returnedfromtheline | ☽ The Far Shore

[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.

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