EZMode !iIyIHD.1G6 2008/07/29 (Tue) 19:35 No. 52654 [x] "How have you been, Alice? And how have you and Patchouli been? Honestly, I half-expected to find this cottage abandoned and you moving into the Library!"
[x] "I spoke to Reimu shortly after I visited you in Hina's body. I got her to promise to look the other way as long as I don't cause an incident, so there shouldn't be any troubles for you along those lines."
[x] "Yuyu, I was surprised you & Alice know each other, since you said you live a fairly sedentary lifestyle. How did you both meet?"
[x] "So, has the autonomous doll yet reached mass production? Or still in the prototyping stage?"
[x] "I see Marisa hasn't left any new holes in your walls; no difficulty getting those notes back from her, I presume?"
Alice closes the door behind you and walks past you. Several dolls whip through the air, picking up stacks of books and papers off the table nearby and placing them somewhere else as Alice arranges the chairs.Yuyuko watches with moderate curiosity, following the movements of a doll for a while, then switching to another one to watch.
"So, how have you been, Alice?" you ask, interested in how she's been since you left her.
"Very well, thank you," she says, pausing a moment to brush some loose hair behind her ear. "Your notes are amazing. I showed Patchouli and she was surprised as well. Ah!" Alice starts, bringing a hand to her mouth. "I forgot to mention! I told Patchouli about you as well. She was very impressed at the quality of your notes and expressed an interest in meeting you if she could."
You feel a little uneasy having heard that. You don't exactly like the idea of Alice spreading information about you.
"How'd she take being told you were possessed when you made moves on her?"
Alice blushes slightly and looks down, rubbing her hands together.
"I-I told her those were my real feelings, overpowering yours. She understood pretty well after that."
"My~ How adorable!" Yuyuko gasps, clasping her hands together. "It's fantastic you were able to find love at such a young age."
Alice laughs nervously, idly rubbing at her hair band.
"I'm surprised to find you home, I thought you'd have moved into the library by now." you say, looking around at the house.
"Picking up and moving is harder then that," Alice says. "Even still, getting everything of mine into the library would be difficult, and the dusty conditions would make it more of a challenge to maintain my dolls than it already takes living here. Not to say we don't visit each other often."
That's a bit of a surprise to you. 'We'? Patchouli actually comes here to visit? That's somewhat surprising. Before you can continue though, you hear a thump, a short cry and some clattering from the direction of the kitchen. Alice doesn't react too much to it though., other than heading towards the door.
"What was that?" you ask, following behind her. Alice opens the kitchen door to reveal a green haired girl in a blue outfit slumped on the floor, holding a small stack of plates.
"Ah! Alice!" she says, seeing Alice enter the room.
"Are you okay Ruukoto?" she asks, a few dolls zipping into the room and lifting away the plates. The girl gets to her feet and brushes off her skirt, looking a little embarrassed. You notice rather quickly that she has slightly unnatural movements, a little stiff.
"Who is this?" you ask, pointing to the girl.
"This is Ruukoto, she's a robot. Reimu lent her to me." Alice says, walking over to the girl and placing her hand on her shoulder. "I've been looking into some alternatives for making autonomous dolls, and I was wondering about the potential for robots." she says, turning to look at Ruukoto, who looks back at her. It's kind of odd that she's supposed to be a robot, she doesn't look too much different from a normal person, aside from her movements at least.
"Of course, that would take quite a while to make happen, I'd need the help of Kappas as well." she says, patting Ruukoto on the shoulder. "Still, I never realized how interesting mechanical devices were until I saw one in action myself." Alice steps away from Ruukoto now, and turns to her.
"Could you make some tea for us?" Alice asks. Ruukoto simply bows and heads off out the back door towards the well.
You only notice now that Yuyuko hadn't followed you into the kitchen, so you head out to see her still staring at the dolls, buzzing around and organizing papers and dusting nearby furniture. Alice squeezes past you and heads back into the main room.
"I spoke to Reimu shortly after I came by here last time," you say, catching Alice's attention. She turns around, giving you a little worried look. "I was able to work out a deal with her. I don't cause any trouble, and she won't try to exorcise me." Alice's worried expression fades.
"That's a relief, I wouldn't want to imagine what would happen if I needed your help again." Alice says. Alice notices Yuyuko now watching her dolls, and laughs a bit. One of the dolls stops it's busy fluttering and floats over to Yuyuko, who audibly gasps as it floats towards her. Yuyuko reaches out and gingerly pokes the doll, and you hear a faint, echoing giggle. Was that Alice doing that? The doll zips away and flaots over to Alice, landing on her shoulder, holding Yuyuko's attention all the while.
"Wo~w!" Yuyuko gasps, floating ove to Alice. "You're controlling all these, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am." Alice says, stroking the dolls head with her fingertips. The doll smiles in response. Just like Ruukoto, despite not being real flesh and blood, they're mostly indistinguishable from common fairies.
"I'd only seen you using them in passing on that night, and then later when that Oni girl was causing trouble. I had no idea there were so many or that they moved around so much." Yuyuko says, leaning in closer to get a look at the doll, a 'Shanghai' if you still remembered correctly.
"I'm surprised you and Alice know each other, Yuyuko." you say, causing Yuyuko to take her attention off the doll for a moment. "You said something about 'that night', and some Oni girl?" Despite having faint memories of these events yourself, you'd rather hear directly.
"That's right," Yuyuko says, straightening up. "'That night' refers to a night a short while ago where the night stopped. She was out with Marisa trying to solve the issue if I remember correctly." Yuyuko says, tapping ehr chin. Alice looks a bit annoyed though.
"Yeah, and ever since she's been constantly bumming around my house and taking my stuff," Alice fumes. "She's a real hard headed idiot." she adds with a sigh.
"Then there was an issue with an Oni gathering people and forcing endless feasts. I didn't meet her directly again, but I saw her in passing a few times. That was the last time I went outside of Hakugyokuro come to think of it." Yuyuko continues, looking to Alice. She nods in response.
"We're not incredibly familiar with each other, but we're familiar enough to get along." Alice says, which causes Yuyuko to float over and ruffle Alice's hair, which only gets a strange look in return.
"Was that necessary?" Alice asks as Shanghai floats up, smoothing out Alice's hair again. Yuyuko simply nods with a big smile.
"Absolutely necessary!"
