blossom to the beyond

"You may rest easy, I have no intention of attempting to steal any of your companions, even my dearest friend seems to have taken a liking to you." He speaks of the small red bird that had perched on her shoulder. "It isn't often she shows an interest, but you appear to have charmed her."

❍ Castorice couldn't help but giggle lightly. "I wouldn't call them my companions just from this short interaction. Though it isn't the first time something like this has happened to me in the city either..." She really couldn't think of any reason why it might have been happening aside from the one she had already pitched. Not that she minded, of course! She had always learned to be able to touch animals, to get a sense for how they felt.

"...Whatever sure." She hoped something like that wouldn't catch up but knowing her luck it'd unfortunately would. Which meant having to explain to everyone else why someone who knew the slightest about zoo animals or the idea of them was being called an expert.

❍ "I see... So if I bought someone a piece of cake and surprised them, I would be "getting the jump on them"? How novel! I was envisioning some literal jumping... I wonder if I could work that phrase into a new story?" Castorice almost ended up going entirely off-topic for a moment. She was still working on a novel and practiced poetry now and again. She couldn't help but laugh a little at Lich's thoughts about Cipher, though.

"—From this teleporter landing, it doesn't seem that much different from the ground, but there are several destinations unlike anywhere else up here."

❍ When the suggestion had been brought to her that the two of them go on a date in the space station, Castorice had wondered why she had never thought to go up there herself. There was a part of her that had high expectations for the view of space from within it, because that was the sort of view that the members of the Astral Express so often got to see. She would have liked to see it for the first time with some of the other Chrysos Heirs, but the occasion had never turned up.

Castorice's hand in hers felt like a vow. In this instant — separated from other more powerful, more fraught periods of time in their lives — it was a human hand in another human hand; a meeting of equals. A comfort and a discomfort at once.

❍ "Well... Perhaps as a result of my long life, I've come to commit the memories that hold importance to me in higher regard than the others." When all of those memories of the endless cycles had come flooding back, at first she had struggled. Not only did she have to pick through the noise to find which ones differed, there were the ones that she had to decide if they were worth holding onto as well. The memories of Spirale all existed outside of this conundrum and they stood out because of that because they were unique.

❍ It was a phenomenon that had only started happening after her curse had been lifted. Animals had always taken a certain interest in her, but had been wary of the stench of death that had followed her. Ever since? Well, perhaps she smelled nice to the animals? She wasn't certain.

"Chapter three... I can't wait to "beta read" for you, if you'll allow me." Her eyes scanned the screen, picking up words here and there that piqued her curiosity. The terminology surrounding fanfiction was about as new to her as this relationship was.

❍ Castorice was proud of her writing. It could be heard in her voice and even seen in her body language as she turned the laptop around so that Insight could read what she had written. "Feel free! Lady Serah decided to start attending a baking class to try and bake something for Delilah, but it turns out they were both signed up for the same class! They even ended up as partners! ...Of course, Serah was worried about it. But as it turned out, she was there to learn to bake a cake for Delilah's birthday! A classic misunderstanding!"

"Ten would be generous thinking even for someone like me..." Still the alternative was leaving her to do it all by herself. Which meant Castorice was either going to get completely lost all by herself in a place like this or somehow drag another person into this. While the later did sound amusing the former was going to work even the most devout of individuals to death.

❍ "Oh! Miss Zoo Expert Lich, then!" Because she was inexperienced, she ended up taking Lich's sarcastic comment as gospel and followed along. She didn't know her well enough to know if it would be true or not, and Lich leaned into sarcasm semi-frequently. Castorice was unfortunately not very good at catching onto it.

When that response came, Insight knew she had been too indirect. She closed her eyes, tied up in a sense of discomfort she hadn't felt in... well, likely since she'd acted under the name "L". She had to keep her audience in mind: a woman who had lived far too long without indulging in physical touch. Longing for it, but killing her desires for it before those desires killed others. And, so...

❍ The demigod knew that if she was to pursue a romantic relationship with someone, it would have to be someone that was willing to be patient with her. Despite how old she looked, she was hundreds of times older and yet had no experience in such a simple thing as expressing feelings. But Insight knew these secrets, and she also knew that Insight carried burdens of her own. They weren't the same, but they also weren't entirely dissimilar.

* Yeah Sounds Good * And Yes The "E" In E-Publishing Stands For...

❍ "Electronic... Oh! I see, because computers are electronic. How fitting... Hm... I wonder if that makes me an e-person? Is that a term?" At least for the time being, she was a product of a digital world. What was she if not electronic signals with a personality? Modern technology certainly sounded like it was amazing. There might have been similar tools on Amphoreus, but they were masked with fantasy explanations.