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

[reformedsinner]

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....]

Comments

[smilingbullet]

[ Pah, D2's been in way worse rain and cold without getting sick. ]

I don't have anything particular at the moment.

[ If he was busy with something and it was impossible for him to reschedule he wouldn't offer to accompany him, but he's always got time for friends when he's not busy. ]

I left because I needed a break anyway, so you're not taking me away from it. [ He grins widely. ] But I could help you carry your stuff if you're concerned about that. [ He makes a "here, hand it over" sort of gesture with his free hand. ] Helping people in need of a health boost?

[reformedsinner]

Ah, is it all right? It would make it a bit easier to check the addresses.

[He shifts the bag from his shoulder to hold it out to D2, smiling ruefully.]

-- without knocking anyone else over, hopefully! Yes, it's for followers of mine who've asked for something to help them out.

[An elderly woman who doesn't want arthritis to keep her from her bonsai, a student who wants his bad knee to be better before the big game, a -- he checks the phone. That's the closest one: a woman who wants help for her son, who gets so anxious about tests he gets sick.]

The next one is that building, at the end of the block.

[He points: it's a small apartment building, a little older, with tiny balconies decorated with a few potted plants and the occasional rack of laundry belonging to people who hadn't checked the forecast before hanging it out to dry.]

[smilingbullet]

Of course it is, you don't need to ask that.

[ He takes the bag in his free hand, maneuvering it up onto his own shoulder. He keeps in mind that there might be fragile items in it so doing that carelessly would be rude. ]

How much do you do this right now?

[ After a nod, he makes a slight gesture in the direction Hakkai pointed. ]

Should we go then, sir?

[reformedsinner]

Please, just Hakkai, there's a reason I've never been in the army!

[Antiauthoritarianism isn't the reason, but he does hate being in charge of others rather a lot.

He watches with a little concern as D2 hauls the bag onto his shoulder, but he's moving with appropriate care, and the glass jars inside barely clink. He begins to walk.]

It seems I've been getting more and more requests, lately. I try to make it out every day if I can.

[smilingbullet]

[ And he was just joking, don't take him seriously. He nudges Hakkai's shoulder with his free one and grins at him. ]

People outside of the army can be called sir too, hoaaloha~

[ He really does keep busy. D2 can't help with everything that Forrest does, so he's a bit envious of having duties like that every day. ]

So does that mean you're getting more followers? You did move to the big shots' district, so I already thought so but I guess that it's showing like this, too.

[reformedsinner]

Yes, but it's because I don't like giving orders!

Or getting them, actually.

[He smiles back, before blinking as he considers the question.]

I suppose I must be, yes. I hadn't really expected them to move me... but I have been hearing more requests lately.

[Those poor, misguided people. He'll help where he can, but he's one man, and certainly not a proper god.]

[smilingbullet]

It's not for everyone. I can do both but have more experience getting them and prefer that, but there are a lot of different types of people even within the military.

[ Something he has considered asking any one of the gods that he knows about yet not gotten to yet: asked how the gods "hear" the prayers and requests. ]

Hmmm. So you're saying you're usually as immovable as a mountain.

[ Except that's not really the impression he's gotten over the months he's known Hakkai. ]

[reformedsinner]

No, I just thought I'd annoyed enough of the higher-ups that they'd round file my application on sight.

[It's an odd saying, when he thinks of it. So few deskside garbage cans are actually round, but on the other hand, "oblong file" wouldn't distinguish the garbage from all the other oblong files in an office.

He laughs, under his breath.]

But it was accepted, so I'll have to get used to the new neighbors! At least it provides an interesting view.

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 can't hold in the snort of amusement, and with one hand on the umbrella and the other on the bag, he can't muffle it either. ]

And some interesting encounters, depending on how often they venture inside. I don't know if I've said 'good luck with that' yet.

[reformedsinner]

I've had a few visitors already. Not too many! And, mostly, they knock.

[He taps a finger thoughtfully against his chin.]

Perhaps it's because I have a dog now.

[smilingbullet]

Mostly, huh?

[ Sounds like he's having some issues with people who never knocks. ]

Dogs do seem to attract people! But not everyone, at least.

