[OPEN] he just couldn't stay away

[catmemes]

WHO: Kaijin (catmemes) & OPEN
WHAT: Catch-all for general catventures and TDM prompts
WHERE: All over
WHEN: August-ish
WARNINGS: will add as needed




[ Prompts below, feel free to throw me a random start or poke me through PM or talkincodes for something specific. ]

Comments

[catmemes]

Dunno

[ Honestly Kai is fairly young for a youkai and these sorts of issues don't exactly come up frequently. He's never been the extremely curious type, jokes about cats aside. Apparently they're all finding out now whether they like it or not. ]

I know people have said there was someone here before, but it doesn't feel like it at all. [ He stops for a moment to peer up at Alhaitham, quest for cuddles momentarily forgotten. ] I think this place is just fucking with us.

[justscribing]

There's an idea. [That the photos, strange statues, similar anomalies are a distraction and not a clue. It doesn't mean this simulation hasn't been run with other people before--simply that signs of them were thoroughly wiped out.]

How long does it take for spiritual echoes to attach to a place? To create youkai?

[catmemes]

Depends.

[ And just like that the moment is over and Kai is back to shoving himself at Alhaitham's hand just in case he's forgotten what he's meant to be doing. ]

Can happen all at once if there's a lot of focused attention or it can take hundreds of years to build up. Too many variables.

[justscribing]

[Other people might question the circumstance which is giving head scritches to a clearly sentient person in the shape of a cat, but Alhaitham has no such concerns about propriety. Hope Kaijin won't be embarrassed about this later.]

So it'd difficult to tell if something like that has been building since we've arrived. [And what factors might prevent it from doing so, such as constantly removing the human impact of the area.]

[catmemes]

Not unless everyone decides to start worshiping something, I guess.

[ Even then he's not completely sure he'd be able to tell, considering how dulled his senses are. Not until an actual spirit forms, anyway, and by then it'd be hard for anyone not to notice. But if that's what they're here for, some actual instruction might be nice.

But that's a later problem. Right now his only concern is leaning hard enough into Alhaitham's fingers that he almost overbalances. ]

[justscribing]

I don't have much hope that will work. [Mostly because getting enough people to really believe so hard they birth a god is a lot to ask even for people of the same planet, let alone if they know it's an experiment.

But a question he can more immediately satisfy involves shifting his hand and slowly drawing it back to see if Kaijin really will fall over in chasing skritches, or manage to stay on his feet.]

[catmemes]

[ He does stumble just a little, but luckily cat reflexes aren't just a joke. Somehow he all but teleports right back against Alhaitham's hand, any indignation forgotten in the face of a more pressing question.

Hope? ]

You want to create a youkai here?

[justscribing]

[Oh, good catch. He can't exactly read cat facial expressions, unfortunately, but neutral interest is still interest.]

I'm curious if it's possible or if the nature of this place prevents any sort of spiritual imprint.

[catmemes]

I don't know.

[ It's an interesting question, if a slightly unsettling one. There's a lot of implications there, and it makes Kai blink at him again. ]

It does seem like this place...suppresses spiritual power. Do you feel it?

[justscribing]

[He shrugs.] I'm not spiritually sensitive, so I wouldn't know. I can agree it's suppressing our power, at least.

[catmemes]

What do you feel?

[ If you can't feel the echoing emptiness, then what is it like? Still weird, Kai will assume, given how he's seen other people talk about it. But he can't help but wonder, and Alhaitham has seemed willing to indulge him so far.

Plus he's still petting, which puts him in Kai's good graces immediately. ]

[justscribing]

[What does he feel?

As a Vision holder, he would normally be granted a greater sensitivity to elemental energy than others. And while most of Teyvat is touched upon by the elements in some way or another, there's a different sort of spiritual sensitivity that it doesn't assist with. He couldn't sense a ghost or consciousness locked away, or know someone is a youkai. And how does one quantify something they don't truly experience as an absence? The world does not feel less quiet to him for it. He can be told that he is, in a way, blind, but he's unable to truly feel the lack of it.

So he answers:] Nothing.

[catmemes]

[ And Kai just nods, looking unsurprised. Or as close as he can get to it with his current features. ]

It's weird, right? The emptiness.

[ Maybe it would be even worse if he was at full power. Maybe it's better to not entirely know what he's missing. But either way it's good to know it's not just him. ]

[justscribing]

The lack of overall life besides ourselves is strange. [He can agree to that much.] Have you ever seen a place like this before?

[catmemes]

Like this? No.

[ Not that he's seen all that much, but still. Kai is aware enough of both the spirit community and the various online cryptid groups that he's fairly sure he would have heard of something like it. ]

Even abandoned places have echoes, usually. Not just...nothing.

[justscribing]

I see. [It's all a small piece of the puzzle, that this place is spiritually anemic, but it is a piece. Only with enough of them slotted together will they reveal the picture.]

... You're not going to get tired of being pet anytime soon, are you?

[catmemes]

No. Why?

[ And he is indeed still pressing himself as close to Alhaitham's hands as he can get. The conversation is a good distraction and all, but Kai has a very clear goal here. ]

[justscribing]

I have other things I want to do. So if you still want attention, you're going to have to come with me.