(no subject)

[bashasasdemon]

[This is written in a fairly neat handwriting, in a language that may look roughly similar to Arabic to those familiar with it. The paper on the bulletin board has a small note on top, with a lot of space on the rest of the page for people to fill in as needed.]

Since we're all from different worlds and cultures I think there are a few things we should probably get sorted out as a group. First thing should probably be how to address each other. Go ahead and write your name/title/what you want to be called, your gender identifier if that's important to you, and pronouns to use for you.


Kai, he/him

Comments

[ohaiyo_isekai]

I can be in the gardens if you want to talk. I’d welcome the company.

Journal > Action

[codeswitchcraft]

"Hikaru?" Siobhan says, softly, as she enters the garden. "I am sorry about your sister."

[ohaiyo_isekai]

Hikaru is lying on the grass, looking up, a gold honeycrisp apple in hand, contemplative.

“I know and appreciate it,” Hikaru says. “Nor do you have cause to be ashamed of not knowing. None of us in our Free Company were unscathed, and none like to talk about it. It’s how Deedee’s father died, part of why Sekhmet’s pilot is sickly, why Alesha went into social work. Ace is a Renaissance child, for all she’s wiser than Deedee on matters Mutanic, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn of absent aunts or uncles.”

[codeswitchcraft]

She lies down on the grass next to him. "I know that it is hardly the same," she says softly. "But I remember well the grief of my mother's death, even if..."

Even if her mother was only a story. She doesn't finish that thought out loud, but reaches to take his free hand.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“That you grieve her,” Hikaru says gently, “That the thought of a death worth grieving being fictional tortures you, is proof you are real.”

He takes her hand. Squeezes. Lets the warmth and affection ground her, a touch of real intimacy and reality intimate.

“Know these noble truths: firstly, that existence is suffering, second, that suffering is caused by thirsting for the impossible.”

[codeswitchcraft]

She squeezes back.

"I am sorry," she murmurs. "I did not mean to steal your pain with my own."

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“Speak not so, bowslinger. Your pain is mine, mine yours. And your mother sees you very well.”

He smiles.

“Third, to shed that thirst is to be free of suffering; fourth, that one can shed those thirsts by walking an eightfold road. You have started with right speech, right intention, right livelihood. I think we are all working on right meditation and thought.”

[codeswitchcraft]

"That has the sound of quotation to it," Siobhan murmurs.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“Liturgy, certainly. The creed - I would not call it faith, it is agnostic on Gods - I was raised with. The words of Siddhartha Gautauma, the Buddha, meaning Enlightened.”

He laughs.

“The reason I was so well equipped to speak to the Kosmas family, and you, on reality as illusion and love as truth.”

[codeswitchcraft]

"What does the Buddha teach?" Siobhan asks, curiously.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“What I told you just now,” Hikaru says, draping an arm around her.

“Life is suffering, suffering is desire, to cease thirsting is enlightenment, here is how to sate your thirsts. The Hasshōdō, the Eightfold Path, is a set of steps, a practical psychological guide to… finding what’s important.”

[codeswitchcraft]

"You're not very good at the ceasing to thirst part," Siobhan teases, cuddling closer to him.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“Deedee’s the monk,” he replies, teasingly. “And she’s even worse.”

He’ll roll over to face her and to kiss her, assuming no objections.

[codeswitchcraft]

None whatsoever.

(Honestly, if they haven't had sex at this point, it's only because it's hard to find sufficient privacy in the Library.)