A letter calls Rei home to a dilapidated shrine and a family legacy she never knew existed.
Shrine Maiden (A Modern-Day Touhou Quest)
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Chapter 1 - Gensokyo
"Last stop, Gensokyo. Last stop, Gensokyo."
Rei shifts groggily as the announcement filters through her muddled thoughts and turns to look out the window. She watches as the train circles a small bay ringed by a seawall and a handful of stone piers and then turns toward a prosaic downtown area. Eventually, the train slows to a stop, and she stands, accompanied by the satisfying crack of joints left immobile for too long.
A groping hand reaches into an overhead compartment and returns with an over-stuffed duffel bag that comes down to rest on a shoulder. Rei casts one last look over her seating area before stepping out into the aisle, right behind a blonde in a dark purple dress and a pale pink mob cap. A splash of color that she follows until it deposits her on the sidewalk in front of the station.
As the afternoon sun glares down into her eyes, Rei fumbles in her bag for the reason why she'd flown across the Pacific. A letter—one that had been sealed with a wax imprint of a yin-yang symbol of all things—unfolds in her hands, revealing elegant calligraphy that she'd read a dozen times yet refused to commit to memory.
Daughter
Tch. A low, annoyed sound escapes her, and she stifles the urge to ball the letter up and find a recycling bin. She still needed the directions at the bottom.
Or perhaps I have no right to that name. And yet, I cannot deny how it feels to write it. So please, daughter, Rei, forgive this old woman her sentimentality. And the bluntness of the things I must tell you.
"Well, it's too late for any of that now. Isn't it?" She scoffs, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
First, I would apologize to you for the wrongs my selfishness has inflicted upon you. I have many excuses. I was young. The relationship between your father and I was tumultuous at best. My work made it difficult to care for a child. But the truth is simpler than that, if far more hurtful. I never intended to have children.
The paper rustles with the force of her exhale. It was a miracle the letter had made it through her first read of that paragraph. A miracle that Auntie had been there to grab it away from her before she could rip it to shreds. A kernel of that anger still burned in her chest, but it was a fraction of what it had been when she'd first read these words. Now, she mostly felt numb. Tired.
When I found out I was pregnant with you, I panicked. Fortunately, my best friend—your mother—was there. She helped me through the pregnancy and did far more than anyone could ever ask in raising you. I will leave the specifics of our falling out for her to tell, but suffice it to say that this, too, resulted from my selfishness.
Rei had been too young to understand what was going on when they had left Japan. Even after it had occurred to her to ask, she never had. There had always been something melancholy about her Aunt whenever she spoke about their homeland. Now, she understood why.
Under any other circumstance, I would not be writing this letter—I promised I would never contact either of you again. And yet, I find myself unable to keep even that promise, for I am dying. By the time you read this, it is almost certain that I will have passed on.
Were it only the matter of my death, I would not burden either you or your mother in this way. My selfishness and neglect have already caused enough harm, and I have earned the lonely fate that awaits me.
Rei blinks away the stinging in her eyes and focuses on the world around her. The pure blue of the sky. The warmth of the sun shining down on her skin. The sweet smell of flowers wafting past her on a lazy breeze.
She looks back down.
Alas, circumstances have compelled me to reach out to you. The (the way the Shrine's name is smudged out is jarring compared to the rest of the letter) Shrine has been passed down in our family since the Heian Period. And while our family tree has never been profoundly fecund, it has never been pruned to the degree it is now.
To say it plainly, you and I are the last. And soon, it will be just you.
In Seattle, it had just been her and Auntie—her Aunt had been an only child, and her parents had died young. Now, it seemed they had something else in common.
A shake of the head banishes that morbid thought, and she looks back at the remaining paragraph.
I cannot, and would not even if I could, demand anything from you. Not after abandoning you. Instead, I ask that you come to Japan. See the Shrine. See the place in the world it occupies, for it is yours now. To dispense of however your heart sees fit.
Enclosed with this letter is a round-trip ticket and directions from the subway station to the Shrine. A spare key is waiting for you, hidden under a false rock to the left of the front door.
It doesn't end with a signature or name. Or any closing words. Rei might have just burned the letter if her mother had tried to sign off with something like 'love.' Instead, there's a hand-drawn, surprisingly detailed map with an arrow directing her from the train station to the Shrine.
She looks up from the map and recognizes the multi-colored awning of an ice cream shop reflected on her map with a cartoonish ice cream cone. For a moment, she debates sitting down to rest at one of the patio tables and enjoying something cool and sweet. But she couldn't find the energy.
Between the letter and the flight across the Pacific—and the hollowness sitting in her chest—Rei was exhausted. Perhaps after a nap, she would feel more human. But for now, all she wanted was to be by herself. So, instead of stopping in, she looks down at her map and begins walking.
A second-hand store, its windows so crowded by odds and ends that the lights in the store can barely be seen, sits next to a cobblestone path that takes her alongside a dry creekbed. A flower shop, its brightly painted door seemingly guarded by waist-tall sunflowers, passes by, and she takes the next left onto a narrow side street.
More landmarks pass by. An arcade. A sushi bar. A department store. A bookstore. But none truly catch her interest. Instead, she focuses on other things. The heat of the summer sun as it rises from the pavement. The soft chirp of insects hiding in grassy banks. The excited laughter of school children playing in the park. It was lovely—a far cry from Seattle's leaden skies.
The afternoon blurs into a pleasant haze as she walks. Muscles grown stiff from hours in a plane and then more hours on a train begin to loosen. A light sheen of sweat forms on her face, only to be carried away by a steady sea breeze.
Eventually, she turns past a statue to some famous someone or other and finds herself in the shade cast by the thick canopy overhead. Rei glances at the map one last time but hardly needed to check. In front of her was a small stone path that wended up a steep hill—a path framed by a faded red torii and a pair of stone statues.
With a sigh, she pockets her mother's note. She was finally there. At a Shrine half a world away from Auntie and her friends and her comfortable life.
For a moment, she stands there, dark eyes taking in the legacy tossed upon her by an absentee parent. It looked abandoned. Weeds had sprouted up between the stone steps and sprawled in thick knots across a sandy open space. Vast swathes of paint had flaked off in many places, revealing the smooth wood beneath. Moss had grown in along creviced bits of stone, including the mouth of one of the stone statues out front.
There was a foreclosed home in her neighborhood that had eventually started looking like this. It had taken months of neglect to get this bad, though. And her mother's letter had arrived less than a week ago. How could things have deteriorated so quickly, unless...
Just how long had mother been sick?
Her mind flinches back from the thought and the emptiness that comes with it, focusing instead on the Shrine itself. She'd come this far to see it; she might as well check it out up close. Maybe then she'd understand what was so important about it that her mother had broken her self-imposed silence and reached out to her.
Her duffel bag slips around to rest against her stomach, armor against the unease roiling within her. Rei swallows, burying the doubts and whispered voices in her mind, and steps forward. Toward the karma a single, unwanted letter had tied to her.
A wave of cold washes over her as she passes beneath the faded red torii. A violent shiver wracks her body as the feeling of plunging headfirst into a mountain lake engulfs her. Yet the feeling is gone before she can move to ward off the bracing cold. In its wake is a feeling of weightlessness— as though she were no longer weighed down by the shackles of gravity.
She was a cloud. A cloud floating across an azure sky toward the crimson of the setting sun. Across space stretched to near breaking between indifferent hands. Through time twisted into gnarled patterns. Through eternity and infinity toward a crimson gate that moved ever further away. Until, at last, a single foot crosses the invisible line that separates the sacred from the profane.
Rei blinks. The entrance to the Shrine stands in front of her. She turns around to gaze at the path back but cannot remember walking along it. A frown starts to cross her face but is interrupted by a jaw-cracking yawn.
I must be more tired than I thought to be blanking out like that.
With a shrug, she dismisses the thought and moves toward the clearly plastic rock sitting conspicuously to one side of the door. Picking up the stone, she turns it over in her hands before spotting the cleverly concealed recess where a glint of brass awaited.
This was it. She plucks the key from its hiding place, sets the stone back down, and squares her shoulders. The key slides in easily; she twists it. The door opens.
Rei lets out a long, slow breath she doesn't even realize she's been holding in. Compared to the exterior of the Shrine, the interior was much nicer. The floors and walls were made from pale, almost shiny wood. Screen doors painted with simple bits of calligraphy separate the entrance hall from rooms further in.
Caught in admiration of the warm welcome of the Shrine's interior, it takes Rei a moment to realize there are no outlets in the main hall. A fact that sees her almost scrambling through the rest of the Shrine in search of electricity. Delicate screen doors snap open as she pokes her head into room after room, but there is nothing. There are no signs of electricity or running water, only a small propane stove tucked away in a lacquered storage chest.
Did mother really live here? How?
It was almost enough to make her turn around and leave. Unfortunately, she almost certainly didn't have enough money in her account to pay for a hotel, and it was too late to call Auntie and beg for money.
More than that, though, she'd let her mother's words call her here. Leaving this soon wouldn't feel right. It would feel like failure. Like quitting before she'd even had a chance to start. She would just have to make do. For now, at least.
The duffel bag slides from her shoulder and drops to the floor. Rei flops to join it as one thought echoes louder than all the others.
Now what?
Now, what, indeed? Rei has three open slots to spend the rest of her day on. Pick as many as you want, and feel free to write in any alternative actions you would like to do.
[] Explore the rest of the Shrine
[] Explore the neighborhood around the Shrine
[] Explore the shopping district
[] Unpack and get things prepared
[] Find somewhere to eat
[] Go to the park
[] Take a nap
[] Write-in
Please also select three hobbies for Rei.
[] Art (+1 aesthetics). Rei's paints and easel were not always easy to keep on her. Fortunately, she enjoyed drawing almost as much.
[] Gardening (+1 aesthetics). Was it the simple elegance of a well-arranged bed of flowers or getting in the dirt that drew her to gardening? Rei never really cared to figure it out.
[] Exercise (+1 athletics). One hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten km run. Every day. Without fail. Ok, with some fail.
[] Sports (+1 athletics). Back home, a signed Messi jersey hangs on Rei's bedroom wall. And a pair of worn cleats wait in the corner.
[] Chess (+1 academics). Rei won her first regional tournament at fourteen—her first state tournament at sixteen.
[] History (+1 academics). Rei went to an archaeology-themed summer camp as a child. She's loved history ever since.
[] Movies (+1 aplomb). Rei's seen every horror movie released over the past three years in the theater—even the ones she had to sneak in to watch.
[] Camping (+1 aplomb). Rei has found few things that compare to watching the sun rise in some solitary place.
[] Music (+1 allure). A vinyl copy of Abbey Road left by one of her mom's friends changed Rei's life. Or at least her understanding of music.
[] Fashion (+1 allure). There was a certain satisfaction Rei got from finding a cute or weird or elegant outfit from a thrift store.
[] Video Games (+1 awareness). Back home, Rei has an aging gaming computer that she was constantly on the lookout for upgrades for (so long as it's within her budget).
[] Reading (+1 awareness). If Rei had to pick a favorite genre, it would be mystery. Murder mystery.
[AN]
Hello and welcome to a Touhou quest set in an indeterminate time and place in modern-day Japan. We'll be following Rei's journey as she peacefully (more or less) tries to unravel the mysteries of Gensokyo and meets the many strange individuals who call that place home.
Rei shifts groggily as the announcement filters through her muddled thoughts and turns to look out the window. She watches as the train circles a small bay ringed by a seawall and a handful of stone piers and then turns toward a prosaic downtown area. Eventually, the train slows to a stop, and she stands, accompanied by the satisfying crack of joints left immobile for too long.
A groping hand reaches into an overhead compartment and returns with an over-stuffed duffel bag that comes down to rest on a shoulder. Rei casts one last look over her seating area before stepping out into the aisle, right behind a blonde in a dark purple dress and a pale pink mob cap. A splash of color that she follows until it deposits her on the sidewalk in front of the station.
As the afternoon sun glares down into her eyes, Rei fumbles in her bag for the reason why she'd flown across the Pacific. A letter—one that had been sealed with a wax imprint of a yin-yang symbol of all things—unfolds in her hands, revealing elegant calligraphy that she'd read a dozen times yet refused to commit to memory.
Daughter
Tch. A low, annoyed sound escapes her, and she stifles the urge to ball the letter up and find a recycling bin. She still needed the directions at the bottom.
Or perhaps I have no right to that name. And yet, I cannot deny how it feels to write it. So please, daughter, Rei, forgive this old woman her sentimentality. And the bluntness of the things I must tell you.
"Well, it's too late for any of that now. Isn't it?" She scoffs, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
First, I would apologize to you for the wrongs my selfishness has inflicted upon you. I have many excuses. I was young. The relationship between your father and I was tumultuous at best. My work made it difficult to care for a child. But the truth is simpler than that, if far more hurtful. I never intended to have children.
The paper rustles with the force of her exhale. It was a miracle the letter had made it through her first read of that paragraph. A miracle that Auntie had been there to grab it away from her before she could rip it to shreds. A kernel of that anger still burned in her chest, but it was a fraction of what it had been when she'd first read these words. Now, she mostly felt numb. Tired.
When I found out I was pregnant with you, I panicked. Fortunately, my best friend—your mother—was there. She helped me through the pregnancy and did far more than anyone could ever ask in raising you. I will leave the specifics of our falling out for her to tell, but suffice it to say that this, too, resulted from my selfishness.
Rei had been too young to understand what was going on when they had left Japan. Even after it had occurred to her to ask, she never had. There had always been something melancholy about her Aunt whenever she spoke about their homeland. Now, she understood why.
Under any other circumstance, I would not be writing this letter—I promised I would never contact either of you again. And yet, I find myself unable to keep even that promise, for I am dying. By the time you read this, it is almost certain that I will have passed on.
Were it only the matter of my death, I would not burden either you or your mother in this way. My selfishness and neglect have already caused enough harm, and I have earned the lonely fate that awaits me.
Rei blinks away the stinging in her eyes and focuses on the world around her. The pure blue of the sky. The warmth of the sun shining down on her skin. The sweet smell of flowers wafting past her on a lazy breeze.
She looks back down.
Alas, circumstances have compelled me to reach out to you. The (the way the Shrine's name is smudged out is jarring compared to the rest of the letter) Shrine has been passed down in our family since the Heian Period. And while our family tree has never been profoundly fecund, it has never been pruned to the degree it is now.
To say it plainly, you and I are the last. And soon, it will be just you.
In Seattle, it had just been her and Auntie—her Aunt had been an only child, and her parents had died young. Now, it seemed they had something else in common.
A shake of the head banishes that morbid thought, and she looks back at the remaining paragraph.
I cannot, and would not even if I could, demand anything from you. Not after abandoning you. Instead, I ask that you come to Japan. See the Shrine. See the place in the world it occupies, for it is yours now. To dispense of however your heart sees fit.
Enclosed with this letter is a round-trip ticket and directions from the subway station to the Shrine. A spare key is waiting for you, hidden under a false rock to the left of the front door.
It doesn't end with a signature or name. Or any closing words. Rei might have just burned the letter if her mother had tried to sign off with something like 'love.' Instead, there's a hand-drawn, surprisingly detailed map with an arrow directing her from the train station to the Shrine.
She looks up from the map and recognizes the multi-colored awning of an ice cream shop reflected on her map with a cartoonish ice cream cone. For a moment, she debates sitting down to rest at one of the patio tables and enjoying something cool and sweet. But she couldn't find the energy.
Between the letter and the flight across the Pacific—and the hollowness sitting in her chest—Rei was exhausted. Perhaps after a nap, she would feel more human. But for now, all she wanted was to be by herself. So, instead of stopping in, she looks down at her map and begins walking.
A second-hand store, its windows so crowded by odds and ends that the lights in the store can barely be seen, sits next to a cobblestone path that takes her alongside a dry creekbed. A flower shop, its brightly painted door seemingly guarded by waist-tall sunflowers, passes by, and she takes the next left onto a narrow side street.
More landmarks pass by. An arcade. A sushi bar. A department store. A bookstore. But none truly catch her interest. Instead, she focuses on other things. The heat of the summer sun as it rises from the pavement. The soft chirp of insects hiding in grassy banks. The excited laughter of school children playing in the park. It was lovely—a far cry from Seattle's leaden skies.
The afternoon blurs into a pleasant haze as she walks. Muscles grown stiff from hours in a plane and then more hours on a train begin to loosen. A light sheen of sweat forms on her face, only to be carried away by a steady sea breeze.
Eventually, she turns past a statue to some famous someone or other and finds herself in the shade cast by the thick canopy overhead. Rei glances at the map one last time but hardly needed to check. In front of her was a small stone path that wended up a steep hill—a path framed by a faded red torii and a pair of stone statues.
With a sigh, she pockets her mother's note. She was finally there. At a Shrine half a world away from Auntie and her friends and her comfortable life.
For a moment, she stands there, dark eyes taking in the legacy tossed upon her by an absentee parent. It looked abandoned. Weeds had sprouted up between the stone steps and sprawled in thick knots across a sandy open space. Vast swathes of paint had flaked off in many places, revealing the smooth wood beneath. Moss had grown in along creviced bits of stone, including the mouth of one of the stone statues out front.
There was a foreclosed home in her neighborhood that had eventually started looking like this. It had taken months of neglect to get this bad, though. And her mother's letter had arrived less than a week ago. How could things have deteriorated so quickly, unless...
Just how long had mother been sick?
Her mind flinches back from the thought and the emptiness that comes with it, focusing instead on the Shrine itself. She'd come this far to see it; she might as well check it out up close. Maybe then she'd understand what was so important about it that her mother had broken her self-imposed silence and reached out to her.
Her duffel bag slips around to rest against her stomach, armor against the unease roiling within her. Rei swallows, burying the doubts and whispered voices in her mind, and steps forward. Toward the karma a single, unwanted letter had tied to her.
A wave of cold washes over her as she passes beneath the faded red torii. A violent shiver wracks her body as the feeling of plunging headfirst into a mountain lake engulfs her. Yet the feeling is gone before she can move to ward off the bracing cold. In its wake is a feeling of weightlessness— as though she were no longer weighed down by the shackles of gravity.
She was a cloud. A cloud floating across an azure sky toward the crimson of the setting sun. Across space stretched to near breaking between indifferent hands. Through time twisted into gnarled patterns. Through eternity and infinity toward a crimson gate that moved ever further away. Until, at last, a single foot crosses the invisible line that separates the sacred from the profane.
Rei blinks. The entrance to the Shrine stands in front of her. She turns around to gaze at the path back but cannot remember walking along it. A frown starts to cross her face but is interrupted by a jaw-cracking yawn.
I must be more tired than I thought to be blanking out like that.
With a shrug, she dismisses the thought and moves toward the clearly plastic rock sitting conspicuously to one side of the door. Picking up the stone, she turns it over in her hands before spotting the cleverly concealed recess where a glint of brass awaited.
This was it. She plucks the key from its hiding place, sets the stone back down, and squares her shoulders. The key slides in easily; she twists it. The door opens.
Rei lets out a long, slow breath she doesn't even realize she's been holding in. Compared to the exterior of the Shrine, the interior was much nicer. The floors and walls were made from pale, almost shiny wood. Screen doors painted with simple bits of calligraphy separate the entrance hall from rooms further in.
Caught in admiration of the warm welcome of the Shrine's interior, it takes Rei a moment to realize there are no outlets in the main hall. A fact that sees her almost scrambling through the rest of the Shrine in search of electricity. Delicate screen doors snap open as she pokes her head into room after room, but there is nothing. There are no signs of electricity or running water, only a small propane stove tucked away in a lacquered storage chest.
