2026-01-09: The Happy Prince and an Unhappy Princess
- Log: 2026-01-09 The Happy Prince and an Unhappy Princess
- Cast: Hazuki Nakao, Kazusa Motojima, Tsumugi Kujaku, Saika Kikuchi, Yanagi Nagisa, Pernelle
- Where: Peacock Silk, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo
- OOC Date: January 09, 2026
- IC Date: September 07, 2012
- Summary: Hazuki brings the thing pretending to be Kazusa to Peacock Silk so its employees can get a better look at the Homunculus. Tsumugi and Saika entertain them in the real world, while Pernelle and Yanagi take a deeper look into Kazusa's Atelier...
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki has been struggling on what to do about Kazusa. In the end, given her agreement with Peacock Silk, she contacted them, floating an idea.
Would it be useful for them if she brought a new Homunculus she discovered to them? Could they gather information from that?
Once she got the go-ahead to arrange a meeting, she approached 'Kazusa', saying she wanted to try a new footing between them. That she knows Kazusa likes fashion, and that she's a client of Peacock Silk, that super trendy boutique.
And that she'd like to bring her there.
She'll meet up with Kazusa outside, leading the two of them in through the proper entrance once the planned time comes.
"This is the place! The staff's really cool, and the pieces are so chic.." she says with cheer, even if it is subtly put upon. She's doing her best to be SECRET AGENT NAKAO.
It is really, really hard.
Hopefully, the adults can handle it better than she can.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
'Kazusa' was ecstatic to be offered a chance to be taken to Peacock Silk.
Some squealing may have been involved.
And also a hug.
Okay, maybe two hugs.
But regardless of the number of hugs, she acted like there hadn't been any bad blood between them at all. Hazuki said she wanted a new footing, right? So as far as 'Kazusa' was concerned, that was that. (And there hadn't even been an ounce of skepticism of Hazuki being a client of such a high-end fashion boutique.)
So she was there, waiting, humming happily at the appointed time. And as she steps in... there is another excited squeal that she quickly tries to recompose herself from. "Oh wow--Nakao-chan, look!"
She leans in to hug Hazuki's arm excitedly, a totally normal and friendly gesture of affection from the thing that is a monster wearing a teenage girl's skin, pointing. "Oh look at that!"
Outwardly she's a girl of about 5'2", with long straight black hair and a pink headband, and still in her Shujin uniform.
Inwardly, of course... everyone in Peacock Silk knows what this is.
She gives Hazuki a brief break as she moves to go examine a display with great interest, trying to contain her giddiness.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
Oh wow--Nakao-chan, look!
Something unsettling has arrived at Peacock Silk.
"Ara. Welcome."
It is greeted with open arms.
Proverbially, of course. The voice that rises to meet Kazusa and Hazuki isn't _warm_ or _welcoming_ in the traditional sense; it's cool and level, an androgynous placidity that holds neither happiness nor contempt for their arrival.
But that it's there at all is striking. How many times is Tsumugi Kujaku actually _there_ to greet customers when they arrive, after all?
But they're here today, the moment the pair arrives: dressed in a black, long-sleeved button-up, its sleeves rolled to the elbows, the deep black pitch of that shirt is contrasted sharply with the honeybee-yellow of the double-breasted vest and slacks they wear, and the masculine professionalism of all that is contrasted sharply with the high heels they wear, a strappy black affair with aggressive, golden heels, and the professionalism of -all- of it, mildly threatened by the loose way they wear that yellow tie of theirs. A pair of glasses with black half-frames with a gold bridge and thin gold rims perches on their nose; black gloves designed to look like they have gold fingernails cover their hands; their eyeshadow is deep and dark and crests towards sparkling gold at the edges, an inverse of their lips, an ombre that's black on the outside and brightens towards gold further in. Those heels would make them stand a healthy handful of inches past 6 feet tall.
If they were actually standing, at least.
As it stands, Tsumugi is finding it much more comfortable half-lazing on the front counter of the boutique, and half-lazing on said boutique's co-founder, Saika Kikuchi: lounged on the countertop, they've draped their upper body against the punk Persona-User, chin resting on her shoulder and arms encircling her shoulders in a full loop to better hold the book they're reading in front of them: _The Happy Prince and Other Tales_.
Yes. They're using Saika as a convenient book rest, at the moment. They also have not _quite_ looked up from their reading, yet.
Both of these things may soon change.
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
Saika Kikuchi, of course, is also there: wearing a loose-fit T-shirt with the sleeves removed (faded blue, a logo evoking EXPO '70, a memory of the world before she was born - though it looks well kept enough that it might not be vintage) with a black tankini top underneath it, she has leaned forwards with her arms folded. In one hand she has a phone, a flip-model, long gone to sleep and dangling from her fingers lightly.
For just as she's been leaned upon and used as a support, so too has Saika been absorbed in the book, looking down at it even as her eyes were turned, with rapt attention, towards the page.
Saika looks up, from beneath a lock of magenta-dipped hair, not raising the rest of her body as their clients come in.
"I ra sshai ma se~" Saika calls forwards towards their customers, a sing-song as she brings one hand up - the one not holding her phone - to cup her chin as she smiles. (The other hand seems to fiddle with something for a moment, then neat, dextrous fingers snap it shut.)
As a simple digital signal, prepared and aimed at enigmatic parties, flies through the telecommunication systems of Japan - crossing through five different nods in the twinkle of a digital star - Saika grins. "Hazukii. How's it going?" Her eyes go from Hazuki up to 'Kazusa,' too, smiling. If her eyes seem a little guarded, somehow, that's just the Customer Service face. "Come in, come in."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Kazusa, or rather, 'Kazusa,' is no surprise. Yanagi is expecting her, and she's also expecting Hazuki; it was she who suggested that she come by to pick up the choker accessory she'd commissioned from her and bring the Homunculus with her.
