A Peek Under the Hat

[liralen]

Fandom: Bleach
Character: Kyouraku Shunsui
Rating: G
Summary: Shunsui takes a nap.
Word Count: 438



To everyone else in Soul Society Kyouraku Shunsui slept on the roof of the Eighth Division.

To Shunsui, that sentence conveyed nearly nothing of what his experience was on that roof.

For him, the rough edges of the warm roof tiles cut reassuringly into regular intervals along his back, arms, and legs. They lent an illusion of solidity, stability under the delicious delirium of the open sky all above him and all around him. After two thousand years of building, honing, and empowering his reiatsu, it was the easiest way to rest. Even quiescent, it was powerful enough, on the ground, to bring the moods, humors, and murderous rages from everyone within miles to him. Up on the roof, he could sleep and allow the ghost of his powers to ribbon up into the air, and only lend him dreams of swift flight, slow moving clouds, or the patient fall of life-giving sun.

The pink over-kimono reflected most of the sun's heat, allowing nothing but the kiss of warmth through. Breezes played through his hat, caressing his hair. Sometimes flowers or leaves would fall to rest upon him, their faint weight, their quiet calm resignation to withering made good company. From here he could hear just the faint sounds of the laughter and banging on the practice grounds, the cheerful chatter of the Eighth Division as it ate its meals, and he relished their youth and enthusiasm.

Inside his head, his heart there were the two parts of his soul, each doing what came naturally to them. The one bone god, demon god laughed and rolled and counted the bones of every companion lost, everyone he had defended which had died, every enemy rolled to dust, every life lost as his own life rolled on. There were reasons why Shunsui drank when he was awake. The other sang or wept poetry of all the transient beauties of life, of two thousand springs of lost cherry blossoms, two thousand falls of dying leaves, two thousand winters of flying snow, and two thousand summers of cicadas lost when summer was gone. It celebrated and mourned the countless beauties and pleasures of life that lasted less than a night, less than his life. There were reasons why Shunsui made love, buried himself in sensuality as if his life depended on it.

With all that in his head, it might, or might not, be forgiven that he'd forgotten, yet again, the staff meeting at 10 am. And so, Kyouraku Shunsui spent his morning up on the roof, napping up in the sunshine and open air, and no one else was the wiser.

Comments

[incandescens]

Just -- aww. Lovely.

(Note: "the ghost of his powers streamer up into the air" should be "the ghost of his powers to stream up into the air"?)

[archangelbeth]

My best icon for this. Mmmmm, nice.

[tearraws.livejournal.com]

That's gorgeous... I love that character, and you captured him perfectly!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oooo... nice icon.

I think Nanao knows him best. *grin*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I appreciate the praise. From you that means a lot.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!

I'm so glad you liked. :-)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Changed. :-) Though... I'd wanted to invoke the spirit streams/ribbons that Ishida and Ichigo see at other times... so changed it to something else... thank you for pointing out the awkwardness. It definitely didn't flow the way it was.

[incandescens]

I like that image of ribboning up into the air very much.

[tearraws.livejournal.com]

( blushes )

Really? *^_^* It does? Thank you. *^_^*

Why? I mean... we don't really know each other all that well or anything... I'm not sure if you've even read my stuff... have you? *^_^* Why is my opinion so valuable? If you don't mind me asking, that is. I don't mean to be rude, it just surprised me, is all. *^_^*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grin*

I've peered at your writing, but I think it was your comment on the fact that you've seen a lot of pieces where people can't really follow the character that really prompted my gratitude.

Discernment is a valuable thing. :-)

[senbonzakura77.livejournal.com]

Wonderful characterization of Shunsui-this was brilliantly done. :D

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I appreciate that a lot.

[shadowsinfire.livejournal.com]

Beautiful~

[zangetsugirl.livejournal.com]

This sounded exactly like Shunsui from start to finish. Very well done.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I wanted to see what was in his head, and realized it had to be poetry...

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I was having problems with him in something else I was writing, so I really appreciate your stating that I got him dead on in this one.

[tearraws.livejournal.com]

Ah, all right. *^_^* Well, there's still the question of /my/ ability to discern such things, which I wouldn't want to take for granted.

What did you think of my writing, what you saw of it? *^_^* If you want to look at it from the beginning, it's much easier to do so at my DeviantArt account...

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grin* I'm new to this fanfic stuff. *grin*

Where do I find your DeviantArt account?

