/jp/ - Otaku Culture

She was in front of the veranda, and when she ran her fingers along it, she felt the grain of the wood. It felt real. So did the breeze, and the view she could see behind her. Was it a space in the gap between worlds? No, but the building was visible from the outside. Some sort of technology from the Outside? There was something else, too...Some sort of smell, in the air. Her usual detection spells showed no hints of magic. In that case, just to be safe, she placed a filtering spell on her own lungs, coughing slightly as it sunk into place.

"Is that you, dear?" The male voice was something of a shock to Patchouli, and she looked up sharply. "I've nearly finished dinner, and the tea's just about done!" Was this part of the experience for everyone? Hmm...Patchouli turned, looking back over the replication of Gensokyo as if she wasn't in a small building. Instead of approaching the Shrine, she floated in the opposite direction, interested in seeing just how Yakumo's little playground would handle someone acting outside of the established rules. After a few minutes, she knew. She wasn't being stopped, but the surroundings weren't getting any closer, either. It was a looping barrier, centred on a specific location. Gensokyo itself operated on similar principles. Try and leave, and things would repeat until you turned around, at which point you'd be back where you started. She turned, and was unsurprised to find herself back in front of the veranda, only this time, there was a man standing there. Tall, wearing fine and fitted silk robes, but with just enough gaps cut into it that she could see the muscular physique underneath and spot the scars that had come from Reimu Hakurei's treatment of him. "Would you like to come inside?" He said politely to her. She stared at him for a moment, then slowly nodded. There was something about him, too.

Stepping inside the Shrine, Patchouli was again surprised by the detail put into the recreation. "Your name." She said.

"Oh, er, Anon." He replied with some confusion, as if he wasn't used to the question. For someone who was clearly getting visits from just about anyone female, that was very curious. "You're...Patchouli Knowledge, right? From Remilia's mansion?" Patchouli nodded, paying more attention to the surroundings. There was magic running through almost every centimetre of the place. Air freshening spells, sanitary spells, and interestingly, there was a dormant spell to increase fertility, but Patchouli could make out no trigger. What reason could Yakumo have to set that up? Presumably the trigger lied with her, which meant she had to be present to activate it. She wouldn't do that for others, which meant it was for her in particular. Was she attempting to get pregnant? Unlikely, but perhaps it was possible. Anon led her to a small table with a view of Gensokyo, though Patchouli knew that it was a lie. He placed a cup of tea in front of her. Patchouli frowned, then raised it to inhale the fragrance. It smelt like tea, but given everything else...She ran her hand over the top of the cup, and the content lit up a light blue. "Is that...good?" Anon asked her slowly, looking a little worried that he'd done something wrong.

"Just a detection spell. The colour changes based on the contents." There were elements of this tea that were not consistent with the tea that Sakuya served her, but not everyone could prepare tea even half as well as Sakuya could. Regardless, it wasn't contaminated with any sort of aphrodisiacs, which was what she had been worried about in the first place.

"Don't trust me?" Anon asked, jostling her slightly. She assumed it was supposed to be a joke.

"It's not you I'm worried about." Patchouli muttered, concluding that the tea was safe. She raised it to her lips. Good enough, but not as good as Sakuya's. "Tell me what you do here."

"W-Well, dear, I just-" He began, looking like he was slipping toward a rehearsed speech.

"Patchouli."

"Right. Er, Patchouli, I've spent the day cleaning the Shrine's courtyard, and now-" She let him continue to speak, because there was something more interesting that she wanted to see. Just like with his daughter, she twitched her fingers and allowed her vision to switch toward recognizing emotions. And then, she coughed.

In most human beings, there were a general mix of emotions during an every day situation. In his daughter's, there had been guilt and an undercurrent of lust. Patchouli hadn't expected to see more than one outlier today. Anon's emotional status was essentially a black hole. He felt nothing. He was not happy. He wasn't particularly sad. It was like everything had been locked away, leaving only a surface level golem to mimic emotion. It was as if his world had no more colour in it, and it never would again. Despite the kind eyes, and the small smile on his face, he had suppressed his emotions so deeply that they would likely cause severe trauma when they were allowed to roam free.

How curious.