Did mother really live here? How?
It was almost enough to make her turn around and leave. Unfortunately, she almost certainly didn't have enough money in her account to pay for a hotel, and it was too late to call Auntie and beg for money.
More than that, though, she'd let her mother's words call her here. Leaving this soon wouldn't feel right. It would feel like failure. Like quitting before she'd even had a chance to start. She would just have to make do. For now, at least.
The duffel bag slides from her shoulder and drops to the floor. Rei flops to join it as one thought echoes louder than all the others.
Now what?
Now, what, indeed? Rei has three open slots to spend the rest of her day on. Pick as many as you want, and feel free to write in any alternative actions you would like to do.
[] Explore the rest of the Shrine
[] Explore the neighborhood around the Shrine
[] Explore the shopping district
[] Unpack and get things prepared
[] Find somewhere to eat
[] Go to the park
[] Take a nap
[] Write-in
There are no dice rolls in this quest. Instead, the determination of whether Rei can complete a task or not is whether the relevant attribute is at least equal to the magnitude of the check.
Aesthetics - Rei's sense of beauty and her understanding of the interactions of colors and shapes.
Athletics - Rei's physical capabilities and her kinesthetic awareness.
Academics - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding, as well as her raw intellectual power.
Aplomb - Rei's ability to remain in control of her emotions.
Allure - Rei's charisma and likeability, as well as her ease in conversations.
Awareness - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
Aesthetics - Rei's sense of beauty and her understanding of the interactions of colors and shapes.
Athletics - Rei's physical capabilities and her kinesthetic awareness.
Academics - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding, as well as her raw intellectual power.
Aplomb - Rei's ability to remain in control of her emotions.
Allure - Rei's charisma and likeability, as well as her ease in conversations.
Awareness - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
Rei increases her attributes by adopting and practicing hobbies. Through repeated practice, hobbies can evolve into passions. While hobbies provide a single attribute bonus, passions can give multiple. Beyond meeting checks, hobbies also describe Rei as a character and how she experiences the world.
Please also select three hobbies for Rei.
[] Art (+1 aesthetics). Rei's paints and easel were not always easy to keep on her. Fortunately, she enjoyed drawing almost as much.
[] Gardening (+1 aesthetics). Was it the simple elegance of a well-arranged bed of flowers or getting in the dirt that drew her to gardening? Rei never really cared to figure it out.
[] Exercise (+1 athletics). One hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten km run. Every day. Without fail. Ok, with some fail.
[] Sports (+1 athletics). Back home, a signed Messi jersey hangs on Rei's bedroom wall. And a pair of worn cleats wait in the corner.
[] Chess (+1 academics). Rei won her first regional tournament at fourteen—her first state tournament at sixteen.
[] History (+1 academics). Rei went to an archaeology-themed summer camp as a child. She's loved history ever since.
[] Movies (+1 aplomb). Rei's seen every horror movie released over the past three years in the theater—even the ones she had to sneak in to watch.
[] Camping (+1 aplomb). Rei has found few things that compare to watching the sun rise in some solitary place.
[] Music (+1 allure). A vinyl copy of Abbey Road left by one of her mom's friends changed Rei's life. Or at least her understanding of music.
[] Fashion (+1 allure). There was a certain satisfaction Rei got from finding a cute or weird or elegant outfit from a thrift store.
[] Video Games (+1 awareness). Back home, Rei has an aging gaming computer that she was constantly on the lookout for upgrades for (so long as it's within her budget).
[] Reading (+1 awareness). If Rei had to pick a favorite genre, it would be mystery. Murder mystery.
[AN]
Hello and welcome to a Touhou quest set in an indeterminate time and place in modern-day Japan. We'll be following Rei's journey as she peacefully (more or less) tries to unravel the mysteries of Gensokyo and meets the many strange individuals who call that place home.
Last edited:
Chapter 2 - The Shrine
Now, what, indeed?
Rei flops back onto her duffel bag. She'd brought toiletries and a week or so worth of clothes with her, though how she'd get clean clothes or wash up without running water was a question that would have to wait until later. For now, she might as well start to unpack. An easy enough thing to say but harder to figure out when she was staring at an almost perfectly featureless room marked out by sliding doors and thin screens over the windows.
Where exactly was the furniture? The bed and dressers and chest of drawers?
Rei rolls gracelessly off her bag, knocking her knees onto the floor as she pushes herself upright. While she had slept in a western bed, Auntie had always preferred a futon that she crammed into a closet during the day.
If mother was anything like that, there should be…
Bare feet glide effortlessly across the smooth, polished wood of the floor, and a sliding door slams open with a triumphant "Gotcha." Inside the closet is not only a futon rolled up into a tidy cylinder, there's also all the bedding: sheets, pillows, and blankets, as well as several decorative pieces. Little bowls and vases. A few long, narrow pieces of cloth decorated with calligraphy. And a single landscape painting of waves crashing against a rocky shore.
She takes out the wall decorations and sets them gently to the side. Next, the futon comes out, which she half tosses and half kicks over to a spot in the center of the room. Finally, all the bedding gets thrown on top of the futon. An eyebrow raises at the lack of a hanger and any place to hang them before she shrugs and dumps her clothes into a pile on the closet floor. It wasn't like there was electricity for an iron to smooth out her clothes, even if she cared enough to make the effort. Besides, without a washer and dryer, she'd have to lug her clothes to a laundromat anyway, so that was probably a lost cause to begin with.
The closet door slams shut, and Rei stares down at the collection of bedding and decorations with a pondering look. The alcove by the door would look nice with the calligraphy banners framing either side. The stark lines of paint would contrast nicely with the pale colors of the decorative vase if she set it as a centerpiece. She looks at the opposite wall illuminated by a ray of afternoon sunlight. That would be a perfect spot for the landscape painting. The natural light would bring out the deep blues and greens of the ocean waves, and it would be a striking image for anyone who walked in—not that she planned to invite anyone to her bedroom.
That just left her with the futon itself. If she set it off to the side, away from the painting and the alcove, the pale white of the sheets would blend into the sliding screens. A definite plus because putting it up and taking it out every day seemed like entirely too much work.
With a plan made, Rei rolls up her sleeves, both metaphorically and literally, and gets to work.
The sun is noticeably lower in the sky by the time she steps back to admire her work. A satisfied nod is interrupted by a jaw-cracking yawn as Rei's earlier tiredness returns with a vengeance. She flops onto the futon before slumping over, her head just missing a pillow. A soft grumble escapes her as she pulls a pillow over and then rolls on top of it.
A nice afternoon nap might be just the thing. It was just warm enough in the shrine to be pleasant but not so warm that she couldn't wrap herself in the soft blankets surrounding her.
When she woke up, she'd check out the rest of the shrine, but for now… she'd... zzz…
Rei dreams of water. Water woven from a thousand silvery strands into a coursing river that plunges from snow-capped heights to the lands below. She dreams of a river. A river diverted from its home by geologic process and the hands of man and forced beneath the earth. She dreams of underground lakes. Lakes that stretch out like the flowers budding along a vine. Finally, she dreams of stone. Of vast stretches of limestone that filter and thereby return purity to that which was tainted.
The sun has just touched the horizon when Rei wakes from her nap. She shifts upright, sending the blankets pooling around her waist. The remnants of her dream dance along the tip of her tongue, offering a seemingly nonsensical answer. And yet she remembers reading about how dreams synthesized conscious and subconscious observations from the day and consolidated them with past knowledge.
It takes her a moment to work through the potential connections, but eventually, it clicks. Japan was full of groundwater. Auntie had told her many stories about exploring underground lakes as a kid… and getting drunk at hotsprings as she'd gotten older. It was a bit of a stretch, but there may be a source of fresh water at the shrine after all. Regardless of whether that ended up being true or not, she now had another reason to explore the rest of the shrine.
Rei slips out of the blankets wrapped around her and takes a moment to smooth them out. There was no reason to have spent the time making her temporary bedroom look nice and mar it with an unmade bed. She stops briefly at her closet to put on a fresh pair of socks and then skates gracelessly across the wooden floors and into the hallway.
She knew where the kitchen was. She had opened every cabinet there in her search for electricity only to find a small propane stove. But there were several other rooms she had just poked her head into. The largest of which was right across the hall from her bedroom.
Unlike the door to her bedroom, this door slides back smoothly, almost without a sound, until it clunks to a stop. Rei looks in and frowns in confusion. She could have sworn the room was empty when she'd first peeked in, but that clearly wasn't the case.
I must have been more tired than I'd thought… or more frantic about the lack of electricity.
The room was dark, the only light coming from the door she'd just opened. The walls were completely blank, without a single decoration or bit of calligraphy present. A splash of color set at the far end was the only thing that marred the perfect uniformity.
A fist-sized ball, half crimson and half pure white, sits atop a colorless pillow that rests on a low table fashioned out of the same pale wood as the rest of the shrine. The hairs on the back of Rei's neck prickle as her eyes trace the sinuous line dividing the two colors. It felt like watching a lion prowl behind its enclosure at the zoo. Only there weren't any walls to separate her from…
The screen door slams shut with an audible finality, and Rei takes several steps back. Perhaps she should see what the rest of the shrine had to offer. She could come back to this room later. Much later. In fact, perhaps she should take a look outside.
Rei skates down to the far end of the hallway, where a shaft of sunlight bounces off the floor. The door to the patio opens with the squeak of rusty hinges, but she ignores that in favor of the view that unfolds in front of her.
Gensokyo sprawls out in front of her. A small yard, overgrown by grass and weeds and flanked by rows of imperious-looking trees, gives way to a steep downward slope and the thick green of the forest canopy. Beyond that, the picturesque town of Qensokyo sits, a riot of color and vibrancy. Out even further is the bay, its placid surface burning with the fire of the setting sun. It was beautiful.
I think I understand how Mother could live here now.
For a long moment, she stands there, absorbing the beauty before her, until an idea slowly filters through the emptiness of her thoughts. She'd had a dream about fresh water. She had a small stove. And unless she misremembered, in one of the kitchen cabinets, sitting next to a kettle and some shallow bowls, was a jar filled with a bright green powder. All the parts necessary for a nice, hot cup of tea. She just had to find the water.
Rei heads back inside toward the front door. She steps out to the front porch, slips back into her sneakers, and steps away from the shrine. Unlike the view out back, the front of the shrine is in worse shape. Weeds cover the open space, and what was once probably a smooth layer of sand—like in one of those zen gardens Auntie had taken her to—had clumped up on the edges near the treeline, revealing the bare dirt beneath.
To one side, nestled in an oddly out-of-the-way place beneath a particularly scraggly-looking tree, is a little mini-shrine—a hokora. Drawn by curiosity, she walks a bit closer, but there's not much else besides a few bits of frayed cloth hanging from the awning. It looked like it could use a fresh coat of paint, but then again, so did the shrine itself. Perhaps if she had some time, she could find a home-improvement store…
Rei shakes her head. Now wasn't the time to decide what to do with the shrine. She had some tea to make. And a sunset to savor. Which meant she needed a source of water. Like a well or…
Clack.
She turns to follow the sound that had interrupted her mid-thought. A triumphant grin works across her face as she watches a bamboo shoot slowly fill with a steady stream of water until it tilts over and splashes its water into a stone basin.
Clack.
Moments later, she's back in front of the fountain, kettle in hand. Ten minutes later, her fingers are wrapped around a thick ceramic cup as she sits on the back porch of the shrine and watches as the setting sun bathes the world in crimson.
Eventually, the moment of tranquility is interrupted, not by the disappearance of the sun beneath the waves but by the growl of her stomach. She briefly considers ignoring it in favor of the cool breeze brushing against her face and the soft chirp of insects, but her stomach is insistent. Loud.
With a sigh, Rei admits defeat. She sets her empty cup of tea beside her and stands, sparing a moment to work some feeling back into her legs by stomping her feet. Then she heads back inside, toward the harbinger of her dinner. Her wallet.
A flower of brightly colored bills unfolds as she opens her wallet, which she thumbs through before remembering she'd stashed some coins in her bag. A quick trip to her room retrieves those as well, and she starts to count.
¥43000. A little over $400. More than enough for a few meals. Though if she intended to stay much longer than a week or two, she'd need to find a way to make money. Even Auntie would eventually get tired of wiring her cash.
Since Rei chose to nap instead of doing something more productive, she's not quite ready to sleep for the night. Thus, she has two free timeslots she can use before going to bed.
[] Find somewhere to eat.
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine.
[] Get food from a convenience store.
[] Find somewhere to get a drink.
[] Go to the arcade.
[] Call auntie.
[] Explore the town.
[] Go to bed early.
[AN]
I wouldn't worry about money too much. Canonical Reimu was always broke, yet she made do well enough. Instead, think of money as a way to unlock actions (both in earning and spending).
I'd also like feedback on how the quest information is relayed and whether it's additive or subtractive to the reading experience. Currently, I've put them all at the end with a brief explanation (for the ones that passed, at least), but I could add them to the update itself if folks would prefer.
Since I never remember to update character sheets, I'll just put it at the end of chapters instead.
Rei flops back onto her duffel bag. She'd brought toiletries and a week or so worth of clothes with her, though how she'd get clean clothes or wash up without running water was a question that would have to wait until later. For now, she might as well start to unpack. An easy enough thing to say but harder to figure out when she was staring at an almost perfectly featureless room marked out by sliding doors and thin screens over the windows.
Where exactly was the furniture? The bed and dressers and chest of drawers?
Rei rolls gracelessly off her bag, knocking her knees onto the floor as she pushes herself upright. While she had slept in a western bed, Auntie had always preferred a futon that she crammed into a closet during the day.
If mother was anything like that, there should be…
Bare feet glide effortlessly across the smooth, polished wood of the floor, and a sliding door slams open with a triumphant "Gotcha." Inside the closet is not only a futon rolled up into a tidy cylinder, there's also all the bedding: sheets, pillows, and blankets, as well as several decorative pieces. Little bowls and vases. A few long, narrow pieces of cloth decorated with calligraphy. And a single landscape painting of waves crashing against a rocky shore.
She takes out the wall decorations and sets them gently to the side. Next, the futon comes out, which she half tosses and half kicks over to a spot in the center of the room. Finally, all the bedding gets thrown on top of the futon. An eyebrow raises at the lack of a hanger and any place to hang them before she shrugs and dumps her clothes into a pile on the closet floor. It wasn't like there was electricity for an iron to smooth out her clothes, even if she cared enough to make the effort. Besides, without a washer and dryer, she'd have to lug her clothes to a laundromat anyway, so that was probably a lost cause to begin with.
The closet door slams shut, and Rei stares down at the collection of bedding and decorations with a pondering look. The alcove by the door would look nice with the calligraphy banners framing either side. The stark lines of paint would contrast nicely with the pale colors of the decorative vase if she set it as a centerpiece. She looks at the opposite wall illuminated by a ray of afternoon sunlight. That would be a perfect spot for the landscape painting. The natural light would bring out the deep blues and greens of the ocean waves, and it would be a striking image for anyone who walked in—not that she planned to invite anyone to her bedroom.
That just left her with the futon itself. If she set it off to the side, away from the painting and the alcove, the pale white of the sheets would blend into the sliding screens. A definite plus because putting it up and taking it out every day seemed like entirely too much work.
With a plan made, Rei rolls up her sleeves, both metaphorically and literally, and gets to work.
The sun is noticeably lower in the sky by the time she steps back to admire her work. A satisfied nod is interrupted by a jaw-cracking yawn as Rei's earlier tiredness returns with a vengeance. She flops onto the futon before slumping over, her head just missing a pillow. A soft grumble escapes her as she pulls a pillow over and then rolls on top of it.
A nice afternoon nap might be just the thing. It was just warm enough in the shrine to be pleasant but not so warm that she couldn't wrap herself in the soft blankets surrounding her.
When she woke up, she'd check out the rest of the shrine, but for now… she'd... zzz…
Rei dreams of water. Water woven from a thousand silvery strands into a coursing river that plunges from snow-capped heights to the lands below. She dreams of a river. A river diverted from its home by geologic process and the hands of man and forced beneath the earth. She dreams of underground lakes. Lakes that stretch out like the flowers budding along a vine. Finally, she dreams of stone. Of vast stretches of limestone that filter and thereby return purity to that which was tainted.
The sun has just touched the horizon when Rei wakes from her nap. She shifts upright, sending the blankets pooling around her waist. The remnants of her dream dance along the tip of her tongue, offering a seemingly nonsensical answer. And yet she remembers reading about how dreams synthesized conscious and subconscious observations from the day and consolidated them with past knowledge.
It takes her a moment to work through the potential connections, but eventually, it clicks. Japan was full of groundwater. Auntie had told her many stories about exploring underground lakes as a kid… and getting drunk at hotsprings as she'd gotten older. It was a bit of a stretch, but there may be a source of fresh water at the shrine after all. Regardless of whether that ended up being true or not, she now had another reason to explore the rest of the shrine.
Rei slips out of the blankets wrapped around her and takes a moment to smooth them out. There was no reason to have spent the time making her temporary bedroom look nice and mar it with an unmade bed. She stops briefly at her closet to put on a fresh pair of socks and then skates gracelessly across the wooden floors and into the hallway.
She knew where the kitchen was. She had opened every cabinet there in her search for electricity only to find a small propane stove. But there were several other rooms she had just poked her head into. The largest of which was right across the hall from her bedroom.
Unlike the door to her bedroom, this door slides back smoothly, almost without a sound, until it clunks to a stop. Rei looks in and frowns in confusion. She could have sworn the room was empty when she'd first peeked in, but that clearly wasn't the case.
I must have been more tired than I'd thought… or more frantic about the lack of electricity.
The room was dark, the only light coming from the door she'd just opened. The walls were completely blank, without a single decoration or bit of calligraphy present. A splash of color set at the far end was the only thing that marred the perfect uniformity.
A fist-sized ball, half crimson and half pure white, sits atop a colorless pillow that rests on a low table fashioned out of the same pale wood as the rest of the shrine. The hairs on the back of Rei's neck prickle as her eyes trace the sinuous line dividing the two colors. It felt like watching a lion prowl behind its enclosure at the zoo. Only there weren't any walls to separate her from…
The screen door slams shut with an audible finality, and Rei takes several steps back. Perhaps she should see what the rest of the shrine had to offer. She could come back to this room later. Much later. In fact, perhaps she should take a look outside.
Rei skates down to the far end of the hallway, where a shaft of sunlight bounces off the floor. The door to the patio opens with the squeak of rusty hinges, but she ignores that in favor of the view that unfolds in front of her.
Gensokyo sprawls out in front of her. A small yard, overgrown by grass and weeds and flanked by rows of imperious-looking trees, gives way to a steep downward slope and the thick green of the forest canopy. Beyond that, the picturesque town of Qensokyo sits, a riot of color and vibrancy. Out even further is the bay, its placid surface burning with the fire of the setting sun. It was beautiful.
I think I understand how Mother could live here now.
For a long moment, she stands there, absorbing the beauty before her, until an idea slowly filters through the emptiness of her thoughts. She'd had a dream about fresh water. She had a small stove. And unless she misremembered, in one of the kitchen cabinets, sitting next to a kettle and some shallow bowls, was a jar filled with a bright green powder. All the parts necessary for a nice, hot cup of tea. She just had to find the water.
