shiftingwinds | [7rings] catchall for steven

[well! where's steven? shi qingxuan is coming to look for him.]

I was thinking - how would you like to go look at the stars in that room, like we talked about?

[ Steven's probably hanging around in the kitchen around noon, trying to get some food. He looks awkward about it, his brows furrowed deeply and he's just staring at his sandwich while chewing. As SQX comes up to him though, he swallows and blinks, taking a moment to think and -- oh yeah... they made those plans, huh? ]

Oh. Right, yeah. Just a second, hands hurt.

[ What does that have to do with anything. He just immediately closes his eyes with his brows furrowed. ]

I meant -- just give me a second...

[

uh.]

Your hands hurt..? Are you alright?

... [ Honestly, what the hell WAS that. He just shrugs a moment, though. ]

I meant -- well, no I -- [ FUCK. Where's his rhythm and ability to talk, he hates this week. ] I meant my hands hurt, yesterday, and I was thinking about it and --

[ God damn it. He sighs. Let him start from the beginning. ] I went into one of those healing pods yesterday, and it works, but it left my hands hurting for a little while afterwards. It was a weird effect, it was on my mind.

[she frowns softly at that.]

But you said just a second, "hands hurt". That sounded like it was happening right now, not that they were hurting in the past.

[she's a little worried...]

I might've punched a wall then done some weird things earlier this week.

-- [ NO, why the hell did he say that. He definitely is making a face now, and looks at Qingxuan furtively like she's going to ask another question now because of that. ]

I'm fine! I swear. It's just been a weird week.

...it sounds sort of like you need to blow off some steam.

[she very gently links arms with him, careful to avoid his hands, and tugs him down the hall so they can head for the planetarium.]

Or to do something relaxing. So - let's do some stargazing. Maybe that will help.

No I -- [ He starts to protest automatically and without grace, but he's tugged along very fast. While his bitchiness is a bit more under control this time in comparison to Monday afternoon, he still seems to be a bit sulky as he bites his lip. ]

Look, I don't... I'm not looking for pity, I'm fine.
I know I promised the Planetarium thing, let's just keep it unrelated, yeah?

It's not pity. I'm just worried, because we're friends. But I won't mention it again if you'd prefer.

[wow! she's not even cursed to say what's on her mind!

anyway, off they go. welcome to the planetarium! time to bring up the ancient fantasy chinese sky, which is literally identical to the ancient normal chinese sky.]

We're not friends.

[ OH NO. To his credit, it's said more in a startled way, akin to if someone said "It's raining tomorrow", and another person answered "No it's not?". If certain THINGS hadn't been the way they were, he just wouldn't have blurted it out like that, and he actually visibly shuffles a bit after that leaves his mouth. Like he doesn't even know what to do.

Curse this. ]

I meant... uh...

I didn't realize you saw us as friends.

[ WOW GEE LOOK AT THE PRETTY STARS. ]

...ahaha.

[well, she can't say she's unfamiliar with that response. she chuckles a little weakly, and then -

just moves right along, drawing her hand up to gesture at a section of the sky.] Do you see that? That's the mansion of the Azure Dragon's heart. See, there's the heart there... [she traces a line between three stars in the sky with one finger] ...and a group of soldiers here.

...Sorry.

[ He does feel a little bad at the way she just laughs it off a little and moves on. But he will follow along, looking up at the sky. ]

The mansion... what's the story behind that? [ He points up at the heart when she mentions it. ] That's Antares, in the West. The largest star in Scorpius. These four stars over here, the scorpion tail.

It's alright.

[really! she's used to it!

anyway, the story behind the mansions...]

The sky is divided into the domains of the four celestial beasts. There's the Azure Dragon of the East, the Black Tortoise of the North, the White Tiger of the West, and the Vermillion Bird of the South. Each of them has seven mansions, and each of them has different groupings of stars within it. [she squints, following the line from antares to the other four stars.] ...mm, I can almost see the shape. How interesting - I suppose whoever named them where you come from was looking at the shapes from a different perspective.

[ DON'T BE USED TO THAT SQX...

