[⊾] I'll sleep when I'm dead.
Hold on.
Shifting slightly, I look to my sides, blinking a few times.
I
am sinking into the couch. Further and further into where the backrest meets the seat half.
Straightening up a little
Ouch ouch argh dammit I pull myself out of the corner I've slowly been slipping into.
What a weird piece of furniture.
Need to get up, and stay up. No sleeping yet; I haven't finished.
Orange comes back into the room, holding a serving tray with a small kettle, two teacups, a silver circle on a chain, a spoon, and a jar of some kind of spice or herb or something. I peer closer at it. ...Make that several somethings. It's some kind of potpourri of what I'm sort of hoping are herbs, but I don't know what those longer, dried bits are. They don't seem... herb-y.
She sets it down on the low table, and gives me a cheerful smile as she has a seat next to me. I guess she's calmed down a bit. "This is some of my own personal tea for painkillers. Just drink some of this, and you'll be feeling better soon enough!" She grins, though it becomes a frown after a few seconds. "Granted, it maybe doesn't work as well as the stuff those rabbits peddle in town," she mutters quietly, "but I think they just grind up Vicodin and put it in a jar. Quacks, all of them." With a disdainful sniff, she pops open the jar. This at least brings the smile back to her face and she inhales happily.
"Now this," she tells me, holding up the jar. "This is way better for you, even if it isn't as strong as that rabbit-scrap. It's got a track record that leaves their stuff as a miserable pile of white powder."
"Oh? That sounds... good." I ask, feeling that she probably wants me to comment in some way. I gesture at the bottle she holds. "What's it made of?"
She hesitates in the middle of dipping the spoon into the jar.
"...Lots of healthy, natural ingredients."
"Like?"
"Mint, willow bark, a tiiiiny bit of poppy, ginger, and... some other stuff."
I find myself becoming slightly worried.
"...Like?"
She gives a little laugh, and plays with the end of her sidetail a little. It's kind of cute.
"Like... things you say 'I really wish you hadn't told me that' about after you've been told."
Oh.
"We're talking... what? Animal parts?"
"A few."
"Oh."
I pause.
"Well, I trust you. Brew away." I give her a little smile, and lean my head against the armrest. "...and thank you."
Orange breathes a sigh and gives me a relieved smile. "Thank you. I guess I'm usually used to dispensing this to humans. They get a little worked up about certain things."
"Humans?" I frown a little. "In town?"
"Actually, there's sort of a small village a ways down the valley from here. A bunch of them live there. This is a great place for farming, after all. The water is clean, the soil is fertile, the air is clear..." A small smile has grown on her face as she talks. "It's a very good place to live."
"What about that lake of blood your neighbor hangs out at?"
"Oh, that? Kurumi's got no sense of taste." She lowers her voice a little, and winks. "It's not actually real blood. Just an enchantment she has over the place."
"That's sort of a relief."
"You're telling me. A lakeful of blood would play hell with the energy of this place."
She packs the herbs
Or at least, mostly herbs into the silver thing, which apparently pops open like a stopwatch
I will smash it open and stab the Dog in her eyes with the clock hands or something, and has little holes peppered about it. Closing it shut, she drops the thing into one of the cups, leaving the chain to dangle over the side.
And then something very interesting happens.
She places her palm on the surface of the little kettle she brought along with the rest of these things, and closes her eyes. The room falls quiet, and I suddenly become aware of her breathing. Very even, very steady...
Her hand glows slightly
but
maybe I imagined that
and
And then the moment passes and the kettle is whistling as it steams merrily away.
I blink, not sure what the hell I just witnessed. Orange turns to me and winks.
"Something my sister trained me in," she says, before I can ask.
"Wh--" I begin, and then rethink my question. "...water-boiling?"
"Ha. Nothing so simple. Just a practical application of certain family skills."
"...Sounds like an interesting family."
She snickers at this, and nods. "Ahaha.... yes. We've been around for a while, you could say."
I have the sudden feeling that there is some severe understating in that sentence. I just smile at this, and nod.
She pours the boiling water into the cup with the silver circle in it, and then sets it back. "Needs to steep for a little, first," she tells me. After that, my citrus princess scoots over next to me on the couch and looks at me a bit more seriously.
