View source for 3055/Relief For A Change.

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/01/09
|Location=Plot Room #1
|Synopsis=Ikiko comes over to check up on Lacrima after the events of 'Darkest Nightmare'. Donuts and Talking is hald!
|Cast of Characters=160,75
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima had some workers in today to replace the windows on the backside of the house. This means that, the windows on the back of the house now look bright and new! She doesn't like this because the front still have the original, antique style windows. She sighs a bit as she sits at the table eyeing the small box she removes a finger from. It looks weird magically technological with a red gem on top.<br /><br />It lights green , as she makes a face. "That can't be right, still." she says cautiously.<br /><br />She sighs and shoves another donut into her mouth. Plain cake. She rubs her temples a bit.<br /><br />"Why do I feel so weird, though." she says to herself.<br /><br />"Also I'm talking to myself." she commiserates out loud as she sinks down in the chair towards the floor a moment.<br /><br />"Ughhh....."

:'''{{#var:75|Ikiko Hisakata| (75)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ikiko Hisakata had helped with yard cleanup after the Mockmare Prince incident, making sure the worst of the shards had been picked up and assisting with giving the windows emergency temporary covers. Before she had left that day, she had promised to stop by after the new windows were in, and had left her cellphone number with Lacrima.<br /><br />When the text came in, Ikiko headed over to Lacrima's place, making a small detour along the way. The text mentioned to just come on in, so that's what she does when she gets there.<br /><br />"I'm here~," Ikiko calls from the entry hall upon her arrival, a box of mixed donuts in her arms.

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima shoots her head up and blinks. OH! Right. She invited Ikiko over today. "In here." she says softly, as she crawls out from underneath the table and brushes herself up softly as fast as she can. "Hi Ikiko-chan." she says quietly.<br /><br />She shifts uncomfortably. "Sorry... about the other day." she says. Apologizing you know, for the jerk attacking her.<br /><br />"Thanks for helping." she says quietly. "With the clean up." she says even more quieter.<br /><br />She shifts a back and shoves her finger back into the weird box and sighs a bit with a wince.<br /><br />"You can place the donuts on the table. We'll share them." she says softly.<br /><br />A pause.<br /><br />".....I'm stable now." she says quietly. "But...."<br /><br />"...I'm more stable than I /usually/ am." she says. "I usually have. Some noise. In my readings." she says. "I don't have that right now." she says hesitantly.<br /><br />"....um. Are you. Okay?" she asks. "I haven't. Been able to touch everyone yet." she says as she shifts uncomfortably.<br /><br />"....did...." she mutters. "Did I actually kiss Ariel-chan or did I imagine that...?" she asks a little softly.

:'''{{#var:75|Ikiko Hisakata| (75)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ikiko Hisakata smiles at Lacrima and heads over to the table, placing the box on the table and opening it up before giving the vampire a quick hug. "It's what friends do," she points out. "Even if we ''do'' have a somewhat awkward frenemy relationship going on."<br /><br />Her eyebrows (and a corner of her mouth) go up at the mention of increased stability, plus the two questions. "Between Alexis' shield and that fast combination beatdown, I pretty much wound up unscathed," she admits. "Some of the wolfmotes got slightly rattled while helping to keep the layers of protection up, but I swear they recover faster than '''I''' do, and that's saying something.<br /><br />It takes a smidge of effort to keep the grin down to merely a cheerful smile, but Ikiko does try, in an effort to be polite to Lacrima's dignity. "It's good to hear that you seem to be more okay than usual, if I'm understanding you correctly," Ikiko remarks, buying a moment to keep the smile from cranking up. "And yes, you kissed Ariel for a moment or two before passing out. I know I saw a small smile on her face afterwards, and oddly enough I swear I saw a hint of an honest smile on ''your'' face before you lost consciousness."<br /><br />She headtilts at Lacrima. "I mean, on anyone else I'd be certain that it was a faint happy smile, but I certainly didn't expect to see it on ''your'' face," she points out.

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima @emit Lacrima nods. "Usually. My dark energy signature has some noise. But that's to be expected. I'm cursed and all. I didn't want this. So I assume it was because of that, since. Most. Dark energy things have some base stability and my signature was more... associated with. Like. Those people who become monsters temporarily sometimes?" she asks. "When they get poisoned by dark energy or something." she says.<br /><br />"So I mean. It's. 'good' from a perspective of that it means it should be.. easier to control some things. More. Predictability. Is good." she says quietly.<br /><br />"I'm not. Sure of other effects." she says. She shifts.<br /><br />She blushes fiercely and brings her hands to her face when it's confirmed that she did indeed kiss Ariel. And the specifics of it which causes her to rest her head, face down.<br /><br />"I've smiled a little here or there. or tried to. It doesn't surprise me. If I smiled at that." she says. ".....at least. You're saying she smiled too." she mutters. "But..."<br /><br />"If I just go kissing someone.... I'm no better than Seth." she laments.<br /><br />"I'll need to talk to her tonight...." when she dreams of course.

:'''{{#var:75|Ikiko Hisakata| (75)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"It's the fact that it seemed to be a reflexive smile that caught me off guard," Ikiko notes. "Like it wasn't a conscious 'I am going to smile now' kind of thing, but was more of a 'happiness automatically causes a smile' natural reaction."<br /><br />She winces slightly at the comparison used in the lament, but nods at the truth of it. "I'd call it a moment of addled exuberance instead of a deliberate move, but yeah, an apology would be the wisest course of action," she agrees. "Just because it's not uncommon for people to celebrate oddly when they find themselves with unexpected survival doesn't mean that it's all acceptable."<br /><br />There's a brief pause as Ikiko bites a donut and chews on what Lacrima said about stability. "''Have'' you noticed any other effects yet?" the sometime-wolfgirl asks after swallowing her bite of donut.

