thenearshore | [closed] can't imagine your OTP?

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[closed] can't imagine your OTP?

Who: Chikusa Kakimoto and Minako Aino
What: Chikusa thinks his god's love life isn't as good as it could be. Clearly the solution is to plot out an entire blind date get together for the whole Far Shore with some far too energetic blonde he barely knows, right?
When: January 8
Where: The Far Shore's Park

It's been some days now, since Befana, and since the latest string of activity from the Heavens. That means it's enough time to have passed for Chikusa to have any inclination to go outside again. He has a lot of options: Heaven's Library, Hakkai's school, shrines.... but today he's chosen to go outside to a large park which dwells within the Far Shore.

It's a good place for a couple of reasons. For one thing, on the occasions that Ken tags along with him, the various spirit animals are guaranteed to keep his partner busy. For another, with the chill being what it is, that means he's not as likely to run into too many people unlike the always bustling library. The bench he's gotten, over the many wooden paths which wind over the creeks, is now utterly dominated by his usual bag, an open laptop, and small stacks of books all around him.

Lots of them, in fact. Which means there is a stunning around of pink, and red, and white... Mhm, they're all various flavors of shoujo manga, bodice rippers, and more indepth novels (which are notably a little less pink). The one that is in his hand, however, is a bit different in that it's not fiction. The one he has held up to his face, legs crossed on the bench, has a simple title: How To Help Your Single Father Find True Love.

It's a very apt name. Very on point. Chikusa appreciates it for that reason, honestly, although its advice is something he's struggling to match to his situation. The only reason he'd chosen it is because, well, "adult male figure who you live with" doesn't seem to be something that shows up on books a lot. Hakkai isn't his dad, his lover isn't dead (except he sort of is), he's not divorced (unless this would count?), and....

Sighing, he narrows his eyes at the book. "This is so troublesome..."

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Wow, you sure know how to break a girl's heart, Chikusa.. Minako lets out a huff, mumbling something about how ridiculous it is for someone to not want to go on a blind date before just downright pouting.

"Why wouldn't he want to do it? Is he that attached to that sort-of-boyfriend guy? From the way you described it, it's not as if they are actually even dating!"

At least Chikusa can answer this plainly. "Because he's a stubborn idiot." Letting out a long sigh of his own, Chikusa leans back with his fingers holding onto the edge of the bench.

"Even when it comes to things like eating regularly... It's such a hassle getting him to do it." Head falling back, he stares dully at the sky. There's no clouds at all, but he half wishes there were. "Me and Ken have to be there, sometimes... Because he'll do things like eat regularly if there are people. But with something like a date... He'd just go, something like...." Thinking for a moment, he raises a hand for a slow, dismissive gesture. "'I guess this doesn't apply to me, so... I don't have to be here'." He huffs a little. "I'm not sure... but there wouldn't be pressure for him to stay... and if I were upfront about it, he'd definitely go."

Minako glances over to Chikusa as he glances up at the sky. Maybe he's a little bit too straightforward of a guy (although Minako herself doesn't have too much of a problem with that, being very much like that herself) like how quickly he shot her suggestion down just now, but he does seem to genuinely care a lot about that Hakkai person. It's so obvious just from the way he talks about him. In Minako's eyes it's a good quality to have, caring that deeply, and so she smiles a little while listening to Chikusa.

"So.. What do you think would work best? You just asking him directly to go on a blind date with someone?"

"He'd definitely refuse." There's no doubt about it. In fact,for all Chikusa knows, he'd even get a scolding for doing this. Still, he can't just let Hakkai sit around and purposefully hurt himself with his bad romantic choices. Frowning just faintly, enough to be easily missed, he looks at Minako.

"I could trick him into going to a date..." Certainly he has no morals against that. "But... I'm not sure how I'd keep him there. It's not like when me and Ken force him to eat, and other people being there keeps him from refusing..."

She's not too sure of the ethics of tricking someone either, but Minako's moral compass is also a little.. special. Less so than Chikusa's though. She's mostly thinking about how it should be alright to trick someone as long as it's in their own best interests. Better to tell a little lie than to let someone stay in a situation that makes them unhappy, right?

"Is there something he really cares about? Something other than other people being there, since that'd make the date kind of awkward."

"Would it...?" Chikusa is by far inexperienced in what is and isn't acceptable on a date, and it doesn't help that his own boyfriend is even worse at it than he is. He can't really think on any way that him and Ken would act particularly different, if they were in the presence of other people.

...Well. Maybe Ken would, depending on some circumstances that get him all flustered, but mostly he wouldn't.

Anyway... "When most normal people go on dates to places like movies, or restaurants, other people are around them, right?"

"Yeah! But.."

.. Maybe it's better to not say she was kind of hoping she could stalk the date to see how things went, huh. And that that was the awkward aspect to it. Fine, fine, she'll scratch the idea!

