09-30-2015, 11:12 AM
Quote:And back from the astral realm
Ururu yawned as she sluffed off the first vestiges of sleep. Fingers twisted in a stretch along with the rest of her body. There was a warm feeling all around her as the feeling of skin contact was pervasive. Hikaru's body.
Warm heavily freckled tan skin was meshed between her own limbs making them a veritable human tangle. Par for the course really. Though the differences were still there.
Less squishy, more wiry on both sides of their party. But for once, it felt like they fit together better than Ururu could ever remember. It brought a sense of completeness that normally only came on as an afterglow of their more gratuitous acts.
But for now at least, this was something she could accept wholeheartedly, maybe in the future it would help in other areas... However reality wasn't going to wait on them and Ururu forced her eyes open.
Her near mirror image greeted her and she placed a touching kiss before untangling herself from Hikaru who stirred immediately.
There was too much to do today to lull around under the covers of bed even with so much incentive to do so. No this world was an unknown, albeit a strangely familiar unknown that she needed to document...
Speaking of which, or rather thinking of which she had the strangest dream last night involving a purple midget, tentacles and her Bridge strangely decorated in water and books. While that wasn't really above normal for her dreams, having others that weren't bits of personality froth was unusual
“It wasn't a normal dream. We did have a visitor” Hikaru said in a rather soft but sure tone.
Ururu blinked. Odd. Well maybe in time the reasons for such would be revealed and hopefully whoever it was wouldn't make a habit of it. If whatever she was could find her way to the Bridge... well getting access to an unoccupied clone was actually possible.
Which could have some bad repercussions.
Bad things she didn't want to think about... if that visitor was able to bridge the gap in the Bridge that was usually filled by Ururu's brain... Well. She simply had to change her mindscape to accommodate undesirable breaking and enterings.
That would have to be later with a lot. Read A LOT. Of meditation. On par with the time she ended up first constructing the Bridge. Which was rather tedious now that she thought to remember about it.
“Eugh...” Ururu groaned.
At least today it was more traveling which meant clothes. Clothes to be worn, which if this kept up would need to be the first things that fell off her. Her duster aside her current costume weren't really meant for cross country travel on foot.
If only she'd been on her chopper when that Mad God had abducted her. Then at least she and Hikaru could manage a much greater distance in the course of a day. The again she still couldn't figure out where most of the foot traffic was.
Could flight really be that reliable and if so where were people getting it from?
She hadn't heard any flying machines to prompt her to look up. But then again she hadn't bothered to pay much attention either. For that matter she hadn't seen any roads that went past the other side of the Archway either. Which was odd now that she thought about it, why not go in all four directions.
What was stopping them? Human progress rarely cared about such minor inconveniences as forests or other geographical obstacles.
Things were not adding up to a point where one plus one kept equaling eleven rather than two.
Sighing Ururu finished throwing on her clothes and part of her was dying for a fresh pair of underwear. Everything not in her backpack was in her Book of Cosmos, and that- well that hadn't been working the way she had built it since she had gotten here.
If she ended up getting bladder infection, there would be hell to pay; Deity or not, that Mad God was going to be screaming uncle.
Glancing back Ururu spotted Hikaru doing much the same. Shame, but some taboos must be afforded consideration before breaking them. The last thing Ururu wanted to do was have a lynching mob chasing after her for public indecency.
Once was enough.
“Ready?” Ururu said, shooting her companion a look.
Grunting Hikaru sped up, not wanting to risk being drugged out of the room barely clothed. Another grunt of pulling her own duster up, Hikaru replied, “Yeah I am.”
The trip down stairs was unremarkable at best, the sounds that greeted them was a quiet timber of headaches and the smell fresh eggs, some sort of soup if Ururu's nose was right and something undeniably delicious and utterly foreign..
Now that she was mostly conscious she could make out a number of wooden tables which were now empty, they sported intricately carved stools that looked to have once been kegs of some kind. The walls where the stairs was hidden behind also had several larger inlaid barrels.
Possibly whole as they looked like they could be removed.
The fire upon the hearth had gone out and the bard that had been staring at them so showed no sign of having been there beyond an empty tankard set up on his stool.
Of the few occupants of the room who didn't appear to be suffering from an acute case of hangoveritus, they were stooped over bowls of soup and a plate of eggs with funny strips of streaked meat which was the smell she hadn't been able to puzzle out.
Her stomach growled and just like that she could hear the sound of a cup of some sort moving and being polished.
Ururu tracked the noise to the barkeep who didn't look any more worse for wear, despite the other people who seemed less than human at the moment. Black shoulder length hair with an ever so slight wave to it, back eyes and a graying mustache and beard. Thick burly body..
