bad bad oni

[ownself]

(from here)

[Something fragrant in the air had stirred Shousetsu from her unexpected and deep sleep— something coyly sweet, almost utterly unrelenting. It roused her enough to have her slowly rise from the overly soft bedding of her... futon? Since when did her modest bedding have such exquisite sheets lined with silk? And most importantly... since when did she allow herself to sleep in such a way?

From there it didn't take long for her to realize something was terribly wrong.

If you were, by poor happenstance, beside Shousetsu in the luxury queen size bed you'll find that she's made herself scarce- that is until you catch a bit of white in the corner of your eye.

Then you'll find Shousetsu herself at the bedside draped in something completely unfamiliar to her and wielding what appears to be... an ice pick that she took from one of the ice buckets. Yikes. She is not holding it in a way some would consider friendly.]

Speak quickly and only in answer. Where is this place and what has become of my swords?

[Hopefully you know how to deal with frazzled samurai. Her swords are probably around this suite somewhere.]

Comments

[osake]

[ truthfully, she'd risen first. for a post-life monster slain in drunken slumber, shuten is, in reality, a light sleeper. it's her greed and curiosity that gets the better of her, after all — and when she'd woken up face to face with a pale-haired beauty, cropped strands framing her round face, shuten had decided to lie in wait. the girl had smelled different, up close. unfamiliar.

when the stranger leaps out of bed, it becomes apparent she's not just a pretty face.

ah, but the flowing layers of lace on her thin frame doesn't exactly strike her with the image of a samurai just yet, no matter how aptly she wields that pick.

from her spot on the bed, shuten pretends to be roused, blinking away sleep and a yawn revealing the whole of her sharp fangs. now that the sheets have all but been flung off, shuten's own outfit is revealed: a white, silk kimono, cherry-lined, expertly dyed in motifs of plum branches, blooming in vibrant reds and blushing pinks. it fits loosely around her own slender body, the obi mysteriously missing from the ensemble. (it's lucky she hasn't decided to sit up, for based on the exposed slips of pale skin at her chest and thighs, it's likely she's bare underneath, ready to be revealed at the slightest motion.)

a large lacquered red cup sits beside the bed, glistening with drops of sake like morning dew.

apparently unfazed by the threat, shuten curls lazily like a cat along the suddenly big and empty mattress. ]

I was wondering why it was so much colder all of a sudden ... Don't be such a stranger, honey. It's not nice to threaten a bedmate, you know.

[ownself]

[The garish decor of the room accompanied by the strange outfit she woke up in makes for a unsettling conclusion that Shousetsu is far too reluctant to reach yet. It wouldn't be possible for someone to simply sweep her away to this place and change her outfit, the idea was utterly unthinkable. So why then was she not in her usual clothes and why was there someone in the bed beside her when she woke—

—Someone who... doesn't seem to mind this predicament one bit. The woman's languid drawl sparks irritation in Shousetsu's chest, like striking flint to wood. She pays the shameless glimpses of pink skin and curves no mind, and even thinks nothing of the trademark standing horns atop her brow and the fangs behind those rosy lips. No, she's more focused on those striking eyes and the way they seem to glint in amusement at her distress. Was she enjoying this...?]

... Spoken as one who has no intention of giving me an answer.

[Shousetsu's pale fingers grip the ice pick handle tighter.]

I warn you again not to make light of me! If you know anything about this place, you do well to explain everything now.

[Her voice hardens enough that if one focuses they may be able to detect the hint of apprehension within it.]

Are you also not a captive here?

[osake]

[ waking up a servant often felt this way, suddenly conscious in a world far distant from one's own. perhaps it's different when your life already met its natural end, when your existence now is a series of fleeting whims, here and then gone when the fun's run out. who is a girl like her to squander a second chance at worldly pleasures, after all, when she's long since paid for her sybaritic crimes?

ah, and they're not in an any immediate danger. as a creature of blood and violence, that much she knows.

other than the girl brandishing the icepick, anyway.

finally, shuten sits up, kimono sliding over her thin shoulder and opening at the breast, not quite exposing everything yet. amused as she continues to be at the warrior-apparent's frazzled stance, another yawn pulls down shuten's smile. when she's done, her lips form a small pout. ]

If you know I'm a captive, you're being awfully unforgiving towards me ... I know just as much as you do, dear.

