thenearshore | [open]

Entry tags:

[open]

Who: Undertaker and YOU
When: Sept 20th
Where: Central District
What: Undertaker does a little more wandering and exploring while he continues to heal from the fight and watches pretty fishies

Half blind was no way to look at the world, especially one that seemed as quaint as this one did at face value. As the days passed and injury forced him to slow down more than his sight already had, he had taken to trying to train himself to make a borderline and later to simply explore and familiarize himself in depth with the places that he thought he might be visiting in time. For what reasons, he couldn't say, but there had to be more to this than just fighting back ayakashi and serving prayers, even for gods.

And it was. Nothing was ever just what it seemed, and Undertaker wanted a step back, now that his limp had left him, and to really see what all he could see. Starting with those strange koi. Before, he had merely spared them a glance and when he found they spoke, strayed away. This time, he ventured closer, wandering the street, and watched them swim. Two or three watched him right back, but seemed to lose interest when they realized he had no food to offer them. Down the street a way, he could hear one reciting poetry to a woman who had just fed them. What curious little creatures.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ That woman that just fed them had, in fact, been Grell.

It's been a dull day, and following a trip to the mortal world for a bit of shopping, had decided to loiter around the streams parting the central district from her own. She does so enjoy poetry - and, besides, she'd made an impulse purchase of this giant croissant while at the coffee shop, and she had to get rid of it somehow. Couldn't very well eat it all by herself, while watching her figure!

Tearing off a piece of the buttery baked good, she nibbles a bit of it, before dropping the rest into the water. ]

Trust me, darlings, you're doing me the favor...

[ Just then, she catches sight of something familiar-- a man with long, silvery hair. Yes, she'd recognize him anywhere.

But rather than say hello, or even let her chainsaw do the talking for her, she'll simply toss a chunk of bread his way! It's fine, it isn't littering; bouncing off the side of his head, it will plop into the stream for the fat little fishes to enjoy. ]

Well, how fortunate it is to see that ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ spared you, after all.

[Oh... Her. Damn.]

[He can't see that well, but he can make out well enough to know that an arm was just swung in his direction, likely to throw something at him, and that he probably shouldn't be standing right there. So he side steps quickly, and sure enough, something... small and tan sails past where he once was and barely makes a sound when it plops on the ground.]

[He steps to pick it up with his nails and... bread? Really? He looks at her, dubious, waiting for the rest of the assault.]

Turns out I'm harder to kill now that I'm already dead. Something like that, anyway. [He tosses the bread into the pond and turns to face her in full, head tilted.] Looking to finish the job, are you, or is Death a god here you can just go and scream at?

Even if he might be half blind to the world, perhaps the Undertaker's hearing will still work for him. After all, when he's not trying to be subtle or unseen, the slow scuffle of Chikusa's slouching walk as he drags his sneakers against the ground. His hat of the day isn't as glaringly bright as the other had been, instead a light gray, but his voice is recognizable once he sees who's on his path.

"Oh.... I guess you got out past the walls."

...Probably sarcasm. Chikusa's plain murmur can make it hard to tell, however.

Fortunately for him, he's only horribly nearsighted and not completely blind, but his acute hearing hasn't failed him thus far, and relying on it has done him no harm. His head tilts, picking up a voice he recognizes, grin on him automatic. If it's sarcasm, he doesn't know it as such, but with familiarity and time - if they get that much - he'll know for sure. For now, he treats it with a light curiosity.

"So I did. Aren't you proud of me? Didn't quite get there by my lonesome, but we're working on it."

"With your god?" It's clearly a question, for all that Chikusa's tone barely budges much from the usual. Most shinki are found by any god that they've been assigned.... but it's not always the case. As much as he's sure the Heavens would like, none of them can actually be forced into staying in one place.

"With a god."

For the sake of the conversation and to better see if the man is about to start throwing lines at him, he strolls a little closer, seemingly unconcerned one way or the other. They had been in a public place before and they are again now, but it's not an area meant for training. "Took me outside to fight, he did. Or she. Wasn't much of a fight, more like a bullying, but she never tried to claim me and I haven't seen her since."

The bandages here and there would tell who came out of that the winner, if it could be called that. Hint: it wasn't him. But the look on his face says he doesn't much mind it either way. He's still here, still standing and walking on his own.

Edited 2017-12-04 17:20 (UTC)

With no particular hurry, Chikusa rolls his shoulders in a shrug. That happens too, on occasion. Maybe not the fight, although Chikusa isn't surprised to hear one happened. While he generally keeps his fights restricted to the training events with no... serious murder attempts, he's well aware there are all sorts.

Heaven doesn't do background checks.

