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ph_memes2024-04-02 06:46 pm
TDM #5 - Paradesium [REPRINT]
[Find our plain text version here!] MOD NOTE: April's event for members will take place between April 12-25 and will impact the whole island. As such, any tags taking place here over that time will need to be back- or future-dated unless an alternative is discussed with a mod. Don't worry over the details of this too much--- time is soup, after all. Just something to be aware of. Thanks!
Pumpkin Hollow Gazette
4/2/24 | TDM #5 - Paradesium [REPRINT]
Content Warnings: individual CWs found per prompt in "Further Details"
Forecast: Very rainy! Chance of severe storms.
WELCOME TO PUMPKIN HOLLOW!
By Yorick Aberdeen
Apparently the ferryman needed a bigger boat!
ACROSS TOWN - Since June of 16:53, a steady stream of new arrivals to our sleepy little town has flowed in by ferry, emerging from the fog. And it seems this trend is due to continue, as this past March is on record the highest number of new residents in a single month!
We are incredibly grateful for all of you coming to our home and filling it with life once more, even though the dangers of our local curse have significantly increased since all of you began arriving. This reporter isn’t complaining--- additional harm to my own person notwithstanding!
If you are a new arrival, please report to Town Hall at your leisure so that we can help you find work and permanent lodging. Or don’t! The Oak & Iron is happy to rent you a room for as long as you need. Best of luck to all of you, and as we say in Pumpkin Hollow, may your lanterns always be lit!
CHARITY DRIVE ENCOURAGES CULTURAL EXCHANGE
By Cecil Gershwin Palmer
One of the charming toys created during last year's Doll Picnic.
FESTIVAL GREEN - Preparations are underway for the upcoming annual Doll Picnic. A charity event sponsored by the Artisan’s Guild, this picnic is an Anwyllic tradition that was brought to the island and continued with love. The first Doll Picnic was organized by Dame Meredith Idlewild of the town of Glyn Rhuthun on Kora’s Haven, with the toys being donated to the local children’s hospital after a massive landslide engulfed a local school.
The Artisan’s Guild has baskets of material available for making dolls, including fabric, yarn, stuffing, buttons, and the like. However, tradition states that sourcing materials from the natural world (for example, acorn husks to use as buttons or deadwood to carve for doll arms and legs) results in the toys being blessed by Serrenai, who will watch over the children who play with them. The toys will be donated to local children after the picnic, including those who are ill or whose families can only afford necessities.
Newcomers are explicitly invited to join in the making of toys, and the resulting picnic. As a personal note: the locals have never heard of a teddy bear before. This reporter expects to see several, as we introduce our traditions to their traditions.
PLANTING SEASON BEGINS!
By Yorick Aberdeen
After a difficult winter, the appearance of spring's sprouts lifts our spirits.
NORTHWEST HOLLOW - The spring thaw is in full swing! That means it’s time for our local farmers to begin planting. Town Hall is offering a small reward to any of our newest arrivals who would be interested in assisting with planting season for farms less than a year old.
Anyone fresh off the boat interested in making 100 Brass should seek out Eddie and Angel Kasbrak, Arthur Morgan, Cèsar Salazar, Mairi Miann, Ylva Wolfsdottir, or Muriel and offer assistance with tilling and planting. We look forward to rewarding you for your contributions!
HOT SPRINGS OPEN FOR RELAXATION
By Yorick Aberdeen
Photograph provided by the Safety Board!
CRANE'S RIDGE - After a recent earthquake opened up a hot spring on the lower portion of Crane’s Ridge, a small portion of the Pumpkin Hollow Damage Claims Assessment Corps has been working to get the area cleaned up and safe for use by the general public.
Following its recent approval for compliance by the Safety Board, we are pleased to announce that Porter’s Spring is now available for public enjoyment! It can be accessed by taking the train to the North Station or by following the central trail out of Northwest Hollow, though the Safety Board does not recommend making this journey on foot due to its proximity to Lake Sal-Co-Penn. Enjoy!
