Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan are only feet away from their inn when the snake monster appears. It's late, and pleasant out: damp and quiet and dark. Ideal conditions for towing your drunk friend stealthily away from mischief. The street is deserted aside from the two of them.

Until it is not; suddenly the street is deserted except for the two of them and a snake monster.

"Lan Zhan - quick, go to our room -" He shoves Lan Zhan at the inn door and then the snake-thing lunges and it's strange mirror-face is very close and - 

Then he is not very nearby the inn at all and there is lots of noise and the fierce dead are everywhere.

oh no why aren't they still holding hands.........

snake......(?????)

it's loud now why is it loud

It appears to be loud on account of all the people attempting to murder (or re-murder) each other! The road here is broad, paved with round flat stones, shops with small apartments above them lining the street - a dark banner lies trampled, with a geometric insignia neither's ever seen on it -

And soldiers in a mixture of armor types and apparent loyalties fight a swarm of the fierce dead, ghosts sometimes manifesting just long enough to strike. Bodies lie everywhere - fierce corpses damaged enough they can only drag themselves along, freshly slain warriors not yet arisen...

Animals dart among the dead, too, moving more swiftly than the humans, many of them armored or bearing strange mutations - one tiger has armor made of mushrooms growing out of its skin and is leading a small unit of other animals.

Soldiers bearing the same insignia as the animals guard the shops, preventing the dead from climbing to where the living are hiding.

It's nighttime, the gibbous moon the color of blood, the stars all dark.

Well this is fucking terrible.

He whips out his flute and starts playing, with the aim of getting as many of these chaotic things happening around him as possible to stop. Maybe the dead would like to chill the fuck out?

The dead chill the fuck out! Though most of them keep jerking, like something is also encouraging them to super not chill.

Some soldiers keep trying to bash them to pieces; the soldiers that seem to be better organized take this as an opportunity to regroup and start dragging everyone's wounded inside the shops where they can be more safely tended to.

There's screams from elsewhere in the city, and the resentful energy around them is building rapidly.

BAD. TERRIBLE. Get the resentful energy away from his Wei Ying it is not allowed to be here. 

Wangji aggressively leans against Wei Ying and draws his sword, prepared to stab anything that comes near them. Now that he's in the ideal strategic position, he just needs to not get distracted by Wei Ying's beautiful flute playing or his beautiful hands or the shape of his lips when he blows the flute. 

He fails to not be distracted by Wei Ying's lips.

Alright good, those fierce corpses had better continue chilling the fuck out if they know what's good for them. 

The screaming is pretty concerning, on top of everything else. (Everything else is already so exceptionally fucking concerning.) Wei Wuxian wants to get closer and figure out who is being hurt, but he's not sure if he should bring Lan Zhan further into the chaos. He definitely can't leave Lan Zhan alone.

If he tries walking gradually towards the screaming, will Lan Zhan follow him? Will anything become abruptly more dangerous in their surroundings?

Lan Zhan follows unsteadily, because how else will he continue observing Wei Ying's lips? He glares at anything within too close proximity to Wei Ying including animals, inanimate corpses, and Suspicious Rocks. 

Seems to be: more fierce corpses, surrounded by a buffer of the walking dead who didn't hear him the first time (they have all now realized the value of chilling the fuck out) and a monstrosity made of many squished together corpses, sixteen feet tall, who still needs to be convinced to chill (now that the other dead are standing there twitching the nearby miscellaneous soldiers are focusing on trying to re-kill the monstrosity, while the well trained group of soldiers start evacuating some wounded civilians - and all the civilians, actually, though there's not many around here anymore).

The monstrosity does, however, seemed to have noticed the very suspicious flute music! It's now lumbering towards Wei Wuxian, trampling any fierce corpses in its path.

BAD. Perhaps this monstrosity would be interested in getting FUCKING OBLITERATED because that is what's going to happen!

Wangji soars at the lumbering monstrosity and slices Bichen through its midsection, twirling to land on his feet on its other side.