As the other shinki comes nearer, Chikusa doesn't budge much and merely watches him with a dull gaze. "There are plenty of aggressive people in Heaven," he replies. "Although if she didn't kill you, then it shouldn't be an issue."

He notes the other man watching him and doesn't blame him in the least. Undertaker has been here a matter of days and has already been in a fight not long after being attacked by the same person he now moves closer to. But he's not here for another fight, and in fact, he couldn't seem to care less.

But he's watching for another line, just in case.

"I don't know so much about that. She had a bit of an unfair advantage and didn't seem to mind it, but I think I bored her." Strange that they're referring to this god as a her. She'd looked like a man, somewhat, and sounded like one, more so, but she'd insisted on being a lady. He'd never seen such a lady, but this was a strange place. "That's a bit sad. Here I thought it was all so funny."

"Gods can teleport, and shinki can't.... Unless you mean something else." Even then, not nearly as many gods as Chikusa would have thought use their teleportation regularly outside of going between the Shores. It's a little odd, to him. After all, it's such a valuable ability in a variety of ways.... like being able to appear in the midst of a building, set it ablaze, and vanish with little contamination of the scene.

Well, it's not like he can do anything about it.

"But you'll have to be more specific on what you find so funny..."

He grinned and shook his head, chuckling. "That wasn't all that she had over me, though she did have that for certain. One moment she was here, the next, there." His hand gestured to demonstrate, pointing from one random place at his side to the other without actually paying attention to where he was indicating. It didn't matter to him so much.

Striding to a stop not far from the other, he shifted so that he faced the man at an angle for the sake of it. There was no real reason behind it other than that it made it only a little easier to see the small rivers and koi from where they were. "What did I find funny? That I bored her so. I still don't know who I was, but she seemed to know me well enough to want to fight me, but what a disappointment I turned out to be to her." He giggled again, lifting a long, dark nail to his chin. "I think I should disappoint her more often."

As the other shinki- did he even ever get a name? Chikusa can't be bothered to recall- stops to somewhere not quite his side, his own gaze doesn't leave him. All the searching he's tried for the day has been done with, at least for the time being. There's nothing else here in this part of the Heavens that has anything for him to worry about. At least, with the status of things being the same as it ever was.

Unknowns deserve a bit more of his focus.

"That sort of person, then," he sighs. With his own run ins with Hibari Kyoya, it's no surprise that there are other freaks out there that are just as bad. Perhaps they should all just be shoved into a pit at this rate. "But if you disappoint her too often, what do you expect to happen...?"

There wasn't another line sent his way. Good start to their meeting so far, but he continued to keep a watch out, as best he could, to make sure he wasn't pegged with one anyway. It didn't seem like the other meant him harm, but Undertaker didn't fully trust him either. But for conversation? They were talking, and they would continue to.

"Seems like she is, but I hardly know what disappoints her about me. Looks like I'm in for quite a time while I'm here."

It was really the only reason he'd considered his training in this place, if only to give himself a fighting chance, or at least a means to escape. He still hadn't met the god who intended to have him help them, but that might change one way or another, sooner or later.

"Have you asked?" A simple blunt solution by a rather blunt person, or at least one who wasn't inclined to wasted that much time with such troublesome things. People danced around too much in conversation, at least for Chikusa's liking. Best to just get it over with. Then again, perhaps that was just him.

When it seemed as though they were both content to just stand there, Chikusa let out a slow breath. "Then again, it seems easy to tell to me..."

He shrugged again, as if they'd been talking about the koi in the river. "For what I could. Hard to ask when it's the life getting beat out of you, but she didn't go so far or I'm already dead or something such."

Really, it hadn't made sense at the time. None of it had. But it helped him to get out of the training grounds and that was all he'd really cared for, so maybe he owed her a little gratitude for that. She'd been the only one willing to really help him there at all, however it happened. "Something about her face from a time no longer in my memory. Seems people in this world are already familiar with me, though I've no recollection of it."

Ah. Chikusa considers him for a moment, going patiently through his memories of his months of existence. Has he seen this man before? He doesn't think so, but that doesn't take away the fact that he could have been a god from before or something similar.

Still... "You'll want to be careful... with what you say or remember." His head lulls to the side. "There are things you shouldn't.... or you'll cease to exist as you are."

There's a faint hum from him as he considers what's been said. He knows about the ayakashi, but even having heard what they can do and what they are hasn't put fear of them into him. It isn't trivial, the threat that they present, and he's sure he should be more concerned about it than he is, but somehow having no past leaves him with no worry over it.

"They tell me that. Or I'll become an ayakashi, they say." He shakes his head. "I'm sure it'd be a bad thing for this world if I fell apart like that, but I just can't bring myself to care about it. Now, I'm not actively seeking that sort of fate, but if it's what happens, it happens. I wish no harm upon anyone, but I've no attachments to this place or these people."