Rei heads back inside toward the front door. She steps out to the front porch, slips back into her sneakers, and steps away from the shrine. Unlike the view out back, the front of the shrine is in worse shape. Weeds cover the open space, and what was once probably a smooth layer of sand—like in one of those zen gardens Auntie had taken her to—had clumped up on the edges near the treeline, revealing the bare dirt beneath.
To one side, nestled in an oddly out-of-the-way place beneath a particularly scraggly-looking tree, is a little mini-shrine—a hokora. Drawn by curiosity, she walks a bit closer, but there's not much else besides a few bits of frayed cloth hanging from the awning. It looked like it could use a fresh coat of paint, but then again, so did the shrine itself. Perhaps if she had some time, she could find a home-improvement store…
Rei shakes her head. Now wasn't the time to decide what to do with the shrine. She had some tea to make. And a sunset to savor. Which meant she needed a source of water. Like a well or…
Clack.
She turns to follow the sound that had interrupted her mid-thought. A triumphant grin works across her face as she watches a bamboo shoot slowly fill with a steady stream of water until it tilts over and splashes its water into a stone basin.
Clack.
Moments later, she's back in front of the fountain, kettle in hand. Ten minutes later, her fingers are wrapped around a thick ceramic cup as she sits on the back porch of the shrine and watches as the setting sun bathes the world in crimson.
Eventually, the moment of tranquility is interrupted, not by the disappearance of the sun beneath the waves but by the growl of her stomach. She briefly considers ignoring it in favor of the cool breeze brushing against her face and the soft chirp of insects, but her stomach is insistent. Loud.
With a sigh, Rei admits defeat. She sets her empty cup of tea beside her and stands, sparing a moment to work some feeling back into her legs by stomping her feet. Then she heads back inside, toward the harbinger of her dinner. Her wallet.
A flower of brightly colored bills unfolds as she opens her wallet, which she thumbs through before remembering she'd stashed some coins in her bag. A quick trip to her room retrieves those as well, and she starts to count.
¥43000. A little over $400. More than enough for a few meals. Though if she intended to stay much longer than a week or two, she'd need to find a way to make money. Even Auntie would eventually get tired of wiring her cash.
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei remembers how a traditional Japanese bedroom is set up
Academics 2 [Failed] ???
Aesthetics 1 [Passed] Rei manages to make her bedroom look pleasing to the eye
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Awareness 2 [Passed] Rei remembers her dream
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei successfully interprets her dream.
Awareness 3 [Failed] ???
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei recognizes that the little shrine thing outside seems to be slightly damaged
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei makes tea
Academics 2 [Failed] ???
Aesthetics 1 [Passed] Rei manages to make her bedroom look pleasing to the eye
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Awareness 2 [Passed] Rei remembers her dream
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei successfully interprets her dream.
Awareness 3 [Failed] ???
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei recognizes that the little shrine thing outside seems to be slightly damaged
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei makes tea
Since Rei chose to nap instead of doing something more productive, she's not quite ready to sleep for the night. Thus, she has two free timeslots she can use before going to bed.
[] Find somewhere to eat.
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine.
[] Get food from a convenience store.
[] Find somewhere to get a drink.
[] Go to the arcade.
[] Call auntie.
[] Explore the town.
[] Go to bed early.
[AN]
I wouldn't worry about money too much. Canonical Reimu was always broke, yet she made do well enough. Instead, think of money as a way to unlock actions (both in earning and spending).
I'd also like feedback on how the quest information is relayed and whether it's additive or subtractive to the reading experience. Currently, I've put them all at the end with a brief explanation (for the ones that passed, at least), but I could add them to the update itself if folks would prefer.
Since I never remember to update character sheets, I'll just put it at the end of chapters instead.
Aesthetics (1) - Rei's sense of beauty and her understanding of the interactions of colors and shapes.
Athletics (0) - Rei's physical capabilities and her kinesthetic awareness.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding and her raw intellectual power.
Aplomb (0) - Rei's ability to control her emotions.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma, likeability, and ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Gardening (+1 aesthetics). Was it the simple elegance of a well-arranged bed of flowers or getting in the dirt that drew her to gardening? Rei never really cared to figure it out.
Athletics (0) - Rei's physical capabilities and her kinesthetic awareness.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding and her raw intellectual power.
- Chess (+1 academics). Rei won her first regional tournament at fourteen and her first state tournament at sixteen.
Aplomb (0) - Rei's ability to control her emotions.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma, likeability, and ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Reading (+1 awareness). If Rei had to pick a favorite genre, it would be a mystery. Murder mystery.
- Video Games (+1 awareness). Back home, Rei has an aging gaming computer that she was constantly on the lookout for upgrades for (so long as it's within her budget)
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Chapter 3 - Connections
Rei pauses halfway out the front door as the hem of her jeans catches her eye. Her pants are dirty. She was covered in dust and dirt from unpacking and walking around the shrine. A second look shows her shirt is wrinkled and has a stain that was most definitely not drool blotting its collar. She couldn't go out like this. She looked like some kind of vagrant.
She discreetly sniffs at an armpit—smelled like one too.
Undressing quickly, she tosses the dirty clothes near the front door and walks back to her bedroom. She briefly eyes her pile of clean clothes before pulling out a pale, off-white blouse, a dark blue high-cut jacket, and a cute skirt.
Dressing with only the fading light of the setting sun shining through a window is somewhat odd. Not having a mirror to check herself out in a bit more so, but she couldn't do much about either. It also saved a bit of time since all she could do was run her fingers through her hair and hope it wasn't too messy.
A few minutes later, Rei is passing beneath the faded red torii, wallet tucked away and a destination firmly in mind.
The walk back into town is much quicker than the walk out of it had been. Partly because Rei had a good memory for that kind of thing—tournament-level chess had practically required it. And partly because she'd picked up her pace as the balmy warmth of the ocean breeze had shifted a bit toward chill. So what had been a meandering forty-five-minute walk from the train station turned into about half an hour on the way back.
Rei spots her destination as she walks past the now unfortunately closed ice cream shop. Glowing with a neon yellow light was a sign hanging off a building attached by a small, covered walkway to the station itself—a Western Union.
She'd seen the sign in passing on her walk to the shrine but hadn't thought much of it. It had, in fact, only registered in her mind once she'd realized just how bereft of modern appliances the shrine indeed was. There wasn't a single building she could think of in Seattle that didn't at least have a phone line—even the old buildings near Pioneer Square were modern on the inside. Hell, she'd gone camping with friends at places with electrical hookups.
Thankfully, Hafiz—a friend she'd made who'd been part of her school's study abroad program—had told her about using them to call internationally after his host family had complained about the expense. It's like a dollar for ten minutes, Rei… the only downside is it's not exactly private. She'd promised Auntie that she'd call her once she settled in Gensokyo. She could deal with a lack of privacy if anyone in the building spoke English well enough to eavesdrop.
Running fingers through her hair, Rei opens the door, ignoring the doorbell chime and zeroing in on a bank of pay phones. Fortunately, there's no one else trying to make a call. In fact, the only other person was a balding man sitting behind the counter, his nose firmly buried in an inappropriate-looking magazine.
She looks at the payphone for a moment before taking out a ¥500 coin and dropping it in. A deep breath in and out calms an odd fluttering of nerves—It was just Auntie—and she dials a number she'd had to memorize to graduate kindergarten.
The phone rings nearly a dozen times, long enough for her to debate hanging up and trying again later, before it picks up and a groggy voice answers. "Rei, it's two in the morning. I told you to call me when you landed, which would have been six hours ago, and also not woken me up in the middle of the night."
"Sorry, auntie," Rei grins sheepishly, "how did you know it was me?"
"Who else would call me in the middle of the night from Japan?" she could hear the sarcasm in Auntie's voice despite the tinniness of the connection.
"Oh, right, caller ID." her grin widens, "well, I made it to Gensokyo."
"Did you? Hmm…" There's a rustling sound in the background, "give me a moment, kid. I'll probably need to sit up for this."
Rei waits as she hears rustling followed by the sound of footsteps going down stairs and, finally, the sound of coffee starting to brew. "So, did you forget that the shrine had no electricity, or was it supposed to be a surprise? If so, well played, 'cause I sure was surprised."
"No electricity?" she couldn't tell if the note in Auntie's voice was confused or sleepy. "Well, it's been years since I left, and… Miya was always a traditional sort of person… just like her mother at that, so maybe it didn't. Sorry kid, if I'd remembered, I'd at least have made sure you packed batteries."
"It's fine. After this, I'll pick up some stuff from the convenience store." Despite waving off the apology, a frown crosses Rei's face. If Auntie and her mother were as close as Mother's letter indicated, she must have been at the shrine before… and a lack of electricity was an odd thing to forget.
If things ended as badly as Mother's letter indicated, maybe Auntie just wanted to forget everything.
"Besides the lack of electricity—sorry again for that—how's the shrine?" At least Auntie sounded apologetic enough that this probably wasn't some odd sort of prank. Not that pranks were something Auntie did. At all.
"The outside has seen better days. Like that place on First…," Auntie hmms in a way that could have been confusion or acknowledgment, "you know, the condemned one."
"Oh, right… The Henderson's house, I remember." Her voice stopped to sip loudly at what was probably coffee. "Wait, if it looks that bad… How's the inside look? There's no structural damage, is there? Do you need some money for a hotel?"
"There's a bit of dust, but I didn't see anything wrong with it. As far as I could tell, there was no water damage or anything on the ceiling."
Rei frowned as the questions resonated in her mind. It hadn't dawned on her that something might be wrong with the shrine. Was she going to have to get an inspection? How much would that cost? Almost certainly more than the few hundred bucks she'd brought with her, right?
"Well, if the inside looks fine, there's probably nothing to worry about." Auntie exhales into the phone and sips loudly. "I remember chatting with one of the contractors at the Henderson's house, and he said the inside was even worse than the outside. Full of mold and discoloration… and vandalism. I wouldn't think so, but there's none of that in the shrine, is there?"
"Yes, Auntie, the small town's church thing has been completely defaced by satanic graffiti." Rei doesn't even try to keep the sarcastic drawl from her voice.
"Hmph," Auntie garrumps into the phone. "If you're feeling well enough to be a sarcastic brat, things can't be too bad. Have you had a chance to explore Gensokyo at all?"
"Just from the train station to the shrine. Then I unpacked, took a nap, and watched the sunset from the back porch."
"Ahh, I remember doing that with Miya," Auntie's voice warms with something like nostalgia. "On days when the winds calmed down, it would look like the bay had turned to fire."
"Yeah, it was…"
Rei starts to describe her trip, starting after she left Auntie at the international terminal of SeaTac, to the flight itself, landing in Tokyo and arriving in Gensokyo. And as she talks, a faint tension starts to fade from her thoughts. Today had been exhausting. Unfamiliar. And hearing Auntie's voice felt kind of like coming home. Eventually, though, the time on her call runs to an end, and it's time to say goodbye.
"Before you go, a letter came in for you yesterday. I normally wouldn't open it," yes, Auntie, because opening someone else's mail is a crime. "But you're in Japan, and it looked official. Anyways. It was a law firm… Kotohime and Enigma—odd name for a law firm, but whatever—saying something about your inheritance from Miya. They have an office in Gensokyo, so if you have time, you might want to drop in and find out what they want."
"Ok. I'll do that." There was probably some paperwork she had to sign to gain ownership of the shrine. "Love you, auntie."
"Love you too, kid. Give me a call in a few days so that I know you haven't starved to death. And let me know if you need any money or anything."
"No. I'm good. Bye, Auntie."
She sighs as the dial tone clicks back on, hangs up, turns, and walks out, not sparing a glance at the bald man, still preoccupied with his dirty magazine. Outside, the night air had gained a bit of a bite to it, and Rei wraps her high-cut jacket tighter around her as she debates where to go next. The insistent growl and twist of her stomach told her it was time to find food, but that raised the question of whether to find a restaurant or get something to go.
As she debated quality versus speed, Auntie's comment about batteries tilts the decision in favor of a convenience store. She would need batteries, a flashlight, and probably a small radio or something… not to mention something to read. And, if she remembered correctly, she'd passed a convenience store—a konbini—on her way here.
The Konbini, a 7-Eleven of all things, is bright and welcoming against the chill of the night and far cleaner and nicer than anything she'd ever seen in the States. A girl with long blonde hair looks up from behind the counter with a smile and a wave, "Hey stranger, haven't seen ya' 'round here before. Whatcha need?"
Perhaps it was how long the day had been, twelve hours on a plane followed by another hour on the train. Or perhaps it was the soreness slowly building in her legs, she'd walked more today than she usually would in a week. Or perhaps it was just the hunger of not having eaten at all today. Whatever the case, something about the open friendliness of the blonde's face just rubbed the wrong way.
"Tch," Rei responds with a dismissive noise and then continues, unable to help herself. "Are you always so…" A waved hand punctuates her statement.
"Don't be like that, stranger." The girl seems utterly unaffected by either her glare or brusque words. "'Sides, I gotta do something to kill the boredom on the night shift… anyways, I'm Marisa. Nice to meet'cha."
"Nice to meet you," Rei responds as though the words were pulled out of her but refuses to offer her name.
Something that doesn't seem to deter the blonde—Marisa—at all. "Ooo, a mysterious stranger. S'like the most interestin' thing that's happened all month."
"Can you…" go away are words she's not quite cranky enough to say, "I need food, a flashlight, some batteries, and something to read."
"Gotcha," the blonde hops over the counter in a display of athleticism that would have sparked a bit of jealousy if Rei weren't so tired and hungry. She walks over to a freezer section and pulls out a pair of foil-wrapped somethings. "Since ya' got a bit of a Yankee accent, ya' might like these… bur-ee-toes we just got in last week. Bit heavy on the cheese, but the meat's nice 'n spicy."
Rei takes the burritos wordlessly, the weight of them doing as much as anything to reassure her that they'd be sufficient, and follows behind the blonde as she down another aisle. "We got flashlights for scarin' off wildlife an' creepy old guys, but they're a bit bright for readin', so you probably want one of these… and to go with… a pack of batteries."
A foldable night light with a clip that looks like it could be attached to a book cover joins her burritos and a twenty-four pack of AAs.
"As for readin', we've mostly got manga." Marisa leads her to an aisle set against the far window of the store and gestures. "I'll be at the counter when you're ready to ring up."
Rei nods absently, feeling guilty at how she'd treated the friendly girl as she starts to browse the selection available. She selects the first two volumes of a story about a shrine maiden in historical Japan—something she figured was appropriate given her current condition—and something with a spiky-haired kid fighting some shadowy monster. After a moment of consideration, a comic of a woman in traditional Chinese clothing sitting in front of a Go board joins her other selections.
With her shopping done, Rei walks over toward where Marisa was doodling in a notebook behind the counter. The blonde looks up with a smile, "find everything, stranger?"
"Yeah, thanks… and umm… sorry for the, you know," she waves her hand in explanation, "I'm Reimu. Rei, for short."
"Well, Rei, welcome to Gensokyo." She reaches out to pick up the comic with a shrine maiden on the cover, revealing a pentagram tattooed on her left wrist. "Ooo, the Eastern Utopia series, I love this one. The mangaka live around here, ya' know. Likes to come in for a bottle of shōchū and yakiniku a couple times a month."
"Are you Wiccan?" Normally, she wouldn't have said anything, but something about the blonde's demeanor forces the question out.
Marisa stops scanning her purchases and fixes her with a piercing, yellow-eyed stare. After a moment, the look disappears behind an apologetic smile, "Sorry 'bout that. Lot of folks in Gensokyo get a bit superstitious about that sorta thing, so I can't exactly wear my hat to work, but I gotta be me, ya' know?"
Rei didn't, not exactly, but being Asian in America had given her something similar. "It's tough. When I moved to America, I remembered just enough about Japan to make things awkward at first, and by the time I'd adjusted well…"
"I hear ya'. Pops died when I was young, and I bounced around for a while until I landed here." She swipes the last item across the barcode reader, and a bill for ¥2850 pops up before it's replaced by an even ¥2000.
"Bit of a discount for a stranger in a strange land." The blonde smirks as Rei eyes the till in confusion. "An' maybe a little somethin' to sweeten the pot if ya' end up wanderin' 'round Gensokyo at night lookin' for somethin' to do."
"Thanks," Rei hands over a pair of thousand yen notes and accepts her bag of groceries in return. She pauses for a moment in debate before deciding that she rather liked the blonde and didn't care if this all seemed a bit unusual. "I'll be staying for at least a week or two. If you want to hang out or something, I'm staying up at the shrine overlooking the bay."
"No shit. Always thought that place was haunted." Marisa's face brightens with genuine happiness. "I'll stop by sometime with a bottle of sake, and we can do the whole otsikumi thing."
"That's not until September…" Rei's deadpan does nothing to dent the other girl's enthusiasm.
"Sure. Sure." Marisa waves that away as though not worth mentioning and hops back over the counter to walk her toward the door. "See ya' 'round, Rei."
"Later, Marisa." She walks back into the night, a feeling of lightness and ease surrounding her.
Said feeling of ease has faded to nothing before she's halfway back to the shrine. The rest of her walk is accompanied by nothing but the ache in her legs and an occasional, juggled bite of a burrito clearly seasoned with curry spice rather than anything more appropriate.
By the time Rei arrives back at the shrine, she has just enough energy to shuck her clothes into a pile and climb beneath her bed sheets. She's out like a light almost before her head hits the pillow.
Under the light of the waxing moon, a single drop of crimson paint falls onto a faded gate.
Rei has successfully made it through the day. Not only that, she's made a friend and found out that there may be more to deal with regarding the shrine than she had thought. She has three actions that she can take tomorrow (please do not feel rushed to choose any particular option there are no 'bad ends' in this quest). Reminder: Rei has ¥37500 left.
Exploration Options - Find a new place at random or look for a specific one
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine
[] Explore Gensokyo
[] Find a bathhouse
[] Find the lawyer's Auntie told her about
[] Go to the used bookstore
Social Options - Hang out with the people you've met
[] Meet up with Marisa
Hobby Options - Improve an existing hobby or learn a new one
[] Go to the arcade
[] Read manga
[] Buy gardening supplies
[] Start a new hobby.
-[] write in which. Previously mentioned hobbies are art, exercise, sports, history, movies, camping, and music. Other hobbies can be written in (with GM approval)
Shopping Options - Make the shrine and your existence there more pleasant
[] Buy home repair supplies
[] Buy a solar-powered generator
[] Buy groceries
Other Options - The world is vast beyond belief and mysterious beyond words
[] Write in. In lieu of writing out a neverending list of things to do, I'll leave this here if voters want to do something else. Write ins may well end up being incorporated into the turn options even if not chosen.
[AN]
Regardless of the world, Reimu and Marisa are gonna be friends—also, confirmation for anyone who wasn't sure whether Rei was, in fact, a Reimu.
She discreetly sniffs at an armpit—smelled like one too.
Undressing quickly, she tosses the dirty clothes near the front door and walks back to her bedroom. She briefly eyes her pile of clean clothes before pulling out a pale, off-white blouse, a dark blue high-cut jacket, and a cute skirt.
Dressing with only the fading light of the setting sun shining through a window is somewhat odd. Not having a mirror to check herself out in a bit more so, but she couldn't do much about either. It also saved a bit of time since all she could do was run her fingers through her hair and hope it wasn't too messy.
A few minutes later, Rei is passing beneath the faded red torii, wallet tucked away and a destination firmly in mind.
