voidtreckernet | merriment 16 ; video (before platform stop)

...Those are options.

[ That's just, huh. Tidus is blinking between surprise and blank. Options he was expecting out of that list: none.

He wants to ask 'Why a chicken coop?', but the obvious reason is holding him back - despite really wanting to ask it, his mouth opening and closing, brow dipping. ]

Huh. [ This is more incredulous than the bouncy house, apparently. ] The lab doesn't have a place for forging?

( tidus. tidus. have pity in those of us who didn't understand bouncy house as a concept and offered up... vaguely... use...ful? suggestions?

... train, just know he lives in dreams of a functional chicken carriage. let's get more self sufficient around here, bless.

he scrunches his nose a touch... and lifts his shoulders in a shrug. )

Maybe? Not one I recognise.

[ Well, isn't that a shame. Maybe he can talk to Q'uila about that, but just sticking a forge...somewhere on the train without a plan sounds tricky (which isn't to say he's thinking that deeply about it either). Though, for right now- ]

You know how to use one?

Huh? Yeah, between basics and reforging for stuff that needs it.

( Read: he got to play with fire and metal and bang things and noises were made. He's not any expert, far from it, but swords and the like have their own fascination and needs when it came to upkeep. Tools related to their trade were important: those were what they made themselves, versus what was purchased elsewhere. )

Mostly for swords, some other tools cultivators need, and some small work. Why?

[ Now it's Tidus's time to give a small shrug. ]

I don't know anything about you. [ The basic of it. ] And I don't know how common it is to know how to use one. Or raise...chickens. Person to person, you know? I lived outside that kind of life.

I think I saw a forge once when I was travelling.

[ So his mind is wondering about the picture to build. ]

( For his part, Jingyi shrugs. )

Common or not, I don't know. And technically I've never raised chickens.

( He pauses, then shrugs again, not bothering to explain the whys. Rabbits were a happy accident under an umbrella of tolerance. Chickens would be noisy, in a way the rabbits weren't, and he thinks that never would have worked the same way. Besides, chicken eggs, duck eggs, what didn't they buy from town? )

Never had a swing, either, but I've seen them before in manors and multi-courtyard homes in different towns.

( A more thoughtful pause, and: )

Far as I can tell, even if I think I know someone, we've still all lived different lives.

Sure - it's more just painting an image, I guess. [ He tips his head in place of a shrug. ] Either you brought it up 'cause you're familiar with it or you're just pulling out ideas.

[ Nothing deeper to it than that. And so, it turned out to be a mix of the two. ]

Wonder how much a bunch of chickens would love it every time we made stops. [ Now that's a funny thought. ] Those things can go mad.

( suddenly thinking about calligraphy, and hahaha, twitch. )

If it's really pulling whatever ideas I'd be saying whatever I half remember from where we just were. Like, I don't know. Dance poles? Would those even count as large? Oh, aerial silks! That was at the same place... I don't know, thinking of wanting things feels weird when it's like, okay, what do we do with the thing? Not like we have limitless space around here.

( ... but still, chicken coop. Okay. )

Oooh, I've only seen them in people's courtyards, going after the bugs and whatever else. I think I saw one eat a lizard?

( Maybe that's another reason not to have chickens at Gusu, they'd go around terrorising the rest of the life and pecking at toes. )

Least they're terrible fliers, can't get too far and you can snatch them and tuck them under and arm and hah! Chick-caught!

Hey man, if you can't think of much, that's fine. I can't either - s'why I'm asking. Don't know how we'd set up a dance pole - [ would Inigo even like those? ] - but uh, actually, I probably won't know how to set up anything that's been brought up.

[ Even the chicken coop. Okay, no, he could probably figure it out. Still! He actually means to ask about aerial silks (because ????), but listening to the guy go on about chickens... ]

...now I don't know who'd eat who first if we got a bunch of chickens.

[ all the animal pets around

or the chickens ]

Eh, we'd figure things out eventually. Most constructing things should be straightforward, right?

