/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Meiling knocked on the door of a house in the middle of the forest of magic, seeing all the nature and natural sunlight around after her last job took a bit getting used to
"I'll be there in a second" a familiar voice along with some rummaging could be heard from within
A minute later the door swung open, a blonde girl wearing a blue dress opened the door "I'm so sorry for the wait, i making some-Meiling? Does Patchy need anything? Usually she sends Koakuma"
Meiling waved "don't worry, this isn't about miss Patchouli, i'm here for that flyer you put on the village board"
"The flyer? Wait you're here for the job? I never thought someone from the mansion would be strapped for cash"
"It's not like that miss Alice, i'm just want the extra cash for a little something"
"Well i suppose it's nicer to work wth someone i'm familiar with, come on in, i'll serve you some tea" Alice directed Meiling to her living room while she headed for her kitchen.

Despite her frequent visits to the mansion, Meiling had never been to the magician's home, not that she had a reason to, they weren't exactly friends, however she had to admit, she had a very cozy place, even if all the puppets looking at her were a bit unnerving, it must be nice having this house all to herself
"Right, you may have some questions about the job right?" Alice placed some tea at the table
"It was a little vague, but it has to do something with ingredients?" Meiling took a sip
"Yes, you know the Moriyas i'm sure, halloween is coming up and the shrine maiden really wanted to get some sort of haunted mansion going on, apparently she asked every other magician for help on her project and i was the only one that said yes and also the last one she asked" Alice looked a upset saying that last part
Trying to distract from the subject Meiling asked "So you're going to make some potions?"
"I thought about that, but i might get in trouble if i end up turning a kid purple or something so instead i'm going to put together an illusion spell that will give the area around the house a very otherworldy look, it will also give those i choose to a monster like look"
"That sounds like a really good idea miss Alice"
"Just Alice is fine Meiling and thank you, Sanae liked it as well"
"If i may, you don't look like you need the money either m-Alice, why didn't you deny her the request?"

Alice sighed "for the kids" she muttered
"What?" Meiling didn't quite hear it
"To prove that girl i shouldn't be her last choice, just because i don't make a showcase of myself constantly like Marisa and the Buddhist leader doesn't mean i'm incapable of doing what they do but i digress, i put up that flyer up to see if i could get someone to gather materials from the least dangerous areas while i went to the less human friendly ones myself, but since you're here and i doubt anyone else is going to show up at some point i suppose it's best if we simply gather them together instead"
"If you'd like i can go to the more dangerous areas, i've got no problem with that"
"Most of those dangerous areas also need...appointments, so i must be there regardless, if you show up all by yourself there you might end up getting sent bag to your mansion in a body bag" Alice sipped her tea "i kid of course but i still need to be there"
Meiling laughed nervously
"Well then let's start with the easy ones, once we are done we'll drop the ingredients here and go after the harder ones" Alice stood up, some of her dolls began cleaning the table up

Both girl had bee flying for a while, the silence briefly interrupted by sporadic exchanges here and there.
Alice was certainly different from her previous clients, she wasn't very talkative, not that this was a bad thing, Meiling had spent so long doing talking on all of her other jobs that the silence was a little hard to get used to.
They arrived at the village, briefly Meiling thought of visiting Geidontei but ultimately chose not to, Miyoi might end up begging her to stay and Meiling wasn't sure if she'd be capable of saying no, instead Meiling simply followed Alice to different shops scattered across the village, Meiling was pulling in some stares as she carried a small stack of boxes over her head around, from what she bought it looked more like she was going to bake dozens of pies instead of creating a spell but then again Meiling was no magician.