returnedfromtheline | ☽ The Far Shore

[ Horribly and repeatedly violent. Some of those scars overlap in a way that could only have been caused by a second injury months (or even years) after the first one. But he's a shinki now, and whatever crimes he'd committed as a mortal man have been washed away, isn't that right? ]

It is. [ He raises one hand to touch his crown, the gesture frankly religious. ] I serve Tot, called Antheia, whose provenance includes flowers and all the fresh growing things of spring, and crowns made from that bounty.

[ Also she is the one true god of the Far Shore and will rise triumphant over the corpses of the pretenders, praise her. ]

Would you like one?

No. Thanks.

[Although 'hell no' is more like it, he's trying to be senpai-nice here.

Moving on before the guy can bring up something ridiculous like 'it'll bring out the colour of your eyes', Yukine gestures towards the nearest empty bench.]

Anyway, let's take a seat and I'll get right into it.

First I just want to check- you've been around for a while, right? So you know about the blight you get from ayakashi?

[ It'll bring him under the protection of Tot and perhaps ultimately mark him to be spared when the purge comes. But if he's rather refuse, that's his choice.

Jay sits where bidden, hands folded loosely on his knees. ]

I do. I have experienced this-- [ and here he holds out one arm, tracing a place on the back of his hand where the blight had been ] --and have been able to wash the blight away with water blessed by my god. But that was a very small amount of blight.

[[Go for full disclosure! You'll for sure get some takers then. XD]]

[Yukine settles on the bench, and nods at Jay relating his experience.]

Right. Just like that.

So there is that blight, and there is also blight that comes from a shinki stinging his god. That blight happens when the shinki does something wrong that they don’t feel sorry over.
If the shinki ends up feeling sorry for it and confessing what he did to his god, then the blight can be washed off. But if the shinki doesn’t feel sorry, or even worse keeps doing stuff they know is wrong, then it makes the god get even more blighted. The blight 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. They are… basically being corrupted into becoming an ayakashi. [No matter how many times he says it, it's still gross to talk about.]

That’s about where ablution comes in. You follow me so far?

[ He's heard that blight can be caused by shinki misbehaving, but he hadn't heard the horrifying details. ]

What kind of wrong causes this blight? [ And, more importantly: ] It doesn't hurt the shinki. Does it hurt the god?

[Yukine hums a sigh and rubs at the back of his head.]

It's not black-and-white as to what kind of wrong causes it. It's whatever the shinki feels guilty over, which is different for everyone, right?

As for the god, yah, it hurts them. The blight makes them feel worn down and sick. The longer it goes on, the worse they feel. [Like with when he'd explained this to Erk, he's not going so far as to say 'the god might die from it'. He has a bad feeling about that.]

So, to save both the god and the shinki, the fallen shinki is put through ablution. Three shinki say the incantation, draw borderlines and put him in a purgatory. He is then forced to confess everything, or he'll completely fall into being an ayakashi. It's... like Kairi said in the post, it's a horrible, painful process. And, as you might imagine, personal too, because the shinki has to confess. [He then looks at Jay with a direly serious expression.]

So I hope you can see now why I wanted to talk to people in person about this. Listen, it's good for gods and shinki to know about this in case it comes up, and I don't want anyone to get hurt because they didn't know. But it's all preventable. I don't want shinki to think that ablution is an 'easy cure' to personal blight. 'Cause it's not.

[ Through all this, Jay is very carefully not thinking about Tot (which isn't easy, given how fully his thoughts are usually consumed with her). He can't think of Tot blighted, Tot sick, Tot in pain. He can't. The very idea that his failings could cause her to suffer is simply not something he can allow himself to consider.

So instead, he's thinking of this blight process as something inflicted on another god/shinki pair. How long, he wonders, would the god suffer before demanding the shinki be cleansed? There are some gods here would would never speak up, he's sure of that. There's some gods who don't think they have the right to demand anything of their shinki, gods whose wills are weak, shinki who don't care about the wellbeing of those they're tied to.

And what if this shinki is restrained somewhere, and the god is unable to find them to demand ablution?

This is all very useful information. ]

I do understand. [ He frowns sadly, only too aware of what a ruin the action makes of his face. ] I mean, I cannot understand how any shinki would be able to look the other way at their god's pain, but yes, I understand your discretion in this matter.

[ He straightens up, then, and takes a deep breath, just like he's seen reluctant heroes in movies do. ]

I would like to put my name forward, if I'm able to do so, to assist should such a tragedy happen again. [ He shakes his head, miming sorrow even as he plots. Yes, a shinki restrained in such a way that they can't see the blight forming on their skin, and then shamed into guilt until they nearly become an ayakashi. ] Their poor god.

[Yukine winces slightly when the guy frowns. Geh, dude...

He then shakes his head slightly.]

Sure, but focus on prevention, okay? Shinki might... feel like they have their reasons for not feeling sorry for what they're doing. And gods might feel like they have their reasons for not confronting the shinki about the stinging. So... if you find out about situations like that, I hope you can help out somehow.

[ He nods decisively at the prevention comment. He understands completely: if shinki knew what a horrible, painful process ablution is, they'd be terrified of retaining blight. So long as Yukine keeps the details of the procedure a secret, shinki and their gods will remain ignorant of the true cost of blight, which will make Jay's work that much easier. ]

I pray I may be of some service.

[ And as much as he wants to pick Yukine's brain for the rest of the ablution process -- namely that incantation, and what a 'purgatory' consists of -- he doesn't want to tread too heavily here. Better to cut the conversation off now, and revisit the details of the ablution at a later date. ]

Is there anything else I should know about blight, so that I might continue to protect my god?

To protect your god, huh…
I think every shinki has a different idea about that. But I think it’s being honest and talking to your god. Like, sure, our negative thoughts make them ache, but a little bit of that while you vent your frustrations is better than stinging.

[ Even something so small as a negative thought could make them ache? Oh, when he gets his hands on the person who made Tot so vulnerable angels will fucking weep. ]

It is a great responsibility that has been placed on us shinki, isn't it? A great thing to aspire to.

I don’t know about ‘aspire’… We're already it. I guess you can aspire to be the best shinki you can, though!

Anyway, you’re sure right in that we’ve got a lot of responsibility. Do your best, ‘kay? I talked about some heavy stuff, but you shouldn’t worry too much over something that hopefully won’t happen.

☽ The Far Shore - Inbox

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