[ a small nod of his head as if to say, very well. he's used to being an unobtrusive person.
as for the question...yin yu pauses as if thinking about his answer for a moment. to answer her fully. ] ...I do, but it's not so much that. The domain that I work in is almost exclusively the land; there is a different being than my lord who is in charge of the water, more or less. It is an unspoken agreement between my lord and him, and not one that I wish to step on the toes of by any means.
[ if natalie's quick, she might pick up on the less politely worded meaning of that sentence, which is along the lines of i don't have a death wish: hard pass.
he's been to black water island exactly once, and it was with hua cheng, and he'd rather not repeat the experience more than necessary. especially recently. he will leave the provoking to hua cheng who at least bothers the other calamity himself and doesn't make his errand boy do it... ] So, it has been a very long time since I've seen much water at all, besides on the island.
[Here, her curiosity overpowers the way she's always uncertain in social situations. She tilts her head as he describes the situation, glancing towards him as she speaks.]
That explains the shovel. I thought it was kind of weird to have a named one. [But.] When you say your lord, though, are we talking about a earth god, water god kind of situation here...?
[There was a time when she would have thought even the possibility was unbelievable, but interdimensional murder competitions sure do warp your definition of normal, something that was tenuous at best for her even before all this.]
[ that actually makes his mouth twitch into a smile; yin yu huffs a quiet, brief laugh, a little incredulous... it's not at natalie's expense or anything but boy, the irony is REAL. ]
...Almost the opposite, actually. [ ha ha... ha... ] But in some ways, you aren't far off, either; it is a clever observation. For eight hundred years, Crimson Rain Sought Flower has been the scourge of the Heavenly Realm: he is the most well known for having eliminated the presence of 33 separate gods overnight, though that was before my time. My lord is one of the Four Calamities; he is what is considered a 'ghost king', as is the other calamity who controls the seas. It is certainly the closest a ghost could come to a godly status.
[ hua cheng's bde: nearly unmatched.
oh! though, he reaches back for the earth master shovel, giving it a small pat. ] The Earth Master's shovel did belong to a god, however.
[It takes her a long few moments to parse that, and it brings up a few new questions. The first of which is simple, even if she gives a small frown as she asks it.]
I owe Chengzhu my life. [ he says, very simply, very assured. ] He has been incomparably good to me, for reasons that are beyond my understanding.
[ yin yu knows hua cheng to be terrifying, sure; he has a healthy fear and respect for his boss. but he also knows that if it wasn't for hua cheng, who gave him a purpose, who lifted him off of his feet at the worst moment of his existence, who helped him with jian yu, he would have suffered the same fate. he knows a different hua cheng, than the heavens do. ] Chengzhu's unique position in the world comes with its quirks, and he is of an interesting character, sometimes, but the decisions he makes are not without previous thought, and he does little carelessly.
[ ... mostly. provoking black water for no reason, snapping up every treasure he can get his hands on (or having yin yu do it) because he's bored and petty and hates the gods...those things still even have reasons, even if they're headache inducing sometimes. yin yu gives a small nod of his head. ] ...It has truly been my honor to serve him.
[ this hard worker likes his job. he has earned his place working at the side of a calamity. ]
[She looks... bothered, maybe, or thoughtful at the first thing he says. She doesn't know enough about the situation to speak on it just yet, but there's definitely some skepticism as he keeps speaking, and when she speaks, there's a small frown on her face.]
Okay, but like... You know that saying he's literally called a calamity would make most people think that he's out to hurt people, right?
[It's a roundabout way of asking whether that assumption on her part is accurate - because that feels like a piece of the puzzle she needs to judge exactly how she interprets the situation.]
That is a fair assessment to make, and it is the heavens who came up with such a rank for him. [ yin yu won't discount that, he nods, eyes briefly closing, acquiescing the observation. ]
...And to the Heavens, I would say, he certainly is one. My master is ruthless towards the gods. He has little care for them or their proprieties, with one notable godly exception. He is relentless in the pursuit of the gods who wronged someone important in his life, and shows no sympathy for them. To the gods, Hua Chengzhu is truly terrifying, because he does not care for the respect we are all supposed to pay to them, as heavenly creatures who were once human, who were so extraordinary that they ascended to godhood.
