/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Commissions!" I heard Yamame yell from her workshop while I was elbow-deep in washing up the dishes from breakfast - Served late, as was the usual for us. Curious, I shouted the word back to her as a question, then wiped my arms dry and pulled my shirt - A crisp white, made with what Yamame referred to as her finest silk - sleeves back down to my wrists. I was doing the buttons back up when Yamame's head suddenly appeared from the ledge of her workshop, her hair hanging straight down. "Commissions." She repeated, nodding at me. "Come up here, would you?" She promptly disappeared back up to her workshop. I sighed, walked over so that I was directly under the ledge, and then jumped. My hand just caught the edge, and after a moment of precariously swinging from one hand, I managed to catch the ledge with my other hand. Silently thanking Lady Kasen's training regimen, I pulled myself up and got to my feet in Yamame's workshop.

Things had undergone a bit of a redesign up here. For several months, most surfaces had been covered in garments, and the whole place had essentially been relegated to standing room only, unless you were Yamame, then you got to sit in the chair and do the actual work. If you were me, or one of her sisters from time to time, you got to awkwardly stand nearby and hand her whatever she needed. However, following the new year and the whirlwind of both wedding preparations and Yamame's own work, the mess of clothing had slowly shrunk, some things put away and some things taken apart for raw materials again.

Thus, as I stood up, the room was practically bare. This didn't mean that much in the grand scheme of things, but it was easier to move around, at least. It was bright, though, so I reached out to the control on the wall and turned the lighting down, just a fraction. There, stood in front of her massive desk, was Yamame, spreading her arms wide. "What do you think?" She asked cheerily. Blankly, I said that it was definitely a room. She frowned. "What are you, a fairy?" I looked down at myself, then shrugged. Not the last time I checked. "No, I meant - Okay, fine, you - You weasel." Weasel? "I was getting a little bit tired of snake." She replied with a shrug.

Yamame swept an arm back to her desk, which I realised was not entirely empty. Instead, there were multiple boxes spread across it. "Commissions, like I said. Done and dusted, literally in this case." Why were they even getting dusty? "Well, they've been sat here for the better part of a month, so..." Wouldn't that make their commissioners a little upset? "It might have, but I always overestimate how long I'll need on jobs, so they end up all surprised and cheerful when I show up in half the time."

More to the point, why hadn't she taken any of them? It wasn't like we were busy all of the time. "Er..." She trailed off, then shrugged. "It's felt pretty busy to me?" I stared. "Okay, fine, it's so bloody cold outside that I'd rather let them think I took slightly longer so that I don't have to go into that frigid hell!" There, that was more like it. "Shut up!" Yamame told me, hands on her hips. "Look - Getting to the point, you were going to the Shrine today, weren't you?"

I nodded. Another week, another visit to the Shrine for my interview with Shameimaru.

Finally, at least three weeks into our interviews, she had knocked on Yamame's door, her head bowed. I'd thought that she was taking things seriously, but on second thought, I thought that she was actually just very wary of Yamame, which again made me wonder just how bad of an illness Yamame had given her. Humbly, she had asked Yamame for permission to include her in what was looking to be an involved book at this point. My spider had looked slightly conflicted between being frosty toward her or not, which had manifested in a slightly awkward conversation. The culmination, however, was that Yamame had agreed, and after that, Shameimaru had really begun to ramp up her questioning during her interviews. She'd also started asking me if Yamame would come with me.

I'd promised to ask her, but the weather was making it less likely, at least until the end of Winter reared its head. It was hard enough convincing Yamame to leave the caves at all, let alone to go and get interviewed by a tengu. "Well, I like the caves." She'd said to me after one such attempt. "It's cosy in here. The surface is harder, and the sun's too bright." I couldn't exactly tell her she was wrong, given how much more experience she had than me, so I'd just smiled and nodded, then left the subject alone for a bit.

>>45709879
it's very good, actually. Seclusion is one of the best ways a spider can survive her environment and hunt prey, that's why you find a lot them beneath cardboard boxes; hidden corners and so on
so be happy Yams has a safe spot like page 10 for her to hide!