Marisa surely wouldn't mind. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and she knows that better than most.
The Gensokyo Express: Yukari Yakumo Honk-Honk Revolution (Touhou/Worm)
- Thread starter MilitantBird
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Waltz of The Wilted Flower: In Which Kasen Nurses Taylor Back to Health
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Waltz of The Wilted Flower: In Which Kasen Nurses Taylor Back to Health
The oil lamp flickered, casting long shadows across the darkened room. Only the barest traces of moonlight filtered in through the drawn curtains.
Kasen knelt on the floor before the stone basin, rinsing away the flakes of blood and grime caked onto her hands. Murky filth swirled into the dark waters of the basin, settling into the depths as she finished washing her hands, before drying them off on a nearby towel.
Kasen let out a sigh as she stood up, before walking across the room and settling down cross-legged onto a cushion next to the sickly child. The girl was laid out on a futon, tossing and turning feverishly in her sleep. Perspiration gathered across her forehead, her brows and lips drawn tight in a fitful expression.
Kasen retrieved a wet cloth from a nearby bucket and dabbed at Taylor's forehead and face, wiping away the sweat and cooling her fever.
The human child's face was pale and gaunt. She was in the awkward throes of her adolescent growing phase, where the shape of her face and body was changing, stuck temporarily in flux between childhood and maturity. Her mouth was slightly too wide, with thin lips that were fixed into a pained grimace. Kasen caught glimpses of large, brown eyes behind her fluttering eyelids.
Her hair was long, black, and curly. It had seemingly been well-kept, before whatever had happened to her. While Kasen tried not to put too much value into her own appearance beyond what was necessary for propriety's sake, she was aware that it was often a highly sensitive subject for many young women.
Kasen had done her best to clean and preserve the girl's hair, despite the utter mess that had been made of it.
She soaked the cloth and wrung it again, before finishing cleaning the child's face and neck. She continued to go through the motions mechanically as she ruminated.
It was obvious to Kasen that the girl was from the Outside World. Her features were that of a foreigner, and her clothes were composed of unfamiliar fabric, with machine-like precision in the stitching despite their baggy and unappealing appearance.
It was doubly lucky, then, that it had been Kasen who had found her. Outsiders were considered a rare delicacy amongst many of the supernatural denizens of Gensokyo.
While it wasn't uncommon for Outsiders to be spirited away to Gensokyo, Kasen had never heard of one appearing in such a state. Although, she supposed that she wouldn't have- if a dead human appeared in the Great Youkai Forest, it would be gone in days with none the wiser.
Even though Kasen had initially mistaken the child for a corpse, the girl's injuries were relatively minor- much less severe than they had appeared at first glance, thankfully.
Kasen was willing to wager that most of the dried blood covering the girl had not been her own. She'd most likely picked it up from whatever heap of refuse she'd been thrown in.
Kasen had taken the liberty of replacing the girl's ruined clothing with a simple dark kimono. The ruined garments in question had been placed in a sealed box and promptly tucked away in one of the storage rooms she used as a quarantine. Perhaps the girl would want them back later, although Kasen severely doubted it given their condition.
Kasen ruminated over the findings of her medical examination, resting her chin upon a closed fist. The light reflected off the large red pupils of her eyes, as she gazed at the far wall with a troubled expression.
The child was covered in bruises, some fading, some more recent. That painted a foreboding picture- one of long-term physical abuse, rather than a single isolated incident.
Most of them were centered around her ribcage and lower body, with her face largely untouched, suggesting that the perpetrator had aimed to keep the harm done hidden.
While it wasn't uncommon for human parents to use such physical means of discipline on their children, the quantity and severity of the bruises would have been a rather significant cause for concern.
However, the extent of the injuries and the circumstances Kasen had found the girl in pointed to something far worse than an abusive guardian.
The most severe damage was done to her hands.
While the blood underneath the fingernails and the bruises upon the knuckles clearly implied some sort of violent struggle, certain details provided Kasen with additional context. The nature of the injuries seemed to suggest they were largely self-inflicted.
The bottom of her fists were bruised and bloodied from slamming against a solid object, and her fingernails were torn and bloodied in a manner that indicated the girl had scraped them against a rough surface frantically and repeatedly with no heed paid to her own wellbeing.
If she had to guess… Kasen believed that the pattern of injuries suggested that the girl had been attempting to escape from some manner of confinement.
It was likely she was held under duress, with a great harm awaiting her should she fail to escape in time. Given the circumstances Kasen had found the girl in, it was likely that her attempts had been unsuccessful.
If Kasen had not found her, it was near certain the child would have perished alone in the woods, before being eaten by a wild animal or Youkai.
…It was difficult even for her to maintain her composure and stay centered, in the face of such things. Kasen steepled her hands together in front of her face, eyes clouded with sorrow as she gazed at the sickly child, who tossed and turned fitfully in feverish sleep.
The situation was made all the worse by the girl's young age. Kasen was bad at estimating the ages of human children, but she couldn't have been any older than Reimu, judging by her height.
…When was the last time she'd visited Reimu?
Kasen frowned, her thoughts drifting towards the Hakurei Miko.
Reimu was a good person at heart, but it was clear that having to raise herself all these years had produced… undesirable characteristics.
Kasen did her best to curtail the worst of the Shrine Maiden's excesses, but…
It had been a while since her last visit. She really ought to check in on Reimu, once the stranger had recovered.
Gallant was face down on the floor with smoke rising from the back of his head, while Reimu was busy demolishing Mystia's storefront piece by piece.
Mystia was quietly weeping in the background, after she'd been swiftly defeated and mildly beaten with a wooden gohei after attempting to fight back.
The sun was shining, the grass was growing, the birds were crying quietly in the corner, and Reimu was ending a Youkai's whole career, crushing their hopes and dreams into the ground; both figuratively and literally.
All in all, it was a perfectly normal day in Gensokyo.
Reimu finished stomping Mystia's wooden cart into little pieces, before rounding on the proprietress and jabbing her gohei at her.
"Consider this a warning- the next time I see you peddling on the trail to the Human Village, I won't be letting you off so easily." Reimu threatened her.
