lol

>>2177

>>2178
okay

>>2159
I wasn't aware that eggnog was something you could make at home to be honest. Always thought that was something you could only buy in the states. Gotta love Asian Christmas.

>>2160

I didn't even know they sold ready-made stuff. I must be getting old.

>>2159
>Nemuno's THP debut
Actually, someone on /at/ beat OP to that.

The crunching of paper.

So wet. So moist.

Your tiny boat didn't stand a chance.

The water kept seeping in… You could feel it penetrating the borders.

Shriveling the skin. Turning the paleness into a sickly, wrinkled yellow.

The hat, ribbon torn by the current. Your skirt, shrinking and ripping as you claw for air.

Your arms burn, nearly ripping at the seams as you struggle to breathe. Struggle for the surface. Water invades your chest. So close. The sun is so close. Freedom.

“KOISHI!”

You awake with a start, through your gasp doesn't come; your chest is too waterlogged to be useful for anything but coughing. "KOISHIIIII!!" You look around in greater alarm. That was your sister's voice! You attempt to rise, but find yourself flapping uselessly, a pair of clothespins keeping you in place. You shake your hair, trying to force some of the water off of your floppy form, but it's no use. You have a hard enough time seeing, though; your body is all wavy and wrinkly. You can barely see past your chin!

One thing's certain: you'll have to get down from here. You flop back and forth, trying to free yourself, but you feel so heavy. You try to bend up and grab at the pins, but can't reach. You're just too soggy; you certainly don’t have the strength.

And then you land on the floor with a splat when your arteries manage what you failed. It seems that they took your boot dagger and cut the line.

You lie on a floor you've never stood on, staring up at the ceiling you've never seen as you try to at least flatten out. It... doesn’t work. You’ll need the warm press of your comforters at home to do the job. However, you do manage to peel your head off the floor to look for your sister… wherever she may be.

You stand on legs that feel like they will break apart at any moment, taking in your surroundings. There's a floor, walls and a ceiling, sure, but this also seems to be a cell. The flat metal bars holding you within are proof enough of that. They’re not even nice enough to give you a window!

“Woah Daiyousei, the view from your house is so awesome!”

At the end of a long day, along the shore of the Misty Lake, in the uppermost branches of a certain tree were two young fairies. At first glance, this would not seem to be such an unusual thing to find in the land of Gensokyo. Gensokyo was home to many trees, with many young fairies frolicking among the many branches, usually making mischief for any unsuspecting humans or youkai below. What made this particular tree so unique was the fact that these two particular fairies were not frolicking at all, but were in fact sitting. For this particular tree was planted in just the right spot, that the waterfalls and rivers of the Youkai Mountain could be seen reflected in the calm waters of the misty lake, set aglow in the beautiful oranges and yellows of the setting sun.

“Thanks Cirno. This view is the whole reason I picked this tree to live in.”

The two fairies sat close together, contentedly watching the sunset in silence. However, although the view was breathtaking, one of the fairies found it difficult to focus on it. For this fairy had something weighing heavily upon her mind.

This is it Daiyousei, the fairy thought to herself. You’re all alone with Cirno watching a beautiful sunset together. Now is the perfect chance to tell her how you really feel about her.

“Um… Cirno. There’s something really important that I have to tell you.”

“What’s up Dai?” Asked the ice fairy, quickly taking her eyes off the view to focus on her friend.

“Well… you see,” Daiyousei nervously began. “We’ve been friends for a long time right?”

“Sure have. For as long as I can remember.”

“Yeah,” Daiyousei continued. “And whenever I’m with you, we always have lots of fun together.”

“Sure do,” Cirno agreed.

“And whenever a strong youkai or someone scary like Reimu comes along, you’re always there to protect me. So even though I always get really scared when stuff like that happens, I know that everything will end up ok.”

“Awe, that’s really no big dea

"Graaaagh! I've had it!"

Luna Child punched the nearest available tree trunk in frustration, stirring up a cloud of startled insects.

