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Who: Ebisu, Aomi, and various out-temple workers
What: Time for a relaxing trip to Kanagawa, before the next thing blows up.
Where: Kanagawa
When: Sometime after that compound mess

Kanagawa Prefecture has a lot of good points. There's an opening to the ocean, a lake for touring, beautiful views of Mt. Fuji wherever you look, and all sorts of interesting museums or temples. Aomi, the organizer of this little trip, agrees for everyone to meet at Iiyama Kannon an hour or two before noon. An easy famous place that people hopefully won't get lost going to, and all. Until then, well, people are free to go wherever they like. They don't even have to stay in Atsugi, where the meeting area is supposed to be. There are beaches not that far off, zoos to enjoy various animals, parks where carefully cultivated flowers are in gleeful bloom, a bustling Chinatown, and even the little island of Enoshima.

When the time comes to meet up, however, Aomi can be found alongside Ebisu with a bulging backpack and he does a quick headcount to make sure everyone is there before continuing on. The ultimate destination isn't any of the many tourist attractions in Kanagawa, but rather he leads away from the cities and towards the forests of the prefecture. Aomi would have made sure to remind everyone that morning over text to wear hiking boots.... so hopefully they all remember to do that, because the path chosen is one that has no actual path at all. Hopefully no one gets hurt, although it shouldn't be too hard.

What's the destination? That much becomes obvious once they hit some more even land, where a small stone monument has been placed at the base of a fully blossoming Japanese wisteria. Here, Aomi will let everyone know it's fine to take a break, and settle down. It's here that he'll help spread out some various picnic blankets and begin unpacking from his enormous backpack. He's been courteous enough to pack lunch for just about everyone, and a good variety in case any one dish doesn't suit someone. There's delectably spicy yokosuka curry, juicy shirokoro horumon, rare to get shonan pork sausages, and a variety of sushi that takes full advantage of being from a seaside prefecture. Everyone is free to relax beneath the wisteria blossoms and enjoy the view peeking out from the trees.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Breathe. You're fighting the flow of mana too much.

[Odd how he can tell, his voice slipping into an instructor's cadence. His vision is locked on healing wounds, his Caster senses primed and focused on the warmth.]

The more you try to control it, the harder it will get. Let yourself flow and you'll figure out the balance instinctively, between the push of the spell and the pull of your internal reserves.

[It's counterintuitive to how she maintains her borderlines. She metes out her energy in a fine nozzle along her lines. Releasing control and letting things flow freely is what she does in combat when she needs power to push forward, an overwhelming rush of energy. With something so fine, she's afraid of doing the opposite and hurting instead of healing.

But he's the expert. A breath unravels as Ginia loosens her grip, trying to relax into the spell. The glow brightens, flares even, and afraid of losing control, Ginia instinctually cuts the spell short. The borderline snaps out of existence. The scratch is healed, but not in a way Ginia finds satisfying.

A sip of tea, a bite of wagashi to refocus. Instead of trying the spell again, Ginia falls back to the basics, striking down a barrier alongside them. The wall glows as Ginia focuses on maintaining it, letting her energy flow freely into the barrier.]

Breathe, just breathe. There's a difference between active control - of actively seeking that point - and instinctive control - of letting it come to you.

[His work around for the shinki state. Apparently this is the way he'll be teaching it.]

Listen to my voice and allow yourself to be still and just feel the flow of the energy you're putting into your borderline. Don't seek the feeling, relax into it and allow it to wash over you.

Are you there?

[Ginia closes her eyes, trusting in herself to keep the borderline running. She can cast without signing, cast without the hand motion, maintaining what she can't see and simply feeling it out should be a breeze. Eyes closed, it's easier focusing on the feeling of her borderline. It feels like a taut rubber band connecting her to her borderline, a thrum along the tense surface as energy flows.

She matches her breathing to the flow of energy, or the flow of energy settles in with her breathing. In and out, she marks her breath as she pays less attention to it, mind settling on the overall feeling.

