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savethecitydesu2013-01-21 04:15 pm
ephemeralcolor.insanejournal.com) wrote in savethecitydesu2013-01-21 04:15 pm
Entry tags:
Discovery!! Exploring the unreal!
Who: Mitsuya.
What: Even more magic.
Where: The special subway, then home.
When: Directly after the second magic incident.
Even the trip home had been a completely new experience.
The Araragi home was close enough to Ryuseki that, on those occasions when Mitsuya was staying at home, the walk to and from the school was an easy, pleasant one, hardly enough to tax even a non-athlete like her. But every so often she got the urge to people-watch, or was in too much of a hurry for her usual leisurely stroll, and so she'd take the subway home.
Of course, with her eagerness to share and experiment with her new discovery, this was one of those days.
She'd realized just how serendipitous her decision was when she noticed what she was coming to understand were the telltale traceries of perception magic extending along her route. Following them, and ignoring the few traces of others here and there - those could be saved for later - she came to notice once more the subliminal whispers in the back of her mind. But these were subtler, stronger but more insidious - and yet they had no pull on her, as though she were not their intended target. If she were, she suspected with a shiver, she had no doubt she'd never have noticed them at all.
"You're busy."
"You have places to be."
"Move along, nothing to see here."
When she came to the subway station entrance that the strands of magic wrapped around like a great spider's web, she understood the need for such a ward.
The ogre had been just the beginning. Mythical beasts of all stripes mingled freely with things she couldn't name or recognize, bustling to and fro as if at the tail end of some peculiar rush hour of their own. There were tengu in suits and a crew of oni in construction gear, a faceless gentleman who tipped his hat to her as he passed and a traditionally-dressed woman in a surgical mask.
The peculiar looks she was receiving from the human passers-by as she stared at the remarkable scene gave her a jolt; she was the only one, she realized, who could perceive any of it. Then again, before, neither could she, and she couldn't help but wonder how she could have walked this way every day for nearly three years and missed something this amazing.
Only the enlightened have eyes to see, I suppose, she decided, and ventured in to see what wonders awaited her...
... only to find that the ride itself was peculiarly mundane. She needed a new card, of course, and the subway seemed to run on a different schedule and route unrelated to any sor of human time or concept of space - but the experience itself was strangely similar to riding with her fellow humans. She passed the time chatting idly with an impossibly slender, long-nosed fellow who'd seemed surprised to see "another one" on the train, but was not as disappointed as she'd expected to be when her stop ("Araragi residence") forced her to cut their conversation short.
It seemed, she'd found to her mild dismay, that humans did not have a monopoly on being boring.
***
As usual, none of the residents of the household took any real notice of each other's comings and goings. This arrangement suited Mitsuya just fine, and today in particular, it gave her all the privacy she'd need for the evening. She headed straight to her room, picking her way through half-finished sewing projects and scattered writing utensils, and - first things first - tossed off the blog post that had been churning in her head for the last hour or two. Fortunately, she'd just updated Rinne last Sunday, so she had no obligations there for some time yet.
With her duties (such as they were) taken care of, she could start the fun part: assessing, exploring, and discovering.
Step one: empty her bag, and see what she'd come home with. The few scrolls she'd managed to pick up had taken their unceremonious two-story drop reasonably well, but the temple relics were a little banged up. Fortunately, as she'd hoped, the rest of the bag's contents had shielded them from serious damage. Time for closer examination, then: what were they, and where had they come from?
What: Even more magic.
Where: The special subway, then home.
When: Directly after the second magic incident.
Even the trip home had been a completely new experience.
The Araragi home was close enough to Ryuseki that, on those occasions when Mitsuya was staying at home, the walk to and from the school was an easy, pleasant one, hardly enough to tax even a non-athlete like her. But every so often she got the urge to people-watch, or was in too much of a hurry for her usual leisurely stroll, and so she'd take the subway home.
Of course, with her eagerness to share and experiment with her new discovery, this was one of those days.
She'd realized just how serendipitous her decision was when she noticed what she was coming to understand were the telltale traceries of perception magic extending along her route. Following them, and ignoring the few traces of others here and there - those could be saved for later - she came to notice once more the subliminal whispers in the back of her mind. But these were subtler, stronger but more insidious - and yet they had no pull on her, as though she were not their intended target. If she were, she suspected with a shiver, she had no doubt she'd never have noticed them at all.
"You have places to be."
"Move along, nothing to see here."
