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 Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2024 12:59 am
Getting taken in by Pyrrhus and the new Kaifeng had been a distinct blessing that Heibing hadn’t wanted to take for granted. He could have simply crash-landed on this bright, strange planet, and gone on his own way, which sounded like a gods-awful nightmare. Terrible, horrible idea. Something not even worth thinking about because dwelling on bad energies like that could easily summon them into one’s life. Best to simply move forward, accepting the good fortune that had decided to come Heibing’s way when he’d found his best friend again so soon after landing on Earth.
(Looking around for anyone bearing the name of Bernard’s old homeworld, the name of Seiche’s old Wonder, or the name Troilus, had so far yielded no results. Disconcerting.
Considering all the Knights in town seemed to be either reincarnations or descendents of those who’d been active during the Silver Millennium, it was too much to hope that Seiche had somehow made it. Obviously, Bernard hadn’t, taken down by his and Ryla’s ill-fated attempts to harness the power of that stupid crown. Maybe Imnolu still had, though? But Heibing didn’t know if that was fair of him to hope for, since Seiche and Taran would have died. Sure, having Imnolu himself back would have been amazing for Ryla and Heibing, but was it really fair to wish on Imnolu a life without his son and husband?
Of course that little s**t wasn’t even around to appreciate that he was one of the only people in the universe for whom Heibing entertained such questions, even in the privacy of his own mind. Just Imnolu’s luck to miss out on something like that.)
Only one aspect of the new home-life really stood out as a major unknown quantity. Namely, the fellow alien senshi who was currently minding his own business in the living room. Technically, Heibing didn’t know Dewey-Who-Was-Also-Stribor either and couldn’t recall ever having been to his planet. But Huanxi Xin had been many things during the Silver Millennium, and one of the most obvious ones was “appallingly, painfully in love with a Saturn Knight and too stupid to just tell him so.” Changing that state of affairs left several things about Huanxi Xin up for debate, as far as Heibing had yet been able to tell.
Strictly speaking, Heibing was not getting very many answers from lurking outside the door into the living room and peering at Huanxi from around the lintel, rather than simply talking to him. He wasn’t really trying to conceal himself, either. Doing that would’ve felt like condescending to Huanxi, which really didn’t feel like a good move so soon after landing on this planet.
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Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2024 7:15 pm
Having Thalassa and Pyrrhus--Heibing and Rylafein--around was....well, it was something. Huanxi remembered them, of course, but he had known them in a very different way than he did now. They had been frustrations, problem-causers, thieves and mercenaries with no principles, who cared only for profit and for each other.
But a thousand years made much difference.
And in any case, Lianli was kind, and wanted to give them a place to stay, and Helene saw no reason to disagree with that course of action. They had so far been decent about the whole arrangement, and that was really all he could ask for.
Even if lurking in the living room doorway while Huanxi lounged on the couch and tuned his guitar was not the most courteous of behaviors.
"Something I may do for you, Heibing Morningstar?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2024 7:57 pm
“I have questions on my mind,” Heibing said when Huanxi spoke to him, not bothering to wait because……what? He had been addressed directly. When people spoke to you, the best thing to do was to speak to them back—at least, if they deserved it, which Heibing was generally inclined to think that Huanxi did, as a fellow senshi and a fellow survivor of a thousand years in Chaos-inflicted Hell.
With a soft huff, Heibing eased himself out from behind the lintel and into the doorway proper. The clothes he wore were borrowed from Liánlí: something called a “tee shirt,” basic black and bearing art of some energetic-looking “cartoon-style” skeleton and a dog that was supposed to be a ghost; and a pair of black leggings lined with fleece, which Heibing did not currently have words for how much he appreciated (they were warm. so very warm. for much of his life, cold had been dangerous but had never been truly unpleasant, but temperatures that would have once struck Heibing as balmy and pleasant now felt <******** horrible).
His only real complaint was that the “tee shirt” thing had fairly short sleeves. Short enough to leave about half of the scars on his inner arms exposed for anybody to see. He hadn’t given much thought to said scars until shortly after moving into the house, having just gotten used to them being there, but……now, Heibing was around other people again. Which meant that the other people in question might get weird and uncomfortable about his scars, which Heibing didn’t particularly want to deal with.
Also, the short sleeves maybe needed more layers either under or over them. Heibing would need to look into that.
“Debating whether or not I actually want to ask said questions, but I’m definitely not getting answers from observing you in silence.” He paused for a moment, debating where to invite himself in the room. Ultimately, he decided on the sofa’s armrest that left more room between himself and Huanxi, then climbed up to perch on it, folding himself up in the way he often did when stuck on dry land. “Congratulations on getting romantic things figured out with Liánlí.… Do you need condolences about your Xingyi? Don’t know how true it is or isn’t, but the rumor I heard there was that he went down fighting to keep some slobbering, unwashed hordes from ******** up his Wonder. Which I always thought sounded like him. And it would be quite brave of him, if true.”
