[X] Investigate the shrine with Marisa.
[X] Work on Nitori's cucumber patch.
[X] Work on Nitori's cucumber patch.
Shrine Maiden (A Modern-Day Touhou Quest)
- Thread starter dmclain2
- Start date
- Location
- Lost in the internet
@DiscordOxymoron
I think we can do only 1 Mystery/Travel Option per turn
I think we can do only 1 Mystery/Travel Option per turn
[X] Meet up with Marisa
[X] Work on Nitori's cucumber patch.
[X] Work on Nitori's cucumber patch.
- Location
- Poland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x] Meet up with Marisa
[x] Investigate the shrine with Marisa.
Fair enough. Marisa it is, then.
[x] Investigate the shrine with Marisa.
Fair enough. Marisa it is, then.
TortugaGreen
Constantly out of the loop
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Work on Nitori's cucumber patch.
- Location
- a Minecraft Rollercoaster
[x] Meet up with Marisa
[x] Investigate the shrine with Marisa.
Tiebreaker to spend the whole of the day with Marisa
[x] Investigate the shrine with Marisa.
Tiebreaker to spend the whole of the day with Marisa
- Location
- Lost in the internet
Gomendasai, Nitori-chan !
*commit sudoku*
*commit sudoku*
Last edited:
Chapter 11.1 - Hanging Out
Rei awakens, momentarily confused and absolutely sure something is missing. She looks around her bedroom, but her eyes are still blurry from sleep, and she can't see a thing through all the darkness. It takes a moment for her brain to kick into gear, and when it does, she flops back to her pillow.
Birds. That was what was missing. Because she'd somehow managed to wake up before even the faintest hint of dawn could stream in through her rice-paper screened windows. What a miserable state of affairs: to be awake so early. She rolls over and closes her eyes, resolute in the desire to get whatever sleep she could before any chance at sleep was ruined by those damn birds.
Ten minutes later, she's even more wide awake than she was ten minutes ago. A thrum of anticipation pulses beneath her skin, and a thread of anxiousness worms its way mindlessly through her thoughts. Today was big.
She'd dropped by the convenience store on the way home last night to see if Marisa wanted to explore the shrine with her. The blonde had been intrigued by the idea, and after realizing neither of them had phones—or even a convenient way to get in touch with each other—they'd promised to meet the next day at an ice cream shop around noon.
The next day, which was now today and…
None of this was helping her get back to sleep in the slightest. Once again, she shuts her eyes and forcefully silences her thoughts. All her efforts are futile, though, as the jitteriness in her thoughts is joined by an idle tapping of her foot against the base of her futon.
Ugh… I'm turning into Auntie, waking up before dawn like this…
With a growl that sounds unnaturally loud against the complete stillness of the night, Rei pushes herself to her feet. If she couldn't have sleep, she could have tea and toast and bacon—or some kind of Japanese analog the grocery store called bara. Hopefully, the spattering of grease wouldn't make too much of a mess of her Thermo-Cooler.
Rei stares at the oily sheen coating the surface of her Thermo-Cooler as she sips from a cup of delightfully fragrant green tea. The grease had, in fact, made a rather impressive mess of the strange invention. Fortunately, there was a ready-made solution for that particular issue. She drags a thick-cut piece of toast along one of the larger grease spatters, making sure to soak up as much of the bacony goodness as possible.
One girl's mess is another girl's dipping sauce… or something like that…
She wraps her greasy slice of toast around a thick piece of bacon, heedless of the fat dripping from her fingers onto the porch—it would wash away next time it rained—and stuffs the entire thing in her mouth. It was almost too much to chew. Almost. But the smokey, savory flavor of the bacon—bara—mixes with the crunchy, chewy, slightly sweet toast, and Rei hardly cares that her cheeks puff out like a chipmunk's as she devours her breakfast.
Breakfast wends its way toward lunch in a haze of greasy meat, tea, and the last few chapters of her last unread manga. But eventually, she can no longer put off getting dressed for the day and heading out to meet with Marisa.
[+1 XP reading]
Rei tips her chair back slightly to better catch a bit of the shade cast by the parasol stuck into the table she was sitting at. It was just the wrong side of warm with the sun out, but in the shade, with a gentle breeze, it was almost perfect. The only thing that would make the day more perfect was two scoops of coffee-flavored ice cream and a heavy drizzle of dark chocolate sauce. And if Marisa didn't arrive soon, that's just what she'd get, and to hell with politeness.
"Oh, hey, you're early." As if summoned by the thought, Marisa's bright voice calls out from somewhere behind her.
The front legs of her chair slam down as Rei turns around in her seat, only for whatever she'd intended to say to disappear from her lips. "What are you wearing?"
"Ya' like?" The blonde twirls, sending black fabric rimmed with white lace dancing up around her knees, and then tips back an altogether absurd-looking witch's hat to reveal an amused smirk. "It's my witch's outfit."
"But why?" It didn't look bad on her… in fact, it fit her in the same way that the miko outfit fit Rei, but that didn't mean she would wear it anywhere other than when working for Yuuka.
"It looks cool." Her friend says as though that was all the explanation she needed, and perhaps it was. "There's 'nother reason, but that can wait 'til we get to the shrine."
"Fair enough," Rei concedes easily enough. It wasn't as though she was the one wearing an absurd outfit in public. "Another couple minutes, and I'd have started without you."
"Ahh, sorry 'bout that." Marisa grins sheepishly and rubs at the back of her hat. "Was havin' some car troubles an' kinda lost track of time."
"Well, you're here now, so I suppose I can let it slide." Rei stands with the sound of wood scraping against concrete. "Let's go… I've been thinking about this place since I saw it the day I arrived."
"And ya' managed ta' walk past it without goin' inside." Marisa falls into step beside her. "Yer' a stronger woman than I am."
"It was a busy day," she ignores the complex… not quite grief… she'd felt the day she'd arrived in Gensokyo in favor of pulling the glass door open and stepping inside. A wave of air conditioning and the unique smell of an ice cream store hit her in tandem, and she sighs. "It's a good day for ice cream."
"Ain't it always." Marisa matches her grin, and they make their way to the front counter.
Minutes later, both girls are laden down by their orders. Rei's in a cardboard troth practically overflowing with espresso-flavored goodness, and Marisa's stacked precariously, four scoops high and rainbow-colored, atop a dark brown waffle cone.
