2025-09-02: Flights of Fancy
- Log: Flights of Fancy
- Cast: Tsumugi Kujaku, Yanagi Nagisa
- Where: Peacock Silk, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo
- OOC Date: September 02, 2025
- IC Date: July 05, 2012
- Summary: Is there anyone you want revenge against?
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
Activity in Peacock Silk is a funny thing. Like many upscale boutiques, they have a steady stream of clientele -- mundane people of means who have bought into the buzz generated around the store and the trends set by their merchandise, caring less about the quality behind the product than the name behind it. They, by and large, provide the money (or some of the money) that maintains the boutique.
And then there are those who truly understand the quality that Peacock Silk offers, and come to them knowing what they are capable of. Their true clientele. The ones not blinded by the superficial.
Both these people come and go frequently enough, but like most places, this does not equate to 'foot traffic.' It comes in appointments, in person or by phone. In requests, handled individually, depending on what is called for.
Which means, often, this store is empty of conventional traffic, even though their employees are hard at work.
And sometimes...
"Sa-ya."
It's just -one- employee hard at work.
The familiar, silken-deep voice comes in from just behind Yanagi Nagisa as she continues her diligent work on that koala-themed accessory of a very particular client. It's a foretoken of what comes next, as long, slender arms drape around Yanagi's shoulders; as a chin nests against her trapezius like it was settling into its personal perch.
As deep green lips part, a hair's breadth away from Yanagi's ear.
Dressed in a sleeveless green button up and high-waisted, black leather pants, Tsumugi Kujaku eschews work today in favor of settling into a lazy drape across Yanagi back and wondering of her a simple, whispered question:
"Is there anyone you want revenge against?"
To them, it's just as important as any project they could be working on.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
It is a funny thing. Just the other day, one of the navigator girls from SEES came by to ask a few questions and, ultimately, purchase a couple of the pre-made accessories Yanagi made for their more mundane but wealthy clientele, for no other reason than they were available and the girl really liked them. Yanagi didn't mind it. It was an interesting conversation, and while she couldn't really agree with Ririka that it was nice to meet another Navigator, it was nonetheless good to see her in particular return to the boutique.
She'd been working on Myunghon's pin then too--then to carve out the sodalite chips that are to form the koala pin's eyes, nose, and mouth. Right now, she's very carefully buffing and polishing those chips into the precise size and shape they need to be to fit the silver pin she's already created. She has just finished up one chip and is setting it down to trade out for the next when--
'Sa-ya.'
There is a presence at Yanagi's back, and Tsumugi embraces her from behind. Yanagi is not surprised, despite how deeply she'd been engrossed in her task; rather, she smiles warmly, welcoming the implicit break from her work, raising a hand to touch their hair as they rest their chin on her shoulder. Her trapezius is sore after all the focus Yanagi has put into her work, and offers a hard perch for Tsumugi, but that is the curse of a body of flesh and says nothing about matters of the heart.
"Tsu~mu~gi~" she singsongs, looking just a bit their way--all the better to offer up her ear to them. She's about to speak further, but her dear friend(?) whispers something first. She blinks once, smile fading. "Hmm? Hmm..." Her head tilts one way. "Hmmmm..." ...and then the other, pushing pale hair into dark. "Hmmmmmm..."
Ultimately, Yanagi concludes, "There are people in this world who I think provide negative value to it and should be removed. But I don't see a need to go out of my way to do that, nor is there anyone who I want to take revenge against."
It is, in her mind, an important distinction, as is the connection between these thoughts.
"Is there anyone you want revenge against?" she then wonders, mirroring Tsumugi's question back at them.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
Hair like ash drapes and intermingles in hair like soot. Tsumugi watches as whitened locks spill across their field of vision. They feel the stiffness beneath their chin offer resistance as they tilt their head; the feeling of fingers drifting through their silky hair.
They listen, as the Navigator of Peacock Silk ruminates on the matter of the day:
Vengeance.
Like many things in Tsumugi's life, it's a topic that seems to come from no where, yet has its roots in -something-. A flight of fancy that has caught their attention, perhaps is the safest bet. But behind that hooded, bright green stare, there is - as ever - no hints about what meaning it might hold.
Just as the question itself, their fair features remain detached and ever-nonchalant even as the answer comes.
.... nor is there anyone who I want to take revenge against.
"Oh? That's a shame, Sa-ya."
But there it is, the question reflected back on them:
Is there anyone you want revenge against?