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Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2024 8:57 pm
Ah. Questions. Perhaps Huanxi should have expected that; the change in his circumstances was not insignificant.
He set his guitar aside and closed its case; his practice could wait until he and Heibing were finished speaking. That was the least respect he owed a fellow long survivor, or anyone, really.
"Mn. I do not consider myself so unapproachable that I cannot answer questions asked in good faith," he said, and he shifted to sit properly, more fully upright. He noted Heibing's odd posture--but it really wasn't his business to question that sort of thing. Perhaps it was more comfortable.
"The condolences are appreciated, as are the congratulations," Huanxi said. "It is true that Xingyi died to protect his Wonder." Perhaps not in direct combat, but it was still the case. "Would have wanted to be there to help him--but I have been given a second chance with Lianli, and I am more than grateful for that."
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Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2024 12:09 pm
The way that Huanxi phrased his confirmation of how the previous Knight of Kaifeng had died earned a quirked eyebrow and a set of pursed lips out of Heibing. True, it was a confirmation, but there was enough vagueness to imply that Heibing hadn’t really gotten the full truth of the situation from the old rumors. Which was fair enough, and he should’ve expected that more. Some ancient rumors had once led people to believe that Heibing repeatedly returned from his grave to wreak some kind of terrible vengeance because people kept insisting that he had died when he hadn’t.
Still, there were other things to discuss.
“Mn, less a matter of thinking you unapproachable and more a matter of preferring to make my own initial observations. That approach does have its limitations, though—especially since you make far less about yourself visible and obvious than most people do.” There were quirks of body language and facial movements, but Heibing hadn’t nearly spent enough time in Huanxi’s company to have learned his unique cocktail of such things. The specific ways that his face moved or shifted, however slightly, through his different expressions (which all tended to look, on the surface, very much the same).
“Most people are fairly easy puzzles to crack, give or take some room for cultural differences, or an unexpected dark secret, or something like that. You’ve always been much subtler about everything except your Knights of Kaifeng. Not deceptive or worse, dissembling, but finely nuanced.” Heibing hummed, tapping one hand’s fingertips on his shin. “Leads people to underestimate you, I should think. Or to incorrectly presume that choosing to behave decently makes you incapable of choosing to act otherwise.”
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Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2024 3:27 pm
Well. Heibing was refreshingly honest about his perceptions, at least. It was true, Huanxi knew, that people found him difficult to read, but frankly, he considered that something of an advantage.
"My people," he said, "valued keeping our hearts close. Overt displays were unseemly. Se no reason to abandon such, not after so long." It would feel unnatural, anyway. Huanxi was simply not a loudly expressive person, and that was the way of it.
"In any case, as you say, it can be an advantage. People forget that care and diplomacy and restraint are all choices, and that the opposite choice is also always available, should it become necessary." Perhaps in the past, he wouldn't have said such. But Chaos had ruined his world and wanted to ruin Earth too. There was no reason to be overly polite and reserved when sometimes, reality made it so that people needed to be taught a strong lesson.
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Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2024 2:47 pm
Heibing nodded in both agreement and understanding. “Entirely abandoning your people’s culture and traditions sounds like a betrayal of where you came from,” he said. “It would for any of us who’ve made it from back then. Obviously, there are some traditions that we can’t entirely carry on. Like, the fighting pits that Ryla and that……” Pursing his lips, Heibing wrinkled his nose and made a throaty, humming sound. “That one. What’s his name. Big. Pink. Belligerent. Absolutely massive hair. Tiger tail. That……”
Seething quietly, Heibing flapped one of his hands around at nothing in particular until finally it came to him: “Corvina!”
A quick huff, and then Heibing picked up as if he hadn’t needed that digression to remember the name of one of Ryla’s other friends: “Obviously, the fighting pits and arenas that they used to have on his world and on Pyrrhus? Not going to work anymore. The humans have laws against that here in most circumstances.”
There were, Heibing had gathered, exceptions to this. Sports that mostly consisted of hitting each other. But none of them really had the drama and the high stakes of the arenas that had once existed on Pyrrhus and Corvina—and the nominal sport that did was apparently more a form of theater under the thin veneer of athletics. Also, people mostly didn’t die in these displays, which was a huge mark against them in Heibing’s opinion.
“Even if you tell the humans that there’s cultural or spiritual significance to fighting each other to either death or dishonor, they won’t let you get away with that. Honestly, that’s probably more right than not on their part. Makes their sporting displays incredibly boring, sure, but—I don’t know if you ever went to Pyrrhus or Corvina? But spiritual significance or not, Ryla’s people and the Corvinates really did love murder for murder’s sake, especially Ryla’s ******** cousin. The less said of Greyna, the better; she truly was the worst.”
For all their assorted flaws and cultural oversights, humans had done extremely well in coining this phrase “the worst.” So incredibly helpful to just deride someone as excessively terrible without needing to specify which particular noun they belonged to. Heibing was keeping it. He didn’t know how well it would translate into either High or Low Thalassan—which was kind of annoying, given some of the specific minutiae their terminology had gotten into and how much of those minutiae were often incredibly ******** it, Heibing was keeping “the WORST.”
