Taiko Tsume cannot stand liars.
Insincere pretenses of friendship. False declarations of love. A massive charade of joy and closeness that everyone should know is wrong.
Spring is the worst time of year, and the one she hated the most. It was a time when people celebrated, found new love, and carried out farces about how great life is. It was a time when the cold receded, the snow melted, and skating rinks turned back into lakes. It was death, pretending to be life. Taiko hated it.
Taiko isn't here, however. Not as far as anyone knows. Instead, floating over Penguin Park, slowly sliding across the sky like a glacier, is Snow Woman Mou Fubuki. She glowers down, at blooming trees, at couples gathered under trees, at kids playing in the open field... at all of it. A cold wind stirs around her her, as she raises her hand.
At first, it's only one or two snowflakes. Then more start falling, in greater and greater number, coating the landscape, freezing leaves, and forcing people to huddle closer together. What's more, this is clearly not a natural kind of snow.
The normal, unpowered people in the area begin to grow cold, and not just physically. Couples argue. Hugs are less warm. Children who once played get bored and start to walk off. The only one smiling in all of this is the Yuki Onna floating above.
The Park. Norie doesn't feed here. She considers it a neutral ground. If she wants to actually talk to likes of Kukai or some others she doesn't quite trust- this is the place she uses- so she doesn't try to 'feed' here. The warm weather, the nice day and happiness isn't lost on her.
She's just jealous she can't feel that way easily. She wants to reach out, and give a reason for it to stop but--- well she stops herself.
Instead, she's just looking dour, down at the confines of a smartphone as she glares through some app store. Maybe there's an app for happiness. The closest she gets is some new Flappy Bird clone she begins downloading.
Then a little dot of moisture against the screen. And it gets cooooold. Then another and another. At first-- Norie is sure the forecast didn't call for rain.
Then she looks up. And this clearly isn't /rain/. She blinks, as she watches it snow and it begins to coat the landscape. Norie of course, doesn't smile- she hardly ever does- but she does get a pleasently bemused expression. It's snow! and it's cold! She doesn't feel like such an ice cube in hot chocolate when it's so cold out. She feels an ice cube in a cold drink. That is, it almost feels like she belongs here for a change, in a weird way.
She stands up and walks along, finger tapping to her chin as people begin to walk away. There's an argument nearby.
Yeah. Something does feel off about the strange snowfall.
She turns into a small tree thicket and comes back out the other end- Purple long hair, Purple eyes-- that pale complexion---and a pretty black dress, elgant, with a deeper violet trim.
Perhaps to protect her from any linger effects- she transfromed, afterall. Better safer than sorry. She looks around. Trying to find a source. When looking around groundwards, she looks skyward and--yeah. There's a figure up there. She jumps off the ground and it's almost like gravity just gives up and lets her float upwards. She's not a flyer. She's hovering. Floating. Something she can do- but she isn't unsteady while she does so.
She politely stops a bit away as she gives a wave toward's the Snow Woman. Gentle. Non threating as she can be. There's no shouting, or attack or justice speechs from her general direction. At least not yet as can be told.
No one comes to stop Mou Fubuki. In a way, this is probably the most simplest confession. It's the most straightforward truth. No one comes, because no one cares. Snow covers everything, and for some reason Mou feels like she's at peace.
Then someone approaches. Piercing blue eyes find purple and violet. Pale skin, too. What kind of creature is this? Someone like her, maybe? Fubuki's own skin is pale, too. Pale as if she had never seen the sun, blue hair falling over a snow-white dress, her entire outfit a mix of soft blues and whites, a loose flowing dress covering most of her form.
Whoever she is, she doesn't seem affected. Fubuki feels no need to attack her, at least not right now. There haven't been any threats, and there haven't been any lies. In fact, the mysterious other girl hasn't even said a word.
After a moment of sizing Lacrima up, she lowers the hand that was, earlier, commanding the winds to come. She raises the other hand, waves in return, and lowers herself slightly to address the other magical person.
"Nice weather today, isn't it?" she says, with a wide, cruel grin. She may not know much about the Park being neutral ground for some, but she knows what she's doing is mean, and she's proud of it.
Her hands clasp behind her back, as she watches Lacrima closely. "You seem to be taking it better than most. Normally people behave... a bit more assertively," Mou Fubuki glances briefly towards the ground, where arguments are happening and people are storming off, before looking back at Lacrima. "You on the other hand don't seem bothered at all."
