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

(Matt Foley being loud in the video linked)

[bridge_princess]

Yeah, well, her life back home was absolutely not the most pleasant, so in a lot of ways this place was an improvement. Old Hell was sort of a cesspool, even t the best of times.

"Bad news there is that they probably will be, at least to start. This world always figures things out piecemeal. So, inevitably there's screw ups." She did not, however, make promises about exploitation. She knew Akechi, after all. "But it's been pretty consistent about eventually getting there if we whine about it enough. Things are burning properly again after all."

[pragmatism]

"Oh? Did you proposition the Void anywhere?"

He knew that the Void learned by observing, but they've always lacked a channel to directly ask it for anything. What he conceptualized was that it had a very slow recognition process, like sedimentation or accretion. Zhongli has a lot of time to wait, but most people here do not.

[bridge_princess]

"Spent about a month convincing my water clock to tell time properly. It started floating more naturally not long after, so yeah... Guess you could say I did." There'd also been the whole thing about convincing fire to actually burn paper up.

"If you can show it what it's supposed to be doing, it seems to figure it out faster, but it still takes repetition. Kind of annoying, but I'm getting used to it."

[pragmatism]

Hm, so there wasn't a specific place. He takes note of that - a month is a very short time to him, so he could keep up with suggesting something basic and see if it takes effect.

Zhongli nods.

"I see. Thank you for the information." Filing it away for future plans... "It seems we are resigned to teaching the Void like how one would a child."

That's all his important questions, so Parsee can ask him more in return if she wants to.

[bridge_princess]

"Yeah it's basically like working with a baby. They're figuring out the basics, but they're getting faster. We'll see how fast they get." The allusion was accurate enough if you asked her. It really was like a colossal child creating its own world.

"Anyone else missing?" Because honestly? That was the mot important thing for her right this instant.

[pragmatism]

"Two of the teenagers from Earth, I believe. Other than them, I am not aware."

Zhongli often spends his time alone and outside, so it's hard for him to keep tabs on the other residents. Except for Venti. They've known each other for too long to not gravitate together.

[bridge_princess]

"Which two." She was suddenly in his face. Starring right into his eyes and quivering a little. She almost didn't need to ask. Part of her just kind of ... knew. And the expression she had said she wasn't going to be happy about the answer. She had a lot of pent up confusion about those two...

[pragmatism]

Zhongli looks thoughtful for a moment, before: "Their names were Shouyou Hinata and Hajime Iwaizumi." Rather ordinary kids they were, so they didn't quite attract Zhongli's attention. It seems like Parsee knew them a lot more.

[bridge_princess]

"Oh... uh... sorry," she breathed a visible sigh of relief and took a step back, shaking a little. Her hand was going through her hair and she closed her eyes. "I know it's always possible someone I know well will disappear. I don't react well... I'm trying to work on it, but it's not easy. Sorry. I don't think I knew those two."

No, not Ren. Not Akechi... though that would come up soon enough.

[pragmatism]

Zhongli understands. It's always difficult when one loses a friend, especially since the nature of the Void meant that one would not know if they will ever return.

"I see. They seemed to be from a non-magical world. Perhaps it was better for them."

People who aren't accustomed to having magic tend to be vulnerable to its dangers. The Void is rather harmless, but it still caused potentially lethal phenomena.

[bridge_princess]

It didn't help with how jealous or possessive she could be at times. That tended to exacerbate things more than a little when she was involved. But, for now, she was settling down.

"It'll be more normal, if that's their worry. I suppose people like me and I assume you know how to handle a little bit of weirdness now and again." That was putting it mildly in her case.

[pragmatism]

"I do."

Perhaps that's also putting it mildly in his case, but Zhongli is someone who chooses to conceal his identity. If people think him as an ordinary man, then that's good.

"Though I admit to being a little curious. How do you spend your daily life here?"

Did Parsee have any hobbies to occupy her time? Things are very slow here, of which most of the children are probably not satisfied with.

[bridge_princess]

"I run the shrine," she gestured in the direction of the bridge itself and the shrine complex. "So, any of the awakened tool spirits I run into I spend time with to make sure they don't whine too much. Keep it clean, answer questions when people cross the bridge, answer prayers at my shrine."

...

"Then I end up wandering when I'm not around or she gets too annoying. Check up on people. Visit the usual haunts. I'm sort of a bum, really."