[Moriko]

✚ Can You Hear Me? ✚

On many an occasion now, Sumire and Moriko had deepened something. A bond. Something that was theirs and theirs alone. It was unlike what Moriko had experienced before, and she really was not sure how to handle that in specific. It was a good thing, but a conversation with her parents said she should be able to do the same with others. Moriko didn't actually really like that idea though. Friends didn't come with clearance sale price tags that you changed out like daily. They were deeper bonds that you held solely to someone. If Sumire was her meister she would stay Moriko's meister. Momo was sure of that.

So she kept pressed into the blue-haired intellect that was currently training. Momo was focused on a very different task as they had entered the grounds though. The feeling from the spar. The feeling of interconnection that had been so incredibly clear. Moriko was pushing to expand that window and for that she had to stop looking at the outward and search inwardly for the world only she could form. In the start reaching into what felt like the full body of her friend searching for the window towards what was like a soul, the channel to open communication between the two.

"Can you hear Momo?"

---

TAG ✚ Hex: #f0a461 ✚ Notes?

tempbyai

[kagayaku sumire]

THE UNAVOIDABLE SUN

Since meeting Ha Moriko, something subtle yet poignant had shifted in the course of Sumire’s day-to-day activities: instead of the listless boredom that she had chased away with idle flights of fancy for all her life up to this point, she felt… excited wasn’t the right word. Motivated, perhaps? Instead of going through the motions of academy training, this thing that she had resigned herself to, she sprang into action at the training ground, throwing herself wholly into her work with a fervor that her instructors were frankly astonished by. Her instructors who now noticed her, thanks to Momo: vivid red and twice as loud, Momo was the star of the show, and sometimes Sumire felt like her only purpose in life was to shine that starlight on her specifically. For the first time in her life, she felt seen. Frequently she had taken to training at the academy after classes let out for the day, and now, as was often the case, Momo accompanied her comfortably around her shoulders. The warm fabric of her friend twirled and shifted naturally around her form as she threw simple sets of combinations as her warm-up, the one-through-five set that got her in the right headspace to begin maneuvering around the training dummy. Can you hear Momo? It felt like a thought that was hers but not hers: a feeling she had felt only vaguely before in impressions and fleeting moments, like trying to watch a play through frosted glass. Now the actors came clearly into view, their lines ringing loud and clear as though they were right in front of her face. "Yes,” she said, both aloud and in her mind. She paused in her movements as she focused, her guard relaxing, hands falling, mind seeking to bridge into this odd, tenuous connection. "Can you hear me?”

Moriko -- 305

LAIKA OF THQ

[Moriko]

✚ Warm Hug Now Required ✚

Solid connection! She had gotten in, yes yes yes yes! Momo's excitement was nearly tangible as the sight of her tried to flicker into Sumire's mind. There was a driving force that came from the young Ha's glee that was simply non-replicable for someone who lacked her own powerful ego. Every Dansetsu had their ideals, but what truly formed them was the ego that held those ideals so dear. It required a powerful kind, and here she was trying to latch it to the person that that same ego demanded be her meister. A chance encounter having changed the course of both of their lives in the longest run of the matter.

Reaching deeper Moriko tried to push open the glass between them. It was such a thin wall and Momo had no reason to believe that it would impede her in motion, but it was something she wished to see move. She would freeze the mental push as she finally heard Sumire respond not just aloud, but internally as well. It was a sign that the window truly was the seperation of the two, and there was no way the weapon was going to let a hunk of glass stand between her and a good warm hug, not at all all. Not what so ever, not never.

"Loud and clear! Yep Yep! You gotta push Sumi! Come hug! Then we can run. Run fast wherever we want!" Moriko would shout back across the screen. The single barrier barring the two from connection trembling as the tanuki girl pushed against it with a clear goal guiding her soul and its connection to Sumire's. A grand effort of will in remove the final impediment from Sumire seeing her, she wanted to be seen too! Clones sucked when she could live in Sumire's head rent free - she really needed that. No, Moriko desired it as one desired air an obsessive wish to be as close to the one who carried her as possible.

---

TAG ✚ Hex: #f0a461 ✚ Notes?

tempbyai

[kagayaku sumire]

THE UNAVOIDABLE SUN

To another it might have been strange, violating even, to have a force of personality so strong forcing their way so loudly into their mind. Momo was starlight, sunlight, a crisp breeze twirling over ocean waves: a force of nature unto herself, overflowing with energy. To some, overwhelming. Too loud, too bright, too much. But Sumire had always been a passive observer in her own life. Often she felt as though she were actually just a tiny thing piloting a large flesh machine; detached and distant from her own body, even more from the world around her. She looked at the world through frosted glass, pursuing whatever idle flight of fancy held her attention for more than a fraction of a moment. Momo had successfully held her attention for months, now. Every day was fresh, was fun, was new; she had a friend in the observation box, a co-pilot, a partner-in-crime who did not look at her strangely for speaking aloud the strange thoughts that came to mind. It was not a question at all, in the end. Sumire had no hesitation when she pressed against that last bastion of frosted glass with all her might: eyes squeezed shut, fists clenched and trembling, she wrapped Momo tightly around herself and thought only of freedom.

