expiationlogs | june catchall (open!)

Entry tags:

june catchall (open!)

Who: Shinji! and! you!
Where: various
What: ya boy shinjiro, man about town (feat. brunch, Axe Swinging, and misc tdm-inspired loitering)
Warnings: nothing yet

cooking mama sequel

[While he doesn't actually live in the inn anymore, Shinji is here at the inn today, helping himself to the kitchen as the locals so generously allow him to. Things have been weird? He remembers passing out and waking up somewhere else entirely (or: he was kidnapped to the grove, and unconscious throughout), and while he was out, it seems like a bunch of people had a strange and uncomfortable time.

So!

Well. All Shinji knows to show empathy is making food and punching, and one of those isn't really viable, and the other one he's only doing so that he doesn't have to think about the implications of being mysteriously kidnapped. All this to say he is at the inn, in the kitchen, making Food. He's both very skilled and weirdly fast at food preparation, so there is a lot, and since he lives on a farm with a bunch of egg-laying chickens, primarily it's Brunch.

If you come in looking for a nibble, he immediately snaps:]

Don't touch that. [And then just as immediately, prepares a delightful brunch plate and slides it over a countertop.] Eat this. And don't complain about it, okay?

[Complain... about free brunch... He can't just give out food normally or someone might notice he has Human Empathy.]

axe you a question

[Or: The training arc prompt, because if sleeping with a big axe next to his bed doesn't deter magical shadow kidnappers, he'll just have to... stop sleeping and swing it around all the time?

Whatever. He's workshopping it. He's never really, um, trained before, is the thing— not formally? Not really? His bestie is the training-addicted jock, Shinji is merely a tank with a big axe. So while he is here, at the random spot he's chosen to train in (somewhere with less foot traffic, see, is the sole requirement), he has no planned routine.

Or even, like. Stretches? Do people stretch? Goddamn. It's warm out but he's dressed like it's winter and he's carrying a big axe, which might not be the most comforting of figures to be addressed by, suddenly:]

Hey. You. ....Do you know how to fight? [hm, well, no, and he frowns because now it's embarrassing-] Do you know how to train.

misc around town mini prompts

[You may run into Shinji:

A. Loitering in the statue garden, where he will be staring at his own statue with an air of obvious and grim Sulking, suspiciously fist-sized rock in hand at his side... ah jeez...!!

B. Not-quite-celebrating at ....the post-event celebration, that is to say, lurking to pick up some food and then disappearing again. He gruffly brushes off any local trying to rope him back in, using the logic that he definitely just slept through the whole thing so please leave him the hell alone this time, but as it starts to get darker he's definitely hanging around as a self-appointed Party Bouncer in case anything out there gets any ideas. Or in case someone in the party starts some shit.

C. Out in the woodsy areas that need replanting, crouched down next to a hole in the ground with a seed in hand. A magic seed. He's literally seen a fairy but he still feels the need to ask,] ....This isn't for real, right?

wildcard/etc

[wriggles back in from my hiatus, hello.... hmu via pm or at jojoveller if you would like a custom starter, we can hash something out!! or: do whatever, surprise me.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Okay, it's not like she'd seen Shinji leave the farmhouse with his giant axe and immediately followed him or anything. Like, she had to finish her self-appointed task of milking the cows (she's good at it now!) and making sure the sheep are let out where they're supposed to be (where she thinks they're supposed to be, anyway) before she can head into town. She'd been planning to get some more material for the sewing club which she really, really is going to do something with, soon, but...

Well, eventually she does track him down, and if she has her naginata with her, well, of course she does. If Shinji's carrying his axe, it just seemed like a good idea.]

What're you doing, Senpai? [There isn't anyone else around, but he has his axe, so... it must be important?]

[He's standing around holding an axe and wondering if he has to do a whole push-up, or maybe a jumping jack—

Or, no, he's just standing there, and if he's surprised to be interrupted, he's not surprised that it's Kotone who's come to do it. Nor is he surprised by the naginata, all things considered... Aren't they a predictable and moderately grim bunch (because, you know - since he doesn't go do training, what could the necessity of weapons be besides killing some monsters).

Still: oh no, the ordeal of being known. He shrugs, like, maybe he's just taking his axe for a walk? No-]

Nothing. Yet. I'm... thinking about training. [Here he makes a face, which she can likely identify as his "ugh, meathead jock stuff" face. What is this town doing to him.] Seemed like a good idea after what happened.

[Ugh, training. Maybe having to do as many as two push-ups. The look on his face makes her nose wrinkle with a smile, but she doesn't laugh at him, at least! Even if the idea of Shinji exercising seems weirdly foreign for how strong he is.

