~Hakurei Shrine~ > Patchouli's Scarlet Library
[Nanowrimo] Weave the Stars
nintendonut888:
Gosh darn it, don't cliff-hang like that! >:<
Anyway, the fact that I flipped out when the story just ended like that must have meant I really got into it. The intense stream of consciousness makes it really easy to get into Mari's head, and I'm really eager to see where she is taken.
And no more stage fight on the updates, or I will turn Mari's agoraphobia into... a gore phobia. B(
BT:
Funny thing. By the time I got to the third part, I was so absorbed that I forgot this was a Touhou fic. That last line caught me offguard~
--- Quote from: nintendonut888 on November 05, 2012, 12:10:57 AM ---Anyway, the fact that I flipped out when the story just ended like that must have meant I really got into it. The intense stream of consciousness makes it really easy to get into Mari's head, and I'm really eager to see where she is taken.
--- End quote ---
So... pretty much this.
--- Quote from: Matsijiri Byakuren on November 04, 2012, 11:39:22 PM ---And of course, I loved the festival opening. Festivals have always sounded like so much fun and Mari seemed so happy :D
--- End quote ---
Oh, I wasn't sure if it was the same character, seeing as the first part was written in pure first-person perspective while everything else was subjective third-person.
MatsuriSakuragi:
There's no guarantee that I'm right, either-- it's just speculation really, seeing that our only named character so far is our dear panic-prone protagonist. :P
Alfred F. Jones:
insert Kaguya thread necromancy image here
As you can tell, I didn't get to do much with this idea in 2012. The reason for this was because my best friend was getting married in December, and I needed a job desperately so I could raise the money to go to her wedding in Missouri. I found one, and subsequently abandoned the project of 50k words with this story.
But it's now Nanowrimo 2013, and I have the time to write again. I'm adding 50k to where I left off the last time, and seeing how far that gets me.
Chapter Two
The kannushi certainly had interesting taste in names.
He had introduced himself to her by his name, but immediately afterwards had asked her to call him by the apparently arbitrary job title of ?shrine priest?. It hadn't been a word she was familiar with, so she'd had to pull out her Japanese dictionary to find what it meant. Normally she would have just let it pass, but this time she was too giddy to object.
?Kannushi? wasn't the name she was questioning, anyway.
She wasn't asking anyone in particular. She was in the blessed solitude of her apartment, sitting on her bed. She had pulled over her notepad; she had written down the kannushi's number, in case she wanted to call him about something, and also the location and times for the theater.
The theater didn't have a name. Not yet, anyhow. He was trying to work out a name for it. Makai Theater? Jigoku Theater? He had mentioned that the last one might sound a little intimidating, and she remembered that 'jigoku' meant 'hell' in Japanese. Makai didn't have such a nice meaning either.
Man, this language was tricky. It was technically her first language, but that only went so far as spoken Japanese, and she never had learned kanji...
Still, while those were questionable titles too, they weren't nearly as questionable as the name of the first production the Shanghai Alice troupe would be putting on. He had come up with the name himself, and he had said its name to her over the phone with evident pride in his tone.
Too bad the name was utter nonsense.
?'Highly Responsive to Prayers'? Really??
She raised an eyebrow as she sat down on a simple wooden chair. Who would name a play like that? Only someone who was under the influence, surely--
?I came up with it while I was out drinking with some friends of mine from college.?
Oh. Well, that explained that.
?So... what will you need me to do first??
?I suppose... well, actually, I don't know. I'll leave the details up to you.?
?Hmm...? She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. ?I need dates. When do you want me to have these outfits done??
?That's a good question. I was hoping to set opening night for August 15. Sound good??
?That's in a month. Hm... how many outfits will this be??
?I'll send you the script. What's your address??
?Um... hold on. I just moved here so I haven't memorized it. I have it written down, just give me a second...?
That was actually a lie. She had been at this apartment for about two months now. But she still had issues with the address system here. Compared to her home, the way addresses worked here was a total mess.
On that note... she'd have to send a letter of her own today. She set that aside for now, though, and worked on finding the map of the area she lived in that the nice police officers had given her.