It falls over! Still twitching, but decidedly not A Threat.

Yeah Thats Fucking Right

Wangji stabs it three more times to be safe. Now he should probably go on to stab anything else that moves in this vicinity for optimal Wei Ying Safety.

nnNNNno or maybe not that!!

Wei Wuxian drops the flute from his lips and runs after him, grabbing Lan Zhan by the arm. "Aaaah, ah, Lan Zhan! Hey, Lan Zhan, it's okay! The monster's dead, see? All dead! You did a good job! You can stay put now, yeah?"

wei ying's hand is on his arm

wow

This is probably worth taking a break from killing everything that moves. 

"Okay, good! Good boy, Lan Zhan, just stay right here."

g o o d  b o y 

wow

...it is impossible to tell how much Lan Zhan is listening to him or how much he understands about what is going on right now - probably very little??? Lan Zhan hasn't appeared to understand Any Things since he drank his one shot of wine a few hours ago. 

Now that Wei Wuxian stopped playing the flute, have the fierce dead resumed moving?

They seem to be being continually controlled, so the other controller is starting to reassert - they're twitching a bit -

And then a silver light like a small moon blazes over the city, from the highest spire - the curls of silver flame form a starry tiger in their negative space, stripes silver and eyes like meteors -

There's maybe someone inside the conflagration.

And a woman's voice echoes from every stone -

"Enemies of creation! The light of Luna is upon you - flee, or be destroyed utterly!"

The vast majority of the risen dead do, in fact, begin to flee, away from the spooky sky tiger.

Dark shapes flit through the sky, aiming for that same spooky sky tiger.

...is he an enemy of creation. That sounds like the kind of thing someone would call him.

He has no idea what the light of Luna is or how spooky sky tigers come to exist. Spooky sky tiger seems very cool, though.

He will go back to playing, trying to channel the fleeing dead around him so that they don't trample anyone. He keeps his eyes on the sky tiger.

pretty

(The dead are still controllable by him but really really do not want to be anywhere near this person. The well organized soldiers cheer, and begin focusing almost entirely on evacuations and emergency medicine.)

Spooky sky tiger appears to be fighting someone or something! 

Or, at least, something in its general vicinity explodes.

He flinches and his playing stutters, hands gripping the wooden flute too tightly.

Unacceptable.

Wei Ying must be protected from explosions. Wangji picks Wei Ying up off the ground and starts walking Away from the sky tiger.

"Wh- Lan Zhan?? Aiyah, Lan Zhan, put me down!"

Sky tiger does not seem to be doing all that well in whatever fight! There's definitely a lot of resentful energy in its general direction, still building rapidly.

"Wait - Lan Zhan, put me down, we should try to help with - whatever that is, that resentful energy - that looks really bad."

yes it looks very bad Wei Ying must be kept AWAY

- he's not sure how much he can even do here, without his Stygian Tiger Seal and having no idea what precisely he's up against, but of course he has to try - 

Wei Wuxian resumes playing as Lan Zhan carries him away, twining the music around the edges of that resentful energy and pulling, drawing some of it to him instead.

Seems to help a little! Something's - possibly generating more energy, though, and it's difficult at this distance.

- okay this seems worth taking another brief break from fluting in order to pry himself free from Lan Zhan.

"Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, I need to get closer, okay? Let me down, it'll be safe I promise." He wiggles.

wiggling is VERY DISTRACTING

Wei Ying will eventually be able to break free because Lan Zhan's entire body is busy shutting down because he is overwhelmed by wiggling - 

(not, actually, his entire body, some of his body is very not-shut-down -)

Nice. Wei Wuxian pats himself on the back for his Superior Martial Skills.

Now he can run towards the sky tiger, continuing to pull resentful energy away.

oh no the wiggling is gone

he will never be happy again

Sky tiger appears to be:

An odd effect around and above a woman (??? she's currently seven feet tall and has a tiger head and claws and thick fur) fighting a fuck off powerful risen dead woman. And, apparently, losing, though there's some odder things also attacking the fuck off powerful dead woman, which is helping the tiger woman lose more slowly.

