does it have to be me?

isola radiale affiliated Zhu Jin - Hell's Paradise

[thustathata]

Zhu Jin // Hell’s Paradise

(he/him || they/them || she/her) app - stats - rules ꫂ❁ A human-like synthetic being, grown for the purpose of mastering Tao and Immortality.

ꫂ❁ After a devastating defeat, Zhu Jin awakens with a second chance at … well they aren’t too sure.

ꫂ❁ There’s a lot to learn about life and Tao, especially when you think you’ve learned it all.

ꫂ❁ Zhu Jin struggles with that all too human lack of motivation, but regards those same attitudes as prime factors that led to their defeat.

ꫂ❁ They’ve reasoned to try and be better. Try. It’s better than nothing one would suppose... so here they are, without their others, adrift in a new life and expected to swim... when it's so much easier to float... ———⟢ Speak praises for the plants and perhaps they’ll grow beautifully….

[sbcjacinthe]

"Ça alors! From behind, I nearly misjudged you for a blooming flower!" And so she had, perhaps recklessly, approached this person in the park while enjoying many other floral sights.

"I am named for a charming flower myself, but I am human as well." She folded her hands before her and smiled. "My name is Jacinthe!"

💜 @thustathata

[thustathata]

Perhaps it didn’t help that he had been laying rather lazily against the most accommodating tree he could find. He had nearly nodded off in the cloud of heavy thoughts when his brows pinched at the sudden voice. He’d glance just across his shoulder to be met with quite the sight. She was like a sudden bouquet of that soft color between pinks and purples. He spoke up in a sleep-touched voice that may have seemed a bit too deep for him. “I’m starting to hear that flower comment more and more often.”

Her name was Jacinthe she said. His eyes wandered in a brief thought before guessing through a yawn — “Hyacinths? I guess I can see it.”

“Zhu Jin, but I’m no human.”

[bioresonant]

Day xxxx, I'm back at this alien place, looking for you. I wake up and think 'did we do it, despite it all'? But if we did, you'd be here. ... ..

Her journal entry for the day was interrupted by a person who...Looked like a flower. Their hair was billowed up, in no way she had ever seen before. The corner of the page was dedicated to trying to figure out what kind of flower the lazing figure was meant to evoke.

Were they to wake, they would certainly find her staring intently, chewing on her pencil, and then going back to her doodle.

@thustathata

[thustathata]

She sat quietly, eyes closed and taking in long purposeful breaths before exhaling just the same. She looked as if she could be sleeping, and in truth, she was close to it, but there was a feeling on her. Like eyes. Actually, it was precisely eyes. She frowned, heaving a sigh and turning her gaze towards the pricking across her skin, and finding the source. And what a stare it was. Was she doing something wrong? - Suddenly she’s uncertain, her lip tightening before speaking up.

“What’s… with that look? What did I do?”

[allswell]

❛ Someone like you, no? ❜ Cecil observes. ❛ A being in a world not my own. It is like so all over the island, with strangers everywhere. ❜

❛ Les étoiles malchanceuses ❜ —the unlucky stars— ❛ they toy with us so. I have set up a business in the meantime—a shop. ❜

He gestures vaguely in the direction of Archimedes, where Faucher Lace sits nestled amongst the winding streets.

❛ You would be enchanteur in it, bel inconnu. ❜ Enchanting, beautiful stranger. A hand flicks into his pocket and retrieves a classy-looking business card as explanation. ❛ So now, I am here—to recruit. ❜

[thustathata]

No, this stranger certainly was not like herself - well, not in body. In circumstance was a different story. One that tempered her wariness slightly. Now if she could make sense of this language he spoke in so often. And whatever that pulse of his tao was.

He spoke of a business and while she noted his gesture, her eyes did not leave him. He retrieves a card and she extends a hand to take it.

Elegant and precise.

So this was an offer? — Of work? She could have groaned. It would do her good in truth but it was one she'd have trouble admitting.

”What would you have me do exactly?”

[klaysurging]

"Control them? ...No. I simply seek a strength so I would never be weak again. I have gain some control over factors of my life...but here in this city, it seems that control is rather hard to come by."

