When Cacti Are Burned

Sylvan was angry. Very angry. And who could blame her. No one wnats to fall down the stairs onto a cactus. Twice. It bloody hurt, ninja training or not. And so, regardless of anyone else's opinion, she resolved to torch it. She loved the forest, but this cactus was cetainly not native to Konoha in any concievable way. How it had gotten her, she had no clue. But by the many, many needles she had had to pull out of her arm, the thing had to go. 'Maybe if you I weren't so clumsy, this wouldn't have happened. Seriously, the same stairwell and cactus twice?! Hey, it wasn't my thought. That weirdly youthful guy with the amazingly shiny teeth blinded me during our philosophical discussion about destiny! I couldn't see the stairwell for all the spots! You I live in that place, and have for quite some time! You I ought to know where the stairs are! Shut up!'
Shaking the warring factions of her mind aside, she grabs the offending potted plant, and marches out side. One quick cashing in of a favor later, and she prepares to burn the plant to the ground in the center of town! Well, outside of the academy, in an area where no grass was nearby. She was mindful of her beloved forest, after all. Fire good spread quickly, and she didn't want to do any damage. "Evil plant! Your reign of misery and painful needles is at an end! I will smite you with flames, so that you never trouble me again. She had 'procured' some oil, and set of some kindling around the cactus. Now she picked up some flint and a bit fo scrap metal, with which she would end this monstrosity! One maniacal cackle later, she began furiously scrapping sparks onto the makeshift pyre. In the name of Konoha, she would end this blight of needles and unnecessary pain once and for all, even if it set her on fire.
Mindful of such a danger, she had a bucket of water next to her, and had cleaned off what little oil had gotten on her fingers. Sylvan was quite safety minded, after all. The whole thing with the stairs being the obvious exception.
Soon, the cactus was engulfed in flames, though Sylvan couldn't really tell whether that was the cactus or just the oil. She hadn't had much experience with cacti, but she generally assumed it would burn when soaked in oil and covered in kindling. While the fire continues to burn, Sylvan sits down against the brick wall, the aforementioned bucket of water within easy each should something occur.
{438 Words}

It had been such a promising start to the day. She'd gotten herself out of bed as she preferred, at first light. After numerous days awakening and doing the job, making her bed with precision bordering on the obsessive-compulsive and getting it so precisely correct that it appears that the bed was never slept in at all, achieving perfection in that particular small matter had become pleasantly easy and occasioned a brighter smile than usual as she'd completed it. Slipping from one shadow cast by the building light to the next, dancing along the edges to a degree so as to just cover herself in the shadows, she'd gotten to the training yard she'd liked for her morning routine and satisfied herself for maintaining the push beyond her previous limitations longer than before. It was pleasant, wonderful even, to be able to feel the difference from her hard work manifesting in greater capacities, greater speed, greater ease, and as she learned during her normal practice of honing her ability to move chakra in the bath, greater mastery. Things had seemed to go so well for her that she was dangerously close to outright gaity as she left the academy for a quick, vigorous walk along the virtually deserted streets of Konoha Village so that she could maintain that precious feeling of being invigorated for the time before the daily instruction would take place. All of this good day came to a rather abrupt end when she noticed the faint acrid scent of burning oil and kindling coming from the center of town instead of the craft shops where it would make sense. Suddenly frowning, she turned the vigorous walk into a sprint and in moments, was standing in stunned silence as she watched a cactus, of all the absurd things, wreathed in flames and based on the perimeter of the fire, covered in oil to set it off. Even more absurd than this was a girl leaning casually against a brick wall with a bucket of water, watching the fire but doing nothing to stop it.
"I see it but I don't believe it."
Rosemarius looks over her right shoulder and quirked a brow at her hallucination. Stating the obvious, are we?
"It never hurts to affirm what is true." She smiled. "For example, this girl clearly wants the cactus to burn and has taken steps to make it happen."
Rosie blinks as this occurs to her and turns to look down at the girl with the bucket. "Just for my own clarification: is this your doing?" She made no attempt to seize the bucket of water; dumping water on what was still an oil fire was fruitless and she didn't see a ready source of sand within easy running distance. So at the moment, the best thing to do was to watch it carefully and only try to extinguish it if it started getting out of hand. "Because at best, that is a profoundly improper way to deal with any issues you may have with decorative vegetation."

{Word Count: 504}

Sylvan looks up in surprise as she sees Rosie walk into the clearing. She had not expected anyone else to be coming here, especially not someone who.... Looked over their right shoulder, and spoke to a thing that wasn't there. This put Syl a bit at ease. Finally, another person who wasn't crazy in this mad, mad world. Perhaps ... perhaps this girl had also been victimized by the evil spiny plant! Yes, that made sense, for surely such a malicious entity traveled around, waiting at the bottom of stairs it had rubbed its oils on, biding its time until it could strike out with its needles! She was a fool, it was so obvious. Such loathsome evil could never be contained in a mere pot! ... perhaps more fire was needed... But she didn't know any fire based jutsu, such was a bit beyond her at the moment. Really, the only thing she could do consistently was the Mind Body Swap. Which was unfortunately not very helpful in this instance. She didn't want to tangle her mind up with that of this monstrosity. Besides, it was a plant, so she wasn't sure anything would happen. Best not to risk it when she could just kill it with fire!
"Hello! Do you have oil? Who is your friend? Were you attacked by this vicious creature as well?" The questions come one after another, but she clearly means every one of them seriously. Clearly the girl thought these were all perfectly reasonable questions, and indeed, to her they were. She was honestly puzzled why she, and most others for the matter, didn't have an invisible person following them around. Life would be much more interesting if that were the case. Would the various invisible friends be able to see each other? Either way, it would add a whole new dimension to combat and society. Assuming it worked, they would probably be required to wear clothes or paint or something similar. Perhaps they would be marked at birth? But then, would they really be invisible? Syl supposed if one removed the paint they would qualify, but still. "I fear it has blackmailed my roommate, and that is why she did not remove it before now. I cannot imagine Yusuri would be in league with such a foul beast! Err, plant, I guess. But still foul!" Sylvan grumbles angrily for a bit. Yusuri wouldn't do something like that, surely? She was nice, and definitely not evil. Or Syl thought.. What if she really was evil? Syl lived with her, there could be an explosive tag in her stomach lining, ready to go off if she ever put a foot out of line! Had she trusted Yusuri too much. They both cooked, but Yursuri was probably as clever as Sylvan, and more advanced academically. Who knows what she could've done?! .. .. .. Nah, that was silly. She was pretty sure as long as she never comitted murder, she could trust Yusuri not to kill her.
Sylvan calms a bit, and waves Rosie over to sit with her. "I haven't seen you around before. Do you and your invisible friend have names?"
{526 Words}

