Schnee Corp Lawyer, Jun 6, 2015
Gensokyo was a land rife with magic to begin with. But even for it, the forest of magic was a place of great arcane power. It was the kind of place that you could get turned around in after just a few minutes of wandering. Where trees were never quite in the same place as you remembered and the shadows and leaves seemed to have a mind of their own, mischievous one moment and malevolent the next. Even the wildlife was a mystery, and it was a toss up whether the squirrel that crossed your path was a mundane one or a spirit that had wandered the woods for centuries. It was a place of life and death, nature and magic, and an aura of quiet mystery was draped across its whole.
At least when one of its occupants wasn’t yelling and swearing like a pirate with tourettes.
Alice Margatroid’s house was in these woods, and while normally the voice that the yelling belonged to was one that tensed her nerves and made her double check all the locks on her house, this time it brought a calm, satisfied smile to her face. She was a young looking woman, with eyes of dark blue and short hair of golden blonde held out of her eyes by a vibrant pink ribbon. Her skin was pale as porcelain, with thin arms poking through a white capulet draped over the shoulders of her bright blue dress that hinted nothing to the demonic blood in her veins.
She sighed and pushed her chair back from the desk she was working on, a dazzling array of thread and needles atop it and a little doll in its center still not quite put together. She lightly slipped from her seat and strode off towards the door. Her house was a simple enough affair. Two stories with a very western, germanic style, and surprisingly colorful to those who knew the puppeteer herself. Even now a few dolls whisked around outside it, going about small chores and repairs. At least those who weren’t giggling at the prone form outside one of the windows.
Alice drifted across her yard towards the disturbance, feet just a few inches off the ground till she touched down next to the pile of black and white misery at the foot of one of her windows, a small, amused smile on her face as she gave a short nod of greeting.
“Hello Marisa.”
The crumpled form groaned and pushed itself up to a seated position. The forest’s other resident witch, with the garb to match that couldn’t have been more stereotypically witch if she tried, from the simply black dress to the ridiculous hat, hair and eyes long ago bleached blonde from magic’s overuse as she ran a hand down her face with a groan. A single hung from one side her hair, and a broomstick was discarded nearby on the ground. “uugh. You seriously suck. Why didn’t you tell me you updated your wards Alice?!”
“Because that would defeat the purpose entirely. This may surprise you, but I actually have a front door.” Alice replied mildly as she turned on her heel and started back towards said door.
“But then you know I’m coming!” Marisa argued defiantly, shakily rising up to her feet and stumbling after Alice while her body still recovered from the COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY shocks the ward on Alice’s window had given her. “And if you know I’m coming, then I can’t surprise you!”
“And why exactly would I want you to surprise me?” Alice drawled calmly as she crossed the threshold to her house.
“Because its fun, ze!” Marisa explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the w- She yelped as she found herself walking straight into the door, a brief stumble backwards as she rebounded from the impact and landed on her backside.
Alice wasn’t giggling when the door opened, but the two dolls behind her were silently miming the action as the puppeteer herself looked down with innocent speculation as she offered Marisa a hand up.
“...Were you surprised?”
“...”
“I was just testing your statement.”
“Listen. I /will/ blow your house up.” Marisa groused as she nonetheless took the hand and let Alice heave her back to her feet. “Besides,
you invited me here, why are you trying to keep me out?!”
“I invited you to come through my door, not through the window to my bedroom.”
“Pfft. The implication was there” Marisa shot back breezily, snickering as she ducked the whack to the back of the head a passing doll attempted.
“Your innuendos are almost as funny the sixtieth time as they were the first time.” Alice returned dryly as she undid the arcane locks on the door to the first level of her workshop. It glowed briefly as the magic dissipated, before it swung open to reveal a narrow staircase down to the depths up the puppeteers basement.
“Wow this isn’t creepy at all” Marisa deadpanned as she followed Alice down.
“implying you haven’t broken in and snuck down here without me before.”