"Do you think that'd be enough to work? If all that's necessary is other random people to be present, even if he doesn't know them.. Then sure, we can just send him to some busy place! It'd be even better if we could do it around a time when there's sure to be a lot of people around doing couple activities, like Valentine's Day!"

"Is there a busy place in the Far Shore?" As far as he knows, most of them tend to keep separate when it comes to things like this, save for circumstances where Heaven is encouraging them to attend some silly gathering or another. Because if it's the Near Shore.... "Regular people won't see him, so it's the same as being alone... and he's the type of person with that kind of bad personality who would see it that way."

...Says another person with a questionable personality, but that's alright. Probably.

"So it'd be like... We'd have to get him and a date to somewhere... and we'd have to have a bunch of other Far Shore people there too.... I guess if they were all on dates too, that'd be a good enough pressure?" A pause, and his mouth twitches a little at a corner. "...I don't think there are enough couples in the Far Shore for that..."

For a moment Minako seems to be thinking about how to deal with that problem. But then all of a sudden it hits her - and very obviously so, too. Her eyes suddenly light up to the point they're almost sparkling, and the quickly whips to the side, slamming her hands down on the spot between the two of them on the bench and practically radiating enthusiasm.

She has found her (after)life goal.

"Then we'll just have to make couples!"

It sounds kind of weird out of context, but Minako has no idea that maybe she should elaborate when she's stuck in the middle of an enthusiastic determined mood.

To perhaps everyone's misfortune, Minako doesn't need to elaborate. Chikusa has stepped onto the very same train of thought- the very one she's hijacked from the conductor to send careening down a mountainside. Her excitement is all that's need to click the parts into place inside his head.

Of course, the way she shows that excitement still has him jolting backwards, blinking with wide eyes. "What...?" It takes him a second to remember where his brain is (still careening down Love Plot Mountain). "So... Just doing the same thing we're going to do to Hakkai... but with other people?"

This isn't how he thought his day would turn out, but he guesses that's what he gets.

"Exactly!"

The enthusiasm train does not stop, as if Minako didn't even notice his obvious surprise just now at her outburst. She's way too far gone into her own rose-colored vision dreamland to stop.

"We'll just hook up tons of people here in the Far Shore, arranging dates for all of them on the same day! Then tons of couples will be around, your god won't be able to slip out of his own date, and we'll make tons of people happy on top of it! We'll be the heroes of this place!"

To be fair, Minako does think it's a pure and noble goal to help people find love, so she genuinely views this whole plan as a good thing.. Even if the dates might not turn out as well as she thinks they would. She's just assuming the best here.

"That... sounds like a lot of work." And, frankly, Chikusa had already gone into this knowing that dealing with Hakkai alone would be a lot of work just on the basis that it's Hakkai. Chikusa has been with him long enough to know how troublesome his god can be on even basic matters, sometimes. With Hakkai alone, if they'd gone through with this, it'd be convincing someone to go out on a date with some stranger, tricking Hakkai into getting to some place, arranging a place like a restaurant or wherever else made for good date spots....

And now to multiply that by, what? How many people does Minako even want to set up?

There's an uneasy sinking suspicion in his stomach.

....But it still might be worth it if it can at least get Hakkai on a decent date where his partner doesn't accuse him of being a meat puppet with a dead person's memories, or try to punch him. Or, well. Try to punch him for something he hasn't deserved.

"If we tried to get even a quarter of everyone in the Far Shore... One restaurant might not be enough. So..." Ugh. So much work. He doesn't even want to say his next point.

Chikusa might start feeling a bit more discouraged about this plan, but the Minako train over here doesn't seem to be showing any signs of wanting to slow down whatsoever. The idea of having to do a lot of work to carry this out doesn't even faze her - Minako might not want to work hard for nothing, yes, but for a good cause like this she doesn't mind even moving heaven and earth themselves to make it all end up okay. Love is just worth it!

"So..?" So she isn't even following his line of thinking. Or at least not all the way. She just smiles widely at him, still beaming energy and joy. "Is there a problem? There's lots of places we could set people up for dates!"

Was this just about surrounding Hakkai with couples? She's already forgotten. This is about getting everyone a date now.

Edited 2018-09-17 12:45 (UTC)

Oh yeah. Far too much work. Still, maybe he can leech some of that energy from her... or put all of hers to good use if nothing else. Slowly, as if afraid he's going to go stumbling headfirst into a spike trap, he reaches over to pick up one of the many shoujo he has on hand. Balancing it on his knee, he starts to flip through the pages.

"Then... I guess if we end up doing this..." Who knows if this is a passing daydream or not? He can keep himself open on that front. "Obviously we're doing some sort of romantic meal, I guess. And then..." No, nothing in this book. Chikusa puts it to the side and grabs another one before something hits him. "...Ah. There's an amusement park. Couples go to those, right?"

"Yes, yes!"

To Minako all these date locations are very obvious. She doesn't even have to touch a single volume of the shoujo manga lying around to think of just about twenty. And even more places that aren't exactly traditional dating spots, but could be turned into one anyway. You're talking to an expert here, Chikusa!

