#over the ancestral shrine being completed

[coreancitizen]

"The talisman must have worked. I'm letting her use my personal item. You should know what that means." "I've been wondering when the Royal Ancestral Shrine will be completed. Will it be completed next year?"

#the king eternal monarch #lee min ho #kim go eun #kim young ok #lady noh being too happy to see a girl in gon's bedroom #that's the face of a court lady #who knows she won't have to worry for too long #over the ancestral shrine being completed

[wrecking-man]

Komi-san Can't Adventure Chapter 46 - New Years

Click here to read the full chapter on AO3.

Winding back time, ever so little.

Still January 1st, just a few minutes past midnight.

The Tadano family had spent their New Years Eve at the Tadano ancestral home.

...Najimi went too as a matter of course.

The air was brisk and lively as the Tadano siblings and Najimi strolled through the sparsely-crowded Jinja Shrine that was located nearby. They were all bundled up in various warm outfits, and they were generally having a good time partaking in various New Years activities.

Tadano’s butt was somewhat sore at the moment, however... They had been playing one of Najimi’s strange, made up games—a twist on the classic ‘you laugh, you lose’ style of games... only this one involved a ‘butt bat’, with which you were spanked any time you dared laugh. Whomever laughed the least, would be rewarded with the largest bonus to their New Years allowance.

Despite Hitomi and Najimi still being so light on their feet, and seemingly not suffering at all from the bat’s aftereffects, Tadano was well in the lead with there being no chance at all of his win being usurped. Najimi’s laugh count was well into the triple digits already, whereas Tadano had only laughed a mere 9 times so far.

He was not at all focused on the game, however. None of them really were... At least not outside of Najimi and Hitomi eagerly smacking each other any time so much as a single chuckle was uttered.

At best, Tadano was only able to offer up half of his attention to the antics his sister and Najimi were engaged in. He was too preoccupied with another matter that was of much higher precedence to him... Deciding what he should say in his New Years message to Komi.

It was supposed to be nothing more than a simple message ringing in the new year, so why was it that he was getting so nervous...?

He tried to rationalize it in his head as he repeatedly tried to compose an acceptable message. Erasing and retyping; adding, and later removing emojis...

Yes, the message was too boring... Perhaps it just needed some color to be festive...? She could also be asleep! It was never anything but a reason like this or that which prevented him from sending the message and being done with it.

It was freezing outside, but he was sweating bullets as he stared at his latest draft... His hands trembled with embarrassment as he quickly erased yet another potential message.

He gulped and nearly had a heart attack as he envisioned Komi’s uncomfortable reaction to that last one... It was absolutely littered with emojis—one was, daringly enough, a kissing emoji... (I-it was a misinput!)

He cringed, and felt a part of him die inside just thinking about it.

Why was it so hard to hit send...?! It was just a silly New Years message! He screamed in his heart.

“We scored a major haul!” Najimi laughed loudly while holding up bags of mochi, “Whatcha doing, Tadano-kun...?” Najimi was immediately spanked with the butt bat in Hitomi’s hands.

“Oh, nothing,” Tadano said as he quickly hid his phone behind his back in the most conspicuous way.

“Onii-chan, they’re handing out sweet sake over there. It’s cold, so let’s get some!” Hitomi suggested with a laugh. The sound of a butt bat smack reverberated throughout the shine grounds.

Giving up on writing his message, Tadano put his phone away for the time being. He would just have to try again later.

“Sure. After we pray,” he answered Hitomi with a warm smile. Lately he had been completely absorbed in his adventurer training, and had been staying at the Slumbering Colossus Inn in Itan full time rather than at home in Mura Village, so it was nice spending time with his sister like this. It was a refreshing change of pace after having not seen her for some time...

The three of them slowly made their way towards the center of the shrine, and came to a giant gateway called a torii that acted as a boundary between the human world and sacred ground. It was constructed out of cypress wood, and was painted a beautiful orange-red.

Tadano and Hitomi kept to the side as they went through it, as all mortals with any sense did, but Najimi brazenly walked through the center of it—as was Najimi’s right as a god.

Next, they ascended a long set of stairs and cleansed their hands and mouth at the temizuya at the top to purify themselves. It was a small pavilion housing a stone basin. Clean water flowed into the basin from the mouth of a small dragon-shaped fountain, and drained out into gods know where...

Continuing along the straight, stone-bricked path laid out in front of them, they passed several stone lanterns, and statues of ‘lion dogs’ called komainu that were evenly spaced along their left and right. They kept going, stopping only once they had finally made it to the offertory box near the heart of the shrine.

The main worship hall of the shrine was beautiful, as was the main sanctuary behind it. Just like the torii, they were largely constructed out of cypress wood, and painted the same rich and distinct bright orange-red. Their gently-sloped roofs were black.

Tadano made a slight bow towards the offertory box, then pulled out a gold coin and tossed it in.

It was perhaps a bit rich for his blood, but over the last few months he had received so much... Experienced so much... In doing this, he felt as though he was giving back at least something somehow.

He bowed deeply twice, then clapped twice slowly and prayed with his eyes closed, just as he had done in previous years...

He was saddled with many doubts and concerns about his responsibilities as Najimi’s apostle, but they were more or less all at the back of his mind until now.

He occasionally wondered if how things were going was good enough... He wouldn’t dare ask, of course, even if given the opportunity. He was too afraid of what the answer might be... He was dealing with gods, after all. They surely had a higher set of standards than a mere mortal like him could possibly live up to...

When Tadano opened his eyes, he suddenly found that he had been transported elsewhere...

One moment he was at the shrine, and the next he was standing in front of a booth inside a dimly-lit diner.

The diner was wholly unfamiliar... He had certainly never been there before. In fact, it looked nothing at all like any kind of restaurant he was accustomed to.

The table of each booth was made of wood, and rectangular in shape. They were just a bit wider than they were long, and they all had a bottle of ketchup and mustard on them, as well as a metal pitcher.

The seats were teal, and they were cushioned. Just not overly soft...

Much of the rest of the room was bathed in gentle greens and browns, although the yellow lighting from the sole source of light in the diner had made it difficult to discern the true colors of Tadano’s new environment.

Along the far wall in front of him was a massive painting of a forest and mountain landscape—the very same mountain range and sacred forest that surrounded the Jinja Shrine, though there was a lone cabin in the midst of it all that he could not recognize.

The diner was incredibly warm compared to the cold winter air he had just come in from, so he quickly stored his coat and scarf away to reveal the casual orange shirt with long sleeves he was wearing underneath. On his shirt was a small white logo with three curved lines in the top left corner, and the words ‘THE NORMAL FACE’ were written next to it in all caps.

Sitting at the booth in front of him was a person... The term ‘person’ is used loosely here, however. Other than being vaguely man-shaped, the entity in question had no discernible features whatsoever—oh, aside from the radiant light that seemed to make up the entirety of its being...

Tadano had tried not to look directly at him, as that could be considered rude under the circumstances... But the entity was eye-catching to say the least, and he was the first thing Tadano saw when he first opened his eyes.

In other words, it was an exercise in futility from the very beginning.

Unexpectedly, Tadano felt at ease as he stood in the presence of the glowing man... He would have thought that a somewhat unknown being such as this would instill in him at least some level of fear, if not outright terror, but instead there was a strange feeling of familiarity as the entity politely gestured for him to sit.

Tadano breathed a calm, but uncertain breath as he cautiously sat across what he could only conclude was a god...

Tadano smiled, and then greeted him in the tone of a question... “Todd-sama?”

He almost let out a small, incredulous laugh, but he had been conditioned not to do so in the past few hours.

It was only a guess, of course, but what other gods besides Todd and Najimi would have any interest in talking to someone like him?

He could rule out Najimi to some degree, so Todd was the only one that made any level of sense.

The glow of the man dimmed, and his facade eventually gave way to reveal his identity as the ceiling lights above them came on.

He smirked and said, “Yeah, it’s me...”

Todd was wearing a black shirt and khaki blazer combo with light blue jeans. His hair was as majestic as ever, as his luscious curls fluttered about in the nonexistent wind.

“Have you been well?” Todd asked, casually leaning back into his seat.

Small talk... “I-I can’t really complain,” Tadano answered.

“That’s good. That’s good...” Todd nodded.

“What can I get you two?” asked another man as he approached their table. He leaned down and rested both of his hands on the outer corners of the table, then flashed them a charming smile.

He was wearing a white button up shirt and dark blue jeans... He looked exactly the same as Todd, except his hair naturally curled in the opposite direction.

“H-Howard-sama?” Tadano asked with an anxious smile.

“Yeah, that’s me,” answered the god of adventure as he handed Tadano a menu.

“O-oh... Uhhh...” Tadano said nervously, suddenly feeling put under pressure. He quickly looked over the options on the menu...

There was a wide variety of breakfast dishes to choose from. They were all from Omorika, however, and he had never tried Omorikan cuisine before, so he wasn’t really sure what to order.

“I’ll just have the... bacon and eggs, sunny side up...” He repeated the words from the menu verbatim... It was the most familiar choice. There were prices listed beside each option, but he just assumed that this meal was on the house... He was technically there against his will, after all.

“I’ll have my usual,” Todd said to his twin. He then placed a god coin on the table.

The coin seemed to be made of compressed light, just as Todd did moments before, only the coin was bright white with the smallest hint of blue instead of yellow. It was almost like staring at a miniature sun, though it did not hurt Tadano’s eyes... Its material composition aside, the coin still appeared to maintain the other typical characteristics of a coin.

“Don’t worry,” Todd assured Tadano, “It’s on me.”

“...Just what kind of bacon and eggs am I about to eat?” Tadano asked... The words just sort of fell out of his mouth.

“The normal kind,” Todd answered with a smirk.

(They were the normal kind.)

...

The two ate, and made more small talk.

Over the course of several minutes, it became fairly obvious to Tadano that he was being stalled for time. He was curious as to why, but he figured there had to be some kind of reason behind it, so he did not press for immediate answers.

Eventually, the door of the diner opened and a small bell attached at the top jingled.

A middle-aged man stumbled inside... immediately followed by his wife, who entered normally.

Pretending not to notice him, his wife looked up at the bell and tilted her head to inspect it. She was trying to keep a straight face, but still ended up smiling.

As the man stumbled forward, he dropped three bizarre-looking fruits onto the floor.

...They were pineapples.

Tadano had never seen this particular variety of pineapple before, but everyone knows what a pineapple looks like, right...? The main difference that stood out about these was the leaves growing out from the crown. They were long and thin like needles—and every bit as sharp, so watch out!

These needle-like leaves were originally tightly woven around the beautiful, golden-yellow rind as a natural defense against various insects and other beastie-boys that might be looking for a snack. They were held in place by small hook-like outgrowths along the rind.

When the pineapples had hit the floor, the leaves all shook loose, and as a result they ended up somewhat resembling porcupines.

“Oh, my poor key pines!” the middle-aged man cried as he squatted down, frantically sweeping them up into his left arm.

Tadano was just about to ask the man (god?) if he was alright... But then the man grinned directly at him, winked, and flashed a peace sign by his right eye as he posed with his hairy-looking pineapples as if he were taking a photo.

“Sorry, I’ve been waiting all year to make that pun,” the man said as he stood straight up without further delay.

His wife shook her head, but she was still smiling.

Oh. So it was a joke...

The married couple strode over to the table neighboring Tadano’s on his right, but they had no intention of sitting—not just yet, anyways. They were merely leaving Tadano plenty of room to get to his feet.

“Come. Let us have a good look at you,” the woman pleaded as she motioned for Tadano to stand.

Blue jeans seemed to be especially popular among the gods, because she was wearing a pair of light ones too. Hers were ever so slightly torn in a few places, however—on purpose, mind you. It was stylish, she thought... They were held in place by a brown belt, though she didn’t truly need it given how snugly they hugged her still-youthful figure. (It was stylish, she thought...)

She was also wearing a ribbed black t-shirt, with a pair of sunglasses folded over the neck line. She didn’t often wear the sunglasses, but... It was stylish, she thought...

Tadano looked up at the married couple for a brief moment, and then reluctantly got up.

It’s not so much that he didn’t want to. It’s just that he had no idea what was going on at this point... He almost felt as if he were being considered for adoption.

That was certainly not the case, but that is what this little assessment felt like...

There was a peculiar, yet comforting warmth that radiated from the woman as she lightly squeezed at his biceps and gave him a little shake while looking him over... She was all smiles, hardly able to contain her glee. “I’m Misa, by the way,” she introduced herself in a sweet, silky-smooth voice as she tidied up his hair a bit.

If not for her long, wavy black hair that was beginning to grey, and her barely-noticeable wrinkles, he would have no reason to assume that she was any older than 17... She wasn’t old at heart in the slightest. In that regard, she reminded him of Komi’s mother.

He couldn’t help but blush as Misa gave him a warm hug as her final act of ‘inspection’.

...He did not hate it.

Tadano had no idea who these gods were. Or if they were even gods at all, to be perfectly frank. He was assuming yes, however, based on the ease with which they were mingling amongst the two reigning gods, Todd and Howard.

“I hope you’re not trading me in for a newer model...” her husband joked.

He was leaning back, with his butt resting against his table. His hands were in the pockets of his brown military pants. He was wearing a light grey shirt with two buttons at the top, and on top of that, a brown leather jacket.

He was in a constant state of shifting from one photogenic pose to another whenever he moved or did anything, as if he was always prepared to have his picture taken.

His porcu’pineapples were resting on the table behind him.

His greying black hair was short, but not too short, and it was in the style of a loose pompadour.

“He is quite handsome,” Misa joked back, then made room for her husband to introduce himself.

“Sorry about all this,” the man said with a genial smile as he stepped forward and put out his hand to shake Tadano’s. “I’m sure you must be quite confused.”

Tadano reluctantly shook his hand and smiled back. “Maybe just a little...” he answered.

“I’m Keys Tonin...” he introduced himself, “Our Sara has told us a great deal about you and your friends. We just wanted to meet you, and thank you for everything you’ve done for her.”

A light came on in Tadano’s head, and suddenly things made a lot more sense. “You’re Sara’s parents?” he asked.

“Yes... Well, sort of,” Misa answered. “I’m sure she must have told you something of her circumstances...”

“W-well, I never asked her for the details,” Tadano said, “...It didn’t feel right to pry. I just remember her telling us that you found her and took her in about 10 years ago after she’d lost her memory... and then it only just recently returned...”

“Yes...” Misa said, “My poor baby girl. She’s been through so much... But we can rest easy knowing that she’s found such good disciples like you.” She beamed a wide smile at him, making him blush again.

She made playful poking motions with one of her hands as if she were going to tickle him or something. He could feel his stomach tense up out of reflex whenever her hand drew near.

“We’re looking forward to meeting your other friends as well,” Keys added, “but that will have to wait until later... We were only able to meet you like this now because you happened to be praying at a shrine.”

