Hey, folks, sorry this is so late. Stuff got away from me, and in trying to get things back in order other stuff slipped, and... yeah. I still have one more post to do after this and then I'll be all caught-up, but this has taken long enough I didn't want to try and add a third one on and make it take even longer.
Also, I apologize for the groaner of a title. I came up with it early on because this write-up features some out-of-tournament shenanigans again, and I simply could not think of anything better even with the extra time I had.
Anyhow, in terms of personal announcements, just a reminder that the Print-on-Demand edition of Realms of Magic & Mystery is available. Also, in the last couple of weeks, I've read both halves of "The Kit Gloves Are Off" from Samhain Secrets: World Premiere on Blackwarren Books' podcast, Allora Public Radio. You can find the first half here, and the second half is available here.
And let's get to it!
We pick up in the aftermath of Hǎifēng's match against Grigore. It's getting on in the evening, and Magos calls another break for dinner, but also to let them set some things up behind the scenes.
Xương wants to know if there's anyplace where he can get a massage, and Hǎifēng knows just the spot. They take Xương and Shango to the bathhouse and spa where they've been getting pampered, the fancy one in the style of the Blessed Isle, which is kind of the platonic ideal of the high-class spa. Xương plans to base his tips on how they react to his monstrous appearance (as he and Hǎifēng have been in hybrid form this whole time -- I think Shango has mostly been in hybrid form, but I can't recall if he's been as consistent about it), but the bathhouse is staffed either by spirits or by mortals who live in Heaven, so they can cope with something like Xương. Though he does get what's clearly some of the less human-looking staff to tend to his needs.
Speaking of which, Hǎifēng asks for the full package, while Xương says he just wants 99% of the package as he 'wants the towel to stay on,' and to have the masseuse stick to his chakras. While Xương's getting his massage, a servant comes in with a message for him. Xương asks him to read it, and the servant takes a moment to decipher the handwriting and reads aloud: "Xương -- Something's up. Meet me at the bar where the badger guy and I were going the other day." Then there's something that might be a signature, but could easily be someone testing a quill/stylus/pen. Xương shows the note to Shango and Hǎifēng and says he's being called to run some sort of insufferable errand. There's some debate as to who sent the note -- they're all pretty sure it's Rashmi, who (among other things) is the sort of person who'd just forget the name of the friendly badger-shaped god. But because Magos led the group to the bar where they'd previously sent Rashmi and Bageru, the group briefly considers (but in the end discards) the notion that Magos might have sent the note. (For one thing, there's no way they'd refer to Bageru as 'the badger guy.)
They all briefly talk about whether the others are coming along, but Xương says he can handle himself. He says he'll be back in an hour unless he gets dragged into some shenanigan. So he finishes the ersatz Bloody Mary he's been drinking (into which he dropped his eye-cucumbers), gets dressed, and heads out there. The corridor is strangely quiet, though he can't quite place why. Just something subdued about the arena even though it's early evening and everyone should be out and about having little mini-adventures. People are indeed doing that but the vibe is just... off.
Xương gets to bar just as Rashmi's leaving it in kind of a rush. He gets Xương's attention with a wave right before a half-dozen guys jump him. And then three more come out of the bar behind him. At the sight of a fight breaking out, Xương's face gets an expression like he's just taken an unusually sweet breath in the middle of a city. Among Rashmi's attackers, he recognizes some of the people who were following him just last night -- monks in civilian clothing. Xương announces his presence by letting his claws drag along the walls of nearby buildings as he emerges.
One of them lunges at him with a pair of short red jade daiklaves and he reaches out to just grab the guy by the face, basically stiff-arming him. He spots and recognizes the woman he stared down in the bar the night before, locking eyes with her. "You clowns again?" he asks. "Didn't I tell you? What did I tell you?" Her only response is to say "Fuck this," and make a run for it. Rashmi scuffles with the half-dozen guys while another of the monks takes on the Earth Dragon stance and readies his tetsubo.