"Couples often go see movies together at the cinema too, or go take a walk together at romantic locations like the park or a beach!"

Well, while it's good to be talking to an expert, Chikusa isn't afraid to make some corrections. "But those are established couples, right?" Leaning back, he frowns down at his shoujo. "It's that kind of thing... that you don't really have to interact with your date for them." Sure, he'd taken Ken out to the movies for a first date, but that had been for a lack of any better ideas. It had been nerve-wracking, so he figured something safe to gauge Ken's reaction would be better.

...Of course, then Ken had turned it all on its head and gotten interested in the after dinner more than anything, so. Whatever.

Pausing in one shoujo, he inspects the page that's before him: a very dynamic panel that takes up the whole page, a pair of shadows before a carefully illustrated tank. "...Aquariums are good. Right?"

Minako lets out an almost tortured overdramatic sigh. "Oh, you still have much to learn, I see.."

Or maybe it's more like Minako's mindset not exactly being like most people's. Sure, most people might choose to go see a movie to mostly focus on the film instead of on your date, but not Minako Aino over here. Dark movie theatres are the perfect place for romantic cliches like putting an arm on someone's shoulder or sharing food and drinks ~~or making out in the dark on your first date~~!!

"Aquariums are pretty alright though, yeah. Unless one of the people on the date is afraid of fish!"

"...I guess..." It's not even something he can protest to. Chikusa knows he's inexperienced in a lot of things people would find 'normal', and romance is just one more number on the list. So, with some reluctance, he sets the book to the side to pick up another one. There has to be something good here....

"How many people are really afraid of fish..?"

"Not too many," she admits, although after a moment she adds, ".. I think?"

It's kind of hard to tell without having her memories! But it doesn't feel like a common fear to her, so it's probably fair to just follow that instinct.

"So you could put an aquarium on the list too. Oh! Watching the sunset together is also super romantic! It sets the mood and all, you know? But I guess that one's kind of limited to a specific time."

"Yeah, and I think that's something you enjoy more with someone you already like.." If it's just a meeting for the first time, he can imagine that getting very awkward, at worst. Although... Something hits him, and he digs around for a notebook and pen. Flipping over to a blank page- ignore all the other scribblings and notes on romance tropes, Minako- he starts to make a list.

"...If we really went through with this kind of thing..." Which he's pretty sure he's trapped in now, but, whatever, fine. "Then we could have a romantic breakfast at the start... the aquarium or whatever else in the middle of the day... and the end could be the amusement park. If people went to the ferris wheel or something... That'd be a good spot to view a sunset, right...?"

Minako nods as she's incredibly unsubtly leaning over to watch everything he's writing down over his shoulder. She's too nosy not to read along, which means she also definitely caught a glimpse of those romance tropes notes. Chikusa seems to have a few very intellectual interests, she can appreciate that!

(Or, well, intellectual in Minako terms, anyway. What's more important than romantic tropes in this world?)

Don't mind her breathing down your neck, Chikusa. At least she seems enthusiastic enough about this idea. "So it's like a whole day's worth of a date, huh? I guess that'd give people enough time to get to know each other.. And the ferris wheel would be the perfect ending to it! Just imagine them sitting high up there, the setting sun in the background, and as they realise the deep, deep love that's been growing in their hearts all day, they..."

Minako squeals.

"No, no, I can't think of it now! It's too much already!"

At least, if there's one thing he's used to, it's people invading his space. What he's not so used to is the sound of high pitched squealing right in his ear, and he jerks away with a grimace. "Quiet..." He only has this one set of ears, after all, and he'd rather keep them.

Besides, would it be good for just one date? Could Hakkai stick through all of that with just one person? His pen rests along the paper, carefully thoughtful.

"...What if... they were all different dates?"

Sorry, Chikusa, there's no controlling the volume when it comes to Minako. There's literally only one setting - although she's stopped squealing for a moment when his question pulls her out of her dreamland, at least.

"Different dates? What, you mean on different days?"

"No... On the same day." Moving neatly to a spare piece of paper, he draws out a small box of a schedule. "So, they could spend a little time with one person, then time with another person... It would up the chances of finding someone they like."

To be exact, it would up the chances of getting Hakkai to find someone he likes and who can stand him in turn, which is his real goal here.

"At least, if people wanted." One of his shoulders jerks up in a careless shrug. "It's not like we can force people into anything."

"Oh, speed dating!"

At least the concept seems to get through to Minako fairly quickly.. if not mostly since A) it's related to something she actually cares about and B) it's something she recognizes. At least it means Chikusa doesn't have to explain it any further, she just nods.

"Maybe a little less speedy than actual speed dating, but.. this is better! If it's spread out across a day, maybe they could be hour-long dates or something like that? That should give them enough of an idea of each other!"

Even if the day might not end with a romantic kiss in the ferris wheel then. But Minako will generously make that sacrifice if she really has to.

[closed] can't imagine your OTP?

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