thenearshore | 003 | Save The Boats

Who: Everyone!
What: It's a few days after Hinamatsuri - time for a party!
When: Late evening (March 5, 2016) into early morning (March 6, 2016)
Where: The banks of the Kamo River
Summary: The Heavens have thrown together an outdoor party to celebrate Spring and ALSO to ask the Far Shore residents to keep the boats from Hinamatsuri from coming to shore.

Hinamatsuri is celebrated in Japan on March 3 every year. It is a festival to celebrate all of the young girls of Japan, not as important as their own birthdays, but certainly a big day for all families with a little girl among their household. It's perfectly normal for all of the cuties to dress up and get all sorts of delightful treats out of the day.

One of the normal festivities is a ceremony during which ornamental dolls are placed on tiers on boats and floated down the river. It is thought that all of the bad luck for the coming year floats down the river with the dolls, taking that bad luck away from their young girls to keep them safe for another year.

But the boats don't always make it all the way down the river like they're supposed to, and the Heavens sometimes like to make sure that the year will be full of less bad luck for the people of Japan. So they have decided to have the almighty gods do some legwork and disguised it as a fun Springtime party! They expect gods and shinki alike to push the boats away from the shoreline wherever they see them venturing near.

New gods and shinki will have been ushered immediately to the party as well, given all of the normal information, and then left to mingle among their new cohorts. This is a perfect opportunity to introduce the newbies to both their co-workers and the kinds of jobs they'll be expected to perform.

Buffet

A luxurious buffet is set up for everyone to enjoy. There are all kinds of foods to enjoy, though they all seem to be of a local variety. The Heavens have apparently used the funding from their own temples to purchase local food and support local businesses at the same time. In particular among the food and copious amounts of booze, you will find some Hinamatsuri staples - hina-arare, hishi mochi, chirashizushi, and a salt-based clam soup called ushijiru. Among the booze you'll find shirozake, a sake made from fermented rice, also a regular fare of Hinamatsuri.

The Boats

As if they are literally overflowing with bad luck, the boats seem to be making a desperate attempt to land themselves upon the shoreline. They are reluctant to make their way back into the water and will gladly run people down if they're allowed to and are happy to ram into someone over and over again to try and get their way. When they are finally pushed back to the center of the river, they will begrudgingly continue on their way. Of course, some of them will simply sink because of the weight of all that bad luck, but who can really blame them.

Children

As expected of a day dedicated to celebrating children, there are dozens of children running around and playing games during the festivities. It's hard to distinguish, but some of them appear to be human children while others are shinki. They are happy to let anyone in on their games and will gladly bother adults to come play with them or to let them try some of the liquor. (Mods will be available to play out any child interactions you may want, just flag us down.)

Counselling

Off to the side, there is a tiny table set up with a small, nicely written sign that reads "Gentle Counselling". On the other side of the table is a sweetly smiling shinki who is willing to listen to your problems and answer any questions you might have. She is also here to help out any gods that are having a hard time dealing with knowing about how their shinki died and any shinki that is having trouble coming to terms with the fact that they are dead.

In Summary:

Keep the boats off the shore
Enjoy the food and booze and spring atmosphere
Have some fun with cute little kids
Seek counselling if you need it!
Flag the mods in the top thread if you'd like an NPC
Have fun~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well that is true, but Hibari doesn't exactly use reasoning like that. He just didn't like the fact that he was almost killed because how could he be so weak? Truth be told he hasn't exactly been aiming to kill, but hasn't been holding back either.

And he couldn't stand the fact that this man almost killed him and now was running away. His punch hit the man in the face, even if it wasn't exactly forceful. "Do...you really...think...."

He was going to finish that statement, but Hibari couldn't seem to get enough oxygen into his lungs, especially with the physical exertion of trying to fight him. He still threw a few more blows, but his movements became more and more sluggish until he finally collapsed onto the ground.

Hakkai's monocle went flying with the impact of Hibari's fist on his face, but the blow wasn't hard enough to knock him over: his opponent was getting weak, and Hakkai didn't bother to block his next few blows. The last one, before Hibari collapsed, might not even bruise.

He waited a few seconds after Hibari's collapse before going to one knee to check his breathing and pulse. Was he conscious? Had Hakkai's attack damaged his throat?

Thanks to his injury, Hibari had been left unable to breathe properly at the moment, and him attacking Hakkai only exacerbated the issue. He had passed out on the ground, his breathing rather shallow. However, it was there and it was mostly regular. The pulse seemed rather weak, but at least his skin was regaining color.

It took nothing short of being in this state to stop Hibari from fighting.

Hakkai considered, for a moment, just leaving Hibari where he was. The odds were good that he would regain consciousness shortly and be able to speak and breathe again without pain within a day or two.

Guilt, though, jabed him too sharply not to do anything about this, and so he let out a long sigh and reached to scoop the boy into his arms. He'd seen a sign for counselling over to one side of the party earlier. Someone there could keep an eye on Hibari until he woke.

Absently, he filed the fact that he seemed to have some medical knowledge away with the tidbit about his own murderous reflexes. He was learning more about himself already.

Hakkai was correct-despite the still there marks around his neck, a few moments later the boy started coming around again, thoroghly confused by the situation. He seemed to be moving but Hibari didn't feel like it was under his own power. What...

Hakkai stopped at the edge of the counseling desk, and smiled at the young woman there. A shinki, perhaps? Or a god? He hadn't yet learned how to tell the difference unless a name was visible somewhere on their body, if indeed there was a way to tell.

"Excuse me, miss! Can you look after him? He should be waking up soon."

Before she had time to respond, in case the answer turned out to be no, he knelt next to the desk, setting Hibari gently down on the grass.

This time he definitely heard voices-the world was becoming a bit clearer with every step along the way. He barely remembered the fight, only hands reaching towards him and becoming incredibly angry, and Hibari was already disgusted with himself for allowing such weakness to overcome him.

He felt grass touch his back and his eyes shot open, hand reflexively grabbing onto the man's clothes above him. It was clear he wasn't quite aware of his actions, but that wasn't going to stop him.

"Ah. You're awake."

Hakkai stared down at the younger man, expression flat. It was a good thing that he'd recovered consciousness so quickly, of course.

He was just hoping that this wouldn't end in more thrown punches. His eye was swelling, and he was fairly sure it would soon be black.

Hibari didn't do anything for a little while, just staring up at the man, deathgrip on his clothes. He felt like he couldn't move in this state, like he was frozen in place as every single breath hurt.

It was a strange moment. Not one where Hibari's anger lessened any-no, it was still burning bright and strong in his eyes, but-

something else happened.

Pain didn't matter as he took in another breath to force his slightly hoarse voice out. "We'll finish this...later."

Hakkai let out a long-suffering sigh. "Yes, I'm sure."

He reached for the hand clenched in his shirt, attempting to pry it free. What was the boy so angry about? Had they known each other once?

In a polite tone, he added, "You can find me at Menrva's temple."

Hibari didn't know a lot of things about himself either, but what he did know was that he absolutely hated to lose and be defeated so easily by another. And he wasn't...going to let this go.

He probably even owed the man one for dragging him wherever he was, but Hibari was just going to let that one go. He did try to kill him...

"Fine." The Cloud Guardian finally let his hand drop onto his chest, where he closed his eyes, deciding he didn't want to be awake for the rest of the night.

Well, Hakkai thought to himself, this was going to come back to bite him later, he was certain of it.

When that happened, he would deal with it, he supposed.

He straightened up, turned, and headed away without a backward glance.

003 | Save The Boats

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