Ama-unnie: Already replied to you back on Soshified xDDD
Slave: Already replied to you back on Soshified xDDD
Black Velvet: Roffle, epic joke xDDD But yeah snap! Fany! :0
DOUBLE UPDATE o_O
FOUR :: The Devil in Miss Hwang
Jessica felt the shivers all over her body, even feeling her spine shaking to the very core. Slender fingers caressed her cool shoulders almost tenderly, as if afraid to break her. However, the feeling didn’t last long, for Tiffany began to dig her nails into her skin. As a reflex, Jessica expanded her ice energy, causing the other to take her hands off of her. She jumped ahead and turned around, fists at the ready.
When she looked, she saw that Tiffany’s hands were frosty and shaking uncontrollably thanks to her lowering of her surface temperature earlier. A smirk followed, but despite that, Jessica’s mind still kept on guard, ready to react to every move.
She watched carefully as the other brushed off the ice crystals forming on her hands, seemingly not too affected by the cold anymore. However, remembering the stunt the other pulled with her balcony door, Jessica couldn’t risk another building destroyed by her fault. She kept glancing back and forth between the way out and at the demon of a muse standing before her. Calculating the distance and her ability, she decided to go for it and pushed against the floor with her foot, suddenly sliding across the ground as if it was an ice rink and that she was wearing invisible skates.
Tiffany immediately followed suit, dashing as though she was the very wind itself. The icy woman jumped out of the window and began running up the building opposite the one she temporarily stayed in, making ice ledges appear out of the wall thanks to the pipeline lined up behind the wall. In pursuit, Tiffany jumped back and forth between the narrow valley between the buildings to catch up.
Reaching the top first, Jessica tightened her fist and turned around, punching Tiffany square in the face as she made her final jump. As she staggered in the air, Jessica grabbed onto her ankle and slammed her onto the ground, letting loose a super ice cold punch into the other’s chest afterwards. Before she could pull her fist away after contact, Tiffany immediately grabbed onto her and flipped positions, making her on top.
Not allowing the advantage, Jessica rolled forward when the other did, causing her to be on top once more. She grabbed the muse by the neck and was about to let an ice spiked punch run into her face when she felt the other’s legs kick against her chest, throwing her off of her.
She struggled to scramble back on her feet, having the wind knocked out of her earlier. When she stood, Tiffany had grabbed the back of her head and slammed her face into the ground, eliciting a scream from the latter.
“Scream for me again…” Tiffany smiled lovingly before slamming Jessica’s head straight into the floor once more. As she brought her head back up, a trail of blood followed suit. As the muse lifted her up again, Jessica felt the blood dripping down her face once more. Crimson eyes scrutinized her bloodied face, almost smiling like the creepy grin she wore.
Jessica could have sworn she felt goose bumps threatening to jump from her skin when she felt Tiffany’s tongue trace the blood up her face.
“My, what delicious
despair you have…” Tiffany drawled in a wistful voice. Jessica could only growl as she watched Tiffany licking her lips for any blood gone astray from her mouth. Gathering her energy once more, the icy woman attempted to force her powers into her feet. Feeling enough stored energy, she stamped the ground, causing several waves of ice spikes to protrude from the ground in a straight line.
Not one to easily fall for tricks, Tiffany easily backed up out of the way before ice spikes could impale her. She watched amusedly as the spikes melted quickly with Jessica panting—exhausted.
Tilting her head in a twisted smile, Tiffany used the essence of wind to suddenly appear in front of the other, stunning her with the outrageous speed. She brought her arm back and impaled her in the chest—or at least, attempted to.
Jessica had managed to grab onto her arm and pulled her in for the hardest head-butt she ever felt, enhanced with ice and all. As the devil of a person staggered backwards, Jessica came up with an ice-charged one-two punch before pulling back, and then returning once more for more quick jabs. After a series of furious jabs and quick feints, she pulled back one final time and then hastily returned with a fierce uppercut, sending Tiffany flying backwards.
She returned into her default position, keeping her fists up near her face and ready to show off more of her boxing moves.
Tiffany merely got up and brought her hand to the side of her face, cracking the bones in her neck. Jessica flinched slightly at the sounds of the other’s bones creaking like a floorboard. When the muse charged, the bronze-headed woman skated out of the way, planting her hand on the ground and then twirling around to kick Tiffany in the back with an icy arc following the trail her foot went.
