thenearshore | [closed] a tea party for the emotionally compromised

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[closed] a tea party for the emotionally compromised

Who: Joscelin and Ayumu
When: December 23
Where: Temple of Vesta
What: Everyone's favorite homicidal child shinki and a traumatized god meet up to discuss nora-ing.

Google Maps doesn't exactly work in Heaven. It had taken Joscelin an appallingly long time to get to Ayumu's temple because he kept getting turned around. Even with her instructions, he'd had to resort to calling her twice and then waiting next to a landmark for her to come find him.

The whole mess has put him in a rather pissy mood. He doesn't like looking incompetent. What if she decides he's not worth the effort and doesn't name him after all? He can't have that. She's the only god who's shown any interest in letting him be a nora and letting him fight as much as he needs to stay fed and happy.

Speaking of feeding...Joscelin's stomach growls. He hasn't eaten anything physical since breakfast, and it's been so long since he's absorbed any energy that it isn't taking the edge off his deeper hunger any more. He needs a good meal, and then he needs to be let loose on some unsuspecting ayakashi until he's had his fill of energy. Otherwise, things might get dire.

He looks up at Ayumu when she rounds the corner.

"I hope I wasn't too far away. I'm still learning my way around."

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Well, that was certainly a lot to take in. Ayumu's glad she had the foresight to be sitting down before naming him. It'd be far worse if she'd been standing. And she'd been right to hold off on naming him. Seeing and feeling all of that would have been too much for her to handle the night she'd met him.

But rather than feel threatened by his words or the new edge in his tone, Ayumu just smiles to herself, a little bemused. She sure knows how to pick them, doesn't she?

"Your form is called a tanto. And hunting will come after we've had a cup of tea," she replies in a tone that would be sweet if not for its underlying steel of command. "Joscelin, return."

Once he's back in child form, Ayumu will stand up and start tea preparations.

"Any idea what snacks you might like? I brought over onigiri and manju since it's all I had ready on such short notice..."

Joss comes back to himself sitting on the stool, looking at his hands. "A tanto," he repeats. "I was a broadsword before. I wasn't aware that I'd change forms once you named me." The broadsword had been so much cooler than a little knife, but he isn't going to tell her that. Not when she's offering him food and hunting.

"I don't really know what any of that is, but I'll eat anything at this point." As if to underscore the statement, his stomach decides to pick this exact moment to rumble again.

The boy starts to laugh.

Good. He's not going to push her on the issue. Once the kettle's filled with water and heating on the stove, Ayumu turns her attention to a pair of large, plastic tupperware containers sitting on the counter. She picks them up and brings them over to the table.

"Oh, sometimes I forget not everyone's familiar with those words," she says conversationally, still smiling faintly.

She removes the lid to the first container to reveal a bunch of sticky rice balls fashioned into bunny shapes and sets them down in front of Joss.

"These are onigiri - rice balls. They're not always shaped like this but I like to play around and try to make them into different shapes for fun. Now these -"

Ayumu opens up the other container to reveal what looks to be an assortment of round pastries, some of which are green.

"These are manju. They're made with flour, sugar, and sweet filling. Usually, they're made with red bean paste but these have fruit fillings in them. Apple and tangerine. The green ones are a bit different. They're green tea flavored."

She puts the second container down next to the first.

"Please help yourself to as many as you like."

Edited 2018-07-19 07:08 (UTC)

Joscelin doesn’t need to be told twice.

He shovels the food into his mouth, barely even bothering to chew. It’s delicious! The apple manju especially. He grins as he eats, clearly enjoying it. The carbohydrates are exactly what he needs to stave off the hunger until Ayumu keeps her promise and takes him on a hunt.

Between mouthfuls of onigiri, Joss finds himself happily chatting away about his life since coming to the Far Shore: the games during training that he excelled (read: cheated) in, the hot springs, visiting Ginia and the dogs, the piano in Adrien’s temple that he somehow knew how to play, and his friendship with Shin. Being here, with Ayumu, feels safe and...nostalgic, somehow. Like he’d been missing something but can’t remember what. He can let his guard down, stop pretending to be something he isn’t.

Ayumu listens to Joss chatter on, smile only widening as she listens. The only time she interrupts is when the kettle whistles and that's only to tell him to go on while she finishes up the tea and brings it over. After the tea is served, she settles back down to sip and listen.

Listening to him talk about everything he's been up to is nice. It reminds her of the first time she'd met Tetsu and maybe a little of Susumu was young, too, and still spoke with her with this sort of enthusiasm and energy.

It's nice. Really nice.

