thenearshore | 007 | Clean Up Your Act

Who: Everyone!
What: Spring cleaning
When: All day April 15
Where: All around the Heavens
Summary: The Heavens don't like things being cluttered, so it's time to clean up a little bit.

Main Hall

While the main hall of the Heavens seems spotlessly clean at all times, that's not the case at all. In fact, it's been at least a decade since the last time they actually cleaned everything out properly. There are a lot of hidden closets and back rooms that have layers of dust and dozens of boxes filled with nothing but junk. Who knows, though! You might find something interesting and useful in there along with all the garbage.

Suprises

Unfortunately, some of the older temples on the Far Shore seem to have some interesting surprises tucked away, ranging from cursed artifacts all the way to magical creatures locked up in long-forgotten rooms. You are free to be creative with this as a way to get your characters into trouble while cleaning.

Complimentary Dinner

After all of your hard work, you deserve to have some tasty food and refreshing beverages. So the Heavens have provided that for you, so that you can wind down after a long day. It's not as fancy as the banquets they often put on, but there is a nice array of food and drinks for everyone to enjoy.

Counselling

As usual, there is a white-robed shinki bearing the gold chrysanthemum of Amaterasu sitting at a table in the Main Hall. There is a small sign that denotes her as the counselling shinki. Anyone is welcome to approach her, and she will smile serenely at anyone passing by as well.

In Summary:

Clean up your home
Help clean others' homes
Get the main hall clean too!
Hope no hidden magic jumps out
Seek counselling if you need it
Enjoy your complimentary dinner
Have fun~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Hakkai's chuckle is light and brief; Souji's certainty of movement does suggest he knows what he's doing with a sword. He moves like Yamato, in fact. Kendo, then.]

I'm a sword, too, but I tend to prefer hand-to-hand! I suppose it would be harder to be a hand-to-hand shinki. Perhaps if your other form was a set of gloves.

[He smiles.]

I'll let Yamato know about it, then -- he's our teacher.

Well, in a sense... when you are a sword, you are using your body in battle, right? So it's not as strange as all that.

[It makes sense to him, at least, on a deep level that could probably be called spiritual in someone more introspective. Any warrior, regardless of their skill, is in themselves a weapon too, right? The thought feels right somehow, and makes him nod emphatically at the tail end of that statement.

Ah, but then he brightens up happily.] Yamato-kun? As in, Yamato no Kami Yasusada? [He looks so pleased.] If it is, I've already become friends with him. [That was... fast.]

Why, yes, that's right.

[Hakkai blinks.]

Ah, I'm not surprised you get along! You seem to have quite a lot in common.

...Huh. Yes, I guess we do.

[He frowns, as if he hadn't really thought about it still, even though they both even look kind of alike, to the point where they could probably trick people that they're brothers.]

I'd love to join in on the lessons. It sounds like it could be a lot of fun. [And he can find out another way he's very alike Yamato: He doesn't hold back during sparring. Well, Yamato probably got that from him, not that he knows.]

Oh, it is! Ha ha, I've been trying to grow a bit more accustomed to the sword myself.

It feels like I should if it's my own other form...

[He swipes up the last bit of puddled honey and wine, wrings the rag out firmly into the bucket, and starts working again at the remaining soaked-in stains. It might take bleach to get some of these out.]

I guess just being wielded in battle isn't really the best way of learning.

[Souji laughs. Of course, he hasn't been wielded in battle yet and doesn't actually know what it's like, but the thought is still extraordinarily silly to him.]

Ahh, but what kind of teacher is Yamato-kun?

[Look, he wants to hear more about his new friend! He made a friend all on his own within the first hours of existence that he actually remembers, that is really exciting to him.]

Oh, it's very different. [Hakkai raises his eyebrows thoughtfully, considering the question as he dunks his cleaning rag to wash it out again. It's stained with wine that stubbornly refuses to rinse clean.]

Hmm, let's see... he's quite serious! I'm impressed by his instincts.

[He can only imagine. So far, all he's done is to be briefly held in his god's hands, and he isn't sure at all how he'll perform in that kind of battle. Oddly enough, though, he doesn't feel particularly nervous about it. The whole thing feels completely natural to him, somehow.

He hums softly, nodding.]

I think I can see that. Since he takes his duties and loyalties so seriously, he'd want to put that same attitude into teaching others... I think. If you hold back or act like it's not real, you're not actually teaching real fighting. It's just a game. [He smiles a bit sheepishly.] It's strange, really, to understand the way someone is thinking so well. I guess in the same way there are very similar gods, there will be some Shinki who are quite alike. [Explains everything, that does.]

And sometimes gods and shinki who are very alike, too.

[Hakkai looks up from his work on the last remnants of the stain to give Souji a very long and thoughtful look. There's no real way to tell when they're both shinki, of course. But is this another case of reincarnation? Of two different versions of the same soul coming here for the Heavens' pleasure?

What on earth are they doing to the Great Wheel?]

I guess so. That seems a bit stranger, somehow. But then again... the purpose of Gods and Shinki has to be the same in the end, I suppose.

[He dabs his own cloth over the little pieces and crumbs of pottery which are too small to pick up, and then gingerly brushes those off in a small pile, careful not to cut himself.]

There's always a bond between those who lead and those who serve.

Hmm... do you think so?

There certainly can be.

[It all depends on the quality of the leader, in Hakkai's opinion. He reaches over to collect Souji's tiny heap of pottery bits, sweeping them cautiously into the bag with the larger pieces. They're very nearly done with the mess, now, apart from the few faint discolorations where wine has soaked entirely into the wood. Those will take bleach, Hakkai supposes, or planing.

Well, it's only a storeroom, this certainly hasn't been the first bottle of something fumbled and broken on this floor, Hakkai supposes.]

I suspect there's less difference between gods and shinki among the newer deities than the older.

[Souji has always had the mentality of a follower, so it's hard for him not to assume that every Shinki feels the same ease in their position as a servant as he does. Even having been told that not all Gods are so good to serve, it's not a logical leap that comes easy to him.

Sitting back on his heels now that most of the mess is cleared away, only taking a moment to try to wash off the cloth a bit, he tilts his head in thought.]

You mean because they are learning what it means to be Gods, just like we learn what it's like to be Shinki - that they're new to this world too? [He hums softly.] But even the new Gods have memories, and we don't.

In most cases, the gods' memories seem to be memories of being human. If it's true that as shinki, we're dead human souls, then what is the difference apart from remembering?

[Hakkai shrugs, sitting back on his heels as well and neatly tying a knot in the top of the trash bag.]

They happen to have more power than we do, that's all.

007 | Clean Up Your Act

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