For the time being though, he hummed and peered curiously at Huanxi.
“Most of our cultures’ old traditions are probably fine to continue respecting, though. Most of them don’t involve quite as much violence. But somewhat more importantly,” Heibing said, “I was never especially knowledgeable about Helenian culture or tradition……but I do remember some of the talk I heard about you all believing that some souls are bonded together. I also remember that those among my people who ventured off-world had a saying: ‘The rivers of Helene can turn black when you least expect it.’ Loses something in the translation from High Thalassan, true, but it’s meant to say that your people ought not be trifled with unless someone particularly wants to die.”
Briefly, Heibing glanced away, checking to make sure Liánlí wasn’t around to overhear. When he was satisfied, he looked back to Huanxi and asked, “Could someone safely assume that you might choose not to restrain yourself over harm being done to Liánlí? Or to someone seeming to take his kindness for granted?”
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Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2024 3:29 pm
It was a little bit funny, to Huanxi, to watch Heibing struggle to recall Corvina's name. Was that petty? Yes. But Corvina clearly had not changed over the years--was still loud, arrogant, belligerent. Certain that his way was the most correct way, with no acknowledgement of the possibility that anyone else could be right.
So, he would let himself be petty if only inside his own head.
He also kept his opinions on the fighting pits to himself--a waste of life and limb, in his opinion, but there was no point in arguing such. Clearly Heibing had far more affection for bloodsport than Huanxi.
"Avoided those planets, mostly, and worlds like them. Have never had a taste for blood sport, or for the kind of culture that elevates it." Alright, so he would let himself be a little petty out loud. "Corvina lives, by the by. Has entangled himself with the new Lanting, who is a friend of Lianli's." And oh, sometimes Huanxi wished that were not true, but Corvina did seem relentlessly dedicated to his Shuangxu, so that was one of the better things Helene could say about him.
But, ah. The actual question.
"I am not familiar with that saying," Huanxi said, "but the underlying assumption is not inaccurate. And you are correct to assume that someone taking advantage of Lianli would indeed be a reason for me to choose to set aside restraint. Harm to him is intolerable."
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Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2024 4:03 pm
Heibing nodded and gave Huanxi a pensive hum. All good to know, or in some places, good to have confirmed. “Appreciate your candor in saying so,” Heibing said. “Not that I had any plans to cause him harm or to disrespect the kindness he’s shown to me and my best friend. But I appreciate getting to hear it from you so explicitly.” With a wry smile, he added, “Will see to it that, regardless of how many other humans I may decide to disrespect, Liánlí will not be among them. I’m not eager to die after surviving for so long, and I don’t doubt that one such as you could easily kill me if I earned your outrage.”
The other point that Huanxi had raised in there, though, mostly earned a shrug. “Corvina sounds like someone else’s problem,” he said. “He was always Ryla’s friend, not so much mine.… If he ever makes you put him in his place, I’d bet on you without hesitation. One of his biggest failings is how easily he overestimates his own abilities and underestimates those of others, all because he’s big, and loud, and good at hitting things. All of his people used to be like that to some degree, and I guess you can’t entirely expect the boy not to have internalized what he was raised with. Still, his way of handling things never would have worked on Thalassa.”
Maybe it wasn’t necessary to add anything else, but Heibing decided to say it anyway: “Another saying we had, some variation found in every tribe: ‘A chieftain who must proclaim his right to rule is no true chieftain.’”
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Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2024 5:03 pm
Huanxi gave Heibing a brief nod. He was happy to confirm the obvious truth that he would gladly destroy anyone who harmed Lianli, no matter how. Perhaps Lianli did not require the protection, but he would offer it nonetheless.
"I appreciate your confidence in my abilities," he said. If there was nothing else true of them, Thalassa and Pyrrhus were fierce warriors, and to receive Heibing's respect for his strength felt quite nice. "Would gladly put Corvina in his place, if he made it necessary. He has not, yet."
Yet.
"Mn. My people were not so pithy about it, but we believed similarly. A braggart rarely has the skill he claims."
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Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2024 5:39 pm
“For his sake, I hope Corvina avoids giving you reason to educate him on why he shouldn’t mistake self-restraint for weakness,” Heibing said, though the idea of what that could look like still brought a small smile to his lips. “It would be some funny comeuppance for his arrogance, but he probably wouldn’t enjoy it.”
Heibing would have enjoyed it, though. Helene beating Corvina into the dirt sounded funny.
Getting off the couch’s armrest was a bit of an awkward process. For most of his life, Heibing hadn’t exactly been agile, certainly not such that he would’ve done backflips out of crouched and curled up positions like this. Still, Heibing found his way to his feet and unfurled back to his full height, stretching his arms over his head and working out a knot in his back as he went.
“Good talk, Huanxi Xin,” Heibing said pleasantly. “I’ll let you return to your music, though I may also return later with tea to share.”
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