yogen | npc contact.2

Ooh... What do tulips mean? Do you know that one?

[ Also honeysuckle and sunflowers and—- ]

Uh... If I remember right, it's something good~.

[so no he.... does not....... not really.]

But sunflowers are for happiness, and daisies are for friendship! That's why you make bracelets and crowns and stuff with them~.

[ It's something good... is good enough for Haruka, honestly. ]

Can I have sunflowers on my shrine?

[ Not daisies... she wouldn't know if anybody would consider her a friend. ]

Sure! Sunflowers and honeysuckles and daisies... Colored just the way you'd like 'em, and we'll spruce it up with some more official looking things...

[...]

Oh, do you have a picture of yourself somewhere?

[ All the flowers are going to be pink and yellow, and maybe they can stick some spider lilies around for the red to make up for the lack of red paint. ]

No, I don't think so... Is that important?

[ No yearbooks, and she hardly looks old enough to be a properly enrolled student here, and any pictures they try to talk posthumously won't show. ]

[oh, that'd be pretty... subaru'll have to bring over fresh ones every now and then to make sure they're vibrant until he gets around to asking someone how to dry them out for better preservation.]

It's used to tell people who's shrine it is, so I think as long as we've got something that people're gonna know represents you we'll be fine.

[hmmm... no pictures...]

Harupyon, Harupyon... We'll make a little carving with your name in it or something.

[he can probably do that much, engraving into a piece of wood-wise. the rest of the shrine'll be easy to piece together as a simple thing after all!!!]

Okay! I'll show you how to write it. It's the character for bright and sunny, and then the character for song!

[ 晴歌
lots of straight lines makes for easy wood carving, you're welcome ]

[thanks but i'm looking at these kanji and tearing up]

Ooh, that's pretty unique~. Most girls your age just use hiragana.

[or katakana... like his... he'll be happy to carve it for her though!!!! cannot wait for him to see these kanji and think how terrible it was to make a six year old having to write these kanji for her name.]

That sure is a nice name, though... Your parents must've wanted you to always to shine brightly and warm everyone around you~.

[ There's a sense of accomplishment for being able to write your full name, it's like in elementary school with those kids whose names were more than five letters long, they suffered but that one moment of accomplishment... ]

Hehe... Do you think so? I hope I was able to do that!

[ She's dead so all she can do is the opposite now, but if she had warmed onii-chan up then it would have been worth it. ]

[thinkin how i wrote my name "autum" for a while]

I'm sure you did! You're such a cheery kid already, so I'm positive you managed that~.

[what else does he need... name plaque, flowers, colors... that's pretty much it personal info wise... up to the third floor they go.]

Where would you wanna put it? On a bookshelf? Or maybe I can see if the librarian'll keep it on the front desk.

[ Just one more letter... real grateful I haven't had to write my full name all year, at work I just initial everything ]

Oh! Umm... I don't want it to fall by accident, or be in the way... There's a window in the very back corner though that's sunny in the afternoon. What about there?

[ It's a very comfortable place. It's also where she died. But Subaru doesn't need to know that. ]

Oh, that'd be perfect! Maybe I can even get one of your flowers potted so it can enjoy the sunshine too.

[a little shrine in the sun... he can do that. maybe he'll see if the shopkeep'll let him have a piece of glass to make a pretty prism with too.]

That would look so pretty! When it's spring again, maybe we can have all sorts of flowers!

[ Even better than a funeral bouquet that'll simply dry out or rot after a week, but potted flowers that can bloom and grow sounds wonderful. ]

I didn't know shrines could be so amazing... I'm so lucky!

[she's such a smart girl!!!! yes queen we can have all the flowers!!!!]

Ahaha! Shrines can be as simple or complex as you want 'em to be -- the one we have for my dad's just his picture and some incense, but that's because that's how Mom remembered him... not the way others did, just as her husband. Yours oughta be fun though!

[because she's a kid!!!]

[ She tries to think of what Subaru's dad's shrine might've looked like— honestly just Subaru with slightly duller orange hair and a beard— but can't get the smell of smoke out of her mind, hot and choking in the midst of blood and burnt flesh. ]

Incense makes my nose tickle... But I liked strawberry pocky!

[ It looks like incense sticks, it's good enough ]

[AND A BEARD.......................................]

Pocky it is! We'll have to make sure everyone knows not to take a bite out of it, then.

[... okay workshop it is. he'll set her down on a table, you can sit here and be tall with the bowl of pudding while he regains warmth in his arm and back in getting some wood pieces to work into a small leaning to the beginnings of medium, open-faced birdhouse-like shrine.

she is welcome to sit and watch him or go mess around with anything that interests her. realizing i said third floor earlier i meant second thanks for sticking with me thus far we will have to go up another one in time but that time is not right now!!!]

