Something something Exalted post.
No, that's not a placeholder I came up with and then decided not to clear out, just the best thing I could think of as I start this post. (Though I guess technically anything's a placeholder until I post it. Anyhow.)
Before we kick off our next story, a quick reminder that a while back I posted the final chapter of my furry cyberpunk novel over on my FurAffinity page, where you can read the whole thing for free. Hop on over here, where I link to it and go over one or two little things I don't feel like repeating here.
On a related note, I've also recently made some of my published works freely available on my FurAffinity page, all of them in the aforementioned furry cyberpunk setting, and you can find those here.
And finally, segueing us back into Exalted, I've also done a couple of posts where I build Exalted: Essence characters for the heck of it. One's a Getimian, and the other's a Dragon-Blood. Note that the first one goes into a lot more detail on the character creation process than the second, if that's an issue for you.
And now, segue complete...
The day after the confrontation at the theater, Hǎifēng visits Jotaro at his estate for the offered sparring match, hoping that squaring off against their Solar mate will knock loose whatever's blocking their ability to master Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style. Naturally, they can't just ask Jotaro for lessons or anything like that -- they just start sparring with him, beginning with what Dreaming Pearl Courtesan techniques they do know, mixed with Laughing Monster Style. (Jotaro, as we've established, only knows Dreaming Pearl Courtesan and nothing else.)[0]
It's a playful spar at first, with Hǎifēng fighting hard enough to provoke Jotaro into a competitive spirit, to get him to escalate a bit while Hǎifēng escalates a bit in turn until he shows them what they want to learn. Jotaro doesn't fight like the Dreaming Pearl practitioners they've fought before -- Omari-Khenti practiced a variant mixed with another style, and Magos' movements were literally a lot more fluid because one of their parents is a water elemental.[1] Jotaro's movements are much more 'rehearsed' and dance-like, much more precise, but they don't seem stiff at all -- it's like he's rehearsed this specific fight for weeks for a performance, until he knows it backwards and forwards.
And yet it all feels very familiar to Hǎifēng, and seems to be familiar to Jotaro as well, as the two of them fall into an easy rhythm of upping the ante until the Solar's really putting on the pressure. It gets to the point that Hǎifēng has to take a few steps back, but it's only at that point where their chakras align and the Essence flows through them just right and they perfectly take Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form for the first time.[2]
Jotaro pauses and takes a few steps back himself, catching his breath, recognizing that something just happened. He knows better than to ask, though, and instead just asks Hǎifēng if they need a breather. And after an awkward pause, he invites them upstairs for a cup of tea before the two of them get back to it.
And from there... time passes. Xương spends most of his time sleeping and drinking, occasionally doing a little bit of street doc and 'freelance negotiator' work for drinking money.
Gou spends the next few weeks mostly spying on his family from a distance, sometimes in human form and sometimes in bird form. Not out of any concern for them, mind you, but because he doesn't trust them. He takes notes on who his father's dealing with, who his allies are, making a list of possible targets if he wanted to weaken his family's business -- especially if it might wind up screwing with the Realm as well. Also, over the course of his surveillance, he comes to learn that the rumor that he was killed and replaced by a Lunar may have in fact come from the local Immaculate monks -- a story they have mad made up to spare his family the dishonor of having unwittingly produced an Anathema. (After all, they sent their eldest son to the Cloister of Wisdom when he Exalted, that's the sort of thing the local monks won't forget.)
And about a week into this downtime, while they're out and about, Hǎifēng hears a familiar, distinctive clattering and meat-slapping -- the Oldrasek is back, with a reply from Mongo (who, being Lintha, doesn't think there's anything odd about sending messages via demon). He says he's glad to hear from Hǎifēng, but he's in the middle of something but he might be headed back that way and will catch up in Goldenseal if he gets the chance. To be fair, odds are he's hundreds if not thousands of miles away and he's busy being a bloodthirsty pirate, it's not like he can hop the next bus to Goldenseal. There's subtext in the message suggesting there's people watching as he's giving the messenger his reply so he can't be as forthcoming as he'd like to be. Hǎifēng, rather than sending a message back, just directs the Oldrasek to the post office if it wants to keep carrying messages.
