thefarshore | [Video] About Ablution

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[Video] About Ablution

From: Kairi & Yukine
Date: Dusk on July 8, 2016

[ Kairi and Yukine both look worn out and stressed. They'd each been holding a Borderline active for a very long time, relatively speaking, on top of the emotional strain of the confession they heard and the empathy they tried to give back.

The backdrop will tell anyone who knows the area that they're not far from Hakkai's school, just not directly inside it anymore. Kairi speaks first. ]

This message is for my fellow shinki specifically, although I hope gods will be sensitive to this as well. I know that we as shinki struggle with the knowledge that our gods can feel things we feel. It's not something we can change, though. The biggest thing they can feel from us... is guilt. You might have heard it called by another name: blight.

Blight is... it's like this acid on your skin. It hurts. Guilt makes the blight appear, but you can also get it by touching someone who's blighted. That goes for touching blighted gods and shinki both, but it also goes for touching ayakashi, which are nothing but blight. There's a way to reverse really bad blight - the guilt kind, because holy water can fix the kind you get by touching someone.

It's called an ablution. It's not easy and it's definitely not painless and it requires the support of your god as well as three strong shinki friends.

[ She'd started to get a little hysterical in her description of how much effort goes into an ablution, but then she pauses to take a breath. Her voice gets quieter, more purposeful. ]

... I need you all to hear this: I have witnessed two ablutions now, and participated in one of them. It's awful what someone has to go through during that, and it's awful to watch it too.

So please, if you start to feel some blight, don't hide it and refuse to talk to your shinki or god about it. It doesn't just go away like a bad cold. It gets worse and worse and worse.

[Yukine edges into frame, the bags under his eyes and tight expression worth more than a few words on their own.]

I've been telling you guys from the start to get along with your gods. This is a part of it... a part I'd hoped none of you'd have t' see. But it's happened.

When you do something you feel guilty over, admit it. Pretending to smile and acting like everything's fine does neither you or your god any good. Talk about it, fight about it. [He gives a jagged smile as he adds in a low voice,] You can go a bit crazy. Gods don't die so easily.

But after getting it all off your chest then apologize and start fresh.

... Shinki are spirits. We're just across the line from ayakashi. We're human... none of us are perfect. The darkness... is always by our side. So be careful. Don't let it in.

... Damn. That's all I have to say. I'm going to go sleep for a few dozen hours now.

[ Kairi leans a little then, like she would have given Yukine a hug but thought better of it, so he gets a shoulder lean instead. ]

Yukine brought up a good point too. Since our gods feel all this stuff, but "don't die so easily"? They're basically going through the ablution too. They're hurting just like their shinki is.

[ But she doesn't leave the focus on Yukine by that point, knowing without voicing it that he'd been on the other side of the ablution before. That had come up earlier today. So she stands back up straight and pulls her phone back so that he can leave. It's getting late, after all. ]

So that's our warning. Please take care of yourselves and your shinki friends. And please be understanding if you see some blight, offer to help with it or tell someone who can help. I know it's scary.

Thank you.

[[OOC: Both Yukine and Kairi can respond to this BBS post, but if you'd like one of them specifically you can ask for it in the subject line or tag.

Chronologically, this happens not long after Hakkai's Ablution.]]

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That's great, and a relief.

I've looked through what's been said above and yes, it does clear up some things, but if there are more in-depth things that you could tell me I'd be grateful to meet up with you if you wouldn't mind sparing me some of your time.

Sure, I don't mind.

[His day is going to be completely full of talking to people about ablution. That kinda sucks, but better to get it over with.]

[[ooc: skipping the details, let's have them meet in a certain park on the Far Shore in the late afternoon.]]

See you then.

---

[Yukine arrives only a couple minutes before the meeting time, having come from another meeting. At least he's not late. Because the guy's initial post had been video, it's easy for him to recognize the blonde-haired guy near the meeting spot.

Walking over he raises a hand in greeting.]

