tenthousandmusesmaybemore

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

@bxtonpxss “Happy Valentine’s Day, Hime-sama!” Neya is just positively giddy with joy as she approaches the princess and thrusts a bag of chocolate into her hands. “Here you go! Let me know how you like them!”

"Oooh! Nee-yan's handmade chocolate?" Iwashi puts on an air of surprise, despite them being in the same home ec class. "I do graciously accept~" She says, with just a hint of her usual flirtatious tone.

"Oh! I have something for you as well~ Fufufu..." Her smile grows wider and she leads them both over to her locker. Inside is a whole 3-tier chocolate cake, exquisitely decorated in frosting swirls and ganache flowers. It is clearly professionally made and more expensive than the average person would want to think about. "I thought we could all share this after school today."

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

@bxtonpxss “Uzume-san! Minamo-chan!” After leaving Chouza she went to go find the other half of his trio. Luckily they weren’t too far behind! Neya stops before the pair, holding out more individual baggies. She hands one over both to Minamo and Uzume respectively. “Happy Valentines Day!”

"Nee-chan!" Uzume turns and waves like they haven't seen each other in forever, even through it's only been a few hours. He is clearly giddy about the holiday. "Thank you! Happy valen-tomes day!"

Minamo herself seems a bit perturbed by some other girl giving Uzume chocolate, but it is quickly overshadowed by her desire to try some sweets. She pulls on Uzume's sleeve and points to his bag (despite having her own currently in hand). With a big grin, he opens up the bag and hands her a piece. She stands in silence while letting the chocolate melt in her mouth before giving her assessment, ".......... tastes good."

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

@bxtonpxss “Chouuuza~san!” Neya approaches the older boy, grinning with her hands behind her back. She pauses dramatically for a moment then holds out a bag of chocolates she made in home ec, pushing the sweets into his hands. ”Here you go! Happy Valentine’s Day!”

"Ah-" For a moment, he seems taken aback by the sudden treats, but he takes them with a grin. A glance into his bag would reveal that it's stuffed full of similar bags, as well as a few boxes. It's way too much for him to actually eat, but he had trouble refusing it, even when it was from completely random girls he'd have sworn he's never interacted with. Honestly, it made it a bit troublesome-- Uzume had pressured him into a bet over who would get more; Chouza had meant to let Uzume win, but where was he going to hide all of this?

This new parcel he places into a jacket pocket to keep it separate from all the others. It was nice to get something from someone he actually knows. "Thanks."

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

@bxtonpxss “Hime-sama!”Neya approaches the princess with a bright smile, holding up a small jar of a somewhat expensive (for her personally) beauty cream. The seller at the stall told her that it was to help brighten up your skin, so of course she immediately thought of getting it for Iwashi. “I bought this for you! I hope you like it!”

"Oh my~!" Iwashi had not been expecting such a sudden gift, but Neya was always so full of surprises, she can't help but smile.

She takes the jar with the tips of her fingers and carefully inspects the item. From a distance, the packaging has a high quality appearance, but an observation with an eye for the finer things reveals that some of the golden plating is flaking in a manner inconsistent with real gold and the texture of the paint suggests it used a cheaper blend. Still, regardless of the packaging, the product itself may still be good; it was hard to know before trying it on.

"I'll put it on after our next bath..." The day's travel had been long, and it would be better to apply a cream to fresh skin rather than sweaty and dirty skin. Iwashi rubs at her cheek and gazes around the area that the group had found itself in. "...which I sure hope will be soon~"

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

"Miss... Ne..ya... huh?" It feels entirely unnatural to be referring to her by name, but he was going to have to get over that quickly if he wanted to pass off as a normal teenage boy. Thankfully, she seems distracted by how many others are in this contest.

"Don't worry. One or two groups usually drop out after the first day." He doesn't know if this is comforting, given a 15-group start is pretty daunting, and losing a couple of them would still leave it in the double-digits. He can't decide if a large crowd is going to make this situation better or worse. On the one hand, whatever plan she has for killing him would be hard to carry out with all the eyes on them. On the other, he is in the same position; it'll be hard to get rid of her. It is a stalemate, in a sense, at least for now.

