(no subject)

[reformedsinner]

Who: Cho Hakkai and you
Where: Around the Far Shore; at the Tokyo Marathon
When: Feb 15 - 25
What: Naming a new shinki, attempting graphic design, grounding a wayward shinki, considering White Day gifts, helping runners out with a small ayakashi problem.
Warnings: Shinki naming thread may include reference to violence & death.

Closed - Joscelin

[Sometimes, it's been quite a while between Ayumu's disappearances and reappearances. Hakkai hasn't wholly abandoned hope. And yet...

... yet, it's not easy taking care of a prickly young shinki who he hasn't named. Joscelin has been fitting into the household well: he gets along with Chikusa and Ken, he hasn't tried to murder any of Amaterasu's shinki since his ablution, and he's looking tired, lately.

If he's going to be a part of the household, then Hakkai is going to have to take care of him properly. It's time to broach that subject, and so, tonight, he's pulled Joscelin aside into the front room after dinner.]

You've been spending a lot of time here lately. I thought it might be time to make an offer.

[He gestures to one of the couches, settles down in the armchair himself, and crosses his legs.]

Would you like a name?


Li Tieguai's Temple - Open

[Chikusa is grounded. Ken has been informed that it's Chikusa's responsibility to do all of their chores all week long, and that he isn't allowed to help. Hakkai, therefore, finds himself unusually free: although he could sit around inside and enjoy watching Chikusa dust the bookshelves in slow motion, that palls, and so he's easy to find during this week sitting out on the new wicker couch on his temple's front patio, either with a book or with a pair of knitting needles, a massive spool of soft white yarn, and a ... thing he's knitting.

It's not clear what the thing is. It's a strange shape and there are strange divots in it. It's possible, if it gets long enough, that it will become a scarf.

It's also possible that it will become an eldritch horror and eat the mastiff snoozing comfortably at Hakkai's feet.

For a man knitting an eldritch horror, he looks remarkably cheerful when he glances up to spot passersby.]

Good evening!

Abandoned Temple School - Open

[The shinki looking for interviewees, or just comments, for their new magazine edition are everywhere. Hakkai has already had to politely decline several interview offers: apparently Gods of Fortune are new and exciting. He's told them to go ask Chikusa, the new hafuri of a new God of Fortune.

Chikusa's going to hate it; Hakkai feels thoroughly self-justified. He's not over those awkward dates yet.

There is one thing he'd been happy to hear, though: the magazine is accepting advertisements, and, with his new income stream, he can take out a full-page ad for teachers and students at the school. It's not just the new gods and shinki who might find it useful, after all.

This is, in short, why he's sitting in the downstairs library at the abandoned temple, at a table strewn with tape, glue, bits of neatly cut paper and photographs, and a mock-up of the ad. There's at least five different fonts. The text is crowded in and far too detailed. He's put a photograph of the school itself behind some of the text, which is unreadable as a result.

He looks distressingly proud of his work.

Someone is going to have to stop him before this monstrosity goes to print.]

Tokyo Marathon - Open

[Hakkai hadn't meant to be at the marathon. He's doing his usual morning deliveries of medicine to his followers most in need; unfortunately, one of their apartment buildings turns out to be right next to the track. And therefore surrounded in a seething, cheering crowd. And almost totally inaccessible.

He's never been to that apartment before, and he doesn't trust his teleportation well enough to risk unknown destinations. Cradling his giant duffel bag carefully in his arms, he's making his way grimly through the crowd, throwing elbows wherever he needs to. A few bruised ribs will serve them right for not being fast enough to get out of his way.

When the crowd starts to open up, he thinks for a moment that it's because he's finally drawn enough attention to make them give way. Then he looks up.

A massive, waist-high frog, purple-gray, stares unblinkingly at him from three paces away.

"You smell good," it croaks, and licks its lipless mouth with a long, long tongue.

Hakkai turns to the nearest person, pressing his bag into their arms without even looking.]

Excuse me, can you hold this? It's heavy and fragile, please be careful.

[The frog leaps. Hakkai, expression freezing, dives out of the way.]

Comments

[dredefulchilde]

[Joscelin hadn’t been expecting this. He still doesn’t know his place in Hakkai’s temple, not really, though the god has been kindly letting him come or go as he pleases. It feels less official than his time as Ayumu’s nora, and he hadn’t really been hoping for a name. He’d be content without one, if not for something rather important:

He’s hungry. All the time. Going suddenly from two gods to one means he isn’t hunting as much as before. The hunger is different than normal human hunger; he feels it deep in his body, in his very cells, screaming for the life energy that food cannot provide.