“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talkin’ about, ze” Marisa returned innocently as she spent a few seconds looking anywhere but Alice. A task that became a whole lot easier when they reached the first floor and Marisa’s eyes bulged at the sight before her. It was much the same as the first time she visited. A few windows at the base of the house let light stream into the large room that was lined with bookshelves that were in turn stocked with books of all sorts, including a few that Marisa’s trained eye even in her surprise noticed were new since the last time she uh… ‘checked out’ a few from Alice’s collection a few weeks ago. The various alchemical and crafting tables that usually littered the floor however had been pushed to the side, leaving the stone floor open to the ceiling. Both of which were painted with mirrored, massive pentagrams that even standing outside of as they were Marisa could feel the energy thrumming off. Two dolls, one in red and one in blue, were meticulously putting the finishing touches to the circles with tiny paint brushes, little features scrunched in concentration as they worked. Eventually Marisa stopped gaping and trying to decipher the litany of symbols in the circle as she shook her head and coughed. “Hey Shanghai. Hey Hourai. Soooo. Alice. What the fuck” Marisa ventured as she waved her hands haphazardly at the pentagram.
“Do you remember our usual tea a few months back with Patchouli when we discussed the multiverse theory?” Alice asked as she floated towards the other end of the room to supervise Shanghai’s work, the little blue-dressed doll seeming to concentrate twice as hard as its master observed.
“Uuuuh, vaguely? ...ish? we established that while different planes definitely existed, other universes were pretty much unprovable with current magic. Or something like that. I don't’ really remember the specifics of what happened before Flandre rounded us up for tag” Marisa said as she scratched the back of her head and tried to make heads or tails of the runes in the circle. “Why do you have symbols for resurrection /and/ death in this thing???”
“They cancel and release some rather potent spirit energy through the runes on either side of them.” Alice explained as she gave a satisfied nod at Shanghai’s progress and floated back over to Marisa’s side.
“I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that we’d missed something, so I’ve been working on this in the mean time.”
“...And this would beeeeee?” Marisa asked with a leading gesture.
“If my research was sound and my hypothesis is correct? A portal to another universe.”
“Oh.” Marisa gave an understanding nod. “Right. Hey, you know how you’re always ragging on me about how ‘Marisa what are you doing thats too much power’ or ‘Marisa thats crazy you’ll blow up the whole forest’ ?”
“...Well yes but I don’t see how that’s re-”
“-No. Just no.” Marisa said flatly as she gripped both of Alice’s shoulders to stare her right in the eye. “Shut up for a second. This is me. Kirisame Marisa. wielder of the master spark and the coolest incident resolver in Gensokyo. Saying that this is a really freaking crazy idea. Half those runes you’ve got there have enough oomph to turn your house and half the forest into a crater. By themselves.”
“...” Alice blinked, a slightly befuddled look on her features as she processed what just happened. Her entire purpose in inviting Marisa over this time was to request her help in fine tuning the process. The reason she’d asked her and not Patchouli was, well, because what Marisa just said was exactly what she expected their frail counterpart to say. If Marisa of all people was telling her this was crazy…. she bit her lip and stiffly brushed Marisa’s arms off her shoulders.
“... Perhaps it is a bit dangerous. But if there are other universes, who knows what sort of magic they might have access to? Who knows what sort of knowledge could be a simple portal hop away?”
Marisa rolled her eyes with a smirk as she looped an arm around Alice’s shoulders. “And that magic might finally let you create a living doll, right?”
Alice stiffened at the arm, and shrugged as best she could.
“...That… may have crossed my mind, yes.”
“You’re a dumbass”
The puppeteer slowly turned towards the witch, an unamused glower across her face.
“Oh. Is that so.”
“Hey hey hey don’t get me wrong, you’re
almost as smart as me, and thats saying something! But here’s the thing; you don’t /need/ a whole other universe to figure this out! You’re Alice freaking Margatroid! If there’s /anyone/ in any universe who can figure out how to give actual life to your little uh… sisters? daughters? whatever you wanna call them, it’s you! Not some dork in another universe! Also, what exactly were you gonna do if this portal opened up in another universe… in the middle of space? or an ocean? Or a volcano”
Alice rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to reply, then swiftly shut it with a concerned frown. What
had she been planning to do in that kind of situation.
“...I…”
…
“Perhaps this plan does at least need some more foresight.” She admitted finally with a small sigh. Marisa breathed a sigh of relief and thumped her friend on the back. “Thats the Alice I know! Now, since you dragged my ass all the way out here, I think you owe me some food-”
Both blinked as their conversation was interrupted by the sounds of explosions outside. “Whoa. Sounded big.” Marisa said with a small frown. “Hope an incident didn’t kick off while we were down here, ze.”
