The Rhythm Of A Year (Late December/Early January)

[mahjongheart]

Who: Akane Tendo and friends and family especially, but all are welcome
When: Christmas-New Year's Day
Where: Hyacinth barracks, the Everbloom's greenhouse, and all about the city.
What: And so, despite being displaced from home, the rhythm of the Japanese calendar goes on. Akane makes a Christmas feast for the special people in her life with some help, imparted with her hopes and dreams; takes a long walk up a lantern path, and performs an ersatz shrine visit on New Years' Day.
Content Warnings: brief mention of suicide, mild nudity in one prompt

Comments

A Christmas Potluck (Infusery) (Hyacinth, Nabiki, and whoever else wants to bring food)

[mahjongheart]

On the 25th, Akane decides not to go into town. Instead, she is in the kitchens of Hyacinth Barracks, warming herself at the stove, down to her shift and an apron to deal with the heat. A comeaux she ended up filching from the Emberlight Forge thanks to a certain incident serves as a hair-net.

And yet, she is serving a mix-- Rosavellan treats and openers, and, while she was dissuaded from the idea of deep-frying chicken, she could not be dissuaded from making curry and breaded cutlets. Pickled vegetables on the side (gotten for a steal!) round out her contributions... Along with a fortifying bit of Infusery-- both aiding in the biting cold outside, and aiding people in healing.

Come bring your own, or just come partake! Everyone's welcome.

[okanetendo]

And here she is bearing champagne, rosehip and black tea, good bread and butter and a dubious expression.

“Made this all yourself, huh.”

It doesn’t look bad. It doesn’t smell bad.

“How long have you been drilling in this?” Nabiki asks.

[mahjongheart]

"In cooking in general? Since the Infusery demonstration on November 3rd. The cutlets specifically? Since December... 14th, or so? Since I knew I wanted to do that instead of fried chicken. The curry was admittedly just a stock powder with coconut milk and some flour for thickener, and the pickles are from the end-of-year sales."

She hums. "The Rosavellan stuff was from the end of the Wilting Festival, when they judged my knife-work adequate. I've been working soups and sauces since, so..."

[okanetendo]

For all she said she'd support Akane in this, when it came try to put her chopsticks where her mouth is, she's getting cold feet.

But she promised, so she nods, and sits at her place, to take a sample.

Still doesn't look bad, still doesn't smell bad.

She will dare to try a peach. Or a strip of tonkatsu, in this case.

How is it, Akane?

[mahjongheart]

She hopes it's okay. At the very least, she's pretty sure there's no egregious crimes.

... Nabiki can barely taste the meat, a serviceable bit of chicken breast, for the blend of spices. It's enough spice to stand out against the curry sauce, which... You probably want to let the curry stand on its own, actually.

So. Over-spiced but... Edible. Crunchy, but not burnt.

[thirdmonthoftheyear]

[Evernight has been the chief subject of Akane's cooking... adventures, mis- and otherwise, since she first started her journey. Seeing such a feast inspires within her the same feeling as a master seeing her apprentice ascend for the first time in those xianxia novels that March loves so much.

Also, it's all delicious.]

Thish is- [Whoops. Blushing, Evernight swallows her bite before continuing.] ...incredible, my.

[Her blush intensifies. C'mon, she's said it on accident before. Why is it so hard to do so on purpose?]

My dear Akane ♭

[mahjongheart]

I'm glad you approve!

[Though she does take out her notepad and mark some checks.]

I was kind of worried about the cutlet getting lost in the curry.

[thirdmonthoftheyear]

You worrying about that is a sign of how far you've come.

[After a moment, Evernight leans in to peck Akane on the cheek.]

Am... Am I doing it right? Apologies, I'm unused to domesticity.

Fight-Time Confessions (closed to Nabiki)

[mahjongheart]

It's a few days before the Year's End celebration in Maerlys, and Akane has come to Lily Barracks looking for her sister.

Not hard to find her, of course, but... She needs to tell Nabiki what happened with Gold Ship earlier that week. "Nabiki? Are you at home?"

Which is to say, 'are you available to talk'.

SQUARE UP, god I’m tired of waiting, tell me something I don’t already know.

[okanetendo]

“Hmn? Hang on, sis, let me put away something.”

It wouldn’t do for Akane to look over her shoulder at what one Kaede Hashimoto was threating to do to the young Amano’s reputation, after all. That goes right in the locked desk drawer.

“Come on in, it’s not locked.”

[mahjongheart]

She enters, slowly. It's the first time she's been in Nabiki's room since... Before they both left, really. She closes the door behind her.

Pleasantries are briefly exchanged, but Akane doesn't much wait around. "... Yesterday, in Emberlight, I met with Gold Ship. We talked for a while about her plans for a gym, but things got a bit heated."

She pauses, and bows deeply. "I ended up fighting her in the greenhouse. I realize that might mess with our reputation, so I thought it best to tell you ahead of time. But... More than that, was what we were fighting over."