"How are you supposed to eat that without getting it all over your outfit?" Rei wonders aloud as she spoons the first bite of her dessert into her mouth. Perfect.
"Don' you worry 'bout that. I've got this down to a science." Suiting actions to words, Marisa takes a huge bite of the topmost scoop—an electric yellow—without even slightly disturbing the layers beneath it.
"See," she grins around a mouth full of banana-flavored ice cream. "Nothin' to it."
For a while, the silence around the two girls is complete, except for the breeze ruffling through the parasol, the buzz of insects… and the sound of chomping as Marisa starts to gnaw into her waffle cone.
"So…" Rei trails off as she scoops a melted spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. "How come people are so… distant around here?"
"What'cha mean?" Marisa looks at her cross-eyed while trying to suck a bit of ice cream through the bottom of her cone.
"Like the guy behind the counter…" her eyebrow raises in confusion. She'd seen it at a number of stores in just this last week. The blonde must have noticed it too given how long she'd said she'd lived here. "He didn't say anything or smile or do anything but fill the order."
"Yeah, what's so weird 'bout that?" the blonde tosses the last bits of her cone into her mouth and kicks her feet up on the table. "Jus' bein' efficient or some such."
"I'm used to the Seattle chill, but isn't that a bit much…" she tilts her head to one side, "besides, isn't Japan supposed to be a really polite place?"
"It's jus' Gensokyo," Marisa shrugs, seeming disinterested, "folks outside are a bit more like what yer thinkin'."
"Don't you think that's odd given the… you know?" She waves a hand idly.
"Nah." the blonde tilts her head back to stare up at the sun.
"Well, what about Yuuka? She's like the opposite of distant." Rei frowns as a suspicion starts to form in her thoughts.
"Yeah, Yuuka's a bit terrif-" Marisa's chair slams to the ground, and she winces as her knees dig into her chest. "You met Yuuka?"
"Yeah, I work part-time at her shop…" Rei smirks as her friend's eyes widen in shock.
"And she hasn't tried to ya' know…" the witch draws a finger across her throat in an unmistakable gesture.
"She's a bit of a pervert and probably a bit too into shrine maidens, but other than that…" she shrugs exaggeratedly, the smirk on her face only growing as Marisa mouths 'pervert' to herself. "So, yeah… back to my point. Not everyone here is so… distant."
"Well, Yuuka is Yuuka, so…" The blonde's eyes look off into the distance for a moment before returning with a forceful shake of the head. "Nah, don' wanna even- so, anyone else ya' find a bit differen'?
"Nitori," Rei answers with hardly a moment of pause. "I'm not the most tech-savvy, but even I know the stuff she invents isn't really… possible."
"That's 'cause she's a ka-" Marisa cuts herself off abruptly. "Ya' know. Mythological being… likes cucumbers, hides a bowl of water under her hat, probably has a thing for ana-... anyways yeah, she's good people. Helped me fix up my car after I bought it."
"A thing for…" she trails off, decides she doesn't want to know, and changes the subject. "So, the only… active people I've met since I moved here are… you know… don't you think that's weird?"
"Well, no, but…" golden eyes light up with a flash of epiphany. "Hol-ee shit. I've been here for years an' didn't even notice until ya' jus' said so… I thought the ya' know was the only thing 'round here that was blocked off, but… now I really wanna check out that shrine of yours."
Rei looks at her empty bowl and over at the sticky napkins that were all that was left of Marisa's dessert. "It's about a half an hour's walk if you want to go now."
"Nah," despite that, Marisa pushes herself out of her chair and fiddles with her hat for a moment. "We can drive. I left my tools in the car anyways."
Rei spills out of the passenger seat of an old Honda as it screeches to a stop in front of the faded torii that marked the entrance to her shrine. "Who taught you to drive? You could have killed those kids."
"They jumped outta the way in time," Marisa slams the driver's side door closed with a dull clunk and grins brightly over the faded gray exterior of her car. "'Sides, folks in town know me."
"That's not an excuse." Rei frowns at her friend but lets it go as that sunny grin remains undimmed. "Tch, fine. Next time we're walking. Or at least I am."
"Nothin' wrong with goin' fast." The blonde replies in a way that sounds like she's made that excuse a thousand times before and walks over to pop the trunk on her car. "Anyways. I brought a little bit o' everythin' just in case, but I'm gonna need ta start with somethin' simple."
Saying that she pulls out a curious piece of branched metal with two leather-wrapped handles at one end. "Made this dowsin' rod myself in shop class senior year. Had ta' wait for summer solstice to get the enchantments to set properly, though. Should direct us ta' places of magic buildup, an' we can start the real investigation there."
"It certainly looks homemade," Rei smirks as the blonde shoots her dry stare. "But I'll defer to the expert. Do you need anything else or…"
"For that, I should make ya' hold one end, but that'd jus' complicate the measurin, so…" Marisa props the deformed rake over one shoulder and swaggers off toward the torii. "Jus' stay close… yer connection to the shrine may pry somethin' loose."
"Connections, huh?" Rei ponders over the term for a minute before it clicks. "That's why you're dressed like that? The connection between looking like a witch and being one?"
"Huh," the blonde looks her over from head to toe and then pauses for a cheesy thumbs up. "Looks like my new par'ner's a real bright one."
"Thanks," Rei responds dryly before pushing her friend's hand down. "But let's not go quite that far."
"Fine. Fine." Marisa turns to swagger toward the torii. "Gonna need both hands for my rod anyways."
"Not you too…" Rei sighs but can't help the smile that forms on her face.
"Heh."
"Is it supposed to do that?" Rei stares at where the dowsing rod had practically whipped Marisa around the moment they'd stepped under the torii.
"Never seen anythin' half so strong." The blonde's arms flex, but the rod won't move from where it points at the left pillar of the faded red gate. "Gonna have to cut the mana flow to it an' try again… hopefully whatever's goin' on fades a bit 'fore we get to the shrine or my rod won' tell us much."
"Is that any better?" Rei smirks as her friend tries to wrestle her reverse-rake away from the mini-shrine near the tree line.
"A hokora's meant to seal stuff away," the blonde gives up and lets the tool fall to the ground. "Could mean there's somethin' still in there… or somethin' that was there but's gotten out."
