Fantasy Eventually Cooking Could Have Issues

[That Lass Over There]

In times of complete and utter hopelessness, Satori did what anyone would do when faced with a mid-life crisis: she curled up on the floor and waited for the sweet release of Death to take her.

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"Eh-... Um, ah..." The magician seemed dumbfounded at the development, completely lost of any eloquence as she watched Satori, a young woman, curl up into a ball of dark hopelessness on the ground. Kinko struggled to find comforting words, but she didn't even really know what was so bad about this development to Satori; as someone who had been a Magician for so long, she had long lost her ability to understand the ideas that might be running through Satori's head.

For all her talk of caveats, the idea that someone would not want to have Magic was a completely absurd idea to Kinko based on what she knew of people. Faced with an unexpected exception she could only flounder out sounds as she came down from the bed and knelt next to Satori, bringing her hand near Satori's back for a minute before retracting it with an uncertain look. "Ehm... It'll be alright, you know? I can help you figure it out... I promise it's not that big of a deal. You won't even be thinking about it in a few weeks. Or, maybe you'll come to really enjoy it!"

After that enthusiastic addition at the end with a fist pump, Kinko's mustered energy petered off, and she once again looked down at Satori with awkward concern. "So, um, please don't worry. It'll be fine."

 

[Aron the Aron]

For all her talk of caveats, the idea that someone would not want to have Magic was a completely absurd idea to Kinko based on what she knew of people. Faced with an unexpected exception she could only flounder out sounds as she came down from the bed and knelt next to Satori, bringing her hand near Satori's back for a minute before retracting it with an uncertain look. "Ehm... It'll be alright, you know? I can help you figure it out... I promise it's not that big of a deal. You won't even be thinking about it in a few weeks. Or, maybe you'll come to really enjoy it!"

After that enthusiastic addition at the end with a fist pump, Kinko's mustered energy petered off, and she once again looked down at Satori with awkward concern. "So, um, please don't worry. It'll be fine."

The half-moan, half-whimper out of Satori was akin to the sounds of a dying puppy on its death throes; the dead expression on her face somehow looking even deader after Kinko's rudimentary attempt at comfort. If anything, Kinko seemed to have made Satori feel worse, which further alienated the two from each other's thinking and motives. Kinko couldn't understand why someone would reject and wish for normalcy, but here was such a person, lying on the floor with the overwhelming sense of defeat hanging over her.

Well, Satori would be a liar if she said that her life was normal by any stretch; being an art student who worked two dead-end jobs in a seedy hostess club and a restaurant was evocative of being broke... which all post-secondary students could relate to (unless they were international students...).

"I just want to be normal... no drama... no trouble... just me being a normal art student..."

 

[That Lass Over There]

The half-moan, half-whimper out of Satori was akin to the sounds of a dying puppy on its death throes; the dead expression on her face somehow looking even deader after Kinko's rudimentary attempt at comfort. If anything, Kinko seemed to have made Satori feel worse, which further alienated the two from each other's thinking and motives. Kinko couldn't understand why someone would reject and wish for normalcy, but here was such a person, lying on the floor with the overwhelming sense of defeat hanging over her.

Well, Satori would be a liar if she said that her life was normal by any stretch; being an art student who worked two dead-end jobs in a seedy hostess club and a restaurant was evocative of being broke... which all post-secondary students could relate to (unless they were international students...).

"I just want to be normal... no drama... no trouble... just me being a normal art student..."

With Satori expressing her concern in such clear words, even Kinko could understand the basis of what the woman's concern was. Understanding why being a Magician stopped Satori from 'being normal' was a different story, but it was progress. "That's..." Kinko struggled to find the words to say to her but couldn't find anything to say that wouldn't just make things worse, so she kept her mouth shut. Again, her hand twitched out, but she snatched it back as she remembered that she was not currently in a position to comfort the distraught college student.

A few minutes of silence transpired as Kinko pulled out her phone, typing out something and glancing at it occasionally while still keeping watch over Satori from beside her curled up form.

"... Hey, are you free tomorrow?" The silence was finally broken by Kinko's quiet voice, trying to be gentle. "We could go meet my coworkers. Talking to them might help you sort this all out. One of them is a really good listener, she doesn't realize it but she always hears me out and gives good advice."

 

[Aron the Aron]

"... Hey, are you free tomorrow?" The silence was finally broken by Kinko's quiet voice, trying to be gentle. "We could go meet my coworkers. Talking to them might help you sort this all out. One of them is a really good listener, she doesn't realize it but she always hears me out and gives good advice."

