[Open] sunflowers and sunshine

[fadingsunshine]

Who: Kaya and you
What: Catch-all
When: August 23rd
Where: Hebe's temple and the Far Shore
Summary: A sweet, friendly girl is keeping herself busy



Hebe's Temple: Sunflowers

[Whether you're here to visit either of the inhabitants of the golden temple or you were passing by the street on your way, you will hear a muffled song coming from the front yard. There are a few kinds of colorful flowers in disarray, but what's most striking is the patches of tall sunflowers. As if they weren't remarkable enough, the melody is definitely coming from within them. If you explore the area, you'll see there's an opening in one of the patches. It actually looks like a little door-less cottage.



Inside, a dark-haired young woman is sitting on a little cushion. She's bopping her head to the song, which is coming from her own phone next to her. On her lap there's a notebook, in her fingers a pencil. On the ground there's a kanji dictionary.

Either way, she's seen you and she's beaming at you with a cheery smile.]

Oh, hello!

Library: A search

[Kaya usually uses the library for Japanese practice and reading about mythology, especially Greek since Zeno has the role of one of their deities. She can't say she loves it because it's a bit gross or cruel at times, though. But she thinks reading is fun, so she wants to attempt something else.

Now she's in front of the literature section, if you can call it a "section". Perhaps she can find something juicier than storybooks this time that happens to be on her comprehension level. She whispers to herself.]

I wonder what I should read... Something cute? Something romantic? Something with dragons? Oh, I don't know enough about books...

[Will you recommend her something?]

Hakkai's school: A first time

[Having learned normal recipes so far, Kaya has gotten better at cooking. Or at least she does plenty more dishes than rice or stews. So today she's moving on to something more complicated, using the school's kitchen to practice after her classes since her temple is too ancient and they still need to install an oven.

She's going to try to bake a cake! There she is, fuzzing over the recipe and gathering the ingredients as she hums. Eggs, milk, butter, sugar, flour, chocolate, strawberries... is she missing something?

If you're not in a hurry for your own classes, either come and help her out, or taste the clumsy product after it's baked. Tips would be great be it before, during or after.]

Wildcard

[Make your own prompt if you want! Any doubt you can contact me at taotrooper, but go ahead and improvise.]

Comments

Sunflowers

[sweetdeath]

[Tsuzuki's just passing by, but the sight of the tall, bright flowers nodding over the road catches his attention, and he brightens immediately, stopping to look at them.

They're great. It's getting late in the summer for them, and pretty soon they're going to be all seeds and not as much petals (he thinks; he's not sure, actually, about seasons in Heaven. Somehow the flowers always seem to stay fresh. Except for the spider lilies...)

... They're also... singing?

Curious, he heads over, and laughs as he spots the edge of a foot inside the ring of flowers.]

Hey, good morning! That looks like a great place to study.

[fadingsunshine]

[Above the foot, there's the face of a surprised but pleased teenager who's put her notebook down to talk to the stranger over the music.]

Oh, hello! Yup, it is so far. It's not that great when the sun's too strong, but today's been a fresh day.

[sweetdeath]

It is nice out, isn't it? Sorry to interrupt you, by the way! I just wanted to take a look at the flowers.

[He smiles up at them, expression softening fondly, and adds:]

Sunflowers are my favorite.

School

[lostinshadows]

[While he did tell Hakkai he'd be helping out sorting the library, the smell was mainly caught his attention.

So, he'll be peeking his head into the room Kaya is in, looking a bit surprised to see her.]

Kaya?

[fadingsunshine]

[Her concentration was focused on the luminous oven door, so hearing her name makes her jump a bit on her heels.]

Aaah!

[She sighs and smiles when she sees who she is.]

Lavi! Sorry, I didn't hear you before!

[lostinshadows]

Don't worry about that.

[But the curiosity masks his face as he walks in further.]

What are you doing?

library

[kokuyoyo]

[It's been.... a while since Chikusa has come back to the library. His grief over losing Axel has been an all-consuming thing, suffocating and foggy. That so many days have passed is strange to him, both because it doesn't feel like things should move on without his god and because, frankly, he doesn't remember so much of them. The trip to the shopping center and everything that had happened was the clearest he's been in ages, especially with Ken's constant companionship.]

[Perhaps work is what he needs. It's an easy enough thing to say, but it's only until today that he's finally been able to return to the library after so long. He's even slower than usual as he tries to organize the collection of new books that constantly pop up among the shelves, and pauses at the sound of someone new.]

....Just pick whatever....

[fadingsunshine]

[Oh, it's that guy again. Even though Kaya remains cheerful after a couple of surprised blinks, her shoulders do slump a bit. She's always had the feeling, after that training session, that he likely considers her a nuisance because of her cluelessness and soft character.

It's really hard to know how to handle that sort of brutally honest people. He doesn't seem to be in a good mood today, to top things. Perhaps she should just leave and come back later? But that might be even more irritating, and she has a right to be in the library.]

I'm... I'm sorry. There's a lot to choose from so... Still, I'll try not to bother you.

[kokuyoyo]

...You can pick more than one.

[They're not like the goblins. So long as they're all returned, eventually, and so long as they're not the actual important books... But her final statement has him blink a little bit, and he finally glances at her.]

...What?

Sunflowers

[eternalshield]

[...not visiting, no, but he sort of feels like he is, looking around and listening like this. The colors have an immediate positive effect on his mood, as does the hunch that this is some cute hobby of Kaya's gone mad, if not awry.

