(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 10)

[Oldmansour]

>Move to the side of the fairy's finger.
>Reach up to touch our ears.

[DracoOmega]

>Move to the side of the fairy's finger.
>Reach up to touch our ears.

>You step aside and reach up to touch your ears. They don't feel any different to your fingers, though that odd sensation isn't going away and- wait, are things getting quieter?
>You feel a wet sensation inside your ears, and then a moment later your fingers are engulfed in something warm and frothy that seems to be swelling forth from them!

[Hanzo K.]

>...Let's take a look. :ohdear:

[DracoOmega]

>...Let's take a look. :ohdear:

>You yank your hand back and take a look at it. Your fingers seem to be covered in some sort of neon pink foam - it reminds you a little of an especially frothy bubble bath, except a little less wet and a lot more colorful. You can feel more of it bubbling continuously from your ears onto your head.

>The librarian looks back at you for a moment, then rounds on the fairy again. "Undo the spell." Her tone verges on outright dangerous.
>"Well I, uh... I don't- ack! ...I don't know how..." Her tone finally sounds crestfallen.
>"Oooo... Rumia smells cupcakes!"

[Hanzo K.]

>...What.
>Sniff the foam.

[DracoOmega]

>...What.
>Sniff the foam.

>That does seem the most appropriate way to sum up the situation.
>You take a sniff. ...it actually does smell a little like cupcakes - not quite the same, perhaps, but close enough for someone with a less acute sense of smell to make the mistake.
>The sphere of darkness starts bobbing in your direction.

[Hanzo K.]

>"I don't think this is cupcake stuff kiddo. And for what it's worth, even I can barely hear with this stuff gumming my ears up. And I've got damn good hearing."
>Sigh. "Speaking of which, there couldn't be a way to remove this little spell, is there? Like, a general-use dispelling magic or something, if that even exists. I wouldn't know, because magic's not my thing."

[DracoOmega]

>"I don't think this is cupcake stuff kiddo. And for what it's worth, even I can barely hear with this stuff gumming my ears up. And I've got damn good hearing."
>Sigh. "Speaking of which, there couldn't be a way to remove this little spell, is there? Like, a general-use dispelling magic or something, if that even exists. I wouldn't know, because magic's not my thing."

>"There's no cupcakes? Auuuuuu... Well, that's okay," she says, some of her cheer returning. "Rumia can have the blueberry pie instead!" The sphere resumes its course towards you.
>More foam piles onto your head as you speak, and a large glob of it rolls off your hair and onto the floor. It's... neon blue now? Somehow, you feel as though you shouldn't have been surprised by that.

>"You have no idea how to dispel this?" the librarian asks the frozen fairy.
>"Indefatigably!" the fairy insists in a nervous tone. "Absalaterally!"
>The pale poltergeist lets out an aggravated sigh, then rounds on the assembled onlookers. "You." A brown-haired woman nearly jumps in place at being suddenly addressed. "Fix her."
>The unfortunate bystander frowns uncomfortably at her new visibility. "But I'm... not even sure what she did... and I have an exam in 10 minutes..."
>"One of you," the librarian repeats. "Fix her."

[Hello Purvis]

This is the best cure ever.

>Gather up some more suds and consider them for a moment. Try to estimate how much we're leaking out and whether we're going to need to get out of here within the next few minutes before damaging some books.

[DracoOmega]

>Gather up some more suds and consider them for a moment. Try to estimate how much we're leaking out and whether we're going to need to get out of here within the next few minutes before damaging some books.

>You scoop up another handful of foam from your head. There's a streak of orange swirled in with the blue, now; at this rate, you're going to be spewing rainbows out your ears before the end of this. You can feel some of it rolling down the side of your cheek and it doesn't show any signs of stopping. Fortunately, you're standing in the library foyer, which puts you far away from the bookshelves or anything else that risks getting damaged by it - well, unless it has detrimental effects that aren't immediately obvious. But even if the flow continues unabated, you imagine you could stand here quite a while before flooding the area with magical suds.

[Oldmansour]

>Look to the looky-loos. "Please?"

[DracoOmega]

>Look to the looky-loos. "Please?"

>You turn to the crowd and add your own appeal to the librarian's directive. There honestly isn't all that many of them, considering, but you'd think someone in the foremost bastion of magical education would know something about how to deal with this. Then again, most of them look young, and a fair number of them probably aren't even magicians. Bah, students.... A few exchange uncertain glances, as if they all hope someone else will handle this. You hear more foam splatter wetly against the floor.

>"Um..." comes a shy voice from the other side of the crowd. "Maybe... I can help?"
>You catch a hint of green and blue as you glance in that direction, and then your vision goes dark entirely.

[Hanzo K.]