[okanetendo]

“I am deeply unsurprised that Golshi would find an excuse to come to blows with you, quite frankly, so if you were just defending yourself I’m not worried about what that will do to you, though there IS something I want you to be aware of.”

But wait. There’s more. And Nabiki listens, drumming her fingers in rhythm on her desk… and has a sinking feeling.

“Oh,” she says. “Is that why she was asking after my love life the other day.”

It is, she suspects, a rhetorical question, and, she suspects, if Golshi wants to kick her square in the boobs she’ll have to get in line behind Nabiki herself.

[mahjongheart]

"I think so. She missed a chance to confess to Corrin, I think. She didn't say it in as many words, but..." It's really hard to miss, given how the conversation went, and the obvious hole in the relationship chart. "Worse, I think she doesn't quite understand Corrin. Or you. Or me."

She shakes her head. "It's all dreadfully familiar, isn't it?"

A Shrine Visit

[mahjongheart]

... Really, she's been treating this place rather cavalier, hasn't she?

This is sacred ground, and she should have been treating it as such.

The first day of the year, in the mid-morning, Akane forgoes her morning run, and instead takes the time to wash her hands and face in the ritual manner before entering the greenhouse of the Everbloom.

Where before, she sprinted, or ran, now she carefully walks the paths, and realizes its closeness and connection with the natural world.

Slowly, she approaches the Everbloom itself, brilliant and holy. She comes to the coronation plaza, the closest thing she can think of to a shrine and offeratory.

A few gold hit the dish from her hand, and she looks up into the boughs of magic and nature itself.

There's no bell to ring.

She claps twice.

What is she praying for?

[gal_paladin]

And someone else is paying respects, looking with dismay at a fellow geranium that can neither face her own, nor the one near Akane's hyacinth now entwined with a Lily.

"You know who I am, you know what I've done for you," she says to the Everbloom. "God, I pray, keep my children safe - and forgive those who know not what they do, give grace to those who do not think they deserve it. And, Aurora, if you're listening - if you can - there is someone who desperately, desperately needs someone to pierce through the darkness she can't escape from. I would be her dawn as you taught me to be, if only she'd let me."

...and she realizes she's not alone.

"Hey there, Lady Mannerism. Didn't mean for you to hear that, but I guess I don't mind you hearing it. Just... be more discreet than I was, please?"

[mahjongheart]

"-- Lady Kolkhoz, if you please. I don't know a place named Mannerism." She pauses, then breaks out into a giggle, unable to keep up the charade. "Though Akane also works.

"As for prayers, I came to the new years' visit. This is the closest place to a shrine I know, here. There's no bell, but everyone pitches in to maintain it, so..."

[gal_paladin]

"Well then, Akane, let me remind you that being addressed as The Lady Mannerism is the due of the Marchessa Kolkhoz as it is with the Marchessa Furinkan. Or did I demote you accidentally?"

She shakes her head and laughs.

"And it's close to nature, and to the magic of this place. That tracks. I'll be honest... what I don't know about Shinto could fill a library, and it's probably in Salzstadt being guarded by a girl with a wicked brush and a worse sense of humor. Hikaru was more Buddhist than anything. But I'm willing to learn."

[mahjongheart]

"... Yeah. But. If that's the case. First is the manner of entering a shrine." She hums. "You want flowing water for this."

She demonstrates with a wooden dipper she cleaned. "... Normally you wouldn't use a stream directly, either, but..." She sighs. Better than stagnant water.

Dip the water, let it run down the dipper to clean it and your hand. Then one for the other hand, one for the hand that held the dipper initially, clean your face by taking your clean hands and splashing it, making sure to let the water carry it away. "The idea is to wash away impurity, so you don't get it on the shrine or anyone else."

She hands the dipper to Alesha.

Some My S-Ranks spoilers

[monsterdaddy]

Yoojin, who's often here in the mornings to check on his plot, notices this deviation from Akane's usual pattern. He muses on it for a little while, watching her before the Everbloom, and finally recognizes the movements of ritual.

That's right. If they're a week out from what he felt was Yoohyun's birthday, then this would be January 1st, wouldn't it? Not Seollal, but a different New Year's Day. So Akane's paying homage and praying to... the tree?

The sight makes him feel a little complicated, a little melancholy. The closest thing to the Everbloom Yoojin knows is the Source of his world, the Snowing Tree, and. Well. It is complicated, isn't it? Like anyone's relationship with an origin point they're distinct, yet inextricable from, forever at risk of being subsumed into the greater story of the whole.

Or, you know. Like anyone's relationship to the grave of the brother they failed to bury. The brother they failed. Full stop.

Yoojin finds himself drifting over, hands in his coat pockets, and just waits quietly nearby until Akane's done.

Some Ranma spoilers

[mahjongheart]

In those shadows, the sunlight dapples through, and Akane's breath, briefly, halts.