( Jingyi takes a moment to consider. Consider. Consiiiider.... )

... There is a fox. Several foxes. I wonder if you could ward against foxes, even if one of them could break wards because he's a cheating fox spirit.

Wards? [ Uhh, hmm. Tidus is thinking about it. ] Do you know how to make animal traps? I don't - but I guess there's a few hunters. [ Ah- ] Senku might know?

[ He mutters that more than anything, a thought to himself. But, speaking normally again: ]

You're gonna have to stick a chicken coop in the garden car at any rate. ...and see how many people know how to raise chickens in the first place.

No, I don't exactly, though I have an idea of it. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian would know, their clan's known for hunting, and I think Wen Sizhui would know too? Between them and Senku, it might be enough, but you'd have to have like, people-intelligence-grade wards to fend off that one guy.

( Shen Qingqiu, who he might not. Know the name of. )

Sure, sure, the garden car would be easy to spread feed in... would mean ordering seed, can we order bugs? ... How are people pollinating the plants right now in the greenhouse anyway.

( he's not actually asking, he's just realising he's not thought about it. )

There's gotta be someone who knows this stuff properly, I can just handle the cooking, start to end.

Oh. That kind of fox? [ That kind of fox. Jingyi keeps using guy, but he's still talking about a fox, right. (What's the difference after a point.)

And that might not be a real question, but Tidus still thinks he might have a helpful answer, in that: ] We have a spring goddess?

[ Helpful answer that means 'I have no clue but I know she can grow plants, that counts right, she polli-whatevers the plants'.

Does Jingyi know what a goddess is anyway, Tidus barely does. ]

Well if you let me know what people think... we don't have to make ideas anyway. I mean. If we got a coop. [ ...does he want to buy a chicken coop? Not really, but. ] Or even the forge. I know Q'uila's using magic to make fire, or, was - but if there's actually space or something for that, I'd help. I was tryna help get stuff people could craft with. Magic stones.

[ Sooooo.

Might as well, right?? ]

Fox yao.

( He says, as if this explains everything. Which... it doesn't. Unless one already knew contextually what it was, or had a concept of fox spirits as seducers and clever tricksters, which some might indeed have. )

... Huh? Geez, getting some people's gods pulled here... gotta feel weird for them.

( He gets the concept, but less the aspects; he doesn't have inherent beliefs in any gods himself, so it's interesting, but at a remove. It doesn't occur to him this is the Persephone that Senku has mentioned to him before. )

Ah, sure? Not like I'm trying to really convince people this or that way. If it's stuff others think is worthwhile, I'll help. Except for the bouncy house. Pretty sure whatever that is, I'd break.

( Straight up. Also, he definitely would. )

Huh, magic stones? Are those anything like spiritual stones, or... what do they do? Spiritual stones can be refined, and there's... a whole bunch of technique involved with pill crafting or item creating and cauldrons and fire manipulation, I can help with some of that. Air feeds fire, right? It's why I might be useful for it, I don't know how many people here have element affiliations or not.

[ Tidus will absolutely pretend to understand what 'fox yao' is. Does it sound like 'fox ya'? Then fox ya bro, same.

But he hums otherwise, listening to Jingyi - and it's the last he can explain, of course, though how well is another thing. ]

Sure, maybe? Uh, definitely talk to Q'uila. [ Already starting off good! ] But in Spira, where I'm from, I know they use stones and...magic? My pal Rikku, she didn't use magic, but she knew how to use items and make stuff. Make our gear stronger, things like that.

[ Oh, and doesn't he have? Tidus looks off-screen for a second, and raising his right arm - where a band is wrapped around his wrist - a crystal-blue gem materialises in a golden colouring, before that fades. ]

So this is an ice gem! If I shake it around enough, I can make it go haywire and make a big ice storm. [ DOESN'T THAT SOUND SAFE. ] But I know people craft it to items! Uh, [ he turns the stone around to look at it, wiggling his hand a little (it's cold, okay) ] --least, I'm sure they do?

I don't know anything about crafting. [ Admittedly. Truthfully. And also, he's going to make the gem disappear now. ] Soo... if anyone can do anything with them on the train - they can mess around with them!