Despite this, Yanagi is not anywhere to be seen downstairs. The choker, however, is. It has been left in the care of one (1) Saika Kikuchi, and fashioned as Hazuki and Yanagi have collaborated by text and email up until now--though Yanagi hasn't reached out to her much since they finalized the design. After that, it's just a matter of actually making the accessory, after all.
On the second floor of Peacock Silk, sitting on the living room couch, Yanagi hums with eyes shut as Hazuki and 'Kazusa' arrive downstairs. Today's ensemble is a pink silk blouse with a white neckerchief set with a cameo brooch; a long, ruffled, matching skirt; soft, delicate leather sandals; and gold hair clips set with onyx and ivory, matching the cameo. Even with eyes shut, though, that presence is unmistakable.
"They're he~ere," she lilts to her peacock companion, lips curving upwards as she grabs her walking cane.
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Oh! Woe! Tragedy! Unluckiest misfortune! There are guests in the boutique and Pernelle is not here to greet them! He hears the guests enter, and after a moment of pacing in circles, he squashes himself down, beginning to vibrate.
"Yanagi," he whispers, "The bell. The bell! It. Is. Calling me! Patrons are being deprived of my presence!"
Pernelle is, of course, still a peacock with peacock's iridescent plumage. He is not wearing anything today.
He stops, blinking owlishly (how outlandish!) as he stretches his head back up and twists it to one side. Yanagi announces it: their quarry is here.
"Oh! Marvelous." He tippy taps on his clawed feet and waggles his train feathers in delighted sweeps before lowering his neck in a skulking scurry, advancing liminally. "Come, Yanagi! Onward, to adventure!"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki is unsettled by the hugs, but she keeps that quiet. It's not even being hugged by an acquaintance, it's the fact she's a horrible soul-eating monster.
As they arrive, however, and Tsumugi and Saika are... reading a book on the counter, Hazuki stares for a moment, dazzled by Tsumugi's aesthetic as usual, and Saika's effortless cool. Then, she is snapped out by the greetings, especially Saika's yobisute.
"Hello...! I've brought my... friend, and we're also here to pick up my choker!"
She smiles somewhat gloomily.
"How is the book? That's Oscar Wilde, right?" she says, latching onto a familiar name.
She'll say hi to Yanagi and Pernelle later. Right now... is game time. In a game she's very bad at playing, unlike basically every other game.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa pauses, turning from where she'd been headed to to look at two of the boutique's proprietors as they speak up. "Oh!" 'On the counter' was not where Kazusa expected to find the proprietors.
Nor was... 'draped over each other reading a book...?' She's not sure she interpreted that one correctly.
But despite that she does take a moment to keenly study the two outfits on display: Tsumugi's quite bold, contrasting color-scheme, Saika's retro-but-not-vintage shirt.
"Oh, wow!" she gushes a little, stepping in that direction instead. "That's such a bold color combination! And I love that vintage retro look!"
She does not see, nor sense, Yanagi, of course, upstairs as she is. But Yanagi can certainly sense her, Navigator that she is. And Kazusa will, sadly, have to be denied of Pernelle's glorious presence this day. Perhaps another time Kazusa will be able to appreciate his magnificent plumage.
Hazuki, how can you not appreciate the hug from the friend you're starting over on a new footing with? "Oh yeah, that's right..." Kazusa says as Hazuki mentions the commission. "What did you order, Nakao-chan?"
"Oh, you recognize that book?" she asks, looking surprised. (She is still a little bit surpried in the manner in which it is being read, but doesn't know how to interrogate that.)
ELSEWHERE
When Yanagi and Pernelle arrive at the Atelier, they arrive in the courtyard of a magnificent (lowercase-p) palace. They arrive in some sort of large, round plaza: polished white tiles cut into an elaborate shape line the ground. White marble benches line the perimeter, as do dark green, almost black, hedges ring the perimeter, filled with drooping red lilies.
But the most striking feature is an almost impossibly-tall palace that stretches high into the night sky, as if it could vanish into the heavens: gleaming white metal and stone, multiple towers and archways between the different parts of the structure, and multi-colored lights race across its surface in little grooves and channels build for that purpose.
But as one looks up there is something impossible to notice: a large, circular black void hangs in the sky, ringed by crimson fire that casts everything in a red hue. And from that ring an inky blackness apreads across the night sky, and as they watch another star in the nighttime sky (and it is always a nighttime sky) winks out.
And in the center of that void of darkness sits the top of the central and tallest tower of the palace. The multi-colored lights don't seem to run their way up there, and it is as clear a manifestation of the Homunculus' slowly growing control over this domain as one could wish for.
There is a red speck right in the center of that eclipse, housed in that ever far away tower.
This is the Atelier they enter into. If they wait too long a cold, frigid wind will sweep through the plaza. The castle grounds seem to be ringed by tall walls, but before them, the large main entrance of the palace stands open, should they choose to brave it.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
The crisp turning of a page underscores Saika Kikuchi's considerably warmer welcome. Do her eyes seem guarded? Maybe.
In contrast, Tsumugi Kujaku's look tepid, the half-lid of it giving them impression of two bright emeralds surrounded by ember-flecked smoke, roving impassively over the words of their book even as Saika abandons it to offer her greetings - and offer a confirmation for the others that it's time to act.
