middaeg | Jiang Cheng Catch-All

Jiang Cheng Catch-All

Who: Jiang Cheng and You!
When: Throughout March
Where: Aefenglom various
What: Wandering, recovering, maybe quests
Warnings: Some kidnapping aftermath

Home and Nearby - Recovery
Jiang Cheng was getting rather bored with all of this, being stuck like this. A forced recovery since he had never been intending to get Cwyld. It had been entirely the cult's idea that he needed to. Of course, now he had to deal with it and it was taking longer than he had expected to recover.

To be fair though, he had been a cultivator back home and had never really been sick that he could recall. So maybe it wasn't actually taking that long, but he wasn't used to the fact that someone was telling him that he had be taking it easy. That was not something that he liked to hear... or do.

At least he had been told that it wasn't a bad case, meaning that he could go home and if he was cautious, he wouldn't spread it. Which was good with him. He didn't want to give it to Nami and he didn't want to have to stay somewhere not his house.

But it was boredom that had him out of the house and lingering by one of the gates of the garden so that he could see out, curious to what the rest of the world was doing. One arm, uncharacteristically for anyone who knew him, was covered with a glove.

Out in the City - Shopping
Finally! He was given the okay and he could leave his house again without extra precautions. As such he was more than willing to dress to the nines and head out into the city again. He wasn't sure if he was really looking for anything. It was mainly the fact that he had been allowed to go anywhere for quite some time.

It was nice, but he found himself feeling far more paranoid than he had felt in quite a long time. He had brought his sword with him as this was something that a gentleman of his world did, but he was gripping the sheath far tighter than he needed to. His other hand was almost an itch trigger, as though he'd be ready to draw his sword at any moment.

Out in the City - Swimming
The call of the water was too great to ignore it for long. He had been told to ignore it for the most part in order to recover, but now that he didn't have to, he headed to the pier dressed in the robes that Nami had given him that dried faster than average cloth. He appreciated that far more than anyone could really know.

When he reached the pier, he stopped, staring out over the water and enjoying the smell of the air. It was like an old friend that was calling to him. An old friend that he needed to see right now.

[ooc: If you have any quests you want to do with Jiang Cheng, let me know. I'm happy to start a prompt for quests]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Momo doesn't take sympathy well anyway, so honestly, that's probably for the best. He'd rather turn things away from himself as quickly as possible, so he just gives a bit of a nod of agreement and then switches the topic as naturally as he can.]

Are you healing okay? Healing magic is one of my specialties, so if there's anything you still need with that, I could help with it.

[To try and make up for his actions to some degree. But as far as he's seen, most of the wounds that are still an issue for people are ones that were previously infected, so he's not sure how much there might be left to do.]

The cwyld is gone now. [He gave a scoff that might have been slightly amused. It certainly didn't seem 100% annoyed at least] Unless you can do something about the fact that I am still tired. Apparently healing from cwyld takes a lot out of you.

[Of course, since he's said the word a few times in a public place, there were a few more sauce natives who had started giving him a wider berth. Not that he had it anymore, but the word was enough]

[That's not surprising, since the Coven healers had definitely seemed to primarily focus on getting rid of any lingering infection from the victims first. Anyone he's met who's still healing has at least had that much dealt with - as he'd expect, because it'd just be digging in deeper and deeper otherwise.

He does actually look like he's seriously considering the question of whether he could do something about the fatigue, though.]

I could try? I've done something similar before, it's not that different to healing magic. Except I guess it's more just...directly transferring energy.

[Which means it's probably just going to equivalent exchange the fatigue over to Momo for a while, but he's not opposed to taking a swap, honestly. Maybe he can join one of Yuki's recently increasing number of depression naps when he gets home.]

[Well, that seemed rather pointless to him. It wasn't directly getting rid of the fatigue, just giving it to someone else. While that meant he wouldn't have it, it didn't just go away]

Forget it. I can deal with it. It's not that important.

[Momo's mouth quirks into a bit of a rueful smile at that.] Forgetting it is a little hard when I helped cause it.

[Even if there were other people involved, it's a sticking point for someone like him, who usually reserves his doing harm for people who harm his loved ones first. The way he was down there reminded him far too much of someone he'd rather forget.]

But that's sort of how all healing magic works. The lighter stuff will just be a bit tiring on the healer, but bigger stuff you usually need to offer some of yourself for, like blood or something.

Hmm.

[Jiang Cheng eyed him curiously as he said that. Well, if nothing else, he admired that he was accepting at least some of the blame for it when he hadn't necessarily been directly responsible]

If it will help you feel better about it, then I won't stop you.

[This might just end up being circular with phrasing like that, because Momo almost winces at the way it's put.]

I'm not going to push it on you if you don't want to have it done that way, though. It's not your responsibility to make me feel better about what I did.

[Not implying that's what he's trying to do, but more saying that the offer as spoken does make it sound a bit like he's only agreeing because it would help Momo and not because it would help himself.] If you want it done, I'll do it. That's the part that matters to me.