“Gunna stay fer br'kfest? C'mes with th' room if ye eat now.” He said still not looking up more than an eye from a glass mug which practically sparkled at this point.
Sharing a nod with Hikaru, they both clambered up onto a high stool at the bar. Tall enough where grown men wouldn't even reach the floor but neither one seemed to have an issue.
“Molly t' mar plates!” He called, as for once his neck actually straightened and aimed towards to kitchens or what Ururu took for such. Several of the hunched over people also elicited groans from the volume his voice took.
“Ah take ye two are fr'm aut of town?” The keep said in a lower octave.
Ururu giggled, “What was your first clue barkeep-san?”
He set the mug down, “N'me's Samuel. Samuel Goodf'ller. And weh nev'r ge primes th's close ta the Gate.” Then he nodded towards their nether areas. “Ye'h shoes, don't see like of th'm.”
Hikaru blushed at first before she realized Samuel was referencing their feet rather than anything more private. Ururu was rubbing off on her. That was the only explanation.
“An’ ta be frank, ye don’t want to be not’ced as primes if ye cannae ‘elp it. Ta war with Cur’scant means te want ta ‘cruit em good.” He nodded to himself in agreement before wiping down the counter in front of the two before giving them rolls of silverware. Two implements were decidedly foreign while the other was a pair of dull pewter chopsticks and the third was a corruption of a soup spoon.
Pewter. That was a new one for both of them.
A second later the door to the kitchen swung open the same serving girl, Molly apparently, from last night appeared with two trays food. Her hair like that of Samuel was black but more of a wave, her dress this time green satin that had seen better days as well. But was was noticeable was not the food but how short the dress.
And she was still blushing.
“Well I’ll lev ye too it, Ah imagine ye two are head’n fer the Tourney right?” Samuel said with a glimmer in his eyes.
That instant time slowed down or at least it felt like it as Ururu engaged the Network into its full bandwidth taking them both into a half-dive. The room itself seemed to darken and two spotlight shined down on the pair that was the instinctual knowledge of each other's position.
A tournament, those things in the historical past of the foreign lands always had large cash prizes or some sort of wealth. Ururu shot forward
Hikaru’s body shimmered as the persona split from the body for a instant, nodding, That’s always a possibility and we could use something to help get us on our feet. Though we could be risking being gang-pressed into military service.
True but that’s what we have clones for in the first place… and lets see if we can get back our transformation abilities, entering as someone who doesn’t look like us would be perfect. Ururu’s mentally broke out in an inherent grin and the color green. It was closer to who she truly was that rarely could be seen physically.
Then let’s do it, with that condition in place. We need to hide our identities. Hikaru said with a tone as if some contract had been signed and sealed.
The room lightened and time seemed to resume its place in the natural order of things. Or rather the rapid fire of mental thoughts over the network had slowed to a pace that was… sustainable.
“That was the idea anyways.” Hikaru replied before looking to Ururu.
Ururu nodded in agreement, “Though we weren’t sure we wanted to risk getting pressured into a war that wasn’t our business. We like wandering quite a bit.”
Samuel frowned but conceded in a shrug, “Aye, Ah can understan’ the sentiment, bu’ where the Emp’re ‘s concerned weh should all be weary.”
Empire? That didn’t sound too friendly.
“Jus’ don’t mak’ any rash dec’sions eith’r way. Now eat b’fore ye food gonna get cold” Samael said, motioning to the aforementioned items before finding another cup to polish clean.
As far as taste went, over the course of the next ten minutes both Ururu and Hikaru polished everything off and then some. Ordering and reordering the miracle known as bacon three times before finally requesting a bunch to go as part of travel rations.
Molly by this time was sitting there, her face flushed as she watched Ururu finish off the meal while Hikaru at a less breakneck pace.
“Like ye nev’r had bacon before. Ye new here or sumthen?”
Ururu saved Hikaru the embarrassment of talking with her mouth full of salty meaty goodness, “We hunt for most of our food when can help it.”
That took Samuel and Molly aback for a moment but Molly recovered first, “Your primes m’ladies and you hunt your food?”
Ururu nodded, “Why waste omnilium when its easier to set a snare.”
Molly smiled at that one, “Hope you catch lots of rabbit, them vermin keep destroying my garden when we aren’t looking.”
Rabbits, at least one other animal besides birds seemed
to fit here.
“Nothing but rabbits.”
