|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 10:35 pm
Halloween in Destiny City was always special and exciting, not just because the entire month of October was Liánlí’s favorite holiday. Everything was so vibrant in a city like this, and potential adventure lurked around every corner. More so now that Liánlí got to spend his nights kitting up as Kaifeng, hitting the town as a magical knight of Saturn (give or take the presence of his little wispy friend), fighting the good fight and protecting the people of his adoptive hometown. As a civilian, adventure still lurked around every corner, but as a knight, Kaifeng could actually do something about any of said adventures.
Doubling the enjoyment, Liánlí had Huanxi with him this year, and at night, Kaifeng had Helene. Huan-ge had shown up on Earth at exactly the right time, only a couple short weeks before Halloween Month started. During the day or earlyish evenings—at least, days when there wasn’t work to be done on this or that video—that meant showing Huanxi around to the City’s various haunted house attractions and similar fun, or borrowing Hayden’s van to take Huanxi out to Crooked Run for apple-picking and cider, or running into strangely costumed people while just introducing Huanxi to features of town like the library, The Farmer’s Daughter, and the cute, lesbian-owned all-night diner with queer bar adjacent.
Come nightfall, though, it meant having a partner for patrols who Liánlí didn’t need to text, or call, or otherwise bother. Generally, all he needed to do was ask if Huanxi wanted to come with him as Helene, and then, they could head out together. Youma and troublemakers beware, for the protection of Destiny City and its people, very all of that (and, incidentally, Kaifeng beware as well……because sometimes, watching Helene work got simply too swoon-worthy to be allowed, and Kaifeng was only human).
They’d just finished dusting one of said youma when Kaifeng spotted something on the ground, near where the youma had fallen. Crouching down to get a better look, he hummed softly, Oh, the sound of rollin’ dice, to me, is music in the air! ‘Cause I’m a gamblin’ boogie man, although I don’t play fair! It’s much more fun, I must confess, with lives on the line…… Kaifeng only fell silent when he picked one of the strange little somethings up, and got it close enough to see how money-right he’d been with his song choice: the somethings were a pair of six-sided dice.…… Stained wood with gilded letters, just like the one that Liánlí had picked up last year, with those two Dark Mirror senshi……
“……Oh, <********> Kaifeng said, and sighed heavily as the darkness fell, his little wispy friend disappeared, and the path of glowing gameboard spaces appeared for him. “Helene?!” Pushing himself up, he whipped around, looked to see if he’d be going it alone this year or not. “Helene—oh, for the love of—bìkēngluòjǐng……”
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2023 6:40 pm
Helene found that he rather liked Earth. It had clever, unique traditions, and it was so...vibrant. Alive. So many people, so many cultures, so much to learn. Even exploring the city at night, as Helene and Kaifeng, meant a thousand opportunities to learn and observe and ask questions, and come to understand the place in which he had found himself.
It was, genuinely, a joy.
And to get to experience it all guided by Kaifeng, to get to know and understand this version of the man he loved better, to see the world he had grown up on and understand it from his perspective...Helene was lucky. He knew that. Unspeakably so, really, to have a second chance in a single lifetime.
So if he stuck a little close to his Squire, was unwilling to power up without him, perhaps that could be said to make sense. Better to work together when they could, after all, and watch each others' backs, particularly with Helene's powers so painfully diminished.
But he'd lagged back, a little, when Kaifeng went to examine the strange object--a mistake, apparently, because whenever Kaifeng touched the strange object--he vanished.
Something cold and fearful seized in Helene's heart.
"Kaifeng!" The name tore from his lips, and he darted over in a panic, and there--on the ground--a strange item, wooden and gilded--
He knew dice. Had played many games with them, across many planets, in his day. But this one was strange. He knew from the moment he laid eyes on it; moreover, from the moment he touched it.
But at least when he found himself in a strange, dark space, he wasn't alone.
"Kaifeng," relief flooded through him. "You're alright."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 3:50 pm
At least Helene wasn’t far behind—Kaifeng could heave his own relieved sigh about that. “Helene! Sorry for worrying you like that,” he said softly, looking up at Helene with a likewise soft smile, “and for getting us into……this.”
As he cast an aside glance toward the path before them, Kaifeng’s smile faded into the sort of dread that Zhihao had once known very well during his university days. Nose wrinkled, lips curling down, and all of it radiating a strong energy like, “Man, I know that I signed up for this sort of thing when I [went to an Ivy League university / became a magical Knight of Saturn], and normally, I’m all about weird s**t, but this is really gonna suck.”
