thenearshore | [ closed ] You Can't Build a Peaceful World

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ω kimihiro watanuki | xxholic

[ closed ] You Can't Build a Peaceful World

Who: Jade Curtiss and Watanuki Kimihiro
What: Fulfilling prayer #17
When: April 22nd
Where: Guanyin's Temple and Around Japan
Warnings: TBD

There was a system Watanuki liked to go by, and he didn't break it. He made breakfast at a certain time, and if Jade wanted to partake in it, he had to be up, or be left with wrapped food for him to come to, sitting in the kitchen. After that, they parted, and Watanuki went off to do... well, whatever he did. A complete mystery.

This time, however, Watanuki was silent over breakfast. The young god didn't eat much--not that he had to in order to survive, but one could tell when energy levels were not at their maximum if a god failed to eat. Today, he had just a small sampling of the breakfast he had made mainly for Jade: American style. On his own plate, just a piece of toast and an egg. He was cupping tea in his hands.

Currently, he was staring down at it, as if he could burn a hole into his drink. He was thinking, hard--listening, hard.

After half the breakfast in silence:

"We'll be fulfilling a prayer today." His voice was unusually level. "...So get ready, after you've eaten."

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Jade was already in a habit of waking up at a decent hour. He didn't mind being awake. That just meant that he could get some things done. More research about the Near Shore, more about various gods, scouring the BBS to see what the news seemed to be. It didn't particularly interest him entirely, but there were some parts he picked out as useful information.

He quietly sipped his own tea as he could see the smoke coming from Watanuki's ears. (Figuratively, of course.)

"What shall I need to prepare for, My Lord?" he asked, curious of what task they would need to perform for the day.

"We'll be going to the Near Shore for a bit to see how much money we have," He replied with a thoughtful expression on his face. A finger came up, tapping next to the corner o his mouth. "Hm, and from there we'll see how much work there needs to be done, but...

"Just dress in something comfortable. And wash your hands thoroughly." There was another pause.

"You're going to help me cook today."

Jade's eyebrow raised slowly in a silent question, but he set down his teacup onto the table and stood up to get ready to...cook.

He had read up about the God(ess) of Mercy and their compassionate ways, so he shouldn't be so surprised that the kinds of prayers he would help fulfil would be ones of this nature. It could be interesting. Maybe.

He left and went into his room to get changed.

Watanuki cleaned the kitchen thoroughly while Jade prepared to head out with him. The plan was to stop by the shrine, do some shopping, then come back and cook up a storm. Something easy, that way Jade could help him.

Onigiri came to mind. It required few ingredients, so theoretically they should be able to make a lot for cheap. He just had to hope the offering box was in better shape.

After the kitchen was done, Watanuki waited patiently for his shinki to appear.

Jade made his appearance into the kitchen wearing a pair of slacks and a simple button down that they had gotten from the resale shop.

"I'm ready when you are, my lord"

"All right. Let's go." And with that, Watanuki took Jade's hand, teleporting them to the shrine on the Near Shore.

Today, Watanuki noticed, there were a few more visitors to his shrine. He glanced around for the moment, before releasing Jade's hand, heading over to the offering box. He picked the top off, opening it.

"It's a good thing you weren't on the internet again all last night or else you would have been too tired to--" Watanuki cut himself off as he glanced into the offering box. He blinked a few times. "Ah... oh."

Money. There was more money in there than before! Way more that he'd been expecting!

"...What's all this...?"

Jade looked around at the handful of people that weren't there before. He stood off to the side as Watanuki went over to his offerings box.

He glanced over, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"What is it? Did you get a good amount of offerings?" He asked, letting his master handle the money that was given to him.

"Yes... there's even more in here than when I first arrived." Watanuki pulled out some bills, gently leafing them with spindly little fingers. He did a few tallies with one hand, fingers moving up and down, before nodding his head. He took some to buy the supplies he needed, and a little extra, for a yukata he'd been eyeing at a resale shop and whatever else he thought Jade's wandering mind might want to get his hands on. Maybe some journals and pens for note-taking, since he loved to research so much?