[ sounds safe ]

( Hey, if the train's helpful, then it sounds like "fox demon/devil," which here applies to various people on train, potentially, and on your perspective on what Jingyi himself counts as, given his shapeshifting and dragon soul.

He does, however, lean in toward the ICP with a curious sound. )

We'd use talismans for that, but I won't lie, that's fascinating! I wonder if we could do something... similar? You should ask Wei-qianbei, either of them. I could help them, but they're the inventive ones.

( ... he's more the guy willing to try most anything. )

I'll show any of you, if you want. I've got some of the gear from Spira too - shields, some brooches and the like.

[ But he guesses he can talk to that troublemaker Wei....Wuxian. He hopes that's referring to Wuxian. All he hears is 'real old man'!!! ]

But the talismans - they're the paper with the words on them, aren't they? A Wei gave me a few. You can just put magic in them?

( Jingyi sighs, but it's the sigh of someone trying to figure out how to frame things instead of an exasperated or tired one. A whole language of Jingyi sighs, please no one bother learning them. )

Magic means something different to you, I think? None of it's magic to us, it's use of natural world rules and processes and spiritual energies. Talismans are more, ah... stupidly seen as lesser than other forms of cultivation? 'Cause it makes those processes held and usable by more than cultivators, in some cases.

Soooo no, we don't put magic in them exactly, but we do give them instructions of something to do. Fire's a useful one, yeah? You can say what kind of heat, the kind of intensity of fire, the length of it lasting. You can store energy in one, or you can have it pull on the world energies around it. They're passive until activated in most cases, or they're like the spirit attracting or spirit repelling ones, working as long as you're not binding them to not. Talismans are really just the paper ones, most the time, the ones that you use once. You can have protective talismans carved in jade or other stones, or wards carved into wood or stone for an area, or...

( He pauses, rubbing his forehead. )

Okay, sure, basically we can. The clans with their noses stuck too far up their own self importance think it's too tricky to be honest, but they're useful, not everything's a direct fight blade to blade, you know?

[ That...was a lot more than Tidus was expecting. A lot more than he feels like he can process, but not because Jingyi isn't explaining it well. He wears a frown that's puzzled, waiting until he's spoken. Biting for a second on his inner lip. ]

Is...calling it magic rude? [ He sounds cautious, like ultimately, he's not trying to be rude. ] I guess for me, that's just- I mean, everything what you said is magic to me. Using energy to make things happen, mixing stuff into potions, anything with stones with fire in 'em - I don't know any better.

[ He makes a flat palm with one hand, and then points the fingers of his other hand towards it. ]

But- so that's what you do: You put energy into the talisman that makes it do what you want to. Basically? And it can be fire... or whatever you make it be. But the writing, uh - decides it?

[ He's sure that's what Jingyi just said, but he's making sure! ]

Yeah, basically it is. So if you write it wrong, things don't work, or do something unexpected.

( His brow furrows a touch, because rude is a question he turns over. )

... As far as rude, it would be to most my elders. We train and study for years; magic is in folktales, not cultivation. But to the people who tell folktales, we are magic.

( He reaches up, tapping a finger against one of his horns. )

Not that any of the other people I know are actually from my world, but on mine, how else would you understand someone both human and dragon, both equally true? Our souls are different, tangibly, but most people will never feel that. All you see is someone look like a human, look like me, or be a dragon way bigger than anything else you've seen walking around, and we talk, we control the elements, we fight civilly with swords and not tooth and claw. So... maybe yeah, I don't mind as much, though my 'magic' is changing form, not the seals or talismans or other cultivation techniques I perform.

( He snorts, then offers Tidus a shrug. )

Makes sense that to you, it's all magic, 'cause to me what you said means you've all got another form of talismans, wards, and the rest. We get what we get based on what we knew, right? Like trying to figure things out here and getting them wrong because it isn't familiar where you thought maybe it kind of was, annoyingly enough.