The walk back into town is much quicker than the walk out of it had been. Partly because Rei had a good memory for that kind of thing—tournament-level chess had practically required it. And partly because she'd picked up her pace as the balmy warmth of the ocean breeze had shifted a bit toward chill. So what had been a meandering forty-five-minute walk from the train station turned into about half an hour on the way back.
Rei spots her destination as she walks past the now unfortunately closed ice cream shop. Glowing with a neon yellow light was a sign hanging off a building attached by a small, covered walkway to the station itself—a Western Union.
She'd seen the sign in passing on her walk to the shrine but hadn't thought much of it. It had, in fact, only registered in her mind once she'd realized just how bereft of modern appliances the shrine indeed was. There wasn't a single building she could think of in Seattle that didn't at least have a phone line—even the old buildings near Pioneer Square were modern on the inside. Hell, she'd gone camping with friends at places with electrical hookups.
Thankfully, Hafiz—a friend she'd made who'd been part of her school's study abroad program—had told her about using them to call internationally after his host family had complained about the expense. It's like a dollar for ten minutes, Rei… the only downside is it's not exactly private. She'd promised Auntie that she'd call her once she settled in Gensokyo. She could deal with a lack of privacy if anyone in the building spoke English well enough to eavesdrop.
Running fingers through her hair, Rei opens the door, ignoring the doorbell chime and zeroing in on a bank of pay phones. Fortunately, there's no one else trying to make a call. In fact, the only other person was a balding man sitting behind the counter, his nose firmly buried in an inappropriate-looking magazine.
She looks at the payphone for a moment before taking out a ¥500 coin and dropping it in. A deep breath in and out calms an odd fluttering of nerves—It was just Auntie—and she dials a number she'd had to memorize to graduate kindergarten.
The phone rings nearly a dozen times, long enough for her to debate hanging up and trying again later, before it picks up and a groggy voice answers. "Rei, it's two in the morning. I told you to call me when you landed, which would have been six hours ago, and also not woken me up in the middle of the night."
"Sorry, auntie," Rei grins sheepishly, "how did you know it was me?"
"Who else would call me in the middle of the night from Japan?" she could hear the sarcasm in Auntie's voice despite the tinniness of the connection.
"Oh, right, caller ID." her grin widens, "well, I made it to Gensokyo."
"Did you? Hmm…" There's a rustling sound in the background, "give me a moment, kid. I'll probably need to sit up for this."
Rei waits as she hears rustling followed by the sound of footsteps going down stairs and, finally, the sound of coffee starting to brew. "So, did you forget that the shrine had no electricity, or was it supposed to be a surprise? If so, well played, 'cause I sure was surprised."
"No electricity?" she couldn't tell if the note in Auntie's voice was confused or sleepy. "Well, it's been years since I left, and… Miya was always a traditional sort of person… just like her mother at that, so maybe it didn't. Sorry kid, if I'd remembered, I'd at least have made sure you packed batteries."
"It's fine. After this, I'll pick up some stuff from the convenience store." Despite waving off the apology, a frown crosses Rei's face. If Auntie and her mother were as close as Mother's letter indicated, she must have been at the shrine before… and a lack of electricity was an odd thing to forget.
If things ended as badly as Mother's letter indicated, maybe Auntie just wanted to forget everything.
"Besides the lack of electricity—sorry again for that—how's the shrine?" At least Auntie sounded apologetic enough that this probably wasn't some odd sort of prank. Not that pranks were something Auntie did. At all.
"The outside has seen better days. Like that place on First…," Auntie hmms in a way that could have been confusion or acknowledgment, "you know, the condemned one."
"Oh, right… The Henderson's house, I remember." Her voice stopped to sip loudly at what was probably coffee. "Wait, if it looks that bad… How's the inside look? There's no structural damage, is there? Do you need some money for a hotel?"
"There's a bit of dust, but I didn't see anything wrong with it. As far as I could tell, there was no water damage or anything on the ceiling."
Rei frowned as the questions resonated in her mind. It hadn't dawned on her that something might be wrong with the shrine. Was she going to have to get an inspection? How much would that cost? Almost certainly more than the few hundred bucks she'd brought with her, right?
"Well, if the inside looks fine, there's probably nothing to worry about." Auntie exhales into the phone and sips loudly. "I remember chatting with one of the contractors at the Henderson's house, and he said the inside was even worse than the outside. Full of mold and discoloration… and vandalism. I wouldn't think so, but there's none of that in the shrine, is there?"
"Yes, Auntie, the small town's church thing has been completely defaced by satanic graffiti." Rei doesn't even try to keep the sarcastic drawl from her voice.
"Hmph," Auntie garrumps into the phone. "If you're feeling well enough to be a sarcastic brat, things can't be too bad. Have you had a chance to explore Gensokyo at all?"
"Just from the train station to the shrine. Then I unpacked, took a nap, and watched the sunset from the back porch."
"Ahh, I remember doing that with Miya," Auntie's voice warms with something like nostalgia. "On days when the winds calmed down, it would look like the bay had turned to fire."
"Yeah, it was…"
Rei starts to describe her trip, starting after she left Auntie at the international terminal of SeaTac, to the flight itself, landing in Tokyo and arriving in Gensokyo. And as she talks, a faint tension starts to fade from her thoughts. Today had been exhausting. Unfamiliar. And hearing Auntie's voice felt kind of like coming home. Eventually, though, the time on her call runs to an end, and it's time to say goodbye.
"Before you go, a letter came in for you yesterday. I normally wouldn't open it," yes, Auntie, because opening someone else's mail is a crime. "But you're in Japan, and it looked official. Anyways. It was a law firm… Kotohime and Enigma—odd name for a law firm, but whatever—saying something about your inheritance from Miya. They have an office in Gensokyo, so if you have time, you might want to drop in and find out what they want."
"Ok. I'll do that." There was probably some paperwork she had to sign to gain ownership of the shrine. "Love you, auntie."
"Love you too, kid. Give me a call in a few days so that I know you haven't starved to death. And let me know if you need any money or anything."
"No. I'm good. Bye, Auntie."
She sighs as the dial tone clicks back on, hangs up, turns, and walks out, not sparing a glance at the bald man, still preoccupied with his dirty magazine. Outside, the night air had gained a bit of a bite to it, and Rei wraps her high-cut jacket tighter around her as she debates where to go next. The insistent growl and twist of her stomach told her it was time to find food, but that raised the question of whether to find a restaurant or get something to go.
As she debated quality versus speed, Auntie's comment about batteries tilts the decision in favor of a convenience store. She would need batteries, a flashlight, and probably a small radio or something… not to mention something to read. And, if she remembered correctly, she'd passed a convenience store—a konbini—on her way here.
The Konbini, a 7-Eleven of all things, is bright and welcoming against the chill of the night and far cleaner and nicer than anything she'd ever seen in the States. A girl with long blonde hair looks up from behind the counter with a smile and a wave, "Hey stranger, haven't seen ya' 'round here before. Whatcha need?"
Perhaps it was how long the day had been, twelve hours on a plane followed by another hour on the train. Or perhaps it was the soreness slowly building in her legs, she'd walked more today than she usually would in a week. Or perhaps it was just the hunger of not having eaten at all today. Whatever the case, something about the open friendliness of the blonde's face just rubbed the wrong way.
"Tch," Rei responds with a dismissive noise and then continues, unable to help herself. "Are you always so…" A waved hand punctuates her statement.
"Don't be like that, stranger." The girl seems utterly unaffected by either her glare or brusque words. "'Sides, I gotta do something to kill the boredom on the night shift… anyways, I'm Marisa. Nice to meet'cha."
"Nice to meet you," Rei responds as though the words were pulled out of her but refuses to offer her name.
Something that doesn't seem to deter the blonde—Marisa—at all. "Ooo, a mysterious stranger. S'like the most interestin' thing that's happened all month."
"Can you…" go away are words she's not quite cranky enough to say, "I need food, a flashlight, some batteries, and something to read."
"Gotcha," the blonde hops over the counter in a display of athleticism that would have sparked a bit of jealousy if Rei weren't so tired and hungry. She walks over to a freezer section and pulls out a pair of foil-wrapped somethings. "Since ya' got a bit of a Yankee accent, ya' might like these… bur-ee-toes we just got in last week. Bit heavy on the cheese, but the meat's nice 'n spicy."
Rei takes the burritos wordlessly, the weight of them doing as much as anything to reassure her that they'd be sufficient, and follows behind the blonde as she down another aisle. "We got flashlights for scarin' off wildlife an' creepy old guys, but they're a bit bright for readin', so you probably want one of these… and to go with… a pack of batteries."
A foldable night light with a clip that looks like it could be attached to a book cover joins her burritos and a twenty-four pack of AAs.
"As for readin', we've mostly got manga." Marisa leads her to an aisle set against the far window of the store and gestures. "I'll be at the counter when you're ready to ring up."
Rei nods absently, feeling guilty at how she'd treated the friendly girl as she starts to browse the selection available. She selects the first two volumes of a story about a shrine maiden in historical Japan—something she figured was appropriate given her current condition—and something with a spiky-haired kid fighting some shadowy monster. After a moment of consideration, a comic of a woman in traditional Chinese clothing sitting in front of a Go board joins her other selections.
With her shopping done, Rei walks over toward where Marisa was doodling in a notebook behind the counter. The blonde looks up with a smile, "find everything, stranger?"
"Yeah, thanks… and umm… sorry for the, you know," she waves her hand in explanation, "I'm Reimu. Rei, for short."
"Well, Rei, welcome to Gensokyo." She reaches out to pick up the comic with a shrine maiden on the cover, revealing a pentagram tattooed on her left wrist. "Ooo, the Eastern Utopia series, I love this one. The mangaka live around here, ya' know. Likes to come in for a bottle of shōchū and yakiniku a couple times a month."
"Are you Wiccan?" Normally, she wouldn't have said anything, but something about the blonde's demeanor forces the question out.
Marisa stops scanning her purchases and fixes her with a piercing, yellow-eyed stare. After a moment, the look disappears behind an apologetic smile, "Sorry 'bout that. Lot of folks in Gensokyo get a bit superstitious about that sorta thing, so I can't exactly wear my hat to work, but I gotta be me, ya' know?"
Rei didn't, not exactly, but being Asian in America had given her something similar. "It's tough. When I moved to America, I remembered just enough about Japan to make things awkward at first, and by the time I'd adjusted well…"
"I hear ya'. Pops died when I was young, and I bounced around for a while until I landed here." She swipes the last item across the barcode reader, and a bill for ¥2850 pops up before it's replaced by an even ¥2000.
"Bit of a discount for a stranger in a strange land." The blonde smirks as Rei eyes the till in confusion. "An' maybe a little somethin' to sweeten the pot if ya' end up wanderin' 'round Gensokyo at night lookin' for somethin' to do."
"Thanks," Rei hands over a pair of thousand yen notes and accepts her bag of groceries in return. She pauses for a moment in debate before deciding that she rather liked the blonde and didn't care if this all seemed a bit unusual. "I'll be staying for at least a week or two. If you want to hang out or something, I'm staying up at the shrine overlooking the bay."
"No shit. Always thought that place was haunted." Marisa's face brightens with genuine happiness. "I'll stop by sometime with a bottle of sake, and we can do the whole otsikumi thing."
"That's not until September…" Rei's deadpan does nothing to dent the other girl's enthusiasm.
"Sure. Sure." Marisa waves that away as though not worth mentioning and hops back over the counter to walk her toward the door. "See ya' 'round, Rei."
"Later, Marisa." She walks back into the night, a feeling of lightness and ease surrounding her.
Said feeling of ease has faded to nothing before she's halfway back to the shrine. The rest of her walk is accompanied by nothing but the ache in her legs and an occasional, juggled bite of a burrito clearly seasoned with curry spice rather than anything more appropriate.
By the time Rei arrives back at the shrine, she has just enough energy to shuck her clothes into a pile and climb beneath her bed sheets. She's out like a light almost before her head hits the pillow.
Under the light of the waxing moon, a single drop of crimson paint falls onto a faded gate.
Aesthetics 1 [Passed] Rei puts on a cute, clean outfit
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei knows a place she can make a call
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei notices that there's odd with how Auntie remembers the shrine
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei browses the manga section of the sore
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei notices Marisa's tattoo
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei knows a place she can make a call
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei notices that there's odd with how Auntie remembers the shrine
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei browses the manga section of the sore
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei notices Marisa's tattoo
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Rei has successfully made it through the day. Not only that, she's made a friend and found out that there may be more to deal with regarding the shrine than she had thought. She has three actions that she can take tomorrow (please do not feel rushed to choose any particular option there are no 'bad ends' in this quest). Reminder: Rei has ¥37500 left.
Exploration Options - Find a new place at random or look for a specific one
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine
[] Explore Gensokyo
[] Find a bathhouse
[] Find the lawyer's Auntie told her about
[] Go to the used bookstore
Social Options - Hang out with the people you've met
[] Meet up with Marisa
Hobby Options - Improve an existing hobby or learn a new one
[] Go to the arcade
[] Read manga
[] Buy gardening supplies
[] Start a new hobby.
-[] write in which. Previously mentioned hobbies are art, exercise, sports, history, movies, camping, and music. Other hobbies can be written in (with GM approval)
Shopping Options - Make the shrine and your existence there more pleasant
[] Buy home repair supplies
[] Buy a solar-powered generator
[] Buy groceries
Other Options - The world is vast beyond belief and mysterious beyond words
[] Write in. In lieu of writing out a neverending list of things to do, I'll leave this here if voters want to do something else. Write ins may well end up being incorporated into the turn options even if not chosen.
Aesthetics (1) - Rei's sense of beauty and her understanding of the interactions of colors and shapes.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding, as well as her raw intellectual power.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma and likeability, as well as her ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Gardening (+1 aesthetics). Was it the simple elegance of a well-arranged bed of flowers or getting in the dirt that drew her to gardening? Rei never really cared to figure it out.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding, as well as her raw intellectual power.
- Chess (+1 academics). Rei won her first regional tournament at fourteen and her first state tournament at sixteen.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma and likeability, as well as her ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Reading (+1 awareness). If Rei had to pick a favorite genre, it would be a mystery. Murder mystery.
- Video Games (+1 awareness). Back home, Rei has an aging gaming computer that she was constantly on the lookout for upgrades for (so long as it's within her budget).
[AN]
Regardless of the world, Reimu and Marisa are gonna be friends—also, confirmation for anyone who wasn't sure whether Rei was, in fact, a Reimu.
Vote closed
Chapter 4 - Weirdos
A ray of sunlight shines through a narrow crack in the rice paper screens and down on a sleeping figure. Rei groans and stuffs her head under a pillow. It was too early for anything to be awake. Seemingly in mockery of that thought, a bird begins to chirp in an obnoxiously high-pitched screech. She adds a second pillow atop the first to muffle the sound and sighs in relief as the chirping fades into the background.
She melts into her bed, stretching out and luxuriating in the warmth of her blankets, and is just about on the edge of falling back asleep when a second chirp joins the first. Then, a third. Then, a fourth. Until a whole symphony of birds is screeching what must have been inches away from her window.
Rei glares into her pillow, willing the birds to spontaneously combust. Unfortunately, her prayers remain unanswered, and the screeching grows in volume and complexity until she surrenders with a grumbled sigh.
Half an hour later, she's sitting on the back porch, a cup of green tea in her hand and watching sleepily as the sun creeps up over the mountains to the east. With a touch of caffeine in her blood, the birds no longer sounded as though they were trying to sing while being strangled. It was almost nice. Pleasant.
The serenade of birdsong is interrupted by a low-pitched growl, one that takes Rei a moment to realize came from her rather than some nearby animal. With a reluctant grunt, she pushes herself to her feet and goes in search of an uneaten burrito from the night before. Upon finding it sitting right next to her futon, she unwraps it gently, takes a good whiff of it to check, and bites down.
I've eaten worse…
Room-temperature curried meat mixes unpleasantly with congealed cheese sauce and slimy bits of lettuce and tomato. Despite that, she's hungry enough that the burrito goes down without much more than one or two gags.
…but not much
Reluctantly awake and even more reluctantly full, she decides it's time to get on with the day. Unfortunately, she couldn't spend the day lazing around the shrine and reading manga. Well, she could, but she had things to do. A lawyer to visit. Some gardening stuff to buy so she could start to fix up the front yard. And… she sniffs at herself delicately… definitely a bathhouse to find.
When Rei thought about a meeting with a lawyer, she first envisioned something in a high-rise building with floor-to-ceiling windows. Since Gensokyo didn't have any buildings that were much more than three stories, that was discarded. Next, she'd thought about a lawyer's office in a strip mall, next to a Chipotle or something. But Gensokyo didn't have many of the trappings of American suburbia either.
Instead, the law firm is located on the top floor of a building nestled incongruously between a greengrocer and a home improvement store. Rei stares at the faded, off-center sign hanging from the door. Kotohime and Enigma - Shadows Unveiled, Truths Concealed. That was an… odd motto for a law firm. But then, there wasn't much she could do about it. With a sigh, Rei pushes the door open, feeling deep within her soul that she was stepping into something weird.
Inside is a small waiting room; its once-clean beige walls have been intentionally and artfully stained with splashes of discoloration. The carpet, still a fresh and vibrant green near the walls, appears to have been cut into an uneven pattern—as though someone had gone in with an electric razor to trim it. From behind a thick curtain set to look like it was over a window—despite the room being on the interior of the building complex—shades of neon red and blue lights flash intermittently. The final decoration piece is a coat rack in the corner holding a faded gray trenchcoat and an equally faded fedora.
No receptionist is waiting to take appointments. Nor is there any furniture save for a single folding table set to one side and covered in what looked like intentionally arranged junk. Rei spares a glance for a colorful container of cup ramen, unopened thankfully, before pausing on the skeleton of what could only have been a snake if snakes had abnormally pudgy bodies and extremely thin tails.
"A bird walks into my office, the glow of youth still fresh on her face. The ribbon in her hair red like the blood of this dying city," A deep, female voice interrupts her before she could poke the snake-ish skeleton.
Rei spins around, a glare on her face masking the sudden jump of her heart. "Who are you?"
The woman tips back a fedora—not the one still sitting on the coat rack—with a gesture that just accentuates how absurd the hat is compared to the violet kimono wrapped around her. "Just a shadow that lives beneath the surface of this poorly fashioned illusion of a town."
"That's not a name." Her scowl deepens.
"What do you prefer, sweetheart? The truth or a pretty lie?"
Since it was the Kotohime and Enigma law firm and Enigma wasn't a name—not that Kotohime was much of one either—that meant this was probably...
"Ko-to-hi-me." She enunciates the name as though speaking to a child. "I'm Reimu Hakurei. You sent a letter to me about the shrine and my mother's will."
"Miya, now there was a lady." probably Kotohime makes no sign that she recognizes her name. "A shame she forgot that one bad apple could spoil a harvest."
"And now she's dead," Rei grounds out between clenched teeth, annoyance with this… whatever she was pretending to be… overpowering her feelings about her mother. "So either tell me why you sent that letter, or I'm leaving."
"A bird flies across an ocean to learn her mother's fate only to find her talons caught in the same trap. Fortunately for her, the shadows can hide both friends and foes." A manilla folder appears from within the folds of Kotohime's kimono. Rei snatches it before it can be shoved into her face. "One such friend, bought with secrets whispered on a breeze, awaits in Kyoto."