The crimson-eyed woman grunted in pain as she nearly tripped forward, feeling the ice stinging in her wounds before dissipating into water. She turned around only to be met with a harsh uppercut to the jaw. However, as she flew upwards, she flipped and landed on her feet in a perfectly straight position, earning a glare from the other party.
“What are
little girls made of?” Tiffany smiled as she walked towards the other. Jessica threw another long-distance ice punch only for it to be caught by the muse’s hand and crushed.
“Sugar…”
The taller threw another with her other hand, only to see Tiffany bat the ice spear away.
“Spice…”
The bloodied woman was about to throw another when Tiffany reappeared in front of her and grabbed her fist.
“…And everything nice~!”
Jessica howled in pain when she felt the bones in her hand crack and splinter under Tiffany’s crushing grasp.
“
That’s my girl…” The short haired woman laughed, satisfied with the scream, “Now allow me to break your despair…”
“Not a chance!” Jessica grunted as her grabbed hand suddenly grew ice spikes as if it was a sea urchin, puncturing Tiffany’s hand a lot more than once. Despite the countless bleeding holes now present in the other’s hand, her grip held strong. The icy woman could only narrow her eyes once more, upset that the stunt didn’t work.
She didn’t have the strength to call upon her ice powers to do anything else either, so all she could do was grit her teeth and hope that her rescuer would come quick.
That late woman is getting closer though… If I stall Miyoung long enough, she’ll be able to arrive and do her in before I get TOO weak… Jessica thought methodically as she attempted to lower her hand’s temperature again, hoping that it could go low enough to freeze flesh like last time. To her surprise, Tiffany released her.
“How about a game of hide and seek?” the muse smirked as she licked her bloody hand.
Jessica kept her guard up, but listened.
“I will close my eyes and count to ten…and you will try to run as far as possible, how’s that for a fun game?” Tiffany brought her fingers together and tilted her head in an eye-smile. “I’ll start counting now…”
Before the muse could say ‘one,’ Jessica already turned around and skated away from the demonic woman. Using the ‘game’ to her advantage, she fled towards the general direction of her rescuer. With her skating across the rooftops, she felt the distance between her and her only hope for salvation become smaller and smaller. Despite the rapidly closing distance, Jessica knew it would still take a while until she met with the other person.
While she ran, she grabbed her pulverized hand with the other and braced herself. She cracked her bones into place, making her hand cold enough to not feel a thing as she corrected her bone structure. However, she couldn’t help but let out a dolphin-pitched squeal as she felt the vestiges of pain shoot up her arm while her internal icing receded back into her core.
She returned her inner ice’s attention towards her feet, creating the icy friction on the ground to skate on. Before she knew it, she found herself at a building still in the process of being constructed, for she landed on raw, wooden panels and found herself surrounded by plastic sections, probably indicating new rooms.
As she skated, she suddenly stopped when she heard a voice echoing throughout the maze-like corridors.
That voice…
Damn! She counted to ten and caught up with me already!? Jessica could feel herself sweating as the chilling voice ricocheted off cement and plastic walls.
“
Twinkle twinkle little star…” the low voice danced in the air, causing the former to shiver in goose bumps. Jessica quickly ducked low, slowly navigating through the maze without a sound.
“
How I wonder what you are…”
She wasn’t sure if Tiffany was doing that on purpose so that she’d figure out her location, but whatever the case, she made sure to attempt to navigate away from the voice so as to avoid running into her.
“
Up above the world so high… Like a diamond in the sky…”
She stopped at an intersection, heard the voice coming from the left, so she headed north, seeing that heading right would lead into a dead end.
“
When the blazing sun is gone… When there’s nothing shined upon…”
Jessica nervously gulped, freaked out that the voice suddenly appeared closer, but yet, so muffled and far. She kept moving, though paranoid eyes still wandered about, watching for the shadows above her.
“
Then you show your little light… Twinkle Twinkle all the night….”
All of a sudden, she saw the silhouette of Tiffany’s looming figure appear parallel to her position in another hallway, separated by obscure plastic. She kept very still and watched the shadow.
“
Then the traveler in the dark… Thanks you for your tiny spark…”
The footsteps echoed louder and louder with each step that Tiffany took. Beads of sweat traveled down Jessica’s brow as she watched the shadow get closer and closer…
“
He could not see which way to go…”
Jessica continued to stay as still as an opossum playing dead, not intending to move even when the shadow passed by in the other hallway.
