Reborn

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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:37 am

Her mother grinned a guilty grin and the doctor found a good reason for smiling as well. It was funny to see thw reaction of the girl being...girlified? Could that be said of a girl and being correct? Accurate? Certainly seemed so to the shrink at that moment. The expression of surprise of the girl, the way she looked at herself, free from her black clothes and set up in the school uniform, which is designed to enhance the cuteness of the wearer. And her reaction to a simple thing as the earrings...
It was not exactly the case, but it kind of produced a mental image of a punk moving into pink.

"You left me no other choice, pumpkin. Or would you have allowed me to put you earrings while awake?" She smiled at me as I touched the round...things? ...on my ears. Maybe pearls? Smooth and round little spheres, one on each ear. 

"Told you it wasn't a good idea," the doc said to my mom. But she had an expression of true accomplishment and sparkles in her eyes. 


"how...do these thing come off? I can't...why?" -I vocalized, my fingers trying hard to figure out the catch to the studs. 
Granted, I should have some experience in these affairs, but I have never seen any reason to look pretty for others if:
1.-They never ever do the same for me, and,
2.-Everyone gets to see the adornments but me!
3.-All of the above.

"oh! You anticipated her reaction so well! It is actually amazing" and his face was a reflection of this surprise in deed.

"Well my sweet, now you wish you used these things more often, right pumpkin, but then again...the screws are glued to the posts, and they sell good glue in here! Look, I even fixed my nails aith it. Nice?"

"Mom you...glued the earrings? But how will I take them off?!" I was having trouble not to stammer! Not angry no...but surprised in deed! 

Suddenly it downed on me. She was giving it her best shot at making me something I had ran away from all my life. Something I have seen there, like a promise I could make true anytime I wished, only that I never wanted to. Why? 


...why?


"Mom...that's mean!" I...laugh!
"I will now need to lock my door to sleep or you will just throw away my clothes and replace them with..." 
oh no, I know that smile...
"no"

"On the brighter side, shopping is great! And there are wonderful malls here in Sapporo, you know?" 

Oh yes...she did it. Well, maybe not her, she only took me away enough time for someone else to do it!

"All those boring black clothes, you need some colour in your life, Betty." 

"But.."

"But nothing. Nothing."

Nothing.

"Well Akane, I think we can set our first appointment for next week? In the meanwhile, why don't you get to know the school with your mother?"

Yay! And then an endless walk in the mall! Super yay!

....really, why doesn't Godzilla attacks when he is needed? Ah! That happens in Tokio, not in Sapporo! Just my luck...
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Thu Apr 05, 2012 6:00 pm

I think it is in the instant that I shift my position in order to be sitting and then get up, that I become aware of the utter reality of this..this... No, I resist the idea of calling it clothing, uniform even.

It is a disguise. A disguise that inevitably makes the wearer to look ...horribly cute, innocent, and at the same time beautiful, kinky. Oh my, oh my...oh my.
Remember to keep the legs closed, Elizabeth, you are in a skirt now. Girl! I am missing my black jeans already!
With a long, deep sigh I mind *my* skirt. It is not long before the inner parts of my thighs begin to complain, but I smile, smile and fix the pleated blue skirt, because... because it is ok? No clue, it just seemed right at the moment, but I blink in amazement nonetheless.

"She used to blink like that". The doc said to mom "You knew her, didn't you?"

"No...or not as much as others, some times in her home in Loch Lommond, and when she brought a friend to my in-laws' home here to cure of something. She and her wife, it wasn't long after Takumi and I met.

She was special."


"She was my doctorate degree thesis. When she was fourteen" -He replied, his mind filling with memories of the child that returned from captivity in China, with her mind twisted in so many ways. She was forced into a life pattern she was not built to there, and again, here. Only at the end she found peace. Poor girl. It is true that nobody he knew had faced pain and fear as much as her, and, it is true that also, nobody he knew had such love to give. And she gave it up to her last day. What a glorious tormented life she had.


"If you prefer, I can leave you talking about the past and find my way back by myself, really" Both their faces looked at me, standing in my sailor fuku, just outside the shrink's office.


"Ah no! I will walk you in this school and you will love it, pumpkin"
"See you soon doc, I bet you will find this next Akane to be most interesting too! I can sign you the permissions to investigate on her!"

"MOM! I am so not a Guinnea pig!" I protest, fists on my waist.
"Damn! I don't look pissed in this (gulps) uniform, do I?"


"No" He said without hesitation.
"Not at all. More like...cute?" Mother added.


"Well I am!" Geez! how horrible to have to explain!
"Well, pumpkin, then...perhaps you look cuter when you are angry? Because...lets not talk about pissed, okay? that was what happened to you other clothes"


I can't believe I am being talked like this. Worse, I can only look cute even if I am angry! I *really* need to escape this place...!


