Anarion

Breathless Dead

Chen is full of smiles, suppressed giggles, and enthusiastic nods every time that Yue taps her. They are great dancers and such a cute couple. It makes her feel giddy and joyful and the spark that sits with these two is real. Which makes it even weirder that none of them have developed proper qi before this. Like...what's the rest of the universe got going on that it can produce lovers like this who still feel so empty?

It's not a question she asks anybody, especially since she already asked it to Bella anyway. But it's the question still with her when the lovers have finished their waltzes and their tangos, and Bella stands before her yet again with her commitment. Chen smiles at first, but then she furrows her brow very seriously and looks at Redana first. "You're full of hope and joy and you're both one of the cutest couples I've ever seen, seriously! I think you'll have a wonderful time exploring here, but your girlfriend doesn't have everything she needs to make the promise she just made me. She's too hurt."

"Will you both come with me and Yue? I'd like to take you to the Sky Castle so you can meet Princess Jessic. We can all have tea and cookies, it will be lovely. She's the one who counseled me when I was at a low point and I have a lot of faith in her as a trainer and a wise ear to share your troubles. Also there's a Sky Castle and you can't miss that while you're here. Like...it's a castle in the sky, that's just cool, y'know?"

Then she turns and looks over at Bella, her chin tilted up and tail back for balance so she can look right into Bella's eyes despite the height difference. "I meant what I said before, okay Bella? I fought you, I felt how you were feeling. Do not try another fight until you find a path to heal. Like...physically and mentally, you know? Being motivated to fight so you can give me all the spankings I deserve is great" her mouth twitches up in a hint of a smile at that thought. "But you have stuff you need to let go of too, I'm sure of it. Whatever's in your heart that makes you feel so tense that you have to be ready to fight every second of every day combined with every injury stacked up on you. You gotta let that go before I'll pick up a sword against you again."

She gives Bella the most earnest eyes. But then when she's done, she gestures to Yue to get out one of her bigger swords so that Yue can fly Bella (who's a bit big to fit on a longsword with Chen) and Chen can fly Redana up to the Sky Castle.

Return to Thellamie

And here she had thought it took a starlight blessing to face a star. Well...maybe it did though, and it was just that this time Yuki wasn't the one full of Starlight, but more like somebody else's tool. Even so, the blow was hers, the dance was hers, and the blessing had been hers too. She smiles as she looks at the foliage. She rather liked the forest anyway, even the sort of rotted, fungal stuff. It had an earthy, calming air to it. Just as long as it wasn't trying to actively poison you.

Yuki takes a deep breath. A breath full of green, of earth, and also of calm and heart. It's a breath in the outside, where all around her there is a dark sky full of stars and a new moon visible by its absence. The dance hall and the wait staff are long gone, though Yuki's lace still flows around her, as real as anything can be real here.

It is that rustle of skirts that is the first thing you hear, Hazel, as the firm hand that grips your own settles in. It comes before the weight of some vast and unseen paw loosens upon you and the new moon proves itself to be the shape of a dragon. And you feel that you can stand and walk together. "Here" says Yuki, and you find that you can indeed stand and walk where you need to go.

Breathless Dead

Chen gives Yue a warm smile, of the kind only available to close friends who can understand each other, quickly. It says that she might well have done the same, if Yue hadn’t effectively given her advance notice. “I gathered something was weird from how your duel appeared.” She widens that smile into an almost impish grin. “But that just makes this something new and exciting, right? We’ll figure it out!”

Then, she gathers her dress and carefully waddles her way over to Bella, whom she stares up at for a moment from her shoulder level height. There is not much in this dainty movement that would scream world’s top duelist at you. But then, if you are looking closely, she still has that control over her body that comes only from the muscle memory built over years of training. You can see that, Bella, as it mirrors many of your own movements.

Chen looks Bella up and down. Glances at her arms, lingers on her legs and the set of her feet. “Bella, it’s a pleasure to really meet you.” She curtsies. “I say really because you just asked an Important question to you, right? I can tell that much, and so I’m really meeting you now. But I’m not sure why it’s so important to you. And I need to know to answer you right.”

She thinks for a moment, puts one finger on her chin, then digs down into her bag and pulls out a small canvas, a brush, and some ink, which she sets up next to Bella, plopping down onto her knees to work on it.

“Like, okay. Let me kind of set this up. In terms of training and skill with a sword, I don’t think I’m bragging when I say I’m top three on this continent, and Yue’s like…I dunno, maybe in the top one-fifty. She’s got a lot of flash and she’s been practicing really really hard, but she’s like a decade behind some of the people that have trained since they were little kids. You can’t just make that up overnight with a big heart.” Chen dips her brush and draws a small diagram of something like a little bracket with the character for sword next to it, putting her name and Yue’s name on it with Chen’s near the top and Yue’s further down.

