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 Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 10:46 am
Teleporting into his world with Helene and Kaifeng in tow, Murikabushi immediately spotted some of the rainbow-colored teacup pigs that he and Yuki had found with Fang. The app on his senshi phone had brought the group to the same place as usual, the central garden of the capital city, with the fountain and statue of Airan, the thickets of black roses, and the buildings nearby (one of which had once contained a tavern that Airan had hauled Xingyi-Kaifeng out of during a “Liberation Day” celebration, then handed him off to Helene).
But in the week or so since coming here with Fang, the piglets had apparently decided to come over from the Ariake-zuki quarter. Some of them were snuffling around the grass near the cobblestone walkways. One—which had splotches of different colors that looked like the pattern of spots on a cow, but rainbow-colored—was on the cobblestones themselves, nibbling at some of the grass that had grown up through the cracks.
“There’s still a lot of work to do around here obviously,” Murikabushi started, looking over at Helene, “but it’s not so bad, really. Doing the work just feels like my duty as senshi and—hey! Wait—Kaifeng, where are you—”“Not going too far, gege!”Muri nudged his glasses up so he could bury his face in his palm. “You’re older than me!”
Maybe he didn’t actually speak Mandarin, but he knew enough to know that, of the three of them, going by the strictest definition of the terms? Helene was da-ge, Kaifeng was er-ge, and Murikabushi was probably “didi,” being the youngest of the three of them.Not that Kaifeng didn’t enjoy visiting other people’s places of power in space, because he did. He also particularly liked visiting Muri’s world, trying to learn more about this place that had once been so important to Xingyi-ge and had been the home of his father’s family. But tonight, Kaifeng’s primary reason for coming on the visit had been for Helene’s sake. Murikabushi liked Helene and wanted to make friends, but Helene didn’t always do well with other people. In Kaifeng’s mind, Helene did better than he gave himself credit for, but it could still be stressful for him. So, having Kaifeng here to help seemed like a good plan.
That was why Kaifeng genuinely didn’t venture far: he only went a few meters off from the fountain, over to one of the thickets of black roses, where he spotted something distinctly out of place. Mostly because it was a vibrant shade of crimson and moving around. Crouching down, he held out his hands, cupped together. The tiny pig took a moment to sniff at him, then climbed up into his hands.
Returning to Muri and Helene, Kaifeng was all smiles. How could he not be? Muri’s world getting more lifeforms on it was a big deal, something that the eternal senshi among them had to be very excited about. And getting to see some of it for himself felt like a very special privilege.
“Look at this little guy,” he said brightly, holding the little pig up where everyone could see. “They were on their own over there, away from the others. Aren’t they sweet?”Murikabushi took a deep breath, then nodded and gave Kaifeng an indulgent smile. At least he hadn’t been too attention-deficit, or completely run off and gotten himself hurt because he’d seen something cute. “All of the teacup pigs are sweet, yeah,” he agreed. Looking to Helene again, he added, “Fang, my Yuki, and I found them last time I came up here. Some of them were rooting around a teashop in the quarter of town where Airan and Xingyi’s people tended to live.”
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 4:29 pm
Helene remembered Murikabushi.
Fondly, to some degree. It was a lovely world. Airan had been a good man in an increasingly difficult situation, and he....did have some memories there that were....well. More fond than they might seem, at first glance. Even carrying Xingyi out of a tavern could be something warm, and special, if he let it.
On the other hand....the Kuroganes, and Xingyi's ever-complicated situation.
Still, even in ruins, the world was beautiful, and Helene remembered this square quite well.
"Work to be done, yes, but it is clear that you care for this place." And, perhaps, that it cared for Murikabushi back. Especially given that it was coming back alive. "Recall these teacup pigs--very cute, friendly creatures."
His eyes followed Kaifeng as he walked away, but at least he did not go far and returned quickly, and with a small friend in tow.
"It is...heartening, to see them return. Such creatures are a treasure, in these days."
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 6:08 pm
“They are, aren’t they,” Kaifeng agreed, beaming down at the teacup pig in his hands, and then at Muri. “I’m gonna set this one back down with the others, then we can get moving to the place you wanted to show us?”