"See you soon Akane!" I...immediately turn around to face him. He will hear me. Oh he will know how displeased I am with his acquitance!

So, with a deep bow from my waist, I tell him: "It will be my pleasure and my honour, Tanaka-san"

Wait...I was to tell him what to do with his appointment! What is wrong with me?

Dr. Tanaka bows back at us, and takes a file. The last line on it is not his handwriting no... but it was a good finale for that amazing story:
"My wife is much better now, thank you for all your care, but she really just needed to love somebody. Penny Naome."


"Not just 'somebody', I think" He muttered. He never met Penelope Naome, formerly Flannagan. But the tales of her made him reconsider all he knew about witches. One of a kind, nothing less.



It is only after some minutes that I realized...he never told me his name in the first place. Shaking my head I ponder that some things are just...scary.




"Look, look how happy they look, don't you wish you were already with them, Betty?" Mom points to a bunch of girls, just like me, clad in identical uniforms as mine, giggling and drinking pink milkshakes. I don't understand a word they say, as the speech is local. But I hear a lot of 'watashi', 'domo' and 'arigato'. Actually? if you say 'domo', smile and bow to anything you are told, you are on the safe side of the road here in Japan, or so I've heard.



In that instant we are surrounded by the silliest girls in pinkyland. All laugh...no... giggle! I look at them with the same horror as if the lions escaped the zoo. That is: keep still, play dead.
All that they say is perfectly beyond my understanding. I mean, they look nice and friendly, is only that I can't understand why they are talking in...

...Japanese.
Then the penny drops.


We *are* in Japan.
I look as Japanese as them.

By the most simple logic...they are being only polite.


Raising my hand to my shoulder level, I smile coy, wiggle my fingers and try a.... "d-domo?"


Oh well, they are giggling even more. What did they have for breakfast? Smiling faces soup? And where the hell is my mother? Ah... in the far corner, taking another video with her iPhone...
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Sun Apr 08, 2012 1:45 pm

"Listen, I..."
Elizabeth found herself lost for words at what, for her, seemed to be a crowd of schoolgirls around her. Actually, they were no more than ten of them, but, then again, she wasn't used to many people around her. Was she the same back in the States? Yes, the feeling certainly felt familiar for her. Her reaction was not, for instead of either pushing schoolgirls left and right or run to the nearest 'safe spot' available, she...stayed.

Was this because she was being filmed for posterity in YouTube, if her mother's previous actions were anything to go by? No, she was not the sort of person to feel pressure from anyone else. Funny, since was not physically strong, or the best at the academic life. Perhaps she only aced in two subjects: history and maths. She just seemed to know tha historic facts as if first hand lived. She knew the little datails in the history with an 'h', than made the big facts in History, with a capital letter. And math, she had what her teachers called 'full command', as her grip on them was, if still in need of training, very well on the right route to create her own perspective at them.
Anyway, for a reason that escaped her, the first impulse was not to use her arms to throw silly-dressed schoolies to the air, as if she could, but...happy?

Happy?

HAPPY?

Fact is...for an instant brief as the rainbow contained in a rain drop, I giggle.
A little, small giggling escapes me... this situation is so surreal anyway. Even my mom reveals her suprised expression as her phones slips her hands.
"Oh...she laughed" -She murmured to herself.

Not the first time..of course! Geez get real! but it was so so rare for the Japanese looking girl to actually laugh, even if her polite smile was seldom seen.


Why do I laugh? I am dropped in the seventh circle of hell as much as I can see it! Maybe it is a compensation from the subconscious? the lightning from a heart that wants so much to enjoy what the mind allows her not?
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Who cares?
"HAHAHAHAHA!"


"Listen...I know I look as if I was from here...but no, really no... I can't make clear one word you say"
"Oh girl...will I flunk all the subjects here..." I facepalm. The way the bow on my chest caresses my arm does not escape me. I shiver.


"Not even Hello Kitty will help you, Twinky" -An annonymous voice said.
"I am really not a Twinky, let me explain, I wasn't born here and..."
"It is a joke, Twinky!" And a hand messed my black hair playfully.

Twinky: it is a way to call a Japanese person who cherishes the western way of life. Yellow on the outside, white in the inside. I HAD been called that before, so I am no stranger to the term. But I am not Japanese! Well... I am a Buddhist by conviction, and I have all the looks of my new school peers, but....

...but!


What is this sensation? Why do I feel...? I feel...accepted? Accepted? But these girls don't even know me! How could they?

Care.

I am diving in my thoughts when I feel a huge hug around me. No, no big girl hugged me. The community did, and that felt...just awesome.

"And you will be doing great in English class. So well you perhaps can helps us?" Another one said.
Wait...wait yes! that was English! like a moment ago!

Don't cry...don't cry... don't be such a girl!!!
I dry a teardrop from my cheek. It does seem I am *that* kind of girl after all.