Does his playing have any effect on the risen dead woman? Are there any dead hanging around here that he can compel to attack her?

It kind of seems to be slowing her down??? It's unclear how fast she normally is.

Also she is totally the source of all this resentful energy.

And there are a ton of dead hanging around, many of them even controllable! She seems to have brought Minions. The most powerful looking one is actually a giant animal, two legged, short arms and a thick tail and huge teeth. There's also some humanoid dead, and some miscellaneous abominations. None of them appear to be deaf like that one weird abomination was. Their wills seem weaker than the amount of resentful energy suggests, like they already exhausted most of their will to keep fighting.

Well, great. The humanoid dead can now attack the source of the resentful energy, please.

She's both surprised and angered by that! She wastes a good bit of her attention trying to command them. This results in some of them coming to a halt, but they mostly stay under Wei Wuxian's control.

And then she notices the suspicious flute playing, turning toward him with rage in her eyes.

Well shit.

He will start backing away, although he's not expecting that to do very much. More usefully, he continues to have the dead attack her, and position themselves between her and him.

This is terrible. Resentful energy lady should not be anywhere near Wei Ying, and she is definitely not allowed to look at him.

Wangji will fly at the powerful dead woman and try to kill her More. He's incredibly coordinated in his swordwork despite being blackout drunk.

She is not blackout drunk and also terrifyingly talented. She seems surprised by him, though, not getting much of a chance to respond before the weird tiger woman roars something - gleaming with brilliant light -

The dead woman's sword practically drags itself to face the tiger woman, apparently compelled to attack no one else.

yeah you'd better run

He understands approximately none of what is going on here but he will just... continue having the fierce corpses attack resentful dead woman while she's distracted.

Yet more backup arrives - they manage to injure her between their combined efforts -

And the dead woman breaks away with a shriek of 'I'll be back!', fleeing into the sky.

Okay great. Fierce corpses can go back to just being corpses, now, good job guys. He waves at tiger lady. "Hi! Nice job! What are you and what the fuck was that!"

The dead woman leaving is very good. Wangji is pleased.

And then Wei Ying starts talking to a girl, of course, and Wangji is NOT pleased. Why does Wei Ying always talk to girls. Does he like this one because she's a glowing tiger. Wangji will figure out how to be a glowing tiger if this is what it Takes.

In the mean time he will position himself between Wei Ying and the tiger lady and hope that Wei Ying just sort of... forgets that she's there.

Tiger lady turns to them.

"I'm a Lunar Exalt," she says. "That appears to have been a Deathlord trying to turn Great Forks into a shadowland like Thorns."

"Thanks for the help, both of you."

"Eh, don't mention it. But ah. Just so you know, I didn't understand half of what you just said. What's a Lunar Exalt? What's a Great Fork?"

"Great Forks is this city. A Lunar Exalt is - do you know what Anathema are? ...And how did you get here without knowing what city you're in?"

"You know that is a fantastic fucking question. If I said we were walking back to our inn far away when suddenly an evil snake monster appeared and attacked us with its weird shiny face, and then all at once we were here... would you believe me?"

She laughs. "I'd say it's not the weirdest thing that's ever happened to anyone in Creation."

"You two seem interesting - I have to coordinate mopping up some, but can get you two situated somewhere safer. Unless you want to help us with cleaning up any restless dead I missed? - Or even the ones I banished, they'll be running for a while but a hoard of the dead could still cause problems..."

"Ah, happy to help! Lan Zhan here could use some situating, though, he's plastered."

"No."

She smiles. "You control them through your music, right? I might be able to get you to help from right here."

"Sure, yeah! Want me to send them anywhere, or just... keep 'em down while your people clear them out?"

"Keep them down while we clear them. Too many together might make a shadowland, and would plausibly be claimable by our enemies."

