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....]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[They had been, but Hakkai's not too worried about their fate. He begins to reach down for the trowel, and then pauses, glancing back at the floating shinki.]

I see. -- Since you've dropped by, did you want to see if my limiters make a difference to what I look like to you?

[ Apparently something was already in Judar that was actively countering and fighting what the flowers were doing until they were driven into submission or something. Imagine being that dedicated to not feeling safe. ]

Seriously?

[ Well, you've now gotten his actual interest. Enough where he's ready to drop this increasingly dead weight. He's certainly tempted. Because he figured the whole 'contact at least a day beforehand to schedule' was just an avoidance tactic. ]

Yeah, I'd be up for seeing that.

[There's the kind of dedication that magically extinguishes the life in an innocent little bespelled chrysanthemum, and then there's the kind of dedication to paranoia that simply digs up dozens of them by hand.

Hakkai shrugs.]

Why not? Come inside; I should wash my hands first.

[He had offered, after all, although Judar hadn't taken him up on it yet.

He has to admit he's a little curious about the results.]

[ The only difference was that he didn't even think or try to do that. That's neither here nor there, however. ]

'Why not'?

[ He glances down at the potted plant in his arms, considering for a moment before floating it towards and over the walls that go into Izumo's temple. If it landed on someone or in the lagoon area, then it was just meant to be. Once it was handled, he lands onto the ground to follow along. ]

The whole scheduling thing seemed like a good way to avoid dealing with it, or me, or both. That and the whole mess you dying seemed to have caused, I didn't expect much.

No, it's just that I'm often not at home.

[Hakkai's sigh is theatrical. Why, what a thought! Insist on advance scheduling to make an annoying task easier to avoid? He can't imagine anyone would do that.

In this case, the task seems less annoying when he's less on edge, though. And as tactless as Judar can be, his unusual sight is intriguing.]

At least the trouble from my death seems to be easing a little.

[He toes open the front door, holding it for Judar before he slips inside and crosses to the workroom to wash his hands.]

Huh. Okay.

[ It's almost like Judar's acutely aware of how he can rub people the wrong way or something. Yet he doesn't change, at least for the most part. He probably would've been more tactful about this whole thing, but his selfish curiosity got the better of him.

Which is why he's helping himself into Hakkai's house, now that there's actually a door being held open for him. ]

Yours is the one that got a whole bunch of people sick and stuff, right?

[ He's making an educated guess by what's in the workroom and having met one of the other causes as well. ]

That's right. [Hakkai calls from the workroom, over the sound of splashing water; the hallway of his temple is wide and airy, with doors leading off it to a sitting room, the workroom and the kitchen.]

My powers are well suited to something like that, but with so many sick... well.

[ He can give a scanning look through the doors, just to get an idea of things. He doubts any of the 'new' gods would be ones that he'd have to strike through, but it's handy for purposes of Judar being a little nosier than some other people.

He'll get to the workroom in no time. At least he doesn't have any shoes on to be trodding through the hall with. That's how it goes when you're just drifting along. ]

You're flooded with cleanup, basically.

[ Which is part of the whole consequences to dying kind of thing, apparently. ]

Exactly.

[Hakkai shakes a few clinging droplets from his hands and turns towards Judar. The workroom is a long room, lined with counters on either side and filled with carefully labeled jars and bundles, as well as a variety of equipment, from delicate glassware to heavy stone mortars. A musty, herbal scent hangs heavy in the air.

He lifts his hand to his earlobe, running a fingertip along the first of his limiters, and pauses, looking at the other man.]

-- Ready?

Yeah.

[ Though he really didn't need to stretch or loosen up his muscles for using his eyes, Judar still made the show of rolling his shoulders and neck while pulling his hands behind him. With the second crick to the side with his head, the magi focused on getting that other kind of vision to focus in a little better. It looked different in some ways, with how people and the environment could stand out- it was more than just how the energy looked and responded around people,

Not that he knew how the ring in his eyes seemed to look different, but it's not like he could've actually seen that change with this sort of focus.

Man, he couldn't wait to see what happened in person with this whole limiter thing. ]

[Hakkai was fairly sure that all of the stretching was dramatics. Still, the intense focus on Judar's face was genuine; trying not to feel like a zoo animal, he slipped the three limiters free and dropped them into his shirt pocket.

The planes of his face shifted, subtly, hair lengthening, teeth sharpening, ears sharpening, vine patterns tracking across his jaw and nose and curling on his cheeks. His left eye paled from green to a feline yellow, pupil thinning to a slit, the mismatch with his glass right eye suddenly stark.

He spread his hands -- vine-patterned, too, with nails that had grown back to their clawed points since the last time he'd filed them down for convenience. It had been a while since he'd gone without limiters for anything other than dire need.]

Well?

[ The teenager likes his dramatics, what can he say.

Actually, he's really glad to have been able to watch this from before the limiters were taken off, because damn that was a show. Not just the physical changes, but it seemed like a lot of things shifted and were settling back in his person. His vision wasn't exactly normal, compared to how it usually was, but having seen the video helped fill in the blanks on what he couldn't notice right now. Instead there was just all this blackness settled in this pointier form.

It put a sharp and toothy grin on his face. ]

Man, that really is different. The stuff that was hanging around you is actually in, like I figured would happen after the things we've talked about before. Hey, if something happens to Izumo, I wouldn't mind serving someone like you.