"thank you...a-arigato... thank you..."

Damn! even the uniform looked cool now...after all...all my friends are using theirs too!

"Well...we will see you soon in class, hai? And don't worry Twinky, you will find not everyone here is Japanese!" They wave their hands goodbye, sipping on their milkshakes.


A hand on my shoulder...
"Yes mother..." I anticipate
"I like it in here...you win"
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:18 pm

"I am sorry mom, I am really trying not to be difficult, and I am genuinely happy we are in Japan, even more to meet dad's parents finally; after all, it is not the same thing in webcam, is it?" My voice sounded not as defeat, but as abidance, and that is not a bad thing, if you put your heart to it. After all, and wrong as it may sound, it takes more effort in achieving compliance than to endlessly defend a point of view. A point of view that, at least in my case, I wasn't even so sure in the first place. 

I mean, why am I so shy in the first place? Unless Dr. Tanaka was different, his diagnosis will join a long list of social disorders, agoraphobia, blah blah and blahhh...all crap to me, but...inside, in the heart, I do know something is not right. 

...like the deepest sadness. The lugubriousness that follows when you realize you only imagined, yet never truly had that what you knew is the core of your heart.
Wait...what am I thinking about? I have never been in love! Never had a boyfriend or anything! I mean, I can't be heartbroken when I not been in love before! That's just...silly.


Elizabeth shook her head. Looking into that feeling was something she avoided all costs. She had developed an amateur skill on distracting herself from that feeling; after all, a girl has to live and make her best effort to be as cute as can be, right?

...Right.


Anyway, I sigh and dwell on the way the sunlight enters the school's windows to the cafeteria. It looks so wonderful, it is almost as if those were ribbons of golden light sliding from the windows to the walls, to the tables and chairs, the floor.

It is just a moment, but it seems..magical. It is true, the sun does love this land.

Ah! The warm hand of my mother on my shoulder gives me a sensesation of confidence, of trust. She is behind me, but I feel the warmth coming from her. My head tilts to my left and I feel her hand.

Her warm hand.
Her warm, fluffy and hairy paw...

...paw????




"YIIIIIIKES!!!"

I feel like jumping out of my panties! In fact, I did jump, even if the undies did come with me! 

In front of me, a person in a bear-cheerleader outfit, ever present smile, its tiny skirt swishes with its every move. The bear drops a pink bag. On the opening I can clearly see it contains clothes very much like the ones the bear is wearing, and two pom poms. 

"Hello Akane, I was sent here to give you your cheerleader uniform and, doh...to give you a very beary welcome! the bear said in a heavy British accent that I could have mistaken for Mary Poppins'. Then the girl inside the bear hugs me and my mind flies to the scene when Chewbacca hugs Princess Leia! Get off me..carpet!

Again, instead of setting fire to the bear, I hug her.
Damn! Why am I softening or what? 
"thank you...er...and I am most thankful you all are bearing with me..." I smile and bow with hands in front of my skirt.

Confirmed: This place, this country, this parody of a navy uniform is getting to my mind!

"now maybe is best you leave before you get 'rumbly in your tummy'?" I say, closing one eye and sticking out my little tongue. Just like all manga girl drawings do. Or at least that's how I draw them following Mark Crilley's advices in the internet!

I hear giggling from inside the bear, that indicates that the girl who was eaten by it is still alive.

"very well, but we see on friday, after classes, to introduce you to the team and first practice, deal? Deal "

The bear waves a paw and it is only when it moves that I get to see my mother, to whom I run to!

"mom" -I whisper- "they all seem crazy...may I politely suggest you put me in another school? Or maybe I can start my own manga series and forget about school altogether?" 

Her smile is my answer as she pays for a strawberry milkshake for me.


...oh the scrumptious,delectable, yummy taste of the cold pink drink makes my while body to tingle!!!


"No, pumpkin...your place is here, this place and among these girls, is where you belong," 
Much more than you think, -she added mentally.

"Your grannie will have a room for you and other for your dad and me, so when he and I must go for some time, fro  time to time, you will still continue in there and..."


"what...?" 
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Re: Reborn

Postby Blaze » Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:34 am

Looking good so far, but I did have a complaint.

In recent chapters, you've been swapping from first person to third person seemingly at random. Is it intentional or a typo? o_O
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Wed Apr 18, 2012 6:02 pm

Hi again! Yeap! Totally intentional. I am aiming for a mixed style in which some parts, tha main parts, are in first person, but some stuff is in third. This broadens the possibilities for writting. Yes....it becomes a little more difficult to read but...but.. (scratches head) ...er....but...(thinks hard for a neat and fancy reason to support my statements, but finding none, I just giggle and blush slightly)


Oh look! A butterfly!!! (runs after the cute thing in a field of flowers)
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Re: Reborn

Postby Blaze » Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:47 pm

Ahhh, well if it's a stylistic choice, then there's no problem ^^
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:08 am

What..did she just say? A sudden feeling of loss overtakes me faster than the movement of a dragonfly's wings.

