(Don't ask me what time this takes place okay I need to balance my life tonight.
But Claude manages to track down Hua Cheng and the first thing he does is set down a teapot and some cups at whatever table he's sitting at.)
Don't go anywhere. (He'd be more polite if he wasn't so TIRED and running on low right now. Do you know how hard it is to deal with this effect when you're a social butterfly using up all of your energy where ever you go???) We're overdue for a talk.
Hua Cheng looks away from where he was focusing on the PHS, glancing down at the teapot and cups before looking back up at Claude himself. He's been ignoring the niggling sensation of needing to go play red light, green light to find his apparent buddy, but. Hello. ]
Are we? [ Conversationally. ] By all means, then, sit down before you wind up falling over.
(he pulls up a seat, and they'll just have to wait a bit for the tea to steep,)
I know you feel it too. (This strange desire to be close to each other for whatever reason.) Neither of us have the time to be bonded by the hip for who knows how long.
So we should work something out. Something that will help us balance our own lives with...
Unfortunately. [ He does feel it. And he doesn't like it. He's the type of person that has no interest in being attached like that, save for with one person, and for as interesting as he finds Claude... ]
I would guess something like this would probably be enough, if we were setting aside the time for it. Because I really can't say I'm interested in being bonded to you by the hip.
[ Places to be, things to do, gege to spend time with! ]
Woooow. (Flatly,) And here, I thought I was popular.
(Pouring Hua Cheng his cup of tea first. He'd tried to guess what sort of tea he might like and what he'd settled on was a jasmine tea. Something light and not too strongly flavored with a relaxing quality to it. He doesn't see like the type that needs a strongly flavored tea to keep him alert hmmm it's always hard to tell when you don't really know people.)
Let me know how it is. I can find something else for next time, if you'd like.
(And he pours himself a cup before setting the tea pot down on at the center without so much of a clink. Tea time is relaxing. A true noble knows better than to make a ruckus.)
I don't know how long we'll have to be together for this to pass or how often. (Running a finger around the rim of his cup,) We've lasted this long though so probably dont have to bother each other too much.
Until then... here we are so we might as well get to know each other.
You're interesting, [ Mock pleasantly. ] But I'm not sure if that's enough for us to want to spend most of our waking hours together.
[ In the long run, Claude's guess is a decent one. Hua Cheng has never really had an interest in tea - for a variety of reasons - but a good cup doesn't need to be strong for him to enjoy. As he takes the cup, he waves off the offer with his free hand. This is fine. ]
Better to not press our luck, considering the things that the Realm keeps coming up with. My luck is usually good, but I don't want to test what happens if we face adverse effects and something else happens.
[ He brings his cup up, regarding him. ] More questions for me to vaguely answer?
Something like that is interesting, isn't it? Something that came quickly and then resolved itself overnight. The timing can't just be a coincidence either.
(The way he was just instantly better the next morning, after two people died.)
But it's something I'd like to look into more first. It's concerning... the last thing we need is for people to misunderstand what it could all mean.
No, and considering the fact that there's been no indication that anyone else was affected... it does seem targeted.
[ looks at what happens to them after this thread, looks away ]
But with very little indication of where it came from, or who it might have been, if a person and not the Realm, it's for the best that you don't let that information go errantly where it shouldn't.
Misinformation breeds trouble, when it isn't controlled. [ A small huff. ] So we'll certainly see.
[ Hua Cheng finds him, footsteps jingling as always because of the charms and bells and chains on his boots, prepared to corner him if he has to. There's no aggression, though. No agitation. No hostility. Just the usual enigmatic, slight smirk as he - idk, cuts him off from heading out of the inn, his arms folded behind his back. ]
I think you and I need to sit down for a new talk.
[ And he unfolds his arms, pushing pushing a thing of tea to brew into his chest - it looks like it came from the village food area, and there's a broad selection of neat teas.
Yes... yesterday wasn't very good, was it? (Not being able to speak and all. Ah, but the next thing he knows, there's tea being shoved at him and--) Making me serve you again? I'm starting to feel less like a noble every time I talk to you...
(He's teasing though! And he nods, understanding.
To the kitchen they go to boil some water! And tea stuff so they can sit down in private.)
