2022-10-08 - A Gift of the New Year
| Title: A Gift of the New Year | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Yumi receives a present from her mother, and hopes for the new year. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: (Mostly) Infinity Institute Dormitories | |
| OOC - IC Date: <10/08/2022 - 01/17/2016> (But includes elements from Jan 1st) | |
EARLIER, AT THE TURN OF THE YEAR:
"The new year... full of new possibility. Who knows? Perhaps we will find something important this year. This year, which will be your final year of high school..."
"...It will, won't it?" Yumi asks, without the little flourishes and 'I guess'-es she might add in more casual conversation. It is never casual with her mother.
"Yes, it will. I want you to do your best."
"I will, Mother."
"...I've sent a present to your dormitory. I find that a new task to occupy the mind is a good way to start the new year."
"...?" Pause. "Oh. Thank you, Mother." She can't really hide her curiousity--what could it be...? Personal gifts are rare from her mother, except on occasions like this, or birthdays.
"Good. Use it well. ...Happy New Year, Yumi-chan." She smiles at her daughter.
"Happy New Year, Mother." A rarer thing still, her mother's smile. Yumi smiles back.
-=-=-
"Hmm, so..."
Yumi's dorm is big, as dorms go, even accounting for Infinity's style. The spaces around the couch and behind the kitchen bar are wide, and the two internal doors--to the bedroom and to the bathroom--are centrally located. This gives plenty of space for decoration, and it's a very home-y dorm indeed. There are pictures and even paintings on the walls, carefully chosen cushions for the couch, little end tables with cute baskets, and even the signs of life like old homework on the coffee table, ready to be finished.
The floors are clear, though, because the whole point of the larger proportions of this room is greater accessibility--like for a wheelchair, though Yumi doesn't usually use one.
And just now, Yumi is on the couch, metal clinking in her hands as she works with an intricate puzzle. "If I move it like this, then..."
"You've been at that for a while now," comes a voice from the other couch, its owner curled into a little ball on the cushion. Tama, her familiar, is a black cat with deep green eyes, and her tail is lashing lazily.
"Of course! Mother gave it to me!" Yumi enthuses. "So I've got to figure it out..."
"Hmmm, and yet you haven't yet despite the week involved. Curious." The familiar's voice is distant, aloof, as always.
"Hey, be nice. I was... busy. With stuff." Yumi complains a little, but it's not really harshly meant.
"Of course you were." On the other hand, Tama does like Yumi, despite... certain appearances.
"And I--Oh!" Yumi turns the pieces again, and there's a faint 'clack' as the outermost layer of the puzzle comes undone. "Oh wow! Look at that! It's..." Pause. "Oh. It's more puzzle."
Tama's tail abrubtly stops lashing and she lifts her head, looking intently at the puzzle. "...I sense magic, Yumi."
"...Duh," says the young witch. "I mean, it came from Mother. Of course it's magical. I can feel it too, now that you mention it."
"...Hmmm," Tama says. "True, your mother is a witch as well..." There's the sense of a frown in her voice, but all she says is, "Well, it's probably fine, then."
"It's obviously fine. I don't get a lot of presents from Mother. She said I needed to figure this out..." Yumi starts marveling at the change in the puzzle; it's more intricate than she'd realized.
"...Mm. Have fun, then." Tama curls herself back up, and settles in for a proper familiar nap.
"Yeah. Fun..." Yumi keeps working, until, a little drowsy, she dozes off.
-=-=-
"a...h.......l..h......l.....l..."
As Yumi opens her eyes, she hears a chant that she can't quite make out, low voices droning from all directions. It should be strange, but Yumi finds it's normal. Of course there's chanting.
But Yumi herself doesn't speak. She looks around the wide chamber, black-clad witches all around standing in broad circles, and before her--a stone doorway. She knows, somehow, that she is to enter the doorway.
The gray stone is dusty, but inorganic; there is no plantlife peeking up through the stones, no old grass or new weeds poking their way through. Yumi wonders about that; it's a little sad. But the thought is easily forgoten as she steps forward, and walks across the threshold.
Stone walls, stone ceiling, stone floor; all around her there is more and more stone, blackened as if by fire. It is a maze, and she starts to make her way through it; a turn here, a passage there. Her footsteps clack across the rock. She's wearing boots, she notices--a witch's outfit, complete with hat, though all in black and grey, not the green of her henshin.
".l..ha......al.h......ll....l..."
And she walks, and walks... and all the while, the chanting continues.
Until, eventually, Yumi walks to a small chamber in the center, where she sees a strange hand puzzle. It murmurs to her, wishes her to pick it up, and as she does, it whispers a secret into her hands.
-=-=-
Yumi wakes up on her couch. Suddenly she knows--the next step. She blihnks, and starts to pick up the puzzle that had fallen into her lap.
But the next step after that will not be as simple...