"b-but...but why?" 
Did I make them mad at me? Was I supposed to do something I didn't? Or did something forbidden or something? Like...who drops a daughter in Japan and goes traveling around the globe? Am I a bad girl? A thousand questions rise like clovers in Ireland's emerald grass, but...none of them have an easy answer. Some of them I don't know, some if them I rather not.

Face it Betty, you are far from being the perfect daughter. You are stubborn, and too silent, and never share an emotion. This is your payday, girl. You finally managed to push away from you the only persons you held dear! Congrats!

I feel cold inside. More like freezing.
"please no, please don't go away mom. What will I do without you? I promise I will do anything. ANYTHING, you name it. I can change! I can be a better me, just please...please..."  

Her voice became a sob, her questions, a begging as she clung from her mother, eyes swollen in tears all of a sudden.

Her mother smiled at her. She was heartbroken too, and still, she understood this was for the best of her pumpkin. She felt her heart shrinking as her daughter melted in tears. Some decisions are tough, then it is this one!

"Pumpkin...my dear pumpkin..."  she said as she hugged her daughter, very close, no space between them. How much has she tried to understand her? But Elizabeth is a puzzle for her up to this day.

"You have done nothing wrong. Nothing" -She began consoling her daughter, and herself.

"...noyhing wrong"



Still, Elizabeth couldn't understand why she was being dumped like this. Like an unwanted puppy. Like a flower that has shown its best colours and fading now? 

"of course, changes are always hard, never easy, my child, but facing these sort of experiences is a part of what makes us all grow, even us, as your parents."  this was so true, sometimes growing is harder on the parents than on the kids.

"and, we are  ot going away forever, no no..we shall be going away more like seldom, and not so many days. But you need a place to call home, my dear."


"Home is where the heart lives"  I reply instantly.

"very true! And you will learn to love this place, you shall see, ...Akane." 

Suddenly, my Japanese name did not hurt, no..it was ok, sorta.

"Who knows? Maybe you will find someone special here? Someone to love? It is very possib..." Her words were interrupted by my sudden and very loud laugh.


"HAHAHA!!!No way! Me? Giving my heart to someone just to see that superespecial person to step on it, mistreat it, and worse: taking it for granted and forget about it? 
I know I look a bit dumb in this clothes, but I assure you, my common sense is intact, mom"

"hahaha...falling in love...really...hahaha"
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Thu May 10, 2012 4:16 pm

"Oh no... Love is not like that at all, sweetie, for instance" Her mother tried to sound as convincing as possible, but this was an argument they both had in the past, and many more times than one!

"One day, a boy will come. And all these things you say now will mean nothing to you, Betty. You will rush in and tell me all the things about him, and how wonderful you think he is, and how adorable and..."

Gently, I put a finger on her lips. She needs to stop or this could go on all day. And I am not guessing, it is proven experience on my side! I mean, discussing love affairs with a pink novel writer? Like...no thanks!

"Mom"
"..bwut"
"Mom"
"bwut!"
"no mom...no boy no nothing" I open my eyes wide, well, as wide as they can open anyway!

From the outside, se scene was a funny one to observe, the tiny schoolgirl silencing her mother who battled between keep explaining love and bursting in laughs.

"Welcome to our shop, how may I be of assistance? My name is Etsuko, and we are honoured with your visit!" -The Japanese girl bowed low with both hands together in front of her waist. Big smile and eyes that showed all what politeness is about.

"Dommo arigato Etsuko-san. Konnichiwa and all of that!" I bow like her. 
Nice thing this bowing stuff! I like it and it seems to be a natural thing on me. 

Akane shook her head, sort of disliking the idea of having pre-programmed attitudes just for race sake. A race she didn't feel belonging to, even if her looks betray her.

...or do they? Little by little, the girl in the seifuku smiled more and more, and she was more... At ease? Relaxed?
True, at each passing moment her demanour was more and more fluid. This, of course, did not escape her mother, the expert on the 'Akane' subject more or less.


It was only then that Akane took a look at the shop. Her eyes twinckled!

"oh!"

Oh at last!!!!!
AT LAST!!

Something under her skirt reacted immediately...not that she would mention anything but...

...but 'local' weather suddenly was hotter, and more humid, so to say!
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Sun May 20, 2012 11:06 am

"So...now *someone* is more interested in malls?" Her mother kept her hand on Akane's shoulder, making it clear that despite the vendor's kind atentions, it was her who would -gently- decide whether or not to penetrate the shop.

"But mom, look.." I replied instantly, knowing she would direct the actions. After all...I am penny-less. My purse is empty, damn! I don't even own a purse!