"Oh but where are my manners?" The Yuki-Onna bows slightly, respectfully. "I am Snow Woman Mou Fubuki."
Lacrima watches the other girl approach. She doesn't make a threating posture, or movement. She has her hands to her side, neutrally after having waved. Where they can be seen. Just static and doing nothing threating. She head tilts.
"Oh. Yes!" she says, without a hint of irony or malice. Like she genuinely meant it. "I mean. I like the cold. It makes me feel less out of place." she admits softly. "I got a little depressed when the spring came. I always run cold? Am cold? I don't know." she says with a soft series of nods.
Oh an introduction. "I'm Lacrima." she says softly. "No, it doesn't seem to be affecting me like the others. I'm sorry." she says softly. She looks down. "Why does your snow do that?" she asks politely. No judgemental tone or accustive tone, just curiosity. "Do you feed off feelings like that?" she asks.
"I feed off energy. I know how something like that can be, if that's what it is." she nods matter of factly.
Another pause. "I kind of get jealous when I see people happy like that. Because it's hard for me to be like that." she admits. "So i guess it makes me feel a little better for that to go away!" she furtherly admits.
Mou Fubuki raises an eye. So she actually likes the cold, too? Well, Fubuki can hardly complain about someone agreeing with her. "I don't much like spring either. It bothers me, and the cold doesn't."
Mou Fubuki merely shrugs at Lacrima's apology. She doesn't seem to think it's necessary. At the question, the Yuki-Onna looks over the snow-capped park. "My snow... I don't know. I woke up one day and I had transformed into this. No one told me anything about it. Either they were too ignorant or they just didn't care enough."
She gazes down at a couple that was once huddled under a tree. Now they are pushing each other away, and yelling, and one of them is storming off. "In the inside, people are like this. They feel obligated to care, but they don't really. This is just the truth of who they are. Honestly, I don't know why anyone would act any different. I don't feed off of it, but it is satisfying to see. When they're like this, I feel like the world is at its most honest."
She turns back to Lacrima, regarding her with a raised eyebrow. The snow woman is curious, almost clinically so. "I don't think you have anything to be jealous of. I've seen how people like that really are. They smile and they play nice because that's what's 'proper'. Each and every one of them is faking it."
"So... you drain energy? That's... new to me. I don't think I've met anyone who can do that before."
'She woke up one day. And she was like this. And didn't know why'.
These are words that sort stab Norie in the abscene of her heart. They prickle. She remembers the day she 'woke up' and she had purple hair and eyes and pale skin and then----some feeling overtook her and she attacked her brother and drained him into unconciousness. The uncomfortableness shows on her face.
"I know a little someting about that. Waking up one day. And you're different. And you don't know why. At least. Not at first." she says. "I have dreams occasionally. They tell me things. That's the only reason I know anything, really, about what I am." she says.
She looks down across the snow scape and purses her lips a bit before talking again. "I don't know." she says to the other. "I miss being able to feel certain things. Even if I'm finding I can live without them to varying degrees of success." she admits.
She nods. "I'm a vampire of sorts. Just not the movie blood drinking kind. I drain energy." she says. "So I need to do that to keep myself coherent and alive and not some sort of snarling monster." she says.
She places her hands against her lap.
"So you think this is how people are without the 'filter'? of sorts?" she wonders as she looks back down, tapping her bottom lip.
"Tch. Honesty. I know a lot of liars." she frowns. "Well. One big one." she says.
"He promised me a way to 'turn me back to normal' even though that isn't possible, and then he started lying to and upsetting some of my friends! Who kisses girls anyways when they already have a girlfriend or a boyfriend!?" she insists and crosses her arms readily. "It's so stupid!" she insists loudly in the air.
So Mou Fubuki isn't the only one who's different. She looks at Lacrima carefully. A vampire? That... makes so much sense. Considering how she's dressed, the word 'vampire' certainly comes to mind. The Yuki Onna can't help but wonder what else there is out there, if vampires and Yuki Onna exist. True she hasn't seen Lacrima feed, but she takes the other girl at her word. It's too ridiculous a thing to lie about.
"I don't even have dreams. All I know is that my mother told me that I was born cold. I don't think I've ever felt... what these people feel. Or claim to. For me, I just started getting cold one day, and one day I woke up and my bed was covered in rime. I looked in the mirror and I saw myself... well..." Her right hand sweeps over her body before returning behind her back. "... like this."