Rei flips open the folder, eyes catching the symbol for Kyoto University before she quickly skims it. It was an acceptance letter for the university and a full scholarship offer. Apparently, her mother had helped Professor Okazaki—a chair of the Faculty of Letters—with some research on ancient Japanese folktales when the professor was a graduate student. When the professor had heard of her mother's passing, she wanted to do something to pay her back.
"That's…" she shakes her head. She would figure out what to do with the offer later. "Your letter said inheritance issues, not a scholarship offer."
"The state will squeeze the rotting underbelly of this town until it bleeds. Absentee and neglectful landowners will be the first to suffer under that steely-eyed gaze."
It takes Rei a moment to parse through the… whatever it was… but she gets it. If she left Japan for good, it was likely that the state would try to claim the shrine. Now that she knew, she should be able to sell it first if that happened.
"Anything else?" She stares at Kotohime as though daring her to say anything more.
"The bird sings like the mournful notes of a sax-"
The rest of whatever she would have said is cut off by the slam of the door behind Rei as she marches out of the office.
The walk across town from the infuriating lawyer to the flower shop she'd seen on her first trip through Gensokyo did a lot to cool the annoyance boiling within her. It was hard to stay too grumpy when the sun shone, and a cool breeze ruffled through her hair. She could have still managed it, but why let some weirdo lawyer ruin her day?
A pair of sunflowers, each placed in a separate planter and set on either side of a brightly painted green door like a pair of guards, mark out the entrance to the flower shop. Rei pauses for a moment to admire both the vibrancy of the golden petals and the rich, dark earth they were sitting in. If they were any indication of the quality of the shop, she'd found quite the place.
A doorbell chimes as she steps inside, but she ignores the metallic chime in favor of the rich, complex aroma of flowers and fresh soil. Flowers of every shape and size, each in full bloom, grow in long troths formed into aisles, cling to the walls along verdant trellis', and hang from the vaulted ceiling in wispy waves. It was a riot of color. It was…
"Perfect," Rei breathes a contented sigh and drops down to her heels, careless of the dirt smudging onto her pants, to get a closer look at the nearest planter. A single sunflower stretches out of the soil, imperious as it holds court with its lesser kin. She reaches out a hand to brush a few grains of soil that had landed on the petal of a pale white morning glory.
"Well, well. It seems as though our new miko has a bit more taste than the last one."
Rei jumps as a low voice whispers in her ear. Her foot catches on an invisible bit of something, and she stumbles back. Her arms windmill as she tries to regain her balance, but to no avail, as she falls back onto the soil-covered floor with a muffled "oomph."
"Though she seems just as ungainly." Rei looks up at whoever it was that had surprised her, a scowl firmly etched onto her face as she stares up into amused blood-red eyes framed by dark green hair.
"The hell are you?" She pushes herself upright, ignoring the offer of a manicured hand as she brushes bits of dirt from her pants.
"Yuuka Kazami. Humble shopkeeper and mistress to all these lovely children." Yuuka bows, the amusement dancing in her eyes giving the gesture a mocking cast.
"Hmph," Rei frowns and fixes the shopkeeper with an annoyed stare. "Do you always sneak up on customers like this?"
"Only the cute ones."
Rei ignores the flirtatious wink with a roll of the eyes. She'd heard better. "And how did you know I had a shrine?"
"Gossip travels quickly," Yuuka shrugs elegantly, then ruins it with a mocking grin. "And Marisa likes to talk."
"You know Marisa?" Rei supposes that shouldn't be surprising—the blonde had an easy-to-like air about her—but it was still disorienting.
"She comes by every now and then trying to finagle things that aren't hers." Despite the accusation, there's only a bit of indulgent amusement on her face. "But you didn't come here to gossip about your new friend, did you?"
"Hmph." Despite the dismissive sound, she couldn't disagree with that. Gossip was fine, but not with a strange flower shop lady. "I'm looking for some perennials… preferably reds and whites."
"For the shrine, hmm…" the playful look fades from the green-ette's face. "The land up in the hills is rather alkaline… hydrangeas will turn a nice, pale red. Hellebores or peonies will flower earlier in the season and create a cascade of white fading into red as the season changes."
That all sounded right, and the tidbit about the soil alkalinity was helpful. "Anything to go with cherry tree blossoms?"
"Something dark to cover the ground beneath… Ferns preferably. Foxglove if you need the color." Yuuka turns on a heel, "follow. I've got a few of everything ready to be replanted in the greenhouse."
Rei frowns as the sunflower seemingly turns to follow the flower lady but shrugs it away.
It's probably just a breeze.
Half an hour of browsing later, Rei is standing in front of a checkout counter, sheepishly staring at the… perhaps excessive… amount of things she'd selected. She hands over two five-thousand yen notes and frowns. There were two bags of soil, a dozen flowers, and maybe twice that in seeds. How exactly was she supposed to get all of this back to the shrine?
Yuuka smirks, seeming to read her concern, "¥500, and I'll have this all delivered to the front of the shrine. You'll still have to get it up the steps, though."
"Deal." Rei sighs and hands over a 500 yen coin.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Miko. Come back any-"
The door slamming shut and cutting off Yuuka is just as satisfying as when she'd done it to Kotohime. It's enough to put a smile back on her face. Now, to find a bathhouse.
Rei sighs and sinks into the almost scalding water until only the top of her face is unsubmerged. A wooden plate bounces into her iceberg head, and an eye cracks open to look at the remnants of a pair of bottles of sake and half a dozen rice balls. ¥1000 got her a bath, a soak, and enough food and alcohol to make the annoyance of dealing with weirdos fade into a haze of contented, drunken warmth. It had also gotten her free access to some fancy-looking soaps and creams, but what was smelling like a rose and having smooth skin compared to this?
She sinks entirely underwater as she propels herself back to the pool's edge. Her head bounces lightly against the lip of the pool, and she breaches the surface with a cascade of water. It was strange for a bathhouse this nice to be completely empty, but she could hardly complain. In fact, with no one else here, this might be the perfect place to take a… zzz…
Rei fell asleep in the bath, so when she wakes up, she'll have to make her way back to the shrine. She has time to do two things prior to (or after) staggering back home. Reminder: Rei has ¥26000 left.
Exploration Options - Find a new place at random or look for a specific one
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine
[] Explore Gensokyo
Social Options - Hang out with the people you've met
[] Meet up with Marisa
Hobby Options - Improve an existing hobby or learn a new one
[] Go to the arcade
[] Read manga
[] Start a new hobby.
-[] write in which. Previously mentioned hobbies are art, exercise, sports, history, movies, camping, and music. Other hobbies can be written in (with GM approval)
Shopping Options - Make the shrine and your existence there more pleasant
[] Buy home repair supplies
[] Buy a solar-powered generator
Food Options - Feed yourself for a day or longer
[] Buy groceries
[] Find a restaurant
[] Get dessert
Employment Options - Find a job so you can afford to buy stuff
[] See if Yuuka wants an assistant
[] See if the convenience store is hiring
Other Options - The world is vast beyond belief and mysterious beyond words
[] Write in. In lieu of writing out a neverending list of things to do, I'll leave this here if voters want to do something else. Write ins may well end up being incorporated into the turn options even if not chosen.
[AN]
Rei either succeded fantastically or failed miserably on the bathhouse action. I'll leave it up to you all to choose which. Unrelated, in canon Kotohime is a princess, a cop, and a bit weird (even by the standards of Gensokyo). So a butterfly flaps its wings and she becomes a lawyer and a noir detective (and I apologize for butchering the imagery of noir films).
She melts into her bed, stretching out and luxuriating in the warmth of her blankets, and is just about on the edge of falling back asleep when a second chirp joins the first. Then, a third. Then, a fourth. Until a whole symphony of birds is screeching what must have been inches away from her window.
Rei glares into her pillow, willing the birds to spontaneously combust. Unfortunately, her prayers remain unanswered, and the screeching grows in volume and complexity until she surrenders with a grumbled sigh.
Half an hour later, she's sitting on the back porch, a cup of green tea in her hand and watching sleepily as the sun creeps up over the mountains to the east. With a touch of caffeine in her blood, the birds no longer sounded as though they were trying to sing while being strangled. It was almost nice. Pleasant.
The serenade of birdsong is interrupted by a low-pitched growl, one that takes Rei a moment to realize came from her rather than some nearby animal. With a reluctant grunt, she pushes herself to her feet and goes in search of an uneaten burrito from the night before. Upon finding it sitting right next to her futon, she unwraps it gently, takes a good whiff of it to check, and bites down.
I've eaten worse…
Room-temperature curried meat mixes unpleasantly with congealed cheese sauce and slimy bits of lettuce and tomato. Despite that, she's hungry enough that the burrito goes down without much more than one or two gags.
…but not much
Reluctantly awake and even more reluctantly full, she decides it's time to get on with the day. Unfortunately, she couldn't spend the day lazing around the shrine and reading manga. Well, she could, but she had things to do. A lawyer to visit. Some gardening stuff to buy so she could start to fix up the front yard. And… she sniffs at herself delicately… definitely a bathhouse to find.
When Rei thought about a meeting with a lawyer, she first envisioned something in a high-rise building with floor-to-ceiling windows. Since Gensokyo didn't have any buildings that were much more than three stories, that was discarded. Next, she'd thought about a lawyer's office in a strip mall, next to a Chipotle or something. But Gensokyo didn't have many of the trappings of American suburbia either.
Instead, the law firm is located on the top floor of a building nestled incongruously between a greengrocer and a home improvement store. Rei stares at the faded, off-center sign hanging from the door. Kotohime and Enigma - Shadows Unveiled, Truths Concealed. That was an… odd motto for a law firm. But then, there wasn't much she could do about it. With a sigh, Rei pushes the door open, feeling deep within her soul that she was stepping into something weird.
Inside is a small waiting room; its once-clean beige walls have been intentionally and artfully stained with splashes of discoloration. The carpet, still a fresh and vibrant green near the walls, appears to have been cut into an uneven pattern—as though someone had gone in with an electric razor to trim it. From behind a thick curtain set to look like it was over a window—despite the room being on the interior of the building complex—shades of neon red and blue lights flash intermittently. The final decoration piece is a coat rack in the corner holding a faded gray trenchcoat and an equally faded fedora.
No receptionist is waiting to take appointments. Nor is there any furniture save for a single folding table set to one side and covered in what looked like intentionally arranged junk. Rei spares a glance for a colorful container of cup ramen, unopened thankfully, before pausing on the skeleton of what could only have been a snake if snakes had abnormally pudgy bodies and extremely thin tails.
"A bird walks into my office, the glow of youth still fresh on her face. The ribbon in her hair red like the blood of this dying city," A deep, female voice interrupts her before she could poke the snake-ish skeleton.
Rei spins around, a glare on her face masking the sudden jump of her heart. "Who are you?"
The woman tips back a fedora—not the one still sitting on the coat rack—with a gesture that just accentuates how absurd the hat is compared to the violet kimono wrapped around her. "Just a shadow that lives beneath the surface of this poorly fashioned illusion of a town."
"That's not a name." Her scowl deepens.
"What do you prefer, sweetheart? The truth or a pretty lie?"
Since it was the Kotohime and Enigma law firm and Enigma wasn't a name—not that Kotohime was much of one either—that meant this was probably...
"Ko-to-hi-me." She enunciates the name as though speaking to a child. "I'm Reimu Hakurei. You sent a letter to me about the shrine and my mother's will."
"Miya, now there was a lady." probably Kotohime makes no sign that she recognizes her name. "A shame she forgot that one bad apple could spoil a harvest."
"And now she's dead," Rei grounds out between clenched teeth, annoyance with this… whatever she was pretending to be… overpowering her feelings about her mother. "So either tell me why you sent that letter, or I'm leaving."
"A bird flies across an ocean to learn her mother's fate only to find her talons caught in the same trap. Fortunately for her, the shadows can hide both friends and foes." A manilla folder appears from within the folds of Kotohime's kimono. Rei snatches it before it can be shoved into her face. "One such friend, bought with secrets whispered on a breeze, awaits in Kyoto."
Rei flips open the folder, eyes catching the symbol for Kyoto University before she quickly skims it. It was an acceptance letter for the university and a full scholarship offer. Apparently, her mother had helped Professor Okazaki—a chair of the Faculty of Letters—with some research on ancient Japanese folktales when the professor was a graduate student. When the professor had heard of her mother's passing, she wanted to do something to pay her back.
"That's…" she shakes her head. She would figure out what to do with the offer later. "Your letter said inheritance issues, not a scholarship offer."
"The state will squeeze the rotting underbelly of this town until it bleeds. Absentee and neglectful landowners will be the first to suffer under that steely-eyed gaze."
It takes Rei a moment to parse through the… whatever it was… but she gets it. If she left Japan for good, it was likely that the state would try to claim the shrine. Now that she knew, she should be able to sell it first if that happened.
"Anything else?" She stares at Kotohime as though daring her to say anything more.
"The bird sings like the mournful notes of a sax-"
The rest of whatever she would have said is cut off by the slam of the door behind Rei as she marches out of the office.
The walk across town from the infuriating lawyer to the flower shop she'd seen on her first trip through Gensokyo did a lot to cool the annoyance boiling within her. It was hard to stay too grumpy when the sun shone, and a cool breeze ruffled through her hair. She could have still managed it, but why let some weirdo lawyer ruin her day?
A pair of sunflowers, each placed in a separate planter and set on either side of a brightly painted green door like a pair of guards, mark out the entrance to the flower shop. Rei pauses for a moment to admire both the vibrancy of the golden petals and the rich, dark earth they were sitting in. If they were any indication of the quality of the shop, she'd found quite the place.
A doorbell chimes as she steps inside, but she ignores the metallic chime in favor of the rich, complex aroma of flowers and fresh soil. Flowers of every shape and size, each in full bloom, grow in long troths formed into aisles, cling to the walls along verdant trellis', and hang from the vaulted ceiling in wispy waves. It was a riot of color. It was…
"Perfect," Rei breathes a contented sigh and drops down to her heels, careless of the dirt smudging onto her pants, to get a closer look at the nearest planter. A single sunflower stretches out of the soil, imperious as it holds court with its lesser kin. She reaches out a hand to brush a few grains of soil that had landed on the petal of a pale white morning glory.
"Well, well. It seems as though our new miko has a bit more taste than the last one."
Rei jumps as a low voice whispers in her ear. Her foot catches on an invisible bit of something, and she stumbles back. Her arms windmill as she tries to regain her balance, but to no avail, as she falls back onto the soil-covered floor with a muffled "oomph."
"Though she seems just as ungainly." Rei looks up at whoever it was that had surprised her, a scowl firmly etched onto her face as she stares up into amused blood-red eyes framed by dark green hair.
"The hell are you?" She pushes herself upright, ignoring the offer of a manicured hand as she brushes bits of dirt from her pants.
"Yuuka Kazami. Humble shopkeeper and mistress to all these lovely children." Yuuka bows, the amusement dancing in her eyes giving the gesture a mocking cast.
"Hmph," Rei frowns and fixes the shopkeeper with an annoyed stare. "Do you always sneak up on customers like this?"
"Only the cute ones."
Rei ignores the flirtatious wink with a roll of the eyes. She'd heard better. "And how did you know I had a shrine?"
"Gossip travels quickly," Yuuka shrugs elegantly, then ruins it with a mocking grin. "And Marisa likes to talk."
"You know Marisa?" Rei supposes that shouldn't be surprising—the blonde had an easy-to-like air about her—but it was still disorienting.
"She comes by every now and then trying to finagle things that aren't hers." Despite the accusation, there's only a bit of indulgent amusement on her face. "But you didn't come here to gossip about your new friend, did you?"
"Hmph." Despite the dismissive sound, she couldn't disagree with that. Gossip was fine, but not with a strange flower shop lady. "I'm looking for some perennials… preferably reds and whites."
"For the shrine, hmm…" the playful look fades from the green-ette's face. "The land up in the hills is rather alkaline… hydrangeas will turn a nice, pale red. Hellebores or peonies will flower earlier in the season and create a cascade of white fading into red as the season changes."
That all sounded right, and the tidbit about the soil alkalinity was helpful. "Anything to go with cherry tree blossoms?"
"Something dark to cover the ground beneath… Ferns preferably. Foxglove if you need the color." Yuuka turns on a heel, "follow. I've got a few of everything ready to be replanted in the greenhouse."
Rei frowns as the sunflower seemingly turns to follow the flower lady but shrugs it away.
It's probably just a breeze.
Half an hour of browsing later, Rei is standing in front of a checkout counter, sheepishly staring at the… perhaps excessive… amount of things she'd selected. She hands over two five-thousand yen notes and frowns. There were two bags of soil, a dozen flowers, and maybe twice that in seeds. How exactly was she supposed to get all of this back to the shrine?
Yuuka smirks, seeming to read her concern, "¥500, and I'll have this all delivered to the front of the shrine. You'll still have to get it up the steps, though."
"Deal." Rei sighs and hands over a 500 yen coin.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Miko. Come back any-"
The door slamming shut and cutting off Yuuka is just as satisfying as when she'd done it to Kotohime. It's enough to put a smile back on her face. Now, to find a bathhouse.
Rei sighs and sinks into the almost scalding water until only the top of her face is unsubmerged. A wooden plate bounces into her iceberg head, and an eye cracks open to look at the remnants of a pair of bottles of sake and half a dozen rice balls. ¥1000 got her a bath, a soak, and enough food and alcohol to make the annoyance of dealing with weirdos fade into a haze of contented, drunken warmth. It had also gotten her free access to some fancy-looking soaps and creams, but what was smelling like a rose and having smooth skin compared to this?
She sinks entirely underwater as she propels herself back to the pool's edge. Her head bounces lightly against the lip of the pool, and she breaches the surface with a cascade of water. It was strange for a bathhouse this nice to be completely empty, but she could hardly complain. In fact, with no one else here, this might be the perfect place to take a… zzz…
Rei fell asleep in the bath, so when she wakes up, she'll have to make her way back to the shrine. She has time to do two things prior to (or after) staggering back home. Reminder: Rei has ¥26000 left.
Exploration Options - Find a new place at random or look for a specific one
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine
[] Explore Gensokyo
Social Options - Hang out with the people you've met
[] Meet up with Marisa
Hobby Options - Improve an existing hobby or learn a new one
[] Go to the arcade
[] Read manga
[] Start a new hobby.
-[] write in which. Previously mentioned hobbies are art, exercise, sports, history, movies, camping, and music. Other hobbies can be written in (with GM approval)
Shopping Options - Make the shrine and your existence there more pleasant
[] Buy home repair supplies
[] Buy a solar-powered generator
Food Options - Feed yourself for a day or longer
[] Buy groceries
[] Find a restaurant
[] Get dessert
Employment Options - Find a job so you can afford to buy stuff
[] See if Yuuka wants an assistant
[] See if the convenience store is hiring
Other Options - The world is vast beyond belief and mysterious beyond words
[] Write in. In lieu of writing out a neverending list of things to do, I'll leave this here if voters want to do something else. Write ins may well end up being incorporated into the turn options even if not chosen.
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei has a premonition that things would be weird
Aesthetics 1 [Passed] Rei notices that the dishevelment of the office is intentional
Awareness 2 [Passed] Rei notices an odd-looking skeleton
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei understands legal jargon
Aesthetics 1 [Passed] Rei admires a planter full of flowers.