Other messages come in over time, though -- not via Oldrasek, but from ship captains, and messenger birds, and Hollow Thunder's undisclosed contacts presumably in Heaven. Through various means, reports come in of ships running around with blood everywhere but no crew (living or otherwise). Villages seemingly wiped out. All sorts of signs that something is coming, but not enough signs to pinpoint where it is, where it's going, or when it's going to arrive there.
But that's all happening mysteriously at sea. Back in Goldenseal, most of the next month is represented by a montage of shots of Gou doing surveillance on the street, Xương sleeping, Hǎifēng sparring with Jotaro, Gou spying on meetings through windows, Xương drinking, Hǎifēng's martial arts skills sharpening at incredible speed, and so forth.
Until the explosion happens.
One day while Gou is off doing his surveillance and Hǎifēng's with Jotaro, Xương is asleep in his hammock on the ship (it makes him feel like the catch of the day) when he's awoken by the sound of an explosion from the nearby harbor market, followed by the literally-unearthly roar of a blood ape. He rushes to the source of the commotion to see people running away from a building that's been half-destroyed. He pushes past the fleeing crowd to see someone with a flickering dark blue anima banner is fighting the blood ape... for about a second. She's clearly gotten a couple of hits on it, but right as Xương gets there it lets out another roar, one hard enough to ripple the air and send its opponent slamming into a wall hard, after which they fall limply (a little too limply) to the ground.
We briefly have shots of other parts of the city, where the monstrous roar echoes throughout Goldenseal and lots of people stop and look in the direction of the harbor. Among those people are Gou, who's following his father around, and Hǎifēng out on Jotaro's balcony. Gou quickly finds a convenient empty alley to shift into bird form, unnoticed. Hǎifēng just gives their mate a look that says 'sorry' and shifts into bird form themselves to fly off, leaving the Solar behind as he rushes to try and get there via more traditional routes.
The demon immediately looks around for a new target, but Xương knows blood apes well enough that he knows how to get its attention. He makes a meowing sound and that gets it to perk up and look his way. He rushes it, shifting into hybrid form but moderating his Essence use enough to keep his anima banner from flaring. But even holding back, he moves unbelievably fast for a 'projectile' so large as he catches it with clawed hand up under the chin while the other comes down to drive his claws into its skull. (Sean, Xương's player, got a stupidly-good Join Battle roll, high enough to start with a decisive attack that was just enough to end the blood ape.)
A moment later he lets it go to slump to the ground as it starts to dissolve into demon ichor and Essence, and he reverts to human form to go check on the other person who fought it. She's definitely dead, thoroughly pulverized, and probably died before she hit the ground. He tries to get an idea of who she was -- a woman who's definitely not from around Zhaojūn, judging by her features and clothing.
But then he notices a tattoo on her arm. It's in Old Realm, and reads 'Shimmerside Corsairs.' He saw this tattoo in Heaven, during the tournament -- Hǎifēng fought someone with this tattoo who was also a customer at the corn hog stand, and at one point he would have seen a group of people with the tattoo. Then a piece of the destroyed building falls over nearby, and he looks up as the camera pans over to reveal the name of the business...
With a sense of dread, Xương quickly moves to check the ruins of the office since he figures he's got maybe a couple of minutes before the authorities show up. He finds a human proprietor who's long dead (and partially eaten), and signs that the blood ape was definitely waiting for someone. There's no obvious signs of a reason for the attack, though, and just when he's getting ready to leave he spots someone standing in the front of the shop.
The stranger is a woman who looks local, but she's wearing what looks very much like a real-world modern motorcycle jacket. She asks, in a familiar voice, if Xương knows where she can get any corn hogs. It's the Dragon-Blood Hǎifēng fought at the tournament.
