[open] the weight of your hand in mine

[cyberfly]

Who: Nagi and open
What: A date, a mission, a delivery and in between.
When: May 8-11
Where: A festival somewhere in the Near Shore; a school; temple of Diana
Warnings: n/a


[ooc: Prose always welcome! Will match style. For open post, feel free to stop in at any point in his starter. :) ]


[open] May 11: Floating boxes

[ There's a post office box that Nagi keeps for deliveries such as these, for the kinds of things you can't just walk into a regular store and purchase. Today the package contains some things he got for his god Omi. A few throwing darts, a carrying strap for the same, a quiver of arrows, and a self-cocking pistol crossbow in die cast aluminum alloy. Omi once mentioned that these were the weapons of his choice before he became a god. It stands to reason that he should have them here.

Nagi enters the post office. It's not too busy at this time of morning. He removes the packages from his mailbox like it's any other delivery. Unless you have x-ray vision, no one would ever know the lethal things they hold. They are a bit bulky though, so he'll have to float them. Shinki might be invisible to Near Shore folk, but boxes unfortunately, are not. Do boxes become invisible if they're attached to a shinki? Maybe they do.

And so he walks down the street of Tokyo, seemingly carrying two large boxes with one hand, heading toward the shrine of Diana.

At some point, he crosses through the park and pauses at a street vendor who sells coffee and pastries. He sets the boxes down on the path and studies the menu. ]

I'll have a cappuccino.


[closed: Tot] May 8: Call me, maybe

[ She wants revenge, she said. Nagi didn't ask for specifics, but he didn't have to. If she wants his help, she can tell him. He's already offered. He doesn't remember what it is he used to do when he was a human, but he does know that whatever she needs, he can deliver. Somehow, he'd rather she asked him to take care of it, if only because he gets a strange sense of foreboding when he wonders how she'd fare with the task on her own. He doesn't doubt her combat abilities; he knows it's not something you can judge by looks alone. But there's just something about it ...

But today is not the day to plan out a revenge killing. No, today they're going to see each other and ... do what, exactly? Nagi isn't sure. He just suggested they see each other again, and she agreed. So here they are. It's a mild Sunday afternoon in May, and people are out enjoying the weather and milling through the streets with no particular destination in mind.

Nagi had just chosen a direction at random after they traveled over from the Far Shore. Anyway, the crowd seems to be moving toward something downtown. ]

Um. So how have you been...?


[closed: Ken] May 9: A mission in black and white

[ Some kid gets bullied at school because he's the worst player on the team. A plea is made, and someone has to answer.

Why Nagi got selected for this mission, he could not say. He is fairly certain he's never played soccer in his life. Not that he can remember. He has a feeling he's going to be just as helpful as he was in the last mission he went on -- that is to say, not at all. In that mission, they had to console a woman whose daughter was missing for over a year and obviously now dead (in Nagi's opinion). Omi spent tedious amounts of time giving her false hope. It was a pointless act in futility that Nagi still does not comprehend.

He hopes for this mission's sake that his partner is better at this sort of thing than he is. Even if it is a stupid prayer, he would like to fulfill its parameters successfully.

He waits at the appointed location in front of the junior high school gate, watching for the pair of eyes that actually stop on him, as only a Far Shore person's would. ]


[closed: Omi] May 11: A practical gift

He transports himself back to the temple of Diana with his packages in hand. He normally enters the house from the side, to go straight to the guest house where he lives. Today he comes in from the front main entrance. The boxes float in front of him as he glances around to see where he can set them down.

Omi never asked for the stuff. Nagi got them anyway, if only because he should be well equipped. Water manipulation can be a powerful ability, but somewhat inconvenient if you're not near a fluid source. If his god were to ever be in combat, he should have the best weaponry at his disposal.

A crossbow was relatively rare, but in Nagi's opinion, they could be quite useful. Not as loud as a gun and more difficult to trace back to a particular model. He tried to locate the most compact type, which ended up being a pistol crossbow. The cocking mechanism was automatic, which was a handy feature as well.

Comments

[savemeomi]

[ She'd been lurking around Diana's temple for the past few days, partially to watch Diana himself, and partially because she was curious about his shinki.

But to Ouka's dismay, Nagi is surprisingly difficult to track down. She's only ever caught small glimpses of him, and not nearly enough to get any impressions. Did he have some sort of back door he came and went from? Was he on to her snooping somehow? He couldn't possibly be such a recluse that he just never left the house...

To her great luck, however, she spots the boy one day, walking toward a street vendor with packages in his hand. What was that saying about... not looking and things coming to you?

