[X] After dinner make a decision about Loki:
- [X] Ask Remilia to stabilize the process.
Satsuki, Sella, and Leysritt come in to help the three of you change; Lulu tries to refuse Sella's help initially, but a few throat-clearings and looks gets the point across; you and Ilya both snuggle against her as you make your way to the dining room, and her blush doesn't fade entirely until you sit down.
"Does Reimu-chan live there alone?" You glance at Nanoha as you eat a bread roll lightly sprinkled with garlic. Such a wonderful taste ….
"Somewhat. She is the only human who lives there, but Suika spends a great deal of time there, Marisa visits frequently, and I'm given to understand that Yukari spends a lot of her rare waking hours there as well. There used to be more Hakureis at any given time, but …." Remilia shrugs. "Particularly once Gensokyo was formed, there was not as much need for many attendants to the shrine."
"You go there fairly often, too, Remi." Your sister scowls at the magician as Nanoha and Fate laugh quietly. You look over at the other magical girls - Madoka doesn't seem distressed, so Homura probably hasn't said anything … but Mami and Kyouko seem to be focused on avoiding each other's attention. Probably nothing you'll need to do about that … probably.
"Someone has to make sure Reimu has civilized company!" Patchouli laughs at Remilia's declaration.
"Hey, Flan? Um, can we watch the snow together again?" You set your tea down as Remilia draws the others into a discussion about Reimu - somewhat surprisingly, Vita actually likes the shrine maiden.
"… There's actually something I wanted to get started on after dinner, and I'm not sure how long it will take. You and Ilya can go to the parlor, of course, and Sakuya will make sure you have chocolate and snacks, but I don't know when I'll be able to get there." Lulu nods, and you wonder if she and Ilya don't get along as well as they seem to when you're around.
"Is it anything we can help with?" You shake your head and finish devouring the bread roll. Ilya's telepathic voice is so stiff … is it just because she isn't used to it?
"I don't think so, but I'm not sure what Remilia is actually going to do. I can try to get to you as quickly as I can, but -" A shock seems to go through Lulu, sitting to your left, and Ilya sighs quietly to herself, a smile on her face.
"Ah, you don't need to worry about us, Flan! Take as much time with your sister as you need." Ilya turns slightly, and gently kicks your leg - barely grazes it, really. Oh. On the one hand, it's nice that Lulu worries so much about you and Remilia. On the other … it's more than a little disconcerting that she does worry so much … and a little irritating, to be honest.
"So what should we expect from the Myouren Temple?" Remilia grimaces at Fate's question and sighs.
"The Temple is … it is home to a larger group of youkai, not just the head monk. It is also a Buddhist temple, not a Shinto shrine, and so its precepts are quite different - abstinence from meat and alcohol, for example, although only the head monk is truly disciplined in that matter. She - Byakuren Hijiri - also believes that humans and youkai can live peacefully together, and works to make that a fact. Naturally, we oppose each other." Naturally, the base of the table becomes full of concerned frowns.
"Eh … but, Remilia-chan? You seem to get along fine with us?" Remilia nods at Nanoha.
"I do, yes, and when my sister and I lived on Earth, those humans under our rule prospered and were protected against youkai. But what I recognize, and what that Hijiri wishes to abolish, is that youkai are fundamentally different from humans. Youkai are incarnations of the nightmares of humanity, its fears given form and intelligence. Some youkai are less dependent on humans than others, but most require fear in order to maintain their existence. This sealed world, this paradise of Gensokyo - even it is more suited to humans than to youkai. The youkai here are rarely monstrous, rarely terrifying. You saw the ogre mage Hidetsugu, saw how he changed from handsome to horrifying? That later form will not be seen in Gensokyo; youkai have been changed so that they will not be so disgusting to human sensibilities. Youkai here in Gensokyo have not the shapes of fear that would have had a thousand years ago. That Hijiri wishes to force the change further, such that youkai need not subsist on fear, and humans need not fear youkai. For many youkai, such a resolution is completely unacceptable." Fate shakes her head.
"It seems that we would get along well with her," she says, and Megane and Nanoha nod. Remilia's eyes narrow for a moment, then she sits back and sighs quietly before cocking her head and looking at Fate.
"... Do you not have forbidden practices that you despise? Rules that, for the sake of humanity, should not be broken? Should humans not seek lost power in order to undo the mistakes of the past? The nightmares of humanity - what is forbidden and impossible. The domains of youkai are the domains of the nightmares of humanity. If you believe that humans should live in peace with their nightmares, then you believe that humans are not forbidden. If you believe that one should not seek to undo the past for a happier future, then you believe there should be a chasm between humans and youkai - a chasm that can be bridged, in places and for a time, but never filled." Fate's expression changes during Remilia's speech - confusion, anger, fear, shock - and both Vita and Nanoha look at your sister irritatedly. After a short period of silence, Remilia suddenly looks away, then gets out of her chair and leaves the room.
