/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>45246738 (28/?)

Deep breath in, slow breath out. Deep in, slow out. The path to the shrine feels long, far too long. Maybe Ran or Yukari made it longer. Even going from her house to the shrine is faster than thi-Flowers.

There are a lot of flowers in the yard. An unreasonable amount, how could so many flowers possibly be in full bloom at the same time? It’s beautiful certainly, b-but it’s weird and she should go investigate.

As Alice gets on a knee for a closer look, a voice behind her asks, “Lovely, aren’t they?”

With an entirely dignified noise, Alice falls while attempting to both run from and turn to the voice at the same time. Succeeding in only the latter action Alice stares up at Anon before nodding, “Y-Yeah.”

Anon seems taken aback by Alice’s tumble before quickly offering a hand, “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to frighten you. Are you alright?”

Anon… is holding out his hand towards Alice… for her to hold. Her first… Alice quickly accepts Anon’s offer while desperately attempting to quell the rising heat in her cheeks. Remembering that he said something or other, Alice nods again, “Yeah.”

When Alice gets up and yet does not let go, Anon shoots a quick glance at his hand prompting her to pull hers back, “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to-”

Anon waves it off, “It’s fine, heck it wasn’t a problem to begin with. Do you want to come in?”

Suddenly becoming very interested in the patterns in the packed dirt leading to the shrine, Alice replies, “Yeah, I have… I want to talk with you.”

Looking back, Anon says, “Right, come on. Make yourself at home in the living room, I’ll go whip something up.”

Alice fidgets with the hem of her, rather short, miko costume as Anon brings in tea and cookies. Despite the number of times she’s had this conversation in her head, everything she wants to say has merged into one big shapeless ball—always so close yet so far away.

Anon however does not seem interested in giving her time to place her thoughts in order as he asks, “So to what do I owe the pleasure?”

How to respond? ‘Because I want to give to you for-’ no, that’s too forward it has to be something a bit more meandering. ‘I owe you-’ no, no that’s also weird. Anon probably doesn’t consider it a debt so throwing that in would only make things more awkward. Maybe something like ‘I appreciate what you did for Shanghai-

Tired of this, a doll crawls out of Alice’s pocket and flies onto the table. Upon landing, she curtises to Anon. Seeing this Alice panics and words begin to tumble out unbidden, “I uhh owe you for Shanghai so I wanted to give you something. I-I made a doll. I-If you don’t like it or can’t accept it t-that’s okay.”

Bringing his hand out to the doll, Anon chuckles as she hugs it, “I wouldn’t say you owed me anything for Shanghai, but I definitely appreciate it. Does she have a name?”

Alice’s panic subsides somewhat as she replies, “Y-You’re right, I didn’t owe you. Still, you left a very good impression on Shanghai so I uhh wanted to do something in return. I didn’t give her a name yet, so you can. Just uhh please ask for her approval. Not that I think you wouldn’t, it’s just that people think less of them because they are dolls even though they have feelings just like us.”

Anon’s attention is split between Alice and the doll currently climbing his arm like it’s Everest as he replies, “I understand. No offense taken, you just want to look out for ‘em. Trust me, I get that. Speaking of, is she going to be fine staying away from her creator and other dolls? I wouldn’t want to pull away from her friends and family.”

Alice seems to puff up a little as she replies, “Of course! Ever since I met Medicine I always ask dolls if they want to do things before giving them orders. I can ask again if you like.”

Leaning over to get close to the doll on Anon’s shoulder (and Anon by extension) Alice asks, “Hey, are you fine with living here with Anon?”

The doll in turn nods before nuzzling Anon’s neck, prompting him to smile, “Well that solves that I suppose. Still, if she ever gets homesick and wants to go back I’d be more than happy to oblige.”

Alice shrugs, “If it ever comes to that. Truth be told I can’t remember the last time a doll didn’t want to do something when asked. When I’m making them, I create them with a specific purpose in mind and they almost always take to their purpose like fish to water.”