thenearshore | Take a look, it's in a book

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Take a look, it's in a book

Who: Gojyo and Chikusa
What: Fighting. What else do they do?
When: January 9th
Where: the Far Shore library
Warnings: See individual post headers

[ He needs to learn about shrines. What they're made of, what they do, where they need to go, and with what pieces. What not to do when making one. Their range. How to make them work stronger, feed their god more.

Because that's what it is. It's a god feeder, streaming magic life into the folks attached to them. As much as he hates being a shinki and every. fucking. piece. of being a shinki, at least he's not a god. At least he won't vanish if everyone forgets him.

So he's looking for books on shrines. But he's also looking for books on really really graphic ancient sex -- something inside him crawls up and died a little at the centerfold -- and coffee table books building boats and increasing his paleo index and music, popular artists of the last ten years, in heaven and in the mortal world, a cookbook snagged entirely at random, and volume six of the History of Discorporeal Places -- not incorporeal, the introduction hastened to add. Discorporeal. (It's kind of a fun word to say.)

And he thinks he's got what he needs. He thinks the books he's skimmed so far will have the information that he needs to set up Votelli's shrine, and he's got an idea where a goddess of trees's shrine would be best located (suburban garden centers, it's big box garden centers in the lawn-having parts of town, away from the evening noise)... now he just needs to get out of here before Chikusa shows up. What odds do you give him? ]

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[ Chikusa is welcome to follow him -- he's just going right back into the library to retrieve the books he left on the table. It may take him a minute to notice that there's a string bean following him, and he may jump a tiny bit when he does, but his only reaction after that is to hold out his hand. ]

Give me my book.

Why?

[This is it. This is what he was made for: this low level but persevering level of annoying bullshit. That's where he went wrong, isn't it? He should have kept it simple.]

[ Unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable.

He can't just grab it back, and he can't stand here and argue with the three year old. Okay. Okay. What else can he try? ]

Give me my book or I'll blight Hakkai.

[That has Chikusa pause for a moment, glancing over Gojyo with a careful eye. It's a threat, sure, but...]

Why?

[...It's a pretty ineffectual one, in his book. Gojyo already blights Hakkai on the regular, from what he understands. It's not something so easy to control and, even if it is, it's the kind of thing that's like watching Gojyo punch himself in the face.]

[ Chikusa doesn't think he'll do it? Then he doesn't know Gojyo at all, does he?

Gojyo takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, and lets himself regret. He can't spare Goku this -- and he regrets that -- but he tries to focus his regret on Hakkai. The relationship they could have had, if Gojyo hadn't kept fucking things up. The moments of happiness they found, that were always ruined too soon. How lonely he is, now that his one chance for love is gone.

The blight explodes from the back of Gojyo's neck, a tendril ripping across his cheek to curl over the bridge of his nose. When he opens his eyes, they're bloodshot with pain and grief, but his gaze is steady on Chikusa. ]

Give me the damn book.

[Even as Gojyo is opening his eyes, words leaving his lips, he'll feel not only the sting of blight, angry and aching.]

[There's dozens of other pains, too, all across his chest, small pinpricks.... glittering metallic through his shirt. There'll be spots of blood, probably, but only spots. Nothing so serious as to make crimson blooms across his clothing, although the yoyo in Chikusa's grip could very well do that and so much worse.]

[His hands are fast; the book hits the floor long after the needles have left his weapon.]

[Chikusa isn't breathing. It hasn't even occurred to him to breathe. His mind is detached again, running through a dozen things he needs to do. There's no need for an antidote; he knows his weapons. The poison in those needles can't even be called as much. He'd used the "nonlethal" yoyo- a thing for targets needed alive or just to get people off his back against any potential murder. All it should do is knock Gojyo out, if he's human enough. Make him sluggish, at the very least.]

[Everything else, he can do after he's positive that blight won't spread any further.]

[ It's always hard to breathe when he's blighted. His heart always hurts... but this isn't the same. Something's wrong here.

Confused, Gojyo looks down...and staggers back into a table at the sight of needles sticking out of his chest. Those are needles. Chikusa shot him with needles.

His legs won't hold him, and he crumbles to the ground, only barely able to stay sitting. Chikusa shot him. Is he dying? Is this what dying feels like? ]

He's gon' be so mad at you...

[Gojyo is saying something. Chikusa can't hear it. His phone is ringing and vibrating in his pocket. Chikusa can barely hear that. It's only the physical sensation that has his arm swing down, assured at Gojyo no longer being a thread, and he stares blankly at his pocket for a moment.]