“But like…Yue’d beat a lot of the folks ranked higher than her because she puts her whole heart into every duel she does. Dueling is a lot about heart and lots of people don’t always put their whole heart into it when they’re fighting.” She makes a few marks on the bracket showing Yue advancing up a couple rows, despite being the underdog in each matchup.

“And then, I might lose to someone if the duel isn’t just about who’s the best trained. If they’ve got a style or a secret sword that’s really good against me, or if my heart isn’t in it, then I’m in trouble.” Chen stops and considers for a moment, she doesn’t paint herself falling down the bracket, but instead takes a separate sheet of paper and makes a little sketch of herself running up a halberd. You can see from the stance that she’s losing her balance at the key moment. “You’re new here, but I famously lost a huge duel to someone ranked way lower than me a while ago because my heart was extremely not in it at the time. And what you should know about me is that my secret swords aren’t really about fighting. My Princess domain is making a kingdom where you can safely and freely have your body and your clothes reflect your heart and that’s how I use my sunshard.” She gestures to herself and her outfit, and caresses her own thick fluffy tail, even giving it a little nibble before lowering it. “I didn’t look like a snow leopard until I got my sunshard, and I didn’t dress like this until I got really comfy with my girlfriend and my other friends. Now I defend a little domain where everybody who lives there gets to run through the same self-expression, and I have some powers to make your heart express itself, especially if it’s repressed.” She turns and gives Yue a special little smile.

“So, if I were defending my domain, or if there’s some prize I really want and I set my whole heart and will to getting it, I’ve got good odds of beating just about everybody.” She smiles and paints herself moving to the top of the bracket that she labels with the character for heart above the one for sword.

Then she stands up and gestures at Bella with her brush, up and down again. “You have the body and carriage of someone who has trained her poise and balance for her entire life. By every right you ought to be one of the greatest duelists I’ve ever met. But for some reason, you have no qi that I can sense at all and you’re holding every muscle in your body with extreme tension and more than a few tells that you’re compensating for major injuries.” She comes right up to Bella and for just an instant there’s a glow from her forehead like a star come down between you. “And despite all that, you already wear exactly the form your heart desires. It almost feels to me like you don’t believe you’re allowed to want anything more than what you have. Is that it maybe?”

Chen paints a little outline of Bella beside the brackets with a question mark. Then she stands and picks up her paintbrush, with just a bit of ink at the tip. “No, but then this question mattered to you, so you want something, even if it's about keeping what you already have. Here, it might be faster if I give you a lesson. I’ll duel you with this.”

Chen holds up the paintbrush with a smile. Unlike Yue, she doesn’t magically teleport away from where she’s supposed to be or anything of that sort. Chen has taught the sword to Yue and to several princesses at this point, so she’s a bit better at gauging her opponent and determining what they need to learn. She runs up, quickly but still flouncing in her dress, and swipes the paintbrush at Bella, who nimbly leaps out of the way. And then Chen lightly steps to where Bella is landing and draws a little line of ink across the fur at her chest with a whisk of her brush. It is eminently visible, and indeed Bella might feel like she could have dodged it, only she did not.

“The ink is water soluble, by the by, so it will wash off, in case you’re worried.” Chen offers another small curtsy. “That dodge was way faster than me, but you committed to the motion in a way that offered you no ability to adjust anything you were doing once you’d done it, and with a very stiff body too. So when I wanted to hit you with a follow up hit, I could.”

Chen comes up from her curtsy into Bella’s charging follow up and takes one step back with her long tail waving behind her, causing her dress to twirl up and offering the onlookers a glimpse of pastel beneath before it slides back down with Bella’s claws. With the hit, there’s no more than a rustle of fabric. “And there too. At the moment that you pounce, you commit completely to the blow. So if I don’t want to get hit, I adjust and I don’t get hit.”

The next blow is parried by the paintbrush with the lightest of movement, sailing over Chen’s head and leaving a dot of ink on Bella’s forearm. “The way you fight is entirely about reaction time. You want to move faster than me so that you can hit me, but that’s relying on injured, tense muscles. Qi is about will. You need the will to hit me more than I want to avoid being hit, not just the muscle strength to strike quickly.”

Chen pivots on her foot, using her tail as balance to follow as Bella sails past and rushes straight at Bella’s exposed back. Bella dodges of course, and Chen corrects for the dodge without moving her feet at all, though slowly enough that Redana and Bella can see it. It looks sort of like Chen floats a bit to the side so that as Bella moves to avoid, the paintbrush moves with her and connects in the small of her back for another dot of ink.