Moriko -- 214

LAIKA OF THQ

[Moriko]

✚ I art thou, thou art I ✚

Sumire and Moriko were pressed to the wall that barred their consciousnesses intertwining as one. Moriko's ego hated the idea of being caged against a wall though, barricaded from what was hers; freedom was hers and by extension Sumire who granted her that freedom. Moriko had nothing alone, but everything with her companion. No the two would not, could not, and should never be held away from Sumire or anyone she deemed her blood brother or sister in the future. Joined together in thought, joined together in motion, two would make one whole. Two halves of the same picture - Moriko wanted to simply cross the line between disharmony and harmony between the two girl's souls.

"Almost there. Push! Push!" Moriko's soul seemed to scream and propagate into the mind of her companion as she pressed harder, the sharpness of her scarf's blades mentally raking for purchase inside the mind of the glass that separated them from each other. Cracks beginning to appear finally on the last thing they needed to do. For unity, mind, body, and soul forever and always Moriko would strain against the barrier with more and more ferver, picking up a frantic impatience as she works. A wordless surge of a single emotion rose hot and pushy, like burning coals on skin scalded the physical touch of the ignorant.

Rebellion. Rebelling against the natural order of the mind, all for the goal of freedom. No wall or barrier would stir Moriko's ire in anything but determination to wear it down to nothing, or leave it as ash. Rebellion that called for Sumire's embrace within the soul of the Ha.

---

TAG ✚ Hex: #f0a461 ✚ This song inspired this entire post heck if I know why

tempbyai

[kagayaku sumire]

The sensation was overwhelming, like walking on hot coals or feeling the first flicker of flame against your skin, yet being utterly unable to pull away—the feeling grew hotter and hotter, more and more intense, until Sumire felt like she was burning up from the inside out. The pressure in her mind was so intense that she thought it might burst like an overripe fruit. She wondered, distantly, if whoever found her corpse would discover little bits of vibrant blue hair in the wet goop of her brain: the last bastion of evidence that Momo had been there at all. Push, Momo cried, push! Sumire held her close, and though she wanted nothing more in her heart of hearts than to crumple to the ground and wait for it to swallow her up so that she could stop the enormity of this feeling, she knew that this was not the answer. How long had she spent quiet and withdrawn, a background actor in another person’s life? For how long would she allow herself to remain silent and small? Invisible, nothing and to no one? Moriko wanted freedom. Dirt beneath their feet and the wind between their tassels. Sumire wanted that too. Sumire wrapped the cloak so tightly around herself that the fabric might have torn were it not the pure essence of a living being; though her head pounded with the effort, she took a step. And then another. And then another, and another, faster and faster until she was running, the wind whipping wild through her hair and the length of Moriko’s rich red fabric, sprinting clear through the streets of Iwagakure with no heed or care to anything or anything except Sumi and Momo and Momo and Sumi and freedom.

Moriko -- 302

LAIKA OF THQ

[Moriko]

✚ A Running Start Into a New Life ✚

Moriko felt a shift of cracking as Sumire began to move. Like the problem had been a lack of momentum, a simple solution. Freedom begging for - no. Yearning for, release from the monotony of the world. Moriko's entire self that was pressed to the glass the seperated the two would begin to swim in the air of her world before smashing itself into the barrier. Over and over, faster and faster as her companion moved with increasing fervor. The lust for exploration fueled by motion, the need to connect fueled by their intertwining will to do so together rather then alone.

There was a change after a minute of this strained fever of motion reaching a heightened pitch. The cracking of the glass turned into chipping, small pieces slowly being blown away by the two's own attempts at it. The connection clearly forming more and more as they went. Moriko's internal domain that held her soul seeping its influence through the broken pieces. The glass seeming to vibrate as it encrouched upon shattering completely it needed only a bit more for their goal to be actualized.

A bond connected that would let them interact in ways otherwise impossible. A push for a new level of power, friendship, and more. Moriko just needed Sumire to push a bit further and they would tear apart anything that dare impede them. The first hurdle having been utterly removed a sign that they could do just that. It would be a simple matter a second time.

---

TAG ✚ Hex: #f0a461 ✚ Notes?

tempbyai

[kagayaku sumire]

Sumire’s feet pounded hard against stone as she tore through side streets, twisting and dodging out of the way of passers-by in her effort to run harder, run faster, pump her legs until her heart beat right out of her chest and it felt like her feet were barely touching the ground at all. Like she could fly. She was barely conscious of the other people around her; flashes of Moriko’s bright blue hair and soft tanuki ears sparked across her vision, the storefronts and market signs in front of her interspersing with images of a basketball court, a net swishing in the wind. Bits and pieces of Momo were leaking through, oozing through cracks in the glass like ketchup sliding slip-slow out of the narrow neck of a glass bottle. "Hey, stop!” a guard shouted—some sadsack chuunin or another who happened to be stuck with guard duty as Sumire, bundled up tight in vivid Momo red, blitzed right through the village gates. "Hey! Quit it! Dumbass—” They’d be caught and dragged back in all of thirty seconds, if they were lucky, but Sumire had barely even registered that she’d went through the gate at all—she just knew she needed space, air, and that this direction was where she was going to get it.

