No Need for a Core?

Earlier that morning:

Moriko critically examined the reflection in the mirror, showing her and Kazue standing together. For today’s little date Kazue had decided to dress them up. The kitsune had also taken on her fully human form, in part because Mordecai suggested she might want to practice her shape-shifting. This was the first time Moriko had seen Kazue without her fox ears and tails.

Kazue had dressed herself in a lightweight, white dress with shoulder cutouts and bishop sleeves. The dress fell to about mid-thigh and was matched with a set of thin leather boots.

For Moriko she had chosen a sleeveless black dress with lacy edges on the top and bottom, then a black fur jacket that was apparently meant to not be worn across the shoulders but hang low from her elbows, and finished off by a pair of shorter heavy-duty boots which contrasted the thin thigh-high stockings. Then Kazue decided to make the whole look more goth by giving her black lipstick.

Moriko sighed. “OK, I have to admit that it looks good, and I can work with the boots despite the thick soles and heels, well, as long as I don’t have to fight, but this weird jacket thing has got to go. I can’t move my arms without them catching on it, and it always feels like I’m about to drop it, and it’s too warm to wear it properly. I mean, if you want me to lounge around looking hot, it works, but I am not going to go running around a library maze like this. And I don’t think I have the skin tone for black lipstick. No, don’t try it on yourself, at least not unless you plan on dyeing your hair black.”

Kazue pouted, then waved her hand to make the cloak disappear as well as removed the lipstick, though Moriko felt a little bit of weight added back to the outfit a moment later. “What?” Moriko said, then half turned so she could look into the mirror. A panel had been added to the back of the skirt that made it look a bit like she was still wearing a cape. “OK, that works.”

“Yes!” Kazue said, then hugged Moriko tightly. “I mean, you threatened to be all dangerous and scary and stuff, I just thought I’d help us look the parts.” She added with a mischievous grin before hopping back. “Alright, let’s go to the library for our date!”

Shaking her head with amusement Moriko followed behind the redhead. Even though Moriko was the one who decided to call it a date, it still felt a bit strange to her. While she’d never been good with the whole dedicated relationship thing, to begin with, women especially were partners of the moment, and rarer than being with a guy. She was fairly certain that Kazue was of similar disposition with regards to preference, albeit with romance and deep feelings being more important. But they’d made their decisions, and she really did adore the goofball, so she was happy to get some girl time to work on connecting a little more.

The first part of their outing was a bit of a mixed bag from Moriko’s point of view. Wandering around exploring the three sections of the library/maze was fun enough, but figuring out the logic puzzles was just not very interesting to her. The ‘word problem’ where she had to puzzle out a weirdly worded paragraph to then figure out what math to do was particularly annoying. She could do it, she had helped at her parent’s shop a little bit when younger and the temple had included a basic understanding of one’s budget to be part of general life skills and math was a part of that bundle, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

She found Kazue to be the much more interesting toy here. After all, they needed to sit close together in order to not talk too loudly, which was an excellent way to find out that Kazue's human ears were as sensitive as her kitsune ones, and the way the redhead shivered helped Moriko understand exactly why Mordecai liked teasing her this way.

It was also a good thing that the librarians couldn't actually use their silence magic on their mistress, given the startled yelp Kazue gave when Moriko gave a little squeeze to the other woman's thigh. But they did give the two women judgemental glares, given how Kazue had been the one to teach them the importance of being quiet in a Library. Moriko nearly got 'shushed' herself when the sneaking kitsune pointed to part of the puzzle to get her to look away, then darted in to nip Moriko's neck!

This did not stop Moriko from playing other games, such as seeing how far up Kazue's thigh she could run her nails before getting her hand slapped. Kazue's retaliation was more subtle, and it took a bit for Moriko to realize that her concentration was beginning to slip even more because Kazue had scented her hair with something a touch more potent than just perfume. It made her wonder just what notes had been present in some of the books the village brought, because she was unfortunately aware that her parents liked to play alchemical games with each other. There was a reason she had so many siblings.

While Moriko hadn't started doing this specifically to frustrate Kazue, eventually the games and flirtations got to the point that the kitsune decided that this just wasn't working and that they needed a break, and led them out to the little hidden tea shop.

