thenearshore | [semi-open] i reached out my hands and seized something shapeless but precious

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[semi-open] i reached out my hands and seized something shapeless but precious

Who: Temple Nekhbet residents, visitors, and concerned parties after the event (basically anyone who Shun is on good enough terms with to feasibly be allowed into his temple. If you're not sure, ask!) There'll be a couple of closed prompts in toplevels too.
When: November 15th-17th
Where: Temple Nekhbet
What: Post-event temple mingle, for concerned parties, some in-temple problems, and the grand effort to actually get Shun to sit the fuck down for a few days.

[The vultures on the grounds of Shun's temple are a little calmer than usual in the wake of the recent incident, though perhaps that's courtesy of their usual meticulous care being taken over temporarily by Kotori, who is much more willing to keep them off people on the grounds than Shun is. In a slightly different, but equally carelessly-worn kimono to the one she was wearing in the video post, she's grooming a couple of the messier birds, who seem very attuned to her presence.

If anyone comes by intending to visit or at least look in on Shun after what happened, she'll invite in people she knows happily, or even those who responded helpfully to the network post and seem to know Shun well. However, she may tactfully suggest they not stray too much further than the well-lit visitor's room furnished in plain white linens until she can bring him in...or track him down, as the case may be. He's probably tried to sneak out of the temple at least once since he's been up to getting out of bed.

However, he's certainly not the only person about the temple, so feel free to take the opportunity to meet other residents or regular visitors as well.]

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[After the forest had vanished and left the gods and shinki strewn back in the Western District, Shun has no awareness of what had happened next. Once they'd all been spat out, the knowledge that it was over had sunk in, and the source of what had been keeping him upright for so long had gone with it. He doesn't even remember passing out afterwards.

It's not until the next morning that he moves at all. While Eric had taken him and Ren back to Shun's temple, being the closer one of the options, and Kotori had patched him up as best she could from his injuries, the amount of energy he'd used in trying to escape and been drained of by the spell means there's little else that will help but actual rest.

Even after he's had some time for that, he only barely stirs at first. It's less actual awareness that comes back to him initially than the feeling of his body - the dryness of his mouth, the aching of his head, a faint burning at the back of his neck. His fingers clench slightly, but he's having a lot more difficulty than he's used to trying to push himself awake.]

[15th]

[It's well into the afternoon on the 15th by the time Shun actually manages to stay upright long enough to get downstairs...and by the time he gets to the lounge room, he has to pause for a minute to lean heavily on the couch. He looks a little pissed off with the development, but upright is still better than being completely bedridden, as far as he's concerned.

He's still very pale, though, and it looks a little like he's probably going to fall over again if he takes his hand off the couch. Someone might want to intervene before he does...or maybe just hang around to see if he does actually end up falling over.]

--

[16th]

[While Shun (thankfully for everyone involved) doesn't yet have the energy back to teleport out of his temple without knowing he'll probably need to come back as soon as he does, that doesn't mean he isn't still trying to get back to work as soon as he's able to walk without holding onto something again.

"Trying" being the operative word, because for about the fifth time today, a borderline springs up in the doorway as soon as he manages to sneak that way and open it. Kotori may or may not be taking such meticulous care of the vultures because it's a really good vantage point to stop Shun doing this sort of thing, judging by the faint smile she casts him as he glowers at her from behind the line and then thumps a fist against it before leaning against the wall.]

I can do this all day. [He calls that out to her, though it'll be easily audible to anyone inside or anyone coming by to visit.]

--

[17th]

[By the 17th, Shun at least doesn't look like he's going to collapse as soon as he gets out of anyone's sight, so Kotori's letting him into the garden...supervised. Very closely supervised. "Standing at the bottom of the tree Shun is resolutely sitting in with the vultures like he's trying to prove he should be allowed out further" supervised. The dark rings under his eyes aren't quite gone, and the minor wounds given to him by the plants are still covered up, most notably his wrists lightly bandaged due to rubbed raw bands still on them, but he no longer looks distressingly pale or like he's swaying after being upright for too long.

He does, at least, seem to have resigned himself to the fact that nobody's actually planning to let him out to do his work yet...sort of. He's still wearing his weapons, but not his coat, which he kind of needs to hide them if he's going to the Near Shore. Instead, he's wearing a black shirt with a surprisingly nice white design of a falcon and a branch of flowers.

He'll still be keeping a much closer eye on visitors than Kotori. Which mostly means people getting stared down by vultures and Shun until they get close enough to talk to.

Or getting approached by vultures. Keba in particular, a metre-tall griffon vulture, is not shy about flying at people in the pursuit of food and/or affection.]

--

[Wildcard]

[[If you want a different kind of meeting or to make specific plans, feel free to contact me at

reviseleviathan.]]