The rest of the meal is conducted in silence.
"Come in, Flandre," Remilia calls in response to your knock. You open the door and slip inside. Remilia is sitting in a chair, staring unhappily at a wall. "I'm sorry for disrupting dinner." You shake your head.
"It's good for them to realize that we aren't like them - and since I've been trying to fit in so they aren't always upset, they probably don't realize just how different we actually are." You lean over the arm of the chair and hug your sister. She pats your head fondly.
"Still, I shouldn't be letting myself be goaded into such a display during dinner." She smiles at you and you slide back over the arm of the chair. "So, what did you come here for? Surely your friends want to spend some time with you." You nod, but -
"Something for my other friend." Remilia pauses, then cocks her head and looks at you. You nod. "Could you please stabilize Loki's transformation? I want Giltless to be able to use it - and Headless, too, if that can be managed - but I don't want Loki to be damaged by the change." Remilia smiles and nods.
"You have the Device with you? Good, then we can get started." She bounces out of the chair and toward a workroom. "As I said, it will still be a few weeks before the transformation is complete, and I or Patchouli will need to check on it once or twice a week to make sure nothing's gone wrong." You nod and look around as you walk into the odd room. It's spherical, with the door opening onto a floating platform near the middle - and once Remilia closes the door, it vanishes. She smiles and gestures for you to stand on the altar in the middle of the platform. "This place does exist, and if we needed to we could blast or smash our way out. But it's a very good place for some kinds of magic, and we can't be interfered with from outside. Now, can you make sure that Loki is out and on, but without activating its Barrier Jacket?" You nod; it's not something you need to do very often, but Juliet did make sure you knew how to do it. Remilia simply stands on the platform for a moment - then she closes her eyes and starts to chant a single word.
"Eibe." Over and over, as she repeats the word, a pillar grows in the air near her, a solid shaft of an unfamiliar kind of wood. Eventually she nods to herself and stops, changing to a different word. "Bronze." Another pillar, made of bronze this time, grows behind you, and as it grows it reaches out to the wooden pillar, which extends a polished limb to meet it. Remilia stops chanting when the two pillars are fully merged, then walks to the edge of the platform to examine the bridge between the pillars. Satisfied, she returns to where she started and begins chanting again. "Eisen," she chants, and an iron pillar grows in mid-air, extending limbs toward both the pillar of wood and the pillar of bronze, and they to it. Again, Remilia checks the connections, all three of them - but then she moves to the other side of the platform. "Eitr." A fourth pillar, a smoky liquid constrained and unmoving, rises opposite the bronze pillar - but no limbs connect it to the others. "Feuer." A pillar of flame sprouts in response to her chant, and a burning limb reaches toward a liquid spear, passing through the wood and bronze bridges seamlessly. Once the pillar is fully grown, Remilia checks the connections - wood to bronze, bronze to iron, iron to wood, liquid to fire, liquid to wood, and fire to bronze. Satisfied, she chants a sixth - and final - word. "Stein." A great monolith, almost honey-colored, grows to complete the second triangle, and only after checking each connection, new and old, does Remilia relax and smile at you. "There. Now I can start the hard part." You smile hesitantly back - she must be joking, considering how much effort the pillars took to erect and how little effort Lulu had working with Loki back in Skyrim, but you can't, after all, be entirely sure.
Above your head, an image of Loki appears and expands, becoming a mass of lines delineating boxes rather than any proper diagram of its interior. Most of the interior is colored blue, but a small section is red and black, and from that area black spines pierce blue areas. Remilia clucks to herself, and begins making careful gestures. Slowly, the black areas fade, replaced by blue in some cases, healing areas far from the red section, and covered by red in others, keeping those adjacent strongholds under threat. Finally, the central red area is fortified, its exterior smoothed so there aren't any salients or spurs. And then … the image of Loki fades away, and the pillars spin into nothingness, and Remilia sways tiredly. You leap down and hug her, making sure she doesn't fall, and when a door appears you open it and help your sister through. "Shall we go to bed?" Her head lolls from side to side in what could be a clumsy shake of the head, and her wings stiffen and slide forward, forming a second set of legs so she won't fall if you let go. Her tongue darts in and out of her mouth, wetting her lips. She could be hungry ….
What do you do?
[ ] Take Remilia out to the balcony and look out at Gensokyo for a while.
- [ ] Have your clones look for some blood in her room.
- [ ] Call Sakuya to get some blood.
[ ] Put Remilia to bed.
- [ ] Snuggle with her.
- [ ] See if Lulu and Ilya are still awake.
[ ] Other?
