deercountry | Lost in the Woods w/ Peerless Cucumber and SexPal

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Lost in the Woods w/ Peerless Cucumber and SexPal

Who: Shen Yuan (Drake) and Palamedes Sextus (Laura)
What: Getting lost, measuring their magic, being a couple of neeeeeeerds
When: Mid-October
Where: The woods outside Trench, to begin with.

Content Warnings: Assume all content warnings that go with the Lost in the Woods event; will add more if they arise.

"Are you kidding me??"

To wake up in a new location once was unfortunate, to do it twice was poor judgement, but to do it three times was beginning to look like a bad habit. Shen Yuan swears, staring at the trees about him with wide eyes. Was he even still in Trench??

A glinting object on the forest floor catches his attention; he summons Xiu Ya into his hand before approaching, a possible overreaction when it just turns out to be a little broken half-circle, left on the ground and softly glowing for no apparent reason.

Xiu Ya makes a thoughtful sound in his mind when, after cautiously picking it up and engaging in a little experimentation, the two of them discover that it will either dim or brighten depending on which direction he tries to walk. It might be a trap, she murmurs, yet this venerable one supposes a trap must have someone to arrange it. If nothing else we might be able to compel them to show us the way back to the city.

"That's assuming they didn't just ditch us out here," Shen Yuan grumbles, but the sword's right; following this little guide is at least slightly better than wandering through the woods aimlessly. He starts walking, keeping one eye on the little half-circle to make sure they don't stray off course, and the other watching their surroundings, on high alert for any sign of monsters or whatever person or power brought them out here in the first place.

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Personally, Palamedes has things to do. Such is life when one has a day job and a volunteer job and the new-slash-maddening perils of homeownership to juggle - none of which specifically involve waking up on the ground in the forest.

He's not very good at forests, is the thing. His experience with them is limited to solely the times he's been in this forest since coming to Trench, which is about, ah, twice? Maybe? And one of those times, a bird with a letter opener menaced him for a while... Regardless: he's out of his depth, and already dusty with dirt just from getting to his feet and trying to get his bearings, which - yeah, no.

He's just lost. Okay. He likewise spots the dimly glowing half circle on the ground and scoops it up mostly to have something to do with his hands, sighing as its brightness trick reveals itself and he heads off in what he hopes is the right direction. He walks.

...And walks, and trips, and shuffles and stumbles, and he's a bundle of bones with zero physical stamina, so for all this is really just a walk through the forest at normal speeds, it isn't long before he's exhausted and more than a little overheated, in his too-many layers of cardigans. So it's like this that he fumbles his way out from behind a tree onto a new path, looking like maybe he's just sprinted away from a monster, when really he's just had to climb over some gnarly roots undisturbed—

"Ah," he says, blinking owlishly at Shen Yuan. He nods, jerkily. "Nice seeing you— and you, too, my lady."

Master necromancer! Xiu Ya calls gleefully, making Shen Yuan wince at the mental volume. How pleasing to see you again! How this venerable one could have benefitted from your insight, over these past few months!

"You know he can't hear you unless he's touching you, right?" he says sourly to his sword, before turning to greet Palamedes. "Yes, hi. Xiu Ya missed you. Are you injured or anything? Cause you kind of look like you got dragged backwards through some bushes at some point."

Well let him touch the sword, obviously— Palamedes snorts and tries half-heartedly to hide his mirth behind his hand, looking down. Poor Shen Yuan and his excitable little lady, he can only imagine what Volume she's projecting over there - it's funny! Sorry about it!

That said, ah, "No— well, maybe my pride." He sighs lightly and looks down at himself, plucking at his outermost cardigan, which shakes loose a leaf he hadn't noticed was stuck to him, which means there are undoubtedly more. "I'm not being pursued by anything, if that's what you mean. I'm simply not built for exercise."

Plus, it's darkblood ache month - all-around shitty. He shrugs. "Are you alright?"

Oh? Are you saying you want to touch his sword, SexPal? You want to touch his special, bonded spirit sword, right here in the middle of the woods, in plain view of the heavens and the earth? You want to put your hands on it out here where anyone could walk by and see? How uncouth.

He holds the hilt out anyway for Palamedes to say hi as he walks over to stand next to him, because he's not a complete asshole and Xiu Ya won't stop picking on him until he does. "I'm fine," he says. "Wasn't planning to take a hike today, but here we are. Speaking of which --" He holds the glowing half-circle up for Palamedes to examine. "Did you pick up anything like this on your way over here?"