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Awareness 2 [Passed] Rei notices flowers seem to follow Yuuka
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Aesthetics 1 [Passed] Rei notices that the dishevelment of the office is intentional
Awareness 2 [Passed] Rei notices an odd-looking skeleton
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei understands legal jargon
Aesthetics 1 [Passed] Rei admires a planter full of flowers.
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Awareness 2 [Passed] Rei notices flowers seem to follow Yuuka
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Aesthetics (1) - Rei's sense of beauty and her understanding of the interactions of colors and shapes.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding and her raw intellectual power.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma, likeability, and ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei can notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Gardening (+1 aesthetics). Was it the simple elegance of a well-arranged bed of flowers or getting in the dirt that drew her to gardening? Rei never really cared to figure it out.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding and her raw intellectual power.
- Chess (+1 academics). Rei won her first regional tournament at fourteen and her first state tournament at sixteen.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma, likeability, and ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei can notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Reading (+1 awareness). If Rei had to pick a favorite genre, it would be a mystery. Murder mystery.
- Video Games (+1 awareness). Back home, Rei has an aging gaming computer that she was constantly on the lookout for upgrades for (so long as it's within her budget).
[AN]
Rei either succeded fantastically or failed miserably on the bathhouse action. I'll leave it up to you all to choose which. Unrelated, in canon Kotohime is a princess, a cop, and a bit weird (even by the standards of Gensokyo). So a butterfly flaps its wings and she becomes a lawyer and a noir detective (and I apologize for butchering the imagery of noir films).
Vote closed
Chapter 5 - A Secret Revealed
Rei wakes sputtering and coughing. She flails upright, sending waves of near-scalding water cascading around her. A hacking cough bends her nearly sideways as she expels the water that had somehow trickled into her lungs while asleep.
Jeez… I haven't fallen asleep in the bath since… never.
She climbs back up onto the pale wood floors of the bathhouse, pausing momentarily to direct a dark-eyed glare at the pool that had nearly drowned her before turning to look for her clothes. A white blouse with red piping and a similarly colored knee-length skirt are folded neatly atop a fluffy white towel.
After drying, Rei drops the now-soaking towel onto the floor with a wet plop and picks up her blouse. It smells fresh, as though it has just been cleaned.
They really go the extra mile here, huh?
She finds the rest of her stuff in a neat pile on a chair, slips on underwear and clothes, and then tucks her—rapidly shrinking—wallet into a pocket. Refreshed, relaxed, and more than a little wrinkly, Rei nods in satisfaction and turns to leave. It was time to buy some groceries, though without a place to store fresh food, she would be limited on what she could buy.
And there were only so many times she could eat ramen noodles before going crazy…
The glare of fluorescent lighting spilling out from floor-to-ceiling windows onto the sidewalk outside marks the entrance to the grocery store. A shiver runs through Rei as she steps inside, the blast of air-conditioned air almost freezing compared to the heat of the bathhouse and the faint humidity of the summer night.
Dozens of aisles laden with all kinds of foods stretch toward the back of the store, each one marked with the bright red kanji for On Sale. She grabs a basket and skips past the long-since-closed bakery and the frozen foods section. She'd need to buy dried goods—and maybe some potatoes or something—at least until she found some way to keep things cold.
Turning down a snack-food aisle, Rei begins dropping chips and chocolates and a twenty-four pack of deluxe ramen noodles—though what made it deluxe when it looked just like the ones next to it, she couldn't tell. Another aisle passes by, and she adds a bottle of soy sauce, yakisoba sauce, and a family-sized jar of peanut butter—it was hard to starve if peanut butter was around.
She drifts down another aisle, this one mainly filled with pickled foods, pausing for a moment to pick up a small package of umeboshi—who eats pickled plums? Her move to put the package back is interrupted by the crash of glass breaking.
Rei jumps back as liquid splashes against her legs and skirt. Her nose wrinkles as the pungent smell of vinegar surrounds her. Spinning around, she sees the remnants of a massive jar of pickles spilled out across the floor and takes a step back as a trickle of pickle juice begins to snake toward her shoes.
How did… there's no one else here, and jars don't just fall like that… they don't.
A frown crosses her face as a number of odd incidents knit together in her mind. There was something strange in Gensokyo. And she knew just who to ask about it. But first…
Rei steps back from the shattered jar of pickles and looks up and down the aisle. No one seemed to be coming to check on the sound of breaking glass, and so, with a casual whistle, she walks quickly toward the end of the aisle.
That wasn't her mess to clean up…
A bored-looking teenager occupies the checkout counter, barely looking up from the conveyor belt as he scans her purchases. When the last of her groceries is placed in a bag, the cashier punches a button, and ¥5000 pops up on the till. The cashier doesn't look at her or respond in any way when she offers a quiet thank you. Lazy teenagers.
With a sigh, Rei hands over yet another bill from her steadily dwindling pile of cash and grabs her bags.
The summer humidity hits her like a wave as she walks out of the grocery store, but she barely pays it any mind. She had a witch to talk to.
"Hey, Rei," Marisa looks up from a brightly colored manga with a smile and wave. "Back for more burritos?"
"No… they were barely edible the first time around." She holds up the half-dozen plastic bags currently cutting a deep groove in her hands. "I've got food for a while… and weren't they bur-ee-toes?"
"Hah. Nah. The boss came by an' lectured me 'bout diction or some nonsense." Marisa hops over the counter, grabs the groceries from her, and sets them to one side. She sniffs deeply and raises an eyebrow. "Why do you smell like pickles?"
"A jar of them attacked me at the grocery store," Rei replies with a bland look.
"Ahh, shoulda' come here instead." the blonde grins. "Ours have been domesticated."
"Right, well, that's enough of that." Rei fixes her friend with an intense stare. "There's something weird about Gensokyo."
"Y-yeah, like what?" her eyes narrow at the stutter in Marisa's voice.
"Let's see… my mother's lawyer talks like she came from some crappy detective novel. Which is weird, but whatever, except." her voice gets a touch louder when it looks like the blonde might interrupt. "She has an honest-to-god skeleton of a Tsuchinoko in her office."
"Ya' sure it wasn't a fake or nothin'?" by itself, that's what she would have thought too, except there were other examples of things she'd seen and couldn't explain.
"Hmph, well, how about the flower lady?" an eyebrow raises as Marisa flinches slightly and then tries to hide it. "She's got some sunflowers that follow her around like she was the sun itself."
"Ahahah," the blonde grins uneasily but doesn't say anything to counter her statement.
"There's other things. Like something invisible tripping me or knocking over the jar of pickles I'm soaked with," Rei pauses to scowl at the air. If something were haunting her, she'd make that thing regret it. "But it all started with something in the shrine that set my teeth on edge. A yin-yang sphere that appeared from nowhere, sitting in the honden. I could blame each one on exhaustion or hunger or whatever, but looking at it together, it seems that something else is going on…"
When she finishes her rant, she notices Marisa staring at her as though debating something internally. Eventually, the blonde speaks, "I ended up in Gensokyo at… fourteen, maybe… an' stayed with a nice older couple for a bit 'fore I moved out an' found this job. Everythin' was normal 'til I saw Yuuka doin' somethin' that… maybe it's just better to show ya'."
With that, the blonde holds out a palm and closes her eyes. For a long moment, nothing happens, except a faint chill working its way down Rei's spine, until a spark of light flickers into existence in her outstretched hand. "She was dancin' in the flowers under the moon an' these sparks were jus' rainin' down on her."
"Magic…" She breathes out. She'd had a suspicion, but to think that…
A feeling of vertigo sweeps through her. Up becomes down, left becomes right. Her vision greys out at the edges.
"Hey, Rei, you alright?" Rei blinks in confusion before realizing that she was sitting on the floor, her legs splayed out awkwardly, and a concerned blonde face was staring down at her. "Ya' don't… C'mon, we got a tiny lounge in the back."
She stares at the hand held in front of her for a moment before reaching out to take it. Rei holds on limply as she's yanked upright and mindlessly follows that spill of brightly colored hair toward the back of the store.
"So, yeah," Marisa flops into a chair and gestures at the one across from her, "magic's real. Least in Gensokyo it is… outside, I can't even gather enough mana for a flashlight."
"That would…" Rei trails off, her thoughts moving as though through mud, and drops onto the chair.
"It's a lot, I know." Marisa reaches forward and pats her on the shoulder. "S'like there's this block that keeps folks from noticin' weird things, an' when it breaks, it kinda sends the brain for a loop."
"Yeah, that's…" She struggles to force fractured thoughts into words but can only settle on one thing. "My mother… did she?"
"The shrine?" the blonde tilts her head to one side. "Now that I think about it, the shrine's been abandoned s'long as I can remember and-"
"That's not…" Rei forces the interruption out around the thickness of her tongue, "Letter… sent… died days ago."
"That's." A fierce curiosity flares in her friend's eyes. "I thought magic was the big secret here, but maybe…"
"Maybe?" Rei could feel the fog beginning to lift from her thoughts.
"I dunno…" that focused look fades to a sheepish grin as Marisa scratches at the back of her head. "I'm pretty much self-taught. There's only so much ya' can learn by spyin' on Yuuka an' readin' in the library."
"Could we ask her?" she doubted the playful shopkeeper would tell the truth even if she knew it, but would it hurt to ask?
"She's old school. A hijiri or somethin'. Not the kinda person ya' really ask questions like that of." Marisa shakes her head. "'Sides, she's caught me spyin' on her a couple times, so I'm on thin ice with her as is."
"She mentioned that," Rei allows a faint smirk to cross her face. "Called you a finagler."
"Is that even a word?" the blonde frowns momentarily. "Well, anyways. That's probably enough talkin' 'bout that old hag. Swear she can hear when her name is said."
In that case, there was really only one question she could ask, "So, what now?"
Marisa drums her fingers idly along the arm of her chair as she thinks. After a long silence, she leans forward, fixing dark, golden eyes on Rei. "Way I see it, there's two things. First, ya' forget 'bout all of this an' I'm bettin' that in time ya' won't even notice the weird stuff anymore. The second is that we dig right in an' figure out what's goin' on in Gensokyo."
"We?" Despite the question, Rei can't deny the flicker of relief at knowing she wouldn't have to solve this… whatever it was… on her own.
"Ya' think I'd let a mystery like this go?" A cocky, almost blinding grin crosses her friend's face. One soon mirrored by a lazy, confident smirk crossing her own.
Rei now has a new option type [Event Options]. These options will only trigger if they receive the most votes and will take an entire update (or multiple) to resolve (or advance to the next stage). Think of it as voting to start a mini-arc instead of the more day-to-day actions. Due to the nature of these options, several days may pass before they can be started, so pay careful attention to your food and money (or don't, starving Rei could be fun too).
Reminder: Rei has ¥22000 and 5 days of food left.
Rei has 3 actions available (or just 1, depending)
Exploration Options - Find a new place at random or look for a specific one
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine
[] Explore Gensokyo
[] Go hiking in the mountains around Gensokyo
Social Options - Hang out with the friends you've made
[] Meet up with Marisa
Hobby Options - Improve an existing hobby or learn a new one
[] Go to the arcade
[] Read manga
[] Plant flowers at the shrine
[] Start a new hobby.
-[] write in which. Previously mentioned hobbies are art, exercise, sports, history, movies, camping, and music. Other hobbies can be written in (with GM approval)
Shopping Options - Make the shrine and your existence there more pleasant
[] Buy home repair supplies
[] Buy a solar-powered generator
[] Buy some electronic entertainment items
Food Options - Feed yourself for a day or longer
[] Find a restaurant
[] Go get dessert
Employment Options - Find a job so you can afford to buy stuff
[] See if Yuuka wants an assistant
[] See if the convenience store is hiring
Event Options - some things take a lot longer to complete than others
[] Visit Professor Okazaki about the scholarship to Kyoto U.
[] Investigate the shrine with Marisa.
Write-in Options - The world is vast beyond belief and mysterious beyond words
[] Instead of writing out a neverending list of things to do, I'll leave this here if voters want to do something else. Write-ins may well be incorporated into the turn options even if not chosen, so feel free to suggest whatever you want to see and do.
[AN]
On a side note, the cast of Touhou is massive. So if anyone has a preference for characters they'd like to see, specifically ones that don't arrive in Gensokyo via incident (e.g. the SDM crew) please let me know.
Jeez… I haven't fallen asleep in the bath since… never.
She climbs back up onto the pale wood floors of the bathhouse, pausing momentarily to direct a dark-eyed glare at the pool that had nearly drowned her before turning to look for her clothes. A white blouse with red piping and a similarly colored knee-length skirt are folded neatly atop a fluffy white towel.
After drying, Rei drops the now-soaking towel onto the floor with a wet plop and picks up her blouse. It smells fresh, as though it has just been cleaned.
They really go the extra mile here, huh?
She finds the rest of her stuff in a neat pile on a chair, slips on underwear and clothes, and then tucks her—rapidly shrinking—wallet into a pocket. Refreshed, relaxed, and more than a little wrinkly, Rei nods in satisfaction and turns to leave. It was time to buy some groceries, though without a place to store fresh food, she would be limited on what she could buy.
And there were only so many times she could eat ramen noodles before going crazy…
The glare of fluorescent lighting spilling out from floor-to-ceiling windows onto the sidewalk outside marks the entrance to the grocery store. A shiver runs through Rei as she steps inside, the blast of air-conditioned air almost freezing compared to the heat of the bathhouse and the faint humidity of the summer night.
Dozens of aisles laden with all kinds of foods stretch toward the back of the store, each one marked with the bright red kanji for On Sale. She grabs a basket and skips past the long-since-closed bakery and the frozen foods section. She'd need to buy dried goods—and maybe some potatoes or something—at least until she found some way to keep things cold.
Turning down a snack-food aisle, Rei begins dropping chips and chocolates and a twenty-four pack of deluxe ramen noodles—though what made it deluxe when it looked just like the ones next to it, she couldn't tell. Another aisle passes by, and she adds a bottle of soy sauce, yakisoba sauce, and a family-sized jar of peanut butter—it was hard to starve if peanut butter was around.
She drifts down another aisle, this one mainly filled with pickled foods, pausing for a moment to pick up a small package of umeboshi—who eats pickled plums? Her move to put the package back is interrupted by the crash of glass breaking.
Rei jumps back as liquid splashes against her legs and skirt. Her nose wrinkles as the pungent smell of vinegar surrounds her. Spinning around, she sees the remnants of a massive jar of pickles spilled out across the floor and takes a step back as a trickle of pickle juice begins to snake toward her shoes.
How did… there's no one else here, and jars don't just fall like that… they don't.
A frown crosses her face as a number of odd incidents knit together in her mind. There was something strange in Gensokyo. And she knew just who to ask about it. But first…
Rei steps back from the shattered jar of pickles and looks up and down the aisle. No one seemed to be coming to check on the sound of breaking glass, and so, with a casual whistle, she walks quickly toward the end of the aisle.
That wasn't her mess to clean up…
A bored-looking teenager occupies the checkout counter, barely looking up from the conveyor belt as he scans her purchases. When the last of her groceries is placed in a bag, the cashier punches a button, and ¥5000 pops up on the till. The cashier doesn't look at her or respond in any way when she offers a quiet thank you. Lazy teenagers.
With a sigh, Rei hands over yet another bill from her steadily dwindling pile of cash and grabs her bags.
The summer humidity hits her like a wave as she walks out of the grocery store, but she barely pays it any mind. She had a witch to talk to.
"Hey, Rei," Marisa looks up from a brightly colored manga with a smile and wave. "Back for more burritos?"
"No… they were barely edible the first time around." She holds up the half-dozen plastic bags currently cutting a deep groove in her hands. "I've got food for a while… and weren't they bur-ee-toes?"
"Hah. Nah. The boss came by an' lectured me 'bout diction or some nonsense." Marisa hops over the counter, grabs the groceries from her, and sets them to one side. She sniffs deeply and raises an eyebrow. "Why do you smell like pickles?"
"A jar of them attacked me at the grocery store," Rei replies with a bland look.
"Ahh, shoulda' come here instead." the blonde grins. "Ours have been domesticated."
"Right, well, that's enough of that." Rei fixes her friend with an intense stare. "There's something weird about Gensokyo."
"Y-yeah, like what?" her eyes narrow at the stutter in Marisa's voice.
"Let's see… my mother's lawyer talks like she came from some crappy detective novel. Which is weird, but whatever, except." her voice gets a touch louder when it looks like the blonde might interrupt. "She has an honest-to-god skeleton of a Tsuchinoko in her office."
"Ya' sure it wasn't a fake or nothin'?" by itself, that's what she would have thought too, except there were other examples of things she'd seen and couldn't explain.
"Hmph, well, how about the flower lady?" an eyebrow raises as Marisa flinches slightly and then tries to hide it. "She's got some sunflowers that follow her around like she was the sun itself."
"Ahahah," the blonde grins uneasily but doesn't say anything to counter her statement.
"There's other things. Like something invisible tripping me or knocking over the jar of pickles I'm soaked with," Rei pauses to scowl at the air. If something were haunting her, she'd make that thing regret it. "But it all started with something in the shrine that set my teeth on edge. A yin-yang sphere that appeared from nowhere, sitting in the honden. I could blame each one on exhaustion or hunger or whatever, but looking at it together, it seems that something else is going on…"
When she finishes her rant, she notices Marisa staring at her as though debating something internally. Eventually, the blonde speaks, "I ended up in Gensokyo at… fourteen, maybe… an' stayed with a nice older couple for a bit 'fore I moved out an' found this job. Everythin' was normal 'til I saw Yuuka doin' somethin' that… maybe it's just better to show ya'."
With that, the blonde holds out a palm and closes her eyes. For a long moment, nothing happens, except a faint chill working its way down Rei's spine, until a spark of light flickers into existence in her outstretched hand. "She was dancin' in the flowers under the moon an' these sparks were jus' rainin' down on her."
"Magic…" She breathes out. She'd had a suspicion, but to think that…
A feeling of vertigo sweeps through her. Up becomes down, left becomes right. Her vision greys out at the edges.
"Hey, Rei, you alright?" Rei blinks in confusion before realizing that she was sitting on the floor, her legs splayed out awkwardly, and a concerned blonde face was staring down at her. "Ya' don't… C'mon, we got a tiny lounge in the back."
She stares at the hand held in front of her for a moment before reaching out to take it. Rei holds on limply as she's yanked upright and mindlessly follows that spill of brightly colored hair toward the back of the store.
"So, yeah," Marisa flops into a chair and gestures at the one across from her, "magic's real. Least in Gensokyo it is… outside, I can't even gather enough mana for a flashlight."
"That would…" Rei trails off, her thoughts moving as though through mud, and drops onto the chair.
"It's a lot, I know." Marisa reaches forward and pats her on the shoulder. "S'like there's this block that keeps folks from noticin' weird things, an' when it breaks, it kinda sends the brain for a loop."
"Yeah, that's…" She struggles to force fractured thoughts into words but can only settle on one thing. "My mother… did she?"
"The shrine?" the blonde tilts her head to one side. "Now that I think about it, the shrine's been abandoned s'long as I can remember and-"
"That's not…" Rei forces the interruption out around the thickness of her tongue, "Letter… sent… died days ago."
"That's." A fierce curiosity flares in her friend's eyes. "I thought magic was the big secret here, but maybe…"
"Maybe?" Rei could feel the fog beginning to lift from her thoughts.
"I dunno…" that focused look fades to a sheepish grin as Marisa scratches at the back of her head. "I'm pretty much self-taught. There's only so much ya' can learn by spyin' on Yuuka an' readin' in the library."
