I'll explain the title in time, unless I think of a better one while working on the post. There's a whole line I'd put there but it's long and unwieldy and using the whole thing would be just a bad pick for a title. Here's hoping that if I do change it, I remember to edit this paragraph appropriately.
So without further delay, here comes the jump cut.
So we pick up with Xương cleaning up his wounds, with Hǎifēng poking one over and over, as Bageru offers Xương a glass of special wine. The god explains that it's celestial wine, capable of healing wounds and curing disease. The tournament's supply is limited, because transporting more than a certain amount is going to draw too much attention. (Sure, a number of powerful individuals know about the tournament -- I mean, it's being held in a city-sized arena -- but the whole operation is heavily-reliant on a certain degree of plausible deniability.)
Xương drinks some of the wine -- it's savory, and a little dry, but beyond that the flavor is too complex for the Lunar to describe. It's also extremely potent, putting him into a euphoric headspace that leaves him babbling about realizations that everything is just derived from the shinma[0], and the world is all holograms, etc. Hǎifēng waves their hand in front of his face.
Meanwhile, down in the ring, the guy with the artifact arm and the burning halberd is getting thrashed by the Vlad Tepes-looking swordsman from the opening match.
When Xương comes down from the euphoria, Bageru comments this is why they don't share the celestial cocaine with people from Creation, the wine is harsh enough on them. Naturally, this makes Xương and Hǎifēng want it all the more, and with a weary sigh Bageru says he'll see what he can do.
Xương says that that's all he asks of anyone, because "it's all you ask of a friend... isn't it, Shango?" he asks, mostly just to mess with Shango's head and see if he's paying attention. And that does get a "Wait, what?" reaction out of him, which Hǎifēng uses to pounce on making him think that someone's preparing a wedding ceremony for him.
The three of them are somewhat interrupted by an impossibly-beautiful, human-looking woman in a cerulean gown, with matching blue hair and little floating wisps like ribbons or prayer strips floating around her, asking "Are we having fun yet?" Accompanying her is an androgynous, clearly-nonhuman figure (they/them pronouns) with blue fur (a different shade, for the record), long hair flowing down their back like a waterfall, a short animal-like muzzle on their face, and dressed in loose, aristocratic-looking clothing in a style that in the real world would be described as 'South Asian.'[1]
Xương informs the woman that this is the best time he's had in his life, possibly the greatest thing he's ever participated in. She looks legitimately pleased at that, as Hǎifēng chimes in in agreement. She says she'll pass that on to the relevant individuals. But first, she has to get someone someplace -- she gestures to her companion, who waves at the group (and Xương waves back). She walks them down to the ring, getting there just as 'Vlad' finishes his fight. The two of them have a brief chat with Plentimon with clearly kind of a 'where have you been' vibe to it.
The woman continues on to a viewing box of her own, while Plentimon and the other individual head out to the ring. The gambling god comments on the brevity of the fight, and announces that he's taking a break and turning things over to Magos, who'll be MCing for the rest of the weekend. He hands them a pendant he's been wearing, and with that on Magos projects his voice to apologize for being late. They simply explain that the Celestial Hierarchy 'has tasks for us all,' as he winks and waves at the woman in blue up in her viewing box before a privacy shadow goes up.
They take a moment to get the crowd hyped up as they get ready to move on to the next match, and at one point they pause and put a finger to the side of their head much like someone with a headset or earbud hearing and responding to something troubling. They frown slightly but call down the next competitors.
The first is Captain Tarok, the monk-turned-pirate-captain whom we should all know by now. The crowd cheers for them... then they see the other competitor and get quiet. The other figure is a woman with lustrous red hair and wearing fine red and gold clothing, and a mask made of the blackest ebony wood in the shape of a dragon's face. A ripple of whispers runs through the crowd, as the woman in question, aside from the mask, has the exact appearance of the Scarlet Empress. Shango certainly recognizes her as such, having grown up in a satrapy and thus has a Realm-approved education. "Who would dare?" the group hears someone in the audience hiss.
Hǎifēng simply mutters to her "Your ass is fat," as they take a puff off their pipe, the little 'pipe fox' emerging for a moment.
The 'Empress' flares her anima banner and shatters it into physical shards of light with a strike, blurry as she moves to fight Tarok. The pirate is slow to start, more than a little intimidated by the sight before them. Tarok taps into all of the martial arts skills they know -- their Air and Water Dragon techniques, and even the tiny bit of Fire Dragon Style they've picked up. But it's just not enough -- the beatdown she gets from the woman dressed as the Empress isn't particular brutal, but it is decisive. After she takes Tarok down in the best of three falls, she stops and looks around at the crowd before vanishing up one of the aisles as Xương calls out "Well, someone's trying to make a statement!"
As Tarok staggers out of the ring, Hǎifēng says that there's only two ways the mysterious woman's plan is going to go -- either she's going to back up whatever she's trying to pull, or someone's going to take a shot at her and get kicked out of Heaven.
"But that's not any of our business," Xương says.
"Until it is," Rashmi chimes in (as he's unable to help himself) just as Hǎifēng's about to say something similar.
