@voidrifter asked:
"Alright, promise not to laugh!" From where she sits, legs crossed on the edge of her bed, Kiana flashes the Herrscher a pointed look. It's without much bite, though, and with a sigh she shoves out her hands. "Happy birthday! His face is a little lopsided, but otherwise I think he turned out okay..." Presented for Senti's inspection is an egg shaped little plush, which is rather evidently hand stitched. She's right-- on either side of the felt triangle that is meant to be its beak is an eye, though one is certainly higher than the other. It looks just like the two (much larger) chicken plushies that take residence right behind her on the bed, except instead of Senti's black or Hua's crimson, this one's feathers are purple. "See, so now you have one that looks like me, too." She looks away, sheepish.
Laugh? How in the world could Senti laugh at this? She’s ready to cry at the sight of Kiana’s gift, having to shake her head off to the side and suck up her tears like they’re pieces of her soul breaking off. Not a single one will be shed, not if her nose and eyelids have anything to say about it. She’s the Herrscher of Sentience, after all. It simply wouldn’t do her any good to show the signs of weakness.
Still, she does wonder if Hua got something different. She’d have to commune with her about it later.
“Are you still an idiot?” she barks, grabbing the doll and bringing it to her face, still so that she doesn’t have to face the Kaslana, “He’s perfect. Don’t say anything nasty about his face! Whatever you say about his face I’ll do to your face!”
Though she quite obviously doesn’t mean that, she does care enough to take a second look at Kiana’s Piyo. She isn’t very good at sewing, is she? Senti sighs. Somehow that makes the gift more endearing, and her usual parlor trick of things in her sentient realm seem lame by comparison. Kiana likely put real effort into learning how to make this. She worked no less hard than the rice farmers did at the start of the current era, toiling away at land with little more than steel tools. She feels a tightness in her chest: the kind she’d choke trying to describe to you.
But it does make her wonder if this is what an earnestly-made gift can do to someone. And maybe, just maybe, slaving away at some boring task like a mortal… Might not be such a bad thing after all.
“I like him.” She speaks matter-of-factly, like she’s telling the time or some other inalienable truth. Kiana-Piyo’s flaws make him human; no amount of lopsidedness could make her hate him. As she turns to face her again, she stuffs the plush against her chest, his uneven little face sticking out from her top. He receives two soft pats before Senti speaks again.
“From now on, I’m taking him wherever I go, and I’ll be feeding him lots of rice so that you won’t worry about him growing up big and strong.”
Does she know he’s just a plush toy? No matter, what’s more important is how the next few words struggle to fall off her tongue:
“And… Thank you. For your gift.”