Yes, in front of God and everyone, he will reach over to give the sword hilt a friendly tap hello, so that Xiu Ya might chatter her greetings at him while he sways a little, here in this forest clearing. He might be ready to totally knock out cold, but he always has time to touch swords in plain view of whoever wants to see. Obviously.

"I did— hold on." Let him fumble with it one-handed, before he holds it out with the cracked side facing Shen Yuan. "What do you think? I'm assuming mine has to match another, otherwise what would be the point of leaving these out to find?"

Well, it makes Xiu Ya happy, so it's probably fine. Just don't go grabbing it without permission, okay? You can't just go around grabbing men's swords without their say-so.

...Or women's words, but this double-entendre is getting, heh, a little out of hand. Moving along...

"Mine too," Shen Yuan says, tilting his head and squinting a little as he eyes the jagged edges of both half-circles. "I suppose we should --" And he waves his piece vaguely, intended to suggest they hold them up against each other to see if they match, but before he can even get the words out the side of his half-circle has brushed against Palamedes', and two halves meld together in a brief flash of light.

"...Well, I guess that answers that," he says, bemused and staring at what is now cleary a compass in his hand.

Wow, of course he only consensually touches swords, gosh. He's a well-mannered gentleman when it comes to sword-touching, thanks.

Anyway: oh, there goes the piece, and Palamedes simply lets it almost magnetically pop out of his hand and attach to its other half. Aha. He stares at it for a long moment in silence. Yep. That sure is a compass.

...It can't be that easy.

Then, "Does it lead out of here, do you think? Or someplace even worse? I'm not particularly in the right headspace for an egregiously long adventure, regrettably."

"Honestly you look like you need a good spot to rest more than anything else," Shen Yuan says dryly. "If we get jumped out here I can defend us or carry you, not both --" He would've said more, but before he can get a full head of steam going the compass lights up in his palm. The arrow changes direction, stopping when it solidly points at a small dirt path that, Shen Yuan feels relatively certain, wasn't there before.

He raises his eyebrows at Palamedes, silently inviting his opinion.

"I'll take defense, please," Palamedes says, still eyeing the compass curiously. It's not that being carried around like an especially chatty bag of flour (empty, because he weighs nothing and has bird bones) is, like, objectionable, but he feels like the defensive option is probably faster. And, well. Shen Yuan is right, but he doesn't have to say it. Palamedes makes a face, briefly, but ah--

The compass has spawned a path? You know, he's had weirder this week, so: sure.

"Let's do as we're told; if it retaliates at signs of disobedience, I don't want to know." He takes a step- stumbles, immediately, on nothing at all- and okay!! They're in business! Don't perceive his wobbling.

Shen Yuan does not perceive it. He does however, give Palamedes an ironic little salute with Xiu Ya as he follows behind him, collecting a few leaves with his qi to make a distance weapon out of should the need arise. "Defense it is, then," he says with dry humor. "This one will do his best. Xiu Ya would be terribly distraught if anything happened to her absolute favorite necromancer."

And maybe Shen Yuan would be bugged too, just a little.

The path is a short one, and to Shen Yuan's surprise it ends next to a tidy little brook babbling in a short falls over a stone rise in the forest floor. The elevation change forms a sort of natural cavity, enclosing on three sides with the brook running through the open fourth. On the brook's near side is a dry bank large enough for two people to comfortably sit and be hidden from view by sweet-smelling grass that waves gently in a breeze that just now sprang up as soon as they entered the clearing.

Shen Yuan looks at the brook. He looks at the compass, which has just stopped glowing. Finally, he looks at Palamedes.

"...wanna take five?" he suggests wryly.

Thank you, Shen Yuan, for the moral support. Palamedes manages a snort, just as dry, glancing over his shoulder.

"How many necromancers does she know?" They are weirdly numerous in this town, but no offense to his fellows, but he hasn't judged most of them as the types to be interested in sword spirits.

But it's on to the brook, and give it this: it's idyllic. Palamedes has been in this city for nearly a year now, barring, uh, one month dead, but that's still one year against the two decades he spent in a space bunker. Which is to say: nature is still impressive when he isn't actively suffering in it, and this clearing is just pleasant enough for him to give it an appraising whistle, like, dang. Nice creek. Brook? R...river?

Don't ask him to differentiate, he's not that good at nature, even now. He's already wobbling towards that spot to sit, watching carefully for more things he might trip on.

"I will take longer than five if you don't stop me," he says. "An absolute manifold break from walking, to be certain my feet are still properly attached."

That's him, he's a supporter!

"Just the one," he answers, and has no thoughts or expectation of blowing Palamedes' mind when he adds, "Possibly one and a half. I've been working for him for nearly three months now, and I'm still not sure what Duty's deal is."

