thenearshore | A prayer for holidays

Entry tags:

A prayer for holidays

Who: Romeo, Adrien and Shin
When: December 23rd, probably going on into December 24th
Where: Starting at Bast's temple, moving to the Near Shore
What: Prayer 66 A Prayer for Holiday Revival. Adrien and Shin recruit Romeo to help them save a follower's Christmas.
Warnings: Not expecting any but I'll add if any come up

Romeo grinned happily as he approached the temple of Bast. He was pretty sure this was the right place! He had never been to where Adrien lived before but he had been happy when Adrien had asked for him to come over. He had really liked the older boy when they had met at the hot water baths- the onsun was the proper name for it.

Apparantly there was a prayer Adrien wanted him to help with. Romeo hadn't done a prayer before, Elfnein had been busy with her really important research for weeks now. Romeo had done his best to not disturb her except to make sure she had food and her spirits weren't too low. But he was glad to be able to go and do something to help people! He wondered who needed help and how they would help them? He was sure Adrien would be really good at helping people, he seemed really nice!

He knocked on the door, grinning in excitement.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Adrien had asked Shin a while back if he'd be willing to help him and Romeo do some Christmas saving. Seeing as it was the first prayer Shin had the chance to do, he eagerly accepted the chance. He made sure he had the night off for work, which actually took more effort than he'd hoped.

The whole mansion is decorated brightly for Christmas, even if it was a mortal holiday for some other god. Both Shin and Adrien welcomed the Christmas cheer, and they might have gone a little overboard decorating. Shin is wearing a christmas hat, a black and white overzised knit striped sweatshirt, and plaid pants that matched the hat with some plain black platform shoes.

He shouts to Adrien that Romeo's arrived while he goes to get the front door. He swings open one of the mansions' doors with a bright smile and an enthusiastic greeting, "Hello! You must be Romeo, I'm Shin!"

Adrien is humming as he hurries down the stairs, a couple of coats draped over his arm along with a few other clothing articles in hand. "Oh good! You're here." He's beaming happily. "If you want you can look around a little while we talk about this prayer we're going on.. I think you'll both like it a lot."

He's grinning at Shin. "The hat looks good on you. Very festive without being crazy over the top. I know I saw one that was really obnoxious with a reindeer with a nose that lit up and played something I can't remember the name of but will hear no fewer than five times tonight." Then he's laughing, "Besides I think we were a bit over the top with the mansion, don't you?" The tree doesn't have a single bare spot - between baubles, trinkets, tinsel, fake snow, ribbons... there was no way to see the pole that made the body of the tree or were the branches connected.

Garlands decorated the rails of the stairs and balcony, bits of greenery and there wasn't a main room open to the public in the entire house that wasn't touched by Christmas decorations aside from the locked and shut rooms or bedrooms.

"Hello mister Shin! It's nice to meet you!" Shin must be Adrien's shinki. "Hello Adrien!" He is glad he is in the right place after all. His eyes are a little wide as he takes everything in, from the hat on Shin's head to the inside of the temple as tey step inside.

There was a tree! Inside the mansion and it had lots of shiny treasures on it. Sparkly string and ribbons and little figures. You could barely see that it was a tree at all! There were more leaves and berries and flowers and so many things that Romeo couldn't even name.

Adrien's words to Shin mostly go over Romeo's head as he is lost in staring around him.

"Wow!" It is so sparkly! "Why is there a tree inside? The ribbons are really pretty and the sparkles! I like your hat mister Shin!"

Shin smiles to Adrien and Romeo, "Thanks, I figured I'd be reserved about something." He steps in and aside to let Romeo enter, holding the door for him. He's about to answer Romeo's question when he realizes he doesn't actually know the answer himself. "Why is there a tree indoors?"

He'd helped Adrien set up, and oddly had been asking about Yule Goats for the tree, and asked if anyone was going to dress up as Santa to hand out the presents, or if they were all too old for that. So he's familiar with some kind of Christmas, but he also completely didn't recognize some other elements of the holiday, as if he'd only read about it, or seen it on TV.

He didn't seem like he was going to let that get to him, since he's just throwing himself into the festivities with excessive enthusiasm.