"Mm," is their first and only response to Hazuki's silent wonderment and Kazusa's - 'Kazusa's' - more effusive praise, after that single-worded welcome they offered. As if there were a premium on the amount of syllables they could offer at any given time, and thus they keep a chokehold on their supply.
Indeed, they're quiet throughout the conversation between the other three, right up until this point:
_How is the book? That's Oscar Wilde, right?_
Whereupon ombre lips finally part.
"It's a story of a statue that gives away every piece of itself to ease its villagers' suffering," they say simply, suddenly. "I find it fascinating."
The book shuts, their and Saika's place in the story earmarked. Vividly green eyes lift.
Focused on Kazusa.
Can they sense the wrongness of her? The sheer sense that her mere presence violates every principle of what a human being considers 'safe' and 'right'?
It never shows on that placid expression of theirs as their head tilts at Saika's shoulder, a curious rightward cant.
"Kazusa, right?" they wonder. "Hazuki's told us about you."
And those words linger for an potentially uncomfortable - for some - two and a half seconds before they clarify:
"She tells me you're a fan of fashion. Is that right?"
They'll leave the particulars of the order to Saika. After all, Yanagi left it in her care.
And it's not what's most immediately interesting to them, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
"Oh yes," Saika says at the mention of the choker. Her eyes brighten. "It's pretty slick. I think you're gonna love it." She winks one eye, before looking mildly impressed at the reference, eyes turning up to look towards Tsumugi.
Then over towards Kazusa as she comes forth and... gushes! Complimentary gushing, even. Aimed at them. Her face crinkles up in a little fox-smile for a moment, even as she remains in place. Propping them up, after all, is a big responsibility, and it helps to keep up with your responsibilities.
If that's what you want to do, at least.
"Feel free to look around," Saika says as she shifts herself *just* the tiniest bit to reach underneath one counter with the hand that hadn't been holding her phone. (The phone is tucked into Tsumugi's nearest pocket - in this case, one of the lower pockets of the vest. They can deal with that later.)
"You can buy these things we have out if you really click with them," Saika continues, "but I kinda think of them as samples, right? Or supplements to real big and important pieces. Like if you have the perfect coat - I made a coat for someone last month, it was a lot of fun - you probably want a matching belt, right? Or something that *rhymes* with it."
Saika's hand that did not just do a slip into Tsumugi's vest pocket draws out from beneath the counter: a pale-ivory cardboard, the lush and expensive kind of cardboard which would be just *perfect* for your business card. The top has a blue-green foil impression of, inevitably, a peacock. There's a hint of white tissue-paper peeking out from the corners. "When you're ready," Saika says, to Hazuki. "You can even wear it home, if you wanna."
Her arms refold. Her shoulders and back, faintly, relax.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Oh, Pernelle! It's really only patron, singular. The other one is our target," Yanagi explains compassionately yet matter-of-factly to her tippy-tappying friend. "That makes it a little bit better, don't you think?"
After all, a Homunculus is by definition not a person. They are, after all, the ones doing the defining.
She smiles and leans forward to rise to her feet with the help of her cane. "Right behind you, Pernelle~" she lilts, and follows him forward into another layer of reality.
ELSEWHERE
Yanagi steps upon the land in a stained-glass dress with reinforced boots and sunset pink hair. Her peacock green eyes scan the plaza courtyard at the foot of a palace that reaches up into the sky as if yearning for heaven. White and red and near-black, and countless little lights of the rainbow... She hums thoughtfully, before her gaze rises to the void.
"Giselle," she intones, then sweeps her gun-cane into a butterfly as it flits by, smashing it.
Her other self materializes at her back; around them and Pernelle, countless little origami angels materialize and phase in and out of existence. They swoop and dance and vanish and reappear, going in all directions to bring back information to Giselle pirouetting at Yanagi's back, and through her, Yanagi herself.
They of course rise up to investigate that void--the flame that encircles it, the inkiness that swallows up the cognitive stars, and a haunting scarlet speck at the center as the void reaches further and further out into the castle proper.
It's cold out here.
Fortunately, Yanagi is used to the cold; her longer-in-the-back skirts billow, stained-glass panels tinkling faintly like wind chimes. Pernelle may have more trouble with it, though.
"It doesn't seem like the Homunculus is in the area. Distracted by Tsumugi and Saika, no doubt," she comments. "Up there--look--it's Nothing." She points up at the void. "The Homunculus's influence hasn't spread too far yet." She looks over at Pernelle and smiles. "Shall we chance a stroll inside, see how the local Shadows are doing?"
The answer is obviously yes, but Yanagi is a good friend who lets Pernelle say it loud and proud first.
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Pernelle's tense and coiled body softens, neck leaning over to 'poff' softly against Yanagi in his overdramatic despair. "... Yes. That does make it a little bit better. Perhaps twice as better, mathematically speaking. I shall ask Saika later."
Properly soothed, he pops back up, and excitement reigns in the peacock's heart once more. One moment Pernelle is wearing nothing but his own feathers. The next, in ELSEWHERE, he has his rich indigo vest and tricorne. So stylish! So stunning! Suavemente.
(It should be noted that Pernelle speaks Spanish about as well as he speaks French.)
He pushes his orange-tinted glasses up his beak as he beholds the Atelier's brilliant palace, looking up and up and up and up and up... until his head tilts back too far and he tips backwards, only to roll back up onto his own two feet and into a swarm of origami angels.
Pernelle cannot resist the urge of following them with his eyes and twists and turns of his body, weaving his head over and under on some occasions as the swarm goes about its business, even as he speaks of other sights.