"I suppose you'd like to know what's with my..." I can't think of a different clever way to phrase it, and instead just sort of trace a long arc in the air that ends on the couch. "...trip."
Orange gives me a nod.
How to go about this...
"There are two women who serve at the two major shrines, in Gensokyo," I say starting off with the basics. I see her mouth start to move, and I hold up a finger in front of her. "
Don't say their names. Not anywhere I can hear you. It... hurts me. A great deal, in fact. There is the new one, the green girl--" I pause here, and take her hand, writing
snake and
frog on her hand "--And the old-- well... other-- one." I look into my citrus princess' eyes and trace out, as I did for Little Red, that curvy line with two dots at either end.
It's putting a strain on me just to draw that shape, as I frantically think about other things, anything.
Orange looks down at her hand, back up at me, and nods again, slowly. "I know them," she says. "Sort of hard not to... Did they do this to you?" Her gaze takes on a look of mixed anger and sympathy.
"Only the first one. She has been hunting me for about the last six months, although it's probably coming up on month seven, now..."
Her eyes are wide. "You've been on the run for half a year?"
"Oh, if only." Chuckling weakly, I shake my head. "I have, but I get caught within a week, usually. The longest was eleven days."
"...And... what happens when she ...catches you?"
I close my eyes, and am quiet for a moment. I really don't want to let her know these things.
No.
I can't. I'm not going t--
"Please. Tell me."
Her voice is quiet, and insistent.
I open my eyes, feeling tears beginning to form. Her hand seems to find my own just as I reach out for hers, and she squeezes gently, comfortingly.
"Horrible things," I whisper. "Pray that I am gone before she finds me again, because I do not want her to find me with you. Nobody else should have to suffer this. Nobody else
will suffer this."
"...Why?" Orange's voice is so filled with worry, it almost sounds hurt.
"Because it's between me and her, and nobody else."
"No... I mean, why is she doing this?"
I sigh, and give her hand a gentle squeeze of my own. Her hands feel warm, like the sun. "I don't know, for certain. I have... an idea, though. It doesn't make much sense, but I feel sometimes like she's trying to make me human. Or less of a youkai. They're about the same sort of thing, or at least, in the same direction."
The wrong side of the fence. Green on both sides, but this shade isn't the shade it should be. Not the green I was walking on before all this.
A confused look from the other girl.
"More human..."Why would she do that? I don't mean to be rude, but that sounds ridiculous."
shrug say my shoulders
look away, look away
"I don't know. It's just this feeling I've been getting when I think about my situation. I've been sleeping at night, moving during the day, I'm scared of sudden and unfamiliar sounds at night, the darkness is beginning to frighten me, I worry about
humans... The green girl, specifically, but... Humans, all the same." I look up at her again. "I shouldn't be afraid of humans. That's... I'm a youkai. That's just
wrong." Orange quirks an eyebrow. "What about ...um... the other one?"
Even thinking about her pause makes me wince slightly.
"That's not fear. That's a healthy respect for someone who's very good at her job."
She seems like she wants to disagree, but manages to refrain from doing so. Instead, she turns back to the table, and pulls out the metal circle, setting it on the tray. She picks up the teacup, and hands it to me.
I accept it, with a thank-you, and drink.
For having strange plants and bizarre animals in it, it tastes all right. It's strange, and unusual, but not bitter or unpleasant.
We sit in silence as the tea goes quietly to work on me. The warmth runs through me, making me feel light again, but relaxed.
Calm.
Peaceful.
Like a cat dozing in a sunbeam.
...Yes. It feels like sunlight.
I'm hazily aware of her picking me up, and carrying me through the house.
I'm laid down in a bed, and the covers are pulled up around me.
Lips touch my cheek, and the door is closed quietly.
I sleep.
[ ] Bedside manner
[ ] Slow Step
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Slight retcon: Part 1 was "Running," not "Hiding."
>>107872 It took me a good 20-30 seconds to get the joke.
Well played, sir.
>>107814 Heh.
...Wait, UW? So you live in/around Seattle, too?
>>107772 That is a low blow.
