expiationnet | {Video}

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{He is fastidious about his appearance, brushing off imagined pieces of dust and grime with delicate hands. Runyu is not a tall man nor does he look particularly strong, yet jumping to conclusions about his abilities would be a mistake. Before you stands the Emperor of Heaven, though he earned the title through underhanded means.}

I am not practiced at welcome speeches. However I will do my best. {He clears his throat and stands with all the pride he can scrape together in this moment.} I am Runyu, son of Emperor Tai Wei and Princess Su Li. You need not fear me if you have done nothing wrong.

{His gaze sharpens as if he can detect wrongdoers through the device.}

Yet if you have committed this crime against me, I will not be merciful. You have removed the Emperor of Heaven from his duties and now hold him prisoner. Kidnap on this scale can only result in your death.

{Those are big words for someone who doesn't have an army to back him up, but Runyu is, perhaps understandably, mad. Furious, actually.}

Furthermore, if you have harmed my wife... {A chill climbs his spine. Soon, she could be his wife. He must return to her!} I will kill you myself.

{His hands curl into white fists as if he imagines snapping necks with his bare fingers. He could.}

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I am. {He doesn't know what to say about his anger; about his inability to free them, so he avoids it.} As the Emperor of Heaven, I oversee all realms.

{Except for the realm of the demons, but even they risk his ire if they overstep their boundaries.}

[To think that someone as fantastical as an emperor can be brought to this place and treated the same as a mere flower girl. It's befuddling, for certain. It also says a lot about the capacity of whomever, whatever is responsible for all of this. Status means nothing.]

I guess that means however you came to be here has more power than an emperor. I've thought a lot about how we were all brought here and it seems like there's a lot of us from different walks of life. I thought maybe there was a similar connecting point, but that might not be the case at all. Whatever has made things the way they are here must be very, very powerful.

{Status only means nothing because this power has proven itself stronger than them. Runyu is determined to turn the tables and put everyone back where they belong.}

For now. Power of that magnitude cannot last. {Or so he is hoping. No one should be able to incarcerate him forever.} All I need is a momentary weakness.

Edited 2023-02-21 09:07 (UTC)

I hope you're right.

[But she's inclined to believe him. Power, strength, when utilised for the wrong reasons (and even sometimes for the right ones) tend to be finite ideas. Bad times don't always last forever. And neither do the happy ones. In short, things are always changing. This situation isn't going to be any different.]

When you find that weak point, what are you planning on doing? I feel like having a talk with whoever is at the head of this is probably not going to be your plan of action.

{He hopes he is too. Otherwise this is completely out of his hands. Anyone could take what he has won from his father and brother and step-mother. They could take Jin Mi too and leave him with nothing.

He is too accustomed to having nothing.}

Strike with all my strength. They knew what they were doing bringing me here and they did it anyway.

You don't have a Plan 'B' in mind?

[She thumbs at her chin in thought, releasing a gentle, nonsensical hum.]

We might not be able to just fight this head on. We should have something to replace that if we can't. Since we don't really know much about what's going on, it's hard for us to come up with something with so little. So we just have to come up with a lot of different things.

Fighting seems the quickest and easiest method for release. If that proves insufficient, I will adopt a new plan. It's not as if I am going to give up.

{He has something...someone...he wants waiting for him. Happiness is just at his fingertips.}

Too many plans could be confusing.

Edited 2023-02-23 11:53 (UTC)

[She almost states she wasn't expecting a whole horde of plans, but that's not really the point here, is it.]

Hm...
I worry that being outright hostile to them might just punish all of us. Which, I could understand if there were only a handful, but it seems like quite a few people arrived here. I understand being upset and wanting to go home. Many of us feel like that.

[But maybe let's not do any reckless or dangerous.]

They seem to like trading. Maybe we can trade something for our freedom? Then no one would have to fight.

{He is stubborn. Woefully so. He has wanted his way and gotten his way by being hard-headed and, occasionally, aggressive.}

What would be precious enough to them for them to even consider letting us go?

{His voice is tight, restrained.}

And why not keep it once it was in their possession and hold onto us too?

It might not necessarily be a case where it has to be precious. We also don't know what they consider to be of value and what they don't. You're also right that it's very possible they could be given something and still not free us. Wouldn't it be easier to try, though?

[Not 'easier.' She means 'better.']

I just think we should consider all of the possibilities. And it wouldn't hurt for us band together. There's strength in numbers, after all.

If we lose something important - a bargaining material - we will be worse off than we were before. I don't see a reason to be kind to those who treat us like prisoners.