Alice smirked and shrugged.
“Being the intrepid hero that you are, I suppose you’re going to have to find out, yes?”
“...But… But… snacks! Don’t tell me I came all this way for nothing!” She muttered dejectedly. “...Can I at least take a book for my troubles-”
“Shoo” Alice cut off with a flat look.
“Ugh. Fiiiine. BUT I WILL BE BACK FOR SN-”
The two discovered that there was indeed an incident nearby in short order. They discovered it when a massive, multi hued laser suddenly tore through a part of the ceiling in an explosion of light and fury, by fate, coincidence, or foul design… shooting right into the center of Alice’s pentagram. Both witches coughed from the dust, Alice’s dolls already shooting through the hole to investigate as Shanghai and Hourai took their master’s side. as she growled
“I do not know who that was, but they are going to pay for that-”
“-Alice. Alice the circle” Marisa squeaked, her own fury and irritation at almost being someone’s target practice dying in her throat at the sight before her. The energy from the spell blast had apparently triggered it, and the lines within were slowly growing brighter.
“Oh. Well.” Alice said with a small blink as she looked down.
“That is… unfortunate.”
“You think-”
Marisa’ sarcasm was lost to the depth of space and time as the circle suddenly howled with energy in a sheen of swirling light. The air howled and whipped with wind as a small black circle suddenly appeared in the middle of it, sucking the surroundings in like a black hole as books and dolls were sent whipping around the room. Alice had barely managed to grab onto a table leg, her face etched with determination as she held on for dear life as the table slowly scooted across the floor towards the hole. Marisa almost flew back into it, but shanghai snatched her hand and slammed a lance into the ground, hanging onto the witch for dear life as the portal pulled against them as Marisa howled. “HOW DO WE TURN IT OOOOOOOOOOFFFFFF!?”
Alice grit her teeth as she slowly scooted closer.
“I DON’T KNOW! IN THEORY WHEN ONE PERSON PASSES THROUGH!”
“...ROCK PAPER SCISSORS!?”
“Oh for the love of-” Alice sighed. Well. She was the one who dragged Marisa here in the first place. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise. She took a deep breath… and let go, falling sideways towards the portal. Marisa blinked. The briefest moment of incomprehension before she yelled.
“YOU IDIOT YOU’RE THE ONE WHO’S DONE THE RESEARCH TO KNOW HOW TO GET SOMEONE BACK!”
Oh.
Whoops.
----------------------
“So. You decided you wanted to have a fight with Reimu” Marisa asked
Yuuka Kazami nodded, a pleasant, serene smile on her features from where she was seated across the table from the witch and her shrine maiden friend. The fight had been wrangled back down in short order once the witch joined in, and the usual post-incident tea was taking place.
“Yes.”
“...And you just happened to drag it over to Alice’s house.” Marisa continued
“Yes” A bright eyed grin and a nod
“...And THEN you just happened to hit the activation rune on her experiment with a master spark!?”
“Oh no /that/ was entirely on purpose. I could sense that disturbance from miles away!”
Marisa’s eye twitched slightly as Reimu rubbed at her forehead and muttered.
“Right. And you did this why?”
Yuuka blinked, a befuddled look on her face, as if the question was the stupidest one she ever heard. She shrugged and picked up her tea cup.
“I thought it would be funny”
---------------------
There was a few things Alice was sure of.
- Her experiment was a success of a sort. This was definitely not her universe she was in.
- Shanghai and Hourai had made it through with her, thank Makai, and she still felt her link to her other dolls.
- Whatever this world was she ended up in, it probably looked far more impressive and far less ominous when everything wasn’t on fire and falling apart.
- She had absolutely zero clue how to remake her circle without her notes and books. She was stuck.
She wasn’t sure how, but she was sure that this was Marisa’s fault. Somehow.
She’d spent the last half hour coasting through the lower portion of the air, past crumbling buildings and strange sights, till she finally saw something. Or rather a lot of someONES, all of a variety of dress, armament, and demeanor from what she could tell. At least two of which who could punt entire crumbling buildings ಠ_ಠ.
It wasn’t like she had any other leads to go on however, and she quietly touched down at the edges of the group flanked on each side by a doll a foot tall, one dressed in red and the other in blue as she cleared her throat.
“...May I ask what’s going on?"
