deernet | video; un: an.exorcist

[ The image is that of young man with longish white hair that's been pulled back in a low ponytail. Seventeen or eighteen maybe, with a bright red mark on his face that looks somewhere between a scar and a tattoo as much as it stems from a mark that's also halfway between a star or an inverted pentagram. Garishly out of place on an otherwise pale and muted complexion and gentle face. ]

With a lot of the city shut down because of the snow, if there's anyone having trouble finding food or shelter, Sanctuary in Crenshaw will be helping whoever it can. It might not be much, but it can be a meal or warm bed for the night. [ And hope everyone likes fish, because there's a lot of that that's been salted and stockpiled. But also a lot of baked things served with some of the corruption-cleansing jams from earlier in the year.

Which, anyone who already volunteers there... you can bet you were already cheerfully accosted and asked to help, soup kitchen style. ♥ It's a team effort. ✧ Either that or clearing snow; it's a big place... albeit warm itself this month, and shining like a jewel from the lunar lighting and heating within. The renovated Moon Presence monastery seems to be taking the blindingly bright bone moon and reflecting it back in a gentler manner for anyone inside. ]

There isn't a cost. Just try to help out however you can when you're able.

[ He pauses, about to leave it at that but hesitating. Expression still neutrally polite and composed, but... flickering for a moment. ]

...if anyone would like to help closer to when Christmas would normally be, it'd be nice to do something special for the orphanage as well. Maybe donate some presents for them.

[ That's it. He'll just quietly leave it at that. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If one requires, I am able to provide medicine and incense for the warding of beasthood to assist in this crisis.

I do not recall the snow falling quite this heavily when last I was here. One hopes there are not too many medical emergencies.

You were gone and came back? How long ago were you here?

Thank you, that's very kind. Sanctuary exists for that purpose, to try and save people that might be considered too far gone otherwise. So anything that helps with corruption and beasthood would be incredible.

Are you a healer?

Only a little less than a year. Perhaps the powers that be are uncertain what to do in my regard. Who can say for sure?

I am nothing so lofty as a healer. Just a medicine seller.

However, I have many methods for warding corruption at my disposal. Incense, omamori, ofuda, my services as a Night Walker.

Should all else fail, I may also be able to draw my sword and expel the corruption.

[ !!!!

He is dropping everything to focus on that one oh-so-key part. ]

You have a sword that can expel corruption?!

Can it purify a beast without killing it?

If they are not already dead to begin with, it does no harm to the physical form.

However the circumstances for me to draw it are very specific.

Even a sword that is not for slaying the living should never be drawn carelessly.

[ He... takes some time in responding. To compose a whirlwind of emotion. ]

...I think I can understand something like that.

Even something that doesn't leave a visible wound can cause harm. Or has a cost.

Especially when it's something that can touch the soul.

But you aren't just a "medicine seller" either, are you.

Edited 2022-12-05 21:49 (UTC)

I am, in fact, just a medicine seller.

[He's probably being a bit facetious. Probably.]

You are right, however; these things have a cost but there are few things in life that do not take their toll eventually. And any medicine that is misused can become like a poison.

Such matters require a delicate hand, after all.

But as you said, you can understand something like that.

[ Probably.]

In my understanding we'd call that a sword of exorcism. Something that can only cut out corruption. "Evil."

I don't suppose the idea is something similar?

Taima no Ken. Yes. Something similar, though "evil" is not a word I find useful ascribing to the mononoke any more than I find it useful applying it to hysteria or smallpox.

To be honest I don't like using "evil" to describe it either. It's just how people usually understand something of that nature.

[ There is a long pause before the next response comes. A long one. ]

Your sword sounds like mine.

People do tend to like such simplistic terms, I suppose.

[Unsurprising, of course, but the Medicine Seller has always found that morality is, more often than not, situational. But he's not Lord Enma of the Underworld, it's not his job to spend hours measuring someone's life choices against whatever the present standards are. He slays mononoke and sells medicine. They're rather the same thing in his eyes, but others may disagree.

The long pause is puzzling. Moreso is the young man's response.

A sword like his own, hm? It's not impossible, and he really shouldn't be as surprised as he is, but there's also the fact that swords like that don't just grow on trees (peach or otherwise) whatever Taoist priests might insist.]

Is that so?

If I may be so bold, how did you go about acquiring such a thing?

[ They may not grow on trees, but-- ]

I was born with it.

Although it took me a long time to understand how to use it that way.

So it too is a part of your person.

Does it retain a physical form, or is it something you call into being?

[ "Too." Allen stumbles a bit over that word, to the point where his fingers are tripping over themselves to type things out. They feel too light and unsteady. ]

Both, really.

It's my left arm. When I need to, I can invoke it as a weapon.

I see. Therein lies the difference.

Yours is a part of your body. My own is an aspect of myself, extracted, given a form, and carefully sealed.

If your sword is part of your physical body, does invoking it also cause you pain?

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