thenearshore | [open] we're closed to the earth until further notice

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[open] we're closed to the earth until further notice

Who: Cho Hakkai and you
When: Oct 15-17
Where: Around the Near and Far Shores
What: The best way to deal with stress is to stay so busy that there's no time to think about it, right? No flaws in this plan.
Warnings: Ayakashi-fighting violence in the Oct. 16 PM prompt, probable mention of illness/death in the Oct. 16 AM prompt, mention of suicide in Gojyo thread

Oct. 15 - Gardening, Temple of Li Tieguai

[Mid-morning finds Hakkai in old clothes and rubber gardening clogs at the front of his temple, where bright yellow chrysanthemums have bloomed all around the outside wall. He has a stack of cheap plastic pots, a trowel, and a wheelbarrow half full of pots filled with freshly uprooted flowers, and he's leaving a long series of sad little pits in the turf behind him.

It's not that he minds flowers, of course. Flowers are fine.

It's just that he's noticed the way these particular flowers seem to be influencing his mood, and he doesn't like it at all.

He sits back on his heels as someone approaches, and wipes sweat off his forehead with the back of one hand, leaving a long streak of mud there instead.]

Good morning! Would you like a potted plant?

Oct. 16 (AM) - Prayers, around Tokyo

[Tokyo's crowded on Sunday mornings, even on a gray and rainy day like this one, where the first gold and orange leaves of fall have been beaten down from the trees and are fading to soggy brown in the gutters and the canals. Hakkai slips through the crowds like a shadow, messenger bag over one shoulder as he scrolls through his phone calendar and snuggles his transparent umbrella closer down over his head. It's not doing much to keep the water off; he keeps having to dry his phone screen on his sleeve, to the annoyance of the small white dragon snuggled down on his scarf.

Chirps of complaint trail in his wake, and he looks up from his phone to murmur to the dragon quietly.

Unfortunately, that means he's not looking where he's going anymore, and in a crowd like this, if anyone's standing still--

-- well, they've just been run into by a man, a dragon, an umbrella, and a very heavy bag.]

Oct. 16 (PM) - Leech Treatment, Ikebukuro

[Hakkai hadn't really planned to wind up doing any fighting today. He has a long list of followers he needs to visit. He's busy, damn it, but a bloated purple leech-thing had detached itself from the neck of a glazed-over pachinko player as he brushed past and lunged for his face.

He hadn't had a choice, which he plans to point out to Chikusa if this gets him in trouble, considering that he also hadn't brought any of his shinki.

The leech is determinedly crawling towards him across the concrete. He aims a kick at it, and it dodges with surprising speed and bites at his toe, leaving an ugly, deep scar across the leather of his shoe. Jeep, reluctantly, lifts off his shoulder and circles up above the umbrella as Hakkai considers the stubborn ayakashi.

This is not the afternoon he'd planned on.]

Oct. 17 - Morning Classes, Abandoned Temple School - Mingle

[Hakkai doesn't always show up for the morning shinki spell practice sessions, but he's here today, sitting towards the side of the courtyard and taking notes in a battered memo book in between circulating to help with borderline or Bind spells. He'll occasionally stop, too, to listen in if anyone's talking about other spells. He'd only bothered to learn Bind himself, after all. It might help to learn a few extra....]

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Ha ha, doesn't everyone enjoy cookies?

[So at least there's a positive side to the possible effects of his untimely and embarrassing demise. He casts Shizuo a dry look, and checks the traffic before starting out into the crosswalk towards the apartment building he's aiming for.]

And it's odd to contemplate someone adjusting to the human aspects of becoming a god.

[ Shizuo must be used to some kind of city life, as he barely has to glance before knowing when a good time to cross was. ]

I guess it would be for us, but in her original world they kept her sleeping until they wanted to use her, and just put her back to sleep afterwards. It feels weird that I'm one of the people helping her out with this.

[ Given how self-aware he could be, if not a little too harsh on himself. ]

[Shizuo moves with the confidence of someone used to a more urban city than the last one Hakkai had lived in. Hakkai's own traffic expectations are more pedestrian.

The description of the Valkyrie's past earns Shizuo a startled sidelong glance as they reach the other side of the street.]

"They." The gods in control there?

[He finds himself unaccountably angry on her behalf. So, it seems, there are worlds where the Heavens are run even less well than these.]

[ Little do either of them know, it's these very streets that he's used to moving through. Catching the glance out of the corner of his peripheral vision, the subject just gets him to furrow his eyebrows. ]

It's really fucked up, right? She doesn't even question any of it, either.

[ The worst part was that she wasn't the only one- they cycled between her and her sisters. That didn't seem like a detail that was his to share with others, however. Which is why the more messed up parts are being kept to himself. ]

If it's what she's used to, I suppose it would be difficult to question.

-- You're not such a bad choice to teach her better, though. [The corner of his mouth quirks, as he pauses at the apartment building door. The first is open, but the second has a key-code.

Well, it shouldn't take too long to wait for a resident to drop by. It's a very large building.]

It seems her bar is set low.

... Yeah, so low I don't even know how to explain or teach any of it.

[ He's the last person who would argue about being a low bar to reach. One of the lowest, only being above those without skills and didn't want to try and be better. Or so he felt, with his own opinion.

After waiting a few seconds, he pushes the sunglasses up to his hair. Keycode locked and solid, so he's guessing that teleportation isn't exactly an option. It didn't seem right to break a lock for this, either. So waiting it is. Or... He points to the unit with a bunch of plated names and buttons on it. ]

Are they in a condition to answer?

She should be, but she doesn't know me, unfortunately.