“That’s dueling with qi. You’ve seen me fly on a sword, so why shouldn’t I be able to move in the air to adjust my attack? Now, just to be clear, this doesn’t get rid of the need for good footwork. Fundamentals are crucial so you’re not wasting time, energy, and focus. But adding qi on top of that means that I can move to dodge you. And, since this is about will and intention, I will dodge you because I don’t want to be hit more effectively than you want to hit me.”

Chen gives her impish little grin suddenly. “You’ll forgive me for showing off, but I do want you to understand what this looks like when it’s done faster than Yue can do it, maybe make sure you believe me about how good I am with a sword.” Bella, there is now a line of ink across your neck. Chen is next to you, her puffy clothes flaring in a sudden cold wind that blows across both of you. Her brush is held in a follow through motion with her arm extended behind her, perfectly still. There was no flash or blink, she was just there. Yue, this one was a little fast even for you, like Chen trying for real to hit someone as fast as she could, which she does only very rarely in training.

But also, here’s the thing. Chen intentionally left herself completely open. This is the kind of quickdraw attack that’s supposed to utterly defeat an opponent in one blow (primarily meant for demons or for an opposing princess you knew was good enough that you wouldn’t actually hurt them by accident if you used a sword instead of a brush). Yue can see clearly that Chen could easily be hit right now. And indeed, Bella, you can just barely see it too. That glimpse as she recovers her stance as the momentum wears off. You’re too stiff to do anything decisive, but you’re able to at least hip check her so that she falls and goes rolling and tumbling in all her ruffles and frills.

And…she’s giggling as she curls her tail around herself and rights herself out of the roll and onto her feet. “There, there, that’s it! Whatever you’ve got going on, you clearly want to learn, at least. That’s something, that’s a beautiful spark of qi in your heart. That’s what you need if you want to be a good duelist here. I had my most embarrassing defeats after I got very good at the sword because I didn’t want to duel anymore. I hated how people only saw me for my skill at the sword. I could have given it up entirely to be a painter, but I also didn’t want to stop playing with my friends or doing something I was really good at. I had to relearn why I should love it, why it was fun so I could make it something that didn’t make me feel sick. I was able to make the sword something I was skilled at and that I wanted to do.”

She stops giggling, puts her paintbrush away and signals the end of the duel, brushing off her petticoats and immediately wetting a cloth and beginning to clean the ink off Bella like a good maid. “You’re fighting like your life depends on it, like you have to push through every pain and injury and you hate every second of it. But you also want to learn something better and you’ve got some of the best poise and reflexes I’ve ever seen. I’d rate you as a novice with tremendous potential. I’d offer you more lessons, but I also don’t think you should ever try to fight again until you’ve found a path to heal first.”

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

Meanwhile

Angel of the Deep. You awake far below the surface. It was your nature to do so, or perhaps it was a coincidence of your particular structure being close to the ocean and built on landfill rather than bedrock. It's well known that significant parts of the Silicon Valley Research campuses were built close to water on artificially created land, essentially shrinking various natural estuaries to make room for buildings on scenic ocean roads. Of course, landfill, unlike bedrock, has a fascinating property when exposed to certain types of earthquakes, known as liquefaction, which is pretty much what it sounds like: turning into a liquid. Liquids are notoriously bad at holding up multi-story buildings, leading to their swift sinking deep into the crevice created by the great earthquake a thousand years past.

Regardless, you were protected from the worst of the radiation by water that sat deep underground for many centuries. But recently, it has been drained, and you now stand on the borderline between the cave systems and the truly deep veins full of magma and the most esoteric elements that can remain stable on Earth. You also now find yourself, as you pull free, encountering a group of three humans being menaced by what might be classified as a wingless fire drake: a great lizard larger than a bus, with hardened scales and a frilled crest running from its head to its tail (you know, of course, that it is a drake and not a dragon because it only has four limbs in total, and is lacking wings). Alternately, perhaps the fire drake has found an appropriate meal, in your view.

One of the humans is also carrying an electronic datapad, which can be read if you don't see the need for particularly swift intervention without further information.

Return to Thellamie

A day ago, Yuki would have taken this moment and struck without hesitation. She'd felt the fear of Aria, and the boldness of being a knight, and she'd have looked at this as a moment to rid the world of an evil-doer and struck confidently and quickly.

But then, this has been quite a day, hasn't it? Nearly a whole day in fact, the dance carrying them past midnight into the wee hours of a new morning. A day full of pain and loss and also full of new learning and questions about the shape of the heart. Thellamie has a lot to offer, even if it doesn't fill you aglow with starlight and place you on the royal road.