Edited 2018-05-11 05:20 (UTC)

[Ren may not have spent three days fighting for his life and having his energy drained, but he doesn't have quite as much stamina as Shun and he spent quite a lot of energy naming shinki and fighting his way through the forest. Once the forest had disappeared, Ren had managed to stay awake long enough to revert all his shinki back to normal, but after that, he was out.

Of course, being the one who likes it more anyway...he's also still asleep and curled up in the bed next to Shun. But he's not so deep asleep so as to be completely oblivious to his surroundings. As soon as Shun starts moving like he might be getting restless, Ren makes an annoyed sound and grabs Shun around the waist to pull him closer and try to get him to stay put. He's warm and cozy and he doesn't want his teddy bear to go anywhere.]

[Shun tenses up a bit at getting grabbed and pulled, but he's at least got enough presence of mind back to figure out between the build of the hand and the annoyed noise that it's Ren, and he eases off a bit after that. Still, now that he's halfway awake, he'd much prefer to be fully awake instead, especially as patches of what happened start to come back to him more clearly.

It ended, at least, he can remember that much - the forest vanished before everything went black. Did they destroy all the sigils? ...He's not so sure about that part, honestly, but he supposes that question can wait until later.

His fingers curl again, and Shun's eyes squeeze tighter shut before he blinks them slowly open, then narrows them a little at the daylight streaming in. He turns his head to the side enough to establish that it's his room and bed they've been deposited in (which means he can probably assume the soft, tight feeling at his wrists is to do with one of his shinki having tried to patch him up) before he starts to drag his hand out from under the blankets. It's far too slow and weak a motion for his liking, as if he's having to pull his arm against a strong current, but he eventually manages to slide it out and reaches over to push Ren's hair out of his face and try to tilt his head a little to inspect him for injuries.

It's not exactly intended to wake him up, but Shun's lingering exhaustion means that while his motions are weak, they're also not half as exact as they usually are. He may or may not be poking his thumb a little bit into the side of Ren's mouth without having noticed yet.]

[There's definitely one major thing that's been on Shun's mind since he woke up, and technically speaking...well, it's Fubuki's mind. The burning on the back of his neck is difficult to mistake as anything other than blight, especially since he vaguely recalls it flaring initially while he was trapped in the forest with no ayakashi in sight. And none of the feelings he's getting from his other shinki match what would initiate this kind of blight - not to mention he's seen all of them except Fubuki since his rescue. The issue is, he doesn't know how likely Fubuki is to actually come find him.

The initial plan is to track him down, but before long, Shun ends up laid out on one of the couches in the lounge room, easily visible from the path between the front door and the bedrooms. It looks very much like he's overexerted himself a bit too much too early and passed out again...]

[Luckily, other than a few scratches, Ren looks like he came out of their forest adventure fairly unscathed. Just tired. And something is messing with him, trying to make him wake up...

Ren whines softly and tries to curl up against Shun even more--his hands clench in Shun's shirt and he tries to hug one of Shun's legs with his own and also tries to bury his face into Shun's shoulder and away from whatever's digging into the corner of his mouth--not unlike a cat trying to cling to a nap after being bothered in the middle of it.]

Nnnooo, I don't want to...

[Shun would probably try to inspect him more closely, but Ren dragging himself even closer makes that somewhat difficult, especially once he sticks his face into Shun's shoulder. The whiny complaint does get a faint snort out of Shun, though, however harsh it might sound in the wake of still not having given himself time to eat or drink anything. It's also audible in the slight scraping and quietness of his voice when he actually speaks this time.]

This is already later than I usually make you get up. [And while he (probably) isn't currently up to dragging Ren out of bed himself, he instead wraps his own arm around Ren's waist and the other around the back of his shoulders, then rolls over onto his back in hopes of dragging Ren along with him.]

But I'll give you a chance before I roll over the other way instead. [Flattening Ren is still definitely a valid way to wake him up.]

[Ren shakes his head in response to that first bit, more out of protest than anything, but that probably says a lot about how awake he actually is at this point all on it's own. Still, he's pretty determined to stay put and try to go back to sleep--

And then suddenly he's up on top of Shun instead. Ren tenses in surprise and frowns sleepily up at him, almost like he's daring Shun to go ahead and roll over on top of him. But then he notices some of the bandages, and the events of the last time he was awake and why, probably, he's in Shun's bed come rushing back. Suddenly he looks much happier to be awake and laying on top of him, although still a little sleepy.]

Oh, good morning~! How are you feeling?

[Though Shun mostly just looks very slightly amused at Ren's sleepy frowning, when he finally seems to remember what it is that happened, he frowns a little himself, moving his hand up to rest instead on the back of Ren's head.]