“
If you did not twinkle so…”
Jessica took a slow glance backwards, and to her relief, she saw that the shadow had disappeared—probably just turned a corner. With a triumphant smile, she turned her face forward once more…
…Only to be met with a smiling Tiffany. Jessica staggered backwards, falling on her butt at the sudden sight.
“
In the dark blue sky you keep…” a fanged grin appeared at Tiffany’s lips.
“
And often through my curtains peep…”
Jessica backed up with her hands and feet, though her rear remained glued to the ground in fear.
“
For you never shut your eye…” Tiffany walked closer and closer, keeping her arm outstretched at her side, ready to use it to pierce through the other.
“
Til the sun is in the sky…”
Jessica felt her rescuer’s presence within the building now, though given with the way it’s signaled, it seemed that it was coming from several floors below… She gritted her teeth, hoping that that woman would come just in time…
“
As your bright and tiny spark…Lights the traveler in the dark…”
Her heartbeats pumped faster and faster, threatening to jump out of her chest any minute now. The distance between her presence and her help’s presence was closing faster and faster, but not fast enough!!
“
Though I know not what you are…” Tiffany pulled her hand back, ready to thrust it into Jessica’s chest… “
Twinkle Twinkle, little star…”
Ten thin wires shot through the floor surrounding Tiffany, then wrapped around her all of a sudden and dragged her down along with the floor which crumbled beneath her. Soon after, a tall, lean woman jumped onto Jessica’s floor from the new hole in the ground. Soft delicate features smiled serenely from seeing Jessica’s face, and she too found herself smiling at the new arrival.
“I’ve come,” an airy, low voice whispered in the fine air. Black raven hair hugged the woman’s honey-toned face, a dark alluring gaze invited a world of abyssal darkness in the form of black pearls.
Words couldn’t come out of Jessica. Instead, she ran forth and hugged the taller woman—though not without punching her in the gut first.
“Yuri, you’re late…” Jessica grumbled into the other’s chest, clinging tighter “As my servant, you are to
never be this late again, you hear?”
Yuri could only chuckle as she ran her clawed gloves through Jessica’s long luscious curls, “As you wish, my mistress.”
Though their moment was short lived as Tiffany clapped aloud, causing the two to immediately turn around with Yuri’s arm pushing Jessica behind her protectively. Although glaring, Yuri’s gentle eyes remained delicate and muted. The muse sat with her feet dangling over the hole in the floor.
“So we have Bruce Wayne and Alfred… How touching~” the short haired woman laughed, clearly amused by it all.
Although frowning, Yuri’s face perpetuated the beautiful serene look. She flared her black and steel clawed gloves, ready for anything. As Tiffany disappeared, Yuri immediately swiped at the air, wires flying out from the tip of her fingers. Suddenly, Jessica saw Tiffany thrown aback, now with a scratch mark upon her cheek. The thin wires retracted back into Yuri’s gloves as quickly as they came out.
Jessica knew Yuri wouldn’t fail to protect her. After all, the guard was always stronger than the one being protected, and Yuri definitely did not fall short of that expectation. Hell, she knew Yuri’s skills surpassed her own by far. It didn’t surprise her that the taller’s eyes could keep up with Tiffany’s speed while her own couldn’t.
Even Tiffany was irked by strength of the newcomer. For once, her crimson eyes did not smile and instead, glared contemptuously at the servant. Jessica had to say though, a glaring Tiffany was far scarier than a smiling Tiffany.
“Mistress…” Yuri said cautiously, “Run away. I’ll find you after I subdue her…” she flared out her claws like an animal ready to strike. Jessica obliged and skated out of the area, leaving Yuri and Tiffany to stare down at each other.
Who made the first move, no one knew. Wired swipes and punches quickly exchanged in a furious onslaught of blows. Hell, most of the fight could hardly be processed in the eyes of normalcy. Yuri and Tiffany’s hands were mere blurs to the eyes of normal humans, yet to the trained eyes of writers and fiction alike, they would have seen a fury of blazing moves which almost blurred with each fast movement made. However, the winner of the bout seemed as clear as day.
Tiffany felt like she was facing a woman with ten arms. Each wire seemed to move with a mind of its own. The muse wasn’t sure if it was because they
did have a mind of their own or Yuri’s slender fingers were
that skilled, but she was
definitely sure that she would have to use her full strength to combat the deft servant.