“I-I see...” Tadano replied sheepishly. So that’s why... “I don’t really think I’ve done anything to warrant praise, but Sara is a good friend of ours... She’s like family.”

He wanted to tell them that Sara was in good hands and that they didn’t have anything to worry about... just to put them at ease in case they had any remaining concerns about how she was doing... but then he thought the better of it. Him saying something like that would no doubt give them the wrong idea, and he dared not allow something like that to happen.

To begin with, he wouldn’t have been referring to just himself with that kind of statement, but to Komi and Najimi as well. Not to mention Sara’s countless other friends...

He also didn’t believe there was a single thing he, personally, could do for her that she couldn’t simply do for herself and with far greater ease—so it was best to avoid giving them the impression that he thought of himself as anything more than her disciple...

Though I did just call her family. I guess that’s a bit presumptuous of me, isn’t it...?

“Don’t sell yourself short, kid,” Keys said with an air of confidence, almost as though he could read Tadano’s mind, “For her to adore you like she does, that speaks volumes about your character.” He bumped his fist on Tadano’s heart.

On an instinctive level, Tadano wanted to argue against that. He really couldn’t see anything that great about himself that would make someone as amazing as Sara ‘adore’ him in the first place... In fact, what he really wanted to do was deny that she even adored him at all.

That was not something that could be denied, however. Not by anyone of sane mind, anyways... Even Tadano himself was forced to acknowledge it to an extent after some reflection...

Still, those deep-seated insecurities of his were not going to be resolved by a few honeyed words—especially not when those honeyed words were coming from someone he had only just met minutes ago... It didn’t matter that they were backed by some degree of evidence.

Tadano knew he was at a disadvantage here and completely unable to argue back, so he just smiled in response—it was the path of least resistance... He really had nothing to say for himself. And even if he did have something witty to say in self-offense, it would only make the gods think less of him.

...He had to wonder if that was truly what he wanted. And if so, why.

With the mood having turned into this weird, uncomfortable and awkward mess, he quickly decided to try changing the subject. Anything at all was better than continuing to discuss whatever merits his character had or did not have... Being the center of attention like this was making him a little sick to his stomach, truth be told.

“Err... So what’s going on ‘down there’ while I’m here, anyway?” he asked, “Am I still standing there praying, or was I teleported?”

Todd raised his hand for a moment and said, “I can answer that.”

On the table in front of him was a stack of seven empty plates that had absolutely no bearing on the plot... He had just eaten a lot.

Everyone slowly turned to listen to his explanation. Keys and Misa took this opportunity to take their seats.

“Within the shrine grounds, time has been dilated, or stretched to the point it may as well have stopped entirely,” Todd continued, “You’re still there. But you are also here.”

“I don’t quite get it, but I think I’m following you,” Tadano said.

“...I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of a toy called a ‘sticky hand’?” Todd asked as a red one materialized in his right hand. It was made of a certain type of resin, and it was somewhat translucent. It was also considerably stretchy.

He dangled it from one end of its ‘arm’ that was several centimeters in length. On the other end was a proportionally-large hand, and it was sticky—thus the name.

“I haven’t...” Tadano answered. What does that have to do with his explanation?

Todd looked at him for a moment in silence before continuing, “Anyways...”

He swung his arm downward in the direction of the table Keys and Misa were now sitting at, and the ‘hand’ of his sticky hand slapped against it with a satisfying smack. It stayed firmly in place where it made contact.

“Hey, watch out for my key pines,” Keys joked.

“Don’t worry. I’m not aiming for your poor key pines,” Todd shot back with a smirk... “Tadano-kun, this sticky hand represents your connection with this place... In this scenario, you, yourself, are the table... firmly rooted in place—does that make any sense?”

“...I guess so,” Tadano said, though he could not help but hesitate when answering, “I just don’t understand how I’m in two places at once.”

“It just works,” Todd asserted with a smile. “Think of the ‘you’ standing here as just a bundled up mass of memories... or your soul given a temporary physical form... You could call it a spiritual body if you like... Your true body remains at the shrine, but your mind and heart are here with us for the time being.”

Todd’s explanation, while amusing, was good enough for Tadano to get the gist of what they did to bring him there. He didn’t exactly understand how it worked, however, and he probably never would... It’s probably something that only a god can comprehend, right...?

Like Todd said though, ‘it just works’... That was good enough for him.

“I see. So you grabbed my soul with a sticky hand...” Tadano joked as if he were saying something profound. He had his hand to his chin and everything. Or maybe calling it a ‘god hand’ would be more precise...? He squinted his eyes slightly in thought.

“Sure...” Todd joked back. “It is about time we send you back though, I suppose... Spacetime shouldn’t be messed with for long or you can end up with all kinds of unforeseen consequences...”

“Oh! Tadano-kun, before you go,” Keys immediately spoke up, “I want you to have these...” He gestured to the key pines sitting on his table with both hands. “Give one each to Najimi and Komi-san in my place, would you?”

“...Sure,” Tadano said with a humble smile. It would probably do no good to reject the small gift of fruit, so he didn’t bother trying... It was the path of least resistance.

He stored the three pineapples into his storage dimension with a slow sideways swipe of his hand.

“And keep it a surprise from Sara that we’re coming to visit later, won’t you?” Misa asked sweetly as she grabbed Tadano’s hand and started petting it, “Though chances are she’ll know we’re coming regardless.”

Tadano blushed. “A-alright. I will...”

“And get back to work,” Howard joked with his arms crossed. He was leaning against the side of his brother’s booth.

“...Right,” Tadano smiled back.

Todd let go of his end of the sticky hand, and as it snapped back into itself on Keys’ table, so too did Tadano snap back to reality.

Click here to read the full chapter on AO3.

#komi san wa komyushou desu #komi san can't communicate #komi can't communicate #komi san #fanfiction #komi #kca #kca 46 #new years #tadano hitohito #tadano hitomi #osana najimi #komi shouko #nakanaka omoharu #yamai ren #yamanaka #feels #fluff #drama #steins;gate #okabe rintarou #makise kurisu #hiyajo maho #amane suzuha #hashida itaru

[wolfofcelestia]

Hazuki’s and Yuzuki's profiles

Here is a run down of my saniwa OCs. This will most likely be edited in the future but here is where they stand in their current development.

[Neka doll source]

Why Yuzuki exists:

Yuzuki was created to allow me to write actual fluff because at this point, it's kind of impossible for Hazuki to be in something that's completely fluffy thanks to her citadel's history. Also, staying in Hazuki's headspace is really draining, which is why I've been trying to write fluff before moving forward with her main story in the first place

So Yuzuki is here just to give me a break from Hazuki. She is a more carefree saniwa who can enjoy life with her swords without death hanging over their heads.

Yuzuki mood board:

Name:

My original plan when I was naming Hazuki was to have all future saniwas share the last name Hoshino and the first kanji in her name (遥). This is so they can stick to a starry theme, with names that suggest they come from "far away". But from how Yuzuki turned out, seems like all my future saniwas might share just the moon kanji instead.

Hoshino Hazuki 星野 遥月

星野 = Star field

Chosen because it's my default japanese surname I use for games lol. I also wanted all my saniwas to have a spacey name. But for Hazuki, her being tied to the stars also reflects that she's always wishing for a better life.

遥月 = Faraway / Distant moon

Chosen because she is from a different time/era, but also because of her distant, closed off personality.

Kouyama Yuzuki 神山 雪月

神山 = Sacred mountain, mountain where a god lives / is enshrined

Chosen because of her family's long history with spirituality and spiritual power.

雪月 = Snow and moon, figuratively "bright moon"

Chosen for her cold yet easily warmed nature, and also her calm serenity. This is contrasted with the harsh blizzard side of her personality.

Main sword:

Hazuki: Shokudaikiri Mitsutada

Yuzuki: Nikkari Aoe

Colour theme:

Hazuki: Red, white, black

Yuzuki: Blue, white, black

Favourite animal:

Hazuki: Rabbits for their cuteness and fierceness

Yuzuki: Dogs for their undying loyalty and pack mentality

Spirit animal:

Hazuki:

Abused street dog that’s not used to receiving kindness. She takes a long time to trust and strikes out of fear, but once you gain her trust, you’ll have a fiercely loyal friend for life

Yuzuki:

Purebred cat that’s queen of her castle. Her face is easy to read when she’s mad. She can be very affectionate but don’t try to touch her when she’s not in the mood to be bothered

Background:

Hazuki:

Coming from an impoverished, troubled family, she was picked up by a harsh saniwa recruiter for her spiritual powers. Having no choice but to join thanks to her life circumstances, she is thrown into becoming a saniwa and managing her own citadel with little to no support. 

She had no knowledge of her spiritual powers prior to joining the saniwa program. She also had no experience managing or training anyone, leading to her citadel to become stagnant in her first few months of her saniwa career. It’s only after she begins to open up and rely on her swords that her citadel starts to really get going. 

Yuzuki:

Yuzuki comes from a long line of Shinto priests and shrine maidens so her spiritual powers are very strong. She was in training to become a miko, following her family tradition, when she was offered a position as a saniwa. Her strong-willed stubbornness often clashed with her miko mentors so she accepted the saniwa position without a second thought. The recruiter promising hot guys with swords under her command made her decision even easier. 

As a saniwa, she is a natural at training her swords and managing the citadel due to growing up in a similar environment. She had watched her family manage her ancestral shrine and their employees ever since she was very young, even helping out with simple tasks. As a result, her swords grow strong quickly and have no issues with fighting. Her citadel is a well-oiled machine, allowing her and her swords to have lots of down time to relax.

Personality:

Hazuki:

Hazuki is very closed off. Only a special type of person is able to slowly inch their way into her personal bubble. She is a caring and careful saniwa, but her history and anxiousness about losing her swords lead her to become overprotective of them. 

After things settle down in her citadel, she grows into a more confident saniwa who is more skilled in leading her swords, but she would still be difficult to get to know personally. 

She plays the part of a cheerful, happy saniwa to keep the mood in the citadel light, but her emotional scars will always affect her in some way. 

Yuzuki:

Yuzuki enjoys managing the citadel and going to battle. Her citadel being on standby makes her restless and she would be the first saniwa to volunteer in the government's next battle. Because of her ancestry, her spiritual powers make her swords stronger than those of regular saniwas like Hazuki. This leads to battles becoming fun for her, as she has complete confidence that none of her swords would ever break.

She has a knack for strategy and won��t tolerate any nonsense when it’s time to get serious. But she does have her silly side and isn't afraid to laugh at herself or her swords if they do something dumb.

In the citadel, she is open with her swords affectionately but she will freely tell them to fuck off if they get too close. 

Thanks to her upbringing, she can play the part of an elegant miko for official saniwa duties, but her true personality is laid back, extremely casual, and even crass, something many swords find familiar and confidence in on the battlefield. 

Voice:

Both characters’ voice references are from Granblue Fantasy because it’s my only source for female seiyuu lol

Hazuki:

Tikoh (Nanjo Yoshino) for her mid range, analytical tone of voice and her raw, primal screams.

Yuzuki:

Shion (Ishigami Shizuka) for her strong, commanding, no-nonsense tone of voice, but also her ability to melt into a softer side.

Hair:

Hazuki:

Hazuki keeps her black hair hip-length in order to make herself look more like a miko and to gain the respect owed to them. She usually puts it up in a half up ponytail with a red ribbon.

Yuzuki:

Having been forced to grow her hair out for her miko training, she cut her hair to just below shoulder length the day she left her family to become a saniwa. She even experimented with bleaching and dyeing, soon settling on just having one stripe of blue on her right side in her black hair. She usually wears it down with the hair on her left tucked behind her ear.

Clothes:

Both saniwas only wear the full miko outfit when they're performing official duties.

Hazuki:

Main outfit: A modified miko outfit that is lighter and easier to move in. A wrap, kimono-style white top and a red pleated skirt.

Casual/Training: Red t-shirt and black shorts. Hair tied back in a bun

Winter: White sweater, red skirt, black thigh-high socks, black wool coat, fluffy white gloves, scarves, etc

Yuzuki:

Main outfit: A white blouse with a black skirt. Worn over top is an ankle-length, sheer blue haori* with small white snowflakes on it. This is purely for fashion as the transparent cloth does not provide any substantial warmth.

Casual/Training: Blue t-shirt and black shorts.

Winter: A light blue sweater and black pants. Worn over top is a long black haori with white flowers.

*The colour of her haori definitely catches the Shinsengumi swords off guard when they first join or when they see it out of the corner of their eyes, and she uses their subconscious association to work them harder on the battlefield

Scars:

Hazuki: Sword love bites on the fleshy bits of her palms and other more hidden places

Yuzuki: None yet.

Hazuki's Nikkari vs Yuzuki's Nikkari:

At the core, they are the same, but because Yuzuki isn't haunted by any ghosts and doesn't have any trauma like Hazuki, Y!Nikkari is much more carefree and playful. However, he doesn't have as close of a relationship with Yuzuki as H!Nikkari has with Hazuki.

H!Nikkari's love for Hazuki runs painfully deep. He had supported her through her worst days and his devotion to her carries on long after his death.

Y!Nikkari, however, never had to worry about his master. On the contrary, he likes to tease her. His devotion to his master is not too different from any other sword in the citadel, but he prides himself for being the sword Yuzuki keeps closest to her.

Y!Nikkari is a lot stronger than H!Nikkari as well, given that Hazuki rarely trained her swords when she was first starting out as a saniwa.

Y!Nikkari is also still alive lol

I will probably add more info in the future but that's all I've got for now

#elara writes #touken ranbu #hfl citadel #I haven't thought of a name for yuzu's citadel yet #saniwa ocs

[brightgnosis]

Instagram Repost: April 26, 2022

I adore how the same set up has changed so significantly between the first time I set it up as a newlywed in 2015 (left), and now in 2022 (right). But I also adore how significantly it has changed even within the last 2 or 3 years (center vs right)

What I find perhaps the most interesting change is that it went from being a functional Shrine in many of its original incarnations, to being the spiritual and religious equivalent of "😜 I'M NOT TOUCHING YOU 🤪" due to agreements made when we relocated to new living conditions; while it appears real and active, it's actually currently nothing more than an aesthetically arranged gathering space for materia and tools and lovely spiritual gifts that friends have sent me over the course of the last decade … Beautiful, but sadly merely ornamental at the moment.

It is also interesting to me how looking at it would give one a completely different idea of my practice and tradition than what the reality actually is. Which is something significant in and of itself to ponder: A picture may indeed tell a story worth a thousand words. But those words are not always accurate- and that story is not always the truth, let alone ever the full story … An important lesson, I think, about the assumptions we make about others (especially based on purely imageretic presence) in the age of hypercurated social media

This account is run by a Dual Faith «(Converting) Masorti Jew + Traditional NeoWiccan» & «Ancestral Folk Magic Practitioner» with 20+ years of experience as a practicing Pagan and Witch. If that bothers you, don't interact.