Mou Fubuki considers. "I call myself a yuki-onna, but I don't know how exactly I know that, aside from the description of old stories. It's just something that I know, deep down. When I'm like this, I'm Snow Woman Mou Fubuki." She decides not to share her real name. It's an embarrassing name to he, anyways. "When I think about the power I now have, it feels like something ancient, but I still have no idea where it came from."
She shakes her head solemnly. "People who lie about that are the worst. I once knew a boy... can barely remember his name, now, but I was dating him for a while. Then one day I found him cheating on me with some other girl. I couldn't stand it. It made me sick to look at him."
She rolls her eyes, "The boy actually had the nerve to feign innocence! As if I hadn't caught him red-handed! Ridiculous. I don't see any reason for it."
Lacrima head tilts and nods. "You go to look into the mirror- and you see someone else staring back." she says softly. "That's what it was like for me. I'm able to 'look like my old self', but it uses a lot of energy. It's easier for me to be this than that." she says softly.
She head tilts and listens intently. "We're special." she says softly. "That's what a friend of mine says. That we're risen amongst everyone else- and it gives us carte blanche to do what we want if we want to." she insists.
"I know my power came about from this necklace I bought. It did something to me. Made me really sick. Then I got better. Then I became this. It named me Lacrima." she says softly. "So that's what I use." she says gently. "I know more. But. I would bore you heavily."
She listens and frowns. "I'm starting to belive a friend of mine that boys are terrible, really." she says. "At least most of them. Between that story... and my experiences." she nods. "But that's just my opinion. I mean. There's one that's not a jerk." she says.
She crosses her arms and hrmphs. "I hope you knocked him upside the head!" she says. "That's so stupid!" she reiterates.
She looks down to the ground again.
"The snow's so pretty... isn't it?" she asks. "It's always serene to me. Even your snow. Even if it's causing stuff among the humans down there..." she says.
Transferring to her old look costs energy? Mou Fubuki listens. Her hands move from behind her, and one moves up to her chin. Lacrima's making a lot of sense. They're special, risen, above everyone else. She certainly feels like that. She certainly feels like she has every right to do whatever she wants, to whomever she wants, whenever she wants to do it.
The mention of the necklace is strange to her. Not because Lacrima has one, but it feels like Mou Fubuki should have something like that but doesn't. How... odd.
"This friend of yours sounds pretty smart. I have to agree with that line of thought. After all, these people..." she sweeps her hand over the landscape, "... are completely at our mercy, and can't do a thing to stop us. Why should we pretend it's any other way?"
"I didn't knock him over the head," the yuki-onna admits, "but I should have. He was just doing so good a job embarrassing himself that I didn't feel the need."
She reaches behind her, grabs a lock of long, blue hair, and starts playing with the ends of it. "I never... actually tried to resist or control these transformations before, but I don't actually choose when it happens either. It seems to happen when I'm angry and alone. I suppose that's at will, or close to it, but I think I have a lot to learn. About myself, and the rest of the world, too." Especially if vampires and other magical creatures are running around.
Looking at the snow, she smiles. She agrees, the snow is pretty. Reaching out, the snow woman wonders if she can't make the landscape... just a bit prettier. Some of the snow gathers, melts together, becoming ice. The ice molds and reshapes, becoming a large block and then... the translucent image of a dolphin. The ice is perfectly clear all the way through, only the slight blue of the water and reflection of the light gives away its shape, and there are no air bubbles to make it look white.
"I like it too. If I had my way, it'd always be winter."
Lacrima purses her lips. "I can control my transformations. Well. As long as I'm 'well fed'. I sort of become some sort of feral thing when I'm 'starving'." she says. "I don't know what that looks like. Someone told me it just looks like a more wide eyed, spookier version of myself that spits incoherency." she admits.
She head tilts. "...mmmph." she says as she listens about how she transforms. "...I know I'm conducive to feeling negative thoughts. My friend told me it's because it's what I am--- 'dark energy'-- it makes negative thoughts and emotions easier than the good ones. I'm dealing with it in my own way." she admits.
"His name's Riventon. Riventon-san may be doing not nice things if you see him out and about. Like this actually." she motions. "I don't think he bothers people who don't try to interfere with his work, though. I think it's counterintutive to him. Like I'm just talking to you. It'd be silly to try to fight me- I'm not even objecting verberaly or otherwise~" she insists.