Xương then turns to the guy who's face he's holding onto like he's just now noticed him, and just pounds him on the head with his other hand. Some of the rest of the mob attempt to pummel him from behind, along with the guy with the tetsubo, but Xương just... flexes... and shoves them all back. Like he barely notices them.
A short distance away, Rashmi finally stops holding back. Well, mostly. With some acrobatic flips, he slashes up a couple of the attackers before dramatically tossing a knife up in the air. As it comes down he does a spin-kick to send the blade into one of the guys attacking Xương before dashing in to dramatically pull it out. That's enough to send many of the attackers scattering.
This is about the point where Shango literally drops out of the sky, drawing Haze-cleaver with a kiai as he lands so he's back-to-back with Xương.
Xương then turns his attention to the guy with the tetsubo as the man lunges at him, ducking in to grab the man in his jaws and shake him like a tree before dropping him. He's not dead, but he's going to need some serious medical attention and soon. Shango clashes words with the guy wielding the twin katanas, awkwardly slashing him up.
Hǎifēng comes strolling up out of an alley, tired, hands in their pockets. This whole mess has completely ruined the vibe of their massage. So they don't get fancy with it -- they do a roundhouse kick, grabbing the man's head with a prehensile monkey-foot, and just slam it into the ground without breaking stride as they go on past and into the bar.
The authorities show up quickly, take statements, begin seeking the attackers that ran off. Xương realizes what's felt off about their walk out to the bar -- the security forces arriving have far fewer celestial lions and far more lion dogs than usual, as if something's up with security.
Rashmi, when he gets a moment, tells Xương that he's been planning to duck out of the tournament a little early. He'd been thinking of doing so after the incident where he accidentally stabbed those other monks, as he knew that some folks were a little sore over the incident. Seeing that he was being followed, he reached out to Xương and Verumipra to let them know has going to take off. Sure, he'd miss the end of the tournament, but he still got to see Xương's exhibition matches. He also explains that he's double-booked anyways[0], and knows that Verumipra can get him where he needs to go. He'd already been considering it, and when he realized he was being followed he'd made the decision then, but didn't want to leave without saying anything.
Xương, who says they'd been following him before too, finds it odd that they'd get attacked. He doesn't know why anyone would be going after the two of them specifically. Rashmi's baffled, as it's not like he killed anyone -- he knows he didn't, because he didn't deliberately do so. Hǎifēng comes out of the bar with some cheap booze just in time for Rashmi to tell the group that he's going to make it look like they're kicking him out to make it look like he's not getting any special treatment, but once he gets back to Creation he's going to be bumming around An-Teng for a while if they wind up back that way and want to look him up.
He slips out as Magos shows up, having reflexively gone into their customer-service voice as they check to see if everyone's okay and all that. Eventually they relax into their own normal voice and mention that some of the security forces had to be recalled back to the main city of Yu-Shan to watch over the Carnival of Meeting. Then he has to explain what that is: The gods of Yu-Shan invite a bunch of humans into Heaven, basically showing off the bumpkins they picked up and let them have an experience.[1]
They then say they're going to push the last match of the tournament back to tomorrow morning, but they ask if the group would like to have a chat with one of the Organizers tonight. Naturally the group is all for that, and Magos gives them an hour to get cleaned up and presentable. They reassure the trio that this is going to be a friendly chat, nothing too weird.
An hour passes and Bageru leads the group out to a teahouse they don't remember being there before. It's tough to tell if things have rearranged themselves to allow for or produce a building that wasn't there before, or if the building was there all along and they just couldn't see it. Though nobody else seems to pick up on its existence.
Magos is at the door, talking to Grigore who seems to be on his way out. Magos is wishing Grigore luck in his affairs, offering blessings to his house, that sort of thing. As the group comes up, Magos offers to go in with them, pointing that Bageru's going to be remaining outside. All that matters is the three of them go in.