Ah, here it was. She pulled it out from between some books on her desk and read it over the phone. ?There, that's my address.?
?All right. I'll try to send it today in the mail. I guess it'll arrive in a couple of days.?
?Then I'll go get my supplies. Though, I guess I should hold off on buying cloth.? Her mind's gears were clicking, awakening the serious seamstress part of her that had laid dormant for too long and was now happily coming to life again.
?Why??
?Well, because I don't know what kinds of costumes are called for.? She wondered if she had snacks in her apartment, all of a sudden. She always liked to snack while sewing.
Meanwhile, the tightening in her chest had eased so slowly she hadn't even noticed.
?Ah, yes.? A pause. ?Well, I can tell you at least one of the outfits right now. It's a shrine maiden outfit.?
?A... shrine maiden outfit?? A miko, huh. She'd seen one or two some years ago, when she had visited the Shinto shrine, but she'd have to look up references.
?Yes, red and white, but I guess you can't just buy it. Which is fine, it's fine. I'd rather have one from scratch.?
She had found a notepad and started to write in it. ?Understandable. I guess I can go buy cloth for that. Oh!? She slapped her forehead. ?I'm going to need measurements, too.?
?Measurements??
?Yeah. I wouldn't like to design an outfit that's meant to fit someone five feet tall only to discover that they're six feet tall.? She twirled the phone's cord around a finger. ?But I guess I can buy a couple of meters anyway.? She needed an excuse to go visit the storage anyway.
?All right, I'll send those with the script. Ah, and save the receipt. I'll reimburse you for the cloth.?
?Consider it done.?
?Is that everything??
She allowed herself a small smile. ?Honestly, this is my first commission job like this, with multiple outfits. I might be missing something, but I've never done this before. I hope that's all right.?
?No, no, it's fine, like I said. This is actually the first of these musical theatre shows I plan to put on, too, so we're all learning as we go, eh??
Mari smiled, even if she was the only one who knew it. ?All right then, kannushi-san, I'll do my best.?
?I'll put myself in your capable hands, then, Saihoshi-san. Oh, and one last thing.?
?Yes??
?What should I do with the bag of clothes? I guess I can't send that by the regular post.?
She froze, remembering. ?O-oh....?
?Would you like to come by and pick them up??
Her arms started to feel cold again.
?N-nnn....? Her apartment suddenly started to feel less cozy, more empty.
?Or could I hold on to them for a bit longer? I hope you don't mind, but I did look around in the bag before I found your card, and I found a few really cute clothes in there I was thinking I would love to use for some performances-- not this one, but maybe later.?
?Y-yes!? She sat up in her chair. ?That sounds excellent, kannushi-san. Please feel free.?
?All right, I'll hold on to them. I think that's everything. Is this the phone number you regularly use??
?Yes, it is. It's my apartment's phone number.?
?Then, I'll send you my own number with the script. And the, uh, measurements for the actresses.?
?All right, I'll keep an eye out for them.?
?Thank you very much for everything, Saihoshi-san. I look forward to our collaboration.?
She smiled. ?It is mutual. Thank you very much, kannushi-san. Have a good day.?
She didn't hang up the phone until she heard the click on the other end of the line, and only then did she put the phone down and into its receiver. Then she slid off her wooden chair and onto her bed, where she stared wide-eyed at the blank white ceiling.
It had taken her only two months of floundering, but Marisol Saihoshi finally had a job.
Thankfully, no one but the magpies in the windowsill could see her smiling and giggling and her nervous but very excited finger twiddling.
------
After a bit of giddy doodling of new designs in her sketchbook, she made herself something quick and simple to eat, just some stir-fry and rice, and then wondered if she could work up the nerve to go outside again. There was still light in the sky and it seemed that there were less people in the streets right now.
Steeling herself, she did manage to go outside a second time in a single day, to the convenience store two blocks down. She kept her head down and made no eye contact and focused on the sidewalk, and thankfully she didn't have to talk to anyone on the way.
She entered the convenience store. Checking for the seventh time if she had brought her money (she had), Mari grabbed a bag of chips, a small bento box sandwich, a box of cookies, and then went to check out the movies.