The announcer's voice rings out with extra intensity as the first event is about to be announced. The chatter surrounding the pair grows more fervent, and Iriya leans over towards the girl to explain the process. "All the possible events are placed in that box..." Iriya gestures towards an ornately decorated box in front of the announcer at center stage, "... and selected randomly for the first six tasks. The last one is always something special though." Iriya tries to sound like he knows because he's been here since childhood, despite most of his knowledge coming from his new 'parents' talking about it and the one or two times it's happened since he came here.

The side discussions die down quickly once the announcer sets his hand onto the box. Iriya can't tell whether people are actually invested in this gaudy showmanship or are just being polite about it and playing along.

The announcer reaches his hand into the box slowly-- as if it was filled with deadly insects and not slips of paper with various mundane tasks-- and draws the first card out. And then the name of their first task echos around the festival.

"Fishing!!"

She does her best to focus on the announcer, even after posing her question to her partner but still finds herself trying to recall what Iriya sounded like on the off chance she could recognize him. When he tricked them the first time they'd met he had been deceptively polite before reverting to a wild and violent tone.

It was hard to tell here and she wasn't confident enough to outright accuse him. Perhaps it would be best to play things by ear, as maybe this wasn't actually Iriya and she just assumed some normal unfortunate guy was the terrifying mass murdering bandit.

Neya makes a mental note to herself to just be careful and more alert but otherwise continues on as though nothing were wrong. When Kawa explains what he's heard about the previous years festivals, she couldn't help but wince at the information.

“Yikes!" To go from something as harmless as coloring one year to almost drowning in the next was outrageous! Neya can't hide the mix of surprise and concern on her features. "I certainly hope we wont have to do something extreme like that…” Her swimming skills were average at best and just well enough to keep her and another afloat if needed, she doesn't think she'd be able to handle holding her breath for a long period of time.

 "I said my name is Neya." She says reintroducing herself. "Oh, I think they're almost done calling names?" As she says this, her gaze slides over to the long platform they were all currently gathered on. From what she could see so far, there appeared to be about  30 people already grouped into teams of two. Her eyes grew large at the sight, just how many people signed up for this event?

"Oh wow, there's already so many people!"

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

Where did my ability to trim posts goooooo

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

"Hard to say. I've heard it varies..." He says, trying to iron out the false voice he was using so he'd be able to keep it up over the whole week if he has to. Of course, it's hard to say whether he'll have to. This woman was playing it cool for now, but he's sure the she recognized him. She was probably just waiting for the right moment to strike. Or maybe she'd tell her group he was here and they'd all plan something together. Either way, Iriya doesn't really expect this charade to go on a whole week. He'll probably be lucky if he makes it to tomorrow.

"... Apparently last year one of the events was a coloring contest. But the year before that was some kind underwater breath-holding thing and several people almost drowned." He wrings his hands together, "I sure hope nothing so scary happens this year." Gosh, he wishes he was armed right now. But this uniform he'd been thrown into hasn't been in his possession long enough to add hidden blade compartments, and the blades in his shoes he'd had to remove after accidentally releasing one in the village market. Leaving him now completely and totally defenseless.

"Oh! Uh-uhm... I'm sorry, I think I missed your name." This part wasn't entirely a lie, he really had been spacing out when she introduced herself, and also didn't know what she was actually called. She'd been referred to as 'Trash' in his head for as long as they'd previously been acquainted.

As her partner turns to face her Neya takes a second to study his features. He looked so familiar, and in a blink it comes to her in a rush like an explosive to the face. Instinctively her frame stiffens and she reaches down for one of her kunai. Iriya. Utsuho's old friend turned enemy from Osho-san's village. 

But then as her finger brushes over the handle of her weapon, she stops. Don't be silly Neya. That couldn't be right, Iriya was dead. Utsuho and Uzume had made sure of it, she didn't know everything that transpired during their fight inside the palace but Utusho was very adamant about Iriya not being able to survive that final blow. A strike straight to the heart, and the only person they knew who could survive anything like that was Nibyo-san and he wasn't exactly what you called normal.

