thenearshore | [open] purple burst of paper birds

Who: A: Shun, Temeraire and you, B: Shun and you
When: A: Backdated to September 16th, B: September 19th
Where: A: Central District, B: Heavens' Library
What: Shun reads the news to a dragon, and practices making ofuda that actually work.

[A: Central District, September 16th]

[Ah, an autumn morning. Birds chirping, leaves starting to change, the sound of...something extremely large and scaly in the grass...

Shun usually does this in his garden, but his vultures appear to be having some kind of congregation there today, so instead, he's sitting on a large rock near the main path that runs in front of his temple. From a distance, he probably looks uncharacteristically distracted, thumbing through his phone, and especially so considering that taking up the grass in front of him is an extremely large, black dragon.

The dragon leans over more closely, massive head tilting close to Shun's as though he is conspiring, or possibly as though he is about to bite Shun's head right off like an hors d'ouvre.

He rumbles curiously, and tilts his head again, one eye's pupil dilating until the blue is almost drowned in black.]

Is catnip particularly good to eat? Does it taste of cat?

[Shun blinks and looks up from his phone at that, looking like he hadn't expected the question, but still giving it somewhat of a deadpan response. Slowly, his gaze travels over to the nearby path to spot for any passerby.]

I don't suppose you know anything more about catnip than what it does to cats. [Save him from this disaster he's resigned himself to.]

--

[B: Heavens' Library, September 19th]

[Ever since he mercifully managed to find this book after several days of finding corny shojo manga instead, Shun's been trying to decipher the not particularly clear instructions on how to make functional ofuda. He's been interested ever since Obon, and even more so since Wendy suggested she was looking into it, but ended up getting impatient enough to go looking himself. At least it paid off in some way, though there's still the most important point of practice, practice, practice.

Which is why he's taking up a rather large table in the library, most of it being covered in strips of paper, some of them already marked. He doesn't feel there's a great deal of point in completing the charms until he knows they work, so there's no fabric slips to put them in for now; he's just working on the charm itself. He seems to be going through different varieties of ofuda in sequence, but protection against evil and accidents seem to be represented a bit more frequently than the other charms, considering he figures those are the most broadly useful against ayakashi for if he can get them working. Letting out a slight hiss through his teeth, he dips his calligraphy brush into the ink again and writes another set of kanji on one of the slips. If nothing else, he's getting neater - the first two dozen or so charms are written in incredibly rusty handwriting, as if he hasn't had need to write, or at least write neatly, regularly in a very long time.

As usual, though, Shun is extremely prone to noticing any approach, and if anyone comes out of the shelves near him, he'll immediately look up from his work to eye them off.]

If you're looking for a table, find somewhere else. [He's not moving all this mess now that he's started.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Maybe. Depends how useful I think it is to them, and how likely it is people will use it.

[He might just offer to show people how to do it instead, so he's not just rattling off the instructions to people who don't care, especially with how fiddly they are.]

...Well. Let me know. Or the school...

[That's an entire place dedicated to teaching people things, after all. It also means Chikusa would have easy access to it by connections to Hakkai.]

If I willingly let that guy know, then I might as well just spread the word myself. [The way Shun stresses "that guy" is a general reminder of his less than stellar attitude towards Hakkai.]

[Chikusa doesn't quite make a noise, but there's no denying the aggravation laced into the long sigh slipping out of him.]

Even if you don't like him, he's the only person who has something set up for spreading information and skills.... At least, unless you feel the older gods are better...

The older gods would probably just expect us to know already like they do about everything else. [Shun definitely doesn't sound bitter at all about that, in a manner that says he's dealt with that particular problem on multiple occasions before.]

But I'd rather do it myself than ask favours from him.

....How is that a favor to you?

[Chikusa is pretty sure that it'd be a mutually beneficial agreement if anything. And yet, right now, he can't tell if this bout of stubbornness is more Hakkai's fault or Shun's.]

It would mean me not having to teach it personally. [Which anyone who knows Shun would likely consider a favour to him, considering his general disposition towards dealing with people.]

....And he'd get to have a new thing at the school.

[Chikusa can get not wanting to deal with people, but still.... The judgmental stare continues.]

He's got plenty at the school already, he's not desperate for anything else.

[Shun's just going to stare right back at Chikusa, because he is no stranger to the judgemental staredown.]

Like what?

[....they're going to be here all day]

Shinki spells, for one thing, since it's the only central place I've heard about to learn them. And there's plenty of people here who either can't read at all or can't read Japanese, so most of them go there as well, and the ones who have no idea how to use modern technology.

[They may well be, because Shun is unlikely to let up on the subject of telling Hakkai anytime soon.]

He doesn't actually have that many people who can teach them... Spells, I mean. At least, last I checked...

[There's really only Chikusa, although he'd have to check on what Kairi is doing.]

But he still has people who can. It's easier to go there for it than try to track down one of the few people who knows the spells another way.

[Considering to Shun's knowledge there's less than a handful of shinki who even know the spells, let alone being good enough to teach them, it's a very limited pool.]

....Of which you're going to count as soon.

[At least, for this particular skill.]

This isn't going to have the kind of demand shinki spells have.

[To him, it's a minor addition to the repertoire of gods and shinki at best, and with how fiddly it seems to be, it's going to be only barely worth the payoff at this rate.]

True...

[Reaching up, he adjusts his glasses.]

Yours will probably be worse.

[Only other shinki want to know shinki spells. But something that could be done by both of them? That's doubling the kind of people who want to learn.]

For something this fiddly that isn't that powerful? I doubt it.

[Especially if it takes anything like as long to master as shinki abilities seem to. Shun's still on the start of the path here, so he has no idea how long it's going to take for him to get this right.]

[Skeptically, Chikusa eyes him and the many strips of paper and ink that is surrounding him.]

....How long have you been at this...

I found the book about five days ago. I spent most of that deciphering the instructions because they were so damn obtuse. [Not to mention the amount of outdated kanji used, which just about ended him considering he hasn't studied language for somewhere getting close to three years now.]

Give it a month, then.

[That's when it'll be clear if it's worth the time or not. For now, however, it's too early to say.]

Is that how long it takes for shinki spells?

[Remarkably, none of Shun's shinki have pursued learning spells, despite the fact that he has four of them. But it doesn't sound like a random estimate.]

Mm.

[....Right, words.]

Around a month... with constant study and practice. [Assuming there are no other problems, of course.]

Sounds annoying. But I'm not the type to leave something half-done. [He's going to see this through to however long it takes for him to make them work. A month isn't all that long, in the grand scheme of things.]

Including cleaning.

[....What? He's very stuck on this.]

If you still seriously think I'm going to leave a mess after everything I've said, obviously nothing is going to convince you.

[So Shun's just going to leave that particular conversation tangent as is, because apparently it's a waste of breath trying to get that fact through to Chikusa.]

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