When she came to the subway station entrance that the strands of magic wrapped around like a great spider's web, she understood the need for such a ward.
The ogre had been just the beginning. Mythical beasts of all stripes mingled freely with things she couldn't name or recognize, bustling to and fro as if at the tail end of some peculiar rush hour of their own. There were tengu in suits and a crew of oni in construction gear, a faceless gentleman who tipped his hat to her as he passed and a traditionally-dressed woman in a surgical mask.
The peculiar looks she was receiving from the human passers-by as she stared at the remarkable scene gave her a jolt; she was the only one, she realized, who could perceive any of it. Then again, before, neither could she, and she couldn't help but wonder how she could have walked this way every day for nearly three years and missed something this amazing.
Only the enlightened have eyes to see, I suppose, she decided, and ventured in to see what wonders awaited her...
... only to find that the ride itself was peculiarly mundane. She needed a new card, of course, and the subway seemed to run on a different schedule and route unrelated to any sor of human time or concept of space - but the experience itself was strangely similar to riding with her fellow humans. She passed the time chatting idly with an impossibly slender, long-nosed fellow who'd seemed surprised to see "another one" on the train, but was not as disappointed as she'd expected to be when her stop ("Araragi residence") forced her to cut their conversation short.
It seemed, she'd found to her mild dismay, that humans did not have a monopoly on being boring.
As usual, none of the residents of the household took any real notice of each other's comings and goings. This arrangement suited Mitsuya just fine, and today in particular, it gave her all the privacy she'd need for the evening. She headed straight to her room, picking her way through half-finished sewing projects and scattered writing utensils, and - first things first - tossed off the blog post that had been churning in her head for the last hour or two. Fortunately, she'd just updated Rinne last Sunday, so she had no obligations there for some time yet.
With her duties (such as they were) taken care of, she could start the fun part: assessing, exploring, and discovering.
Step one: empty her bag, and see what she'd come home with. The few scrolls she'd managed to pick up had taken their unceremonious two-story drop reasonably well, but the temple relics were a little banged up. Fortunately, as she'd hoped, the rest of the bag's contents had shielded them from serious damage. Time for closer examination, then: what were they, and where had they come from?
no subject
Now, Mitsuya saw that the package, like the mystical, marvelous scroll, had text appear when she laid her eyes upon it. As if someone were writing with a calligraphy brush made from the mane of a fire-horse, word ablaze in purple appeared on it.
"HYPNOTIC INCENSE"
MADE IN TAIWAN
Ah, but she still had four scrolls to marvel at, all of which had handles that, on their own, could have sold for a reasonable price! The corners of the scrolls were capped in bronze with spatters of gold. Of course, a mere human wouldn't be able to see it, but now that she was a magic user she would see that they were conveniently labeled on the outside.
"ELEMENTAL SPELLS: SOLVE PROBLEMS USING THE POWER WITHIN"
"YOU AND YOUKAI: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW"
"HOUSEHOLD MAGIC"
"CARESS OF HAYABUTA: THE SPRING OF OUR LOVE - EXPLICIT VERSION"
Hayabuta was written with the kanji for "swift pig." Should she inspect that one at any point she would discover it seems to be a chapter from rather easy to swallow, if still trashy, romance novel involving a humanized pig with a tortured past, a geisha with a tortured past, and their unbridled libido. Hayabuta is apparently 'swift in battle, slow in love'. You could imagine the author winking at you with every line you read.
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Of course, the first thing to catch Mitsuya's eyes was the thurible. She gently lifted it from the futon by its chain, slowly spinning the delicate-looking vessel so that the bronze, worn a little by time but certainly salvageable, could catch the light streaming in through the window. Lotus flowers... Buddhist iconography, perhaps? The eyes made her think of Kannon...
Carefully, carefully, she set it back down, the tiny vessel barely making a dent in the mattress, and in turn picked up the package that had accompanied it. As before, before her eyes, the violet flame cast a pale, lambent glow on her face as the packet revealed its purpose...
... 'Made in Taiwan'? She decided to be optimistic and imagine that the place was an exporter of mystic products as well as cheaply-manufactured ones. It could happen!
In any case, it was incense , presumably to be used with the thurible. Hypnotic incense, no less, if the labeling was to be believed. Certainly, burning it here on her own might be unwise, but... She closed her eyes, brought the packet to her face, and inhaled, taking in the faint trace of a scent that seeped through the paper that held the powder.
