Change is in the Air (OTA)

[bridge_princess]

Who: Parsee and you!
What: December Catch-All
Where: The Shrine, Bridge and Around
When: Any time in December
Content Warnings: *laughs* nothing serious. She's angsty as hell about the shrine change, but it's all harmless today. I'll update if necessary


* Shrine Freakout * General Shrine * The Blank Shrine * Mt Silver * The Beach * Hammerhead *
* Widcard *


(Haha, I can't resist poking some fun at Parsee. Top Levels Below)

Comments

[forwearemany]

(Their headflaps flutter.

Parsee has experienced their perspective, but she does not understand it.

Once again, they struggle to explain.)

Geth cannot survive alone.

(It takes time for them to manage even that, to make the connection between the terrible, desolate feeling and the realization they had that day that the Drifter had helped hold their wounds together so they could seal them, that even if they were able to maintain sapience without the collective they could never survive in isolation.

"Alone" is death, and the silence they experience is that of a forest gone silent in the wake of a predator, a slow and creeping dread.)

[bridge_princess]

So... all of you in there, at least part of you in there... you have to stay together for it to all work. And if you did make more of you, you need the connection.

People think they're like that, but not like you. Sometimes I don't mind a little isolation. Today's not one of those days.

[forwearemany]

Affirmative.

(Surrounded by organics who care for them but cannot understand, they find themselves increasingly understanding the phrase "alone in a crowded room".)

Then you will not be isolated.

(They will hang around for as long as she likes.)

[bridge_princess]

[She sighed and smiled over at him. Yeah, she was gradually calming down a little. It was definitely a bit of a slow process. But, it was getting there. As she did, she sipped quietly at her drink for a moment.]

So, you're going to keep me company until my mood improves? Might be a while, you know... What would you like to talk about?

...

Not Ren being missing. I think we've said enough there.

[forwearemany]

Affirmative.

(They have no problem with this.

As for what to talk about...)

Stories?

(The sharing of history and past experiences was common on Enso. Legion has lots of stories they can tell.)

[bridge_princess]

Hmmmm, yeah, we could do a story share I guess. Maybe you tell me one you think is interesting, and I can tell you about the time when everyone was trying to be the source of hope in my world and it got stupid.

...

It involves lots of fighting, if you couldn't guess.

[forwearemany]

Acknowledged.

(...Source of hope?

From her description, it doesn't sound as though any source resulting from such events would be particularly effective.

However, she has indicated that they should tell a story first.

They try to think of a story that isn't also horrible.)

...You are familiar with the glowing flowers that have begun to grow throughout Proteus?

(They can always tell her about the unique cultural significance behind the living lanterns.)

[bridge_princess]

[It was weirdly effective at the time, but she didn't entirely understand. Someone's magic had been at work. That said, she'd definitely hoped Legion would do the telling first.]

I've seen them, yeah. They're kind of pretty. Are they from your world or something?

[forwearemany]

The flowers resemble those found on one of the islands surrounding Enso. They were important to the local culture.

(They chatter.)

They bloom when exposed to open flame.

[bridge_princess]

Huh. So, these are from that world. Kind of interesting that they need fire to bloom. Little like pinecones, but do the blossoms burn in the process?

[forwearemany]

Though they must be exposed to flame, they are not lit on fire as part of the blooming process. The flowers produce both light and heat of their own.

(They chatter.)

On the island of Cahypdo, they were part of an event called the Festival of Cycles: one ritual involved tying living lantern flowers to a naturally grown floatation device and allowing them to float into the sky.

[bridge_princess]

Hmmm... that sounds familiar...

Did that ritual have anything to do with the dead? Because that sounds a lot like an old ritual back where I come from where we'd light lanterns and float them on a river to light the way back to the realm of the dead.

[forwearemany]

Negative. The festival was not one of death but rebirth.

However, a ceremony similar to that which you describe was performed on Enso for those lost.

(They pull in a little, look down at themselves.

They had set those little lanterns adrift again and again, until there was nothing left. It did not amount to even a tenth of those they had lost.)

[bridge_princess]

I see. Yeah it sort of works for both. At O-bon, the families were supposed to get together with their spirits and ancestors. The lights lit the way back to the land of the dead. A lot of worship was about keeping the spirits appeased and letting them know they were loved.

It's how you kept them spirits, not youkai, in some cases. So, they had it on Enso. [Or at least something like that.]

[forwearemany]

Affirmative.

(Several programs wonder if the lack of sufficient lanterns on Enso means that souls were lost.)

[bridge_princess]

[She might have caught some of that undercurrent because she grunted and tapped her lips before replying.]

Uh, tell the others... Enso isn't the same as Earth, so the answer isn't definitely yes or no unless you knew there. On Earth, there were always solutions eventually. Just some were less... pleasant than others.

[forwearemany]

...Acknowledged.

(They continue to chatter to themselves.)

Many of those we have lost died on Rannoch. There is no one on Rannoch to mourn them.

(Only the Quarians, and they won't care.

...Might be a good time for a new topic.)

[bridge_princess]

Right... I liked that ceremony, but here?

I don't really know that it works or means the same thing here. Maybe we can come up with something that we could do here. I kind of feel like a festival might be nice, you know? Just not sure what we should do here.

[forwearemany]

There is currently no death here.

(Would it even be useful, they wonder?)

A celebration?

[bridge_princess]

Exactly. O-Bon is for the dead. There's nobody dead here.

[Never you mind that she wasn't 100% convinced most of the creatures they dealt with were alive in the traditional sense. The Void didn't understand things clearly.]

We... could set up a festival one of these days and call it "Crapfall" for the day that crap fell out of the sky and the world came into existence.

[...she was only partially serious there.]

[forwearemany]

Perhaps. However, crap did not fall from the sky.

(It was more like nothing existed, and then there was something?)

No sky existed to fall from.

(Because of course they'll critique her naming choice with utter seriousness.)

[bridge_princess]

Ok, so "Whitefall" is probably more accurate, and there might be a better word choice than fall. Some of it just appeared. But "Crapfall" has a better roll off of the tongue, and it'll make people look at us funny, which is its own prize isn't it?

[Yeah, she kind of expected the semantics game there. Heh.]

...and really, I'm pretty sure that the sky over our heads isn't really a sky yet. It's more painted up there.

[forwearemany]

"The objects in the sky can be interacted with. They are not painted."

Legion actually rode around on one of the floating objects. They would know. Their argument here isn't entirely about semantics either: the sky may not work like the skies they are used to, but it is very real.

[bridge_princess]

"That's... ok, that's fair. And the falling stars can be touched when they hit the land," she muttered considering that for a moment. "I meant more that that shouldn't happen. Stars should be insane distances away. They're more like props on a stage if that makes sense? Though I'm not even sure that's right. It's more what it thinks a sky should look like."

[forwearemany]

"Yes." It's a really weird sky.

"We have ridden a floating object." They had to climb all the way to the top of Mt. Silver to even try, but they managed to grab and climb up onto one of the weird shapes in the sky.