tabularasa_rp | (open) where have you been? been searching all along 𝅘𝅥𝅮

... No. Things don't die, remember?

(Not that kind of psycho! He's not crazy about eating something alive, even if it really just looks like chicken cubes or something.)

Took it from the fridge.

... Oh right, yeah, that'd probably be harder to cook. Even if you cut a piece off it wouldn't cook right if it can't die. Ugh, how would that even work?

[Mutter mutter.]

You know, being carnivorous is going to suck so much here until that gets figured out.

Hopefully, a grocery store is in the list.

(Ren takes a second before he looks at the remaining curry plates.)

Can you try the other ones? See which you like best.

You modern boys and your grocery stores, brimming to the gills with food all rotting away for want of someone to buy. So spoiled.

[She said it in a lightly teasing tone. Look, he fed her, so she could actually taste the food now instead of inhale it. She was in a mood to be conversational.

She shifted the cardamon over and took a bite, trying the flavor out a bit more carefully this time.]

...where'd this spice come from anyway? Wish we had this in my day.

Didn't you have markets?

(It's an honest question! There surely was a trade by the time she was alive, wasn't there? ... With all the alcohol she mentions to go around in hell, how does it appear, too...)

... Great question.

(Ren is not that much of a culinary nerd! All he knows is what Sojiro had told and taught him, and he certainly didn't mention the origin.)

Hey now, don't go calling out the spirit of envy on being jealous that you had better markets than she did!

[She snorted and harumphed, folding her arms and giving him a little glare. That's cheating, using her own game against her like that. Actually, she was a little more amused than she let on.]

And I guess the youkai trade. They don't talk to me much. [Shrug.] This isn't bad though. Little... uh... sweet for my tastes. I actually like the stronger bitter one. Let me have some of the last.

(Parsee seems to be in a good mood, even with the glaring. Is that the secret? Give her food?

He smiles, largely and with teeth.)

I can make you the strongest I know how another time.

(If she visits him again, because he is not going for Interrogation Shrine so soon. Let the man breathe!)

[Food was a good starting point with most folks. Didn't hurt here. She snorted and tried the last, reaching up to take a bit while she considered.]

This one's pretty mild isn't it? Kind of taste more the baseline. I definitely like the coffee one.

[Yeaaaah, the shrine was a great place to go and earn those kindness points, but she was a TOUGH teacher when it came to that. ... ok, now what did she say? What was it that humans filled their conversations with? Oh right... uh... normal question, normal question...]

So, how's the weather?

[....nailed it.]

(He takes notes! Of course he had eaten every single variation from the second he moved to Tokyo and there are some favorites to his own heart. Sojiro advised him once that the most important thing one can do is to know your clientele, though. He's pretty sure he's getting there.

Now that she has tasted them, he should bring the complimentary coffee to see if her perception changes. Ren stands up, stretching arms as he walked towards his green apron before he hears the question. Sorry, he can't not laugh.)

Windy.

hey, come on now! I suck at small talk, alright?

[And as if the prove the point, a little dust devil kicked up in the bar for about a minute. Hoo boy, that was going to be a mess later. Parsee gripped the rail and glared back at the weather.]

That's not funny! Everyone's a critic!

Still better than me, I think.

(It was too much coincidence to have his point proven right after, so he chuckles, barely bothered by the fact he will have to clean the place for the tenth time today. It was part of the occupation.

He waited for it to cease before he poured her coffee, taking it back to the booth and presenting it to her.)

Now try together.

Bullshit, but you can pretend to yourself that you suck at it. I see you chat people up all the time.

[She sighed as the wind began to die down, taking the coffee and having a sip while having a little more of each of them.]

Ok... the coffee with the coffee might be a bit too much. Might want to pair it with something sweeter to drink or milder anyway. Ngh... but what makes you of all people say you're bad at small talk?

That's a different thing.

(He tends to be in conversation often, but how much does he talk in comparion?

Either way, he takes the note in his mind regarding the taste.)

When have we ever small talked?

(As in, aimlessly conversed about something that wasn't of interest just for the sake of talking.)