"Third time's a charm?" Rei wonders aloud as they stand outside the room where that yin-yang ball sits on its altar.
"No offense, Rei, but that room's real creepy." Marisa shudders as she props her rake up against a wall, careful not to scratch anything.
"So, what now?"
"Well, I've got some supplies for a divination ritual that we can do at midnight, but we can only investigate one at a time." The blonde shrugs idly at the curious look on Rei's face. "It's ta do with cosmic alignment an' symbolic transitions an' all that."
"Right, that makes sense." It didn't… but it kind of did. "Well, if symmetry and all that actually matters, I've got a Miko outfit I can put on if you think it would help."
"Hah, an' ya' were out there judgin' me for my witchy looks," Marisa smirks triumphantly.
"I still am." Rei matches the smirk with one of her own. A smirk that grows wider as her friend's face falls into an exaggerated pout.
"Jus' wait 'til you see some real magic… then you'll be changin' yer mind." The blonde mutters loudly, "Since it's yer shrine an' all… how 'bout ya' pick which one."
[] Investigate the Torii
[] Investigate the Honden
[] Investigate the Hokora
[AN]
Seems like there's some weird stuff going on at the shrine. Well, the girls should be fine. Right?
Birds. That was what was missing. Because she'd somehow managed to wake up before even the faintest hint of dawn could stream in through her rice-paper screened windows. What a miserable state of affairs: to be awake so early. She rolls over and closes her eyes, resolute in the desire to get whatever sleep she could before any chance at sleep was ruined by those damn birds.
Ten minutes later, she's even more wide awake than she was ten minutes ago. A thrum of anticipation pulses beneath her skin, and a thread of anxiousness worms its way mindlessly through her thoughts. Today was big.
She'd dropped by the convenience store on the way home last night to see if Marisa wanted to explore the shrine with her. The blonde had been intrigued by the idea, and after realizing neither of them had phones—or even a convenient way to get in touch with each other—they'd promised to meet the next day at an ice cream shop around noon.
The next day, which was now today and…
None of this was helping her get back to sleep in the slightest. Once again, she shuts her eyes and forcefully silences her thoughts. All her efforts are futile, though, as the jitteriness in her thoughts is joined by an idle tapping of her foot against the base of her futon.
Ugh… I'm turning into Auntie, waking up before dawn like this…
With a growl that sounds unnaturally loud against the complete stillness of the night, Rei pushes herself to her feet. If she couldn't have sleep, she could have tea and toast and bacon—or some kind of Japanese analog the grocery store called bara. Hopefully, the spattering of grease wouldn't make too much of a mess of her Thermo-Cooler.
Rei stares at the oily sheen coating the surface of her Thermo-Cooler as she sips from a cup of delightfully fragrant green tea. The grease had, in fact, made a rather impressive mess of the strange invention. Fortunately, there was a ready-made solution for that particular issue. She drags a thick-cut piece of toast along one of the larger grease spatters, making sure to soak up as much of the bacony goodness as possible.
One girl's mess is another girl's dipping sauce… or something like that…
She wraps her greasy slice of toast around a thick piece of bacon, heedless of the fat dripping from her fingers onto the porch—it would wash away next time it rained—and stuffs the entire thing in her mouth. It was almost too much to chew. Almost. But the smokey, savory flavor of the bacon—bara—mixes with the crunchy, chewy, slightly sweet toast, and Rei hardly cares that her cheeks puff out like a chipmunk's as she devours her breakfast.
Breakfast wends its way toward lunch in a haze of greasy meat, tea, and the last few chapters of her last unread manga. But eventually, she can no longer put off getting dressed for the day and heading out to meet with Marisa.
[+1 XP reading]
Rei tips her chair back slightly to better catch a bit of the shade cast by the parasol stuck into the table she was sitting at. It was just the wrong side of warm with the sun out, but in the shade, with a gentle breeze, it was almost perfect. The only thing that would make the day more perfect was two scoops of coffee-flavored ice cream and a heavy drizzle of dark chocolate sauce. And if Marisa didn't arrive soon, that's just what she'd get, and to hell with politeness.
"Oh, hey, you're early." As if summoned by the thought, Marisa's bright voice calls out from somewhere behind her.
The front legs of her chair slam down as Rei turns around in her seat, only for whatever she'd intended to say to disappear from her lips. "What are you wearing?"
"Ya' like?" The blonde twirls, sending black fabric rimmed with white lace dancing up around her knees, and then tips back an altogether absurd-looking witch's hat to reveal an amused smirk. "It's my witch's outfit."
"But why?" It didn't look bad on her… in fact, it fit her in the same way that the miko outfit fit Rei, but that didn't mean she would wear it anywhere other than when working for Yuuka.
"It looks cool." Her friend says as though that was all the explanation she needed, and perhaps it was. "There's 'nother reason, but that can wait 'til we get to the shrine."
"Fair enough," Rei concedes easily enough. It wasn't as though she was the one wearing an absurd outfit in public. "Another couple minutes, and I'd have started without you."
"Ahh, sorry 'bout that." Marisa grins sheepishly and rubs at the back of her hat. "Was havin' some car troubles an' kinda lost track of time."
"Well, you're here now, so I suppose I can let it slide." Rei stands with the sound of wood scraping against concrete. "Let's go… I've been thinking about this place since I saw it the day I arrived."
"And ya' managed ta' walk past it without goin' inside." Marisa falls into step beside her. "Yer' a stronger woman than I am."
"It was a busy day," she ignores the complex… not quite grief… she'd felt the day she'd arrived in Gensokyo in favor of pulling the glass door open and stepping inside. A wave of air conditioning and the unique smell of an ice cream store hit her in tandem, and she sighs. "It's a good day for ice cream."
"Ain't it always." Marisa matches her grin, and they make their way to the front counter.
Minutes later, both girls are laden down by their orders. Rei's in a cardboard troth practically overflowing with espresso-flavored goodness, and Marisa's stacked precariously, four scoops high and rainbow-colored, atop a dark brown waffle cone.
"How are you supposed to eat that without getting it all over your outfit?" Rei wonders aloud as she spoons the first bite of her dessert into her mouth. Perfect.
