jikan_rpg | [closed] tanabata blues

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[closed] tanabata blues

⌛ Who: Kaito Nagano and The Real Folk Blues (Setsura Yamaguchi too I guess)
⌛ What: Actually Tanabata
⌛ When: July 7th
⌛ Where: Shibuya, Tokyo
⌛ Warnings: ~~Who knows! It'll probably get spicy or stupid or both~~ Naked people doing the horizontal tango and also maybe a lil teeny tiny bit of body horror 🙂

[ Standing atop one of Shibuya's taller buildings is one (1) Kaito Nagano. It's just a guess, but he's approximated that this is roughly where his apartment complex would stand if he were back home. On the ledge in front of him stands a tall potted bamboo plant. In his hand he has a turquoise-colored paper tag. Some kanji have been brushed onto one side—the empath's wish.

As he reaches forward to hang the paper slip on one of the bamboo's branches, a flood of thoughts clamor in his mind. He's barely been in Nippon for a week, maybe two, yet it feels like an eternity since he last pet his cat, or phoned home, or helped his brother with his homework. The food here is so similar to what he has at home, but the taste becomes bland within bites.

He hasn't eaten since returning from Kyushu.

There's too much familiarity. He feels like he's back in Japan, yet there are no signs of what make Japan home anywhere to be found.

How long will it take to adapt?

Will he adapt?

Kaito finishes adjusting his wish on the bamboo tree before slipping an orange Zippo lighter out of a pocket. With a few flicks, he's ignited a flickering flame—and the paper is set alight. He makes sure to douse the growing blaze before it touches the bamboo's flesh. ]

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[ It's in the second the flame flickers before it's doused that it happens. The breeze is usurped by an abrupt shift in the direction of the winds in the wake of which a flash of black can be seen behind the paper, the flame, the tree. It wouldn't be unreasonable to guess that it, whatever it is, is responsible for the abrupt, screaming departure of the rattle pigeons perching on the ledge and in the crevices beneath it.

As though they couldn't possibly get away from whatever has seen fit to intrude upon their perch.

It is she and she perches atop the ledge as silently as she alighted upon it a healthy five, ten feet from the bamboo tree and the wishmaker. She's a small thing and unusual in that she's a black Passerine. Pitch, actually. Daylight makes it more obvious. It doesn't quite seem to bathe her in the same way it does other objects. It's almost as though it's being put off by something clinging to her, something that makes pitch deeper, darker still than that.

It's only slightly less noticeable than the deep, violet eye fixed upon the man and there it remains, her head slightly canted. She doesn't pause or abruptly shift to crane her neck and preen her feathers. She simply, perhaps eerily continues to perch and and gaze at him silently. ]

[ The presence does not startle him, nor does he flinch. But it does steal his attention. As he flips the cap of his lighter back on, Kaito locks gold to violet and cants his head in a near mirror of the sparrow.

...And before a smile can break onto his features, he tugs his collar up so that it obscures his mouth. Steady footsteps bring him to the ledge and its new occupant. ]

Ah... Are you perhaps a native... ayakashi? Yokai, perhaps? You have a really pretty coat. It looks like it's steeped in darkness. I don't think I've read about you in any of the library books.

[ Kaito leans in—but not to try and touch the lil' birb or anything. He simply leans forward, past her, to fold his arms on the railing and rest his head atop the bundle. A heavy, drawn-out sigh follows. ]

Black, darkness... Portents of ill fortune. Perhaps I belong in that category, too. [ He smiles again, wan. ]

Ah well. You can stick with me if the pigeons won't perch with you. Loners make for surprisingly decent company.

[ There's an intelligence behind her eyes and he's treated to the sight of both between his first step and last word. Has he ever seen a bird toss her head? Because he was treated to what might have looked an awful lot like that complemented by ruffled feathers immediately following his first question. His second wasn't quite his saving grace. It was the statement after that that saw her pause mid-check of her wing and turn her head to fix her other eye on him, watching him as he leaned forward and adopted that depressed position.

Right. His words sound about the same. Depressed, that is, and a special kind of lonely to be extending such an invitation to a surmised portent of ill fortune, let alone an unfamiliar being supposed to be an ayakashi or youkai. She isn't certain what she'd been expecting to find when she'd changed her course to investigate that enormous, bright spiritual presence that seemed like a beacon to her at the time and... something else, something strange to her. Something that's stricken from her immediate thoughts because, really, he's assuming an awful lot.

Like she'd perch with pigeons.

She hops forward once, twice and cants her head at the strange man again, sensing, feeling with her sixth on a level the spiritually blind couldn't begin to grasp. It's almost humorous, really, that someone so bright would consider associating himself those particular portents of ill fortune. Almost as humorous as a being such as herself being gifted the surname Light and if that isn't an coincidence.

He really could stand to tone it down, though. She doesn't get the sense that it's an intentional display and his awareness of ayakashi and youkai, that he's read about them in some library's books doesn't give her much to go on as to his native familiarity. It makes him supposition questionable, that much more odd, and trains her focus in such a way that her interest doesn't dip and her thoughts don't turn to the pensive others that historically occupy her mind and heart without fail in the weeks leading up to Tanabata.

Who is this man and -- ]

[ -- why the hell does she want to... eat him? ]

Edited 2022-07-05 06:56 (UTC)

[ Tch. That's ridiculous! She doesn't eat others. Not for power, not for pleasure. She's always preferred to rely upon her own. She prefers to rely upon her own rather than devour and assimilate that of other beings. That, she does not. ]

[ She also ate less than an hour ago, not that she tends to eat much in a sitting. She isn't even hungry right now! ]

[ ... ]

[ Maybe a nibble? It isn't as though she'd be devouring him or anything. ]

[ oh no. ]

[ Or she could lick him. ]

[ Why the hell is she even considering this? ]

[ !!! ]

[ Well, fuck! Now she is feeling kind of hungry and she didn't bring her wallet with her. ]

[ She turns her head just so to look at her present company. She does for a long moment, then -- ]

[ Well, he did invite her company. That makes him something like a host and the host looks he has plenty of places to keep a wallet.

It's the least he could do, making her hungry like this. ]

. . .

[ Honestly, he wasn't sure why he expected anything different. The bird's aura was far more complex than the local wildlife and ayakashi, so he had assumed that it was more intelligent and... well, able to keep its inhibitions in check. ]

Edited 2022-07-05 07:50 (UTC)