Shaking out his braid, Kaifeng explained, “I got stuck doing this last year too, before I’d gotten my awakening as Kaifeng. Two of the Dark Mirror senshi you might see around town sometimes? We fell into this together.” A brief thought occurred and he rushed to add, “They didn’t use their Mirror-creatures to drain any energy off me or anything. Both of them seemed really……y’know, bù yǐn dào quán? Like—like they wouldn’t drink from the Stolen Spring?” Which had been the first description to come to mind, but wasn’t necessarily helpful. “Or, uh—hǔtóuhǔnǎo? Sort of……earnest and straight-shooting, even being with a Chaos faction? One of them—Murikabushi, the tall one—he’s got some other senshi and Knights who’ll vouch for him being on the level.…”
Kaifeng sighed again and pouted, looking out at the road of golden squares before them and mentally haggling over word choice for a moment. “They didn’t know anything about this. At least, I remember them being just as confused as I was. Muri said it didn’t feel Negaverse-y, and……yeah, now that I can feel that and know what it means, he was right. So, this is probably one of those, like……” Tucking his bamboo club into the crook of his elbow, Kaifeng flourished his non-die-holding hand around on his wrist to help himself think. “One of those things where Destiny City is just kind of weird sometimes, for no real reason? Or at least, none that anybody can identify.”
A deep breath and Kaifeng held up his die. “Rules are pretty simple: if we wanna get out, we have to roll our dice. Whatever the result is, we can move that many spaces forward. Don’t try to move without rolling, or you’ll splat yourself face-first into an invisible barrier, I, uh.” Kaifeng’s grin returned, this time with a breathy, awkward laugh as he hoped he wouldn’t make his Special Alien Guy And Not To Be Overly Romantic After Only A Month Together But Zhiyin Felt Like A Very Appropriate Term Here……think he was ridiculous (derogatory) or an idiot or anything. “I learned that……the hard way……a little bit……by being stupid and walking right into the barrier……ahaha……haaaaa……”
Wilting slightly, Kaifeng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Still, he pushed those awkward feelings aside and wrapped up explaining, “Everywhere on the board will do some kind of weird stuff to us, but it’s very survivable if you keep your wits about you. We should still be able to talk to each other, too, and help each other as necessary from space to space.”
A demonstration would probably help, Kaifeng figured, and so he rolled his die. Following its directions, he progressed one step forward………and immediately cringed. Laughter filled the air, and not, like, FUN laughter or anything, either. For Kaifeng’s money, it sounded like some jerk-off who thought they were emulating Pennywise the Dancing Clown or maybe Mark Hamill’s Joker. Worse yet, it felt like somebody was watching Kaifeng, not in the distant way of social media followers that he could easily banish from his mind, but rather, in the very acute way of Zhihao’s parents, his grandparents, Ming-er at Qi-jie’s sweet sixteen when Zhihao hadn’t even been doing anything to—
With a shake of the head to curtail that thought and cast it into the Shadow Realm, Kaifeng looked back to Helene. “Okay, so, not the most dramatic example, and I don’t know if you can hear the laughter or not right now, but……every journey starts with a single step?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-6)
|
Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 2:28 pm
"Mm," Helene shook his head. "Don't blame yourself, magic seems to be quite volatile currently." Some places, Helene had found, could be like that--enchanted, prone to strange phenomena. Many of them became Knight Wonders, or sacred sites, but others simply existed, strangely.
He let Kaifeng explain exactly what he had experienced previously--and decide,d for himself, that if he ever found either of the two Dark Mirrors that Kaifeng described, he would have to thank them for keeping him safe. Helene hadn't been there to do so, yet, still trapped on his empty world--and so it was good that there were people who had been.
The rules of the game seemed simple enough. Roll your dice, move that number of squares, hope whatever strange magic was there was...well. Mostly harmless, at least. There was no escaping otherwise, and Helene was not keen to spend any longer than necessary in this cold, empty void. There were much better things that he and Kaifeng could be doing with their evening, one way or the other.
"You tested the rules," Helene said. "Important in a situation such as this, but risky. Glad it was only a barrier, and not something more harmful." He bounced his die in his hand, exhaled, and rolled it.
Three.
As he stepped onto Kaifeng's square, he listened--but there was no strange laughter, and so he shook his head.
"Seems to only effect--"
Apparently, he had hesitated too long fort he game, because he found himself pushed forward, until he stumbled onto the correct space.
A dense, foggy square, and he wrinkled his nose.