The wall shines brighter and clearer as her instincts take over.]

Good. Allow yourself to drift with it. Listen to the energy, feel just the energy, allow it to block everything else out but my voice.

Flow with the spell. Feel how it pulls from you and the Name, goes through the pathways in you, and out to form the borderline. Allow yourself to spread out into that line and feel how it's built.

Don't touch. Just feel.

[He watches the line clear. Good, good.]

It's like water running over you. Breathe, feel it come from the depths of you, through, and out.

Feeling this, can you sense the parts that don't run smooth?

[Ginia and Jitsumi. Ritsuki and Hatsuki. They're her names, her links to her gods, a source of power for shinki cannot cast borderlines without her name. But though borderlines and power begin with her names, she is the root. Confidence, determination, experience, faith and trust in her gods, faith and trust in herself, that is what fuels her energy.

Breathe in, breathe out, let herself be and let her energy flow.

She's cast hundreds of borderlines by now, felt the tug of energy needed to sustain them, felt how they break, but she's never considered how her borderline feels. What Ginia thought was a solid wall is flawed in ways she didn't expect. She pools her energy toward the center, a thick strong center like old glass, the edges brittle and thinner.

Smooth it out, consistency across the surface for a stronger wall overall. Smooth as a placid lake, deep as the ocean. Ginia breathes, her energy flows, and her borderline strengthens.]

Good. Good. You already know how your borderline is supposed to be. Awareness is the first step to mastery.

It's not a state of control. Or a state of seeking. That is too... forceful for this. It's a state of being and listening. Attunement.

That is needed for everything in magic.

[... this is probably the best way for a first step. As the guide here, Waver does not want to take Ginia down the path to where this could lead until he has a way for her to follow safely. He cannot dwell on why, but his mental discipline and defenses are likely unique... shoring up shinki defenses that are frankly too weak to withstand him.

Attunement.

... and this is why he's noticing changes that might take another shinki by surprise.]

Now building on that. What are the concepts of what we want? What is it we desire to do? To be?

Your borderline now is an extension of that. Allow it to flow.

[Be and listen. Listening is one of Ginia's worst skills, especially when it comes to the state of her body. Ignoring her exhaustion to push on and finish a project, ignoring pain to push on a little longer, ignoring the yearning in her still heart for emotions she can't understand.

It must change, it needs to change. Back to basics, back to zero, reset her borderline and build its strength back up and strengthen herself in turn.

A borderline is the greatest tool a shinki has at their disposal. It is a shield, a weapon, protection is at the root of its being, a symbol of strength for those who also wish to protect. A shinki is a tool for their god, a shinki is a human. Humans love and want and hurt and make mistakes and in doing so, guide a god with no sense of what it means to be mortal.

So it is among the old. The new are different, a grip on their mortality, on their lives, straddling the lines of divinity and balance as they are their roles and not. They are all human, they are all themselves.

Ginia is a new shinki in service of a very old god. Her temple are all of old shinki who must adhere to a system of salvation and sacrifice. Ginia, Jitsumi, there too she must find balance, be herself without sacrificing anyone else.

She wants Ebisu to grow old, she wants the Mi Clan to thrive and find peace, she wants to protect her family. For whatever time she has left here, Ginia wants to stay with them and see what the future has. Perhaps it's a shallow wish with more emphasis on others than herself, but it's a genuine want.

Her borderline levels further, opaque in its glow yet sharply clear in its transparency. Ginia was always a formidable shinki, clawing into strength and power through perseverance, bolstered by newfound stability and support. Now, armed with understanding, it's the third angle she needed to find balance.

Ginia opens her eyes. She doesn't look at her borderline - she knows the changes already - but instead turns to Waver. Her head bows to him as she dismisses her borderline. The relationships and balance of hierarchy between shinki are a tricky thing.

Damn that system. Gratitude and respect should be given where it's deserved. If she's a better shinki, it's only because it's a category Waver cannot, should not, belong in.]