(What if I made Claude forget how to make tea! What then??
Anyway the tea of the day is... a spiced chai. Something a little stronger than the other things they've had. It's more invigorating than relaxing.
While the tea steeps, Claude starts,)
I'm sorry for the things I said last week. I didn't mean any of it and really... I'm not sure where it came from. Maybe someone used one of their stones or something on us but it doesn't change the fact that I said them and... I voted for you when I shouldn't have.
(HE WAS GOING TO CHANGE IT IF THEY FIGURED SOMETHING OUT? BUT THE CHAOS...)
[ Then he'll just make it. Until then, fuck that, he's not making the tea when Claude has made it a habit of making it. It becomes a bit of normality in its routine.
... even if Hua Cheng can't taste it, at least he'll be able to smell it.
And he lets Claude go first, patient and - amused? He has information!
First, though, he reaches across the table and... slap-pats his cheek. Not enough to really hurt him, but more to startle. ]
You're lucky I didn't kill you. [ bluntly, ] Because I've done so for less, voting included. If gege wasn't watching me when I did mine, though, I would've voted for you as well.
[ But he sits back and adds: ] Shima did it. He didn't expect the results, but he was told to pick two names and ours were the ones. Two people confirmed it for me.
As if I'd let you kill me. (He scoffs,) No one's been able to kill me yet.
(And he laughs once, as if enjoying some sort of joke all to himself, albeit, maybe one from a dark place.
(This Realm is like that place, isn't it? Always looking over one's shoulder. Death always in the back of the mind. Surviving each week. Living each day defiantly.)
No, he won't die in this place either.
Anyway. What's this about Shima? His expression...
Immediately drops when he hears that. There's just a spark in his eye, like something falling into place and making sense and he grumbles,)
That guy... So that's how he wanted to be? (Ugh.) I caught his attention a while back. I wasn't sure what to make of it... even now, I don't know.
(I am going to be kind and grant Hua Cheng one last chance to have tea made by Claude before he F O R G E T S so they're at the inn. Again. This is becoming kind of a regular thing, isn't it? It's not a bad thing.
Tea pot between them, an a sweet, orange pekoe brewing between them, there are some black bubbles even within the inn and Claude watches as one floats past them,)
... It feels like there's no escaping it, huh.
(Thrilling! Great! Just what a secretive guy like Claude loves!!)
[ Hua Cheng sits with his chin in his hand, dully watching the bubble float by in time with Claude's own observation of it. He'll continue to enjoy this routine they've set up, as he just - heaves a sigh at the bubble's existence. There's a few more floating around them, leisurely, like they're just waiting for their moment. ]
They're everywhere. No matter where you go.
[ He sideeyes the one that's floating closer. Wow, he's done so much to avoid them. But it's Tuesday, and he has popped a good few of them since Monday. ]
They're easy enough to avoid if you can see them. (It's not like they're particularly fast or anything.) They're just... persistent.
(Like this one that keeps hovering nearby, sometimes coming close and at other times going beyond their reach above them. And now, it lowers again, settling neatly between them. He watches it, terribly unamused as it lingers in the space between them and starts to rise again...
(A boy in golden robes pushes aside his door, carrying a book in one hand a lantern in another. The room is large, extravagant, covered with ornamental rugs, beautiful silks, and colorful, moonlit glass.
He sets the candle down next to his bed and begins to pull back the sheets when he hears a voice drift in from the window, carried on a cool breeze. He sets down his book and goes over to the window's ledge, holding onto the curtain with one hand as he listens to a pair of guards on patrol down below, "I heard someone drugged his horse. Made it go mad while he was on it."
"Is that why the general has us on extra duties this month?"
"Someone might try to kill the prince again."
"Someone is always trying to kill the prince." He complains.
From his perch, the boy rolls his eyes. If the general or his parents really wanted to protect him, they'd give him guards that acted like guards instead of gossipy laundry maids. If they really wanted to protect him, they'd do something about that good for nothing vizier that kept trying to get him sent away for his "own good."
As he listens, he seems oblivious to the shadow moving behind him, slithering from under his bed towards the moonlight.