"Don' you worry 'bout that. I've got this down to a science." Suiting actions to words, Marisa takes a huge bite of the topmost scoop—an electric yellow—without even slightly disturbing the layers beneath it.
"See," she grins around a mouth full of banana-flavored ice cream. "Nothin' to it."
For a while, the silence around the two girls is complete, except for the breeze ruffling through the parasol, the buzz of insects… and the sound of chomping as Marisa starts to gnaw into her waffle cone.
"So…" Rei trails off as she scoops a melted spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. "How come people are so… distant around here?"
"What'cha mean?" Marisa looks at her cross-eyed while trying to suck a bit of ice cream through the bottom of her cone.
"Like the guy behind the counter…" her eyebrow raises in confusion. She'd seen it at a number of stores in just this last week. The blonde must have noticed it too given how long she'd said she'd lived here. "He didn't say anything or smile or do anything but fill the order."
"Yeah, what's so weird 'bout that?" the blonde tosses the last bits of her cone into her mouth and kicks her feet up on the table. "Jus' bein' efficient or some such."
"I'm used to the Seattle chill, but isn't that a bit much…" she tilts her head to one side, "besides, isn't Japan supposed to be a really polite place?"
"It's jus' Gensokyo," Marisa shrugs, seeming disinterested, "folks outside are a bit more like what yer thinkin'."
"Don't you think that's odd given the… you know?" She waves a hand idly.
"Nah." the blonde tilts her head back to stare up at the sun.
"Well, what about Yuuka? She's like the opposite of distant." Rei frowns as a suspicion starts to form in her thoughts.
"Yeah, Yuuka's a bit terrif-" Marisa's chair slams to the ground, and she winces as her knees dig into her chest. "You met Yuuka?"
"Yeah, I work part-time at her shop…" Rei smirks as her friend's eyes widen in shock.
"And she hasn't tried to ya' know…" the witch draws a finger across her throat in an unmistakable gesture.
"She's a bit of a pervert and probably a bit too into shrine maidens, but other than that…" she shrugs exaggeratedly, the smirk on her face only growing as Marisa mouths 'pervert' to herself. "So, yeah… back to my point. Not everyone here is so… distant."
"Well, Yuuka is Yuuka, so…" The blonde's eyes look off into the distance for a moment before returning with a forceful shake of the head. "Nah, don' wanna even- so, anyone else ya' find a bit differen'?
"Nitori," Rei answers with hardly a moment of pause. "I'm not the most tech-savvy, but even I know the stuff she invents isn't really… possible."
"That's 'cause she's a ka-" Marisa cuts herself off abruptly. "Ya' know. Mythological being… likes cucumbers, hides a bowl of water under her hat, probably has a thing for ana-... anyways yeah, she's good people. Helped me fix up my car after I bought it."
"A thing for…" she trails off, decides she doesn't want to know, and changes the subject. "So, the only… active people I've met since I moved here are… you know… don't you think that's weird?"
"Well, no, but…" golden eyes light up with a flash of epiphany. "Hol-ee shit. I've been here for years an' didn't even notice until ya' jus' said so… I thought the ya' know was the only thing 'round here that was blocked off, but… now I really wanna check out that shrine of yours."
Rei looks at her empty bowl and over at the sticky napkins that were all that was left of Marisa's dessert. "It's about a half an hour's walk if you want to go now."
"Nah," despite that, Marisa pushes herself out of her chair and fiddles with her hat for a moment. "We can drive. I left my tools in the car anyways."
Rei spills out of the passenger seat of an old Honda as it screeches to a stop in front of the faded torii that marked the entrance to her shrine. "Who taught you to drive? You could have killed those kids."
"They jumped outta the way in time," Marisa slams the driver's side door closed with a dull clunk and grins brightly over the faded gray exterior of her car. "'Sides, folks in town know me."
"That's not an excuse." Rei frowns at her friend but lets it go as that sunny grin remains undimmed. "Tch, fine. Next time we're walking. Or at least I am."
"Nothin' wrong with goin' fast." The blonde replies in a way that sounds like she's made that excuse a thousand times before and walks over to pop the trunk on her car. "Anyways. I brought a little bit o' everythin' just in case, but I'm gonna need ta start with somethin' simple."
Saying that she pulls out a curious piece of branched metal with two leather-wrapped handles at one end. "Made this dowsin' rod myself in shop class senior year. Had ta' wait for summer solstice to get the enchantments to set properly, though. Should direct us ta' places of magic buildup, an' we can start the real investigation there."
"It certainly looks homemade," Rei smirks as the blonde shoots her dry stare. "But I'll defer to the expert. Do you need anything else or…"
"For that, I should make ya' hold one end, but that'd jus' complicate the measurin, so…" Marisa props the deformed rake over one shoulder and swaggers off toward the torii. "Jus' stay close… yer connection to the shrine may pry somethin' loose."
"Connections, huh?" Rei ponders over the term for a minute before it clicks. "That's why you're dressed like that? The connection between looking like a witch and being one?"
"Huh," the blonde looks her over from head to toe and then pauses for a cheesy thumbs up. "Looks like my new par'ner's a real bright one."
"Thanks," Rei responds dryly before pushing her friend's hand down. "But let's not go quite that far."
"Fine. Fine." Marisa turns to swagger toward the torii. "Gonna need both hands for my rod anyways."
"Not you too…" Rei sighs but can't help the smile that forms on her face.
"Heh."
"Is it supposed to do that?" Rei stares at where the dowsing rod had practically whipped Marisa around the moment they'd stepped under the torii.
"Never seen anythin' half so strong." The blonde's arms flex, but the rod won't move from where it points at the left pillar of the faded red gate. "Gonna have to cut the mana flow to it an' try again… hopefully whatever's goin' on fades a bit 'fore we get to the shrine or my rod won' tell us much."
"Is that any better?" Rei smirks as her friend tries to wrestle her reverse-rake away from the mini-shrine near the tree line.
"A hokora's meant to seal stuff away," the blonde gives up and lets the tool fall to the ground. "Could mean there's somethin' still in there… or somethin' that was there but's gotten out."
"Third time's a charm?" Rei wonders aloud as they stand outside the room where that yin-yang ball sits on its altar.
"No offense, Rei, but that room's real creepy." Marisa shudders as she props her rake up against a wall, careful not to scratch anything.
