Vicious (V) [CLOSED]
The girl opened her eyes. She did so silently.
The ceiling above was wood, and a slight fragrance was in the room---herbs and a hint of some sort of berries, she thought. Pinning down the exact ones would be left for later, if she remembered to.
"Hngh...Ow!"
She started to prop herself up, and immediately stopped. Exerting any amount of force on either hand caused sufficient discomfort to dissuade further attempts, and the same went for attempting to move her left leg. Her right leg was
relatively better, but felt busted all the same. And that wasn't merely it. After spending god knows how long in an incorporeal body, having access to nothing except a flesh body was...enriching, to put it gently.
She really did a number on herself, huh.
So the girl returned her original position; lying flat on the bed and satisfying herself with merely turning her head this way and that.
There was something on the bedside table. A pile of peanuts.
Yay! Food!
Her hand moved before she realised that it was perhaps a bad idea, and most of the peanuts ended up landing on the floor when her whole arm smacked right into it.
"Gah!"
At that there was the sound of a door slamming in the distance, followed by excited footsteps drawing closer and closer, then the door was thrown open, a smiling Miko practically bursting into the room.
"V!"
"Mhm? I'm alright."
Then the Miko paused in her steps. Her earlier expression of joy vanished as the shrine maiden of Yato reached into her own robes and brought out a few slips of paper. Suspicion replaced the relief in her eyes.
"Sora? What are---"
She didn't get to finish as the Miko flung the contents of her hands, pasting them all over the room. Handwritten talismans attached themselves to the ceiling, the walls, the furniture; the windows closed with a slight bang when a talisman attached itself to one half of it. Sora advanced holding even more, and when she'd gotten within two metres she spoke.
"You're not Vicious. Who are you?"
Busted. She tried to wave it aside.
"What are you talking about, Sora? It's me."
A talisman embedded itself into the wall inches away from her face. The edge had cut halfway into the wooden panel and the Liberi instantly lifted both arms in surrender. Then winced from the pain. The Miko faltered briefly, uncertain, before hardening her expression and continuing with her query.
"Keep still. Whoever you are, most of your bones just started mending. Make any funny movements and I'll yeet you off the mountain."
Well, I'm kinda screwed here, aren't I? The only way out is if the Miko is reasonable.
"I'll behave, so please put the talismans down, Sora. You'll be exterminating more than demons with those. And I can't move around much anyways."
The Miko acquiesced somewhat, lowering but not withdrawing her talismans as she took another couple tentative steps forward.
"I'm going to need you to lie down properly so that I may change out your bandages for fresh ones---waa?!"
In the confusion, both of them had forgotten why she was here in the first place; the unsuspecting Sora stepped on a clump of peanuts, lost her balance, and fell forward. Suffice to say, the girl lying on the bed was in no condition to dodge despite her valiant efforts to move, so she ended up taking the full brunt of it.
"Owwie..."
The good news was that the Miko suffered nothing more severe than a fright.
"OW---SORA! MY RIBS!"
The bad news was that Vicious caught all of the impact from Sora landing on her. Having the breath suddenly knocked out of her lungs at the same time excruciating pain shot up both arms was not an experience she relished.
"I'm sorry!"
*****
"Here, say ahhh."
"I can feed mysel---ahhh..."
The patient reluctantly ate the spoonful of porridge, but cheered up a bit afterwards.
"Oh hey, this is actually pretty good."
"Of course it is. Who do you think cooked it?"
If there was anything good that came out of the whole thing, it was that the Miko became a lot more amicable to her. Perhaps it was the ribs.
"Dear me, was I that obvious?"
"No, you're fine, actually. I just got suspicious because I can see a person's aura if I try hard enough, and yours was red instead of V's usual grey, see. But you're saying that V's consciousness is still intact?"
"Yep, precisely. But she's not very enthusiastic about showing herself right now, so I'll be taking over for a couple moons until she's feeling better. Although, if you want a word, I could poke her awake."
"No, that's okay. She should recuperate at her own pace. In the meantime, I'm guessing you'll be going around passing yourself off as her until she comes back. If so, how should I address you?"
"Uhm, if you mean what you should call me in public, Vicious will do fine. Although I don't mind if you called me Elaine while we're alone...wait, let me check something."
Two seconds. The girl in Vicious' body grinned from ear to ear.
"What'd you know. The name Elaine applies to both of us. But don't tell her I said that, okay?"