"My, my, never have I met a structure with such heavenward aspirations. Hm. Excessive bit of fire and brimstone for heaven. Yanagi, is my mythological metaphor misbegotten?" Pernelle points a pinion up. "Heaven has its stairway up, I presumed, and..." He points down. "Hell has..."
Pernelle squints, pointing ahead instead. "...a highway? No, that does not seem -- my word, what a ch-ch-chill!" His tone is excitable for this discovery, despite the peacock's beak chattering. His glasses do not stay steady upon it, and the chain attached gives its own tiny, clinking rattle.
Yanagi, naturally, has more valuable information to report on, as Pernelle regards the Nothing again with her better name for it than he had. In her friendship, she poses her question, and:
"Yanagi, I would love nothing more," he affirms, strutting ahead. He brings his wings around himself in a shiver along the way. "P-P-Perhaps with some haste. Shall I offer you my c-c-coat? Ah -- hm." It's a vest. It's sleeveless. It's very small. It wouldn't help Yanagi in the slightest.
... And Pernelle is the one that's cold!
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"That *is* pretty neat... so kind but sad that they gave all of themselves... they should have left at least a piece for their own self," Hazuki decides about the Oscar Wilde book.
Kazusa asks what Hazuki ordered, and she glances over. "Oh... a new choker. You see my flower clasp one? I've had it since before I arrived from England, so... thought I'd try something new!"
Tsumugi tells Kazusa that Hazuki's told them about her, and Hazuki's face mutes, glancing away to the box that Saika pulls out so Kazusa won't see it.
When it's time, though, Hazuki will take the box from Saika, moving to open it and reveal the comet choker. The ruby gem gleams in the light, Hazuki's eyes widening, a brightness in them.
"Ohmigod."
She just stares for a long moment, swallowing once, before turning to Saika. "You have a mirror in the back, right?"
Once she can head over there, she'll unstrap her current choker from her neck, a hand up to cover the front of her throat from being seen by anyone or the mirror, and then clasp it over carefully and delicately.
When it's finally visible to be revealed to the others, it looks pretty fitting on her. Brighter than most of her outfit... but maybe that works.
Her gloomy self has broken, a bright smile on her face.
"Does it look okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
'Hm.'
Kazusa--or her homunculus--holds her cheerful smile, straining a little as she keeps trying to be polite in front of, what is surely, one of the most renowned designers in Tokyo.
But the topic of the book does get Tsumugi to speak, and the look that Kazusa silently gives Hazuki might be plainly read as 'So you like the same type of book as them?'
"But... if it gives away every part of itself, doesn't that mean there won't be any part of it left after? That's kind of sad, isn't it?"
She stands up straighter as Tsumugi takes notice of her. "Oh! Yes. Kazusua Motojima. It's very nice to meet you." She smiles, perfectly friendly and well-meaning, even as she continues to be a completely inhuman monster.
"Oh, yes! I am! A girl's gotta look her best, right?" she says brightly.
But Saika invites her to look around. "Thank you very much!" The pieces are 'samples' or 'supplements.' "Ohhh, I see... that makes sense. After all, the point is to have something unique, right?"
But she doesn't go to wander just yet--she wants to see what Hazuki got. Which Hazuki explains. "Oooh, right. You're always wearing that, aren't you?" She takes a step closer to take a look. "... but it looks really good on you! It supports that 'European chic' thing you have going!"
She leans over the box. "Oh, wow. Nakao-chan, is that a real ruby!?" She'll wait patiently for Hazuki to put it on, and when she turns around, Kazusa gives some small claps of her hands. "Nakao-chan, that looks lovely! It brightens up your outfit, and your smile seems so much brighter now, too!"
IN THE ATELIER
Yanagi's assessment, when she summons Giselle, is spot-on, of course. Its influence hasn't spread terribly far yet--if she can judge such things, it's been only about a week since the Homunculus has seized control.
And the Homunculus' attention is, indeed, elsewhere, which is fortunate for one specific reason: that tiny red speck that lays nestled at the top of the talest tower, strung up on the balcony, is, in fact, a Cocoon.
Getting to it, however, and not just observing it through a PErsona, might take some doing, though. It is an awfully tall palace, after all.
The fire ringing the void isn't quite accompanied by brimstone, fortunately, despite Pernelle's concerns. It is mostly the natural (mostly natural) consequence of an eclipse, the brilliant light seeping from the edges... at least, in its appearance.
There may not be literal heavenly bodies at play in a configuration that Newton's laws of gravity would recognize.
Proceeding inside, however, reveals a main entryway with high, vualted ceilings, and glass and silver spheres with magical lights in the ceiling, and the same white metal and stone as the exterior. The rainbow lights are more abundant, running along the walls like circuitry patterns... though the regalness of the palace is marred.
There are deep gouges in the floor and walls, whatever made them able to embed claw in stone and metal. This includes right through the purple carpeting in some places, and over there--one of those orbs are smashed. And over there, a pedestal once held what appears to be some kind of small statue--the legs remain, but the top half is snapped off. Little pieces of statuary litter the floor.
And as they travel deeper a door opens, and a Sanguin Humor peers at them, her expression wary. She is, after a moment's inspection, an owlgirl--the demonomimi kind. Little 'tufts' of features mimic ears on the top of her head, and feathers are intertwined in through the rest of her hair. Her gaze is sharp, and a long 'tail' of feathers hangs behind her. She is wearing an elaborately deisnged red and black dress.
Her eyes narrow. "Are you yet more intruders? Leave this place at once!"
