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

[abgrund]

[ Consider it one of the things he's learned ever since deciding to imitate the mortal mentality. ]

Indeed.

[ He says sagely while making a point to sip his tea with his (human) hands. Orbis curls up on the table into a bundle of fur, a tail swishing here and there. ]

So... as most people ask, how are you?

[wildguardian]

Me? I've been just fine. [He picks up his own tea for a sip.]

I've been spending most of my time off work in the library, actually. There's a lot to learn about this place.

[abgrund]

[ He has to wonder whether it's some hidden sagacity inside Zhao that prompts him to do it, or he's just someone who tries everything for fun. ]

What are you looking into?

[wildguardian]

History, politics, mythology -- funny thing, around here, mythology pretty much is history and politics, isn't it?

[He casts Ain a grin.]

Oh yeah, and I was looking into shinki abilities. I wound up striking a deal with one of the librarians to learn from him instead, though. That library could use some better organization.

[abgrund]

[ Is there really a difference between myth and politics, though? Many tales are of the divine scheming against, or together with each other. It's interesting to see. ]

Considering their bureaucratic approach, I am not surprised.

[ It reminds him a lot of the government, of which mortals would complain a lot about delays and unnecessary paperwork. Which propagated which? Also a curious question. ]

Self-improvement is always worth, I find.

[wildguardian]

Absolutely. [He takes another sip of the tea, wriggling his fingers at the cat to try to entice it to bat at them.]

Besides, my god runs straight into fights wherever he sees them. I've got to make sure I can keep up.

[abgrund]

[ Orbis pads forward and tries to poke at Zhao's hand, but rather methodically instead of the wild hunting instincts of most cats. ]

Is that so? Do you think he is reckless?

[ Ain instead props his chin up with one hand, looking at Zhao with slight interest. ]

[wildguardian]

Reckless?

[Some of the things Zhao's seen him do could be categorized that way, but he thinks about it, continuing to wriggle his fingers at Orbis, since the cat does seem at least a little interested in playing.]

No, not really. I just think he's got strengths I don't.

[abgrund]

You can tell me about him if you'd like.

[ Which is basically 'definitely tell me about him'. While Ain watches people in general, he doesn't have much knowledge of most of the population apart from a surface observation. The more he knows, the better - especially if there's something he can help with. ]

[wildguardian]

Well, let's see. [Zhao can read that curiosity -- or he thinks it's curiosity, anyway, Ain's a pretty deadpan guy. There'd been a flicker of interest, there, though.]

He's touchy, for one thing. You know how it goes: even the littlest hint that you're looking down on him for something and he blows up.

Turns out he's pretty good at most things, though, so at least he can back it up.

[abgrund]

[ Pride and arrogance. At least this child has the ability to supplant it... not that he has much of a positive concept of the kid right now, as Ain doesn't like outbursts or loudness in general. ]

It sounds like you can get through to him, though.

[ He feels like Zhao wouldn't stay if he could not. ]

[wildguardian]

Yeah -- honestly? It's not that hard. He talks big but he's got his heart in the right place.

[He grins at Ain.]

Don't tell him I told you that.

[Feel free to blab about the negative stuff, though, of course. Bakugou'd only be embarrassed by the praise. He yelps as a lazy swat from Orbis lands right on his fingertip, claws out, and looks back down at the cat.]

Orbis, careful with those claws, kitty. Human skin is fragile.

[abgrund]

[ It seems to be an uncommon, but productive trait in children. He supposes he doesn't have anything to worry about Zhao and his friends if that's the case. Though...

Instead of saying anything, he casts a look at Orbis and the cat returns it before retracting its claws after a few moments. It bumps up against Zhao's hand, this time with its nose. ]

I figure I may have given it a bit more sentience than an average cat.

[ Ain muses quietly, his voice falling back to soft tones ]

[wildguardian]

[Zhao rewards Orbis's nose-bump against his hand with a gentle scratch behind his ears, grinning.]

Ah, well, smart cats are the best. You said you wound up giving him that energy, right?

[He gestures to Orbis's oddly dark-glowing patches.]

[abgrund]

I did. He was hurt and wouldn't live long otherwise.

[ Ain picked up Orbis at a shelter which Shun worked at. With how old he looked and with a broken leg, he supposed it wouldn't be long until he was put down. Now with the seed of the void, he can not only walk but also fly at will. It's a good deal no matter how you look at it. In his opinion, at least. ]

H'es not dangerous even when bearing this kind of power, so it's nothing to worry too much about.

[wildguardian]

[Zhao pauses halfway through petting the cat and casts Ain a sidelong look, lips pursed dramatically.]

Well, I wasn't worried, but now I'm wondering how much I should be. He seems to be a normal enough cat, though.

This kind of thing, then, that's a healing power? Or was the healing a side effect?

[abgrund]

[ That's a hard question. It is both, but also hard to explain. ]

I gave him some of my magic. Kind of like life sharing. [ This isn't a complete truth but it'll suffice. ] He can fly if he wants to but that's the extent of it.

[wildguardian]

Life sharing?

[For a cat? That wasn't even his cat? Yunlan blinks down at Orbis, who seems perfectly calm about all of this.]

That doesn't hurt you any, does it, Ain?

[abgrund]

[ It's mercy in a way, no? At least to him. Orbis appears content, replying with nothing but a swish of his tail. ]

It doesn't.

[ Zhao seems to be quite concerned about it too. Hopefully Ain's calm manner will convince him. ]

[wildguardian]

Good. [It's not the cat he's worrying about; the cat is fine. The cat can fly and understand Japanese now, apparently, he's better than fine. But for Ain, pouring some of his own life into a hurt stray cat...

... wouldn't it cost him some of his own life to do that? Shorten his lifespan, even if there wasn't anything incompatible between his own energy and the normal life energy of the normal feline he was sharing it with? Yunlan's not sure where this concern comes from, or, for that matter, where he'd gotten this checklist of worries about sharing life energy. In the end, after a few seconds' silence, he decides to take Ain's word for it and smiles faintly.]

Good to hear -- and Orbis here is a lucky cat to have run into you, isn't he?

we can wrap this one up here? :D

[abgrund]

[ Ain smiles - only a little, but the corner of his eyes crinkle noticeably. Orbis meows and pads over to give Ain's hand a nudge. ]

Yes. I am glad we met.

[ Perhaps one would have called it fate. Perhaps he could believe that, too. It was one of the first things he did as a shinki and has not regretted it ever since. ]