"It's a Christmas tree. It's part of a lot of holiday traditions." He grins a bit. "Which is what the prayer is we're going on. I thought since it's the season and someone prayed for a good holiday for their family I could take the chance to teach you both it. I can show how we have Christmas in France and we could learn about it in Japan together. Sound good?"

Adrien hoped they'd want to do it. It sounded fun and it would be a good way for him and Shin to bond as well as for him to teach Romeo things. It made him sad that neither of them really knew about Christmas. He was going to fix that. Christmas was his favorite holiday. Not for presents or anything like that but just family being together reasons.

So much so that when Shin had kept asking him about Yule Goats, Adrien had taken out his phone and looked it up. And after a bit of searching he'd found a step-by-step kids craft thing to make one. So they'd spent a couple hours making a few of them.

"Christmas tree!" He nodded, it still didn't make much sense but Christmas did ring some bells at least.

"Christmas is Jesus' birthday, right?" Jesus who was the son of God, which god Romeo had no idea. Did that mean Jesus was here in the heavens? He didn't know anything about trees indoors though.

He goes over to look at the decorations peering at the goats with interest. Someone had prayed for a fun holiday with their family? And they were going to help them? This sounded like a really good prayer to do!

"It sounds really good! Thank you Adrien for asking me to come with you!"

Shin's not sure why he was so distressed about there being no Yule Goats but also didn't seem to know what to do with them once they had them. He hated things like that about his situation, his lack of memory. They didn't make much sense.

He had to wonder if he was only half Japanese. His natural hair colour was rather light for a Japanese person, and he was apparently used to a very much not Japanese way of celebrating, but also not used to celebrating at all. Adrien could probably sense these moments where he's just feeling a nondescript anxiety over all of this.

Despite this, he's intent on trying to keep up the Holiday spirit. What he's been doing with Adrien's been fun, and he wants to enjoy it despite his anxieties. "I think this will be a lot of fun."

He smirks at Adrien, "But I still don't get why a tree of all things."

"It is! Even if back home we start celebrations on the fifth of December." He's moving to gesture to a little Nativity set and La crèche around it. "See? There are the Mary, Joseph, the animals, the angels, Jesus isn't added until the twenty-fifth; the villagers are the day after. The three kings are added on the fifth of January and it'll be displayed until February second - forty days after."

He grinned bouncing slightly. "Every culture and religion has their own winter festival. And there's a lot of awesome things to each one." Though their confusion and questions about the tree makes him pause. "Well, Mother used to say that it was because they're green even in the coldness of winter and remind people of Spring. But I think someone said that it was a symbol of everlasting life. Honestly though? I think it might have been borrowed from another religion or culture or something..."

There's a shrug of his shoulders. "Who can say? It's not like it's written down someplace. If it was I haven't seen it. But we're going to be helping our follower with a Japanese Christmas so we'll be learning lots of new things."

Romeo goes over to the Nativity set and nods enthusiastically. "I know this story. God decided to save the world from sin and so sent his son and that's Jesus. He's a baby because he was born to a girl called Mary and her husband Joseph." He pointed at the figurines as he spoke.

"They had to go to Bethlehem and there was no room at any of the inns and so they had to stay in a stable. That's why they have a manger and straw and animals. Jesus was born and all the angels sang and shepards were visited by angels who told them to go to the stable and they did and the kings followed a star! Jesus died and went to heaven afterwards but that was when he was big and an adult."

Something he actually knew! It still didn't explain why there were trees indoors.

"How do they celebrate Christmas in Japan?"

"That's a long time to be celebrating something!" Shin really doesn't seem to know all that much about Christmas legends that weren't the plots of songs you'd hear in a mall during Christmas seasons. He was really surprised by Romeo's story, listening wide eyed, "But why would kings come to see the baby Jesus, but no one could find any spare room at all? Why not someone's house?"

At this rate they'd never get going.

"Correct! Very good, Romeo." He's clearly pleased that Romeo knew about the Christmas story. Smiling gently, he ruffles the younger boy's hair. "That was very good."

He hummed glancing over his shoulder to Shin. "Well, it isn't just one thing actually it's a bunch of holidays all at once that they just kind of lump in all together. The Kings came to worship him because the angels told them to and offer him gifts - Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. As to the rooms it was likely because they were outsiders or had no money to offer - they were rather poor if I remember, not many people would welcome strangers in to their homes without good reason like gold or silver."