Green eyes drift toward gemstones chipped to give proverbial life to Myunghon's pin. They're so very blue, aren't they?
"No," they say simply, after brief delay. "Anyone I would is already dead."
Is it true? Whether or not it is, Tsumugi slumps forward, resting more of their weight against Yanagi's back, their right hand reaching out to journey through Yanagi's gemcutting tools.
"But I've had it," they continue on. "It's an experience not quite like anything else. Like a high, you feel so giddy that you are practically living outside your body... but it's the emptiness that you feel after that sets it apart. The question that comes, unbidden, that no high could ever replicate.
"'What next?'"
Their fingers continue their journey for the perfect tool, even as they wonder:
"Wouldn't you like to know what that feels like?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi, in turn, is used to Tsumugi's flights of fancy; she herself is one, as she is well aware, and that's just the way it ought to be. The present moment is her everything, and when she inevitably passes away sometime in the not-so-far future, Tsumugi will move on to the next flight of fancy without any pain or grief to drag them down from their heights.
Until then, Yanagi is content to join them on these flights for however long they may last. That's why she gave their question so much thought; if it were Saika or even Pernelle asking, it would have been more or less the same, but it would have also been much more immediate.
For Tsumugi, Yanagi really delves mentally into who she would hate enough to want to revenge herself against. There are quite a few people like that, honestly--and they're all in the same location, and all their names and faces have blended into one.
That's why Yanagi doesn't want revenge, really. The staff of Blacksite Revelation are all monsters who should be purged from the earth, and at the same time, now that they're out of her life, they no longer matter even a little bit.
But Tsumugi calls it a shame. Yanagi hums in unoffended interest. "Is that so?"
They are very blue, those sodalite chips. That's precisely why Yanagi chose them. She'd talked over a few colors with Myunghon, but there's something about the deep, vivid blue of that stone... Maybe if Myunghon orders another piece, she'll make something with an orange accent, like jasper or amber as she previously suggested, but for now, they're moving away from red until this piece is done. Yanagi's orders!
Yanagi closes her eyes and relaxes as Tsumugi slumps harder on her, unconcerned as they reach out towards her tools. Another, quieter hum follows at Tsumugi's answer of their own revenge--and their experience with it. She's never thought of it like that, and she thinks about it now. A giddy high followed by an abyssal emptiness... It's true that she doesn't know what that feels like, and Yanagi is too hungry for new experiences to say she wouldn't like to know. But listening to Tsumugi has reminded her of something else.
"My Homunculus wanted revenge, I think," Yanagi says slowly, thoughtfully. "Beneath that wild thirst for blood was such an intense anger at everything. Of course there was; it's only natural, even for something unnatural." She laughs a little, soft and rueful. "Isn't it a cruel twist of fate to be so desperate to live you'll consume another's entire existence, only to find the body you're trying to snatch is broken? I couldn't let her have her way, but I could understand why she wanted to kill everyone I knew. It would have been her revenge against me, for being such a miserable host."
She rests her hand on Tsumugi's questing arm, not stopping her, only resting there.
"Or maybe she was trying to reflect my own feelings, like one of those distorted funhouse mirrors," Yanagi muses, though she's only ever seen those on TV or in Ateliers. "The anger I kept knotted up inside, that I was too afraid to unleash... I wonder, if I'd been less passive at Blacksite Revelation, maybe I would have hungered for revenge against someone after all?" She smiles at Tsumugi. If they're asking her that, then-- "Do you have any good suggestions?"
For a target for revenge, that is.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
A flight of fancy is ultimately a question just waiting for an answer. When the answer is received... what purpose does the question have, anymore?
Maybe that is true of Yanagi in their eyes, too. A question lingering, unanswered - one of the ones that holds their interest most for how limited the timeframe is in order to find the answer.
How much life can one truly live, in so short a time? All its wonders, all its horrors?
Is that so?
What mark will Yanagi Nagisa leave?
There's no answer to her curiosity; not immediately, anyway. Instead, Tsumugi focuses on picking up that gem buffer, tilting it in their hand until they the laws of gravity assert themselves to let them feel the full weight of it bear down against their palm. They are inspecting it with that hooded stare in the aftermath of their ruminations on revenge, staring at that grinder with muted disinterest, until...
My Homunculus wanted revenge, I think.
Green eyes turn Yanagi's way. Despite that hooded disaffectation, their stare is sharp. Curious.
Revenge. For the lot in life it had inadvertently stumbled into...
... or because it was one of the qualities that it picked up from the one who gave it form and thought in the real world?