Firstly, she had to get close enough so that the darker woman couldn’t use her annoyingly distant wires. With the back of her hands as her price, Tiffany continued to parry the wires until she was close enough for hand-to-hand combat. The muse found herself in a situation more than what she bargained for, for despite the discontinued use of her wires, Yuri proved more than capable of holding her own in a fist fight. In fact, she was lethal in the exact same way Tiffany was, for those steel claws could definitely cut through flesh as easily as the muse’s hardened nails could.
Like Jessica, Yuri’s moves were easily reminiscent of a pro boxer, only her attacks were far more graceful and precise than her mistress’s. Not only that, Yuri’s hands weren’t curled into fists, but instead, her fingers were curled outwards so that the force punching wasn’t her knuckles, but her rather sharp pointy clawed gloves. Each piece of metal intricately hugged her slender fingers from the knuckles and up, but were long and pointy enough to be considered claws. At the base of each claw was a tiny enough spindle which could easily be mistaken for her knuckles, hiding her ultra thin but deadly strong wires within.
Punch after punch, kick after kick, there was a stalemate between the two opposing forces. They both grabbed each other by the neck. With their other hand, they batted the neck grasping hand away and had a mini scuffle before finding themselves grabbing each other by the throat with the same hand once more. They both attempted to move and they both switched places on the spot with the way they strafed using the same foot. Both pulled their hands back and simply just punched each other in the face, not bothering to block.
Afterwards, they grabbed the other by the shoulders and both attempted to knee each other, though to no avail as their choice of attack met symmetrically and simply canceled each other out. Fed up, Tiffany threw the taller against the plastic, only for Yuri to slash at it and land perfectly on all fours in the other hall. Allowing feral instincts to take over, the muse jumped in after, pulling in a punch and releasing it with all of her might. The servant managed to move her head just in time, though her eyes widened at the crater on the floor that resulted from meeting Tiffany’s fist.
She couldn’t get up just yet, for the devil of a muse had her trapped between her legs. Yuri kicked her legs out, doing a split which caused the shorter to do a pained split as well before she sat up and grabbed her neck with both claws. Tiffany’s hands shot up to Yuri’s, attempting to pry them off but to no avail.
For once in the fight so far, the gorgeous beauty seemed unnerved. Random strands of her dark hair flew in front of her face. The black button-up blouse she wore grew dusty and so did her matching black pants. She watched hesitantly as blood-red eyes slowly lost precious life.
“Willing…to kill an innocent…?” Tiffany rasped out, struggling to remove Yuri’s death-grip on her throat.
The servant’s eyes darkened, but she still kept at choking the other. “The deserving… The innocent… My mistress and I have killed them all,” the strangler admitted through a solemn voice. “You will be no different.”
“Heh…” Tiffany grinned amidst her struggle, “you two… the
despair you both have…
So tantalizing…”
Yuri’s face did not change in the least, but her grip grew tighter and tighter. She could just see the loathsome crimson eyes rolling up in the back of Tiffany’s head…
She was caught off-guard when she felt a kick in the face. She was knocked backwards and could have sworn she could feel two shoe marks on the side of her face. She shakily grabbed her face in pain, but secretly was relieved to find that she really didn’t have shoe imprints on her face. She quickly glanced up at her attacker.
“Leave. I have her under control.”
She was almost stunned at the sight of what seemed to look like a kid, but closer inspection led her to believe that this woman had more years on her belt than she assumed. Her shoes seemed to have sprung blades at the side and when she looked around, she found that the hallways have been cut through.
In the woman’s hand was Tiffany’s wrist, now adorned in a long red and white bracelet which crossed about three times and was still hanging a bit loosely on her arm. Yuri acknowledged the sight and stood up, not fearing any danger that the muse posed now that the rosaries were placed.
“Thank you,” Yuri breathed out before fleeing the scene, leaving the woman with the now unconscious Tiffany.
Now…Taeyeon looked down at the limp woman she was holding onto, staring at the bracelet which she had just placed on. If the muse was conscious, she would have seen those crimson eyes flicker back into smiling chocolate eyes. She would have seen the adorable woman hyperventilating that she had kissed her twice instead of the homicidal maniac she was nearly ripped to shred by.
“I’m definitely gonna have
a lot to explain when she wakes up…”
What will the future bring?FIVE :: Hold my Hand
“Mistress, hold still…” Yuri retorted as she attempted to keep Jessica’s body from wriggling too much. The two were in a dimly lit motel room. Outside, the silver moon hung high in the black canvas of a sky.