Plus, unless she had solid proof it was him, she might end up looking foolish for so acting rashly. Taking a moment to calm herself, she lets out a slow breath and pretends to brush off some dirt around the edge of her skirt to play off the fact that she was ready to attack her partner. Perhaps Kawa-san just had the unfortunate luck of sharing that evil man’s features. She understood more than anyone what its like to share scarily similar features with an absolute stranger.

Neya stares at Kawa for a few moments longer, then smiles a little more awkwardly and forced than before. "Er.. I uh was just curious about the first competition." She turns her attention away from him and tries to focus on the announcer, but they were still calling names for partners. Just how many people had signed up for this competition?

"I've never participated in a week-long event before, so I was just wondering what the challenges would be like. Do you think it will be easy?"

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

oh dear why is the trim post icon so beeg

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

He must have started to space out at some point during the waiting process. He'd been looking out over the crowd, wondering how many of these people were competitors. After all, more competition meant longer, harder contests. After all, if they only gave a few points here and there, the chance of a tie was too high, so the general rule was that events had to be scaled based on the amount of people. A 20-minute game could turn into an all day affair-- and then had to be repeated seven times.

Just as he was resigning himself to this being a long week, so he might as well try to have fun, he realizes there's a voice right next to him. He only tunes into it halfway through, once he realizes the person is, in fact, speaking to him specifically.

The voice in his ears feels like a mosquito. Not in how it sounds, per se, but in the urge to twitch and flinch away from it. That uncomfortable sensation of something that you don't want near you being way too close. But even Iriya knows flinching is too rude for a first interaction, so he holds back by shaking his head in response to the one question he'd actually heard in full.

"No, it's my fir-" Oh no. No, this was a bad, bad idea. He'd turned his head to make eye contact with the woman standing next to him, only to be face to face with a familiar sight. Not a reunion-with-a-long-lost-friend kind of familiar. More like seeing the exact same stone again after being lost in the woods going in circles for hours. Wait, he's gone too quiet. At least finish what you were saying before. "-st."

Stay calm, stay calm, the voice in his head told him in a decidedly not-calm tone. Wait, had she come up just to chat? Or because they were partners? He hadn't been paying enough attention. But there was no way, right? Out of everyone here? There had to be a thousand people out there-

Wait... out there? His neck snaps back to look out at the crowd, frantically scanning for the spiky white hair and oversized obi that was associated with another particular member of this girl's group. Damn it, he's acting way too suspicious.Forcing his eyes off the crowd, he tries to excuse the head jolt away, "Ah, sorry, I think a bug flew in my face. What were you saying?"

He's glad he knows how to throw his voice, though he has to tweak his usual one slightly; she's already heard that one too, after all. It's a desperate bid, but maybe he can convince her he's someone else. A distant cousin or someone unrelated that just happens to have the same features... and same missing eye...

Crap. This is going to suck.

Kusunoki village was known for hosting big festivals every year that lasted the whole week, where people from all over would want to come and participate. The prizes were usually top-notch and this year was no exception. It was the reason why they were here actually. Word on the street was, that this years prize was going to be an item that sounded suspiciously like a kokonotsu treasure, at least according to Nibyo-san.

A week-long celebration… Carefully biting into a stick of grilled meat she purchased from a stand earlier, Neya chews thoughtfully while looking down at the number she’d been given. It was marked with red paint and pinned on the chest of the left side of her kimono. They hadn't quite explained what all the competition entailed, they just simply given everyone a number after putting their name on the participant’s list and said they'd understand when the time came.

Now it was just a matter of waiting. She'd walked around the village to kill time and glean some information about the prize and events, but folks around here were very tight lipped. She supposed that's what made this village so infamous in that regard. They were very careful when it came to not wanting to spoil their big events. According to a villager, the events and challenges changed every year so people couldn't cheat.

Time passed by without Neya even realizing, and she just barely heard her number being called and had to awkwardly shuffle on the stage. Her partner was already standing there, Kawa was their name. She moves to stand beside them hoping that they were nice. As the announcer continues to call up the rest of the competitors, the pinkette turns to her new partner and offers up a friendly smile.