Rosie stands there and stares for several moments at Sylvan. I think she's...
"Mentally deficient. I had concluded the same."
I was more thinking mentally disordered but... deficient seems like a reasonable conclusion as well. The narrow-faced female ninja with the mildly long hair tilts her head very slightly. "I do not have oil."
"Feeding her delusion doesn't seem wise. Just pretend I don't exist.
You don't.
"I realize that, but my advice remains the same.
"I have no idea what 'friend' you're referring to," Rosie continued without a single pause in between her last sentence and her next. "The cactus is not a creature. It is a plant, which comes of a completely different phylum of standard taxonomic classification than creatures. It is nonmotile and nonmobile, and its structure is characterized by cellulose instead of simple fats mixed with phosphorous to form its structure. More specifically, it's a succulent and as such is known for a high retention of water in its tissues to counteract dehydration and, likely, prevent damage from fire. Moreover, it cannot attack, lacking even the mechanisms that plants such as a flytrap have, and most certainly cannot bribe anyone, since bribery implies sapience, the capacity to recognize the significance of value, and the capacity to leverage value to its own ends."
"Rose, I don't think unloading ivory tower speak on a cretin can help this situation."
Maybe it'll derail what amounts to her mental locomotive and stun her long enough to douse the fire.
At this point, Sylvan invites Rosie over to sit in a surprisingly sane-sounding voice.
"I'm going with... no."
Feel free to offer your own clever notions.
"I'm metaphysically incapable of being more clever than you."
My point exactly. Rosie eyes Sylvan for several moments before looking at the cactus. "How about we douse the plant first and then we sit and discuss why in the name of all hokage prior you've so determined to burn a cactus in the middle of the village? As to whether I have a name, I most certainly do, and it is Blytraviin Rosemarius. I have no friend, visible, invisible, or otherwise, and thus your question about such a person's name has no meaning."
She takes in a breath and lets it out, compressing her lips into a thin line of prim disapproval. "What might your name be? I also assume that since you ask about invisible friends, you have some of your own to speak of. Or, alternatively, have at least one and might tell me this one's name." Because an imaginary friend would explain quite a few things.
"Imaginary friend, as opposed to what I am."
You're neither real nor imaginary. Your unreality is related to you being a hallucination, albeit one that I've accepted and find both useful and companionable.
"I feel loved."
It's said that the first step to healthy relationships with people is to indulge some self-love.
"A shame you have no intention of a healthy relationship."
Got it in one.

{Word Count: 480 | 984}

Sylvan sighs, having been watching Rosie's body language and eyes closely as she talked. This girl was for some reason trying to pretend she was crazy, instead of normal like Sylvan. She wasn't sure why, there was nothing wrong with being normal. And on top of that, she didn't have oil. Such a shame. She seemed interesting, but was apparently going to refuse to be so. How sad 'I'm not crazy.' This was another of those things Sylvan didn't. "Why are you pretending to be crazy," she asks 'I'm not crazy.' "when you're normal like me?" It was a valid question. She was quite happy at the information on this annoying plant though, that was nice of this normal crazy person. Sylvan knew it wasn't really a monster, but it was nice to play around. It was a slow day, and she had nothing better to do. Besides, having the cactus at the bottom of the steps was dangerous. She probably didn't need to burn it, but she was extremely bored. The girl had denied the offer of keeping Syl company too.

---

Rosie would see Sylvan slump down, the melodramatics and and bright air about her fading like a joke the person had given up on. Instead, there was a bored looking girl idly watching the fire burn and keeping a close eye on both the water bucket and Rosie.  "Why are you pretending to be crazy when you're normal like me?" the girl asks, sounding sad and disappointed, as if Rosie had failed some sort of test that Sylvan was counting on her passing with ease. All in all, she looked like a teacher watching one of their better students forget how to write.

---

The girl asked Sylvan's name, and gave her own. Blytraviin Rosemarius. Sylvan didn't even know where to begin spelling that name, and she was barely able to pronounce it. Perhaps... Yes, perhaps a nickname was in order. Rosie would work. This 'Rosie' was also suggesting dousing the fire. Perhaps it was best. The thing was burning too slowly, and Yusuri had probably bought it form some reason or another. Without Sylvan's approval. She would need evidence. sylvan pick sup the bucket of water and tosses it on the flames. She then picks up a handfuls of dirt that had been lying next to her, out of Rosie's view, and dumps them on just to be sure. "I suppose you're right. My name is Sylvan Yamanaka. Nice to meet you. Do you mind if I just call you Rosie?" Rosie was asking if she had an imaginary friend too. She didn't, but it was thoughtful of the girl to inquire. "No, I don't. Never really felt the need for one. Why have an imaginary friend when a dog works just as well?"
Sylvan had dropped all pretense of the silly daydreamer she had appeared as moments prior. Now she just looked like she wasn't sure what to do with the rest of her day.
{497 Words}

"Why am I pretending to be crazy." Rosie eyes the other girl. "You're serious, you actually mean to ask me why I am pretending to be crazy."
"The power of insane compels her?"
Likely. "You cannot pretend to be crazy. You either are crazy, or you are not. You are either deficient or disordered, or you are neither. Disorder is readily apparent, as is deficiency, and so it ought to be readily apparent that I am neither deficient nor disordered."
"Except... you are."
When Sylvan slumps down and repeats the question in an especially forlorn way, Rosie furrows her brow and studies her more closely. She was... making a jest.
"It would appear so."
And I disrupted her joke without intending to.
"Correct."
Doing such without intent is unacceptable. It implies lack of consideration and rational approach.
"Correct."
Blast.
Rosie takes in a breath and walks over to Sylvan, stopping within arm's reach of the other girl and dropping into a crouch so her eyes are roughly on the same level as the girl's. "I've ruined you fun, it would appear, and did so without meaning to. I apologize for this Sylvan; I've no issue being a 'wet blanket' with deliberate intent to counter and suppress the fun that others have at my expense and annoyance, but I've feel that I've seriously lapsed if I did so without meaning to." She takes in a breath, lets it out, and turns so that she can seat herself beside Sylvan although still not quite right next to her.