They go in without Magos, into a room where a number of gods sit around a table with tea sets about, and a god looking like an old woman (whom Shango recognizes as Ohanlei, goddess of tea) is serving tea, helped by a small legion of trained rats carrying things around and serving a variety of foods. Also among the gods present are Bahal Hesh (god of martial arts), Plentimon of the Dice, Shalrina (goddess of faces), and others.[2] Lytek is off to the side, taking notes. In the middle is an androgynous figure the group doesn't know (they/them pronouns, name will be coming shortly), a god with a very generic face and a kimono made of beige as plain as the silk is fine.
The figure in the middle apologizes for the rough spots in the tournament. They ask if it's at least been a positive experience. Hǎifēng says it's been alright, but chaotic, and Shango says it's been a personal growth experience -- which seems to make Hikaru very happy. They look at Xương, who doesn't respond right away because he wasn't expecting to be addressed. He says the tournament's certainly cemented into his mind that he's not a marital artist and he was right not to get fully into the tournament.
Shango asks if they have these meetings with all of the participants, or just those who've performed particularly impressive feats. Why the three of them?, in other words. Hǎifēng says it's because they're badass -- and the god seemingly in charge reassures Hǎifēng that they are indeed badass. Xương asks whose opinion this is.
The god introduces themself as Hikaru, and that their godly purview is... complicated. At the very least, difficult to explain and not something that someone needs to know for these purposes.[3] But the purpose of the tournament is to comb Creation for those with the potential to be heroes, who could change things, and to test their skills and let them learn a thing or two about themselves. Also, those who perform well are offered boons. They explain that each member of the group may request a boon of the assembled Organizers. It's made clear (OOCly if not ICly) that it's not necessarily a matter of snapping their fingers, and warping reality to make it happen. Asking for someone to be slain might mean the group 'just happens' to acquire resources that let them do the slaying. But anything they're asked, they will try to provide, either directly or through calling in favors.
They also explain that the group doesn't have to choose right now, they can sleep on it and either come back or send a message through Bageru. Hǎifēng and Shango both ask to sleep on it, but Xương has a request that immediately comes to mind. He asks them to help Kim Sơn, a man from Lathe dying of illness. Hikaru's surprised by this and confers with Plentimon and after a moment says with some confidence that something can be done. Xương asks them just to look after him, ease things for him if need be, maybe take care of a family member if he would prefer that; cults so easily prey on people like him. Hikaru reassures Xương that they understand and will do something, and then another figure (Spinner of Glorious Tales, one of the patron gods of Great Forks) comes in, late to the party. Hikaru quickly confers excitedly with him as the table reshapes itself to make room for another seat with its own chair for the newcomer. And they reassure the group, much more confidently, that they can help Kim Sơn.
Xương says that as a doctor, it's hard to top persuading the gods to help.
Hikaru says that the group has performed admirably, and they've been everything Hikaru has hoped for. They say they spoke to some of the other participants -- Grigore, the woman in the Lion mask, and so forth.
Xương says he wants to go take a nap, and the others want to go, and Hǎifēng says they should really rest up if there's any chance of participating in the final match. Hikaru reassures them they will be fighting in that match, against someone equally impressive. Hǎifēng immediately speculates/assumes that it's going to be 'dragon face.' The group talks idly about the move she did where she turned into black glass that got everyone nervous. And just mentioning that gets some of the gods tensing up again. Shango asks what's up with that. Bahal Hesh explains, reductively, that it was a rare and difficult technique and they wouldn't expect one like her to pull that off. He gives Hikaru a meaningful look when he says that.
Xương says that he was thrown by the whole thing because he was trained to get hit and not break, and that actually gets an audible chuckle out of Lytek.
Hikaru reminds the group they can stick around and eat and drink as much as they want before they go, and they reassure the group that the tournament isn't always like this. Hǎifēng reiterates that it has been a positive experience, and Hikaru says they try to make it pleasant, if challenging. Shango comments there may be surprises left, and Hikaru says there may be, with an impish smile.
The group goes back to their quarters, to find there's a magic teapot there with an unlimited supply of the tea available in their meeting with the Organizers.
Xương laments that he should have asked for a magic teapot.