"You got it." He wets his lips and then resumes playing the flute.

Wow. Lips.

She hums, staring into the distance and considering.

"Does your flute work on whatever dead can hear it?" she asks. "I might be able to spread the sound for... Oh, a mile."

Ooooo. He nods at her eagerly.

She drops from her tiger woman form into the same of a normal (albeit incredibly athletic) woman, though she's still surrounded by shifting light and shadow.

"I'm going to have to touch you, perhaps disappointingly for your guardian here..." she says, then swiftly goes to dance around Lan Wangji (hopefully still entranced) and behind Wei Wuxian.

lips...

lips...

hEY the girl is now TOUCHING WEI YING that is NOT ALLOWED. Wangji moves around Wei Ying very quickly and shoves her. 

"Ai, Lan Zhan, what are you doing!" He lowers his flute in favor of grabbing Lan Zhan's wrists. "Seriously, one sip of wine and you're more wild than me, Lan Zhan. Don't be a hooligan at our new friend!"

wei ying's hands, wow

this is much better. Wei Ying's hands are warm. Wangji wants to squeeze them and make sure they are happy and maybe suck on them a little but for now he'll just sort of stare at him. 

"I'm sorry about him, he's not usually like this! I mean he is usually ridiculous but in very different ways - Lan Zhan grew up in a silly gentry family, you see, so he really has no experience with alcohol."

She doesn't budge when shoved.

"It's alright. Drink makes strangers of our bedfellows."

"But we really do need to get a handle on the dead problem."

"Yeah. Listen, Lan Zhan, she's not hurting me, okay? We're doing magic to contain the fierce corpses, so that more people don't get hurt. You want to help protect people, yeah? Can you be good and just hang in there until it's done?"

Alright let's try this again. Flute playing: resumed.

Hands on his shoulders, leaning against his back, breath ghosting over his ear - 

Until her light envelops him - 

His flute echoes - it isn't any louder, but it's there, piercing, impossible to ignore.

Hot.

Very soon all the dead within a mile radius stand still, and then gradually lay themselves down on the ground.

hwat the fuck

She issues a few commands of her own, voice low and echoing as Wei Wuxian's flute does. Her soldiers begin destroying the corpses just enough they won't be a threat if they animate again - mostly removing legs, though they keep body parts together for later burial.

She brought a relatively big army, and camp followers can be handed axes and put to work here. Still, there's a lot of work to be done, even if it's proceeding quickly.

It isn't long enough for him to get tired, though, before she's saying, "I do believe we're caught up," just to those around her.

"All good, my Lady -? Ah, may I have your name? Did we get all of them?"

Why doesn't Wei Ying want his name :(

"I'm Shimmering Wyldclaw, or Lady Wyldclaw, or General Wyldclaw - or just Wyld, if we're being friendly." She gives him a very friendly smile. "I think we got the bulk of them, but I'll have my scouts keeping an eye out for any escapees."

"May I have your names as well?"

He generally shouldn't be giving his name out, but based on what they've seen so far he highly doubts anyone here has heard of him. His name is also not more condemning than controlling the dead with his flute, which he just definitely did a lot.

"Absolute pleasure to meet you, Lady Wai-yid-kuh-lah. What a menace of a name to have to pronounce, you must have a very skilled tongue for it!" He grins broadly. "I'm Wei Ying, courtesy name Wei Wuxian. This is Lan Zhan, Lan Wangji. Or Hanguang-Jun, if you want to be all formal about it. Isn't that right, Hanguang-Jun?"

"No."

"Eh? Yes it completely is right! Don't embarrass me like this in front of our new friend, Lan Zhan."

"Lan Zhan, not Hanguang-Jun. From you."

Sigh. "Yes of course I know that, you fuddy-duddy. I call you Lan Zhan, but I'm introducing you with your title, see?"

"...Mn." Acceptable.

...They're adorable.

"How about we get you and your friend here to somewhere you can rest a bit better?"