"We're going to make onigiri," He stated. "...Rice is pretty cheap for how much you can get for it, and we'll have enough for the seaweed and even some fillings people might like." He crossed his arms a bit as he tucked the money into his sleeve.

"...Someone called out to me," He stated. "...And they're very hungry, so...

"I might as well feed everyone else, too."

Jade nodded. It made sense that he would be fulfilling a prayer such as this. He was the God of Mercy after all. And what was more compassionate than feeding the hungry.

"I think I can handle that" As unexciting as it sounded. But a prayer was a prayer and it was his duty to assist his god in fulfilling them no matter what the task was.

And it wouldn't hurt to learn how to be able to cook like this for himself if something ever happened to his god.

"Then shall we head to the market?"

Watanuki offered a nod. "Let's go."

The two dropped by the supermarket, Watanuki making Jade push the cart around while he grabbed the ingredients necessary: rice, seaweed, fillings, and a few other grocery items for home while they were out (it looked as if Watanuki was planning on making desserts this week). While they were out, Watanuki also bought Jade some notebook and writing implements, citing that he'd been a "good boy" while out shopping.

Once that was all done, they returned back to their temple in the Far Shore. Watanuki was already taking out everything they would need, starting up the stove to make the rice.

"All right. Are you ready to be put to work?"

Of course Jade complained about his old age and achey joints as he pushed the cart around briefly. Even though, he didn't really have that much of a clue of how old he actually was exactly. He just knew he was no spring chicken.

Jade was leaning against a counter as Watanuki turned up the heat in the kitchen.

"Sure" he replied blandly. "What will you have me do as the rice cooks?"

He handed over a box of plastic wrap.

"Get to making squares of this. Lots of them. Just put them all on the counters and table for now, I've already wiped them down.

"We're gonna be wrapping up these suckers! I work fast so you'd better keep up."

Jade merely nodded and started pulling out squares of plastic wrap and laying them down flat along the counter. Easy enough. Though, plastic wrap had the potential to be really troublesome.

Watanuki leaned against the counter, crossing his arms. He was in a different yukata than the two he had been cyclng through: this one a medium-blue-teal color with soft white bamboo stalks.

"How do you feel?"

Jade looked over when the question was posed.

"I'm feeling fine. Why do you ask?" he asked as he smoothed out a piece of plastic wrap that had become wrinkled.

"Am I not allowed to worry about you?"

Jade's eyebrows rose. "You're worried about me? How very compassionate of you" he teased.

"Oh shut up." He shot the other a look along with the retort. "I just want to make sure you're not pulling all-nighters anymore. I have to talk to you about that."

"First the punishment and then the lecture, yes?" He just leaned against the counter, put his hand in his pockets and waited for the nagging. Here it comes.

He settled a bit.

"...If you're going to pull an all-nighter, let me know. This isn't funny, Jade. This is serious.

"It's not just about your health, which is important, but you're my shinki." And he pointed out a window. "You saw how I was with we fought that ayakashi! I don't know how to fight those things! I had to go out alone because you were passed out, and while I'm capable of running an errand, I wouldn't have been so capable if I ran into an ayakashi. Those are the one thing I can't defend myself against.

"You have a job. You're supposed to protect me when I need it. And if you don't take care of yourself, you're not just hurting yourself, you're letting me down as well.

"I don't want it to happen again."

Edited 2016-09-14 02:49 (UTC)

Jade watched Watanuki with his red eyes as he spoke. It made sense. And though he already knew all of that and could handle himself without the 'henning'.

But Watanuki was his god and Jade was his shinki and this was an order.

"Yes, my lord" he answered mechanically. "What else would you have me do here?" he said, shifting the subject.

"You don't really need to do anything else, other than help me if I need it." Watanuki turned back to the pot. "...Before this...

"I used to be alone, so...

"It would probably just be things that are hard for me to do alone." A bit of a pause.

"...I didn't mean to scold you. Sorry."