Cue the inn music.
The door slides open for Hǎifēng as they're shown into the teahouse where they and Shango had their confrontation with Hornet. The person showing them in is the lizardy-guy they found in the alley, unconscious, after the fight with the faux demons a couple of days ago.
There's only one person in the place -- the 'Empress,' sitting at a table. She says she'd like to chat with Hǎifēng now, because it'll be harder to have that conversation, because it always devolves into taunts and banter and such when you do it like that. Hǎifēng glances back at the door as it slides shut and sees that the lizard guy, standing outside and closing the door, is actually Sombre Crane wearing a shitty lizard mask. Hǎifēng, having seized the spark of the Wyld within them through their mastery of Laughing Monster Style, recognizes that they're in some sort of induced dream. They look around and discover the walls of the teahouse are now covered with murals:
- The wall in front of Hǎifēng (behind the 'Empress')-- A shrouded figure in white using something that looks like spider silk to restrain a many-armed cackling creature, with a vaguely hyena aspect.
- To Hǎifēng's right-- A man with bronze skin and purple hair and a bow riding on the back of a sea monster, clearly on the hunt.
- To Hǎifēng's left-- An avian figure shrouded in the aura of a phoenix, like they're somehow wearing the phoenix or piloting it like a vehicle.
- Behind Hǎifēng-- A sampan being piloted by a woman wearing a kimono the color (and seemingly the texture of) seafoam, over sand-beige skin and deep blue hair that turns slightly green near the ends. She faintly glows as she punts the boat, but the passengers just appear to be a pair of vaguely humanoid figures -- one silver, the other green.
Hǎifēng makes some mental notes about what the murals likely mean as they move up to the table. They grab a chair and spin it around to straddle it backwards, resting their head on their hand to address her and ask what she wants to talk about.
After a moment's consideration, she slides a cup of tea over to Hǎifēng and says, without ceremony: "Heaven needs to burn. Sorry, I misspoke. Heaven needs to bleed."
Hǎifēng, understandably, sputters.
She explains that Heaven is a parasite on Creation. It's become cruel, and ill-equipped to handle the problems it's caused. She then dares to say that it might be even worse than when the Solars were bad, even if not as dramatic. She says she suspects Hǎifēng is someone who's suffered for Heaven's failures, and we have a brief flashback of Hǎifēng's conversation with Magos before as the Lunar confirms that.
She seems satisfied to have proven herself right, and says she's also suffered greatly. According to her, she could have saved Creation if they'd let her. Hǎifēng arches an eyebrow and says "Do tell, because I didn't think you were that old," as they knot their tail behind their back, sort of like crossing their fingers.
She then explains that she comes from a little farming village in Arjuf Dominion, and that Hǎifēng's probably never heard of it. But it's called Nakabtum, some pre-Old Realm word. In this village, families tended to name their children after different types of animals. One generation will be birds, another will be cats, etc. She comes from a family of actors and spies once cultivated as part of House Iselsi and after the House's disassembly, taken in by House Ledaal as the Naret patrician family.
She was chosen at a young age to be trained up and became a mortal body double for the Scarlet Empress. When the Empress vanished one day, she was put on the throne as a regent, but the people had no clue. Some high-ranking individuals in the Scarlet Dynasty knew the truth but left her on the throne in case the real Empress came back. But in the meantime, they began circling each other, getting ready for the point where they couldn't maintain the facade any more. Things reached the point where one or more of the Houses was ready to stage a coup, reveal the 'infiltrator,' and take the throne for themselves. But she was poised to see it coming, and got out in front of it.
While the Great Houses were focused on their proxy wars in the Threshold, she made her move. She revealed herself, led a patrician uprising, seized the Blessed Isle, and averted the civil war. She couldn't completely transform the Realm, but she could trim off the worst of it and at least make sure it was a genuinely-stabilizing force in Creation.