But yeah, it is a good idea. They haven't talked about... any of what happened, following the usual SEES pattern of just shouldering difficult stuff, but it's not hard to follow the logic. It's the same one that had sent her to Chuuya to learn how to fight after Dazai tortured Akechi -- being powerless when people are relying on her sucks.

So instead of laughing at him, she just clasps her hands behind her back and comes around in front of him with a smile.]

Okay! Want to go fight some monsters, or do some exercises?

[Doesn't even ask if she can join him, because of course she will... even if it's a jumping jack.]

[Thanks for the support, the mutual dislike of exercising makes him feel better about this silly idea. Objectively, if Things keep Happening to them and aren't cordoned off simply and neatly into the Dark Hour, they- well, Shinji, but Kotone too since she's here!- need to do something about it, but...

Well, like, jumping jacks? He'd rather just lie down in the dirt and let his dreams train him. God.

But okay. Okay. He looks down at his axe, like, well...]

Honestly? Neither. [lol............] Unless there's a version of exercising that doesn't start with Step One: guzzle protein shakes. Weren't you on a team at school?

[please. what's the non-aki training regimen for athletes.]

[Okay, she will laugh at Akihiko's expense, because yeah, even if she hung out with the girls' sports teams, she can't imagine what he would have been like as the boxing captain. The poor boxers...]

No protein required on the girls' tennis team, [she reassures him with another bright smile. A smile that fades a little because ugh... Rio had been kind of intense in her own way. It's not that she doesn't miss her, but like... it's so much effort. But okay, if they're going to exercise, they're gonna do it right. She sets her naginata down for now and starts stretching, drawing her arm across her body to help loosen up.] We can do some of that conditioning! I think I still remember most of it.

[It's been A While since she actually went to Tennis Club, but you know...]

[Laughing at Akihiko's training regimen is simply how they show their love, it's fine. Shinji manages a light scoff, making another face; thank god, no protein!! Now, as for this arm stretching, uhm...]

Well, you know more about this stuff than I do. Not like I can tell you you're doing it wrong.

[Shrug! And he puts his axe down as well, hesitating a moment in typical Shinji Awkward Stiffness before he just- mimics what she's doing? Is this right? He doesn't actually know how much pulling on his arm he should be doing, but he's going to learn in mere seconds just what dire straits his shoulder is in, good god. To think there was more to good health than eating veggies. Shocking.

He feels, of course, like a dipshit, but that's a given.]

....How much of this is there...

Stretching? A bunch of it. This is the easy part!

[This actually might be kind of fun. They can bond over their mutual dislike of necessary exercise, and maybe she can actually be the one to teach him something for once! She switches arms and watches his face carefully to make sure he doesn't overdo it.]

If it hurts, you're pulling too hard, [she points out.] Stretching shouldn't hurt. You're just warming up your muscles! Only pull as hard as is comfortable.

[Which for him might... not be very far of a pull at all...]

[Ye of little faith, Shinji has never overdone anything in his life, ha ha. He's overdoing the distaste for exercise right now, though, with the face he continues to make... Never mind that.]

Never had time to warm up in Tartarus, [he mumbles, which is less an excuse and more a vague commentary on how things are Different in this place, and he's not sure if that's good or not just yet. In Tartarus, he knew what he was doing...!

Whatever, that's past Shinji's problem. He hmms and tries to stretch his other arm, which gets him, uh, not very far. It's a pitiful stretch, almost like he's not doing the stretch at all. Oh boy.

He doesn't need to ask what the mysterious reason his axe arm shoulder muscles hate him is, so instead he just says,] It's not going to get any further than this.

[It's probably a really good thing Akihiko isn't here to see this pathetic stretch. Hoo boy. Luckily it's Kotone, so all she says is,] Okay! We'll work on it. Let's try some arm circles, but same thing. If it hurts, don't do it.

[RIP... They both know why it's a sad little stretch, so no reason to belabor the point. This one is certainly going to be just as sad and pathetic as she windmills her arms around, but hey-! Loosening up the shoulders is important, probably. For Shinji more than most.]

It's not like there's time to stretch before real fighting, but I'm pretty sure it's important for exercise so you don't get hurt.

[That sounds like something Rio would say, anyway.]

[Arm circles are going to look even sillier than the normal stretch, but sure, he'll do it. They are. Not circles of equivalent size at all, and he simply stares dead ahead while ruminating on his past choices with his stupid giant axe. He'll be damned if his messed up shoulder Causes Problems in an Emergency anytime soon, though, so...!!

Well, he is doing the best he can, it just isn't much. Actually, hold on-- world's first, he is stopping to remove his jacket, because he can admit the jacket isn't helping his pitiful arm circles much at all.