She purses her lips and watch curiously and her eyes light up in surprise when there's this ice block and-- suddenly a lovely dolphin! She hovers downwards a bit to get a better view of it.
"That's kind of cool." she says. She can't smile at it, but she does seem pleasently bemused- just the twinges of her lips curling upwards.
"I can't do anything like that with my power. I can float. I can teleport a good distance through some weird dark place. I can throw energy around.. and I can hypnotize people-- but only simple commands and ideas right now." she admits.
"I'm surprised no one's come to yell at us yet. Usually. That's how it goes for me when I need to drain more than a couple people." she admits. "There's always someone who comes out yelling for me to stop that. Maybe no one's close enough to see or sense it." she says.
"Have you ever fought anyone yet, Fubuki-san?" she asks.
"Fought anyone?" Fubuki has to wonder what kind of fight it would be like. She has an idea of what she'd do if someone hostile came along... but... she shakes her head. "No, I haven't fought anyone yet. You're the first person I've met who isn't..." Her blue eyes turn towards the normal people, and then back to Lacrima. "Well, the first person I've met who is like me, but you're telling me that there are a number of people out there like that."
She waves her hand in the air. "There's no point in fighting if there's nothing to fight over, right? If this... Riventon-san is doing things that these people wouldn't like, well... why should I care? If they don't have the power to stop him, that's their problem. Or perhaps I should say that it's their weakness." The way she says 'weakness' almost sounds like an accusation. Maybe it is one.
She floats lower towards the dolphin sculpture. "Doing things like this passes the time. I have power over wind, cold, ice and snow, and as you saw I can fly around. Well, it's more like drifting than flying. When I do that, I almost feel like a cloud."
She taps her chin. "Hypnosis sounds like an interesting power in of itself. Being able to make people do what you want... that must be handy."
Lacrima floats down along with Mou Fubuki. Floating is a thing she can do, but she isn't a flyer- it's hovering-- not darting and flying about. When she gets closer to the ground she touches down and grabs the hem of her dress to walk closer to the sculpture. "That's right." she says to her words. "If they can't stop me then oh well!" she insists.
She head tilts. "There's others. Lots of others. And they all object loudly to this kind of thing. Not all of them. Most of them. You're not actively hurting these people-- or harming them but they'll act like you're trying to lop off heads!" she insists. "When I drain people- they fall asleep and they wake back up later, but they act like I'm a cold blooded murderer all the time! I've never killed anyone!" she insists.
She calms down a bit from obvious agitation. "It is. But it only works on normal humans. These others I talk about resist it. Like you'd resist it. Too strong willed, too much in the way." she insists.
She reaches out to touch the ice with a fingertip.
"Some have this power... it feels really good-- to get hit by the attack. Like. I almost feel normal-- but then it burns and--- it feels awful-- like parts of me are being ripped away. Riventon said it has something to do with the dark energy and the positivity of that kind of attack. One sort of wants to wipe away the other. Or something. Like. Well Fire against Ice." she muses.
Taiko frowns at Lacrima's statements, her own feet touching the snow-covered ground near the dolphin statue. Or at least, one might assume they do. It's hard to tell underneath her long, white dress, but she seems to be at rest.
She glances at the other people, some of them fighting, some of them not talking to each other. Some of them just wandering off. Something like this... people react that strongly to it? How odd. They probably feel some need to defend their charade... or who knows what? If Mou Fubuki truly understood how people felt, maybe she wouldn't be so frustrated with them. Or maybe she'd be even more frustrated. "Well, thanks for the warning. Sounds like they want to make a big deal out of nothing."
"So some of our powers only work on normal humans. That explains why you aren't affected in the same way the are. Some kind of defense, it seems. It truly separates the predators from the prey, doesn't it? I'd hardly call that murder, since you need it so badly. If they're able to just get over it, then what's the problem?"
"A power that feels good to get hit by... but then it feels terrible. Huh. Sounds familiar. I didn't think of what I felt as darkness, but... this power certainly feels like a curse in some ways. I suppose it makes sense. It also makes sense that this kind of power would have an... opposite."
The dolphin sculpture is cold to the touch, as Lacrima might expect, but there's nothing particularly malicious about it. It's just a sculpture, and the only thing magical about it is how it was made.