Then she took a nap in between appointments, and woke up to a world where nobody knew her. Nobody recognized her, knew anything of her family or who she was. She'd never held the throne, and instead the regent was a man by the name of Tepet Fokuf. She explains that she's come to learn that she didn't exist before some months ago, that she's basically a figure in a story book. But as a mortal, she saved 'her' Creation. Now, with the gifts she's been granted... well, the parasite needs to be bled and stopped.
Hǎifēng takes a moment to get a grip on what she's talking about, and they realize they've heard a very similar story, some months back: Admiral Danai, the mysterious Exalt the group rescued from a Wyld Hunt in An-Teng. They say they're trying to find the right word for this... paradox, perhaps? She asks if they mean a word for what she is or for the whole situation, and they say 'either.'
She says she can't necessarily solve the latter, but she does know what she is: Getimian Exalted. Hǎifēng says that's not the word they'd have chosen, and she shrugs and says she didn't come up with it.
Hǎifēng says they're pretty sure they get the gist, but to understand the crux of the conversation... It seems that she wants to know if they're interested in fucking up as much of Heaven as possible. But, Hǎifēng asks, does she want particular targets? Heaven's a big place. She says there aren't a lot of specific plans for this particular expedition. What she wants, in a word, is chaos.[4]
Hǎifēng asks if she realizes she sounds like a villain. Her only response is that she's spent years of her life pretending to be the Scarlet Empress. Then there's just sort of a 'beat' to let that sink in.[5]
She goes on to explain that she's here in Heaven to cause some trouble and see how Yu-Shan's forces respond. It would be nice if she could get away from the tournament and into the city proper, but even if not the arena makes for a nice little isolated test area. Hǎifēng says that she's the one who summoned the demon army, and she says that was all Sombre Crane. After she 'arrived' in the capital, she found herself fleeing a Wyld Hunt. She returned to the village where she grew up. It wasn't exactly the same as the one she remembered, but it was close enough that she was able to insinuate herself. While she was there she managed to get in touch with someone that understands what she is and where she's from. But while she was away, meeting with him, someone -- possibly a Wyld Hunt after her -- razed the village. Sombre Crane was the only survivor. (And she makes it clear she's got no clue what his deal is, exactly.) But when she was offered the opportunity to come to Yu-Shan for the tournament, she seized that and smuggled him in.
She emphasizes that, aside from getting him into Heaven, she herself has done little more than maybe get some monks riled up who are now going to return to Creation pissed off at Heaven and perhaps ready to stir up some trouble. But she can tell that Hǎifēng isn't impressed by any of that.
Hǎifēng gets into the people who are likely to be caught in the crossfire of whatever sort of revolution she's planning. Who does she think is going to get hurt? She says that any sort of sweeping change throughout Creation is going to get innocent people killed, destroy lives, etc. She's did that math when she was the regent -- the Realm civil war about to break out, for instance, threatens to destroy trade routes, nations, harvests, and more for decades to come.
Hǎifēng says they need to sit with that, and they ask her what her peoples' plan is. She says they're still hammering out specifics, but a lot of it comes down to destabilizing things enough to stage a takeover. Hǎifēng says she's trying to solve a problem without half the variables. She acknowledges that they need more info, which (as pointed out) her activities during the tournament are meant to provide. But as far as she knows, most of the Getimians have saved 'their' versions of Creation, so surely they'll come up with something.
Hǎifēng says they understand, and they go into some of their past -- having been stolen from their home as a child, sold into slavery, eventually winding up almost sacrificed in a volcano. And they blame Heaven's bureaucracy for that -- that a god wound up with a traitorous administrative servant, as someone once put it, and that led to the god being sidelined while his territory was exploited for darker purposes. But the people who helped Hǎifēng the most during much of those years were the people who had the worst of the worst, who had little to give but still helped them.
And the sort of chaos she proposes will hurt those people the most -- that disrupting Creation to that degree will make everything fall downwards. The middle class will become the lower class, the lower class will be cast into the gutter, and those in the gutter will be lost forever. They tell her that if she figures out what she wants to replace all this with, she can get back to them and they might have a better answer. But until that happens, they ask her to knock before she hijacks another person's dream again.