A quick nod confirmed that that was alright, so Kaifeng made good time on returning the little red pig over to the others.As soon as Kaifeng returned from taking the pig back to its group, Murikabushi let him and Helene down one of the thirteen spoke-like avenues that sprawled out from the city’s center. “I’m not really sure what the place in question is,” he admitted. “At least, I haven’t gotten one of Airan’s memories back about it, and I obviously can’t read the language? But Yuki and I were going through the place together on another visit, and I’m pretty sure that we found some pendant with your knotwork heart symbol on it, Helene, so I thought maybe you would know?”
Even if he didn’t, the pendant belonged more with him and Kaifeng than with Murikabushi. It just felt more correct for them to have it. Somewhat more importantly to Muri personally, more time spent with Helene was a good thing, no matter what the pretext.As Muri led them deeper into the city, past so many tightly-cramped buildings that could have been anything, once upon a time—apartments or townhomes, storefronts, taverns and the like—Kaifeng stuck close to Helene’s side. With his hands freed up, he reached for one of Helene’s hands and entwined their fingers. It was a small gesture, something simple and hopefully unobtrusive overall. But Kaifeng also hoped that it would provide Helene with some sense of reassurance, and some sense of stability while Muri filled the silence as he planned to do.“It’s also a good chance to talk? And to ask you something, if you don’t mind,” Murikabushi went on, with a (not too terribly nervous) glance aside at Helene. “So, I’ve sort of struggled with my magic, ever since I Awakened. Not all of it was over the whole ‘Dark Mirror found me first and it wasn’t right for me, please get this Chaos off my starseed’ thing, either, or the whole ‘Awakening late does weird stuff to a starseed, apparently’ of the situation? It’s more been the fact that hunger can cover a lot of different things. Like, sure, there’s literal hunger, but a lot of different cultures on Earth independently came up with works of poetry using hunger as a figurative way of discussing sexual desire. There’s a whole genre of TV shows where you’re likely to hear competitors say that they’re hungry for a win.
“And then there’s hunger for things that are actively detrimental to your own wellbeing, or to other people’s.” Murikabushi paused for a moment, swallowing thickly as he remembered the two big incidents that fed into his complicated emotions about all of this. “I met Kerberos a little while after I Awakened and he said he’d help me learn some of the ropes. Using my magic on him made him want to drink when he’s been sober for years. He didn’t slip up on that, he had a good support network. After him, though, I met Faustite—the Negaverse General-King who Kaifeng helped me leave holiday gifts for last year—and he wanted a demonstration of my magic. It triggered him to actually relapse. That would be bad enough on its own, no matter what his substance of choice was. But I found out from him after he’d gotten back on the wagon that my magic had specifically triggered his hunger for eating starseeds.”
Yes, it had been a while and Murikabushi had accepted that he couldn’t be blamed for all of what Faustite had done on that bender—not without completely denying Faustite any sense of his own agency, which was bullshit. Still, Muri shuddered at the thought of how many souls Faustite might have claimed and eaten after getting exposed to Muri’s magic like that. How many lights in the universe were now gone forever, completely removed from the reincarnation cycle, because Murikabushi’s magic had triggered Faustite and Faustite hadn’t been able to pull himself back. Not until he’d already indulged like a party-twink with daddy issues and some molly.
“Which, I know, is all a lot of backstory with no clear question yet? And it’s a little hard to phrase an exact question when there’s so much wrapped up in this for me? Especially since there’s been a lot of alcohol abuse in my family. A lot of people I love have been hurt by problems like these—myself included—and having magic that can trigger people like that has weighed heavy on me for a while.” Murikabushi shrugged, looking to Helene with an earnest expression. “I just thought……you always strike me as somebody who understands the burden of magic that can affect people so much? And like someone who might know a lot about exercising restraint and trying not to hurt people unnecessarily with one’s magic? And I’d like to hear about your thoughts and experiences with……” Muri gestured vaguely. “All of this about self-restraint and magic and things?”