Do you wanna grow tulips or daisies around your shrine, Harupyon?

[ IT'S HOW YOU MAKE SOMEBODY OLD YOU GIVE THEM A BEARD ]

Hmm... mm....

[ It's hard to choose, and she pulls herself up onto a chair to sit and stare at Subaru making the shrine as if trying to imagine which one would look better. It's hard... ]

Both?

[YOU'RE NOT WRONG BUT I'M KEELING OVER]

Both, huh... I think I can manage that.

[ah... he'll need to borrow the garden club's help for a proper little growing thing, but he doesn't think natsume or nene'll mind; they're both helpful, the latter most of all, but natsume does have a personal stake in this little girl's happiness.]

So we'll arts and crafts ourselves some pretty sunflowers, that way they're blooming year round, and we'll paint some honeysuckles on your shrine so they're always vibrant, and the strawberry pocky'll have to do for your strawberries! How's that for a plan?

Yeah!

[ It's all things that Subaru's going to have to do in her stead, but she can be moral support, coming closer once the main structure is built and sitting close and watching him paint, helping him find colored tissue paper and pipe cleaners and whatever sort of craft materials they need from around the room. ]

[colored tissue and pipe cleaners are a must!!! he'll carefully shape the sunflowers with pipe cleaners as a base and ask her how many petals they should have, and use some black fabric for the inside of them... the shrine itself will be sitting in a low-cut box, just enough for a few inches of dirt when he gets to it, and he'll delicately place the flowers they make through holes in the roofing of the shrine -- important to let the sun into the shade, is what he'd say, and also a place for their sunflowers to shine out from.

eventually, eventually, haruka's little shrine will be done in form,

painted the colors of her choice as the base, a pretty sunset across the varying surfaces best they can given their lack of red, with somewhat clumsily done honeysuckles in vines around the middle of the shrine (which will become apparent why he chose that in time) and the rectangle surrounding the shrine itself; sunflowers made of pipe cleaner and delicate tissue paper brighten the sky above the shrine and catch the eye easily of whoever dares to look over too, which is exactly the intention.

and sitting delicate within the soon-to-be dirt yard is a tidy wooden plaque, engraved carefully with 晴歌.]

...♪

[subaru's happy with it, even if it's half-done at the moment... he'll finish it up once he gets in touch with natsume, so it'll have dirt and the beginnings of whatever seeds the other can offer, but it doesn't matter if he's happy with it-- it's not his shrine, after all.]

Whatcha think? I've still got a little more to do with it, but this is what's gonna be sitting in your window.

[ Pretty... It's so pretty, and the amount of thought and care that goes into every little thing has her sitting quietly, wide eyes watching Subaru's hands as little by little everything comes together. ]

...looking at it makes me happy. Now I have someplace people will come back to and remember me! Onii-chan will see that I'm okay, so it'll be okay if I leave now.

[leave now, huh... he wonders if that is what he thinks it is and slouches a little, thinking of natsume's fondness for her and how lonely she must be in a library people read in without being able to see or hear her. he's happy she likes it, and he's happy that she doesn't have to worry about whoever her brother is worrying about her.]

I'm glad it tickles your fancy, Harupyon~. What's your onii-chan like? Does he go here?

[ If she looked happy watching the shrine being built, she somehow brightens up even more for getting to talk about her onii-chan. ]

Mmhm! He was a student here! He was very smart and very brave and hid me in the library when the school caught on fire! He told me to wait there for him, so I did.

And wait you did, huh~? What a good, brave girl you are.

[wait right until her death... subaru isn't sure if he's mad at her brother for not doing more to protect her or feels sorry for the guy in thinking she'd be safe there -- he knows there's a sprinkler system in the library, so that's probably why, but...]

Must've been pretty scary... I have a friend who's not good with fire now too, Ama-chan, he seems like he gets pretty uncomfortable around it. [he remembers, he noticed, it might just be the magic sort but subaru's careful regardless.] I know why he is, though.

[... hmmmm. subaru will hold out his arms for a hug, and she will understand why he offers it in a second, tone kind and gentle--]

Harupyon, do you know how the school caught on fire?

[it's hard to talk about the things in the past that are scary, or that hurt. but hugging alway seems to make it a little easier.]

Hehe...

[ She definitely did not feel brave at the time, but it's still nice to hear it now. Mostly, it was scary in the same way the library catching fire early this school year was scary: she had no idea what was going on, and that confusion fed the fear more than the flames.

A little nervous, Haruka approaches for the hug, slow and careful as she wraps her arms around Subaru's sides because she has to position them just so, so that her arms don't phase right through. A tight squeeze of a hug isn't going to be something Subaru can do, not really, and Haruka lets go quickly because she likes to look up at the person she's talking to. ]

I don't know who it was or why... but I heard it was set on fire by somebody on purpose.

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