[ Because what Hakkai really needed was this 19 year old in his group of shitty teenagers. He certainly had a gift for them. ]

Interesting. [Hakkai's tone is just as mild, fangs or no fangs.

It's more than interesting; it's unsettling, that someone would perceive his limiters as keeping out something that changes him into this form. They feel like they muffle his senses and his energy, from the inside, rather than cutting him off from something outside.

The offer does, oddly, ease the sense that he's on display. He pulls the limiters back out of his pocket, with a flicker of his eyebrows, and reaches to replace them.]

If you need a place to stay in the future, we could discuss it. You'd have to convince me you could be helpful, of course.

[ Tomayto, Tomahto, it's all different ways to the same ends of him being kept from that full potential. ]

I mean, how helpful will depend on how much you want to take or turn over the Heavens.

[ He'd be more subtle if they were more outside, or where one of the original god's ears reached. However this was inside a new god's temple, and probably more secure than some other places. Also, he's gone about letting himself have a particular reputation that he can say things and people will brush it off without thinking its really serious. ]

Izumo'd have to disappear completely for me to even think about that, though.

[ He's a loyal person, surprisingly. Enough where he'd repeat that this would only be a possibility in that circumstance. He's only thinking of potentials because of how people said that it's common for gods and shinki to disappear without a trace. ]

[Perhaps some people would have brushed off a comment like that. Taking over the Heavens? Who would do such a thing?

Hakkai, instead, finishes securing the last of his limiters, blinking as the world settles back into the slightly fuzzier, slightly dulled version of itself that his more human senses can perceive, and smiles cheerfully.]

I certainly hope he doesn't. He's been a useful man to know, and we don't have so many teachers we can afford to lose any.

On the other hand, if he does, come find me.

[He could use a shinki with that kind of ambition.]

... He's a teacher too, on top of everything else? Guess I shouldn't be surprised that he's that much of a busybody.

[ He rarely sees Izumo sleep, and this is someone who barely sleeps themselves despite only being limited to one cup of coffee a day. Such is the limit set by the god himself.

He knows better than to give someone with that much magic power and ability a caffeine rush. ]

But yeah, sure. I'll check you out if it does. Maybe check to see what other shinki you have to see if I feel like working with them.

[ Alas, how often is there someone who wants to work with Chikusa, who isn't Ken? Especially when Chikusa spent that shinki's first day attacking them with borderlines and casting shinki spells on them. ]

He does work hard, doesn't he? [And occasionally knocks himself flat for days as a result.]

And we'll see. Hopefully, it won't be necessary in any case. [He inclines his head, smiling.

Working with Chikusa and Ken might be a harder sell, considering Chikusa's general attitude.]

Yeah. Probably better that he's talking about a vacation with someone else.

[ Not that he's about to share who the someone else is, or at least not yet, but he can at least calm suspicions about Izumo only knowing how to work. ]

Yeah. If I have things done right, he'll stay around for a long time. More than long enough to shake things up around here.

I look forward to seeing what you have planned.

[His tone is light and cheerful.

He'll probably have to keep an eye on Judar, though. Just in case. While Hakkai doesn't have a problem with actions against the Heavens, as such, the collateral damage does sometimes get troublesome.]

In any case, was there anything else you wanted to see? I don't want to keep you too long....

[ Hakkai doesn't want to keep him too long? Maybe it's him reading in this too much with the expectation of people not wanting his presence for very long, but he has a feeling that meant something a little different. ]

Nothing that I know you'd be a good choice to go to about. I've already gotten weird looks at the school for being unfamiliar with things that are supposed to be 'basic' to most people.

[ Really, it was his fault for going to the school at all. At this point he's assuming that no one has anything different to offer. ]

I'll just head on back and float around like I was doing before. Probably work on formulas or the weird shinki magic again. Have fun with limiting yourself, for whatever reason that is.

"Basic"? Like what? [Hakkai sounds mildly offended.]

Considering how many of us come here from places where we've never had the chance to use -- for instance -- a cell phone, that's quite rude.

[He'll just... skip that last comment entirely. It's none of Judar's business why he wears his limiters, and it's not an argument he wants to have, either. It would not end well for anyone.]

[ See, this brings about an internal debate. He doesn't want more people having a similar reaction, but it already seems like Hakkai was ready to accept how basic to some isn't actually basic for everyone. ]

... The whole thing with there being multiple languages through the world.

[ If it helps, the last comment wasn't meant to lead into an argument in the first place. He honestly doesn't know why the guy chooses to keep them on, and that was the end of it. ]

Interesting. You must come from an unusual world.

[That there would be only one language, through the entire world... Hakkai has had to pick up enough of several to barter, just in the course of their journey.]

When it's difficult to travel from place to place, or speak to people in distant places, different dialects and languages arise over time.

See?

[ That's exactly what he's talking about, though Hakkai was having a considerably more muted reaction. Lavi acted like he heard the sky was ground or something equally ridiculous. ]

You say that and I can just shrug about it. Everyone here in 'heaven' can understand each other and seem to use the same words. So how's my world so unusual if that's how it is here?

If you can answer a question like this... how long do you think it should take for someone to travel from one end of the world to the other? And how long has it been that way?

[Hakkai's smile holds a note of amusement at Judar's frustration.]

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