Not that bad. [It could certainly be worse, at least, and he's definitely not going to admit how bad it actually feels right now. He looks from one side of them to the other - Kotori's left Shun's weapons and other supplies he had on him on the side table he usually keeps that sort of thing on, but on the other side is a covered plate, some glasses, and two jugs, one of cold tea and one of water.

As he moves his neck, though, something feels like it's irritating it. Even before Shun reaches his hand up to try and touch at it, Ren might have a better shot at seeing the scrapes and specks of black marking the skin just under where Shun's hair falls.]

[Ren smiles and nods in satisfaction, although he does wonder how bad it must actually be for Shun to admit that he's not completely fine. There's no future in pushing Shun to admit how bad it actually is, though, so he's not going to try right now.

Ren follows Shun's gaze in one direction, but as he's turning to look the other way, the speak on the back of his neck catch his attention. Ren reaches his hand up as well, but--remembering the last time Shun had blight and he decided to touch it--he stops just short of touching his neck and decides to toy with the ends of Shun's hair instead. His hair's grown quite a bit since he got here...and anyway, Ren accidentally touched that blight yesterday so he really doesn't need to again.]

There's blight back here... [Which he can probably tell for himself, but since he can't see it, it can't hurt to confirm for him that that's what it is.]

[Shun himself seems to think better of actually touching his neck as well, though he gets to only maybe an inch or two away before stopping. If only because thinking on it brings back the reminder of what it most likely is, and Ren's confirmation only secures his decision not to bother touching it, instead letting out a faint hiss and resting that hand back against the pillow. His gaze moves slightly towards where Ren's fingers are playing with his hair, but it feels fine, so he supposes it's fine unless Ren gets too close to where the blight is.]

...Did you see Fubuki at all yesterday? [If there's one thing Shun can tell, it's that it's most likely coming from him. He hasn't been getting the right feelings off Reisi and Chinatsu, and while he could feel bits of guilt from Kotori while he was gone, it's faded off now. Fubuki, though...he's definitely getting some kind of consistent unpleasant emotional feedback out of him, even if he's having trouble distinguishing exactly what it is.]

[ if shun is in the entrance, he can see something like a dust bunny coming up the path to the temple. it hides behind foliage and leaves, scooting from one shade to another in clear fear of the vultures abovehead.

one starts to fly lower, to which its response is to make a mad dash for the temple entrance... and somehow trips (???), flying straight into the temple. possibly onto shun's shirt.

if he examines the dust bunny, he would see that those large eyes are green with a familiar pattern inside. ]

[At the particular point in the day the dust bunny is making its approach, Shun is just coming back out of the temple from having eaten something, so he does happen to be in the doorway to spot the small, fast-moving object approaching.

The vultures are definitely very interested in that moving object, though, so the dust bunny-ish creature is right to be concerned about that, since a few of them definitely look like they're considering chasing it down. Once it "trips", Shun manages to catch it in his hands before it lands on his shirt. It looks almost like one of those dust sprites that keeps turning up in the meeting hall...except that's a very familiar-looking combination in its eyes, and Shun glances up somewhat cautiously.]

Ain? [Unless Ain's decided to take the form of a dust bunny for some reason, Shun's going to assume he's somewhere in the vicinity.]

[ the sprite blinks up at him for a few moments, and then a dark mist trails out from behind it, pooling onto the floor. the fog resolves itself into ain's familiar form, with his lower body remaining a cloud of ethereal smoke - but there's some sort of amulet strung around his neck now, and it appears to repress the nauseating aura that he otherwise emits.

the shinki just.... stares at shun for a few seconds, with the same hollow gaze as last time. ]

You......

[ how best to cram several questions into one sentence without sounding excessive? ]

.... are well?

[ if left unattended, the dust bunny will launch itself from shun's hands onto ain's hair and duck into the voluminous strands, out of sight ]

[ Nanako had been coming to visit anyway, and there's a small basket of vegetables under one arm that she'd been helping to harvest, keeping busy in the days after the whole forest fiasco. It was easier than letting herself worry too much.

But as Shun was one of her first stops to check in on her friends, she rounds towards the front of his temple just in time to hear the bang of a fist on... something? And his annoyed call from inside the temple.

When the doorway comes into sight - still blocked by a Borderline with Shun trapped on the inside, Nanako glances around until she spots Kotori. heading instead to the shinki, she doesn't even bother to hide her smile. ]

Good morning, Kotori! Is Shun-oniichan being abrasive again?

[ Guess who is totally not forgetting that word now? ]

Edited 2018-05-11 18:18 (UTC)

[Shun at least refrains from punching the borderline again when he sees Nanako approaching, since he supposes that's a reason to stay inside anyway. Still, he casts Kotori a bit of an annoyed look even as she waves and turns her head to answer Nanako's question.]