>Sigh. "The only food I had was those crackers kiddo. That stuff you're smelling is foam from a magical mishap. If I were you, I wouldn't try to eat it, who knows what it'll do to ya."
>Let's move to where we last caught that flash of green and blue then.

[Oldmansour]

>Carefully. We look silly enough as it is without crashing into anything/one along the way.

[DracoOmega]

>Sigh. "The only food I had was those crackers kiddo. That stuff you're smelling is foam from a magical mishap. If I were you, I wouldn't try to eat it, who knows what it'll do to ya."

>"But Rumia is hungry...." She makes it sound as though you'd just denied a starving person their last meal.

>Let's move to where we last caught that flash of green and blue then.

>Carefully. We look silly enough as it is without crashing into anything/one along the way.

>You move off towards the timid volunteer, trying not to trip up in the environment while you're effectively blind. Though you suppose the darkness may come with a small blessing attached, since you imagine you're looking quite ridiculous by this point; so much foam has accumulated on top of your head that you could mistake it for a fluffy hat, and globs trickle down the side of your face and plop against the floor with increasing regularity.
>Unfortunately, Rumia seems to be following you, so returning to the light might require either quickening your pace or somehow dissuading her pursuit.

>"Is the book inert?" The foam in your ears does little to muffle the cold clarity of the librarian's voice.
>"I... think so," comes the other voice. "Yes, I'm pretty sure."
>You immediately hear the would-be thief let out a sharp squawk. There is a popping sound, followed by swift footsteps.

[Hanzo K.]

>"Tell you what kiddo, if I have the cash, we'll go find something for lunch once I'm all fixed up and I've found what I'm after. So just sit tight, okay?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Tell you what kiddo, if I have the cash, we'll go find something for lunch once I'm all fixed up and I've found what I'm after. So just sit tight, okay?"

>Rumia lets out a dejected auuuuu... but you hear her footsteps stop nonetheless. A moment later you abruptly reemerge into the light. Almost as abruptly, you hear someone start to snicker. Foam continues to slide down the sides of your head and a big dollop falls straight past your eyes; you can see other bits of it stuck in your bang, electric blue and violet. You're starting to smell a little like a walking desert cart.

>Standing a few feet away from you is a small green-haired girl in a simple blue dress. Check that - she's actually pretty large for a fairy, which is almost certainly what the gossamer wings on her back mark her as. The rest of her bearing could give you second thoughts, though. She is holding a thin tome in one hand and nervously rolling a small golden wand between the fingers of the other, her expression serious and faintly uncomfortable; wide green eyes dart back and forth between you and the festive redecorating you're currently applying to the library floor, somehow looking neither awed nor bemused nor about to herald a fit of giggles. You can't help but feel this is slightly odd. After some visible hesitation, she opens her mouth to speak.
>"Um... you're not feeling ill or otherwise strange, are you? Um, aside from all that, of course." She gestures vaguely towards your ears.

[Hanzo K.]

>"Aside from smelling like a walking dessert cart thanks to all this, and having somewhat deadened hearing as well thanks to the foam, relatively okay."

[DracoOmega]

>"Aside from smelling like a walking dessert cart thanks to all this, and having somewhat deadened hearing as well thanks to the foam, relatively okay."

>She nods. "That's... that's good."
>You hear footsteps approach calmly from the rear. "Are you sure you can take care of this?" the librarian asks.
>"I think so," the fairy says. "It doesn't seem that tricky, just... odd." She looks back up at you. "Could you, um... could you not move for a little bit? It won't hurt or anything, I promise."

[Oldmansour]

>Glance behind, or, was that popping sound the fairy going away?
>"As soon as possible, please."

[Hanzo K.]

>Then stay still, but in a comfortable standing position. "Arrite, go for it."

[Hello Purvis]

Are we sure we want to take another dose of faeries magicking things up, after what happened the last time?

[Oldmansour]

I'm inclined to think that little miss ice-pants over there wouldn't let someone throw magics around in her library under her watch if she didn't think they knew what they were doing. Or at least, knew enough to keep things from backfiring horribly.

[DracoOmega]

>Glance behind, or, was that popping sound the fairy going away?
>"As soon as possible, please."

>That's what it sounded like, but you glance over your foam-capped shoulder just the same. There is no sign of the would-be thief, in the air or otherwise, and the book she was cradling so tightly now rests in the librarian's hands. The latter is regarding you and the growing mess around you with a firm and unamused look.
>"O- of course," the fairy says.

>Then stay still, but in a comfortable standing position. "Arrite, go for it."

