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 Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2025 11:46 am
Quote: featuring Helene, Kaifeng, Jet, and Kaifeng’s Code Piece!
Despite the phrasing, his tone didn’t make a question out of it. At this point, Kaifeng didn’t feel like he had any plausible deniability for pretending like there was a perfectly normal amount of steps in this process. Already, he and the companions he’d brought tonight had materialized by his Wonder’s stagnant river and made their way over the blasted field to the looming black tower at its center. Heading up several flights of stairs, Kaifeng had delightedly told the tale of coming here for the first time, of how he’d entered without a signet ring and had fallen through the trapdoor into the catacombs.
The room into the study that led to the Code Piece remained unlocked. These days, nobody came or went from Kaifeng whom its Knight didn’t choose to bring with him. Besides, he liked the painting Xingyi-ge had put on the sliding tile puzzle lock. After that, it had been easy to open up the sliding bookshelf door and grab the white jade carved into Helene’s senshi symbol, the knotwork heart. Kaifeng had made this journey several times in the past year or so since coming up here to commune with his Wonder’s Code Piece. Whenever he came on his own or with Helene, the long hallway full of portraits didn’t feel quite so long. The tilted walls didn’t feel quite so close-in. All of this felt straightforward, even enjoyable.
Of course, most of the time, Kaifeng wasn’t at his Wonder with a Negaverse General-Sovereign who wanted to speak with his Code Piece.
Nor was he here to do something that felt so strange because there was a major existential threat like the Herald of the Dark Star or whatever the world-eater’s name was.
“Sincerest apologies for how much my predecessor put into this,” Kaifeng told Jet earnestly, readying the three trinkets he needed for the next lock. “Enough people back then tried to dig up and rob the graves here, he probably thought he needed so many steps to protect something as important as our Wonder’s Code Piece. If it helps any? The Code Piece is just beyond that door, in the back of the next room.”
Kaifeng left off the part where he and Helene, thankfully, hadn’t gotten any of these steps wrong before, but it wouldn’t have surprised him for Xingyi to have traps rigged up. He’d found plenty of them elsewhere in the tower before, so it made logical sense for Xingyi to put them around the Code Piece. But it distinctly wasn’t the time to say so. For all Jet was largely keeping it together, the General-Sovereign seemed like he’d been through the wringer more than enough recently and there wasn’t any need to make things worse by seeming to threaten him.
At the end of the hall, the next lock—the second-to-last one, thankfully—waited. The statue of the winged wolf sat with one paw raised like a maneki-neko, with the three indentations by his paws. Above the door hung the paintings that served as clues, and Kaifeng was ready to place the three trinkets in the correct order: the silver silk moth talisman would match with the painting of Helene playing his qin in the grass outside his private residence; the white jade carving of his senshi symbol would match with Xingyi-ge’s self-portrait, where he sat beside bushes of black roses and the white flowers from Helene, which Huanxi’s mother had loved so much; and the silver medallion (with its inlaid black jade carved in the shape of rose blossoms, and inlaid amethysts shaped like Murikabushi’s perpetually unsatisfied ouroboros symbol) would match with the American Gothic-looking painting of Xingyi’s parents.Guine Sorry it took me a hot minute to finish this start! ❤️
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2025 1:35 pm
Helene was still not sure this was an entirely wise course of action. Bringing a Negaverse General-King to one of the most well-protected and important places on Kaifeng...
Well. It was Kaifeng's Wonder, and he was the ultimate arbiter of who did or didn't go anywhere on it. And given the scale of the threat they all faced, it made sense to suspend some concerns of "sides." So he had stowed his objections, even if he was mostly a silent presence as they crossed the Wonder and came throguh to the Code Piece. He was already disinclined to chatter, and Kaifeng certainly filled the air with more than enough enthusiasm to make up for his silence, he thought.
"Appreciate your respect of this place," he told Jet, finally, as they stood before the painting puzzle lock. "I would not have expected it, and am glad to be proven wrong."
