[closed]

[existentialcrisis]

Who: Tsuzuki and Ukoku (someone rescue Tsuzuki ok)
Where: Mahakala's temple
When: 4/22
What: Ukoku shares Sho's notes with absolutely 100% no ulterior motives.
Warnings: n/a probably



[ Amid dead trees and a barren garden consisting mostly of rocks, Ukoku's temple is faded with artificial age, easily identified by description and the kind of place to make an invited guest feel like a trespasser regardless. This is the main reason he waits for Tsuzuki outside.

Nothing about the place looks comfortable except him. He's leaning against a carved pillar, head bowed in apparent concentration, a tablet on one knee and a pad of paper on the other, exuding a lazy ease that suggests this is probably a good place to find him whether he's waiting for someone or not. ]

Comments

[sweetdeath]

Hey there! Nii, right?

[This place has a hell of a creepy vibe: Tsuzuki'd found himself hunching inside his coat and glancing nervously around as he approached the age-weathered temple in the dead garden. Man, Nii got the worst luck. Too bad; he'd sounded like a pretty nice guy over the phone.

He looked comfortable among the dead trees, though. Maybe he'd just gotten used to it.]

You could seriously use some color around this place. I'm Tsuzuki -- we talked on the phone about those notes?

[existentialcrisis]

[ He has the pen in his mouth when he looks up, and he mumbles around it: ] Yeah, hi!

[ —And belatedly takes it out as he stands, shuffling the papers and his tablet into a stack at his hip. ]

I told you it's not the best for company, right? [ He shrugs—now you know why!—and moves toward the open doors, beckoning Tsuzuki with a friendly wave of his hand.

The front hall is dark, narrow, and empty: the esteemed Mr. Bananas has been hidden under a cloth in another room in anticipation of a visitor. ]

We're working on lights, I think, and maybe some real living plants. I would've suggested a cafe, or something, but then you have to deal with the ayakashi, and—you know. [ Effort. ]

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, that gets old! There's a bar I found that's usually pretty good on the no ayakashi front, but the lighting's awful for getting any work done.

[Tsuzuki chuckles easily, following Ni into the temple. He gets the weird subconscious feeling that he should duck, even if he's no taller than the other guy; maybe it's the dark, or the narrowness of the little hallway.]

What kind of plants do you like?

[After all, he's got plenty around the place. He can spare a few.]

[existentialcrisis]

I don't know!

[ They pass by the atrium, an empty room with an open roof and a pool in the center of the floor surrounded by columns and black doorways; there are dim fluorescent lights ahead. ]

I have a few I need to put somewhere. [ A vague but whatever gesture. ] I'm not sure if the temple will like them. Those trees were dead when I got here; there might be a reason for that, you know? We'll see.

[ The kitchen is small and badly lit, all stainless steel except a carved wooden table and chairs that once were painted with bright colors. He's set up a wide flat screen on the side of the table closest to the wall. It's showing pictures of someone else's temple, covered in equations. Ukoku pulls open the fridge door to get himself a beer. ]

Do you want anything?

[sweetdeath]

Just water's fine. So ... what's your divine title, anyway? You just gave me your name earlier.

[There's no guarantee Tsuzuki'll recognize it. Most of them, so far, he doesn't. There's got to be some reason for all of the dead and weathered things around this temple, though. He sits at the table, leaning in toward the flatscreen and squinting intently at the photographs.]

This part right here.

[He stops just short of tapping the screen with his fingers, pointing instead.]

He was working on something that looked a lot like this way back in...

[Tsuzuki glances up at the ceiling, counting on his fingers. How long had it been?]

The second week of March? I remember it was a little before White Day.

[existentialcrisis]

You know, I think you're the first person who's actually asked. [ It's a pleasant observation, as if more people ought to. ] Mahakala. Not one version; the other version. [ Ha ha. He sets a glass of water in front of Tsuzuki and sits down with his beer. ]

I think I have that. [ He leans over to reach under the table, and comes up with a small stack of papers: it's BBS posts from Susano'o, printed and highlighted. Most of the posts made by respondents have been removed. ]

Late February. [ He sets the printouts between them. ] Or was it something else?

[sweetdeath]

Mahakala. That's -- uh.... Daikokuten, right? Unless you mean another version?