Magos comes out and awkwardly offers the stunned crowd an hour-long break. Xương says he wants to make some money with his 'corn hog' things and 'maybe fleece some of these rube gods who don't know what Creation money is.' Bageru gives him a look, and Hǎifēng quickly tells the god "He didn't mean it," While thinking that he totally meant it. Bageru, for his part, offers to set him up with something, and leads the group out to the corridor with the food stands.
The badger-headed god finds them an empty food cart, something about on par with, well, the sort of thing a corn dog vendor might have on a street corner, and has some ingredients and equipment over for Xương to use. He also recommends, if he's going to do a sign, to draw it up in Old Realm since the Yu-Shan locals can read it and the masks will translate it for the visitors. (Conveniently, Xương knows Old Realm)
So Xương puts up a sign that reads "Corn hogs are delicious and good for you. Trust me -- I'm a doctor." and begins selling them to passersby. Hǎifēng decides to help out, handing out samples and flirting with people to get their attention, kinda 'booth babe' style. Shango's content with just watching from a bench on the sidelines.
However, after a few minutes of this, a burst of laughter draws Shango's attention from off to the side. It's woman in the modern Earth-style jacket laughing at the monk in the hornet's mask -- the one that Shango is pretty certain is his brother. The monk leaves in a huff with an obviously-forced calmness, and Shango recognizes he's going off to sulk. He considers following, but lets him go for the moment. The woman gets in line for a corn hog, just in time for Hǎifēng to start handing out... (weary sigh from Chris) ... 'corn huggets.'
And then the screaming starts, as -- and this is where I finish the title of this post -- Now We Come To The 'Non-Tournament Shenanigans' Part of the Story as a small army of soldiers shows up. They're faceless, and vaguely demonic in appearance -- kind of like blood apes but more human-looking, with armor and weapons kind of like a tomescu. There's a symbol on their armor, an eye surrounded by 49 spines. Now, as this is a corridor with several beings of supernatural puissance and fighting capability (between the Exalted and some of the gods either working there or on break), that means a huge melee is about to break out.
Xương puts down the corn hogs for the moment and wades into the mass of them, hulking out into his beastman form (though not growing to his full size) and just tossing them around like rag dolls or banging their heads together. As he smashes them, each one dissolves into a soot-like powder. Shango transforms and flies above the crowd, raining down fire with Weirdflame and using his aerial position to guide non-combatants to safety and help coordinate his fellow competitors to fighting back against the horde. Hǎifēng doesn't even bother transforming, they just sidestep and twirl around the soldiers, plucking threads of Essence from each to bind them up and bring chaos to the horde with Friendship-Dissolving Venom.
But as they interact with the Essence of these beings, they get the distinct feeling that there's something weird about these soldiers. They feel kind of hollow, kind of artificial, but there's also something of the Wyld about them. They 'feel' like the sort of thing a raksha might conjure, but not quite.
Once the various fighters swiftly dispatch the attackers and the dust settles, they talk this over with the rest of the Circle. They also keep looking around the crowd in case there's any obvious signs of a ringleader or controller. At one point they run up a wall and shift into their hybrid form for a better vantage point to peer down alleys and over roofs of individual buildings. And after a few moments, they spot someone dressed like one of the arena employees[2] wearing a smooth, featureless mask -- there aren't even any eyeholes. The figure is looking to see what's going on, but in that way where they know what they're going to see. They then shift a bit, clearly recognizing they've been spotted, and they run for it.
As Hǎifēng is contemplating whether or not to give chase, celestial lions show up to survey the area, begin investigating, and so forth. For those of you unaware, celestial lions are much like the lion-dogs they saw in the Mirror City, but nine feet tall at the shoulder and made of orichalcum instead of jade. One of them pads over to Hǎifēng and tries to call them down to make a statement. They make monkey noises and point at themselves in an 'are you talking to me?' gesture.
The lion rolls his eyes and asks "Did you see something? Are you okay?" Hǎifēng says 'no' and 'yes,' respectfully, to the questions, as they come down from the wall. Then they ask if they can pet the giant golden lion. And then with a weary sigh that conveys better than words how many times they've been asked this in the last day, he gives them permission. He also tries to get a read on them, to get an idea of whether they know something or not, but he just can't quite pierce the mask (so to speak). So he just tells Hǎifēng that if they do see something or, later on, remember something that winds up being important, to tell somebody.
Back at the corn hog cart, the woman in the jacket's waiting next to it, either returning to her spot in line from before the fight or seizing the opportunity to jump ahead. As Hǎifēng catches up with the others and Xương serves up another corn hog, Magos' voice comes from the arena walls to inform everyone the break has been extended a couple of hours while they look into what happened.
Hǎifēng tells Shango and Xương that they saw who did it, and lied to a cop while giving him pets. Shango doesn't know whether to be impressed or disturbed.
Maybe both.
And with that, we leave it there.
[0]-- I didn't get it all down and can't quote it properly, but it was a lot of second edition lore deep cuts about the nature of the Exalted cosmos. While Sean wasn't trying to reference this with Xương's reaction, I find these two pages from Girl Genius give you the gist. (Page 1, Page 2)
[1]-- For the record, the woman's a canon character from the setting, the other is an original creation.
[2]-- There isn't a consistent 'uniform' across all of them, but there is a recognizable aesthetic.
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