/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46270580 (65/?)

Poking the blackened remains of what were once eggs, Shinki frowns. That’d be a pain to scrape off, if she needed to scrape them off. Such a thing was beneath a goddess, however, “A minor trifle. I’m a master at reverting entropy at this scale. It’s quite useful for alchemy and the like.”

Anon thinks on that for a moment, “Reverting entropy? You mean you can unburn things? Though if you’re a master at that… do you burn things a lot?”

Unfortunately, Shinki didn’t quite catch that last part as she’s far too busy pulling back smoke and the like to turn inedible char into delicious food. Truly it was a miracle of divine proportions that would never be disparaged as a parlor trick, or worse a sign that she was clumsy.

An advantage of uncooking something rather than cooking as it’s rather easy to see where to stop as you’re going the other way. Worst-case scenario you just need to cook the egg again (and then revert it when it doesn’t pan out (hehe pan)), but Shinki would know nothing about such things. After all, she’d never spend days baking and unbaking one of her daughter’s birthday cakes only to have to fight off Sariel or Yumeko when they hypothetically figured out what she was doing.

A-Anyway, she’s pretty good at reckoning such things (and she’s a natural who didn’t learn such a skill through trial and error), so the omelets look quite appetizing when she puts them on plates, certainly a far cry from how they looked mere minutes ago.

Anon seems a bit transfixed by the process. “It’s odd, I’ve seen some crazy magic in time here, but it’s always the stuff to make everyday life easier and not the firestorms or whatever that feel the most alien.”

Shinki tuts, “What good is magic if it can’t make you good eggs? For that matter, what good is it if it can’t get you a drink?”

With that Shinki reaches into a little world placed in her dress and withdrawals a chilled bottle of champagne, orange juice, and two glasses. “Speaking of, fancy a drink?”

Anon hesitantly nods, “I suppose, but eggs and a mimosa? It feels a bit foreign-”

Shinki smiles as she interjects, “You’re a bit foreign. I am too I suppose.”

Faced with impeccable logic, Anon surrenders with a chuckle. “Fair and uhhh thank you. A mimosa would be lovely, even if it’s not quite my type of drink. I suppose it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise considering all the other outside stuff that’s made its way here.”

Shinki smirks, “Like you!”

Anon nods again, “Yeah, like me.”

It’s quiet for a little while after that as the two eat. After making considerable headway into his meal, Anon asks, “So Shinki… I heard… do you like the fiddle?”

Shinki immediately perks up at that and leans forward with a wide smile, “Do you like the fiddle?”

Anon wiggles back for some reason when faced with Shinki’s earnest excitement. “It’s… an instrument, I’ve heard it played well before, though I can’t play it myself. I thought given… well.”

Shinki helpfully provides, “I’m so amazing that I must play the fiddle? Yeah, I get that a lot. As a matter of fact, I do. I’m very good at it, I’ve even taken on quite a few apprentices over the years. A skilled fiddling hand can get you anywhere, you know? I’ve seen it win people love, fame, friendships, golden fiddles, the approval of one’s parents, and many other things.”

Anon leans back a little further for no reason before asking, “Do you like challenging people to fiddling competitions?”

Shinki pulls back at that and adopts a more guarded stance. “That’s a very personal question, you know? You can’t just ask someone if they challenge others to fiddling competitions.”

Anon furrows a brow as he very slowly returns to his normal position. “I’m sorry?”

With an apology given, Shinki shifts her mien again towards something more warm. “Well if you’re sorry, yes I do enjoy challenging people to fiddling competitions. Sadly, here in Gensokyo it rarely pans out well because I’m pretty much the only person who knows how to play the fiddle. You’d think that’d give me an edge in fiddling competitions, but sadly it just means people don’t accept my challenges. Yukari even said no when I proposed a fiddling incident.”

Anon tilts head (cute!) at that, “When you proposed an incident? Do you plan incidents?”

Shinki shrugs, “We used to sometimes if we were bored and there wasn’t an incident for a while. They tended to be the more tamer types of incidents, but it helped pass the the time. Hmmm… do you think I could teach the kappa to play the fiddle? They’re kinda like Nix if you squint and most of the people over here look like they’re squinting anyways.”

Anon replies, “I can’t say I’ve ever tried to teach a Kappa to play an instrument. They’re pretty good with their hands, so maybe?”

Shinki nods, "Probably, though I might need to make them little fiddles because they're small, though I suppose fiddles aren't so big in the first place so it might not be a problem."