poly_chromatic | little bird is losing her wings

Entry tags:

touhou project - utsuho reiuji

little bird is losing her wings

...Guys...I think I'm...sick or something. I'm freezing cold. It's not even frost-breath. I don't know...

[Utsuho clicks on the camera. Her eyelids are baggy, and her lips and skin are tinged the blue of hypothermia. Her arms are shrunken and bony, and her wings have lost much of their feathers. She's dragging the arm cannon, as if it's too heavy for her to sling around anymore. All in all, she is withering away into a cold oblivion...]

...Naoi, Rory, anyone...I'm scared.

[She clicks off the video, but it seems like it's still going...the great sun-bird is now sniffling, and between her despaired breaths, she starts vaguely singing to herself, as if to calm herself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LunIlH-gtPw

"Lullaby of Deserted Hell."

She's not very good at singing, with her croaky raven voice, but it seems to contain the crying at least a bit.]

(OOC notes:

What symptoms will they have?: Utsuho is basically fading away, losing her fire an feathers, and overall looking like she's going to wither up and die. She also feels very cold to the touch, and her lips are turning blue, like she's hypothermic.
What will their essence rite will be?: Since she's fueled by a sun god, she needs some sort of very intense flame to be constructed and then herself thrown into it.
What is the dream hinting (or outright telling) helpers about the essence rite like?: Some sort of dream involving a boiling sun, a phoenix, people dancing around an impossibly white-hot bonfire, all of the above, have fun with it! But she needs something really hot, like molten metal or lava or something, to bring her back.
Are you open to anyone performing the essence rite?: Yes!

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...

[What an unbearably pitiful sight. He looks unspeakably sad for a moment before he masks it with the usual authoritative fervor supported by... well, absolutely no standing of consequence in this City, but it's the closest he can get to being encouraging.]

Don't be. You're stronger than most of the weaklings occupying this City, you'll come out on top! I'll help find someone who can cure you... there has to be someone who knows something about how to treat you.

[*Sniff.* She stops her aimless routine sort-of-singing and looks over at the device, which has turned on again.]

...Thanks.

You're a god. You know more than I do. I'm only half a god. Half enough to get sick I guess. So you've got to be right.

I feel kind of like I'm floating or something. Tired. Really tired.

... I got sick too, you know, before I became one.

My father died of sickness too.

[Subtly conveying that he was human once!]

Don't sell yourself short like that. [He frowns.] ... this City makes everyone weaker.

You should rest. [He brightens considerably, getting an idea.] Do you eat? I could make you something warm, until help comes.

[That distracts her some. She blinks at him and looks a bit intrigued.]

You weren't always a god? ...What were you?

[Food is nice. She likes that, too.]

Yeah, I do. Sure. I like meat. Really, whatever you have, I'm not picky.

Good, it's a little off-season— [Understatement of the year.] But I can make a good sukiyaki! That'll warm you right up. [He's quite good at cooking! He had to cook and feed both himself and his father for the later part of his life.]

I was human, of course! I lived in Japan during the Showa Period.

...We were cut off from Japan a long time ago, so I don't know when we are. But that sounds really tasty.

Oh, wow. How did you turn into a god?

It's got meat! I could make it with anything you have... where can I find you in Oh Aces? [He's never really made it all the way to wherever she stays. Just got pinned down in front of the building.]

Hmm, was Japan still sealed off from the rest of the world? The Second World War just ended when I died.

Oh, I was placed in a position of maintaining order in an afterlife meant for children's souls.

I was the former Acting Student Council President, Student Council Vice President. When I first saw you, you reminded me of the President there! Her wings were white, though, and your clothes look like seifuku too...

[How entertaining! He's a really cool person, and she forgets herself for a bit and musters up some energy.]

No, Gensokyo doesn't talk to the rest of Japan. We've got a big magical wall that makes us invisible. We haven't seen the outside for a long time, I think.