"I beg your pardon for sitting without your leave and being company without your permission; I'll leave you to yourself if you prefer," she says. "As to calling me 'Rosie', I would..."
"Allow it."
"...not be offended." She gives Sylvan the barest and most momentary ghost of a tiny smile. "I realize that my name is... highly unusual. I've never really asked my parents what lay behind it, and I'm uncertain that they'd quite remember. Then again, something so unusual does tend to leave traces in the memory and if it ever really concerned me, I think I could learn what I wanted readily enough."
She is silent for several moments. "I too have no imaginary friend, as I said. The friend I have is not imaginary..." At least, not imaginary as such. "...but rarely makes any sort of spectacle of herself. She prefers quiet and deliberate work, thoughtful and with purpose, and just traipsing around with me is simply not her way. I tried a dog once and found it... far too enthusiastic to be a desirable presence. I also tried a cat and found it very agreeable, but it's hard to really claim to be companionable with a cat since you have no special importance on their world, and they have no special importance in yours."

{Word Count: 474 | 1458}

Sylvan listens to Rosie's response as she leans against the bricks of the school. She was a bit down. The girl was not like her, apparently, which was a shame. 'I'm not crazy.'She wished there were more like her, she had no one to talk to that was normal like her. The teachers just looked at her strangely, and the students... 'I'm not crazy.'There reactions were mixed, as one would expect. They were almost never positive, and even though, guardedly so. The rest were horrible. Jeers, cruel and mocking laughter. She hated them, but could do little to stop them. 'I'm not crazy.'It annoyed her, feeling so powerless against those to whom she felt superior. The worst was that in some cases she probably wasn't. Ike Uchiha, and her roommate were both much more experienced than she, a fact that rankled her. It wasn't entirely fair, she thought, but then again what was? Life? Hah! No, life was certainly not fair. 'I'm not crazy.' She knew that to be true, for many had told her this when she pestered and nagged them to provide recompense for various slights, both perceived and real. such was the way of things though. There was little she could do, and little she would want to do, were she entirely honest with herself. Always though, there was that fear she could never shake, the driving fear she held.

Rosie's assertion about the nature pretending to be something you were not struck her as strange. 'I'm not crazy.' they were both ninjas, doing things like that was a core part of their jobs. Pretend to be a bush, pretend to be an enemy's friend, pretend you weren't really there... they were all about pretending. Was it a really a stretch to pretend you were normal, or that you were crazy? 'I'm not crazy.' There was really no reason for it to not be possible, as far as sylvan could see. Ah, it appears Rosie had noticed her fun-ruining. she seemed a little embarrassed, or guilty, or both. 'I'm not crazy.'Sylvan wasn't really good with that sort of thing. 'I'm not crazy.'But apparently she hadn't meant to, so at least she would be tolerable to converse with. She was apologizing now, and sincerely too, even sitting parallel. Sylvan approved, and forgave. Rosie was clearly regretful, and Sylvan had no reason to hold a grudge or doubt her in this.
"I do not mind you sitting beside me, and I forgive the ruining of my ... moment." sylvan said, acknowledging both rosie's apology and the fact that she herself might have been a bit silly and unreasonable as well. It was the logical thing to do, and besides, she was rather interested in Rosie. As a person, anyways. The fact that she wasn't offended by the shortening of her name was considerably relieving, given that she'd been mentally thinking of her by it for the duration of their meeting. 'I'm not crazy.'

Sylvan was considerably surprised by Rosie's sudden admission of her normality. 'I'm not crazy.'She wondered why she had tried to hide it, but of course, the answer soon came to her. In a world full of crazy people, the normal people could be considered crazy by some. Her points about the cat and dog were well taken. 'I'm not crazy.'"I suppose..... That is true. Cats care not for others, and dogs care too much. I am glad to admitted that though. Why you would deny it strikes me as odd, but each to their own. I do not go around stating my normalcy to everyone I meet, after all. They laugh at me, I am not sure why." 'I'm not crazy.'
{613 Words}

Rosie tilts her head slightly and stares at Sylvan with a furrowed brow. "Admitted... what? That I don't like dogs and think cats are too austere to be companionable? That's not much of an admission, Sylvan, as most observe the enthusiasm of the canine and the austerity and indifference of the feline. Although... I gather that you mean my admission to normalcy, although I have always maintained that I fall within the acceptable margins of deviance to be regarded as mentally fit and of sound health. I hardly need to 'admit' to falling within the norm, and I hardly need to point out that you are certainly not representative of the norm."
"Rose, she's reversing terms on you, perhaps because she's cognizant of her own abnormality but regards it as normal."
That seems... likely.
More than likely. It's by far the best conclusion for her behavior and words given what she's been saying to you and how she's acting. Incidentally, have you noticed the significance of her first name?"
Sylvan. Mmm... related to... trees?
"Specifically, a reference to forests or that of the forest. Isolation would be a rational explanation for her mindset; unless she also hallucinates and fully embraces her illness to relieve its impact, she'd be vulnerable to being painfully alone for long stretches."
Logical.
"We try."
"Although you don't actually mean normalcy when you say the word, or so I gather. You're reversing the conditions, claiming normalcy as insanity and insanity and normalcy. In that sense, I fear that I am profoundly and incurable crazy, and quite pleased to be so." She gives Sylvan a studying look. "Why you cling to your reversal of meaning is puzzling to me, Sylvan. To be actually crazy, what you call normal, is no shame. It's no more shameful than to catch a cold and be sneezing, and certainly nothing to hide. But if it helps to hear it, to be actually crazy is..." She smiles, genuinely and a little broadly this time "...not so bad. Illness cannot be accepted, embraced, and made to serve you instead of permitting yourself to be made to serve it. Craziness tries to conquer you, but with determination and a striving for perfection in yourself, you can conquer it and once conquered, insanity is your servant."

