tabularasa_rp | Turning over a New Leaf (Wide Open)

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touhou project: parsee mizuhashi

Turning over a New Leaf (Wide Open)

Who: Parsee & You!
What: Parsee attempts to keep busy
Where: The Shrine, The Bridge, Merlaut Apartments, the Bath House, the Void
When: April
Content Warnings: There's likely to be a bit of angst, but there shouldn't be anything too rough.
Minor Note: Parsee is accompanied in all scenes by Angelo, who she seems unwilling to part with.

1) The Shrine
She'd wanted peace and quiet, and that's what she got. That wasn't true. She hadn't wanted Viridi to leave. Sure, Viridi had wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of this weird place, and she'd known it, but it hadn't happened for months. Parsee didn't really want the irritating little troglodyte of a goddess to disappear even if it meant that the now mixed shrine complex was entirely her own once again. It meant that she was alone with her thoughts and a bunch of whining awakened tools. Still, they needed company, and she had work to do. The only way that she could keep up the energy to bless those who came to her was to regularly draw from the mana of the local ley lines, and then keep the place nearly spotless.

It occupied hours of her time as Angelo happily played in the grass of the surrounding shrine. She could be found easily in this place, sweeping and grunting at the broom in her hand, occasionally playing on a drum beside the shrine or performing other menial tasks, going through the motions that life was still 'normal' in this place, even if very little about her existence was normal any longer. But much as she wanted thing back, she could feel herself getting rigid about this tradition. She would keep things up, just in case they came back, because that's what they would expect, or at least in her mind.

2) The Bridge
Parsee spent a lot of her spare time at the bridge, at both sides of it. There was a BrushBoy nearby, painting on a sign at her direction every time she could be seen. It was either to make sure that it was still cleaned up and pristine or to repair it if some random tornado blew through the area and tore it out of place.

The sign read "Welcome to the Void" on the side that faced towards the Island and "Welcome to Proteus" on the side leading onto the island. When she wasn't doing this, she would keep looking over the primary torii arches and talking to Angelo, the dog staring up at her in a cock-eyed sort of way. It was very smart, but it didn't quite grasp what she was doing. However, anyone who had been around her would know that she wasn't doing this to explain something to Angelo. She was speaking loudly to make sure the Void heard, to test if it was listening.

"I don't know if you know this, but this bridge served as a boundary between the Underworld and the world of humans. Bridges are barriers that can take you between worlds, you know." It wasn't entirely true, not in the kind of sense she wanted this world to understand, but it was true that they served as a way to cross the gap of the world of the living and the world of youkai. So, maybe it could become that for other barriers.

3) The Void
When she wasn't at the bridge, her explorations returned to the void. Parsee was circumnavigating the island that had been created, reading any text she found in the void that was at the fringes. Angelo and the Brushboy followed her, the latter writing it down as soon as they saw it, getting it on paper. She had an intense, focused look, so it was easy to surprise her at times like this, like she was trying to find something very specific...

And as per usual, it was frustrating to her.

4) Merlaut Apartments
Parsee had finally given up on living in a shack. The Apartments were just better all around, and well... some of the only people left in town that she knew were living here, so it was a chance to be a bum and pester them. She didn't spend a lot of time here, but whenever she could feel tiredness starting to settle in, she'd come back to sleep it off, hopefully not to end up long in that hellish dreamland wherever it was.

Her apartment was pretty spartan. Very little of value could be found within. For a spirit born of jealousy, she kept little in the way of property. It almost looked like nobody lived here, but a more careful exploration would find at least a few pieces of junk that someone was squirreling away. And naturally, one might find her walking in and out, grunting and waving like a little bum. "Whattaya want?" Not the most sociable of neighbors unless she had someone to troll.

5) Dance Dance Bathouse
Occasionally, one could find her in the bath house down, underground. It was not that often, but every time she was, she'd managed to find some wrappings or her arms that didn't force it to kick her out and she was ... attempting to learn how to play one of the dance games. This was entirely Legion's fault. They had told her that they wanted competition, and so when she got down here, she had a focused look on her face in one of the only times Angelo wasn't with her, trying to get it perfect.

...

She honestly kind of sucked at this game, but hey, E for Effort, right?

Wildcard)
-she's sticking to her usual haunts and focused on trying to research boundaries in the setting, but if you'd like to run into her anywhere else just lemme know!

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It's probably easy enough to detect Legion approaching. The sound of soft and yet heavy footsteps, a chattering that is simultaneously machine and animal. If she can detect them via spiritual empathy, the feel of a grouping of many minds, vast and complex and united in love and sadness.

They're bringing an offering. It's a basket of food-she's commented on eating pebbles one too many times-filled with prepackaged burritos, mushrooms, containers of hot Korean barbecue, and hardboiled Chickpeewoo eggs.

They stop and observe her for a moment before speaking.

"Greetings."

In her case, the spiritual empathy struggled when it came to beings like Legion. It didn't bother though, since she rather liked that there were a few out there that she had trouble reading. Seeing the food basket, she laughed. yeah, she had said she was eating too many rocks hadn't she? Setting her broom to the side, she waved over at Legion and bowed.