I'm in the Temple now. Can you make it out there?

...Oh! Then you're a lot like Shikieiki-sama! Wow, I didn't know you were that awesome. And scary. She's pretty scary when she wants to be.

Satori-sama made the clothes for me. I don't know what a seifuku is, but I like the skirt, it's swishy and doesn't get in the way.

How unfortunate. And no one can cross it? [Seems a bit restricting, unless they prefer it that way.]

The temple, the temple... I'll just use the map and find my way!

[He'll try to make his way after replying!

Oh, you have no idea how much he abused his power, Reiuji.

Being compared to Shikieiki does embarrass him a little, though.]

A seifuku is a school uniform. In the afterlife I had been, it was a beige blazer over a navy skirt, it's quite a bit shorter than yours though... when I was alive, though, it was usually the sailor fuku— maybe I should stop. [All this talk about skirts makes him feel like a lech.]

No. Satori-sama said something about a "youkai of boundaries" and that it's the reason we can't talk to anyone outside.

[She'll wait around until he arrives. She looks like hell, and not the good fiery sun-bird kind either, but she still smiles when he arrives. She doesn't power-walk over to hug him like the time she showed up at his place, though -- she's sitting near the remains of a contained fire and covered in blankets. Even so, the light on her chest-eye has gone out, and she looks cold and almost ghostly. Her voice is fainter now that there's no microphone to amplify it, a hoarse raven-croak.]

Thanks. You're great.

[ooc: I missed all of Naoi's action posts XD]

[Naoi considered responding while making his way there, but decided to leave the discussion for when they're in each other's company.

He smiles back when he sees her, on reflex, but feels a cold pit in his stomach. She looks so weak. It reminds him of his father's last days and if he had any faith left in him, he would pray to any god who would listen that she get better... but he won't do that here; every one he's met is as powerless as he is here.

So he just takes his jacket off and kneels next to her to drape it over her bundled shoulders, as if it'd make a difference.]

((And I missed Reiuji's adorableness. She just takes all of Naoi's ridiculous claims at face value. xD;; But she's so loyal and adorable and funny!

Playing Naoi without her or Shikieiki around was pretty much "See Naoi. See Naoi be a raging jerkface to absolutely everyone except for one little kid."))

Edited 2013-07-25 19:35 (UTC)

[Her free hand peeks out from under the blankets and reaches for his. Her fingers are cool and pale. If he lets her, she will pull at him, trying to get him to curl up here with her.]

[ooc:Oh yeah, she totally buys it. No reason not to trust him! Even though he told her she was a wash-basin. XD]

You don't look too good either.

[She's really glad to see someone she knows, and musters as good a smile as she can.]

Hi...I haven't seen you much...

I've been kinda busy lately.

Looks like you got what everyone's got.

You are sick as well? I have not had a dream for you--or I don't think that I have.

[Whatever sense of shame he had regarding such matters, at least when it came to himself, he'd long discarded. He's very physical in displaying his affections, so he saw no reason to push her away. Besides, she needed the warmth and he wasn't about to deny her that.

He glances at her hand, reaching for his, and ties his fingers between hers. Distressingly cold.

Naoi will certainly join her in her little cloth-cocoon, huddling close to her and hugging her with his free arm. He hopes she'd rest her throat, that croak sounds dry and painful. She was singing before, she likes songs? Maybe it'd help if he sang her something, that way, she could enjoy it without straining herself... he was never really exposed to much music, though. He knows a traditional graduation song and some Girls Dead Monster songs he overheard.

School songs or rock songs? ... he'll go with the rock song, even if he fumbles the words or skips lines, because Aogeba Totoushi brings him to tears and that's the last thing this situation needs.]

There's a wall of shutters behind me, my fingertips smell like steel... [Because it's Naoi, he's probably going to sing this in utmost seriousness, as if in choir, but it's the thought that counts.]