That gets tossed... just kind of on top of the axe, now back to the circles. After a few moments, he huffs again - amused, at least! in his subtle Shinji way.]

You're gonna have to talk about something else or I don't know if I can keep this up. I feel like a dumbass.

[Oh wow, the jacket can come off outside... stunning development. Never before seen.

She laughs again and switches so her arm circles are backwards instead of forwards to even them out, grinning at him all the while.]

You know, you could talk about something this time. [It's not like she's the only one experiencing Normal Life these days for him to listen to; they're both stuck in an existence that's more normal than not, usually. Recent days excluded, of course.

Mercifully, she gives his poor shoulders a break and moves to touch her toes instead. She can't quite reach them, hands coming to rest near her ankles instead, but! It's a start.]

Violet -- Yoshizawa-san? -- said she was gonna teach me to bend like a pretzel. Have you met her? She's training for Olympic gymnastics. She can bring her leg up like-

[Please don't imitate this one as she grabs her foot and does her Very Best to stick it in the air. It doesn't get above her hip, and she wobbles the whole time, but it makes her laugh, so-] All the way up to her head, no problem.

[You could talk about something, she says, before graciously talking about-- Violet, whoever that is. Shinji is grateful he doesn't have to come up with a topic; thanks for that. But also: jesus, he will never be able to do that.]

I don't know her. [well, he gave her food once, but he didn't get her name--] All the way up, really?

[It hurts just thinking about it. He's going to stick with a pitiful little arm circle for a bit longer, yowch. Ah, but stretches that go all the way up reminds him,] That's how you get kicked in the head.

[Ha ha, memories. Ahem.]

....That guy who got me in the head disappeared a while ago. Him and everyone else he said was from the same place as him. Like Astralin, but they didn't come back. [Sorry that his contribution to this discussion is the downer topic of "people just Literally Vanish all the time," but. Welp.] ....Dunno what makes it different for different people.

[She'll have to ask if Violet can kick people in the head. Her lips curve into a little bit of a smile at the memory -- yeah, that's right, Shinji had gotten himself kicked in the head and hadn't even seemed that mad about it? Classic Shinji behavior, really, she shouldn't have been surprised.

Her smile fades quickly at that revelation, though, and she lets go of her foot to return to a more normal standing position. She hadn't been too close to any of them, but she'd think she could recognize Mikey by face at least, and-]

They weren't at the grove with the others. You're sure they disappeared like Astralin-san...?

[Or did they, you know. Die. Or move away! That's also possible. Maybe they're not dead and just decided to live with the snake people for some reason. But now that she thinks about it...]

Maybe they were taken away for... "sentencing."

Edited 2023-06-03 13:27 (UTC)

Yeah. It was around the same time, too.

[But Astralin's disappearing-and-reappearing act kind of took priority at the time, and then it was a kind of "oh wait, what happened to those guys?" moment--

He shrugs. He has momentarily stopped doing little arm circles in favor of just rubbing his shoulder, ouchie. Sentencing is something to think about, and his brow furrows thoughtfully, but uh - well, Mikey and his pals were literally gang members, so Shinji can't exactly decide one hundred percent that they Don't Deserve That (whatever it is) like he might for others. No offense, Mikey and pals.]

You think "sentencing" takes this long? The way this place runs, they already got us doing community service every few weeks.

[Is that not enough, powers that be! Please!]

Dunno. We'll have to ask if we see them again.

[It's possible. They still don't know what sentencing entails, after all; maybe it sends them back, or maybe it sends them somewhere else. Or maybe they lock them up in some kind of more obvious prison.

She stretches her arms high over her head with a little noise of muscles releasing, watching Shinji rubbing his shoulder. She'd been thinking about all the exercises they could do, but-]

Hey. Sit?

[She points to a nearby tree stump. He doesn't have to sit on the ground, but he's simply too tall for what she has in mind.]

[Hmm, well, he's already mentally sorted Mikey and friends into Lazy, Disinterested, and Kind of Unhinged, so he has some doubts about how helpful they'd be as sources of information... This is conveyed via making another face and shrugging, like, sure -- if they ever come back.

Well, as long as nobody gets sentenced who doesn't deserve it... fine. The mystery of sentencing can wait.

He shuffles over to sit on the tree stump with minimal eyebrow-raising, at least. So cooperative of him.]

...Okay. Now what?

Now you try to relax.

[Easier said than done, probably. But if something as relatively light as arm circles was painful for him, launching immediately into anything else might do more harm than good.]