"Huh?" One of the guards hums, suddenly alert, and the boy leans further to see what he's looking at in the dark ahead. There's someone out there, he notices, and it's then that he tenses, realizing that the cloaked figure in the night is running away. They wouldn't escape if they thought there was work to be done. Something's already been done and it's then that the boy seems to realize there is something behind him.
He turns around and notices the black shadow rise from the ground. He recognizes the pattern on its diamond shaped head and he finds himself staring at its eyes— a vivid forest green meeting a burning red. His hand grips the curtain still and he freezes, careful not to make any sudden moves.
In the background, he hears the guards sounding an alarm, a fight breaking out, and down the hallways, he can hear heavy footsteps running towards his room. As soon as that door opens, he knows what will happen. The viper will strike. He'll fight while his blood burns and his heart races until it bursts and he dies in some stranger's arms. Dead only mere weeks after his twelfth birthday.
He refuses. He refuses. He refuses.
The door swings open, guards rush in, and as the viper strikes, the boy pulls at the curtain bringing everything down around him.
One guard swoops in, lifting the prince into his arms and pulling him away from the window. The others begin to search the room and the one closest to the window lets out a yelp when he sees the curtain writhing and hissing in the moonlight. He takes his saber and hacks at it. Pulling away the curtain, what's left is a writhing, dying creature.
(The memory fades, they return to their original setting, and Claude frowns. Another memory without any sound. It feels like he could fill in all of the words and yet, when he tries... the words don't come to mind. At least, not all of them.
They were talking about him. Again. People always talked about him back then but why did so many people care? He can't put his finger on it and already... he can feel details from the memory slipping away from him. It had been night time, he had a book, what was the book? What had the room looked like?
How annoying.
And yet, he doesn't seem too bothered as he takes a sip from his tea, )
[ Hua Cheng sits with his chin in his hand, having watched the memory in the position from the start as he held his tea in the other. Everything plays out - the gossiping guards, the viper in the dark that he watches with a keen eye as a young boy doesn't notice, the shadow rushing off into the night. It's not shocking.
He brings his tea up, taking a sip. ]
You probably didn't miss much. [ He can tell that there's something missing, from the experience. But he'll hold onto the memory, regardless, until there comes a time that Claude will be able to take it back. After all, that only seems fair.
... only seems fair.
As another bubble drifts closer, he watches it, for a bit. ]
Honestly, as far as things go, it ties in with a story that I was already told.
Does it? It must have been inspired by a true event.
(Setting his tea cup down, without a sound,)
It's too bad. If that creature had just been left alone, things would have been different. (It would have lived.) But some people just can't leave others alone.
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w1, Tuesday
But Claude manages to track down Hua Cheng and the first thing he does is set down a teapot and some cups at whatever table he's sitting at.)
Don't go anywhere. (He'd be more polite if he wasn't so TIRED and running on low right now. Do you know how hard it is to deal with this effect when you're a social butterfly using up all of your energy where ever you go???) We're overdue for a talk.
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Hua Cheng looks away from where he was focusing on the PHS, glancing down at the teapot and cups before looking back up at Claude himself. He's been ignoring the niggling sensation of needing to go play red light, green light to find his apparent buddy, but. Hello. ]
Are we? [ Conversationally. ] By all means, then, sit down before you wind up falling over.
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(he pulls up a seat, and they'll just have to wait a bit for the tea to steep,)
I know you feel it too. (This strange desire to be close to each other for whatever reason.) Neither of us have the time to be bonded by the hip for who knows how long.
So we should work something out. Something that will help us balance our own lives with...
(Vague hands!! Whatever this is.)
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I would guess something like this would probably be enough, if we were setting aside the time for it. Because I really can't say I'm interested in being bonded to you by the hip.
[ Places to be, things to do, gege to spend time with! ]
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(Pouring Hua Cheng his cup of tea first. He'd tried to guess what sort of tea he might like and what he'd settled on was a jasmine tea. Something light and not too strongly flavored with a relaxing quality to it. He doesn't see like the type that needs a strongly flavored tea to keep him alert hmmm it's always hard to tell when you don't really know people.)
Let me know how it is. I can find something else for next time, if you'd like.
(And he pours himself a cup before setting the tea pot down on at the center without so much of a clink. Tea time is relaxing. A true noble knows better than to make a ruckus.)