She leans forward and crosses her legs, resting her elbows on them and now looking away from Sylvan. "It's a theory of mine. Illusions, genjutsu, exists to break into your mind and force you to believe things that are not true. Certain of them harm you with the mere perception of fact, breaking you under the hammer blow of your conviction that the lie is true. But they work best against the ordinary mind, one that is ordered and well-known, but against the disordered mind made to serve the one whose mind it is... well, it's harder to walk through brambles than short grass. There is so very little to hold, so very little familiar, about the mind that is fragmented against itself but slaved to the unshakable will. This, among all other things, is Budō, what I would call my shinobi way." She glances over to Sylvan with a smile. "I don't know why I suddenly feel at greater ease about you, to chatter on like some empty-headed girl like the ones I don't like at all. Maybe it's because I met you doing something amazingly absurd... or maybe I'm delusional and just imagining that you're sitting here with a doused and partly scorched cactus in front of us. It wouldn't be the first time that I imagined truth for myself, and mistook it to be actual fact. At any rate Sylvan, I'm sorry I'm talking too much. Is there anything you wish to say, anything you think that you would rather be speaking?"

{Word Count: 636 | 2094}

Rosie certainly talked a lot. Sylvan, do her own surprise was actually having a little trouble following her, something she hadn't experienced before. She was giving Rosie her undivided attention, but it appeared she still disagreed with Sylvan. It was quite strange, and confusing to Sylvan. Certain thoughts she had kept buried were making themselves known, stirring form the depths of her mind. Thoughts such as 'If I'm the minority, doesn't that make me the crazy one?' and 'Why do the mock me so much? Why do they care?'
These thoughts pounded at her head, never ceasing, never letting her be free. Perhaps they tried to make her free. If that was the case, they failed miserably. She did not feel free, she did not feel sane. She wanted to be free, and she wanted to be sane, but neither option was truly available to her. She felt like a a bird in a makeshift cage of her own joy, twigs and vines surrounding her. She did not want to admit it, but the girl would not let up.
"You could just let me out, you know." "Shut up shut up shut up..." "I'm not all bad, I have good traits." "Go. Away." "And if I don't? What then?" "I'll make you!" "How? You couldn't do it before, and you can;t do it now! "Silence!"

Sylvan murmurs "I'm here. The cactus is here. The fire was here. She's here too." She seemed afraid when Rosie looked to her, though not of Rosie. As if she was thinking a thought that terrified her. Even as Rosie watched, Sylvan would curl up into a ball. this looked rather absurd, given how tall Sylvan was, but the fear was quite clearly there. What she was afraid of was anyone;s guess, but the likely conclusion was that Rosie's words had actually had an impact.
Would that Rosie could read Sylvan's mind, she would find this was in fact the case. Her voices bouncing around a cage of twigs, sectioned off by a leaf. The girl on one side and some dark thing on the other. Previously it had been content to let the girl stay in her illusion of isolation, but Rosie's words had roused it. No longer was it content to sleep, it wished to slash the leaf and break the cage. It knew what lay beyond the prison, and cared not for it. The girl was clueless, but cared deeply about the outside world, whereas the dark thing only concerned itself with her.
A hand reaches around the leaf, and tugs it gently aside. A grin in the darkness, but not for long. It shifts, a smile, reassuring, attempting to be calm and knowing how, but not knowing how to feel. It is crazy. She is crazy. One has always admitted it, but the other could not hear, would not hear. It cast her aside, but can ignore the truth no longer. Both are crazy.

Meanwhile, in the real world outside the cage, Sylvan had begun to shake.
{500 Words}

Rosemarius watches Sylvan with the smile still in place, her expression almost hopeful that Sylvan will smile back to indicate that all is well and she doesn't mind her babbling on like one of those silly girls her own age whom she tended to see with contempt.
"At least she's been attentive..."
No, she's just staring. Rosie's smile begins to fade as Sylvan just looked at her in rapt attention. You see, this is why I disdain trying to be like everyone else, trying to be 'normal' of all the absurd notions. It just doesn't work for me and it makes people see me as strange and irrational.
"You hardly need to explain to me why you dislike it, Rose. What you know, I do, what I know, you do, and we both think the same thing."
I'm well aware of that but it seems increasingly... She stops thinking and blinks as Sylvan murmurs something about a cactus, herself, the fire, and Rosemarius and then curls into herself, into the fetal position, causing Rosie's smile to drop entirely and her eyes widen.
"Hokages past present and future, is that poor girl... frightened?"
I... I don't know... what did I say?
"I don't know."
What did I say?
"I don't know!"
As Sylvan starts shaking Rosie took in a sharp breath, feeling something she could never remember having felt before in her entire life: panic. WHAT DID I SAY?
"I HAVE NO IDEA! She's terrified, trembling, there's... there's something very wrong about this. Rose?"
Rosie sits there, staring, paralyzed at what she's seeing.
"Rose!"
Rosie shakes her head. "What... what did I say?"
"ROSE!" Through her panicked trembling, Sylvan would be able to clearly hear an older girl's voice speaking another diminutive of Rosemariu's name in a sharp and very worried tone.
Rosie jumps and looks around wildly. "What...?"
"Rose, snap out of it. She needs to be... touched, I think. Contact, something to comfort, I think. In theory; we've never read anything on this matter before. We can only go on how a parent works, how they console a frightened or saddened child."
Rosie nods briefly to the suggestion only she can hear, not even really cognizant that she'd just heard the voice in her actual ears instead of her mind's ears, and moves closer to Sylvan, reaching out and trying to lay a hand on her shoulder. "Sylvan, what's wrong? Are you... alright?"