"So, what now?"
"Well, I've got some supplies for a divination ritual that we can do at midnight, but we can only investigate one at a time." The blonde shrugs idly at the curious look on Rei's face. "It's ta do with cosmic alignment an' symbolic transitions an' all that."
"Right, that makes sense." It didn't… but it kind of did. "Well, if symmetry and all that actually matters, I've got a Miko outfit I can put on if you think it would help."
"Hah, an' ya' were out there judgin' me for my witchy looks," Marisa smirks triumphantly.
"I still am." Rei matches the smirk with one of her own. A smirk that grows wider as her friend's face falls into an exaggerated pout.
"Jus' wait 'til you see some real magic… then you'll be changin' yer mind." The blonde mutters loudly, "Since it's yer shrine an' all… how 'bout ya' pick which one."
[] Investigate the Torii
[] Investigate the Honden
[] Investigate the Hokora
Aesthetics 1 [Passed] Marisa's witch outfit is somehow right.
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei keeps noticing that people are behaving weird.
Awareness 2 [Passed] Rei notices that Marisa seems oddly resistant to her idea.
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei gets the deeper meaning of connection.
Aplomb ? [Failed] ???
Allure ? [Failed] ???
Awareness 1 [Passed] Rei keeps noticing that people are behaving weird.
Awareness 2 [Passed] Rei notices that Marisa seems oddly resistant to her idea.
Academics 1 [Passed] Rei gets the deeper meaning of connection.
Aplomb ? [Failed] ???
Allure ? [Failed] ???
[AN]
Seems like there's some weird stuff going on at the shrine. Well, the girls should be fine. Right?
- Location
- Lost in the internet
[X] Investigate the Honden
Since it's the heart of the shrine, it's maybe the heart of the mystery too...
EDIT: since i'm not that well versed in the Touhou universe, can someone tell me if Marisa is supposed to be that of a speedster/reckless driver in canon ?
Since it's the heart of the shrine, it's maybe the heart of the mystery too...
EDIT: since i'm not that well versed in the Touhou universe, can someone tell me if Marisa is supposed to be that of a speedster/reckless driver in canon ?
Last edited:
Jonen C
F.M.D.G.
- Location
- Lincopense, Ostrogothia, Suecia
Marisa allegedly has an alleged car.
...
She's probably borrowing it from someone.
In this specific case, though, I think she's trying to graze pedestrians for extra points.
EDIT: Remarkably relevant, how to earn a drivers license in Gensokyo.
...
She's probably borrowing it from someone.
I'm pretty sure it's a popular animation to have her surfing her broom and using the mini-Hakkero as a makeshift afterburner.
In this specific case, though, I think she's trying to graze pedestrians for extra points.
EDIT: Remarkably relevant, how to earn a drivers license in Gensokyo.
Last edited:
InvaderViceroy
Would you like to make a gamble~?
- Location
- A casino near you
[X] Investigate the Honden
ThaTrueRealmWalk
A blob of Galaxy, watching you through the Screen.
- Location
- Inside this TV
[X] Investigate the Torii
Now I'm all for getting to know what's about that ball is about, but the fact that the detector went for the left pillar itself and not the whole gate is somewhat interesting. Is there something in that specific pillar?
Now I'm all for getting to know what's about that ball is about, but the fact that the detector went for the left pillar itself and not the whole gate is somewhat interesting. Is there something in that specific pillar?
- Location
- Poland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Investigate the Honden
Marisa is one of the fastest characters in Touhou, usually receiving one of if not the highest speed stat in the games as a protagonist. She also compares herself to a Tengu character in terms of speed, though said Tengu is explicitly stated to be the fastest resident of Gensokyo by WoG. For recklessness, she has multiple Spell Cards themed around ramming into her opponent while riding her broom, such as the fighting game version of Stardust Reverie, and Blazing Star.
- Location
- England, unfortunately.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Not necesarily, but in the mainline games she has the fastest movement speed of any character.
This is less helpful as it sounds when you're having to make tiny adjustments to avoid a literal maze of bullets.
[X] Investigate the Honden
[X] Investigate the Honden
Chapter 11.2 - (Buying) Pizza and Beer
"Wanna go halfsies on a pizza?" Marisa asks as she digs through a plastic storage container filled with what was almost certainly junk. She pulls out an iridescent seashell with one corner cracked off with an 'ah-ha' and slides to the corner of the hall without bothering to get up.
"Sure, but I thought you said it'd take a few hours to get all this set up." Though what that meant, Rei wasn't sure. All she'd done for the last ten minutes was watch as the blonde had carefully placed various odds and ends throughout the shrine. What a seashell, a broken tricycle wheel, a gift-store-looking plastic windmill, and a rust-covered wrench had to do with magic was beyond her.
"More'n that, maybe." The witch flicks the seashell and watches it spin for a moment before stopping it abruptly with her finger. "Gettin' the right pieces in ta do the divinin' is jus' the first part. Gonna have ta do a lot of fine tunin' after that… 'specially with those other magic sources playin' interference."
"Well, I suppose I can walk into town and pick something up," she offers reluctantly. The idea of carrying a pizza box properly for half an hour sounded less than appealing. "While you finish with all of this…"
"Nah, ya' ain't gotta walk," she pauses in her digging through her toolbox and shoves a hand in her pocket.
"Take the car. It'll be quicker." Marisa fishes around and pulls out a set of keys, which she tosses straight at her.
The keys hit her in the chest after she fumbles the catch, but Rei manages to grab them before they fall to the floor. "Are you sure?"
"Sure am." The blonde looks up with a grin made odd-looking by the angle her head was at, "In fact, if I throw in a few more yen, will ya pick up a six-pack or somethin'?"
"I've got two bottles of sake in the fridge," Rei eyes the keyring containing three keys with the Honda logo before shrugging and slipping it into a pocket. "But I can pick up some more if you want."
"Better pick up some more… it's far'n away the best thing to ward off the mana burn." Her friend nods sagely.
"I'll take your word for it." Hopefully, she'd have time to ask about magic, maybe over pizza and beer. "Be back in a few."
Rei pops open the driver's side door of the car and flops down onto the seat. She pulls her legs in and frowns. She wasn't that much taller than Marisa, was she? A hand reaches down to adjust the seat back, but although the lever clicks open, the seat won't move. She presses back a bit more firmly—still nothing.