>You work a crick out of your neck and get comfortable. Or at least as comfortable as you can get with foam streaming from your ears, and a modest crowd of people watching the show. You hear slurping noises coming from the globe of darkness at your side.
>The fairy takes a step towards you, looking up at your ears with that same vaguely worried expression, then releases her grip on the book in her hands. Rather than pay any particular attention to gravity, it remains floating gently in place and even opens obligingly as she moves a finger towards its pages. She leafs carefully through several of them before settling upon one. Her eyes scan the page carefully and deliberately, then she turns them back to you, raises her wand, and takes a deep breath. Then another. A large glob of lime green foam streaks down your forehead and over your eye. You fight the urge to brush it away.
>With a look of determined concentration in the fairy's eyes, she holds the wand aloft and gestures with both it and her free hand in a complex and precise pattern, her lips forming careful syllable after syllable. An arcane circle in pale blue scribes itself across the air around the tip of her wand and there is a brief flash of light. You feel a slight numb jolt pass over you and your ears start to ring.

>The fairy lets out a held breath and regard you warily.
>"Are you... do you feel better?" she asks.

[Hanzo K.]

>Check to see if anything is amiss, or if the foam's still pouring out.
>If everything's fine: "Looks like it worked out."

[Hello Purvis]

>Does the ringing seem to be going away?

[DracoOmega]

>Check to see if anything is amiss, or if the foam's still pouring out.
>If everything's fine: "Looks like it worked out."

>The inside of your ears do feel a little different, though they're certainly still full of foam. You reach a hand up towards them; it feel uncomfortably like dipping it into a vat of whipped cream. There's certainly a hefty quantity resting on top of your head, in your hair, and over your face and shoulders and clothing, but it doesn't seem like any more is coming out.
>The fairy lets a tentative but gentle smile brush aside some of her frown. "Good."
>"I'm sure you have your own business to deal with," the librarian declares to the assembled onlookers. Most of them take the hint immediately and start to disperse. The darkness continues to slurp.

>Does the ringing seem to be going away?

>Not that quickly, it isn't. But it isn't terribly loud, either.

[Hanzo K.]

>Sigh in a somewhat irritated-yet-amused-way. "Well, this'll be a story for the grandchildren somewhere down the line. The story about the time Granny Nazrin got magicked by a fairy to pour whipped cream from her ears."
>Let out a short bark of laughter. "Someday I'll look back on this and laugh. I just wonder how that trick worked. Magic was never my thing, but this one could be good for a few laughs."
>How well does Marisa generally take to getting pranked? For that matter, how do the fairies back home take to getting pranked?
>Then chuckle a bit. "First things first though, I'll have to get this cleaned up."

[Oldmansour]

>Since when can fairies do magic?
>Check that. Since when can fairies do magic effectively? Have we ever known them to do so.
>"Has anybody got a towel?" Pause. "And/or a Q-tip."

[DracoOmega]

>How well does Marisa generally take to getting pranked? For that matter, how do the fairies back home take to getting pranked?

>Pranking Marisa is a very dangerous idea. She's quite good-humored about it, of course, but it's also an open invitation for her to return the favor. And if you've learned one thing from the stories exchanged by battle-scarred apprentices, it's that Marisa always wins.

>Since when can fairies do magic?
>Check that. Since when can fairies do magic effectively? Have we ever known them to do so.

>It's not uncommon for fairies to possess some sort of minor magical ability; Cirno's power over ice would be one example, though far greater in magnitude than most. Still, as you understand it, these are rather instinctual and personal things - not something that can be taught or learned by others. A fairy casting honest to goodness spells is something you haven't even heard of. Formal magic is a highly complex art, requiring years of study and training even for those who possess the necessary aptitude and intellect. In contrast, fairies frequently have trouble remembering why they shouldn't eat the muffins they were just paid to bake. Asking a fairy to cast a spell properly would be the intellectual equivalent of asking you to lift a house with your bare hands.

>Sigh in a somewhat irritated-yet-amused-way. "Well, this'll be a story for the grandchildren somewhere down the line. The story about the time Granny Nazrin got magicked by a fairy to pour whipped cream from her ears."
>Let out a short bark of laughter. "Someday I'll look back on this and laugh. I just wonder how that trick worked. Magic was never my thing, but this one could be good for a few laughs."

>The fairy frowns slightly. "I... think it was the book, actually. Shady isn't, well..." She stares at the floor. "I mean, I don't think she would be able to do that."
>"Apparently, the book was misfiled," the librarian says.
>"Yeah..."

>Then chuckle a bit. "First things first though, I'll have to get this cleaned up."

>"Has anybody got a towel?" Pause. "And/or a Q-tip."

>The librarian surveys the mess, then regards you flatly. "There should be one in the-"
>"I can handle that!" comes a new voice from towards the stacks, where some of the onlookers had been hanging out. You turn to see a young woman with pale pink hair approaching you with a lightsome grin on her face. The librarian regards her with similar flatness. "What? I can!" she protests with a frown. "Just thought I'd save her tracking across the library with a gallon of whipped cream all over."