{Word Count: 404 | 2498

To say Sylvan was upset would be an understatement. She wasn't upset with Rosie per say, but she was certainly upset. something was happening in her mind, and she didn't like it. There was a thing in there with her. It was scary, and dark, and she pretended she had never seen it before. That didn't make her feel better. She didn't know, didn't remember what to do. She was, quite simply, afraid. This was odd, thought it might seem like it should not be. Paranoia, after all, was one of her driving forces. This did not mean that she was often truly afraid for her life. She could not be tense every waking moment, after all. That way lies madness. Sylvan did not like being afraid. She was afraid of herself, for once. Not for herself, of herself. She didn't realize it was herself, that it meant her no harm, but it was herself none the less. 'You won't stop pushing me away. I'm tired of it. I want to come out, to stretch our legs and see the stars with our eyes!' 'Shut up! Leave me alone..' 'Foolish girl! I'll never go away, not ever!' And so they argued pushing back and forth. Outwardly, Sylvan seemed to be rocking herself to and fro, as if in an argument about which way to go. She would not respond to Rosie's voice, but she certainly responds to the contact. 'Responds' in this case equaling Sylvan trying to run at full tilt while forgetting she was currently crouched down with her arms wrapped around her knees. This resulted in an awkward spasm ending with her face down in the dirt, groaning. Rosie would be able to tell she was fine physically, beyond a few scraps and bruises, She seemed less panicked as well. "R-Rosie?" she murmurs, turning her head to look at the girl. "Are you alright?"
Sylvan was now quite confused herself, though out of what she saw as danger. The scene with the fronds was gone, thankfully. Now she was in minor pain, and face down in the dirt. She didn't so much mind the dirt, given she was often covered in crushed grass and ground bark, but she could've sworn that she had not been int he dirt before having an encounter with the dark thing in her head. 'Stupid girl!' 'Shut up! I hate you!' 'You don't even know me! How can you hate me?!' Rosie seemed very concerned for some reason. "Rosie, is somethign wrong?" Sylvan asks, shifting around until she could maneuver herself upright.
{429 Words}

"I believe that I just asked you the same thing," Rosie says as she very tentatively reached out and laid a hand on Sylvan's shoulder, having snatched it back a moment before when Sylvan had responded to her previous touch by seeming to spasm and immediately faceplant. "And of the two of us, I think you're in the more physically uncomfortable state, having made a valiant attempt to fight the ground by hitting it with your face."
"Well bravo! I didn't think you had it in you to make quips Rose. My little girl is growing up so big and snark!"
"You're not helping."
"Sure I am." Rosie feels the sensation of an arm wrapping lightly around her shoulders, a hallucination to be certain, but one she finds pleasant despite it being entirely in her head. "I'm keeping you sane and stable after you suffering a breakdown just a moment ago and being unable to help this Sylvan girl through her own panic attack. You seem to forget that I'm very much here for you in whatever capacity you need me."
"Well, some advice on this situation would be quite useful."
"Rose, I'm you. What you know, I know. What you think, I..."
"...know about but don't necessarily think," Rosie mentally finishes. "You're akin to a schizophrenic's extra personality, at least so far as I can tell. In fact, I seem to remember that the few times I've stumbled and revealed that you're actually in my head somewhere, and haven't been able to talk my way out of it, 'schizophrenic' is precisely the term that's used for the situation."
"That was years ago. We've been distant with one another most of that time. Things have been known to change in those circumstances, such as my independence from you."
"But this particular thing doesn't change, nor will it. So please, provide me some perspective and help me do this."
Rosie is looking steadily at Sylvan this entire time, her face something of a neutral mask as she regards the other girl's injuries and present state. "Well, at least you seem to be less terrified of something only you know about," she says. "May I ask what you were so paralyzed by moments ago? You were curled into the fetal position, rocking, like you were in unspeakable grief or unspeakable fear." She pauses thoughtfully. "Is it related to you insisting that you're the standard of normal, and others are not?"
"That's a good start at least. Ask her questions, softly guide answers from her, focus her on you and not what she's frightened of." The hug gets slightly firmer. "It's a little odd to me that I have these kinds of insights, but you must be capable of thinking in this way or I'd be unable to reach these conclusions. Perhaps you should spend more time in your own head, and emerge to set cacti on fire?"
"You're not as funny as you think you are."
"Oh heavens no! I'm at least twenty percent funnier than I think I am."
"Twenty... per cent?"
"Basically, per one hundred. 'Cent' is the base word for 'hundred' which is why we have the word 'century' to represent a hundred years."
"Ah. So per hundred what?"
"I haven't the faintest idea. I just know I'm twenty percent funnier."

{Word Count: 552 | 3050}

Sylvan sighs, brushing the dirt off her face. She chuckles briefly, more at the joke than anything, and leans on Rosie. The voices had subsided for the most part, and her mind was unclouded. She had had the pressure on for most of the day, so the slight dizzy spell that accompanied her sanity was to be expected, thus why she was leaning on the other girl. It was certainly not because she, for some reason, wanted physical contact with another living entity, to confirm her own sanity. That would be silly.
Or, at least, that is what she told herself as Rosie would find the ever-so-slightly-shorter girl leaning on her as she continues trying to get the tears and dust off her face.
"I'm alright now, thank you. Sorry about all of that." she says, her vice carrying faint hints of exhaustion, the kind that comes form emotional stress rather than physical exertion. She smacks a metal drain pipe, causing a series of loud clangs as a bucket on the roof tips over and douses what's left of the fire.
"I... apologize. You needn't have seen that. I can't imagine it was pleasant." She sighs again, wondering how she could've allowed that.
{200 Words}

Rose stiffens slightly as Sylvan leans on her, seeming to expect something to happen immediately after, but when the thing she was expecting doesn't happen she relaxes a little and awkwardly puts an arm around the other girl,
"It most certainly wasn't," she tells her with a touch of primness. "I didn't know what to do and it gave me a moment of a panic attack. I'm not a fan of panic attacks. Fear is the mind-killer and robs me of reason and thought, and I become all the more frightened when I can't fall back on those things. Fear is a spiraling thing, going utterly out of control at the first and then feeding upon itself until it is everything."
"I can't believe I'm doing this..."
"Just relax and let it come," Kitty says, patting her shoulder with a hallucinatory hand. "You're helping her by making her feel less alone in her dysfunction. It's a good thing."
"If you says so."
"Ultimately, though, you seem to have gotten through it," Rosie continues. "And I'm... glad you're through it." She pauses a long moment.
"What are you waiting for?"
"I'm reluctant to make an open-ended offer to help. Who knows what form it could take?"
"Oh, come off it." Kitty lightly smacks her on the back of the head. "Offer to help the poor thing. At bare minimum, it'll gain you an ally; at best, you'll have the start of a friend."
"Is there... anything I could do for you, to help?"