And then they wake up of their own accord to hear a fizzling sound. On the nightstand, a featureless porcelain mask -- like the one worn by Sombre Crane so recently -- dissolves into mist. Hǎifēng brings their fist down on the bed. "Fucking bitch. Goddamnit. I'm awake now." They get up out of the bed to discover it's about the time they were going to get up anyways, so they get themselves together.
Out in the common area, Xương gathered together corn hog ingredients as Shango gets himself together. He knocks on Hǎifēng's door, it opens, and Hǎifēng is hanging upside down on a bar by their prehensile feet.
"Stretching?" Shango asks.
"Amongst other things."
"Oh, oh. Should I go back, and--"
"No, no, you accuse me of being the pervert?"
It quickly becomes clear that they're doing pull-ups with their knees. Shango and Hǎifēng talk about it being the big day, and Hǎifēng mutters "Fat ass," to themselves as they contemplate their opponent. Knowing that Hǎifēng is nervous, Shango says they've got this, and they know that Shango an Xương have their back. Hǎifēng gets that, Shango and Xương are 'their people.'
Xương suddenly shows up, explaining his lateness to the conversation by saying he was eating a sausage. Hǎifēng pulls themselves up and drops off the bar while the two of them catch Xương on what he's missed. Shango says they'll be ready to leap onto the stage to fight alongside Hǎifēng if it comes to it. Hǎifēng says they'd welcome that, as long as it doesn't break the rules. Xương says that's fair, but the moment that the number of rules broken is greater than zero...
Hǎifēng admits they're nervous, and Shango admits that she seems strong. Hǎifēng mutters "She could lead a country," and Shango snorts with a "Yeah, right." Hǎifēng says they had the damndest dream, and Xương comments that dreams are weird. Hǎifēng reassures the others that they are doing just fine, and they get dressed and hug Xương and Shango.
As the three of them head to the ring, the corridor buzzes with activity. The various restaurants and such are shutting down, and everyone's hauling special carts to the center of the arena so they can keep doing business while everyone can see the show. The room's expanded with magic and everything has been reorganized so everyone can better see the ring, which is slightly recessed into the floor. The group's usual viewing box has been relocated to the front row Magos waits to greet the trio and asks Hǎifēng how they're doing. The monkey Lunar jokes they just peed a little but they say they're fine.
Magos says they've got faith in Hǎifēng, but then they're biased -- the 'Empress' has mostly just yelled at Magos when interacting with them. They lead Hǎifēng down to the ring as the ground reshapes into a 'stage.' It stabilizes like dust settling into the shape of a throne room... and Her Redness herself is sitting on the throne already. She rises to her feet as Hǎifēng enters the ring.
On the bottom of the 'screen,' a caption appears across the bottom, where the audience at home can see it:
Nemet Menura
aka Lyre-bird of Nabaktum
But after a moment, the caption glitches out...
...until stabilizing into...
The Scarlet Phoenix
...for all of a second before glitching back out.[6]
"I'm assuming your answer is still 'No?'" she asks.
"I'm assuming you still don't have a suitable replacement?"
She nods to confirm they're still at the impasse, and Magos come out to hype up the crowd as the two combatants take their stances -- the Scarlet Phoenix moves into Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form, just to mock Hǎifēng (who can't manage the stance themself), revealing her outfit has been garnished with bracers -- one with a white glowing orb and the other with a black one, likely hearthstones. Hǎifēng juggles their fans, which seem to multiply in mid-air along with the arms juggling them until the requisite number of illusory arms are visible, forming up alongside the real arms in an effect almost looking like the spread of feathers on a wing as they take on Laughing Monster Form.[7]
Hǎifēng makes the first move, sliding in and grazing her ankles with their fans to throw her balance off, creating an opening to plant their hands on the ground and just deliver a strong, not at all graceful 'mule kick' that manages to scratch her and poison her.