But if everyone had hobbies that fill the world with brightly-colored flowers, the world would be a more brightly-colored place. And everyone would be in a correspondingly better mood.

Unless they were just horrible.]

Did you want to see a jungle...? Zeno could have taken you to visit one!

[fadingsunshine]

[She puts the notebook away as soon as she sees Zeno, a radiant smile on her face. She makes a gesture and pats the ground next to her, an invitation to join her.]

We can still go one day! I've never wandered into one of those near old temples alone because ayakashi might be around, but if you're with me you can turn me into a vessel and I'll be safe!

[Jungles and the Mortal World seem about equally scary for different reasons. The garden and its colors isn't safer, not with bad people on the loose, but it gives her solace.]

This is a sunflower hut. Just a nice spot with shade to hang out when the house feels too big and the weather is good. Isn't it a cute idea?

[eternalshield]

It's too big here? Aaah, good thing I didn't get the dragon king's palace instead, then!

[No, he agrees, it is entirely too big. He could comfortably fit about four more shinki. Seven if they don't mind snuggling up close.]

Mm, it doesn't bother you to rely on me like that, does it?

Library

[priforprince]

This is something of a classic.

[ Hibiki has a copy of The Scarlet Primpernel on offer, though for some reason, this place has seen fit to call it The Crimson Pimpernel. The missing "pri" is bad enough... ]

For the heart that longs for adventure.

[ Or the heart that dresses up in a mask and cape on occasion. But that's a Secret.

In any case, she can't search for her own book with someone fussing, hemming, and hawing one stack over. So here she is to fix the problem! ]

[fadingsunshine]

[Oh, what an elegant person! Is that a costume or the way they dress normally? It doesn't matter, it seems like fun! Kaya takes the book with a little reverence.]

Ah, thank you so much! [She looks at the title and squints at the characters. The kanji under the first English word seems easy: "true" and "red". But the rest is all foreign and katakana, and it could mean anything.]

...Pimparuneru? What does it mean?

[priforprince]

It's a flower.

[ Hibiki snaps her fingers, and the illusion of a scarlet flower appears between her index finger and thumb.

She "holds" it out so Kaya can take a closer look, though if the girl tries to touch the flower, her fingers will pass right through it, rippling the image. ] The main character dons it as an alias for a noble cause.

Sunflowers!

[welcome_home]

[ It's the brightly colored flowers that lure Nanako down from the sky to investigate and the sound of music and a familiar voice humming from within that has her poking her head in the little makeshift door.

Spotting the shinki inside, she lifts a hand to wave at her with a bright smile. ]

Kaya! Good morning!

[fadingsunshine]

[Kaya has to restrain a little squeak because Nanako's little angelic face popping out of the door is the cutest thing she's seen all day. And she's watched at least two videos of puppies on her phone and seen Zeno at breakfast, so that's saying something!

Her worries about radicals just disappear like the wind.]

Nanako! Please come in!

Library!

[darkestbefore]

[ Hearing someone talking to themselves in the next row over, Yona peeks her head around the corner and brightens into a smile at the sight of Kaya.

She laughs softly as she steps around to join her, gaze drifting to the selection the other girl is taking in. ]

Maybe you could find one with all of that? And then you wouldn't have to choose.

[fadingsunshine]

Hey, Yona!

[Kaya grins at her. It looks like her friend is doing a bit better. She knows it's been hard for her, so she can only hope things go well for the girl.

She looks at the shelves and the little mounds of books again. It's daunting.]

It sounds a bit difficult. There should be a book with all that, but it's probably full of advanced kanji and stuff.

sunflowers

[smilingbullet]

Hi Kaya!

[ D2 drops down on the ground beside her, crossing his legs in front of him, and peers at the notebook and dictionary. ]

How's your studying going?

[fadingsunshine]

Hi, D2!

[She turns the volume of the music lower, until it's just a soft murmur. She knows which button is the pause, the one with what looks like two columns, but this is faster. In any case, she turns to her friend who's now on her level.]

It's going pretty good! I can learn more lines without using the dictionary for each of the words!

Sunflowers

[clothes_make_the_man]

[Forrest doesn't make a habit of wandering onto other gods' property without announcing himself first, but he's never seen a field of sunflowers before and found himself wandering farther in as he admired them. Once he hears the music and the singing, though, he looks up and seems to realize how far he's come. Following it to its source, he peeks around the side of one of the flowers, smiling almost apologetically.]

Ah... hello?

[fadingsunshine]

[Kaya stops humming when she hears the voice. It takes her some head turning to see the source of the greeting, but she immediately smiles brightly and answers to it, closing her notebook.]

Hello! Welcome to Hebe's temple! Well, it's actually the garden, but still in temple grounds.

School

[handsome_genius]

[ Yoon is actually heading to the school from the library when he catches sight of Kaya. He often passes the kitchen since he spends a fair bit of time in there himself. Or, did anyway - when he didn't have facilities like that that he could use at Ran's temple. ]

Kaya? What are you doing here?

[ Surely Zeno would outfit a kitchen for her if she asked him. ]

[fadingsunshine]

[They do have a simple stove, but Kaya hasn't asked for an oven yet. Not until learning the mechanisms.]

Oh, hi Yoon! [She waves with a hand covered in flour and butter.] I'm trying to bake a cake for the first time!