"That would be wonderful. Thank you, my lady."

"Waiydkuhlaw."

"Mm? Ah, yes, Lan Zhan, Lady Waiyid-kuhlah. Would you like to greet her politely? Maybe that'll put you in a better mood, I bet being formal even makes you more relaxed."

no why didn't it work

"Waiydkuhlaw," he repeats slowly, only barely slurred. He is looking very intently at Wei Ying and not at all at the Lady Wyldclaw. "Waaaayeel duh k'lah."

He shakes his head. "Anyway. Thank you, Lady Wyldclaw."

She laughs. "Think nothing of it."

And, to a tent in territory a bit better under her control, to drop off the cute boys so they can rest and/ or sleep off drunkenness, with water and some decent quality dried food. Sadly, she has to go pacify the city and can't hang around quite yet... Perhaps tomorrow morning?

They'll look forward to it!

He fondly guides Lan Zhan to sit down. "You really are a menace when you're drunk, you know that? If all Lans are like you, I can finally see why it was against your rules! I mean, it's still a really stupid rule, but I can now at least glimpse an ounce of logic behind it..."

"Thirsty."

"- eh?"

"Water?"

"Ah, ah, yes. Shall I serve you then, Young Master?" He pours Lan Zhan a cup of water and presses it into his hand, then lets go.

wow hand contact wow. Lan Zhan's ears feel warm.

...what is he supposed to do with this cup. Maybe use it to cool off his ears? Yes good plan. He lifts the cup over his head to do that.

"Ahh? Oh- ah ah-!"  Wei Wuxian grabs his hand and carefully removes the cup. "Ah, what? Lan Zhan, what's wrong with you!"

Wow Hand Contact Wow

w ow 

Wangji is so dazed by additional hand contact that he forgets to lower his hand from above his head even once Wei Wuxian has stopped touching it.

He's a mess. It's cute but also very weird. Wei Wuxian grabs Lan Zhan's hand again and guides it down to his lap.

He puts the cup back in Lan Zhan's hand and very gently guides it up to his mouth, tipping it to let him drink.

"Look at you," he says fondly, dabbing water off of Lan Zhan's chin with his sleeve. "So cute, Lan Zhan. I think it's for the best if you forget all this once you're sober; you'll be too embarrassed."

Wangji is not paying attention. He is busy lamenting his insufficiently talented tongue. How does one improve ones tongue-talent? Are there exercises or meditations you can use. He has to... look into that. Yes.

They spend a very cute remainder of their evening together. Very cute and then very unexpectedly sincere, until Wei Wuxian's heart hurts.

"Why do you help me?"

           "I have... my regrets."

"What regrets?"

           "At Nightless City... I was not by your side. In time."

"So - all these years... you've been looking for me?"

"Lan Zhan, you have to understand. Everything that went wrong... this has never had anything to do with you. Defecting, studying demonic cultivation... those were my own choices. Do you understand?"

He tries to kiss him.

He misses and flops over against his chest.

Okay, yeah. Bedtime. Wei Wuxian hauls Lan Zhan over to the bed and settles him down, laying carefully beside him.

It's a strange sort of bed, because they're in a very strange place. Part of Wei Wuxian hopes he will wake and discover it all to be a dream; he really has enough problems without being transported to a strange land packed full of fierce dead and resentful energy.

But Wei Wuxian has wanted to wake up from a dream for a long time, now.

Morning comes with them still, alas, strangers in a strange land.

It also comes with strange tiger lady! She raps on one of the poles holding their tent up.

He answers the door. "Ah hello, Lady Wyldclaw! Want to come in?"

"If you don't mind."

"Of course! Come in come in..." He steps back and holds open the tent flap for her.

Lan Wangji is sitting inside looking very composed and rather weary. He eyes Lady Wyldclaw uncertainly. He has absolutely no memory of meeting her last night, which impresses him because this seems like a difficult person to forget metting.

She steps inside, smiling. "Are you feeling better, Lan Wangji?" she asks.

