IC Inbox [The Far Shore]

[tadanokusuriuri]

Oh?

It seems that I'm...

Indisposed.

[A beat, long enough to make one wonder if the phone line has cut off.]

...Leave a message, if you would be so kind.

Comments

[glazedonutholes]

And that hand needs a sword it can count on, a sword it trusts.

[tadanokusuriuri]

...Have I given you...

Cause to doubt me?

[glazedonutholes]

Hakari.

What is my favorite flower?

[tadanokusuriuri]

...why?

1/2

[glazedonutholes]

I'm a Flower God.

Isn't that something you should know?

2/2

[glazedonutholes]

I don't doubt you.

[ A sigh. ]

How can I when I don't know you outside your vessel form?

[tadanokusuriuri]

I don't need to know things like that... to perform my duties.

I am... a weapon in your hands. I know my task.

[Isn't that enough?]

[glazedonutholes]

You sound a lot like the Freelancers we faced off against in my world. They were supposed to be the best team around. Strong, competitive. Leagues better than Red Team or Blue Team combined.

Every area you could think of they found the best to fill the missing element, but you know what they could never achieve? You know why we could win against them?

[tadanokusuriuri]

[That's not right, he thinks. Not "competitive." Competition doesn't matter.]

[Just... a weapon, made for a task. Intelligent, yes, and strong-willed, but still, an existence focused around a singular purpose.]

[He doesn't care about strength for the sake of bragging rights, and could dispense with the concept of glory altogether. He wants to be strong because he has a job to do, and that job means everything.]

[He's completely silent, but that doesn't mean he isn't listening.]

[glazedonutholes]

[ He continues on, needing to get this off his chest. ]

Complete and total trust. In each other. In the men fighting beside them.

The Freelancers had all the fancy weapons, the very best soldiers and they still fell apart. I don't want that to happen to us.

[ His voice lowers. ]

And you don't seem to understand that I don't want to fight with a weapon. I want to fight with a friend.

[tadanokusuriuri]

[The Medicine Seller stays silent.]

[He can't, he reminds himself, think too much about what's different between him and other shinki. He feels like, for most people, that would be a reasonable request.]

[He doesn't know what it's like, to actually be someone's friend.]

...If I'm... incapable?

[glazedonutholes]

[ That's not the answer he's expecting.... ]

No one's incapable of having friends.

[tadanokusuriuri]

[That's silly. Some people are awful and don't deserve friends. Some don't know how to communicate.]

[And then there's him. He's sure he can be charming, and he doesn't feel that he isn't good enough to deserve friends or anything, but...]

[Friendship doesn't feel like something that's necessary. He has no instinct for it, and he hasn't seen any reason to learn how it works since he became a shinki.]

[He's silent, but considering how little feeling Donut usually gets over their connection, the faint hint of disbelief might be easier to notice than it would from another, more emotional shinki.]

[glazedonutholes]

[ And it's for that reason, the fact that his shinki never showed any stray emotions through their bond that Donut feels it's poignant presence now. ]

Hakari.

You can have as many friends as you want.

[tadanokusuriuri]

My work... doesn't require them.

[glazedonutholes]

Is that.... what you want then? To be my sword but not my friend?

[tadanokusuriuri]

[He's quiet for another moment. He knows how sensitive his god can be about things like this, after the last argument they had.]

I was not made to be anyone's friend.

[It's nothing at all about him personally. He'd feel the same with any god, wouldn't he?]

[glazedonutholes]

That's not what I asked you.

[tadanokusuriuri]

Is it not?

1/3

[glazedonutholes]

[ He replays those words in his head and-- Oh. ]

2/3

[glazedonutholes]

[ .... Then - he swallows thickly - that was his answer. ]

3/3

[glazedonutholes]

O-okay. [ He sniffs. ] I'll respect your space.

[ And with that he hangs up. ]

-> Action

[tadanokusuriuri]

[...Well. That could have gone better.]

[He's upset him again.]

[There's radio silence for perhaps an hour, and then a knock on the door to Donut's room.]

Action

[glazedonutholes]

[ He's spent a good portion of that hour crying into his flowers but when there's a sudden knock on his door, the god freaks out and blunders underneath his blankets, hiding there, hoping he'll go away. ]

[tadanokusuriuri]

Ah... What an unfortunate calamity.

Perhaps... I'll have to watch "Legally Blonde" by myself?