Partially...but I think he's mostly just being stubborn today. [She laughs, before gesturing her towards the door.] I can let you through without letting him out when he's in this condition.

[Shun only looks more irritated at that, and he rounds on the borderline again like he's going to take another shot.] If you're not careful I'll take you up on that challenge.

[...Oh. Ren frowns a little as he twirls Shun's hair in his fingers. That would make a lot of sense. But was it the stinging or the weirdness that had come first...]

I ran into him in the forest. He was acting weird. [Ren turns his head, staring thoughtfully in the direction of the food and drinks but not really at them.] Kind of like he was a completely different person...but I'm sure if I'd run into anyone who didn't really know me, they'd think I was acting weird too.

[That's...not reassuring at all, and Shun almost looks like he would've sat up right there and then if Ren wasn't on top of him. However, it's telling that he doesn't actually look surprised, just concerned.] I don't know if it's the same thing. But I think he's been expecting this to happen. [Shun lets out a somewhat bitter sound, tilting his head back a bit.] Asking me about things like ablutions and then never actually admitting what the problem was, like that didn't sound like he was giving up already. I suppose at least now I know what's wrong.

[It doesn't take a huge logical leap. Fubuki had lost two gods before Shun, frequently expressed his inability to help anyone, and now blight's flared when Shun had disappeared as well.]

["Taking the form of a dust bunny" it is, then. Shun watches the fog pool into Ain's shape - and from over by the trees, Kotori stops what she's doing briefly to watch it too - keeping a close eye on him in case something goes strange. Or stranger, as the case may be.

He doesn't bother stopping the dust bunny when it leaps out of his hands, though that's partially because he's busy looking faintly bemused at Ain's question. Though he supposes it's not exactly a new kind of reaction from Ain, since he had seemed to express some concern when Shun had been fighting in the blighted area.]

I'm fine. Considering what happened. [He says that very certainly, similar to the last time Ain had asked how he was.] What about the people in your temple?

[He'd gone back over the alert posts once he'd gotten himself upright enough to do so, and seen Add's message to Kotori about missing two shinki.]

[A shadow falls over him as Fubuki comes up and looks impassively over the back of the couch.]

[After everything had subsided, he'd needed some time to himself. But even after he'd acknowledged what had happened, made logical sense of it, he still doesn't feel anything. No...he feels less than before. It's not even numbness. He just feels empty.]

[Plus, his elbow still hurts like hell.]

[Shun registers the darkening over his eyelids, and that movement certainly sounds like him - right height and gait, at least.]

We need to talk. [He opens his eyes, watching exactly where Fubuki's head is already, and sits up just in case Fubuki makes an attempt to depart. He's still pretty pale, which makes the dark circles under his eyes stand out that much more, but the look on his face is typically determined.

Turning his head slightly so the area towards the back of his neck is visible, Shun holds the back of his hair up carefully. There's a telltale spattering of black across the back of his neck.]

[Well, that's no good. It's no surprise he would be concerned about Fubuki and want to get up and deal with the matter right away, because that's just how Shun is, but he also just spent three days having his life drained by an evil forest.

Ren stretches a little and then resettles with his head on his arms on Shun's chest and his legs draped on either side of Shun's and looks very much like he might go back to sleep just like that.]

That's not very fair to you, having something that was bothering him that much and not doing anything about it. That's not fun for anyone involved....But I guess if you have an idea of what happened, that's a good start.

We talked about it once, but I had to basically force my help on him to get him to accept it. [Shun lets out another lengthy hiss, closing his eyes and somewhat absently running his fingers back and forth through Ren's hair while trying to remember the exact details of that conversation.] And he still wasn't very specific about the--

[He pauses, rather suddenly, and opens his eyes again. He'd been acting like "a completely different person", huh...]

One of the things he said was that he was afraid of the part of him that would "do anything to survive" coming out. [Was it just a matter of doing anything for him to survive this time, or doing anything to stop himself from losing yet another god...?]

[ Nanako giggles before turning towards the god trapped behind the Borderline. ]

Shun-oniichan! Don't be grumpy at Kotori, she was really worried about you! And you're supposed to be resting!

[ You're really bad at that, Shun. ]

[ Eric was on said couch, resting there after the whole debacle, he was tired, but not as tired as Ren and Shun were.

He spots Shun a mile away as he watches him slowly try and get to wherever he was going. It was kind of amusing to watch him be so defiant and ready to keel over. ]

Having fun?

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[semi-open] i reached out my hands and seized something shapeless but precious

closed to Ren - November 15th, morning

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Closed to Fubuki - November 15th, probably sometime in the afternoon

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17

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16th

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15th