He's apparently on first-name basis with the god-emperor of some alternate universe, and he may or may not be several thousand years old himself. He's almost definitely got some kind of magic, but he never uses it. His whole demeanor honestly reminds Shen Yuan of a cultivator sage, actually, one of the really ancient ones who've seen it all and might have a beard down to their toes (though he's glad Duty doesn't have one, because it's cover up his manly face) and who retire from the martial life to farm or play the zither or something. Only Duty's doing construction. Shen Yuan doesn't necessarily get it, but he enjoys working with him.

Shen Yuan will explain all of this to Palamedes if he asks, but he'll watch with worried curiosity as Pal groans and lowers himself down onto the ground like he's fighting gravity the entire time. "Are you really okay?" he asks as he sits down next to him, cross-legged with Xiu Ya balanced on his knees. "I thought you said you weren't hurt."

Ah, and Duty is like Patience, or a lyctor's name, as far as Palamedes is aware. He doesn't know any Duty; he'd only spoken to Patience the once, for as miserably as that went, and Cytherea— he'd never learned what she was the saint of, and he doesn't particularly give half a fuck about her titles, in particular.

Probably not Duty, though. That sounds too Second, maybe Fourth. He shrugs, "Not in my circle. We're kind of-" obnoxious- "overt about necromancy, though." So maybe not a lyctor, actually...? Surely, Shen Yuan would have picked up on necromancy at work with this Duty person by now, because again: necromancers can't keep it down.

That said, he waves a hand, halfway dismissing this very generous concern. Please. "I'm not hurt; I'm just built like this. Cam used to rib me for getting winded going down the stairs." Down, yes. This does not count as hurt at all, this is just the feebleness of his necromancer bird bones catching up with him, probably.

"You wouldn't happen to have a canteen, or something, would you?"

Yeah, the necromancy was pretty overt that time Duty brought the friggin' god-emperor of their universe over to the outpost to put up those ballistae, which: that guy is a certifiable asshole, but so far as practicality goes the siege weapons were pretty damn cool, so he gets like half a point in Shen Yuan's book for that, edging him slightly in positive values after he plunged himself deeply into the red for causing the whole "qi-deviated and murdered his housemate" debacle that seriously disrupted Shen Yuan's life. But that's not important right now.

Right now, Shen Yuan is looking at Palamedes with uncertain worry, both because he's not a complete asshole and because, seriously, he's going to have a real hard time getting them out of these woods if he has to carry Palamedes the entire way. So finally he sighs and says, "I don't have a canteen, sorry. But there's something else I might be able to do for you, if you wouldn't find it too weird?"

He explains, "In the world where I learned how to do magic, cultivators -- mages -- would help each other recover from illness or injury by exchanging spiritual energy. I could try giving you so of mine, maybe it'll give you some more stamina so we can get out of here?"

Palamedes raises an eyebrow curiously, but that eyebrow goes right back down shortly upon hearing the actual explanation of this thing that he might find 'too weird'. Shen Yuan, he's a necromancer - 'weird' has to try a lot harder than that.

"Well, I'm going to call it thalergy, because 'spiritual energy' is too vague for an academic paper." Is he writing a paper. Maybe he will. It's been ages since he tooled around with the idea of comparing innate magics to the ones native to this world, and how they mesh-- but that's for later. He shrugs, like, sure! Why not! Do this not-that-weird thing, unless it's the doing part that's weird.

"As long as it doesn't knock you out— do you replenish energy quickly enough? I'd better not employ the usual necromantic methods in this state." The usual method is killing things. "What's your move?"

Thala-what? Palamedes gets a disapproving little nose-wrinkle for that. "If that bothers you, you're going to hate this next part," he snorts, vanishing Xiu Ya with a wave of his hand so she doesn't have to lie in the dirt or grass while he needs both hands free. He moves closer to Palamedes and picks up both his hands, explaining, "Spiritual energy is produced by the normal activities of living creatures, or non-living objects that have absorbed enough energy to simulate life. Cultivators increase their energy stores by learning how to increase the rate at which their bodies generate it, or by absorbing it from others. I'll try to pass you a small amount to start with, if you can bring yourself to cooperate long enough to accept it. People who aren't familiar with cultivator cultures sometimes struggle with maintaining the necessary frame of mind." He's challenging you now, Palamedes. Are you going to get off your Westernized high horse and let him help you, or are you going to keep whining about the lack of academic rigour of it all?