“Somehow… That Miyoung upsets me…” the icy woman exasperated as she wrapped her arm in a bandage.
“Miyoung… You’ve met the lady before?” the servant cocked her head sideways while she wrapped up her master’s abdomen in bandages as well.
“At first, I thought she was another one of
his people, so I blew her off, but then I realized that she really
was just a dumb outsider after conversing with her for a bit…” Jessica sighed as she leaned back into Yuri, resting her head backwards on her shoulder. “Her being a muse
really surprised me though… It was the first time I saw one. We’ve only really heard about them from the other writers, right?” Weary brown eyes looked up at soft black pearls.
Yuri nodded in agreement, putting away the gauzes and other equipment in the first aid kit. “I almost thought she was some sort of S-class, but her eyes were red instead of silver, so that set me off.”
“Did you kill her?”
Yuri blinked. “Come again?”
“Did you kill her?” Jessica asked again.
“I didn’t. Someone came with the Muse Rosaries before I could strangle her.”
“That’s too bad…” Jessica sighed, “
You should have.”
“Mistress?” Yuri looked at her worriedly.
“Being killed by us is better than being killed by
him…”
Inspiration is the essence of Creation…Miyoung felt like she jumped out of a forty story building—and survived. As the vestiges of sleep left her body, pain soon entered. First off, her hand was
killing her and she felt like she had one of the biggest migraines to date. When she opened her eyes, she was greeted with the blurry world. She rubbed her eyes sleepily, but was surprised when she felt various
clicks and
clacks on her face.
When her vision cleared, she saw that her left hand had some weird red and white beaded bracelet. Scratch that, it actually looked like some sort of prayer beads or rosary beads wrapped around her wrist about three or four times.
She stared.
She looked around her and found herself in a very unfamiliar room.
Dot.
Dot.
Dot.
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON!?Estranged eyes widened while her hands pulled the blanket up beneath her eyes. Last thing she remembered was being held hostage…
Release me…That was the voice she heard before she remembered being consumed in some sort of pitch blackness… And that was it.
Just nothing.
She rolled her eyes upwards to find that there was a window behind the bed she was on. Outside, the moon hovered in the darkness, lighting the city in a silvery landscape. Before Miyoung could wonder how long she was out, the door opened and a scrawny teenager walked in. When enlarged timid eyes met with her own, the lanky girl turned around.
“Unnie! She’s awake!” and with that, the tall girl swiftly came by Miyoung’s side and placed a skinny hand on her forehead. “Good, your fever’s down…”
The Californian opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was groans and garbled messes, definitely
not what she wanted to say.
Soon after, a petite woman waltzed through the doorway and she immediately recognized her as that lady she crashed into on her scooter and kissed her tw—oh god, what happened to her
scooter!?
She moaned in pain when she attempted to rise out of the bed, coercing the two strange women to push her back down.
“P-please!” the timid girl stuttered, “You were bleeding
everywhere when U-Unnie b-brought you in and I t-thought you broke your ribs and your hand was just s-so badly
disfigured and not to mention you lost
so much blood…”
Miyoung just wanted to shut her up for talking too much, but the kid just looked
too adorable for her to even
think about harming her. But processing all the information she was spewing out, it was no wonder why she felt like she’d been hit by a speeding car.
But what in the world happened!?
Therefore, Inspiration could give birth to anything…“Seohyun, calm down…” the smaller woman placed her hand on the said girl’s shoulder, “just sit back and relax…”
The skinny girl called Seohyun looked up at the other, almost about to tear up, before backing off and sitting on the bed opposite of Miyoung.
“Well uh… There’s going to be a lot of things I have to explain…” the woman clad in a white tank top and light blue pajama pants raised a hand to scratch her nose. “Firstly, can you talk now?”
Miyoung attempted to talk once more, but her voice still came out a garbled mess. However, as she kept going, she was able to form words and sentences.
“Alright, you’re good!” the woman let out a thumbs up, “My name is Kim Taeyeon. The girl with me is Seo Joohyun, but she seems to respond to mashing her name up like ‘Seohyun’ or even ‘Seo-delicious’ just fine, (“U-Unnie!!” Seohyun looked up in bewilderment.) so call her whatever.”
“Hwang Miyoung…or Stephanie…” Miyoung managed to say, though it sounded more like a mumble more than anything.