Thank you. I understand better. May I try again?

Go right ahead.

[As his head bows to her. Waver doesn't think gratitude and respect makes one inferior. In showing it, one demonstrates their superiority.

He has no use for the arrogant. Power does not mean strength, submission does not mean weakness, and weakness does not imply inferiority. Concepts taking further root now when he's removed from mortality.

Some things made clear for the fight ahead. Because if being like this is teaching anything, it is that he is not this.]

[Ginia chooses another scratch, focusing enough as a gentle reminder this is a borderline to heal. She scribes another circle on his skin, containing the area of the injury, signing the borderline into existence as she flicks her wrist.

The spell still feels difficult in the way new and unfamiliar skills are in the start. One day it'll fall into her muscle memory. However, with her approach toward magic reframed, it feels easier than the previous attempt. Her energy flows into the injury slower, but more evenly. Her hand hovers just above his skin as the holds the borderline, feeling her energy naturally taper off as the wound is closed. She maintains the borderline for a second or two longer to feel how her energy falls into a holding state, maintaining the borderline enough without pouring too much energy in.

When it releases, the scratch is gone, the effort feeling better. She smiles and nods, taking a break to type and finish her wagashi.]

That felt better. I'll have to try out some of my other spells and refine them too. I'm curious how it'll work with song spells.

[Waver delicately nibbles on his wagashi and takes another sip of tea, concentrating on what he feels, nodding as the flow seems so much more stable. It could be further refined, but that will only come with time.]

Let me know. [Though he's wondering how Ginia's pulling them off. Signs? Humming?] Shinki magic isn't an area I'm currently working with.

I'm currently working my way up from the foundations. Natural laws, things like that. Origins.

You're probably going about it smarter, but so our instincts and skills differ.

[His root is in magic, that much is obvious. In the same vein, she's a sniper. Yet the mind is a tricky thing and even what one can assume about themselves, what others might parse about them, to confirm or push is the dangerous part.]

I didn't mean to dive so deep into shinki spells, but I suppose it became something to focus on. A way to set myself apart. Yet this spell aside, I've let learning new spells fall to the wayside. My focus changed again.

Mmmm... to what, may I ask?

[Waver can tell things about Ginia from what she says and does. How she moves. Soldier of some kind. Operative. Cast in the role of tool. Made to fight - hates to fight. Thought of as disposable and has trauma to match. She mirrors him enough to understand some key things about her psychology and grant him some insight into her workings.

Perhaps the memory loss has been a blessing for her, and perhaps this is a second chance... but he often wonders if what she actually desires is not to be shinki, but purely human itself as she most likely was not allowed in life? Just hearts do rage here, and Ginia has a just and kind heart.]

[Memory loss is a blessing in that Ginia can't remember the full extent of her actions. If the loss of memory is a way for shinki to not envy the living and to find freedom in a second chance, it works for her. But it's still a curse when she can look at the skills she has and the ones she doesn't and do nothing but wonder. It's a slow form of madness for the analytical, a deeper hell when she can't talk about it with those closest to her because they're different kinds of shinki.

She wouldn't find his assessment inaccurate if she knew. A kinder assessment than she'd allow herself.]

Working for Ebisu's temple certainly takes up most of my time.

[Most, not all. They are all responsible for their own schedules. For some, it means testing the limits of how long one can survive on energy drinks and no sleep. With Ginia, her long work day is broken up with naps and carving out a few hours for personal work or time with others. But it's a hell entirely of her own making too.]

Is it strange I like it? The orderliness of office work and how it all fits together if everything is entered right? I suppose the same can be said about a lot of things, but I think I like office work more than I thought I would.

Ebisu is not a god of combat. I suppose my focus is finding skills to suit his temple better.

[... it can work like that. But. Not always, and the reality of the matter is a little more complex. Humanity, not memory, is the source of more of the envy. Waver can watch the Gods here adapt... pick apart what is grief from memory and what are the deeper, more destructive changes wrought by gradual loss of humanity. The sudden moments of longing and loss. Terrifying acceptance of this is how things must be.