Hi, I'm Yukine.

[ Even if it's not fun to talk about, knowing about it is pretty important. It's useful information and if at lest a few more people know how to do it properly, it might lighten the burden on the few who already does know it in case it becomes necessary to do it again.

Punctuality is pretty important, so coming early is pretty good. At least one's not late that way, and D2 arrived a little earlier than the set time as well. ]

Hi, I'm Carl, please call me D2. It's nice to meet you, Yukine.

[ Yukine already saw his real name, but D2 prefers being called D2 for reasons he doesn't know and has not thought about very much. It is what it is. Even if he's been told it's a pretty peculiar name to be called. ]

[‘Weird’ with the newbies is just the norm now. Other than a slight raise of an eyebrow at the name he makes no comment over it.

Gesturing over to a bench he starts walking in that direction.]

So, I’ll just get right to it. Let’s sit down. Hopefully this won’t take long, unless you have a bunch of questions, but it’s still more comfortable.

First off, have you been here a while? You know about the blight an ayakashi gives?

[ If he ends up having questions he'll end up having questions. And if he doesn't have them right away he might contact Yukine at a later point, too. ]

Okay.

[ He sits down directly one the ground. It's not like it's a problem if his clothes gets a little dirty, anyway. ]

Since June 5th, so I've only been here a little over a month. And I know about it, yeah.

Okay. So there's that blight, but there's also blight that a shinki directly gives a god through their bond.
If the shinki does something bad that they feel guilty over, it stings their god. Now, if the shinki ends up feeling sorry for what they did and apologizing, then the blight can be washed off. But if the shinki isn't sorry, or even worse keeps doing stuff they know is wrong, it'll make the god even more blighted. And it can't be washed off because it's coming directly from the shinki.

The shinki gets blighted too. ...Eyeballs start growing on their back. But it doesn't hurt them... The shinki is basically starting to be corrupted into becoming an ayakashi. [No matter how many times he says it, it's still gross to talk about.]

And that's about where ablution comes in. You following me so far?

Edited (Thank you! ;;) 2017-05-12 20:36 (UTC)

Un. [ He nods. ]

So it’s about personal morals, and the shinki’s reaction to those morals? Something like that? [ He has actually taken out a pocket-size notebook and is writing down what Yukine is telling him. ] And if it gets really bad there are signs on the shinki’s body too. Eyes appearing sounds a bit creepy, but if nobody is available to see if someone has them growing, how do you know?

[Yukine blinks at him and turns that over in his mind for a moment.]

Uh, something like that? It’s actually more like… this is the way that gods learn what’s right and wrong, actually. But for you new guys, that doesn’t seem to be needed in the same way. Of course. ‘Cause everything about you new guys is so weird.

Anyway, the shinki can go a while without realizing it. I suppose if they knew that blighting their god badly like that would make eyes grow, they could check for themselves. But I don’t want to make all the new shinki paranoid either, giving them horror stories like this, you know?
[Ugh, this is getting complicated. He really should just keep to sticking with the basics.]

So once a shinki stings their god by that action and not being sorry for it, they can be put through ablution. Three shinki are needed to say the incantation and put the corrupted shinki in a purgatory. After that... the shinki has to confess everything they've done, and be really sorry for it. It- it's, as Kairi said, a horrible, awfully painful process. And like I said, the shinki confesses. It gets personal.

[Yukine pauses uncomfortably, then looks directly at D2 with complete seriousness.]

Listen, I don't want a shinki or god to get hurt because they didn't know about this stuff. But it's all preventable. No one should get to this point in the first place. And I don't want shinki thinking that because there is an 'easy' cure to that kind of blight that they can just keep stinging their gods. Because it's not an easy cure. Shinki should be terrified of going through that.

So I want you to treat this info seriously.

[ D2 is definitely taking all this info very seriously. He knows that no matter what, some people won’t, but he also thinks that a lot of people will take it seriously. ]

Does the original gods not know what’s right and wrong without shinki? That’s...sort of inconvenient.