"Could we ask her?" she doubted the playful shopkeeper would tell the truth even if she knew it, but would it hurt to ask?
"She's old school. A hijiri or somethin'. Not the kinda person ya' really ask questions like that of." Marisa shakes her head. "'Sides, she's caught me spyin' on her a couple times, so I'm on thin ice with her as is."
"She mentioned that," Rei allows a faint smirk to cross her face. "Called you a finagler."
"Is that even a word?" the blonde frowns momentarily. "Well, anyways. That's probably enough talkin' 'bout that old hag. Swear she can hear when her name is said."
In that case, there was really only one question she could ask, "So, what now?"
Marisa drums her fingers idly along the arm of her chair as she thinks. After a long silence, she leans forward, fixing dark, golden eyes on Rei. "Way I see it, there's two things. First, ya' forget 'bout all of this an' I'm bettin' that in time ya' won't even notice the weird stuff anymore. The second is that we dig right in an' figure out what's goin' on in Gensokyo."
"We?" Despite the question, Rei can't deny the flicker of relief at knowing she wouldn't have to solve this… whatever it was… on her own.
"Ya' think I'd let a mystery like this go?" A cocky, almost blinding grin crosses her friend's face. One soon mirrored by a lazy, confident smirk crossing her own.
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei is suspicious of the jar falling
Awareness interrupt (9 checks passed): there's something weird about Gensokyo.
Awareness 1 [Passed] Mari's hiding something
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei is suspicious of the jar falling
Awareness interrupt (9 checks passed): there's something weird about Gensokyo.
Awareness 1 [Passed] Mari's hiding something
Allure 1 [Failed] ???
Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
Rei now has a new option type [Event Options]. These options will only trigger if they receive the most votes and will take an entire update (or multiple) to resolve (or advance to the next stage). Think of it as voting to start a mini-arc instead of the more day-to-day actions. Due to the nature of these options, several days may pass before they can be started, so pay careful attention to your food and money (or don't, starving Rei could be fun too).
Reminder: Rei has ¥22000 and 5 days of food left.
Rei has 3 actions available (or just 1, depending)
Exploration Options - Find a new place at random or look for a specific one
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine
[] Explore Gensokyo
[] Go hiking in the mountains around Gensokyo
Social Options - Hang out with the friends you've made
[] Meet up with Marisa
Hobby Options - Improve an existing hobby or learn a new one
[] Go to the arcade
[] Read manga
[] Plant flowers at the shrine
[] Start a new hobby.
-[] write in which. Previously mentioned hobbies are art, exercise, sports, history, movies, camping, and music. Other hobbies can be written in (with GM approval)
Shopping Options - Make the shrine and your existence there more pleasant
[] Buy home repair supplies
[] Buy a solar-powered generator
[] Buy some electronic entertainment items
Food Options - Feed yourself for a day or longer
[] Find a restaurant
[] Go get dessert
Employment Options - Find a job so you can afford to buy stuff
[] See if Yuuka wants an assistant
[] See if the convenience store is hiring
Event Options - some things take a lot longer to complete than others
[] Visit Professor Okazaki about the scholarship to Kyoto U.
[] Investigate the shrine with Marisa.
Write-in Options - The world is vast beyond belief and mysterious beyond words
[] Instead of writing out a neverending list of things to do, I'll leave this here if voters want to do something else. Write-ins may well be incorporated into the turn options even if not chosen, so feel free to suggest whatever you want to see and do.
Aesthetics (1) - Rei's sense of beauty and her understanding of the interactions of colors and shapes.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding and her raw intellectual power.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma, likeability, and ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Gardening (+1 aesthetics). Was it the simple elegance of a well-arranged bed of flowers or getting in the dirt that drew her to gardening? Rei never really cared to figure it out.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding and her raw intellectual power.
- Chess (+1 academics). Rei won her first regional tournament at fourteen and her first state tournament at sixteen.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma, likeability, and ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Reading (+1 awareness). If Rei had to pick a favorite genre, it would be a mystery. Murder mystery.
- Video Games (+1 awareness). Back home, Rei has an aging gaming computer that she was constantly on the lookout for upgrades for (so long as it's within her budget).
[AN]
On a side note, the cast of Touhou is massive. So if anyone has a preference for characters they'd like to see, specifically ones that don't arrive in Gensokyo via incident (e.g. the SDM crew) please let me know.
Last edited:
Vote closed
Chapter 6 - A Day for Tests
Rei wakes to the demonic screeching of birds, the crackle of an empty bag of chips, and crumbs in her sheets. She rolls out of bed with a thunk of bare knees on the hardwood floor and inchworms herself out of the cocoon wrapped around her.
Sighing, she grabs the loose sheet that was all the cover she needed with the summer warmth and gives it a good shake. Crumbs and a flash of brightly colored plastic fall free. She picks up the latter and brushes the former into a corner of her bedroom with the edge of her foot. She really should stop eating in bed. And she would, just as soon as she bought some furniture. Which, given how quickly she was burning through money, meant after she got a job.
A loud groan that seems to startle the birds into momentary silence echoes against pale cypress panels. She hadn't come to Japan to work. She'd come to… find closure with a neglectful parent? See the land of her birth? Because she hadn't been accepted to UW and hadn't bothered with a backup school?
It's called a gap year Auntie…
None of that mattered; at least it didn't matter as much as finding out that magic was real and there was a legit mystery around her mother and the shrine she'd just inherited. Said mystery would have to wait, though. Not just because Marisa was busy working a double shift at the 7-Eleven but because she had things to do. Important things. Like finding a way to get electricity into the shrine. Because as quaint as the whole living like it was the dark ages was, she missed not having to wave her arms in front of her to avoid walking into things in the night.
There were also the plants she'd bought from that flower lady still sitting in their ceramic containers, but with a bit of water and a good spot in the shade, they'd keep for at least a week or so. What wouldn't keep was the desire for electricity… and money… and maybe taking a look around the neighborhood. She had neighbors now, and while she didn't want to knock on their doors and meet them, it seemed weird not to know what was happening around her shrine.
Plans for the day decided Rei wanders outside to the fresh-water fountain, toothbrush, toothpaste, and kettle firmly in hand. Twenty minutes later, Rei is caffeinated, munching on a bag of chips that tasted a bit too much like fish and enjoying yet another not entirely unpleasant sunrise.
Another half hour later and Rei stands, tucking the empty bag of chips in a back pocket. She's finally ready to start the day. Slipping on her shoes as she steps out the front door, she takes a moment to arrange the planters she'd bought from Yuuka in a better spot than she'd left them last night and gives them a light misting of water.
[Gardening xp gained]
Finding a store that sold generators hadn't exactly been difficult. Finding out that the only options the department store had available either used gas, or were charged by electricity to begin with was annoying. Trying to find a place that would sell something less useless for her was complicated by a dead-eyed saleswoman who could barely be coaxed into responding in more than one-word sentences. But eventually, she'd gotten a name. Kawashiro's. As for the location…
Rei steps inside the door of a rather cramped back alley shop, grateful for the relief from the summer humidity. Her eyes trace around a shop lined with folding tables set up like aisles and absolutely crammed full of what she could only charitably describe as junk. If that saleslady had directed her to the wrong place… tch…
"Oh, hey, a customer." A blue-haired head pops up from behind a pile of junk. "Welcome to Kawashiro's. I'm Nitori, and this is my shop. What can I get for you?"
Rei opens her mouth to ask how a girl who looked younger than her could own a shop like this and then shuts it. She owned a shrine, after all. More than that, though, a faint something seemed to hover in the air around the shopowner. It reminded her of Yuuka. It reminded her of magic.
"I need a generator. One that doesn't run off of fuel."
"Oh," the bluenette perks up, and she scrambles out from behind her pile of junk, towing a curiously shaped black box behind her. "In that case, have I got just the thing for you. I just finished the QC testing on this bad boy this morning."
"It looks umm… What is it?" Rei can't quite keep the skepticism from her voice as she looks at a box that seems like it had been hammered together by an excitable eighth grader.
"The KP Mk-20 absorbs ambient sunlight at an efficiency of 48.1% in laboratory testing and an astonishing 45.2% in field testing. Four hours of direct sunlight is enough to charge the battery fully, and once charged, it can run most household appliances for up to twenty-four hours." Nitori schmoozes into her personal space, brandishing the solar generator like a prized jewel.
"Aren't you a bit…" Rei stops just short of shoving the girl back but can't keep herself from taking a step back. "Does it even work?"
"Does it work?!?! Of course it works." The shopkeeper pulls a bit hanging from the side that turns into an extension cord. "It's even got twenty feet of extendable cable. I'll set the Mk-20 outside. Here, take the power cable and go plug it into that fridge over there."
The extension cord bounces off her chest as she makes no move to take it. However, that does nothing to deter the other girl as she rushes outside with the maybe a solar generator. A moment later, she returns, picks up the discarded cable and moves over to a fridge decorated with pictures of a bright yellow, starburst flower—a cucumber flower, of all things.
Nitori swaps out the power lines to the fridge with deft hands and waves her over. As Rei moves to stand over the girl's shoulder, she opens the fridge door, "There. See. It powers the fridge, no problems. You can't find a solar generator half as powerful anywhere else."
"That's a lot of cucumber," Rei mutters and frowns when the bluenette jumps slightly. "Ok. So it works. How much?"
"¥50000." Is the almost immediate and entirely too expensive response.
"It looks like a middle schooler's science fair project. ¥10000." Haggling isn't something she'd ever done before, but she'd rather not have electricity than get scammed for $500.
A competitive grin flickers across the shopkeeper's face. "It's the pinnacle of ka- of my electrical engineering research. ¥40000."
"Can you guarantee it will still work a week from now? ¥15000."
"Can I guarantee-" her face twists up in a scowl. "This thing will survive the apocalypse. ¥3500."
"Right… look, I've got some stuff to do this afternoon, so thanks for the demo, I guess, but…" Rei dips her head and turns to leave.
"Wait!" The almost shout stops her midstride, and she turns to look at the shopkeeper. "How about a little game? You win, and I'll sell it for ¥10000. I win, and it's ¥40000."
For a moment, she's tempted to walk out, and not just because she doesn't have $400 to spend. There was something about the other girl that felt a bit too… used-car saleswoman. Still, it wouldn't hurt to hear her out, would it? "What's the game?"
"Shogi. And since I'm picking the game, I'll spot you a five piece handicap."
It didn't take a genius to see the scheme burning in her eyes, but Rei barely pauses before accepting. She wasn't as familiar with Shogi as with chess, but she'd still played hundreds and hundreds of matches against Auntie and her friends. "Done. I'll take black."
Her quick acceptance of the offer cracks some of the scheming confidence on the other girl's face, but pride or greed seems to hold her back from calling the bet off. It was a decision the shopkeeper would soon come to regret.
"Can I get a bag to carry this thing with?" Rei has long since given up on hiding her triumphant smirk as she hands over a pair of ¥5000 notes.
"For the low-low price of ¥35000." Her smirk widens at the pouting, defeated sigh from her former opponent.
"I'll just carry it out then." Rei tucks the generator under one arm. She lets the smirk fade from her face and addresses the shopkeeper. "You played well. I wasn't expecting the Anaguma opening. Maybe next time we can play without the handicap?"
"Oh?" Nitori looks up, something intrigued flickering across her face. "Don't think I'll let you off so easily next time."
"Yeah, yeah," she turns and flicks her free hand in a wave goodbye. "Later, Nitori."
"So the cute little Miko returns. I wonder what she wants this time," blood-red eyes don't stray from a bonsai tree being carefully trimmed, but Rei can still clearly see the lazy smirk crossing the shopkeeper's face. "Though perhaps she simply couldn't stay away…"
Rei breathes out. The flower lady was strong. She had the same feel of magic that surrounded Nitori, though to call them the same was to compare a candle to a bonfire… or a nuclear explosion. "I need a job."
"And you thought to work with my little ones even though you have yet to plant your own?" There's an edge to the sly amusement in Yuuka's voice, but she can't quite tell what it is.
"I've been busy," she huffs. "And you know as well as I do that they can keep for a few more days."
"Cute and lazy… my, what a combination." she clips one last branch with tiny scissors and sets them to the side. "What need have I for either, though?"
That… hadn't actually occurred to her. Rei looks around. The shop itself looked well cared for. Row upon row of flowers sprawled across the shop, their colors vibrant enough to shame a rainbow. Decorative vases and ceramic planters lined the walls, giving the shop an almost antique feel. Bags of dirt and gardening supplies were tucked away unobtrusively. The only thing she could see was small piles of soil that had fallen free and were dirtying up the floors. Tch. She hated cleaning. Still, she couldn't give up that easily. She needed the money.
"I can," she manages to withhold a grimace, "clean the floors… make sure things get put up properly."
"A Miko pushing a broom in my shop does have a certain appeal," her smirk widens indulgently. "I suppose I could try you out and see how well you hold up… as for what comes after, well… we'll see."
"That's…" she ignores the suggestive tone and the leering. High school boys were worse… and far less subtle. "Sure, do your worst."
"Oh, I won't do that to you just yet," her smirk widens again, revealing surprisingly sharp teeth. "But I do have a test for you. Organize the flowers in the greenhouse according to their needs. If you pass, I'm sure I can find a place for you here…"
"Deal."
Test agreed on. Rei doesn't wait for a response from her soon-to-be boss before turning toward the glass door that looks into what was clearly the greenhouse. It was a shame that passing this test would subject her to more of Yuuka's teasing, but as long as the shopkeeper didn't get handsy, she could deal with it. And maybe if she continued not to react, the older woman would eventually get tired of it. Well, a girl could hope.
A wall of heat and humidity slams into her as she opens the greenhouse door, and Rei instinctively steps back. The ocean breeze did a lot to keep Gensokyo itself bearable, but there was none of that relief here. Just thick panes of glass trapping in sunlight and baking everything beneath as though it were an oven. Still, she'd asked for this chance, and she wasn't about to let a little heat get the best of her. Even if it felt like she'd walked face-first into a muggy furnace.
Rei pulls the ribbon threaded through her hair free and reties it around her forehead like a headband. Then she rolls up the loose sleeves of her blouse and ties them off mid-shoulder. If she'd known she'd be working in the heat like this, she'd have worn something a bit more comfortable.
Too late to complain about that now…
At least the greenhouse itself didn't seem that large, and a brief glance from where she stood didn't show that much out of place. That was, until she started walking down the aisles. Then she saw just how wrong that assumption had been. A painted fern was burning up under direct sunlight. A planter full of Lilly of the Valley and Sea Holly had been shoved too far into a shade-covered alcove formed by a trellis covered in ivy. Water from a mister was steadily pooling in the soil of a row of succulents. And that was just the beginning.
By the end of her survey, she'd noted at least a dozen more mistakes. Had Yuuka really made that many mistakes in filling her greenhouse? It seemed impossible given what she'd seen in the shop itself. And yet it was a more reasonable explanation than her somehow having anticipated that Rei would come back looking for a job and setting up this little test. Or it would have been more reasonable were it not for one thing: magic.
Yuuka had it. Marisa had told her as much, and she'd felt it for herself. If magic were anything like the myths and stories around it, divination could tell the future, and then… Rei shakes her head, violently ending that chain of thought. She was here to pass a test, not navel-gaze about magic. To do that she needed to get to work.
An hour in, and Rei was regretting many things, starting with the jeans that were currently stuck to her legs by the sweat dripping from her almost since she'd started and ending with not throwing away her mother's stupid letter in the first place. But at least she was done.
Plants had been repotted to better suit their soil requirements. Planters had been moved about to better fit their sunlight needs. She'd rearranged a few flowers just to reduce the clashing of colors. Pink and purple flowers looked better with a cooler color for contrast rather than each other.
Dripping sweat in a way that made her look almost half-drowned, Rei steps out of the greenhouse. She shivers as a wave of air-conditioned air washes over her but ignores the prickling of chill in favor of an audible sigh of relief.
Yuuka looks up from trimming a different bonsai and smirks, "Ahh, the Miko returns. Bedraggled yet triumphant."
Rei scowls, but it bounces off the woman without effect. "I need a towel. Some water, too."
"I suppose a future employee would deserve that much… if she passed her little test, that is." Despite her words, she makes no effort to move, save for clipping a single leaf off the bonsai.
"Well?" Rei hmphs, hot, sweaty, and entirely uncomfortable.
"Impatient too..." The shopkeeper's amusement only seems to grow with each passing bead of sweat that falls from Rei's face. "though I suppose I don't dislike that."
"Give me my passing grade and money for the work I did." she punctuates her words by stomping over to the counter Yuuka was lounging behind.
"Hmm… I do like a miko willing to take charge," once again, Rei ignores the leering in favor of tapping her foot with an audible tap, tap, tap.
"Ahh, that glare… it reminds me of a misspent youth." Yuuka's leer shifts to something that almost looks genuine. "You did well, Miko. You showed more care and consideration for my little ones than I had expected."
She leans down, seeming to reach for something beneath the counter, and then returns with a towel, a bottle of water, and a small stack of bills. "Here. Towel and water as requested and ¥5000 for your efforts."
Rei grabs the water first, cracking the top open and guzzling the ice-cold contents down in a single gulp.
"Ahh," she sighs in satisfaction and slams the empty bottle back on the counter. Next, she grabs the towel, wiping away the worst of the sweat that she could get at without undressing. No need to give her maybe-a-pervert boss a free show. Finally, feeling just a touch more human, though still sorely in need of an actual bath, she snatches her day's pay.
$50, not bad for an hour or so of work…
"Thanks," Rei regrets her expression of gratitude almost the moment it leaves her mouth because it only makes the smug amusement on Yuuka's face more apparent. "So can I come work for you when I need money?"
"I think I can find something for you to do if you decide to show up," her boss leers, but she's too hot and tired to even begin to care.
"Right. Sounds good." she nods and turns to leave. "I'll be back when I'm broke."
"Oh, and miko," Yuuka calls out.
Rei stops and turns, one hand on the door. "Yes?"
Blood-red eyes pierce through her, transfixing her. "Do try to be less like your friend and not to poke into things that aren't yours to see."
The hair on the back of her neck rises. Instinct screams at her to run. To hide. To stand motionless. She tries to swallow around the lump in her throat but can't. All she can do is nod her head vigorously.
Yuuka smiles, and the oppressive air surrounding her vanishes as though it had never existed. "Good. I'll see you soon. And remember to bring a hakama and kosode with you next time you come. If you're to act the part, you need to look it too."
Rei is now able to take advantage of specific knowledge gained through her hobbies. Fortunately for her, these checks supersede the generic checks of her attributes. Thus, an Academics 5 check for an obscure flower may also be resolved by Rei's knowledge of gardening. Similarly, hobbies can allow Rei an alternative way to interact with the strange people she meets; for example, Yuuka may not have been as pleasant to a Rei who doesn't know anything about gardening.
On another note, I think the cadence of an update works better with two actions and an interstitial or two to set the stage (otherwise, I'll end up burning out on the third action and not doing it proper justice). These sections will also allow Rei to accrue minor amounts of XP toward advancing her hobbies (as seen in this update).
Reminder: Rei has ¥22000 and 4 days of food left.
Rei has 2 actions available (or just 1, depending)
Exploration Options - Find a new place at random or look for a specific one
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine
[] Explore Gensokyo
[] Go hiking in the mountains around Gensokyo
[] Write in if you want to find something specific (e.g., a library, a school, a theater, anything, really)
Social Options - Hang out with the friends you've made
[] Meet up with Marisa
[] Hang out with Nitori
Hobby Options - Improve an existing hobby or learn a new one
[] Go to the arcade
[] Read manga
[] Plant flowers at the shrine
[] Start a new hobby.