"Yes darling, you were saying?" No, she was not being a bad mother, she was only trying to make a point clear. Very clear. Because she knew her daughter, she heard her once as she was talking to herself. And this was not the only wish she would grant her today, no. Akane was due for more than a few surprises indeed, and she would make sure she got each and everyone of them.

Elizabeth had no way to run, her like for lingery was surly spotted by her mom. How? no clue! But it was evident she knew. So, where to run? where to hide when your secret is exposed?
Negating it would be a waste of time, and a treason to herself, and she was not prone to either of those actions.
In her solitude, in her lonely world, she had to be truth to someone: herself. Or everything could be lost.

So... she sighed, a deep sigh which came not from defeat, but from recognizing something from her in front of someone else, something that was tremendously difficult for a girl like her, so enclosed in her own world.

"I...like lingerie" She confessed, and an understanding smile formed in her mother's face at her back. Good, she was either getting in touch with herself, or finding a way to express her likes and dislikes.
    *Strawberries - check
    *Lingerie - check

"And with a good reason, honey," She added, now tossing her arm over her daughter's shoulders.
"After all, it is precisely designed and produce for us to enjoy, right?"

Relaxation, that was what passed through Elizabeth's mind at those words. She did not really judge her, did she? No, she just took her statement and accepted it! Wait...does that mean she likes it too? Then she is not some sort of abnormal weird thing?

"It is the fabric, mom..." She ventured, even if her own tendences towards being self contained were shouting at her not to say more. "and the lace, and the way it feels altogether and..." She was so blushing. Then she remembered the shop girl, had she listened to all? Well, unless she was related to Beethoven, she sure did, after all, she was just a few feet away!
Elizabeth swallowed some imaginary saliva on her mouth, a mouth that needed another strawberry milkshake!

"Sumimasen...Etsuko-san... I didn't want to.." She began, but was sharply interrupted by the cute shopgirl, first with a bow, then with her words.
"Worry not, your liking of this is perfectly normal, and we are proud to have some very fine products for our clients. Would you please come in?"

"Can we mom, ...please?" I pleaded, the shop was so wonderful. I'd buy the whole place! Ha! I'd even work in this place!
"For sure, my dear, that's why I brought you to this first shop... lets get in..."


The place only grew in marvels as Elizabeth's black eyes observed everywhere. It was almost funny that she, such a serious and centered girl, had a thing for panties and such. Unconfessable? well, now two persons knew. An anyone on the surveillance security system... and any passing by walkers. BUT...it was not like she posted it in the internet, hai?

She just couldn't decide which ones were more beautiful. Perhaps the white ones with that lace on the leg holes? Or the pink ones with flower design on the fabric. Some looked really...what is the word? Sexy.
More and more she was feeling a tingling all trough her body. Hopefully her mom was not uploading this to any social media!

"I like them all...what am I going to do?" She spoke out loud, scratching her head.

"How about you think about which fifty you like the most and work from that list down to thirty? Elizabeth looked with eyes wide open to her mother. "T-thirty?"

"Of course! so you can wear one per day of the month accordingly to how you feel that day!" She came to her and say: "Your underwear is your secret, that means, it reflects how you feel, who you are, and nobody needs to know. And it can mean so many things. Some people find black to be sad, others to be kinky, and others just use it because it stains with more difficulty... this, and all things, are what you think they are, my sweet daughter"

Akane blinked. Her mom speaking of Dharma? What an odd day! But she had no intention to ruin this wonderful moment. Oh-no-sir!
She nodded and picked a bra.

"this will be a problem...do they sell them with a box of Kleenex to fill the cups?" Good question, because nature had given her up to this point in her life the minimum of curves a girl should have. Not that she craved for a porn-star body, but..hey.. at least a bit more than she had!

"Look...look at Etsuko... does she have big boobs? No, that is because she is, like you, Japanese and...
"But I am not Japanese mom"
"Well, genetically? you are, sweetheart, you were born to this body and shape, and you need to admit and make your peace with it" She hung the bra on the place, and took another one, with the correct cup size for her daughter, or at least what she thought it was.

"Do you know how to measure yourself for a correct bra sizing? Have you ever measured yourself?" The shopgirl inquired with that warm grin again.


"....like every day..." I just roll my eyes.
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Re: Reborn

Postby Penelope Maria » Tue May 22, 2012 12:06 pm

Very nice! :wink:
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Tue May 22, 2012 9:39 pm

Penelope Maria wrote:Very nice! :wink:


******************
(distractedly filing my nails, planning my next post, as I hear the girl there)
...that? yeah, it is not bad, not bad at all, but...you should see me when my Okusan is around! THEN I write my very best!
(lifts eyes and spots the cute girl on a black seifuku for a moment)
Yeap, THEN it will...
(gulps)
...be the...
(rubs eyes)
...time.


(jumps excitedly dropping everything to the floor and hug-tackling you!)