For a moment, she debates just driving into Gensokyo with her knees banging against the dashboard before discarding the idea. The last thing she needed was hitting something because her knees were in the way. She just knew that Marisa would never let her hear the end of it. That, and who knew what would happen if she got caught driving without insurance or a license or whatever Japan required.
Forget Marisa; Auntie would never let it go if I had to call her for bail from a Japanese prison…
With a grunt, she pulls herself out of the seat, opens the rear door, and looks in. Sitting in the foot well was a black trash bag haphazardly shoved underneath the driver's seat. She hoped her friend wasn't a hoarder—she'd seen a TV show on how that typically ended—although, given the bizarre collection of "magical" tools, perhaps that wasn't too far off.
Carefully, she pries the bag free, pausing briefly as the leg of a pair of jeans flops out of the opening. Hmm… maybe Marisa knew where a laundromat was. That trip to the thrift store had given her another week of clean clothes, but that wouldn't last forever.
Placing the bag of laundry on the seat cushion, Rei returns to the driver's seat, but it still won't move.
It doesn't seem broken, but…
She slides back out of the car, leans down to look, and immediately spots a plastic container firmly jammed between the levers underneath the seat. Hoarder indeed.
Fishing her hand in, Rei wiggles at the edges of the Tupperware a few times before it pops free. She drags the container out from its hiding spot and stares at the opaque plastic for a moment before curiosity wins out over respect for someone else's privacy.
The lid opens with a soft click, revealing a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hotel-sized bottle of shampoo, a hairbrush, a pair of chopsticks, and a single, chipped spoon. Really, Marisa. What was a travel bag doing jammed under there?
Rei sets the container beside the laundry bag and returns to the driver's seat. The seat slides back with a smooth clunk, and she smiles with satisfaction. Ok. Time to go get dinner. Except…
Hadn't the blonde been very particular about Rei standing out of the way while she got her things from the trunk? At the time, she'd thought the request a bit odd, but then Marisa herself was a bit odd, so it had kind of balanced itself out in her mind. But now…
A suspicion forms in her head, and she steps out of the car a third time before moving to the trunk. She tries two different keys before the third one slides into place. She turns the lock, and the trunk pops open.
Inside is almost exactly what she'd expected to find. Pillows. Blankets. A ratty-looking sleeping bag. A stack of plastic bowls and plates. A small stove remarkably similar to the one she'd been using. They were the kind of things one might accumulate if they liked camping, but Rei didn't think that was the right answer.
Not when she thought about all the other little clues she'd come across. Marisa bouncing around foster homes before "leaving". The keyring not having anything but car keys. A life's collection of stuff hidden away in the back seat and trunk of a car. A flicker of shame hidden behind a sheepish grin when she talked about her apartment. Yep, another answer fit all too well. But what could she do about it…
Rei's eyes flicker up the stone path toward the shrine sitting at the top of the hill. She had space. Quite a lot of it. And she liked Marisa. The two of them clicked in a way she had never experienced before.
Was there a word for platonic soulmates…?
She supposed there was, but could you really call someone you'd only met twice a best friend? The thought bounces around in her brain for a long moment before Rei shrugs. Did the amount of time even matter?
It did not…
That just left the question of how to bring the offer up without sounding patronizing…
Rei pulls gently into a parking space that was 'go two blocks past that ice cream place, hang a right at the little dog statue, and keep goin' 'til you see a bright red roof.' and marvels that such a perfectly preserved Pizza Hut still existed like this in Japan—they'd long since rebranded in Seattle.
As she opens the door and steps inside, Rei feels herself drifting back to her childhood of reading books and being rewarded with pizza. Everything is exactly as she remembers it. Plastic ferns decorate the space between booths, a lackluster salad bar traces down one end of the restaurant, and dozens of stained glass light fixtures hang proudly from the ceiling. She breathes in deeply. There was nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked pizza.
The girl at the counter seems both somehow familiar and a touch more… alive than the rest of the people affected by the… whatever was going on with Gensokyo. It's enough of something different that Rei's eyes drift toward the girl's nametag—Youmu—as she orders a large pepperoni and, after a moment of thought, adds a medium veggie-lovers to go with it.
Eating healthy is important…
Something flickers in the air around the girl—Youmu—and blue eyes blink with sudden recognition.
"You were at the graveyard a few days ago." The words are softer, more vulnerable than the stilted politeness with which she'd taken the order. "Cleaning one of the older memorials."
Rei flinches as she realizes this silver-haired girl is the same one that had set some candy atop a child's gravestone.
"Oh, I'm um sorry, I mean-" The girl's face flushes a light pink, and she bows so deeply that her head bangs lightly against the host's stand.
"Sorry, I didn't- I only-" The other girl's babbling apology quickly trails off into a silence that almost immediately grows intensely, almost painfully awkward.
Rei's eyes flit around the store before catching on the entrance. Would it be too bad if she just left and came back when her pizzas were ready? She still needed to buy some beer, after all.
Just as she's fixing her feet to try and escape, the girl nods to herself and speaks, "What I wanted to say was thank you. It's too easy for the living to forget about the dead… so when I saw you cleaning like that… I just wanted to say thanks."
"Oh, it was-" my mother's? Miya's? "It was nothing."
The look the girl directs at her says she doesn't believe that but won't call her on it. "Maybe so… but still, I think it was a good thing you did."
"The Miko used to tend to the grounds, but she hasn't been around for…" she trails off, her face screwed up in concentration. Eventually, she shrugs almost helplessly, "A while."
"Ahh, well…" She should have run when she had the chance. "I'm kind of living at the shrine now, so…"
"You are?" The girl brightens, seeming almost visibly excited. "Will you be able to… not that I'm trying to tell you what to do, but…it would mean a lot to a lot of…"
The way the girl trailed off made it sound less like she was talking about the visitors to the graveyard and more about…
If magic was real, then why wouldn't ghosts be real, too?
Did her mother have to deal with all of this, too? The strange magicks affecting Gensokyo. The stuff in the shrine. A graveyard that was maybe full of ghosts. Is this what she meant about her work? About the importance of the shrine? If only there were some way to ask…
But then, what do you even say to the mother who abandoned you?