"We've been wading, through a swamp, in the rain, for four hours. I'm covered from head to toe in mud, mosquito bites and bug guts, because some genius had the bright idea of swatting them with a giant exploding hammer!"

She slumped against the tree and slid into a half-sitting position.

"I wanna go home."

"We all do, Luna," Marisa replied, leaning tiredly on her sword.

"At least you're not up to your neck in river water," Luna shot back.

Marisa winced; as the shortest of the party, Luna was the worst off by far.

"These conditions do leave something to be desired," Kaguya agreed. Even covered in muck and sopping wet, she somehow managed to look dignified.

"We haven't even seen a single Ludroth yet," Luna groused. "How hard can it be to find a ten-foot lizard?"

"Not this hard, surely," Marisa agreed. She turned to look over her shoulder. "Something up your nose?"

"I smell disaster," Hina replied, still sniffing at the air.

"Please tell me it's not coming this way," Luna groaned.

"It's coming from over there," Hina said, pointing.

Marisa squelched to Hina's side and squinted through the downpour. The silhouette of a ruined ziggurat was barely visible against the clouds.

"Should we investigate?" Kaguya asked, shielding her face from the rain to look as well.

"If it gets us out of this bloody rain, I'm all for it." Luna punctuated her sentence by doffing her Great Jaggi cap and wringing the water out of her hair.

"Screw it, can't be any worse than this," Marisa said. "Let's go!"

"We'd better hurry," Hina warned.

Hina lead the way as the four hunters strug

>>2144

"...Why?" I ask.

The pale girl shrugs, cocking her head. "She was on fire and looked exceptionally angry with me, so she was probably a bad person."

"That... is actually not bad thinking at all," I admit. "Still, Mokou's weird and also immortal so basically it's okay to kill her in a fight, but-”

“what the shit was that” says Mokou, sitting up as those holes in her head regenerate remarkably quickly.

“Should I shoot her again?” Altina asks.

“No,” I say immediately, eyes flicking between the smoldering phoenix and the not-quite-right girl training fingers on the former. “No, don't-”

Altina shoots her again, a flurry of blue lasers bursting from her fingers, blasting Mokou's face clean off. I cringe as the woman flops down again.

"I just asked you not to do that!" I hiss at Altina, who simply shrugs.

“what the shit was that” Mokou reiterates a moment later, good as new, looking from Altina to me to her to me again. "I mean, I'll give her credit for being quick and spiteful, but what the shit was that?

“She can't understand you,” I say, switching back to Japanese just for the moment-

"I don't give a damn, she shot me in the head-"

Altina giggles, waggling her shooting fingers. "She sounds really extra angry this time. I should shoot her again, right?"

"Do not shoot her again-"

Altina shoots her again.

"I JUST ASKED YOU NOT TO DO THAT. AGAIN. WHY."

"Sorry, not sorry."

"You are making it really difficult to keep you alive right now," I say, and that's about when Mokou&

>>2144
>>2145

Sunshine beats down on my head as I glower at the ashen remains of my stand. There's quite a bit of roasted forest all around me, but the Rabbit Fire Brigade stopped the worst of it. Small comfort for me when I'm gonna have to rebuy, oh... pretty much everything I owned, but, y'know, hooray for trees.

All this because I didn't turn off the stove.

Nice going, me.

I cover my face in my hands. "Ffffffffffffffffffff-"

There's a whumpfh of someone landing nearby.

"This one's not my fault," Mokou says, strolling up to study my wrecked business.

I glower sidelong at her. "Go directly to hell, Mokou."

"Hey, fire safety's important," she drawls, scuffing a boot through the ashes. "Look at me, f'rinstance." She spreads her hands, wiggling her fingers. "I'm magic, ooh~ I only set stuff on fire that I want to set on fire, aah~ I'm smart enough to turn my stove off when I'm done with it~"

"Shaddup, Mokou."