Satori only numbly nodded from her spot on the floor, barely raising her head to see what the blonde girl in her apartment was doing. It was only a dark and increasingly depressing Saturday night, so unless Satori's already-ruined weekend got worse and she got called in for another emergency shift at her other dead-end job (which if she was being honest, was a 50/50 chance), she was free to be tormented and murdered by whatever whimsical deity was in charge of her suffering.

She didn't know what was worse: the idea of dealing with Kinko tomorrow (and from the sound of things, Kinko didn't seem keen on leaving her apartment that night), or meeting her "coworkers", who for all she knew were as kooky and odd as her...

... Satori was wishing for death a lot more than she usually did that week, which wasn't saying much considering her usual life routine. She needed people who didn't give her an existential crisis every other day, but Kinko wasn't shaping up to be one such savior from herself.

"... I can prepare a futon for you?"

Let it be said that Satori wasn't an angel to her tormentors.

 

[That Lass Over There]

It was quite the relief for Kinko when Satori agreed to meet the others, both meaning that she no longer had sole responsibility for helping the woman out with navigating this new aspect of her life and also taking away the pressure to talk things out now. The 'not my problem now' card wasn't one she was used to playing, but the current situation definitely seemed to bring the appeal out. "Alright. They said they can too, so we'll do that." If nothing else, her teammates might be able to help her understand Satori's viewpoint and why the college student was so adamantly against this turn of events.

Even putting off the issue of trying to guide Satori through this, though, there was a more current issue that needed to be addressed: the college student curled up on the ground in front of her. Before tomorrow could start, people needed to sleep, and being on the floor curled up like that was bound to cause a cold. Just as Kinko was wondering how to coax Satori off the ground, she was offered a futon unexpectedly by the ball on the floor. "Thank you, that would be appreciated." It was a convenient way to get Satori up, and Kinko didn't even have to spin the tale she had mentally prepared to be allowed to stay the night.

 

[Aron the Aron]

Even putting off the issue of trying to guide Satori through this, though, there was a more current issue that needed to be addressed: the college student curled up on the ground in front of her. Before tomorrow could start, people needed to sleep, and being on the floor curled up like that was bound to cause a cold. Just as Kinko was wondering how to coax Satori off the ground, she was offered a futon unexpectedly by the ball on the floor. "Thank you, that would be appreciated." It was a convenient way to get Satori up, and Kinko didn't even have to spin the tale she had mentally prepared to be allowed to stay the night.

With signs of life restored, Satori slowly crawled up from her self-depreciatory curl and began the simple process of clearing a small space for the extra futon. Admittedly, such a task was extremely simple given her cleanliness; the tiny table and cushion occupying floorspace was easily pushed towards the balcony door, while her trashbin was merely pushed under her personal desk for the time being.

"Um... The spare futon is a bit small, so..."

Given the size of her apartment, a spare futon was one of the very few items Satori could afford space for when she opened the solitary closet of her abode. Hidden among the organized chaos of an overcrowded rack and nondisclosed boxes of varying sizes and shapes sat a very plain and boring futon that had clearly not seen use in a long time. Satori mustn't have seen visitors often enough to really even warrant keeping a spare futon, and her apartment certainly didn't allow much more than the tiniest of slumber parties.

Still, the extra futon was clean, and after carefully laying it out on the floor with a pillow, it looked cozy... though maybe that was just the general atmosphere of Satori's room at work.

"... I'll... I'll cook breakfast tomorrow so..."

... Maybe Satori should've checked her fridge before saying that...

 

[That Lass Over There]

Watching the depressive ball trailing long white hair finally unwind and stand up had Kinko breathing a sigh of relief, having wondered how long it would take her to coax Satori out of this mood - if she even could. Since it wasn't her room and this was her first time being here she mostly stayed out of the way of Satori's rearrangement procedure best she could in the small space, perching on the bed.

Her help apparently wasn't needed as she watched Satori move away to wherever the spare futon was stored, so Kinko's mind started to drift while waiting. Only when she heard the word cook did she stir, unfolding her legs and standing up from the bed to immediately plop down on the freshly laid out futon. "Hm? Well, if you want... I was thinking about making something as thanks, but I guess I don't know what you would like." Kinko yawned and stretched, her arms going far in the air, before moving aside to pull the covers of the futon open so that she could slip in. "Well, can decide on that in the morning... 'night..."