[Phone. It could be Ginia. Or Hakkai. It could be Hakkai.]

[Tucking his yoyo away, Chikusa pulls out his phone even as he trudges towards Gojyo. Wash the blight off. He'll have to wash the blight off, before it can go deeper, and hurt Hakkai more. It could still come back, but he can buy at least a little time. Gojyo's not going anywhere, so he just grabs his shirt.]

[Good enough.]

[ It's almost comfortable, sitting like this, his back against the table leg and the library carpet rough beneath his hands. He could fall asleep like this. He could die like this. Dying's not so bad, not really. It's just like sleeping, except there's no nightmares and you don't have to wake up. That sounds okay.

Somebody grabs him by his shirt, and the lights overhead flash as he's dragged out of the room. It's too much effort to keep his eyes open so he stops trying, letting his head slump against his chest, his hands dragging on the carpet. ]

Wha're you doin'? I'm dead, lemme be dead.

[Gojyo is heavy and annoying. Fortunately, that's ignorable. In fact, it's more ignorable than usual right now, when the world doesn't feel entirely right. Running almost on automation, Chikusa nudges the book away back into the aisles as he passes it, makes sure to stop and grab where his bag is. These things are important a part of his brain says, so ingrained into something that isn't his own self. Take care of them.]

[Gojyo is saying something? He's saying something. The phone is going off again, a hard buzz that keeps him anchored to earth against his desires, and Gojyo will be able to hear Chikusa answer the call.]

[ ...Hakkai...

He'll be sad, won't he? He'll be sad that Gojyo's dead, but he'll get over it. He'll remember all the ways Gojyo was awful and he'll be okay. ]

Tell 'im I'm sorry. But it's better this way.

[ And with that, the drugs finally prove too much, and Gojyo's head lolls back as he falls unconscious. ]

[I'll be there in a moment, Hakkai had said, and he is: his feet touch down on dusty wood, and he inhales, smelling old paper and old glue. Gojyo's a heavy weight, limp in Chikusa's grip, tiny dots of blood spotting his shirt around a handful of needles.

Hakkai actually feels the blood drain from his face.]

What did you use on him?

[He's across the room in a second, hand closing on Gojyo's upper arm, away from the needles, supporting him against Chikusa's grip.]

Edited 2018-08-28 21:22 (UTC)

[Oh. He's there.]

[Chikusa still has the phone to his ear when Hakkai appears, at risk of slipping from how limp his fingers are around it, and it stays there even as Hakkai gets close. Hakkai's here. He's alright. He's still moving. But, then, he'd been moving fine, up until he wasn't, and an ablution had to be performed.]

[Gods don't get ablutions. They just die.]

...Tranquilizer....

[With Hakkai on the other side, Chikusa adjusts his grip and finally allows his arm to swing down.]

...He was going to blight you to death.

He's an idiot. [Tranquilizer. Hakkai can breathe again; blight still aches across his back and neck, and he can see it glaring purple from Gojyo's cheek, but neither of them are blighted badly enough to be at true risk.]

Blight won't kill a god before it kills a shinki. I'm not in danger.

[Blight can kill a god, of course. Holding onto a shinki until he becomes an ayakashi probably would be going too far, and letting the blight last too long, while it's too bad, certainly would be. Chikusa doesn't need those details, though. It's enough to assure him that Gojyo can't hurt Hakkai fatally with a single attack of guilt.]

Why didn't you ask me what he said?

Edited 2018-08-28 21:47 (UTC)

Mm.

[Gojyo is an idiot. That can never be denied. Chikusa isn't interested in talking about that, however. Instead, his eyes are carefully roaming over Hakkai's neckline, patiently searching out signs of the same warped purple which is spread so grotesquely across the curve of Gojyo's face.]

[Wordlessly, ignoring the question, he reaches into his bag to pull out a bottle of holy water to hold out.]

[Hakkai looks up at Chikusa, and the bottle of holy water he's extending, and his expression goes very flat.

The blight is vivid across his neck, well beyond where his deliberately shaggy haircut can begin to hide it, but he makes no move to take the bottle. On one hand: yes, he does know that Chikusa cares far more about his health and comfort than he does for Gojyo's. On the other hand, he's not about to reward this situation by playing along. Besides, he doubts it'll wash away so easily, for either himself or Gojyo. Maybe after he's had some time to recover.]

It's not a problem right now, Chikusa. I'll deal with it later.

