Nov 19, 2009 02:01
The intercom's jingle signaled yet another announcement
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rika,
kirk,
klavier,
axel,
meche,
intercom,
anise,
minato,
sephiroth,
sam winchester,
indiana jones,
forte,
naminé,
allen,
utena,
asch,
luke fon fabre,
euphemia,
zex,
rey,
taura,
hayes,
kinomoto sakura,
peter parker,
luxord,
raphael,
kanji,
mello,
brainiac 5,
roxas,
usopp,
peter petrelli,
mele,
two-face,
yuffie,
edgar,
neku,
the scarecrow,
sync,
ayumu,
spock,
yukari yakumo,
l,
haseo,
sechs,
endrance,
asuka,
haine,
bella,
dick grayson,
dahlia,
hanatarou,
sora,
jason,
junpei,
claude,
keman,
haruno sakura,
edgeworth,
teresa,
harley,
tim drake,
von karma,
sho,
hanyuu,
heat,
kvothe,
emmett,
hinamori momo,
nigredo,
allelujah,
lelouch,
ratchet,
fai,
cloud,
aerith,
sylar,
sasuke,
yue,
sheena,
kaworu,
edward cullen,
beatrix,
falis,
mccoy,
hime,
setsuna
The first thing she noticed - no. The second thing, really, after all the decor on that side of the room; things that she approved of just as much as she felt saddened by them; they reminded her of home - was that 'Dolores' was curled up tightly, hugging a doll that she could just hear Rena wanting to take home. She ignored her own side of the room, lightly stepping over - she didn't want to intrude, but she couldn't simply leave her alone when she looked so bad. It wasn't her way of doing things.
"Excuse me...I'm Rika," she said, in a soft voice. "You don't look like you're feeling well. Can I do something to help?" At the very least, she could find something to put on her forehead, if she was feeling feverish or had a headache, or something like that.
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But then she heard the quiet voice, and her eyes opened wide. Ami!? But that thought died out in an instant as she registered what the girl was saying. Anise quickly sat up in her bed, looking over at the stranger in surprise.
"N-no! I was just tired!" she insisted, partly as a reflex. Saying things like that always came much easier to her than actually saying what was wrong.
The girl standing by her bed was surprisingly small, she realized. Anise thought she was at the younger end of the age spectrum in Landel's, but Rika here looked like she had to be a few years younger.
"Um, so does this mean you're..." Anise cast a lingering look at the empty bed across the room; the one that was supposed to be occupied by Ami, even though it had been vacant for some time now. Her gaze returned to Rika. "...my new roommate?"
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"It does," she said, fidgeting a little. She really hadn't meant to make a bad first impression; it was just her nature to try and be helpful. "So I'm sorry we got off to a bit of a bad start. Like I said, I'm Rika," she said, trying to smile a little. "It's nice to meet you. I like your doll," she said, gesturing to Tokunaga.
With that, she crossed to her side of the room, nibbling on a little rice. It wasn't bad, she thought, though...all this reminded her of home.
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If Rika could appreciate Tokunaga's cuteness, then the two of them were probably going to get along. In an effort to reciprocate the girl's friendliness, Anise managed to force a little smile for her. She still felt pretty lousy, but showing it would just invite a lot of unpleasant questions. The best thing to do was try and act casual. There was a chance she'd be living with this girl for a while, after all.
"So, how long have you been here?" she asked, trying to get a conversation moving, just so she wouldn't have to stop and think so much. Maybe a little normalcy would help get rid of the nausea, even.
Unless Rika turned out to be brainwashed, too.
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"It's a little complicated," she said, thinking of how to answer that. "Apparently I was here once before, but I don't remember that. I woke up here again just before lunch. Someone who knew me before said that happens sometimes, but it's kind of confusing to think about it too much. How about you?"
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While Rika spoke, Anise rested her chin in her palms and her elbows on her knees, swinging her feet idly. "Mm... That happened to a few of my friends, too. It's pretty messed up." It had to be rough to be in Rika's shoes, showing up in a place like Landel's and immediately being told she'd been there before. She was probably right to decide not to think too hard on it right away.
"I've been here for almost three weeks now," she answered. "I think that's longer than most people, so if there's anything you want to know about this place, I can probably help."
