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

[bridge_princess]

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.

Comments

[forwearemany]

Abilities beyond those of unaugmented humans are mostly lost. Technology is limited, as are natural phenomena. Things that change over time do not do so consistently, or fail to change at all. Gravity, wind, and light all fail to function in a consistent and coherent manner. Most of those brought here are human or humanlike in form, despite varied worlds of origin.

(They pause, chattering.)

The latter was also the case with the universe we dwelled in prior to this one.

[bridge_princess]

[Squint. Wait a tic.]

You've been to 'another world' before? Like this place? Where other people just show up and don't have a clue who anyone is or how they got here? I... can't say I'm surprised there's others. I talked to a guy that said it.

But what the heck? What kind of place was it? Wait. Was it this "Fellden" place he mentioned?

[forwearemany]

Affirmative.

(They chatter awkwardly.)

Negative: the world we were in previously consisted of a group of islands.

[bridge_princess]

I'd say I feel left out, going to all these nifty places, but I don't. It might give you a leg up but I imagine it's more of a pain than helpful sometimes. Having to learn all new rules.

Man, at least I don't have to deal with that.

(OOC: If only she knew that a certain someone 'almost' considered apping her as a CRAU just to torment her.)

[forwearemany]

Our arrival on Enso saved us.

(The Geth are gone. Shepard-Commander betrayed them. When they speak of returning home, they are not speaking of their universe of origin.)

[bridge_princess]

I'm... no, something you said the first day. You kind of made it sound like you're the last of your kind, or one of the last. So, if you go back to where you originally came from, there's nothing for you there is there?

...

[No. She didn't envy that. She actually pitied that quite a bit. That felt, if true, almost sad.]

[forwearemany]

There is not.

(They look away, and are silent for several moments.)

Our allies betrayed us. Our people were destroyed.

[bridge_princess]

And you don't want revenge?

[Because that sort of thing? That would make Parsee seethe with the desire to repay in kind. An eye for an eye, a life for a life. But it did not sound like this being wanted that.]

[forwearemany]

(Revenge.

Who would they even enact revenge upon? Tali'Zorah, who killed them to save Shepard-Commander? Shepard-Commander, whose betrayal pushed them to attack? The Quarian-Creators who sought to destroy them to reclaim their Homeworld? The citadel council, for acting to prevent the Quarians from settling a new world or receiving aid, so they had little choice but to retake Rannoch? What about their own actions, the part of them that was the agricultural unit that started the rebellion?

Who was to blame?

What would harming them accomplish?

It would change nothing.

They... they were...)

We want to not be alone.

[bridge_princess]

... You're a better person than I am.

[There was no judgment there. She just felt that anyone in the Geth's position who didn't want revenge was definitely a better person than her. She'd become what she was out of revenge.]

Well, you're not alone here, so you can have what you want here, right?

[forwearemany]

(...Are they?

They do not think so. It is not out of kindness that they refuse to seek revenge.)

Perhaps.

(They remain lonely.)

[bridge_princess]

Say. You said there's a lot of you in there. If you had the equipment, would it be possible to eventually make more of you?

[Cause if that was the case... BABY GETH!]

[forwearemany]

...

(They haven't thought about it, because a suitable environment is unlikely to ever present itself, but...)

Yes.

(Though it'd be less baby Geth and more legion growing additional programs and offloading them into server hubs. The collective that would grow would be like an extension of their personality, at least at first.)

[bridge_princess]

We should look into that one of these days. If you're actually capable of reproducing, and you can do that here? You should have the opportunity if you want it.

[Uttery devoid of care about the plight of AI and fleshy life. She was dead. What did she care about that sort of thing?]

[forwearemany]

Acknowledged.

(Do they wish to?

Would their descendents be able to thrive?)

...Thank you.

[bridge_princess]

I don't really 'get' what happened to made you the last, not in detail, and I get the feeling you have trouble as a people really dealing with humans. Call it a hunch.

...

But everything has a right to live.

[forwearemany]

(They seem, perhaps, surprised. Or at least, they're silent for several moments as they stare at her, contemplating her words.

No Geth chatter this time.)

Affirmative.

[bridge_princess]

You know, maybe we can take the chance in this place. find a way to give your race a chance to survive. Find them a place. Maybe this place could be somewhere that things show up that wouldn't have a chance otherwise.

I kind of like that idea. Not sure it will work, but I like it.

[Planet of the misfits had a fun sound to it.]

[forwearemany]

Affirmative.

The world we previously inhabited was also home to those otherwise undesirable.

(They miss it.

It unlikely that the structure necessary to support the collective would be achievable even on the new world that the Storyteller created ... if they succeeded at that at all. But ... they do not wish to leave their allies.

It is their home.

Are the allies and possibilities of this world superior to the one from which they were taken?)

[bridge_princess]

I like this idea. Old Hell was a dumping ground for the rejects of creation, but ... it was our home too. I didn't get along with many there, but everyone should have a place.

And... you know, call it a hunch? I think some of the others will agree to this.

[forwearemany]

Though we also like this idea, we are uncertain of making such a location into a "hell".

(Hell is, after all, generally treated as a place for sinners and/or bad things. Entities that do not "deserve" to be a part of creation.

But they do. All of them. And fuck anyone who says otherwise.)

[bridge_princess]

Mmmm, oh wait. You're thinking like Westerner's hell. Punishment for misdeeds, right? Don't get me wrong. There's something like that out there, but it just meant more "underworld" for us. That place was inside it.

And old hell? Was just a place left over when they ran out of room. Too many humans. It's not nearly as bad as it sounds. Promise.

[forwearemany]

...Acknowledged. Still, the connotations remain.

(In galactic society as a whole, the dominant perception of Hell is as a place for bad things.

...Does she have to refer to it as such?)

[bridge_princess]

If you're trying to say we shouldn't call this place "Hell" I agree. It's ... our place. I think I'd rather call it something else, but I feel like you guys would be better at naming it.

I suppose "Home" is an option, though.

[forwearemany]

Home is allies, similar thought processes, belonging.

(They look around.)

It is not tied to a location, but to the people that reside there.

(Not that they entirely object, though. They just ... don't want to give up their old home.)