"Legion. And what brings you here today, I wonder?" Honestly, she was in a better mood when it was Legion coming over, just because of how close they'd become. A chance to still be around people who told her that she wasn't alone.

(OOC: Busy weekend. Anyway, I'm up for continuing these threads if you want. If not, no worries, and it was fun to play together!)

That's a pity, because Legion would probably be pretty nice to sense, as friendly as they are.

Their headflaps lift. "Parsee. We have an offering." They approach, and offer the basket to her.

(OOC: I'm good with continuing things if you are.)

It honestly would have been nice. Legion was... unique to communicate with regardless.

And then she looked at the basket and she laughed softly, leaning against the altar and looking over the gift with a small smile. "I'd say you shouldn't have, but I actually appreciate it. A lot." Because when people brought her offerings, it made her feel like a little goddess in her own way.

"Acknowledged. We are glad."

It's not necessarily the absolute tastiest selection of food-those burritos are pretty bland-but there's a decent variety, and all of it is better than pebbles.

If they knew the bit about feeling like a goddess, they might mention that many of the higher beings they have encountered experienced non-optimal lives.

Burritos were absolutely edible. And she could use a bit of food. But more than anything else, it was the gesture itself that she appreciated. That sort of thing really spoke to the fact that Legion was there for her. She grinned over at him and leaned against the altar, scratching the dog.

"So... are you doing alright right now?" Because she didn't want to dwell too much on her own situation.

Of course they were. Parsee was not a fellow Geth (she was about as far from a Geth as a person could probably get), but she was still someone who needed to not be alone.

After a moment, they'll just set the basket by the altar if she doesn't take it from them. It's probably pretty heavy anyway.

"All systems functioning within acceptable parameters." And aside from their usual beat up appearance, they do seem to be doing well. Much better than they were doing for a while after finally getting the flowers removed. Their leg is all healed up, and they're clearly able to move around just fine.

"Good. I'd been a little worried for a while." The truth was that the flower incident had done considerable damage to them both, in very different ways, and it could be hard to tell exactly how beat up the Geth was due to the cobbled appearance of its platform at times.

She rifled through the basket while they chatted. "Say, I've actually meant to ask you. Your armor is a bit piecemeal. Is that actually ok? I don't know if that's battle damage or not."

She is concerned?

They look at themselves.

"Damage is largely cosmetic. Functionality remains within acceptable parameters. Ability to enact further repairs limited."

They can heal like an organic, so there's little point, but even if they couldn't materials are limited, and severe impairment and life threatening damage must take priority.

"We really have to stop meeting like this." Kaiba stated. It was accompanied by a huff before he shook his head and almost smiled. You would think they both would have tired of checking this endless expanse, and yet here they were making the usual rounds. Looking to her companions he gave them some scrutiny. It would have been impossible not to have recognized Angelo, given how the canine had been used in his defense once. The sight of the animal made him feel a pang of something he'd rather suppress.

Ah- but suppressing emotions could still potentially lead to infection presumably. So he muttered a swift but quiet response to stave off that possibility,"You're not the only one that misses her".

The other companion was a brushboy. After the convention he was fairly tired of seeing the creatures. Looking to Parsee his lips formed a question, "So which one are you supposed to be, the monkey, the talking dog, or the pheasant?"

[A reference to Japanese Folklore. Ie. Momotarou. ~~In case an explanation was needed!~~]

"I know... I've promised myself I'll figure out a way to get Angelo back to her," she said, reaching down to scratch the dog behind the ear, getting a playful bark. He missed her, but he was also a dog and attention was attention. "It's... helping. It give me something to focus on."

Ahem. Yes. No flowers growing out of their chests today. "Probably the Pheasant, heh. I've definitely got the canine help and Brush boy here's pretty close to the monkey aren't they?" she added with a dry laugh.

(OOC: Busy weekend. Anyway, I'm up for continuing these threads if you want. If not, no worries, and it was fun to play together!)

"I see," Not really expressing his opinion on the new mission she'd assigned herself. Kaiba briefly wondered if the fact that Angelo had remained behind was significant, not of the sentimental variety, but of the logistics kind. It called this dog's identity into question. It might not be the real Angelo- it still could have been an elaborate recreation because he couldn't imagine the loyal pooch not following it's owner automatically. Still, even he knew that mentioning the possibility would be in poor form at this juncture. This is what was keeping her moving forward, so he let her have it. "Mm."

No, that would just be another way to ruin their days. "I could see you as a pheasant." He's kidding, really.

"With all these recent departures, it should give us some clues as to how they're managing to leave..." An by extension help her with her dog situation. ".. but I admit I haven't found a connection yet."