And Aria Thendragon is not Walking Elm. The latter makes Yuki sick and afraid and her response had been anger and instinct first. She was still angry, would still have struck Walking Elm in anger had the targets been reversed. But Aria...she was tragic, and now Yuki could see that tragedy from a safe place and consider it.

And so the blow she strikes is without hesitation, but it is not a fierce and confident blow, but a gentle one. The slow twirl of an intimate dance, a languid movement through measures of music in which the axe rises and falls and kisses the neck of Aria Thendragon. That for a moment, in Yuki's fullness within the play, she can be great enough to catch even a falling dragon and lay her down to sleep without any unnecessary jostles.

She did not strike to claim the title of lumberjack knight, though it is now irrevocably hers for the great tree she has felled. And she did not strike to save anyone this time. She struck because when she looked at the dragon before her, she saw a queen whose eyes were so very sad. Who did not wish to keep trying to conquer and did not feel any of the joy before her now. Only the sorrow of what was lost. She struck because that was what Aria Thendragon’s heart desired, that she might go back to rest and not be forced yet again through the pain and struggle of a world that had already had its time with her and she with it.

This strike, then, is the greatest gift that Yuki knows how to give to a dragon queen. And she gives it freely, with all of her being.

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

(A minor aside, for the Angel's consideration. Most of the conversation you were having with the Sandrea followers was in a roughly southern dialect of Chinese, and the people with whom you're currently speaking began their conversation in what you'd recognize as Spanish, though more clipped than you would be used to. We have been assuming that you and Ailee's data represent a range of language capability, but just so you are aware).

"Yeah, that's a rare one. Usually the cats don't much care for people, though we're also too small and nutrient poor to make a good meal for them. Well, alright then. Fair trade enough." Hesus gestures to a couple of the people and they begin unloading some goods from the cart. They don't have much salt, but are carrying a small bag for seasoning, and they don't have wood as such but they have a dried out fungal material that will clearly burn in a similar manner. They begin taking some of the meat and bones as you gesture to them.

"So like...you got plans after this?" Hesus asks, starting to become more comfortable in what he now recognizes as a regular and non-hostile interaction. "You want us to send someone back for you after the cat's up? Give you a place to stay or something?"

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

"Uh, that's a lot. I mean like, we just call these things big hunting cats. But that's kind of what everybody in every language calls them, right? Like science cat words that we've found in old books were just old language words for cat that got split up by people who didn't know what the locals were saying. The lizards are rock-borers. I'm Hesus, this is Ilyana, she can tell you the bone names or whatever. I dunno about the marauders though, we're just calling them marauders too cuz they're new and it's not like it's unclear. I guess maybe people are splitting them up by where their different small groups are probably camping, but I dunno."

Hesus stops for a moment to see if any of this is landing. It's clear that he's not sure how to speak to you and stylistically, he took the direct approach and just went through some of the list you tossed out, though it seems like he forgot a couple items in his nervousness.

"Also like, you can just come with us if you want? I think?" He kind of looks at the rest of the caravan to see if that's a concern for anybody, but gets mostly blank stares and a couple uncertain nods that he's the one in charge. "Yeah, I mean, we want to move on and we'd like to collect all this stuff, so maybe you can just come and chat on the way back to the farms and we don't have to worry about trading for the bones now or anything, they'll just be yours and we'll carry them until we arrive and can figure out if you're cool giving them away or you need something. Sound good?"

Return to Thellamie

Yuki spits and it isn't pretty. She likes curry, but that was vile. More like acid reflux than spicy food. But then, well then there are dancers and as the whip taste fades, there is a moment of exultation as well. Yuki, the lumberjack knight doesn't have the worst ring to it, right? And she's still in control of herself, and she's inflicted some damage and and and...it's time to keep going.

Because Yuki knows how to fence and how to dance. She's not a rhythm game pro like Hazel, but her family dances at all the big gatherings, and she's gotten past being afraid of this kind of thing over the course of high school and the last round of Thellamie.

And so after that first whip, as the music goes wild, there is a dance of axe and whip that Alcideo would be proud of, even though if anything it's getting further away from him. The second attempt meets the pole of Yuki's axe and she twists with it, pulling Walking Elm close to her and into a spin of her own, which Yuki then pushes into a hip check as she sways with the frantic music.

And as Walking Elm stumbles and tries to regain her footing, Yuki has moved after her, step and lock arm in arm too close to swing a whip as she dips Walking Elm into a low bow. Only, her other hand, still holding the axe pole, brings the axe head crashing into Walking Elm's head in that bow, dropping her limp and low, so that she's barely conscious. And then they twirl and twirl, Yuki guiding the helpless body of Walking Elm all the way to the door as she swirls amid the maidstaff.