Kazue looked so disappointed that Moriko wasn’t a fan of the puzzles that it made her feel bad, and Moriko wracked her brain for ideas while they tried the tea and biscuits. “Look, Kazue, not everyone is going to like everything. That’s part of the reason you two are creating such different paths, right? Some of us just aren’t that great with the sit-down stuff. And honestly, if the kids want to try your challenges again, a lot of them will find this part boring as it is. Maybe you could include a more physical puzzle? Something like blacksmith puzzles, or sliding picture puzzles? I like being able to see what I’m working on and being able to move things.”

“I guess.” Replied Kazue, who looked only a bit convinced. “Just, I love books and reading and stuff a lot, so I wanted to have a big library everyone could have fun exploring too.” She was nibbling on a sweet biscuit, which did seem to at least make her feel a bit better.

“I know love, and I do enjoy exploring it as a maze, but we need other games for people who aren’t as into books as you are.” Moriko scooped up Kazue’s free hand and gave it a squeeze and a kiss. “We can think of stuff, I promise.” She also took the opportunity to hook Kazue's ankle with her boot, drawing her leg closer to then trap between Moriko's own.

Kazue squeezed back before letting go, then ate in thoughtful silence for a little while. She made no attempt to free her leg from capture. “Hmm, so what sort of books do you read? Or, what else do you do around the temple? I mean, besides training all day and beating up noble brats?” As Kazue teased Moriko about that particular venture, she used her free leg to tease Moriko's thigh with the tip of her boot, taking advantage of having longer boots, and Moriko's being to heavy and clunky to try to do the same back, which would free Kazue's foot anyway.

“Hey! That was only the one time." Moriko couldn't really think of any way to up the ante here, so conceded by letting Kazue's foot free. "OK, maybe a couple of others, but that was for training and stuff, so I didn’t really hurt them. Just humbled them a little.” Moriko smirked. “But to answer your question, well, I honestly don’t read all that much. Most of what I do read is either for stuff like temple prayers, or manuals for techniques I’m trying to master.”

Kazue frowned a bit at that. “You have books for teaching you how to fight? I thought that was why you had to have teachers or go out into the woods and fight bears and stuff.”

Moriko snorted. “I’d rather go beat up those bandits than face an enraged bear. And there’s always some fool or another who has to try making hybrids with other animals like we need stuff worse than bears. But yes, we use training manuals. Masters can’t watch over everyone constantly, they have to take care of their lives and duties too. While it’s hard to learn from a manual alone, having it as a guide after having received instruction is an excellent tool to remember the exact flow of forms and meditation guidance for how the flow of chi is supposed to feel. And it’s not just temple training, sword masters and knights have similar books.”

“Hmm.” Kazue took another sip of her tea. “You said that the books show you what your form is supposed to be, so pictures, yes?” At Moriko’s nod, she continued. “OK. Well, what if I made some puzzles out of having tiles showing a set of forms, only the tiles are scrambled and there’s not enough space for all of them, so you have to figure out which one doesn’t belong and put the rest in order?”

“Oh, that could work. If you recognize the set immediately, it would be pretty easy. It’d be harder if, say, I had to figure out some knight’s maneuver involving a shield. But I guess your library system of being able to reference books would help. Mmm.” Moriko thought about it a little more. “I’m still not a big fan of having to figure out the right book and search through it, but it wouldn’t be too bad, and it’s supposed to be a challenge, not just games.”

“I don’t suppose you remember any of the manuals exactly enough to faithfully reproduce them? No?” Kazue considered her options for a moment. “Mmm, wouldn’t be fair to try that puzzle if my drawings might be wrong, so let's set that aside until you can bring some copies or something. For the sliding tiles puzzles, I have a few ideas. The simplest ones would be four tiles and a simple picture. For harder ones, I can make paintings where some of the tiles look similar, so it’d be harder to get them in the right order. I don’t think I should go beyond five by five though, that seems pretty hard. If I want to make it more of a challenge, I can have people go on a hunt to find the tiles. That seems really useful for large groups, so everyone can be involved more.”

