Office Hours--Divinations

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Kusuriyuri decided it had been long enough since he had opened his office. There were other factors influencing this decision, but a good part of it was he felt he was neglecting his duty.

Outside his office door and several other places around the school, signs appeared declaring the Divinations office open for any students who wished to talk, to consult, or who just happened to wander by.

Kusuriyuri knelt behind his table, shincha brewing as it was the season for it, waiting for any who would come in, wondering if a particular one would come in.

OOC: Yeah, this is a 'trap' for a particular character, but is also regular office hours. And, if you're particularly interested in a type of divination or anything else you'd like to see Kusu teach, feel free to mention it :D

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[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

Coraline's eyes widened, but of course there were the ways into the other world that the cat had talked about, weren't there? And the cat had also said that the other mother could have found that world, not made it. She was sure there was much more to it than she knew.

"It turned out not to be very much of a world," she said, slowly. "Only a copy of the house and the garden. I tried to walk away from the house and just came back to the other side of it. But that was later, after I came back to rescue my real parents." She took a breath, remembering where she'd come to. "The other mother was - she looked like my mother, except for her eyes. Her eyes were buttons. Round black ones. And she was too tall and thin and pale, but she didn't seem evil, not then, just weird. She was cooking chicken. She told me to tell my other father that lunch was ready, just as if I'd been there all the time. So, I did."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"The other world isn't always harsh," Kusuriyuri murmured. "Your true parents became entangled in it?" he asked. While his exact version of the 'other world' might be different from hers, there was a similarity in other worlds that allowed him to understand and sympathize. A young child stumbling into the world he fought mononoke in would face considerable difficulty.

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

"They were stolen." Coraline needed to look away for a moment, then. Berry moved closer, touching her gently with one leg. "To lure me back," she continued, eventually. "Because I went home. The other mother wanted me to stay with her forever. She made the whole world so I'd want to stay in it. Like home, only more interesting. And she was going to sew her buttons in my eyes to keep me there. But I said no, and I thought she'd let me go. Only my real parents weren't at home when I got back."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

It wasn't unusual for spirits to want to keep children to raise as their own, or to consume. "It is difficult to resist, when one from the other world has focused on you," Kusuriyuri said sympathetically.

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

Coraline nodded. There was a strange aching feeling in her chest. She had never expected to speak to anyone who knew more about the other world than she did, other than the cat, and he couldn't talk back, now.

"The cat showed me where they were," she went on. "I haven't told you about the cat yet. He lives in the garden of our house, and probably other places too, and he hasn't got a name because he says cats don't need them. And he knows how to go between worlds. I saw him when I went to the other world the first time. Anyway, he came and found me - he can't talk in the normal world, but he took me to the mirror in our hall, and my parents were there, trapped inside. So I had to go back to rescue them."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Boukensha had opted to remain in the greenhouses, sunning himself today. He would have preened at what Kusuriyuri said. "Cats are most wise of both worlds. Well treated, they are guides. Poorly treated, they can become monsters in the other world."

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

"He doesn't think very much of people," Coraline said. "Human people, I mean. But I suppose people very often don't think much of cats either." She knew how frustrating it was when people thought you weren't worth listening to. It must be even worse if they didn't think you could talk at all. "And he's certainly not a monster."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"This one thinks that cats may not think much of any other than themselves," Kusuriyuri said very solemnly, his eyes twinkling with humor. "But, it would seem he cared enough to aide you, then?"

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

"He did." Back to the story. "He was the one who told me to challenge the other mother to a game. He said her kind of thing loves games." This was not quite a question. The cat had never said what kind of thing that was. It hadn't mattered at the time.

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

This was different than the creatures he was used to meeting in the other world, though he had heard of some that liked to make wagers or play games with their prey. "What type of game did you decide upon?" he asked.

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

"An exploring and finding-things game," Coraline explained, sipping her water. "That was after she locked me up behind the mirror, with the children she'd taken before. They were all trapped in there because she had their souls. So when she let me out again, I made a deal with her. If I could find my parents and the ghost children's souls, she had to let me go. And if I didn't then I'd stay with her forever."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"A difficult challenge," Kusuriyuri murmured, approval in his voice. "A worthy one for what you desired."

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

Coraline looked down at her cup. It was suddenly quite difficult to speak again. "There was nothing else I could do."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Kusuriyuri watched her for a moment. "Many would have left them, not returned. It is a difficult decision to return, to be willing to make the challenge, to play their game." It was a lot more praise than he would have normally given anyone, but he could see that she was struggling and didn't have an arrogant attitude about what she'd done.

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

"They're my parents. I couldn't have left them." She looked up again, ready to continue now. "And I had help. I had the cat and the ghosts and the stone with a hole in it, that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible gave me. Because the first time they read my future the tealeaves said I was in danger but not what sort of danger, and Miss Spink told me the stone would be 'good for bad things'. And - I didn't really believe her then, but she was right. When I looked through it it let me see where the souls were."

She decided to skip over most of the details, now. The story was long enough as it was. "So, I found everyone, and I tricked the other mother into opening the door again, because she wasn't going to let me go, even after I won. We all escaped and shut the door behind us, and I locked it, and I thought it was over then. The other father said there was only one door and one key, and I had the key on my side, so she couldn't get out. Only - this is what I was saying about the hand. The other mother swore on her right hand that she'd let me go if I won, but she lied. And when we pulled the door closed, it closed on her arm. Her hand was still on my side, following me, to get the key back."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"Some things are much more difficult to banish to the other world than others," Kusuriyuri said softly. And not all of them had the same type of fear of their god's revenge that would prevent them from going back on their word. He tilted his head slightly, curious now. "Have you seen that hand here?"

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

Coraline shook her head. "I trapped it down the old well at the bottom of our garden."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"Most wise," Kusuriyuri murmured, nodding in approval. "And the key?" he asked, curious what she did with that. Had she kept it, trying to hide it? Had she destroyed it?

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

"That's down in the well too," Coraline explained. "I used it as bait." She put the cup down to gesture, describing the shape of the well with her hands. "I put a tablecloth over the top of the well and put the key in the middle. And then I pretended I was just having a picnic, with my dolls, and we'd brought the key along for good luck, so when the hand came and saw it it jumped into the middle of the tablecloth and fell down the well. And then I put the planks back over the top, that were supposed to stop people falling in. They're extremely heavy. I almost couldn't lift them."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Animated parts of something were rarely ever intelligent enough to escape simple traps. They often were given instructions to obey and barely enough knowledge and will to follow through. "You did well," Kusuriyuri murmured. He tilted his head slightly. "When you arrived here, had you thought you'd gone into the other world again?"

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

Coraline nodded, slowly. "I thought I might have, at first. But it didn't seem like a trap for me, just a place that was already here and I ended up in. It felt real. And most people had proper eyes and looked human. When I got out of the Sorting Room I went to see whether the grounds would fade away if I walked too far, to make sure, but they didn't."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"This one thought he may have gone between worlds when he arrived as well," Kusuriyuri told her. "But, though it is strange, this place is not like the other world."

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

"It really isn't," Coraline agreed. "I didn't expect anyone else to know about it," she added, quietly. It had been her own secret for a long time.

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Kusuriyuri took a sip of his tea. "This one traveled between worlds to exorcise mononoke," he told her, explaining how he knew of the other world. "This one has been to that world many times and knows it a difficult place."

[braveexplorer.livejournal.com]

"...is that what the other mother was?" Coraline asked. "A - mononoke?" The word didn't translate, although she thought she could make an educated guess based on knowing what 'exorcise' meant.