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
... they should have left at least a piece for their own self.
But... if it gives away every part of itself, doesn't that mean there won't be any part of it left after?
"Only what had no value. A drab statue, stripped of gold and jewels."
That closed book dangles between gloved fingers, the gold filigree of the hardback cover glimmering in the light with each way it sways.
"Which was then torn down and melted down to have something newer and prettier erected in its place."
Isn't that kind of sad?
It's not the whole of the story, of course.
But it is the part Tsumugi finds fascinating.
Made to safeguard one of Saika Kikuchi's own valuable jewels - her phone - the tailor of Peacock Silk accepts this role with laconic grace. Which is to say: they kind of mildly tilt their hips towards the right to offer the barest amount of effort to ease Saika's effort to deliver her phone to its new phone, before promptly slumping their body weight into the leatherworker once more.
"Item received~." they intone in a bizarrely deadpan yet singsong way. Kazusa answers their questioning of her zest for fashion with gusto to spare, with a good cheer that could light up a room with all the splendor of a sun.
It's the moon's cool chill that greets her in turn. No response from Tsumugi comes; not quite yet. Instead, their attention drifts back towards Hazuki, watching her reactions with a mild, curious stare. She takes the offered choker - truly a work of exquisite craftsmanship - into the back. And when she reveals that new choker--
Pale arms unwind from around Saika's shoulders and the warmth of another's proximity escapes her as Tsumugi finally moves, fluidly shifting off of that countertop.
Does it look okay?
-=CLAK=-
Now standing, it's clear: Tsumugi is tall. Those heels? Just make them taller. They're a slim and graceful tribute to sleek fashion as they make a slow but purposeful path towards Hazuki. They lean in, eyes on the other Persona-User. On that choker.
A gloved finger lifts, to touch the very edge of Hazuki's chin. "Head up," they say simply. And if she complies or not--
"It fits you."
A second later, that finger falls away. Those three words are so matter-of-fact. So simple.
Yet they sound like they're the highest praise that could possibly be offered. After all...
"You should shine brightly."
And it's there they turn, making their way back toward the counter. As they do, that calm, level voice fills the air once more.
"You should look like the person you want to become," they say, suddenly answering 'Kazusa's' declaration. 'A girl's gotta look her best, right?' "That's how you become your best."
They glance over their shoulder towards her, that smoky eye impassive.
"What kind of person do you want to be?"
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
Pernelle is absolutely right in his theological suppositions. Heaven has a stairway, but Hell has a highway.
"I dunno," Saika answers Hazuki. "I mean, it's sad... but it's not like the statue was being forced, you know? That's the kind of thing that comes from the heart." And then when the box is opened, Saika's lips pull back into a slow grin. The iridescent threading, something like silk, gleams -- it has been tinted with an overlay that throws rblue-green-pink sparkles shading towards the cooler end of the spectrum.
"Sure, you can use the change room," Saika says, indicating... and when it comes back, she lets out a brief whistle.
Saika smiles at Hazuki. It is notable perhaps that she didn't answer the question.
"Depends how you want to look at it," Saika tells 'Kazusa,' after a moment. "If you look at it one way, there's still a bunch of the statue living on... with all the people the pieces helped. Right?" After this, her eyes turn upwards towards the Tsumugi who is steadily but heavily weighing herself down... until... they relent; the overburden is removed. Saika rises upwards like lands deprived of the sun's touch for millenia.
She is a lot less tall than Tsumugi. We're talking about 20 centimeters here. But at the question of the Kazusa before them, Saika's attention turns towards her. No addition. An open, curious expression.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
As well as he speaks French, so in other words, inperfectemente.
(Yanagi is not good at foreign languages either.)
"Hmmm..." Yanagi taps a finger to her cheek as she considers Pernelle's point about the heavenward brimstone. "Maybe the castle is actually upside-down and we're upside-down with it? ...No," she divines, shaking her head as an origami angel unfolds before her and conveys its message. "It isn't brimstone at all. Simply the crown of a solar eclipse." Yanagi, that's called a corona. Oh well, it means the same thing...
As the two of them stride forward towards the castle entrance, Yanagi gives Pernelle a fond little smile at his gentlemanly offer. "No, you shall not," she replies with love.
Her smile fades as she considers the red star above anew. The visions Giselle's Wilis send her make it plain that it's the Cocoon of this place. So high and far away from everything else... "It'll be a trick to reach," she muses.
But first: inside, where it may or may not be warmer. It's certainly as beautiful; the multicolored lights may not actually suit the stately nature of the castle, but Yanagi likes them more for that, not less. There's clearly been some violence in here, but that's to be expected, really. With only a week to her existence, the Homunculus hasn't had that much time to wreck the place and make it her own.
"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone..." Yanagi muses/quotes at the sight of the broken statues. Apparently she looked up the rest of Ozymandias after Peacock Silk's beach trip. Her head turns forward before the door ahead opens, and she smiles gently at the Sanguin.
"No," she replies just as gently--and yet unassailably. "But we don't need to be your enemy, either," she adds, because that owlgirl is so cute! Do not bully... (That will be Pernelle's job. Who is the best bird? He'll just have to establish dominance.) "Do you know how to get up to the Nothing hovering over this castle?"
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
"Oh, fascinating thought!" Pernelle says of a possible upside-down nature. "However did we manage without you, Yanagi?" This is a valid question to pose, though perhaps over other facets of Yanagi's insight. Yet more she still provides, and Pernelle's eyes sparkle. "Ah! Just so! Then we are dealing with something a touch more... astronomical."