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 9:51 pm
Helene nodded, as Murikabushi explained the place they were going. He could think of multiple reasons that his knotwork heart might be found somewhere on this world; he would have to see it in context to be entirely certain. These specific streets didn't feel notably familiar, but that didn't mean anything; it was possible he'd come here while thoroughly distracted by something or another, and hadn't bothered to remember the place.
Unlikely, perhaps; Helene tried to remember things; but it had been a thousand years, and some details might have slipped.
"I will try to remember, if I can," he said.
And as they walked, he was granted the pleasure of holding Kaifeng's hand.
To have his zhiyin by his side, so ready to show affection, was a gift he would never be able to truly repay.
Murikabushi's question was....difficult, though. Difficult, but perhaps indeed something Helene could offer assistance with. Complicated magic was indeed a heavy burden to bear, and Hunger was a sphere to be treated with much care and consideration.
"It is true that you have been given a great burden to bear, with the powers of the Senshi of Hunger," Helene said. "My magic...is not so immediately harmful, but pinning people down under the gaze of inhibition can have...unexpected effects. As yours did, on Kerberos or General-King Faustite." And it was a monstrous thing, what Faustite had done--consuming the souls of Cosmos only knew how many people.
"We Senshi are given these powers for a reason. We are the defenders of our worlds--and often we are teachers and guides. Magic like yours can help a person identify what it is they truly hunger for, just as mine can help a person truly think throguh a complex decision rather than rushing in. And, sometimes--the magic must be turned on others to stop them from doing harm. Make an officer think twice about the shame of pulling a starseed, or make one of their twisted Senshi too distracted by hunger to attack an innocent. We may not have the kindest or the gentlest magic, but that merely means that we must be thoughtful. Not that it is wrong."
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Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2024 3:45 pm
Having sort of talked to Muri ahead of time about him wanting to Friend Helene, Kaifeng had had an inkling that Muri was going to ask about serious things. He hadn’t quite expected the full scope of what was on Muri’s mind, but keeping his hand wound up with Helene’s helped keep Kaifeng grounded and not super swept away in the heavy emotions of it all. In case Helene needed extra encouragement—and because he was doing really well on listening and offering his insights, especially since he tended to be more reserved while Muri could be quite bombastic as a person—Kaifeng took a moment to nuzzle reassuringly at Helene’s shoulder.It made sense that Helene needed a moment to think, given everything that Muri had dropped on him. Nothing about this question or the surrounding topic could really be considered simple. Plenty of nuances and potential complications lurked in basically every aspect of things, and Helene always seemed like someone who preferred to be circumspect. Someone who tried to account for as many potential outcomes as he could reasonably expect before taking any actions.
His answer bore that out. Thoughtful, considerate, more sensitive than a lot of people would likely expect from him in light of how little Helene cared for playing nicely with most people (not that he went out of his way to be cruel, as far as Murikabushi could tell, but he also didn’t try to make friends with most people). After Helene spoke his piece, Murikabushi walked in silence for a moment, mulling over everything that Helene had said. Hilariously (to Muri and probably Muri alone), a lot of his advice resembled some thoughts that Heliodor had once had about ways that Muri could use his magic……ways that his magic could help people rather than hurt them.
“Well, completely agreed on sometimes needing to use our magic against people, whether we like it or not,” Murikabushi said, trying not to let the silence go on too long even though he was still thinking about what Helene had said, still turning that advice over in his mind. “I would really like to use my magic to help people like that, somehow. Obviously, it’s better if we can avoid using our magic to cause harm at all, but……sometimes, people don’t give you that option. I’ve always felt that one of our highest duties as senshi is to protect people, and in order to do that, sometimes personal distaste needs to take a backseat to necessity.”
Murikabushi did understand where Sonora was coming from, hoping to avoid conflict as much as possible and not wanting to hurt anybody. He did respect her steadfast commitment to non-violence, and to being a Knight in her own way, even though so many people in this war wanted to force her hand about it and make her choose violence. Choosing to commit to her own philosophy of doing no harm took strength, especially in a world and a war where so many people were so quick to hurt others. But, just like he’d told her while giving her self-defense lessons up here, he still also believed that sometimes, people made it so the way to do the least harm to the fewest people overall was to stand up with them and push back.