#Personal #2022 #Instagram Reposts #A Direct Look At My Practice #Around My Home #Altars & Shrines #Religion & Magic #Oklahoma

[drops-of-moonlights]

hiiii, i’ve been obsessed with your winx rewrite for awhile now and i think it’s so cool especially the naerys system! could you tell me more about the planet myrari before it had been destroyed? and if you don’t mind me asking what app do you use to make your art on the characters and the realm flags?

first of all, thank you for the compliment!

I'll ask the second question first - I use SAI2 for most of my work, dipping into Adobe Illustrator for stuff like the flags and some of the weapons, though not all of them.

I've intentionally kept Myrari as vague as possible as it's supposed to be more of a point of origin for Myraria/the Ancestral Witches than anything else, but what I can say beyond it once called "The Planet of Eternal War" (nowadays the Planet of the Eternal Curse, as it's almost impossible to reach it anymore) is that it was very lush - the amount of completely unique flora and fauna in the planet was outstanding, up to having species that had been long extinct in the rest of the system and even Earth.

It had five realms in it - Almira, Trinat, Vaccio, Sitra and the Nowhere Realm, formerly Parai, the geographical center of the planet and from where the AW originate. Each realm was at war with each other to gain control of the Nowhere Realm for their gain, as the recent loss of their entire monarchy had left it ripe for the picking. Once the war got bad enough many people escaped the planet, and those that remained were eradicated once the AW fused into Myraria and essentially nuclear-bombed the whole place to end the war.

The Myrarian Collapse, as it was called later, was so sudden and abrupt that there wasn't any time to preserve any information or history of the planet beyond the few refugees that escaped, and over time, with only being able to pass it down orally, the information warped, leading to almost no actual information on what the planet was like beyond the basics.

Myrari has three moons - Nyxe, Dormae and Obsidia, the latter of the three being the biggest. If the name sounds familiar, that's because that's where the Thanatix Coven was located, and why it was so hard to find and subdue them all those years ago.

As for what Sources it was aligned with, Almira was aligned with Light and Poison, Trinat with Water and Earth, Vaccio with Darkness and Healing, Sitra with Fire and Metal, and Parai with Flora and Fauna.

The other notable aspect of Myrari, and Parai specifically, is that it housed the only known Shrine of the Void Ethereal (will be reworking the Ethereals soon so you get a sneak-peek of that here lol).

#Drops answers #Winx Club #Winx Redux AU #Winx AU Detailing

[eienshi09]

The Ancients, The Tower, and The Wind Crystal

Previously: The Water Crystal

We're in the home stretch now. Back in Melmond, a very excited Professor Unne gushes over the freshly recovered Rosetta Stone. To express his gratitude, he teaches us how to speak the Lufenian language. Hm, he either must be a very good teacher or we very good language learners. In any case, after much effort, we can now finally talk to the Lufenians!

Journeying back to Lufenia, we find that they actually have a lot to tell us about the world and the past.

The Lufenians are the descendants of the ancient race of Sky People. Their ancestral home is the Flying Fortress; they raised the castle to the skies using the power of the Wind Crystal.

The Mirage Tower is the gateway to the Flying Fortress.

Long ago, they fought a fierce battle with Tiamat, the Fiend of Wind, but lost; she has taken their home as her lair ever since.

Legend says that 400 years after the fall of the sky civilization, Warriors of Light will come forth to save the people.

They believe there is a greater force behind the Four Fiends. They've sent out 5 warriors of their own to find that entity, but have not heard back in a long time. There are rumors those 5 have fallen to the Four Fiends.

In addition to the lore dump, one of the Lufenians gives us a chime that will let us into the Mirage Tower, giving us a clear next destination...

Trekking out to the Yahnikurm Desert, we finally enter the Mirage Tower. The tower's first floor is fairly straightforward, but the second was rather maze-like. At the top, we find a robot that tell us to use the Warp Cube to activate the teleporter to the Flying Fortress.

The Flying Fortress is large but mostly straightforward. The first three floors are a trove of treasure, providing us with a number of gear upgrades. Most notably among them, however, is the adamantite, which we will take to Smyth of the dwarves after taking care of business here.

One of the floors has a console showing the convergence of elemental forces on a single point in the center of the world: the Chaos Shrine, north of Cornelia. It looks like the energy is being drawn from the each of the respective element's shrines and then draining into the Chaos Shrine. Hmm, wonder what's going on there... guess we'll find out in a bit.

We climb the fortress for an additional two floors without further event. At the top, we come face-to-face with the final Fiend, Tiamat of Wind.

Tiamat was a little harder than the previous fiends, firing off powerful elemental AOE attacks each turn. However, our tried and true strategy - buffing the 3 capable attackers and going to town while Jo Bob patches everyone up - still made relatively short work of the fourth and final fiend.

The last Crystal finally restored, our quest is nearly complete. The Circle of Sages has asked us come back to see them after we've defeated the Four Fiends. Not only that, we've got to see what's going on at the Chaos Shrine.

Next: Killing Chaos

#Eien Plays #final fantasy #final fantasy 1 #dawn of souls #ff1 #ffi #jrpg

[pinoy-culture]

before I ask my question, I just wanted to say thank you so so so much for keeping up your blog and consistently giving out information where its readily accessible!!!

maybe this will make me sound like an idiot but to preface, I’m a mixed filipino american. My mom is filipino and some chinese and my dad is some sort of european and puerto rican. i was wondering, in your opinion, do you think it’d be okay for me (eventually) work with diwata and anitos? And how can I start? Ive been trying to communicate with my ancestors and I’ve been looking for books to one day buy (im extremely broke so your blog and any filipino witches i come across is all the info i can get) but i honestly have no clue where to start other than with my ancestors (weird dreams lately but nothing ancestor related i think). i took a DNA test as a gift and it pointed, predominantly, to the Western Visayas so im assuming i should study more on pre-colonial Bisayan culture (my lolas from iloilo so it makes sense i guess) but i also know that “blood quantum” is a colonizer concept so i dont wanna rely on it too much :/ sorry to ramble but pls help lol

First, I'd like to say thank you for following the blog! It really does mean a lot to me to hear from others over the years on how much my blogs have helped them learn about our history and culture.

Now as for working with our diwata and the anito, that is completely ok. The whole blood quantum thing among some Filipinos I honestly don't agree with. As long as you have a family member who is Filipino, you are Filipino regardless of your "percentage" and of how you look. If you have Filipino blood in you, the ancestors are there with you. Even if you weren't raised within Filipino culture or a Filipino household because your parents never brought you up in it, or you are an adoptee like some I've met over the years. Your ancestors are your ancestors regardless. They see you and know you and that is all that matters.

Now there really isn't any book focused specifically on reviving our precolonial beliefs and practices. Yes, some did survive and some even blended in with a form of Folk Christianity in the Philippines. You can see many of the older practices and beliefs still alive, but they have been replaced with Catholic imagery and Saints.

But, in regards actually believing in and worshiping our old deities, doing rituals dedicated to the deity, or even some rites of passage like the Tagalog first menstruation rite of passage, or making carved figures dedicated to the diwata and anito, or performing maganito/paganito or atang to the diwata and anito, majority of Filipinos don't do this, or even know it.

So for being an Anito Reconstructionist, which is a label I personally use for my spiritual beliefs and others have adopted, there really isn't a book for it. A Reconstructionist in other ethnic spiritual paths, such as the Celtic, Roman, Aztec, Kemetic, Greek, Norse, etc., are those who look at historical records to try and piece together what was once practiced and believed in prior to Christianity. Over many years, these different spiritual paths have eventually come together, formed a community, and have resources like books and teachers. They have had the time to do all the research and put together a more formal spirituality based on those Pre-Christian beliefs and bringing it to the modern day where they have hundreds to thousands of people who have gone back to those beliefs. With some, they have even created temples, shrines to their deities, and even have celebrations.

Unfortunately that is not the case for us. However, due to the growing interest in our precolonial beliefs and practices over the years, I can see Anito Reconstructionism growing within the next several years. It already has, with many people actually trying to learn more about these beliefs and our old deities. The amount of people of people I've seen and talked to who have expressed their interest to reclaim these precolonial beliefs and practices is nothing compared to 10 years ago when it was hard to even find one or two people who did.

It is why I've been writing this book for a few years now dedicated to helping others in wanting to reclaim our precolonial beliefs and practices as a starting point in their research. For now though, I always recommend those who are starting to simply just read the historical texts. Grab a notebook and write down notes. Organize your notes into deities, rituals, how to make an offering, any prayers to a specific deity, how to set up an altar, etc.

Seeing as your family is from the island of Panay in the Western Bisayas, like my moms side are from, I would start with looking at the Bisayan precolonial beliefs and practices. A really good reference is reading Francisco Alcina's History of the Bisayans (1668). Volume 3 is available online in English which you can find here. Volume 3 goes into a lot of detail in the beliefs and practices. The Boxer Codex, if you are able to get a copy of the English translation, is also really good reading material.

Getting Started:

In terms of getting started, keep in mind that there is no one monolithic belief system or practice in the Philippines. Before there ever was a Philippines, we were different nations with different beliefs and practices. It is important to know your ethnic groups beliefs and practices and know their history. For example, I am Bisaya (Akeanon specifically) and Tagalog and that is what I work with. Others who I know follow the Bikolano, Kapampangan, or Ilokano beliefs. Though there are some similarities, each ethnic group had their own set beliefs and practices.

I often tell people that you can't just mix and match between them. For example, though I work with both the Tagalog and Bisayan pantheons, I wouldn't dare do a ritual offering to both a Tagalog or Bisayan deity at the same time. It's always separate. You also can't combine 2 similar deities together from different ethnic groups just because they share similar attributes. It's just rude and disrespectful.

Start out small. Set up an altar dedicated to your ancestors. If you have any family members who have passed, put a photo of them on the altar. Leave offerings of rice cakes such as suman, food like chicken adobo, or even a cup of drink such as tuba, lambanog, or even Red Horse beer. But if you can't get access to an alcoholic drink either because one you are a minor or 2 it's not available where you live, you can simply replace it with a non-alcoholic drinks like coconut juice. Get a coconut shell or a seashell to either place these offerings as bowls/plates or even use them to put your kamangyan or incense.

Then start researching how our Bisayan ancestors worshiped and practiced. Study the history and read historical accounts, books, and articles about them. Write down what you have learned on these precolonial beliefs and practices and reconstruct or revive them. This is what Polytheistic Recinstructionists do. I have listed links to these texts here.

Ask questions to your family, particularly your elders. See if they know of anything or if they can share some traditional practices and beliefs they know of have heard of. You would be surprised how, despite some families being really religious, many still believe in the spirits, do some form of ancestor veneration, believe in omens that are being told to you by the ancestors or spirits, etc.

If you can, try to go back to the Philippines and see your family's ancestral home, see where they grew up, etc. Ask about family stories and folk stories. For example, my mom grew up in Aklan and has always told me stories of the aswang and certain omens. She also constantly talks about the mischievous "little people" who play tricks on you (for example putting something down like your keys and then it goes missing, until you find it again somewhere else). In the Western Bisayas, they are known as kama-kama. There is also a story of how her grandmother's cat visited her during her wake. The cat was missing for years, but it came back and stayed sleeping on top of the casket for days before it left. My mom told me that it was the cat paying their respects to her grandmother.

Keep in mind also and acknowledge our indigenous communities who have kept their beliefs and practices. Don't try to take them into your own. I have seen people cherry pick things from the Manobo of Mindanao or the Kalinga in the Cordillera, which is just disrespectful. Many of the IP, though some still have kept their beliefs, it isn't the most important aspect to them. What they are most concerned about are other issues such as losing their homes due to occupation by oil or logging companies, other settlers such as the Tagalog and Bisayans (especially in Mindanao), getting targeted as "rebels" by the Philippine military and often getting killed. But, by cherry picking beliefs especially of the IP groups, it's just disrespectful.

I will be teaching classes on Anito Reconstructionism soon and will have my first class possibly at the end of the month or next month. I decided to do these classes seeing as there is a growing community who are interested, but don't know where to start. I'll be doing a proper announcement on these classes real soon so look out for the announcement and hopefully you will be able to join!

#filipino #diwata #anito #anito reconstructionist #polytheist #polytheism #precolonial philippines #faq #question #long post

[keouil]

at this hour any god is rain

“whose blood is that?” nanami asks. 1k. gojo/nanami. vampire!au also on ao3.

Nanami pushes his way into the gates just before the railings snap close.

He lets out a huge sigh of relief, entire body sagging into one of the stone columns by the entrance. He peers down at his tattered khakis, one of the threads having snagged on the metal links on the bars and letting it loose. Goddamn Ijichi and his neurotic, unforgiving automatic timers. He made it just in time before curfew, before the matron of the city chastised him for staying too long in the woods, before he himself stayed up too late shrewd in the shadows past their little village. 

Nanami lays there for a while, trying to labour his breathing as he peered out into the village. It was completely dark out now, but the kerosene lamps dangling from the pillars in the entrance were enough to let him see beyond the awning of trees. He could hear the chirps of crickets echoing against the branches, the wailing of howls foreboding in the distance. 

Goddamn Gojo, Nanami thought as he squared up and steeled himself for a long trek home,  And his penchant for dramatics.

-

On the banks of the Naga river, a little past the shrine, there is an old hickory tree. It had strong, long roots that branched out into the soil, forever spinning and growing and stitching itself together until the years had bred it into a village. In that village, there is a tale as old as time: how the  oni lurked beneath the trenches of their barren soil, how the borough lived and thrived off the satisfaction of the faes, and it would do well for the younglings to tread lightly on the ground and not walk alone at night and not stay up too late. Because sometimes, sometimes: the fine lines of the roots didn’t look so much like threads, but claws; and sometimes, too: teeth.

- 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Gojo’s head snaps up, trying not to jostle the delicate set-up of ceramic bowls and jade crystals laid on the table. He frowns a little. “What?”

“What do you mean what?” Nanami walks up to him, gesturing at the poor set-up and all but throwing the satchel he had onto Gojo’s face. “I didn’t just bravely scour the forest for nearly two hours just for you to  improvise. I was nearly skewered in half by the gates, mind you.”

The frown on Gojo’s face eases into amusement. “Relax,” he turns back to the table, moving set pieces around. “You got here in one piece, didn’t you?”

“Barely,” Nanami seethes, trying not to claw at his hair. This really was too foolish and risky. “And I’m pretty sure Yaga knows what we’re doing, by the way.”

“I’m pretty sure the old man’s one of them, too,” Gojo scoffs easily, and it’s the candid tone that made Nanami pause. “What? Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”

The blank look of horror on his face was enough of an answer.