The serving girl offered them a vicious grin, “Well m'ladies if you can teach me a snare that work’s better than this bafoon’s, I’ll teach you girls how to make each really feel like high heaven.” At that she shot Samuel a glare who kept only polishing his mug.
Ururu opened her mouth but was cut off by a hand pinching the inside of her thigh in a rather creative manner. One that was a mix of both pleasure and pain but mostly just pain.
Instead Hikaru smiled a bit dryly, “We’d be happy to show you the snare, no need to thank us.”
Molly’s eyes bobbed between the two but made no further fuss of it, “Well at the very least the Bacon is on us if it means getting rid of them critters.”
And that, Ururu thought would be a good trade. Although, she was more interested in what Molly may have been willing to offer and how much the pair had already discovered on their own. Hikaru though had proven to be somewhat possessive especially as of late with Ururu and the usual sharing and caring was strictly curtailed with few exceptions.
Unfortunately this wasn’t one of those exceptions it seemed, although Ururu wasn't sure why.
About an hour later and a backpack laden with bacon, the two wished Samuel and Molly many tasty rabbit stews and promised to return if they were ever in the area again. Something Ururu was sure would happen quite often if they could manage it.
After they were out on the open road and the remainder the town was falling behind them, Ururu sighed and felt the need to air out the last few hours.
"Hikaru," she broached her companion.
Hikaru turned and blinked as she tried to feel out the tone and found nothing in the Network other than a sense of frustration. Her creator was either hiding behind it or she had done something that had pressed Ururu's buttons the wrong way. Considering how they were connected and how they had grown up together the latter seemed... incomprehensible.
Ururu's eyes had a glimmer that while not steely were not the usual soft and playful. They were however searching for something.
"Why didn't you let me accept Molly's offer? It's not like we haven't done that sort of thing before," Ururu paused before considering her words further, "or even discussed the whole thing as partners."
Hikaru eyes widened. Well that hadn't been what she was expecting. Or well it was... similar. But not quite. Maybe her effort in manipulating Ururu's dream a little bit had paid off. The fact that she was willing to discuss things now was an improvement rather than dragging her around like a blond wagon.
Mirroring the earlier sigh from her partner, Hikaru thought carefully of her words which could easily make or break today's comfort zone. A deep breath was the start to her words, “Well Ururu have you noticed that you've been dragging me everywhere and been far more pushy about nearly everything so far?”
It was Ururu's turn to blink several times, “Uh- well no.”
Nodding Hikaru didn't let up for the moment otherwise something told her she'd lose the point, “For that matter do you remember what it was like to be nine years old, how does it compare to now? Are these things you would've done then or just a few days ago?”
Looking a little green at the thought Ururu was being pointed to she nodded hesitantly. Realization seemed to well up on her face and she was fighting to keep it from overwhelming her.
Hikaru felt the frustration in the network to ebb towards shame. It hurt but sometimes guilt had its place in relationships.
“Do you really want to start up that kind of relationship with a stranger when you are that susceptible to suggestion? In the last fourteen hours since we've gotten here, you've been flighty, and more than little obsessed with alcohol and sex.” Hikaru finished, her chest raising for a bit of breath even as they walked in awkward step.
Ururu stopped moving for a second before picking up the pace quickly, “That's me all the time.”
Hikaru wanted to smack her or herself, preferably both, but at the moment she had to be the adult in the relationship. “This is more extreme than that, otherwise I would have been right with you taking up Molly's offer.”
Ururu met her eyes for a moment, frowning and surprised, but waited for Hikaru to continue.
She was getting through to her.
“We are in a new world, your immortality is on the fritz and you may as well be the age you appear at the moment. STDs aside we don't know how much else this body is going to effect you and it hasn't even been a full day since we've gotten here.” Hikaru finished or thought she had, until she figured a little positive motivation was in order.
She pulled Ururu to a stop and turn both her and herself into facing each other. The kiss was as deep as it ever been before. Tongue in all but less sex and more just plain need. Passion burning across the Network until Ururu was practically scarlet in a blush.
Hikaru pulled back meeting her eyes, “I'll make you a promise, the next time we stop for the night, we'll take it for all its worth. Audience or no, but before that we need to work on rebuilding your self control to a level of something that matches your true age.”
Ururu eyes teared up and she nodded, “Alright.”
Smiling softly at the first sign of her creator she reached and brushed the tears away as their foreheads met. “I love you and I know you love me. We can work through this.”
Sniffling a bit Ururu just nodded again before trying to exactly what was expected of her. Acting her age. She was fifteen damn it if she couldn't be the adult that she was she didn't deserve Hikaru after all.
“Right lets get moving, its still morning and that bacon isn't going to eat itself.”