“Alright then, Miyoung, you’re about to hear things that will sound
really crazy but—”
“Oh believe me girl, I’ve just seen crazy, so I’m just gonna believe everything you say,” Miyoung cut in, not caring if she was rude.
“Well then clear your mind out and listen carefully…” Taeyeon said steadily, unsure of the other’s reaction. Seohyun leaned back against the wall on her bed, holding tightly onto her Keroro plushie.
“The monsters you saw yesterday are called
fiction. They are creatures born from the negative thoughts of people. There are five levels that they’re classified under: D-class, C-class, B-class, A-class, and S-class. The higher the rank, the stronger and more
human they look. However, all of them are distinguished by their silver eyes, since they are made of negative emotions. Yesterday, that goblin thing I skewered was C-class and the guy that held you hostage was A-class. Do you understand so far?”
Miyoung nodded.
“Seohyun and I are a part of an organization called the
Writers’ Guild. We are hunters—
writers, rather—that hunt fiction and eliminate them. Our members are all over the world, hunting fiction behind the scenes.”
“Alright…” the American nodded slowly, taking in the information.
“The leader of the Writers’ Guild—the
Poet—is José Mederos of Peru. Each country has a super strong writer that represents our country; their position is called a
Novelist. Kwon BoA is our South Korean representative. Every so often, Mederos-oppa visits the countries and meets with the novelists to see how the writers are doing. You understand so far?”
“Uh… I guess… Why do I have to learn about your organization?”
“You’re joining it, silly!” Taeyeon waved her hand dismissively as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“You’re kidding!” Miyoung’s eyes widened, “I saw you earlier! You were like
Bruce Lee on those fiction things! I can’t possibly do that!”
“Yes you can.”
“No I can’t!”
“Well, you’re a LOT stronger than me when you’re in Muse mode, so of course you can!” Taeyeon laughed, although a bit nervously.
“Muse?” Miyoung raised a brow, “Do continue…”
“Well uh… How to go on about this… The history of Muses…”
“You can start with World War II, Unnie…” Seohyun added in weakly.
“Ah, yeah!” Taeyeon looked like a lightbulb went off in her head, “Alright! Adolf Hitler was Germany’s Novelist back in the day. He was adamant on creating an army of writers and taking over the world with it. However, because of the war’s negative feelings and all that stuff, a lot of fiction rose and it was causing a huge fuss within the guild. So Hitler experimented on people to see if he can create the ultimate destroyer—
the perfect predator—for fiction. He did all this under the guise of what was called the Holocaust. You understand?”
“Alright… Hitler was a power-hungry Novelist who used the Jewish people as his guinea pigs to find the best anti-Fiction fighters… Okay…”
“It took a while, but his research team managed to find the perfect weapon… and that’s when Muses were created.”
“I see…”
“I don’t know how the process is done, but as a result of that process, Muses were created. As Hitler wanted, they were the ideal predators for Fiction. They feed off of fiction and grow stronger with each fictional heart they devour. However, the weird thing about Muses is that they all… well… have a
split personality… And their split personalities tend to be prone to violence and often can’t recognize friend or foe. I’ve heard that the split personality is built upon the person’s true emotions deep down inside, but I could be wrong. Also, since Hitler trained them to hunt for negative emotion,
it’s built into their instincts. So as a result, Muses have been killing both fiction and normal people whose emotions run amok, so all of us had to do something about those crazy split personalities… So Hitler’s team of scientists created that…” Taeyeon pointed to the beads loosely restricting Miyoung’s wrist.
“So… if I take this off, I’ll become my
other self?” Miyoung had to admit, the idea of her becoming some sort of deranged psychopathic maniac didn’t settle with her very well.
“As long as there’s the muse rosaries present, you should be able to fight fiction without a problem. Of course, you’re gonna have to have someone with you to put the beads back on before you go around attacking others, but it’s the best we can do so far…” Seohyun added timidly, clinging even tighter to her frog plushie.
“So in other words… the Fiction are bad guys… Writers are policemen… and Muses are attack dogs…?” Miyoung nodded slowly, still trying to process everything.
“When you put it that way, sure!” Taeyeon smiled. “So yes, welcome to the family!”