STRANGE CAVERNS DISCOVERED BENEATH CRANE’S RIDGE
By Yorick Aberdeen
A small glimpse into this world beneath our own.
CRANE RIDGE - In addition to the hot springs, the earthquake can also be credited for a major cave-in in our Crane’s Ridge mines. A large tunnel was completely buried in rubble by the inexplicable natural occurrence. For the past several months, our mining team has been chipping away at the cave-in to try and regain access to the blocked tunnels in the lower area of the mountain.
In one of these tunnels, however, the team discovered a shocking surprise as the rubble was removed! Apparently, just beyond the mine walls, there has been an entrance to Hepogaia--- a subterranean nation running below our own fair country and many others. It seems that this particular portion of Hepogaian territory is also trapped within the barrier. Brief attempts at scouting by the Safety Board have noted a plethora of subterranean wildlife, both familiar and unfamiliar. This incredible new environment, hiding just out of sight beneath our island, is so full of wonder and splendor that it has earned a fitting name--- “Paradesium.”
A recent ecology study and expedition run by Pumpkin Hollow’s own Dr. Elias Coldwood has redirected their efforts to this new location, but those interested in exploring and scouting out this fantastical new discovery independently are encouraged to pack thoughtfully and travel in groups of two or more! Any information obtained during excursions into Paradesium would be appreciated by the Pumpkin Hollow Board of Safety.
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Charity Drive
The Doll Picnic Charity Drive will run throughout the next two months during our TDM, and there will be an event later on involving posing the dolls for a picnic. Once a photo is taken, the children will be allowed to come picnic with their new toys and take them home after!
There is absolutely no way this could possibly go wrong. Absolutely no dollmakers will be jumpscared or attacked by possessed dolls. None at all. (Okay, maybe some of them. But it’s fine. It’s for a good cause.)
[Mod Note: you can just make a doll without it coming to life and trying to kick your ass, that part is optional. Also the dolls will be blessed at the picnic and rendered unable to attack children.]
Planting Season
Any brand-new characters will get 100B extra on their stipend if they submit an AC-length thread with one of the existing farmers on their first Activity Check! This will be available regardless of whether the character qualifies for normal bonuses, but can only be redeemed by those who app in.
For reference for new players, threads are considered AC-length if they are ten tags in length (meaning 5 of your own tags and 5 from your partner.)
Hot Springs
Porter’s Spring is a perfectly normal and safe hot spring! However, you can encounter any number of perils on your way there if you decide to travel on foot, allowing new players to revisit some of our earlier events.
Check out our bestiary (pending update to new format) for more information on creatures such as Brutoks, the River Walker, and the Pine Devil, or stumble on Lake Sal-Co-Penn for a nasty surprise! Brutoks may also steal personal items from spring-goers on occasion. Don’t chase after them alone unless you want to be turned into a tree!
The Tristitia
In addition to the creatures in the wild, in town after dark characters may also encounter the Tristitia, Pumpkin Hollow’s newest cryptid.
She is a wraith-like spirit which haunts the island. Wearing tattered black clothes and colored all in shades of gray, she appears as a woman who walks around weeping with a caved-in chest, covering her face with her hands. Harmless if given a wide berth, but if she is set off, she will take out her desire for empathy for her grief on her target. She does this by embracing them and drawing out their own grief and trauma, leaving the target catatonic before she fades away, temporarily assuaged.
Into Paradesium
Crystals, golden with light and raw magical energy, cast what looks like sunlight down into the cascading cave. For every foot lower that the ground curls down from the entrance, the trees stretch ever-higher, carrying the raucous cries of animals unlike the surface of Marrow Isle had ever heard.
A jungle, so lush with life, sprawls ahead of any brave enough to venture into it. But what is there to see?
For Paradesium specifically, the bestiary has received a significant update. Creatures featured in prompts have their links to the accounts by Dr. Coldwood and his team marked with stars for easy location.
Below are multiple prompts for some encounters to be had in the jungle, but feel free to create any of your own encounters with any of the creatures listed! If the descriptions are short, feel free to write the creatures' behaviors however makes sense.