Jade was beginning to get uncomfortable with the atmosphere that was being created. He didn't know how to handle feelings like this. Saying 'It's okay' is one thing, but that would acknowledge that the apology was needed, which it wasn't. He was his god, so he had every right to talk to him any way he wanted to, really.

"Of course I expect to get scolded by the mother hen himself. Have I become like one of your little chicks? If that's the case, do I just peep when I'm hungry? Peep peep peep" He decided to just ruin the moment entirely.

He looked back as he took the rice off the stove.

"Yes," he stated, and he smirked towards him. "Every time.

"I want to hear you cutely go peep peep whenever your stomach rumbles and you need to be fed. Then and only then will the GREAT GOD GUANYIN feed you."

Oh no. What was that reaction? Jade just looked to the side and pushed up his glasses.

"I see. So this is some sort of fetish for you. I have found out something quite disturbing about my god."

"WHY WOULD FEEDING YOU BE SOME KINDA FREAKY FETISH?!" He screeched. "STOP TALKING ABOUT FETISHES IT DOESN'T SUIT YOUR PERFECT FACE!!!"

"Oho? What's that? You think that my face is perfect? What a blessed compliment"

"SHOW SOME HUMILITY AT LEAST.

"NOT EVERYONE CAN BE BORN AS ATTRACTIVE AS YOU. APPRECIATE IT, APPRECIATE IT DAMN YOU."

"I appreciate it. Is this face why you let me off so easily?" He was becoming increasingly amused.

"Don-pht77yuh--don't act like just because you're good-looking means I'm swayed by it! It has nothing to do with that! NOTHING!"

And he's moving waving him over. "I have everything et up, let's make the onigiri and stop harassing me about my sexual preferences!"

Jade went to the sink and washed his hands thoroughly to begin helping make rice balls.

"So then, your strange chicken fetish and sexual preferences aside, how do I form these?" he asked.

He grumbled a bit waiting until Jade came over.

"You gather some rice into your hand-- oh, and here is a little salt, too. And you put it in your palm and you begin to shape it. In the shape of a triangle. Just gently squeeze, or you'll mush the rice and it will look unsavory." As he speaks, his slender hands are already at work, molding the rice ball into a perfect onigiri.

"For the fillings..." He started going over how to create the riceballs, demonstrating effortlessly. Soon, he had a perfectly shaped onigiri in his hands.

"Then you just take one of these seaweed strips and tuck it inside... and... it will stick to the rice on it's own. And you're done!" And he held up his creation.

"It's really simple."

Said the master chef.

Edited 2016-09-14 04:39 (UTC)

Jade scooped some rice into his hands and the grains stuck to his hands instantly. Instead of being able to shape the rice into a ball by the rice sticking to itself, it decided to coat his palms.

"....Well now, this doesn't seem quite right. And how did you not have this happen to yourself?"

"Heh--" There was a bit of a laugh.

"You have to keep your hands wet, or else it will stick everywhere." He plucked the blob of rice from Jade's hands, finishing it up into a presentable shape.

"Try again."

"I see. It must be the starch content." Jade went to a cabinet and plucked out a small saucer from it then went to fill it with lukewarm water.

He placed it near the bowl of cooked rice and wet his hands sufficiently. He scooped out another rice ball's worth of rice, pushed in some filling with a spoon, then began to mold it again.

The shape was there, but he handled it a bit roughly so the rice had mushed on the surface. Rice was surprisingly delicate when being handled in such a manner. It made him think that Watanuki must have had a naturally gentle touch. Not that such stringy limbs could be capable of harming anything easily, but those hands were certainly not clumsy.

"That's good!" He complimented after looking over the riceball Jade had created. Technical flaws, but things became easier with practice. He would never shoot down a potential student.

"Now we just need to make a lot more. Let me know if you need help." And with the instruction portion over, he got to work. His hands, with their gentle touch, were still fast at work, shaping the riceballs and wrapping them up easily, as if he had done it thousands of times. Perhaps he had. The onigiri were not only shaped perfectly but even of all equal sizes, as if he were a one-man factory. With each finished and wrapped onigiri, he tucked it into an open tote bag he used for shopping.