While my master earned the rank of calamity through his victory at Mt. Tonglu over other ghosts, the true story of my master's title as 'calamity', in the sense are you saying, is related directly to the heavens. [ please allow him a moment of storytime! this is like the most words he's spoken in any tag that wasn't a body report be impressed. he'll wait to make sure natalie's still interested in the tale, before beginning in his calm, even voice. ]
It is quite difficult to remove a single god from the heavenly realms. Gods are immortal, and can only lose their position if they are banished, or if they lose all of the followers. My master forced this thirty three times over, because he took each god to task for cruel behavior taken against someone who did not deserve it.
[ his fondness for taizi dianxia is nowhere near hua cheng's--nothing could even compare--but yin yu knows xie lian as a person, now, and to want to strike back on his behalf seems right. ] The story goes as so: Hua Chengzhu went to the Heavenly Capitol and challenged a total of 35 gods to a duel of their choice, whether that was a martial fight, or a debate for literary gods, and promised to give up his ashes if he lost a single fight, which is akin to allowing himself to be executed. In exchange, he asked that if the gods lost, they would announce their shame to their followers, and step down from their heavenly positions. The gods were arrogant, and believed their victory to be assured, and so the story is that not only did 33 of them agree, but they chose the battlefield to be to within the dreams of their followers, so they could see the glory of their gods.
But, Chengzhu won each fight and debate, completely fairly, and humiliated the gods in their own court, in the dreams of their followers. The gods refused to step down, assuming it would blow over after they'd been humiliated, and told my master to let it be. Chengzhu refused. In retaliation, in a single night, he destroyed all of their temples, across our land, and the followers who had followed the defeated gods--including the royalty of the country below--began to worship Hua Chengzhu instead. No one knows how he did it, but it was a display of his ferocity and tenacity.
So, it is safe to say that Chengzhu is quite powerful, and quite terrifying. He is certainly worthy of his title as "calamity", but it depends on the place that you occupy in this realm; as I have come to know him, Chengzhu suits the rumors that follow him, but he is more neutral than you would think. [ a small shrug of his shoulders. ] I know Chengzhu best as the master of the Ghost City, but he has many other titles given by many others - His Majesty the Ghost King, Crimson Rain Sought Flower, to name a few.
[She follows along maybe surprisingly easily - Percy is her best friend, so "gods suck" is a sentiment that's not too hard for her to imagine and accept. Anyways, once she's done listening carefully:]
So... Not a calamity in the sense that he's going around messing with normal people, but a calamity in the sense that someone with enough power to name him decided that they didn't like him. Am I on point there?
You are correct. And... as well as that he "messed with" [ is he using that right? he thinks he is. ] those powerful people, instead of simply accepting their word as law and kowtowing to them, and continues to do so. [ stan! hua cheng hours! ] Most of the Heavenly Officials are terrified of him, but they speak ill of him nevertheless, and also attend his city in disguise quite often to partake in the things it has to offer as well.
[Still... Part of it rubs her the wrong way, and she glances towards Yin Yu again with an expression that's - not quite concerned, but definitely bordering on it.]
You know that someone saving your life doesn't automatically mean you owe them everything from there on out, though, right?
[He's passive enough that she's kind of worried this may not have actually occurred to him yet.]
It is a bit difficult to explain, but there is more to it than that. [ but that's yin yu lore, and that is lore that will not be unlocked very easily! ] Chengzhu is a fair master, and if I did not think so, perhaps I would not be sitting here today. Our relationship is mutually beneficial--I like the work, and I always have.
[She sounds a little bit self conscious as she says that, because she came dangerously close to admitting she was worried for a second there, and that's Embarrassing. Searching for a change of subject, she lands on:]
It's a little bit of everything. Roughly half of the time, I run errands for Chengzhu across the country, ranging from eliminating resentful spirits that are encroaching on humans to delivering messages for him or collecting information. The other half, I maintain watch over Ghost City and keep the residents and guests relatively in line, as well as attend to official matters of business [ read: anything that chengzhu finds boring, and also, needs hand written, because he can't write for shit ] and so on.
[ a pause, and then he laughs, a bit quietly. ] ...I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before.
I don't talk to many people. [ remember how he said he was boring: this is why. he tends to disappear in a room full of people. ] Ah... well, perhaps I should say, before the island, anyway...
[ flayn asked him about his job and i'm an idiot who forgot.png
anyway! ] ...as for the city itself, it is mostly ghosts, demons, and other spirits who reside there.
