OPEN ✿ June Catch-All

[hanamane]

⭐ Who: Amane and YOU
⭐ When: Throughout June
⭐ Where: Moon Bunny Market (namely @ Camellia), Riverwalk Theater, Dream Sphere (Slumbering City and N E W L O C A T I O N)
⭐ What: PLANT GAYS, Kaiju movies, Hanako being sulky about missing Dreamer-versary things and a Completely Normal Dreamer bonding trip gone horribly, terribly wrong
⭐ Warnings: Possible mentions of chronic illness in meta text, spiders, Dream Sphere death by miasma poisoning; will update with top-levels and further warnings if need be!

Comments

[hanamane]

[Shinsha wasn't exactly wrong about their assessment of Amane's family-- as far as other families go, they were definitely the loving and supportive sort-- but they had their own cracks and flaws as well. And who wouldn't, with the stress of dealing with one chronically ill child from an early age, and the shock of temporarily losing the other? Even Amane's current run as a Dreamer (and all the risks that came with it) was something of a strain on them, though they were loathe to discourage him from something that was making him happy. No child likes to be the source of their parents' suffering, even indirectly, and despite their reassurances otherwise, Amane knew they'd probably be happier if he was as normal as his namesake.

But there was nothing he could about it himself, aside from following along with the doctor's orders and doing whatever they told him to, results be damned. So, in a way, he sort of gets Shinsha's resigned attitude towards all of this, despite his own indignation over what they've done. At some point, the hate and distaste one has for these things, be it terrible families or constant treatments, become too exhausting to bear, so one just... begrudgingly accepts it and moves on. What else could they do?

Amane automatically angles the popcorn towards Shinsha as they reach for more, waiting until they got their fill before going back for a little more himself. There's no real point insisting on how awful Shinsha's family is when they already seemed to learn to live with it, so... maybe it was best to pivot the topic a little. It had shed a bit of a new light on something he had been curious about earlier...]

So... that Sensei you talked about before, the one who painted all those buildings for you... I guess they were they okay with your allergies? They must've been a pretty cool person if they went out of their way to do that for a sneezy kid.

[Not that he was sure this Sensei of theirs was an actual teacher or someone who had just looked out for them, but clearly they seemed to have stepped in a little where Shinsha's family didn't.]

[hgs]

[Shinsha can't help but smile to themself when thinking about Sensei. Even though the man is tall enough and broad enough to be a pro wrestler, he's the kindest person they've ever met. He's the one who taught Shinsha the names of all the plants and insects in the nearby fields, and he's the one who taught them to empathize with movie monsters when they felt like a monster themself. But...]

Kongou-sensei is the head monk at the temple that sponsors the group home I grew up in. He doesn't mind my... allergies. But he's responsible for so many other kids who need him more than I do...

[As kind as Sensei is, there's only one of him... and he's a monk, so when faced with difficult situations, it's in his nature to be serene, accepting and detached. Shinsha has never seen him upset, and whenever there's a faint look of sadness in his eyes, he meditates until it's gone. He's fond of saying that while people may not be able to easily change their situations, they can always change their perceptions.]

...And there are things he just doesn't understand.

[hanamane]

[... whoa. THAT was unexpected. Seeing Shinsha smile, even if to themselves, was like seeing a baby bunny poke it's head out of it's burrowing hole, rare and somewhat endearing. Amane didn't even think they could smile, honestly-- though maybe the likelihood of him seeing it would have probably been higher if he wasn't such a pain to Cinnabun over in the Dream Sphere. That alone spoke volumes of how precious this Kongou-sensei was to them, more than words ever could.

Though that explanation of theirs... it brought up a whole slew of other questions in his mind, questions that he wasn't even sure he should bring up if he wanted to respect Shinsha's privacy and not tread on ground that he shouldn't. But there is one part that stands out the most to him, and it comes out before he can stop himself from saying it.]

... like how to actually live with these allergies, you mean? It's one thing to be sympathetic and considerate about it, but... no one really knows how hard it is to deal with these things day to day unless they've been through it themselves.

[... wait, crap. Was he projecting again? Shinsha even said that Kongou was fine with their illness, but years of people giving Amane well-meaning but naive advice on how to deal with his own health issues made his mind immediately jump to that conclusion. Maybe he should backtrack, for both of their sakes--]

Or... a-at least, I think so, anyway. Maybe it was different with your Sensei, instead?