Curiosity killed the... [open]

[wildguardian]

Who: Zhao Yunlan & OPEN
When: The second week of February
Where: Far Shore - the library, near Ebisu's temple, the Western District; Near Shore - the ruins of a burned-out department store
What: Exploring, unwisely.

Library

[Zhao Yunlan is becoming a regular sight at a corner table in the library; he's accumulating a stack of books, filling them with bookmarks, taking copious notes in a cheap black notebook, swearing at them and not putting them away again when he leaves.

Research! He hates it. He needs an assistant who will do it for him, but in the absence of that helpful whoever, he's stuck hitting the books himself. It's going to age him posthumously.

Hopefully, no one minds the fact that a largely useless pile of books keeps being renewed on the corner table, and filled with paper scrap bookmarks that have to be removed before they're put away.]

Ebisu's temple

[Since he's died young regardless, Zhao is seriously considering switching from lollipops to cigarettes. There's something enticing about the smell of burning tobacco, and, besides, importantly: smokers can take smoke breaks. As a non-smoker, he's having to find some other excuse to sneak outside and see the sun every once in a while during his workday.

His excuse today is picking flowers. He doesn't recognize the flowers sprouting from the grayish soil clinging to cracks in the temple's modern-looking concrete courtyard, but they're bright, colorful, and have a non-zero chance of brightening the day of the poor white-collar workers typing their fingers to the bone on either side of his temp desk. Fresh flowers, an important part of office feng shui: or something like that.

(He's considering bringing in a houseplant. Those also make great excuses to take a break.)

He nips off the stem of a bright red daisy-looking thing, considers it, and turns with a shameless grin. Whoops, there's somebody, has he been caught skiving off?]

Here! It goes with your eyes.

Western District

[It's late on the night of the 12th, and Zhao had been working his way back home to Bakugou's place after a long day doing accounting and a few drinks out afterwards, except, annoyingly, his stomach is killing him. All right, so he'd skipped breakfast, and lunch, and dinner, and: all right, the last time he ate something was yesterday when Bakugou'd made breakfast. But it's not like he ever gets more or less hungry no matter what he eats! He'd thought it was no big deal.

Apparently even dead men can get heartburn from strong liquor on an empty stomach, he reflects, and slumps down onto a comfortable rock at the edge of the road, indulging his solitude with a wince as he bends over and puts his head on his knees.

This is really embarrassing. He'll just give it a few minutes, and once he feels a bit better, he'll just drag himself back home to bed....]

Department Store

[Mysteries abound. These mysteries, though, don't look like they're going to be solved anytime soon. Zhao ducks under plastic disaster cleanup sheeting and looks around the dripping, ice-cold, smoke-blackened floor of the unlucky department store, and shakes his head. Any clues that might've once been here are long since gone. If the fire hadn't gotten them, the months of abandonment and subsequent investigation would've.

Maybe he can sneak in and pull the investigation files somehow. Shinki do tend to go unnoticed, so he's willing to bet he can shadow a cop into any police office he wants. Getting keys to get into their files might be a little trickier, of course....

Sighing, he turns to go, just in time to spot a pale, whitish, sheet-like thing that's not plastic lashing out towards his ankle across the debris-strewn concrete floor.

With a shout, he jumps back, landing in a puddle. Filthy water splashes everywhere, and the sheet rears up like it's been possessed by a cobra, striking out at him again. The edge of it brushes his hand as he scrambles out of the way, raising an instant, aching, purplish welt.

Well, fuck. He's just found his first ayakashi all on his own, he realizes, turns, and bolts for the stairs with a possessed sheet in hot pursuit.

This is making a lot of noise.

Hopefully someone's passing by.

Help?]

Comments

[wildguardian]

Are you sure that we can eat that, I think it's art!

Be there in a few.

[As promised, it won't take him long to drop by Ginia's desk; he's tucked a spare flower into his buttonhole, though it's starting to wilt slightly, and he signs a hello as he approaches.

Gotta keep in practice, right?]

[unlucky7]

[He's not the only one at Ginia's desk. By the time Zhao arrives, other shinki have already descended on the bento boxes. The sushi is half gone and the menagerie is looking a little sparse, but there's still enough to go around.

There's also a large, white dog seated by Ginia, head resting on her knee. The dog lifts her head and looks at Zhao, but settles back after a brief sniff. Ginia smiles and returns the greeting.]

Help yourself.

[With a smaller box all for her, the three boxes are truly for everyone else to enjoy.]

[wildguardian]

I see they're going fast. [He snags one of the animal-shaped rice balls and a few pieces of chicken for good measure, nodding amiably at Ginia.]

Cute dog. Is he yours?

[unlucky7]

Free, delicious food. Who can say no?

[Even the hard-working shinki of Ebisu's temple are ones to turn down food when it comes their way. A few return to Ginia's desk, grabbing another rice ball or piece of sushi before hurrying back to their desk.

She pauses to scratch Regal behind the ears before typing again.]

She, and no. Regal belongs to Caster, my last god. She's the most reliable when it comes to deliveries.

[wildguardian]

No one with sense! [Hakkai nods-- oh, so, trained... delivery dog? That's an unusually useful skill.]

Really! Did you borrow her, or-- [he gestures to all the bento with the hand holding a half-eaten rice ball] is this from Caster?

[unlucky7]

His exemplar, Archer. He doesn't admit it, but he likes cooking for people.

[It's an obvious fact from anyone that's seen and tried his cooking. No one puts so much effort into making food look as appetizing as it tastes without enjoying cooking in the first place. Ginia smiles at the dwindling set of food, expression a bit more sentimental and soft than it usually is.]

He decided recently to prepare a bento box everyday for me and the others here. Regal is the delivery dog.

[Regal's tail swishes back and forth. She's a good, dignified dog.]

