Lost Soul!K7yo62LHdE 2024/07/25 (Thu) 08:23
No. 32225
▼
File
172189578394.webp
- (33.41KB,
860x755,
touhou_chibi___chen_sleeping_by_kane_neko_d581f16-.webp)
It was a pressure against your chest that gradually stirred you to wakefulness. A pleasant, warm pressure, but one that your mind noted as unusual. Your arms, too, were slightly stiff, suggesting an unusual sleeping position. Your eyes blinked open, looking down to see a mop of tangled brown hair and a pair of cat ears. They were attached to a little girl, sleepily cuddled up to you. Tightly enough that you could feel the little puff of breath against your neck each time she exhaled.
Your arms were the root cause of this mystery, having wrapped around the child to pull her close to you. Close enough for you to feel the rhythm of her breathing, to hear any noise, any murmur she made, to feel the gentle sensation of her toes brushing against your legs each time she shifted. Her arms were trapped between her body and yours, folded to her chest as if praying, her hands clasped around a ribbon.
Finally, your mind connected to the events of last night. It... you'd failed, hadn't you? The shikigami ritual itself had succeeded, Chen (why had you named her that?) was safe and sound, but when you'd gone to program her, something had gone wrong. Where was her collar? For that matter, how had you ended up in your bed if the backlash had knocked you out?
And why didn't you care? You'd failed Yukari, lost control of herself, gotten her into a fight with Yuuka of all people, and then failed at the shikigami ritual, which should have been this body's core competency... and yet, you didn't feel like the day had been a disaster. Unaccountably, you felt... not quite content, but consoled. That things weren't as bad as they could be. Should be. Were.
This was obviously Tamamo's influence at work. Even you could see how the loss of her family might be consoled by another child to care for. Especially given that she'd named it Chen. (Of course. It hadn't been you who named her.) Just as her grief had unbalanced you before, the warmth and contentment she was feeling were affecting your judgement now. How had she even wrested control from you inside the shikigami ritual? You'd felt fine, with none of the usual warning
Message too long. Click
here to view the full text.
Pavise 2024/07/25 (Thu) 20:11
No. 32226
▼
So Greg's mom headpats Chen
Greg's dad headpats Greg
Greg headpats Satori
Who is Chen going to headpat?
Lost Soul!K7yo62LHdE 2024/07/26 (Fri) 06:47
No. 32227
▼
She'd been just a cat, before. She'd been happy, she knew that much. The pet cat to a loving family, their smells, their faces, their voices, even their names, still fresh in her mind. (Her own name was less clear. She had one, she was Chen, but hadn't it been something else before?) Laying in the sun while Kiyoshi worked, allowing him to scratch her from time to time. Rubbing against Haruka as she cooked, receiving the choice morsels that were her due. And then there was little Aiko. Always happy to run, to explore, to roll in the grass or splash in the mud. Aiko had been her human. It was her bed the cat had slept in, her warmth she sought out for the night. It was her she'd been trying to defend, from that youkai. (She'd smelled nice, of flowers and soil. Why was she so mean?)
She trembled, recalling that moment. The mean youkai had shown up, and her family had started running... and Kiyoshi had cried out, and she'd smelled blood, and he'd stopped moving, and Aiko was screaming. She'd... she'd been so angry (so scared). She'd turned, leapt from Aiko arms, leapt at the mean woman, scratching, clawing, biting.
She'd been so fast, faster than she'd ever been before, youkai fast... but then the mean woman wasn't there, and hit her back. She hadn't even seen it happen, she'd been outside one moment and knocked into the wall the next. And then the wall fell on her, and it hurt, and she couldn't move. And all the while Aiko and her mom were screaming, and then they... stopped screaming.
Lost in dark memories, she clung to the warmth next to her, missing the moment when said warmth woke up.
"Chen... Chen!"
She opened her eyes, seeing the kitsune's concerned face.
"Ran?" she squeaked, sitting up.
Ran seemed at a loss for words for a second, sitting next to her on the bed. The kitsune had a hand still on top of Chen's head, as if frozen mid-pet, and was just... looking at her.
"Are you feeling okay?" Ran finally asked. "Is anything wrong?"
Was there? Her memories of last night after her injury were... confused. The kitsune here before
Message too long. Click
here to view the full text.