"I'm sorr-"
"I don't know when I'll have time," Rei cuts off yet another apology from the silver-haired girl. "I just moved here, but when I do… yeah, I'll do what I can."
"You will? Thank you. Thank you." The girl's face breaks into a smile that almost wholly eradicates the sadness lingering around her. Almost. "Oh. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Youmu Konpaku."
"Rei." She pauses a moment, "Hakurei."
'Hakurei'. The girl mouths the last name almost reverentially. "Thank you, Rei, I'll-" She looks down at where one of the restaurant pagers had lit up bright red and was buzzing loudly. "Oh! That's yours… I'll be right back."
Saved by the buzzer…
Less than a minute later, the girl—Youmu—is back carrying two pizza boxes stacked atop one another. Food and cash change hands, and Rei is out the door just a touch faster than she usually would be.
Something was going on with that girl. Definitely something to do with the graveyard and probably to do with the flicker of something that seemed to appear and disappear from around her as well. But that could wait… at least until the awkwardness of that conversation had vanished from her memory.
Rei slides the pizzas into the passenger side of Marisa's car and then walks across the street to a liquor store. Thankfully, her purchase there is far quicker and far less awkward, aided by the blank-eyed stare of a cashier caught in the… whatever it was, and mere minutes later, a twelve-pack of Sopporo joins the pizzas in the passenger seat.
Now, all she had to do was head back to the shrine, eat pizza and drink beer, help Marisa with a divination ritual to uncover what was going on with the Honden and figure out how to bring up the fact that her friend didn't have a place to live. The first three would be easy enough, and as for the last…
Well, I'm sure something will come up…
Instead of an actual vote, folks can write in questions they want to ask Marisa (about her, about magic, whatever). I won't guarantee all of them will make it into the narrative, but I'll do what I can (and what makes sense for the story).
[] Write-in questions for Marisa
[AN]
$20 for two pizzas and a twelve-pack of beer... how times have changed.
"Sure, but I thought you said it'd take a few hours to get all this set up." Though what that meant, Rei wasn't sure. All she'd done for the last ten minutes was watch as the blonde had carefully placed various odds and ends throughout the shrine. What a seashell, a broken tricycle wheel, a gift-store-looking plastic windmill, and a rust-covered wrench had to do with magic was beyond her.
"More'n that, maybe." The witch flicks the seashell and watches it spin for a moment before stopping it abruptly with her finger. "Gettin' the right pieces in ta do the divinin' is jus' the first part. Gonna have ta do a lot of fine tunin' after that… 'specially with those other magic sources playin' interference."
"Well, I suppose I can walk into town and pick something up," she offers reluctantly. The idea of carrying a pizza box properly for half an hour sounded less than appealing. "While you finish with all of this…"
"Nah, ya' ain't gotta walk," she pauses in her digging through her toolbox and shoves a hand in her pocket.
"Take the car. It'll be quicker." Marisa fishes around and pulls out a set of keys, which she tosses straight at her.
The keys hit her in the chest after she fumbles the catch, but Rei manages to grab them before they fall to the floor. "Are you sure?"
"Sure am." The blonde looks up with a grin made odd-looking by the angle her head was at, "In fact, if I throw in a few more yen, will ya pick up a six-pack or somethin'?"
"I've got two bottles of sake in the fridge," Rei eyes the keyring containing three keys with the Honda logo before shrugging and slipping it into a pocket. "But I can pick up some more if you want."
"Better pick up some more… it's far'n away the best thing to ward off the mana burn." Her friend nods sagely.
"I'll take your word for it." Hopefully, she'd have time to ask about magic, maybe over pizza and beer. "Be back in a few."
Rei pops open the driver's side door of the car and flops down onto the seat. She pulls her legs in and frowns. She wasn't that much taller than Marisa, was she? A hand reaches down to adjust the seat back, but although the lever clicks open, the seat won't move. She presses back a bit more firmly—still nothing.
For a moment, she debates just driving into Gensokyo with her knees banging against the dashboard before discarding the idea. The last thing she needed was hitting something because her knees were in the way. She just knew that Marisa would never let her hear the end of it. That, and who knew what would happen if she got caught driving without insurance or a license or whatever Japan required.
Forget Marisa; Auntie would never let it go if I had to call her for bail from a Japanese prison…
With a grunt, she pulls herself out of the seat, opens the rear door, and looks in. Sitting in the foot well was a black trash bag haphazardly shoved underneath the driver's seat. She hoped her friend wasn't a hoarder—she'd seen a TV show on how that typically ended—although, given the bizarre collection of "magical" tools, perhaps that wasn't too far off.
Carefully, she pries the bag free, pausing briefly as the leg of a pair of jeans flops out of the opening. Hmm… maybe Marisa knew where a laundromat was. That trip to the thrift store had given her another week of clean clothes, but that wouldn't last forever.
Placing the bag of laundry on the seat cushion, Rei returns to the driver's seat, but it still won't move.
It doesn't seem broken, but…
She slides back out of the car, leans down to look, and immediately spots a plastic container firmly jammed between the levers underneath the seat. Hoarder indeed.
Fishing her hand in, Rei wiggles at the edges of the Tupperware a few times before it pops free. She drags the container out from its hiding spot and stares at the opaque plastic for a moment before curiosity wins out over respect for someone else's privacy.
The lid opens with a soft click, revealing a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hotel-sized bottle of shampoo, a hairbrush, a pair of chopsticks, and a single, chipped spoon. Really, Marisa. What was a travel bag doing jammed under there?
Rei sets the container beside the laundry bag and returns to the driver's seat. The seat slides back with a smooth clunk, and she smiles with satisfaction. Ok. Time to go get dinner. Except…
Hadn't the blonde been very particular about Rei standing out of the way while she got her things from the trunk? At the time, she'd thought the request a bit odd, but then Marisa herself was a bit odd, so it had kind of balanced itself out in her mind. But now…
A suspicion forms in her head, and she steps out of the car a third time before moving to the trunk. She tries two different keys before the third one slides into place. She turns the lock, and the trunk pops open.
Inside is almost exactly what she'd expected to find. Pillows. Blankets. A ratty-looking sleeping bag. A stack of plastic bowls and plates. A small stove remarkably similar to the one she'd been using. They were the kind of things one might accumulate if they liked camping, but Rei didn't think that was the right answer.
