voidmissions | [M15] ENEMY: UNKNOWN

On opening their eyes, Voidtreckers will feel a sense of disorientation, a dizziness to their vision and inside their head. Both clear quickly, letting them remember where they came from: in the midst of a mission, some unknown entity jumping them, and then —

They're here. Wherever here is.
They stand in an empty room. The lighting of the room stings their eyes after how dark the rest of the station has been. The walls, ceiling and floor are all bright white, tiles. There is no visible door, no windows.

After the disorientation comes fear. The hairs on the back of their neck stand up. For those with danger sense, these senses are going haywire, even though any other abilities are still not working. The feeling can be pushed down, it is similar to the air of expectation at the start of a horror film, the anticipation of fear rather than being in a truly dangerous situation. It might be that they have been on the train long enough to have felt it before.

Heavy footsteps sound, it is almost impossible to tell where they are coming from as the echo through the empty space. The feeling of dread grows until part of the far wall slides open with a mechanical hiss.

Filling the doorway are two huge figures, around seven foot tall and bulky. They are in large metal suits, almost like power armour, black with highlights of gold. They wear a mask that covers their whole face. It is impossible to see the figure inside at all. Their breathing comes through heavy and raspy and when they walk their footsteps are heavy. The door closes behind them and their presence makes the room feel smaller. One of them scans a green light over the voidtrecker.

"Do not be alarmed. Under sections ninety six of Inter-dimensional law and on behalf of the Void Ministry we have intercepted Voidcraft designation Voidtrecker Express as part of ongoing investigations. You have been taking part in a simulated excercise to gauge your skill and strength. No harm shall come to you or your crew, you are protected by inter dimensional law. You have been chosen for questioning and we ask that you comply. You have the right to refuse our interview but we have the right to hold you until our investigation is complete or one week in standard void time has passed, whichever is longest. Complying with us will ensure our investigation is more efficient."

The inspector talking pauses here, as if giving the voidtrecker time to take in that information.

"Do you accept our interview?"

ENEMY: UNKNOWN

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Mn." Wangji agrees, swapping hands and feeling the pleasant burn up and down his body.

"Does the tail make it easier or harder to balance?"

Hanguang-jun showing off, huh? Jingyi snorts, though it sounds more like a sneeze, before he shifts onto a single hand as well, elbow bent just so to support him without the joint locking up.

"Ffofh." Both easier and harder, depending on what balance was meant, or if he was actively moving or not.

To demonstrate his point, he unwound his tail from its wrapped state around his leg, letting it carefully flop the end portion side to side, curling into a u shape in either direction.

Is it showing off? Or is it merely a demonstration? Jingyi may never really know, Lan Wangji's face as impassive as ever. The answer can be maybe argued for, in that Wangji turns on his hand slightly to better watch Jingyi show off his tail.
"Interesting. Benefits and draw backs in all things." he muses, admiring the colour.
"Is the color pattern linked to the personality or particular skill?"

He trusts Jingyi to tell him he's being intrusive.

Jingyi turned his head toward Hanguang-jun, shifting his weight so that while he's on one hand, he can use his other hand to take hold of his ribbon's ends.

"Lineage, usually. There's no obvious sign about elements really, but scale and fur colours can run in bloodlines that also have strong affiliations with elements. Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Air."

Lan Wangji notes Jingyi's near perfect form in his mind with a sort of rueful fondness. He's glad that Jingyi is always Jingyi, no matter the universe, but also amused at how much he would have been made to do the exercise to be so good at it.

Watching Jingyi sort his forehead ribbon makes Wangji miss his own, but he puts that aside for the teaching about dragons.

"So a person would inherit both parent's colouration or just the one?" He understands some genetics but he has no idea how that holds up to a fantastical being that has to be awakened to appear.
"Are some elements more prized than others?"

He'd switch to his other arm after enough time, but Jingyi wasn't yet exhausting resources, even running on much lower energy with his qi access blocked in here like it'd been blocked in most of the station.

"Either, or, might end up with a colour somewhere between. That's just part of what your parents give you, it doesn't even mean you've got an element like whatever colours you show. Though you can guess that the big clans chose colours for their seals based on the uh... strongest colour in their bloodline?"

Is that what he wants to call it? Might as well be, though it tied to the main branch more than the side branches, depending how far back up the tree they'd split off.

"As far as that, not really. Having more you work with isn't usually better, since they're not all equally strong and all. One or two is best, but people are naturally gifted, they might end up with one or five."

Wangji nods, which does look a little odd upside down, as he mulls over this information.
"So would it be accurate to say you are more likely to find certain colours, if not certain elements, more frequently in particular sects?"

He isn't tired exactly, but he has reached the limit of how distracting a handstand can be and so he gently folds himself back down into a lotus pose. He straightens his hoodie habitually and misses his robes. When Jingyi mentions having many elements he will see visible interest and surprise.

"Are multiple draconic elements more difficult to learn to control than one? Or is it beneficial, akin to multiple styles of cultivation?"

Jingyi brought himself out of the handstands as well when Hanguang-jun came down and moved into lotus pose. It doesn't take much to go through similarly smooth motions, then he's settled and rolling his shoulders back as his chest comes forward, and he settles into a breathing pattern, putting words in a semblance of order in his head.

"You can, in the main bloodlines, and in some of the branches. Depends if people were marrying in those with similar or I don't know, enhancing colours. Like the Jiang marrying more warm tones, reds or blues, over the years, and you strengthen the purples that way, or add in dark tones or really light ones. You'd only know when someone's in dragon form, you can never tell when we're human."

In fact it was part of the point. Human wise, none of them were differentiated in anything but the normal human ways, which were by and large far less dramatic than their draconic counterparts.

"Mmm, they're not cultivation styles, they're... elemental affiliations. You have five of them, that's divided five ways, and you're maybe at most equally good with all five, and equally weak, yeah? 'Cause your qi feeds all of them, even when you're not using four elements. And it's different from a charm or talisman or lighting a fire like that, this is something... about your spiritual energy, it's something that calls to and responds to you without needing seals, once you know it well enough."

It makes Wangji ache, in a way, to have someone mirror him as Jingyi does. He hasn't meditated or practised with another skilled cultivator in over a century, and this is someone who understands his practises. He is very glad his junior is on the train, no matter his form.

"So, just as some choose to marry for skills or power, so do you choose for draconic aspects." People never change. He cocks his head a little, a small expression of confusion; "So then, is it not normal to have a tail and horns as you do?" He hopes that isn't offensive to ask.

"So your qi is still the source of your power, does that mean practising cultivation techniques that are taxing will impact your element in terms of energy?" If all the water is being poured from the same bucket do they run out of water that much faster, or is it that much larger a bucket? "So you can be equally skilled in all elements but one may call to you over others?"

[M15] ENEMY: UNKNOWN - THE INTERVIEW

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