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The Art of Napping; Monday, First Period [08/10].

The class was back in the large peaceful garden with the quietly soothing river and all those ubiquitous cherry blossoms that week, and they would be gathering the large pagoda with its exceptional offering of comfortable pillows and mats and blankets, as well as a nice offering of warm, relaxing teas.

"Good morning, ducklings ♥," Shunsui, seated comfortably at a spot in the rough circle he invited them all to join. "Today I thought we'd take a small departure from the act of napping, and make some time for talking about it, or, more specifically, about stories and napping ♥. After all, stories and sleep are often very closely connected; many children grow up with their restless energy stilled into slumber by the soothing influence of a bedtime story, neh ♥? And many cultures have tales and legends tied to sleeping. There are some that say our ancestors reside in our dreams, and it is through them that we may communicate with them, seek advice. Some cultures believe in a 'soul sleep,'" he couldn't help smile a bit at the name, "where one may receive messages and guidance from the gods whilst they are sleeping. My own culture has something we call a Jinzen, a deep medative state even deeper than the deepest sleep where we can communicate with our Zanpakutō ♥."

There was a soft smile, a hand resting comfortably, familiarly, on the hilt of one of his swords.

"Many cultures also have ways of protecting us from bad dreams, to preserve the good nature of our naps and slumbers. Dream catchers to act as a filter, demons to protect and consume the bad ones, even dolls that one tells all their troubles of the day to free them from the burden of them so they don't make it into their dreams ♥.

"And then, of course, there are stories of sleeping itself. I grew up with tales of great beasts and spirits that slumbered deep within the Soul Society that would stir in awaken during times of great need or great agitation. Some stories will paint too much sleep as a burden or a curse, such as that of the sleeping beauty who was to slumber until awoken with a kiss, some stories have one falling asleep only to wake up again in some strange new fantastical world, other have people fall into a nap only to wake up many years later to find the world around them changed. Imagine being able to nap for a hundred years like the fellow in the American story ♥!" Shunsui chuckled a little. "As often as I may have tried, I have, alas, never been afforded such a luxury ♥.

"But enough preamble," he said with a grin, "lest you all fall asleep merely listening to me go on ♥. Today, I'd like you all to share some of your own stories of sleep, all of our own little vignettes of slumber to serve as little bite-sized bedtime stories before we squeeze in a few winks of our own ♥. Who might have a good one to get us started ♥?"

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Telling a story~

What are some of your favorite stories from your culture about sleep? Are there any? Would you like an elaboration on anything mentioned in Shunsui's introduction or are you mostly just getting a head start on the second part of class? Either way, there's tea and plenty of comfortable pillows, and the chance to simply listen to the babbling river tell its story if no one else has anything to add.

And, of course, there's time to nap! It is very important, after all, to get in some good practice! Stay comfortable in the main gazebo or go explore more interesting places in the garden to nap as well, if you like.

Who has plenty of time for napping later should anyone need him in a non-nap capacity.

Writing this class is dangerous because now all I want is naps and I don't even like naps.

Freya Crescent

Octavia Blake

Octavia had been a no-show all through last week. Even now, she should maybe have been sleeping at home - she'd lost a lot of her night to repeatedly startling awake and checking Duke was still there.

But she was... trying to grasp at her routines, again. Maybe? Something like that. Point was, she was here. Failing to provide a story for the discussion, then failing to nap in a quiet, secluded corner of the garden.

And then, she was coming over to check in with Shunsui. "Hey."

"Konnichiwa, Octavia-chan ♥," Shunsui greeted back, his smile taking on a certain sort of gratitude that she hadn't merely drifted out of class in the same way she'd drifted in and through most of it, as if it was evidence that she was not quite yet the occasionally-appearing dream spirit she may be turning into. "Any thoughts on today's lesson? I think we're close enough to the end of it that we might get away with a little touch of sake, if you'd like ♥."

Octavia shook her head. It was just a small movement.

"No thoughts." Let's be real, she'd barely paid attention. Her mind was back on the Cape Rouge. "But I wouldn't say no to sake."

"So ka?" Shunsui asked, in a lownrumblenwith a quirk of his brow that seemed to look at Octavia since his eyes were focused down on the cups in his hand, the jug carefully pouring.