He rises gracefully and bows. "I feel well. Thank you for your hospitality."

He wants to apologize for last night, but he still has no idea what he even did. Aside from professing his love for rabbits, if Wei Ying is to be believed.

"It's no issue. You were both very helpful."

"Yes, that's what I hear from most people I meet! If I had to sum up my reputation in one word... mmm, it would absolutely be 'helpful.'"

He laughs clears his throat. "Ah, ah, yes, I'll get to the point! Ahem. Well, Lady Wyldclaw, as great as it's been to make your acquaintance - we two are both still very confused about what's going on here! You see, while we're both familiar with the fierce dead there were many strange things we'd never seen before, last night. I've certainly never met any beautiful tiger-ladies before, I'm sure I would remember. We still are clueless how we even got here! Could you tell us about this place and your cultivation methods?"

"...Hm, might be good to figure out how lost you are first... Have you heard of the Scarlet Empress, the Wyld, the Unconquered Sun, the raksha...?"

"Nope, nope, nope, nope. What are those things."

"The Scarlet Empress rules - or maybe ruled - the Realm, the biggest state in Creation. The Wyld is the area on the edge of Creation where reality stops working the way we're accustomed to. The Unconquered Sun is a really well known god. The raksha are dangerous beings from outside Creation."

"Where reality stops working?"

"Creation was carved out of - kind of a nonsensical chaos? By the primordials. It has borders where it's less firmly carved out."

"Hhhuh. And... how do you know this? Is it dangerous, do people get hurt if they go too close?"

"It's - more dangerous the further you go in, but even the nearer parts can be dangerous. Usually in a 'weird flora and fauna' way, for the near wyld, but in a 'it might mutate you' way for the farther parts."

"Whoa.

...does it ever mutate people in helpful ways?"

"Hey, it's not a stupid question! She had to become a tiger somehow, Lan Zhan, am I supposed to meet a tiger woman and just not speculate how that happened? How could I ever! Ai, Lan Zhan, where is your curiosity?"

She laughs. "It sometimes does! But the turning into a tiger is actually - more or less a godly blessing."

"Was it? How did that happen, how do those work? Do they always turn people into tigers? What all do gods... do, exactly?"

"The gods made the Exaltations a long time ago, which can attach to people and give them powers. The gods don't control who the Exaltations attach too, though. Exaltations allow people to manipulate Essence directly, to great effect, though I don't know any details past that. Lunar Exaltations - made by the goddess Luna - always allow you to turn into some animal, but not always a tiger. Gods do a lot of things, mostly related to making sure Creation works the way it's supposed to."

"Hah, wow. That's a lot cooler than I was expecting. Exaltations give people powers - but what are they? Do they just float around until they find the people they want to have powers? What do they look like? Are they something you can cultivate for specifically?"

"I dunno they look like anything when they aren't attached, and - I think they're supposed to fly to whoever they'll Exalt, yeah, though there's maybe some intermediary steps. No one knows how to ensure you'll get Exalted, though the different types - favor different types of people? Lunars usually want to protect something bigger than themselves, and usually Exalt in a moment that - shows that."

"What other kinds of Exaltations are there?"

"I know of Solars, Sidereals, and Terrestrials for sure, though I've heard rumors of others. Solar Exalts are the Chosen of the Unconquered Sun, and they're generally pretty all around powerful. More in your face than Lunars. Sidereals - honestly I know next to nothing about them. They're supposed to be advisors and the like, and have something to do with fate. Terrestrials are kinda weak but numerous and can use elemental magic - there's a limited number of the other kinds of Exalts at any time."

"What type of people do Solar Exalts favor?"

"Really determined people, I think, or good leaders, though I haven't met many solars."

He laughs and pats Lan Zhan on the arm. "Good to know, good to know! Oh calm down, Lan Zhan, have I said anything to deserve such a cruel expression? You're making my poor heart so sad after you were all cute and sweet last night, don't play games with me like this!"