Welcome to the Jungle
Swallowed by dense canopies and noise, the jungle is quick to swallow any who travel within it whole.
Eyes are quick to find you, however. Perching in the treetops are a variety of small wyverns in vibrant colors, heads tilting as they try to comprehend what you could be. They squawk, chatter, and some of the bolder ones draw closer - if you sit anything aside and leave it unattended for too long, some even bolder than that will pilfer it, taking the object into the trees to admire with its companions.
Reptilian hunters with bright, keen eyes, the Plommon, consider you with much of the same interest. This interest increases tenfold if you happen to feed them.
If the prying eyes are no bother, then the forest's bounty is ripe for tending and taking. Bananas hang off trees, colorful citrus fruits catch light on their waxy peels, and bulky cocoa beans are jostled by movement in the branches above them. Even the broad leaves of the plants prove extraordinarily useful, whether you're looking to come in and quickly leave, or intend to push further within.
Wherever you go, those curious eyes follow you. Perhaps even out of the cave, should your attempts to shoo an adventurous creature away. What an odd way to gain a new team member.
Down a Few Notches on the Food Chain
(CWs: Potential for death, gore, or animal death)Unfortunately, not all can be pure bounty and new friends in a place like this.
With the cavern sprawling widely and massively, there are many significantly larger creatures in this space, and some seem to be keen to take up opportunity for new prey. As you explore, there's a new feeling of eyes upon you, and the silence that overtakes the surrounding trees spells nothing good to come.
Any one of the massive predators in the wood has you in it's sights.
Escape is difficult, but manageable, as is fighting back. Creatures can be challenged, and hides, bones, and other spoils can be claimed from them, should there be success! If not, this is a good opportunity for familiarization with the Death page.
The silkhide chimera specializes in persistence. The longer and further you go, the more exhausted you'll get. A break is an opportunity that it will be keen to take.
The greenstalker excels at ambushing and high-speed pursuit. At top speeds of 30MPH, your party will need strategy and skill on their side to keep this beast at bay. (Or, alternatively, a source of fire.)
The elephant raptor does neither of these - the beast's sheer length of reach does all it needs to. Water and mud soften the sounds of the gargantuan creature's approach. Stay alert, and be sure that you hear it before it's upon you.
Safe travels become more difficult to manage, the further in you go. Deep, rumbling snores tell you that there's a chance you're just getting to the greater threats this paradise has to offer...
Fragments of the Past
Through great distances traveled, this "uninhabited" cavern begins to show signs that may speak to that not having always been the case.
Ruins of homes, crumbled bricks and tiles, can be found at the deepest reaches of the cavern. These dilapidated buildings, though worn with time, tell a story: the people who left his place, one that could be identified as a stenholm to any familiar with dwarvish culture, did not leave it on good terms.
Essentials were clearly taken with them, as the ruins of this place lack tools or clothing. Valuables are still scattered throughout, however. Large objects with too much history to have been left behind by indifference dot the collapsing homes. Ritual circles still waft radiant energy from them.
In the remains of a temple, an altar stands, cracking with age and covered in plants as the cavern reclaims it. Old candle-stands have rusted with age, but still stand, undisturbed.
Just before the altar, folded onto its side (as best as one can be, when only pieces remain), lies a skeleton. The clothes are tattered remains of stained whites and dulled blues, and the wildlife have cleaned flesh from bones, but it's remained undisturbed by time.
There's a quiet sadness to this place that lingers, even with the people who inhabited it so long since lost.
Should you linger too long, however, there comes the distinct feeling of not being alone.
Clair de Lune
(CWs: Long-term isolation, extinction)Golden eyes of a human face follow your every moment, and the moment you lock your gaze onto them, the face emerges from the darkness, partially covered by spilling dark hair.
What follows this face, however, is not a human face - but, rather, a feline body with sprawling, grey-flecked wings.
There's a long, tense silence, as it emerges fully. Standing easily at eight feet tall while on all fours, the size of this creature becomes more and more apparent as it emerges from the dark of the collapsed wind.
Unlike the other animals of the cavern, though, there seems to be an anxiousness to its look. The lion's chest rises and falls with short, nervous breaths.