Any wishes for the new year she had, swirl away in the sight.

For a moment, she feels that connection -- brief, but almost torrential--

And comes to as she feels, then hears, Yoojin approach. She explains, "Some save the shrine visit for the lunar year, but most now come on the Gregorian. And here, how would we know when the lunar year starts in the first place? So much here is different..."

[monsterdaddy]

"Yeah. First couple days of January are a national holiday in Korea, too. But Seollal's still a bigger deal for most of us."

That's complicated, too, though for far less personal reasons. International relations between Korea and Japan have been fraught for longer than Yoojin's lived, and New Year's observance is only one of many stages that has seen that tension play out.

Anyway.

"Do you feel it? The Everbloom."

To Grasp A Naked Blade (Semi-closed, NSFW)

[mahjongheart]

Akane waited, meditating, with an enchanted sabre in her lap, in a padded room. The saber was the closest thing to her cutting jians the fencing club had had on hand.

ingredients for a small meal waited on standby; her own attempt to mitigate the damage if the swords' enchantments did not work as advertised.

... And if they did, well.

Well well well well.

She swallowed nothing and tried to clear her mind of the obvious problems with this. This is a way to make things safer, not a way to slowly strip people you have a crush on, get that thought out of your head, Akane.

ugh, who doesn't she have a crush on at this point?

Breathe. Concentrate on your breathing.

Akane decided that if this was what would happen while sitting still, she might as well act on the striking target in the various sequences she's learned from Yanqing, and wait for her opponents.

this can only end well

[treebornekettlegirl]

[Life doesn't intend on putting a kibosh on her twitterpated struggles. Poor, poor Akane won't get that respite she desperately craves that easily. For her challenger has stepped onto the stage.

Guess who? Here's a hint: it's the crush she got a good hard look upon their first (second?) introduction. The, how did she put it, 'better built to boot' one.

Ranma sucks in a terse breath seeing who she's up against. Of course, of course she would be here! Why wouldn't Akane also get an invite extended to her? Lots of reasons, her brain was already wracking itself ten witty rejoinders at the minimum.

She hadn't been outright avoiding her fiancée since that... tantalizing revelation per se. Just. Gave her a wide berth the scale of Japan. B-Because she was busy preparing Akane's (now) late-Christmas gifts! It wasn't cause of her grappling with some, as a certain investigative prosecutor may put it, unnecessary feelings.

Now she can't 'be busy' away from Akane longer. The bullshit of the world conspires to make them confront each other and then some. Whatever that may be, Ranma doesn't know and is reeling her mind from getting crazy ideas.

Leave. Slip out while she's distracted with the dummy, dummy! Ranma mulls over pulling an escape Houdini would be envious of, bickering with herself until finally resigning herself. Suck it up. Can't run now. Ranma Saotome won't, doesn't, run.

Footfalls make no noise on the foam tiles. The pigtailed girl saunters behind the tomboy, twirling her own sabre in hand. She can't stand here looming silently the whole time. Say something!]

Woooow, what a blade. I can't see a scrap of clothin' anywhere! S'almost it's already buck naked.

[Teasing counts as something. Hush.]

Re: this can only end well

[mahjongheart]

[She doesn't stop, doesn't turn, as she feels Ranma enter. Of, of course she's here. After skipping on their sessions.]

[Still, she doesn't give her the satisfaction of turning around. Instead, she uses the physical exertion to make minute adjustments to her ki flow. She pauses, considers with one finger the idea of simply launching her out.]

[But. No. She is trying to communicate.]

[To the moment Ranma speaks, and she punches the little two-inch-by-one-inch hanging target, sending it into the ceiling.]

Ranma.

Take your weapon.

[She arrests the target with that same free hand. Only now does she turn.]

[Her aura leaks out, just a bare bit, but almost all of it is kept as a hard sheath around her body, called up and ready to be used.]

['Deal', was it? 'We should do this every week or so', is it!?]

[She raises her saber, casually, to a defensive position.]

[treebornekettlegirl]

[Oh. Oh she's mad. The hell is she mad about? If anything, after a little birdie tweeted to her about the tomboy and Evernight's status update, Ranma should be the one pissed!

Is it the kiss? She said it was fine, that she was okay with it! But like always, Ranma keeps getting mixed signals about what she wants! Just when he thinks he's finally understanding her, they're back to their norm.

Minor difference is that Akane didn't immediately clock him into the stratosphere. Ranma bites back a sarcastic greeting, 'Nice to see you too', but as the macho jock chick gears up to fight he can't stifle back being sardonic.]

Take a look at my hand and say that again.

[Did Akane miss the sabre in her hand? Or is that her being selective in what she said wants to see? Either or both is a valid answer. Rolling her eyes, Ranma takes on an en garde stance, aiming her blade at the other Anything Goes heir. Standing there, making no attempt to rush Akane.

If Akane wants to strike her, she's gonna have to come to her.]