Man, I keep wishing I'd spent more time on theology.

[Tsuzuki laughs easily. That's a pretty big, scary name to wind up with, but as long as Ni doesn't turn out to be another Susano'o they should all be just fine. He glances at the printouts and shakes his head.]

It wasn't on the BBS. I actually ran into him at one of his temples painting sigils like this on the ground. He looked kind of messed up -- like he was burned, or taking nasty backlash from the spell. Whatever he was doing, I don't think it was working right back then.

[existentialcrisis]

Different Mahakala.

[ It's cheerful, and he doesn't linger on it. Daikokuten is a good name to be confused with, but overtly borrowing it could have ramifications. ]

So he was experimenting! Wow. That seems reckless. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. [ He leans forward and taps the screen, and a long note, crammed with phrases and equations, pops up in the corner. ]

Here's my little cipher. Really I'm just getting started, but he's got recipes for his special brand of ayakashi, some interesting theories on the nature of the universe, a lot of nice asides on how to improve Heaven with geometry, you know, for aesthetics… Oh, and it looks like he was trying to work out a way to fake his death.

[sweetdeath]

Seriously? You don't think he actually did, do you?

[Tsuzuki sure hadn't seen the body. He'd just heard that Susano'o had died. He squints in bewilderment at the note: magic, he can handle. Math is a lot more complicated, and this magic is blended all together with math in a way that makes it a lot harder to understand.]

He definitely was experimenting. I didn't know what it was before he came out with those messed-up ayakashi, but the patterns he was drawing were a lot like the ones on the ayakashi bodies.

[existentialcrisis]

I don't know if he'd really have been able to do it. I can think of a way he could have tried, but it wouldn't be easy to hide out without a shinki. Unless there's a stray who wouldn't mind working for him.

[ He pauses, mulling over that. ]

It would give them an advantage.

[sweetdeath]

He was a jerk, but that doesn't mean he couldn't have sweet-talked some shinki. He used to have a really quiet one he called Picowatt who seemed pretty much okay with him, for one.

[Tsuzuki traces a couple of lines of the note, lips moving as he tries to work something out. There's something about that sigil....]

I think some of this stuff I'd have to experiment with to see if I could get it to work.

It doesn't look like a really healthy thing to experiment with, though, if the shape he was in means anything.

[existentialcrisis]

Why would you want to experiment with it?

[ There's nothing judgmental in the question; the look he gives Tsuzuki is neutral. ]

Just to see if you could do it the right way?

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, pretty much! And to see if I'm actually understanding it right. I could try guessing about what something this complicated was supposed to do all day and not get anywhere.

[He shrugs, folding his arms on the table.]

I wouldn't want to make any more of those screwed-up ayakashi, though. If Susano'o didn't fake his death, then he definitely got killed for it, and the Heavens are starting to sound kind of touchy about picking out his allies.

[Curiosity's a powerful force, but "not getting killed" is a stronger drive right now, especially when there's a shinki depending on him. He can't abandon Battler like that... or, worse, put Battler at risk too.]

[existentialcrisis]

[ Ukoku leans back in his chair with a thoughtful hum of agreement, frowning at the screen. ]

Who was it that was telling everyone to stop asking questions, Fuujin? I've been wondering if it was wise of me to volunteer for this. I'm not really worried about myself, but I wouldn't want anything to happen to my shinki over, you know, not keeping things from Amaterasu. Anyway—I'd think you could experiment with whatever you want on the Near Shore, given that they had no idea what he'd done there until it was brought to their attention.

[sweetdeath]

That's it. God of the winds.

... Be careful, Ni. We've had a lot of people go missing. Not like avoiding getting tangled up in stuff you shouldn't mess with keeps you safe, but getting into this stuff could really hurt your odds.

[He sighs, tracing one of the odd swirled lines with his fingertip on the table's surface.

There's something more to that than just the artwork, he can tell, but he doesn't know what it is.]

Maybe so. The Near Shore's a dangerous place to mess with that kind of stuff, though -- that's where you're the most likely to run across random ayakashi.

[existentialcrisis]

That is a problem. [ He pauses, sipping his beer. ]

Can I ask you kind of a personal question? [ And he's either going to say 'yes' or 'what is it,' so Ukoku doesn't wait for an answer: ] What are you doing here? I mean, what are you focused on? What do you want to accomplish?

