voidtreckernet | video | orchestra one, immediately post platform

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video | orchestra one, immediately post platform

( Lan Jingyi, appearing briefly on ICP, soaked from head to toe, actively dripping water with his hair and ribbon plastered down either side of his face, his, er, nightgown likewise... plastered... against him... and it's white, this is a wet shirt contest and no one told anyone who showed up on platform, they all just suffered together. )

Look, if anyone's trying to find me and is confused why I'm not in my tiny short bed cabin, I'm staying in the "inn" carriage the next week.

( that's it, that's him wanting to inform the ones who'd probably want to know but being in a less than happy mood to track everyone down so doing it in the most broadreaching, effective way the train's got going for it. )

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( He gestures for Taiki to come in if he likes, though his body posture's relaxed, indicating that it's just as fine if he doesn't want to. It also means he hasn't done anything about the food still resting at the threshold, aside from not knock into it, being aware of it resting there. He'll bring it in, but hasn't gotten around to it yet. )

Physical education? So they taught you how to run, how to fall, how to climb, how to swim, stuff like that?

( Jingyi, having a wildly different concept of physical education's parameters. )

[He does go in, picking up the food on the way to place on the table inside. There for when Jingyi wants it but unlikely to be tripped over or spoiled.]

Yes. We ran and played games... Like Tidus' sports games I guess. I wasn't very good at it. People didn't think it was good to play sports with me, so by the end my teachers just let me sit out and read.

Huh. Sounds so... weird. Not like we didn't play around too, but our physical education was in training. How's your endurance?

( But to the food, he gestures, nodding to his friend. The clasp of his hands together and the shallow bow offered is of gratitude and manners, even if he's not smiling when he speaks. Just neutral, but eyes soft, not looking for hard answers or filled with thoughts too hard to be dismissed. )

Thank you for this, you didn't have to, and it's kind that you did.

It's... I'm sick a lot so my endurance often isn't very good.

[Now, here on the train he is probably the most healthy he has been in years, despite the bouts of blood sickness every time there is a mission. But he had spent years with his very essence being corrupted and poisoned, even after he had been saved it had taken him a long time to build up strength and then Asen's blow to him had caused him more problems.]

I wanted to... I know... It must be hard for you right now.

Mm, it's hard for everyone.

( how to explain, it's collective factors, it's reminders that so few of us have happier endings, the complications, everything. he settles at the table, looking over what Taiki had brought along. then his focus is back on his friend, head canted. )

Sick often for what reasons? Yin and yang out of balance? Qi blockages?

[It was hard for everyone but sometimes it was harder for specific people. And right now Jingyi had lost a close friend, next month it might be someone else.

He tilted his head.] Kirin cannot be around blood or violence. Blood makes us sick and feverish. It is why I am often not around for a few days after a mission... But also before when I lived on earth I suffered from esui, which is a kirin disease...

[He tilted his head.] I have recovered from that though there are often times I am weak.

Edited (spelled the weird odly specific kirin illness wrong) 2021-11-08 10:40 (UTC)

( A curious cock of his head, arms folded over the table. )

Even your own?

( When it comes to blood, that is. )

What kind of wards do you work with to help with that? Or charms, I guess, I don't know what your two worlds have to offer when it comes down to it.

Yes. [He nodded.] Though I am lucky that Kirin heal faster than humans. [Mortal humans at least, part of being an immortal creature.

But at the other question he shook his head.] We don't really have such a thing. Not for illness. At least um... Not that I've ever come across.

No, well, some things like that can, but I mean for blood, with you saying yours triggers you to. Which by the way, would have been good to know before, right?

( He lifts his brows, staring at Taiki. He doesn't remember much from when drunk, but enough of snippets. Massage mostly, but also things from after. )

Warding your clothes and the rest so they help protect you, things like that. Is it the scent of blood, the sight, or the qi escaping like that? That sickens you, if you even know.

[He at least looks slightly shamed at that. He's not great at telling people things. He knows that.]

The sight, the smell. I think it's... It makes me afraid but it also makes me ill. It's hard to even move or think. Lea gave me a coat from his world, it keeps impurities out. It doesn't stop the blood sickness but it helps a little... I wear it on missions when I can.

[Truthfully he's not sure if it actually helps or if it's just a placebo, something that he thinks helps and allows him to push through the sickness that little bit longer.]

( looking slightly shame is not a Goal, per say, but an awareness. )

Friends should tell friends important things. Not everything, everyone has secrets, but that seems like it's one of the things friends should know.

( how else do they watch out for each other, if they exist in ignorance? it's something he's almost overcompensated with, the words he'll shove at others, because otherwise his complaints... )

Mm, we might be able to make something for helping with the scent... just to help you move, if it does that. Strong scents though, is your nose as sensitive as mine? How distinct are smells to you?

( He glances down at the food, then up again; he could eat, and he will, but he's not as motivated to in the particular moment. )

[He hadn't meant to keep it a secret, it had just never come up. He hadn't meant to leave him in ignorance. Indeed he had spoken to Jingyi so much about so many things that he hadn't realised that he hadn't told him this particular thing about him.]