If Wei Wuxian was deliberately trying to distract Lan Zhan from the Solar Exalt matter with Overwhelming Panic, he has definitely succeeded!

Patpatpat.

"So anyway, my lady - how common are these Exaltations?"

"Rare. There's, like, max three hundred Lunars, theoretically the same with Solars though usually less, and a smaller number I can't actually remember for Sidereals. Lots of Terrestrials, but not, like, a huge percent of the population."

"Well, Lady Wyldclaw, that is all very bizarre but it sounds exciting and I think it suits you! Do you like being a tiger? I don't know which animal I'd like being best, they're all so cute - maybe a bunny." He grins at Lan Zhan.

What Does This Mean

She laughs, leaning a bit closer to him. "Oh, I find it quite suits me..." She hums. "For you - well, you're certainly cute enough to be a bunny, though I think that's more your friend's type... I think you'd be something a bit more mischievous, perhaps. Cat, rat, raven, goose..."

She thinks what. 

He doesn't know whether to be more angry or confused. His face settles on angry and his ears settle on embarrassed because what is happening. In what way is this a productive conversation.

Oh fun. He will lean closer in return. "I've found that ravens have a way of suiting me," he says cheerfully. "Though I think you're being so unfair, not letting me have any handsome options. How will I compare to the beauty of a tiger if I'm just some shaggy bird hopping around?"

"Well, a groomed raven can be quite a pretty boy," she says, teasingly. "Perhaps you could preen some?"

"I happen to be exceptionally good at preening," he laughs, puffing out his chest and tossing his hair. "But I guess feathers will need a different technique, won't they?"

"You mentioned Essence. Explain."

Aw jealous boyfriend. Adorable.

"It's the energy stuff that flows through Creation, I guess. Gods, spirits, Exalts, spell casters, and the like can move it around and do stuff with it. If I use up a lot I start glowing."

"Ahh. Hm, I haven't heard of anyone glowing before. Do Exaltations make your golden core exceptionally strong?"

"Golden core?"

"...yes? Where your spiritual energy concentrates, after you learn cultivation for a while. Have you - ah, could you have never even heard of that?"

"Essence is sometimes called spiritual energy I think, but it's not - a core? And not always golden. But there's not - 'cultivation.'"

"You know, Lan Zhan, I'm getting such strange feelings that we might be somewhere we don't belong."

Multiple aspects of this situation are less than ideal.

He considers this for a moment. Then he wets his finger and tries to draw a glitter talisman in the air.

That works as expected.

"Weird. So wherever-this-is isn't unreceptive to cultivation, looks like, it just... hasn't been invented here? Or all the other strange things you have going on here pushed it out of the way, because no one thought to need it as much. Hhhuh. We should try learning each other's everything and see if any of it is just impossible, I think."

"That sounds fun. What all does cultivation do?"

"Cultivation trains and harnesses your spiritual energy so that you can do all sorts of useful magic and combat. When I played my flute here to control the dead last night, that was an atypical form of cultivation. Demonic cultivation harnesses ambient resentful energy instead of your own qi. Where we come from, it is not widely considered acceptable!" He says this cheerfully.

Amused: "Where I come from, turning into a tiger isn't widely acceptable."

She thinks. "I'd say the closest we have is like harnessing the world's Essence versus your own - using the world's Essence is only really controversial here because it's sometimes dangerous."

"Mm? Why do people do it, then, is it more powerful?"

"In some ways? But it's also - differently convenient, I think. You can create permanent magical structures, but you can't heal yourself. But creating permanent magical structures can cause earthquakes if you fuck up."

"What if you wanted to cause an earthquake for some reason, could you do that on purpose?"

"If you were really powerful, yeah! I'm pretty sure that sort of thing happened a lot during the Primordial War."

"Ooooooh, what's that?"

"When the Exalted overthrew the beings that made the world and the gods and all. It was a really long time ago, so there aren't exactly a lot of records, but there's some tales surviving..."