The sand finally forms, into a giant sand lizard, no...a lizard made of sand.

"Klay is not simply a human, but my partner." sandlizardmon arrives, finally forming after observing all exists and entrances. "What we seek is simple as well. Power."

"Simply enough reasoning. That all I will give about that. I need a drink at this point, somewhere far away from... all this."

[thustathata]

Tao was swirling and gathering, but its source weren’t from this stranger himself. The sand took form. Shaping into a lizard that could speak, of all things. She withdrew a step, uncertain. Had she an ounce of her power, she’d flaunt an arrogance worthy of her title. But things felt wrong here and so she’d regard this beast with a wary stare. It spoke and addressed the stranger… Klay - as not just human. Odd, her eyes and senses suggested he was only that. “You want strength because you were weak… that sounds very human to me. Power because you’re afraid…”

Pollen on her hands force her thoughts to her mouth.

“I can’t quite relate. As strange as it is… that’s what makes humans so useful. Your extremes. Your tao is weak, not small, but you probably wouldn’t survive. So maybe this place is better for you. For now...”

She looks back to the sand lizard, ignoring Klay’s mentioning of wanting to get a drink. “What are you exactly? Why partner with a human?”

[klaysurging]

"Its how you control. Give them the bliss they desire, and they will be puppets. Humans are very simple, and it always falls on people with various intentions to make use of that."

"Like animals that they are, it is disturbingly easy to control their very thoughts with few actions. "

The sand around them shook and rumbled as if alive. the more into the conversation Klay got.

[thustathata]

Humans are simple. So simple it could frightening, and yet they were perfect all the same so it seemed. “You almost sound like Rien…” Kind as they once were, they were the first to suggest — “…regarding humans like cattle.” Sharp words and yet Zhu Jin’s expression softened, harsh lines of her frowning evened away.

“So what are your intentions? You cannot be looking to consume them as we have. You are human yourself - ” the shaking sand beneath drew her attention before she would inquire, uncertainly “… aren’t you?”

[dangoronin]

" Huh?! "

Masa almost jumps away from the stranger as she makes her appearance. His upper body does move just a little bit away but otherwise he remains in place staring the stranger in shock.

" That is a crime!!! I cannot deprive someone of the products of their livelihood!!! "

[thustathata]

“It looks like there’s plenty. If you’re quick enough it probably won’t matter. You don't even need to be clever - just fast.”

She leans nearer the window, eyes passing over the baked goods. There seemed to countless. She peers to the man, matching his look of shock with her own of confusion. “They aren’t likely to miss one. If they made all of this, they can replace what you take. How else will you get something from here?”

[klaysurging]

"Ignorance is bliss, and those who wish to enjoy life blisfully, tend to avoid the truth in their face."

"Is it so bad, such a life without hassle , without major struggle is not one that people would dismiss. It is a lucky life after all, born at the right time, at the right place..."

"That how most people live."

[thustathata]

Ignorance is bliss? She sighs and turns her gaze away. “It’s more like weakness…Why would you choose to live like the things beneath you?”

“Is that how you live? Do you know there's truths and choose a lesser life still? Do you choose weakness?”

[allswell]

@thustathata

❛ But you are trés beau, no? ❜ Very beautiful.

❛ Too much to stay unclaimed. ❜

Looking at the human—being, creature—before him, Cecil stops to shower praise. There is something vibrant about the hair—yellow and an orange that bleeds nearly into red with the fading of the sun. Beside her—him, it—he is almost too pale in comparison: porcelain skin, silvery hair, eyes that always liquid mix of pinkish-purple pastels.

Fiyero had been much the same, a vibrant hue that seeped into his skin, his soul; there is a lack of the bard's easy warmth here however, that tells him to keep his distance.

Naturally, Cecil takes a step closer instead.

❛ Or did the Stars pluck you up and placed you here alone? ❜

[thustathata]

“I am… what?” Perhaps she would have kept on her way, had the language not eluded her. It pulled her eye and furrowed her brow.