[ spotting the red of her lacquer, shuten reaches for the cup, swirling it around to gather the drops of leftover sake at the center. ]

But the bed's comfy, and you're not bad on the eyes in that silk. Fufu, maybe your head's hurting after a rough night? Why not try a bit of hair of the dog?

[ with that, she spills the small pool of sake onto her tongue. ]

[ownself]

[In the back of her mind a little voice rings out shrilly like the last cry of a cuckoo at dusk. You are wasting time.

It was bad enough, waking disoriented and reacting purely on survival instinct with no answering pulse of magic in her mind. Her connection with Rider had been completely cut off— that much she was aware in those few waking seconds— but something else had been severed from her grasp completely. The thrum of energy beneath the earth where the leylines intersected, the natural magic that radiated off every living thing...

That had been taken away, utterly and completely. The oni sprawled before her feels like a creature from the world she knows, and yet... was it possible that other Servants and Masters had been sent here as well? Was Rider here by chance, wondering the same thing she was?

Every plausible explanation races through Shousetsu's mind—

—and promptly comes to a screeching halt when the crease of the oni's kimono widens across her sternum. It doesn't expose everything, but it's enough for her eyes to quickly dart away.]

!!

[A sharp bristle almost makes her drop the makeshift weapon in her hand, although that is easier enough to dismiss than the color rising in her cheeks.]

S-Such slothfulness... if what you say is true then how can you remained so composed? Have you no sense of urgency?

[After wrangling with her emotions for another second she finally lowers her pick to hip-level. Her bright eyes narrow as the scent of sake permeates the room.]

Regardless, I do not intend to waste precious time drinking the day away.

[And yet, she cannot leave the obvious unanswered. Shousetsu steps forward, close enough that her knees just barely touch the edge of the luxury bed.]

... You are a Servant, are you not?

[osake]

[ oh, finally, shuten thinks at the glimpse of embarrassment — the averting of sea-green eyes, the bristle of thin shoulders, the suffusion of color on pale cheeks. shuten was beginning to think the stranger serious in the unfortunate way, like tsuna, immune to the suggestions of sensuality.

it's good to know the samurai is still lively beyond her blade, the odd way she smells.

her smile finds her again, heavy and watchful. she's just about to make another exaggerated pout, another, stronger attempt at pulling the stranger into her antics when she says that.

shuten blinks, surprised. ]

Oh, my. Aren't you so smart.

[ still sat up, still unmoving, shuten's swimming violet gaze drags across the distance of the bed from her to the samurai, now standing at the edge. she tips her head, horns pointed at a diagonal. ]

How could you tell?

[ownself]

[How she wishes Rider were here now...!

It isn't, of course, a matter of Shousetsu not being able to figure sticky situations out for herself— no, she had been doing that long before she summoned that tenacious being into the world. No, in truth it is mostly a matter of... familiarity.

If Rider could have been summoned they would have begun assessing the situation without fail.

But now she was out of sorts, trapped in an all too obnoxious room with a Servant far too relaxed for her own good. Shousetsu lets out a another slow sigh, her gaze pointedly glancing away from the woman's exposed skin and flushed color.]

Because I am disconnected from my world it is faint... but I can detect magical energy coming from your presence. I may not appear it but I am someone who is proficient in magecraft.

[More than. Created by it, even.

Shousetsu shakes her head and looks back towards the oni, a frown on her lips.]

Regardless, if we are to leave this place then a level of cooperation will be ...

[She trails off, however, as she notices something on the night stand right beside the bed. There are so many ridiculous items strewn about that she hardly noticed, but something about the little red box on the table seems... foreboding. Ominous.]

This item seems it was placed here purposefully for... ?