And with that the menace to Satori's day curled up in a ball under the covers, legs pulled close, and in just a few minutes light breathing was all that could be heard from the girl.

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When Satori woke she felt an unfamiliar weight on her left side, something soft and somewhat cold under the covers pressed up against her. A light fruity scent, and moreso an itchy sensation of hair tickled her nose, while the darkness of the night waiting to turn morning still hung in the room. Kinko next to her was clumsily wrapped around her arm and leg, dress shirt extremely disheveled with the collar worked down from whatever tossing and turning had occurred last night.

 

[Aron the Aron]

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The muffled sounds of the morning train passing through the neighborhood had always served as Satori's impromptu alarm for the day, a blessing disguised as a curse when alarm clocks were decidedly too loud for her tiny one-woman apartment filled with Anime and Manga. Normally she was dead to the world on weekend mornings, and being a bright and beautiful Sunday meant that Satori had even less reason to feel energetic. Something felt a little off to the art student however... She usually didn't feel like as though she had been sleeping under a weighted blanket coming back from the land of dreams, so when she had the audacity to open her eyes...

When Satori woke she felt an unfamiliar weight on her left side, something soft and somewhat cold under the covers pressed up against her. A light fruity scent, and moreso an itchy sensation of hair tickled her nose, while the darkness of the night waiting to turn morning still hung in the room. Kinko next to her was clumsily wrapped around her arm and leg, dress shirt extremely disheveled with the collar worked down from whatever tossing and turning had occurred last night.

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"HHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"

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Considering that Kinko hadn't done anything untoward to her host, she had gotten off relatively light. Satori didn't seem like the sort to be violent towards anyone, and her bed had been invitingly soft to sit on before Kinko clocked out for the night.

Still, she was going to walking around with a bright red handprint on her cheek for awhile as her assaulter hid herself in the WC for some cooling down.

 

[That Lass Over There]

Considering that Kinko hadn't done anything untoward to her host, she had gotten off relatively light. Satori didn't seem like the sort to be violent towards anyone, and her bed had been invitingly soft to sit on before Kinko clocked out for the night.​

Still, she was going to walking around with a bright red handprint on her cheek for awhile as her assaulter hid herself in the WC for some cooling down.

"Yowch..." It'd been a good few months since she'd last been slapped so hard by a lady, but Kinko wasn't too sure she had earned this one when the last thing she remembered was obediently going to sleep in the guest futon before Satori had even laid down. She was just as surprised as Satori was after having been forcibly woken up. Rubbing her cheek while she thought, Kinko suddenly stopped to shiver violently, shakes racking her entire body as the 'heater' she had unwittingly clung to was gone. With the sun still not present and no apparent central heating in the apartment, it seemed like she would have to put up with this a while longer, another round of shakes taking grasp as she pulled the covers back over her for whatever residual warmth there was.

"What time is it, anyway...? Eh? Seriously?" Kinko stared at her phone screen, lacking belief in the 4:02 that was displayed on her home screen. She considered herself an early riser, and even she wouldn't normally have woken up for around another hour. If it weren't for how warm she felt for a few moments after waking up, she'd assume it was her half-asleep self clambering over to be a heat leech that had woken Satori, but it felt unlikely. Did she really need to wake up this early on a Sunday?

Cocooning herself in the blanket, Kinko sleepily blinked her eyes and completely disregarded the red mark on her cheek, though she did find herself jokingly thinking that it had definitely ranked up there as far as brutal slaps went. "Well..." Her mouth opened wide in a yawn before continuing, "... guess I'll just, apologize when she's out..." Another violent shiver racked her body and she wrapped the covers tighter around her, trying to hold in as much heat as possible in a futile struggle.

 

[Aron the Aron]

After a solid half-hour of nothing, Satori finally emerged from the toilet, considerably less red-faced than she had been shortly after walking up. She was still clad in her shorts and sweater, though definitely more haggard for wear when she made the slow stumble to the fridge. The lack of noise when she opened it wide to see inside should've been a clue to her that she forgot to go shopping last week, but the depressing emptiness she had been greeted with hadn't fully caught up to her until she reached in...

Four eggs, a mostly-empty tub of miso paste, and two very small pieces of kelp... and she was out of tofu. Not exactly an auspicious start to cooking breakfast, but not like Satori had much of a choice; she had a guest over -unwanted or not- and she needed to at least be a good host. So against all matters of common sense telling her to back out before she made a complete fool out of herself, she went ahead and fetched a bowl to attempt a fluffy tamago.