Yeah. Apparently there's a magical thing going on...I don't know who's had my dream, though.

...Oh well. But thanks for saying hi...I really like people right now.

You doing okay?

[The contrast between the words and Naoi's oh-so-serious voice is amusing enough to earn a snuggle and a smile. She leans her head on his shoulder -- last time, she was a bird, but this time it's him that is holding her, and he is warm and familiar and his voice certainly isn't unwelcome.

As her mind drifts about with the song, she wants to ask something, but she doesn't want to break the spell, it's so nice.]

Am I...

[She only mouths the words, and leaves the sentence unfinished.]

[XDDDD Adorable singing Naoi!]

Only right now?

Yes, thank you, I'm fine. Several of my friends are sick, and now you are as well.

Sorry. I always like people. But right now I don't want to be alone at all. Sometimes I'm okay with it. Not now.

...I'm your friend, too?

[He holds her close, stroking her hair as he did her feathers.

Even though she only mouths it and he cannot see it when she rests her head on his shoulder, he still senses and moves away, lifting his hand to cradle her head as he does. When he's run out of words to sing, he stops to ask:]

... what is it?

I haven't forgotten about the sukiyaki, if that's it. [Spoken in earnest! Because he is still rather bad at reading people.]

((He takes things veeery seriously. x3;))

[She looks at him with dull red-brown eyes, and the fire-driven otherworldly creature is not there; what looks at him instead, is just a girl, perhaps she is human, perhaps just similar to one, but her gaze is distant and nervous. They're searching him for the energy they lost, the spark they once had. Her voice is still avian-hoarse, but now fear has clamped around it as well.]

...Am I going to die?

[The look in her eyes chills him to the bone and it takes every ounce of composure not to shiver and betray his fears. He steels himself, forces himself to look at her with dispassionate eyes. Death certainly lost its gravity in his world where everyone was already dead, but the look about her brings to mind the way people looked in wartime, toiling with the weakly pallor of corpses ready to be burned.

He briefly wonders if he would have perform those rites for her himself, heedless of her true nature, for the body he holds rots with mortality.

He has to break eye contact, he cannot force such coldness onto someone so desperate for warmth.]

...

[The words catch in his throat and wither away before he even says a word. What could he possibly say to her? He couldn't give her false hope. Naoi was never a good liar...

He turns his gaze back to her after a moment of silence, his hand moving from the back of her head to lift her chin, so she would look at him even if he was the one who looked away first; he needs to hold her gaze, unbroken.]

Do you have company?

Yes, unless you object to that, of course.

That's no good. If you don't know who's got your dream, how are you going to get well again?

I've been talking to people over this thing...it really helps.

No, I like you! I want to be your friend...you're fun. You're a nice human.

[A little loopy, but still smiling.]

[She looks at him, thinking nothing of what he did before, during the whole wash-basin thing. Instead, she lets her face rest gently against his hand, and her eyes widen a little as they peer into his.

He can take as long as he likes to answer; as long as he is here, she will wait. He is warm and bright and alive, and as long as she thinks about him, she can feel a little more that way, too...]

[His eyes shift colour to a glowing red, as he gently runs his thumb over her skin, still holding her leaning head.

Mere seconds are all it takes for his power to take hold of her mind.]

Close your eyes. Fear nothing. Give in to sleep.

Now, listen— spirit meant for skies and fire, take wing from this wretched place. May your dreams return you to the place you were meant for, find there the warmth you need and the company you seek.

[No erasure of self involved in his hypnosis this time, only simple dream-like trance and suggestion, aided by his power to distort perceptions.]

The network is good for this, yes.

[Loopy or not, she seems sincere. That's what matters.]

Thank you! You're very nice for a youkai, as well.

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little bird is losing her wings

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action;

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action; Plan B is "hypnotize Reiuji and show her something happy." ^^;

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action; probably would work XD

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action; ... aaaand he's going to hypnotize her after this, unless she tells him not to

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