[Later... Right, there'll be a later. The threat is taken care of, for the time being, and Hakkai is alright. He'll have to check when they're back at the temple, just to be sure. Something in him demands that he make sure- something anxiously swimming in circles and disturbing the usual ocean of lethargy that fills him up. The bottle swings back down to his side again.]

...He blighted you. On purpose.

[It's hard for even him to say why he feels the need to repeat it so much.]

Perhaps so. I assume he was using me as a hostage against you?

[What He blighted you on purpose says to Hakkai is that, most of the time, Gojyo's making an effort not to blight his gods; blight isn't the sort of thing that can be summoned without a weight of guilt that's otherwise held at bay.

It's the stupidest imaginable way to try to hurt Chikusa, but Gojyo, when upset, can be just as self-destructive as Hakkai. More, sometimes.]

Mm... [The words manage to get out, too, eventually.] Because I wouldn't give it back to him... Not until he answered.

[Oh. That, too, is important, now that he thinks about it, and Chikuksa lets go of Gojyo fully. It will only take him a moment to come back, if Hakkai doesn't stop him for one reason or another. He's only going to get the book in question, after all.]

Can these needles be safely removed?

[This is a damned mess, is what this is; Hakkai doesn't stop Chikusa from shuffling away, since he doesn't seem to be going far, but he does turn his attention to Gojyo. Trying to take a shinki's pulse is a waste of time, but apart from the vicious tendril of blight across his cheek, Gojyo's color isn't bad, and his breathing isn't labored. Chikusa doesn't seem to have given him too much of whatever it was.]

[The sound of shuffling approaches Hakkai's back, and there's the dull thump of a book besides him. Chikusa has apparently decided even the minimum effort of handing a book to someone is far too much. Besides... It's clear that Hakkai has his priorities on other things.]

I was going to. I was going to find a temple...

[So that's some sort of reassurance, at any rate. Chikusa wasn't going to bury Gojyo's corpse in a ditch or shove him into the nearest river to become a bloated mess. He was just going to haul him to the nearest place with water to get rid of the blight, and somewhere a little more suited to picking out needles.]

[Considering that, when he'd arrived, the situation had gone from 'Gojyo is texting me complaining that my shinki has cornered him in the library to talk about feelings' to 'My shinki is dragging away Gojyo's motionless, poisoned body,' it's a relief to hear that Chikusa's plan had just been to sedate Gojyo and remove his blight.

Not for Gojyo's sake, Hakkai is quite sure; but still.

He sits back on his heels and looks up at Chikusa, expression still utterly flat.]

You and I need to have a discussion about how to interact with Gojyo. Not here and now, but very soon.

In the meantime, let's not drag him all over the Far Shore. How long will it take him to regain consciousness?

['Soon' is probably a good enough amount of time, especially since, hopefully, Chikusa will be a little more into the conversation by then. For now, he trains an analytical eye on Gojyo's body, taking in the amount of needles he'd stuck into him.]

Ah... Probably around-

[ ...around now.

Swimming up out of the dark, Gojyo cracks one eye, and blinks blearly up at Hakkai's fuzzy form. Hakkai's here. He smiles. That's good. Whatever's wrong, Hakkai will fix...

And then his memory kicks in, and that sweet sleepy smile hardens. He tries to sit up, but there's needles in his chest. With a curse he falls back onto his back, hand going to his chest. ]

What the fuck?

[ Did Hakkai...? Oh. No. He catches sight of Chikusa, and the last blanks are filled in. No, Hakkai didn't shoot him. He called Hakkai for help, and when Hakkai refused, Chikusa shot him. ]

Whatever he told you is bullshit. [ He's sitting up again, slowly, cautiously, picking the needles out one by one and flinging them away. ] I didn't touch him.

He told me you were trying to blight me.

[And, with the purple blotches reaching around Hakkai's throat like fingers attempting to choke him from behind -- not to mention the blight spreading over Gojyo's cheekbone -- it's hard to doubt that's true. Although, apparently, he's decided that the most important thing to do is defend himself against nonexistent accusations that he's somehow hurt Chikusa.

Because Hakkai has to be here to defend Chikusa against Gojyo, or... no, Hakkai's in no mood to try to decipher Gojyo's latest wild misunderstanding, especially considering it's fueled by sedatives on top of paranoia.

The same way that sweet smile he'd given Hakkai, the moment before he was really awake, had been the sedative. Hakkai locks away that ache with the lesser pain of the blight, and flicks Chikusa a cool glance.]

Pick those up, please, Chikusa.

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