"... Mm."
The exhale that blows past painted lips is a mild one. The buffer returns to the workstation with a soft -=thunk=- as dexterous digits dance towards the gem it had been working on, instead.
"A Homunculus makes flesh and function out of hypotheticals," they say simply, at first. "Was it angry at you? Or was it embodying the anger you felt towards those who wronged you?" That gaze considers Yanagi, thoughtfully.
"Towards your fragile life?"
They turn that gem. How many years upon years did it take for minerals to coagulate and condense until something so precious formed under thousands of tons of dirt and detritus? And now here it is, being carved into something entirely else by the hand of someone who will live only a fraction of a life as it will.
"... Maybe it didn't understand how precious a thing it had come to possess."
They draw back, the weight and warmth of them leaving cool emptiness at Yanagi's back as they pull away.
"But you know now. Don't you?"
It's a segue, if a succinct one. Yanagi's question draws the conversation back towards the very topic that had struck their interest today, though.
Do you have any good suggestions?
"Hmm. I'm working on that."
They abandon their perch at Yanagi's back -- but soon enough, the whole of them is occupying their field of vision as they take up the front of that workstation, sodalite still balanced deftly between their fingers as their free hand tucks into the pocket of those leather pants. Sliding their phone out, they turn it on, thumb single-handedly navigating them somewhere as they speak.
"But I found a good tool for it."
And here, they tilt that phone Yanagi's way in offering, to let her peruse the site they've pulled up:
REVENGE REQUEST
"Interesting, don't you think?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
That is a question lingering unanswered. The answer surely won't come until after Yanagi is gone. And once Yanagi's gone, what do any questions or answers matter to her anymore? They'll only matter to those who were left behind--and if Tsumugi is satisfied by the answer they get at that point, Yanagi could want for nothing more.
But until then, she will continue to work at the answer--of living to the greatest extent she can with so little sand left in her hourglass.
For a moment, she segues into the matter of her Homunculus. She watches Tsumugi toy with her buffer, turning, weighing, and ultimately thunking it down to trade it out for a finished chip. Yanagi continues not to stop them, only tracing her fingertips along her arm. She trusts them. That carefully polished chip of blue stone that took Yanagi so much time and effort to complete--the tiny little grooves, the slight sideways sweep, to mimic the texture of a koala's ear--is perfectly safe perched in Tsumugi's fingers.
"It's impossible to know now. But her anger was real, all the same," Yanagi muses. "I doubt she would take comfort in that." But she smiles at them, even as they pull away to remove the weight on her frail body. The folds of her sleeveless button-up shirt, zenith sky blue with mother-of-pearl buttons, rustle in Tsumugi's wake. Her long skirt is a more traditional sky blue with textured cloud patterns--swathes of cotton that emerge from the fabric as if clouds actually were passing through her body--and her hair clips today are likewise cloud-shaped... Faux ivory that hover over raindrop earrings of the same kind of deep blue sodalite she'd just been carving.
"I do."
Know?
Take comfort?
Yanagi leaves that nuance undefined. As blunt and forthright as she is now after her Transmutation, a little ambiguity is good for the soul.
Tsumugi pulls away and tolds out their phone for Yanagi to see. She leans forward, and when she sees it--hears what Tsumugi says of it, she GASPS. "Oooh, that is interesting!" She accepts the phone offered to her and scrolls down the website, dark eyes alight. "Oh my! An actual revenge website! I've heard all kinds of urban legends about this sort of thing. Is this real, or someone's joke or prank, or a rumor come to life? How fascinating!!" She bobs in her seat in excitement restrained only by the limitations of her body as she looks eagerly up at Tsumugi. "We should try it out and see what happens! --Oh." And now she laughs, bright and gay. "So that's why you were asking! Oh dear. I wasn't any help at all, was I?"
Amusement, its course taken, fades into thoughtfulness as she looks again at the website with pursed lips. "Hmmm... If I wanted revenge against someone seriously, I think I would rather get it myself. I have the power to do that, now. And I think, if there were someone I hated enough to want to take revenge on them, I would like to see the look in their eyes as they see it's me who's come to toll their bell. But this is a website for people who think differently... Assuming it really is real, of course. Hmmm..." She scrolls some more, down, down, and up again. "It's actually quite thorough, all these fields. Hmmm... Have you asked Saika yet? I can't imagine Pernelle would want to avenge himself on anyone. Or if he did..." She trails off. "Actually, we're all like that, aren't we? Pernelle and Saika and you and me, we'd all rather take action ourselves."