“Nanami, seriously,” Gojo glances over at him, growing more amused by the second. Nanami wanted to wipe the grin off his voice. “Even the kids have caught on by now. Why do you think Megumi insists on hanging up cloves of garlic? Why Panda has no friends?”

Nanami blanched. “Shit.”

“Yeah, shit, ” Gojo nodded vehemently, glancing at the clock every so often. The time on the wall makes half an hour before midnight. He scurried over to one of the wooden cabinets. “So the sooner we get this over with the sooner we can un-shit this town and finally see the sun.” 

They were going to do, of all things, a hex. 

They weren’t witches or warlocks—though Gojo has mused to him in passing, how he thinks surely Shoko or Utahime carried over some of that ancestral spite from their predecessors—but they were, above all, worried villagers. More and more babes were being plucked from the womb; it basically induced a town-wide hysteria. People stocking up on rations and barricading doors and hanging ofuda on maple trees. The talismans could basically have been red herrings for all the good it did them, because still: the vanishings had endured and the soil kept growing thicker and more lush.

The village was quickly growing into an embarrassment of riches. The price they paid for it, however, was done in poor taste.

Which is why Nanami snaps out of it and rummages through his satchel, snagging on the bejewelled crystal jar with its warm liquid threatening to spill over. “Alright,” he turns around carefully. “I have the— ”

What the hell.

Instead of expecting to see Gojo set up the kokkuri and lay out the incense sticks and joss paper and other divination essentials, he finds him holding out his own ember flask. Also filled.

“Whose blood is that?” Nanami asks.

Gojo peers over at him from the rim of the glass, the murky red mixing with the azure of his eyes. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

“Quit it,” Nanami hisses, carefully placing down his procured potion. That poor, unfortunate rabbit who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. “This isn’t a joke, Gojo, what we’re doing. Who is that?” He asks again. “Who do we have to pay hush money for this time?”

Gojo rolled his eyes. “Ever the drama queen,” he sighs, albeit, himself dramatically. He caps off his flask and positions it at the centre of the plateau. “Stop fussing. It's no one you know.”

Nanami narrows his eyes. “I know  everyone  in the village.”

Gojo pauses, blinking. “Right. Forgot you were Mr. Popular.”

“You know everyone! You!” Nanami groans, running a hand down his exhausted face. He gestures at Gojo pointedly. “You’re literally cousins with Toji – the mayor! And—” He pauses, suddenly feeling very cold and very unsure. He glances at him warily. “That’s not— Is that— Don’t tell me—”

“Oh don’t get so twisted about it,” Gojo waves him off dismissively. “If I wanted Megumi Zenin’s father dead, I’d enlist his kid as my hitman. Have you seen the way he looks at him? If looks could kill.”

“Gojo,” Nanami warned lowly. “Who is it.”

They could hear the tolls of the grandfather clock grate against each other in the distance, echoing its woes all throughout the isolated barracks. The wind was lashing at the windows, the long branches of the sycamore tree in the backyard brushing through its glass panels. 

Gojo took a moment to regard him, and then very slowly a corner of his lips tugged up, baring pearly white teeth that nipped a little at the molar. 

Nanami felt all the color drain his face.

It was sharp; sharper than Nanami had seen on him his entire childhood, sharper than when he last first saw him before they parted ways at the village entrance with clear instructions on how to proceed. With Nanami needing to secure sacrificial blood, and Gojo, Gojo: a single leaf from the hickory tree.

“Let’s just say they made an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

#nanago #gojo satoru #kento nanami #jujutsu kaisen #fic

[apenitentialprayer]

The Cult of the Saints: An Outline

The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, by Peter Brown.

Chapter 2: “A Fine and Private Place”

1. Inscriptions on graves stretching over a millennium are “reminders of the massive stability of the Mediterranean care of the dead.” Funerary customs were simply “part and parcel” of the human condition, and so rituals were surprisingly indifferent to labels like “pagan,” “Christian,” “elite,” or “popular.” They were less a religious experience as they were a human experience, with the central aspect in all cases being the importance of the deceased’s family in taking care of the dead. 2. At the same time, the grave became a flashpoint where tensions between communal and familial loyalties could be expressed and played out. Different societies at different times have attempted to deal with the apparent contradiction of loyalty among its constituencies in different ways; some have been content to allow certain members of the dead “to retain a high profile,” while others have attempted to suppress the power of certain deceased and their families. (x) 3. Though such tensions shift the field of conversation from overt theology to more subtle sociological concerns within the community, the language used to discuss these tensions nonetheless remain religiously charged. Granting ammunition to those scholars who use the two-tier popular religion model, writers of this period like Augustine and Jerome attempted to frame undesirable practices as pagan holdovers. 4. This framing of undesirable practices as pagan holdovers has influenced later historians; by taking such claims at face value, scholars like A.H.M. Jones could later look at texts written by these same authors that speak positively of the cult of the saints and frame these texts as the final victory of the vulgar in pressuring the practices of the elite. But such a view fails to hold up under scrutiny. 5. For example, the elites who decried ‘paganisms’ that had infiltrated Christian practice often blamed a phenomenon of mass conversions that had happened in the century since Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. There are two issues with such reasoning; recent archaeological work at Hippo has failed to find evidence of a sudden mass conversion to Christianity among its 4th Century inhabitants; the growth of the community seems to have come from a rising population occurring within a stable Christian community. Second, the practices being described as pagan in origin were often practiced by the elite Christians themselves, and had been practiced by such Christians for generations before. 6. By looking beyond the writings of a select few elites who lived during the generation of Augustine and Jerome, a different picture starts to be formed; this picture forces us to confront the tensions between the universal Church, which articulated itself as a form of extended spiritual kinship, and the biological kin units that were members of this Church. 7. The increased centralization of the Church in late antiquity, combined with the central ritual meal in which all members would participate, allowed the institution to become a form of “artificial kin group.” This is shown by their funerary practices; by the early third century, the Church in Rome had its own cemetery, and the burial of non-Christians within its territory was seen as a breach in kinship ties. Likewise, the Christian Church prayed for its dead specifically, at the exclusion of heathens, apostates, and excommunicates. Likewise, the dates of the deaths of martyrs and bishops were recorded and memorialized as a form of family history. 8. At the same time, the ‘privatization’ of the cult of the saints threatened the universality of the Church; writers like Augustine and Vigilantius criticized devotions centered on ancestral graves and relics for this very reason. There was an anxiety that the rise of feast days dedicated to localized saints could threaten the importance of Easter, and the holy sites in Jerusalem could be neglected in favor of tombs closer to home. 9. By keeping these conflicting interests in mind, the framing of the controversy changes from a Christian intellectual elite trying to suppress a ‘vulgar’ religious practice to a battle between two different Christian elites attempting to position themselves as the proper patrons of the cult; the bishops representing the universal Church, and the families of the venerated deceased. 10. This conflict can be seen in the creation of shrines and the private possessions of relics by wealthy laypersons. Families would often construct shrines to saints with the intention of burying their own dead in proximity to them, depositio ad sanctos. This led to some resentment; the grave of one poor person located outside a chapel had an inscription which said his position outside the church was a result of his poverty, but quips that he nonetheless is “as warm as they” who were laid to rest by the saint. In another case, a woman named Lucilla was rebuked by a deacon for kissing the bone of a martyr that she owned before receiving the Eucharist in her mouth. 11. In Rome itself, tensions between these groups were less severe; the Christian poet Paulinus praised a Roman senator who held a feast at the grave of an ancestor on his death-day, for example. Pope Damascus, likewise, was able to exert influence on prominent members of wealthy Christian families in order to keep a hold on “cemeteries that could so easily have slipped irrevocably out of their control.” Outside of Rome, Ambrose of Milan would play a prominent role in the cooling of this crisis. After the relics of Saints Gervasius and Protasius were discovered in 385, Ambrose was swift to appropriate them for himself; he collected the corpses and placed them in a basilica of his own creation, “inseparably link[ing them] to the communal liturgy.” 12. Ambrose had neither created the practice of saint veneration, nor did he simply accept cult veneration as something outside his control; by linking relics to particular churches and basilicas throughout his territory, Ambrose had essentially “rewired” the practice by connecting it to places of public worship. Augustine’s writings in favor of the saints would perform a similar function; whereas their intercession was previously a largely private affair, his recording of ‘authentic’ miracles by their intercession made these stories the public domain of all Christians. 13. In the generation directly after Augustine, the ambivalence towards the cult of the saints had shifted; figures like Gregory of Tours and Paulinus were greatly enthusiastic with the celebrations of the saints. Two factors may have played a part in this; first was the economic situation in western Europe; even during Augustine’s term as bishop, his community controlled more wealth than he ever did as an individual, and in fact struggled to find ways to spend it. 14. While much of the Mediterranean struggled with financing its ecclesiastical ambitions, Italy, Gaul, and North Africa seemed to have an abundance of wealth; whereas Alexandria “had to choose between shirts for then poor and the itch to build,” western Europe did not have the surge in population that made it difficult to fund reliefs for the poor and sick. And, without the traditional ways of spending wealth for the community, resentment for their possession of the wealth could fester. The cult of the saints allowed the Church to avoid that; by publicly funding shrines and hosting feasts and ceremonies at them, the money could be funneled back to the community. 15. Furthermore, the cult of the saints helped to redefine urban life in the Roman world. Before, the city was divided into citizens (men belonging to the city) and non-citizens (women, children, the poor, and visitors). Most of the time, these latter two categories were allowed to remain in the city, but at times of war or famine they were forcibly expelled; the line of who belonged was drawn. With the rise of the cult of the saints, both women and the poor were able to participate in public life like never before. 16. The most dramatic expression of women’s involvement would be the processions on feast days, which scandalized even some of the clergy; men and women, married and unmarried, walked and mingled together during these celebrations. Later, under Islamic rule, there are records of young men coming to such festivals specifically to see the women. In some cases, illicit sexual activity did occur - Augustine had one in one of the basilicas of Carthage before his conversion to Christianity. 17. Beyond the physical mixing of the sexes, the cult of the saints allowed women to partake in situations that were not dominating by men in the traditional sense. Most shrines were located in cemeteries, where the regulation between the sexes was more lax. Beyond that, however, the escape from the “rigidities of her urban setting” could mean a complete escape from the masculine presence in its entirety. One account of a pilgrim details her walking a circuit of shrines in which even the male saint being venerated did not act in the traditionally Roman masculine form. (x) 18. The poor, meanwhile, often congregated around shrines, as they were heavily associated with charity and gift-giving. This was part of a larger shift to a postclassical society in which the citizen/non-citizen divide was replaced with the rich and poor as the primary separator; the rich were expected to provide service to the poor through a religiously charged expression of patron-client relationship. The poor were not to be thrown out “at the first touch of famine,” but were essential parts of this system of patronage. 19. The inclusion of the poor as social recipients was mirrored by the inclusion of women as givers. This development allowed women to participate in public life at a time where public laws were still forbidding them to participate in politics; under the Christian worldview, charity was an act of mercy, and not an act of politics. Women could therefore visit the sick, feed the poor, and fully participate as patrons of shrine-based ceremonies without breaching this ban. 20. These developments hopefully show that the development of the cult of the saints was not the result of a “vulgar,” half-pagan majority forcing their will on a reluctant, educated Christian elite. Rather, it was a development within the Christian community that created intracommunal tensions and resulted in a tradition that broke from traditional paganism.

#history #sociology #Christianity #Saint Augustine #Saint Ambrose of Milan #The Cult of the Saints #long post

[besanii]

hello! first of all, let me just say that i love your writing !! second, i was reading shattered mirrors (bc that verse owns me thanks) and in the nightmare fic, wwx mentions a water prison, which sounds super terrifying and interesting so I guess my question is does wwx have a fear of water because of it? If so, does LWJ know? -C

[from here (#21) and here (#28)]

“Xian-er, my dear, a moment of your time.”

He feels Lan Wangji stiffen beside him when Wang Dafu wanders over to their table partway through the festivities. The other guests are in various states of inebriation and growing rowdy, although Wei Wuxian suspects they are behaving themselves more so than usual today. Usually around this time he would be excusing himself for some fresh air to escape the noise, but there had been little chance of it with Lan Wangji beside him, still as a statue, preventing his exit.

Wang Dafu bows to Lan Wangji.

“Er-wangye, may I perhaps be so bold as to borrow a moment of Xian-er’s time?” he asks. “I would like to have a word with him in private.”

Lan Wangji does not move. Wang Dafu starts to sweat under his stony gaze, glancing around for assistance without causing a scene. Eventually, Wei Wuxian takes pity on him and rises to his feet with an easy laugh.

“Of course, Wang-daren,” he says. “Shall we adjourn to your delightful little garden? I am afraid I have been terrible company tonight and should excuse myself before I displease Er-wangye any further.”

The cup in Lan Wangji’s hand hits the table top with a loud thud that catches the attention of everyone in their immediate vicinity. Within a second, everyone stops what they are doing to bow in the wake of his anger, cowering further when Lan Wangji rises to his feet. He ignores Wang Dafu completely and turns to Wei Wuxian with the same stony gaze.

Wei Wuxian hesitates, keeping his head bowed.

“Wangye…” he says, “if I have indeed displeased you—”

“You have not,” Lan Wangji interrupts him to say. 

His tone, however, is flat and abrupt. It has been a very long time since Wei Wuxian has heard this tone directed at him and it shocks him more than he would like to admit; he keeps his hands tucked into his wide sleeves, hidden beneath the silk veil he has yet to remove, unable to stop the way they tremble at the thought of Lan Wangji angry because of him.

“Raise your head,” Lan Wangji tells him. When Wei Wuxian hesitates to obey, Lan Wangji sighs. “W—Xian-er.”

The name sounds foreign on his lips—sounds wrong. He finds himself hating it, hating the sound of it, in that instant. But the moment passes and he raises his head, all smiles and good humour once again.

“Yes, Wangye?”

“I will join you in the gardens,” Lan Wangji says. “I also find myself in need of some fresh air.”

–

There is a large pond in the middle of the garden, which Wang Dafu boasts took months to create. It is deep, he says, deep and wide enough for them to be able to take a small boat around the perimeter and allow them some privacy.

Lan Wangji stays a ways behind to give them a semblance of privacy, watching as Wang Dafu leads Wei Wuxian to the water’s edge with a simpering, doting smile on his lips. Wei Wuxian responds in kind, with a hand on his arms, puncturing holes in Lan Wangji’s lungs with each whispered word and soft laugh that floats back into his ear. He forces himself to watch, even though he is too far away to hear what they are saying; each passing second burns bitterly in the back of his throat.

“Wangye,” a servant says quietly from behind him. “Would you like to take a seat in the pavilion to wait for the master?”

“No, I will wait here,” Lan Wangji says. “You may leave.”

“Yes, Wangye.”