Mystia ran off, sobbing openly. "WAAAAAHHHHH!!"
Reimu huffed, folding her arms. "What a day…" She pressed her palm against her temple, before glancing around at the scene of destruction. "Hnnghh… maybe I was too hasty there."
"I guess that buying a new broom to replace the one Marisa borrowed will have to wait, or maybe I can get someone else to bring the sake for the next flower-viewing party…" She muttered to herself, already feeling the repercussions of her actions on her wallet.
Her gaze fell across the ruined wreckage of Mystia's business. Suddenly, her attention was drawn to a wooden lockbox that was somehow still intact despite Reimu's rampage.
"Huh…? What's this, then?" Reimu prodded at the box, before smashing the lock open with her gohei.
She picked the box and opened it up.
Her eyes lit up with avarice as she beheld the gleaming contents of the box. "Hooo… Mystia was holding out on me."
"If I'd known that doing the right thing would be this profitable, I would have done it way sooner!" Reimu exclaimed happily.
She glanced surreptitiously around herself, before making off with the lockbox and beelining straight towards the Hakurei Shrine.
Kasen shuddered, feeling an ominous chill crawl down her spine. Yes… she ought to visit Reimu soon. Who knew what kind of worldly desires the girl might have succumbed to in her absence?
Still, it would be a while yet until she could visit. It would take time for the sickly girl to recover.
She paused, remembering the harrowing experience of rushing home to treat the child's injuries. The box in her pocket felt as if it had been burning into her side the entire flight over.
…Kasen had been worried she might need to resort to drastic measures. The Box of a Hundred Medicines was a rare and powerful cursed artifact. It could heal any injury or affliction, no matter how severe. It carried a drawback that was negligible to her, which was why Kasen had kept it instead of sealing or destroying it.
After drinking from it, the user would gain perfect health and superhuman strength, but take on the mind and temperament of an Oni temporarily. If one used it to heal their body from a genuine injury, then they would become an Oni in flesh and spirit as well.
Kasen used it to maintain her artificial right arm. Without the regeneration granted by the sake box, the arm would eventually rot and dissipate into smoke.
It was a dangerous artifact, with the ability to tilt the balance of Gensokyo should it fall into the wrong hands. Granted, that description covered many of the magical artifacts in Kasen's possession. However, the ease of usage and lack of knowledge required made it easily amongst one of the most dangerous magical tools she owned.
There were many humans who would overlook the side-effects in their lust for power. Oni were stronger, longer-lived, and more magically gifted than humans.
But the loss of one's humanity, especially without their consent or knowledge… it was a violation of one's being on the most fundamental level.
It was a dilemma that Kasen had no good answer for- whether it was preferable to preserve someone's life, by defiling the sanctity of their spirit and body- or to condemn them instead to die a slow and torturous death instead.
…Thankfully, the girl's physical wounds were shallow, although her health was dire. Kasen would not have to find an answer to such a question today.
While a human doctor would likely be unable to treat the myriad of illnesses that ravaged her body, Kasen's knowledge of Taoist medicine was far beyond the ken of any mortal.
The spiritual energy in Kasen's refuge alone was working wonders at bolstering the girl's health. She would recover in time, without the need for any drastic measures.
Even as she resigned herself to the slow, laborious process of nursing the human back to health, Kasen was glad she would not have to make such a dire decision today.
With that put aside, Kasen turned her thoughts back to the circumstances she had found the girl in.
Her injuries were most likely a result of something that had happened in the Outside World, before she had been spirited away. Most Youkai wouldn't have bothered imprisoning her before eating her, let alone in such foul conditions, and Kasen couldn't fathom any reason why a human from the village would do such a thing.
By and by, the villagers were peaceful folk. It was a small, close-knit community, where everyone knew each other by face if not by name. Crime was rare, and violent crime was even rarer. A murder was the sort of thing that only happened once or twice in a human lifetime- something as horrific as this was almost unheard of.
The simple fact that the girl was an Outsider cut off most means of further investigation to Kasen for now. While there were means within her grasp of crossing the barrier, the Outside World was far larger than most people within Gensokyo could even begin to imagine. She wouldn't have the faintest clue where to start.
Kasen had done as much as she could for now. She could simply question the girl when she awoke to satisfy her own curiosity, instead of going to such lengths. Kasen was nothing if not patient. She was a hermit, after all.
Kasen took a deep breath, stilling her troubled thoughts. She exhaled gradually, centering herself.
Kasen abruptly noticed that the pillow underneath the girl's head was soaked through with sweat. She picked up another cushion, before carefully lifting the child's head and replacing the pillow.
She submerged the cloth in the bucket again, before wringing it and placing the wet cloth on the girl's forehead. Kasen stood up, sighing heavily.
…It had been a long, harrowing night. Perhaps some meditation would clear her mind.
Kasen doused the oil lamp, leaving the room with only faint moonlight, before closing the rice-paper door quietly behind her.
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No Oni Taylor, that is good thing, for Taylor at least.
Reimu is being greedy and rude again, Needs Kasen correction and possibly a Eiki Rant™.
And Gallant is smoking hot and not in the sexy way.
Overall, peaceful Gensokyo day.
Reimu is being greedy and rude again, Needs Kasen correction and possibly a Eiki Rant™.
And Gallant is smoking hot and not in the sexy way.
Overall, peaceful Gensokyo day.
Reimu's just doing her job!
View: https://imgur.com/a/bpFcLZv
Is this the face of a bad person? Look how happy she is!
View: https://imgur.com/a/bpFcLZv
Is this the face of a bad person? Look how happy she is!
How could you guess that that's the face of the CEO of Racism?
Lol, that's certainly going to be a fun conversation when it happens. However I feel the most Reimu will take out of this is that she should have kept Mystia around for a renewable income source. It would also be funny if some of the humans complained about the food stall being gone.
Still, I have a feeling that if Taylor knew there was a way to become a 'hero' quickly, she wouldn't hesitate to take it.
I just had a very scary thought.
One of the not introduced Isekai'd spawns in the Garden of the Sun. On a sunflower.