She slides in line after him, and listens closely to his order. Though... not really getting any information out of that either. Still, while she's here, she might as well order something for herself. She can drink and stalk watch at the same time. ]

A hot chocolate, please!

[cyberfly]

[ He notices her, of course. Nagi is observant all the time, even on the Near Shore, where he's virtually invisible. And what he does observe is how she's looking but not looking at him. That's the sort of thing that Far Shore folk do, when they encounter others of their kind in the human realm.

He wonders if her curiosity is just because of that, or something else.

The barista takes his order and Nagi steps to the side by the espresso machine to wait for them to make his drink. he glances at her directly. If she really is from the Far Shore, she would find it strange, wouldn't she? ]

[savemeomi]

[ She's trying her best to look aloof. That's what private investigators do, isn't it? Sneak around and look like they're not looking at their target.

Except, then he looks at her, and as their eyes meet, Ouka suddenly freezes. She's suddenly not quite sure what she'd hoped to accomplish here.

Was not prepared for this at all.

Thankfully, she's fairly good at thinking on her feet. After a moment of wide-eyed surprise, she springs to action, relaxing into a friendly smile and a wave. ]

[cyberfly]

[ A real investigator would have pretended their eyes met by accident and played it off. This girl is not a real investigator. Not that Nagi thought she was to begin with. Call it a hunch.

He blinks when she smiles and waves at him. Nagi's not much of a smiler. Or a waver. He nods instead, somewhat curiously. ]

Have I seen you somewhere before...?

[savemeomi]

[ Errr.... has he? She's been pretty sneaky around Diana's house. Though it really didn't matter, because she'd barely caught glimpses of him. ]

Probably not.

[ Still, though. Hasn't his god at least mentioned her??? ]

But maybe you've heard of me~? [ Because she's important, yo. ] Ouka Sakaki.

[cyberfly]

[ Maybe he did see her around Diana's temple. Nagi is pretty observant of his surroundings, after all. But she must not have registered as a particular threat, since he can't exactly place her. He would have remembered, otherwise. ]

I haven't, [ he says rather flatly. Sorry Ouka, Omi hasn't said a word. ]

Should I have?

[whereyoulead]

[Ken's got the soccer ball Youji had given him/kicked in the general direction of his head and is carrying it under one arm--this was something he felt pretty good about.

He doesn't know who he's working with--not Tot, she's off doing something else--but this should be fun.

There's someone standing by the gate, conspicuously ignored by everyone around him. Ken grins and waves.]

Hey!

[cyberfly]

[ He spots the guy before he says anything. Partly it's because the guy looks directly at him. But also because Nagi has seen him before, at the picnic a little while ago. ]

You're Ken. [ It's not really a question; he knows this is his name from when they gave Nagi the assignment. He doesn't smile or wave back, but he does at least offer a brief nod. ]

[papas_bunnydoll]

[Honestly, Tot didn't care where they were going or what they were doing today. All that mattered was that Nagi wanted to see her again. That was all she needed to be happy.

As it was, that was all she'd been thinking about for the past few days. The gardens around the temple might have gotten an extra dose of happiness and sunshine.]

Really good. Tot got to help answer a prayer the other day. It was fun!

[cyberfly]

A prayer?

[ One of the missions they give gods and such. He's been on a few. Nagi isn't really sure what to make of them, really. Mostly, humans seem to ask for the strangest things. Nagi knows that if he actually believed in gods that could grant you things, he would ask for something that might actually have pragmatic purpose. ]

What kind of a prayer?

[papas_bunnydoll]

[She doesn't have much in the way of opinions regarding how good or useful some of the prayers they've been given are. Her whole understanding of what they're supposed to do comes down to help people and kill monsters. She can do both of those.]

We convinced someone to stay quiet so a baby could sleep.

[Well, that was the idea. They actually crashed a party, destroyed property, and beat up the party goers causing just as much noise as they were trying to silence.

They tried?]

[cyberfly]

[ Nagi nods. That sounds a bit mundane. He wonders why humans pray for things that they can probably take care of on their own. Though at least this one is a much more practical request. The prayer that Omi took him on was not very useful to anybody. Omi didn't think so, but Nagi knows. ]

What's your shinki like?

[papas_bunnydoll]

[It was something they could do which was the main point. And a good starting job for the two of them to get used to working together.]

His name is Ken and he's really nice. He's been teaching Tot how to make flower wreaths and crowns. And he doesn't treat Tot like a little kid, or weird. He even talks to Rabbi-chan!

[Which is a big deal, okay?]

[cyberfly]

[ The crowd seems to be headed toward the shrine up ahead. There's something festive going on up there, evident from the cheery voices and the smell of grilled meats and sweet taiyaki cakes wafting through the air. Maybe Tot might want to take a look? He leads them subtly in that direction. ]

He knows how to make flower wreaths?

