thenearshore | [open] take it from me

Entry tags:

[open] take it from me

Who: Chikusa Kakimoto and you
What: Staying at the Li Tieugai temple is becoming too annoying lately. Fortunately, Chikusa has plenty of things to investigate, from the library to the blighted spot.
When: Throughout the latter half of November
Where: Heaven's Library, the blighted area, other places
Warnings: Heavy violence in the Add thread, death (temporary)

A - Heaven's Library (constant)

The price of information, to Chikusa's great misfortune, always seems to be effort.

It explains why anyone visiting the Library throughout the month will seem to always eventually run into Chikusa if they're browsing around between the shelves long enough. On one hand, it's not particularly unusual. For months, now, Chikusa has been a constant presence within the library ever since the goblins which maintained it passed away due to that strange time warping event. Most of the time, however, he's been distant to anyone else that's been there with him, and not always looking for anything in particular. In fact, he seems to always be working in his unofficial capacity as one of the library workers there trying to keep it some idea of organized. (Which isn't always particularly successful...) Anyone who's seen him before in the library has likely seen him at work, staunchly ignoring all other shinki or gods, for the most part.

For the next few weeks, however, he's clearly searching for something. Instead of dully pushing around a cart full of books (or slumping against them in what is apparently extreme exhaustion from such an arduous task), he can be found carefully thumbing through the various titles before he organizes them. He can be found leaning against one bookcase with his eyes roaming the spines of book, taking in every title or lack of wording. Sometimes, he even reaches upwards, searching out what appears to be bits of loose paper or scraps that have somehow slipped on top of or inbetween books. Rarely does there seem to be anything worthwhile on the stray papers, judging by his quiet sighing, but occasionally he pauses to stare intently down on what seem to be random scribbles. Perhaps someone will even get to see him doing so.

....Alternatively, they may see him find what's apparently a blank piece of paper, take a pen out of his usual bag, and scribble something on it that's almost definitely rude before putting part of it underneath the strange door in the back of the library.

Fuck you, mysterious presence.

Other times, he's actually sitting down, a small stack of books around him. One is always open, his hand laid out against it to keep it that way, and he occupies his other hand with writing down what are apparently notes in a simple notebook. While Chikusa can be a little hard to read even on good days, he doesn't particularly seem pleased with what he's finding... or, perhaps, not finding.

While he's otherwise busy, he won't stop anyone from approaching him, and will even pause in the middle of what he's doing to level that dead eyed stare of his onto whoever has come near enough, whether they mean to interrupt him or not.

B - The Near Shore, the Blighted Zone

If the library won't give him the answers that he wants, then that means he really has no other choice but to go investigate himself... Well, by peering in on what exactly Heaven is doing in its own investigations on the area that became so badly blighted during the night of the God Meeting. After all, looking into the forest is clearly going to be a little harder.

For anyone else just passing through or perhaps even trying to look into things themselves, Chikusa's lanky figure is an easy one to spot, and not only because he tends to tower over other people even in a dead slouch. Rather, it's probably the shark finned beanie that he's wearing... It's not particularly subtle, but sometimes Chikusa rarely bothers to be. What has more of his attention is apparently ghosting throughout the neighborhood, pausing to take in a particular spot he can recall, or leaning against a wall to overhear what look like some of Heaven's shinki. With the amount of time he's spent in the Far Shore and his own skills of observation, he's learned to pick up familiar faces, after all.

C - The Near Shore, Asakusa

It's late at night. Why anyone would be out at such a time is a mystery that can only be answered by the individual themselves, but then, that's Asakusa for you. There are a lot of festivals held throughout the year in this place, and the amount of temples and other such things means that it's an enjoyable place for travelers of all sorts. Yet the recent ghost stories have apparently been creeping people out. In the dark streets, where various buildings and apartments have gone dark... The sound of footsteps echoing... going faster... and faster....

And bursting out of the doorway of a nearby building in the form of a frantic pair of shoes moving all by themselves, hastily dodging a borderline suddenly shooting out from inside the building. That sure is Chikusa, eyes sharp and his fingers still borderline ready.

Hopefully no one is in the way. That would be just horrible.

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But not enough times to make you stop.... right.

If taste was an absolute thing then I'd care more.

[ As widespread as it may be, that was still an opinion, and so subjective. ]

And what are 'absolutes'... according to you?

Things that are facts. Truths of the universe. Opinions, even ones that a lot of people agreed upon, are still weak to whimsy and changes.

So do morals fall under that?

Morals are the least absolute thing ever. It's something to claim for someone's own convenience.

[ They're flimsier than opinions, in his opinion. It's why he's lacking in morals to the extent that he is. ]

[Reaching up, he adjusts his glasses needlessly.]