"Can you still hear me? I cannot see, throguh all of this."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 3:02 pm
When his senshi came into Kaifeng’s square, his presence came with a flush of warm relief. Which had nothing to do with Helene exactly and everything to do with how much Kaifeng just……liked having him here. Liked getting to work with Helene, liked getting to talk to him and do things with him, liked getting to simply exist in his presence. Really, Kaifeng would have been content to listen to Helene for as long as he wanted to speak, but—
“Helene!”
—something rushed in to push him away.
Frantically, Kaifeng rolled his die, only to get another one. He grumbled about the rotten luck of it all, but called out, “I can hear you! Not see you so much, with the fog, but—don’t worry, I’m coming. I just keep rolling like garbage over here……”
Hoping to avoid getting pushed along by an impatient gameboard, Kaifeng hopped into the next square. For a moment, it seemed like maybe, the board wouldn’t actually do anything……and then, some force rushed in behind him, slamming him forward into the invisible barrier. It came on so suddenly, he barely had enough time to turn his head and throw up one hand (the one not holding on to his bamboo club) so at least he wouldn’t break his nose or ******** OW,” Kaifeng groaned, cheek smushed against the invisible wall. “******** jùwén chéngléi principle in action, pushing people around like this. Are you still okay, Huan-ge?”
Normally, it wouldn’t have been right to throw out that affectionate nickname—not least because Huanxi was powered up as Helene. Things weren’t like they’d been a thousand years ago, when Huanxi and Xingyi had freely addressed each other as such even while powered up. Out and about in Destiny City, it would’ve been too dangerous. Could’ve risked somebody nefarious finding out who Huanxi was, coming to harm him. But—with just the two of them here, Kaifeng felt somewhat safer in addressing his zhiyin as such, with the intended meaning of “Hey, I know we are out while powered up and doing something sort of magically insane right now, but please remember that I’m glad to have you here with me, not because you’re Sailor Helene but just because you’re you.”
(Distantly, he felt like the teenage Zhihao who’d once punched Ming-er at Qi-jie’s sweet sixteen party would be retching in a corner and then punching Kaifeng for getting so stupid and sappy after only a month, but……well. That was why Zhihao got to be dead and gone forever, and Kaifeng got to be Liánlí when he powered down instead, wasn’t it.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-6)
|
Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2023 2:01 am
[Space: 7]
Helene was already coming to hate this game. It seemed to gleefully see fit to push and shove him around, to leave him stumbling and lost, and to keep him as separated as possible from Kaifeng. None of these things were endearing, none of them were acceptable.
But at least he could still hear Kaifeng responding to him, which meant Kaifeng was alright. Mostly.
"We will find a way out," Helene said, firmly, because they would. And he would not take his hands off Kaifeng for the rest of the evening, once they did. No more separation, especially not separation dictated by strange magical entities.
To that end, he threw his dice again, and darted forward three squares--just in time to hear Kaifeng shout in pain.
"I'm fine," he called back, "what of you? I--"
And then, the screeching started. Helene stumbled, reaching up and clamping his hands over his ears, and a cry of agony escaped him. He had to get off this square, as quickly as he could. What an awful, miserable game this was.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
6
Total: 6 (1-6)
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2023 11:58 am
[space: 8]
“Oh, we definitely will,” Kaifeng agreed, calling ahead to where Helene had ended up. “All we have to do is make it to the glowing exit space!”
Something that currently sounded like it was a lot easier said than done.…… Although it wouldn’t have helped much, part of Kaifeng wished that his little wispy friend had not decided to vanish on him when he’d fallen into the gameboard’s special breed of Hellish nightmare. Having that little friend around to be bright and shiny might have injected some much-needed positivity into this experience.
But it wouldn’t have helped in any practical way. Only Kaifeng shutting up and rolling his die would do that.
Finally seeing something other than a one on the upturned face, Kaifeng sighed in relief, ready to dart forward. His advance halted one space shy of where he should’ve gone. Even knowing that he needed to get moving before the gameboard got pushy with him, seeing Helene in such pain from the unearthly shrieking made Kaifeng pause. Turning to Helene, Kaifeng gently curled a hand around his wrist and looked up at him.
He thought to speak, but frankly, the screaming was probably bad enough. Instead, Kaifeng simply squeezed Helene’s wrist, looking up at him with an earnest expression that (hopefully) conveyed that Kaifeng was alright, and that he believed in them to make it out of this intact.
And then the gameboard’s invisible force swept in, shoving Kaifeng forward.
