Fandom ❉ lacuna＊: fruits basket

[leviohsa]

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mood ready to talk

location murasaki's room

outfit here

tag Lost Echo & Steve Jobs

Nakano Murasaki

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The past few days hung heavy within the compound. And, Saki didn't think of it at first, but Arashi's gut-wrenching fear was the first indicator that she was truly alone now. Or, she would be, if she let herself.

It didn't come as a surprise to see Konishi. Murasaki knew the stresses the younger woman faced, and now Saki realizes that the fear of her leaving may be effecting more than just Arashi.

Her assumption was confirmed by the sound of her old friend knocking on her door. "So, now that you're human again are you planning on giving me back those gloves?"

Murasaki took in the state of Rui Xi. The person she was closest to. The sister she left to deal with the dirty work. Despite the flash of guilt that hit her chest, Saki scoffed with a small smile, "I don't know, I think I'm growing rather attached." Humor kept her voice casual as she backed up, letting the Dragon join Konishi. Saki didn't like that things felt different now. Were they only as close as they were because of a curse? The thought made her heart drop, but she chose to ignore the feeling for now.

"You want some tea? I was just making some for us." Saki knew that both she and the sheep must've had questions. And, if she were being honest, she was dreading the moment they were brave enough to ask.

Regardless, she didn't bother to wait for her friend to respond, and simply began adding more water to boil. It didn't take long, and soon she was bringing cups and pouring out tea for the girls. "So, I know you're here to ask. And I'm not going anywhere, so, ask away." Her voice was resolute, a calm demand to be forthright. "Though, I don't really know what the answers are. I'm as lost as you are."

It was a stark contrast to her methods in the past. To gently coax the truth out. Wait until the others were ready to speak, even if she so badly wanted to know what her beloved zodiacs were thinking. What was ailing them. However, she was tired of dancing around the topic of conversation. It's for this reason that she simply sat on the floor, at her tea table, looking over to Konishi, who sat across from her at the tea table. "But I want to help. However I can."

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© weldherwings.

 

[kunikuzushi]

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THE CAT

mood: let's do this.

interactions: buckybaernes

location: servant's quarters

When the Snake host with his weathered visage but determined gaze sought him out, Reiji had to pause.

Reiji was not hollow in the way that U-jin seemed to be. No, Reiji was hollow in that he didn’t know how to feel. After all, what was the appropriate reaction to the inevitable demise of someone you loathed? If it was glee or relief, Reiji felt neither. Instead, his chest tightened with knots too threaded to be unspun. With every thought of the god’s predicament, the phantom breath of a wordless ache threatened to whisper in his ear— Thankfully, he didn’t have to try hard to force it down.

News of Saki’s curse breaking shone over his conflicted feelings. The gloom shrank back in the light of it, chased away by something that felt almost hopeful. And hope was a foreign thing, just as much as it was fickle— Slipping through listless fingers with the ease of an eel. Often, it slithered in and out from one clenched fist to another with no disregard for the melancholy left after its escape. To let it creep back in now, felt like reopening an old wound.

Reiji tried not to entertain it. Didn’t want to entertain it. Because there was no use playing with fish when he had zero inkling of how to break a centuries long curse. And that was just what he told himself, barging into the servants’ quarters unannounced. He wasn’t in a helping mood—never was, according to some—but he knew U-jin wouldn’t take no for an answer. Though his suggestion of destroying their belongings rang quite pleasantly in Reiji’s ears. If his steps quickened, none were the wiser.

But when they arrived at Inori’s office, Reiji couldn’t help but falter. It was embarrassing how instinctual it had become for his eyes to dart down, finding the floor as he looked away from the servants’ gazes. Ever since the return to the compound, the servants had been more prickly, dragging him away for the littlest of things. He most certainly was not cowering, but for all the fight that he had, he was not in the mood to invoke their wrath today.

❝ Fuikawa san, is this really okay? ❞ Reiji asked with a frown, though the Snake seemed adamant.

Well, Inori was dead now and if the look on U-jin’s face was any indication, the others would join Inori if they intervened. Hell, Reiji didn’t want to get on his bad side either.

Hesitation still pervaded his steps but he walked inside as the older nudged him. He mumbled under his breath, ❝ The servants trouble me enough as it is, I hope you know what you’re doing. ❞

Reiji took in his surroundings, letting blue sweep across polished furniture and cluttered papers. Everything here reeked of control. He had never once been allowed near the servants’ offices, let alone their private quarters. Yet now, he was the one invading their quarters with his presence. It was... surreal. To stand in their space. The thought curled at the edge of his lips in an almost smile. His wariness dissipated, replaced with a boldness spurned on by the knowledge that time was slipping.

❝ Oh, I’m definitely burning things after. ❞ His voice was dull as he spoke but his eyes gleamed as he stepped deeper into the office— the cat that ate the canary.

❝ Now, what is it that we're looking for exactly? ❞

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[Lost Echo]

Konishi had spent the past days blank. She’d attached herself like a burr to Saki’s side. Saki, who was free. Saki who she could lose. Had she already lost her? When she was out of her sight, it was hard to remember she hadn’t. Yet.