"It sounds like you've been off having a fine adventure since you've arrived. And I'm really glad that you've made a friend. Shin sounds like quite a character," she says cheerfully as she finishes draining her cup.

And maybe someone else she should meet and potentially check out for. Some of the behavior Joss is describing is a little concerning but not enough to raise too many alarms just yet. Of all people, she knows better than most that people and situations are often more complex than they seem on the surface.

"Well, when you're done with your tea, I think it's time to go bag us some ayakashi, don't you?"

Ayumu says 'us' but means him, of course, but it's best to start reinforcing that bond right away and language in this matters.

“He’s very protective of me,” Joscelin admits. “Treats me like I’m his little brother. He even jokes that he is sometimes.” And that leaves Joss feeling so confused. He’s come to rely on Shin for that support and affection and even tough love, but he finds himself chafing against the older boy’s protectiveness sometimes. “He and I had a fight the other day, and I...”

The scabs and bruises on Joscelin’s hand are a stark reminder. “...I think I lost control, but Shin and Adrien haven’t give me all the details. I wish they would. I don’t quite remember it.” He looks up at Ayumu. “Will you promise not to spare my feelings by keeping things from me? Adults lie to children and it’s not fair to us. I may be young, but I’m not stupid. I can’t take a lot.” With his memories surpressed, he has no idea how true that is. Nearly seven hundred years of existence makes one nothing if not resilient. And jaded as all hell.

When she mentions going out after he finishes his tea, he shoves the last apple manju in his mouth and washes it down with half a mug of tea. Then, to prove just how helpful he’s going to be around the temple, he takes his dishes and the now-empty Tupperware containers to the sink and begins the washing-up.

"I promise I'll be honest with you."

Ayumu'd been a smart, resilient child, too, with a tougher skin than most young girls her age. She'd been little more than a toddler when she'd first begun to learn the trade of a kunoichi at her mother's knee. Younger than Joss had looked to have been on his deathbed when harsh training had replaced the years that should have been her childhood. By the time, she'd been fifteen she'd been a full-fledged undercover operative committing acts for her country that most grown women would balk at.

In her experience, the only thing that's really changed since Ayumu became an adult was the world around her becoming a much more complicated place to navigate while the expectations and demands growingly increasingly unreasonable.

"On that note, do you think you could introduce me to Shin sometime? I'd just like to meet him and get a sense of what he's about. If everything's fine between you, I promise I won't interfere."

Her words are coming from a place of maternal concern rather than any desire to control him. Ayumu'll just feel a little better seeing for herself what Shin's really like since a person giving someone as young as Joss beer sounds like someone she might need to keep tabs on.

"And thank you for helping with the clean up. I greatly appreciate it."

Joscelin smirks at Ayumu's request. "Yes, Mum," he says, laughing good-naturedly. He continues scrubbing the dishes even after they're clean so he doesn't have to look her in the eye just yet. "And thank you." His voice is much quieter now, more subdued. "For agreeing to be honest with me. And for the name, and the food...I promise I will do my best to live up to the trust you've placed in me."

Is that a tear on his cheek or just spray from the sink? He's going to say spray from the sink.

Then everything is washed and Joss arranges it all on the drying rack.

"Can we go to the Near Shore now?"

If it is a tear, Ayumu's not going to point it out. Spray from the sink can be the official story. The laughter's a good sign and it fills her with a bit more confidence. It's not easy for a spy to promise anything, especially honesty, but she wants to become a better person. It might too late for her to change the past but at least, she can work hard in the present and the future and keep from messing up that badly ever again.

She'll move on, learn from her mistakes, and do better this time.

"Yes, we can," she says, reaching out to take his shoulder.

The kitchen dissolves around them and a second later, a very modest looking shrine in the back alley of an apartment building appears. Whether there are any ayakashi in immediate vicinity has yet to be seen.

"Sorry, if we have to do a bit of walking around to find one. This was the only shrine I could remember clearly enough to safely transport to."

“I don’t mind walking.” Joscelin is still looking quite gray and weak, but stuffing himself silly with Ayumu’s delicious cooking did a great deal for his energy level. He’s no longer in any danger of keeling over.

He can’t help but look around a bit as they travel. He’s only been to the Near Shore once before, and that visit had ended abruptly after his fight with Shin. Just like then, he finds he prefers the dirt and pollution of the city much more than the stuffy, immaculate same-ness of heaven.

He runs ahead of Ayumu a bit when he sees an electronics store. “Mistress, look! They’re having a sale on Nintendo Switch!”

He’s so engrossed in looking at the game consoles in the window that doesn’t notice the many-eyed shape approaching from behind.