MY LOVE!!! YAY!!!!
(covers you face with kisses!)
(muah muah muah muah muah muah muah!!!)

I LOVE YOU PENNY!!

*****************************
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Tue May 22, 2012 11:45 pm

"You are paying too much attention to it, I am sure your ...mother? tells you!" Ah! the ever helpful shopgirl.
I'd like to say she had nothing to worry about but, actually? she was as underdeveloped as I am, and I am WAY younger!

Heard that crash? It was my hope of having at least C-cups sometime in my future.
"I feel like the ugly duckling when found by the swans..." Still ugly, and crowded! But I smile, because far be it from me to be non-polite to this nice girl that will sell not ten, not twenty, but thirty set of lingerie!

Her fingers caressed the undergarments with contained excitement. For a strange reason, she felt anxious and eager to wear those clothes, even if some of them edged in the silly side of the array. Like those pink ones with ribbons. Who wears ribbons where absolutely nobody would be able to see them? Nonetheless, she was that person, and if she was the only one, the better, more variety to choose from!

"I'd say you are A cup ..today, hai?"
I almost thanked her! "Today" "Hai!" ...there is always tomorrow!

"this is like a dream mom!" The petite girl blurted out, carrying two pink bags filled with lingerie.
"w-why are you doing this? Just a month ago you were against the idea! ...forget it. What do I care? You MUST have your reasons and it is absolutely not my position to question your wisdom. Oh no...I won't!"

Her mother laughed loud and long, both on their way out of the shop, leaving a very happy shopgirl after a big sale.
"I am always here! Remember my name!" She added, waving her hand and at times bowing.



"Very well, my daughter. So you also like shopping. See? You have many secrets...my girly girl!"

"Sure mom! you knew me so well all this time!" I stick out my tongue and close one eye. Funny...such a Japanese gesture...how come it came so natural to me? I shake my head and my black hair caresses my shoulders.Then, why not? I fix the red ribbon on my chest.

"Now we get you some more shoes and..." She was interrupted by her cell phone. Just-my-luck...
Couple of seconds later, she finished the call and shrugged in her shoulders.
"It was nothing really..." Oh well! then lets keep buying stuff!

"...but you need to go" WHA..?!

"The school, you know?"
"They seem to need you to sign some papers. You DO remember how to get there, don't you? Then you can catch me right here in the mall. I will be shopping with Etsuko I think, after all, your dad and me...er....


I cover my ears! "Gross! Don't tell me those things mom!" She just laughed! But I know her, hadn't I silenced her, she would have continued on her un-needed explanations!
"I really MUST go to the school then!" Okay...think Elizabeth...it was just two blocks away, one to the right and one straight ahead. Piece of cake!


Two steps later I am paralized. Where the hell am I going? Hello? Like...first time in Japan and I don't even know where granny's home is? Ok, she is in Sapporo, but...we are already in it!
"Mom..."

Her finger rose, no questions, no doubts. Even in her pink cloud, she was a determined woman.
"Nothing, Betty, you need to face challenges, for Takumi and me will not be around all days. You need to learn to trust in yourself."

Well, she said she would be here...

"hai" It was not a very confident hai, but what the hell...here goes nothing!!


When the cold wind of the city hit my face and my hair flew free, it felt...like as the ice cream vendor said: this place likes me. And I immediately smiled. Somehow...just somehow...all seemed SO familiar! I found the school without a problem!

"Hello?" I said to an empty hall. Then facepalmed. "Konnichiwa?" Nothing "Domo?" ...well it was worth the try!

I sighed. Then looked at a wall. Suddenly it looked so black, as if it should be black. All the school for that matter. And a cold shiver made me tremble from head to toe. And I swear I saw a japanese girl in a black sailor fuku, all curled up in a dark corner, crying; but when I went there, ...nothing.


Save for hidden part of the wall, where the paint had peeled, showing black paint under it, and some japanese writing which I could not decipher, but the traces were not those of the elegant, beautiful caligraphy of the place. Not at all. There was anger, no...hate; in them. Deep and dark like those eyes I saw in the trophy room...

Had to run from there. Fast.

And suddenly the halway seemed so long. I ran, and pushed a door open, spinned, ran...why? You tell me... I just needed to escape from those black eyes again. Black like mine.
Last door led to a back garden, and I did not stop until I was sitting under a tree, panting. Where is your resolution girl? What is it that you are so afraid of, for Buddha's sake! A pink flower, like the one on my hair, fell on my lap and made me jump, shaken in fear.

"Creepy...creepy girl...
...am I hallucinating? There is no phantom girl...there is no phantom girl.." I say to myself, mostly to see if my voice was still there!


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Re: Reborn

Postby Penelope Maria » Wed May 23, 2012 8:17 am

Posted by invitation!

I look up at the school that looms over us with ill-concealed dread. I don’t bother to ask if I have to go, I know the answer. Coping mechanisms. Smile. Be confident.