Also, what is the timeline? I know where past Imperishable Night, Mystia and Reimers interaction. But what game? Unidentifiable Faith Object/Ten Desires or are we past Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom? I don't want Vista spawning in the blood lakes in hell before Touhou 18. Or Kid win on the Moon before Lolk. Or Clockblocker in Old Hell before Subterranean Animism!
One of the not introduced Isekai'd spawns in the Garden of the Sun. On a sunflower.
Also, what is the timeline? I know where past Imperishable Night, Mystia and Reimers interaction. But what game? Unidentifiable Faith Object/Ten Desires or are we past Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom? I don't want Vista spawning in the blood lakes in hell before Touhou 18. Or Kid win on the Moon before Lolk. Or Clockblocker in Old Hell before Subterranean Animism!
- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
...Well, fuck. Kasen needs to go reign in Reimu's greed.
Because Shiki's the only other girl who'd do it, and she's kinda busy doing her job.
Except she can't because Taylor might actually die of disease if Kasen leaves her for so much as an hour.
I think the blame for this lands squarely on the three bitches being eaten by the wolf tengu. They caused the Hakurei's Greed incident.
Also, Gallant the Moron, making things worse for poor Youkai. Like a dumbass knight clanking around.
Because Shiki's the only other girl who'd do it, and she's kinda busy doing her job.
Except she can't because Taylor might actually die of disease if Kasen leaves her for so much as an hour.
I think the blame for this lands squarely on the three bitches being eaten by the wolf tengu. They caused the Hakurei's Greed incident.
Also, Gallant the Moron, making things worse for poor Youkai. Like a dumbass knight clanking around.
I'm only up to Touhou 7, so I'm not sure where to plot things in terms of the games. I have read all of the official manga though, so I've got a passing familiarity with most of the Touhou lore and major and minor characters, although some of the newer ones are unfamiliar to me.
We're somewhere in the middle of Wild and Horned Hermit- I haven't got an exact fix on which chapter we're on, both because I'm not planning on rehashing canon, and because I don't want to lock myself in and limit my options.
I also reserve the right to bend the timelines of canon for the sake of shenaniganry. I don't really wanna have to deal with timeline conflicts that might violate plot points in this story.
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- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
Well, that's wide-spread...
Wild and Horned Hermit spans a distance of like eight or so games, and roughly as many years both IRL and in-universe. Chapter 1 is shortly after Double Spoiler in 2010, with the epilogue happening right before Wily Beast and Weakest Creature in 2019.
No wonder Kasen's lessons never stick, she only shows up a few times every year! More than enough time for Reimu's laziness and greed to take over again. She should be a more attentive big sister!
...Funnily enough, if you wanted, you could slot this in directly before Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 5 (and before Ten Desires) if you wanted to be completely accurate to both timelines. There actually is a gap (not a Yukari gap) that skips January-Feburary of 2011, which is when Taylor gets locked in the locker.
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😅Eight years...None of the characters visibly age, though. Reimu and Marisa aren't canonically immortal, so I think ZUN probably wasn't paying much close attention to the timeline either.
Is there some kind of Touhou timeline document or wiki page that I'm not aware of? Where are you getting this information from?
Is there some kind of Touhou timeline document or wiki page that I'm not aware of? Where are you getting this information from?
There isn't a canon age for the toehoes, like the Simpsons. They will only age when Zun wants to, except maybe Akyuu, she has supposedly died a year ago maybe less, I think.
Touhou is an old fandom, very old. Almost predates the internet, and the human protagonist are much likeable as young adults or even teens than 40 year old women.
You can chalk it up to Gensokyo anti-logic reality shenanigans. Time isn't as straight and common rules are inverted.
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If a head honcho kami thinks it would be fun if their shenanigans could last longer, than their youths can last longer in Gensokyo.
that, or Yukari likes the girls and decided to lengthen the metaphorical gap between their childhood and adulthood to unreasonable lengths and noone noticed.
- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
Behold, the Gensokyo Timeline!
Yeah, we don't have any idea how they don't age either. The one thing we do know is that Akyuu was born August 1994 and that most of the games take place in their year of release (unless stated otherwise.) As the Child of Miare isn't supposed to survive past 30...well, last year was her last year, hence all the jokes.
Oh, Maribel and Renko aren't born yet and won't be for decades at the minimum. They live at an unspecified point decades or possibly centuries in the future.
Yes, the cast is basically the Simpsons. The only thing of Reimu's that has grown is her gohei. I think Marisa's hat got bigger? But they essentially haven't changed since their inclusion in EoSD.
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Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
There is actually a pretty good doujin by the artist who did most of Wild Horned Hermit, called Lost Girl - Lost Lady, with a follow up called There are two lost ladies, by that tackles that in a way.
It goes the route that Reimu doesn't age due to a blessing as the Hakurai Shrine Maiden and Marisa uses a magic drug.
- Location
- California Conservation Corps
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Wasn't it that Marisa was the only one who was actually aging, and was using illusion magic to look like she hadn't been aging?
Or am I thinking of a different doujin?
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
That was one, I just explained it wrong.
New chappie will be out soon. I've got a good first draft, and I'm midway through revisions right now.
On an unrelated note, how do you guys feel about Glory Girl? It seems like most of the time in fanon, she's either Taylor's best friend, a violent and corrupt superhero, or treated as a living dumb blonde stereotype.
I prefer adding nuance to my characters whenever possible. It doesn't have to be strictly canon-accurate, so long as it's an interesting take. For example, neurodivergent Armsmaster doesn't have much grounding in canon, but there have been some truly impressive works like those by YseultNott that really sold me on the idea.
On an unrelated note, how do you guys feel about Glory Girl? It seems like most of the time in fanon, she's either Taylor's best friend, a violent and corrupt superhero, or treated as a living dumb blonde stereotype.
I prefer adding nuance to my characters whenever possible. It doesn't have to be strictly canon-accurate, so long as it's an interesting take. For example, neurodivergent Armsmaster doesn't have much grounding in canon, but there have been some truly impressive works like those by YseultNott that really sold me on the idea.
Vista 1: Missy’s Miserable Misadventures in The Misty Lake
New
Not sure about the prose in this one, but I figure it's good enough. I think it might benefit from another hour or two of polish, but I'm tired and I've got other things I'd like to do on a Sunday night.