“… I can’t turn my back on this, can I?” For once, Miyoung frowned as she looked at the red and white beads on her arm. “Not with this… thing in me…”
Taeyeon’s expression grew sullen at the sudden downpour of the atmosphere. “…No… You can’t… When you’re a muse, I don’t think there’s any way you can go on living a normal life…”
Miyoung’s fingers idly played with the beads. “Um… I’m feeling better now… Will you two let me walk outside for a bit? I really need time to swallow all of this…”
The other two looked at each other before signaling a nod. “Um, your scooter is downstairs. I kept it safe for you,” Taeyeon quickly added when she saw Miyoung slowly get up. “Sorry, but we had to rummage through your luggage to see what you had. I added the store’s number to your phone.”
It took a while for Miyoung to get it, but she snapped out of her reverie soon after. She nodded clumsily before stepping out of the room. The sight of the nearly empty living room met her. She saw that there were various other rooms littered throughout the house, but paid no attention to them. There was a kitchen nearby with an island counter that separated it from the living room. There were windows present and suddenly, she had the feeling that she wasn’t on ground floor.
“The stairs are that-a-way~,” Taeyeon made a waving motion with her fingers, pointing to the corresponding door. The muse nodded warily and followed the direction down, holding onto the stairwell railing feebly as she walked down. The closer she was to the bottom, the stronger the scent became.
When she opened the door at the bottom, she was swept away.
Multitudes of flowers basked in the moonlight before her. Even the stars would be envious of the plethora of colors illuminating a silvery beautiful glow far beautiful than their own. A new aroma filled her nostrils with each step she took in the Eden-like garden. She felt like a little girl again, nearly wanting to prance in this field of wonder. Before she could even do so, she felt the door creak behind her and she turned around.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Taeyeon grinned goofily as she scratched the back of her head humbly.
“Y-yeah…” Miyoung was still at a loss of words. She turned her head and looked at all of the flowers once more, feeling invigorated just at the sight of them. She could even feel her strength come back to her.
“The name of this shop is
Amizade,” the proprietor hopped over the counter and sat on top, dangling her legs above the ground. “It’s Portuguese for ‘Friendship,’ nifty, huh?”
“Friendship…” Miyoung repeated, letting the soft words escape her lips, “why’d you choose that for a title? Not that I think it’s lame or anything, but why?”
“Hnn…” Taeyeon imitated ‘the thinker’ statue from above the counter, earning a smile from the taller. “Personally, I think things like friendship and bonds are really important. Flowers can be used to help out friendships, relationships, anything! At least, that’s my intention for the store, haha…”
Miyoung wanted to hug the other for being so humbly adorable, but refrained since she wasn’t sure Koreans were apt to physical affections like Americans were.
“Honestly though, we’re really short-handed here. Our wages are
extremely high thanks to… both of our jobs… Not to mention we have PLENTY of room to live in upstairs, so we could really use your help and we could use more writers around here!”
“You sound like busy people, definitely,” the short-haired woman beamed, “actually, um, since you’re so busy… does that mean there’s a lot of…
jobs?” She wasn’t sure if she could bring up the word ‘fiction’ so easily. She was still processing everything…
“BoA-unnie assigned me to this section of the city, and it’s a reeeeaaaaaally huge section too. This section has all of the business firms and factories and such, so the fictional jobs can get super hectic at times.”
“So there’s another writer in the other section?”
“Yup! This city’s huge, but definitely not something like say, Seoul. So this city’s divided into two sections under the decree of a Novelist before Boa-Unnie. I run this half of the city and a good friend of mine runs the other half! Our “bases” are situated in the center of our sections. So it’s actually a long walk and a long drive to get to each other,” at this point, Taeyeon was now swinging her feet back and forth. “But I think I’ll just stop here for today. I’ll tell you about Canvases and Instruments another time, that’s diving into Fiction affinities and elements, but I’ll wait til you get cozy with the business, kay?” the short kko kko ma owner waved a finger back and forth. “Now you should go on your walk, you said you needed one, right?”
“Uh…Yeah…” Miyoung totally forgot about that, but now she wasn’t sure if she wanted to anymore… Deciding to go with the spur of the moment, she turned towards the entrance.
“Yah! Miyoung!”
She turned around again.
“Fighting!” Taeyeon shook a fist in the air, smiling a bright silly grin to the other.
The American couldn’t help but laugh as she waved back and soon left the store. Breathing in the fresh air after the fresh flowers felt especially great! She couldn’t help but continue to beam and smile with her eyes at the support Taeyeon was giving her.
She really is a nice person… Miyoung stuck her hands in her pockets, hearing the faint clacks of her rosaries bumping into each other. Her thoughts were soon interrupted when she managed to pass by a store window, the glass showing her reflection clearly. She suddenly realized that she had a patch on her left cheek. She saw bits of a blue covered by her bangs and she lifted them up, finding one unsightly bruise on her forehead.
