|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:47 am
Not that a visit up to the fields and the tower of Kaifeng could ever truly be considered a bad thing, but……well. After last time, Hayden had found out more about the evil wizard tower up on Saturn. Hard to avoid that, really, when hauling water down from the spring he’d found had left Liánlí sweaty, and sore, and exhausted, and very piteously whining for Hayden to pretty please come help him make a heating pad other than Táotáo laying on his back because she had not actually been helping as much as she wanted to think she was.
Most of Liánlí had expected a stern lecture about not giving himself a hernia on strange planets up in space or some-such thing. Instead, Hayden had just loved the idea of Liánlí hauling large jugs of water a not-too-long but also not entirely inconsiderable distance because the river was all ******** up, at the moment. As Kaifeng took Selenga’s hand in the alley where they’d met up, and as he focused intently, trying to will them (and his as yet undefined little wispy buddy) to his Wonder together, the thoughts most plague-troubling his mind? Were pretty unilaterally about how eager-beaver Hayden had been with the instructions—
“By the by, Hayden says you’re not allowed to help me.” Stretching his arms above his head with a soft groan, Kaifeng explained for Selenga, “I mean, after we go to the puzzle-lock room and figure out what’s inside of it, and then I wanna take time to water the pomegranate tree.” To help illustrate his point, Kaifeng pointed his fan over at the river, still teeming with that algal bloom. “Can’t use the river water since……I don’t trust the look of that algae, right? Plus, it smells like death—but in a bad way, you feel me?—when you nudge the algae out of the way. Buuuuuut…”
He sighed dramatically. “Hayden was very specific in telling me: you’re not allowed to help me carry the water because it’s, like? Enrichment for me or something. In the meantime, though?” Grinning, Kaifeng gestured at as much of his Wonder as he could point at: the tainted river, the creepy trees, the evil wizard tower with Saturn’s perpetual twilight reflecting off of its black stone. “What d’you think of my Wonder? Pretty cool, right?”
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:57 am
Selenga was excited to get dragged on an adventure to someone else's Wonder—he had yet to visit his own, but that was fine, he had plenty of time. He looked forward to going to Selenga, of course, but for now, he just... had a lot going on. And wanted to figure out more about the whole being a Page thing first. ... The Wonder was not... what he thought it would be at all, though. Kaifeng the Wonder itself was... Well... "So cool," he lied through his teeth, nodding. There was absolutely no way he was going to tell his cousin-in-law how the absolute stench of death just clung to the place, and how the forest felt intimidating, but definitely like he had a better chance of survival in it than the evil wizard tower. Kaifeng was clearly very proud of it, and he couldn't squash his cousin-in-law like that. "I'm definitely listening to Hayden, though, and I will not help you with the water. If I did, he'd find out, and be mad at both of us."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 1:40 am
Kaifeng heard that distinctly displeased tone out of Selenga and it made him pout. Made him slouch. But he shook his head and brushed it off, waving for Selenga to follow him toward the tower.
“I know it’s a bit of a fixer-upper in a lot of ways for sure,” he said while they walked. “Like the pomegranate tree, right? The last Kaifeng Knight, Xingyi—that tree grew over top of where his parents are buried. And pomegranates thrive in arid conditions, sure, but they still need some water. So, Xingyi built this brilliant little slow-release irrigation tank for when he used to go off-world on, like? Cool Knight missions, or something?”
The upward inflection creeping into his voice where it didn’t need to exist was registering for Kaifeng, but on the other hand, he remained too excited to care. Just like he was also too excited to explain that he didn’t really know what, exactly, Xingyi had done off-world with Huanxi, and those weird twins from the first memory, and whoever Rin was. (Kaifeng had not much looked into it yet, but he intended to do so. It was just……all he had to go off, at the moment, was a name that might not have been relevant anymore.)
“And obviously, like I said, I can’t use the river water until I actually fix the river, but fixing the pomegranate tree sounds like the more emotionally significant thing to do first, you know? Do right by the last Kaifeng Knight by making sure his parents’ final resting place is taken care of. Apparently, part of the job is not showing any favoritism to any particular dead in our care, but……” Kaifeng shrugged. “Well, Xingyi’s husband sure thought that sounded like a ridiculous thing to ask of somebody, and I personally agree with him, so……”
Again, Kaifeng shrugged. This time, though, he also leaned into pushing open the heavy, black wood door that led into the tower’s atrium—then held out an arm to stop Selenga from just running in roughshod. “We have to go in together, I think,” he explained—and it was only on the other side of them both getting in fine that Kaifeng pointed out the trapdoor. “That thing got me on my first trip up here. I wanted to look around the tower and got yote down into the catacombs instead. Buuuut….” Kaifeng grinned, holding up his left hand with the signet ring on his middle finger. “Pretty great protection policy, huh?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 11:05 pm
Selenga nodded along—fixing Xingyi's parents' grave did sound like the right thing to do first. Paying respect to your previous incarnation and his life should be the right thing to do to move forward with fixing up the Wonder. After all, they had shared the same starseed, the same Wonder—helping to heal the pain of the previous life itself would be a great way to start the path to healing the entire place. His jaw dropped, however, when Kaifeng mentioned tumbling down into the catacombs?! Sure, he'd survived, but that did not sound very okay!!! "... If I trip into any traps, take my body back home," he said in a very matter-of-fact tone. "I'm not letting Qiye have an empty urn."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 11:31 pm
Kaifeng pouted at that tone out of Selenga, and the fatalism baked into it. “I won’t take anything back home to Qi-jie,” he said, motioning for Selenga to follow him up the right-hand spiral staircase, “because you aren’t going to fall into anything as long as we’re together. I won’t let it happen. And hey! Hey, Leng-Leng. Guess what, guess what, did you know……”
It probably didn’t help his case to turn around and go up the stairs backwards. Nor for him to grin at Selenga with an impish, delighted glint in his eye and a pair of finger-guns at the ready. But in the interests of getting Selenga to (maybe) calm down a little and (hopefully) breathe more easily in a Wonder that was clearly putting him ill at ease, Kaifeng was going to choose silliness: “You remind me of the babe!”