Waver Velvet... the mage who managed to keep his humanity in a sea of inhumanity. Who fought back against the system. Who destroyed the Grail with the help of many others. Looks out from the prison of his mind with the near clarity of a God at the madness.

It is hell to See.]

No, absolutely not. Though... I think you already have most of those skills. You could compete with Satya with how efficient you are at cross referencing information, for example.

... don't turn it into a competition, please... Satya gets intense...

[He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wire flower to look at it. See the positive.]

It's just a trick of expression and refinement. That's how I look at it. Iskandar is a god of war and conquest. Do I have everything needed for that domain? Absolutely not... who could? But I don't have nothing either, and I can improvise and adapt.

Which... given he has an appalling sense of his own health and leaves himself damn open too much because he isn't fighting with an army... I guess I'm working on the fly.

[HUFF PUFF. Waver blows a strand of hair out of his face.]

Damn that man. Love him but I worry sometimes.

Love, huh?

[There's a small raise of her brow at his choice in words, but maybe it's not that unusual either. There's not a single shinki in Ebisu's employ that doesn't love their constantly reincarnating god. It's that they love him so much they'd like him to stop the actions that lead to his repeat death.

Maybe this time he'll have a long life, but if wanting to save protect humans is the most important thing, perhaps it's inevitable he'll fall into the same path of wanting to tame ayakashi.

But there are different meanings and expressions for love too.]

Ebisu and the Mi Clan are my family, I'll do anything for them. That doesn't mean Chris and Luger aren't important to me. In some way, I'm better suited for Chris. We work well together, my skills compliment hers.

[Her hands fold briefly, left hand on top, the name so visible. Perhaps being nora is the secret to keeping her sanity. Chris is familiar and comfortable in ways, a good friend, someone to watch out for, a person she can wade into a fight with. Ebisu and the Mi Clan provide support and stability in the way no new god can while still providing the freedom she needs to be.

But they are of the old generation and there are still rules to follow, or at least keep up the appearance of following.

The screen on her phone shuts off. As Ginia turns it back on so she can type again, there's a brief glimpse of a suited man with glasses grinning and forming a heart with his hands on the lock screen. For as guarded as Ginia is about her feelings, she's remarkably transparent at times too.]

We can't age, but I wonder if we can still go grey over worrying over our gods?

Love.

[It's so very easy to love Iskandar, you know.

But there are different kinds of love. Satya is just as much family.

He nods.

Hello, Kimi. Waver will keep his peace that he knows until Ginia is ready to bring him up.]

Grey on the inside, definitely. Iskandar is certainly putting me through my paces.

I weep for the day you begin losing hair.

[Ginia looks at him, eyes running down his raven black hair, frames him in her fingers as she grins.]

On the other hand, you could definitely pull off silver or white hair.

[What's the saying... silver fox? How everyone would swoon around him, so refined and mystical looking. Terumi and Natsumi would fight off everyone else for the opportunity to put together a look for him.

Her smile fades slightly as she resumes typing, expression contemplative again.]

You're lucky you can use love so easily.

Which do you prefer? I might keep that in mind for the future.

[The fan appears briefly and there's a gust of wind as his hair first goes blue tinted silver and then to snow... and then back to raven.]

But there's many kinds of love and that's never an easy word to use for any of them.

Especially for my situation and especially for the type of relationship I have.

... that's why I'm using it. Because it isn't easy.

[Now that's showing off. Ginia blinks as the shift in hair color, keeping each one in mind as the conversation moves on. She knows that and some forms are easier to parse to loosely admit to, but love overall still feels like a ball of spun glass; delicate and intricate, prone to shattering under the slightest pressure.

Or maybe it's not love but her feelings overall. Ginia can't dismiss her feelings or deny what they are, but it's one thing to keep them inside where no one else has to see, another to voice them.]