-[] write in which, or alternatively write in which attribute it should be for. Previously mentioned hobbies are art, exercise, sports, history, movies, camping, and music. Other hobbies can also be written in
Shopping Options - Make the shrine and your existence there more pleasant
[] Buy home repair supplies
[] Buy some electronic entertainment items
[] Buy some furniture
[] Buy a fridge and microwave
[] write-in. There are a lot of things that turn a house into a home. Write in one, and Rei will get it.
Food Options - Feed yourself for a day or longer
[] Buy stuff from the 7-Eleven
[] Buy groceries
[] Find a restaurant
[] Get a dessert
Employment Options - Find a job so you can afford to buy stuff
[] Go work for Yuuka
[] See if the convenience store is hiring
Event Options - some things take a lot longer to complete than others [event options only occur if they have the most votes]
[] Visit Professor Okazaki about the scholarship to Kyoto U.
[] Investigate the shrine with Marisa.
Write-in Options - The world is vast beyond belief and mysterious beyond words.
[] Instead of writing out a neverending list of things to do, I'll leave this here if voters want to do something else. Write-ins may well be incorporated into the turn options even if not chosen, so feel free to suggest whatever you want to see or do.
[AN]
I owe you all an action exploring the neighborhood around Rei's shrine. I'll try and get it out while the vote is going on.
Sighing, she grabs the loose sheet that was all the cover she needed with the summer warmth and gives it a good shake. Crumbs and a flash of brightly colored plastic fall free. She picks up the latter and brushes the former into a corner of her bedroom with the edge of her foot. She really should stop eating in bed. And she would, just as soon as she bought some furniture. Which, given how quickly she was burning through money, meant after she got a job.
A loud groan that seems to startle the birds into momentary silence echoes against pale cypress panels. She hadn't come to Japan to work. She'd come to… find closure with a neglectful parent? See the land of her birth? Because she hadn't been accepted to UW and hadn't bothered with a backup school?
It's called a gap year Auntie…
None of that mattered; at least it didn't matter as much as finding out that magic was real and there was a legit mystery around her mother and the shrine she'd just inherited. Said mystery would have to wait, though. Not just because Marisa was busy working a double shift at the 7-Eleven but because she had things to do. Important things. Like finding a way to get electricity into the shrine. Because as quaint as the whole living like it was the dark ages was, she missed not having to wave her arms in front of her to avoid walking into things in the night.
There were also the plants she'd bought from that flower lady still sitting in their ceramic containers, but with a bit of water and a good spot in the shade, they'd keep for at least a week or so. What wouldn't keep was the desire for electricity… and money… and maybe taking a look around the neighborhood. She had neighbors now, and while she didn't want to knock on their doors and meet them, it seemed weird not to know what was happening around her shrine.
Plans for the day decided Rei wanders outside to the fresh-water fountain, toothbrush, toothpaste, and kettle firmly in hand. Twenty minutes later, Rei is caffeinated, munching on a bag of chips that tasted a bit too much like fish and enjoying yet another not entirely unpleasant sunrise.
Another half hour later and Rei stands, tucking the empty bag of chips in a back pocket. She's finally ready to start the day. Slipping on her shoes as she steps out the front door, she takes a moment to arrange the planters she'd bought from Yuuka in a better spot than she'd left them last night and gives them a light misting of water.
[Gardening xp gained]
Finding a store that sold generators hadn't exactly been difficult. Finding out that the only options the department store had available either used gas, or were charged by electricity to begin with was annoying. Trying to find a place that would sell something less useless for her was complicated by a dead-eyed saleswoman who could barely be coaxed into responding in more than one-word sentences. But eventually, she'd gotten a name. Kawashiro's. As for the location…
Rei steps inside the door of a rather cramped back alley shop, grateful for the relief from the summer humidity. Her eyes trace around a shop lined with folding tables set up like aisles and absolutely crammed full of what she could only charitably describe as junk. If that saleslady had directed her to the wrong place… tch…
"Oh, hey, a customer." A blue-haired head pops up from behind a pile of junk. "Welcome to Kawashiro's. I'm Nitori, and this is my shop. What can I get for you?"
Rei opens her mouth to ask how a girl who looked younger than her could own a shop like this and then shuts it. She owned a shrine, after all. More than that, though, a faint something seemed to hover in the air around the shopowner. It reminded her of Yuuka. It reminded her of magic.
"I need a generator. One that doesn't run off of fuel."
"Oh," the bluenette perks up, and she scrambles out from behind her pile of junk, towing a curiously shaped black box behind her. "In that case, have I got just the thing for you. I just finished the QC testing on this bad boy this morning."
"It looks umm… What is it?" Rei can't quite keep the skepticism from her voice as she looks at a box that seems like it had been hammered together by an excitable eighth grader.
"The KP Mk-20 absorbs ambient sunlight at an efficiency of 48.1% in laboratory testing and an astonishing 45.2% in field testing. Four hours of direct sunlight is enough to charge the battery fully, and once charged, it can run most household appliances for up to twenty-four hours." Nitori schmoozes into her personal space, brandishing the solar generator like a prized jewel.
"Aren't you a bit…" Rei stops just short of shoving the girl back but can't keep herself from taking a step back. "Does it even work?"
"Does it work?!?! Of course it works." The shopkeeper pulls a bit hanging from the side that turns into an extension cord. "It's even got twenty feet of extendable cable. I'll set the Mk-20 outside. Here, take the power cable and go plug it into that fridge over there."
The extension cord bounces off her chest as she makes no move to take it. However, that does nothing to deter the other girl as she rushes outside with the maybe a solar generator. A moment later, she returns, picks up the discarded cable and moves over to a fridge decorated with pictures of a bright yellow, starburst flower—a cucumber flower, of all things.
Nitori swaps out the power lines to the fridge with deft hands and waves her over. As Rei moves to stand over the girl's shoulder, she opens the fridge door, "There. See. It powers the fridge, no problems. You can't find a solar generator half as powerful anywhere else."
"That's a lot of cucumber," Rei mutters and frowns when the bluenette jumps slightly. "Ok. So it works. How much?"
"¥50000." Is the almost immediate and entirely too expensive response.
"It looks like a middle schooler's science fair project. ¥10000." Haggling isn't something she'd ever done before, but she'd rather not have electricity than get scammed for $500.
A competitive grin flickers across the shopkeeper's face. "It's the pinnacle of ka- of my electrical engineering research. ¥40000."
"Can you guarantee it will still work a week from now? ¥15000."
"Can I guarantee-" her face twists up in a scowl. "This thing will survive the apocalypse. ¥3500."
"Right… look, I've got some stuff to do this afternoon, so thanks for the demo, I guess, but…" Rei dips her head and turns to leave.
"Wait!" The almost shout stops her midstride, and she turns to look at the shopkeeper. "How about a little game? You win, and I'll sell it for ¥10000. I win, and it's ¥40000."
For a moment, she's tempted to walk out, and not just because she doesn't have $400 to spend. There was something about the other girl that felt a bit too… used-car saleswoman. Still, it wouldn't hurt to hear her out, would it? "What's the game?"
"Shogi. And since I'm picking the game, I'll spot you a five piece handicap."
It didn't take a genius to see the scheme burning in her eyes, but Rei barely pauses before accepting. She wasn't as familiar with Shogi as with chess, but she'd still played hundreds and hundreds of matches against Auntie and her friends. "Done. I'll take black."
Her quick acceptance of the offer cracks some of the scheming confidence on the other girl's face, but pride or greed seems to hold her back from calling the bet off. It was a decision the shopkeeper would soon come to regret.
"Can I get a bag to carry this thing with?" Rei has long since given up on hiding her triumphant smirk as she hands over a pair of ¥5000 notes.
"For the low-low price of ¥35000." Her smirk widens at the pouting, defeated sigh from her former opponent.
"I'll just carry it out then." Rei tucks the generator under one arm. She lets the smirk fade from her face and addresses the shopkeeper. "You played well. I wasn't expecting the Anaguma opening. Maybe next time we can play without the handicap?"
"Oh?" Nitori looks up, something intrigued flickering across her face. "Don't think I'll let you off so easily next time."
"Yeah, yeah," she turns and flicks her free hand in a wave goodbye. "Later, Nitori."
"So the cute little Miko returns. I wonder what she wants this time," blood-red eyes don't stray from a bonsai tree being carefully trimmed, but Rei can still clearly see the lazy smirk crossing the shopkeeper's face. "Though perhaps she simply couldn't stay away…"
Rei breathes out. The flower lady was strong. She had the same feel of magic that surrounded Nitori, though to call them the same was to compare a candle to a bonfire… or a nuclear explosion. "I need a job."
"And you thought to work with my little ones even though you have yet to plant your own?" There's an edge to the sly amusement in Yuuka's voice, but she can't quite tell what it is.
"I've been busy," she huffs. "And you know as well as I do that they can keep for a few more days."
"Cute and lazy… my, what a combination." she clips one last branch with tiny scissors and sets them to the side. "What need have I for either, though?"
That… hadn't actually occurred to her. Rei looks around. The shop itself looked well cared for. Row upon row of flowers sprawled across the shop, their colors vibrant enough to shame a rainbow. Decorative vases and ceramic planters lined the walls, giving the shop an almost antique feel. Bags of dirt and gardening supplies were tucked away unobtrusively. The only thing she could see was small piles of soil that had fallen free and were dirtying up the floors. Tch. She hated cleaning. Still, she couldn't give up that easily. She needed the money.
"I can," she manages to withhold a grimace, "clean the floors… make sure things get put up properly."
"A Miko pushing a broom in my shop does have a certain appeal," her smirk widens indulgently. "I suppose I could try you out and see how well you hold up… as for what comes after, well… we'll see."
"That's…" she ignores the suggestive tone and the leering. High school boys were worse… and far less subtle. "Sure, do your worst."
"Oh, I won't do that to you just yet," her smirk widens again, revealing surprisingly sharp teeth. "But I do have a test for you. Organize the flowers in the greenhouse according to their needs. If you pass, I'm sure I can find a place for you here…"
"Deal."
Test agreed on. Rei doesn't wait for a response from her soon-to-be boss before turning toward the glass door that looks into what was clearly the greenhouse. It was a shame that passing this test would subject her to more of Yuuka's teasing, but as long as the shopkeeper didn't get handsy, she could deal with it. And maybe if she continued not to react, the older woman would eventually get tired of it. Well, a girl could hope.
A wall of heat and humidity slams into her as she opens the greenhouse door, and Rei instinctively steps back. The ocean breeze did a lot to keep Gensokyo itself bearable, but there was none of that relief here. Just thick panes of glass trapping in sunlight and baking everything beneath as though it were an oven. Still, she'd asked for this chance, and she wasn't about to let a little heat get the best of her. Even if it felt like she'd walked face-first into a muggy furnace.
Rei pulls the ribbon threaded through her hair free and reties it around her forehead like a headband. Then she rolls up the loose sleeves of her blouse and ties them off mid-shoulder. If she'd known she'd be working in the heat like this, she'd have worn something a bit more comfortable.
Too late to complain about that now…
At least the greenhouse itself didn't seem that large, and a brief glance from where she stood didn't show that much out of place. That was, until she started walking down the aisles. Then she saw just how wrong that assumption had been. A painted fern was burning up under direct sunlight. A planter full of Lilly of the Valley and Sea Holly had been shoved too far into a shade-covered alcove formed by a trellis covered in ivy. Water from a mister was steadily pooling in the soil of a row of succulents. And that was just the beginning.
By the end of her survey, she'd noted at least a dozen more mistakes. Had Yuuka really made that many mistakes in filling her greenhouse? It seemed impossible given what she'd seen in the shop itself. And yet it was a more reasonable explanation than her somehow having anticipated that Rei would come back looking for a job and setting up this little test. Or it would have been more reasonable were it not for one thing: magic.
Yuuka had it. Marisa had told her as much, and she'd felt it for herself. If magic were anything like the myths and stories around it, divination could tell the future, and then… Rei shakes her head, violently ending that chain of thought. She was here to pass a test, not navel-gaze about magic. To do that she needed to get to work.
An hour in, and Rei was regretting many things, starting with the jeans that were currently stuck to her legs by the sweat dripping from her almost since she'd started and ending with not throwing away her mother's stupid letter in the first place. But at least she was done.
Plants had been repotted to better suit their soil requirements. Planters had been moved about to better fit their sunlight needs. She'd rearranged a few flowers just to reduce the clashing of colors. Pink and purple flowers looked better with a cooler color for contrast rather than each other.
Dripping sweat in a way that made her look almost half-drowned, Rei steps out of the greenhouse. She shivers as a wave of air-conditioned air washes over her but ignores the prickling of chill in favor of an audible sigh of relief.
Yuuka looks up from trimming a different bonsai and smirks, "Ahh, the Miko returns. Bedraggled yet triumphant."
Rei scowls, but it bounces off the woman without effect. "I need a towel. Some water, too."
"I suppose a future employee would deserve that much… if she passed her little test, that is." Despite her words, she makes no effort to move, save for clipping a single leaf off the bonsai.
"Well?" Rei hmphs, hot, sweaty, and entirely uncomfortable.
"Impatient too..." The shopkeeper's amusement only seems to grow with each passing bead of sweat that falls from Rei's face. "though I suppose I don't dislike that."
"Give me my passing grade and money for the work I did." she punctuates her words by stomping over to the counter Yuuka was lounging behind.
"Hmm… I do like a miko willing to take charge," once again, Rei ignores the leering in favor of tapping her foot with an audible tap, tap, tap.
"Ahh, that glare… it reminds me of a misspent youth." Yuuka's leer shifts to something that almost looks genuine. "You did well, Miko. You showed more care and consideration for my little ones than I had expected."
She leans down, seeming to reach for something beneath the counter, and then returns with a towel, a bottle of water, and a small stack of bills. "Here. Towel and water as requested and ¥5000 for your efforts."
Rei grabs the water first, cracking the top open and guzzling the ice-cold contents down in a single gulp.
"Ahh," she sighs in satisfaction and slams the empty bottle back on the counter. Next, she grabs the towel, wiping away the worst of the sweat that she could get at without undressing. No need to give her maybe-a-pervert boss a free show. Finally, feeling just a touch more human, though still sorely in need of an actual bath, she snatches her day's pay.
$50, not bad for an hour or so of work…
"Thanks," Rei regrets her expression of gratitude almost the moment it leaves her mouth because it only makes the smug amusement on Yuuka's face more apparent. "So can I come work for you when I need money?"
"I think I can find something for you to do if you decide to show up," her boss leers, but she's too hot and tired to even begin to care.
"Right. Sounds good." she nods and turns to leave. "I'll be back when I'm broke."
"Oh, and miko," Yuuka calls out.
Rei stops and turns, one hand on the door. "Yes?"
Blood-red eyes pierce through her, transfixing her. "Do try to be less like your friend and not to poke into things that aren't yours to see."
The hair on the back of her neck rises. Instinct screams at her to run. To hide. To stand motionless. She tries to swallow around the lump in her throat but can't. All she can do is nod her head vigorously.
Yuuka smiles, and the oppressive air surrounding her vanishes as though it had never existed. "Good. I'll see you soon. And remember to bring a hakama and kosode with you next time you come. If you're to act the part, you need to look it too."
Nitori's shop
- Awareness 2 [Passed] Rei feels something strange from Nitori
- Academics 1 [Passed] Rei knows solar generators don't look like that
- Allure 1 [Failed] ???
- Chess [Passed] Rei beats Nitori in a game of Shogi
- Awareness 2 [Passed] Yuuka is strong
- Allure 1 [Failed] ???
- Gardening [Passed] Rei passes Yuuka's test and gets hired
- Athletics 1 [Failed] ???
- Aplomb 2 [Failed] ???
Rei is now able to take advantage of specific knowledge gained through her hobbies. Fortunately for her, these checks supersede the generic checks of her attributes. Thus, an Academics 5 check for an obscure flower may also be resolved by Rei's knowledge of gardening. Similarly, hobbies can allow Rei an alternative way to interact with the strange people she meets; for example, Yuuka may not have been as pleasant to a Rei who doesn't know anything about gardening.
On another note, I think the cadence of an update works better with two actions and an interstitial or two to set the stage (otherwise, I'll end up burning out on the third action and not doing it proper justice). These sections will also allow Rei to accrue minor amounts of XP toward advancing her hobbies (as seen in this update).
Reminder: Rei has ¥22000 and 4 days of food left.
Rei has 2 actions available (or just 1, depending)
Exploration Options - Find a new place at random or look for a specific one
[] Explore the neighborhood around the shrine
[] Explore Gensokyo
[] Go hiking in the mountains around Gensokyo
[] Write in if you want to find something specific (e.g., a library, a school, a theater, anything, really)
Social Options - Hang out with the friends you've made
[] Meet up with Marisa
[] Hang out with Nitori
Hobby Options - Improve an existing hobby or learn a new one
[] Go to the arcade
[] Read manga
[] Plant flowers at the shrine
[] Start a new hobby.
-[] write in which, or alternatively write in which attribute it should be for. Previously mentioned hobbies are art, exercise, sports, history, movies, camping, and music. Other hobbies can also be written in
Shopping Options - Make the shrine and your existence there more pleasant
[] Buy home repair supplies
[] Buy some electronic entertainment items
[] Buy some furniture
[] Buy a fridge and microwave
[] write-in. There are a lot of things that turn a house into a home. Write in one, and Rei will get it.
Food Options - Feed yourself for a day or longer
[] Buy stuff from the 7-Eleven
[] Buy groceries
[] Find a restaurant
[] Get a dessert
Employment Options - Find a job so you can afford to buy stuff
[] Go work for Yuuka
[] See if the convenience store is hiring
Event Options - some things take a lot longer to complete than others [event options only occur if they have the most votes]
[] Visit Professor Okazaki about the scholarship to Kyoto U.
[] Investigate the shrine with Marisa.
Write-in Options - The world is vast beyond belief and mysterious beyond words.
[] Instead of writing out a neverending list of things to do, I'll leave this here if voters want to do something else. Write-ins may well be incorporated into the turn options even if not chosen, so feel free to suggest whatever you want to see or do.
Aesthetics (1) - Rei's sense of beauty and her understanding of the interactions of colors and shapes.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding and her raw intellectual power.
Aplomb (0) - Rei's ability to control her emotions.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma, likeability, and ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Gardening (+1 aesthetics). Was it the simple elegance of a well-arranged bed of flowers or getting in the dirt that drew her to gardening? Rei never really cared to figure it out.
Academics (1) - Rei's level of knowledge and understanding and her raw intellectual power.
- Chess (+1 academics). Rei won her first regional tournament at fourteen and her first state tournament at sixteen.
Aplomb (0) - Rei's ability to control her emotions.
Allure (0) - Rei's charisma, likeability, and ease in conversations.
Awareness (2) - Rei's ability to notice when things aren't as they appear.
- Reading (+1 awareness). If Rei had to pick a favorite genre, it would be a mystery. Murder mystery.
- Video Games (+1 awareness). Back home, Rei has an aging gaming computer that she was constantly on the lookout for upgrades for (so long as it's within her budget).
[AN]
I owe you all an action exploring the neighborhood around Rei's shrine. I'll try and get it out while the vote is going on.