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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 2282621" data-attributes="member: 15043">Wa-Feng versus Wa-Feng part Deux, and Visitors Along the Road“The other Wa-Feng should not go with you.”Felonca’s mind was still thinking of her father... partly eager to help him, free him, and partly worried at his reaction to the daughter that had broken the military code, that had lived as a thief.  It took several moments for her mind to process what her uncle had said.“Hm?” she looked up.  I must have misheard him.  She watched as her uncle’s shoulders heaved in a sigh, and his own eyes looked back up at hers. “I said I do not believe that Wa-Feng Meiji should accompany you on this part of the mission,” Dian repeated quietly, before the older hengeyokai cleared his throat.  “I believe him to be a potential liability.  He should remain with the baggage train, where he has been these past few weeks.  Instead, I would suggest...”“Why do you believe your own son to be a liability?” Felonca asked, her voice dropping from warm excitement to icy formality.  He’s still mad at Meiji for refusing to even attend the Academy, for running off to become a singer!  “He has helped us much in the past,” she tried to justify, to use logic, “He is good at disguises, and his music actually has magical properties...”  Uncle... this will only turn into another argument...“Felonca, my dear, I do not believe that a song that made two little gnomes fall over in laughter would help against the hundreds of soldiers within the camp, or their commanders,” Dian protested.  “Besides, Meiji is...”“...a disappointment to you?” Felonca fired back, her tone now fully razor sharp.  I trust him!  Why can’t you!?  “Because he went and did what he wanted to, what he was good at, instead of following a strict family code?”“Felonca, I did not mean it sound like...”“Uncle, you are a bad liar,” Felonca snorted.  “You did mean it that way!  You still think of him as the flippant, arrogant and flighty boy he was when he ran off twelve years ago!  He’s not!”  He’s still those things... just... not nearly as bad as before... she justified to herself.  She crossed her arm and scowled.  “If you speak to him, you might discover this yourself!”“I... I cannot,” Dian looked at the ground, his own voice slowly filling with iron.“Why?  Why can’t a father speak to his own son?” she growled.  Her eyes were so focused on her uncle that she didn’t notice Nayu back away, and quickly slip out the door.  If she had seen him, it would have been obvious he wanted no part of the debate.“Because,” Dian looked up, his tone snappish, before he closed his eyes and gave a forcible sigh.  “I closed that door long ago.  I’ve seen him with the army, once or twice... but I made a vow twelve years ago...”“A vow to never speak to him again?  Uncle, that’s... that is utter idiocy!” Felonca complained.  “Never speak to your son because he wasn’t a warrior!  You speak to me, enough to castigate and chastise!”“You tried to be a warrior Felonca... hell, you didn’t just try, you are a warrior!  You proved it two days ago... regardless of whether you passed the Academy exams or not!  He is not!  He did not even try!” Dian rumbled darkly.  “He had enough nerve to send a request through Zhong Wei Li to be given a commission and a position with you or Nayu!”  His voice rose once again.  “He is a cur, a craven man who’d rather cavort with women than defend himself with a blade!  He is no son of mine!”Felonca’s mouth stopped, held open at her uncle’s statement.  After a minute’s worth of shock, she snapped back, “Uncle Dian!  That... that is the most narrow minded, idiotic thing...”“I will not accept him as a part of my contingent, or let his blemish join any army I am a part of!” Dian’s arms crossed.“Uncle, I gladly accept him!  He can fight just as well as me!”  Felonca ignored the little thoughts running in her mind questioning the last time Meiji contributed something useful other than being a distraction, so hot was her anger.  Her tail swished angrily, and she glared.  “Uncle, he is in my contingent!  I have selected him, and it is my plan, so he is coming with!”  Her eyes blazed, daring him to contradict.  He might be my elder, he might be my superior officer, but I am right!The elder Wa-Feng started to snap back, but just as his mouth opened he seemed to pause.  His fiery words instead found an outlet through his glaring eyes as he bowed.“Fine.  He’ll be a part of your contingent,” the general reluctantly growled, “but do not expect me to welcome such a move, or to greet my former son with open arms...”“So he let Meiji come with?” Nayu asked the next morning.  Felonca nodded her head, as her cousin cantered by, his face sour.  Unusually, Meiji was clad completely in black leathers, the ringlets in his hair dyed as dark as a moonless night.  Where normally gold jewelry would have hung brilliantly from his ears and neck, only naked, dark skin showed.  He looked momentarily at his cousin, before cantering his horse up ahead, passing Yari Ai and Liu without hardly a word.“He’s not in a good mood,” Felonca stated the obvious.  She’s tried to talk to him early that morning, hoping the news that he could come along would brighten his spirits.  