And then, in a hushed, woman's voice, hoarse from disuse, it speaks.
"Who are you? Why have you come here?"
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The Sphinx is a new NPC available for characters to interact with, should they delve deep enough into the caverns to find the stenholm. She's wary of all the new faces, and tends to be somewhat flighty, but seems cautiously interested in what new humans being in Hepogaia have to offer. For the sort looking to understand this place, it's people, or intend to trade, she can be communed with.
To interact with her, comment on the TL provided from beastsofthehollow with her icon, and if the initial introduction isn't your speed, feel free to encounter her however you like!
Luo Binghe (PIDW version) | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System | OTA
…But he is at least self-aware enough to know that this is not the kind of attitude likely to win him any allies in a land full of strangers, and that making little dolls for sick and injured children is in fact exactly the kind of group activity he ought to undertake if he’s interested in demonstrating he is a pleasant, community-minded young man with a good work ethic. And demonstrating the is a pleasant, community-minded young man with a good work ethic is absolutely vital if he wants to rise to a respected position here and eventually seize absolute power for himself without too much complaint...
So, here he is, making little dolls and charming the local little old ladies who have turned out to do their bit too. Luo Binghe rather likes to be fussed over by little old ladies, so it’s easy enough. As for what he’s making… Well, his doll skills are sort of middling. They’re well put together, with neat and careful stitches, but he’s clearly much better at sewing than he is at designing a doll that’s, like, good to look at. The cloth tiger he’s made already has sort of weird proportions and an offputting face, and the doll whose head he’s stitching together now doesn’t look like it’s going to be any better… But that’s okay. What’s important is that he tried.
What’s really important is that the aunties all think he is a nice boy, and so far that’s going just as he intended –
– That is, until the cloth tiger stirs in place, rearing up on its (slightly uneven) back legs and making an ominous gurgling noise. Luo Binghe reacts without thinking, his hand shooting out to seize the possessed toy tiger by the neck with an iron grip. His expression is offputtingly intense. When it wriggles in his clutches, his eyes flash momentarily red, and with a burst of demonic qi the cloth tiger is obliterated.
Scraps of fabric drift down around him. The old ladies exchange troubled glances and start to shuffle away.
b. Thank god there’s also mysterious caverns to explore. After the doll business, this feels positively relaxing. He’d like it better if he had his sword, of course – but he can take care of himself without it. He’s already run into some of this underground jungle’s dangerous wildlife and dealt with them handily, although he did give the great slumbering wyvern a fairly wide berth...
Now he’s reached the abandoned stenholm, not that he’d be able to name it as such. He moves through the ancient buildings with the confident caution of someone who’s fairly practiced at exploring ruins, although it seems like there are actually fewer puzzles and traps here than he’s anticipating. No beautiful maidens so far, either… Not that it seems like the kind of place you’d find a buxom young woman in need of assistance or looking to assassinate you or something, but in Luo Binghe’s experience those can crop up basically anywhere, and in a more significant-seeming place like this, with all of his usual companions out of the picture for the time being? It’s practically a guarantee.
He’s not sure how he feels about the prospect, honestly.
He steps over some rubble into what looks like it might have been a home, or perhaps a small shop of some kind; the style of architecture is unfamiliar enough to him that he can’t really be sure. Inside, he brushes some debris off a table in the vague hope something will shoot spikes at him or present a series of arcane symbols that need to be arranged in the right order, so that he'd know there was something worth looking for in here, but alas, nothing seems to present itself.
As he straightens up, though, he senses a presence somewhere outside the building. An explorer like himself? Or some kind of long-buried cave dweller..?
Well, obviously we know it's going to be the first option, but Luo Binghe doesn't. He moves quietly to a gap in the crumbling wall to peer out at whoever it is. If they're a beautiful young lady this might be a little bit awkward.
A
When the old ladies move away though, Darcy doesn't, coming over to look at the remains of the tiger.
"Aw. I hear if you love one of those enough eventually it'll become real. Guess we'll never find out."