He tells her he saw her tattoo on a corpse, and her face tightens up and says she knows, and she's going to have to process that later, but is there someplace private they can go to talk? He nods and quickly leads her back to the ship as the rubberneckers get brave enough to carefully approach the scene of the carnage.
They rush back to the Moonlight Maiden and head belowdecks, where she slumps against the wall and holds up a hand to ask for a moment to catch her breath (and try to put off bursting into tears for a couple of minutes).
Elsewhere, Gou and Hǎifēng reach the ruins of Fedan Shipping roughly simultaneously. While Hǎifēng was farther away at the time, any lead that Gou had was spent finding a phone boothprivate spot to change. They immediately recognize Xương's handiwork and rush to the boat, where our special guest star has caught her breath.
"That was Dimo," she says, still talking in Old Realm[4]. "My 'cousin,' is the best way to put it. Are you familiar with the term 'Heaven's Dragons?'"
She's not, so she properly introduces herself as Jaspio Tesa and explains that in Yu-Shan, among the communities of mortals living there, there are bloodlines of Dragon-Blooded dating back to before the Usurpation (actually, she might have said Solar Purge, or used both, I'm blanking). The Jaspio family are kind of a street gang in a section of the city, but like other Heaven's Dragons they often wind up doing contract work for gods, Sidereals, etc. At some point during all this, she fiddles with a pendant she has and drops the illusion that hides her obvious God-Blooded features[5], as it comes up that she doesn't normally get sent to Creation.
About now, Gou and Hǎifēng get back to the boat, and Hǎifēng asks if everyone's okay, and then they spot Tesa and ask what she's doing there. She switches to speaking accented Flametongue and says that everyone is not okay, and gives the two of them the synopsis of the fight. She then goes on to explain that she and her cousin Dimo[6] were sent to Fedan Shipping to sort things out involving a puzzle box -- she says 'puzzle box' with a knowing inflection, but adds for good measure that they should know what that means.
Hǎifēng's confused, because they dealt with the puzzle box thing months ago. She calmly explains that there are two puzzle boxes and she was delivering the other one. Or at least she's supposed to be. She was actually going to be looking for the three of them, but because her family and employers had found Fedan to be reliable in the past, Tesa and Dimo were going to leave the box with the shipping company rather than haul it around the city.
Dimo went to drop off the puzzle box, Tesa was about to go track down the Circle, and they were ambushed. Dimo offered to deal with the blood ape while Tesa chased down its summoner, who'd run off with the puzzle box. She broke off the chase when she heard the roar and felt Dimo die (she doesn't stop to explain this, but they were Sworn Kin, their souls linked), as she figured she'd have a chance to chase the thief down later. She got back just as Xương finished off the monster.
Hǎifēng asks Xương if anyone saw him, and he said he's pretty sure nobody saw. (Sure, there were some rubberneckers, but nobody that would have been in a position to recognize his human appearance.) Gou says as long as they were too busy running away, it's probably fine, and Hǎifēng hopes that's the case. And fortunately, it sounds like Xương was quick and careful.
And nobody's burning down the ship, so they'll call it a win. Tesa says she thinks anyone who saw the fight might be appreciative of the guy who saved them from a demon, even if they recognize him as 'Anathema.' Hǎifēng says she gives people too much credit, and she concedes that she doesn't deal with normal people much, given where she lives. But gods aren't that different, when it comes down to it.
She remembers she hasn't formally introduced herself to Gou and Hǎifēng and does so, and they ask about the thief. She says he's mortal but definitely a sorcerer -- he's got an open, fanged mouth on one hand. He's also got a leather bracer wrapped around his forearm that smells like garlic, rosemary, and sage. Xương says that it sounds like an herbal ointment that, combined with the bracer, might help keep a wound from getting infected.