{Soft hearts usually end tragically.}

There is comfort in numbers. Unless you find another god, I am the strongest ally we have.

Do they really treat us like prisoners, though. [It sounds like a question, but Aerith says it more like a rhetorical observation.] They give to us freely of their food and their items. We all get nice places to sleep. We don't have to pay for anything. Doesn't seem like anything we've had to eat or drink has been poisoned. I've been a prisoner before. This is nothing like that.

[What Hojo did to her and her mother when she was young, and even before she came here? That was imprisonment. She doesn't know what this whole situation is, but it's definitely not imprisonment.]

If I put that aside, I think strength is more than just muscle or magic. It's strength of heart and mind, too. Strength comes in so many different ways and I think all of us are strong in our own ways.

We are accused of crimes, are we not? We are not welcomed with a feast. {Prisoners are fed too, Aerith.} We are kept alive for a purpose. I assure you they haven't forgotten our sins.

{It could be a cushy imprisonment. In fact, that's how Runyu sees it. He isn't allowed to return to his realm and his wife-to-be. That...is unforgivable.}

My strength is in my mind and my magic. {His body and heart are weak in comparison.} What about you?

Technically... we were... Although the festival wasn't for us. They certainly didn't turn us away and were very, very happy to share everything with us. Even more than what many of us would even rightfully need. There was a guy like us who only gave a little at the altar and they gave him so much stuff that he and I actually had to go around and give it to other people because they were so generous.

[Aerith shakes her head.]

The last time I was a prisoner, I was put in a glass box and told I was going to be used for experimentation. I was mocked and talked down to. I was given only the bare minimum. And I was expected to just tolerate it. Crimes or not, this here was nothing like that. I just can't see it the same way.

[But she feels like they just may not be able to see this eye-to-eye. And in a way, Aerith's own experiences make her a little too close to the situation.]

Uhm. My strength... heart? [She definitely can't say the Planet, because that would confuse anyone who heard it.] I can heal people pretty good. And I use magic, too.

{He is about to argue - so close to warning her - when she tells him of her experiences. Runyu looks at her in shock, pained that anyone would put her in such a cruel position. Frankly, he doesn't care to listen to their reasoning for it either!}

I don't know if you're right, but I will keep that from happening to you again.

{He will break the glass and punish the ones responsible.}

Yes, I can agree with that. {Her heart must be strong to withstand being mocked. He doesn't think he can say the same and he has spent years...millennia...being mocked.}

I wonder if your magic is like mine. It would make it easier to heal you if you were ever injured.

["I don't know if you're right, but I will keep that from happening to you again."

What a thing to say. Aerith can't hide the surprise in her expression for a breath or two. He really doesn't know her much, if at all. To make such a committed decision and it doesn't seem like he's the type who would say something he doesn't mean. Her expression softens. 'Thank you,' probably isn't the right way to respond. Maybe she'll find a way to more properly address it later.]

I don't know. I haven't really seen anything else here that's like the magic from home. We can't cast it without the necessary pieces and I think I'm restricted to what I arrived with.

[She takes a moment to lift one of her wristlets and she points to the small spheres that are in it. She has no idea how it'll look on projection, though.]

These, here, let me cast. It's probably more limiting than anything you might have.

{He means his promise. He wouldn't be able to stand aside and watch her suffer. She is too sweet for such a cruel fate. Let that fall on his shoulders; he has likely earned it in the eyes of some.}

What is contained in those spheres? {Can it be replicated and captured for her use?} I am happy to share my power if it helps.

Uhm...

[How to explain it. 'Life force of the planet condensed into a sphere' sounds a little convoluted. There's probably a better way to clarify. Or maybe she can just leave it simplified. There's no need to go into what makes natural materia over time.]

Well, magic, I guess. It's like the energy of the Planet. When it's equipped in weapons or... armour. Accessories, I guess, it can be used. [It can be used when it's not necessarily equipped as well, but...]

I don't think it can absorb other kinds of power, but I don't know how it'll respond in this world yet. I haven't tried any of it yet.

I hope you will share with me how it reacts to this planet. If I am able to trap some of my power, I will offer it to you as protection.

{He isn't stingy about that sort of thing. Though he has a tendency of pushing himself too far and too hard. Already he is injured from healing Jin Mi so often.}

We can work together, don't you agree?

I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it if I didn't have to, but I don't think that's going to happen. It'd be important to understand how it works here. Well, to make sure it works at all. I don't want to ask you for any of your own power if I don't have to, but I think it's important for us to band together.

[So yes, in short, they should be working together.]

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