The idea that maybe Selenga wouldn’t take the bait did not once flit through Kaifeng’s blessed little coconut head. No thoughts, only joy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:10 am
Selenga had wanted to reply to Kaifeng's claim that he wouldn't have to bring anything home to Qiye with something snide, because they were literally walking into a giant tower filled with death traps and going up it!, but that was derailed by Kaifeng.... singing? And clearly expecting him to say something in response. Something specific. But what, he couldn't guess, so instead, he simply asked: "What babe?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:18 am
Kaifeng beamed!! Like a little ray of sunshine!!! Or possibly a very big ray of sunshine, actually, considering he was 6’2” and had a smile spilled across his face, lighting up everything around him because!!!! Selenga had decided to join him in a round of “Magic Dance”!!! Now that Selenga had actually done this, it occurred to Kaifeng that Selenga could have not joined in on the fun with him, but Selenga HAD joined in on the fun with him, and so Kaifeng, still smiling, waggled his fingers in a spooky, vaguely spellcasting gesture and answered, “The babe with the power!”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:21 am
Oh...kay. What the heck was going on here, and why was Selenga feeling distinctly tricked? Very confused, definitely—what on Earth... or, Saturn, he guessed... was going on? "What power?" he asked, completely baffled and wiggling his fingers back at Kaifeng just to have something to do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:25 am
Continuing to wind his way up the stairs was somewhat difficult when getting to have this moment together with Selenga made Kaifeng feel so bouncy and giddy!!! But by the grace of Saturn (or the grace of David Bowie, or, like? the grace of something, probably, he supposed), Kaifeng managed to hold it together!! No fun in ruining a good moment by falling all over himself or something.
“The power of voodoo,” he quipped back at Selenga, swishy-swishing the hand currently holding his fan over his head sort of but not entirely like he was trying to dance The Swim.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:38 am
That.... That wasn't a word. That couldn't be a word. Right? That was... some kind of name. Maybe some movie character that Selenga didn't know? What kind of weird chicken dance was Kaifeng even doing, anyway? Continuing to follow Kaifeng up the stairs, he asked, "Who do?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:42 am
AIYAH, YES, HI, HELLO THIS WAS THE BEST NIGHT EVER, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!!!
Kaifeng kept grinning at Selenga as they got closer to the room with the puzzle lock that Kaifeng had gotten stumped on, all bright and eager and so happy that they were getting to share this moment together!!!! Here, at his Wonder!!!! On the planet Saturn!!! In space!!! They maybe might’ve had a lot of disagreements with each other when they were younger, and maybe Kaifeng had recently needed Selenga to call him out on some things, but!!! Look at them go!!!! They were having this special moment together and being friends and THIS WAS THE BEST NIGHT EVER!!!!!
Bouncy as ever, he quipped back, “You do!”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:45 am
Wait, him?? He tilted his head at Kaifeng, doing a little bit of fish mouth from the sheer amount of confusion that was building up. Was this some kind of internet shitposting thing he wasn't aware of, then? He didn't spend a lot of time online... So, the only thing left to do was ask, with complete and utter resignation and only the faintest hope that he'd get an explanation, "Do what?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:52 am
“Remind me of the babe!!” Kaifeng had the answer locked, loaded, and ready, since Selenga had decided to join in on his fun tonight. He also had it in his mind that this was the part where he was supposed to laugh uproariously before launching into the rest of the song……but Kaifeng only managed to do one of those things. For one thing, his boots slipped up onto the landing where the room in question waited for him and Selenga to get to it.
For another, significantly more important thing, though, there was nothing fake or performative about Kaifeng’s laughter. Rather than making a show out of it or simply recreating the goblin puppets’ uproarious laughter from Labyrinth, Kaifeng hugged himself around the middle just laughing for the sheer ******** delight of it. “Oh!! Oh,” he gasped in between rounds of laughter and trying to make sure he breathed correctly. “Oh, thank you for sharing that with me, Leng-Leng! That was!! So special!! So much fun! I’m so glad you shared it with me!”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 1:00 am
The confusion mounted, coalescing into one final question: "Kaifeng, what are you talking about?" That seemed to get straight to the point, at least. Hopefully. At least he was no longer playing whatever game Kaifeng was—even if it made him feel a little guilty for having no idea, when he realized just how joyful Kaifeng actually was about the whole thing. That he thought that what just happened was special. Oh, no.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 1:12 am
Oh, boy, did Kaifeng’s laughter stop deader than the skeletons down in his Wonder’s catacombs.
That question out of Selenga cut right through the giddy pink clouds and the emotional high on which Kaifeng had been riding pretty much since Selenga had met his “You remind me of the babe!” with the Correct And Appropriate answer of “What babe?” “This…… But, this was……”
Shoulders drooped. Eyes went wide. One arm dropped off of Kaifeng’s waist while the one whose hand still held his fan gestured vaguely, pointing at himself and then at Selenga and then back to himself. Kaifeng’s entire posture wilted, while his expression shifted into a pouty-lipped, wibbly face. “……We were doing the bit from Labyrinth, weren’t we? It……Leng-di has seen Labyrinth, haven’t you?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