Instead, he’d asked about his father’s reaction... and things had gone downhill from there.“He didn’t even try to make a pass a me,” Yari reined up her horse till Nayu and Felonca were alongside.  “That’s unusual...”“I think he knows the answer by now, that’s why he didn’t bother” Nayu grinned slightly,  hoping for a joke.  He frowned when his humor fell on deaf ears, as the two women stared ahead at Meiji, who’d finally reined up his horse far ahead alongside the marching soldiers, and merely stared out ahead.  Oh well... I tried to cheer them up, he thought.“I should go talk to him,” Felonca said quietly, putting her spurs into her horse and galloping ahead.  “Yari Ai, maybe you should go with her...” Nayu gestured up ahead.  To his surprise, the cleric shook her head no.“He might think I’m indicating something I’m not,” she sighed, “and he’s hurt enough as it is, without me intentionally or unintentionally adding to the pain.”  For a second, the wind caught her raven hair, and mesmerized Nayu’s eyes.  His gaze was broken when she looked directly at him.“You should go up there... help talk him down.  You’ve been around Shang Wa-Feng, but not under as...um... stressful of situations as Felonca.  You’re probably the closest thing to an impartial voice.”“You’re probably right,” Nayu thought aloud, turning his horse and cantering up towards where the pair of panther hengeyokai’s were already in discussion.“...this is a chance for you to show him wrong!” Nayu heard Felonca say in exasperation.  As the sorcerer reined up alongside, Meiji turned and nearly spat fire at his cousin and now commander.“Why do I need to prove myself to him!?” the bard snapped.  “I’m even more his flesh and blood than you are!  He had no right to treat you that way, and he has no right treating his own son like this!  Just because I’m not a warrior, and just because I don’t want to be a warrior, doesn’t mean I’m any less of  a man than he is!”“I know that Meiji!” Felonca growled back, her own hackles rising at being yelled at.  Nayu closed his eyes, gave a small sigh, and slowly put his hand between the two.“Wa-Fengs... may I speak?” he said quietly.  Calm and quiet... contrast to their noise and anger.  Cool down their tongues...  “Felonca, I believe your cousin is merely venting... he is upset, and has every right to be.”  Nayu looked to her, and she nodded.  He then turned to Meiji.“Your cousin is merely pointing out that while your father is a bastard for treating you like some piece of scum,” Nayu said softly, “that this is your chance to prove him wrong!  Not only that, but that also if he is shown he is wrong, that he apologizes, and rights his mistake!  She is proof of that!”  To his surprise, Meiji looked at him, and his eyes merely narrowed.“Nothing can make up for the twelve years of silence that have come from him!” Meiji spat back in a fury.  He sighed.  “I don’t think its possible for him to forgive...  I don’t think its possible...”Nayu had opened his mouth to give a response, before Felonca cut him off.“There’s someone in the trees!” she hissed, her eyes narrowed, searching, her hybrid nostrils lifted into the air, smelling.  “Don’t make a sudden movement... I’m going to bring him back!”  Before Nayu could reply, she was off her horse, and dashing into the woods, in full panther array.“What?” Meiji whispered, following his cousin from the corner of his eyes, as Nayu desperately tried to do the same.  His human eyes caught only the dark foliage of the forest, leaves shifting slightly in the slow breeze.Suddenly, the leaves parted, and twigs began to crash and thrash about.  Immediately drawn to the movement, Nayu had only a moment to catch the black shape of the tail of a panther sail through the air before disappearing into the foliage.  A few seconds later, he heard a frustrated growl, as the thrashes continued.  Then he caught sight of the man... the figure was dashing between the tress, dodging the low, black shape dashing behind it.  Part of him wanted to chuckle.  So the panther can’t catch the running man?  Hmm...  He smiled, thinking of what could slow the man down.  He closed his eyes momentarily, coaxing arcane power to the fore, before his eyes flashed open, wide as his mind lashed out, probing, pushing towards the creature, then through its skull...What?  Nayu blinked hard.  He should have encountered thoughts, memories, emotions... all the normal mental processes within a creature’s mind.  Instead, he felt nothing.Nothing.That... how?  Everything has a mind... except...Undead...As Nayu realized what they faced, he saw the low black shape leap airborne, the roar of a panther in mid-pounce filling the air.  The figure spun around as the panther latched to its arm, and Nayu watched as Felonca lost her grip and tumbled back to the ground.An undead!? Here?!  A scout!  It has to be a scout! Nayu thought, coaxing his arcane energy back as the low twang of Meiji’s bow echoed in his ear, followed shortly by the clattering of an arrow bouncing amongst the trees... and a low dull moan as the creature twisted oddly, Meiji’s arrow sticking from its back.I’ve never done this before... Nayu thought, as his mind twisted, molding the magic burning within his body.  