Edited 2018-07-20 02:08 (UTC)

She's content to let him look around as they walk, keeping one eye on him and... oh, she has only one working eye. So maybe Ayumu isn't paying as much attention as she should be. It's not her first hunt but it is her first one since returning from the dead. It's been many months since she's fought an ayakashi as a goddess and back then, she hadn't had a blind spot to her left to contend with.

Joss's trajectory takes him right into it so she loses sight of him for a moment but he's easy to track through the bond with just one shinki. She's already turning toward him when he calls out.

"A Nintendo what? What's that? I don't -"

Then she spots the ayakashi approaching him from behind.

The flustered question breaks off abruptly, Ayumu's demeanor shifting.

"Joss! Ayakashi!"

It's the only warning he gets before Ayumu teleports to his side, knocking into the store front window just a bit, but she still follows up.

"Come, Suki!"

Joss barely has time to turn around before Ayumu calls him and he's back in his vessel form for the second time in less than two hours. It's amazing how different the world looks when he's like this.

What a fantastically ugly creature. Do they all look like that?

This is his first time actually encountering an ayakashi after all.

Let's get this over with. I'm famished.

They vary pretty greatly but they're pretty ugly. Occasionally, there's a cute one here and there but that's about it.

Ayumu eyes the creature advancing upon them, swiftly assessing the best way to dispatch it. After some of the shinki she's had, she's incredibly grateful to have a weapon she knows how to use. The blade's short so Ayumu will have to get in really close to slay it, increasing the likelihood of it making direct contact and blighting her. That's not too big of a deal though; she can endure pain and this will be nothing compared to what she'd experienced after Axel's ayakashi transformation. And even then, she'd still managed to get off a couple of hits before it took her down.

This? This is nothing.

Get ready to do whatever it is you do, Joss.

[And with that, that world dissolves and reforms as Ayumu teleports to the ayakashi's rear flank and slashes hard at its side. She hasn't really had a chance to practice this style of fighting since her return but she'd developed some pretty solid theories about how to implement it during her previous tenure as a goddess.]

Duly noted.

Joscelin feels his blade pierce the ayakashi and his power kicks in. Energy flows out of the creature and into him. He grins as he feels the body he doesn't have right now begin to revive.

The next slash is a more critical hit, and he can feed even more greedily on the ayakashi's lifeforce.

Delicious. Thank you, Mistress. I think another hit or so ought to do the trick.

Really? You really don't need much, do you?

It's not that she's complaining about it, mostly just surprised. She would have thought he'd need more.

Are you sure that's enough? I can go a little longer if you aren't full yet.

He'd looked so unwell. She'd rather make sure he was well fed before cutting him loose again.

Well, if you insist.

Joscelin leeches even more of the life energy now, doing twice the damage that he was before. He can feel the ayakashi begin to collapse; it won’t be long now.

It might be time to finish it off.

He could do this all day, and if Ayumu wants to give him he opportunity to gorge himself he isn’t going to argue. It will give him more reserves for later.

By the way, Mistress, how long have you had that blind spot?

There's a noticeable hesitation before she answers but maybe it's just because she's in the process of rending their current prey. Once she's finished and the ayakashi's slain, she answers.

Since this summer. It was like this when I first came here as a shinki and had already healed like this.

Had Ayumu mentioned she used to be a shinki herself until very recently? She can't remember and right now, she's trying to quell an instinctive surge of panic as her mind threatens to wander to exactly when and how that particular damage had come to be. For a moment, Ayumu looks a bit lost and vulnerable herself.

However, it'd occurred, it's very clear it's a highly unpleasant memory, to say the least.

She hadn’t mentioned it, in fact.

That’s surprising. I wasn’t aware that a person could switch between the two.

He’s almost fully absorbed the energy from the ayakashi, but he could always go for dessert. Plus...

You’re no good to me if you get hurt because you can’t see. Find me another ayakashi; I think there is something I would like to try.

'Kay. I'll look for another one.

Ayumu doesn't know what he wants to try but she offered to keep going to make sure he was full. She'll leave him in vessel form while the hunt continues. It'll save time and give her a chance to blitz attack another without drawing attention to them first. For now, she'll continue chatting while she keeps watch for another ayakashi of similar size.

And yes, they can. I've switched roles twice now, it seems. When I returned from the dead this time, I came back with another set of memories from before this summer. I was a goddess then, too. When I was a shinki, my first god told me that he used to be a shinki himself. And I know this to be true because I remembered meeting him the first time I was Vesta.

A soft, mental laugh.

