Closed & Moved

[Akina-chan_16]

[ ●●● ]

__________________|| ♫ b e a [ ♥ ] u t y i s n' t e v e r y t h i n g||

mirror mirror ____________on the wall....

T E L L M E

how can I become____________the fairest of them all?

The time for quiet had passed. Carmen had risen with the sun, intent to complete her ritual studies before her relatives awoke to interrupt them. Unfortunately, it seemed they had decided to forgo as a group sleeping late and leaving the horse in peace. With a sigh, the twenty-one year old contemplated the text that had seemed to creep along as each moment passed. Her paper was due tomorrow and she was ten pages in already. Ten pages worth of wordy explanations and analyzations of absolutely nothing. Her professor would be proud.

A grumble interrupted her rather intense musings. Carmen peered down through her crossed arms at her stomach with a raised brow, surprise written on her freckled face. Empty for five hours and it chose now to protest? Or perhaps it just objected to her rather skimpy silk gown. If so, then the college student agreed. Rosy red and cut a few inches above the knee, it gleamed in the too-early brightness of the sun. It wasn't Carmen's favorite, more of a gag gift from a close friend from high school, but it was the only night-wear clean for the moment. And, unlike some members of her family who will remain unnamed, Carmen refused to sleep in her birthday suit. All of this distraction did nothing to appease her tummy, though, which persisted yet again with another unattractive growl. "Alright, alright. I'll stop," she appealed, a tiny smile playing across her lips and remaining there until after she had saved her paper, closed the program and stood to undress.

That was the point at which it began to fade, met as it was but an unappealing reflection. The mirror was full length (not Carmen's choice) and rested unwanted against the back of her bathroom door. The figure inside it accosted her at every inconvenient moment, a constant reminder of her failures...and her desires. Almost as though to torture herself, Carmen moved to stand facing the mirror completely naked. Her body was fine. Attractive. Her breasts were small, but proportional and while her thighs and arms possessed all the unsightly fat deposits as most women, it wasn't overwhelmingly distracting. But her face caused Carmen a greatest amount of heartache. Without the freckles, she might have believed herself attractive; but there was no ignoring their existence. There weren't only a few; they were many, sprawled childishly across her cheeks and nose, darkening the otherwise fair skin. The woman cringed at her close examination, having not even noticed her nose was a bare inch from the slick mirrored surface. Thus, she didn't even notice until right then that her blinds were open, making her physical critique a public exposition.

Quickly she wrapped a hand around the most important parts of her naked flesh. Her good humor lost, the horse pushed the door open with unnecessary force, causing a crash loud to her ears. With hurried motions, Carmen bathed in the cold water and dried off. Finally dry, she stepped out into her carpeted room and, with a glare at the open blinds, held the towel closer, a protective curtain. When she finished dressing, the horse turned off her lights and her computer, slipped on her black flat shoes and padded quietly out into the hallway.

By the time Carmen had moved into the Sohma house, the only rooms left were at the back, dark and dank from lack of use. They weren't such anymore, of course, though their emptiness had given them a hint of mystery the young Carmen still found attractive. Now the back of the house was as well-lit and well-used as the front, disappointing as it was. From her room to the kitchen, there were two routes and Carmen chose the longest, figuring it would give the other Juunishin time to finish their breakfast if she took her time. So, in addition to the longer route, Carmen walked at a slowed pace. Roughly 60 minutes a mile. Roughly.

In truth, Carmen didn't posses any lasting grudge against any member of the Sohma house. Some were annoying, yes, but none of them bothered her too much. Especially not the...former...God. It had just been strange to move so soon after her father's illness and become entrenched in a life she hardly recognized. A feeling of not belonging had pursued her even though her habits and life seemed to have adapted smoothly.

She smelled the carnage before she even reached her destination. Carmen reached the kitchen to find Yukio, Naph, and Jun already there. Her efforts already a waste, the horse tried to make an effort to perk up. "Hi, guys," she said with a small smile. But that was all she said, her hands already reaching for the milk and banana that would provide her with a meager breakfast. Perhaps she would just take them to her room?

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"beauty is in the eye of the beholder"...

...but I've never been glanced at twice...

...so my eyes aren't deceiving me at all.

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[JadedBliss]

✖ . . . / / Midori Sohma

The early bird gets the worm. The early bird gets shot. Both were debatable, but which one was Midori Sohma? How about the not dead one? That sounded about right, since she was alive and breathing. Midori had woke up around 5:00AM, her body refusing to sleep any farther. It slept at 8 and woke up at 5, a perfect 9 hours for the lovely little sheep. For 30 minutes she had did her daily exercises, and for the next hour she had taken her walk around the main estate. She knew her route after so many years of taking it, and she could now never get lost. And that just made her feel old, or smart. Just a tad bit though.

Around 6:30 Suzu had gotten up to cook breakfast, and Midori had silently watched him from the counter. Practically invisible, since she didn’t utter one word to the cow. Just let the aroma of breakfast drift lazily around her bodice. Suzu slowly turned the dial down to medium when he flipped over the pancake, and Midori took this as a signal of Suzu leaving to change. As a addition to her thoughts, he even said it aloud. The sheep let her head slump down to the table’s surface, enjoying the coolness of it.

Sadly, that was short lived.

The smell of burning quickly prickled Midori’s nose, which she scrunched in distaste. Why didn’t she help Suzu? Because Midori wasn’t the Zodiac chef. Simple reason. Besides, she couldn’t cook unless it was for survival. The best she could do was stay still and wait for Suzu’s return, which wasn’t far off, and grimp. Soon after, as predicted, Suzu returned and whined over his black fluffy pancake.

7:45 AM.

The door resounded the vocals of a knock. ‘Someone is here, someone is here!’ it seemed to call. Like any other curious being, Midori followed the sound and watched from a distance. Suzu seemed to have trouble, and the woman wanted to laugh at him, but that wouldn’t be good. Nope, not at all. Instead, Midori chose to leave the poor bovine to himself to open the door. On her way back she had passed the dragon, Kasei. The boy was such an enigma -more than Midori herself- and it made her bite her nails in frustration whenever she tried to think about him. She didn’t like him, nope, not at all.

Thin fingers slid down her jeans and into her pockets. Out of the cottony abyss came a wafer of aluminum and gum. Carefully, Midori opened the packet and slid the gum into her mouth. Canines bit into the chewy concoction and began to masticate it. Breakfast was no longer a need, but she walked over to the kitchen again anyway. Midori had trudged her way along and found Chika, gracing the boy with a smile and tilting her head. “Chika, aren’t you going to eat?” She asked the hug addicted monkey, the maternal smile still on her features.

✖✖✖I'm only here to kick a** and chew gum.
✖✖✖Oh, and what do you know, I'm all out of gum.