[ he nods to the first, a little "mn" to confirm. a month... he saw chengzhu right as he left, but otherwise... the amount of work he's going to have to do is going to be astounding.
as for the second bit.....there is a long pause. ] I....confess I am not entirely sure where that is. What is "halloween", exactly...?
Chengzhu's wraith butterflies can capture action as it happens, and play it back for himself and I to see later; he often uses it for surveillance. Is that similar?
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as for the question...yin yu pauses as if thinking about his answer for a moment. to answer her fully. ] ...I do, but it's not so much that. The domain that I work in is almost exclusively the land; there is a different being than my lord who is in charge of the water, more or less. It is an unspoken agreement between my lord and him, and not one that I wish to step on the toes of by any means.
[ if natalie's quick, she might pick up on the less politely worded meaning of that sentence, which is along the lines of i don't have a death wish: hard pass.
he's been to black water island exactly once, and it was with hua cheng, and he'd rather not repeat the experience more than necessary. especially recently. he will leave the provoking to hua cheng who at least bothers the other calamity himself and doesn't make his errand boy do it... ] So, it has been a very long time since I've seen much water at all, besides on the island.
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That explains the shovel. I thought it was kind of weird to have a named one. [But.] When you say your lord, though, are we talking about a earth god, water god kind of situation here...?
[There was a time when she would have thought even the possibility was unbelievable, but interdimensional murder competitions sure do warp your definition of normal, something that was tenuous at best for her even before all this.]
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...Almost the opposite, actually. [ ha ha... ha... ] But in some ways, you aren't far off, either; it is a clever observation. For eight hundred years, Crimson Rain Sought Flower has been the scourge of the Heavenly Realm: he is the most well known for having eliminated the presence of 33 separate gods overnight, though that was before my time. My lord is one of the Four Calamities; he is what is considered a 'ghost king', as is the other calamity who controls the seas. It is certainly the closest a ghost could come to a godly status.
[ hua cheng's bde: nearly unmatched.
oh! though, he reaches back for the earth master shovel, giving it a small pat. ] The Earth Master's shovel did belong to a god, however.
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Why would you work with someone like that?
[Calamities are typically bad news, after all!]
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[ yin yu knows hua cheng to be terrifying, sure; he has a healthy fear and respect for his boss. but he also knows that if it wasn't for hua cheng, who gave him a purpose, who lifted him off of his feet at the worst moment of his existence, who helped him with jian yu, he would have suffered the same fate. he knows a different hua cheng, than the heavens do. ] Chengzhu's unique position in the world comes with its quirks, and he is of an interesting character, sometimes, but the decisions he makes are not without previous thought, and he does little carelessly.
[ ... mostly. provoking black water for no reason, snapping up every treasure he can get his hands on (or having yin yu do it) because he's bored and petty and hates the gods...those things still even have reasons, even if they're headache inducing sometimes. yin yu gives a small nod of his head. ] ...It has truly been my honor to serve him.
[ this hard worker likes his job. he has earned his place working at the side of a calamity. ]
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Okay, but like... You know that saying he's literally called a calamity would make most people think that he's out to hurt people, right?
[It's a roundabout way of asking whether that assumption on her part is accurate - because that feels like a piece of the puzzle she needs to judge exactly how she interprets the situation.]
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...And to the Heavens, I would say, he certainly is one. My master is ruthless towards the gods. He has little care for them or their proprieties, with one notable godly exception. He is relentless in the pursuit of the gods who wronged someone important in his life, and shows no sympathy for them. To the gods, Hua Chengzhu is truly terrifying, because he does not care for the respect we are all supposed to pay to them, as heavenly creatures who were once human, who were so extraordinary that they ascended to godhood.
While my master earned the rank of calamity through his victory at Mt. Tonglu over other ghosts, the true story of my master's title as 'calamity', in the sense are you saying, is related directly to the heavens. [ please allow him a moment of storytime! this is like the most words he's spoken in any tag that wasn't a body report be impressed. he'll wait to make sure natalie's still interested in the tale, before beginning in his calm, even voice. ]
It is quite difficult to remove a single god from the heavenly realms. Gods are immortal, and can only lose their position if they are banished, or if they lose all of the followers. My master forced this thirty three times over, because he took each god to task for cruel behavior taken against someone who did not deserve it.