[reformedsinner]

[Well, none of the talking cats knocked, and they're proving to be exactly as annoying as he'd been afraid they would be, as houseguests.

It's his fault too, though, in part, so there's no point in complaining.

Much.]

Mostly. The neighbors haven't been much trouble, at least. -- Though I'm afraid the dog might have been some trouble to them. Have you met Bon?

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 may have seen the video Chikusa posted early on with that matter.

And it's not like Chikusa couldn't asked Forrest if he could take in a few, like D2 suggested when he asked if he wanted any of them. ]

Mmh, no? But I've gathered he's very friendly.

[reformedsinner]

Very friendly. One might even say, irrepressibly friendly.

[There's just no way to get him to leave people alone.]

And it seems no one's bothered to train him before... though I have him responding to "sit," some of the time!

[smilingbullet]

Sounds like we might get along!

[ D2 does like to get involved with people a bit far too much sometimes, after all. ]

So it is possible to teach old dogs new tricks after all. That sounds like it'll be a lot of work though. Isn't he Chikusa's--no, Ken's, right? I think it was.

[reformedsinner]

He's not even a year old -- so he's not really an old dog yet. Just a very large one.

Originally, it was Hibiki who adopted him, but after Hibiki disappeared he adopted Ken, so far as I know.

[And then Chikusa tried to give him away to Hakkai, and Hakkai recommended he go to Sharak, and Bon had decided, with his typical willfulness, that all of those people and all of their homes belonged to him.

His fondness for the school, though, Hakkai knows is Hibari's fault.]

He's a good-natured dog, just a stubborn one.

[And, with a teasing smile at D2--]

You might get along at that.

[smilingbullet]

You do know that it's just a saying that's inaccurate anyway, right? And large dogs grows slowly so he might get even bigger than he already is.

And because you're taking care of Ken now, you're automatically adopted as well. That's nice.

[ Teasing him over the likelihood of getting along with a dog? He's welcoming that. D2 cheerfully smiles back at Hakkai. ]

Good-natured and stubborn makes him sound like we could be brothers.

[reformedsinner]

Yes, but you started it. [The most mature comeback. Hakkai laughs, shaking his head.]

I don't think you look enough alike for siblings, but you may have a point about the personality.

-- I didn't know you liked dogs that much, D2. Have you considered getting one?

[smilingbullet]

[ In a mature comeback, D2 briefly sticks his tongue out at him. ] True, but still.

Siblings don't have to look alike, Hakkai. Nor do they have to be connected by blood.

There is no animal that I dislike. [ Even the deadly ones that he's sometimes encountered in the wild are good in his book. ] A bit, but I think I prefer cats for their independence, and I already have some cats--plus I wouldn't have time to walk a dog beyond my runs in the morning.

[reformedsinner]

They don't even have to be connected by species, apparently!

[Ha, ha, ha. Ha.

(Says the youkai with a human twin sister.)]

Dogs are rather a lot of work. I admit we don't try to keep Bon in the house; he likes to roam.

[smilingbullet]

Of course they don't.

[ This (All Human) Nuclear Family thing where everything is the same in every family a lot of humans have in mind is pretty bullshit anyway. ]

As long as he knows where to find any of you guys when he needs to.

[reformedsinner]

Yes -- he's learned my new temple location now, thankfully. I was worried at first that he'd try to go back to one of the temples that disappeared.

[Bon is romping back in their direction now, tongue lolling from a smiling mouth and waves of fur ruffling everywhere.]

[smilingbullet]

[ Such a fluffy dog. ]

As long as there are no new temples in their old locations he wouldn't be bothering anyone. And then he'd probably pick up on it being empty, too.

[reformedsinner]

Mm, yes. I don't think he's really the Hachiko sort of dog.

[Pining away waiting patiently for his missing master for years... no. Thankfully.

Too many of them go missing here to accommodate a dog like that.]

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 taps the umbrella's handle with a finger with a slightly thoughtful expression on his face. ]

That type is probably a bit rarer than people like to think, or there'd be more statues and less dogs accepting new families.