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"I think perhaps that wouldn't be what the children prefer," he says, picking up a shred of red cloth between his finger and thumb.
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Darcy holds out one of their abominations.
"Do this one, I want to see if it's painful for it to be alive."
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He takes the proffered doll, turning it over briefly in his hand to examine its construction, but then he looks back up at Darcy with a faint smile and shakes his head.
"I think the curious stranger has misunderstood. If I was the one who animated that toy, surely I would not have destroyed it myself? I believe some other force is at work here – I sensed a strange energy from the object when it began to move."
Of course, he also used a strange energy to destroy it, but look, it was a different kind of strange energy, don't worry about it
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"So you just, like, incinerated it because it felt weird without knowing what it was, and you weren't curious about what happened or what was making it move?"
That's weirder, right?
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"Mm, you're right, perhaps I could have afforded the luxury of curiosity. But I would hate for someone to have been hurt thanks to my inaction."
This is of course bullshit, it was his Endless Abyss reflexes and he doesn't particularly care if old ladies are harmed by possessed dolls. He likes to sound justified, though.
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Or at least, one would think there could be no mistaking it, but when Shen Qingqiu stops in the middle of the ruined square and turns in a slow circle, his face splitting in a wide grin as he surveys the ruins -- does it give Luo Binghe pause, to see such an open and sunny expression on his beloathed shizun's face? Does it outrage him? Or does some other feeling stir in his scarless breast?
Using the walking stick, Shen Qingqiu begins to trace a circle in the layer of dust covering the ancient stones; a simple warding circle, good for little more than keeping away predatory animals. If allowed to complete it, he will sit in the center -- directly on the dirty ground -- pull out a sketchbook and one of the graphite sticks they use for drawing here, and begin to make a sketch of the stenholm. The Xiu Ya Sword was famed for his scholarship, but has Luo Binghe ever seen his master pursue it with such concentration? Such disregard for his own dignity...?
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For several minutes he just watches as the familiar stranger goes about his work, as if his actions might grant some kind of insight as to what has made him like this. His working thesis until now has been that the other Luo Binghe, pathetic as he was, must have done something to change him, succeeded somewhere where he himself failed – although he couldn't determine what, and it clearly hadn't been enough to save his lesser double from the Abyss. But watching this, he finds himself growing less convinced. It's one thing to imagine Shen Qingqiu softening to one person, as unlikely as it is that that person would be Luo Binghe. It's another entirely to see him so...unburdened. Even the version of his master he met in that other world didn't behave like this.
His hand goes to the braid he's kept in his hair, and he frowns. Perhaps this man can give him some answers.
Schooling his face into a neutral smile, Luo Binghe steps out fully from the ruined building, and calls out to him in a tone that he likes to think of as not explicitly threatening, but still dignified.
"Shizun. What a surprise to find you here."
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But then he rallies. The mask of calm control slams down over his face. He sets the drawing pad aside and gracefully stands, left arm tucked decorously behind his back like the gentleman he's always pretended to be. The only flaw in the picture is the twitching of his right hand, as it gropes for a fan that isn't there.
"What is Luo Binghe doing here?" he asks calmly. A gentle yet ironic smile appears on his face as he remarks, "This master had thought only the dead were eligible to visit this world." And there is absolutely, categorically no way Luo Fucking Binghe could be dead, so what the fuck??
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He begins to walk towards him, resisting the urge to prowl. He clearly doesn't need to make any effort to intimidate this man. If this were the Shen Qingqiu from his own realm, that terror would have been gratifying in the extreme--but even once his master had learned to fear him, no matter how Luo Binghe tried, he always kept a far tighter hold on his responses. As for the other one...well. Fear certainly wasn't his first reaction to seeing Luo Binghe.
So what's going on with this one? How far will his facade of polite calmness stretch?