Moriko -- 220

LAIKA OF THQ

[Moriko]

✚ A New Horizon ✚

The Shattering was violent and painful, at least for Moriko. Her mind expanding beyond her own means to encompass them both, no just them. Where Sumire began and where Moriko ended for the moment was implausible to tell. In an instant they were one and two all at once. A mind-reeling situation for Moriko to experience and had she had a stomach it very like;y would have emptied from the sudden massive wave of sense. As the world settled Moriko found herself in some form of heap with her friend, the pane removed between them as the two found themselves in the same space with nothing even resembling a separation of the two.

"We did it Sumi! We did it! No more walls from talking, all the conversation! And running!" Moriko would state as her very image as the tanuki girl seemed to ripple and the world turned shades of blue as the sky opened above the both of them. Her size shrinking for a moment as she clung to her meister - no, her blood-bound brother, her friend, her new world. The glee was a palpable emotional wave that Sumire could literally feel like a grand wave of comfortable warmth. Perking up though Momo felt a tug on her bladed scarf, "Uh oh."

---

TAG ✚ Hex: #f0a461 ✚ Notes?

tempbyai

[kagayaku sumire]

Moriko felt sick, which meant Sumire was sick, the sensation of having the private inner sanctum of her mind so irreversibly breached enough to send the girl tumbling to the ground, heaving violently as she emptied her stomach. Her head was sparking with pain, completely overwhelmed by the enormity of what had just happened—the bits and pieces she’d gotten of Moriko before were nothing compared to this. "We did it,” Sumire echoed… but nothing was said aloud. Her lips didn’t move, only the thought of her lips, the version of herself that existed in this mental space she now shared with Momo. They could speak in total private, with absolutely none the wiser. Finally she belonged. She held Momo tight as the cloak clung to her, but before she could soak in the feeling for too long she felt someone grab her by the collar, taking both her shirt and Momo in hand and lifting her bodily from the ground. "Back inside, dummy,” the gate guard said gruffly. "You can’t just be takin’ off like that. Y’need—permission, and and a chaperone.” Sumire murmured a quiet apology and hung ragdoll-limp, allowing herself to be manhandled back through the village gates and sent on her way with another chiding. "Momo,” she said softly, in the confines of their mind. "... thank you. I’m really happy.” She didn’t know that she had ever felt happy before, and didn’t know how to put that into words—just felt the feeling, and hoped, knew, that Momo would understand. "What do we do now?”

Moriko -- 273

LAIKA OF THQ

[Moriko]

✚ Chiheisen no Otte - Pursuer of Horizon ✚

Moriko's delight twisted the world like the warm drapping of a blanket in a cold night. Her soul buffeting the black night of loneliness that Sumire knew. A warm hug that never needed to end now that they had been brought together for the first time in months. When was the last time Moriko had conversed with someone verbally? It had been forever right? Right? She was nervous for only a moment before she waved to Sumire, an image of the world within becoming a canvas within the shared spaces of their souls. A tanuki girl, and behind her, out of sight of the raccoon-dog that was Moriko was a girl in a wheel chair, smile and waving as she faded into the canvas. A breeze blowing by as if stepping beyond an old era, perhaps they were.

"Sumireeeeee comes over here for a hug? And then maybe we go for a jog around to see who we can mess with tomorrow?" Moriko would suggest as if beckoning Sumire into the world of their soulspace. The shared place of their connection, a holy matramony of positive connection. Moriko was after all a parasite, but that was only true when one got nothing back from her, a strong case to be from before, but now? She felt oneness with Sumire and that could not be from a relationship that was purely to her benefit... right?

That was a discussion, and maybe, just maybe something to worry about never again.

---

TAG ✚ Hex: #f0a461 ✚ Notes?

tempbyai

[kagayaku sumire]

It was strange, Sumire thought—she’d put so much time and effort into learning sign language just to be able to talk to Momo properly, but now, after all that time, she was looking the other girl in the eyes. It felt immediate and physical and real, nothing at all like the facsimile of herself that Momo had projected out into the world on occasion. Flashes of blue and brown had seeped through the cracks, but now Sumire could see Momo in her truest form. Behind her was a girl in a wheelchair, waving cheerfully, there and then gone. Sumire took a step, and then another, and then another—and then she pulled Moriko tightly into her arms, tucking her face into the crook of her neck to hide the sudden torrent of emotion that passed through her. Not grief, exactly, but something close. "I want to rob a bank,” she said, muffled by Momo’s shoulder, thick with feeling. "Maybe not tomorrow. But I want to do it with you.” In retrospect, maybe Sumire would think that she hadn’t really known what she was getting into; what it would be like to thinly slice of the meat of her soul and layer it between Moriko’s pieces. But in retrospect also, she knew she wouldn’t change it for the world. And tomorrow, they had games to play. [fin.]

Moriko -- 230

LAIKA OF THQ