The meat and potatoes of the story is there, even if it could use a little arugula salad on the side, with lemon and cranberry sauce drizzled on top... but it should still be a filling enough meal.
Let me know what you think in the comments. Even if you don't though, enjoy!
The meat and potatoes of the story is there, even if it could use a little arugula salad on the side, with lemon and cranberry sauce drizzled on top... but it should still be a filling enough meal.
Let me know what you think in the comments. Even if you don't though, enjoy!
Vista 1: Missy's Miserable Misadventures in The Misty Lake
Cold. The first thing that hit Missy as she struck the surface of the water was the cold.
The shock forced Missy to gasp, opening her mouth and taking a deep breath. She choked on freezing water as she inhaled a lungful, sending her into a spasming fit of hacking coughs as her body fought to expel the fluid from her airways.
Her eyes flew open, the water furiously stinging at them as the blurry vision of faint light filtering through the surface replaced the dark abyss of unconsciousness. Her power reached out in the next moment, trying to make sense of her surroundings.
Bubbles raced from her lungs as she sank further into the depths, water rushing in from outside to replace life-giving air. The harsh, cold fluid burned inside her chest, stabbing needles of icy pain into the soft flesh inside her mouth and nose.
Vista's powers extended through the water, forming a map of her environment in her head. She was in the middle of a massive body of water- there were small blindspots in her power's vision that moved as living creatures scattered away from her presence.
Her head spun from shock as a dozen unfamiliar feelings flooded her senses, but despite her dizziness, her mind reached out and told her which way was up.
Vista seized onto the expanse of water between her and open air, and pulled, shortening the distance from meters to a few inches in a matter of seconds. Her limbs flailed about incoherently, failing to generate any lift whatsoever as she continued to sink further into the freezing depths.
Missy choked, eyes widening as realization sank in.
She didn't know how to swim.
She thrashed frantically, swinging her arms wildly and kicking her legs back-and-forth as she squeezed the constraints of her power to their limit, shrinking the few inches down even further to scant centimeters. Her face breached the surface momentarily, and Vista took in a deep, gasping breath before her head plunged back into the lake.
As she struggled to stay afloat, her grasp of the geometry around her exploded outwards. Her mind latched onto a physical object a few dozen meters behind her- a chunk of ice, floating on the surface of the lake.
Vista seized onto the sudden lifeline with all the fervor of a drowning girl, shrinking the distance as fast as she could.
Missy struggled to turn around, accidentally falling face-first into the frigid lake. She snapped her mouth closed a moment before impact, fighting the instinctive urge to inhale through her nose. As she sank downwards, her fingers reached out and grabbed hold of the edge of the small iceberg.
She strained her arms, thrashing her legs back and forth underwater as she desperately tried to heave herself upright.
Her body had never felt so heavy before. Missy's entire body was stiffening from the icy shock, the cold settling into her limbs and muscles at an alarming pace.
Pulling herself upwards against the water resistance felt like a herculean task. It fought against her as she struggled to survive, the heavy weight pressing down against her water-logged clothes.
Bubbles leaked from her nose as she squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth together, willing her unresponsive body to move as she struggled to lift herself up.
She took a deep, heaving breath as her head broke the water, before pulling herself up and throwing her arms over the iceberg. Missy erupted into a coughing fit, wracking her lungs in an effort to get all of the water she'd swallowed out of her airways.
She felt her gorge rise a moment before she vomited, her stomach acid mixed with bitter sediment-laced lake water burning her throat as it forced its way out.
Missy floated there for what felt like minutes afterwards, retching and coughing in turns, her body heaving what felt like an entire ocean of water up from her lungs and stomach and out through her sore, tight throat. Finally, it came to an end, with a few weak, hacking coughs.
Vista felt too tired to move. Her limbs were cold and sluggish. Her eyes were sore from the gritty lake water, and all she wanted to do right now was close them and take a nap.
The lake was covered as far as the eye could see in a gray, soupy fog, thick enough that Vista couldn't see more than a few meters in any direction without her powers.
Missy felt herself start to nod off, her eyelids flickering downwards. She wanted so badly to just rest for a bit. Just a little bit of rest would be fine, right…?
Missy's eyes flew open. No! She'd die if she stayed here. She needed to move!
She bit down onto her tongue to keep herself awake, before casting outwards with her mind, searching for dry land. Fortunately, her powers had still been active, even while she'd been distracted.
Her range had been expanding all this time. As she continued searching, she finally felt her power reach the dry shore at the edge of the lake.
There was biological life in the water all around her- mostly fish, probably. There were some really big creatures in the lake a few dozen meters down, about five to ten feet in length and a few feet wide.
Vista shivered. She couldn't tell whether it was just from the cold or not.
She hoped that they didn't have teeth, or that they didn't think Missy would make a good snack. Some of those things were probably large enough to swallow her whole.
Anyways, none of them were directly in Vista's path- they were all deep in the water. There were a few smaller creatures near the surface, but none of them were large enough to affect her power too much.
There was nothing important out here like there was in the city, so Vista didn't bother being careful. She grabbed the entire almost mile-wide stretch of water and shrank the distance down to half, before repeating the process, folding the space like an accordion until she could reach the shore.
She crawled onto the wet sand, before letting the distortion snap back like a rubber band without her power holding it in place.
Vista laid there for a few seconds, focusing on her breathing. Darkness was slowly beginning to encroach on the edges of her vision, as exhaustion settled in.
She shook her head lethargically. No. No… she'd probably freeze to death if she stayed like this. She needed to get further inland. Find someone, or maybe start a fire to warm herself up.
With a muffled groan, Vista rolled over and struggled upright onto her own two feet. She folded space again, using it to help her move towards a nearby tree.
She stared at the branches. Did she even know how to start a fire…?
No. No, she didn't. Stupid.
She fell backwards and plopped onto the floor. Missy wrapped her arms around herself, shivering as her soaked clothes leeched warmth from her body.
She half-remembered a factoid from her biology class. The fact that she was still shivering was supposed to be a good sign, right? The body shivered to warm itself up. When you were too cold, your body didn't have the energy to shiver anymore.