You're the stronger of the two of us then.

[Even if she knows her temple, her god, her boyfriend all care, she's been wrong before and it's not a risk she can deal with.]

Relationship. You and...?

[An open statement for him to fill in or deny as he wishes.]

[Deliberately so to try and lighten things. Why do they always have the heavy conversations...

... but it seems they just fall to them, don't they? Like this is something only the two of them can provide each other. Sometimes he feels like he's taking the place of her gods during these talks. Sometimes...

...

There's so much fear. He doesn't want to live bound to it.]

... Iskandar.

[The apparent age of this place skews young and while Ginia appreciates living in the company of adults, there are topics she can't discuss with them. As it turns out, Waver is the closest thing she has to a fellow adult sounding board. But it's perhaps something in their natures too. The lonely, the struggling, the ones doing their best to stay afloat with what lifelines they have to cling to.

So when Waver confirms it's Iskandar, her expression softens into a smile. Her own trepidation and uncertainty is her own. For Waver, there is only gladness. There's a stability there Waver needs (though she also doesn't know about all the questions their being brings too).]

Alas, Terumi will be so heartbroken.

[There, an attempt to lighten the mood.]

Love, live, be happy, Waver. If someone around here is facing their fears and walking on, I'm glad it's you.

And you must tell me what it's like being the man to bring Alexander the Great to his knees.

[If she only knew... everything...

But living with it has brought one unexpected boon.

Waver is careful what he brings to Iskandar. Waver takes care with how he brings it. Waver spreads his emotional baggage across as many people as possible to carry the burden... (some of them mortal bartenders who he can't kill with a word and whom he makes sure forgets their conversations). Waver tries to aggressively attack his problems so he keeps as even a keel as possible - not easy, as he knows he's a mess. Waver tries to keep tabs on his Temple's emotional state. Tries to resolve what he can...

Things are fragile. That is a shinki-God relationship usually, and especially here, even if on one side, the shinki is different. But Waver is proactive about it and understands the fragility more than he lets on. They're both living with secrets.]

Until he sees Iskandar. Then poor Natsumi will have to get the smelling salts. And a couch.

[Sorry buddy... your bara tastes are known.]

... like living in one of Homer's epics. Iskandar is every bit as passionate as his hero.

I look forward to the gossip in the baths that night.

[Everyone sure loves their gossip in the temple. RIP Terumi.

Ginia's face scrunches a little, a tiny huff escaping. So she did open up the conversation for details, but now she's realizing she doesn't want them.]

I'll leave the epic stories between you. Iskandar is a glorious hunk of flesh, but he's also like an uncle so any details would be weird.

[She reaches across the table and gives his hand a small squeeze. Live, be happy, survive this somehow. He's doing better than most, worse in other ways, certainly better equipped to handle things in his own way. Iskandar will watch out for him, but shinki must care for themselves too. They are their own salvation and their own downfall.]

I suppose it's only fair to say I'm dating Kimi, but anyone who spends any amount of time at the temple knows. The betting pool sure was wild when news broke.

Save me the juiciest bits.

[Even the part-timers.

No... he's not going to talk about that - what's happening, if it's happening. Sex is... private right now. Very private, even if Iskandar's alright with acts of exhibitionism that would shock everyone else in the Far Shore. Partly because he's a shinki and the nature of the link has made things such that Waver would only participate in any act with him present.

... any other romantic relationship would have to be platonic. There are situations where boundaries must be drawn.

... and this is a situation where he knows he has to leave the shinki state somehow. Waver squeezes back. He knows he's undergoing both a slow death and a transformation of some kind. His own salvation and his own downfall.]

Homer's not around anymore and I sure as hell couldn't do the telling justice, so my lips are sealed.

[There's a quiet huff of a laugh.]

And that one I know - I was just waiting for you to bring it up. Terumi and Natsumi spilled a few details.

I'm very happy for you. He's a hell of a man.

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