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 Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2024 1:29 pm
In order to survive in this world, one had to count one’s blessings wherever they could be found. For Liánlí, he counted dozens if not hundreds of blessings in his life, and considered himself impossibly lucky for all of them. Still, few of said blessings even held a candle to Huanxi, to living a life with someone who called Liánlí “zhiyin” with such love and care, to waking up in his arms every morning and falling asleep there every night……
To patrolling the streets of Destiny City together, as they were tonight. This wasn’t an odd state of affairs for them. Kaifeng and Helene went out together often enough to have different routes that they knew well, and different places where they knew it was better to split up, then reunite. Tonight’s route was one of the paths through town that was best handled together, but as they came to the top of an apartment building, Kaifeng couldn’t help but marvel at the lack of trouble they’d run into, thus far. Nice weather—pretty mild, especially by end of summer standards—but no Negaverse or Dark Mirror mischief that had needed breaking up.
“Only other person out right now is one of ours,” Kaifeng said, playfully nudging his shoulder at Helene’s and gesturing toward an alley across the street with his bamboo club. Whoever the other Order aura belonged to, they felt like a newbie senshi or a Page, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt to check in on them? But for the moment, Kaifeng smiled up at his zhiyin. “Really nice when it’s a calm night and we can take—”
Kaifeng cut himself off at the feeling of a youma’s aura flaring up on his senses.
Immediately perked back up into the action mindset, he whipped around in the direction where it felt strongest. The beast didn’t make itself hard to see, either: while its aura didn’t feel more or less powerful than the average youma, the beast stood taller than any Kaifeng had seen before, practically kaiju-sized. (Well, maybe a smallish kaiju, since it didn’t entirely tower over any of the surrounding buildings, but it was still quite tall.)
An armored, black scorpion shell and matching arched tail gleamed under the moonlight and the street-lamps. But instead of pincers in the front, the youma had two long tentacles, each a shade of green so violently neon that Kaifeng could make it out perfectly from this distance. Instead of the normal scorpion face, all beady eyes and clicky mandibles, the youma had a long neck, serpentine and a similar shade of black, but with smooth scales, not armored plates. It came to a finish in an unmistakable snake’s head, long fangs bared and frills flared out on the sides like a king cobra’s.
“Spoke too soon,” Kaifeng acknowledged with a huff. Gently, but urgently, he tugged Helene over to the roof’s edge, then jumped down onto the fire escape. From the look of things, the youma was heading right for the alley where the basic-senshi-or-maybe-a-page was hanging out. Better not to leave them alone with this.Quote: 知音 zhiyin : a complicated term from Classical Chinese, usually translated as “the one who knows the melody of my soul” or “the one who knows the melody of my heart.” (source, and Kaifeng’s previous IC explanation.
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Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2024 3:09 pm
It wasn't unusual for Aruna to find herself alone, not having many friends on this side of her life and not wanting to be a burden to the few that she did have. So when she went out to patrol alone, she thought little of it save for a bit of anxiety she normally felt at the start of every night. Shadows always seemed darker, noises always more unusual, but she gently reminded herself that her imagination was running away with itself again. Her silent mantra of "it's all in your head" would have worked, if not for the icy feeling of "wrong" that crept down the back of her neck, followed by a noise she definitely could not just explain away as her mind playing tricks on her. That was definitely the sound and feeling of trouble. Big trouble from the sound of it. Her pace quickened and she skidded to a stop when the creature came into view. While she wasn't overly familiar with things like this, she had a sinking feeling that this was most definitely not a standard size edition of the creature and that she was about to be in for a world of pain if she wasn't careful. "Oh.... Crap." Her eyes widened and she felt paralyzed, her fight of flight response deciding to pick a third option of 'freeze' instead as it started coming directly at her. This was definitely not going to be her night.
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Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2024 2:06 am
It was perhaps not a surprise that Helene's attention was mostly focused on Kaifeng. He kept half a mind on his aura sense, but the majority of his focus was on simply being with his zhiyin; on luxuriating in the miracle that he had not thought he would ever be allowed.
It was a fine night, and he could feel a soft wind, and while on the whole, he quite approved of helping out new Knights and Senshi--or perhaps discovering Senshi from another world who might need early assistance--it didn't feel like they needed to rush. So he was giving Kaifeng a small, sly little smile, prepared to suggest they take some time before they find the source of the aura, when the toxic splash of Chaos caught his attention.
Immediately, he turned and tensed. The creature looked nasty, and he gave Kaifeng a sharp nod of agreement, following after him quickly.
Not a moment too soon, it seemed, since there was a basic senshi, frozen with fear, right in the creature's path.
"Inhibit Vice," he said, and he gestured, and the scorpion paused. It almost seemed confused, as if the inhibition from Helene's magic was making its Chaos-rotted mind consider something challenging for the first time in its monstrous existence.
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 9:20 pm
Rushing off with Helene, Kaifeng prepared for anything. A youma that big and an aura signature that said “beginner senshi or Page” could end up making such a mess for the poor senshi-or-Page, if anything too nasty happened. He and Helene had to move quickly, and do whatever they could to help prevent such outcomes.
On the other end of the pursuit, glancing around the youma, Kaifeng made out the image of a senshi. In addition to likely being pretty freshly Awakened, she looked pretty young. Maybe old enough to be in college, but still, young and willowy and quite a bit wide-eyed. And—oh. Oh, no, honey. The youma hissed, then snapped its jaws at thin air, then made a sound like groaning. Its snake head seemed to shiver, bobbing on the long scaly neck, utterly perplexed at the way it was compelled to halt its actions but trying to push back against that somehow.