[ For some reason, that's the part that gets his attention? ]

[oneblackcat]

Omi looks up from the living room sofa where he's parked with his laptop, browsing the BBS while enjoying some coffee and the late morning sun filtering through the windows. It's less a surprise to see Nagi and more of one to see Nagi with packages. He blinks and moves the laptop to an empty seat cushion so he can stand up.

"What's this? Is everything okay...?"

[cyberfly]

The boxes come to a stop on the floor. Packaging tape methodically gets peeled off, floating up in strips that eventually will get crumpled up and set aside, to be tossed into a trash bin later.

"Everything is fine."

He hopes, anyway. He hasn't had a chance to take a look at the equipment to make sure it's all in working order.

"These are for you."

[oneblackcat]

Omi watches in befuddlement as the boxes unwrap themselves (it's still so weird to see Nagi's telekinesis in action).

"For me...?"

At that, Omi steps in closer, trying to peek in to see what's inside. And as it becomes visible, he's simply rendered speechless.

His weapons.

Okay, they weren't his exact weapons straight from home, but they were the weapons he used. Darts that could be filled with poison. A compact folding crossbow and a holster for extra arrows. Nagi got these for him? With his own money? It's a profound gesture, especially from someone who, to that day, Omi still had difficulty feeling safe around. He looks back up to meet Nagi's eyes.

"Thank you..."

[cyberfly]

Whether he got them with 'his own money' is arguable, but Nagi isn't going to mention that unless directly asked. Something tells him Omi isn't going to, however.

"I thought you might need them," he says as he watches Omi carefully.

[oneblackcat]

Omi sits down in the floor by the box to take out the crossbow and look it over. 80-lb draw, fold-up crosshairs, self-cocking, aluminum bolts. It's a high-quality crossbow.

"Yeah... They'll be really good to have. Especially now. This means a lot to me."

And it leaves Omi feeling a little uncomfortable again, though this time it isn't about Nagi's presence, but about something inside himself.

Has he ever truly given Nagi a chance? They've worked together. He's shared the temple with him. He's treated him with civility. But he's never gotten to the point he actually trusts him. And that trust felt even more tenuous now with Schuldig around. Omi is no fool; he knows Schuldig would like to have Nagi aligned with him again. He also knows that Schuldig is sneaky enough to try to do it behind his back, and might even succeed with Nagi's cooperation.

And yet here is Nagi giving him some extra protection against an attack. Weapons that are familiar and reassuring to have around. Weapons he can take with him without being conspicuous. Weapons he's most likely to use... against the two people here that Nagi had the closest bonds with while alive.

This entire situation is so wrong.

[cyberfly]

He says it means a lot, and yet Nagi thinks he seems unnerved. Was this a mistake? Acquiring weapons for people doesn't feel inherently wrong to him. He finds it difficult to measure these sorts of things against societal standards.

To him, this is about being prepared. If Omi dies, it would be inconvenient for Nagi right now. Omi should therefore be better equipped to defend himself.

"Is that right model?"

May 9

[volksdaemon]

[Schuldig's not up to much today. He's recovering from getting his face kicked in yesterday. Godly healing means it's not openly bleeding anymore, but there's solid bruises. So if he's going to do anything today, he'd rather it be without much public-facing interaction. That means checking in on Nagi is his preferred priority.]

'Hey. Any news about that gun?'

[Because picking it up would improve his mood tremendously.]

[cyberfly]

[ He wonders whether there's a knock feature in these sorts of communications. It would be nice to have some forewarning before he has someone's voice in his head.

Fortunately for Schuldig, Nagi is ready for him. ]

'I have a few.'

[volksdaemon]

[Schuldig laughs.]

'Knocking, huh? Not really... but I can tap your hand I guess.'

[Only for Nagi. And only because his mouth is still smarting for not using a knock feature on Jae-Ha.]

'Oh good, like my birthday come early. Where should we meet?'

(we can switch to prose if you like btw!)

[cyberfly]

[ How do you tap someone's hand telepathically? But anyway. Nagi is already packing up his laptop and other equipment in his messenger bag in preparation for meeting up. ]

'Somewhere private.'

[ You know, guns are kind of illegal. He's not sure about Far Shore, though. But probably frowned upon. ]

nah, at this point everyone's using them and consistency is helping

[volksdaemon]

[Trigger the part of the brain that imagines the hand being tapped, basically.]

'Well that would be my temple, but I'd need to get you here.'

[ He starts by teleporting closer to where Nagi is currently, around the corner and down the street. Either he's doing a quick tele-pickup, or they'll be meeting nearby anyway. ]