He watches Wei Wuxian shiver just as the boat is pulling close to the shore, and Wang Dafu coos and fawns over him before he is striding off, calling for Mo Xuanyu to bring an extra cloak for his master. Wei Wuxian watches him go, his hands falling to his side, no longer shivering, the playfulness gone from his gait. Turning away from the water, he looks to a spot to Lan Wangji’s left and raises his voice.

“You can come out now,” he says.

A young woman, no more than twenty, charges out from behind a tree. One of Wang Dafu’s concubines, Lan Wangji realises, from the fine silks and gold ornaments in her hair.

“Liu-furen,” Wei Wuxian says. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“You bitch,” she hisses. “I know what you’re here for! You have your greedy little eyes on my husband. You think that parading yourself around like the shameless thing you are will get you out of your miserable little life? It won’t be that easy. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Wei Wuxian laughs, but it is not the soft, breathy laugh from before; instead, it is sharp and mocking, cutting through the woman’s fury like a sharp knife.

“Pardon me, Liu-furen,” he says. “I wasn’t aware you had any say. Did you not serve Wang-furen as a maid before you climbed into bed with her husband? And you dare to lecture me on being shameless?”

She gapes at him for a moment, to stunned to speak. In the next moment, she raises her hand and slaps Wei Wuxian across the face, nearly dislodging his veil. Wei Wuxian does not retaliate, fixing the veil around his head to disguise how he raises his hand to still Lan Wangji’s furious step forward.

“Xian-er thanks Liu-furen for her guidance,” he says coldly. “I must remind you that I am here at Wang-daren’s personal invitation. What do you think your husband will say if he found out how you treat his guests?”

“I am his wife,” she says haughtily, but there is a trace of nervousness in her tone. “He would not believe the words of a slut over mine.”

“Pardon me, Liu-furen, but you are a concubine,” he reminds her. “And the lowest ranking one too. I would really advise you to worry about yourself first, rather than picking needless fights with me.”

She grabs his arm roughly to prevent him from leaving. The force of the motion has him stumbling backwards and crashing into her, causing both of them to lose balance and slip on the wet grass by the edge of the pond. She shrieks as she falls, and claws at him in a desperate attempt to regain balance. The ensuing struggle knocks his weimao to the ground and his long hair spills over his shoulder.

Lan Wangji, who had already started moving the moment he saw her lay her hand on him, gets there in time to catch Wei Wuxian by the waist, hauling him away from the water’s edge. The motion dislodges her hands in the process; she tumbles into the water with a scream, followed by a loud splash. He pays her no mind, attention already on Wei Wuxian, who has gone deathly still.

“Wei Ying?” he says softly. “Are you alright?”

Tremors start to run over his body, small and barely noticeable at first, rapidly building in intensity until he collapses in Lan Wangji’s arms, his legs giving out from beneath him. His breath comes in choked, dragging gasps, terrifying similar to the way his attacker gasps and struggles in the water behind them, and he claws at his throat frantically trying to draw breath.

“Wei Ying!” He takes hold of Wei Wuxian’s face between his hands and presses their foreheads together. “Wei Ying, focus on me. Listen to me. You have to breathe. With me. Listen to me. Breathe.”

Servants and guests alike have come out at the sound of the commotion, shouting for help. Someone fishes Wang Dafu’s concubine out of the water, spluttering and crying, but Lan Wangji does not concern himself with anything other than Wei Wuxian. He holds him close, keeps their foreheads pressed together so he can feel his breath against his lips, deep and slow, until he subconsciously starts to mimic the pattern. After a few deep breaths, his body begins to relax little by little. The colour returns to his cheeks and the eerie blankness fades from his eyes.

“Lan Zhan?” he rasps, muddled and confused. “Where—?”

“Shh, you’re fine,” Lan Wangji tells him. “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

People are starting to crowd around them, shouting questions and clamouring to get a better look. Wei Wuxian flinches at the noise and ducks his head; Lan Wangji grabs the fallen weimao from the ground and places back over his head before sweeping him up into his arms. A startled gasp sounds from beneath the veil as shaking hands grasp the front of his robes tightly. Wang Dafu bursts out from the crowd as he is about to leave, wild-eyed and panting.

“Wangye!” he gasps, falling to his knees. “Please forgive my concubine for her offense! I will see to it that she is punished for her transgressions!”

“I am not the one you should be apologising to,” Lan Wangji says, his voice quiet and cold as ice. “This woman will receive fifty slaps across the face and confinement to the ancestral shrine for reckless endangerment of a guest of her husband’s house and failure to observe proper etiquette as befitting a concubine of her station. Wang Dafu shall receive fifty lashes and withholding of six month’s salary for the endangerment of a guest of his house as a result of his failure to enforce proper conduct within your household. Report to the Ministry of Justice at dawn.”

He adjusts his arms so Wei Wuxian is tucked securely in his arms, his head leaning against his shoulder beneath the weimao, and strides past the crowd without a backward glance.

Notes:

Liu-furen (六夫人) - Sixth Madam, or “sixth wife”

// buy me a ko-fi //

Master Post is here

#mdzs #wangxian #shattered mirrors au #shattered mirrors fic #王爷机 X 花魁羡 #my writing #wwx has a panic attack #lwj still doesn't quite know what's going on #but wang dafu is now out of the picture #sorry i was gonna go plotty #but it got long #and also it's 2.30am here #so i'll have to write the plotty some other time #he takes WWX back to Caiyun Pavilion #and WWX almost asks him to stay #it's almost the tipping point at which WWX decides to leave with LWJ #i'm so tired i'm just gonna roll over and sleep now

[tentendeservedbetter]

home is where my team is - Chapter 3

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“Today will be the final test I have to take in order to become a Genin, just as you and father have been before. Please, watch over me.” 

She bowed slightly, her hands together in a prayer sign in front of her nose, before opening her eyes and pushing herself off of her knees to stand. She quickly patted her black pants, getting rid of any left over lint from the pillow she sat on, and she stared at the Dainichi Buddha that stood tall and proud with his eyes closed, in the middle of the elevated floor surrounded by the four other slightly shorter Buddhas on each cardinal sides. 

Lines of black tiles, rectangular and short with white paint engraved in kanjis, sat in rows and columns along ascending stairs that flanked beside the Buddhas closer to the wall, with bigger tiles reserving their spots closest to the statues. The big tiles soon transformed into framed photos with a tablet in front of it as you descended the stairs, with the most recent addition being the only one in colour. 

The Hyuuga Shrine found in the northern part of the Hyuuga Compound is a homestead for the gods and the names of their ancestors and recently departed. While the Konoha cemetery was where most of their relatives would be buried, allocated under their appropriate place reserved for specific clans or among the fallen, this shrine was more so a safekeeping of their past, of their legacy, and of their tradition. The walls, though faint and dull from age, had traces of paintings of the Hyuuga clan's rich history and unique style of fighting, tracing all the way back to before the formation of Konoha as they know it today.

Rarely did Hinata come to the family shrine to pray, and rarely does she pray at all. She was unsure i f she truly believed in the gods that protected their family, and she was much more unsure of whether the spirits of her ancestors were truly watching over her. If anything, they were probably looking down at her with disappointment in their eyes and disapproving shakes of the head at how the heiress of the Hyuuga Clan turned out.

Poor Lord Hiashi,  they were probably whispering amongst themselves.  It was bad enough that he had no sons, but the eldest daughter is weak in nature! What will become of the Hyuuga clan at if Hinata were to remain heiress?

She only came to the shrine when she needed time alone and away from the entire compound, a place where she may talk freely to the air and without having to feel the weight of disappointment from the elders of her clan. Solace was found in the shrine that was hidden amongst the trees, away from prying ears and scrutinizing glances. Though, it was the limited access to the shrine that allowed the shrine to be almost always empty; this sanctuary is only allowed to be accessed by the lucky few that were born into the Main House of the clan.

The lucky few like herself.

Hinata wasn't fond of that rule, thought she was never fond of  anything  concerning the divide between the Main House and the Branch House. She was taught from a young age about the relationship between the houses from the elders that watched over her: the Main House was the brain of the clan, the most important organ that allowed all the knowledge and secrets hidden within this family to carry on throughout the generations, while the Branch House was the vessel that protected this important organ, working only as a reactionary mechanism of the Main House. 

The Branch House's purpose in life, the reason they were born, was to protect the Main House from outsiders who sought to obtain the ultimate knowledge of the Hyuuga Clan, and inherently, want to obtain their prized kekkei genkai: the Byakugan.

But the shrine is a place for someone to seek solace and guidance in the gods, with the Buddhas being those who transcended into omnipotence, a teacher to all who wish to pursue their knowledge. 

Why, then, should the Branch Family, who, despite only being seen as protectors of the Main Family, not be allowed to enter this shrine that praises the gods that guided the principles of their clan? Do they not carry the same clan name? If their sole duty is to protect the Main House, then they are in an equally honourable position as them; without the members of the Branch House, the Main House lineage would have to fend for themselves. They should have the right to seek solace, the same right as the Main House have to seek faith.

That’s what Hinata wished she could say. 

But she knew that the house dynamic in the Hyuuga clan was much more complicated than that, running deep into the roots of their lineage. She knew it was a game of power, a game of authority. They were the Hyuuga clan, after all, and they were considered to be one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha, one of the four noble clans to actually found the village; control was a given to a clan as secretive and powerful as her own.

That’s why they performed that cruel technique that even the Hokage had to turn a blind eye to; to maintain power and control.

Maybe one day she could change the way the Hyuuga clan was. Maybe one day, the Main House would come to co-exist with the Branch House in a more equal way. But if she wanted to do any of that, she needed to be stronger than she is now.

And the only way to do that is to pass today’s test.

If you’re there, Mother,  Hinata thought as her eyes returned back to the coloured image along the ancestral lineup. The woman in the photo, with deep blue hair that hung behind her shoulders with a few strands shaping her face and pale irises, looked back at her with a soft smile.  Please give me the courage you had.

She took her white hoodie and backpack from the floor beside where she sat and put it on as she started to walk across the wooden floor towards the doors of the shrine. As she gets to the bottom of the stairs, she took one last breath of the incense scented room. 

She had plenty of time to spare before heading out to the Hokage Rock, her usual morning practice session (or, as she liked to think of it, her usual morning  torture session) with her father and grandfather was put on hold for the time being. But first she had to pick up her lunch from the kitchen- her grandmother was likely there to make sure Hinata would pack more than enough to eat, insistence that if she wanted to become stronger for the clan, she would build her body that way. 

It was conflicting with what all her aunties would say. They would tell Hinata to cut down on the food, or else she would gain weight.  Or worse , they would say when her grandmother mentions being stronger,  you’d look like a guy with big muscles . It didn’t help that ever since she turned 10, for some reason, her waist had gotten wider and her chest was bigger than most girls her age. Luckily, the hoodie she had was not only useful for the cool January weather they have in Konoha, but also helped hide her body from judging eyes.

She crossed a short way into the main house found in the centre of the compound, trying to maintain her step as she crossed the floorboard that lined around the perimeter of the house. She kept her eyes glued to the ground whenever she could see an elder Hyuuga walking down the hall, trying to ignore them and save herself from an impending lecture. 

As she entered the hallway towards the kitchen, Hinata turned the corner quickly, when she suddenly felt a sharp collision with someone that made her rebound back onto the floor. 

Her face twisted slightly at the pain of her nose hitting against the other person’s shoulders, and she let out a small ‘ow’. 

“Watch where you’re-” a sharp voice suddenly scolded her, before abruptly stopping. Hinata looked up towards the person she had just hit, and she could feel a slight sense of dread building up in her stomach.

“O-Oh,” Hinata managed to mumbled, as she scrambled to get herself up, not wanting to seem completely knocked out from what was a simple collision (even though her nose was still stinging). "Neji-niisan."

Her cousin stood before her in his usual shinobi garb of brown shorts and eggshell washed shirt, looking down at her from his slightly taller stature, his angular eyes narrowing. His headband with the Konoha symbol gleamed slightly when he tilted down, the metal rectangle being stitched onto a brown headband instead of the usual blue, with long buckles hanging from each of his temples and going past his shoulders.

Neji was her cousin through their fathers, his father Hizashi, who had passed away when she was too young to remember what had truly happened, being her father’s younger twin. He was Hinata's senior by only a year. He had graduated from the Academy and became a Genin during the previous year, yet he looked much older than the average 13 year old that he should be. It could be because of how hardened his face looked compared to a lot of kids around their age, making his face look sharper than it actually was. He balanced it out with his long brown hair, that flowed up till his waist as it would traditionally be grown by the men of the family, held by the end with a hairtie. 

Hinata was often time envious of Neji. He was considered what a Hyuuga should be, disciplined and stoic, and efficient when it came to mastering the basic forms of their family’s fighting style, the Gentle Fist. She wished she had not only his natural gift of picking up skills with ease, but also his confidence and surety with every calculated strike he made- it would definitely make her life easier if she were that way.

That, and she wished she had his looks as well. She had heard the long running comments made by the women of the family; “ Hiashi’s eldest is cute and all, but Hizashi’s child is the prettiest out of all the cousins”  and “I wish my daughter looked like Hizashi’s child”.  

And most of the times, Hinata agreed with them.

“I’m sorry!” Hinata quickly exclaimed, feeling nervous by how his white pupils seemed to be looking into her soul. “Are you alright?”

She could see that he was trying not to show his scowl at her, but was proving to have difficulties when she saw the corners of his mouth twitch downwards, lines evident on his pale skin.The dread seeped in deeper, and she could feel her shoulders curl inwards, trying to make herself small under his gaze.

Neji never smiled at her. 

He always frowned.

Even when Hinata was younger and tried to talk and play with him, Neji never smiled at her. He only forced out a reply here and there, and that’s only if her father was around.

“Lady Hinata,” Neji replied courtly, his tone much cooler than before, but he still glowered at her. “Please watch your step. You can hurt yourself by not being careful.”

“O-oh,” Hinata muttered as she glanced away, his piercing eyes making her nervous. “Okay. But are you-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Neji immediately walked past her with a quick step, turning the corner she came from without a single word, leaving Hinata alone. 

“...hurt,” she finished in a whisper, the dread now turning into hurt at being dismissed this way. 

She really did try her hardest to get to know Neji but to no avail. The young boy never seemed to want to talk to her, never mind be around her. If he was, it was only because Hinata couldn’t be left alone and needed someone from the Branch House to watch over her; and usually, Neji would be the prime candidate, handpicked by Hiashj, being the closest to her age compared to the other clansmen. It has always been this way, their relationship has always been rocky, but Hinata never understood why Neji always refrained from talking to them. 

Were they not cousins before anything else? Was he not supposed to her older brother, the one she should seek guidance from?

What had she done to Neji, except be born into the Main House? 

But at the same time, if she were him, would she not resent her as well?