{Word Count: 252 | 3302}

Sylvan sighs, still leaning on the other girl. Rosie had gone silent, in a way similar to how Sylvan did when she was struggling with her own voices. Given the conversation thus far, Sylvan felt this solidly confirmed that the other girl had her own inner demons. 'Though in her case, they seem unfairly less demonic than in mine.' 'I will have your soul!' 'Leave!' She internally shook off the voices, unifying herself again. A brief glance confirms that the girl was still having her internal conference. Sylvan would've loved to be privy to it. She wouldn't mind if others could help her with her own demons. Maybe Yusuri. At the very least, she'd always have Yusuri to help her, to hear her via telepathy.
'Oh, yeah. Telepathy.'
Rosie asks her question at about this time. "Actually, well.... Hmm. Please do not be alarmed...' Sylvan says, transitioning over to the mind link. Rosie would have to accept contact for them to fully link up, but she would get that bit of mind-speech regardless.
{171 Words}

Rosemarius gives Sylvan a puzzled look. "Don't be alarmed about what, exactly?" she asks as Sylvan transitions over to a mind link.
"Search me." And just like that, Sylvan would be able to hear a second girl's voice, older, with a slightly exotic sound to it, but it still sounds very similar to Rosie's speaking voice. "I'm thinking she plans to do some kind of jutsu that she thinks will make you panic."
"Well, she doesn't appear to be doing anything except staring at me." Since Rosie isn't presently moving her lips as she says the words, this voice that sounds like her but more alive and warm somehow is clearly her mental voice. "Maybe it's some kind of mind jutsu?"
"I'm pretty sure we'd be able to tell if she was messing around with your head, Rose," the second voice says. "Besides, I'd think the entire voices-in-head leading her to curl up in the fetal position would kind of make it hard to poke her way into someone's mind, or screw around with it." There was a contemplative pause. "Unless, yanno, she decided to project her crazy into someone else's head. But I'd know if I had company; it's not like there's anything going on in here at the moment."
"Oh, ha, hah, such comedy." The real-world Rosie just barely restrains a grin. "But seriously, I'm starting to become unnerved."
"Try to snap her out of it. I hear poking someone in the nose, which is apparently called 'booping', is a good way to get their attention. Or make them want to loosen your teeth. Either result will stop the staring."
"I'm blaming you if this doesn't work." Rosie tentatively reaches a finger up and tries to poke Sylvan very lightly on the nose. "Um, Sylvan? Are you alright?"

{Word Count: 300 | 3602}

Sylvan hears the voice very clearly. A large grin spreads across her face as her mental voice clatters across the mind-scape. It sounds.... different from Sylvan's actual voice. Innocent, naive..... And barely there, and undertone of something monstrous. The result is a dissonant two-toned thought as Sylvan brightly thinks 'I knew you had a friend no one else could see! Nice to meet you both properly.' While the voice would normally be endearing, the two-toned effect instead made it sound incredibly creepy.
The girl continues 'I normally only do this with Yusuri! Your mind is so different from hers! Almost 50 degree towards orange than ladders!' Her face scrunches up, her head leaning back as she is poked. 'Why did you poke me Rosie?' she thinks, her head tilting to one side with an inquisitive look.
{135 Words}

In the real world, Sylvan could clearly see that Rosemarius is stunned as the voice of Sylvan's insanity speaks into the same mind's ear that Kitty usually has a firm grip on. After a moment, however, she glances up and to her right and her expression becomes vaguely worried.
"Um, Kitty, what's that...?"
"You are not welcome here," the older and slightly exotic voice says, quiet and icy and practically growling. "I am not concerned with what's in your head and certainly have no concern for your jutsu, or your power, or any other attribute of yours. Get the fuck out of my Rose's head."
"Kitty!" Rosie's expression is openly shocked. "That is totally uncalled-for!"
"I do not care." Although she cannot see anything, Sylvan would feel a very tangible presence suddenly close to her face, as if someone had leaned in to look her directly in the eye. "You have no right to intrude in my place. Rose is mine and your insanity is not welcome in my mindscape, in a space given to me by someone who is as my family. Stop this, and leave."
"Ignore her," Rosie says, "She means well and has always been highly protective of me but is a little too quick on the draw, so to speak." She bows her head in the direction of Sylvan. So this voice, the warbling undertone of your thoughts, is the disorder of your mindscape that you referred to. I mean no offense to you or her, but she is extremely unsettling."
"And quite certainly evil as well."
"Don't be ridiculous." Rosie physically smiles. "Well, now you've got my attention, and that of my dearest and most cherished hallucination. What would you have of us, Sylvan Yamanaka?"
"To be more blunt, how can we best and most quickly get rid of your intrusive insanity in her mind?" Kitty near-growled again.

{Word Count: 313 | 3915}

Sylvan jerks back from the harsh voice, the connection sputtering out as she scrambles backwards in panic, practically falling over herself in a mad rush to get as far away form Rosie as possible. Briefly, here countenance resembles that of a frightened animal rather than fully sapient person she is. The moment passes quickly though, and her humanity reasserts itself. Now she merely resembles an extremely hurt and frightened person, rather than a kicked dog. Well, that is not entirely true; her expression is one of a puppy who has been yelled away from their companion. "I-I-I apologize, I did;t mean to- I'm sorry.." she says, moving as if to leave. She was quite clearly upset by the whole thing.