"Ah hello Kawa-san!" She gives a short bow of her head in greeting before introducing herself, "I'm Neya, it's nice to meet you." She then attempts a bit of small talk to pass the time. "What do you think the first competition will be? Have you ever done this before?"

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

"Fire? Huh? Wha-?" Charlotte looks back over her shoulder looking for... smoke? flames? Or was 'fire' a slang term used here? She pauses. After an embarrassing amount of time, she recognizes the sarcasm for what it is and gives a nervous laugh and another apology.

As the other individual wipes at their hands, another pang of guilt hits. Not her best of first impressions (Then again, also not her worst, but that is not a story to be focusing on right now). She should probably do something to make it up to them, but would have to introduce herself first and hope they're not too upset and just going to tell her to just go away if she tries to pull a friendly card now.

"Erm, uh, anyways," she stutters while her ability to speak coherently restarts. Then, with a bolt of confidently nervous energy (whatever that means), she sticks her hand straight out for a greeting, "Name's Charlotte."

The sudden arrival of another patron hadnt been unexpected what with it being a place people likely frequented. Rather it was only to be expected, however the nature of this persons arrival had taken them by surprise. How had they not heard them coming? Likely wrapped up in their own little world had deafened them to the outside world. taken by surprise the bodily collision shifts them off balance only slightly but just enough to instinctually swing their arms out to the side to try to regain their balance completely. "Whoa!" They shout in surprise as the collision and subsequent flailing had them lose control of the contents of their cup, its contents spilling thankfully just over their hand. Letting out a quick hiss of pain at the burning sensation it had caused. It could have been worse. They had been here awhile already and it was no longer scalding hot. turning to the offending individual who seemed to be apologizing in a rushed panic they quickly took a step back moving the cup of coffee in question away from the stranger. BIlingual? "Ah, careful! Its hot. No sense in you getting burned too. Accidents happen. It's quite alright, really. Wheres the fire?" They asked of the other with a hint of amusement. It was kind of funny in an ironic sort of way. Reaching into a pocket to produce a white silk handkerchief that they used to wipe off their hand and the cup they were holding before frowning at the small spill on the ground. They didnt really want to use the fancy one to wipe up the floor with.

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

[Writing Charlotte really got me remembering my days in the DGM rp fandom... some WILD memories, I'll tell you that.]

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

@demon-slayer-kaiden {For Harikko} "It would probably be a good idea to find a place to rest, It's been a long night."

Harikko's breath halts for a moment at the suggestion. She'd thought she'd been doing a decent job of keeping her breath steady despite how heavily she wanted (and needed) to breathe. Athleticism was not her strongest trait, and the right side of her body was still feeling the rock she'd been flung into during the earlier fight.

"Are you sure? I'm sure I can go a bit farther. Surely we both want to get home faster." Her voice trails off at the end, as she thinks more on the offer. It had been her immediate assumption that Kaiden's words were simply for her sake, but perhaps the other woman was also tired.

Harikko lets out a small, weak sigh. "I'm afraid I don't know the locations of the shrines in this area," she says. If they'd been a little closer to her home, it wouldn't be an issue, but the downside of being a slayer is you had to go where you were told.

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

[I gotta start the process of moving Inosuke over here but geez do I sure not remember how to edit my blog]

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

Lovely commission I got from @wolfvirago!

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

@bxtonpxss

He can't help but feel a bit stupid in the festival garb. Coming out to the largest festival of the year was a given for a family that runs a grilled meat stand, but what hadn't been expected was getting jumped first thing in the morning with a new outfit, nevermind one that matched the rest of the family and had a large, tacky logo on the front. It all but screamed "hey look over here," which is precisely opposite what Iriya has been going for since being 'killed' back at the capital. Most times he kept himself under a hood, wearing clothes that fully covered his body no matter how hot the weather got. It wasn't like most people would recognize him, but he still had enough scars to raise eyebrows in a somewhat small town. Thankfully, this new getup at least has long sleeves, and some of his facial scars have healed enough to be concealed with makeup instead of bandages, though an eyepatch is still a necessity. It will just have to do.