[sweetdeath]

That's a good question. [Tsuzuki looks up, not at anything in particular: his gaze is distant as he considers it.]

... When I got here I thought it was a pretty good deal. I was just a god of death before. Here, I wanted to spend my time on making sure the people who relied on Tajimamori got their prayers granted.

Or get back their real god for them, maybe.

But with everything that's going on, right now I think it's more important to sort things out in Heaven.

So... if I try to do that, I'm going to have some enemies. Any power we new gods can get on our side might make the difference between holding out long enough to get answers and getting squashed by the Heavens.

[existentialcrisis]

[ Just a god of death. Ukoku was rocking back in his chair when he said it, balancing on its back legs. He paused for a heartbeat, and the lip of the bottle clicked against his teeth, but then it passed, and he was tipping the chair back again while he listened to Tsuzuki, placid and thoughtful.

He doesn't answer immediately. ]

I think it would be best not to make any enemies. There's someone here who can have any one of us removed at will, and every time one of us gets replaced, we'll have to wait for the replacement to come to the same conclusion. I think eventually everybody will, but it's like you said: we need every advantage.

[sweetdeath]

Okay, I mean, I'm not going to be trying to make enemies, but if anybody figures out I'm looking into this, well -- somebody's responsible for it.

Whoever that is, they're not going to be happy if we get close.

[He shrugs awkwardly, and squints at the screen again, pointing out a set of lines that looks half-familiar.]

... Did you have any other pictures of this bit here?

[existentialcrisis]

[ Ukoku leans in to pull up thumbnails and sits back, gesturing to the screen: all yours. ]

I think you'll be fine, if you're careful. If they had a way to keep an eye on us they'd have caught Susano'o ahead of time. Shinki might be the most dangerous thing, actually. Mine's a good kid, but I'm not telling him any of this. Who knows what happens to gods when they disappear, but shinki were dead before they came here, you know? They have a lot to lose.

[sweetdeath]

Oh hey, thanks.

[Tsuzuki leans forward, examining the image. It's... it's weird. Parts of it look like the framework of an ofuda might, but only parts, and there's a lot there that just makes no sense.

It's probably beyond him without a lot of study, he thinks. It's drawing on way too many things he doesn't recognize.]

Some gods are dead too. And shinki don't have to be. My first shinki wasn't any more dead than I am.

[existentialcrisis]

Ah, that's right, I forgot about that. That makes it a little worse, doesn't it?

[ He reaches back for a drawer behind him—a typical kitchen junk drawer, for the most part, but there's an ashtray and a pack of cigarettes nestled between knives and spatulas. ]

I don't know if it's possible, but— [ he sets the ashtray on the table and starts to tap out a cigarette— ] what I want to do is get an audience with Amaterasu. To see who's around her. You don't mind, do you?

[ If he smokes, that is. He's already pulled a pink plastic lighter out of his pocket. ]

[sweetdeath]

Huh? Oh, no, that's fine. [He waves a hand, encouraging Ukoku to go on.]

Amaterasu hasn't been very responsive so far, but who knows? You might be able to get her to agree to a talk if you've got a good reason.

That sounds like it'd get you pretty far, just to know who might be involved. I did see Raijin and Fuujin showing up on her last network post, so they've gotta at least be a little involved with the administrative work.

[existentialcrisis]

[ He gestures to the screen. ]

I was thinking I might be able to use this to get into her, um, good graces, but she didn't even send her own shinki to pick everything up. I guess we'll see.

[ There's a slight pause, maybe a little awkward. He taps his fingers on his beer. ]

Can I ask you—when you say you were a god of death, what does that entail?

[sweetdeath]

Good luck.

[Tsuzuki sits back, wincing a little. Man, just looking at those kind of gives him a headache. It's enough to convince him that he really doesn't want to get too experimental: if he gets it even a little right, he'd be as singed as Susano'o.]

Well, it's a job. A little like being a shinki in this Heaven, if you want an example. We get recruited from the souls of the dead who have enough spiritual power, and we're in charge of -- well, it depends on your division! I was in Summons. We mostly make sure that people show up dead when they're supposed to.