I don't know how long we'll have to be together for this to pass or how often. (Running a finger around the rim of his cup,) We've lasted this long though so probably dont have to bother each other too much.
Until then... here we are so we might as well get to know each other.
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[ In the long run, Claude's guess is a decent one. Hua Cheng has never really had an interest in tea - for a variety of reasons - but a good cup doesn't need to be strong for him to enjoy. As he takes the cup, he waves off the offer with his free hand. This is fine. ]
Better to not press our luck, considering the things that the Realm keeps coming up with. My luck is usually good, but I don't want to test what happens if we face adverse effects and something else happens.
[ He brings his cup up, regarding him. ] More questions for me to vaguely answer?
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w2, Tuesday
Hey.
(And toss out a mini bottle of alcohol! Does it look familiar? It's the same kind from their arrival goodie bags.)
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- and catching the bottle on instinct, before he realizes what it is. And he snorts. ]
Well, that's one way to greet someone, Claude.
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(He's grateful for what they did for him,)
I know it isn't much, though.
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All things considered, it wouldn't do to have that information spread.
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(And he streeeetches,)
Something like that is interesting, isn't it? Something that came quickly and then resolved itself overnight. The timing can't just be a coincidence either.
(The way he was just instantly better the next morning, after two people died.)
But it's something I'd like to look into more first. It's concerning... the last thing we need is for people to misunderstand what it could all mean.
(Time to get some more answers.)
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[ looks at what happens to them after this thread, looks away ]
But with very little indication of where it came from, or who it might have been, if a person and not the Realm, it's for the best that you don't let that information go errantly where it shouldn't.
Misinformation breeds trouble, when it isn't controlled. [ A small huff. ] So we'll certainly see.
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w3 tuesday
I think you and I need to sit down for a new talk.
[ And he unfolds his arms, pushing pushing a thing of tea to brew into his chest - it looks like it came from the village food area, and there's a broad selection of neat teas.
Peace offering? ]
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Yes... yesterday wasn't very good, was it? (Not being able to speak and all. Ah, but the next thing he knows, there's tea being shoved at him and--) Making me serve you again? I'm starting to feel less like a noble every time I talk to you...
(He's teasing though! And he nods, understanding.
To the kitchen they go to boil some water! And tea stuff so they can sit down in private.)
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Anyways. He laughs, which is better than the stone cold murder he was threatening with his eyeball last week. ]
Why break a pattern when you've already established it? [ Not going to correct him, though, which is teasing in response.
But he doesn't immediately go to sit down, and instead tags along with Claude from Point A, to Point B, to Point C when they sit down. ]
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Anyway the tea of the day is... a spiced chai. Something a little stronger than the other things they've had. It's more invigorating than relaxing.
While the tea steeps, Claude starts,)
I'm sorry for the things I said last week. I didn't mean any of it and really... I'm not sure where it came from. Maybe someone used one of their stones or something on us but it doesn't change the fact that I said them and... I voted for you when I shouldn't have.
(HE WAS GOING TO CHANGE IT IF THEY FIGURED SOMETHING OUT? BUT THE CHAOS...)
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... even if Hua Cheng can't taste it, at least he'll be able to smell it.
And he lets Claude go first, patient and - amused? He has information!
First, though, he reaches across the table and... slap-pats his cheek. Not enough to really hurt him, but more to startle. ]
You're lucky I didn't kill you. [ bluntly, ] Because I've done so for less, voting included. If gege wasn't watching me when I did mine, though, I would've voted for you as well.
[ But he sits back and adds: ] Shima did it. He didn't expect the results, but he was told to pick two names and ours were the ones. Two people confirmed it for me.
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(And he laughs once, as if enjoying some sort of joke all to himself, albeit, maybe one from a dark place.
(This Realm is like that place, isn't it?
Always looking over one's shoulder.
Death always in the back of the mind.
Surviving each week.
Living each day defiantly.)
No, he won't die in this place either.
Anyway. What's this about Shima? His expression...
Immediately drops when he hears that. There's just a spark in his eye, like something falling into place and making sense and he grumbles,)
That guy... So that's how he wanted to be? (Ugh.) I caught his attention a while back. I wasn't sure what to make of it... even now, I don't know.
