The hard tiles and enclosed space of the bath room amplify the sound of the running water drown out the sound of the rain outside, almost literally you think to yourself smiling. Reasoning that this would be a good time to get some magic practice in seeing as you have nothing better to do you lay the rose down by the soap, baths are relaxing so maybe it'll help with your concentration? Worth a shot.

As you begin to undress you realize you haven't locked the door, not wanting to get into any weird situations with Alice walking in you quickly waddle over with your trousers around your ankles. A solid little click and the room is secure from outside invaders, perfect.

A perverse idea pops into mind, with your ass covered by the locked door you could take this time to try and find some of those delicate parcels cloth that sit so intimately upon Alice's....... OH YEAH! Phew you're getting into a lather just thinking about it, not wanting to waste a second more you begin to scour the bathroom for discarded undergarments.

It stands to reason doesn't it? You get undressed when you take a bath, if you bathe every day then surely you'd keep dirty clothes in here rather than run out to the wash room each and every time? So, somewhere in this bathroom are Alice's panties. A treasure beyond compare.

Under the sink, next to the bath, in the chest of draws, on the towel rack, on the shelf, in the cabinet? No, nothing. This bath room is devoid of your prize once again, of course that means that there's only one place left where they could be..... In Alice's room. But dare you raid such a place to get your hands on a pair of panties? You had a pretty good chance earlier today when you were looking around, you didn't think of it at the time but perhaps you'll get another chance sooner or later.....

Oh! Right the bath. Remembering just in time you shut off the taps before it gets too deep, finishing your disrobing you slide a toe into the rippling depths. It's hot, almost scolding to your skin but you realize that's because you're too cold rather than it being too hot. Lowering yourself into the bath is like an exquisite pain, every inch burns deliciously as it slips in making every muscle loose it's tension until finally you've lowered your self all the way in and dunk your head under water. You enjoy the sensation of complete immersion for a bit and listen to your own heart beat amplified under water, before resurfacing for a deep life affirming breath.

First order of business is get clean, you can play once you're washed until the water goes cold or you get all pruney. Even though you weren't very dirty to begin with it still feels good to wash yourself off, you sweated quite a bit during the night it seems and the soap leaves your skin feeling refreshed. It's got a subtle lavender scent that rubs off onto you, now is that a good thing or a gay thing? Well ladies like flowers you guess, but what happens if Marisa notices you smell like Alice? Probably best not to think about her, she's going to be pissed about you standing her up as it is. Maybe if you wait it out a bit her anger will fade, or just get so bad she hunts you down with magic.

Involuntarily you shiver.

After giving yourself a decent scrub and washing your hair you decide it's time to earn your max stat gains for the day. Grabbing the rose you sink once again into that state of awareness that you relate to visualizing your magic, it's become some what natural to slip into it now and before you know it you're seeing those lights floating in the darkness. You're surprised to see a glimmering light just to your right, opening you eye for a peek shows it's centered around the taps, are they enchanted? That would explain the water supply, in that dark mental world they glimmer slightly with a dim aqua light.

So maybe you can sense the presence of other mana supplies? With a sigh you allow your mind to expand it's borders, the question is not one of ability but rather of being able to comprehend the unseeable. Mana has no visual shape, the light you see is your rationalization of what you intrinsically sense around you. So what you must learn to do, is to train your self to comprehend the mana that exists outside of yourself.

It's difficult, like trying to look at the night sky and understand the distance between stars with only a glance, it feels like you could loose your consciousness in that seemingly empty void and not even fill a tiny fraction of it. The human brain is a mutable thing able to shape it's self to any task, but humans from outside Gensokyo are raised to believe there is no such thing as magic, every thing you've ever learned rebells against what you're trying to do. I've never seen it, I've never seen it's effects and as I cannot observe it I cannot prove it exists!

Only..... you HAVE seen it, you've used it for your self! So that means.

It's like a epiphany, a diamond bullet of understanding straight to your brain that blossoms into comprehension. You become aware, aware of everything. The rippling and swirling lively mana of the water around you, there are various coloured lights glowing steadily like stars above you which you assume must be Alice's enchanted dolls.

And below you, past the floor and beyond the foundation of the house, like the pulse of some ancient giant is the slow and steady flow the earth. A giant sluggish torrent of potential energy moving at the speed of continental drift, but with smaller eddies and currents carrying energy from one side of the world to the other on some unknowable and unplottable course.

For a while you simply sit in awe of the colours and movements around you, it's almost overwhelming, but now instead of rebelling your mind drinks in this fantastic sight making you feel light headed and goofy. Or is that the blood rushing from your head due to the hot bath?

Reluctantly you pull yourself from that vision fearing you'd sit there all day watching it, it felt like you could just dive into the endless current of the earth and loose yourself in the eternity of being.

For a while you just sit dumbly in the cooling water, you feel mentally exhausted from that effort but physically you're energized. A quick check reveals you've recovered a lot of your own trifling amount of mana, was it due to the mediative state you were in? You'll have to experiment further.

You're broken from you're revere by a sound beyond the bathroom door, it's silent in this room and every one of your senses feel sharpened and incredibly keen. All that you can hear in the bathroom is the occasional drip of water and your breathing, but beyond you hear noises.

In the corridor, a door opens and the sound of rain grows louder for a second before fading away again as the door closes, footsteps and the faintest murmur. A voice. Did Alice go outside for some reason?

As much as you strain to hear you can't make out anything beyond a vague murmur from the corridor, you'd have to get out the bath to get a better idea of what's being said. You can't very well leave the bathroom in only a towel though and you're too wet to get dressed.

____

[ ] Listen in at the door
[ ] Stay in the bath