shiftingwinds | [7rings] catchall for steven

[ Congratulations on getting cucked for the rest of the year Britt how do you feel.

Steven just nods, though. ]

Would be remiss of me to deny you that much after what you went through. Would be exhausting to stay standing for it, though -- is there a bench around here? [ He looks around... ]

Ah - there's one.

[there are some plants winding through it, but there's still enough space for them to sit.]

But, really! Don't tell me because of what happened, tell me because you want to tell me. I waited so that you wouldn't tell me anything you didn't want to because of that affect last week, so don't go using what happened as an excuse to tell me things you'd rather not say!

[ Ahaha... right. He just laughs lightheartedly enough as he comes to sit down, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, fingers of his hands just touching each other. ]

Alright, alright. No pity for you, then.
...Where do you want me to start? I know we talked a little bit about the Beyond and how it came to be in my world, but it's a pretty wide topic.

Well, I suppose what I'm most curious about is your own experience with it. You didn't speak of it the way someone who only knew about it from hearing about it would have, I think...

[he'd seemed to like. know.]

Yeah. Fair enough.

The easiest statement I can make about why I know about Hellsalem's Lot is, naturally, because I currently live there. It used to be called New York, until three years ago, there was an incident we now refer to as the Great Collapse... when all of New York suddenly started changing and shifting in on itself, the Beyond eating it whole. I was there, when it happened.

The city was this close to being totally destroyed, when near the end of it, things suddenly changed, and... the city wasn't destroyed, but rather, had integrated seamlessly with it, with beings from the Otherworld walking amidst us as if they had always been.

[ Crazy, right? So where does Steven actively fit into all of this? ]

Currently, I work as the subcommander of an organization known as Libra, and our main purpose is to be an extralaw force seeking to maintain balance between humanity and the Beyond.

[huh...]

What does maintaining that balance entail, exactly...? If you don't mind my asking.

[honestly, it's fascinating to learn about other worlds. this almost makes her think of the mortal realm where she comes from, and how ghosts and demons walk among it when the mood suits them.]

Really, it's a lot more bureaucracy and diplomacy than maybe you'd expect, combined with some combat where necessary. There's constant chaos in Hellsalem's Lot, plenty of people who seek to destroy the balance... whether that's to eliminate humans or vice versa, or to break the barrier around Hellsalem's Lot and spread out to the rest of the world.

It's our job to do what typical police or civilians can't from within, defeating nefarious plots and putting bad guys in jail... [ He waves a hand. ] I understand it all sounds very television show plot-like.

Well, we don't have television where I'm from, but honestly...

[she taps her chin with her fan.]

It doesn't sound all that different from my work for the Heavenly Emperor.

Oh, hm. Action adventure plot? [ A little more generic. ]

What do you do, for him?

Well, whatever he asks of me, really. Who could turn down the Heavenly Emperor, after all? One time, I—

[...she won't get the chance to explain. at least, not with words. but steven will be able to see it as their surroundings shift into the stone corridor of a memory, featuring shi qingxuan's male form in a ragged purple silk dress (from a disguise).

it's, uh, it's a lot! when they come out of the memory, she finishes her sentence, sounding a little stunned.]

...went to go and rescue Ming-xiong...

[ I gotta tell you, the "Lord Windmaster pulled out his fan from Who Knows Where", "OOOoOOooOoOHHhHHHHHHH!!", and "This was absolutely unacceptable." put me in the fucking ground

Steven blinks, though, as the memory floods through him. It's detailed and it's a lot, and it leaves him a little winded having all of that be input into his brain in one moment, and it takes him a short second to get his bearings. That was the longest memory he'd received yet that day. ]

Ah -- was that... your memory? [ He didn't see Shi Qingxuan in it as he recognizes her here, but that figure and appearance was undeniable regardless of gender. ]

[i don't have the words to describe how much i love this novel, lowe. it makes me so happy.]

...ahaha, yes. [she pouts] I was just going to summarize it for you! There was no need for you to see everything! My goodness... What is with this place...

[she's supposed to act dignified in front of mortals! it's fine for her to be a mess in front of other gods, like the one in her memory. but she has a reputation to uphold!

(that reputation was already in tatters when she showed up hungover to an execution.)]

[ That reputation was in tatters the literal first day when the first and only thing you did was beeline towards the bar and start drinking like a madman. ]

Really inconvenient effect, isn't it? Or, well, convenient if it happens to show exactly what you were thinking of. [ He seems to get his bearings back. ]

...A rather wild adventure you had, very... dungeon-like.

[fair and valid.]

Well, that's Crimson Rain Sought Flower for you... he really is good at mind games...

[sulks]

But he's a good friend to His Highness.

...We all just have one of those crazy people all around us, huh?

[ He laughs, just a little. ]

I don't have anyone testing me, but there is one man in my peripheral who's just known for causing shit. By accident.

Oh, is that so?

[she's curious... she wants to know...]

Yeah...

[ He was smiling, but look at him. It looks like the soul has immediately left his eyes even as he just thinks about this man. ]

His name is Blitz T. Abrahms. But everyone calls him "Lucky" Abrahms.

Take a guess why?

[oh no]

Hmm... he soaks up all the good luck in a room, and everyone else is stuck with bad luck?

Bingo.

[ SHE GOT IT RIGHT ON THE NOSE. And right when he says that, Shi Qingxuan is going to get. An INCREDIBLE memory. Of Hellsalem's Lot, an Otherworld-integrated version of New York, going into ABSOLUTE CHAOS. Cars are crashing, an airplane fell. A wild monster suddenly passed out in the middle of the sky and fell down on top of a restaurant, crushing the building. Pipes back up and explode, cracking asphalt, flooding streets. Steven watches as a bunch of debris just rams into a white-haired shithead of a man next to him, who is left standing there looking absolutely stunned as a stream of blood pours out of a fragment of concrete stuck in his forehead, comically.

And then across the street, one rather normal-looking man in the midst of this, completely unscathed, waving happily.

"Long time no see!" he says, like everything around him is normal... ]

This sort of luck is just unnatural.

Yeah. We can usually tell when he's arrived in town because there'll be some kind of several series of natural and unnatural disasters.

Sounds like you've got a lot on your plate, back there.

No kidding. And even worse is that Abrahms only shows up when he really has to -- meaning, we need an outside, more experienced voice in on the matter.

[ You know they only call a guy like THAT when they REALLY have to. Also he's totally just being disrespectful by not calling him by his first name or Mr. Abrahms or anything but it's fine, he can't hear him. ]

[oof. even worse, indeed. you know a situation is bad when the bad luck that follows that guy is worth whatever else he's bringing to the table.]

My, does that happen often?

Oh Christ, no. I finally got to fuck off and stay away from Abrahms when we ended up settling in Hellsalem's Lot, you know how many times I've probably narrowly avoided death just by standing next to that guy?

We definitely make him stay away from us if we can help it.

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