Though making people paranoid might not be a good idea it’s not really a bad thing to let people know warning signs like that. They’d just have to throw a glance in a mirror to stave off the worry, and if they don’t know and accidentally get it and spot it it might scare them and some might not dare to ask anyone about them.

[ There are people like that. ]

It’s nice that you don’t want to scare them but there is a reason why stories adults tell children to make them be careful of this or that and such tend to involve things that scare them. Fear has to do with the survival instinct and helps with self-preservation and clearly we need some of that too, both for ours and their sake.

[ Because apparently, if shinki don’t take care of themselves they might hurt their god. ]

Prevention and precaution is always the best and it should never be ignored because there is a cure. There is a reassurance in the fact that it’s not the end if something does happen, but it shouldn’t make people use it as an alternative to being sorry about what they did and regretted in the first place.

It sounds awful, and people should know that it is. Most people don’t like talking about themselves or their more private thoughts or feelings and if anything, making sure they know all the consequences might help to make sure they don’t look upon ablution too lightly.

[Seriously, there are people like that?
Yukine listens, although his expression gets slightly more stubborn as D2 goes on. He feels like he’s being lectured at and he doesn’t like it… … but the guy has some good points. Darnit.
At the end he breathes out sharply.]

… You’re the second new guy that’s told me something like that. I don’t totally agree with it, but if it gets through to you new guys better… then maybe you should do that. Maybe new shinki can put it in a way that other new shinki can take seriously.

[ There are all kinds of people, so of course. But he isn’t intentionally lecturing him. He doesn't think he's in any position to lecture anyone. ]

Different things will work on different people, granted. Maybe it is easier for a new shinki to make another new shinki understand, but that doesn’t mean we won’t need your input or help.

[Whether he knows it or not, D2 knows where to hit Yukine where it matters.
No matter the circumstances, it's just so damn nice to be needed.]

Hmph. Of course you'll need my help.

If you're doing it, it's on you. But I'll help make sure that at least your facts check out or whatever.

Yeah, of course. I'm very grateful for it.

[ It is nice to be needed, isn't it? D2 would like to be needed and to be needed he has to be useful, right? And then he wants to learn everything he can, including about ablution. ]

Doing a fact check for things like this is pretty important. I want to be able to help if worse comes to worst.

Right, well, let’s try to make sure that it doesn’t get to ‘worst’ at all. Although, you new guys are good at pushing all the boundaries.

So if you’ve got some idea for getting through to them, I’ll back you.

I hope it won't, but the problem is that one never knows if it will happen or not. The only thing that can be done is to try to make sure it doesn't.

[ Nothing in life is certain, except death. And nothing in death is certain, except...maybe nothing? He doesn't know. ]

Are we?

[ He shrugs, a thoughtful frown on his face. ]

I'm not really good at that... I can try to think up some ways though.

Tch. Don’t get me started about new guys pushin’ it.

[He stifles his irritation and shrugs.]

Like I said, I’m not totally in agreement with it. …Even if you had some good points. So, I’ll be leaving it to you.

Sorry for all the trouble we cause, I guess?

[ He can’t actually apologize in the stead of others but still. He can say sorry anyways. ]

Right, okay.

[Yukine waves a hand dismissively at the apology.]

The ones who apologize are probably not the ones doing the worst stuff. But thanks. ... I know most of you are trying your best.

Anyway, I've got to get going. [He slips his phone from his pocket to check the time.]

But if there's anything else, you can message me, 'kay?

I guess that might be true.

[ Some people can’t see the error of their ways, and even if they do, they don’t like to apologize. ]

Okay. Thank you for your time, sir. I’m grateful for the information.

[‘Sir’, huh? The sound of that’s not bad. Yukine gives the guy a small but genuine smile as he leaves. D2 can call him up any time.]

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[Video] About Ablution

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