... You can imagine how well things went without proper dashi stock...

 

[That Lass Over There]

Rather than improving over time, the shakes and shivers that assaulted Kinko grew more violent and frequent as time went on, her expression turning into a frown for once as she tried to deal with the unpleasantness. Normally, her temperature fluctuations didn't last this long after she woke up, but there were always fun curveballs thrown by life. With her mind preoccupied almost solely with preserving whatever heat she could Kinko managed to miss the sounds from outside the room that signified the unfortunate college student of last night had finally stepped out of the toilet.

She didn't, however, manage to miss the sounds of cooking - or, as she came to realize, dragging her feet and cocoon with her, attempted cooking. She watched Satori working with hopelessly limited ingredients for a minute, long enough for the wishful cook to complete her efforts as she had apparently been at it for longer than Kinko had noticed. As Satori turned around Kinko regarded the 'meal' that she had attempted to put together with a dead stare fueled by over half an hour of suffering, and offered an ultimatum.

"Convenience store now, or grocery store later?"

... She was a little undermined by her mobile cocoon and another bout of shivers that followed her question, but it was quite clear that she wasn't happy to leave Satori living like this.

 

[Aron the Aron]

As Satori turned around Kinko regarded the 'meal' that she had attempted to put together with a dead stare fueled by over half an hour of suffering, and offered an ultimatum.

"Convenience store now, or grocery store later?"

... She was a little undermined by her mobile cocoon and another bout of shivers that followed her question, but it was quite clear that she wasn't happy to leave Satori living like this.

Satori knew deep down that her dish barely constituted as "breakfast", but hearing the implications from Kinko's mouth killed what little hope she had inside, even if talking to a blanket monster should've elicited a giggle out of her... Actually, why was Kinko bundled up in her blankets? It wasn't that cold, was it?

She could already feel her wallet cry at the need for another grocery run, not that she knew where it was due to a certain goddess up above nicking it along with her clothes last night. That was already bad enough, and today she had agreed to meet with the Magician's other friends... who were likely all Magicians themselves... and she was technically one trapped with BDSM clothes...

"... I'll get changed..."

Hearing Satori mumble that line before shuffling off to the closet sounded a lot like a puppy whimper...

 

[That Lass Over There]

"Nn, convenience store then." Or at least that could be assumed from Satori seeming to think she'd be going out anywhere this early in the morning. Kinko certainly hoped that starting the day so bizarrely early was a trait unique to the lady of this mediocre, heatless abode.

Kinko gave Satori space to do whatever she needed to by standing in front of the door to the apartment, waiting patiently as she could. With a small yawn she pulled out her phone to check some things, at one point pulling up a map app out of curiosity, checking what stores might be open in the local area.

 

[Aron the Aron]

"Nn, convenience store then." Or at least that could be assumed from Satori seeming to think she'd be going out anywhere this early in the morning. Kinko certainly hoped that starting the day so bizarrely early was a trait unique to the lady of this mediocre, heatless abode.

Kinko gave Satori space to do whatever she needed to by standing in front of the door to the apartment, waiting patiently as she could. With a small yawn she pulled out her phone to check some things, at one point pulling up a map app out of curiosity, checking what stores might be open in the local area.

Some time later...​

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If there was one thing Kinko didn't expect out of the demure and shy Satori: it was her riding a skateboard first thing on a Sunday morning.

Satori. Skateboarding.

Spoiler

Dressed in a bright mishmash of Caution yellow and black, Satori effortlessly kept balance atop her old skateboard as she rolled alongside a walking Kinko; the earlier debacle back in the apartment quickly forgotten as the Art Student took in the bright Sunday morning air. It was just the perfect time where the sun was out and the streets empty, a product of a sleepy Sunday right before the weekend rush of Sunday-goers began to crop up. It was simply divine for someone like her, who felt the woes of becoming a Magician completely fall to the wayside. It was just her, her skateboard, and the bright blue skies above.

For somebody like Kinko though, the morning walk must have been hell on earth. Who enjoyed being out so early on a Sunday!? Thankfully the sleepy neighborhood wasn't lacking in a tiny convenience store, one that looked appropriately homely and compact sitting in the middle of a residential sprawl. Come to think of it: a neighborhood like this wouldn't be a terrible place to live in, Satori's depressingly tiny apartment notwithstanding of course. Maybe there were a few hangout spots Kinko could claim for her friends later?