"Ah, I had an accident," he replies, letting himself sound a little regretful. Remembering the state of his sword in the other realm, and watching carefully for how Shen Qingqiu reacts, he adds (truthfully): "With Xin Mo."
cw: misogyny in the context of a shitty male power fantasy novel
Well, that didn't take long. The mask of calm shatters into a thousand pieces, leaving shock and -- yes, that really is horror in its wake. Shen Qingqiu stares at Luo Binghe like he just announced that the sky is pink and he's taking a vow of celibacy (which might be less weird, if he was only faking to infiltrate a nunnery or something!) and says, "But how? That's impossible -- Unless it was the Tender-Spined Septicrocodile? Or that tramp from the Five-Tailed Fascination Fox Clan?" He sneers. For a moment, his face looks exactly the same as the original Shen Qingqiu, whenever he looked at Luo Binghe.
Then he continues, "More like the Two-Faced Facetious Fox Clan, right? Ugh, I always hated her. Her silly games with poison aren't funny or cute, right? Okay, here's what Luo Binghe needs to do." He crossed his arms, stroking his chin in thought. "Clearly this is some sort of interquel chapter, right? Like when Binghe seduced the daughter of the Duke of Zhou and then was lured into a dream trap by her less comely younger sister, does he remember? So Binghe isn't really dead, he'll return to his world as if he simply had a near-death experience. But that doesn't mean he should continue to put up these shenanigans!" Shen Qingqiu slammed his first into his open palm. "As soon as Binghe recovers, he should seek out a Pearl of Eternally Efflorescent Purity, which grow in the oysters of the Sea of Ancient Tears. It will help him cleanse and strengthen his meridians, so Xin Mo will have a harder time gaining a foothold the next time an 'accident' occurs. Then," he continues, his excitement increasing, "You need to harvest leather from a Yang Beast, iron from the Ghost Mounds of Yiling, and carbon from the stomach of the Twenty-Kalpa Abyssal Whale. Using these items, Luo Binghe can craft a collar which will regulate the energy of a demon wife and make her more subordinate to his will, which should stop that stupid anime waifu-wannabe from trying to 'prank' him all the time with fatal poisons!"
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By the time the tide of Shen Qingqiu's enthusiasm has carried him to the triumphant conclusion, Luo Binghe is no closer to figuring him out.
"...Shen Qingqiu certainly seems to believe he knows a great deal about my household," he says at last, slowly. "And, indeed, about elusive demon clans. The Five-Tailed Fascination Fox Clan has made no contact with the outside world in many decades. How is it Shen Qingqiu is so knowledgeable about the marital suitability of its women?"
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But there's nothing for it. If he can't come up with a believable lie, he'll just have to tell the truth. Well, part of the truth. Okay, some of the truth, edited to sound more xianxia and shit. If he tries to tell Luo Binghe that he's a character in a book beloved by a bunch of mouth-breathing internet-addicted incels, there's no way he'll ever believe it! Or worse, he believes it and it makes him feel bad!
That would definitely be the worst-case scenario.
Shen Qingqiu coughs delicately and
sticks his hands into his sleevesfolds his arms across his chest. "The truth is," he says carefully, "This master was once a scholar of the void between worlds. Using my skills I scried upon the lives of many glorious heroes and wise emperors, but no hero or emperor's life inspired in me greater admiration than that of Luo Binghe. I made a special study of him, and so learned a great many secrets of his world, and paid witness to many moments in his life that would have otherwise remained secret. But in this lay my undoing: the more my admiration grew, the greater too grew my sympathy for the trials and suffering he was forced to endure. In a moment of weakness I cursed the gods for endowing Binghe with such a stony fate, and for this sin a deity of the void cursed me to endure suffering at my hero's own hands. My soul was forced into the body of Shen Qingqiu, and I was sentenced to live out the last ten years of his life." That is, count them out, the last three years of Luo Binghe's discipleship, the five years he was supposed to spend in the Endless Abyss, and two years for him to ruin Shen Qingqiu's reputation and torture him to death. What a terrible, disproportionate sentence!"Even now that I've managed to flee to another world, the curse still dogs me," Shen Qingqiu adds, and gestures to his own face. "Binghe can see that I am forced to wear Shen Qingqiu's visage and answer to his name, but now that the deity is no longer controlling my actions, do I really seem anything like the man he knew?"
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What?