Sometimes Pernelle just talks to hear the sound of his own voice. Often Pernelle just talks to hear the sound of his own voice. But in the background of his rambling, he still absorbs the details of the Atelier... not merely its infiltration, of its tiny but oh so critical little 'spec' held so high up, but its expressions. Much is being said, but it is difficult to listen truly without knowing the unawakened dreamer.
Yanagi denies the coat, and at this point, all that he manages is a little, "Th-th-thank you." There is a time and place to blame all ills on Jack Frost, but this is not one of them.
Pernelle, at least, stops chattering so much once they step within, either warmed or having shivered himself into it. His beak falls open to see the insides, so much like the outsides, but more! So much color! His gaze follows Yanagi's to the statues.
"The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed..." Pernelle muses himself, peering down one of the halls, and slowly looking over before: ah! An owl!
Pernelle steps ahead, making himself the closer target should any hostilities break out. It would be a good excuse to begin setting lesser birds on fire, should it prove necessary.
"Pray, be not afraid, my strigiform sister. We mean no harm to this prismatic palace or its denizens."
Yet.
"Though if you prefer to threaten us, please spare no gruesome detail in the hypothetical fate that would await a vertical undertaking."
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki pauses Saika doesn't remark on if it looks okay, while Tsumugi comes over. As they request her to lift her head, she does.
"O-oh," she says, cheeks pink as she blushes. "I do want to shine brightly."
Saika, however, says something interesting, as does Tsumugi, about the statue in the story. "It was kind of the statue, and so lovely... but I think everyone should exist together... and it was replaced with a 'prettier' one?"
"It was already beautiful in its own special way," she says firmly, tapping her choker, a familiar nervous tic.
Though, as Kazusa compliments her, Hazuki's smile stays on, even if inwardly, she's a bit awkward about it. "Oh, thank you. I think it is a real ruby!"
And then, there's the question towards the Homunculus about what kind of person she wants to be. Hazuki's curious, too... she turns to watch as Kazusa answers.
What kind of answer does a Homunculus give to that sort of question...?
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Just a drab statue... and one that is ultimately melted down in the end. Kazusa frowns. "Awww, that's too sad. Poor statue." There is a discernable lack of critical thought there, just a surface level interpretation.
A sun's cheer meets a moon's silence, and Kazusa can apparently only hold that cheer for so long, her smile wilting slowly as the silence drags on. It's easier to look to Hazuki as she goes to try on the choker, then.
But then attention does come, and Kazusa blinks softly. Like the person she wants to become... and what kind of person is that, exactly?
If the Homunculus under the skin detects any hidden meanings to the question, it doesn't let on. The skin being worn by it just perks up and answers, "I'm going into Rhythmic Gymnastics! I'm on Shujin's team, and my father thinks it suits jmy talents! I might get some extra coaching soon--" She pauses and brings a finger to her lips. "--but don't let it get out that I said that, okay?"
To see Kazusa capitulate so readily to her father's wishes, after what Hazuki witnessed... just one of many eerily wrong things about this girl Kazusa is now portraying herself as.
But the statue might live on, Saika points out. "Ohhh, well when you put it that way... I guess that could be true. I guess that's kind of nice, then." Is she agreeing because she's reconsidered, or because it's the last thing that was said on the topic?
... probably the latter.
But Hazuki thinks it might be a real ruby. "I think so, too!" She looks at Tsumugi and Saika questioningly, as if one of them might answer. "Did one of you make it?"
IN THE ATELIER
The corona might be like a crown, in a certain poetic sense. In every sense this particular crown is just a bit off, however. But that could just be due to the nature of an Atelier being a manifestation of a person's mind.
It will, indeed, be a trick. But there will probably be some way to reach it--surely the universe wouldn't allow the Homunculus to squirrel away its prize wholly out out reach, to render immune what was once already stolen?
Is the Palace upside down? If everything were upside down in this Atelier, could you tell? Would, perhaps, the 'right side up' feel upside down to someone standing alongside the palace? These are all questions one might ponder.
As it happens, the inside of the palace is a little bit warmer than without.
Yanagi refuses to leave. The Sanguin Humor frowns and brings her fingers up to her lips (she has tiny little claws on her fingertips, though her lips are normal) and inhales sharply-- (Yanagi, if her butterflies are still exploring the interior of the castle, she will surely notice, in the shadows at the tops of the arched ceilings, swarms of bats skulking through the darkness--Coleric Humors, readyu to answer the Sanguin's call.)
But then Yanagi clarifies that they don't ahve to be her enemy either, and the Sanguin Humor pauses. "... hmm." She gives Yanagi and Pernelle an appraising look.
She looks down, owlishly (by definition), at Pernelle as he steps up to parlay, and to protect Yanagi. "A galliform..." she muses.
Pernelle mentions the vertical undertaking, and Yanagi wishes to know how to get to the 'Nothing' above the palace. "I know not how one might reach it, for no wings will carry you thus. But if you were to wish to try..."
She looks between thet wo curiously. "... then you must undertake the Princess' trial." she declares. "Come in--the halls are not safe."
Not safe... surely it wasn't swarms of dark bats that left those gouges, was it?
She stands aside to allow entry. And what they enter into is surely a grand workshop. The shelves are lined with one might describe as figurines out in the nonsupernatural spaces of Tokyo. Characters in all manner of shape and costuming: a sorceress with an elegant gown wreathed in flame, a knight posed with an intricately detailed blade embedded with a large gem on the hilt and a shield bearing a crest, a teenage girl in trendy street fashion with her hand planted on the base, upside down, and a kick coming in from overhead.
