[x] Hina and then Merlin

[x] Software Engineer

~p+p~

First, you need to go and fetch the misfortune goddess. it's only been an hour, maybe two, but it feels like it has been forever. Perhaps she might be able to calm down any crazy situations that might arise. With the decision in mind, you stroll up the staircase, keeping a watchful eye on every inch. Who knows whether a stray box or a loose sock may be looming, ready to send you spilling back down the staircase.

Your passage up to the top of your home does not take long at all, thankfully, and soon you are in front of the door to her temporary home. After a momentary hesitation, you reach up and knock at the door with a sharp rap. After a pause, the door handle turns and the door swings open.

Hina is currently kneeling on the ground, facing away from the door. You see one of her ribbons whip to the side and back around her arm as you enter in. She does not look up to acknowledge you, choosing instead to continue her study of the floor beneath her. "Hey there, Hina. What are you doing?" She does not respond immediately, and you can't help but to clear your throat shortly. "If you're busy, I can leave you be to it."

"It isn't so much. I'm just trying to ensure that I've gathered as much misfortune as I can." The goddess turns her head, inclining it slightly and not meeting your eyes. She seems to be instead inspecting your feet. "I may have been a little over enthusiastic with my earlier actions? Your house may be a little overly full of it as a result."

"Well, I did want you to take care of it. It may have been a bit much, but in the end, it worked. ...I think. Don't think she's caused any more trouble directly since then."

"That is good." Hina purses her lips and looks up. "Seems that you have a larger coating than before. ...Amateurish of myself to let this slip." She reaches up with her hand, and the faintist of shimmers slips off your body; you barely even feel the motion as it tugs away. "I am truly sorry; I hope th I didn't cause too much trouble with my lackadaisical treatment."

"Really, it wasn't too big of a deal." Not like you'd blame anything that happened (much less your episode) on her. "Although, at this point, I fear that I may be creating a bit of a monster."

Hina finally looks up as she quirks her brow. "Truly? That would be? Impressive. I have a feeling you're not referring to Merlin."

"Nope. Myon just enjoys cooking a little bit too much." You shrug a bit and look back down. "I mean, I worked in food service while I was still attending school, and I ended up cooking a fair bit, but she takes it to another level."

"Hrm?" Hina tilts her head for a second before nodding. "I cannot really comment on if that is accurate or not. I've not had the chance to come across her during my time in Gensokyo, as it is." She tilts her head to the side as she smoothly rises to her feet. "That must have been a long time ago if you were still doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Attending school?" She tilts her head to the side as a smile does manage to flick over her face. "That would have been quite some time since you last did as such; I'm surprised the memories carried over that long."

"No it wasn't that long?" You blink and frown a little. "...Wait. You've been in this world for a while. You would know that people go to school for longer than a few years."

The goddess blushes just a little bit. "I had heard of such a thing; many do seem to imply that their formal tutelage occurs for far longer in the outside. I still am not aware to the precise reasons."

"Perhaps I'll tell you sometime." With her finally on her feet, you step back so as to let her pass. "I came to ask if you want to help eat and judge all of this. Myon is cooking up a storm and a lot of the food will go to waste if we don't go ahead and eat it now."

"I can go ahead and join you all, yes." Hina steps past the threshold, brushing against you before you can back away. "Do I need to say anything else to the poltergeist? I can if it is necessary."

"It won't be." You ignore the burning in your ears as she does pass by. "I'm going to ask her as well. She probably won't cause too much trouble for the rest of the night, especially after all you did to her."

Hina nods her head slightly. "Good. I don't want her causing you trouble. ...After all, I am better able to control her than you would be able to." She slides down the hallway. "Shall I get her?"

"Go on ahead. I'll do it myself." You'd rather at least pretend that you're master of your own abode. That, and you're not even sure how well the poltergeist will react to Hina. You can take care of that yourself. ...Once you give Hina a head start so that she won't lag at all when you head on down. Don't want her to be standing in the corner looming, after all.

So, after thirty seconds or so, you head on downstairs, finding the rather annoyed poltergeist still sitting and trying to take apart that horn of hers still. She seems to be yanking on the slides, attempting to separate them, but is having no success in the process. Unfortunately, her back is turned to you, so you can't see what mood she's in.

Even so, she notices when your feet stop moving and pause on the floor. "Oh, you're back? Sorry, the show is cancelled, but I'm sure that you knew that."

"I figured it would take more than that to fix it." You pause and resist the urge to pinch your nose. "Really, all I came to do was ask if you wanted to join us to help finish off food. Myon is still cooking, as I'm sure you can tell, and wants people to help try it out."

Merlin tilts her head to the side and cocks an eyebrow. The bland smile is still on her face. "Was she asking for me to join?"

"Not in particular; I just thought I'd ask. I don't want to waste any food that might be made." Granted, with how many leftovers there will be, you likely won't have to cook for quite a while, but that's nothing you're going to be concerned about right now. "That, and she would like second opinions."

"Eh, she's got you. Why does she need an annoyance like me?" Merlin flips her hair. "Sides, I'm sure you don't want me hanging around. Besides, you didn't want to hear me, did you?"

"I didn't want you playing on that horn in here. ...Or causing trouble."

"Then good. I'll just stay here and work on it." She turns back around and grabs onto the front slide of the horn and gives it another yank. It barely budges.