He's moving to shrug into his coat. "Now on to Japan, it doesn't seem to be religious event. It's more of a couples day. They go on dates, exchange presents, eat strawberry shortcake. Um it's pretty much like - Do either of you know what Valentine's Day is? It's kind of like that with a mess of Christmas music, twinkle lights and lots of decorations. So go get your coat on, Shin." He has a much smaller one in hand offering it to Romeo.

Edited 2018-07-29 17:20 (UTC)

Romeo smiled brightly at the praise, glad that he had gotten the story right.

He listened as Adrien explained how all the holidays were all lumped in together and Romeo agreed that people might not welcome strangers into their home without good reason. Even though he thought they should, that would be the nice thing to do.

He had no idea what Valentine's day was so shook his head. But a day for couples to eat strawberry shortcake sounded nice! He takes the coat with a big smile. "Thank you, Adrien!" He pulls it on. "So we are going to help them go on a date? What's a date?"

Shin gets on his own jacket. It's a padded leather jacket that was surprisingly warm. He's also wrapping around his neck a tattered looking dark grey scarf that made up for its thinness by volume.

He laughs a little at Romeo's question. He figures he could take this one, "Sometimes, when people get older, they decide they might want to spend a really long time together, and maybe someday be a family. Dating is what you do to figure out if you really do like that person in that way. You spend time together doing things like going to a movie or dinner, or an amusement park as just the two of you. You might even hold hands or hug the other person if it's going well." It's a surprisingly tame description considering what he does, but he does warn Romeo, "It's not something that's really easy to understand all the details of until you get to be older, so people don't start dating until they get to be around their teen years when it starts to make a little more sense.

"So I don't know about if there would be any dating, but I would love to have some strawberry shortcake!" He smiles at Adrien, "I'm ready to teleport when you are." This would be a little easier than if he were travelling alone, since once they were in the near shore, Adrien could teleport all of them again to wherever they had to be. That was the one annoying thing he found about being a Shinki, being limited to only travelling between Bast's shrines.

"Exactly. And since I've never been on a date and Shin is like the date expert I knew he could help. That and I did promise to teach you things, Romeo. What better than about holidays and other cultures?" He grins and loops his scarf around his neck, before reaching out to take hold of both of their hands. "The details aren't too important just yet. We're just supposed to be helping them celebrate - to get them together and make sure than things go off without a hitch."

He rolled his eyes at Shin. "Uh huh... You just want an excuse to eat something sweet. Not that we don't get enough pastries from Marinette's or anywhere else. But I guess - as a reward for a job well done we'll all share a strawberry shortcake. But first we have to actually go do it. Now as long as we're all ready." He's tightening his hold on their hands as he focuses to teleport them there to the shrine.

Romeo nods at Shin's description of a date. It sounded fun if a little complicated, but Shin explained that it was something grown ups did as it was quite confusing!

He smiled at Shin. "Miss Celestia and Miss Marinette said that eating lots of sweet things all the time is bad and can make you sick, mister Shin! You got to eat all things in moderation!" Still strawberry shortcake for a job well done sounded like the best reward! But first they had a task to do!

He held onto Adrien's hand tightly. It was still strange to teleport. To be one place and then somewhere else entirely a second later!

Once they arrived on the Near Shore Romeo looked around curiously to see where they were!

Shin smiles at Romeo, though he doesn't reply until they end up in the other shrine. "I'll be careful if you are, Romeo!" He guides them out of the shrine, used to coming in this way to get to his job. "So, where is this prayer?"

He smiles out at the cold weather around the shrine, crouching to pet one of the cats that wanders the place.

"Mari and Celestia are right but we won't be eating a lot of them today. We'll split a little one with just the three of us and get one to take home to each of our temples. Just because that's the right thing to do. Besides I'm sure your goddess would like something sweet.." Adrien soothed smiling at Romeo. What a good boy, he's so precious.