That was how people died.
Missy jolted at that thought, snapping out of her idle daydreaming. Her breath quickened minutely as she sat up straight.
Missy breathed on her hands, rubbing them together to try and warm them up.
…She was being stupid. She needed to take her wet clothing off.
Her armored bodysuit was skintight and waterproof- it was still wet and cold, but there wasn't water inside of it, so she didn't have to worry about being exposed.
It was her stupid dress and hair that were still soaked through. She wished she had a towel to dry herself off, but she settled for shucking off her dress and skirt. She threw them aside. Good riddance, she thought to herself.
There was some water stuck in her bracers and armored boots- greaves, they were called. She took those off and dumped them out. She took her socks off too, before wringing as much water out as possible and stuffing them in her pocket to dry.
She put her boots back on. Vista felt weird wearing them without any socks on, but they were padded enough they wouldn't chafe. She shuddered as the wet fabric inside squicked against her toes.
She slid the bracers back on. After some hesitation, she went and picked her sodden dress and skirt up off the forest floor, before wringing them out too.
She threw them over her shoulder as she stood up, still shivering from the cold.
She had to find some place to warm up- Vista didn't know where she was going. Her powers were slowly creeping outwards, but there wasn't anything in range that stood out to her as a place she could find people.
For a lack of any better course of action, Missy decided to start walking in hopes of finding something. The light exercise would help her warm up, and stay awake, too. She couldn't just doze off and hope for the best, no matter how much the lazy part of her wanted to.
She shivered again, rubbing her hands together and breathing on them. One of her pockets had her wet socks in it- otherwise she'd stick her hands in them for warmth.
…Someone had to be looking for her, right? Vista wasn't sure what was going on. One second, she'd been spacing out in the Wards dormitory-
Oh, haha, very funny. Clock would have a field day if Missy ever said anything like that out loud where he could hear her.
But yeah, the Protectorate had to be looking for her. She was a Ward. More than that, a loathsome voice whispered to her, she was Vista. She was the Wards' unofficial mascot, the team baby, the youngest member and the only girl other than Shadow Stalker.
If anything happened to her, the vultures in the media and the Youth Guard would swoop in and tear the Wards program to little shreds. They'd want to find her as soon as possible.
Vista must have been kidnapped, or teleported by a Villain or some weird power interaction, or something. She hadn't disappeared at home- she'd been in the middle of the PRT Headquarters, for Pete's sake. The entire Protectorate must have been mobilized by now and out looking for her by now, Missy reassured herself.
Unless something else had happened, the little voice whispered in her head. Maybe this was the beginning of something else, something worse- maybe some new Villain had decided to remove almost a full third of the heroes in the city, right before launching an all-out offensive against Brockton Bay.
Shadow Stalker had been assassinated while she was still at school. Kid Win and Gallant-
Vista almost missed a step as her thoughts derailed. Her mind flashed back to that day.
Two white tarps lying on the pavement, soaked through with blood. Still and motionless.
Ambulance sirens were blaring. Red-blue-white police lights flashed across the black tarmac road. There was blood on the street, and bodies laid out beside the sidewalk. Parts of it were almost ordinary to her- this was a scene, an old familiar sequence of events that Vista had grown all too used to.
PRT Troopers were cordoning off the entire Boardwalk, shouting and pushing as they ushered reporters and gawkers away from the crime scene.
Nobody noticed Vista as she approached the unattended tarps. It was something she'd lived with all her life. She was small- because of that, no one ever noticed her, even when she wanted them to.
Vista wasn't even using her powers to get closer. Even so, it felt like space was contorting, stretching out into an infinite distance as she walked towards the pair of white sheets. She reached the two tarps on her own two feet after what felt like a small eternity, staring at the twisted shapes underneath.
It didn't feel real- it couldn't be real. Missy wasn't sure why she was here, or what she was doing- even as she knelt down onto the dark, blood-stained pavement, reaching out to grab the corner of the largest tarp-
Vista paused, abruptly tensing up as she registered a gap in her power's control, behind a tree about ten meters from her back. She recognized the shape of that one- she'd brushed up against it several times over the past few minutes, but dismissed it each time as part of the wildlife all around her.
Her power didn't give her an exact sense for living beings near her, or an easy way to tell them apart.
A living thing was less like a hole in her power with clearly-defined edges, and more like a blurry smear over her mental map of the surrounding geography. The size of the smear changed from time to time, even for the same people like her teammates.
The PRT scientists had told her that the gap's size depended on several factors. The time she spent in place, the biological complexity of the organisms, and even things as unmeasurable as her mood at any given moment.
This one wasn't a particularly large gap, which is why it hadn't stuck out to her- but it was moving towards her, and it stood vertically, not horizontally like something on four legs would.
She was being followed.
She kicked herself for not keeping a closer eye on her surroundings. She was tired, and cold, but that wasn't an excuse- Vista needed to do better, be better than that.
She unfroze and kept walking, trying to act natural and avoid tipping them off. Hopefully, it looked like Vista had just zoned out for a moment, or stopped to rest her legs. Who was it? Who was following her?
If it was someone friendly, someone that she knew, they would have announced themselves, right? That only left a couple of options in her mind, none of them good.
It could be a wild animal. It could be a complete stranger- or it could be an enemy.
Vista had been kidnapped- that was her best working theory as to why she was here. Maybe it was one of the kidnappers, coming back to finish the job after whisking her away to an isolated forest out in the middle of nowhere.
Adrenaline started to course through Vista's veins, her fight or flight instinct kicking in. That was a real possibility, wasn't it? She forced her shoulders to stay loose and her breathing to remain steady, not wanting to give any signs to the stalker.
The wood around her began to take on a more threatening air. The dark outlines of the pine trees seemed to tower over her through the thick fog. It weighed down on her, the mists creeping in and wrapping around her like a burial shroud.
Vista couldn't afford to dismiss the potential threat.
At any rate, it was a million times better to be safe than sorry. If it was a friendly, she could always just apologize later.
She'd been stationary for at least half a minute while she'd been distracted. Vista had lost track of time, so she wasn't sure how long exactly, but the world around her felt a lot more pliable. She had moved a short distance while trying to act normal, but not enough to matter to her power.