[ his fondness for taizi dianxia is nowhere near hua cheng's--nothing could even compare--but yin yu knows xie lian as a person, now, and to want to strike back on his behalf seems right. ] The story goes as so: Hua Chengzhu went to the Heavenly Capitol and challenged a total of 35 gods to a duel of their choice, whether that was a martial fight, or a debate for literary gods, and promised to give up his ashes if he lost a single fight, which is akin to allowing himself to be executed. In exchange, he asked that if the gods lost, they would announce their shame to their followers, and step down from their heavenly positions. The gods were arrogant, and believed their victory to be assured, and so the story is that not only did 33 of them agree, but they chose the battlefield to be to within the dreams of their followers, so they could see the glory of their gods.
But, Chengzhu won each fight and debate, completely fairly, and humiliated the gods in their own court, in the dreams of their followers. The gods refused to step down, assuming it would blow over after they'd been humiliated, and told my master to let it be. Chengzhu refused. In retaliation, in a single night, he destroyed all of their temples, across our land, and the followers who had followed the defeated gods--including the royalty of the country below--began to worship Hua Chengzhu instead. No one knows how he did it, but it was a display of his ferocity and tenacity.
So, it is safe to say that Chengzhu is quite powerful, and quite terrifying. He is certainly worthy of his title as "calamity", but it depends on the place that you occupy in this realm; as I have come to know him, Chengzhu suits the rumors that follow him, but he is more neutral than you would think. [ a small shrug of his shoulders. ] I know Chengzhu best as the master of the Ghost City, but he has many other titles given by many others - His Majesty the Ghost King, Crimson Rain Sought Flower, to name a few.
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So... Not a calamity in the sense that he's going around messing with normal people, but a calamity in the sense that someone with enough power to name him decided that they didn't like him. Am I on point there?
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You are correct. And... as well as that he "messed with" [ is he using that right? he thinks he is. ] those powerful people, instead of simply accepting their word as law and kowtowing to them, and continues to do so. [ stan! hua cheng hours! ] Most of the Heavenly Officials are terrified of him, but they speak ill of him nevertheless, and also attend his city in disguise quite often to partake in the things it has to offer as well.
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[Still... Part of it rubs her the wrong way, and she glances towards Yin Yu again with an expression that's - not quite concerned, but definitely bordering on it.]
You know that someone saving your life doesn't automatically mean you owe them everything from there on out, though, right?
[He's passive enough that she's kind of worried this may not have actually occurred to him yet.]
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It is a bit difficult to explain, but there is more to it than that. [ but that's yin yu lore, and that is lore that will not be unlocked very easily! ] Chengzhu is a fair master, and if I did not think so, perhaps I would not be sitting here today. Our relationship is mutually beneficial--I like the work, and I always have.
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[She sounds a little bit self conscious as she says that, because she came dangerously close to admitting she was worried for a second there, and that's Embarrassing. Searching for a change of subject, she lands on:]
What was it, exactly? The work, I mean.
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It's a little bit of everything. Roughly half of the time, I run errands for Chengzhu across the country, ranging from eliminating resentful spirits that are encroaching on humans to delivering messages for him or collecting information. The other half, I maintain watch over Ghost City and keep the residents and guests relatively in line, as well as attend to official matters of business [ read: anything that chengzhu finds boring, and also, needs hand written, because he can't write for shit ] and so on.
[ a pause, and then he laughs, a bit quietly. ] ...I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before.
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[She's about to tell him that it wasn't a big deal that she asked, but instead—]
...That's actually incredibly sad, wow. Seriously, nobody? What do you do for work is, like, one of the most basic questions out there.
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[ flayn asked him about his job and i'm an idiot who forgot.png
anyway! ] ...as for the city itself, it is mostly ghosts, demons, and other spirits who reside there.
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[She moves on quickly, too, though.]
Huh. So, like... Halloween Town, basically?
[He will absolutely not understand this reference.]
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as for the second bit.....there is a long pause. ] I....confess I am not entirely sure where that is. What is "halloween", exactly...?
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[After a second:]
It's a holiday where everyone dresses up, basically.
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anyway. he tilts his head! ] ...As ghosts, spirits and such?
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I would be glad to learn. [ teach him your ways, modern natalie! ]
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—Okay, like. You know the images they have of all of us on our boarding passes?
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Chengzhu's wraith butterflies can capture action as it happens, and play it back for himself and I to see later; he often uses it for surveillance. Is that similar?
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