[He eyes the closed door, the lack of people in the building's lobby, and sighs, holding out a hand to Shizuo palm-up.]

Well, shall we teleport?

[Since a helpful resident hasn't come along in, oh, almost ninety whole seconds.

It may not be the most patience he's ever displayed, but there are ayakashi leeches out there he may have to deal with again before he finishes his errands in the neighborhood.]

Ah, got it.

[ Well, mostly. There was the thought that if they said they were a delivery service, either for them or a neighbor, they would grant access without many, if any questions. Yet he kept that to himself. So instead he took Hakkai's hand.

He's grown enough to at least lightly clasp someone else's hand after these few months. The effort of all that training,
as much as he seems to be slacking on the formal end of it all. ]

[The delivery service ruse sometimes works -- but, really, Hakkai's found that teleportation is by far the most convenient way around mortal barriers. It beats lock picking by a mile.

A shame, considering how much time he spent on learning to pick locks. He closes his fingers around Shizuo's, and the world flickers around them as they appear on the other side of the barrier. He promptly drops the other man's hand.]

And -- it's on the fourth floor. [That, he's not going to risk teleporting. He doesn't know the destination and he can't see it from here; he goes right for the elevators instead.]

[ Yeah, he'll just go back to pocketing that hand again. It's fine, he can make borderlines fast enough to deal with anything even with the time it takes to pull either of them back out.

If he could do that and light his cigarette at the same time, he would. Not enough arms and no powers to do that, however. Which is why he'll settle for going to the elevators and hitting the button when they get to them. It didn't look like it was busy enough to have them on other floors, so it wouldn't be a long wait at least. ]

Which apartment on that floor?

422. Morita-san... [He moves to Shizuo's left, turning to rummage in his bag as Shizuo presses the button for the floor. There's a cheery, electronic jingle playing quietly in the elevator, and he pauses for a moment to consider how hard it would be to disable the speaker.

Probably more work than a few seconds of quiet is really worth.

After a moment, he produces a small packet wrapped in brown paper, with 'Morita' on the tag.]

It should be off to the left when we get out, then.

[ Without thinking about it too hard, he at least has enough of a familiarity with these kinds of buildings. As relaxed as he was, his eyes were on the elevator doors, ready to act in case there were ayakashi lingering around when they opened again.

It's not long before the beep indicates that they reached their floor. ]

Are these the last ones from that epidemic that you had to hit, too?

[Hakkai nods, and steps out of the elevator to turn to the left as they reach the floor. There's a small diagram on the wall; it looks as though it's meant to show fire escape paths, but it lists the apartment numbers, too. 422 is right at the end of the hall.]

No-- they're mostly on the road to recovery, it seems. I try to do this every chance I can; these are followers of mine who've asked for something I can give them.

[He's not very good at helping with advertisements to drum up business at pharmacies, but, with the temple's workroom and the strength his medicines seem to have, he can usually answer prayers for health, if they're something that human medicine can't deal with.]

So your duty instead of cleaning up.

[ Which made sense for the fact that Hakkai was one of the people that got moved up to the central district. He's paying attention, however, to the whole guarding thing. He hears the weird slimy, yet crackled, sound that some of the ayakashi have been making and takes his hand out for a quick borderline before the leech leapt for either of them. ]

It's not like you'd ever really get a break from that, though. Yona has the chance to be stuck in that sleep because of summer being over, but people are always going to need or want help with their health.

Technically, I suppose cleaning up is my duty, too, but--

[He pauses as Shizuo's borderline stops the leech from lunging out of the deep shadow of a partly-open apartment door, and frowns at it. He really will need to come back later with Asshole.]

-- I don't mind. I like to stay busy.

[He glances at Shizuo, with a slight crimp of concern between his eyebrows, and adds:]

Ah-- I might be misunderstanding, but has Yona been sleeping since the end of summer?

[ For all they knew, it was that same one from earlier. Sometimes it seemed like ayakashi had a talent for popping back up, as unlikely as the trip would've had to been. ]

Not exactly. It's been about a week so far, honestly, but it's only since around then that it was actually starting to feel like fall was setting in. So I thought that maybe...

[ He shrugs, continuing up to 422, standing to the side while keeping an eye on the creature trying to push through the borderline. Which was doing a decent enough job of staying stable and strong enough to deal with the annoyance. ]

I'm probably just reaching for reasons at this point. Yoon's keeping an eye on things right now, to keep her safe and be ready to let me know if anything changes.

It could be magic-- I'm glad Yoon is keeping an eye on her, but please, give me a call if you have any worries.

[He's frowning outright now, but, after a moment, he shakes his head and steps up to the apartment door, rapping his knuckles firmly against it.

After a moment, a middle-aged woman opens the door; she looks tired, although she also looks carefully made-up to look less tired, and there's a kerchief tied over her hair. She blinks at them. Hakkai bows.]

Excuse me, Morita-san, I have a delivery for you from the Chen Pharmacy.

[He proffers the package with both hands. Confusion and the vague distance that usually accompanies interacting with a mortal are chasing one another across her face, but the gesture is enough to convince her to reach out and accept it. Hakkai promptly lets go, steps back, and bows again.]

Please enjoy good health!

[Morita, still blinking, nods. "Thank you, yes, of course."

Hakkai smiles at her, nods to Shizuo, and turns to head back towards the elevator. Behind him, the door shuts quietly. The package has a card for a local pharmacy inside, along with a sheet of directions for the medicine it contains, and he hopes that her memory will smooth over the question of just how it got to her apartment and when she might have been prescribed it. Generally, that seems to happen, except for the very old, the very young, and the unusually perceptive.]

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