She turned to him, lax yet critical. Piercing yellow eyes peering from beneath long orange lashes. She took in the sight of the stranger and was unsure of how to regard him. Something unseen rolled cold within her, as in in warning. Her sight of tao was apparent but unsteady and she had learned before to be wary and very careful of the fickleness of humans tao.

He spoke of stars and she paused. Was it wise to admit that she were alone here? She was almost destroyed the last time she was alone.

“…That depends. Who are you?”

[ripandcut]

@thustathata

✂ "Look at you. The quiet brooding type, standing off to the side all by himself." Was he trying to look intimidating or was he actually that adverse to walking through the crowded streets? Either could have been possible, Riyo wouldn't judge. But it just so happened that she was extroverted enough to strike up a conversation with someone like that. Sometimes people just needed an excuse to socialized.

Well, that and she was a little bored.

"What's got you thinking? Guess it's probably "why is this kid bothering me?" now, right?"

[thustathata]

There truly were far too many people at the moment. The crowd seemed to materialize around him and all he could do was remove himself from the heart of it. He has been watching instead when a voice chimed in. At least he wasn’t as caught off guard as before.

“Yes.” He admits to her question.

“But also other things. Like, where the others are. How long have these people been here? How should I sustain myself?"

[robustdragonheart]

"There's a lot of weird things in this world that don't quite make too much sense to me either. The only thing I've completely settled on about this place is they don't like having too much from our own world once we arrive here."

Although Mélusine did wonder how much that was helping reassure the individual the servant couldn't help but take one of the bloomed red ones out of the vase and offer it up as a gift.

"Still the amount of time you have here is a blessing in disguise. It didn't take too long till I was feeling like myself again. But before that I was always trying to find something to entertain myself. Floristry was one thing I thought about but my mind wanders far too much for it to be something I'd stick with. You understand right? Too many choices, not enough decision making?"

@thustathata | s.c

[thustathata]

Zhu Jin frowned. That much seemed to explain why his sense of the place seemed so hazy. Gradually, his grasp on the tao of things seemed to be stabilizing, but he quickly noted some force preventing him from manipulated it as freely as Zhu Jin once could. Would he have to start all over here? Alone?

He hears her words as he eyes the offering. She spoke of too much time, too many choices. Was he really left to his own here? Suddenly, the faces of his kind felt as if they’d fall away from him that instant and his face twists. He does not answer her, instead asking another question. “Have you forgotten anything? Are there… blank parts when you think back? Places from your world that you liked? People that you talked to?”

[dangoronin]

@thustathata

He'd seen bunch of flowers today hanging from bypassers of whom he presumed to be in the same position as himself - kidnapped from other places but perhaps it was a coincidence. Masa doesn't really know - he's got plenty of other things to think about such as his ongoing job search and what to get for breakfast.

By what he deems an impressively large glass window he stares into the bakery, lured in by the scents.

" I think I must get something from there... "

[thustathata]

Zhu Jin had just been passing by when she over hears the mutterings of a man peering into a window. She stops and shares the glance. The scents are new but she is not hungry and with no reference of tastes to attribute to the immaculate smells, she does not feel it’s allure. Though it is pleasant, she recognizes that much.

“So get something.”

She replies, an expression curious and yet all the same unfamiliar with the common workings of commerce.

“Is it not easy for you?”

[klaysurging]

"The easiest explanation is this. Just because."

It was a simple answer , though he actually knew not what the reason for such plants to exist. but just because was seemingly the easiest to understand with. Like how companies would ruin a country for wealth, just because. There is no deeper reasoning needed.

Like how people would want godhood, just because.

"Its best to ignore them, less people want to hear some uncomfortable truths to the world."

[thustathata]

Just because?

“What a troublesome answer….”, and it was made apparent by the look on her face. On the island, there was reason. Even if it took centuries to reach there was purpose to even their plants.

“What would be the point then? If you don’t seek truths….going your whole lives knowing nothing at all of tao…” It was the solid and only constant truth Zhu Jin and the other Tensen were cultivated to understand. Nothing of governments, or rudimentary profits, just training and perfecting of tao.

“… you’d live like animals.”

[klaysurging]

"The flower, it forces truth out."