...Magic makes my head hurt. [ Is the conclusion Tidus comes to after all that, letting out a sigh and rubbing the side of his head. Less because it actually hurts, but just - his head feels full, a lot of concepts being spoken about he barely brushes against in life. ]

To be honest, I didn't know anything about magic 'til about a year ago. So things like types of it or what people believe - I know the basics where I'm from enough to use it, and that's about it. But I know there's different ways of doing it from the different people that've been here. It's just, hearing a lot about it...

[ He rings his hands around one another. It's like his head's turned into a washing machine. ]

Yeah. [ Yeah. He'd be repeating himself otherwise, so he leaves it to that. Rolls his lips for a moment, before- ] Sorry. Uh, it's a lot for me to take in - souls and dragons and that. I used to live away from things like that. Stuff like...souls. Or more fantastical.

[ He's struggling here, evident in his expression, the way he bumbles in trying to speak.

He is too simple for the supernatural. ]

Huh, then you're pretty fast at adapting.

( Which might seem offbase, but he means it as a compliment: one year is new, very little time to be wrestling with concepts one had nowhere in their life before. He smiles at that, at least. )

Most people back home are supposed to live away from it all too. That's why we, ( a hooked thumb at himself ) tuck away horns and tails going into most towns. We come in to deal with all the stuff most people can't, so it stops hurting whoever it's hurting, and leave again, so they can keep living their lives like they plan. Demons, devils, imps, ghosts, curses, possessions, rumoured resurrections, that's what cultivators are for.

We weren't even like that. [ That's still close - where those things exist, where in Zanarkand.. ] Imagine somewhere... like Jinnjar, right? But take away the powers- [ ah, powers! He clicks his fingers, a side-thought: ] Powers - let's call what you do your powers, not magic!

[ anyway, anyway! ] --So, none of that! Just a city with machines in it, and that's where I'm from. No stories, no folklore - none of that. We weren't just humans, so you could do whatever you wanted with your bits. And that- that was Zanarkand for me. My home.

[ Essentially, Tidus realises, or really already knew: ] The total opposite of where you come from. Can you even imagine it?

[ It must sound...empty. ]

Only 'cause of Jinnjar.

( If that's going to end up their incidental line, he can roll with that. The train for him is that same microcosm, minus the concept of multiple species; Jinnjar had considered itself all human. He leans against whatever surface is convenient, arms crossed over his chest loosely. )

Usual people, living usual lives, in a place of insanely tall buildings, with all this "technology" and these inventions I've never heard of, let alone seen in action. Sounds kind of fun, really.

( A small shift from his more general resting face of neutrality or irritation; Jingyi in repose has a tendency to look serious in spite of himself. Which might explain something about why he's so often talking. Like now, with the curl of his lips up at one corner. )

Like someplace worth seeing. I can't recommend my home the same ways—most of you would hate it, you'd all stand out far too much, and with everyone's shorn hair, you won't even look filial. Gusu Lan would be polite, we always are, but even our guests live under our precepts in lightened form. Yet there's nowhere as beautiful as our mountains, our waterfalls, the forests, the rivers on one side, the sea on the far side. No impressive machines, no cities that build so high they're in the skies, and... ( he pulls himself out of the nostalgia that's bordering on homesickness from just one month, shaking his head. ) ... And frankly, only shades of black and brown hair, mostly black and brown eyes. Do you have any idea how overwhelming the train is, let alone Jinnjar, with how insanely different people look from each other here? It's like a... a... ( uncrossing his arms to gesture, searching for words. ) Like a field of vibrant wildflowers dancing in the wind on a blinding spring day. Who can look away?

( He sounds mildly annoyed by this. )

[ He could fight Jingyi on his certainty of beauty, but that's a fight without a winner, only an outlook Tidus can sympathise with. A homesickness too, from the different sides.

But it's the last that he says that gets a scoff out of Tidus, a grin that turns playful. ]

You know, I'm starting to think I can guess everyone from the same kind of world as you by the people who talk about the hair. [ Hair, always hair! ]

And every time it comes up, I say you can change your hair too! But you won't either, huh? Don't want to try a blond? This brand's staying in pretty well.

[ He gestures to his hair. ]

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