[wildguardian]

[Zhao nods, watching her sentimental glance at the bento boxes with a keen and interested eye before he pops the rest of the rice ball in his mouth and leans down to ruffle the dog's ears. Chewing gives him a few moments to think before he speaks again. He'd seen that cute video of her and her ridiculous temple-mates on the network; there'd been a real bond there, easy for anyone to spot.

It's strange she's here now, when even from a distance it seems her old temple's still trying to take care of her. He leaves his tone light and joking, opening the subject of 'what's wrong with him' without making it about her.]

Is he open to marriage proposals? I love a man who cooks.

[unlucky7]

[Ginia huffs, face scrunching up briefly in amusement. If the Near ever noticed them for more than a few seconds to minutes, Ginia's pretty sure Archer's social media accounts would explode between his delicious and cute looking food and how hot he is.]

You can try, but there's probably a line ahead of you. He's ridiculously handsome and likes to clean too.

[She scrolls through her phone's camera roll to find a picture, pulling one up to show Zhao.]

[wildguardian]

[He whistles approvingly at the photograph, and slants Ginia an amused glance.]

He's hot, he cooks, he cleans... sounds like you're one of the people ahead of me in line, sis.

[unlucky7]

[Ginia looks at the picture of Archer and gives an acknowledging shrug, but her smile fades as she switches back to the notepad app. Things are better, they're talking, he cares, but sometimes what you have stings in comparison to what you had.]

We're friends, nothing more. Archer has a boyfriend, though their relationship is open.

[wildguardian]

[Sounds like there's a little jealousy there... or at least regret. Yunlan signs a quick 'sorry' at her as he speaks.]

So, not all that available then. Gotcha.

Still, nice of him to provide all this, huh?

[unlucky7]

[Or still entirely on the market, but Ginia understands non-monogamous relationships don't work for everyone. No judgment at all. Her smile flicks back at his 'sorry' and she waves it off.]

He's a regular gentleman. You should meet him sometime, he's been around much longer and has a good head on his shoulders. Good source if you want to know what's going on around here.

[She pauses to size up Zhao too. She hasn't seem him fight, but there's a sense he could handle a weapon if needed.]

Good person to talk to if you need a weapon too.

[wildguardian]

[He nods easily, letting the subject go. 'Open' doesn't have to mean open to the kind of relationship Ginia might want, especially if her we're friends comes right before he has a boyfriend, after all.

Her look at him is thoughtful; he shrugs back at her, smiling.]

I'll keep that in mind! I admit, it's tough keeping up with my god sometimes.

[He's not helpless in a fight, but he doesn't exactly fly on the force of explosions from his palms, either.]

I've mostly been drilling my borderline.

[unlucky7]

[Friendship is by no means a downgrade of any kind, but when your ex's boyfriend is also your ex, she's happy they're happy but also sad she's not with them anymore. There's what she wants and there's what she deserves and she still hasn't shaken the thought they're happier and better off without her. Archer cares enough to cook her lunch everyday, that's the part she can hold onto.

Ginia puts a smile back on as the topic drops.]

Drilling borderlines are good. Anyone show you the finer points like attacking with them?

[wildguardian]

I did hear you can cut with them if you aim them at the enemy instead of between you and it.

[Zhao's not yet sure that his own borderlines are strong enough to be trusted that way; they tend to break under a determined attack, and he hasn't held one longer than a minute. With practice, though, he's improving.]

Seems like it'd be hard to aim, though.

[unlucky7]

You can cut anything if you put your mind to it.

[Ginia gives a lazy wave of her hand with her fingers in the halberd position. She may not have full accuracy when it comes to precise slicing, but so far she hasn't needed anything more than hitting to do enough.]

That's where practice comes in. I'm always around if you need someone to spar with or to give pointers.

[wildguardian]

I'm more worried about cutting what I don't want to. Those lines tend to be pretty wide. [It's not like a sword; it's more like taking a cheese cutter to the world, which is... challenging.

And dangerous.]

And I might take you up on that, Ginia. I've chatted with Chikusa about helping me out with some magic, too.

[unlucky7]

[Chikusa, huh? The teen is acerbic at best and lazy at the worst, but Ginia is fond of him.]

He's a good resource for magic. I can help with magic too. I've picked up a few spells too, though I do cast them differently than most people.

[wildguardian]

Oh yeah?

[She'll probably give him less of a hard time about it than Chikusa.]

I might ask you for help too, then. Though - how do you cast them differently?

[unlucky7]

[Glad you asked. Ginia gives a challenging smile his way.]

Ritsuki, Saki, Umbra!

[Ginia signs fast, each letter flowing into each other as she signs the invisibility spell, holding onto the need to disappear and be unseen, and the fact she's an experienced shinki catching him off-guard.

In a blink, Ginia vanishes from sight.]

[wildguardian]

What--

[Her hands fly, sketching the syllables so fast that Zhao can't follow them, and she vanishes completely. He sits up straight, eyes widening, and reaches out to check for her presence.]

[unlucky7]

[The fact Regal is resting her head against an invisible lap is a sign there's still something there physically. Ginia taps his hand before he can accidentally poke her face, her presence invisible but solid.]

[wildguardian]

Well hello there.

[He can feel her hand touching his, but he still can't see anything. Shaking his head, with the surprise on his face slowly fading to amusement, he sits back.]

Now, that spell I like.

[unlucky7]

[Ginia wiggles her fingers against his hand a little before dropping the spell. She instantly pops back into existence, grinning broadly.]

It's called Umbra. Surprisingly easy to learn. But as you saw, while most people say the spells, I sign all of mine. Works with song spells too.

[wildguardian]

[He grins back at her, and nods understanding.]

Makes sense. I thought you had to sing for a song spell, though -- how do you manage that?