And as she opens the doors and tosses the limp tree to Aria Thendragon, she offers her own final bow. "Trees aren't welcome here at the moment, we're still cleaning up after the party. Next time, send the star, I owe her a rematch."

That was a bluff, but then again, the heady swirls of a fox dance can make some lies greater than the truth, can't they?

[Yuki will axe dance her way to a second fight, 6+6+1+1=14. She will inflict another condition on Walking Elm, she will take Angry on herself from the prior move, she will take a string on Walking Elm, and she will create a superior position of kicking the tree out of the party.]

Breathless Dead

Bella and Redana. Your reverie of sake is interrupted by the arrival of what you would think would be a servitor maid.

You’ll note first that she’s not any species that you’d recognize. Her fur and her build are not entirely dissimilar from Bella, but her ears are more rounded, her coat speckled in gray and black, and her tail is long and fluffy, long enough to trail out behind her and then still wrap around her neck. On Earth, you’d call her a snow leopard girl, but it’s possible that none of you have ever seen anything quite like that before, absent some extremely deep searches in the historical annals of Tellus.

You’ll note second that her maid’s outfit is enough to put even Bella’s most silly kitty meowmeow tea party moments to shame. She has thick puffy sleeves that floof out at the shoulders and arms with lace at the shoulders and wrists. And her apron and dress puff out even more from layers of petticoats and fabric beneath the outer layer such that the area around her waist and legs is almost like an umbrella of fabric and lace every which way. It’s a miracle she moves in it at all! Except that as she lands, she touches down with the measured control over her own body of a ballet dancer.

Actually scratch that first and second bit. What you probably saw first was that she flew into the space from high above, her form silhouetted in moonlight. And that she was riding nothing but a single slender longsword for her flight. All while also carrying a fairly substantial cake dish and wearing a moderately sized bag on her back.

Yue, you’re met by the arrival of your friend and sword instructor, the Princess Chen, who promptly lands next to you, sets down her cake dish, and catches you up in a fabric-filled hug before turning back to your new friends and their sake.

She offers a curtsy. “Hi! I’m sorry to interrupt. You see, I had this cake ready for a picnic a little while ago, but the picnic was cancelled due to the arrival of some new guests in a very large ship. And, well, this sort of strawberry layer cake isn’t going to keep forever, so I thought I’d at least deliver it from the castle of the Northern Wind. And then I sensed a qi duel with only one person out here at the shrine, which seemed really weird because I’m pretty sure Yue doesn’t have a one-person secret sword since the last time we fought. So I came out to look.”

She blushes and curtsies again, deep enough to rustle all her clothes against the ground. “Oh, I’m sorry, my mom will be so mad at me for forgetting all my Princess etiquette. My name is Princess Chen of the Inner Heart, formerly of the Northern Wind. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I hope you don’t mind me joining and bringing cake!”

Return to Thellamie

First action. A cool white light flairs forth and a maid's dress and lace billow out as Yuki steps with one powerful foot to put her whole weight into the the blow of the axe that has sprung into her hands. The blade connects with a satisfying weight that has always sat at the core of Yuki's heart, taking walking elm in the her center of mass, where she had release all those crippling pollens from earlier in the night.

If Yuki had known her biology better, she might have gone for the one hit KO. But she's not confident about where the heart is or what might happen if she struck the head of someone who's part plant. So she took the safe bet and hit the part that had hurt her before as hard as she could, taking it out of the equation. If Walking Elm's heart is somewhere around there, all the better.

Now, there's a moment to consider based on what happens. A moment to think about the maid aspect of the maid knights. The fact is that even with a million stories of warrior maids and anime skateboard maids out there, you're still part of the staff and so you blend into a space. Even in a world of maid knights, a regular maid in the Chrysanthemum simply blended in at the outer walls and saw a threat entering the door with more than enough space to act immediately. That's quite something, isn't it?

And of course, there's the question of why Yuki did that. The rules of the ball didn't seem to be in effect, and the Golden Faun had been swept away in any event (she had known her dance couldn't last). But there isn't really a logical answer. This wasn't Yuki's considered response to a prior threat. This was emotional. Animal. An angry, fearful, lizard brain response combined with good balance, aggressive weight, and something very specific to be afraid of.

So, she attacked quickly and wordlessly and pressed from there.

[Fight with daring: 2+4+1=7. Yuki inflicts a condition on Walking Elm and takes away her ability to counter with her disabling poisons.]