I turn to Mum in the car seat next to me.

“Well, no time like the present,” I say, trying to smile bravely.

“I’m coming with you, Penny,” she assures me. I roll my eyes.

“I’m not that bad,” I say as we get out of the car.

“No, you can be worse!” she laughs. “I just want to make sure that they understand your…issues.”

I sigh heavily at the mention of my ‘issues’: Autism Spectrum Disorder - or, as I prefer to call it, being on the outside looking in. That’s what it’s like, always not quite getting where everyone else is at, always being on the fringes of any social group even when I can make friends. Of course I am very high functioning, and it has some plus sides: I am smart, for one thing – top of my class at maths and science, I soak up knowledge like a sponge. For another, other people’s opinions don’t matter to me – forget peer pressure, I do what I think is right, and hang everyone who thinks I’m wrong if they can’t give me good reasons.

“You mean that my brain doesn’t work properly? Just tell them I’m Super-Nerd,” I shrug it off with my dry sense of humor, punching the sky as if about to take flight. “Please Mum!”

“Well, that and your Japanese needs to come on a little more. I must say, you have picked it up rather well, though,” she looks at me and relents. “Just as far as the gate, then,” she sighs.

Languages are my blind spot, my French teacher despaired and even my German tutor was exasperated with me. Japanese, though, I picked up much easier when I was told a few months ago that we were moving to Japan.

“Thank you, but I didn’t have much choice,” I reply tartly. “With Dad trying to blow the world up and you trying to understand everyone in it before he does, what chance have I got?” I giggle as I tease my mother. She is an anthropologist, here in Hokaido to study the Ainu. She’s also a practicing wiccan, and in my considered opinion as mad as a hatter – saner than I am, though. I learned at her knee as I grew up, both how to be nuts and get away with it, and about the Craft. From her I learned not to be afraid of the sudden urges I get, when I will suddenly say something I don’t really understand, and be spot-on right. Or go some place I have never seen before and know my way perfectly, as I did once on holiday in Scotland.

Dad couldn’t be more different: A particle physicist he travels all over the world with us in tow to all the places where they smash the tiniest pieces of reality together in the largest machines on the planet. From him I learned a logical, incisive way of thinking, and an understanding that we probably all don’t exist in the big picture. Right now he’s working on some nuclear project sited here on Hokkaido, and he is a ‘don’t jump to conclusions, be sure before you speak’ sort of person.

Dr Angharrad Dawn Jones and Dr Michael Philip McCarthy make an unlikely but utterly in love academic couple. She has rich dark hair, and bewitching green eyes with a Welsh lilt to her voice. He is a classic tall Irish redhead, though he was born in Cambridge.

Me, I came out petite with her green eyes and his red hair.

“Penny, can you please pull your skirt down?” Mum asks me.

I grab the hem of the very short skirt and tug on it.

“Honestly, Mum, I am wearing knickers,” I point out. “My waist is here, around my waist. That’s why it is called a waist. It’s not my fault if the skirts here are crotch-length…”

“Your panties I will be grateful for,” she rolls her eyes. “Good grief girl if I didn’t know you better I’d think you were trying to seduce half the boys you come across,” she shakes her head. There it is, my ASD. Mum says when I was born I just looked up at her as if to say ‘I’m here, I have stuff to do, so play ball!’ Old eyes, she said, that said I had been around the block before. Anyway, I have always had a knack for dressing sexy, when I can be bothered with clothes at all. You’d think my mother, a witch, would understand why I feel comfortable naked, wouldn’t you? Mad as a box of frogs, like I said.

The comment about boys, though, that hurts. I am not, and have never been interested in boys. In a rare case of insight into the people around me, I refrained from telling anyone when I first realized it that I was definitely not heterosexual. Mum has probably guessed. She knows I do not date boys, and any offers get politely declined. Dad is just relieved that the daughter who looks so ravishing behaves so well.

“I met one of the other new mothers when I came a few days ago.” Mum says as we approach the gate. “She has an English-speaking daughter starting here who has trouble making friends too, and we signed you both up for the cheerleaders and I must say, you are taking Sapparo remarkably well,” Mum remarks as we enter the school, trying to hide the comment by spinning right onto another sentence.

“You did what?” I stop short and stare at Mum. “Cheerleading’s an American thing, and you know I hated it when we were in the States; all bottle-blond bimbos bitching about each other, just wonderful.” I sigh, Mum has done what she has done, and at least I will have another not-quite-sane girl to talk to. Or knowing my luck we’ll hate each other on sight.

An elderly man ushers me through the gate with a polite bow, and I bow back and thank him in halting Japanese. An amazed smile breaks over his face, an expression of wonder.

“Welcome,” he says warmly in English, “we have been expecting you. It is so very, very good to see you!”