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"Yeah, it is. I don't even know what to think about it. I think messed-up is the best way to put it." It was even more messed up that she was the only one that had come back out of the bunch of them. Combining that with what she had been told about Mion...it scared her. It was best not to think too hard about it.
"Thank you," she said, then nibbled on a piece of carrot thoughtfully. "Do you know about how many people are here? I heard from someone else that there are a lot of different worlds, so..."
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It was a little surprising that Rika was able to mention different worlds without sounding too doubtful. Then again, space travel and stuff were common on some other worlds. Maybe she was from one of those? Or maybe she was just quick to accept what other people told her. Anise was already a complete skeptic by Rika's age, but she imagined that wasn't really the norm for kids.
"That's right, though. The planet we're on now is called Earth, and I think most of the people here are from Earth, but a lot of us are from other planets." She was beginning to wonder just where Rika was from, but she supposed if the girl wanted to tell her, she would soon enough. "Like me. I'm from Auldrant."
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She realized it might sound weird to be so comfortable with the idea of different worlds. It was hard to explain herself, because how did you explain that you had been living far longer than anyone else? She knew about the fact they were launching things into space, and that people had been to the moon, but...
"I'm from a little town called Hinamizawa, in Japan, on Earth," she said, nodding. "But, well...I'm a shrine maiden there. I've sensed a lot of things people might not normally be able to. I think that's why it's easy for me to think about things like other worlds," she smiled.
"What's yours like? My town's really small, like I said. But it's nice like that - it's pretty and peaceful."
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Rika was a shrine maiden? Sounded like they both worked religious kinds of jobs. Anise wasn't sure what a shrine maiden actually did, or what the girl meant by sensing things others couldn't. The Order didn't really have anything like shrine maidens, and Anise didn't know much about other religions.
"I live in a city called Daath, in the cathedral there. It's the religious capital of the world, so there are a lot of fancy buildings and monuments and stuff." In the parts of the city that were frequented by officials and tourists, anyway. The slum Anise grew up in was a different story. "It's always full of travelers and stuff, so it's pretty exciting."
That was a good enough explanation, she figured. In the meantime, it looked like she had a chance to ask Rika the question that was on her mind. "So what kind of stuff does a shrine maiden do?"
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That sounded exciting. She thought she might want to visit sometime, now that things were settled back home. Never mind that she wasn't really thinking of the logistics.
"Ah, we do a lot of things." Or would, normally. "The big thing is the yearly festival, though. It's the big event in town. We do a lot of work for it, but it's really rewarding."
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"We have something like that too," Anise chimed in, nibbling on a piece of tempura. "Every year on New Year's, people from all over come to see the Fon Master read the Score for the year." She realized the meaning of that would be lost on just about anyone not from Auldrant, but it was hard to think of another way to put it without talking for too long.
"What do people do at your town's festival?" It had to be really different, being both a small town and a place on a totally different planet.
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She wasn't sure what a Fon Master or a Score was, but it actually sounded like it was exciting. "Ooh. So is it like a good-luck wish for the new year? Or a poem?" Both of those sounded nice. She thought she might like to see something like it.
"Ah, the Watanagashi festival is a pretty big deal," she said, with a smile. "Everyone from town, and the city, sets up booths with games and different kinds of food. It's a lot of fun to visit them and try everything out. I like going with my friends before I have to get ready to do the festival dance. It's one of the most important parts. The whole point of the festival is...well. The maiden takes an old futon or something like it and uses a special hoe to break it open. Then everyone takes a piece of cotton from it and floats it down the river. The cotton soaks up any bad energy or bad things you've done, and setting it free means that you're free from all of it."
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"Mm, well..." Anise had to finish chewing her tempura before continuing. "I guess you could say reading the Score is sort of like fortune-telling. The Score tells people what the future will be. At least, that's what most people believed." More and more people seemed to be accepting Ion's view of the Score recently, fortunately.
Before she could get too lost in thoughts of home, however, she quickly switched her focus to Rika's explanation. "Your festival sounds pretty fun!" The cotton ritual sounded weird, but whatever. "I used to do that kind of fun stuff at festivals too, but these days I have to work during them, boooo." Not that she had a problem with guarding Ion! It was just kind of a downer, seeing all the other kids having fun while she and Ion had all those official duties to tend to.
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