Hinata didn’t have time to ruminate over what had just happened, and tried to push it down to the back of her mind, as she often does. She fixed the straps of her bag so it fit snug on her shoulder and continued to walk down the halls at a slower pace.

She got to the part of the complex where the faint sounds of pots clanking against one another and fresh fish and eggs sizzling on top a pan could be heard, and Hinata could feel her mouth salivating. She was just in time for a quick breakfast on the spot.

She slid the door with a gentle hand, revealing a pair of woman, both relatively young and wearing a white bandana across their forehead, swiftly shifted between the countertop and the stove. Another woman, middle aged with a few grey hairs, stood near a giant pot on top of a coal fire near the open doorway on the opposite side, letting the steam from the rice cooking waft out to the back court. An elderly woman with grey hair secured in a bun and slightly hunched shoulders shuffled along the countertop, a bento box sitting in front of her as she stuffed sliced vegetables inside.

"Lady Hinata," all three women acknowledged her as they did a bow to the young heiress. Hinata bowed to them, them being her aunties, even if they were apart of the Branch House - she was still raised to be respectful of her elders. 

And even then, Hinata found that it was harder to maintain a separation of houses between the women of the Hyuuga clan- regardless of the house they belong to, and regardless of whether they are of a lower branch, it seems that often when the women and girls are together without the demeaning eye of men, there is not as big of a drift between them, save for maintaining standard titles protocols. 

It didn't help that often times, marriage between the Main House and the extended Branch House. After all, her own grandmother, her father's mother, was from the Branch House, further along the line, and married her grandfather of the Main House. These marriages blurred the lines of formality at times.

Though, what the women lacked in standard house tensions tends to take the form of more personal grudges towards certain family members, from meager things like forgetting to return the favour to downright gossiping about an aloof relative over tea.

Ah, the benefits of having a large family.

While Hinata would try to avoid having a conversation with relatives (mostly because it causes her an existential crisis with their incessant questions and because she already had enough whispers about her), these three aunties were the ones she was most comfortable with. They were often the ones in the kitchen, the ones making the meals during the day for the entire clan; diplomacy was the least of their concern when they had to make copious amounts of food.

"Good morning, Aunties," Hinata replied in a soft tone, smiling as she stepped towards the elderly lady, to look at the contents of the bento box. She could feel her stomach churn at the amount of rice that was on the exposed layer, and that was just one of the two. "Grandmother, you know I can't eat that much food..."

"Nonsense," her grandmother said without looking at Hinata, her frail little body shaking as her hands closed the lid of the bento box. She started to fold the cloth, a baby blue cloth, around the box in a slow manner, the slight twitching of her hand with each tug worrying Hinata, but she didn't stop the woman from doing it. "You need all the energy you can get to become stronger. How would you bring honour to the Hyuuga name if you do not become a strong heir like your father, and his father before?"

Maybe I don't want to be the heir , Hinata wanted to say, but just smiled shyly, eyebrows pulling in. "I can be strong without eating a meal for two."

“Mother Homura," one of her aunt's with the white bandana started from the stove. "Lady Hinata does not need to eat more than she needs to. They won't put her on any taxing missions right away."

"Aunt Kayake's right, Grandmother," Hinata nodded along. "I'm just doing a test-"

"If it's the same type of testing they did with Hiashi, then you most definitely need more than this," Homura replied, her eyebrows, fine and grey, raising as she tried to turn her body to put the bento box back onto the table.

"N-no, it's alright!" Hinata took the box with both hands before Homura could set it down. She started to guide Homura towards a rocking chair in the corner of the kitchen, where a tea set has already been placed on top of a table nearby. "This is enough! Thank you."

"Have they already assigned your team?" the woman stirring the pot of rice, her Aunt Suzume, distantly related to Hinata as is Kayake, started, drawing Hinata’s attention towards her after she allowed Homura to take a seat.

"Yes, we were assigned to them yesterday," Hinata said, unraveling her grandmother's hands to hold onto the bento box in the blue cloth. "I have been placed on a team with Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame."

"An Inuzuka?" The other woman with the bandana, Kayake's younger sister and Hinata's Aunt Mitsu, giggled. She continued to slice open the shrimps from their shells on a cutting board, placing them in a separate bowl. Mitsu leaned forward slightly towards the other three woman, keeping her voice low so that only Homura, with her age causing her poor hearing, could not hear.“The Inuzuka men are quite rugged, don’t you think?”

“Mitsu, we do not care for your love affairs,” Kayake waved her sister’s comment off, returning her attention to the stove, but Suzume’s face contorted in a frantic frown.

“Mitsu! Do not plant such ideas in Lady Hinata’s mind!” Suzume scolded her with a hiss, lifting the rice paddle from the pot, waving it slightly as if she were about to hit Mitsu with it. Hinata could feel her neck start to flush slightly as it started to reach her cheeks at her implications. “She is still a child!”

“Tell me, Hinata,” Mitsu ignored them and ushered Hinata to come closer. The young heiress gravitated towards them. “What are your teammates like?”

“They’re…” Hinata started, hesitating slightly about the words she could use. How  were  her teammates like?

She was apprehensive of being placed on Team 8, and she was sure Shino and Kiba were too. She saw how Kiba’s friends, the two boys and the girl he always sat next to, snickered and whispered amongst themselves when they heard Hinata and Shino's name, and something about them being 'weirdos'.

Hinata wasn't surprised by their words. She knows that, compared to the rest of her classmates, she was off. Painfully shy and quieter than a mouse, Hinata was a stark contrast to what the usual kid her age was like. Her mannerisms, her voice, hell, even her looks, made her a wallflower, a pale white wallpaper that people know is there, but never bothered to be looked at. Only her blood made her truly visible. The only times that people willingly engaged with her is when her family's name is mentioned during a lecture, in which all the kids would turn over to wherever she was sitting to look at her, to see her reaction.

Most of the time, she would look away.

She didn't like looking at people. She didn't like making eye contact.

She felt it was too heavy, too intimate, too much for her soul to handle. She feels like people try to analyze too much of what she says, trying to reach into her soul, trying to unlock the pandora box that is her emotions.

And she didn't like that.

That's why she liked Shino a lot. She knew they would get along well, he was equally as quiet as her, though he was by no means shy. If yesterday's team meeting probed anything, it was that Shino Aburame was vocal, raising himself as an equal to whoever he spoke to. But he respected their space, respected Hinata's space, not looking at her unless she initiated (though, it could be because his glasses made it hard for her to see his irises, making her feel at ease).

Kiba on the other hand, she wasn't sure what to say. He was on the opposite spectrum to her, being outgoing and rowdy with his ways, and the confidence he exudated made Hinata envious. She didn't mind loud people- she found them fascinating and admirable. 

But he was also subtly witty, something that she didn't think she would describe the Inuzuka as. Usually he is vocal about how he feels, calling someone out on their nonsense without a second thought, but yesterday showed her that there was more to him than meets the eye. 

She had to admit thought; while envious of Kiba's personality, she was incredibly intimidated by him. It's not as if she didn't see his bad side, when he would dive head first into a fight against another kid if they talked smack about him to his face, his fists brimming purple with bruises and face speckled with blood. And he always came out victorious with a grin on his face, and Iruka-sensei fuming as he had to drag him off of the poor kid who tried to get a rise out of him, only to be crying on the ground with a bloody nose.

Just remembering it sent chills down her spine.

She definitely did not want to get on his bad side.

"They're nice," she said, fidgeting with the bento box as she glanced away, the way Mitsu looked at her with anticipation making her nervous. "A-and, they're very interesting."

"Interesting in what way?"

"U-uh-"

"Mitsu, you'll get in trouble if Lord Hiashi hears what you insinuate," Kayake warned her sister with a weary look towards Homura, but the old woman barely heeded their words, enjoying a cup of tea as she swayed slightly in the rocking chair.

Mitsu giggled at her words and straightening herself, before continued slicing the shrimp's shell in her hand. "Can't I ask the young heiress about these things? It's not like they won't ask her about it later."

Hinata could feel herself blush at her aunt's notion.

There was someone that she admired in her life...but she was not going to disclose that to them, not until the entirety of hell freezes over.

"Do that when it is time to do so," Suzume scoffed. "Knowing Lord Hiashi, however, it would be a long process."

I hope it doesn't happen anytime soon,  Hinata thought, biting the bottom of her lips slightly. Talks of marriage and whatnot were not her main concern- perhaps one day, but right now, she had more things to worry about than her supposed betrothal.

"Isn't it interesting though," Kayake suddenly started after a pause, turning back to look at towards the two other women and Hinata. "That they always put an Aburame, an Inuzuka, and a Hyuuga on the same team whenever the graduating class had all three?"

To this, Hinata's eyebrows raised slightly. Her words were too precise not to ignore. "A-always? Who was apart of the last of this group formation?"

All three women looked at one another when Hinata asked her question, their faces suddenly become weary, and Hinata could feel the room fall still all of the sudden. She glanced between them, not knowing what to do, and suddenly felt like becoming very small to hide herself, not knowing what had warranted this tenseness.

"Lord Hiashi hasn't told you yet?" Suzume asked in a suddenly low tone, hushed as if she didn't want anyone else to hear. When Hinata nodded, she glanced around for a second, her eyes flitting cautiously towards the door, before landing back on Hinata. "Well...it doesn't hurt to know but...the last time they had a Aburame-Inuzuka-Hyuuga team was with-"

They suddenly heard the tatami door wiggle a bit and abruptly stopped talking, waiting for the person to reveal themselves.

“Lord Hiashi,” all the women in the kitchen said in unison as they bowed, and Hinata turned around towards the tatami door, a tall man in a deep blue yukata and a darker grey jacket standing between the frame. 

Her father had his usual stoic face, his eyebrows naturally arched to look like he was frowning most of the times and his mouth in a straight line. He gave an acknowledged bow to Hinata’s grandmother, his mother, before looking over to Hinata.

“G-good morning, Father,” Hinata quickly whispered with a slight bow of her head, gripping the sides of her lunch box. Hiashi stared at Hinata for a moment, as if analyzing what he saw, trying to pick out any sort of flaw in how she appeared.

“Today is your final test, is it not?” Hiashi asked in an even tone, never breaking eye contact from Hinata, who glanced away towards the lines of the floorboard. “Why are you still here? And look at me when I speak to you.”

“Yes!” she squeaked at how much sharper his tone became, and straightened her gaze. “I just had more time left so...so I thought I could take my time today.”

Hiashi narrowed his eyes.

“ Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful do not die. The heedless are as if already dead* .” Hiashi quoted the proverb from ancient scriptures without missing a beat, and Hinata could see the frown lines deepening on his tanned face. “If you were going to mindlessly be on the compound this whole time, then you could have been practicing your forms. Your sister has already mastered all of the basic forms; you have yet to perform them efficiently.”

“I-I,” Hinata started, now feeling her neck burning in embarrassment of being put on the spot in this way, but she couldn’t finish her sentence, feeling the heat rising to her face.

“Mother,” Hiashi turned his attention towards her grandmother, who had simply been keeping her mouth closed as Hiashi gave Hinata the third degree. “Hinata is grown and she can make her own meals. You’re spoiling her by making her lunch.”

“Hiashi,” Homura said with a slight hum to her voice, soft and slow, as she started to sway lightly on the chair. "If you believe this to be true, then you should make your own tempura from now on, do you not think so?"

To this, Hiashi eyes slightly widened in hesitation for only a split second, but he quickly fixed himself back to neutrality. Hinata had to stifle her laugh, and she looked down to hide the amused smile she couldn't suppress.

Leave it to Homura to be as eloquently blunt as her son.

"That is not the same," Hiashi replied coolly. "The food you make is for the entire family."

"Tempura is usually reserved for dinners," Homura said as equally calm. "But you still insist on eating it for breakfast as well. You should eat better; you're a grown man."

Hinata could see her father's jaws clenching, muscle along his jawline flexing- being told off by one's mother in front of an audience was not on the top of every clan leader's to do lists.

"Hinata." His eyes returned to her, and she quickly kept her lips in a line. "It is best if you left for your test. You don't want to keep your team waiting for you."

I didn't even eat breakfast,  Hinata thought, but refused to say this outloud. She didn't want to be scolded anymore than she needed to be. "Yes."

“Do not be a burden to your teammate,” Hiashi said courtly, before stepping aside to let Hinata walk through the open doorway. 

Hinata gritted her teeth, feeling her throat suddenly lodged with emotion, but she kept it to herself. She nodded, and quickly exited the kitchen, giving a quick bow to her grandmother before she made her way towards the courtyard to leave the compound.

I won’t burden anyone,  Hinata thought as she inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying her best to maintain her confidence, but she could already feel the tips of her eyes started to sting with tears.  I promise, I won’t burden anyone.

----

When Hinata made it to the top of the Hokage Rock, she was surprised to see that Shino was the only one there, waiting underneath a tree. She glanced up to the sky, the morning sun bearing white in the east slightly above the horizon. It was nearly time for their test, she could tell, but where could their sensei and Kiba be?

She wasn't sure where Shino was looking at, his dark frames shading his eyes from anyone to see, but from the way his face tilted down, she could tell she was looking at the ground with intent. 

Should I call out to him?  She thought, ready to raise her hand to wave towards him, but hesitated slightly.  No, he looks busy...I don't want to disturb him. But, then again, I should ask him where everyone else is...

Hinata continued this debate on whether she should call out to Shino or walk up to him as she crossed clearing, but she wasn't given the opportunity to think it through. All of the sudden, she heard a high pitched bark becoming louder from the trail she just walked on, and a voice yelling, "Akamaru! Wait up buddy!"

She knew who it was immediately, and spun on her heels to look behind her. Unfortunately, she was not prepared for the small flash of white coming towards her at full speed, already a metre away from her.

Hinata didn't have time to react, and she wasn't sure whether she could or not- by the time she blinked, the flash of white had jumped up towards her and hit her chest, pushing her backwards and making her land on her behind, before laying flat on her back.

Talk about a double whammy. This is the second time she was sent flying onto her back. Her tailbone was starting to hurt a bit. It didn't help that she had her backpack on during the fall, and had placed her bento box inside, making the impact harder against her lower back when she fell, the side of the bento box digging into her sharply.

Hinata blacked out for a few seconds, eyes closed in shock and her ears momentarily blanking. When she slowly opened her eyes, she was greeted by a little brown nose against hers and the sound of slight panting.

Her eyes started to take in everything beyond the nose, seeing it attached to a white puppy with long, floppy ears and small, brown eyes that looked at her with excitement. The puppy barked at her once, and she could feel a  thump thump thump  on her abdomen, his tail wagging happily.

"H-hello...Akamaru," Hinata managed to say in a soft voice, remembering the puppy's name from how Kiba had introduced him as yesterday. This only made Akamaru even more excited because he barked a few times and his tail wagged faster, before he gave Hinata's cheek a little lick.

Hinata could feel her heart soar at this little gesture by the puppy. Is this what feeling wanted is like?