He let go of Helene quickly, so that he wouldn’t get hurt too, but still hit the next space’s invisible barrier with a heavy thud! and a burst of pain in his shoulder. “********, okay,” Kaifeng groused as he pushed himself back up, rubbing that shoulder with one hand. “******** me for taking a soft moment, I ******** him for landing in this space too, apparently. Or at least, Kaifeng concluded as much from the rush of snakes slithering across his feet. Ugh—well, the worst thing he could’ve done was upset or startle them. Resting his weapon across his back and shoulders, Kaifeng sighed. “Be careful coming through here, Huan-ge,” he said. “I don’t know if they bite, but we’ve got snakes.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
|
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2023 8:16 pm
[Space: 8]
It felt unfair, to have that brief moment of comfort and have it so brutally ripped away. Whatever this strange game was, it clearly did not want them to be able to be close together--not for long,a t least--and it did not enjoy attempts to resist its machinations.
Helene hissed out a tense breath. Rolled his die.
A one. A blessing, a chance to stand up and cross onto Kaifeng's square, and to carefully avoid the serpents on the floor as he crossed to be at Kaifeng's side.
Casually, he scooped his Squire up into his arms; a warm, comforting thing. Perhaps the game board would pull them apart again, but for now he could hold Kaifeng and keep him away from the slithering creatures on the ground.
"Hate this," he admitted. "Too long, by far. And hate being separated from you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2023 1:19 am
[space: 9]
There was a difference—quite a distinct and important one, as reality very abruptly decided to inform Kaifeng—between knowing intellectually that Helene was really quite strong, and having that strength whipped out in the form of Huan-ge sweeping him up off……well. Not Kaifeng’s feet, exactly. But the literal meaning of the phrase felt pretty apt anyway for a situation that had, practically out of the blue, wound up with Kaifeng in Helene’s arms, being held against his chest and told how much Helene disliked being separated from him.
Oh, Kaifeng’s heart always did some impressive aerial gymnastics when Helene did things like this. As his face flushed warm, he looked up at Helene with a smile equal parts shy, uncertain but hopeful, overwhelmed with affection, and “Are you there, gods? It’s me, Liánlí. Please, please, *PLEASE* don’t let me die from being too queer to function because I really like this guy and I don’t wanna have to leave him and wait for another ******** reincarnation cycle to marry him, if he wants to do that too”……
Not that the term Liánlí liked using for Huan-ge exactly implied marriage: 知音 zhīyīn, something more intense than most understandings of platonic affection, something not explicitly romantic but often used that way, something deeper than the Western soulmate because a soulmate might have been fated to find you, but a zhīyīn or a 知己 zhījǐ was somebody who knew you, somebody who saw in you what others didn’t, who recognized the truest version of yourself, who had a soul that mirrored your own, so much so that a best translation of zhīyīn—or at least the one that Liánlí personally liked best—was “the one who knows the melody of my soul.”
Right about now, in Helene’s arms, the melody of Kaifeng’s soul felt like his heart trying to rend its way out of his chest while everything felt all pink—except for Helene’s rope harness under Kaifeng’s touch as he palmed, idly and unthinkingly, at Helene’s chest.
“At least it should be over……soon? Ish?” Kaifeng glanced toward the exit sign, and……oh, it did seem rather a bit far away, didn’t it. As he pouted, he shifted his hand—the one not currently involved in touching Helene’s chest—and this led to him fumbling the die. Only a single dot gleamed as it hit the floor, which didn’t mean THAT much separation……
But the gameboard separated them by yanking Kaifeng out of Helene’s arms and throwing him into the next space.
It had the decency to roll his die along with him, but as Kaifeng picked up the cube and also himself, song filled the air. Ghostly and haunting, and……it sounded like Huan-ge’s voice. But……but Huan-ge was still back in the previous space, wasn’t he? But it sounded so much like him that the idea of it being something else felt utterly impossible? Kaifeng clutched the die to his chest—could he manage to find the source of the sound?—and then he felt scaly hands grabbing at his ankles.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
|
Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 4:48 am
[Space: 13]
There was a certain level of amusement to be had, when Kaifeng ended up silenced and casually pawing at Helene's chest. Helene knew that Kaifeng found him attractive, and was impressed by his physical strength, and it was nice to be reminded of that. Good for his ego, and all.
He adored Kaifeng. That was known, he hoped. And it was pleasant to take a moment with him.
"Yes. And we will make it, and we will go home." He was firm, certain, unyielding. They would, and it would be fine.
Given his druthers, Helene would have held onto Kaifeng, carried him the rest of the way through the game. But the game had other ideas.
"Kaifeng!" He shouted, panicked, when Kaifeng was ripped from his arms and thrown onto the next square. He lurched forward, and smacked into the wall, and growled.