---

"She does't want you. You should go." "silence..." "Hah! That word should not be spoken with so little rancor. It shows just how broken you are." "You're me too. Why are you doing this? "Someone has to." "Why..?" "Because you need it, stupid! If she upset you so much, then kill her!" "What? Why?" "you you have some sort of problem with killing people?" "Well... no, but why would I kill Rosie?" "Why not?" "I-What- I don't understand." "Eh. You'll come around eventually."
{202 Words}

Rosie looks quite taken-aback by Sylvan's response to Kitty snarling at her but her expression resolves into anger a moment later.
"I'll deal with you later, Kitty. That was cruel."
"She was..."
"You've done enough. Be quiet."
And a moment after that, it resolves into concern and worry as she quickly moves towards Sylvan. "Sylvan, wait," she says quickly. "I'm so sorry for the way that Kitty just acted. She's normally so light-hearted and cheerful and completely shamelessly inappropriate. I... I don't know why she reacted that way to you using your jutsu to speak to my mind but..." She takes in a breath and frowned, "...it will be discussed, and I'll certainly reprimand her for being so cruel in response to what you did."
She reaches out a hand. "Please don't go, I'm not angry, you didn't do anything wrong. Just..." she looks around. "Is there someplace that'd be more comfortable for you? Someplace you'd feel better about talking in? A stand, a field... um..." she clearly searches her mind for any further suggestions. "Um... perhaps we could ask the gate guards to let us... walk outside...?"
Rosie is visibly desperate to think of some way to convince Sylvan to stop and talk instead of leaving, her eyes focused and worried, her face genuinely concerned for the other girl and regretful.
"Why...?"
"Shut up, Kitty! You've hurt her enough, now shut up!"
"Do you really...?"
"I don't care, now be quiet while I try to repair what you've done."
"But she's..."
"Hurt and afraid and you did it, so be silent while I try to figure out how to make a frightened girl feel safe again."

{Word Count: 277 | 4192}

Sylvan had a problem. The problem was malevolent laughter echoing through her skull. "See?! See?! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Foolish girl!" "shutupshutupshutupshutupshutup"
Sylvan had kind of given up on scrambling away, since the clangor within her mind was a bit distracting. At the moment, she was just banging her hands against her head, trying to either shut the voices up or knock herself out. It hurt, a lot. She didn't understand why it was laughing. She did not understand why it cared.
Then a voice cuts through. It sounds a bit like Rosie. She doesn't sound angry. Confusing for only a moment. Her friend was angry, not Rosie. Rosie wasn't going to attack her. Sylvan looks up, and takes the offered hand. As for Rosie's other offer...
"Here is fine. For now. Sorry. I don't... I don't know why she was mad." She really didn't. Sylvan disliked the insanity within herself, but she didn't hate it to such a feral degree. Maybe is was an animal thing? Regardless, Rosie's mind was off-limits for the moment. A shame, since Sylvan found telepathy much less frightening then direct conversation.
{181 Words}

Rosie sighs and slowly leans in to Sylvan and takes one of her hands if Sylvan doesn't pull away. "I'm sorry, Sylvan," she says with audibly sincerity. "She overreacted rather severely, and on her behalf, I wish to apologize."
"I have nothing to apologize for, Rose, and you know it," Kitty grouses. "She's got an insane beating against the insides of her head."
"I'm insane as well, and my hallucination is just as defiant and disobediant," Rosie thinks back at her harshly.
"Your hallucination is just as balanced as you are, having good and evil pieces to make a balanced person that can move between the two as needed. She has one that is the darkness, the evil, the bad, and it wants blood."
"You cannot know that, and be quiet."
"I can, but I will."
"You were trying to talk to her, and you did so politely, and I suspect that I unconsciously let you in if it required a simple effort." Rosie takes in a breath, lets it out, clearly hesitating about continuing on.
"I feel I should explain you."
"I am your hallucination, Rose. You don't exactly need my permission."
"What of your approval?"
"I'm you. If you approve, I approve."
But after a moment of thought, or a quick conversation with the voice in her head, she does the breath in and breath out, and then smiles a little. "Maybe she's always been somewhat on the edge, short-tempered, prone to reacting too hard to small things. I guess I've gotten so used to her throughout my life that I barely notice." She looks at Sylvan more directly. "I know her as 'Kitty', which I guess isn't a very creative name for her and sounds a little childish, but she seems to have accepted the name and seems to like it as well. She's sort of my... human half, I guess you could say, the half that's actually warm and kind, random and silly, and actually very emotional. We sort of divide responsibilities, her taking care of feeling and I take care of thinking, and it works somehow."
She smiles and shows Sylvan an open expression of curiosity and interest. "I don't suppose you feel able to... talk... about the one inside of you at all? Or would it be too difficult for you? I don't mind if you feel unable to; I can't imagine that my experience with having a voice in my head is anything but a freakishly rare result."

{Word Count: 415 | 4607}

Sylvan nods slowly, leaning on Rosie. "I-If you say so... She didn't sound in the mood to apologize to me." Still, she leans on the other girl for support, still shaken by her own psyche's rebellion, and the rejection of Rosie's. It was all a bit much for her to take in at once, not that she'd ever been the best at processing. I wish you'd just leave me alone! I will take you whe- Oh, enough of this! Huh? This isn't working at all! Your spooky voice is just making her push us away all the harder. Give me that crowbar, we're getting out of here! Wha- No! If I give you this, then the cage will be irreparable. Why would you want to repair it? We aren't going to put her in there! We were going to put you in there... Me?! Why me?! You don't belong. You are the madness! Hardly. But this is not the time for this argument. We will die without you, Pragmatism. And as the strongest one here, I can shift the bars of this cage. Now give me. The. Crowbar.