“Well, if you want group puzzles, there are the cut-out puzzles where you have to fit the tiles together.” Moriko suggested. "And you could adjust the possible pictures based on the age of the group." It only took a moment for Kazue to blush, but she forged on determinedly.

“Ignoring that idea, those puzzles could be fun! They aren’t quite as library-themed as I was originally thinking, but I guess I don’t have a better setting for them.” They worked on details for a little while longer before finishing up their snack break and heading out to explore the library a little more.

It didn’t take too long to find a spot to carry through on Moriko's earlier ‘threat’ and corner the smaller woman playfully, placing her hands on either side of Kazue as she leaned in. “Looks like I have you all to myself now.” She murmured with a grin.

“Oh no.” Kazue replied, biting her lip in faux distress. “Whatever am I to do? Oh right, I’m the mistress of the dungeon, and I don’t think you should forget that.” Moriko blinked at the sudden change in tone, trying to figure out what the other woman was up to. Then realized her hands were stuck to the bookshelf.

“Hey!” Moriko shouted, then found herself being unceremoniously moved about as the bookshelves rearranged themselves, sliding her hands down and forcing her to the floor as Kazue stepped smoothly out of the way. “Oh, I’m going to make you pay for this.” She growled. The spots her hands were stuck to rotated, forcing Moriko to flip onto her back so that she could glare up at her wife.

Kazue smirked and shook herself a little, fox ears and tails reappearing. “I may not be the most tricksome of kitsunes, but I am a kitsune. And this is my dungeon. I think I should remind you of that love.” Her tails were swishing as she sat down on Moriko's belly. "I know it's easy to get a reaction out of me, but it's not just because I'm naïve or all that innocent you know. See, there are lots of interesting books out there, and I have a very active imagination." A small tool appeared in her hand, consisting simply of a stick with a freely spinning wheel on one end, edged with slightly dull spikes. "I get caught up in my own head sometimes, different thoughts colliding so hard that I can't think straight. But I find myself rather focused right now, so I don't think that's going to be an issue."

The bookshelves around them had reconfigured to create a private little room, and Kazue continued, green eyes glittering. "Now here's the rules for my game. You can tell me to stop here," she tapped her head "But if you do, then I stop completely, and we leave the library. For actual win conditions, hmm, oh, I know. I win if I can get you to say 'please mistress'. You win if you can hold out until I get tired or bored." Those weren't fair rules, and Moriko knew they weren't meant to be. Then Kazue's gaze defocused for a moment.

"Mordecai, I know we caught your attention. Feel free to watch, but this game is ours to play. You have to wait." With that out of the way, Kazue focused back on her wife. "Shall we begin? There's a lot of things I've only read about, and I want to really see how some of them work." Oh, Moriko was so going to get her revenge for this later. This didn’t mean she wasn’t going to enjoy herself now, but that was a separate issue.

Sometime later Kazue happily led her wife back out of the maze, with a not-too-brief detour to the frozen dessert shop, and she felt rather smug about that last bit of playtime. Moriko was always confident and tended to take charge, it had been fun to put her on the back foot for once. Kazue had won the little game that she'd created, though that certainly hadn't stopped her from continuing to play, and now Kazue was rather looking forward to the ‘payback’ Moriko had promised. She wondered what creativity the more experienced woman was going to bring to the table. Or bed rather. Unfortunately that bit of play time had taken its toll on her focus. She'd ridden the high of being that aggressive, and she'd been able to keep her thoughts on the game at hand, but now her head was beginning to feel fuzzy again. Kazue needed some downtime before she'd be good for much at all. Fortunately her core didn't seem to have the same issue that Kazue had always had to deal with, and she could offload that way, but it made her avatar feel like piloting a zombie.

Overall Kazue felt so much more confident after these past few weeks. It didn’t seem to be just one thing, but between being able to feel the emotional support of her spouses, her experiences successfully building her dungeon levels, the fun so many of the kids had running through her games, and all of her laganthro friends who were enjoying making plays and coming up with new ideas of their own, her life just seemed so much more fulfilling now. This didn’t mean that she didn’t miss some stuff, and more especially people, from her previous life, but still, she felt happier now in general. Maybe her Lady’s prophecy hadn’t been so very far off after all.