VIII.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

[Souji is quite busy this afternoon. After accidentally turning her Wild Places-forged katana into a parasol, she realizes she's going to need another weapon for the next dangerous thing that happens here, and preferably one more permanent in nature. Her own knowledge of weaponsmithing is just about enough to turn a fallen tree limb into a passably sword-shaped club, so that means she's going to avail herself of an expert. However, the only expert she knew wanted payment, and there was nothing of value just lying loose in the Gardens. Without a weapon, she can't go spelunking in the Caves either, so her only recourse is now her old friend, the Item Trading Quest.]

1

[Action]

[And that's why she's hanging around the Viridian Pavilion, carefully collecting flowers while making sure they aren't attached to any of the strange, cute plant-monsters wandering the area. She carefully gathers them into two bunches, one rather plain but various, the other more with an eye for color and artistry, favoring blue blossoms.]

[Later, she can be seen heading into the portal underneath the Pavilion, taxonomically-interesting bouquet in hand and a determined, friendly smile on her face...]

2

[And later still, she returns from said portal with a strange-looking clock in hand instead of the flowers, picking up the prettier bouquet from where she'd left it. Immediately, she finds a Vine mirror.]

[Video, addressed to Ymir but unlocked]

Hey Ymir. We were talking about a sword before...I think I've got something interesting to trade you.

[She holds up the weird clockwork device.]

((You can respond to Souji either when she's gathering flowers for her trip to the Isle of Antikythera, or afterward when she returns; I just didn't want to make two posts when they'd both be this short. Indicate which part you're replying to with a 1 or 2, please. Basically what happened here is she went to trade the robots some flowers for a clock that she has no idea what its actual purpose is, and is planning to trade said clock to Ymir for a weapon. Because she's an RPG hero, this comes naturally to her. The purpose of the second bouquet is a se~cret.))

Comments

[tasercopter.livejournal.com]

I'll admit, that is stupid, and it also sucks, but it's kinda better than "I'll absorb all your planet's energy and become a god and go looking for new planets so I can absorb them too". [In spite of the subject matter, she's actually kind of enjoying bonding over world-destroying lunatics.]

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

It gets better when you have two godlike things going "Oh, but I thought that's what you humans wanted". And I used to think Izanami was a sympathetic character...

[tasercopter.livejournal.com]

Aw, it's real nice of them to think of you like that. [She laughs again.] I'm more used to the "you humans are worms, I'll obliterate you" types.

Our first guy blasted the planet with a meteor, died, then came back to life as a fatal plague that got in people's genes and started wiping out a good chunk of the population.

Then he came back as three more guys even crazier than him, and they tried to reform the first guy and kill us all.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Your world is complicated.

[tasercopter.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it. [She rolls her eyes, not at Souji but at the complications.] Scientists. Had to deal with that shit for two years, and I bet it's not over yet.

I don't know who this chick is that you're into, but don't you think, when we've been kidnapped and stuffed in a garden, giving somebody flowers isn't the best idea?

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's too easy, but I think she'll appreciate the gesture. And I do kinda know her.

Besides, not everyone is that upset about being stuck here, compared to where we came from.

[tasercopter.livejournal.com]

I don't think easy's a problem. Easy's better. If I'm into a girl, I just tell her, and we have a good time. It's more that it's lame.

There are a lot of delusional bitches here, true. I'm not upset, but I personally would prefer a shitty real life to this fake sex garden prison. It's the principle of the thing. But swallow the Mako all you want.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

You keep going on about fake. This place just doesn't feel fake to me. More like...new. It's a prison, sure, but it's an interesting prison. Like a puzzle, I guess. And there's definitely worse worlds to be trapped in. This place hardly ever tries to kill us all, for one.

That's why I don't mind being here so much. Well, part of it.

[tasercopter.livejournal.com]

Life's all about trying to kill you, that's the whole point of life--not dying.

If you take away that, and make it so people can't die, and they can make buildings just by wishing for them, and we're all caught in a little box, having our heads messed with, while fake versions of people we know show up--

Excuse me if I don't trust your perception if you think there's anything real about this place, kid. If you really think it's so real, why do you need somebody to make a sword for you?

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Because wishing for stuff without putting in the work for it hardly ever works out. That rule applies here just as much as anywhere else. It even applies to the Queen, which is what really has me interested.

[tasercopter.livejournal.com]

I guess you're a shitty wisher. People've made skyscrapers, mansions, a bar, a gun shop. Didn't the Queen supposedly bring us here to wish stuff up? "Build", or whatever. I bet the chick who's making you the sword didn't bring a bunch of metals and equipment to make weapons with, either.

It doesn't change the fact that it's all fake, but last I checked, I was living in a high rise apartment building someone wished up, and none of my dildos have turned into pudding yet.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

That's--

[Sorry, you derailed her train of thought with the sudden mental image.]

[tasercopter.livejournal.com]

[Reno just laughs. She likes having that effect on people.]