"If we keep getting wishes like this, I'll end up a very busy god." He glanced to Jade. "Which means you'll be a busy shinki."

Jade watched his hands work and he was going triple the speed he was. It was actually rather impressive. He must have spent a lot of time honing these skills.

Eventually, he just stuck to wrapping and packing.

"You sound excited about that. Are you eager to gather as many followers as you possibly can?" He inquired as he wrapped up an onigiri in plastic wrap.

"Not really." He glanced over to him as he set down a couple of more onigiri he made. The new system of Jade wrapping them up was working pretty well. He had to give him props for trying, of course. "...It's more like... a bonus, I guess. But if more follows means more offerings, then that means we'll be able to do more things for people.

"I may be a god, but I don't have the ability to just... materialize things out of thin air. Though that would be nice.

"And I can take better care of you. And the temple, too."

Edited 2016-09-17 01:26 (UTC)

Jade brushed off the fact that Watanuki just admitted wanting to take care of him. No need to bring up the sentimentality of it all. In fact, he just moved the conversation along back to what they were doing.

"Where and how are we going to distribute these?" he asked, holding up a full bag of rice balls.

He got away with it too, since it had just been an idle comment and not something Watanuki intended to be a conversation topic. The god seemed to consider it, before humming.

"We'll start off in the area the wish-asker lives in and distribute them there. After we've handed them off to everyone, we'll just go to other affected areas until we run out." He turned to Jade, stuffing the last few of the riceballs into one of the totes.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Quite" he replied with a nod. He pushed his long hair back and around his shoulder so that he can situate the tote on it properly.

He picked up the other tote, shouldering it. He took Jade's hand.

"All right, here we go." And there was a flicker, and soon they were at the Near Shore temple. He moved, releasing JAde's hand and moving along with him.

"We can walk a little. It's not far from here." He looked to Jade. "You probably need the exercise, anyway."

"I have plenty of exercise. The brain is the most important muscle, after all. Besides, with as much moving around you do, you can exercise enough for the both of us" he said with a playful undertone.

"IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT."

The two made it over to a busy street intersection. Like he suspected, there were several individuals on each corner soliciting money, or underneath a bridge sitting and talking. Their worldly possessions surrounded them.

Of course, Watanuki wasn;t sure what the etiquette for passing out food to the homeless was: what was he supposed to say? He tried to not think too much about it. After a moment of contemplation, he moved over to the large group first. With his slender build and elegant style of dress, he garnered their attention. He glanced around for a moment, before shuffling around in his bag.

"You all look like you could use something to eat. " And he pulled out one of the riceballs, holding it out to the closest person. "Is anyone hungry?"

There was a beat of silence, but them everyone started talking, calling out to him that they were hungry, and they'd like something to eat if he had anything. And there were suddenly people surrounding him, getting in line for a bite to eat.

"Some of these have fillings, so if you're allergic to anything, please let me know."

Jade watched all of the people clamor around Watanuki, wanting the food that he's offering. They were all filing in for some food, tired looking and hungry. It took a special kind of person to be able to be around people like this and not act too awkwardly.

He went over to Watanuki's side and passed him more totes when he ran out of one. He didn't care for the attention to be brought on himself and was content just being a quiet helper. Besides, the attention needed to be on the god rather than himself.

"Thank you very much." Someone replied when Watanuki handed them one of the filled riceballs. "It's like you answered our prayers."

Watanuki, who had just been handing them off and accepting the thanks without really acknowledging the praise, finally seemed to realize that he wasn't just doing this because he wanted to, because it was a job, he was really helping people. And this was the reward.

The young god blinked a few times. There was a pause, and then...

And small smile.

"Of course. I'm Guanyin, the God of Mercy and Compassion." And coming from his mouth, as people looked at him, taking his appearance over, no one spoke up to contest it. No one called him insane, or strange--they just accepted it, as if there could possibly be no other truth.

"...And I heard your wish, loud and clear."

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[ closed ] You Can't Build a Peaceful World

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