"Ugh." Yeah, that's a sound that's come out of his mouth, and Chikusa's mouth does the barest twitch, easy to miss, to show his annoyance. One of these types. Usually, new shinki at least have the common sense to avoid death and such if possible. But then there are always the weirdos in this kind of place... and not having a god to be bond to or care about likely isn't helping matters.

"So you wouldn't care if you died?"

While he can't see as well and misses that visual cue entirely, the scoff isn't lost on him. All it does is to draw his grin a tad wider. He's really rather enjoying this. For now. "I'm not eager to dive into oblivion head first, if that's what you mean. But no, I don't care. I would fight to protect myself, but if I succeed or don't, what's the difference to me?"

He tilts his head again and looks over toward his companion. "Is it really that uncommon?"

"Most people care a lot... For their own selfish reasons.... Or to be of use to someone else." The example for normal shinki would be so that they can still protect their god... but that's for normal shinki. Clearly the one besides him is far from such.

"...Funny?"

Quite far from such. He's simply without strings or other attachments and it leaves him rather free. "Well, perhaps I'm not selfish. I find I'd like to meet people here and see what this world is about, but I've no interest in seeing someone claim me as a weapon for their own purposes. Why anyone would willingly subject themselves to that isn't something I can put my mind around."

He shrugged, chuckling softly as he did. "Ah, but what do I know? Only that it's too cruel for me to enjoy. I laugh, but it's not really funny at all."

"....Usually not dying and having resources..." That's usually enough for most people. Chikusa could talk more about it, of course. He could talk about a need for guidance, a desire for purpose, a hole in the sense of self that needs something else and without it there's only that feeling of loss....

But Chikusa isn't one to go on speeches like that. Or share anything personal.

Instead, he just raises one shoulder up, barely enough to be recognizable. "Every god is different. So the reasons for following them..."

He hums softly and watches the water in the little rivers along the walkway, for what he can see of it at least. He'd like a sense of belonging, something to do in this world other than wander aimlessly, and that all sounds very good but for the price. It's not yet something he's willing to pay. "One of those, yes. Not hard to get around here without some good will from a god, I've found, but I'm willing to tough it out. Maybe I'll find something different in the process."

Then he looks back to Chikusa, curious. "What is your god like?"

"It'll probably be inside an ayakashi's stomach..." But whatever. Chikusa isn't this man's babysitter. If he wants to take that risk, he's more than welcome to.

That question has Chikusa pause, his blank stare still focused dully on the other shinki before him. There are a lot of ways he could answer that, even with his tendency to not say too much. He could say he's a nora, so it doesn't matter so much for him. He could say that Hakkai is in equal measures stupid and smart. He could mention that Roy requires no hassle. There's a lot, and it could take a while to pick just what he wants to waste the effort on.

Instead, his heart pangs a little for bright green eyes and vivid red hair, so after what is by far way too much staring... "Warm." Chikusa blinks his eyes slowly. "In every way."

That's an interesting way to describe a god. For a moment, it makes him wonder what he might be missing, but he isn't this person and this person's god seems like one of the better ones. Certainly it's not the one meant for Undertaker. He has a feeling they may not meet, but he isn't jealous. "Sounds nice. Maybe a pleasant bath or a soak in the sun."

He shrugs. "Strange I'd remember something like that, too."

"Shinki.... remember the basic things." There's a shrug, and Chikusa starts to shuffle of towards the riverside. He's tired, and it's still too annoyingly warm in the heavens. Water seems nice, even if the fish are annoying.

"Important, I guess. No one's looked into it..." That sort of thing is probably dangerous anyway, so he can understand why.

[The Undertaker is an unfamiliar person to Celty, but she does take note as she watches him wander about. She's without her bike for the moment, having been kind enough not to ride the loud vehicle around in the Far Shore too much. She didn't want to make much of a disturbance after all.

The Near Shore remained much more her comfort zone but the noise and hustle on this side of things was comforting in its own way. And it was nice to peoplewatch all the same. And fishwatch too.

Of course, the darker nature of her existence got her some stares of vigilant passersby but she wasn't doing anything untoward. Just sitting bench. Still, biker leathers and a flashy helmet were not quite standard fashion for the Far Shore.]

[Strange things had become his norm in this world, and even while they were out of the ordinary, he couldn't quite tell why, exactly, and some things caught his attention still as... misplaced.]

[The female in the... leather, he decided as he got nearer to her and noticed she was watching him as well. Once his vision had cleared up enough to notice as much, he grinned and sat himself without asking on the bench, politely enough on the end far from her. He leaned back against it with a soft sigh and said nothing, just watching blurs of color move about in his view, as if this was the most normal thing in the world to him.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[open]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject