tabularasa_rp | Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is? (Open)

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Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is? (Open)

Who: Parsee Mizuhashi

bridge_princess and You!
What: Parsee Builds a Clock and tries to keep time
Where: Near the Bridge to Nowhere and Parsee's Shrine
When: A pretty lady looked at me and said her diamond watch had stopped cold dead....
Content Warnings: None other than Parsee's usual surly behavior is expected. Will update if necessary

(OOC: Note - Because the flow of time is not stable or normal, any attempt to measure time is doomed to failure. She's experimenting with that fact here.)

1) Do I look like a Horologist?
Parsee was standing there with a pile of what was quite literally just trash in front of her. Among these were a piece of long bamboo that she was adding a weight to and using one half of a pair of scissors to cut to a wedge on the other side. It kind of looked to anyone who might be paying attention like she was getting a small miniature aqueduct of running water ready to come from the stream, though what the point of this entire exercise might be was probably not immediately apparent.

Unless you were from Japan. The bamboo piece was sort of telling there. She was trying to make one of those Deer chaser fountains some people used as water clocks of a sort.

2) It ain't pretty, but...
The Shishi Odoshi was complete. Ok, the truth was that it looked awful. The bamboo piece, even cleaned up, clearly had seen better days but there wasn't any fresh bamboo. The whole construction was made with pieces that were not really designed from it. Old half rotten wood and rusted metal culverts did the job of coaxing water from the creek into position, and it was just kind of ugly to look at. But as the water started to flow down, trickling at a steady pace over the tip of the bamboo, the whole process began to work.

The water that filled the bamboo gradually changed its center of gravity until it pivoted, dumped the water into a channel leading back to the river and then fell back into position with a 'tonk' sound that scared a nug chicken in the distance away with a sqwuack. She put her hands on her hips and nodded in satisfaction. Only... about an hour later, if it was an hour later, she was staring at the thing with a look of mounting consternation.

"That's... That's not right."

3) The Doctor is In
Frustrated with the whole affair but unwilling to get the water clock to stop working, Parsee sat down with a thump beside her shrine, cleaning the scissors she'd used to help slice the bamboo and putting them back together before setting them in the shrine where they'd been offered originally. She squatted down next to the shrine and rubbed her forehead, the irritation apparent in her features. It wasn't adding up, and she didn't like how it was adding up.

But sitting beside the shrine, ostensibly doing her 'job' of waiting for prayers that would never come or people crossing her bridge was soothing in a way, so that was what she was going to do. And hey, these people were crazy enough that she could believe they might actually come to her looking for advice. One or two had already, god help them all. So, yeah... she'd wait and see.

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Finally he says...

[She leaned back and started to relax. So, they were going to just try and move into more comfortable territory? She was game. She was as willing to move on in terms of topic as he was. And, oddly he might have noticed, as willing not to push him out the door.

She wouldn't admit it, but she didn't actually want him to go.]

You pick the topic. Any topic is fair game.

You're the chattier one. You pick it.

(Only reason he doesn't say the same is because there are things he does not want to answer, and putting boundaries before she even asks herself is more ammo to be used against him further in the road.)

Tch... stubborn. Fine.

[She looked him over a little and decided to brave a little bit of a backpedal. There'd been something he'd said earlier. She'd been busy bugging him about Akechi, which she was totally not done with even if she was done for today... but it had her curious.]

If we're supposed to be friends, friends get to know what each care about, right? [that was normal, right?] So, what are some of those "other concerns" you have to get back to so badly?

[There. he could pick what he was ok sharing.]

(And she goes right back into untouchable territory. Like hell he's telling her any of what he does at home. One person knows, in a shallow way. That would be Tifa, simply due to his and Akechi's inability to keep a straight face when they first started to break the void apart in theories.

Instead, he just tries to find the best way possible to explain, without much detail.)

My friends need me.

[Funnily enough? She seemed willing to just accept that statement at face value. It was a good enough answer in the end, really. It didn't get into the heroics, but it gave her... well... something to talk about.]

Can you tell me about one of them? I'll... tell you about someone I guess I don't hate back home.

[Pro Tip: They were actually a friend. She was just awful at expressing it.]

(Oh?)

We're a group of 8.

(Excluding Akechi. The Phantom Thieves have been coming up in conversation more often, and it certainly cheers him up to talk about them.)

We're all very different, but I guess that's what makes our group so strong. One of them is the Student President Council.

(He smiles, eyes closing in serenity.)

She's tough and always tries to improve herself. I admire her a lot.

[There. She had a hope that she'd chosen well asking that. He opened up again. It was only fair to open up in turn, she supposed. She didn't bother to mention that she figured all eight of them revolved around him at the center. That was sort of obvious in her mind, though she suspected Akechi was one of the eight. She wasn't 'that' psychic.]

The smart, tough one everyone respects, is she? I could see that being valuable to have in a friend. What is she like most days?

Yuugi's nothing like that. She's a drunk. [She snorted and laughed.]

Intelligent and thoughtful. She can also take fast decisions wonderfully. We are looking for her and the others, but so far, no luck.

(A sigh leaves him, but it's fine. He won't stop looking and he doesn't plan on giving up.)

Yuugi? Is she the one you don't hate?

... huh. I would have thought you would rather get home to her. You want her to be here? Or are you assuming she is here already? Still, I would have to assume she's got to have a level head. I'm not sure what a "Student Council President" really is. I've only heard a little about that sort of thing.

[Sanae stopped through once in a while.]

She is. Don't take that to mean she's irresponsible. Oni drink to keep from losing their tempers. Last thing you want's a drunk human most days. Last thing you want with Oni's a sober oni. Their rage gets the better of them. She's got a sake cup that always refills.

...really damned stubborn though. Kind of like someone else I know.

If any of them made it here, I cannot ignore it. I would prefer to go home, but I can't just ignore that possibility.

(He is the leader, after all.)

Do you miss her?

Which means until you're absolutely sure none of them are here, you're not leaving. After all, you don't want to leave them behind. How'd you meet?

...

Who, Yuugi? Maybe a little, but don't tell her I said that. I got used to her patrolling up to the bridge and bugging me everyday. Like clockwork. She was one of the big four, so it was a surprise she bothered with me. Her old drinking buddy was never that civil.

She's the Student President.

(Half assed answer, because he can't tell her it was because Makoto was investigating everyone who had involvement in an incident. That he definitely had involvement in. 100%. His fault.)

What are the big four?

Edited (oh look i cannot html today) 2020-08-18 22:27 (UTC)

It's this 'title' some of the bigger name oni used to have. Four of them from a major mountain. Old drinking buddies and trouble makers. They still kept in touch.

Suika was always a disrespectful, arrogant one without a care in the world. Yuugi... just likes to be free to live her life on her terms. I think Suika liked to wander more. She and I don't get on great. [Snort.] Yuugi patrols the streets in hell. Keeps folks from getting too rowdy.

It's really an excuse to pick fights she thinks will be interesting.

... Is there a... Promotion of any kind? Is that possible?

(Huh.)

[She settled back and frowned.]

I didn't bother to keep up in the old days. Youkai had their focuses. Drums wanted to be played again. I watched the bridge and wrecked vengeance on cheaters, satori would stalk their mountains, kappa were... just a nuisance really. There's not exactly an "official" [Definitely used air quotes there] heirarchy among youkai and oni.

But at the same time, there's ones who stand out. They're more powerful than the others. Bigger jobs. Unique ones. Like... there are more than one Hashihime, or there were anyway. Not a lot of us, but definitely more than one. The first of us might have a bit of a claim to fame, but still just a 'type.'

But if a youkai bothered to be thought of as unique, or an Oni got a big name to them, like "Four of the Mountain" there was a story to that. Like that muckity muck Yukari. She's just a 'youkai.' No type. No rules. She's a monster, but there's none like her. Guardian of the gap, master of boundaries. Stuff like that has importance with people who care.

[And despite her tone, clearly she gave a lot of shits about this. it gave her excuses to be jealous.]

Heaven and the real Hell? those have rules, places, ranks. Lots of them. Old Hell? Satori Komeiji's in charge because everyone's fucking scared of her. That's all.

(Ren listened and it actually painted a very colorful image of hell to him at the moment. Surely, he would end up with other questions in the long run, but at the moment...)

Were you? (Scared of her, he means.)

She reads minds just by looking through her third eye. No thought. No limit. Plumbs the deepest recesses of your mind with barely a glance, and almost nobody can even attempt to resist her.

[She shuddered.]

What do you think?

... A literal Third Eye or... Is that her ability?

(Just curious for no reason.

It's not like he has a similar ability with the same name and like it's frustrating him not to be able to use it here.

Nope.)

A literal third eye, and her ability. Satori have these weird tentacle things that wrap around to meet at a third eye. Can read you like a book with it. See your innermost thoughts.

Used to play all kinds of nasty games on humans with it. She's a bit of a hermit, but still scary.

[Oh man, that would be a conversation and a half.]

That's interesting. Do you know what the origin is?

(For no particular reason at all?)

What? Of Satori? I don't know that anyone really knows why they came into existence. They're not like youkai like me. You know why I happened. It's slapped all over the stories like some bad gossip rag.

[hmph]

Satori are usually pretty tight lipped about themselves and they've just always been mountain spirits of a sort. If I were guessing? They're originally just that. Mountain spirits who watched as the humans came into existence and started testing them with that third eye. Eating the failures.

You know, usual monster garbage.

(He could easily say he's sorry for what happened to her, but alas, he's pretty sure she'd not like that one bit. Instead, he listened quietly and at the end, he nodded.)

Thanks for sharing all this.

[She'd probably react worse because she believed he was sincere with that sort of thing. But right about now, she might have taken it and run with it. Curling her arms around her leg, she nodded once in turn.]

I'll let you know if I see things pop up... but let's just hope certain ones don't from home. We don't need them.

It's hell enough without hell itself.

(It's a laugh and a shake of his head before he stands up, stretching arms. He's preparing himself to leave, seen that she is alright and alive and... She has given him plenty to think about.)

Yeaaaah, no Yamas. Please. Honestly, it isn't that bad right now. Some of them would muck things up.

But without power, they'd really just be annoying honestly.

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