She staggers back, waving her hands over the scratch and drawing out some of the poison, in the form of a pale, silvery lavender that forms its own vial that moves to her hip as if to hang from her belt. She wobbles, her vision blurred by the poison, and she sends a knife-hand strike at one of Hǎifēng's pressure points. They bring their sleeve up in a flourish, trying to twist out of reach, but she tags them with a strike that hits with a little more force than seems appropriate -- there's a pressure coming off of her, like getting close to her means leaning into a breeze just firm enough to feel.
Hǎifēng, a little more confident, holds up two fingers so she can see their poison-dripping nails as they begin jabbing at her with a series of strikes. As they literally poke at her, they also probe her about her plan in hushed tones. "You can't take something away without putting something in its place," "You're going to hurt more people than you help," stuff like that. The jabs deliver more poison into her system, leading to her having to draw out more into the vials, but it's too much -- she falls to the ground, weakened enough that the judges call Hǎifēng's win.
Then the alarms begin, signaling some sort of impending attack -- something serious enough that this alarm hasn't gone off before now. Magos panics, rushes out into the ring, and starts organizing an evacuation.
And now one of those 'on the screen' moments... the camera at first focuses on Magos, starting evacuation protocols with Hǎifēng in the background. Then the camera's focus shifts and they blur as it moves to the Scarlet Phoenix, behind Hǎifēng.
"I was worried the fight wouldn't last long enough for the attack to begin," she says with a grin. "Now to get a better view." She holds out her hands, and with a flick of her wrist the white and black orbs on her bracers fall into her hands, with a flourish she brings them together and throws them to the ground. They meld together, swirling into a smooth surface containing a whirlpool that looks like a taijitsu symbol (the classic yin-and-yang). Obviously an attempt to flee.
"Don't worry, it's never over until the monster attacks!" Xương says as he leaps from the group's viewing box, diving for her as Hǎifēng rushes her. "It's never easy, is it?" Shango sighs as he takes to the air and swoops in.
The three of them dive at her, converging on her, and there's a flash of light as they all vanish!
To be continued...
[0]-- Okay, for context... Rashmi is one of the Green Sun Princes. This means he has ties to Hell/Malfeas, and at least once a year -- but always during Calibration -- there's an event in Malfeas referred to as the Althing Infernal. Normally the Green Sun Princes are expected to show up, and I did some thinking on that when I decided I wanted Rashmi to attend the tournament. So I came up with this -- he shows up, and at some point winds up having to leave early. Normally getting from Creation to Malfeas is a five-day, five-night trip. But there are shortcuts, and I figured if anyone would be able to traverse them and get Rashmi there, it'd be the literal ambassador to Hell.
[1]-- Xương in particular hates this idea, partially because it comes up in passing that some of the mortals make a run for it and hide out in Yu-Shan, and any humans the group sees there are likely either escapees (or were simply left behind) or descended from such.
[2]-- The group doesn't necessarily recognize all or even most of the gods in the room, I'm just name-dropping to be a basic bitch.
[3]-- I can't remember if it comes up in-character or not, but Hikaru might also mention that their power is such that it's only during Calibration when they're strong enough to manage any of this.
[4]-- Okay, so this needs context. This is a line I slipped in because I knew it would crack Sean up. It comes from a brilliant SNL skit staring Bill Hader, in which he delivers the line with a level of unhinged madness that reminds me of Jim Carrey as Jimmy Tango, albeit much more subdued. (Admittedly, I'd forgotten until I rewatched the Jimmy Tango sketch just how much Jim twitches his way through it. But for some reason Bill Hader's performance still makes me think of it and I'm having trouble articulating why.)
[5]-- I'd initially meant that as a lead-in to a longer explanation along the lines of her training leading to a very particular flavor of theatricality, but that first bit landed so perfectly we just kind of let it do the work.
[6]-- Had Hǎifēng not woken up when they did, she'd have gone into a rant that would have introduced her by this name properly.
[7]-- If you're wondering, this sort of thing is what stunting a Join Battle roll looks like in my game.
No comments:
Post a Comment