Rio used to do stuff like this for me when I overdid it at club practice, [she explains as she moves around behind him to rest her hands on his shoulder and tap lightly.] I think it was something about lactic acid and preventing stiffness and injury? I wasn't really listening. I wish I had her notebook she'd given to me...

[Rio had said a lot of things about sports and about Kenji, and the stuff about Kenji had always been more interesting in a kind of soap-opera way. But for now, she digs her thumbs into Shinji's shoulder in an attempt to try to loosen some of that muscle. Or, at the very least, make him regret all of his past choices.]

[shinji has never relaxed in his life]

Lactic acid, [he repeats, only a touch skeptically. Obviously his shoulder is mcfucked; this is already known, but he's been getting by just fine chalking that up to "axe heavy" and "should be swung with two hands," and also ignoring those both. Sure, sure, lactic acid - why not.

Regardless, nothing changes the fact that jabbing thumbs into his shoulder hurts, in a much more focused way than his shoulder usually hurts. That, too, is expected, but he still grunts and sort of hunches away from her hands reflexively, for a moment. Give him a second to steel himself and he sits back again, resigned... so tolerant of this free shoulder massage, woe is Shinji...]

Did you pay attention to how to do it, at least? [pls do not damage him further--]

I think so!

[Kind of flippant for something relatively important...?? Maybe she'll ask Violet. Or send Violet to tend to Shinji, that seems easier.

She stills when he grunts in pain -- Oh, okay, too hard, too hard! Don't make him regret that much! -- and doesn't start up again until he settles back, gentler this time.]

Sorry, she was always better at it than I was... [And Rio always did it after a workout, not before. But how is Shinji supposed to do An Pushup like this?] Mitsuru-senpai should've paid for us to go to a spa.

[Though when they would have gone to a spa in September, specifically, she doesn't know. And it's not like Shinji could have come on the school trip with them to the onsen in Kyoto, even if -- well. You know. You probably have to attend a certain number of days of school to go.]

[Must he do an pushup, the goofy arm circles sound much more appealing now that he's being subjected to shoulder torture--

He grunts again but doesn't jerk away this time - that is a grunt of affirmation, in Shinjese - and considers the very concept of Mitsuru sending them all to a spa. Well, she probably would have tried if they'd been working under better circumstances, but...]

You really think I'd have gone? [ha...... no, god. He'd rather be shot again than be followed around and pampered and have to wear a stupid fluffy bathrobe. Let him hunch in corners to relax instead.]

You all met Mitsuru's dad, [he says, after a pause. He remembers The Picture.] Isn't visiting whatever palace she lives in close enough?

Maybe!

[Simply -- yeah. Push Shinji around and ignore his wants hours. The bathrobe wouldn't be too much different from his frilly apron, anyway!

She keeps up a steady pressure against his shoulders, kneading the muscle beneath her fingers with a softer hum. The levity doesn't disappear, she manages to keep her smile, but she is quiet for a moment as she thinks about him. Him and Mitsuru both.]

We stayed with them when we went to the beach. Did you know she has maids? Like, real-life maids in dresses and everything!

[-Yeah, that's the better thing to talk about.]

I wonder if they had the idea for the Culture Festival outfits before or after we went there... they made pretty good armor!

[What.]

[Will Shinji ever complain about his wants being ignored... who can say. Probably not, but that's a #selfesteemproblem for later. To wit: he merely hums in grim resignation, for this spa trip he'll never actually have to be forced onto. How unpleasant...

At least this take on the current massage is much more palatable, thanks.]

Well, she's rich... [but hold on, they What--] You wore a maid outfit into Tartarus?

[Why.]

Yeah!

[As if that is completely normal and not at all weird? Keep up, Shinji.]

I got them for all of us. The girls, anyway. They actually were pretty good for armor? Maybe it's 'cause the Shadows were distracted.

[It's impossible to tell from the bright tone of her voice whether she's joking or not.]

[girlie why]

I don't think Shadows get distracted by... that kind of thing.

[Anyway, great news! He hates this conversation now! Let's talk about anything else!! Watch as he sits in silence for a beat too long to think of any given Other Topic--]

So how was the Culture Festival, anyway. [he's so interested in school functions. tell him.]

[She giggles a little bit, amused by his answer but letting him have it. Whatever the reason, it worked perfectly fine and was funny to boot.]

It got canceled, actually. [She keeps up the pressure on his shoulders.] There was a typhoon. I got sick after getting caught in the rain, so even if it had been held, I wouldn't have been able to go... I still had to help with cleanup, though. Junpei and Yukari were... you know.

[Themselves.]

Edited (train tag betrayal) 2023-06-09 23:42 (UTC)

training montage!!! axe but without the question bc it's Her

axe special edition

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