“Um, thank you,” I bob a little curtsey, then remember I should bow and do so. “Domo arragatto,” I add in Japanese. All those martial arts classes came in useful after all, see? I feel a little flustered though; things are going along too fast again. It happens a lot to me, especially since we came here a few days ago. Everything looks so familiar, everything feels…expected. It gives me a great feeling of trepidation.
I feel…I know that I have to say goodbye to Mum here. Don’t ask me how, I just do.

“Goodbye Mum, I’ll see you tonight OK?” I say pointedly as she goes to follow me through the gate.

“All right Penny. Look after yourself, and try and make some friends.” She turns away so I can’t see her worried expression. I know she loves me so much, and she worries that I do not quite fit in with the world around me.

I take a deep breath and turn to the school, which looms over me. Instead of worried, or dreading my first encounter with my fellow students, I feel…excited. A great sense of anticipation fills me with butterflies.

Where the hell is the front door?

I can’t see anything that indicates an entrance. No, I see a lot of signs, they are just in Japanese, and I struggle to decipher them. Looking around I see a girl in a uniform like mine, sitting in the shade of a cherry tree in bloom with her back to me. Now for me walking up and asking someone is a Big Thing. I’d rather find a map – I totally get maps – and use that, but I do not see a map. Squaring my shoulders I walk over to the other girl, my shoes clicking on the pavement.

“Er, excuse me, um,” I remember I have to speak Japanese. “Kon'nichiwa, shitsureishimashita…” I begin, trying to remember how to ask: ‘which way to the principal’s office?’

She glances back at me.

Time stops.

She is Japanese, of course, with rich dark hair, olive skin and oriental features quite unlike my fair, red-haired Celtic ones. She must be the same height as me – small in other words – and as slim, I’d bet we could trade bras and not notice the difference. Her eyes, though, her deep, dark eyes, they suddenly consume my world. Eyes filled with loss and trying to present a black wall to the world, to shut everything out; eyes that my heart falls into and before which I am completely helpless.

“I…” I stammer, and all the words I can think of to say are: I love you. Please let me be near you, because you have stolen my heart with just a glance and I cannot live without you. Dimly, I hear other words, a girl’s voice thick with tears reciting a litany with such yearning it breaks my heart: ‘…so that we shall meet, and know, and love together once more in our next life…so mote it be!’

“So mote it be,” I whisper, as suddenly everything seems to click into place for us to meet here, at this time, in this place.

And she hasn’t even said a word to me yet…
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Re: Reborn

Postby Elizabeth Akane » Wed May 23, 2012 11:56 pm

I am thorn between checking if the phantom girl is lurking in the window or covering my eyes. If I cover my eyes I can't see her! Yay! but...what if she is coming like that Ring-o girl? no-no-no! But what if I open my eyes and she is right there looking directly at my face? No. So I can't open my eyes and I can't keep them closed! This is nuts! Elizabeth! Are you a girl or a mouse?

...squeak squeak?



For how long did the girl keep there under the tree? who could tell? who can read japanese wrist watches anyway?


Sweetest voice I've ever ever heard said, not wrote:“Er, excuse me, um,”
“Kon'nichiwa, shitsureishimashita…”


That voice...


I felt a thunder running all over my body, right under my skin and ended right here in my heart...
I just HAD to look at her.


Slowly, the asian-looking girl turned her face to see the person speaking in English and ...well, she understood Konnichiwa...


I look at her, the sun right behind her as it shines on this, its beloved land. No. It is NOT the sun, beautiful as it is.
...it is her red hair, flowing with the little wind.
My jaw drops as I am utterly lost in those green eyes, those green eyes deep as a forest.

Who is her? why does she look at me that way? why do I feel this way as she does!?!? ...why is my heart pumping like mad?

What is this...?


"Ages of loving you will shout at me that you are the owner of my heart....Tsuki Kaori, my...
...Okusan, and then...we'll never part...Alw..."
Then...after hearing that voice, so much like mine, ...nothing but... yes... The blooming of so many beautiful lotuses at one time, and...the smile of my Dakini.


My body trembling, the image of a prior time. A circle of rocks somewhere, hands tied up with a string that passed through time and space.

SHE wrote:“So mote it be,”

"So...mote it be" I repeat, and, from the deepest of my heart, I add:

"Always and forever"



...I am already holding her hand.


Her hand...the familiarity of that body warmth.

...and that smell, that scent of flowers, roses? Perhaps.

"w..what is shit sure is hi mash it a? Is that Japanese? I don't speak Japanese, I just..." Carry the very essence of the core the spirit within me... "...look like one and"

Trembling like a leaf, I stand up, my legs fail me, and I fall to my back, hitting the tree. Naturally, a rain of cherry blossoms fall over us and around us.


"My name is... Elizabeth "Akane, and... you are? This is important to know, because I want to know the name of the owner of my heart!
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