Once they arrive he's glancing around at all the cats, shaking his head a little. So many cats but it makes him happy all the same. He's taking out his phone and looking at something. "I know how to find out where she is. Miyu is waiting for us." Was that weird? Probably. Adrien is still holding Romeo's hand as he leads the way around the shrine. "She's a bit older than us but I figure this would still be a prayer we could handle. If I recall correctly her boyfriend is often absorbed in work and she's been trying to plan a surprise date for them. I figured between the three of us we could manage that."

Adrien is grinning at Shin before pausing in front of a different cat, that Adrien moves to pet. Greeting her happily. "Miyu..." Then he's making a soft sound at the cat as she presses into his hand with a slow blink. She mews back at him twitching her tail and raising a paw just slightly. This continues for a couple of minutes - Adrien making soft cat noises at her then she's moving to her paws and leading them away from the shrine. Adrien moving to dutifully follow.

Edited 2018-08-04 18:08 (UTC)

There are a lot of cats! But they all seem friendly and don't hiss or scratch. Romeo waves at them with his free hand. He's not really sure why Adrien is still holding his hand, he's not going to run away! But he follows him smiling at the cats and listening to what Adrien is saying.

A surprise date sounded fun and he thought they could definitely manage that.

Adrien spoke cat? Romeo wasn't too surprised. This was his shrine and there were lots of cats here. Also Adrien was really clever!

"Alright let's go meet your follower and help her make a fun date!"

Shin smiles at Adrien talking to the pretty cat, though he keeps giving attention to some of the other cats while waiting for Adrien to finish talking to the other cat. Once he has, Shin gives the other cats one last pet, "see you later, kitties."

He falls in behind Adrien and the cat, "Did Miyu say what kinds of things she likes, or who she wants to go on the date with?"

"It's cute how you pet and talk to all of them. I'm sure they love it." Adrien smiled faintly. "That's what we'll be doing." Following Miyu out to the busy sidewalk Romeo is going to see why Adrien held his hand like that. There are people rushing and bustling and it would be easy to get lost in the crowd.

"Miyu's owner comes here from time to time I've met her once. She likes lots of things - she does flower arrangements and pottery. Her boyfriend works in some building as a pencil pusher or something. Miyu helped them get together." Soon though they're coming to a stop in front of a florists shop and after a moment Adrien is gesturing to a woman inside. She's busy with a customer; short black hair, a friendly smile on her face. She's easily almost double Adrien's age which puts her near thirty; she's short and cheerfully laughing as she ties a ribbon around a vase.

"And there she is - That's Mai."

A pencil pusher sounded like a really strange job? Why would someone need to push pencils around? Who would pay someone to do so?

Romeo looked around, taking in all the sights as they followed the cat. He didn't come down to the Near Shore all that often, it was busy and full of things he didn't understand. So he found it fascinating.

He looks through the window of the shop that sold flowers and smiled as he saw Mai.

"Are we going to go in?"

Shin looks through the window at the girl. She was pretty, and looks kind. Pretty and kind enough that if they weren't trying to set her up on a date, he'd be trying to get her as a client in a heartbeat. But he isn't selfish enough to try to cause any problems with someone who looks so happy.

Shin's instead thinking about dates that he'd like to go on, putting himself as a convenient substitute for her boyfriend. Sure there were a hundred things he'd enjoy doing, but all of them were too generic to really make them something special. He'd need to know more about the boyfriend, so he looks to Romeo and Adrien, "I think I have an idea, if you know who her boyfriend is, or where we can find him."

Romeo looks like someone to let your guard down around, even more than Shin or Adrien, because he's a kid. If Romeo 'sneaks away' from one of them to ask the boyfriend for help for his 'older brother', then it could open up a chance to see what kind of date places the boyfriend liked himself.

His lips part to say that they would but then Shin speaks up and -

"That's a really good idea! It's down right brilliant, Shin. You're so smart." He's grinning at him before considering a moment. "I think I know where he would be around this time. I've ran into him a couple of times at Kyu Shiba Rikyu. He seemed to be taking his lunch there. I have enough money for the fee for all of us."

His arms crossed over his chest. "What's the rest of your master plan?"

Edited 2018-08-12 03:10 (UTC)

Romeo was ready to go in and meet Mai but then Shin had an idea! Romeo turned to them both and listened. They were going to go find her boyfriend instead?

He looked at Shin, also waiting to hear the rest of the plan!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A prayer for holidays

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject