fracturarpg | intro log.

Entry tags:

! intro

intro log.

welcome mingle

( AND SO IT BEGINS. )

There's nothing but the clatter of train tracks, and the odd feeling of almost floating.

When you wake, it's hard to tell exactly what it is that you're missing - only that you are. There are pieces that aren't quite right, even if you're not sure where those pieces would normally be. Pieces of what, exactly....? Well, if you had to put a word to it, it would be - yourself, probably.

The place you've found yourself in is strange, certainly. It's probably worth exploring a bit. Though it just as easily seems that the only form of welcome or explanation that you have, comes from nothing more than a slab of marble.

Well - that, and all the people who seem to have woken up alongside you, lost and also probably Doing Their Best™.

There's no need to fret that much though. It's hard to say exactly where you're going next, even though some places might feel a little bit more like a clue, but what you do know is one unshakeable thing:

There's still much more ahead of you.

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[Please no bully. He's definitely a sweet, innocent young boy and not an old river spirit!]

There's no magic inside of them. If you want more empty vessels, take them. [Hm. He glances at Wei Wuxian.] If you want them to have a spell, I will give you one for one melon.

[Always bully?? Always bully serious kids and absolutely always bully old spirits that could drown him in a river.]

A fair deal! I'll take five empty ones and one with a spell for two melons - how does that sound?

[His eyes hold Wei Wuxian for a long moment, deciding. Maybe how to drown the man in a river.]

Three empty ones and one with a spell for one melon.

[That's fair and Haku is honestly valid. Wei Wuxian, who cares nothing for melons or spells, just grins and nods.]

You have yourself a deal! You can pick out any melon you'd like. Take the biggest one! Though I've heard the smaller ones are sweeter, haha.

[Wei Wuxian is awful.]

Alright.

[Maneuvering around Wei Wuxian with his lil basket of charms, he moves to the cart full of stupid cantaloupe. For a moment, he inspects them with really a too serious of an air, like he's actually shopping for melons. Then he places the basket on the ground so he can gather out four of the fabric charms.

He takes one of the smaller cantaloupes out with one hand and settles it gently into the basket in one corner.

Then he turns to offer the three "empty" charms to Wei Wuxian.]

[Wei Wuxian is absolutely the worst, yeah. He watches Haku go about his melon shopping so seriously! As he reaches out to take the three empty charms:]

Good pick! I can tell that one is going to be nice and sweet.

[It probably will be; he's not a complete demon and he would have warned Haku if his little farmer eyes spied him reaching for one that looked bad.

Anyway, he just tucks these charms away into his merlin robes, which are already starting to fill up with all kinds of bullshit.]

What sort of spell will you make?

If you keep patronizing me, I'll put a curse inside of it instead.

[How is he going to curse and already cursed man, we just don't know.

The fourth charm is settled between both cupped together palms. He closes his eyes. The outer layers of his clothes and the ends of his hair begin to rustle as if disturbed by some mysterious wind. The edge of it brushes up against Wei Wuxian--magic perhaps, but it feels rather spiritual. Old but no less full of vitality. The charm lifts and hovers, bobbling above the bowl of his hands. The air constricts briefly, and then the charm lowers again.

He opens his eyes and hands it off to Wei Wuxian.]

It will glow at night and give you light.

Haha, is that what you call patronizing? Goodness.

[GOODNESS. Also yeah real questions, especially considering his expression actually lights up at the mention of curses?? BAD?? He's interested in this charm too, of course - as he takes it, it's with the curious eye of a tinkerer examining something foreign. Magic! Magic from other worlds!! Wild. Spiritual magic is the same sort of thing he deals with, so there's probably something familiar about it in that way, at least. His fingers trace over the fabric, careful.]

Oh! What a useful spell. That's kind of you. [He lived in a cave for 5 years and hardly needs lights in the dark but it's the THOUGHT THAT COUNTS.

Anyway, being cursed by nature already:] What about curses, though? What kind of curses can you create?

[Come on, you nasty goblin, at least do something useful with his gift when you're chicken scratching over a notebook. Also WOW, he mcfucked up when he mentioned curses. Awful. Wei Wuxian gets a Look at the questioning.]

Asking for curses will get you in trouble.

[He turns away from Wei Wuxian and leans down to scoop up the basket full of charms and now small cantaloupe--both hands this time.]

[HE WILL!! He'll lob it at the first light-allergic demon he finds. But yeah he really did, bad. Wei Wuxian's holding his hands out!]

I'm curious, though! Let me carry that for you and you can trade me by satisfying my curiosity. I'll throw in an extra melon, even! Or one of these.

[Fishing in his robes for a KAZOO. It's platinum, for some fucking reason.]

[His eyes regard the offered hands with a mildly snooty sort of glance. And then he... looks at the kazoo. At Wei Wuxian. At the kazoo. Hm.

Shifting the basket to one arm briefly, he raises his free hand quickly and juts the palm at Wei Wuxian. A kind of dark, translucent forcefield grows up around Wei Wuxian. Well... Wei Wuxian is kind of big, so it sort of just grows up around Wei Wuxian's chest and shoulders and head. It doesn't hurt, but it will sort of entrance him until it pops several long seconds later. (It will drop him toward the floor when it does, though, rip.)

In this time, he tries to swipe the kazoo out of Wei Wuxian's fingers.]

[The stupid thing is he could have absolutely at least attempted to stop this from happening but he doesn't because he's curious?? CURIOSITY LITERALLY KILLS THE CAT and satisfaction apparently also brings it back, or just Mo Xuanyu.

Despite definitely landing in a heap on the floor when the bubble pops and now being sans one (1) kazoo, Wei Wuxian is just laughing once he shakes the daze off?? Haku will also probably also notice that if any energy behind that spell was negative-leaning, those parts might seem to linger around Wei Wuxian for a bit, curling through his hair and across a cheek like it has an affinity for him. DEMONIC CULTIVATORS. They're just like this.]

Really - how strange! What was that - a curse? Was that a curse? Ah, will I start bleeding from my ears later? Haha, that would be such a mess.

[HE TUGS ON ONE AS IF TO CHECK.]

[Why is wwx this way, honestly?]

You'll live.

[Carefully, he inspects the kazoo over, and then he tucks it into the slitted opening on the side of the outer layer of his robe. When he glances up, his eyes narrow slightly at Wei Wuxian; they follow the energy which dances around the hair and the face. Hm. Bad.]

You can stop pretending to be stupid. You know more about this than you let on.

[BECAUSE HE HIMSELF IS A CURSE. He's pushing himself back up onto his feet though, shaking off his robes and probably shedding one or two more kazoos in the process.]

Hm, hm, I suppose so. [UNFORTUNATE. Though he laughs at that, waving a hand! Whatever bits of energy remain wind around his fingers instead, and he dismisses it with a gentle flick.]

I'm not pretending to be anything! [He is naturally stupid thank you.] I really haven't run into this sort of spell before. I like it! Nice and simple. Haha, knowing something like that probably would have saved me a lot of trouble quite a few times.

[STOP. Haku doesn't believe this stupidity for a single instant. There is something nefarious afoot here, and if it ever gets any worse, he'll get the Ghibli frizzled hair.

He watches the few other kazoos tumble out of Wei Wuxian's gremlin robes. Now he doesn't feel quite so bad pilfering the one he took, not that he exactly felt bad anyway.]

Are you a sorcerer then?

[WHY WON'T HAKU BELIEVE HE'S AN IDIOT. HE'S AN ACTUAL IDIOT. A completely harmless idiot with kazoos in his gremlin robes, wow. Who's nefarious here??

He just wiggles his fingers a little, still smiling.]

Nope, just a cultivator! We deal with spirits and the like. Your angry sword spirits, your vengeful or wandering dead, so on, so on.

[Then, head tipping forward a little, curious as ever:]

Are sorcerers common where you come from?

[His face says, "Cultivator...?" in the expression. Cultivating. What a strange, but not entirely inaccurate, thing to call it. But then his face turns a bit grim. Please don't talk so carefree about wrangling spirits.

The fingers wiggle, though he doesn't flinch or take any step back. Not even when Wei Wuxian tips inward at the head.]

Yes. I'm a sorceress's apprentice.

[And, like, obviously other things Wei Wuxian can probably tell, but he isn't saying any of that.]

[GOOD because he's not trying to intimidate, he just naturally gravitates toward stupid childish gestures and also tends to burst personal bubbles. He's still keeping a relatively respectful distance here, at least...

He'd also try to be more careful about talk of wrangling spirits but THIS IS HIM BEING NICE WHEN TALKING ABOUT WRANGLING SPIRITS wow. What a gremlin.]

Hm, really? [An apprentice?? Wild.] Must be a fascinating job. Or at least one that doesn't get boring quickly!

She's the proprietor of a bathhouse.

[For spirits, except he doesn't say that right now. Definitely not in front of a cultivator who does many things with spirits, nevermind it doesn't seem to be completely terrible.]

But I work for her, not her establishment. She has others for that.

[WHAT DOES HAKU THINK CULTIVATORS DO, GOOD LORD.]

A sorcerer running a bathhouse! Hah, now there's something I've never heard of before. Doesn't sorcery and magic conjure up the image of someone living alone in a cave in the mountains somewhere, sending flocks of crows out to get their shopping done for them?

[Or Wen Nings.]

[STOP, LEAVE NING ALONE.

And LOOK? Wei Wuxian just did a complete Mary Poppins with the leftover energy from the "curse" before claiming to be the one and only cultivator Haku has met so far right now. Clearly, cultivators = maybe on par with Yubaba and Zeniba.]

Yubaba doesn't make her money by living alone in a cave in the mountains. She does have a crow for a servant. She's greedy, but she's powerful and smart.

[Kin...da. It has her head, which is horrendous, but whatever.]

[LET HIM LIVE HIS BEST ZOMBIE LIFE as the pusher of a cart full of radishes and also Wei Wuxian. He's fine??]

Hoh... Aren't there plenty of horror stories out there about greedy sorcerers?

[None about sorcerers which have crow servants that have their master's heads, though. THAT'D BE THE REAL HORROR STORY.]

What need does a powerful sorcerer have for money, anyway? If that were me, I'd want to live as far away from anyone else as possible. I'd be pestered all the time, otherwise! She should consider settling down by a lake and getting into farming.

[That's his personal ideal future, honestly.]

[Well, lucky for Wei Wuxian, his crone woodland fairytale isn't completely whack:]

You're confusing Yubaba with her twin sister, Zeniba. She's the one who lives in the swamp on a farm. Yubaba prefers to run her bathhouse because the money gives her a comfortable lifestyle.

She's a sorceress, but she can't make gold. She still has to live. [Unfortunately, the ol' Ghibli grey area is here, too:] Without Yubaba, plenty of others wouldn't have work, and then they wouldn't survive themselves.

[DAMN he wishes he was Zeniba, honestly. THAT'S THE LIFE... He got to be a farmer once but it was on a mountain of corpses so does that really count??]

I see, I see... You have a point! I guess everyone needs money to survive in the end. [A sigh!] Even rogue cultivators do what they can for a handful of coins. It might just be easier being a spirit in the end, hah - at least when it comes to navigating the economy!

[Their Spirits Are Different.]

[WEI WUXIAN, PLEASE STOP KINNING OLD, WRINKLY WITCHES!!!!]

Being a spirit isn't as simple as you seem to think.

[But his eyes are hidden under his lashes, looking down.] This is why the bathhouse exists. It's for Yubaba to make money, but it's for the spirits. [The eyes lift, firm and resolute when he peer at Wei Wuxian. Unwavering.

And not quite the eyes of a young boy.]

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