Come to think of it? "You know, Myon said her taste was not exactly her best sense. Would yours be just as disadvantaged?"

"Well, that would be charitable. At least part of her is alive." Merlin turns back and gives that wan smile once more. "I mean, she just asked how it tasted, not if I could taste it."

"...It didn't cross your mind to mention that, perhaps, you couldn't taste it?"

"Well, that would be lying, wouldn't it?" The grin widens a bit before it vanishes for a split second. "But don't mind me; I'm sure you'd rather spend some time with your favorite, anyway. Now shoo before I cause you trouble."

After a moment, you just grumble and turn around. "If you want to be that way, then there is nothing I can do about it." You shrug your shoulders and walk on back, grumbling a bit. "Inane?"

"Don't frown too much! Your face will get stuck like that!" You ignore Merlin's parting call and head into the kitchen where, thankfully, Hina seems to be sitting back and observing as Myon continues her work. The goddess twiddles her foot as she watches Myon's dither and idly stir the mix, anxious to pour it once the crust has finished cooking enough.

Knowing that you need to be ready to give instructions for when the next step starts, you take your spot beside Myon. "Relax, alright? It isn't going to be that difficult."

"But I wish to execute this flawlessly on my first attempt; If I am not at the ready, then I may be off and cause further dissatisfaction."

You shake your head and ignore Hina, whom is covering her mouth and shaking ever so slightly. "Well, if you're too tense, it may go even more poorly. Just do as I say and it'll be fine, alright?" Myon eventually nods, and you start to go over all the ingredients she has stirred into the concoction that is to be poured into the crust.

Within the hour, the finished quiche is already half devoured and you are attempting to instruct her on the recipe of a particular beef soup that you are fond of. By the end of the night, the three of you have barely managed to plow past the huge portions that Myon constantly insists on making. Your injuries have turned out to be minimal, thankfully; four or five grease splatters that stung your arms (good thing you put on sleeves after the second), one fall as you took out the finished quiche (good thing Myon is so fast otherwise it'd be all over your face) and your glass broke when you dropped it in on the table (you are sure that it hadn't sweated that much since you poured it). All in all, it was a relatively, positively uneventful dinner? with a half-ghost and a goddess. It could have gone much worse.

~p+p~

Unfortunately, your morning hasn't begun quite as well as the previous night has gone. Having left home during your normal hours (you're not going to let yourself fall out of that habit; it'll be hard enough getting back in it), you take the short trip to work without much more hassle than usual. You left the girls at home, hoping that you actually would be able to stay at work this week. You've a project that you've been working for this past while (as unglamorous as designing the active control software for a new assembly line at a local manufacturing plant. It would be easy if the engineers in charge of the physical design would make up their mind and stop making you have to change the timings on everything. it's bad enough have to do the Laplace transformations the first time, much less redesigning the whole system and recalculating it!

Still, when you get to the office, you find that both the secretary, your supervisor, and your boss are all very tight-lipped over what duties that you are to be allowed to do. At least you are allowed to head to your desk to collect a few papers and your solid state drive from the front of the computer before they politely remind that they've received strict instructions from up in the government that you are not to be allowed to work here at all.

Thankfully, during the midst of your tirade you share with your boss (who, to your vindication, also looks rather frustrated with the whole situation), you do manage to confirm that your position at the company is being retained, though the project has been, sadly, reassigned. You're not going to lose any vacation days off; from the sound of it, you are going on what is an extended leave of absence? which you thankfully get confirmed in writing before you even walk out.

As you do head on out, you finally get your supervisor to relent and decide to keep you updated on the project. You still can access the company servers remotely, and you have the drive with the largest of files, so you can keep up with the worst of it. So long as they stick to an easily compressed file format instead of going with the entire three dimensional rendering of the entire facility (some people just can't read blueprints, it seems), you'll be peachy downloading the rest.

Wiping your brow off as you step outside, clutching your sack with drive, papers, and your other work tools littering the remainder of the insides, you look around at the now-bleak morning. The skies are a little bit overcast as you begin to make your way back to the bus stop. You have to wonder: what are you going to do with yourself with all of this time?

Just as your existential crisis begins to set in, your phone rings. It doesn't take long for you to flip it open and see the unknown name listed, and the all-too-familiar number on the screen. Reluctantly, you decide to answer and get it over with. "Hello there."

"Hey there; you the outsider human taking care of the three Gensokyans?"

"I suppose that I am. You with Smith?"

"Yeah, I suppose I am." You hear the voice snort, and you practically hear her roll her eyes. "Listen, I've got some papers for you. Do you have a minute? I'd like to get these handed off as soon as possible before she gives me even more to fill out."

"...You mean she didn't fill them out?"

"Course not. That's grunt work, in the end." After another pause, the girl continues. "So, you free right now? I'll come and meet you." That'll make it easy for you to get stuff done without anything going wrong.

[ ] Just tell her to meet here, you can wait.
[ ] Inform her that you need to go do something; meet somewhere else.
-[ ] List errands and where to meet.
[ ] Tell her that you'll meet her at your place.
[ ] Which papers were those again?
[ ] ...Who are you talking to, anyway?
[ ] Decline; you'll come pick up the papers yourself when you want to.
[ ] Write-in.