And beneath these scores upon scores of sketches--some in a manner that might be familiar to those who design clothing for a living, others that one might otherwise describe as 'character sheets'. There are several tables and workbenches laden with tiny props and tools, bases and sketches.
The Sanguin Humor moves to a workstation--it is round, formed of metal with a flat top, and she sits at it as one might sit at a pottery wheel. It does not spin, however--the perimeter of it is inlaid with various glowing purple runes, and she takes a small, flat, obsidian black disc and places it on top.
Instantly a wireframe of a vaguely humanoid shape springs into existence above it. And where the workstation does not spin in the way a potter might, the wireframe itself does mold like clay to her touch. She works deftly, quickly reshaping it to look approximately like Pernelle.
"The Princess' favorite act is creation," she explains as she works. "You would do well to honor her by undertaking her trial--to create a vessel as I do now and to bring it to the Manifest Gallery high above to be put on display. Do so, and you will be recognized for your efforts."
She touches another rune, and small glowing lines appear that she starts to arrange within the wireframe. Another touch, and now the entire wireframe moves as she poses it using the newly-placed skeleton.
The Sanguin looks up to Yanagi and Pernelle. "An imposter Princess has installed herself and blocked off access to the top of the tower. If you truly wish to reach this 'nothing', you will only reach it from the top of the tallest tower. But to reach that... you must first gain the Princess' Favor."
Another touch, and a glowing purple paint brush appears in her hand. With it she 'paints' the statue, filling in the surface with fie details. And when it is done... she picks up the obsidian disc, turning it to face them.
It is exactly Pernelle, in a resplendant pose, and even including his vest. She indicates a stack of discs next to her. "Surely, those with outfits such as yours will rise to the challenge?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
What does Kazusa Motojima want to become?
No -- what does the thing wearing her skin want to become?
Tsumugi doesn't weigh in on their own perspective or opinion on the matter of The Happy Prince. Having set the framework of the conversation, having subtly put forth an unspoken question that the others have picked up on, they seem more content to simply take their thoughts, their reactions, their feelings, without giving much of anything in return.
No; all they offer is a single quote to Hazuki's question.
... and it was replaced with a 'prettier' one?
"'As he is no longer beautiful, he is no longer useful.'"
No; their interest drifts from the topic once everyone else has weighed in. It shifts in that lazy yet confident way towards Kazusa instead, offering that brief, over-the-shoulder glance before they continue on their way back to the counter.
Kazusa, who offers a shallow interpretation of the end of the tale. Kazusa, who changes her outlook immediately upon the prompting of an adult. Kazusa, who...
I'm on Shujin's team, and my father thinks it suits my talents!
"..."
Once more, they don't immediately respond to Kazusa's answer. As if they could take the entire conversation and force it to their own languid pace, they instead wind back around Saika, the store filling with the heavy click of their heels; twenty centimeters of height difference means that by the time they settle behind the leatherworker, their chin can find a quite comfortable home settling on the top of her head as arms once more drape their indifferent drape over her shoulders.
"No," they say simply to Kazusa's question. "Sa-ya isn't here at the moment. She's handling some interesting business."
Those lidded green eyes settle on Kazusa again. It's eerie, how such an apathetic stare can look so intense -- like it was staring straight through the shell of her.
"So you want to become what someone else wants you to become," they summarize, uncharitably, yet with that laconic charm.
"Like a statue giving away pieces of itself for others' happiness."
A second passes.
Dark lips part.
"That's too bad. I don't think there's anything here for someone like you."
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
"It happens," Saika says, about the statue's replacement. She was smiling when Hazuki asked -- that's good, right?! Maybe she said '...,' like in those shows. Or games. Is that what '...' sounds like, perhaps?
"But hey," Saika says, sweeping a hand back through her hair, "it's still alive in the story, right? Statue alive, anyway. What's the word. Extant."
Saika's attention rests on Hazuki for a moment, with her expression growing subtly weary in a sympathetic way, along with a faint smile, a raise of the eyebrows, and then a turning of her full focus onto - well - let's not hide anything. She's looking at the Homunculus.
"Oh, don't worry," she says, when asked not to let things get out, although there is a strangely sardonic, ironic air on the underlayer of that. Her lips stop moving and they don't come to rest in a slight smile. Her shoulders shift for a moment. The neutral expression becomes a slight frown for a moment.
"It's too bad, though," Saika fills in after Tsumugi speaks.
Her head turns a couple of degrees. Now she's looking at Hazuki and *only* Hazuki, and there is that lingering look on her face, which is -- well, Hazuki hasn't seen Saika very often, but this sort of poe-faced deliberate neutrality doesn't seem familiar to her. Her eyes are normal, at least. They point at Hazuki.
They seem to crinkle faintly, as if with sympathy, apology, a certain 'this isn't your fault,' but then turn, quickly, to the door. Back and forth, a second time, perhaps just to underline it.
"Thanks for coming," she says, notable for its absent exclamation point. A hint of normality seeps back in as she says, "Oh -- and we have a rare drinks vending machine around the corner, did you know? You can hit it up if you want. Funkiest stuff in Shimokita, I guarantee it."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Technically, direction only has meaning insomuch as there is gravity. It might well be upside down if there's something to be upside down to...
However did they manage without her? "I truly don't know!" Yanagi says earnestly. Particularly with the matter of the coat. She fondly fondles his frond before they head on in.