"You look rather pensive," he then noted, though distracted would be a far more applicable word, as he held out his hand, two cups with a disproportionate volume of sake in each, and lifted his gaze, "for someone with no thoughts, Octavia-chan ♥."

Edited 2020-08-10 12:50 (UTC)

"You asked about thoughts on the class," Octavia retorted, with a soft sort of wryness that she would not have been able to achieve at any point last week.

She reached for one of the cups, at random. Her fingertips brushed against the palm of his hand as she picked it up.

"And that's what I answered."

"So there are thoughts," Shunsui observed, as blatant in its own wryness as usual, though with something softer underneath as her fingers moved, and then his own moved toward hers as if in echo, "just not about class. Rookie mistake, Octavia-chan ♥. The fewer the thoughts, the better the nap ♥"

"Duke was missing all of last week," Octavia replied in a quiet rasp as her hand finally left his, holding the cup lightly. "He got home last night."

That explained two things at once.

Ah, and yet, in its efficiency, only seemed to spark other questions for Shunsui.

"And you decided to...come to class ♥?" being the foremost of them, which he asked with a quirk of his brow, and a small breath that was mostly amused, attended closely by mystified and skeptical.

Octavia's gaze flicked up from the cup, to his face. Looking a little dry.

"I can't watch him every moment of the day."

So better try and get used to that, no matter how much she wanted to do the opposite.

"Who said anything about watching ♥...Octavia-chan?"

And now both eyebrows were lifted to help out with his meaning on that one.

Octavia's look didn't get less dry.

"That, either," she rasped. "He nearly died over the weekend." She said that much, much more easily than how she actualy felt about it, yes. "He's bruised all over."

"There's still an awful lot of things in between ♥," Shunsui said, his grin seemingly only encouraged by the lack of decrease in that dryness, while the urge to just shoo her out of here and back to the boat contended selfishly with the fact that her appearances had been rather few and far between these days, "but I suppose he'll need his rest. You'll have to send my wishes for a swift recovery back with you."

Octavia nodded, and finally took a sip from her cup.

"I'm going back as soon as we're done here," she said. In case there was any doubt about how long she was willing to not be watching Duke. "So... Don't worry about that, in case you were."

"The fact that you've even been here as long as you have," Shunsui admitted, albeit with that amused, playful drawl, "has me fretting for your sanity, Octavia-chan, but I will say, then, that I hope today is a day you remember that sake is a drink meant to be savored and enjoyed with leisure ♥."

"I don't know what that means," Octavia drawled, dryly.

It was a joke, but he would absolutely be forgiven for not realizing.

Shunsui's grin tilted to a smirk.

"How lucky for you, then," he said, "that you know an expert who can teach you ♥."

With that, he lifted his cup slightly in a toast to her upcoming lesson, then, following a deep inhale to introduce its sharp aroma before the actaul taste, took a particularly long, leisurely sip of the sake within. His eyes were closed as he lowered the cup but lifted his face, as if to catch the artificial warmth of their danger shop sun filtering through the trees of the garden, and his smile evened out pleasantly with a soft, apprecitive rumble of a hum in the back of his throat.

Held it, just a moment longer, before his eyes opened half-way, and his face tilted her way. "Doesn't even look that hard, does it, Octavia-chan ♥?"

Stark

Octavia watched him keenly throughout his little demonstration, but it had little to do with any learning. She kept stealing moments to just look at everyone, lately. Marveling at actually being here to see them.

And not just imagining them as the details of their faces slowly faded more and more from her memories.

But that was just for her. She snorted when he opened his eyes, and retorted, "Nothing you do looks hard."

And that managed to pull a laugh out of Shunsui, not that that was hard, either.

"That's because," he stated, "nothing I do is hard, Octavia-chan ♥. I have a very strict policy against it ♥."

Octavia gave a little huff. She sounded wry.

"I couldn't live like that."

Well, she probably could. But historically speaking, the multiverse hadn't been very into letting her try.

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The Art of Napping; Monday, First Period [08/10].

Sign In - AoN, 08/10.

Listen to and Tell Stories - AoN, 08/10.

Napping - AoN, 08/10.

Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

OOC - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Sign In - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Sign In - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Sign In - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.

Re: Talk to Shunsui - AoN, 08/10.