A split second before the sea of magic flooded from his form, Nayu’s mind fixed upon the undead creature in the distance, and he gave sneering smile...Even from this distance, Nayu heard the creature’s shriek, as mentally the sorcerer twisted the magical powers tighter, funneling arcane energy towards the beast.  Its hands began to claw at its face, as it started to shrink, its shrieks and howls growing higher pitched and quieter, until finally, it disappeared from view altogether.“What did you do?” Meiji asked, and Nayu turned to the bard and just gave a smirk.“You’ll see,” he replied.  Felonca should have some fun before she gets back...A few seconds later, Felonca emerged from the forest in hybrid form.  In her hands was a tiny grey squirrel, its paws swinging about as it desperately fought the much larger Felonca, trying to get free.  Despite its ferocious movements, its eyes still shone a dull yellow, the same as those of the dead.“What the hell did you do?!” Felonca yelled in frustration at Nayu as she moved her thumb to avoid the tiny creature’s snapping jaws.  “I wanted to interrogate him, to find out who he was and why he’s here!”“Umm...” Nayu paused.  I didn’t think about that...  “I was focused on trying to keep it from getting away... um... here!” he reached down and pulled out an empty pouch, handing it to her.  “Put it in there, until I can...um... figure something out!”“Just change him back!” Felonca replied, moving more fingers to keep the creature from biting her. “Put him in the bag!  If he bites you now, you can still get whatever disease or terrible thing he has!” Nayu shot back.  “I only changed his form, I didn’t change who he, or it, was!”“Fine!” Felonca said, stuffing the squirrel into the pouch and quickly closing the top.  The bag flipped and swayed in her hands as the creature continued to struggle.  What to do with that thing?  What creature can speak, but is still harmless enough that it can’t hurt any of us, and slow enough it can’t run away?  If it can talk, it can still try to bite... hmm...“What’s going on up here?” The sound of hooves drawing to a halt, as well as Yari Ai’s call, brought Nayu from his thoughts.“I caught a man spying on the army!” Felonca announced, before turning towards Nayu with an upset scowl.  “Unfortunately, our resident sorcerer turned him into a squirrel, so I can’t interrogate him!”“It wasn’t a man, it was undead!” Nayu shot back.  “How would you know?” Felonca crossed her arms, her eyebrow raised.  “Last I checked it took years as a scholar, or learning Shenyang’s teachings, for someone to know right away if a walking man was living or not!”“I tried...” Nayu started to fire back, until Yari Ai dismounted, and walked over to the bag.  As he, Felonca, and Meiji watched, she placed a hand on the outside of the bag... and then snatched her hand away with a slight yelp.“Its undead,” she said, rubbing her palm.  “Very much undead.  Its an abberration of the order of things... it should be put out of its misery.”“I agree,” Nayu added.  “If the voice of Shenyang speaks so, something must be wrong with leaving it alive.”  He saw Yari Ai flash a nod of agreement to his speech... and Felonca frown.“But... if Nayu just changed him, we could...”“Changing it would be dangerous,” Yari Ai spoke again.  “If Nayu changed it to something that was able to speak, it would also undoubtedly be a form able to attack, and not be nearly as harmless as this little squirrel.  We know where it likely came from...”“The Military Governor,” Nayu guessed, “probably assigned to watch the routes approaching the supply camp.” “...and likely if its this far from the camp, it probably is not in the position to give us any information we don’t already have from the Princess,” Yari Ai added, speaking calmly.   “Transforming it into something that speaks would pose an unnecessary risk, considering how much information you yourself say you have gained from the Princess.”Felonca’s brow furrowed more, and finally she sighed.  Her hands wrapped around the upper part of the pouch, then twisted.  Above the din of the army marching by, the party heard a slight series of cracks... then the bag exploded.  The panther hengeyokai jumped back, as a body landed to the ground with a thump.Before them lay a naked man, his skin seemingly melted away, his muscles bleached brown.  His eyes were askew, one bulging from its socket, one recessed.  His mouth lay open, exposing rows of sharpen, blackened teeth.  As they watched, the undead creature twitched several times, before lapsing into true death.“A slaughter wight,” Yari Ai said quietly.  Unbeknownst to the party, only fifty feet away, two more pairs of undead eyes watched the column as it moved, and dispassionately followed the demise of their compatriot.  Swiftly, silently, the two forms slipped back into the forest, and quickly slipped back to their waiting masters...= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =The Meiji thing wasn't something that happened in-game... but as I looked over the story outlines left behind, I realized this would undoubtedly have come up... considering the background of the two NPCs... so I worked it in, substituting what Nayu and Felonca's likely reactions would have been. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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