[osake]

[ the longer shuten stares at her, the more she realizes that this stranger is comprised of something she's never seen before. ancient thing that she is, she can't put a name to it — as traveled as she is, this was beyond her world, and only half of the woman before her smells faintly familiar. the way she glows in the window's light, wrapped in a silk nearly as white and transparent as her skin, is ethereal. beautiful and strange.

she's at a disadvantage on all fronts, then, other than her usual boldness, her pure strength, that this samurai seems to know everything about her but her name.

it's a good thing she's still out of sorts, and missing her swords apparently.

her gaze follows towards the box, and she leans on her arm to get a better look at it. as she shifts on the mattress, something rattles under the fluffy folds of the duvet at her feet. hm. ]

... Well then, mage, this sounds like a job for you ... doesn't it? It could be a trap, after all.

[ownself]

[The strange rattling doesn't escape her attention but the box upon the counter entices her in the same way a blank sheet of paper does. She needs to investigate it by sheer commitment alone, and judging by the oni's words it seems some information will come of it... although with how dubious her exploration has been so far she isn't sure she'll like what she finds.

Regardless, when she reaches for the box she slowly wraps her fingers around it. If it had been rigged or trapped then she would have sensed it before touching it, although she begrudgingly decides to keep this information to herself.]

It appears safe.

[With a bit of exasperation in her tone. For all the Servant's lounging and nonchalant behavior Shousetsu can sense she is strong. No, perhaps strong does not even do the sensation justice— she's formidable to a worrying extent. All unknown Servants are, to some point, although she can begin to skim through a few guesses based on her appearance alone... maybe.]

But perhaps you knew that all along? A Servant as strong as yourself...

[Shousetsu, still narrowing her gaze at Shuten, slowly opens the box.]

... couldn't possibly allow herself t—

[And that's when it strikes— a dazzling light that startles her like a current beneath the ground. Inside the box two large diamond rings sparkle, the cuts of gradient rainbow lights bouncing off every corner of the room— and her stunned face.]

W-What sort of—

[Oh. Attached to the underside of the box:

For you and your betrothed!]

[osake]

[ at that suggestion ... accusation, shuten shrugs, line of her shoulders like the arc of her smile, lifting high and secretive. as woven by her instincts as she is, she's inclined to think no immediate danger lies waiting in this room — not any from their supposed captors, anyway.

between the two of them, however ...

... ah. they're bound, it turns out.

greed makes her, and though the hoards of treasure she collected in her lifetime typically shone a different hue, a mysterious compulsion makes that rainbow glow as alluring as jade and gold, and most surprising of all — convinces her to slide her legs out of bed. ]

Oh, my.

[ this time, when she leans in, the drape of her silk robe brushes the edge of the nightstand. her eyes glitter with the reflection of their gift. ]

I didn't think I'd gotten drunk enough to get hitched without knowing ...

[ her smile, nearly all fang, as she glances up at the stranger ]

... but I suppose that's what this means, hm?

[ownself]

[The shapely appearance of the oni’s bare legs do more to throw her than the rings currently inside the box. Despite herself the heat that had settled in her cheeks refuses to fade. Her next words are strained, breathless:]

You couldn’t possibly…

[No, she already knows what those mean and she’s still struggling to process why they were here, gifted to them both, as though this was meant to be a miracle foretold in texts from missionaries beyond the sea. Her? Bound? In marriage? The idea was more alien to her than the concept of the oni across from her being married.

A small sound breaks free from her throat— a cross between a squeak and a scoff. She doesn’t even have half the mind to clear her throat and correct it, instead opting to pointedly glare at the rings as though she could melt them down by look alone.]

Wh-What ridiculous games we are forced to entertain… but I shall not be dallied with so easily!

[Is what Shousetsu says, even as she gently pries one ring from the box and holds it up in all its glittering glory. It happens just as she thinks that the item has a hint of magical properties hidden like a gem inside coal. The sensation comes like a prick to her finger, then immediately occupies the forefront of her mind. She drops the box and watches as it lands with a tumble onto the bed, beside the oni.]

They’re laced with magic. [Shousetsu utters without context. It was a brief, but for a moment she felt it— she felt…

… hungry.]