He cautiously moves to the couch and looks over to Hakkai, a serious expression on his face that makes him look much older than his apparent years.]

Will you promise me you’ll use me to fight?

suffering at home

[kokuyoyo]

[The good thing about Hakkai finally leaving him to his own devices instead of enjoying the view of Chikusa being forced to clean is that it let him take a quick break, which he immediately used to send a message he knows that wouldn't be approved of. Until he can get that to work for him, however... There are still chores he has to do, and he doesn't actually want to test Hakkai if they don't get done at all.]

[But it's the worst. It's literally the worst. Most of it is stuff that Chikusa can't even imagine needs to be done. Who cares about dust? Why does it matter if things are put back into order when they'll just get disorganized within the hour anyway? No one is even coming over anyway, so they don't have anything to prove!]

[Chikusa's energy is a precious resource that gets used up faster than a stunt motorcyclist burns through gas. It doesn't take long at all before the door to the patio slides open and there's Chikusa, more dead eyed than normal. Even getting him to do normal chores usually ends up with him wanting to just lay on the floor. His chores, and Ken's, and Hakkai's...]

...Can it just be one day...

[He can't do this for the entire week. He seriously fucking can't, Hakkai. Chikusa isn't sure he can even last through this day all on its own. All of this is getting in the way of all the other things he wants to do, too. He has to practice his spellwork, and organize the information he has... There's also the other stuff he's working on, like getting a handle on making music, or getting back to the story he's left in the dust for far too long. Maybe it's a good thing he busted out two chapters so quickly one after the other...]

Li Tieguai's Temple because I don't follow prompts!

[myblueskies]

[Hakkai might have noticed another tiny shinki around his temple as well. Romeo is hard at work helping Chikusa with all the cleaning that needs done! It's hard work but Romeo doesn't mind! It's better than Chikusa having to do it all alone!

It's technically in exchange for cooking lessons but really Romeo just likes helping!

Currently he is in the kitchen, stood on a chair, elbow deep in soapy water.]

Let’s say this is after Hakkai names Joss

[dredefulchilde]

Romeo, what in God’s name are you doing?

[Joscelin had come into the kitchen to steal food before dinner, and was not expecting to see his friend hard at work on the dishes.]

That’s Chikusa’s job. You’re not even one of Hakkai’s shinki.

[He peers at the other boy.]

Or has he named you too?

[myblueskies]

I'm helping him! He's got lots and lots to do!

[It's a lot of work indeed! Even for Romeo but especially for someone who gets tired all the time like Chikusa! After seeing just how much work Chikusa had to do Romeo is a little concerned that mister Hakkai is a scary boss, but he seems so nice...

It's another big confusing question.] No! I'm Elfnein's shinki! [What was Joss doing here anyways?]

Abandoned Temple School

[unlucky7]

I think the paparazzi are hanging outside the school.

[Ginia's message plays as she spots Hakkai, a wave accompanying her played words as she approaches. She's seen the shinki around Ebisu's temple too; Gods of Fortune are still Gods of Fortune after all. A few have also stopped her on her errands, though she's evaded them too.

She reaches the table and looks down at the project Hakkai's working on, blinking at the jumbled text mess.]

What's that?

[dredefulchilde]

The reason he’s got lots to do is he’s being punished. How did he rope you into this?

[Joscelin honestly respects Chikusa’s deviousness in outsourcing his punishment to someone else, but Romeo is too nice, too naive, for this. He’s so incomprehensibly pure and completely devoid of any sort of malice that the usually bitter and jaded Joscelin finds himself irrationally wanting to protect him from all the horrors of the real world.

This simply cannot stand.

So, somehow, he finds himself on another chair, sleeves rolled to the elbow, drying the dishes as Romeo washes.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai looks up at him, expression distant and thoughtful. He doesn't fight ayakashi often-- he doesn't go out to find them, certainly. And yet.]

How often do you want to fight?

[Or should the word be, 'need'? Joscelin doesn't look as though it's a frivolous request.]

[reformedsinner]

If you don't want to do this much work, then don't put me in that kind of situation next time.

[Hakkai still has livid owl-talon marks across his forehead and cheeks. His expression holds zero sympathy.

You can do fun things when you're done facing down your punishment, Chikusa.

In a week.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Alright, first of all- ]

It's not my fault you tried to fight a bird... [You know, like a dumb asshole.] The dates weren't bad, were they...

[He feels like he'd be in more trouble if they were bad, although that seems like a hard thing to envision when he's already pretty miserable with the state of things right now.]

[dredefulchilde]

As much as I’m able. Or, I suppose, as much as you are willing.