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:39 pm
There was a lot for Jet to think about. The highest priority was for Earth, of course. With a potential threat on its way, they had a seemingly impossible race against the clock to find out as much as they could, build whatever was necessary to fight or trap the creature, and hope that it would be enough to not end in mass destruction, or worse.
And while Jet absolutely had the Earth at the front of his mind, he still had to try to stay calm and collected over the fact that he was on Saturn??
Finding a Knight to take them to their Wonder wasn’t as difficult as he’d expected. And thanks to a few people vouching for his desire to resolve the problem with the space creature coming to eat them, he was relieved to have both this Knight take him. And his associated Senshi, Jet guessed.
Not that he wasn’t known for his associated partner. The thought alone had him reaching up to scratch his ear, adjusting the earring he wore as he thought about how Aquamarine probably would have preferred to be there with him. If only to make sure he stayed out of trouble.
He hadn’t been aware of the billions of steps it would take to actually get to this so-called Code, though. Up flights of stairs, puzzles with paintings that made no sense to him.
While he paid attention to everything happening around him, he doubted he’d ever be back there. Especially if the Code proved to be a dead-end.
It didn’t help that he was exhausted. He’d slept, mostly due to Aquamarine and Seraphinite nagging him about it. If he wasn’t worried about them going to the Queen about it, he might have tried sneaking out to get more work done.
Still, he couldn’t help but look at the portraits of people he could only assume were associated with Saturn, or at least that Wonder. There was a moment that he paused at a strangely familiar looking man. The gleam in his eyes and slight twitch of his mouth were perfectly captured by the artist. It was an eerie sensation, something like deja vu, but Jet decided to shake it off and keep moving.
“Don’t worry about it. Security is important, no matter where,” he said to Kaifeng’s apology. It was a pain in the a**, but Jet was willing to tolerate whatever was necessary if it meant getting answers.
“You didn’t expect it from me or because you think the Negaverse only knows destruction and ruin?” he gave Helene a weary glance, but didn’t press him further about his thoughts. There was a lot that Jet wanted to ask, wanted to see, but making sure they had every chance to save Earth was more important than his curiosities.
The wolf statue and moths were interesting, as were the flower bushes. It was a shame they didn’t seem to have any piano there. Not that he had time to play it.
“You’ve spoken with the Code often? How should I address it? I don’t want my ignorance to come off as rude.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 2:02 am
General-King Jet’s tolerance of all the necessary steps, and his ostensible understanding of the whole situation, got a small, but earnest, smile out of Kaifeng. Whatever the state of things was between Order and the Negaverse most of the time, it was good to see that people could—and that some people would—come together, that they would put aside those differences in the face of this Calamitous Hollow thing. Whether or not it meant anything in the long run, there was no predicting.
But hopefully, this collaboration meant that there would be a long run.
“I’ve been up here on a couple occasions, yes,” Kaifeng said as he placed the trinkets to open the lock before them. Within the walls, something heavy lurched, same as it always did when the lock came undone. Then, the door opened, sliding aside to let them in. “What the Code Piece and I have done before hasn’t exactly been talking, though.… Last year, the main Code needed us Knights to sort of commune with our Wonders’ Code Pieces. When I’ve come after that, I haven’t used words so much as vibes—which isn’t really helpful, but……”
Kaifeng shrugged, leading the way into the room of devotional altars, with its ornate statues and paintings of different gods and bodhisattvas Xingyi-ge had revered, in his time. “As long as you address the Code Piece respectfully, I don’t think it minds much? ‘Code’ should work if you need to call it by name.”
The Code might not have been happy about Jet’s presence, Kaifeng thought, but……well. He could deal with that. He’d have to. Right now, with eight billion some-odd people’s lives hanging in the balance, they didn’t have the luxury of refusing each other’s help over the issue of who stood with Order and who stood with Chaos.