"Oh yes, please do!" Yanagi says just as earnestly to the owlgirl. Pernelle always has such a way with words! Her little origami angel-spirits have indeed found the bats--but that's besides the point. Yanagi simply told the owlgirl her truth. When she invites the two of them out of the hallways to attempt the Princess's Challenge, she shares a nod with her and Pernelle both, then follows her, gun-cane tap-tapping on the floors.
The workshop she leads them to is quite impressive. Yanagi looks over the many figurines across the many shelves, then slowly turns to take in the sketches, the tables and workstations, the not-a-pottery-wheel with its wireframe that twists to mold into an approximation of Pernelle.
"Oh my!" she gasps, leaning in with keen, open interest to get a better look. As she does, she listens to the owlgirl's explanation of what they need to do. "That should be a simple matter for us. We are artists," she says with confidence. She looks over at her companion and adds, "And Pernelle is such a wonderful subject for art! You truly do him justice."
However... she stands back up, her other hand resting atop the head of her gun-cane. "I would love to try--but we ought not linger too much longer. Do you mind if we come back later with our friends so we may all take on the Challenge together?"
She says it like she's asking permission, but she's not actually going to do otherwise.
On the way out, Yanagi happens to look out a window within the castle and sees a vast plain of silver sand beyond the confines of the palace and the hedge that surrounds it.
"A Princess on the Moon..." she muses aloud. She smiles slightly. "How appropriate."
Everyone dies at the end of that story--and then is reborn.
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Pernelle gasps. "You wouldn't!" he realizes, for Yanagi was not there to see! Again, her wisdom shines!
Identified as a galliform, Pernelle puffs up his chest with pride and gives a sharp nod. Galliform! More like gall(i)ant, ha HA! ... He does not say, because they're in the middle of a negotiation, and the Sanguin Humor looks like she may be amendable to cooperation.
"My gratitude for your kindness, nightbird," he says, and then he follows her to the workshop alongside Yanagi.
And what a dazzling place this, too, proves! The cognitive space of humans is such a captivating experience. It is a place... of... art! Pernelle gasps, audible, glasses popped off his beak and pushed back into place. He points with a wing at the figurines, then to the sketches, then to pottery wheel.
"Striking! Stupendous! Sensational!" And then as Pernelle watches the clay reshape into something like him...
His eyes glitter, wings presses to his cheeks, and voice climbing several octaves in nigh hoarse-excitement. "You improved it." He clears his throat and straightens, proud and vain again. "Oh, yes, I too dabble in the divine act of creation, you could say. You see, there was this purse..."
Ah, but this is important information now. Pernelle ruffles his feathers back and sobers himself, eyes venturing a brief glance to Yanagi. The Princess' favor and all her trials... imposters and -- oh my, she's adding color! His beautiful and vivid color! Pernelle is once again enraptured by this artistic process, swept up in his vanity before his attention snaps back together.
A challenge to rise to... because of their outfits... Pernelle squashes his long neck back down in his body and begins to vibrate. He does not speak, for he will make a mistake, looking pleadingly at Yanagi as she mercifully declines the offer. Straightening back up and heaving a sigh of relief, Pernelle then gives the Sanguine Humor a grim nod.
"So speaks truly. We must claim a rain check on this venture. Please, do not let pining for our return consume your heart, but, still, look forward to our grand performance. We shall make it worth the wait."
He dips a deep and flourished bow, and, too, does not wait for permission. Passing the windows on their way out, Pernelle looks over the silver expanse...
... and, seeing his own reflection, headbutts the window.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki is still deeply considering the story. But she's frowning at what Kazusa says... this isn't her.
This isn't the Kazusa Motojima who hated her, who she wants back despite that fact.
With Kazusa's gaze almost guaranteed to be focused on the proprietors as they say she's not welcome, she nods once to the pair, her frown sharp. She's been kicked out of here once before, but she knows this isn't the same thing.
This is all part of their mission. They'll hopefully give her the intel she will need later.
"...let's go, Motojima-san," Hazuki says somewhat sympathetically, and then she'll leave.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
IN THE ATELIER
Pernelle thanks her for her gratitude, and the Sanguin Humor nods. "Of course."
Yanagi proclaims that they are artists, and the Sanguin Humor offers a small smile. "Then this challenge may suit you." But Pernelle also dabbles in creation. "Truly? I should be interested to see such a thing sometime... though perhaps such things might wait until the circumstances are better."
And at the request to leave and return, she nods. "Very well. You may fare better that way--the imposter princess commands the guards, so the halls are not safe." Pernelle promises to make it worth the wait. "Then I shall await your return. Safe travels, friend."
A Princess on the Moon, Yanagi notes. What does that say about the girl trapped in the Cocoon, one might wonder?
BACK AT PEACOCK SILK
Kazusa--or the persona of her the Homunculus puts on--does not catch all of the subtle inferences being put forth.
And then Tsumugi cuts to the heart of the matter. What Kazusa wants... is ultimately what someone else wants for her, like the statue.
And Kazusa stares at Tsumugi in incomprehension. Maybe she can't understand.
But when Tsumugi says there is nothing here for someone like her... that she seems to understand. Her hopefully chipper attitude slowly crumbles, and she looks down, looking like she failed a test she didn't know she was taking. "... oh. Okay."
SAika mentions there is a rare vending machine, and the thing pretending to be Kazusa just nods silently to that.
She looks to Hazuki and offers a flimsy smile. "... thanks for inviting me anyway, Nakao-chan." She'll leave with Hazuki, and then go her own way, leaving Hazuki to her business, still despondent.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Once she and Kazusa split, Hazuki will send Yanagi a text thanking the four of them. It ends with one sentence.
'I'm even more determined to end this nightmare.'