"Akamaru!" Kiba's voice exclaimed as he ran up towards Hinata, who was still being licked by the puppy. "Get off of her! Sit!"

Akamaru did as he was told with a slight whine, and hopped off of Hinata's chest, sitting down beside her as he looked expectantly at Kiba. Hinata managed to prop herself up with her elbows, lifting her back up into a sitting position. She glanced up to see Kiba standing near her feet, both hands on his hips as he gave Akamaru a disapproving look.

Hinata could feel her heart start beating fast while looking at her now teammate; he was much more intimidating from where she was sitting, narrow eyes shifting around with a frown on his face. Kiba had always scared her slightly, with his red markings making him look like a warrior on his way to a battleground, and the way his eyebrows, sharp and fierce, made his narrow eyes look even more piercing. She was half ready to apologize, but then she saw his frown disappear as he softened his look, now looking at Hinata with...was it concern?

"Sorry about that," Kiba said, almost in a mumble, and Hinata could see that his cheeks flushed pink suddenly, as if embarrassed. "I swear, he's usually better behaved than this."

"It's okay," Hinata replied softly, and Akamaru barked at Hinata, taking a step closer.

 "What d'ya think you were doing, Akamaru?" Kiba looked at Akamaru with a stern look, his arms crossing over, eyebrows pulled in. The puppy stopped in his tracks and looked up to his owner, his dog wagging in the air.

"Arf! Arf!"

"So what? You could've hurt Hinata!"

"Arf! Arf, arf, arf!"

"I don't want to hear it," Kiba huffed. "Now sit and think about what you did! You're not getting any treats until you obey!"

Akamaru let out a whining sound, his happy demeanor dropping as his tail stopped wagging, his eyes looking back at Kiba big and glistening in woe. When Kiba raised an eyebrow at Akamaru, waiting for the puppy to continue, Akamaru stopped his attempt at persuading Kiba to let him be and he laid down on his stomach sadly, a whine emitting from his throat.

"...you need a hand?" Kiba asked after a moment when Akamaru settled down. 

Hinata, meanwhile, was preoccupied staring between him and Akamaru in awe, watching them have a conversation she couldn't understand, only going by Kiba's words. What kind of technique helped you communicate with animals? She knew about shinobi being able to summon animals for their services, forming a blood pact between the master and the animal, but she often heard of summoning animals being able to speak in their tongue.

When she noticed Kiba's hand reaching out towards her, she looked at him for a split second, feeling less intimidated by her new teammate. Should she accept his aid?

I won't be a burden,  she reminded herself, while shaking her head lightly.  I won't be coddled.

"N-no," she said quickly, her inflection making her voice crack, and she stood up, brushing her behind while doing so. She added in a much more normal rhythm, "Thank you, t-though."

"Hinata, are you hurt?" a low, monotone voice suddenly said behind her. She nearly jumped by how close the voice, low and soft, was, but she stopped herself from doing so upon recognition, and turned around towards the source.

"I-I'm not," Hinata said with a slight smile, tilting her head up to look at Shino, him being taller than she, even with her sandals. She placed her arms slightly in front of her, refraining from showing any signs of pain from her back. "I'm fine."

Shino stood by with his hands in his coat pocket, half his face still being hidden the collar, not saying anything for a moment. Hinata couldn't tell where he was looking, but from the way his arched eyebrows pulled in slightly, she assumed she was looking at Kiba. He softened his face again quickly, as if realising that they were staring at him.

"Did something break in your bag?" Shino asked smoothly, without moving whatsoever. He paused again for a split second, before continuing, "Because I heard a crack when you fell."

"Oh!" Hinata exclaimed in a light voice, swinging her bag around in front of her quickly, remembering her poor bento box that she had inside. She opened her bag and peered inside and…

"Oh no," Hinata moaned as she looked at what was supposed to be her lunch.  The rice, vegetables, everything was outside of the bento box, scattered everywhere and she could see the box has a slight fissure along the side, likely due to her landing. 

"My l-lunch," Hinata mumbled, and she could feel her stomach churn at the sight of food being spoiled. She really should have eaten something before leaving.

Shino leaned over slightly, head barely moving downwards but Hinata could tell he was looking into her bag. He stood there motionless for a moment, before tilting his head slightly on the side, looking beyond Hinata. 

"Can't you keep your dog on a leash?" Shino said suddenly, his voice low and a bit forceful, inflecting slightly at the end as if unsure how to end the sentence.

Hinata could feel a shift in the atmosphere amongst them at Shino's words, and she stared at him wide eyes before looking over at Kiba. Kiba stared at him for a split second, eyes blinking at Shino, before his eyebrows pulled in quickly, jaw clenching, when their teammate's words were finally processed in their minds.

"What did you say?"

"I said 'can't you keep your dog on a leash'," Shino repeated in an equal tone. The atmosphere was tense as they stared at each other, and Hinata took a slight step back, not wanting to be caught in between, fidgeting with her fingers slightly.

"His name is  Akamaru,  " Kiba replied sharply, his words punctuated with a slightly louder tone, and Hinata could see the flame of anger spark in his eyes as he glared at Shino. "And  Akamaru  isn't some  pet  I can put on a leash. Like how  you  don't put your bugs in a  container ."

"We're talking about Akamaru, not my insects," Shino replied stiffly. "Maybe you should train him to listen to you more before using him on our mission. Because it looks like he doesn't even obey simple commands."

"Arf!" Akamaru barked lightly, looking between the two of them, but Kiba ignored him.

"She said she was fine, didn't she? It wasn't like he was attacking her- and besides, you don't need to tell me what I should do with  my ninken!"

They had an important test that would determine whether they could become Shinobi, why were they having an argument at this very moment?

Hinata wasn't sure what to do with herself at that moment, finding herself hesitating to even look at either of the boys, fearing they might explode into an altercation if she dared to see. Should she stop them from arguing? How would she even stop them? What if they start getting into a fight? Would she be able to stop them? No way.

She was too weak, too cowardly, no way would she be able to stop a fight. 

"U-uh, guys," Hinata started, but her voice barely came out, a light airy tone that was easily overpowered by Kiba's voice.

"What's your problem with me, huh?" Kiba started, suddenly taking a step forward passing Hinata to stand directly in front of Shino, his fists clenching. "If you got something you want to say about me, then say it to my face!"

"I have nothing to say to you," Shino replied. "I was talking about your dog."

"If you have a problem with  Akamaru  , then you have a problem with  me ," Kiba said, his voice filled with venom as he looked up to Shino, who didn't flinch in the slightest. "Yesterday you had a lot to say- why are you acting all mute now?"

They stood there for a moment, neither of them moving. Akamaru let out a slight whine, and shuffled closer to Hinata's leg, as if seeking some sort of comfort, but she couldn’t move. The pressure in the atmosphere is making her head tense up with adrenaline, and Hinata could feel her forehead starting to scrunch up. She couldn’t activate the Byakugan, not now, no, and she tried to focus by glancing between them, waiting for someone to say something. 

Shino was the first to break the silence.

"If you don't know how to use him, then you shouldn't have brought him today," Shino said slowly and dully, as if talking to a child who didn't understand what he did wrong. "It would only hold us back. This test is important and we can't jeopardize our chances."

Kiba gritted his teeth, and Hinata could see his fists started to clench. 

Oh no. 

Was he going to swing at him? She shifted her legs slightly apart, ready to intervene, but she could barely move otherwise.

Before Kiba could move, the wind started to pick up pace around them, swirling in front of the trio and forcing them to plant their feet on the ground and concentrate on not being blown away. Hinata could see the leaves from the trees nearby creating a sparse tornado as a sudden figure appeared in the middle of the vortex.

“K-Kurenai-sensei,” Hinata mumbled as she watched with wide eyes as the leaves settled around the figure, revealing their long black hair and deep red outfit.

"Looks like everyone came here on time,” Kurenai looked between them with a nonchalant smile. “I was going to give you guys some time together, but it looks like something was happening. Is everything alright?”

Kiba unclenched his fists and placed them in his hoodie pockets, balling them up inside. He gave a dejected, “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

She glanced over to Shino, who didn’t say anything and was looking away from her, before her eyes landed on Hinata. Hinata felt flustered and started to glance away, her nerves getting the best of her as red eyes scanned over her, waiting to see if she had anything to say. 

"Y-yes," Hinata said, still glancing away. "All fine."

"Alright then," Kurenai replied after giving them another questionable look, and she reached into her dress pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a small clock. "Since everyone is here, we can get started with the test. Gather around."

All three of them obeyed and followed Kurenai as she walked towards a wooden picnic table underneath a tree nearby. After leaving their bags on the table, they formed a semi circle around Kurenai, with Hinata standing between Kiba and Shino as Akamaru rejoined his master by his side with a few little bounds off his small paws. It took a good amount of self-restraint for Hinata to not look at the puppy and coo at how cute he looked as he sat down, his tail waving around slowly as he waited for Kurenai to speak.

"Since this is my first time having a Genin team, I decided that this test would be much easier that I had originally planned,” Kurenai started, her gaze resting on them as she spoke. “Your test will be…” 

There was a fraction of pause in her sentence, and Hinata could feel the anticipation in the air as they hung over her every word. What was the test going to be? Are they going to have to prove their worth by winning a match? Would have to fight each other? 

Or worse; would they have to win a fight against Kurenai? 

Hinata gripped a string of her hoodie, her hand already placed over her chest while she was standing and listening to Kurenai talk, and she swallowed. 

“A little game of hide and seek tag," Kurenai said, and Hinata could have sworn there was a flash of amusement on her face. "With a little added twist of capture the flag. Sounds fun, right?"

Hinata glanced over to her teammates, and she could see Kiba shift his eyes around to them as well, apprehensive and wary about her intentions.

"You've played those games before, haven't you?" Kurenai asked with a slight quirk of her fine brow, looking between them as they stared silently back, uncertainty in the atmosphere.

"We have," Shino responded for the group. "As children, though. "

Hinata noticed the slight hesitation in Kurenai at his words, her lips pursing slightly, but it left as quickly as it came. She smiled instead, and continued in a much softer voice, "Then you should already know the rules. But there are a few things I added and changed for this test."

She held a hand up and placed a finger onto the metal plate of her red headband, right beside the Konoha symbol edged deep. She tapped it with the tip of her deep red nails. 

"This headband right here is the flag,” she said in the same tone. “The goal of this test is to get this headband off of my forehead."

Hinata felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety and worry building up in her stomach at Kurenai's words, and her eyebrows refused to relax from the frown. This doesn't sound like a hard task, but considering that this is a Jonin they were facing, only a rank below the Hokage, makes this little task...well...much more difficult than anything they had ever gone through before.

From her ranking, and from what Hinata remembered from the previous day, she knew Kurenai's strongest skill was in the realm of Genjutsu. Genjutsu in itself was such a vast field, limited only by the users' own unbrittled imagination. It is the art of illusion, after all, preying on the senses of your opponents by affecting the specific parts of the brain in order to make them believe that the illusion are true, making them vulnerable to experience things that are not happening in the physical world. Unlike Ninjutsu, though, it was much harder to control, with the user having to be able to control their chakra as well as being able to come up with a way to reach the opponents senses, those being five more extra things to worry about, unlike the other ninja arts. 

The expanse of Genjutsu was not taught during their Academy years, instead focusing on Ninjutsu and Taijutsu to prepare them as shinobi. The only Genjutsu they had to learn was the Clone Illusion Jutsu, but even that D-level jutsu was incredibly hard to master, taking many a year to make at least one competent clone illusion. 

Even Iruka rarely employed that technique during the mock battles he would have with another teacher, opting for the easier Ninjustu,  Clone Jutsu , telling them that clones are better used to distract the enemy and less taxing for them to control.

"Okay," Kiba replied slowly, eyebrows furrowing slightly. "What's the hide and seek part for?"

“That’s the fun part," Kurenai replied. “Like a usual game of hide and seek, I'll hide around the Village with the flag, and you three would have to find me in order to capture the flag. I’ve decided to make it easier, though, since this is the first time I’m doing this test. The only places I’ll hide is on the Hokage Rock or the training grounds. Nowhere else in the Village."

A game of capture the flag that required them to find the flag in a pretty expanded area ...

This was definitely not an easy task, but it was definitely not a hard one. They’ve played these kind of games in the Academy, in the form of a treasure hunt in the middle of one of their training grounds in order to utilize their survival skills for a few hours, but it was limited to a certain area and one target. That, and they usually had a much more obvious trail to lead them on the right path. 

It was clear to Hinata as why Kurenai set up the test in the way she did. She must have read their datasheets when they were first assigned to her: with Kiba hailing from the Inuzuka clan and having a keen sense of smell, and Hinata having the Byakugan that allowed her heightened sight, this test was to see how they would do in tracking a target. Hinata wasn’t sure exactly how Shino fit into the team, but she knew he was extremely perceptive, more so than she was, even without her clan’s abilities.

Hinata felt like she should have an advantage for this task, with her Byakugan and all, but she still had an immature grasp of the skill. It was taxing to control, and took up a good amount of her strength to maintain; even with all those years of training, she couldn’t understand how to control it efficiently.

And that’s what worries her the most.

She should have an advantage, but this advantage was easily be a disadvantage.

"That's it?" Kiba said, a smirk growing on his face. "That makes this too easy!"

"There’s three extra rules, though,” Kurenai added as she smiled at Kiba's enthusiasm, as she held up the clock. “The first one is the time limit. I’m only giving you exactly five hours from when we start to find me. I’ll leave the timer here.”

“Would that be wise?’ Shino suddenly asked. Hinata looked at him questionably, as did everyone else, and it took him a minute to continue his though. “It’s possible that one of us could change the clock, and give us the advantage of having extra time."

“Good point Shino, but this is mostly for you three,” Kurenai said. “I don’t need a clock to tell time. Besides, if one of you touch this clock, it would self implode. You could try it yourselves if you don’t believe me though.”

Hinata gulped as she stared at the clock in her hand as it sat on the table. No way is she going anywhere near that.

“This leads me to the second rule. If none of you get the headband before the designated five hours, then you  all  will fail the test and be sent back to the Academy.”

That made sense. This was like a final exam, it made sense for her to be this strict on them.

"The last thing is the most crucial part, so listen carefully," Kurenai continued. "The reason why the Academy decided to put you in a team because each of you possessed the abilities to become impeccable trackers.”

"But after meeting all of you yesterday, I gave it some thought," she said slowly. "I figured that there's no point in having all three of you become Genin when we could use the person with the  best  tracking skills so far. Therefore, the first person to find me and capture the flag will become a Genin. The other two will return to the Academy."

“Wha-” Hinata muttered in shock, taken aback by her words, her fist clenching tighter on her chest.

"Are you even allowed to do that?" Kiba asked. "There must have been a reason to put us all together like this!"