Mokou snickers at me - and then she stops as a very familiar sound pierces the air, right before she falls on her face, more holes in her head.

I turn around just in time for Altina, good as new, to grab my hand. "So I can't help but notice everything was set on fire! And she seemed like a likely culprit! Also she was being obnoxious, probably."

"Wha-" I manage. "You should still be in the hospital!"

"I heal really quickly~"

Mokou starts pushing herself up. "IS IT TIME FOR ROUND TWO ALREADY-"

Altina blasts her skull again.

"Can you not do this?" I wheeze, horrified.

"Quickly, quickly, leeeeet's gooooooo~!" Altie s

Old, wrinkled eyes stared back at seemingly younger, brighter ones; both of the two knew that this simply wasn't the case, but appearances are hard to ignore. Even to a youkai such as her. Or, perhaps it could be said that it should be the case. He was old — very old for a turtle. And, likewise, she was young for her species.

The young turtle of graying hair, and the old kappa of vibrant youth. An odd pair to consider as anything but elder and youth, though one would have to assess who to call which.

The great turtle that had long played the part of caretaker of the Hakurei wasn't sure what to think of the one that looked as young as his charge. Not when she was making eyes at him, or so he thought. In truth, being a turtle, he wasn't attracted to the features of any resemblance to a human. Flushed cheeks, a cute face, perky breasts and a sweet ass were all things she had in spades, and not one of these things truly appealed to him. Much like humans react to a dog, the old turtle could recognize these assets of hers from an outsider's perspective, but wasn't attracted one bit.

"No."

The aqua eyes turned downcast, and the kappa let out a held breath, as if that breath contained all of the hopes that she held. She did what she could to refrain from trembling or crying, but he saw that lip tremble once or twice. He knew.

As she turned to leave, Genjii sighed. "Wait." Before those eyes could once more fill with hope, he said, snuffing it like a candle, "I don't return your feelings. ...Well, that's not quite right. Thing is, you're a pretty young thing, but I'm just a turtle. And, well... none of what you have is any more attractive to me than a dog is to you." Quickly changing gears before she could think too deeply on that, he added, "Besides, even ignoring that: I'm old. I've lived a long life. All the way to the point of doubling the age any turtle should be reaching."

He didn't think it would work, but he had to at least try talking some sense into the girl. Sure, he'd take a thick, lustrous

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>>2129

I dislike this on a level I didn't realize I could dislike fanfiction. Congratulations.

>>2131
Would you say it was...shitty?

>>2132

Absolutly not. It's very well done.

[X]Boop them back.

This story is going places, I can feel it.

>>2122
Guess not.

>>2114
2008?

Well, since nothing's happening I'll just go with the first vote.

Dead or nah?

At the dark edge of that place, a girl stands
One fateful day, a stranger came to her
And as she made to question them, the stranger asked:
"What matter made your face frown so?"
Offended, the girl lowered her scythe and replied:
"What do you know about me?"
After she asked, the stranger took their leave.

The next day the girl stood, guarding as she always did
As did previous, the stranger approached her
And as she made to ask again, the stranger spoke:
"I see your mistress has left you."
Bewildered, the girl raised her scythe and replied:
"What do you know about her?!"
So she said, as the stranger withdrew.

The next day the girl thought, expecting the stranger
And while waiting, they returned as she thought
Before the stranger spoke, she said fast:
"Tell me what you know!"
To these words, the stranger only shook their head:
"What I know, you have already thought."
The stranger left the girl to her thoughts.

So the next day, the girl thought to herself.
Who was the stranger?
What was the mistress doing?
Where do they go?
When will they come again?
Why did she leave?
And how should I go on?

That night, in Gensokyo
—though the girl knew naught day or night—
the stranger came by while she was still in thought.
They said:
"Little girl, you have stood here for so long,
do you not desire to dream of more?
Perhaps pay a visit to a place beyond
where flowers bloom for four seasons
instead of a fantasy framed in a forgotten land."