She crooks a finger over her lips as she stares again at the site. "...Maybe we could find someone else to use it and see what happens? Do we know anyone who'd be that indirect?" But this time, she sounds dubious. "This is a tough one..."
In the same way that they'd rather take action themselves, she doesn't know about finding someone to use this Revenge Request site for them.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
Impossible to know.
But a delight to ponder.
To those who can't stand living in a world where there are questions they can't answer, such things might eat away at them. Curiosity defines much of Tsumugi's day-to-day life, even. But it's simply part of the natural impulse of someone who now lives purely for their own desires. If a question can't be truly be answered...
... well, isn't that just art?
Just like that question Yanagi answers, without answering which question it truly was. There's nothing there to say whether it was in answer to Tsumugi's question, or her own supposition. Art.
It draws one of those rare smiles to dark green lips as Tsumugi settles on that workstation tabletop.
They don't seek the answer, this time. After all...
It'd lessen its value.
Instead? Instead, Tsumugi offers up the original, true origin point of their curiosity of the day for Yanagi's inspection. As she takes the phone, Tsumugi leans back, their earlier movements having shifted a comfortable nook in the workstation for them to laze in. That small smile endures through the grand reaction of delight Yanagi indulges in, from the gasp, to the excitable bounce -- to the radiant little laugh of realization.
They indulge in all those reactions with silent, lazy contentment. Like a cat basking in a sunbeam.
She wasn't any help?
"No," they say, still smiling.
The ambiguities of yes and no. No, she wasn't? Or no, her assertion was wrong?
This, too, goes unanswered.
That smile finally fades into their typical placidity by the time that Yanagi starts to ruminate. "She was next," they confirm simply, on the matter of Saika. As for Pernelle...
"Pernelle would want to manufacture a reason to want vengeance just to say he experienced it," Tsumugi surmises.
"It'd be fun. But not what I'm looking for."
No. After all...
"I'd like to follow the spirit of the letter."
What good is it, seeing an artist at work, if it wasn't with pure intent? And Tsumugi very much wants to see just who might be making this particular art.
Yanagi is right, though; they're all people who wouldn't be content just letting revenge passively be achieved for them, when they could take it for themselves. For different reasons, of course, but the problem remains: who do they know who could possibly use this site?
This is a tough one...
As Yanagi ponders, Tsumugi shifts. One heeled boot presses on the edge of Yanagi's seat, on what scant space there is on the outside of her lap. It's flexible and graceful, the way they use that as an anchor point to lean forward and down from their perched position.
"Isn't it?" they ask as they move. "But that's what makes it so exciting."
Shifting, until their face hovers a scant few inches from Yanagi, that smile once more on their lips.
"Sa-ya."
"Want to hunt down someone in need of revenge with me?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
An artless art, even. Yanagi takes a careful, measured, methodical hand to her precious semi-precious stones, but when it comes to speaking, she merely goes by what feels right to her in the moment. Some of that is inspired by Tsumugi and the others, but mostly it's... her self-expression.
Which, of course, is art. What value art has is up to the beholder, too, so when Tsumugi gifts her with a rare smile and says a simple, equally ambiguous No, Yanagi laughs with delight and beams back.
Yanagi's smiles are as common as raindrops in London while Tsumugi's are as rare as raindrops in the Sahara, but they each have their own artistry.
She giggles at Tsumugi's supposition on Pernelle. "So true." But that's not the point, Tsumugi explains; it needs to be more natural, more honest and earnest. Yanagi understands that. It isn't the same if you do something you didn't already passionately want to do. The heart of it would lack that nuance.
And it's as Yanagi considers who might have this heart--
--that Tsumugi lifts and leans a boot on the edge of her seat. Yanagi looks down, and looks up, just as Tsumugi leans in, closer, closer, yet closer.
She smiles back, sunshine and rain.
Even when Yanagi is dubious about something, Tsumugi always finds a way to spin it so it's wonderful and heart-pounding after all. Whether it's one of them taking revenge or finding someone else with that thirst--what better way to make anything happen... than together?
Yanagi reaches a thin hand up to stroke Tsumugi's face, fingertips exploring the contours of that beautiful smile before brushing back into their raven-black hair.
"I do!" she replies, eyes sparkling.
Almost like a bride at the altar--but for all the jewelry Yanagi both makes and wears, she so rarely wears rings, and the binding, burdening chainlink of a ring is missing from her fingers now.
And isn't that how they both like it?