“Hey!” Kaifeng called out to the younger senshi. “You might want to take a few steps back, sweetie!”
The warning was necessary, considering the spirits Kaifeng’s magic called on didn’t entirely differentiate between friends and enemies. Still, he swung his club and channeled the magic, summoning the ghostly shades to hit the youma with some extra magical power.Quote: Kāifēng swings his club like a baseball bat. When the swing is complete, ghostly shades claw their way out of the ground within a six-foot radius of Kāifēng. Anyone within the six-foot radius—including allies and Kāifēng himself—will feel a sense of recognition, like they should know who these dead people are, but the shades appear too mangled by death and decay to be recognizable as any particular person. The shades will attack anyone in the six-foot radius but Kāifēng, including allies, but being incorporeal, they do no physical damage. For the duration of his channeling, anyone hit by one of his shades will feel deathly chills and a heavy feeling of being watched. The chills stop as soon as he stops channeling; any lingering emotional effects (from the magic or seeing the shades) are up to individual players!
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 10:10 pm
Aruna heard the others before she felt them, still not used to the ability to feel others of her faction. She looked over her shoulder as the creature stopped moving, taking note of two figures hurrying her way. At the sound of the warning from one of them, she quickly retreated a few feet so she was out of range of the attack. She watched in a combination of fascination and more than a little intimidation as the creature was attacked by shades, and found herself decidedly thankful she hadn't been caught in that. It took a moment before she realized that she, too, could fight, and she took a step forward, planting her foot firmly on the ground. "R-rocky sweep!" Her voice was timid and more than a little anxious sounding. This was a senshi who clearly was new to this and yet to come into her confidence. But at least she was trying, right? She could scold herself later for freezing.
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 10:15 pm
The youma was definitely flagging, under three tieirs of magical assault, and Helene took its hesitation as a chance to sweep over to the other Senshi. She looked nervous. Scared, even--new, perhaps? Her colors weren't familiar, nor was her face, so she was not some past acquaintance found again, but that was alright.
"Are you injured?" The question was gentle--and while his focus was mostly on her, his eyes did dart back to ensure the youma didn't get any ideas. "You need not fear. Kaifeng and I are here to assist you."
Hopefully, the strangeness of his appearance didn't frighten the poor thing further, but there was nothing Helene could do about being very tall and very alien. He would simply have to be as gentle as possible to avoid making a stressful situation worse.
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 10:51 pm
“Oh, nicely done,” Kaifeng called out at the sight of what this senshi’s magic could do. Even with just her basic magic, calling down a magical landslide like that was something powerful, definitely not to be underestimated, as the youma was fast finding out. More importantly, something to be encouraged, so the poor girl hopefully wouldn’t get too down on herself.
With the youma seeming to be on its last legs and Helene going to care for the newer senshi, Kaifeng swung his weapon once more. This time, he called on the spell that had gone into his weapon after he and Helene had found its scroll up at his Wonder.
That, finally, turned the youma to dust.
Kaifeng sighed in relief, watching the youma dissipate, then ducked around to join Helene and the young senshi. “You did really well, calling on your magic like that,” he said, extending a hand. “I’m Kaifeng, Squire of Saturn, and my partner is Helene. Are you alright after all of that with the youma, sweetie?”Quote: Forgotten Spell: Kaifeng swings his weapon at a single target within a 20-foot radius. The target is knocked back by a burst of air, cold as death. When hit by the chill, the target is seized by a brief but powerful feeling that they have died and no one cared. This attack has three uses.
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 11:01 pm
The person who came over to her side was decidedly... unusual. Aruna took note of horns, tail, and an unusual skin tone. Was this normal in the strange world of magic and monsters she had found herself part of? Oh, they were speaking to her. Right. Aruna shook her head. "No, just....shaken up. I've never seen anything quite like that before. They aren't normally that big, are they?" She glanced back over to where Kaifeng was finishing off the creature, still daunted by the size of it. The praise from Kaifeng made her pale eyes light up, earning a small smile from her. "Th-thank you!" Oh thank goodness. Introductions. That was something easy. She could do that without messing it up, right? "I'm Aruna, senshi of landslides. I'm very grateful for both of your help, thank you so much." Her voice was soft and quiet, something that might have been hard to hear if they hadn't been standing close to her. "I'm alright. I promise." The notion of strangers caring if she was alright was new to her, but she was starting to come round to it. After all, they were on the same side weren't they? That made them teammates of a sort.
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 11:12 pm
"Youma vary greatly, in size and ferocity," Helene said, "but it is true that most about in the city are not quite so large." He turned to Kaifeng with the fond smile of someone very much in love, just glad to have him coming to join them, and nodded.
"Helene, of Inhibition. I am pleased that we were able to assist you, though with magic like yours, I suspect you would have done quite well on your own." He bowed, politely, and then straightened. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Aruna. I am pleased you are unharmed."
They had done their duty, Helene thought, ensuring that the Senshi was safe and the youma thoroughly defeated. A night well spent, in his opinion. Not that it was, in Helene's mind, possible to have a night with Kaifeng that was ill spent, but the fact remained.
"I believe we will take our leave," Helene said, "but if you need assistance again, we are both ever a Senshi phone call away." He produced his, to record her contact information--useful things, these.
"Be safe, Aruna." A simple goodbye.
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