Fine, fine, a reminder that his only choice was to play the stupid game. He threw the dice, barely noticing the number before he scooped it up and ran forward. Tried to grab Kaifeng, and pull him along--and instead, as soon as his fingers brushed Kaifeng's sleeve, he found himself thrown forward.
The square he landed on was silent.
Eerily so.
Until he heard chitters and the patter of feet, and he stumbled up, backing towards the edge of the space. Rats. A veritable sea of rats.
"s**t."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-6)
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 10:16 am
[Space: 13]
The snakes crawling all over his hands were distinctly not Kaifeng’s most favorite thing that he’d ever dealt with. Needing to watch Helene move on to his next space—ripped away from him most unfairly when Helene had only wanted a moment together—also, not one of Kaifeng’s most favorite things. Distinctly worse, however, than the snakes, which were probably just minding their own business overall and didn’t deserve being stuck in this silly gameboard any more or less than Helene and Kaifeng did.
Either way, Helene moving on several spaces forward gave Kaifeng all the motivation he needed to roll his die quickly. When it came up with a four, he beamed and sprinted forward to join Helene. The chitters of rats around their feet briefly got him to tilt his head bemusedly, but it didn’t last long. Why waste a moment together being confused when he could instead smile up at his boy?
“At least the dice don’t seem to want us separated for long,” Kaifeng said, resting a hand on Helene’s shoulder-blade. “They’re taking their sweet time to let us get home, sure, but……at least we’re together?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
|
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 10:03 am
[Space: 18]
[cw: gore]
There was some relief, when Kaifeng came into his square again. It was true, it seemed--now that they had caught up to each other, the game board kept tossing them back together.
"Mm, would rather be together at home than together here," he confessed, but he did take a moment to bend down and steal a kiss before he rolled his dice again.
If they had to be separated, he wanted it to be for the shortest amount of time possible. Helene was more than ready to get out of here.
He reluctantly moved away from Kaifeng, and onto the new square--through a strange, toxic cloud that made him cough and cover his mouth. Disgusting, but tolerable---until he felt something cold and awful settle in.
Decay.
His heart froze in his chest. It felt as if his flesh was dripping away, and for a moment,h e was sure he saw it--bones in his arm and hand, and a fission of fear. Was this time, finally come for him? Would he turn to dust, here, before Kaifeng's eyes? No, no--it had to be magic, but still--
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-6)
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 10:37 am
[let's see how this goes, lmao]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 11:03 am
[Space: 16]
Kaifeng meant to nod and agree with Helene that home would have been infinitely preferable to all of this nonsense—but he also wasn’t going to argue with being kissed.
On the contrary, he expressed his full agreement by kissing Helene back quite enthusiastically. About the only reason that he exercised any restraint at all was that the game-board would all too likely have reacted badly to them wasting too much time. If not for the magic of this place keeping them moving according to its own rules, Kaifeng would have gladly just made out with Helene until the magic in question got bored and kicked them out.
Watching Helene move forward, Kaifeng’s heart was in his throat, and his breath fully snagged there as he watched Helene freeze. He couldn’t tell what was happening to his senshi, or what Helene was seeing that had made him startle so badly. All Kaifeng knew was that he had to get moving and reassure Helene that everything would be okay.
As he rolled his die, Kaifeng called out to that effect: “We’re almost out of here! Then, we can get home and be together somewhere safe!”
Unfortunately, the gameboard, or fate, or whatever controlled the dice decided to deny them proximity for a little while longer. Following the result that turned up on his die, Kaifeng moved forward and stopped just a couple spaces shy of Helene. “We’ll be fine, gege,” he promised, giving Helene a bright smile—but the rest of the reassurances in his mind remained unspoken.
Instead, Kaifeng heard a loud, sick cracking sound.
He looked down just in time to notice that he had nothing beneath his feet. Then, with a gasp, Kaifeng plummeted into darkness, and wet, and cold.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-6)
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 11:15 am
[Space: 20]
These last few steps were, it seemed, determined to be treacherous. Helene watched, in horror, as Kaifeng disappeared, and he launched himself forward--but there was that damnable wall, and he couldn't get back, and he was coming apart--
Desperately, he threw his dice, and it wasn't until he staggered forward and found himself surrounded by an opalescent light that he realized he had made it, somehow to the end.
"Kaifeng!" He called, and he prayed to whatever deity or ancestor might have been listening that Kaifeng could hear him. "I have made it to the end--find me, and we will be free!"
They were so close. This could not end with them so close.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