(Pay no attention to Shen Yuan's own history of bitching about how unscientific the setting of Proud Immortal Demom Way used to be. That's not important right now.)

He arranges Palamedes' hands so that they're palm up, with Shen Yuan's hands wrapped around his wrists and his thumbs on Palamedes' pulse points. "Close your eyes and think about your breathing," he directs. "With every breath, you bring in energy from the living things that surround you. Your body takes what it needs, and expels the rest to be used by others." As Shen Yuan speaks, his voice gradually loses its clipped, annoyed tone, slowing down as he falls into the familiar call and response of a meditative state. "Listen to my breathing: with every breath, I take some of your energy, and then give it back to you. You accept my energy, and then give it back to me. Focus on that thought: our shared breaths, our mingled energies, and then allow what I give you to settle in your lungs, in your blood, and revitalize you." While he's still speaking, Shen Yuan starts to set up the qi transfer, pressing some of his energy into Palamedes' body through the pulse points in his wrists.

Okay, temper problem. Palamedes would just go, were he not barely capable of standing and also lost in this forest.

"Don't be such a presumptuous wad; it doesn't suit you," he says, then, "I'm a necromancer who can talk to ghosts— there are about three different spiritual energies I'm getting my hands on daily, and you are talking about thalergy. Life energy. Front load your explanation, next time."

Now, is being fed life energy when his fucked up necromancer body usually runs on the opposite going to make him feel off? Maybe, who knows. He'd rather be out of this forest before really getting into that academic paper.

"Oh my god..." His trance broken, Shen Yuan takes a deep breath and reminds himself that he is not an asshole, so he's not going to squeeze Palamedes' wrists until his hands pop off. He's not going to do that. Okay.

"Can you not with the cultural myopia for five minutes?" he asks through his teeth. "I'm trying to help you, here, and anyway there's only two forms of magically active energy in the world where I learned this stuff at most, so nyeh." Did he just stick his tongue out at Pal? No, of course not, that'd be childish. ~~Okay maybe just a little bit, but Pal's really got coming right now, in his defense.~~

"I— Fine." He's lost in the woods here in more than one way; he cannot recall once refusing this help- look where his hands are, already!- and can only assume in absence of Shen Yuan answering his first question that, no, this spiritual sharing bit won't drain Shen Yuan completely in turn. Sure. His expression shutters over and he closes his eyes, to think about breathing.

As he cannot wave his hands in any significant fashion, he wiggles his fingers, in an effort to say do it. "Go on."

"Okay." Deep breath in, deep breath out. "From the top then. Focus on your breathing. Take deep, slow breaths, filling your lungs to their full capacity..."

Shen Yuan waits until they're both breathing more or less in unison, slow, deep breaths that make Palamedes' narrow chest visibly swell under his baggy sweater, before setting up the energy transfer. In through the pulse points in Palamedes' wrists, up his arms, crossing at his middle dantian and diffusing into his chest. From there his body should be able to process it on his own, and since Shen Yuan isn't picking up on a sudden temperature spike in Palamedes' skin or the air around them which might signal wasted energy being dumped into the air, it's probably fine.

"You can talk to me now," he says quietly, without disrupting the rhythm of his breathing. "How are you feeling so far?"

Well, it's a strange feeling, is the thing. The average human body produces thalergy and thanergy in equal amounts, and yet unfortunately for skin and bones necromancers like Palamedes, the average necromancer body is held together by a not-insignificant amount of thanergy reserves; the death energy. To have the more nebulous crossroads of his inner workings diluted with this other thing, very pointedly not-thanergy, whatever it technically is, feels somewhere between a shot of caffeine and the dizziness borne from standing up too quickly.

He says, then, "Like a balloon," without opening his eyes. After a beat he adds, "Fine." Because the balloon thing isn't very clear, but he knows what it means, at least. Feeling like a balloon will not kill him, so it's fine.

Shen Yuan frowns. "Tell me right away if it starts to hurt, or you feel ill," he instructs, and carefully slices the energy in half, strangling it down to a trickle. He's still got plenty more to spare, but he doesn't want to overwhelm Palamedes' untrained system. (And yes Pal, it's definitely untrained in cultivator techniques.)

"This won't hurt me," he explains, belatedly answering Pal's question that he'd barely registered as a concern beforehand. Why would he have offered up some of his qi in the first place if there was a chance it would knock him out? He wants to get out of these woods too, after all. "I don't have a golden core yet, so my ability to store qi is limited, but my system is healthy and regenerates quickly enough to make up for the loss. I'm not going to pass out on you, don't worry."

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Lost in the Woods w/ Peerless Cucumber and SexPal

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