Like Obaasan had said, paraphrasing Kwame Ture: in order for non-violence to work, the person causing problems needed to be open to changing their mind or halting their actions without forcing their hand. Some people didn’t operate like that, either generally or in specific situations. (Much as Murikabushi didn’t really enjoy admitting it, Faustite was probably on that list more often than not. Yes, he’d been hurt—repeatedly, for years, probably by more people than Muri could count. But it wasn’t unfair to acknowledge that, with the way Faustite was, he didn’t always keep himself open to non-violent solutions.
Still kinda wanting to kiss him while also knowing these things was probably a serious mark against Muri on several levels, but……hey. On the other hand, maybe it would never be an issue in the first place. General-Sovereign or not, and regardless of his loyalty to the Negaverse, Faustite would probably get in trouble for kissing on Order senshi boys. He probably knew that well enough to not let Muri put them in that position. Maybe he just didn’t want to kiss on Order senshi boys without dragging them into the Negaverse first, which Muri didn’t want. Maybe a lot of things. But that was all a lot of hypotheticals that would likely remain giant question marks for a long while.)
“I do wish it were easier to, I don’t know, modulate how much power we put into our magic,” Muri went on, looking at the buildings around them because there was a turn to take around here somewhere, before they’d get to the townhouse where he and Yuki had found the pendant with Helene’s symbol. He’d remember it when they got there. Hard to miss, since a smaller public circle and fountain sat near the intersection, with something that looked like a temple only a little ways off. Muri felt like they were getting close, at least. He recalled the withered black rose garlands hanging over some of these lintels, and the way some of the townhouses had paintings in the window that looked like religious icons or prayer cards of Airan (which Murikabushi really hoped they weren’t).
(He was trying his best to reckon with the potential implications of people having these paintings where Airan had been done up like some kind of saint, sometimes with a nasty scar on his neck and sometimes outright bleeding from an open wound in the same general spot. Unfortunately, what Murikabushi had learned about his world’s history so far had pointed to a revolution against the monarchy that had involved several people getting sent to the guillotine. Considering how many signs he’d found of people revering Airan after the revolution, it seemed strange that he might have gotten sent to the guillotine himself, but……maybe someone in power had feared how much the people had eventually rallied behind their senshi? Maybe Airan’s determination to care for his people had made him a threat to someone else’s power?
That much, though, Murikabushi could understand. He didn’t really enjoy the thought that Airan had suffered for so much of his life, only to potentially end up getting a traitor’s execution, but from a historian’s perspective, he could understand how such things might have happened. It was the increasingly overt religious iconography that didn’t sit right with Muri, and that made him frown and stick a little closer to Kaifeng and Helene as they passed the townhouses with the paintings of Airan in their windows. People hadn’t really worshiped him like that, right? Sure, he had been their senshi and he’d tried his best to help people, even before the revolution that had liberated him as much as them, but everyone had known that Airan was only a mortal person. Nobody had worshiped him, they’d simply wanted a new senshi to come save them after Airan’s death, right?
………Right?)
“Obviously, it would create a lot of potential problems if we could do that,” Muri acknowledged with a soft sigh. “Some senshi, in all of the different factions, would definitely decide to put their all into their magic with the intent to cause greater harm. But still, I’d love to more easily scale the power of my magic back. Like, before I got things settled and stable after the whole late Awakening business, one of the disruptive things my magic would do was come out more or less powerful than I wanted. It would be nice to do something like use the most basic form of my magic and make a conscious decision to put less power into it, so that I could use my magic like how you’re suggesting—to help identify people’s real needs in life—without quite as much risk of hurting them.”
As Murikabushi said so, the tight-crammed city street opened up into the public circle he’d been looking for. This one lacked the extensive gardens of the one at the capital city’s center, and the fountain at the middle was somewhat more understated. Carved from something that looked like white jade—unearthly perfect white jade, but white jade nevertheless—the statue in the middle of the fountain was only about as tall as Helene, rather than towering over people like the huge statue of Airan did.