I can, but I don't like to talk when there's nothing to be said.

Edited 2020-08-31 17:58 (UTC)

And it's been a long damned time since I ever really chatted about meaningless things. If someone's talking to me, it's because they want something, or because it's time for me to do my job. Here? They banter.

I don't even think I remember what small talk is [She grunted.] I don't think we're a good couple to compare. Do you talk with someone else about dumb thigs? Like Osomatsu? he's probably better at that than both of us combined.

[Sorry, Oso. She's not wrong though.]

(He is not telling her for the 128371876th time that he is talking to her for the company that he enjoys, so he just watches her talk. At least there are many upbeat and optimistic people in the Void. It would be much worse if the majority of the population was screaming in a loop.

At the question, he simply shakes his head, because the last thing he talks with Oso is that. Oso takes a very similar action as Parsee regarding Ren, called picking at Ren's brain because he doesn't talk about himself, so nope!)

I haven't thought about this.

(He's not categorizing his conversations!)

Due to the situation, most conversations circle back to trying to understand this place, anyways.

[Yeah, she wasn't actually asking him if he was doing it for that reason. He was clearly masochistic enough that he enjoyed these little talks for some reason. Her chin went to rest on her knuckles and she considered for a minute before changing the topic a little.]

Pretend for a moment that you're stuck here for ten years. Time works funny. So you find out eventually that when you get back? No harm, no foul. Let's take away all the reasons you have to get away, and you're not able. Just stuck here. Long enough to have a life. Ten. Twenty years.

What do you want with your life? Doesn't have to be detailed. Just a thought.

... I'll burn that bridge when I get to it. I can't think that far ahead.

(It's his biggest problem. Ren is blind to consequences, to futures that are not an immediate thing to solve, not an urgent issue he can grasp. Can't fix it now? Next thing until he can.

He barely had thought about his life back home. Hadn't Akechi told him what happened, he expected to be in detention by now. Sort of hard to think of a future behind bars.

Here? The unpredictability factor makes it even harder to imagine.)

What about you?

[She reached out and flicked at his nose, narrowing her eyes.]

No burning bridges. If anyone's burning bridges around here, it's me, you. [She smirked.] I don't know. I guess maybe I'm liking the normalcy here, so maybe just have a normal life? I haven't had that in a long time.

Eh-?

(Ren makes the decision to not dodge it, even though he easily could. It was only a flick and he wanted to show her some form of friendship? Anyhow.)

As much of one as we can have, I suppose.

(Not so normal without organizations, schools, money, concepts that just lack in the void for now due to the whole society building.)

Would you leave the bridge?

I...

Haven't decided that yet. The bridge is a kind of comfort. I'm making a decent place to live, promise. But me in the apartment complex worries me. I'll start getting jealous.

And I'm not sure I get to be that normal, not yet anyway.

How can I help?

(If he can. Maybe making her apartment feel like home would be a step...?)

I'll let you help me get furniture and pound nails and the like. I mean it's making a house. It can't be that hard to make a decent place to live.

It just doesn't rain in hell, so who cares if I live under the bridge, right?

[Sorry, she's such a bum.]

More than enough reason to make your place here nice.

(It's fine, Parsee. Ren lives in a doorless attic, sleeps on a mattress atop milk crates and there's chatter that leaks from the cafe. He gets it trying to make a new place be home and not knowing how.

At least he found his way - he keeps his door open when he's at his apartment, so surely she would have noticed how much effort he put on his own - many plants and flowers decorate it!)

I wouldn't mind that. If it was nice, but not as nice as the apartments I wouldn't feel any urge to leave. It's not like this isn't a tiny little place overall. We'll see each other plenty.

[She wasn't hiding away, that much at least she wanted to be clear. It would be futile with people like Ren around, so she was accepting that she was apparently part of these people's lives for good or ill.]

Just avoids risking things getting nasty. If my powers come back properly you wouldn't want me in the apartment. Hah, that could get ugly fast.

How so?

(Half of it is concern, surely, but the other half is preparing for what is to come, possibily.)

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