thenearshore | 007

[Shun's only real experience with the higher-ups' shinki are Amaterasu's, so the idea that there are some that actually willingly talk to them gets a more incredulous look from him than anything.]

I don't know either of them. Who's their god, anyway? It's Amaterasu's and the soulless ones I keep ending up running into out of those ones.

[And though his soulless shinki is useful enough, the idea of a living weapon that doesn't question him at all, ever is not something he at all appreciates.]

The question is how long you can keep a rebellion under the radar from gods when you're in the heavens.

I think Kazuma's Bishamon's lead or something like that. Yukine, I've got no clue. We haven't exactly talked that much yet.

[He tilts his head towards Shun, tossing him a dry look.]

You know how not to keep one quiet? Chat about it on the steps of the main hall. Hey, if you've got ideas, hit me up sometime, though.

[He thinks he might have heard that first god's name before, but it doesn't really help, because he's never met Bishamon anyway. In any case, he dismisses the thought for the moment. If he runs into either of them now, at least he'll be aware of what they are.

Shun returns the dry look just as hard, glancing over to the main hall.]

If they're that bothered about it even being mentioned, they'll just make themselves look worse and give reasons to people who don't already have a reason to distrust them.

Yeah, and that'll do us a whole lot of good, won't it.

[Mostly, he'd just rather not get killed. He shrugs, getting to his feet and dusting off his hands.] Nice reasoning, but I wouldn't say whoever's running things around here is all that sharp.

A larger rebellion means they can't stamp it out so easily.

[Apparently, Shun's opinions on getting killed in the process of rebellion are a little looser. He's already almost been killed multiple times in the process of the one in his home world.]

I'd agree there. They don't seem to have any idea how to run this place, let alone whatever their domains are.

Yeah, well, I'd still have a problem with the part where I get squashed like a bug.

[He shrugs casually, turning his attention away from Shun to the fire again as he strolls down a few steps.]

Most people aren't going to rebel if they think putting one toe out of line gets them squashed, too. It works well enough.

If you go against people with power, you expect to brush with death. That's just how it is. You have to rise up again, or if you do fall, trust in your comrades to rise in your stead.

[He says it like it's complete fact that anyone should know, and to him, it is - it's been a basic fact of his life for the last two years. His eyes are still on the fire, but from the sudden hardness to his expression, it's clear he's taking this extremely seriously.]

I doubt a rebellion of that sort would fix this place, anyway. The heavens just need to know they can't keep acting like they're unaccountable for their actions.

Or maybe you take some basic precautions so you can get things done. What's the point in fighting if it's not to get yourself and your friends out the other side in one piece?

[You say it like it's a fact, Shun, but that's just, like, your opinion, man. Of course going up against powerful enemies can get people killed; in Axel's opinion, that's why it's important to be careful about it. Dead men don't get victory parties. Dead men get forgotten.]

I don't want to rock the boat too much, but I'm not just going to sit around and wait to get disappeared, either.

[He snorts, and waves a hand casually in dismissal of the topic.]

Not like I know who's doing it, so I might as well not bother talking big.

You can't always get everyone out the other side that easily. You can take them back from the enemy, but expecting to win a fight without losing anyone in the first place is naive.

[It might be his opinion, but he's been living it for the last two years, and the kind of powerful enemy he was up against didn't give most of the civilian (or Resistance, for that matter) population of his city much of a choice but to die.

Nonetheless, it's pretty obvious that if they keep going this way, it's just going to start an unnecessary fight. Despite all his talk, Shun's not exactly planning to rock the boat either - he just wants them all organised and ready instead of having the heavens seemingly not giving a damn and everyone else just seeming to go along with it.]

True. Assuming it's not the heavens, but there wouldn't be a hell of a lot of point bringing us just to send us away again.

We don't even know if it's the heavens bringing us in. They're making us welcome, but I don't remember getting any kind of "hey, we brought you here to help out" speech.

Maybe shinki just don't get that info! What about you -- did you hear any different?

[It's stupid to talk about reasons for fighting, when it sounds like what Shun's saying is more like "if the fight's important enough you've got to be prepared," and Axel just doesn't think any fight's more important than keeping people safe.

Too bad nobody's safe if they don't fight, he thinks, and scowls absently.]

[Another reason he doesn't really like the heavens - he might complain about the lack of information gods get, but shinki get none at all as far as he's seen. With a slight, frustrated hiss, Shun gives a a noncommittal tip of the head.]

Gods do get more information, but not a hell of a lot. We're supposed to be here to help people and answer prayers and whatever else, but the heavens never specifically mentioned it was to help them.

[But as far as he's concerned, that's just them avoiding putting any actual responsibility on the table for what's happening.]

Sounds to me like it's helping them out, all right. It keeps anybody's faith from wavering while they're figuring out the problem.

And faith means power for gods, right?

[It stands to reason. If nobody cares about a god, that god's not going to make much of a splash in the hierarchy. If people stop caring because their prayers aren't getting answered... that'd screw over the Heavens. Right?]

If humans are having faith in us, and we're standing in for what those higher gods are supposed to be doing, that would only weaken them and strengthen us.

[Honestly, that's another reason it feels kind of strange to be the ones standing in for this sort of thing. Humans pray to certain gods, and if the higher-ups don't generally respond to that sort of thing, surely that affects their power.]

So you're not wrong, but I think it's an individual thing, not a group one.