Frankly, the statue resembled Helene in more ways than height, as well. While the figure depicted here lacked his delicately curved antlers, the hair and face were dead ringers for Helene (at least in Murikabushi’s opinion). Even though the expression was somewhat softer than Muri usually saw Helene wearing personally, the angles and overall construction were all correct. The billowing sleeves on the statue’s robes matched with Helene’s fuku, but that might have been coincidence more than anything.
About the only thing that Muri couldn’t directly connect with Helene was the fact that the statue’s hands had been carved holding what sure looked like a baby rabbit. But considering whom the statue depicted, he was willing to chalk that point up to some kind of divine iconography choices.“……Huh,” Kaifeng piped up as Muri led him and Helene into this new, specific city square. Although he didn’t break off from holding Helene’s hand, Kaifeng did lean a bit away from Helene’s shoulder so he could peer curiously up at the white jade statue. “Y’know, Xingyi-ge put a statue almost exactly like this one in this, like, personal shrine kind of area that he built around our code piece. D’you happen to know……” Kaifeng shrugged and made a throaty, noncommittal sound to match. “I don’t know, anything about it all?”
While they did have further to go and Kaifeng knew that, he also paused their advance a moment, so he could get a better look at this particular statue.“Not entirely surprising,” Murikabushi said, falling into an easy stop beside Helene and Kaifeng. If the latter needed a moment to look more at this statue, then that was okay and Muri really didn’t mind letting him have that. “As far as I’ve gathered from Airan’s memories? This statue depicts the old Murikabushian god of mercy. I don’t think your Xingyi carved it himself? Or if he did, I’d be really surprised, since he had other duties to see to and carving something like this would take a while? But he definitely designed the image of this god that the actual sculptor wound up using.”
That statement earned Muri a quizzical head-tilt from Kaifeng—which was fair enough, so Muri explained, “When Yuki and I first found our way here, I had a past life memory thing happen. It had your Xingyi-Kaifeng in it.” Muri doubted that Xingyi-Kaifeng had been sober in the memory, but it also felt kinder not to say so, especially given the Xingyi and Helene of it all. “Airan was trying to drag him somewhere he wouldn’t get himself in trouble, but he wanted to stop and moon over the statue. While he did that, Airan tried to talk about how people had chosen to give the sculptor some iconographic paintings Xingyi had done of this god, references for him to use while working on the statue.”
Taking a deep breath, Murikabushi glanced to Helene. “Airan tried to point out that the paintings had had a strong resemblance to you,” he said, “and Xingyi didn’t confirm or deny that he’d based his paintings on you? But the smug kitten kinda face he made while saying ‘Your worship is entitled to his opinions’ when Airan said ‘It looks like a painting of Huanxi’? Made me think that Airan was probably right.”
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Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2024 8:20 pm
Helene let Murikabushi turn over what he'd said. The issue of magic like theirs--of magic that did harm at a core emotional level--was a thorny one. There had been Senshi whose people feared the, once, for the power they wielded; while that had not been something Helene experienced, he still found himself often...removed from others because of who--what--he was.
A model of expectations. Pleasant and unpleasant alike.
But it was clear that Murikabushi was thinking about this quite thoroughly, and while Helene took in some of the sights around them and let him talk, he turned over the implications and the depths of the ideas presented.
"Indeed. It is noble to avoid violence when violence is unnecessary. But on occasion, it becomes thoroughly necessary."
Everything Helene knew about Chaos made that more than clear.
"Moderating our magic....mn. Yes, that would be an elegant solution to such a problem. Unfortunately, our spells do not work that way; such malfunctions are just that. Malfunctions, out of our control." Even if the idea was appealing. Hold one's power, to ensure that only the right amount of damage was done, when necessary.
"But our magic works as it works, does as it does. Which means we must be the ones to be responsible. Sit with people, while they endure its effects, if we intend to use it to help. Moderate things in other ways."
It sounded easy, when Helene put it that way, but he knew Murikabushi would understand that it was not.
And then they found their destination, and Helene stopped dead, blinking up at the statue before him.
There was no denying it. That very much did look like....him. Like a Helenian.
"Xingyi was....kind, to do such. I...." Suddenly, the presence of his symbol here seemed to make....all the more sense. "Perhaps he left the Helenian symbol, as well."
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