un: absterge | video

[downswing]

( Dark and damp and Lan Wangji's pallor strained under moonlight. Behind him, flickers of broad, long temple columns — and the smoke smears of... ghosts, gathered. He seems short of breath, the silvered sheen of his sword half drawn from her scabbard, a spate of parchment papers littering the walls: active talismans. )

They have crowded their halls of the dead, to excess.

Here, the key withholds itself. Who hunts the other locations?

( And a pause, hesitant — whether to find his words or, absently, slap another talisman on the spirit that looms with a gaping maw behind him. ) Ke-Waihu stands safe?

( ooc: forwarded dated to the group's incursions in Ke-Waicai. Feel free to run into him in person, if you're also chasing the haunted temple key! )

Comments

[ensanguines]

—Oh, right, uh. Kid— Fuck, what was his name...

J... Ja... Je...n? Jen? Boy with the hammer, are you listening?

[arsmechanica]

Jens!

[ You were close! Probably closer than his first attempt at "Hijikata," tbh. ]

And I am.

[ensanguines]

[ Toshi is SO relieved that he was close enough to summon the kid. He does not make a further attempt at this time. ]

We're infiltrating some kind of forge. You want in? We can keep you safe if you want to scope things out.

[ He remembered you're some kind of smith at least. ]

[arsmechanica]

I'd be glad to! Where should I find you?

[ensanguines]

Where are you? I'll come by and we can travel together.

[ Not because he doesn't trust you not to die trying to go it alone, except that he doesn't trust you not to die trying to go it alone. ]

If you're not sure just turn on the... thing that broadcasts your surroundings and I'll figure it out.

[ Toshi doesn't know what a video feed is and he's doing his best. ]

[arsmechanica]

I'm near the house Izumi and I stay in. The one with the...er.

Extremely hostile turkeys.

[ Hey now, he can handle a battlefield! Kind of. In appropriate amounts.

Just don't let him get swamped and he should be able to knock a few people out. ]

[ensanguines]

...ah, yes, that one. [ He is familiar with the turkeys. He wants to know why they haven't been summarily butchered yet, but that's neither here nor there. At least currently they're some kind of feature. ]

I will follow the sound of the... turkeys. Wait for me.

[ Is the overgrown poultry better or worse than braying fish? It's hard to say. ]

[arsmechanica]

[ Jens got handed a curse relating to animal cruelty, he is taking no chances and feeding those turkeys every chance he gets. ]

Okay, I'll stay put.