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Doing mushrooms before powering up seemed to be the best way to deal with all the Senshi weirdness, Parsifal had discovered. He was so accustomed to magic mushrooms by now that he knew how to avoid some of the less-fun effects (of which there were precious few with the natural psychedelic) and just enjoy the buzz while also enjoying the perks of running around as a Senshi, like the speed boost and the jumping. If he'd been doing LSD, it would be a different story entirely: more intense high, but more intense and bad side effects because of the stuff acid was usually cut with. The last thing he needed was that kind of negative experience while encountering people from other factions who wanted him dead.

The park tempted him tonight, so off to the park he went, skipping and leaping and giggling softly to himself. He was in a really good mood, having won the two races he'd ridden earlier in the day. The summer meet at the track was in full swing, and that meant lots of money in his pockets to spend on mushrooms and other things.

Bounding into the park near the wooded edge, Parsifal noticed something a little weird – a couple moving in a strange, stilted manner heading deeper into the woods. He also noticed something else that struck him as odd – an enormous crow-like thing occupying the bench that the couple had seemingly just vacated. In the distance was some haunting, lilting sort of music, like someone playing a flute of some kind. He could barely make it out, but it seemed out of place here. That was when he picked up the very clear auric signature of a Chaos officer nearby.

Should he just leave? He didn't want to get beaten up. But he was kind of stoned, so he really didn't care.

Parsifal broke into a grin and approached the big bird thing. "Hi, crow," he chirped, waving a hand. The weird music was still piping through the night air, and the zombie-like couple was still stumbling into the woods, but his focus was on the black-feathered creature in front of him. "You're really big! I like corvids a lot. Are you friendly?"

A realization filtered through the mushroom haze in Parsifal's head as the creature began to circle him: this bird thing wasn't a hallucination or an exaggeration of a regular large corvid. It was a youma. The weird way it spoke, the fact that it spoke at all, the size… the only question was, did it belong to somebody? He'd never been scared of a youma before, and he wasn't scared now, just curious with a healthy dose of caution creeping in.

And he'd never seen a wild youma this disciplined, this calculating, this intelligent. It had to belong to the Chaos entity that he still felt in the wooded edge of the park. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able yet to discern what rank this person might be, or what manner of danger they might pose to him. Not that he cared overmuch, his mind pleasantly bathing in the happy chemicals that magic mushroom consumption created. He was more focused on the youma. Maybe yes it was friendly, maybe no? He really hoped it was friendly, or at least didn't try to peck him – that beak looked like it could do some damage.

The giant raven youma then accurately imitated Parsifal's voice in response, right down to the intonation. This was too novel a situation for him, and he was too high to care about the potential danger he was in. "Yeah, I got bells!" he said proudly, reaching up and jingling the bell that was attached to the tail of his hood. Maybe he could give one to the youma! One thing he'd learned is that his outfit (or fuku or whatever it was he was wearing) regenerated like new each time he powered up. If he lost a bell, he'd get it back next time. "Want one of them? I could give you one!"

"Oh! Oh yeah, I'm Parsifal," the Senshi said blithely, beaming at the youma. "Senshi of um lemme think oh yeah, Senshi of Alternatives." He had twisted his body around to watch the bird creature circle him, and he remained twisted, looking over his shoulder, as it stopped. "Is that your name, Voce? Voce, Voce," he repeated, letting the word name roll around in his mouth. It sounded crunchy kind of, like a foreign language. "I like it, it's a nice name. Sounds kind of important like. Sure, you can have one of my bells! Hang on a minute."

Parsifal untwisted himself and pulled the tail of his hood over his shoulder. Should be a simple matter to pull the bell off and offer it to Voce. He tugged and tugged, but didn't seem to be making any progress. "Man, the thread holding this on must be super strong," he muttered and peered at the connection between bell and fabric. Was there a trick to it? Did he have to show some sort of intent to give it to someone who deserved it? Or would Voce have to take it for themself? Pulling at it again, this time with the intent in his mind to gift it to Voce, the bell resisted, then popped off. "Yay!"

With a very pleased grin on his face, he held out his hand, palm open, to show Voce the bell. "Here you go, Voce, one bell!"

Parsifal smiled at Voce, pleased his gift was well received. "I'm really glad you like it," he beamed as the youma came closer, its eyes dark and gleaming. He had to admit, Voce was a really cool looking youma, with its dark blue-tipped feathers. It almost looked like a raven crossed with a bluejay, except much much bigger. Maybe he shouldn't have told it his name…. Oh well, what was done was done.