Come to think of it, she remembered seeing her left hand all bandaged up save for her fingers. She looked at her right hand to find that there was another mysterious bruise around her knuckles.
What in the world did I do while I was out…? She thought concernedly. Immediately, her mind went back to the voice inside her head before. With what Taeyeon said before, that must have been her inner muse speaking… Then the horrifying thoughts came.
I went and transformed, didn’t I? I killed someone or something, didn’t I? Did I end up attacking Taeyeon?But Inspiration could also lead to ruin…Fear began to crawl up her veins. It prowled around her skin like a million spiders frisking along. At the thought of the creepy crawlers, she became immobilized—scared, unable to move.
“Hey.
American girl. You should consider moving out of the way if you intend to daydream like that.”
She snapped her head right at the familiar voice. Her eyes brightened and smiled once more at the sight of another known face. What made her even happier was that the other had finally sought medical attention to her wounds!
“You’re all healed!” Miyoung cried out as she pranced over to bear-hug the unsuspecting woman. However, she got more than she bargained for; it felt like she ran over and tackled a statue on a freezing day. “Jeez! Do you have hypothermia or something!?” she said aloud as she backed her head from the hug.
“Y-you’re breaking things…” Jessica wheezed, causing the former to pull her arms away with an apologetic smile.
It was then she noticed someone standing behind the icy woman. The new woman was tall and well…
drop-dead gorgeous. She wondered if the woman was a super-model, but the moment her staring was noticed, the tallest of the group glared daggers and maybe even
swords at her.
“Whoa there, this is the first time we’ve met! What did I ever do to you!?” Miyoung raised a thick brow.
“……..The
first time we’ve met……?” the woman’s face seemed to twitch a little, as if remembering the most traumatizing event to ever happen in her life.
“Um…” Jessica placed a hand on her hip, at a loss of what to do. She grabbed the taller’s shoulder with a hand and leaned into her, whispering something in the raven-haired woman’s ear. When she pulled away, all Miyoung could do was blink. But when she did, that glaring woman disappeared?
“What was that all about?” the American scratched her brow. “That was the first time I’ve seen her…”
“I’m sure it was,” Jessica simply replied, placing her hands in the pockets of her tan jacket.
“Who is she?”
“Sorry, that’s none of your business,” the bronze-haired woman smiled offhandedly, “are you always asking questions, Stephanie?”
“I only ask questions to annoy pricks,” the muse crossed her arms with a
hmmph afterwards. Unknowingly on Miyoung’s part, the two somehow started to walk around the city again. She had no idea where the other woman was at, but she could have sworn that she felt those glaring daggers again piercing the back of her head. Instead, she paid no attention to that sinking feeling and continued to converse with the other.
“So why are you here in Korea?” Jessica asked as she fiddled with her bangs.
“Eh… Home was bad, so I wanted a new start here in Korea…” and what a new start it was… Miyoung thought nervously, remembering this whole…
fiction business she was supposed to get in to… She looked at her walking companion. She didn’t look pale in the least, but didn’t she usually feel
really cold whenever she touched her? She almost wanted to touch her again, just to test her skin once more. Sub-consciously, she started to fiddle with her own hands, debating on whether to touch the other or not…
Jessica seemed to notice the anxiousness out of the corner of her eye. “You have a bruise on your hand?” she asked, pointing to the said object of question.
“Eh?” the muse blinked before checking her hands again, suddenly remembering that visible bruise on her right hand, “Actually, it’s nothing to worry about…” though it actually was still aching a bit… But she didn’t want to impose on the other.
However, she felt her breath caught in her throat when she felt icy fingers brush down the side of her arm before grabbing her hand firmly. She looked at the other, confused.
“You’d need an icepack for these things, you know,” Jessica chided softly as she avoided looking Miyoung in the eye. “Since I’m the closest thing there is to an ice pack, you should… erm…hold onto me…” the last part was said nearly inaudibly, but she heard every single word.
A smile fought its way to Miyoung’s face when she saw Jessica’s face flush a bright red under the silvery luminescence.
“Um… I apologize if it’s too cold…” the icy woman mumbled aside, seemingly embarrassed by the whole situation.
On the contrary, the cool sensation on her hand felt
just right.
Comments are hawt.
LALALALALALA