from Shizuo, currently bound with one arm in a sling, trying to kick the motorcycle carcass up to bounce up onto his knee. The trick isn't kicking it up- it's managing the height and angle to easily get to his knee. Just as the difficulty for any other football trick is. ]

C'mon. I know I can do this...


V. Cat Tower Tribulations - August 9th - 12th (Aine's Temple)
[ After getting his shoulder looked at, and 'advised' to wear the sling again for a few days, there was a new challenge that started presenting itself. For, at the temple, there were two sets of problems. By two sets, that meant two striped kittens that went by the names Eun and Min. When he wore the sling for all of the first two days after the ablution, they weren't a problem because he was mostly sleeping that time away. Now he was moving around, and with one arm unable to stop them, it wasn't long until they realized he was a moving cat tower.

The problem is that he didn't know they were there until he saw something, and that only alerted him to one of the felines. If he saw the grey striped one, then the brown one was probably on his back or something. This was probably one of their more favorite games. ]

Oi, stop- Dammit, not again.

[ Help. ]


VI. The Wildcard
[ Come up with something, anything, for this time period if none of the other prompts fits. You can either just toss that in, or plot with me at demonia ]

Comments

[thevanguard]

[ A couple of those boulders are bigger than he is and he wanders over to poke at them curiously. Yup. Those are definitely actual rocks and not fake. And if this guy could throw these around? ]

....Remind me never to get hit by you.

[bartenderizing]

If this hasn't been enough of a reminder for you, then I can't help ya on that.

[ It's less can't though, now is it? Despite not liking violence, it'd be a lot of effort and work to constantly remind people of what he could do. Even more, it might start sounding like he was egging them on, right? ]

[thevanguard]

Look, I never saw you do shit like this before. I thought you were just one of Izumo's bartenders!

....I guess this means he doesn't have many problems with drunks causing too much trouble. Although damn, you woulda been useful when Hibari was wrecking shit.

[bartenderizing]

Do you really think that someone who looks like Izumo is 'just' anything?

[ Especially when they've quietly gone along with the idea that they were related, if not twins right out.

Oh. But Hibari. ]

Yeah, about that brat... Apparently I piss him off enough to be why he destroyed the front of the bar in the first place. I'm not gonna go all out on a kid, no matter how much he keeps attacking me, so he took that personally.

[thevanguard]

Wait, you're the reason he was doing all that shit?

[ Yata just stops. And stares. ]

....Fuck.

[bartenderizing]

Something set him off that day before we crossed paths.

[ Don't put it all on him. ]

It's just that he thought Izumo was me during that time. Nah, it seems it was Hakkai's fault that he was like that.

[thevanguard]

Hakkai? The god who works at the school?

[ What the hell sorta twisted mess is this thing? ]

[bartenderizing]

Yeah. He was a shinki not too long ago.

[ He knows this solely because Hakkai apologized and took responsibility for Hibari. ]

[thevanguard]

[ Yata blinks. ]

Wait, it was that recent?

Man, shit in this place will never make any sense.

[bartenderizing]

I mean, it all sorta makes sense. Kind of.

[ Says the person that's almost finished crushing the bike into a ball of scrap metal and oozing fluids that were left behind. ]

[thevanguard]

[ Which has Yata shooting him a skeptical look. ]

How do you figure? Nothing in this place makes sense.

The gods here aren't dead - they remember where they come from and expect to go back, at least from what I've heard from them. This is just.... some fucked up vacation or job for them or something. So if a shinki's dead and supposed to serve them and then they poof and come back a god.... does that mean they're not dead anymore? Does that means someone out there can just... I don't know, reverse that with a snap of their fingers?

[bartenderizing]

[ Wow. Someone's been thinking about this situation a little too much, haven't they? ]

... I meant Hakkai taking responsibility because Hibari freaked out over him disappearing as a shinki. Seeing as they knew each other well enough for him to apologize to people for that brat.

I try not to think about all the rest of that crap. It's complicated and a pain in the ass.

[thevanguard]

[ Look, he has a lot of time on his hands right now!

He huffs and flops down on one of the cracked boulders. ] Tell me about it. And ahh...? Yeah, I think Hakkai mentioned that he knew him pretty well. Enough that he asked what happened to Hibari's pets after he vanished, anyway.

[bartenderizing]

[ Apparently, to be so wound up on those things. ]

Huh. I didn't realize an annoying brat like that was the type to even keep pets.

[thevanguard]

[ There's only so many hours of the day you can fill with punching things, Shizuo. ]

Me either, but I guess he was. Maybe it was just people he didn't like.

[bartenderizing]

[ Shizuo just spends all that extra time with a job and basking out in the sun. That and smoking. Training is only part of it. ]

Yeah, he sure as hell had a problem with people. Especially if you weren't gonna go all out on him.

[thevanguard]

Is that what he was pissed at you for?

[ Yata blinks at him a moment. ]

[bartenderizing]

Yeah.

[ That's literally all it was. ]

There's no way I'm gonna use all my strength on a kid, y'know?

[thevanguard]

[ Yata just gives him a dry look. ]

No wonder you pissed him off. That's pretty damn condescending, man. Besides, maybe he coulda handled it.

[bartenderizing]

You really think I wanna risk that kinda shit? It's not about him being able to handle it.

[thevanguard]

[ Yata just looks skeptical. ]

Then what's it about?

[bartenderizing]

I'm not about to make exceptions to something that the very idea of makes me sick to my stomach. Even when he and Goten can handle it, I'm not about to go down that path.

[ So it's all kids, of which included Hibari.

[thevanguard]

Hah? [ He doesn't get it. ] Why does it make you sick? I don't understand. If they can handle it, then isn't it better to fight with them honestly? It's just sparring.

[ Fighting is meant to be straightforward, at least in his mind. ]

[bartenderizing]

When you have trouble controlling your strength and accidentally hurting people is something you're always worried about, isn't it normal to have that kinda reaction?

[ Even more... ]

Also, he never went to me to spar. The kid just always seemed to target me.

[ Because he was strong. This is Hibari, after all. ]

[thevanguard]

[ Yata makes a consenting noise, because that made sense, he guesses. ]

That guy really did just like fighting for the sake of fighting, from what I saw.

[ There was a reason he'd taken to avoiding his own temple before Tsuna and Hibari had both vanished on him. He hadn't known what to do about it at all. ]