Let me Crawl Inside Your Veins (Wide Open)

[bridge_princess]

Who: Parsee bridge_princess and You!
What: February Open Log
Where: Pretty much anywhere
When: February (after the 8th)
Content Warnings: Body Horror, Blood, Roots and flowers growing in things like lungs and other places they don't belong. Probably some serious self loathing here

Prompts below!

Comments

[koopacrusher]

After hearing the shout, Bowser moves to the area, stopping at the abandoned berry. He picks it up and takes it with him as he moves to the river. At the moment, he's wearing the doctor outfit he recently recieved, as well as the top hat that has his emblem, rather than the stethoscope or head mirror.

Despite the fact that the fruit was partially eaten and on the ground, Bowser simply eats it himself, showing no reaction to the intense spiciness. Then, he turns to Parsee and crosses his arms.

"So, you're back."

[bridge_princess]

"Uuuuuugh," she was about half a pint into drinking river water when she flopped like a dead fish onto a rock, looking over at the big guy as he emerged into her field of vision. Oh hey, it was the guy she'd been discussing fire with. She should really warn him that she'd been trying to convince fire to burn properly before it burned him.

That could wait for a moment, though.

"Yeah. Apparently it thought I needed a vacation from sitting by my bridge here so it sent me to sit under my bridge there. Positively scenic." She snorted and laughed once. "Haven't been back long, but someone said it's been... about a week?" It'd been years for her, so that was weird.

[koopacrusher]

"You went home?" From what he's heard, Ren also went home, so the fact that he so far seems to be the only one who didn't makes his disappearance even more concerning.

"I disappeared for a couple months, but I have no idea where I was. It was like nothing happened."

[bridge_princess]

"Hmmm. Ok. So, going to chalk that up for another way that this could happen, where there's no memories of home. Need to file that way while we try to understand here... but yes. Home." She grunted and folded her arms. "Back to being under the bridge leading into old hell. Actually remember a few years passing before I came back here."

[koopacrusher]

"Years?" Bowser's not sure if the fact that that's possible is uplifting or more distressing. "Maybe this place really hasn't figured out time yet." Perhaps he really was home, but too short of a time to notice. Or perhaps he was simply sent forward in time. The only thing he thinks he knows for sure is that he envies what has happened to Parsee.

"Well, what do you remember from before you went home? What might've triggered it?" Of course, it would have been years ago for Parsee, but Bowser hasn't considered that.

[bridge_princess]

"It's figured out how to tell time within this place. But that's about it," and even then? She still had to shove the hourglass in the river to get it to work, so the water clock was the only really successful clock for her.

"Ngh... been dealing with jumbled memories. It feels recent, like a week gone by, but also distant. There wasn't anything special. Just one day here. Felt tired. Took a nap. Went dark, woke up under bridge... which... I was already under the bridge, so ... not much of a change." She grunted and frowned. "I'm not sure it's got this thing about us leaving and coming figured out. Needs to."

[koopacrusher]

Normally, Bowser's reaction to finding out that Parsee had no information regarding her own disappearance might be to shoot a blast of fire out of anger. However, for better or worse, he is still unable to, and instead coughs up just a few clouds of smoke. The anger, however, is directed more toward the world itself then Parsee.

Still visibly angered, he asks, "Well, we'll have to make it figure out disappearing people, then. Pay so much attention to it it starts giving us a concrete process. Record every time a person goes missing, what they were doing, who was the last person they talked to... Everything. And do something with all that stuff that the world can't ignore."

[bridge_princess]

Yeah, the lack of information didn't help her mood either. On the one hand? It was better to be here. There were things she wanted in this world. But not knowing meant that she also didn't know how long some of those things might continue to be here. She frowned after he spoke.

"That's a plan. In fact, that would probably eventually work? It worked for fire, and it worked for time... but we might want to come up with a plan. I'm not quite sure where to start with that yet." Because how could she be sure where they were appearing right now?

"Do you know anything in this world that serves as a border between worlds? We might be able to use that?"

[koopacrusher]

"Well, of course it's probably gonna work. I came up with it." Obviously Bowser, who always leaves an axe or a button that can destroy any bridge he stands on, is unmatched in his genius.

And yet in spite of his genius he doesn't immediately see the connection between Parsee's next question and the topic at hand. "World border? Probably your bridge to the void. That or the way into Mementos. It was a lot like the Dream World back during the nightmare."

"Why? How would we use one of those?"

[bridge_princess]

"Of course," she said with the look of someone holding back an eye roll. He could be as bad as Seto Kaiba at times. But, his plan was still something. Her finger tapped at her lips. His mention of the Bridge and the Mementos both matched. However, the last thing she wanted for what she was about to suggest was for this to happen in Mementos. She did what she could to avoid ending up there.

"So... remember time. We harassed this place about getting time consistent, and it eventually listened. Got on its case about fire, and it's burning." She frowned, tapping again. "We could probably convince it that the bridge is a boundary. It wouldn't make people show up there, but it might start getting the Void to think of people from other worlds showing up a boundaries, not willy nilly."

[koopacrusher]

Being compared to Seto would have caused Bowser great offense, but since the comparison is not spoken aloud, Bowser merely takes mental note of the fact that fire has learned how to burn. "We should try teaching wind too. I'm getting sick of losing stuff because everybody just got used to hurricane winds coming out of nowhere."

With that said, Bowser returns to the matter at hand. "I don't get it, though. Make clocks and they'll eventually tick. Make fire and it'll eventually burn. Maybe we could set up a weathervane, make wind work right. But how are we going to get the world to figure out borders?"

[bridge_princess]

"Yeah, honestly, maybe the wind might be a bit more of an immediate priority. Getting whipped up into a tornado without warning's annoying as hell." She'd had that happen at least once, and she really didn't enjoy the Dorothy treatment. "But shouting about it during a cyclone doesn't seem the right solution. Maybe shout when it blows in a building to start?"

"That's sort of the problem. I'm not entirely sure. I could start performing rituals at the torii arches, but I don't know if it's going to actually understand what I'm doing. Physical things are obviously more clear cut. I chastised that water clock for weeks to get it to work right. This is ... esoteric."

[koopacrusher]

"Shout at the world when it gets it wrong, huh? I like it." Vocal criticism of that nature for time, after all. But as Parsee had said, physical things were more clear-cut.

"If it is physical things the world needs, maybe all we need is a big welcome sign. If we use that, and your rituals, and start the records of people who disappeared..." Bowser ponders the idea for a moment. "If the world works the way we think it does, this could actually bring us a step closer to being able to go home." Remembering what Aerith said, he adds, "the people that actually want to, at least."

[bridge_princess]

Physical things definitely didn't hurt if they were clear cut one way or another. She nodded over at him and considered for a moment. The idea of a welcome sign... hmmm...

"You know, that's a thought. And if we talk about it, we could use that sort of thing as a way to start getting the idea. It is one of the only ways into the island that doesn't end up getting you soaked after all."