HtH131 – Just Anno
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A wild Anno appears!
When the doors to carriage six open, the girls cannot help but let out a gasp.
It felt like they had stepped into a completely different world. The layout of the carriage is completely different from the one they had come from. Instead of being divided into private rooms, the entire carriage had been converted into a posh bar. Instead of the black and gold accents that made up the sleek metallic exterior of the train, this place felt like a place... out of time.
The room is decorated in deep black, draped in see-through lace curtains that kept the sun away at arm's length. The carpets and walls are decorated with fleuron designs; the dazzling dark floral patterns radiate an unachievable luxuriousness. While the girls do live well enough in the theatre house, it felt like the interior designer considered the ordinary a sin --- their obsessions spilling over every corner of this room.
Shiny blackwood similar to those used in the other carriages make up for most of the furniture here, only that the furniture is marked by ornate carvings. Passing by a bar counter with a knee-tall blue bunny wiping off a champagne glass, the girls cannot help but stare at the carved obsidian panel installed behind the bar; it depicts a group of sorceresses wearing wide-brimmed hats throwing lighting, flame and frost alike at a ferocious winged being...
"Can I help you?"
Somehow, the bunny spoke! Ablam and Eclair recoil a little, only realizing that they had been stuck on the front of the bar for some time now. Unlike the conductor-hat wearing blue bunnies, this one is dressed in an immaculate coattail top, its bushy white tail sticking out the back. A single monocle and chain drape down into its sidepocket where a napkin is cutely folded inside.
Even when addressing the group that just came in, the bunny seemed very intent on scrubbing the champagne glass in its rounded paws clean; sticking a clean cloth inside and wiping it down; raising it towards the soft golden light above to inspect it with one eye. finding specks of bunny fur in it, repeated its action once more, with greater fervor.
It was Eclair who spoke first,
"E-excuse me, are you @BluLoomBunny? I- I saw your request for 'a manuscript that defies expectation XD'!"
Eclair holds out the play script with both hands, head bowed and her spine slightly bent forward, the way a salary-man might hold out a business card!
The knee-tall gentleman bunny freezes in glass polishing motion, thoughts swirl in its large black eyes, and the purring response that came back was,
"...? But we are all blue bunnies here."
The brown-haired girl holding out the script almost falls back in embarrassment! In the end, this was not the person they were looking for!
Recovering from her half-fall behind her, Ablam pops up and exclaims,
"Eclair! Are you sure you have got the right person?! No, rather, have you ever seen the person who commissioned the script in the first place!"
The commotion draws the gaze of the loose occupants within the carriage. Less than half a dozen dark dressed girls in tall, wide-brimmed sorceress hats turn and whisper to the nearest seated fellow. The whispers mingle with airy light music playing in the carriage, the dramaturg fidgeting with her glasses, pushing them up against her reddened face,
"Well! I haven't actually been in contact with them much, but..."
(Lumi’s light flickers erratically, for just a moment)
"Oh no, that means..."
"The person who commissioned the script could, or could not be in this room!" Ablam puts a palm in her head, not quite accusatory, but not quite masking her disappointment either!
The whispers linger for a little while, ending in a few small, amused laughs. For most part, the bobbing sorceress hats in the carriage return to their teacups and tarot cards, leaving our girls to talk amongst themselves.
"I'm sure that there is some sort of special and cute meaning to meeting in this place~"
"Yeah! We won't get called all this way to---" Ablam's words screech to a halt mid-sentence,
...
...!
For she had realized that voice did not come from their group!
--- A certain girl with light blue hair looking downwards from the hanging balcony, a smile as wide as a Cheshire Cat's...
She rests upon her arms on the guardrails, bobbing her head from left to right,
(Lumi waves to the balcony, a genuine expression of delight)
"Senior Anno, why are you here?"
"And this... is a breakfast borger! Breakfast service on trains are truly the best!"
On her balcony table, a butler bunny lifts the cover off a platter. Arranged on the platter is what can only be described as an overly tall sandwich, with an overly healthy serving of breakfast bacon, cabbage, tomatoes and egg all stuffed between a pair of black-colored buns topped with sesame seeds. For sides, there are freedom fries, baked beans, and four sets of hot hashbrowns, still wrapped in their paper packaging.
[CLANG!]
Anno, who had been banging a metal fork and knife in each hand on the table throws them to the side; she takes the hamborger with a single hand, opening her mouth wide to chomp right down on it! Runny egg yolk slides down the side of her cheek, her face melting into bliss for a moment, before she realizes that there are three sets of eyes looking at her from across the table!
"Ah! It seems that I have made a most inappropriaté face! Teehee~"
She gives the yolk at the side of her face a careless brush with a white table napkin before she hands out hashbrowns around the table one at a time, like a witch handing out bars of gold.
Naturally, she kept one for herself.