[Joscelin is blunt, businesslike. There is very little of the child in his speech or mannerisms, and yet he can’t deny the surge of hope he feels. Finally. Nourishment. It’s not that Nari doesn’t use him or feed him—he does, rather often. But the constant hunger is a greedy thing and going from two gods to one has severely limited his ability to consume what he needs.]

I get so very hungry, you see. I am, however, able to confer some benefit to my wielder after I have had my fill. I can heal, boost energy—that sort of thing.

[myblueskies]

Punished? [Had Chikusa been bad? Romeo couldn't imagine Chikusa being bad. He sometimes said scary things but... You needed energy to be bad and Chikusa didn't have much energy at all!

He smiled when Joss came to help, teamwork was always the best way!] He asked me and said he would give me cooking lessons and some food if I helped him.

[It was a pretty good deal.]

Temple

[subconmodo]

[He wasn't planning to linger near the temple. He has places to go today. Not necessarily people to see, but places to show Jeremy to make sure his newly arrived minion doesn't end up getting lost on the first errand he sends him off to.]

[That was, of course, before he laid eyes on the soft, yarny monstrosity forming between Hakkai's jabs. And Snatcher may not be a knitter, but he's reasonably sure that whatever it is probably shouldn't look like that.]

...Evening. [And since his curiosity is starting to get the best of him...] What exactly are you trying to make?

[reformedsinner]

Unless I need it for the fight, that shouldn't be necessary... but you feed on ayakashi you destroy, then?

[His frown is thoughtful.]

I regularly visit the Near Shore to answer prayers. Would you be willing to come with me in the mornings and slay whichever ayakashi we encounter?

[The offer is delivered in a casual tone; generally, he just gets out of the way, should he encounter an ayakashi on his deliveries. If there's some use that can come of destroying them, though, it would be worth the extra effort.]

[reformedsinner]

It doesn't matter whether they were good or bad, Chikusa. What matters is that I didn't want to go on dates with any of those people.

Also, isn't Chinatsu fifteen?

[Sixteen, perhaps? He's sure she's not much older than that, and he'd felt like a chaperone on a field trip.]

[reformedsinner]

[The conversation in the kitchen -- two children's voices -- catches Hakkai's attention as he's passing by in the hallway, and he detours in their direction.

His eyes widen as he steps in to find Romeo and Joscelin washing the dishes together... and then, a half second later, his eyes narrow.]

Ah, good afternoon, Romeo, Joscelin. Do you know that's Chikusa's job this week?

[reformedsinner]

Ah, good morning, Ginia! [Hakkai looks up, breaking into a smile as he sets down the glue bottle.]

I'm planning on taking advantage of their presence later -- this is an ad I'm putting together for the magazine. What do you think?

[reformedsinner]

This? It's going to be a sweater.

[How it's going to be a sweater is a great mystery. It might fit someone with three arms. Hakkai's needles pause as he looks up, and one stitch slides free to be lost in the fabric.]

What do you think?

[unlucky7]

[It's horrible, is what Ginia thinks, but she pretends to study the ad for a few seconds longer than she really needs to as she figures out an appropriate answer.]

It's a bit busy, truth be told. It's hard to pick out all the information at a glance and some of it is difficult to read given the font choice and size.

[kokuyoyo]

Yeah?

[What, that's basically an adult, right?]

[...Chikusa's idea of adulthood might be somewhat skewed, due to numerous factors, one of them being indeed a teenager. At least he's listening, although possibly in an attempt to not be doing chores.]

But you didn't know them... I'm pretty sure.

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai looks back down at the sheet, blinking. Ah, that's a good point; it does get difficult to read the text he's pasted over the background photo, and it will be worse when it's all in black and white.]

I see... should it be easy to spot all the information? Can't someone who's interested look closer?

[reformedsinner]

That's half my age, Chikusa. [Well, a little older than half -- Hakkai's in his mid-twenties -- but the point is that she is much too young.

Chikusa might be a teenager himself, but, really? Doesn't he realize that? Maybe it's a good thing he and Ken are so closely attached. Hakkai won't have to worry about him wandering off to date any inappropriate adults.]

And I'm not interested in dating people I don't know.

[kokuyoyo]

Alright.

[He'll keep that in mind. You know, just in case. Still, this isn't working as he'd hoped... Although admittedly kind of how he'd thought.]

...And now that you know them?

[reformedsinner]

I'm not interested in dating most people I do know, either.

[He'd successfully left Shiro unsettled, he thinks; Petra may be a tentative ally, and Chinatsu is fifteen years old.]

Is this about Gojyo?

[subconmodo]

[Snatcher looks... less than convinced. Much less.]

[He flashes a thumbs up]

Like you just learned how to knit this morning!