Vista slowly started warping the skies above the forest canopy around the stalker, as well as the earth underground, aiming to take them unaware.
Her power felt unusually receptive today, quicker than normal. The underlying fabric of spacetime stretched like putty in her hands right now, where usually working with this much mass and this little buildup was more like compressing a taut spring.
Maybe that had something to do with how she was feeling right now- Vicky had talked about Sechen ranges once, a new theory some famous researcher had proposed that Parahumans' powers got stronger the closer their mental state was to their Trigger Event.
The stalker suddenly started to move forwards, making to creep closer towards her exposed back. Vista spun around and acted on instinct. "I know you're there!" She yelled.
Missy sank her power into the forest floor and pulled upwards, swiftly raising the earth all around them in a cauldron-shaped dome until it scraped the canopy, forming a nigh-impassable barrier.
The dark, leaf-strewn ground rustled and shuddered as it rose, stretching up into the murky gray skies as towering walls surrounding Vista's target.
The target abruptly shot upwards- some sort of Mover, probably a flier. Vista began twisting and stretching the gray skies and the forest canopy above into a maze of distorted space, cutting off the other cape's escape route.
The stalker stumbled about in mid-air, immediately getting lost in the throes of Vista's power. They flew through a channel which twisted back in on itself, turning them around from flying up into the open sky to hurtling back down towards the ground.
Missy brought the ground up to meet them before they could readjust, causing the flier to slam facefirst back into the dirt. They seemingly stopped moving, after the rest of their body flopped to the ground.
She waited, wary of any tricks, widening the walls of the barrier to reinforce them in the meantime as the gap in her power's mental map failed to make any other moves.
After ten more seconds of waiting, Vista decided to take the risk of opening up a peephole in the dirt wall.
It was a neat trick that she'd come up with after reading about how telescopes worked; a long, narrow tunnel in the barrier that was smaller on her side, but with the space stretched ever-so-slightly wider on the opposite end.
The way light diffracted and bent around the opening gave her a wider field of vision, without making herself more open to attack.
There was a small, green-haired girl lying on the floor inside, gingerly pressing a hand against the top of her head. As Vista watched, she sniffled and rubbed at her eyes with the back of her other hand. She slowly sat up, before looking around herself with wide, scared eyes at the warped and visually distorted walls and ceiling of Vista's impromptu cage.
"H-hello?" The girl called out, turning around suddenly.
Vista jumped back and quickly closed the peephole before the other girl could see her. She let out a quiet sigh, before leaning her back against the side of the earthen wall and slowly sliding down to the ground.
The adrenaline from earlier had started to fade away all too soon, leaving Vista exhausted and weary to the bone.
She could roughly feel with her powers that the girl inside was moving around, testing the walls of Vista's prison. She doubted that she would be able to get out without Vista's help.
Missy ran through the situation in her head.
…The girl had wings. Golden ones, with opaque white membranes. They looked too small to lift her, so her flight was almost definitely power-assisted. They seemed to be organic, rather than Tinkertech.
She also wasn't wearing a mask, or a costume other than a simple blue dress. The girl hadn't actually attacked her, and to be frank… she didn't seem like much of a threat to begin with. She hadn't exhibited any powers other than flight so far, and she was smaller than Vista.
If she had to guess, she'd say that the other girl was somewhere between ten and eight. Not exactly the sort of hardened criminal that Vista would expect to be involved in assassinating a Ward.
The girl was probably just curious, although Missy couldn't bring herself to just assume she was harmless solely because of her age.
Maybe she was a Case-53? What was she doing out in the woods in the middle of nowhere?
…Right, Case-53's appeared randomly. Most of the ones she'd heard about ended up in alleyways inside towns and cities- but it made sense that she wouldn't have heard about the ones that appeared in the wilderness where nobody could find them.
Missy sighed, feeling dead tired. In hindsight, she'd clearly made the wrong call- but how was she supposed to know that?
…She probably could have used her powers to bend space and see behind herself, although the fog would have made it more difficult. That way, she could have gotten a better look at the person following her, without turning around or attacking prematurely.
Ugh. Missy really needed a nap, but there was still work to be done. She pushed herself to her feet with a grim sense of determination.
She stretched a section of the wall out, before lowering that part and creating a long path between her and the girl. Vista was ready to dodge out of the way and pull the wall back up on a moment's notice, in case the unknown cape reacted poorly.
She raised her voice and called out to her. "Why were you following me?" Missy winced internally. That hadn't come out the way that she wanted. Too blunt, too aggressive. She needed to avoid escalating the fight right now, not continue where she'd left off.
Sure enough, the girl flinched away from her, stammering something out quietly enough that Vista couldn't hear her from this distance.
Missy could see tears starting to form in the girl's eyes. Feeling a sudden stab of guilt, Vista decided to take pity on her. She was fairly certain that the other girl wasn't going to choose to attack now all of a sudden.
She shortened the distance to about half, before raising her voice again. "...Sorry."
"I got scared when I realized someone was following me." It stung Vista to acknowledge that she'd been scared at all. It felt like an admission of weakness- but this wasn't about her right now.
"I overreacted. I'm sorry." Missy let out a weary sigh.
"...It- it's- s'okay." The girl murmured, still not quite meeting Missy's eyes.
"Alright. Is it okay if I come closer?" Vista asked tiredly.
She hesitated, before nodding. Vista closed the distance and reached out a hand, which the green-haired girl thankfully accepted.
"Sorry about that, again. I'm Vista." She introduced herself as she pulled the girl to her feet.
"I'm Daiyousei." The girl perked up a little bit at the friendly gesture. "Erm… how did you…?" She gestured at the walls all around them.
"It's my power. I'm one of the Wards." She replied bluntly. "I'm a superhero." Missy tacked on as an afterthought. She wasn't sure if the term would mean anything to a Case-53, but the girl's face lit up with recognition and excitement.
"Wow! That's so cool! I mean, it was kind of scary… but your power is really neat." Daiyousei gushed.
Vista was glad that the other girl didn't seem to resent her for earlier, but she couldn't help but feel awkward from the sudden praise.