It was pleasantly rich, redolent with lavender and sandalwood, and hints of other things she couldn't quite identify. And it was relaxing. Very, very relaxing. She could feel the tension of the day, something she had been only subconsciously aware of, drain from her as though it had never been. She could just sit here all day and...
Oh dear.
Awareness returned and she swiftly set the packet aside with its little censer. She would, she decided, have to be more cautious with these things in the future.
Ah, yes, and speaking of, she had more to look at! The scrolls would no doubt be safer, so long as there was no more... enlightenment to be had. The first had been enough pain for one day.
The first scroll she picked up was... Oh my. Surprised by the title that had emblazoned itself on the fine parchment, she delicately touched her fingertips to her lips as color rose to her cheeks. What sort of temple could that have come from? This one could wait for later... perusal.
Ah, this one looked more immediately promising. "Solve problems using the power within..." she murmured, unrolling the scroll. It seemed like a good starting point; after all, she knew this secret now, but not what to do with it.
no subject
Heed now these words of wisdom, for in troubled times you may seek aid within!
Have you ever wanted to clean the leaves on the back yard, or throw a subject of your distaste down a cliff, but without using your hands?"
The purple, flaming text then shifted into a very demonstrative sumi-e painting. In all the artistic elegance of Hokusai, it demonstrate a man (or woman, as the figure seems androgynous enough) on the veranda of their house, hands raised as if signaling with alarm the pile of leaves that is building up. Another drawing next to it signals the same person, and someone, bearded and angry-looking, 'hopping' up and down the drawing. The ink literally moves, so the small figure is not only moving, but making a small, grumbling sound.
"Look around you, and look within, for you are one with the universe, and the universe is one with you. You are part of the same stream, and as such, you can channel the world around you if you understand what powers you have inside... Now, you will learn the way."
The magical consequence of having a sudden rush of magic knowledge going into Mitsuya's head was a feeling like she suddenly wanted to sneeze, but couldn't get the sneeze out of her nose.
"You are a child of the wind," the scroll then said. "You merely need to call to the wind within, to the freedom, to the flow. Meditate upon this: you are free, you are boundless, you are subtle, yet unstoppable by mount or tree..."
The words then vanished and the drawings returned again.
One of them demonstrated how, with a graceful movement of their hand, the person on the house blew the leaves away, and began hopping in merry joy. Then, on the next drawing, they did the same, blowing their unfriendly fellow down a cliff, prior to doing a chipper little dance.
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Mitsuya didn't immediately continue reading the scroll, instead pausing to linger over the surprisingly well-crafted little illustrations. The elegant simplicity of the drawings themselves, contrasted with the way they capered about on the paper--making cute little sounds, no less!--was something that couldn't fail to appeal to Mitsuya's own sense of aesthetics. She hoped that this was something she might learn herself someday; oh, the things she could do with it...
But however long she might have tarried there, she had to move on to the meat of the scroll itself. This time, at least, it wasn't a punch to the face--though she still had to pause in her perusal for several seconds, one hand delicately raised to her nose, while this new sensation of enlightenment worked its way through her system.
When she returned to the scroll, she couldn't help but be pleased by what she read. Free and boundless, subtle yet unstoppable... A child of the wind indeed, she thought, beaming. Perhaps the scroll itself resonated with the reader's nature, unlocking their inner potential? If so, well, goodness, she would certainly have to show it to others, now wouldn't she?
As the little ink drawings celebrated their victory, she gently set the scroll aside, and turned to the open curtains opposite her, bordering a window with a commanding view of a street that seemed all the duller now that she had seen what lay beneath.
The freedom and the flow of the wind within...
It was nearly second nature to her. She had tried meditating before, and found it all too easy to become distracted (indeed, she'd gotten some of her best ideas that way), but the lightness of air, and the subtle and ever-shifting influence of the wind, came so readily to her that she couldn't help but wonder how much of it was the scroll and how much of it had been dormant within her, waiting to be unlocked.
She opened her eyes, and mimicked the gesture.
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The truth is that the result was a sudden burst of wind that flew right across the room. It made a rather embarrassing sound, like a raspberry.
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Heedless of the scraps of fabric and pieces of clothing that now made the room even more of a disaster--they were on every available flat surface, with a few unfortunate bits even hanging from her ceiling fan--she focused on calm, gentle breezes and tried the gesture once more. If the wind continued to insist upon being so inelegant, well, she could turn her attention to other things for a while.
no subject
MITSUYA HAS LEARNED WIND MANIPULATION.