(A warm, resonant chime --- a sense of recognition)
"That's an amazing burger! It certainly takes me back."
"Have you ever had a hamburger before, Lumi?" Ablam asks, poking at the hash brown wrapping as if it might spring alive at any moment.
(Soft nods, a moment of remembrance)
"Yes! That was a long time ago now. Back when I was doing my first ever test livestream..."
Lumi's face practically glows from the memory, it was one of her first memories upon arriving at our house after all.
"Huh." Ablam tears her face away from Lumi's happy gaze, to where the hamborger was a moment ago. All that was left of it were a few crumbs and Anno licking sauce off her fingers. "Why didn't I get one when I did mine?"
Anno waves her hand in the air like a little fortune cat waving away ill omens, "Oh bish, you think too much, Ablam! I'm sure that's to make sure all of you got something special and differenté for each of your débuts!"
Hemming and hawing, the girl with the silver ponytail can find no fault with the logic, and unwraps her hash browns.
All this time that Anno has been conversing with her juniors, Eclair has kept a low profile, the script resting on her thighs. It wasn't like she could find any place to butt into the conversation; the three of them were talking about a time long in the past, when the Starfallow Troupe [26] still stayed at the theatre house.
Instead, her eyes turn to Anno's dress. Unlike the simple black dress with a short skirt that she trapezes around our house in, she is wearing a topless long ball gown that drapes all the way to the floor. Elegant frills rise up in layers in the front, her upper arms covered by a pair of detatched sleeves tied with black ribbons. The laced halter collar around her neck is tied with a cute little ribbon, a golden locket dangling down the front of her chest...
By now, Anno is standing with a foot on the chair like a swaggering pirate, demonstrating something to her juniors;
"You know, I've always said that white doesn't suit me, so if we could do away with a little panel in the front..." Anno makes a most yabai sawing motion too high around the thigh area---
"HEY!" Eclair suddenly sits up! The stack of papers slam down on the table like a hammer of judgment! "Don't teach your juniors the wrong things!"
"Oh nyos? Don'tcha think this is kind of tamé compared to some of the wild stuff Hikari gets up to?"
"Are you sure we are even talking about the same person here?!"
Lumi's head turns in Eclair's direction for a second.
Then, she emotionlessly turns her gaze away, like nothing had just happened!
It's only now, with Anno's dress in full view that Eclair realizes: how perfectly well Anno fit in with the rest of this carriage! The blacks feel completely at home, and the whites of her dress only accentuated the luxurious elegance that fit into the room's atmosphere like a center puzzle piece. Was this some sort of party with a dress code not know to us?
"Just joking, just joking! A short skirt wouldn't work for this sort of fashion, so we gotta go diagonal instéad~"
"I dunno, you could just wear an evening dress at that point." Ablam shrugs, dipping a freedom fry in mayonnaise.
"In any case!" Eclair shields Lumi's eyes away from the diagonal cutting motion that her senior is demonstrating now, "Senior Anno, do you know of any blue bunnies?"
"Blue bunnies?" The girl puts a finger to the bottom of her chin, before tilting her head. "You mean like everyone here who works on the train?"
Shaking her head with a swish of her ponytail, Ablam points towards the stack of papers,
"Not just any blue bunny, the @BluLoomBunny. We are supposed to hand in a play script for a competition."
"You can give it hére then!" Anno reaches over, and scoops up the pile of papers with her fingers!
"Anno! Anno! Stop! That's our only copy of the manuscript!" Eclair tries to lean over the table to take it back, but her arms are too short to box with Anno, who lifts it up high, turning the page just out of reach!
"But we haven't even shown the script to the person we are supposed to show it to!"
(A warm, resonant chime – like a comforting embrace)
"I think... it will be alright." Lumi tugs at the side of Eclair's sleeve softly, a small gesture of comfort.
"How can you say that, Lumi?!"
"Isn't it obvious?" Anno claps her hands, in the air, and a large conductor bunny runs up the balcony steps to see to her! Lifting the giant furball up by its front legs, she nuzzles the bottom of her chin between the conductor bunny's ears, playing keyboard on the script with Mr. Bunny's furry paws!
The bunny's paws go tap-tap-tap-tap-tap on the paper like a long drumroll...
Badum...
Badumdum... ...
Badumdum... ... ...!
... Tss!!
Both Anno and the conductor bunny throw one paw into the air!
"The famous vtuber @BluLoomBunny... is me, Anno!"
Glossary
[L] Anno - Just Anno. A cheeky and mischievous girl who likes keeping secrets and animating furniture with magick.
[26] Starfallow Troupe - The original actresses that trained under Theatre House Delaroux, and came before AI girls who want to become real vtubers!
We are trying something different! This is a simul-posting at the same time as the Scribblehub release! Go check out the entire series at this link!