…It was always weird, getting compliments from people her age, let alone younger kids. Missy never felt like she quite fit in with them anymore. She'd fought criminals with guns, and Nazi supervillains- how was she supposed to relate to other twelve year olds when most of them had never faced anything more dangerous than a papercut?
It seemed almost impossible to her. Whenever they went on and on about how cool her job was, Missy couldn't help but frown, even as she tried her best to keep an impassive front.
Being a hero wasn't anything like the movies said. It was still cool- Missy could admit that much, but it wasn't always fun and games like other kids her age seemed to think.
Heroes lost all the time, especially in Brockton Bay. They lost, over and over again, and they didn't always escape unscathed. Missy had received her fair share of injuries over the years.
The scar over her chest still ached sometimes, from where Hookwolf had brushed her aside like a stray afterthought and cut her down to the sternum- the bone in the middle of her ribcage, which shielded her heart and lungs.
Sometimes, Missy wondered what would have happened if that cut had been a little bit deeper.
Ugh, she felt like such a baby, whining about all of this. In the end, Missy was one of the lucky ones. The thing with Hookwolf wasn't normal. People usually went easier on her because she was twelve- in comparison, Aegis often came back to base with bullet holes in him, sometimes even missing limbs and intestines… and, Gallant and Kid Win hadn't even been lucky enough to come back at all. In comparison, what did Vista have to complain about?
Vista did her best to keep the unpleasant mix of feelings that roiled in her stomach from showing on her face. "Yeah. It's pretty cool." She replied nonchalantly as she lowered the walls, fixing her changes to the sky as an afterthought.
Missy shivered, suddenly remembering her predicament. "Sorry, I can't really stop and talk right now- I need to dry off and get warm."
"Oh! You fell in the lake?" Daiyousei exclaimed.
"...Yeah. Something like that." Missy was way too cold and tired to try and explain further.
The other girl nodded like that explained everything, which Missy guessed it sort of did from an outside perspective. "Yeah, that happens to me all the time too- even though I can fly, sometimes I trip accidentally, or the other Fairies push me in."
Missy decided to unpack that information later. 'Other fairies'...? She thought to herself.
Daiyousei did sorta look like a fairy- she had wings that looked a bit like a butterfly's, was wearing a dress, and she was a little girl. Vista knew it was hypocritical of her to call anyone else little, but she had almost half a head of height and at least a year or two on the younger girl.
"C'mon, I know what to do when this happens." Daiyousei stated confidently. "I'll start a fire, so that you can warm up!"
The other girl took Vista's hand and led the way, flitting back and forth, forcing her to keep pace awkwardly. She picked up small dry branches off the ground, snapping them for kindling.
"Thanks for this." Vista said, trying and failing to suppress another shiver. "I really, really appreciate it."
…Could she really trust a nine-year old to light a fire, though?
She slapped her cheeks lightly. No, she shouldn't think like that- she hated it when people looked down on her for her age, so how could she even consider doing the same thing to other people?
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Vista asked. Daiyousei nodded. "Yeah! Look for dead leaves, moss, or dry grass- something that will catch on fire easily."
"Right. I can do that." Vista rubbed her hands together, breathing warm air on her hands, before wandering off slightly and looking around for tinder. She made sure to keep tabs on Daiyousei's position using her power.
There wasn't much in the way of dry grass or leaves. The fog was still everywhere, and there were beads of dew on the damp forest floor.
There was some moss on a tree nearby. She picked up a rock and scraped some of it off, but it was moist and springy to the touch- probably not any good, then.
She looked around, before spotting a tree hollow. She didn't sense anything living inside, so she walked over. There were some dead leaves that were still relatively dry, so she scooped them out and stuffed them into her pocket, the one without the wet socks.
She checked her power's mental map for the familiarly-sized gap, before walking back over to Daiyousei.
"I found some dry leaves." She called out. Vista peered curiously at what Daiyousei was doing. She had put some stones into a rough circle, with the small snapped sticks arranged in a small nest inside.
The fairy got up and brushed her skirts off, before walking over to Vista. She inspected Vista's cupped hands, before nodding. "Okay, these look good!" Daiyousei took the handful of dry leaves and crushed them, before putting them in the middle of the firepit on top of the nest.
Daiyousei rubbed her hands together, before forming a small orb of yellow energy in between her palms. She held the bright ball against the tinder.
Vista watched curiously. She wondered what Daiyousei's powers were. Missy thought about asking, but she didn't want to distract the other girl right now.
If she had to guess, the orb probably indicated a Blaster power. It wasn't quite the same as Gallant's, but-
Vista felt her breath hitch for a moment, before forcibly pushing past it.
…Daiyousei's power looked like it was meant to be a projectile, based on its shape. Maybe it was fired like a bullet, or could be thrown like Flashbang's grenades.
Missy's train of thought eagerly switched tracks onto the distraction. Mover/Blaster powers were one of the most common themes when it came to Parahumans; in Brockton Bay alone, there was Kid Win, Dauntless, and almost half of New Wave on the heroes' side.
The tried-and-true combo of mobility and ranged firepower was a good matchup for most Cape fights, although, based on the fight earlier… Vista didn't think that the other girl had fast enough reflexes to dodge bullets from ordinary gangbangers.
Vista doubted that the other girl had a Brute rating either, given how poorly she had taken face-planting into the dirt. Maybe a fall from that height might have knocked out an ordinary adult, but younger kids usually took falls like that more easily than adults in Vista's experience. They weighed less, so the impact had less force, and since they were still growing, their bones were more springy and not quite as brittle.
Overall, it seemed like the other girl was versatile, but far too squishy and inexperienced to be running around as a solo act. The number of people in the world who were willing to shoot at children was depressingly high. Even as a Ward, Missy had come under live gunfire more than once.
She was fairly certain that unless Daiyousei had another ace up her sleeve, there was a high risk that an ordinary gangbanger with a pistol would be able to kill her- let alone any of the more actively murderous Villains back home. If they had been in Brockton Bay, Vista probably would have recommended joining the Wards.