That's a lot to grapple with. Indeed, if it wasn't for their present situation, and for everything else he's recently seen, Luo Binghe might refuse to accept it at all. But the thing is, he knew Shen Qingqiu – at both his highest and his lowest. Luo Binghe saw how he behaved in a comfortable position of power, and he saw his wretched end. It's almost easier to believe this man's story than it is to imagine the Shen Qingqiu he knew behaving like this...
...Or like the Shen Qingqiu he met before.
His mind races. He considers everything he saw in that other realm in a new light. Is that it, then...? Is the truth that there are any number of Luo Binghes, and he simply had the misfortune to be the one whose master was not somehow replaced by some easygoing impostor?
"...Say that I believe you," he says. He does believe him, but he expects he can get more from this man who says he isn't Shen Qingqiu if he thinks he needs to prove something. "What do you mean, precisely, that your actions were controlled?"
cw: reference to suicide
On the other hand, if this some other version of the protagonist from some other timeline (and exactly how many cultivation novels has Shen Qingqiu read with story arcs built around that exact premise?) who was stuck with the original goods for the full thirteen years, then any attempts on Shen Qingqiu's part to describe how he tried to circumvent the System will just make him look like a lying madman! Unless...
"It is as it sounds," he says heavily. "Naturally this master had no desire to torment an adolescent, even without my knowledge of Shen Qingqiu's fate. But the deity stymied all my attempts to change Shen Qingqiu's ways, and mend his relationship with his disciple. It forced me on pain of total obliteration to consign Luo Binghe to the Endless Abyss, stilled my tongue whenever I attempted to explain my actions -- even my attempt to end Shen Qingqiu's life, which I hoped would at least allow me to escape torture, seems now to have been an act of futility. If the gods that rule this world force me to return to Luo Binghe's world once our work here is done, no doubt I will simply awaken once more in the Water Prison. But," he smiles sadly. "I can see Luo Binghe remains incredulous. And why not? Could I not be the real Shen Qingqiu after all, having simply taken leave of my wits or choosing now to say whatever I think might persuade my former disciple to spare my life? But there is an easy way to confirm my story, if Luo Binghe is willing."
Easy, but terrifying! Shen Qingqiu can't believe he's really about to suggest this, but needs must.
"Binghe is still a master of dream magic, is he not? Simply place this master in a deep sleep, and examine my memories via dreams. Luo Binghe will soon see that I speak the truth." Yeah, and he'll also have carte blanche to torture Shen Qingqiu as much as he wants! But let's be real here, he already has that anyway. In these ruins underground, it's unlikely anyone would even hear Shen Qingqiu scream. So they might as well get it over with, right? Maybe he'll be impressed by the audacity, or something.
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"You were terrified when you first laid eyes on me," he points out, fixing Shen Qingqiu with a skeptical, flinty look. "And yet you would offer yourself up to my power?"
Not that he won't take the offer, but... Well, he assumed he'd have to work for this. It feels a bit anticlimactic, honestly!
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mentions of torture
The fact that someone knows about it in excruciating detail is...almost humiliating. What else must this stranger know? When did he begin watching?
With that in mind, he feels it is in fact only fair that he should be allowed to look through 'Shen Qingqiu's' memories in turn. At least then they'd be on even footing – although Luo Binghe would much prefer to have the higher ground altogether.
"Very well," he decides. He gestures to the building he stepped out of with a curt jerk of his chin. "I won't ask you to sleep out on the street."
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She hears him sooner than he likely thinks she does. She's had centuries to learn how to see with sound, after all.
"Who's there?"
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"Greetings, madam," he calls back to her. "I am a wanderer from the surface – I take it you are the same?"
It's very possible she's not, of course, but it doesn't seem particularly likely, based on what he's seen here so far.
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She's so covered-up it's hard to tell whether she might have been injured somehow on her way here, so he doesn't think it's too strange a question. Of course, while he'll readily assist if it turns out she has run afoul of the caverns' landscape or wildlife, what he really wants is to gauge this stranger's power level.
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The bells in her clothes ring very softly as she idles on the spot, shifting her weight.