The bond was gone. Konishi hadn’t really realized there was a tie, beyond circumstantial, between the animals themselves. Maybe Kenta and Tori, who she could hug without activating the curse, but she’d felt the ties were grown from familiarity. Not magic. Nothing like the connection to Arashi. She’d felt safer with some of them, but she’d never felt like her feelings were manufactured. Like she needed to fight to keep her own mind.

But now, she could feel that lack. She still loved Saki. Trusted her, felt safe. But there was a distance that she couldn’t stand. The emotions suddenly felt fragile. Like she’d lose her big sister just like she’d lost her family.

So she just clung to her during the passing days, feebly grateful her friend let her. It took at least a day before she started to think again. The curse could be broken. Saki had proved this. Maybe she had to be strong like the bo--woman. Not this broken thing she felt inside.

They were lounging in Saki’s room--Ko hadn’t returned to hers since she’d grabbed her unpacked bag. The sheep was knitting in silence, trying to work up the courage to ask. She felt she could tell Saki anything. But she had already known it did not go both ways. Murasaki held herself strong, not wanting to worry anyone else. Konishi had tried to support her, to help, but mostly she respected her wishes and hadn’t pushed. If helping Konishi feel better helped Saki, Konishi would keep herself open to the woman.

Only when she’d found her brother did she pull back. She didn’t know why. Maybe it was fear that Arashi could make her talk. Maybe ti was the first time she had something important to share. It had only been since they were all called back for the New Year that Konishi had fallen back to her place at Saki’s side.

Konishi looked up from the sweater she was making--the pattern complicated to distract her--when she heard a knock. Even before she opened it, the sheep knew it was the Dragon waiting behind the door. How? Was it that Rui Xi was the bo--woman’s best friend? But then it would have been a guess. Konishi was positive of the source of the knock. It had to have been the bound. The one that Saki had broken.

The lawyer and teacher were still connected though. How had she not noticed before? It had been easy to hate Rui Xi, even with this bond: the power of her pain blocking it out. It was because the purple haired woman was so strong that, like Arashi, Konishi had not looked past her facade. Now she realized for all that her animal was the Dragon, she was acting under the Servants’ direction. The sheep had assumed that as a mythical beast, the older woman could have fought against them, but perhaps not.

Murasaki opened the door to reveal Rui Xi, who came in as the brunette backed up. Konishi blinked at their host, surprised to see her making tea. She noticed when the bed shifted as the woman stood, but she did not automatically track her, like she did without effort before. The youngest felt she should have made the tea, but still merely said thank you when given a cup. She wrapped her hands around the warm mug, breathing in the scent. It was Jasmine, her favorite. It helped remind her that Saki still knew her. She wasn’t completely gone, just free.

Then like she had so many times before, Murasaki wanted Konishi to speak. She could tell the prompt was directed to both of them. Questions bubbled at her tongue, and even she wasn’t sure which would come out first. “Did it hurt? Then? Does it hurt now?”

They were from her concern for her elder sister, more so than any fear of pain on her own. She still wanted to ask how: what Konishi could do to break free too. She hadn’t believed it was possible before. She’d been planning on just dying. Leaving her students behind was hard, but she would have lost them in the next school year anyway. It was readily apparent that her family would never know her again, so what ties did she have to make her want to fight? It had seemed logical to just accept it. To try and get the message out to her parents, selfishly making them know, had been her only loose end.

She’d had no hope. What about the curse and the lifestyle they were stuck in could any grow? But now her mind could see a different outcome. If only she could figure out, “How did you do it?”

Steve Jobs leviohsa

 

[Steve Jobs]

The Dragon reaches out.

Zhou Rui Xi

Saki's door was open, but she wasn't home. No, she along with the others departed as soon as they broke the curse. It was in these darker times that The Dragon wandered back into the former Boar's room. They promised they'd escape together, but Saki couldn't wait any longer and Rui Xi wouldn't be the one to hold her back from a normal life--not when the former Boar gave her so much already. They spoke briefly before she left, promising to exchange texts while Rui Xi continued her search.

"Bring the other glove the next time I see you," she remembered Saki saying before she went away and for the first time in years, The Dragon cried. She had a heart of stone sinking deeper in The Compound's waters--tragedy stricken and bottomless.

Closing the door behind her, Rui Xi gazed at the other host in the room. Konishi, ever the sentimental one, seemed to have the same idea. The difference was that rather than sitting on her phone, The Sheep took to knitting. It seemed a bit too on the nose for someone who would be producing wool soon, but supposed that it was better than waiting until her fingers became hooves.

"I talked to Saki before she left and she told me she had no idea how it happened! Can you believe that? Over ten years of friendship and this is how she repays me." Rui Xi huffed, taking a seat across from her. "So do you have any theories on how to break the curse or do you plan on making yourself a blanket to lay in once the curse takes over?"

mood | Solemn

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location | Saki's Former Room

outfit | casual wear

tag | Konishi Lost Echo

/* ------ credit -- do not remove ------ */

© weldherwings.