(But this seems to be the result.)
Troublesome until the very end...
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Week 4, Tuesday
Tea pot between them, an a sweet, orange pekoe brewing between them, there are some black bubbles even within the inn and Claude watches as one floats past them,)
... It feels like there's no escaping it, huh.
(Thrilling! Great! Just what a secretive guy like Claude loves!!)
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They're everywhere. No matter where you go.
[ He sideeyes the one that's floating closer. Wow, he's done so much to avoid them. But it's Tuesday, and he has popped a good few of them since Monday. ]
1/3
(Like this one that keeps hovering nearby, sometimes coming close and at other times going beyond their reach above them. And now, it lowers again, settling neatly between them. He watches it, terribly unamused as it lingers in the space between them and starts to rise again...
Only to take his spoon and poke at it,)
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He sets the candle down next to his bed and begins to pull back the sheets when he hears a voice drift in from the window, carried on a cool breeze. He sets down his book and goes over to the window's ledge, holding onto the curtain with one hand as he listens to a pair of guards on patrol down below, "I heard someone drugged his horse. Made it go mad while he was on it."
"Is that why the general has us on extra duties this month?"
"Someone might try to kill the prince again."
"Someone is always trying to kill the prince." He complains.
From his perch, the boy rolls his eyes. If the general or his parents really wanted to protect him, they'd give him guards that acted like guards instead of gossipy laundry maids. If they really wanted to protect him, they'd do something about that good for nothing vizier that kept trying to get him sent away for his "own good."
As he listens, he seems oblivious to the shadow moving behind him, slithering from under his bed towards the moonlight.
"Huh?" One of the guards hums, suddenly alert, and the boy leans further to see what he's looking at in the dark ahead. There's someone out there, he notices, and it's then that he tenses, realizing that the cloaked figure in the night is running away. They wouldn't escape if they thought there was work to be done. Something's already been done and it's then that the boy seems to realize there is something behind him.
He turns around and notices the black shadow rise from the ground. He recognizes the pattern on its diamond shaped head and he finds himself staring at its eyes— a vivid forest green meeting a burning red. His hand grips the curtain still and he freezes, careful not to make any sudden moves.
In the background, he hears the guards sounding an alarm, a fight breaking out, and down the hallways, he can hear heavy footsteps running towards his room. As soon as that door opens, he knows what will happen. The viper will strike. He'll fight while his blood burns and his heart races until it bursts and he dies in some stranger's arms. Dead only mere weeks after his twelfth birthday.
He refuses. He refuses. He refuses.
The door swings open, guards rush in, and as the viper strikes, the boy pulls at the curtain bringing everything down around him.
One guard swoops in, lifting the prince into his arms and pulling him away from the window. The others begin to search the room and the one closest to the window lets out a yelp when he sees the curtain writhing and hissing in the moonlight. He takes his saber and hacks at it. Pulling away the curtain, what's left is a writhing, dying creature.
And the boy only watches sadly.)
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They were talking about him. Again. People always talked about him back then but why did so many people care? He can't put his finger on it and already... he can feel details from the memory slipping away from him. It had been night time, he had a book, what was the book? What had the room looked like?
How annoying.
And yet, he doesn't seem too bothered as he takes a sip from his tea, )
Well, that could have been better.
(The memory. The whole experience. You know.)
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[ Hua Cheng sits with his chin in his hand, having watched the memory in the position from the start as he held his tea in the other. Everything plays out - the gossiping guards, the viper in the dark that he watches with a keen eye as a young boy doesn't notice, the shadow rushing off into the night. It's not shocking.
He brings his tea up, taking a sip. ]
You probably didn't miss much. [ He can tell that there's something missing, from the experience. But he'll hold onto the memory, regardless, until there comes a time that Claude will be able to take it back. After all, that only seems fair.
... only seems fair.
As another bubble drifts closer, he watches it, for a bit. ]
Honestly, as far as things go, it ties in with a story that I was already told.
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(Setting his tea cup down, without a sound,)
It's too bad. If that creature had just been left alone, things would have been different. (It would have lived.) But some people just can't leave others alone.
(Just can't let others live.)
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