She explain that she doesn't know the full story, but from what she knows of the whole situation she has reason to believe he's working for a necromancer or something. She also knows what's in the box, and sees it as such a big deal she actually can't bring herself to say the word aloud. But she's not as confident as she could be about tracking the guy down herself, as she doesn't get into Creation that often so she's not as equipped. She shows them the pendant that disguises her appearance, which she received as a boon from her performance in the tournament.
Hǎifēng's pretty sure they know who the guy's working for, and there's some general agreement and a brief conversation about the risks of the puzzle box and its contents falling into the wrong hands.
Tesa says that she's reminded she has something else for them, something related to Gou's request from the tournament. She produces a paper parcel and hands it off to whomever's nearby -- Xương takes it, and opens it. It's a compass in a wooden frame that seems to match that of the wheel on the Moonlight Maiden. But it's got seven needles, and they try to figure out what they could be for, and she offers that five of them could be pointing towards the elemental poles, but she has no clue about the other two.
Xương turns it around and sees there's a symbol carved into the back, which appears to be an Old Realm character. It's not one he knows well, though, and there are several possible meanings. Racking his brain, he translates it as meaning possibly 'insight' or 'awareness.' Any further layers might require research. Then he remembers this is Gou's, technically, and hands it off to him.
Tesa offers to help them track down the thief, as technically she was tasked with making sure they get the puzzle box and still feels compelled to do so -- even if via an unconventional venue. She just needs to catch her breath, and see if she can deal with her cousin's body rather than let it vanish into a morgue or something. She asks if they know a good place to say.
The group hooks her up with a key to the room at the inn that they've maintained as their local point of contact. They offer to take over thing regarding the thief and the puzzle box, and Hǎifēng confirms what the bracer smells like. Tesa laments how this mission has gone, and Hǎifēng tells her she couldn't have expected what happened, and they'll make sure the thief regrets what he's done.
Tesa, darkly, says they'd better. And she takes her leave, with a 'to be continued'...
-----
[0]-- No, there is no running gag here at all. And if there was, it would only really be in the blog, as I haven't done anything with it in the sessions themselves. Look, let me not-have this.
[1]-- It's a weird coincidence that I only now noticed as I was writing this that most of the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan practitioners I've come up with (not all of whom are listed here) are nonbinary. Going down a list of DPC stylist NPCs I've written up, yeah, the only cisgender ones are Jotaro and the Scarlet Phoenix. And I'd literally forgotten that the Phoenix has it until I was halfway through writing this footnote.
[2]-- This is kind of a reference to the fact that a practitioner can activate the Form Charm reflexively when they disengage with a certain number of successes.
[3]-- I kinda wish I'd thought to do dramatic 'episode title reveal' shots in the description, because this would be a good spot for one. It'd be weird to do out of the blue, but maybe next season. Just imagine that the camera pans over to where a bunch of pieces of a sign or something have landed to spell out the story name "Matching Set."
[4]-- Back in Yu-Shan, Xương's corn hog cart's sign was written in Old Realm. While the masks they had translated for the participants, they wouldn't have given him the ability to write in Old Realm for the sign. So she's deducing he understands the language.
[5]-- As a reminder, Tesa's body is covered in a thin layer of golden fur, her hair is also golden (though she dyes it black, sort of), and she's got noticeable feline facial features. In some parts of Creation, they'd recognize divine heritage (even if they don't recognize the divinity) and give her a wide berth. In others, they'd assume she's beastfolk, possibly do something stupid, and wind up regretting it.
[6]-- At one point, because Flametongue is not Tesa's native language, she slips up and says 'niece' before correcting herself. 'Niece' is more accurate but also requires more explanation about her family and her true age (she's in her 70's, kept young by divine heritage and Exaltation) than she wants to get into. So saying 'cousin' is easier. (Also, technically, the slip-up is mine, as I wrote down 'niece' in my notes but at the last minute decided to simplify things and say 'cousin,' but screwed up once.)
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