"Yes, there must have been. But at the end of the day,  I'm  the one who has to teach and guide you to becoming a remarkable shinobi during your time as a Genin," Kurenai emphasized. "The Academy doesn't have control over who passes here on out- but I do. And I have decided that whoever is the most capable gets to be Genin."

That’s not fair,  Hinata wanted to say, but she held her tongue, realizing the stupidity in her thought. The ninja world is never fair to begin with; so why would this testing be?

"Remember you only have 5 hours," Kurenai said as she hit the button on the clock. The clock hand started to tick, and Hinata instinctively took a shuriken from the blue holster around her leg, readying herself. “Do you have any more questions?’

"Do we need to give you time to hide or-" Kiba started, his question tapering off as he took a stance, readying himself for Kurenai to move. Hinata’s eyes never left her sensei, who simply smiled at them.

"There's no need," she said as the wind suddenly picked up pace around her, the grass around her twirling at a rapid pace. "The real me is hiding already. This…"

Hinata’s eyes widened as Kurenai’s legs started to blend into the background, fading away and being replaced by pink petals. Her body morphed against the gradience, rising up to her body as more petals fell, as she watched in amusement with how taken aback they were.

"Was all a genjutsu."

Her face faded as an echo in their minds, and the wind stood still as the last petal from the top of her head fell to the ground on top of the rest. The three of them stood still, none of them knowing what to do for a split second. 

Shino was the first to move, taking a step forward towards the stacks of flower petals.

“Hey, wait,” Kiba started as Shino squatted down, holding one of the petals between his thumb and index finger, carefully surveying. “What are you doing?”

“Checking if this is real or not,” Shino said. “It could be useful to track her down.”

“Whoa, don’t hog the whole thing to yourself!” Kiba exclaimed as he ran towards Shino, Akamaru barking as he ran behind Kiba. 

Hinata snapped out of her faze and found control over her feet, trailing behind Shino, unsure of what to do.

“You got her scent?” Kiba asked Akamaru, who let out a bark. Hinata could see Kiba’s nose move a bit as he inhaled sharply, moving his head around until he set towards east to where they were standing facing the other side of Konoha. “Alright. We got this. Let’s go Akamaru!”

“Hold on,” Shino said suddenly, making Kiba halt in his spot, and turn around quickly. 

“There’s no ‘hold on’,” Kiba said, crossing his arms as he frowned. “This is a test and only one of us can pass.”

“That’s why I said hold on,” Shino continued. “There’s something weird about it.”

“And?” The Inuzuka asked sharply, his patience running thinner by the second. “What about it.”

“Listen,” Shino replied equally as fast. “It’s weird because her reasoning for only passing one of us is incredibly vague. Don’t you find it strange that they would go through the trouble of putting us in specific teams only for one of us to pass?”

Kiba grimaced, staring at Shino for moment, as if conflicted with his words. He then replied, slight hesitancy in his voice,“It...It doesn’t matter who I’m with. Even if I weren’t with you guys, I’m pretty sure the rules would be the same.”

Hinata felt a slight pang in her chest when he said those words, the bitterness seeping through like tea through a filter. She had to grit her teeth to refrain from being too hurt.

 “Besides, she said it herself,” he continued as he started to turn his back towards them. “She’s in charge of us. There’s nothing stopping her from booting us back to the Academy. And there’s no way I’m going back there.”

“Kiba,” Hinata tried to start, but she couldn’t finish her sentence. She didn’t know what to say. 

An uneasy silence fell over them.

“She’s headed towards Training Ground 1,” Kiba suddenly said in a quiet tone, never turning back to look at them. He tilted his head down, and said “Let’s go, Akamaru.”

With a bark of agreement from the puppy, he sped off at full speed, towards the direction of the training ground he mentioned, the one closest to the Hokage Rock and filled with hills and forest near the wall that encompasses Konoha. 

That’s one of the larger ones , Hinata thought, as she stood there, trying to gather her thoughts. She could see from the corner of her eyes Shino looking at her, not saying anything, as if waiting for her to move. 

Her gut was telling her the same thing that Shino was doubting; the reason for only one of them felt too vague, as if Kurenai wanted them to break that rule. Sure, they all have skills for tracking, but there’s something more to it than that.

But no, that wouldn’t make sense; she was very clear that she only wanted one. Why would she deceive them into believing a fake rule? Was Hinata thinking too hard into this?  

“He’s right,” Hinata said when she made her decision, and she glanced up towards Shino. She looked directly at his glasses, dark enough to cover his eyes under the sun in the atmosphere, and maintained. “Even if we all work together, only one of us can pass.”

“Hinata-” Shino started, but stopped abruptly. He just stared at her in silence for a moment, and Hinata couldn’t tell what he was thinking, or even why she was standing there to begin with.

“I’ll see you there, Shino,” Hinata offered softly, and she started to run off towards the direction, focusing her chakra towards her legs to help them pick up her pace.

I won’t be a burden to myself, Hinata thought, a new sense of determination swelling in her stomach.  I can take care of myself.

Can I?

#home is where my team is #naruto #team 8 #hinata #shino #kiba #naruhina #homeiswheremyteamis

[brightgnosis]

Perhaps the most famous of all the Egyptian incenses is Kyphi (sometimes Khyphi). This is a most elaborate compound of ingredients, and its manufacture was itself a very special temple rite, and a most secret one […] explained by Plutarch in the following manner: 'The incense has sixteen ingredients, which is a square out of a square, the ingredients being things that delight in the night […]' The ingredients were mixed to a secret ritual, to the accompaniment of chanting of sacred texts […]

The Egyptian Gods […] were said to have a wonderful odour. Today we call this the 'odour of sanctity', some even claiming that many good people who have been canonized [by the Church] have displayed this sweet odour in death […]

The Indian Dainyal or Sybil in the Hindu Kush attempts to gain temporary inspiration with the aid of sacred plants or trees. She places a cloth over her head and inhales the smoke from a fire that has been made with the twigs of the sacred cedar. She is seized with convulsions, falls to the ground senseless and, in this state, she gives her prophecy […]

Scholars now generally agree that the burning of incense was not introduced into Judaic ritual until about the seventh century B.C. […] This first incense used was compounded of few ingredients […] and its mixing by the priests was regarded with much the same reverence accorded to the manufacture of Kyphi by the Egyptians. It was burned with the meat offerings and with the first fruits, and on its own, at morning and evening on a special altar, The Altar of Incense, or in censers. It was taken, once a year on the Day of Atonement, inside the Inner Sanctum of the Temple […]

In common with others, the Greeks considered a sweet and fragrant odour was pleasant to the Gods, thus making sacrifice and prayer more acceptable to them. [But] Before the eighth century B.C. incense as such, was not used […] in accordance with the customs of other nations [after its arrival] it was burned with bloody sacrifices, both as an offering to the Gods, and a fumigation for the evil odours produced [P] It was offered with fruit, cakes, wheat, and so on, or on its own as a separate offering both in the cult of the Gods, or in domestic ritual […]

In Tibet of old [… Incense] is used in the initiation ceremony of Monks […] It is offered to gain support of the good spirits and it is very prominent at festivals […] baptisms, exorcisms, and many other ceremonies. Incenses and perfumes form one of the five sensuous offerings, which are one of the seven stages of worship. These seven offerings are essential [… Among] The Chinese [… incense] is offered to the household deities and before ancestral tablets. Its use is considered desirable when consulting the Gods [… and] acts both as a fumigant and an offering to the deceased, where it gratifies the olfactory nerves of the departing soul […]

In the religion of Rome, one of the most important [of the libamina], or bloodless offerings, was the lus, meaning both incense and frankincense, and no ritual could be said to be complete without it […] In the bloodless sacrifices, they began by burning incense, saffron and laurel. As the animal for sacrifice was led up to the altar, the altar itself was sprinkled with incense and wine. Finally it was offered with the blood of the sacrifice, and burned with the ext(l?)a, the chief internal organs […]

In the Islamic Region proper, incense is [rarely] to be found [except] offered at the shrines of the Saints […] Muslims in India, possibly under the influence of Hinduism use it in their rites […] as it is supposed to have the ability to keep evil spirits at bay […] In keeping with other cults it is a common adjunct to magical ceremonies, to counteract the evil eye, for example.

From Incense, Its Ritual Significance, Use, and Preparation: Perfumes, Essences, and Anointing Oils, published in 1980; Leo Vinci (My Review Here) (My Ko-Fi Here)

#Incense Its Ritual Significance Use and Preparation: Perfumes Essences and Anointing Oils #Leo Vinci #Scent & Senses #Religion & Magic #Quote

[coreancitizen]

Of saviors, traitors and, yes, that happily ever after in ‘The King Eternal Monarch’

I came across a post about “The King Eternal Monarch” the other day and found the questions it raised — and the answers it provided —  interesting. I’d seen some of the same questions either here or on Twitter. While I agreed with some of the original poster’s answers, I have a slightly different perspective on others. I didn’t want to hijack the post so I’m writing a separate. But you can read the original here. Obviously, I’m not saying these are the definitive answers. But if you have any questions about anything on the show, feel free to drop me an ask. I think you can tell my thoughts are still consumed by “The King Eternal Monarch,” LOL!

2 saviors?

I’ve seen the theory going around early during the show’s run. And I’ve seen the photos. I initially thought it was just a trick of light that made the shoes look different.

But the original poster’s theory about Gon having different shoes from different timelines and it all just merging together to emphasize the time loop makes sense as well. To borrow Gon’s words, it’s a beautiful solution to what could just be a production inconsistency.

Lee Gon being a good shooter

The theory about the time loops and how at this point it’s like muscle memory makes sense to me. God knows how many times he’s gone through this.

But why do people think Gon is a bad shooter? Because of the shooting game? I thought it was pretty clear that the game was rigged, as most of these types of games are. Other than that I don’t think viewers were ever shown or told that Gon is a bad shooter. He was supposed to be last in his class in combat, but even then I’m not sure that his mentor wasn’t just pulling his leg.

What was Lee Lim’s plan?

“I plan to become the very being who gives punishment from the skies.” That’s what Lee Lim told his brother, the king, right before he killed him. He basically wants to become a god, with dominion over “eternity and infinity” through the Manpasikjeok. With the power to open doors to different worlds and have the breadth of time to do so, the possibilities for Lee Lim were endless and quite mind-boggling, to be honest. I do think he still wanted to rule Corea, part of the reason he was replacing all those people with his minions. 

The ending ...

I think this is the part where I’ve seen the most debate. I fall on the side of Gon and Tae Eul ending up living in Corea, married and with kids — which, of course, means Tae Eul became queen. Without being explicitly shown a wedding, plus that line about going back to their daily lives after their weekend dates, I see how it could be viewed as our couple making the best of an impossible situation.

But interpreting the ending to mean Gon and Tae Eul lived separate lives and just got together on weekends would mean ignoring everything that the show set up about Gon’s and Tae Eul’s characters as well as what the king’s duties entail. This is a point hammered throughout the series, he needs to make sure his royal line continues. 

Then you have Gon’s repeated proposals — a storytelling trope. The payoff was her finally accepting it: in the penultimate episode when she put on the necklace, and in the final episode when she accepted Gon’s flowers. Don’t forget that she was willing to abandon her life in the republic and go into the in-between place with Lee Lim, risking death or being trapped on the other side. That’s why she told Luna to take care of her dad.

There’s actually no obstacle to them being together that they can’t overcome. As Gon repeatedly says, he’s quite an influential person in Corea (Netflix keeps using the word “decent,” which doesn’t make sense in the context of his conversations. I’d say influential would be closer, maybe even powerful). Luna exists, yes, but they can always say, “Hey, everybody has a doppelganger” and laugh it off. Tae Eul’s identity? I’m sure Lady Noh and her creative Royal Public Affairs Office can come up with some beautiful fiction to explain the new queen’s origin/background.

It also helps that Fate or the spirit of the flute seem to be on our couple’s side, first by allowing them to keep their memories, and then later nudging them to basically get on with it by bringing them back to Corea to be discovered by Jo Yeong and the Royal Guards — a repeat of the last time.

One of these days I’ll write a longer meta on the many ways the series showed that marriage and queenship for Tae Eul were not just possible but inevitable.

What’s the purpose of the chief’s solitude?

To show the effects of compassion — or lack of it — on people’s lives, it’s one of the themes explored throughout the series and emphasized in the finale. The chief uses the excuse of “solitude” while basically looking after the grandmother and sister of someone he knew who went to prison. Because of his “solitude,” the lives of two people are a little better than they would have been. 

We see this again with Prime Minister Koo’s mom and the young “Luna,” who ended up being an officer of the law instead of running from the law with just a little compassion from the fish shop lady. And when Gon and Tae Eul discover a world where Gon is a tyrant, the king immediately surmises that bad Gon must have grown up without a Lady Noh, an Uncle Buyeong and someone’s ID to guide him.

On the flip side, you can see the impact of Lee Lim’s utter lack of compassion for the poor souls he manipulated to serve him.

Why did Lee Gon’s grandfather bring Head Court Lady Noh into the Kingdom of Corea?

This was frustrating because I definitely wanted to know more about Lady Noh’s past, especially after this revelation. From the little we heard about the situation, it seemed like the king had seen the devastation of the war and took pity on a young orphaned Noh Ok Nam. It didn’t feel like there was a romantic connection there from the way Lady Noh told her story.  But while it may feel like it was a storyline that was dropped, I see a couple of purposes for the revelation. 

A) To show that somebody from the republic could have a life in the kingdom (psst, Tae Eul). 

B) To show why Lady Noh was more accepting of unexplainable things such as encountering —  and letting go — a young man who claims to be her king on the Night of the Treason.

How did Lee Lim come back before the king in episode 15 and how come he wasn’t dead since in 1994 he was beheaded by himself?

Could be as simple as Lee Lim’s gate was much closer to the palace than the king’s. As for why he wasn’t dead, it was 2020 traitor who got beheaded. 1994 traitor went on to live his life like his previous self, without learning any lessons, and that’s the version Tae Eul ends up shooting inside the in-between.

Who succeeds the throne after Lee Gon?

His and Tae Eul’s kid, of course. The one Lady Noh has been praying for and kinda hinted at in the last episode with the reference to the Royal Ancestral Shrine. “Will it be completed next year?” she asks. Why next year? Because if they started now, it would take Gon and Tae Eul about a year to have a baby, LOL! 

What about Se Jin, you might ask. Well, we don’t know that she exists in the new timeline since her traitorous father’s neck was snapped by Jo Yeong back in 1994. Here’s the thing with that character, she was never really more than just a plot point. That’s why aside from blurry photos and a few details about her doing well, we never got much information about her. Because when all was said and done, when the timeline was finally restored she wasn’t going to be relevant.

#the king eternal monarch #kdrama #lee min ho #kim go eun #lee gon #jeong tae eul #TKEM meta