He isn't expecting any drama at the festival anyways, people will be too busy drinking and eating and playing silly (and probably scam) games to notice one strange boy behind a counter, especially if he put on his customer service face, which had been an easy one to learn for someone who'd been faking smiles his whole life. But apparently his foster parents had other plans for him than just wearing a silly outfit and cooking.

He almost doesn't recognize it when the new name he'd been going by-- Kawa, an embarrassingly simple shortening of his old family name-- is called up as one of the contestants for the festival tournament. He probably would have just assumed it was some other guy with that name, except that his foster mother started looking at him with an unsettling cheery grin. She'd been pushing for him to "get out more," but he never expected she'd go so far as to put his name down for an event without even telling him. It suddenly occurs to him that this is also why he's wearing a giant advertisement on his chest today. Damn it.

So that is how, after fighting off the urge to run away and change his name again, he has ended up on this stage, waiting for a partner to be selected for him. They better not be someone totally incompetent. If he has to do these ridiculous tasks for a prize he never even cared enough to learn what it was, he doesn't want to have to do it while dragging some useless oaf behind him.

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

If the atmosphere produced by a quiet cafe bookshop in the morning is a serene one, then Charlotte is an element that absolutely does not belong. Her energy, even at this hour, is one to be reckoned with. But she was here with a purpose, and absolutely had to find what she'd come here for, even if it meant bringing tornado energy to an otherwise tranquil locale. In other words, trying to run between shelves while looking at books instead of the aisle was never going to end well. The only miracle was she'd gone this long before colliding into another of the store's patrons.

"Ah. S-sorry about that!" She hops back on one foot, holding both hands up in apology. It isn't for another moment that she notices the other person is holding a beverage.

 "¡Ayala vida! Sorry! I hope it didn't spill-" Her face contorts into panic and she reaches out for the cup as if being able to grab it now would have prevented any accidents from her prior clumsiness.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

The ambience of a small hole in the wall bookstore wasn't the kind they experienced often so this was a change of pace from the usual but this morning their daily fortune had mentioned something about a chance meeting to be had in a "place of aquired wisdom". It was this or the library they had thought at the time. The ability to grab a fresh coffee from the small but surprisingly good cafe integrated into the building had decidely made up their mind for them.

"Caffeine is a gift. Right, Bert?" They spoke aloud to their companion, a doll hanging from the half zippered confines of a small shoulder slung bag. The doll a patchwork lattice of purples and oranges stitched together resembling nothing so much as Frankensteins Jackalope, complete with wine red bolt going through its skull. They nodded to themselves after cocking an ear to the side and nodding after awhile in affirmation as if to a silent voice. One gloved hand held the warm styrofoam cup holding ambrosia black as the night while a similarly gloved hand perused the spines of titles on a shelf they wandered over to. Comedy. Horror. Fiction. Titles and genres flew by as their time was idled away. @tenthousandmusesmaybemore

[tenthousandmusesmaybemore]

"That's exactly what we'd want them to think. Gotta see if it's disorienting enough to make them not know where it came from." It is obvious he's having a blast imagining the others frantically swinging weapons around in the smoke.

"As long as we don't run in after, it'll be fiine." That is easy for him to say; if he gets attacked, it's never any big deal. But how can he convince her that she'd also be safe?

"Besides, if they come after us, I'm sure I can keep you safe."

Expert? Oh Hikae you give her too much credit! But it does make her think. More on the technical side than anything else. Firstly she’d have to talk with Utsuho and see if she could borrow a few smoke bombs, then maybe get him to show her his process on making them for future reference.

“I guess I’d have to see how it handles the weight,” attaching an explosive to her arrow versus a smoke bomb were two drastically different things. Hoo boy, leave it to the guardian to want to stir up some trouble. Neya’s thoughtful expression falters, shifting into something a bit more nervous.

“T-that might not be wise Nibyo-san!" Fidgets a bit. "What if someone thinks we're under attack?” She'd hate for her new bow to get broken in all the potential chaos. A well-placed slash from Chouza’s claws or Uzume’s weapons would simply be game over. "Maybe we should test it out another way?"