Um I guess... It is quite sensitive. More than most humans but not actually as sensitive as an actual deer or horse... [Or any animal.]

( it helps when you have someone who directly asks questions, but a problem when he doesn't know which ones to ask. for now, he listens, tail giving a speculative twitch in consideration behind him, held up in a lazy arc so it's visible off to the side of the table. )

So somewhat less than mine... that's good. Did you know I can track people based on scent?

( His expression is beleaguered. He figures while Taiki might not have the same capacity, he can at least understand being Other enough while looking Human enough that people find the unexpected differences strange. )

No, because no one knows. Except you now. What about your other senses? Or the parts you have when you're kirin?

I didn't... [Something he hadn't known about his friend. Though it made sense, he was a dragon and that seemed something dragons should do.

And now he knows.]

I guess... I know when there is something dangerous sometimes. Predators. Even if I can't see them, or hear them consciously I guess?

[It's hard to explain, just a feeling.]

Does that include people like bandits?

( He looks like he might start poking at what Taiki brought by now, though he also indicates: )

Will you have any?

( As more of a, will you join me, than thinking Taiki does or doesn't need to eat. )

I guess yes... Though whenever I've been attacked by bandits I have had the luck to be with people who are very competent.

[Risai had no supernatural sense, just her eyes and yet she had always known when they were being followed.

He smiled and nodded.] If you wish to share, yes. [Food shared always tasted better after all.]

"Please."

He settled back, his tail giving another lazy curl over, easier in company than in solitude that did nothing but leave his mind annoyingly open to thinking unhelpful thoughts. Leaving the tray of food between them, he picked up something easy to hold and near swallowed it whole.

When he could speak, after, he said, "Does your speed translate between forms? If you needed to get away."

He saw down next to Jingyi, taking some food himself and eating it slowly, watching Jingyi. He's worried about him but for now this is the best he can do, give him food and company.

Let him talk when he needed to.

"Not exactly... I am not fast in this form but I can transform quickly and... Sometimes I can make it that I can not be grabbed, if I am trying to escape... I can more through people and things trying to hold me in place..."

It had happened as a child and it had happened again when Tidus had tried to stop him diving off the cliff after Lord Gyousou.

"Move through people? Without causing injury to yourself?" He presumed the obvious was that the ones moved through also weren't injured. Taiki couldn't, not with what else they'd spoken about.

"Does that mean moving through restraints like ropes or the same? Kind of sounds like a useful thing to work on, so it's more dependable than sometimes, as long as it doesn't injure you."

"I've never been injured by it..." And neither had anyone else. "I don't know. I can't do it all the time. It's usually only..."

He looked up at him. "If I am doing something for Lord Gyousou, if he is in danger, if I need to reach him. Sometimes I can do things that should be impossible."

"Hmm... Do you think it's something you could train in?"

He cocked his head to the side, examining Taiki's face. "It'd make you even more deliberate in your actions when you're moving to help your Lord Gyousou, in the future. Or to at least get him back out of danger, since you shouldn't be in direct danger either, and if he is, you're only going to end up heartbroken faster."

"I..." He blinked. "I guess so..."

Train in the impossible. It would not be easy. Not for the first time he wished he could speak to other kirin, to Keiki more. To Enki or Renrin. He would not wish them to be on this train apart from their kingdoms but there was still so much he did not know.

He knew some of the things he could do were impossible, wrong, against everything he knew about kirin. But others. Like this, like moving through things. Was that something other kirin could do?

What else was a kirin capable of in defence of their king?

"You are right though. I lack... Most kirin have shirei, demons we bound to work with us in defence of our kirin. They are our defence and our kings defence. I don't have shirei and so I must find other ways to keep Lord Gyousou safe."

Jingyi paused, lifting both eyebrows in a slow, incredulous way.

"Other kirin bind demons into the service of themselves and their kings? How often does that go horrifically wrong? I know you might not know, but I'm absolutely betting it happens."

All oddities and massive differences between their three worlds aside, demons are at least familiar territory, and creatures that powerful and that self-aware are dangerous, always. Bound or not, there will be some way to break the binding; more that he believes in no absolutes with safety, long trained out of them.

"It can be very dangerous." He nodded. "It's not easy... If your power isn't interesting enough they might just run away but if you have power for them to be interested in then your will must be strong, I only ever bound one and it took me over an entire day, staring at it until it backed down."

Most were not that difficult, Gohran had been a special case. But it was no easy feat and he was very painfully aware of how having demons in his service could go horrifically wrong.

He laughed, shaking his head. "Xiao Ki, you stared down a demon. In context of my world, that's both hilarious and unbelievable."

But it made him think, and thinking meant his tail lifted and the tip fell over to the right, then twitched over into an arcing fall to the left, lazy and following his thoughtful moment flop by flop.

"Who're you unofficially bonded with on train?"

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