Gingerly, careful to mind his hoop-skirt, Kaifeng maneuvered around the statue of Dizang-pusa (carved out of black stone that felt familiar now but still unearthly, with his wish-granting gem in one hand, the staff with its decorative curves, and the intricately carved crown) and the statue of Guanyin Ma (its white stone body equally unearthly, but her serene expression warm, welcoming, and soothing, as though she really could solve whatever problems anyone brought before her). Their presence made him feel even more assured that bringing Jet here was for everyone’s benefit. In Xingyi-ge’s time, he had revered figures from Earth’s spiritual traditions, as well as some from Murikabushian and Saturnian traditions. Even if his duties had taken him elsewhere, he must have had some attachment to Earth after studying for so long at the old Knight Academy.
Xingyi-ge had chosen to venerate, among the other divine beings herein depicted, one bodhisattva who would grant aid and compassion to anyone who called on her, and one who had vowed to refuse Buddhahood for himself until every Naraka was empty and every wretched being in them had been redeemed. That was the same sort of guiding principle that Liánlí-Kaifeng wanted to bring to his Knighthood.
“The Code Piece is just in the back-corner shrine,” Kaifeng told Jet, hoping to give him some peace of mind that they were almost there. “It opens with my signet ring, no more puzzles or anything.”
Through the matched earrings that he and Helene had found down in the wine cellar with Bélénos, Kaifeng sent to Helene, Does he seem tired, Huan-ge? Or is that just me?
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 2:44 am
Helene did not seem particularly fussed by Jet's question, nor his expression. He had brought it up first, and he recognized that there had bene something of an implied insult in his phrasing.
"It is not your Negaverse that I take issue with. Not specifically. It is Chaos in general. My experience with it..." He exhaled between his teeth. "A force of destruction and ruin, as you say. For my world, for my people. But as I have learned many times since coming to Earth, my past experiences are often...less relevant than I expect them to be. And it was not your Negaverse that destroyed my world."
The very fact that they were here, working together, was proof that things were different. That Jet could care enough to want to fight for his planet spoke well of him, whatever Helene thought of his Chaotic masters.
He fell silent again after that, content to let Kaifeng guide them the last bit of the way. The Code would make its own decisions as to whether or not it would answer Jet, and that was all there was to that.
He paused, just a bit away from the shrine that held the Code Piece, and took a moment to glance over at Jet as he considered Kaifeng's question.
He does, yes. Perhaps unsurprising, for someone with such responsibility as a General-King must have, in such dire times.
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 10:34 am
Jet watched as the Knight did his preparations. Watched as he placed trinkets as keys, observed sliding doors, listened to him explain what the Code Piece had done in the past.
“Every Knight has a Code Piece?” he asked, trying to understand it. It sounded strange. Was it a scroll of some sort? A set of digital numbers? Some weird statue? It was difficult to imagine something he’d never thought about before, much less seen.
But one thing he did know… There was way too much going on at this Wonder. Why did he have to get an offer from someone who had a million steps to take? Couldn’t he just go with someone who had their Code right there? Or maybe this was the case for all Knights. He knew beggars couldn’t be choosers, but he was going to be frustrated if he wasted all this time and got nothing from the journey.
It would just be proof that the Negaverse was truly on their own, despite the assistance from a few individuals.
“It sounds like the Chaos you’ve experienced was poorly managed,” Jet hummed thoughtfully as he continued along with them, nodding when Kaifeng let him know they were at least close to the Code.
“Chaos can be seen as a tool in many ways. Power that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Sure, some might decide to take years to try and build up their own power and not rely on what might be considered an easy solution. But sometimes there isn’t time,” he shared, still looking thoughtfully around at the Wonder and its strange statues and decorations.
“You’re right. The Negaverse didn’t destroy your world. We have no intention of destroying our world, either. Just as you think poorly of ‘Chaos in general,’ wouldn’t that mean it’s my right to think poorly of the White Moon, who are trying to destroy us? Not that it matters right now. We have a threat from beyond the stars to deal with. But the Negaverse will protect Earth, by any means necessary.”
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