And so the girl said:
"How do you know what I should do?
Why would I leave?
When would I see the mistress again?
Where would I go?
What would I do?
Who are you?"

The stranger replied:
"The answer you wish for
will never come if you won't seek it.
You've waited for so long,
shouldn't you think more for yourself?"
Without a response, the stranger left.

The next day, the girl thought again.
The girl thought to herself for a long time, and after that she

“What a beautiful song.”

Those were the first words she heard from the girl.

Benben froze, taking her hands off of the biwa. Yatsuhashi gaped her mouth open.

“Thank...you.” A tingle ran through Benben's cheeks.

It was strange. Not that what seemed like a normal, human girl complimented her, or the bright smile that she had on her. No, what was strange was the trace of faintness that the girl exhibited. A humble, withdrawn voice. It was for this reason Benben asked.

“Your name?”

And the girl responded.

“Layla.”

That was their first encounter.

The next couple of times, the girl named Layla simply sat and listened. On the side of the small path in the road of the forest, two youkai played the biwa and the koto. Next to the one with a biwa sat a girl, whose eyes were closed. Sometimes, she laughed. Sometimes, she rocked her head left and right to the plucking of strings. And it wasn't as though that was all she did. Layla asked who Benben and her sister Yatsuhashi were. She commented on the chords in their tune. Why they favored loud or quiet patterns at moments. Why it is one leads while the other follows, or how both play separately in harmony. Wondering why there was dissonance or resonance in the melody, and how it was created when either occurred.

“And what about you?” Benben said after a performance. She realized she hadn't even asked yet. “What do you play?”

With wide eyes, Layla placed her hands over her chest.

“Me?” She laughs at herself. “I don't play. But I do enjoy music.”

That was the encounter that interested Benben.

“Are you sure?” Yatsuhashi said to her sister after Layla left some time after. “Maybe she's just interested in our instruments.”

“If that was true, Yatsu,” Benben smiled at her, “she wouldn't ask why we perform together as we do.”

With a forceful sigh, Yatsuhashi let the subject go. Benben could see her sister was only worried about her, so it wasn't a matter to get angry over. What was wrong with an acquaintance who shared your love for something? Yatsuhashi

Through the woods, the poor child wandered, lost and chilled from autumn's cold. Struggled, he did, through the paths untrod, towards that village he called home. The forest's green expanse was slowly yielding to the frosty, frigid gale. The poor boy stumbled through that clime, tumbling into a meadowed lea.

There in the center stood a sight that had never touched the poor mortal's eyes. Far from the boy in this vast, desolate vale, stood a woman in a gown burnished by autumn's warm embrace. She slowly spun in a circle, her arms all outstretched, her hands gracing the leaves, needles, and even the bare blades of grass.

From every last touch, the child could but witness as the life faded from the great, healthy wood. Strong supple leaves would fade and embrittle. With every soft touch, the green placidly vanishes, with yellows and reds taking its righteous place. The grass that she trod upon crinkled and browned, the same as all caught in the hem of her frock.

The child barely reckoned the scope of his witness, vaguely kenning all the dread miracle happening before his eyes. He just saw the delicate woman clad in autumn’s colors spinning and twirling and carousing about. A strange feeling arose, deep in his chest, at the splendor that his earthly eyes had never touched on before. With no instincts halting, the child arose and walked o’er the meadow towards the dancer of leaves.

The woman’s head crooked and her dance finally ended; she spied the visitor to her small, seasonal waltz. As her gown finally fell flat to her sides, the woman knelt to look the child right in the eyes.

There were no words that desired flight from the poor boy’s lips, stunned into silence at this divine visage. Never before had he seen a face that shone with such vigor; rare was it that he even had seen one naked of dirt. Trembling, a small hand arose, its owner enthralled with the holy vision. Something within begged him to lay hands on the angel, not bothered by the blessings she had bestowed to all before.

Gently, spindly hands sought out and captured his arms, and with the barest of shakes she told all desired. The child slumped and