Lacrima frowns. "Some understand. But they want me to stick to draining..." her nose scrunches up. "Thugs and Neerdowellers. I guess I am doing that now, but only because it's easy when you dress up and go downtown-- boys are silly and easily tricked." is all she says.
She head tilts. "I would wager it has something to do with darkness..." and then her brows furrow. "People will try to say you need to be 'helped' that it can be 'removed'. That's so stupid. To think you're broken and need to be 'fixed'." she says. "I used to think like that. I wished I could be a human again." she says.
"But I'm something better now." she insists. "Stronger!" she urges.
"...but it sounds like you've always been what you are. But didn't know it." she says. "So your 'normal' probably never changed much besides the whole..."
"Well this stuff." she says.
She admires the work she likes it. She fishes out her smartphone and even takes a picture. Before it goes back into whatever spectral pocket she managed to drag it from.
She purses her lips a bit and peers into the ice. "I dunno if I want to be human again... honestly." she says. "I mean. I guess I want to remain as I am right now." she admits.
"But not worse. But not lesser." she says.
"Does that make sense?" she asks. "To you?"
Thugs and Neerdowellers? "So... what..." Mou Fubuki barks a laugh. "They want you to judge people? Not according to your standards, but theirs?" She begins to laugh. It's a cold, chilling thing, or at least it would be for a normal person. "Oh that's such a waste of time. I wouldn't bother. I suppose in a way I do judge people... but not really. I don't think it's anything self-righteous. I just want to..." she makes a sweeping gesture with her hand at the normal people around them, "... show how little they really care."
She shakes her head. "I don't know where this came from, but I don't want it to go away. It does feel like it's been something that's been inside of me for a long time, waiting to wake up. I'm surprised that it took so long. If anything, it's made a few things clear to me."
A cold wind picks up, blowing her hair to the side. "If this is 'broken', then I don't want to be fixed, either. I've never felt better, more in control, stronger. I'm not at the mercy of others any more. I no longer need to rely upon people who don't even care about me."
With a cold smile, she regards Norie with piercing eyes. "So yes, it makes sense. It makes a lot of sense to me. I can accept this part of myself easily."
Lacrima takes a soft gentle leap to go sit on top of the sculpture. She's cold-- she doesn't begin melting the sculpture with body heat. She gives that bemused expression. "You're able to smile at least." she says. "I find I have to force myself. Usually just for my parent's benefit." she says.
She sighs a bit and crosses her legs. "Yeah. Like I said. I mean..."
"I guess they think we're hurting or we're wronged or something, or they feel bad for our 'plight'." she says.
"I can get that. But. I don't wanna be helped. I tried helping myself and I couldn't so- there!" she says.
She crosses her arms. "Some of these people.. though. There are some like me, who won't actively stop you. They might show disapproval but if you're not...like. Hurting anyone. They don't seem to care. Will talk with you." she shrugs.
"Some of these others are weird." she says. She sighs and places her hands against the ice again.
"It's confusing. Because some do seem nice. But--- they want to stop you too."
"It's really super freaky sometimes." she admits.
It all sounds very weird and confusing to the Snow Woman Mou Fubuki, but it's good to know what else is out there. After all, it wouldn't surprise her if someone tried to stop what she was doing, especially if they learned that there was no purpose for doing so other than 'she was angry'. Not that it would seem to change much if she had a good reason, apparently.
Still, she's glad at least someone warned her. Mou Fubuki considers Lacrima for a moment, watching her sit on top of the dolphin sculpture. "I can smile... but I don't feel it."
She takes one more glance at the scene around her, looking at the problems she's caused. No one's dead, no, but no one's having a good day either. At least Fubuki feels better than she did when she started.
"Well, Lacrima-san." She turns her eyes towards the vampire. "It was a pleasure, but I'm afraid I must be going. The snow will melt in an hour or so, but their hearts won't thaw for a week." The Yuki-Onna begins to float higher into the air, drifting upwards. "Good luck with your draining. These people don't deserve pity, no matter what anyone says!"
She waves at Lacrima, and the wind picks up, carrying her away into the sky.
Lacrima waves away to Mou Fubuki. "Have a lovely evening, Fubuki-san." she says.
Then she's left alone. She'll just sit here for another few minutes enjoying the cold before she let's herself whish away off into the Dusk Zone, probably to another place that is way more warmer and unpleasent.
But alas. Snow doesn't last forever.
Time to find something to eat.