[tearraws.livejournal.com]

Only one writing is fanfic, the rest is original.

http://tearra.deviantart.com/

[shadowgirl1605.livejournal.com]

Wow~ So Shunsui and I loved your characterization of him :D Thanks for sharing this! Just ... wow XD Much love for this piece.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad you both love it. :-) Thanks for reading and commenting!

[shadowgirl1605.livejournal.com]

:D You're welcome. I hope to read more from you in the future ;D

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*laughter*

You will. I promise.

This piece was something of a stretching exercise in the middle of trying to do a rather large fic with Shunsui and Jyushirou. I had Jyushirou's point of view down pretty well, but Shunsui eluded me for quite some time. I felt like Nanao trying to pin him down. *laughter*

[shadowgirl1605.livejournal.com]

:D I know what you mean. Shunsui's a bit more of a goof ball compared to his more sensible friend, Jyuushiro, but he also has his moments. ^^

So, what kind of fic are you writing? :D I bet it's going to be great!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

We'll see...

I got intrigued by why they're the only two shinigami in Soul Society that have two *twin* blades. It's nearly unheard of in Japanese sword practice to have two equal blades. The daisho, which is Kyoraku's bound form for his swords is the traditional samurai setup.

So I started with the two of them when they first really met at the Academy and want to get to where they both first go shikai.

And they are the ones that pulled in how they got their sense of justice from Yamamoto, how they fought like dogs at first, how they both first figured out it's good to fight left-handed as well as right... etc. etc. etc. *sigh* The details bemuse.

We'll see if it's any good or if it's just my own obsessions showing. *laughter*

[shadowgirl1605.livejournal.com]

Wow :D It sounds pretty good! I would definitely read it whenever you decide to put it up. And I admire that you're waiting until you finish do so.

Also, no worries, we're all a little obsessed in the bleach fandom ;D Over what or who, it differs from person to person, I suppose.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Nah... the whole arc won't be done when I first start posting... I just had some consistency (especially phonetic name spelling) problems I wanted to work through. My brain wanted to write the first and third stories at the same time, and I'm just trying to make 'em work before starting to post the first. I'll be backfilling the second in while posting...

Plus I have a drop deadline on Wednesday... so I'm going to have to do that first, anyway... but when it's solid in my own head, I'll feed it out... *grin*

*grin* Thank you for the reassurances... and the encouragement. It's much appreciated.

[shadowgirl1605.livejournal.com]

xD Can't wait to read it, then! And you're very welcome :) You're taking the time and energy out of your day to write something, that alone is something to admire in and of itself.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*giggles* I liked the little comic book a lot.

Sonic! You wrote something with Sonic and his friends!! *laughter*

[tearraws.livejournal.com]

*^_^* It was just a silly little idea that popped into my head while watching Torchwood. *^_^* I put it up just the other day - haven't gotten a lot of responses. So I'm really glad you liked it.

And the Sonic fanfic, well, I've always liked Sonic. *^_^* Especially Tails. He's so cute! *^_^* And I was talking with someone, and they were talking about some odd fanfics they had seen, and it was like, "That's ridiculous!" And then I thought for a bit, and this idea burrowed its way into my head, and I just couldn't get it out till I wrote it! I hope you like it. *^_^*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

He is cute! And your fic was very cool, too. I enjoyed it. Thank you for writing it!!

[tearraws.livejournal.com]

*yay*! *^_^* Thank you for reading it!

[xadie.livejournal.com]

I read this after reading 'A Peek in the Garden' (which I'm going to comment on next :D). This is so fascinating to me, as Shunsui seems to have such a solid, multi-facetted character, albeit one we haven't been privy to yet. What I mean is, in the manga and the anime I have such a sense of him as a person, but we've only seen glimpses of what lies beneath - silly, romantic, understanding, peaceful, protective, brave, ancient etc. There are a lot of sides to him, and you've done a beautiful job of fleshing them out. I particularly love the idea of his twin zanpakuto being like two separate personalities within himself, but each being the flip side of the same coin, and each being a part of him but separate. It's really lovely.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you, so much.

I was writing Twin Souls and had done the first four chapters all from Jyuushiro's point of view, and then Shunsui said it as his turn.

And I was bemused and said, "Well, you're going to have to show yourself to me, first."

And this is what came out. And, after that, I could write TS from his point of view, too. Something filled in, somewhere with this piece. So...

I'm very glad you enjoyed this and found it to work for you. Yeah, his zanpakuto is very important to him, I think, and is a constant companion the way Jyuushiro is. As it's what he needs in order to fight. Ukitake's zanpakuto seems a lot more tight-lipped. *laughter* I still haven't gotten a great feel for them, yet.