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima steals a donut as the device bings green again as she sighs and removes her finger and shoves the donut into her mouth with a blush.<br /><br />"I d--don't think. it was. In exuberance." she says quietly as she swallows the donut. "I..I just. Need to speak to her. Okay." she mutters.<br /><br />She shrinks a bit at that, as she bites her donut against.<br /><br />She mutters.<br /><br />"Kind of..." she says quietly.<br /><br />"I feel relived." she says quietly.<br /><br />"I know that's. Hard for you to understand." she says quietly.<br /><br />"Bit I /never/ feel that." she says. "I always feel worried. And I usually just return to.. caution." she says.<br /><br />"But I feel. Relived." she says quietly. "That I'm okay right now." she says softly. "Which isn't something I usually feel like." she says.

:'''{{#var:75|Ikiko Hisakata| (75)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Indirect happiness," Ikiko finally says. "I've had relatives who have seemed much happier once they're no longer under a heavy burden of stress, but they mention that it's not because they're feeling any ''additional'' happiness; instead, it's because they're no longer weighed down by stress. Sort of like increasing the altitude of a hot air balloon by dropping sandbags instead of adding more hot air."<br /><br />She gives Lacrima an encouraging smile. "I might not know what it's like to live with a perpetual level of stress, but I do kinda get what you're talking about. And the fact that you can actually feel relief... well, that's certainly not a bad thing."

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima bites her lip. "Ariel's tear. Should had killed me." she says. "I felt it burning at me." she says quietly. "It's powerful.. light magic." she says. "Things like that." she says. "But it didn't." she says. "Instead it fixed what that monster did to me." she says.<br /><br />She nrgs. "I was. Out back when it appeared. He didn't say anything. Except try to lunge at me. So we started fighting. I imagine. It was trying to indirectly hurt Ari-chan." she says quietly. "Or maybe revenge for what we did that night a few months back." she says quietly.<br /><br />"....or maybe he's still just a damn boy that doesn't listen." she says a little annoyed.<br /><br />"....I'm glad Alexis-niisan choose to take up the device we liberated with him." she says. "He deserves to actually be a hero like that. Instead of just. Pretending he can punch dark energy dream satan prince in the face." she sighs and rolls her eyes a little again.<br /><br />"Because he probably would had tried."

:'''{{#var:75|Ikiko Hisakata| (75)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Alexis has a strong heart," Ikiko agrees. "And now he can channel it a lot more directly. Fist plus heart is a heck of a lot stronger than fist alone, anyway."<br /><br />She contemplates the recollection of the fight. "My wolfmotes were able to warn me that something was up; I suspect it's because they're purified fragments that partially come from him," she muses, idly looking at her wrist that had been in the quartered circle during the fight that had taken them through their nightmares. "Took them some effort to show up outside of henshin like this, but they helped guide me here quicker than it would've taken otherwise."<br /><br />And finally a shrug. "As for Ariel's tear... all I know is that unicorn tears are in many ways a more primal form of magic, and that they can do amazing things," Ikiko admits. "Could be something like a spiritual harmonic to modulate some of the effects, or re-aiming them for more precise healing and minimal collateral injury. Closest thing I can think of is how I can adjust the song of my Howl to more directly negate hostile youma, but I have no idea if Ari's tears work ''anything'' like that."

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima frowns. "I'd ask Ariel's mom, who might know more." she says softly. "But... I think I need to talk to Ari-chan first. About the other stuff." she says gently. She shifts a bit and sighs with a series of nods. "That wasn't The Prince himself. But I'm pretty sure he had a hand in controlling or creating it." she says.<br /><br />"It was at least was enough of a 'nightmare' to summon Ariel-chan." she says.<br /><br />"-and it's not like creating a youma in your imagine isn't impossible---" oh!<br /><br />"Ri-right." she says.<br /><br />"Riven-sama has been helping me upgrade my bracelet. He recently added a preset to.. change my appearance. And I have a new identity tied to it, that I can use to go back to school." she says quietly.<br /><br />"Maria Hanazawa, is the name. I still haven't decided the school." she says quietly.<br /><br />"But it may be best to choose a school I'm not familiar with to keep the illusion of... Spanish-Japanese transfer student." she says quietly.

:'''{{#var:75|Ikiko Hisakata| (75)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ikiko Hisakata nods understandingly. "Makes perfect sense," she agrees. "Easiest to hide a new identity where you have the fewest ties."<br /><br />She munches on a donut for a bit. "Can't say I'm surprised that it wasn't the actual Nightmare Prince," she remarks. "Wayyy too squishy to be the real thing, but definitely a respectable projection of his power."<br /><br />She thinks for another moment, then nods to herself. "May I see your 'Maria Hanazawa' appearance, please? Or would you rather it be a surprise?"

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima ums and stands up and fiddles with her braclet, and there's a weird twinge to the air around her and a little flash and---<br /><br />Someone who doesn't look like Lacrima, or Norie is there. With a silk blouse and vest and a skirt. "Here." she says. She sounds a little different, too.<br /><br />"This." she says.<br /><br />A pause, a hint of self consciousness. "What do you think?..." she asks.

:'''{{#var:75|Ikiko Hisakata| (75)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ikiko Hisakata walks around 'Maria' to view the vampire's disguise, occasionally stepping back for a wider view angle.<br /><br />A contemplative pause, as if the judges are conferring...<br /><br />...and then a double thumbs-up! "''Very'' nice!" she grins. "If I hadn't known it was you, it certainly would've fooled me! And it looks great, too!"
}}