---

Sylvan's eyes widen. "What? They're breaking out?!" I can't stop them on my own! the thinks, having slipped once again into the telepathy.
This time though, Rosie and Kitty would be treated to a much different sight.
A formless, black void. A "floor" like glass over a sea of ink. One Sylvan, shorter, younger than the one in the real world. She is backing away. Not form Rosie and Kitty, but from the cage. A large cage, in which two more Sylvans reside. One of them, closer to the "real" sylvan's age and stature, is curled up in a corner of the cave. She wears a form fitting set of black shirts and black pants, both long sleeved. She reluctantly hands a crowbar over to the third Sylvan.
This one is different. She seems more "real". More like a person. The other tow could believable pass as Sylvan, but this... this one exudes confidence. There is a flourish in her step as she strides over to the wall of the cage, twirling twice on the way, and sets the crowbar into position. She is taller, stronger than the "real" sylvan. She wears a longcoat, grey and unbuttoned, letting the tails billow out behind her.
With a short, metallic groan, she creates a space in the bars big enough for her and the other to step out.
Both prisoners escape with equal haste, but their use of their new found freedom is quite different.
The taller one does cartwheels.
the shorter one just stands there, looking at Rosie.
{438 Words}

"Well, fortunately for the both of us, the overprotective persona in my head has no say in the matter," Rosie says, draping an arm around the frightened girl's shoulders. "Fortunately for you, because she's still grousing at me in my mind's ear."
"Because you're foolishly mingling with a nascent shinobi who can poke around inside your head," Kitty grumbles. "You're the logical one, you should be well aware of the fact that your actions tiptoe towards the insane." She lets the statement lie for a moment before sighing. "More than usual."
"Define 'usual' in terms of insanity."
Rosie can feel Kitty's sour look in the back of her mind. "You snark but you know I'm right."
"Don't be ridiculous," Rosie scoffs. "She's a shy and frightened fellow shinobi in need of help. I would think that my emotional side would be brimming with compassion."
"I'm still you, Rose, and 'compassion' isn't exactly the emotion closes to the surface for either of us."
"Dare I ask what is?"
Even as Sylvan's eyes widen and she declares, in panic that "they" are breaking out, Kitty leans over to Rose's ear and very gently, and calmly, whispers. "Fear."

The kitsune's elegantly vulpine muzzle is still rested softly near Rosie's ear, her breath wafting passed the cartilage, when the mindscape sweeps over both of their awareness. She takes in a breath and straightens, sighing. "And this would be why I was concerned," she says, her voice soft, the exotic accent more pronounced and her voice bearing an even stronger resemblance to Rosie's. "I can only suppose this is a furtherance of the jutsu she used to touch our thoughts before."
Rose blinks and looks up at Kitty. "You suppose it's a furtherance?"
"Well, of the two of us, you're the one who tends towards the logic," Kitty points out.
"Kitty, look around you. Look at them." Rosie gestures towards the three Sylvans even as one hands another a crowbar to start prying their cage open. "This isn't the reality of reality, it's the reality of the mind."
The kitsune blinks. "So I'm..."
"...as real to Sylvan as you are to me," Rosie finishes and turns to watch as the most "real" Sylvan steps out with the black-clothed one in tow, immediately going into cartwheels while her companion in imprisonment looks at Rose.
The Sylvan in black would see that Rosie is accompanied by a nine-tailed fox, but one wholly different than the destructive beats of myth and legend. Kitty is taller than Rosie by several inches, and her pointed vulpine ears give her even more height than that. Where the immediate impression one would get from Rosie is that she's too little girl stretched over too large a frame, giving her an appearance of always being just slightly too thin, Kitty has the attractive leanness of an athlete in her prime. Her hair virtually identical to Rosie's in every way, styled in the same way with the same mix of beads and other ornaments in her ponytail. The difference is that where Rosie tucks her ponytail down the back of her shirt, Kitty wears hers out, showing that Rosie's ponytail likely stretches to her mid-back when she actually shows it. Her fur is a subdued red-orange, silky and luxurious and looking like it's been fastidiously cared-for and groomed on a daily basis, the details unusually visible owing to the fact that where Rosie wears the simple uniform of a student, Kitty wears a very expensive-looking kimono that she ties loosely, allowing her tails to spill out from under the back like a river of fur, but also just barely maintaining a modicum of modesty, the garment just barely concealing a rather full chest. Almost in contrast to the blatant sexuality that the way she wars her clothing projects, she wears the arm, leg, and foot gear of a grown shinobi, her elbows and knees padded, fingerless gloves on her hands, and belts of kunai and other tools of the shinobi trade strapped in tight over her slender form.
And her facial markings are identical, right down to the flaws, to the markings that Rosie paints on her face each morning, although Kitty's markings are white in contrast to Rosie's, which are black. There's also something in her bearing, something about the shape of her eyes or the way she taps her elbows when she crosses her arms, or a myriad of other tiny micromovements that are identical to the ones coming from Rosie. Rosie herself appears largely as she always does, albeit with one distinctive difference: as she walks towards the black-clad Sylvan, there is an aura for lack of a better term that moves with her, the faintest shadowy outline of pointed ears and tails swaying behind Rosie as she walks. The shadows are subtle and indistinct but an aura shaped somewhat like the identity of her "emotions" self is def inately as much a part of her mind as the rest.
Rosie approaches the Sylvan in black and offers a hand to be shaken. "I don't suppose that you might be the part of Sylvan that my own hallucination was being so hysterical over?"

{Word Count: 862 | 5469}

The shortest of the Sylvan's turns to Rosie and Kitty with a look of alarm. "What? No! I need your help!" She seems quite panicked by the idea that the other two Sylvan's might try and turn Rosie and Kitty against her. Meanwhile, the Sylvan in black jerks back her hand in fear, but calms, and slowly reaches it out ...

....Only to me knocked sprawling by the cartwheeling one. "Hahaha! You thought it was Pragmatism being menacing and bored, but it was me! Euphoria! Oh, hi Innocence." This last part she says to the smallest Sylvan, now dubbed Innocence. Innocence appears to be backing away in terror from the oblivious 'Euphoria'. 'Pragmatism' climbs to her feet and dusts herself off. "No. She had me 'do the voices' for her scheme to acquire freedom. I had intended to betray the intruder and leave her in the cage, but that is impossible." Euphoria sighs explosively. "for the last time, I am not an intruder. I'm Euphoria! I'm as much a part of Sylvan as any of you!" Pragmatism raises an eyebrow. "you act nothing like us." "Because you or Innocence always runs the show! You keep shoving everything you don't like into me! Everyone thinks we're an emotionally deadened killer now!"
She slides up to Rosie, laying an arm across her. "you won't misrepresent me in such a way, would you Rosie? Not after all the good times we shared over that cactus?" The suggestive grin and looks of disgust from Innocence and Pragmatism probably indicate something.
{254 Words}