Not when she thought about all the other little clues she'd come across. Marisa bouncing around foster homes before "leaving". The keyring not having anything but car keys. A life's collection of stuff hidden away in the back seat and trunk of a car. A flicker of shame hidden behind a sheepish grin when she talked about her apartment. Yep, another answer fit all too well. But what could she do about it…
Rei's eyes flicker up the stone path toward the shrine sitting at the top of the hill. She had space. Quite a lot of it. And she liked Marisa. The two of them clicked in a way she had never experienced before.
Was there a word for platonic soulmates…?
She supposed there was, but could you really call someone you'd only met twice a best friend? The thought bounces around in her brain for a long moment before Rei shrugs. Did the amount of time even matter?
It did not…
That just left the question of how to bring the offer up without sounding patronizing…
Rei pulls gently into a parking space that was 'go two blocks past that ice cream place, hang a right at the little dog statue, and keep goin' 'til you see a bright red roof.' and marvels that such a perfectly preserved Pizza Hut still existed like this in Japan—they'd long since rebranded in Seattle.
As she opens the door and steps inside, Rei feels herself drifting back to her childhood of reading books and being rewarded with pizza. Everything is exactly as she remembers it. Plastic ferns decorate the space between booths, a lackluster salad bar traces down one end of the restaurant, and dozens of stained glass light fixtures hang proudly from the ceiling. She breathes in deeply. There was nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked pizza.
The girl at the counter seems both somehow familiar and a touch more… alive than the rest of the people affected by the… whatever was going on with Gensokyo. It's enough of something different that Rei's eyes drift toward the girl's nametag—Youmu—as she orders a large pepperoni and, after a moment of thought, adds a medium veggie-lovers to go with it.
Eating healthy is important…
Something flickers in the air around the girl—Youmu—and blue eyes blink with sudden recognition.
"You were at the graveyard a few days ago." The words are softer, more vulnerable than the stilted politeness with which she'd taken the order. "Cleaning one of the older memorials."
Rei flinches as she realizes this silver-haired girl is the same one that had set some candy atop a child's gravestone.
"Oh, I'm um sorry, I mean-" The girl's face flushes a light pink, and she bows so deeply that her head bangs lightly against the host's stand.
"Sorry, I didn't- I only-" The other girl's babbling apology quickly trails off into a silence that almost immediately grows intensely, almost painfully awkward.
Rei's eyes flit around the store before catching on the entrance. Would it be too bad if she just left and came back when her pizzas were ready? She still needed to buy some beer, after all.
Just as she's fixing her feet to try and escape, the girl nods to herself and speaks, "What I wanted to say was thank you. It's too easy for the living to forget about the dead… so when I saw you cleaning like that… I just wanted to say thanks."
"Oh, it was-" my mother's? Miya's? "It was nothing."
The look the girl directs at her says she doesn't believe that but won't call her on it. "Maybe so… but still, I think it was a good thing you did."
"The Miko used to tend to the grounds, but she hasn't been around for…" she trails off, her face screwed up in concentration. Eventually, she shrugs almost helplessly, "A while."
"Ahh, well…" She should have run when she had the chance. "I'm kind of living at the shrine now, so…"
"You are?" The girl brightens, seeming almost visibly excited. "Will you be able to… not that I'm trying to tell you what to do, but…it would mean a lot to a lot of…"
The way the girl trailed off made it sound less like she was talking about the visitors to the graveyard and more about…
If magic was real, then why wouldn't ghosts be real, too?
Did her mother have to deal with all of this, too? The strange magicks affecting Gensokyo. The stuff in the shrine. A graveyard that was maybe full of ghosts. Is this what she meant about her work? About the importance of the shrine? If only there were some way to ask…
But then, what do you even say to the mother who abandoned you?
"I'm sorr-"
"I don't know when I'll have time," Rei cuts off yet another apology from the silver-haired girl. "I just moved here, but when I do… yeah, I'll do what I can."
"You will? Thank you. Thank you." The girl's face breaks into a smile that almost wholly eradicates the sadness lingering around her. Almost. "Oh. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Youmu Konpaku."
"Rei." She pauses a moment, "Hakurei."
'Hakurei'. The girl mouths the last name almost reverentially. "Thank you, Rei, I'll-" She looks down at where one of the restaurant pagers had lit up bright red and was buzzing loudly. "Oh! That's yours… I'll be right back."
Saved by the buzzer…
Less than a minute later, the girl—Youmu—is back carrying two pizza boxes stacked atop one another. Food and cash change hands, and Rei is out the door just a touch faster than she usually would be.
Something was going on with that girl. Definitely something to do with the graveyard and probably to do with the flicker of something that seemed to appear and disappear from around her as well. But that could wait… at least until the awkwardness of that conversation had vanished from her memory.
Rei slides the pizzas into the passenger side of Marisa's car and then walks across the street to a liquor store. Thankfully, her purchase there is far quicker and far less awkward, aided by the blank-eyed stare of a cashier caught in the… whatever it was, and mere minutes later, a twelve-pack of Sopporo joins the pizzas in the passenger seat.
Now, all she had to do was head back to the shrine, eat pizza and drink beer, help Marisa with a divination ritual to uncover what was going on with the Honden and figure out how to bring up the fact that her friend didn't have a place to live. The first three would be easy enough, and as for the last…
Well, I'm sure something will come up…
Buying dinner [-¥1000]
- ??? [Failed] ???
- Aplomb 1 [Failed] ???
- Academics 1 [Passed] Rei thinks there's something odd about the stuff in Marisa's car
- Academics 1 or Reading [Passed] Oh, the nostalgia of a Pizza Hut
- Allure 1 [Failed] ???
- Awareness 1 [Passed] There's something odd around Youmu
Instead of an actual vote, folks can write in questions they want to ask Marisa (about her, about magic, whatever). I won't guarantee all of them will make it into the narrative, but I'll do what I can (and what makes sense for the story).
[] Write-in questions for Marisa
[AN]
$20 for two pizzas and a twelve-pack of beer... how times have changed.
Last edited:
[X] "So... Is magic channelled by dirt? Or broken things? Old things? I'm trying to spot the links between these objects."