Life on the Far Shore can be very complicated and strange sometimes...

Edited 2018-07-20 07:21 (UTC)

You seem to die on a disturbingly regular basis, Mistress, Joscelin says, deadpan.

However, what she is telling him leaves open some interesting possibilities. What would it be like to die and then become a god? Have all that power, and a shinki of his very own?

It's alluring, to say the least.

If I were to become a god, would I remember my life from before I died?

Dying here is a bad habit to get into. I don't recommend it. Most don't come back and it's impossible to predict what you'll return as. In many cases, people return with no memories at all. It can cost you everything with little to no reward.

There's a quiet severity to her tone but also the kind of pained wisdom one gets only through bitter life exerience.

It don't believe it's worth the risk, even to become a god. We're not all powerful. We're servants, too, to a power we cannot see yet continues to govern us. And our memories can still be stolen from us when we die.

Just the suggestion of Joss's little body twisting into some horror like her own had become seconds before she'd died makes her heart race and her blood run cold.

If you can find a stable home with a strong, kind, and competent god to guide and look after you, you can live a good life here as a shinki. Or at least, that's what I've discovered.

Joscelin's "voice" turns quiet, thoughtful.

I don't plan on dying just yet. He has friends now. People who care about him. It all feels very foreign to him, to be cared about. Especially when...

Are you going to be that kind of god for me, Mistress? It's terrifying, the idea of being so connected to someone. He doesn't know how to respond to it. Even now, with Ayumu bringing him food and then naming him so that she can keep his powers fed, he wonders when the other shoe will drop. It has to be transactional. People are only kind to other people when they expect to get something out of it in the end.

But still, there's a small part of him that hopes he's wrong. Because he's lonely.

Let's cut the sentimentality and find another ayakashi. I want dessert.

Ayumu's kind by nature and it's a small miracle that the harsh, lonely life of a kunoichi hasn't killed that trait in her completely. As trauma after trauma occurred throughout her life, she'd cut away piece after piece of herself to survive, only to whittle herself down to a hollow shell of false smiles and fake cheer until the day she met her fate.

They'll just have to see how much Ayumu Yamazaki remains and if the pieces can be put back together.

Dessert, it is, then.

She falls quiet, intent on her search. Eventually, Ayumu spots one, about the same size as the previous one slain.

How about that one? Big enough portion for you?

Edited 2018-07-21 01:57 (UTC)

Perfect.

Their fight is more of the same. Joscelin drinks his fill of the ayakashi's lifeforce with every strike and slash. He's being too greedy; there isn't all that much left of the creature before he remembers to pull back and attempt his experiment.

Instead of taking the energy for himself, he tries to channel it to Ayumu. It seems to work, but he may need a little more practice in the execution. Instead of focusing it on healing her eye, the energy goes everywhere. Ayumu may be left invigorated and refreshed, but the scarring and blindness would not be noticeably better.

The energy flowing into her surprises Ayumu. She's in the process of rending the ayakashi when it starts coursing through her body like a second wind. She feels good, more energetic than she has since she'd come back. After a quick look around, she doesn't see any more ayakashi so it should be safe enough to transform him back now.

"Joscelin, return."

When Joscelin reforms, he looks infinitely better than before. There's color in his cheeks and all of the scrapes and bruising left over from his fight with ~~a wall~~ Shin have vanished.

If it weren't for the fangs still in his mouth, he might almost be mistaken for a normal little boy.

He bounds over to Ayumu, surprised at the amount of energy he has. "Thank you, Mistress. Are you feeling any better? I decided to experiment with an idea I had."

And next time he'll actually get it right.

The fangs are kind of cute to her, really. They add a bit of extra character and charm. At his question, she beams.

"I do. Thank you very much. I didn't know you could do that."

Ayumu's touched by the gesture, truly. When she'd promised to help him, it'd been simply because he'd needed it. She hadn't expected to get back anything in return.

"I'm just glad you're feeling better and that I could help you."

“I didn’t either, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try.” And he did feel a sense of obligation to her. He still does. She’s the first adult—real adult, not teenager—he’s met so far who seems to give a damn about him.

Joscelin looks at one of the store windows and sees a Christmas tree in it. Oh, that’s right. He knows about Christmas, doesn’t he? He can’t say why or how, but he does, probably the same way he knows how to read and fight and play the piano. Christmas Eve is tomorrow, so he’d better figure out what to get Ayumu...and his other friends besides. But definitely Ayumu. He wants to buy her something special and make her smile.

“Mistress, may we stop in that art store for a moment before we go back? I want to buy something...”

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[closed] a tea party for the emotionally compromised

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