He just crosses his arms and follows SQX's explanation, thinking and listening. ]

Mansions... and groupings. Kind of like houses, star systems, and clusters. Though, I guess that's less fantastic and more rooted in objectivity. [ Steven was never one for really believing too hard in these kinds of things outside of the strictly objective. Even with a surname like Starphase. ]

Interesting how different histories create different stories from the same things.

What does being born under the time of the Azure Dragon mean to you and your culture?

Well, it's less about being born under the time of the Azure Dragon itself, and more about being born under a particular star... [hmmm...] Are you at all familiar with zǐ wēi dòu shù?

[it's fascinating.]

There's more to it than just being born under a star, of course. It's a complicated art! The day you're born, the season you're born, even the hour you're born, that all has something to do with it...

[her voice trails off, and she looks up at the stars for another few long moments, just thinking.]

I'm not, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

That's all what this kind of natal chart pseudoscience is, though, isn't it? There's more in the Western Zodiac than just which star sign you're born under. The extended version also calculates what your moon sign is, what sign was rising on the horizon at the time of your birth, what planetary houses were in what quadrant and so on, so forth...

...It's amazing how much people will think over this kind of thing. Does it have meaning, or do people just hope it does?

Ah, well...

[hm. she keeps her gaze on the stars.]

Maybe it's a little different where I come from. From what I understand, not every world has gods; mine does, so perhaps it's only natural that these things have meaning in my world.

It certainly isn't meaningless.

Hm.

[ Steven looks up at the sky. Same, yet different, just like he'd thought. If only it was in his ability to see more than just far-distant stars in them. ]

It must be nice, to have proof that certain gods exist.

[her gaze flicks briefly over to him]

Well, it'd be rather odd if I didn't believe in gods.

[considering she. is one]

[ God damn it this effect and all that. All of his more blunt thoughts being out in the open like that... he just sighs. ]

Right, I meant... well, there's gods of a sort running rampant and about where I come from now, too. I couldn't deny that gods exist.

It's more... the gods you want to believe in.

[gods that you want to believe in, huh...

she frowns softly.]

...are the ones in your world that bad?

[she's hearing a lot about some shitty gods these days!]

[ He huffs a laugh. ]

Well, for the foreign gods that recently arrived, some examples I can think of: stealing a young boy's sister's eyesight in exchange for giving the boy divine eyes against his will. Another god, stealing the body of someone's brother, stealing away the sibling she knew her whole life.

...Even before that, you know, I'm not so religious when it comes to things like Catholicism at least not anymore, but I often wondered why God would make the world so cruel if He made it to begin with, and -- [ He just cuts off with a hapless laugh. No, that's enough. Stop just saying things. ]

Nevermind, that's a can of worms.

What kind of gods would...

[ohhhh, that makes her angry! what the fuck! that's exactly the sort of god who should be banished from the heavens, she thinks. she hasn't even lost her impulse control; she just has little patience for heavenly corruption and gods acting in their own self-interest to begin with.

but, ah. "nevermind," huh?]

...I apologize. I can't help but be a little curious to hear about the gods from the lands everyone else comes from, but perhaps this isn't the best time to be asking.

[ It's just unfortunate, the gods and deities roaming around in Steven's world can't be banished from the heavens anyway. After all, they're not from the heavens, but just some Otherworld, the Beyond... an unknown.

Steven shrugs it off! ] To be fair, the first two I mentioned at the least weren't pre-existing gods in my world. There was a Collapse three years ago that opened up a rift in the city I was in, and now the whole place is some weird bridge between the mortal world and something we call the Beyond.

There's always a barrier over the city now, to keep all of that chaos in. Don't get to see the stars much there. [ Not that they were very visible to begin with, it was New York. Light pollution abound. ]

The Beyond..?

[hmm. sounds almost like the heavenly realm to her, but - maybe it's different. the mortals in her world know that the heavenly realm exists, even if most of them couldn't even begin to dream of reaching it.]

It sounds like it must be... dangerous, to live in such a chaotic city. It keeps the chaos in, but are those who lived there before the Collapse trapped there as well?

[7rings] catchall for steven

w1, wednesday

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