[OOC: Same here really! I'm up for it too, though I admit it took me a while to get back to looking at my inbox because feels. ~~Feels and Work~~. It was! I hope we shall be able to do so elsewhere sometime]

In reality? There was a very good chance this wasn't the real Angelo, but rather a fabrication of Angelo that had been crafted for Rinoa's lonely soul. And Parsee's loneliness and constant focus on Rinoa herself had caused the 'dog' to have permanence in this world. Though she didn't actually say it? Parsee was much more aware of that possibility than she let on. She'd become... accustomed to this world and how it was one grand wish fulfillment if you had but to ask repeatedly. But the focus avoided her losing her mind in grief, anger and jealousy, descending into what she'd been before, and she ... she owed it to her and to Ren and Watanabe and the others to try to stay purified.

In the end, that was exactly what it was. A way forwards of a sort. She snorted at him managing a little dry chuckle. "Me as a little bird. Not a screech owl? Annoying and tiny?" She nodded quickly right afterwards. "The connection's hard to pin down, but I think... if we focus our attentions on the departures and get this world to understand that there needs to be some semblance of consistency? We might be able to at least get it to understand we want it to figure out a connection?"

"Does that make sense?"

(OOC: No rush. This is backburner fun play. I'm definitely hopeful of other games down the road though. ^_^ But for now we always have Paris... err, the void!)

Parsee was usually fairly observant, always questioning the various functions in the Void and their natures so it was highly likely that she had at least considered the possibility that Angelo wasn't in fact real. Neither one of them was foolish enough to voice this however since a person did need something to hold on to, to keep them going, drive them forward. Kaiba had his memento around his neck at all times to keep him on course, but now he felt as if he was lacking the proper reminder for someone else that had come into his life more recently. ~~Would Ann be leaving next?~~.

"It's the height," He clarified with a note of humor in his tone. "Screech owls are less likely to be seen out during the day as well." Then they immediately got down to business. "In a way. If enough of us introduce the idea it might open a network of sorts. Travel between the various dimensions could be revealed like some transdimensional highway." A pause. "Assuming it wants to go that route. If the gateways were more accessible it might not attract enough participants to keep this place evolving."

[OOC: Indeed!]

"Yeah. I'm sort of working with that big Koopa fellow on it, and Legion. If you want to join in, the more that we ... network? That's the word you're using, the more we do that, the more that our voices can be heard." As he'd caught on, she paid careful attention. She was methodical, mostly because she was used to observing and being ignored. So, that kind of calculating, methodical nature had its uses at times. Here? It came in handy. She didn't have to be as smart as Patchouli to just notice a thing happened over and over again and test if it could be forced.

"When we got it to notice that time should flow right? Well, it happened faster as soon as multiple people started talking about it. It's repetition that gets the attention of this world. I think it realizes if more than one of us is doing a thing, then we want that." She frowned and tapped her lips. "And it also depends on if this is something it wants, or if it even understands the nature of wanting itself? We still don't know how conscious it is."

After a second, she frowned and gave him a look. "Leave it to you by the way, to rely on something so surface to decide what bird I am."

Bowser returns from the void with a lab coat and a satchel, and also drags behind him a wagon full of potted Fire Flowers and baskets of assorted berries. In order to return, he approaches the bridge. Parsee's work on the sign and the rituals and even speaking to the void is expected, but the words on the sign bother him.

"When did we decide 'Proteus' was what this place was called?"

"Nobody ever really did. It was a name Legion and I came up with, but we never did a great job convincing folks because I didn't care enough to try." Honestly, she was only using the name here for one reason. "I'm using it right now because separating the sides of the bridge seems a good way to make sure that the world understands that this is supposed to be a boundary. If you can think of a different name, I'm game."

(OOC: Busy weekend. Anyway, I'm up for continuing these threads if you want. If not, no worries, and it was fun to play together!

As a specific note: Depending on if/when/what they do for that closing thread, if you want to work with them creating a proto-doorway I'm fine including that in the wrap up of the thread. At some point, I'm headcanoning that she does eventually make a doorwya she travels through.)

"Doesn't really matter to me what this place is called. I just told someone I'd try and make a list of names for this place a while back. Doesn't matter as much, now that they're gone. Maybe after we all get out of here I'll work on it."

Bowser crosses to the side of the bridge 'Proteus' is on. He looks out at the void. "You think the bridge idea will actually work?"

(OOC: Yeah, I'm fine with ending the thread that way. It seems like a good way to do it.)

"I see. Yeah, that makes sense. A bit like throwing darts at a board until one of them sticks. Proteus was Legion and my idea. It's ... not my culture, but latin I want to say? Western tongue. It means a thing that's always changing." It had seemed fitting for the world in flux.

She reached up and ran her fingers over her lips and then at the bridge. "I think... provided the Void actually has the power, and it should since it brings us here? Yes. I think if we make it clear what we want, it will allow it eventually. I'm not sure it will be how we want it to go, but we can probably get something." That was less hopefulness and more certain. After approaching a year, she'd noticed that there were things they could expect.

"I'll admit the main worry is that this is a bigger step than convincing it to tell time."

(OOC: Coolio. I'm going to assume this is the headcanon of how things play out regardless of whether the mods actually get a closing event thread up. The pacing is weirdly about perfect for how long these things take usually.)

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Turning over a New Leaf (Wide Open)

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