A strong Chaos aura made its presence known, and as Voce shifted the tone of its voice, an echo of that voice approached, attached to a very tall General. Very tall. Parsifal gulped a little. Between being a General and being so much taller than he was, this guy could mop the floor with him.

Hopefully he was friendly. Ish.

"Oh yeah, hi, yeah, Voce has been really nice," the small Senshi nodded to the General. "Yeah, I gave them a bell off my fuku-outfit-thing. It'll grow back, I hope. Like not tonight, I mean, but the next time– yeah." He grinned sheepishly through the haze of the mushrooms, afraid he'd stuck his foot in it again and given something away. He had no clue what Chaos knew and didn't know – nobody had told him "Yeah, I've been having a really good evening! I hope you have had a good evening too, Mr General!"

Peregrine's face flushed a bit red, embarrassed at having mistaken Captain Chal for a General. "I – I'm really sorry, Mr Captain! I hope I don't get you in trouble for calling you General, sir!" He looked at the crystals produced by Chal wide-eyed, the Chaos roiling off them almost palpable. Yeah, that must have been why he thought the Captain was a higher rank than he actually was: he was carrying around all those Chaos crystals.

"Oh yeah, those pods were bad last year, huh? Oh, I'm sorry – I'm Parsifal," the small Senshi said with a kind of half-hearted smile. "Senshi of um Alternatives and stuff like that. I'm glad you don't like to fight, I don't like it either, especially since– since I don't really fight." He blew out some air; that was close, he'd almost told Chal what his magic actually did. Which was fun, okay, but not really good for fighting.

He looked at the crystals again, mind still fogged by the mushrooms. It sure was tempting… "Could – could I really give Voce a crystal?" Cautiously accepting one of the offered crystals, the Chaos energy pulsing and repulsive, Parsifal approached the youma and held it out. "Here you go, Voce, a nice tasty crystal, just for you. Can I skritch your chin?"

This was terrifying, yet at the same time kind of exhilarating. He was feeding a youma.

With a huge grin, Parsifal slowly reached beneath the sharp beak of the youma and extended his fingers through the feathers there until he found skin, or something like it. He then proceeded to skritch right up against the base of the beak. Heh, he was now skritching a youma. This was the coolest feeling ever. Just the risk involved in touching such a creature was phenomenal; he couldn't imagine the pain of getting bitten by them. He didn't want to find out, either.

"Thank you for letting me pet your youma, Captain Chal," he murmured, mesmerized by his proximity to Voce. "It's a pleasure to meet you too." The Senshi of Alternatives wasn't conniving enough to consider the advantages speaking to a Negaverse Captain might give to him; he could possibly learn things with the correct line of questioning. But Parsifal was two things, and these were things that put him at a distinct disadvantage: 1, he was more than a bit naive, and 2, he was high as a kite.

He watched Voce chow down on the crystal, fascinated. "Um… would it be okay if I gave him another one of those?" he asked Captain Chal shyly.

Parsifal was utterly delighted with the reaction he got from skritching Voce's chin. The sound that the youma made was more a sound that a bird would make; he half expected Voce to start clacking his beak lightly with pleasure. The creature's feathers were so soft and so pretty, he just wanted to continue giving them chin skritchies all night.

But he knew he couldn't do that. Could he? He saw Captain Chal hold out another crystal, along with what looked like a business card. That sounded like exactly what the Negaverse agent was offering, the chance to interact with Voce more in the future. A tiny little voice of reason piped up in the back of his head, telling him that this was a dangerous thing to do no matter how well he got on with the Captain's youma or the Captain himself. He was only a low-level Senshi, after all, and had no magic to defend himself with apart from his spirit copies providing a distraction.

That little voice of reason pinged around in his mind, the effect of the magic mushrooms turning it into a drone. Shaking his head, Parsifal accepted both crystal and card, tucking the card away in his subspace pocket. What harm could come of this?

"I like your company too, and Voce's, Captain Chal. Thanks for giving me the okay to hang out more! I'd really rather hang out than fight, you know? This whole war thing is really kind of stupid to me," he added, voice low in case he was overheard by someone on his side. Hell, if he kept this up, maybe he could find a way to end the war without more people getting hurt!

With a grin, he held the fresh crystal out to Voce. "Here you go, here's another one!"