After a short while scanning the titles for something interesting, she pulled out a VHS copy of... she couldn't read the kanji, because she was terrible at it, but it looked like a bunraku performance, Japanese puppet theatre. It seemed interesting enough, but what she was most interested in was the costumes. Behind it, however, she found a copy of some kind of history TV series from NHK, and she couldn't decide what she wanted. She dithered there for a bit, trying to decide which one to bring along. But then she remembered that if she got them both, she wouldn't have to come back for just a while longer, so she got the both of them.
The bored-looking teen behind the counter spoke the bare minimum of words to her, and for that she was grateful. She strongly doubted she'd be able to handle another major freakout today like the kind she'd had earlier. She grabbed her bag of snacks and videos and hurried back to her apartment before the sun set for good.
Once there, she went to her evening routine: an hour of studying Japanese kanji in her workbook, then showering, then sitting down to watch one of the movies she'd brought home while her hair dried. The bunraku theatre performance was really interesting to her; the costumes were particularly intriguing, and she sketched as she watched.
Then, before going to bed, she sat down to write letters. One to her parents back home, and one to her sister. She hadn't forgotten her old address, but for her sister she had to find the slip of paper where her sister had written down her university address.
Her parents got the usual litany of ?everything's going great, I've been looking for a job but everything's fine and I'm really happy here and definitely not having horrible anxiety attacks that make me hide in my room every three days?. She was pretty sure they could see right through her, though. Their last few letters implied it strongly, with her mother becoming more insistent that she return home. But she couldn't do that. Hopefully, though, she'd soon be able to send letters less full of lies to her parents. It always hurt to lie to people she loved.
Her sister, on the other hand, got the full story.
Dear Isabel,
How are you? Last I heard from you, you were trying to get all the classes you needed to take in one semester, but they wouldn't let you take so many in a single term. I'm not sure you should overwork yourself like that. You've already been there for two years, and your grades are amazing. If you overwork yourself, though, then your health might suffer. I know how you get when you're really into something you are studying.
I'm... not doing so well, as usual. Had another panic attack today when I was trying to interview at this one job. But something unexpectedly good did happen to me! I lost my bag of clothes when I was fleeing home, but someone found the bag and called me about it. And it turns out he's a theatre director and he liked my designs and wants to hire me! I'm not making this up, it's all real! Now that I write it down it really sounds like a fairy tale, but it's all true. I'm really hoping this means things will be looking up for me soon.
In response to your last letter, no, I haven't really been keeping up with the news at home. Too depressing. Too depressing here, too, for that matter. But really, I just haven't had the energy for much at all. I know you always ask me about getting to watch unsubtitled anime on television here, but I haven't bothered. Sorry.
But hopefully now I'll have a job and things will look better now.
I'm sorry I'm so bad at letter writing.
I really, really miss you.
When are you going to come home this year? If it's summer break, I'll try to come home at the same time so we can see each other again. Tell me the days so I can book a flight early.
Love, your sister,
Mari
She sighed as she put down her pen. Her life always looked so boring when she wrote it down on paper like that. She looked at the last letter her sister had sent her. Her letters were always at least twice as long, which made Mari feel like she was being terribly lazy with her own. And they were always full of stories of life on campus, getting to go on digs (even small ones), and all the neat stuff she had learned in class that week. And always full of worry for her.
But hopefully she wouldn't be worrying her for much longer.
She was too tired to bother with envelopes tonight. She'd do it tomorrow when she woke. It wasn't yet ten in the evening, but she was ready to sleep.
The nights here were so oddly warm. So she opened up the small window again. Birds always came to her windowsill in the morning, hopping over from the tree right outside. She didn't know why. It wasn't like she was especially nice to them or anything. Still, after about the first month she figured that she had better thank them for being her only company here, so she had started leaving them bread after waking up.
For now, however, she just laid down on her bed and let herself drift off, the only light in her room coming from the stars in the night sky that came through her small window.
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End of Chapter Two
Here's to actually continuing with this story this time! BV
nintendonut888:
Ehehehe, nice to see this continuing. I look forward to seeing the adventures of Mari continue this year. :3 And here's hoping she builds a bit more confidence.