...That's... finally something I agree with...

[ He'd ask if you were trying to start a fight, Chikusa, but they have enough history to know that they don't need a reason, or to say anything first, before starting one. ]

You mean finally something you're willing to actually admit about agreeing with.

[ He comes across that a lot. People will probably think he's right about something, but because it's him, they'll deny or conveniently ignore it. ]

[It's true, they're both a pair of combative anarchist teen shitheads. Someone should probably intervene, but no one really wants to.]

I mean... what other things would we even agree with...

[A pause as he recounts some things on the BBS.]

....Besides that Heaven is useless.

[ Don't go about stalking people's conversations on the BBS, Chikusa. That's creepy. Not that he'd know you were doing that. ]

Nothing you'd agree on, as the odds seem to go. Aside that Heaven's useless, some kind of war is about to happen and this library's got useful stuff but is completely based on luck with what you get, which is a shit way of going about things.

[It's a public forum, he'll stalk all he wants!]

The library is always adding new things... so that can't be helped. [The price of having all the information of the world at your fingertips.] But a war.... that depends, doesn't it?

Depends... On whether it's already started already?

[ Some could say that people getting kidnapped into that whole forest thing might've been a huge declaration, though unofficial in some ways. He doesn't even know about the propaganda that had been going around before his arrival. ]

Because I couldn't say how or why, but I'm more than sure that a war is already on the verge, if it hadn't started yet on some level.

It's just.... all nonsense before anything has actually happened. For example... one needs to know who they're fighting for it to be a proper war.

That's assuming no one knows. From what I've read, the people here could know and just refuse to acknowledge any particular name.

[ He's read about these unofficial gods, and the lack of names given to the losers. ]

Proper or not, we're only getting the messy nonsense of it all.

Or no one has bothered to investigate properly....

[He has experience in that.]

Whether we know or don't know... we're of course being asked to pick a side.

Or there are people who have, and just want to keep it to themselves and a smaller circle.

[ There's enough nosy people in this place that any of those are possible. ]

So we go with a third side. Like killing either side that tries messing with whatever line in the sand gets drawn.

[ Because people only taking care of their own always works. But part of this is because Judar wouldn't mind fueling both sides, as long as what's important to him is out of the way, or above it all. ]

...I guess.

[That's sure an option, and Chikusa isn't intrisically opposed to it, but, still... He tucks one hand into a pocket, all but the thumb hidden into it.]

That's going to mean... amassing power.

[ And there's just an instinctively smug and anticipatory breath that Judar takes in... To only reach blankness. Wars and amassing power were so vital and regular to his life, even when all those memories were gone, part of him wanted to fall into line on things he didn't know he could do, or access, that weren't even here. Which left someone ready to take that step, but suddenly losing the rest of the stairs.

So he breathes out in almost a bit of a huff, leaning against the wall. ]

Amassing power and knowing how to constantly redirect the two sides at each other instead of using us as fodder and batteries for their means, yeah. Pretty sure I've got some spells for all of it, too. Once the last of it is finished being decoded.

[...Ah. From smug to huffiness. Chikusa can recognize a change that distinct and, this time, he thinks he can get why, instead of his usual lack of understanding when it comes to people.]

[He doesn't say anything on it, however, and instead goes to lean against a bookshelf. Or, well, slump. Whatever.]

Decoding what...?

[ With a back curved that much, is it possible to do anything but slump for Chikusa? ]

I can read it, but all the spells in my head are stuck in formulas. So I've gotta figure out what all the parts are to understand what it's for before using it. Otherwise it falls apart or has a different result.

[ Like, instead of those ice spears, accidentally freezing and shooting ice sickles of blood and hemoglobin out of the person you were aiming for. ]

[On rare occasions, he can actually manage such miracles as Standing Up Straight, but no one should count on it.]

...Formulas... [Maybe it's similar to what Seimei does.] I want to see one.

[That's how you ask nicely, right. To Judar. Right.]

... Too bad.

[ Judar, this is how you get someone breaking into the temple- Except that'd be effort. Never mind. But yeah, it's not exactly asking, and with these two... Chikusa couldn't expect anything better. ]

Closest thing you've got to 'em here is- What'd Red call it... Solomon's something.

[ Enjoy your goose chase. He's not lying, but it won't really look like a formula. ]

[He wasn't, but still. It's no less annoying.]

The other closest thing is what you already have.

Yeah, but you ain't getting that at this rate.

[ Not unless he gets something out of it. ]

[Judar, you absolute fuck... Chikusa says, as if he didn't ambush the other shinki when he first arrived. A light huff escapes him.]

Because you're a pain?

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I'm a liar

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