Missy often felt stifled by the Wards' strict guidelines. Their flat refusal to allow her to engage the more dangerous Villains was so frustrating- Vista knew that she could be doing more.
Her powers allowed her to shape the battlefield from vast distances, and her secondary ability to map out the surrounding geography usually prevented people from sneaking up on her, so long as she stayed vigilant.
Missy knew she wasn't invincible- but she'd known the risks when she signed up. She just wished that they'd let her help, rather than keeping her away from the action.
Missy was always in the back, or on the sidelines, out of sight- except for whenever PR wanted her for a photo shoot or publicity event. She was still a Hero, but sometimes, it felt more like Vista was a little dress-up doll instead of the real deal.
That being said, Missy wasn't blind to the safety that the Wards program had given her. Vista's powers were strong, but… nobody's luck lasted forever. Being a Ward meant that people usually pulled their punches.
Missy knew that it was because of the PRT, and the larger threat of the Triumvirate, that most criminals weren't willing to kill or maim Vista- not just because she was twelve. Even still, that wasn't an ironclad protection. Recent events had proven that.
…Despite her own personal reservations, Vista would still have done her level best to get Daiyousei to join the Wards, if they were in Brockton Bay.
Otherwise, the thought that Missy might have to bear even a fraction of the weight of the other girl's death on her conscience was far too much to stomach. Or at least, she would have, before everything else had happened. Given recent events… it was probably safer to be an Independent than a Ward, right now.
…Her nose was leaking. Mucus threatened to trickle down her face. Missy sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve, doing her best to stem the flow.
It'd been a while now. Missy had lost track of time again, but the nest of dry leaves didn't show any sign of igniting or even warming up.
She craned her neck over. "Hey, Daiyousei? …How long is this going to take?"
"Ah- sorry. It usually takes me a while to get the fire going. It's not very easy, especially in damp weather like this." Daiyousei offered.
"Oh. Okay." Vista sat down on a nearby log. She hugged her knees together, watching the softly glowing light emanating from Daiyousei's hands.
"My magic isn't very hot. It's only a little warm." Daiyousei admitted after a few seconds. "This usually takes a while, but it always works eventually! I swear."
Missy hesitated. "It's alright. I know you're trying your best." She offered.
Daiyousei frowned, before redoubling her efforts with a determined look on her face. The orb grew brighter in her hands, a warm glow suffusing the foggy forest around them.
The leaves started to smoke, before turning red at the edges. Quickly yet carefully, Daiyousei leaned down and exhaled lightly on the embers, fueling the fire with fresh oxygen.
Once the first flames started to flicker from the tinder to the kindling beneath, Daiyousei started adding some of the bundle of twigs at her side. Missy watched the fire grow as the other girl fed the flames more fuel.
Carefully, she scooted closer to the campfire. She closed her eyes and basked in the comforting heat, as warm air flowed across her skin.
Vista let out a sigh of relief, before leaning against a nearby tree. "Thanks, Daiyousei." She mumbled.
Now that her eyes were closed, Missy suddenly found that it was very difficult to stay awake. "So…" She yawned. "Where… where did you learn how to make a fire? Did someone teach you?"
Missy wondered if the other girl had parents. Her parents were probably raising a huge fuss with the PRT right about now. Missy's eyebrows creased as a frown crossed her tired face. She didn't want to think about that right now.
"It's very useful! I'm glad I learned how to do this." She paused, tilting her head slightly. "I can't remember who taught me, but someone did."
Bone-deep exhaustion filled Missy's body as she rested her head against the tree. She hadn't been sleeping well lately, and the events of today had worn her all out.
"Mhhh… Daiyousei?" Missy mumbled quietly.
"Hmm? Sorry, Vista, did you say something?" Daiyousei asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"Do you mind… keeping watch?" Missy yawned. "I'm really tired… I need to… to…" She couldn't seem to keep her eyes open, but maybe that was alright now.
Daiyousei said something in reply, but Missy couldn't catch it. Her mind was slowly fogging over, as sleep finally started to settle in.
Missy idly wondered if she could trust Daiyousei, as she drifted off into unconsciousness.
…Somehow, despite having just met her, Missy was absolutely sure that she could. The other girl was an open book- Daiyousei didn't seem to have a single ounce of malice or deceit in her body.
Missy slumped against the tree, falling into a deep and dreamless slumber. Diligently, Daiyousei kept watching the campfire, feeding another branch into the flames.
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
And so the young girl that hates being treated like a child is now going to be interacting with a swarm of eternal children. Where's my popcorn?
- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
Well, at the very least Missy is doing better than everyone else.
She's not at risk of immediate death and she has a new friend caring for her!
...Damn, most of the kids of BB are completely fucked if near-drowning, near-freezing, and then getting lost in the woods near the SDM is the best result thus far.
And to think the only two who haven't made a mistake are the ones that nearly died through no fault of their own.
...Hm, y'know, kinda surprised a local Mermaid didn't intervene, but I suppose the whole mess went too fast for her to react. Or at least before she realized it wasn't a fairy crash-landing.
She's not at risk of immediate death and she has a new friend caring for her!
...Damn, most of the kids of BB are completely fucked if near-drowning, near-freezing, and then getting lost in the woods near the SDM is the best result thus far.
And to think the only two who haven't made a mistake are the ones that nearly died through no fault of their own.
...Hm, y'know, kinda surprised a local Mermaid didn't intervene, but I suppose the whole mess went too fast for her to react. Or at least before she realized it wasn't a fairy crash-landing.
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Sylent-M
Be Trans, Take to Heresy
- Pronouns
- Was/Were
You're not wrong Missy, but boy will you be in for a surprise.
I'm afraid.
How will Vista remain warm when Cirno is the strongest?
Beloved tomboyish Girl vs Beloved tomboyish girl!
Also, Scarlet Devil Mansion, that's nearby.
Will Vista meet Meiling, and get super martials arts?
I'm really invested in this, dude, good job!
How will Vista remain warm when Cirno is the strongest?
Beloved tomboyish Girl vs Beloved tomboyish girl!
Also, Scarlet Devil Mansion, that's nearby.
Will Vista meet Meiling, and get super martials arts?
I'm really invested in this, dude, good job!