"How unpleasant it could be, if the citizens can never lie to their own government. Or to workers to their bosses, it would be the perfect weapon against falsehoods."

"Or to enemies."

He stands to go a bit further away from the flowers.

"Alas, as far as research goes, these kinds of flowers exist temporary and won't come back until the leaders of this city deem it so."

[thustathata]

Zhu Jin wasn’t much of a outright liar, but she kept many things quiet behind her small frowns and averted gazes.

A plant with effects on the mind? Her eyes fell to the blooms peaking from the ground and squinted. What hazy shape she could make of it’s tao told her it’s nature was unlike the ordinary. So that was at least a truth. Perhaps he was right.

“I don’t know about governments. Rules of the mainland sound complicated and uninteresting.” A thought slipped from her that she would have sooner kept to herself. She frowns. Preemptively irritated and hoping such a thought didn’t make her out to sound like some kind of fool.

She too steps away from the nearest plant at her feet.

“What is the point of these plants then? Do they feed something? What power is there in truths? Is there some kind of rebellion hiding in this city?”

[klaysurging]

@thustathata 

"Governments would pay so much for an item such as this." with gloves on, he didn't have the excuse of being infected by the pollen but he's still a bit happy. His money seeking ways had limits when logic is involved though.

"Alas, such items seem to be here temporary, but it would be funny to sell it to someone who believes in its power."

[thustathata]

Zhu Jin turned to cast a look over her shoulder. The stranger seemed to be talking about the flowers Zhu Jin noticed all over the place. Given the time of her arrival, she had assumed these were always here. “Temporary? Is it some matter about the season?” Were these blooms a summer sort?

But wait -

“What’s this about a power?”

[promcsis]

@thustathata

After changing into a more comfortable and exposed outfit for swimming, Promosis was ready for a good long soak. That was...until the scent of the water inside the Water Styx caught in her nostrils. She blinked a few times, and then dipped her foot into the water, just barely though.

After a moment, she pulled her foot out. This wasn't salt water. What a shame. She was hoping for a decent soak in a large body of salt water. She had been looking forward to it.

Fresh water would do fine, it's how she had kept her skin moist and healthy this far, but it didn't feel the same. So, she decided to sit at the waters edge and stick her legs in, until she felt ready to take the plunge. After a bit of sulking....as was her right!

[thustathata]

What a drag…what a confusing, overwhelming drag. His memories were all a jumbled rush. There were those two humans, the child and blind man, and a flurry of bodies - Zhu Jin’s bodies. A rush of tao, an agonizing strain and then - there’s a long audible groan. Maybe this was all just an unpleasant dream. A very long and drawn out unpleasant dream.

He’d been wandering for a while and taking mind to avoid whatever residents he happened to find or sense from afar. The tao here felt so muddled, vast and yet hazy. Such were the mysteries of a dream he supposed. He tried for a moment to will himself some Tan, but when the minimum effort bore no fruit he sighed and reasoned some source of water would do in a pinch.

And with some luck, he’d happen upon Water Styx and the relief was immediate. He came upon the waters edge and had begun to slip the ceremonial-like garb from his broad shoulders rather carelessly. Hands were at his waist prepared to drop the rest robes away but he stopped, noting only now the company right beside him with her feet in the water - and he looked at her.

The silence painfully awkward but, what was he supposed to say? His expression shifted, brows furrowing and his lip pinching. How did he miss her there? Had he really fallen so far? Gotten so weak? As he mentally berates himself, he certainly only continues to contribute to the strangeness of the scene. Him standing there, mid-strip, eyeing a stranger with an expression akin to a pout.

[isolaradiale]

No prob! Without prior reserve, I’d like to apply as Zhu Jin from Hell's Paradise, please! Application is in /app. - I touched up and attempted to expand upon / clarify some things such as Tao, Tan and the ovule. (since they all link together) im sorry if its a lot!

Welcome to sunny Isola Radiale, Zhu Jin!

You’ll be staying in CONDO 416.

You will retain your regeneration, but you will only be allowed to heal minor to moderate wounds.

Enjoy your stay!

– ⋆ mimosa