[Axel makes a dubious noise.]

Maybe. I don't know for sure how it works for gods, but when you think about it from a human perspective, one person might have faith in more than one god, right? Like, they believe in the power of the heavens overall. Say they pray to, I don't know, a love goddess for their crush to ask them out and their prayer gets answered. That strengthens their faith. Right? But if their prayer gets blown off, they might lose faith across the board. It's not just like everybody's got this one set amount of faith and they're dividing it up between gods.

[He waves his hand in illustration, scowling deeply. Philosophical bullshit isn't his specialty, but when it comes to philosophical bullshit that might actually affect gods' power, well, that's not bullshit anymore. That's motive. It's worth understanding, and maybe a god can give him pointers on how it works from their perspective.]

[Shun looks a few shades disbelieving, but he can see the logic there even if that's not how he thinks it works.]

But if you pray to that goddess and have your prayer answered by that goddess, you'd focus more on that goddess, even if it did affect your faith in the heavens in general. And anyway, if it affected us all the same, that could be a risk for the higher-ups. They have a headstart on us on power and experience, but if we don't already have the advantage in numbers, we will soon.

[If they're trying to keep themselves in power, spreading faith across all of them when more and more new gods are coming in doesn't seem like the smartest way to do it.]

No, look. If you pray and your prayers don't get answered, that's the real problem, right? We're just here patching over the hole from the real gods going missing.

[He hadn't thought about it this way before, really. But wouldn't it be a genuine threat to the entire Heavenly structure if prayers stopped getting answered and followers started losing their faith?]

And there's no way we've got a numbers advantage. There are tons of them here -- you've seen all these temples -- and maybe, what, four or five dozen new gods? Tops? It's just most of the old ones don't bother with us.

It is, but that doesn't mean people are going to favour the specific god that answers a little more. People don't normally pray to the whole of heaven, and there's a huge amount of pantheons represented here - if someone's praying to an Egyptian god, why would that give them any reason to believe in someone from the Greek or Roman or whatever other pantheon?

[Especially since religion does tend to be a little single-minded, in his experience. So many people seem to believe that if you have faith in one pantheon's existence, it precludes any others.

Shun doesn't normally deal in the theoretical and philosophical, so this is new to him as well, but he seems to be considering it fairly deeply even if the speed with which he responds makes it hard to tell.]

And have you seen how many of those are empty? I've been through more empty temples than I'd give a damn about counting today, not to mention it's impossible to tell whether an old or new god inhabits a temple unless you check yourself. I'm not saying there might not be a lot of them, but if our numbers keep growing and theirs stay static we're going to pass eventually.

I don't know a whole lot about where any of these gods come from. [He shrugs carelessly and gets up to his feet, wandering back towards the fire as it starts to burn low.]

Anyway, though, I think they'd just kill us all if we weren't doing them some good.

[Well, both of those are reasonable points, and Shun takes a few steps back towards the fire as well with a moderately thoughtful air.]

I knew the basics before I came here, but I've been trying to learn what I can since then. I don't make a habit of being badly informed.

[He went into another dimension in that state once before, and ended up cutting down civilians because of it. It's not something he has a particular interest in repeating.

There's a bitter laugh before he responds to Axel's last observation.]

That sounds right to me.

I learned a thing or two about the goddess I got assigned to, plus her divine... siblings, I guess. Everybody else, though? I haven't done the reading yet.

[He picks up a twig that's gotten lodged between a couple of the paving stones, tossing it into the dying fire.]

Maybe I should, if it'd help me figure out what it really is they've got us here for.

A pantheon? I've seen some people discussing that sort of thing on the network, but I only saw the Greek ones actually seeking the others out.

[Since he's serving as an Egyptian god, it's not so relevant to him, though he is on good terms with at least one other person from his own pantheon.

Shun gives a slight shrug, watching the fire flare up very slightly at the new fuel and then flicker back down again.]

It hasn't helped me figure that out yet. I can't even find any patterns among the gods I know of. If they're leaving a trail or choosing certain deities, they're covering their tracks.

Mine's Greek. Anyway, I haven't spotted any particular patterns, but like I said, I don't know all these.

[He shrugs and dusts his hands off.]

Nice meeting you, anyway. Hey -- if you hear something interesting, drop me a line, okay?

I'll do the same if I stumble over any clues.

[As long as it's not likely to get Axel killed. This guy seems fearless... which can be a good thing when it's the right time to take risks, and a really shitty thing the rest of the time.]

I'm supposed to be an Egyptian god, and even if I know one other nobody's tried seeking us out. [Which is almost a surprise, given what Hajime is like.

With the fire dying and the things Shun had intended to get rid of gone, there is little reason to stay, and he steps back from the fading embers with a short nod.]

The more people looking out for that sort of thing, the better. We might actually find something eventually.

[His tone is a little bitter at the end there, but that's mostly because as many people as he's already asked, things have been pretty unproductive so far.]

It's worth a shot.

[With a quick smirk, he turns himself to start back towards the main hall. There's more stuff to drag out to burn, after all.

Interesting guy, Shun. Axel'll have to look him up later and see if he has found anything.]

Right.

[As Axel turns away, so too does Shun, back towards the other temples. He's been trying to avoid the main hall for the most part, barring small dips in now and then. He figures this is enough to count for one.

They may not have exchanged much hard information, but it felt like a useful converation regardless.]

007 | OVERFLOW

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