rippled | jiaoqiu

[ this is so valid - jiaoqiu is polite, so he doesn't want to dunk on their dad if it makes them uncomfortable, but... ]

Hm. Not busy enough to avoid asking you to kill people for him. [ ... ] Was that always how your life was like?

... yes. He would tell me where to go, and I would go as directed and followed whatever orders he gave me. You cannot go against His Imperial Majesty's commands.

[ it's said without much infliction in their tone. ]

[ wrinkles his nose. ]

Were you happy to do so?

[ they seem conflicted on how to answer. ]

... I was happy to serve my king. [ ... ] But I suppose it got... hard...

Was there ever a time you wished to do something different?

... I wanted to go home. And I wanted a family.

[ he softens a little at this. ]

Ah. [ ... ] Did you ever get to?

No. I died.

[ they sigh. ]

But I guess there are just some things that aren't meant to be.

I don't know about that. There's always a chance you could do just that, when you return to life.

... well, it would be too late for my family. They are long dead. And what was my home is vastly different now.

I had basically died, and was... sort of revived again many years later, and then I died again to end up here.

[ blinks... ]

Oh. I didn't know. [ huh. ] It must be strange to be so constantly revived and reassigned.

Was there not a chance of finding something like that in your second life? Or... third, now.

... the situation I left it in is a little complicated. I do not think I could comfortably live in the place I was staying anymore, so I would have to seek somewhere new.

[ which is difficult... when you do not have anything... ]

[ ): !!! he's so sad about this. ]

It's tiring, to have to start over and over. [ hmmm. ] If I could offer a solution, I would. You deserve to have the life you want, just as much as anybody.

No... it's fine, thank you. Your words really are enough.

[ they aren't words that they're used to hearing, and that itself holds as significant of a weight as any solution. ]

I'm glad to say them, then.

[ the mirrors behind him shift - little speech bubbles, popping up like crazy, overwhelming. it'd be silly, if they weren't all things like save us and help me and i don't want to die, please. ]

[ they glance at them, before quickly averting their gaze. ]

Let's try to leave this place.

[ surely it will work just fine. ]

[ he glances over his shoulder when saber looks, and his ears pin back briefly before: ]

... Yes, that seems like a good idea.

[ and they can try to move - only, the mirrors refuse to let them. there's a long, long hallway that plays the memory even as they're walking, following them.

Leaving Rainsoar to join the frontlines of war is an ambitious journey. But this is what you're called to do, you tell your master.

"While the Alchemy Commission is a good place to be, it is ultimately not compatible with my wish to practice medicine for the masses. The one place that requires a healer the most is undeniably the battlefield where the Yaoqing's forces are."

So - you leave your ship - the Xianzhou Yaoqing - and you head to the outer planets to join the efforts. All you've ever wanted to do is heal people, since you were small. This is what you wanted and you show up to the battleground with a vigor in your step, a determination to help. You improve your medicines - cauldron-based medicinal formulas that can be used in a multitude of ways, in order to adapt it to the increasingly challenging, complex, and unpredictable environments that the soldiers must brave. You win the trust of officers and soldiers alike, and your name is often uttered among the troops as someone worthy of respect, who knows what he's doing. You patch the dying, and they thank you, and then they march right back out to battle.

You patch them up. You save them from death. The bugle call for departure sounds off. And they march.

You patch them. They march. You patch them. They march.

Every day is the same, save for the number. Every night, there are less of the faces you know around your cauldron. You look up, and the foxian that called for you to give him an extra bowl last night is gone. One of the other soldiers, a quiet young woman with a bushy red tail, tells you he was found unresponsive on the battlefield yesterday evening, arms ripped from the sockets. The next evening, she's gone too. There wasn't enough of her left to bring back to the camp, they say. Terrible, terrible news. These young lives still end up lost in the endless, ravenous war. It doesn't matter what you do to stop it.

You do this for many years. Year after year, the faces were all different, yet they radiated the exact same vigor and hope. Year after year, only a handful ever make it back. It crawls up in your chest like a frost that will never melt. One day, as you're standing out in the middle of camp, trying to take in some fresh air, away from the smell of blood and rot, you hear screaming coming from one of the tents. Agonized wailing, calling for help, help me, help us, Jiaoqiu --

Before, you might have cried. It's only after blinking several times that you realize that both your eyes are dry. You no longer have any tears to shed. There's something comforting in the emptiness of it, and you sink down into it with relief. Nothing hurts if you don't have the energy to feel it.

Like a useless idiot, you saved a fish named "Life" out of the cauldron called "Death," only to watch it struggle and dive back into the boiling broth. If the patients that you nurse to health are destined to hurtle toward death once more, what is your purpose as a healer?

Your General, a smart and fierce woman named Yueyu, brings you to her tent every night to discuss what's next. She tells you about a girl that she managed to rescue from a borisin camp, a ferocious former slave named Saran. She tells you that she wants you to look out for her. You tell her that you will do whatever Yueyu commands, even if something in you balks at the idea. It just sounds like... well, it sounds like Yueyu is giving you her will, that's all.

And then one day, the towering Cloudpeer Telescope that bore the wills of the trillions of living beings aboard the Xianzhou finally receives a response from THEM.

A searing blast appears out of nowhere, obliterating the weak Abominations of Abundance into a miasma of blood. A light so blindingly bright tears the sky dome asunder as the Reignbow Arbiter shows THEIR power against the Abundance. Mountains and hills that the light reaches turn into dust - abominations of Abundance and members of the Xianzhou Legion alike crumble and disintegrate, too slow to flee from the light of the arrow sent across the sky.

You heard about how the girl always by General Yueyu's side weaved in and out of the annihilated enemy ranks, attempting to bring the remaining soldiers back with her. Before the wave of light could reach them, you dash into the fray with every last ounce of your strength to save that young lady, before losing your consciousness in the afterglow of the obliterating light.

And in the chaos of the post battle healer's ground, this girl, the one from Yueyu's will, calls for you.

jiaoqiu tries his best to ignore it, but he does falter when the girl shows up on screen. ]

[ ... ah.

honestly, they are used to seeing him watching the people around him die because he seems to have the worst cr luck in this entire game, but it's... different, from this standpoint. saber is used to war and death, but they are used to it from the point of view of someone entering the battlefield. ]

... did she survive?

[ his cr dying over and over is really ic it's insane ]

She did. [ he says, staring at the mirrors. ] She became General Feixiao. You may have seen her, weeks ago.

[ that's his wife who showed up in execution ]

Oh. I'm glad she pulled through.

... but I do wish the circumstances of your meeting was not like that.

Mm.

I suppose I'm glad that she isn't here. It means she must be alive.

Were you with her? When you...

[ like. died. ]

No. I was alone.

[ ... ]

It's alright. I died to make sure she lived. That is more important to me.

... okay. No, I think that is admirable.

I am just sorry that it happened, and that your life has been having to walk alongside death for so long.

[ he smiles, at that. ]

... Thank you, Saber. [ very genuinely. he means it. ] In my weaker moments, I wish that it wasn't like this either.

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rippled - 2025-03-08 14:08 (UTC) - Expand