I don't need it. It's not so bad that I can't live with it.

[It wasn't that important to him. He could deal with it a little while longer. They had said that it was normal after recovering from this]

Alright then. [If this was someone Momo was a bit closer to, he'd be more likely to impose, but in this case, he's just trying to navigate the fallout of what happened without putting even more of himself on the people who had to deal with him in his brainwashed state.

A brief pause, and then a more delicate question.] Did you stay to try and collect evidence after things started going to hell, or see anyone who did? I haven't heard much about how that went.

[And he passed out almost as soon as Yuki broke the spell.]

I did not stay. Nami was one of those arrived to help others and as soon as she freed my hands, she rushed me out.

[Not that he was complaining about that. He had been rather weak after that since he had still refused to eat as much as possible. Those that were in a hurry or not paying attention likely missed that he hadn't eaten. So he had been in a weaker state than normal]

I haven't heard much else about it.

[Momo nods understandingly at that, since that's pretty similar to what happened to him.]

I passed out when my partner managed to break the brainwashing spell, and he pulled me out, so I have no idea what went on there. I'm hoping they got enough to nail everyone involved, but how little we've heard has me kinda worried.

[He doesn't detail too much about what else happened that night, because he'd rather not talk about exactly how the spell got broken and the fact that he had a vicious fight with his partner in the lead-up to it. As Jiang Cheng had seen himself, the spell had been ingrained into him deeply.]

I hope that they were as well. I certainly told others about what I saw when asked, but of course, this was after the fact.

[Which may have done little good for actually catching people, but it probably did a lot of good of helping to add to the pile of evidence that could be used, but he also hadn't heard much. Of course, he'd basically be stuck inside for a while until his illness cleared up completely so he didn't keep passing it along]

At least your partner was able to break the brainwashing. I was wondering.

[Momo nods a little at that - it had taken him some time to recall what had happened while he was under the influence in full, but he had tried to pass along names and crimes. His work had already fired a few people on the combination of that and booting the people who'd been really pushy about getting others to join the cult.

His expression flickers a bit at the mention of the brainwashing breaking - it had been a painful experience, but he's more concerned about what he did and said to Yuki before it was broken.]

Yeah, I'm not sure anyone else would have been able to, it was...deep. It even took him a while, and he's definitely the person here who knows me best and could try to appeal to whatever bit of the real me he could reach.

[The specific intent behind the brainwashing had meant it had to be particularly locked in, otherwise Momo going so severely against his nature would've broken it extremely quickly.]

A shame though.

[Jiang Cheng was quiet for a moment, letting that hang in the air before continuing]

I never got to use the insults that I came up with because brainwashed you wasn't impressed the ones I had used.

[He had tried really hard on that! But he wasn't going to say them anymore... at least without a reason]</small.

[Momo at least waits a moment to look too surprised by that remark, because it had the feeling of waiting for another shoe to drop. It's somewhat morbid humour, but it does get him to crack a slight smile.]

Hey, I won't take it personally if you do. Or maybe we'll find someone else good to use them on sometime, unless they were really tailored to me.

[Given his job, he's quite used to having very personal insults flung at him on the regular, which was in part why he'd still been so indifferent to them when he was brainwashed.]

[Drawing it out for suspense was always amusing in his opinion and he had succeeded. At least Momo found his comment mildly humorous]

Most could be used for anyone. We'll have to find someone else to use them on. They're too good to go to waste.

[But yeah... only 'most'. That meant some of them were for him specifically]

[Momo can read between the lines there, but hopefully he won't give Jiang Cheng another excuse to use them on him, so he'll focus on the bigger possibility.]

I'm sure someone else will give us a good excuse before long...it hasn't even been six months since the stuff with Drummond. It's starting to feel like there's terrible people just waiting in line to take their shot.

[Before her, it had been the leftover cultists, before that the necromancers, before that the Rathmores...they get a few months' reprieve every so often, but there always seems to be plenty of assholes hanging around.]

I'm sure they will. Someone always does... fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it. I suppose we will have to see who is next up. Strange that there always seems to be another waiting.

[Strange, but also not unexpected given everything that he had heard about this place on both sides of the issue when he had been undercover. Before everything went to hell and back]

It is a bit, though I suppose with Drummond, it was just a recurrence. We had problems with some of her leftover loyalists earlier last year as well, so it was only a matter of time until she came back herself.

[It had only ever been few month periods between having to deal with something to do with her, as far as he could tell from how late the year before his arrival the original incident with her had happened.]

I'd liken this one a bit more to the Rathmores, and I wouldn't entirely write off that Alder might've known them when they were alive.

Hmm... I suppose it makes sense that they wouldn't give up so easily. Anyone with any initiative wouldn't suddenly stop.

[Considering in their world, they had been dealing with their problem individual for longer than his nephew had been alive and now he was having to deal with him here as well]

Hopefully, no more kidnapping attempts for a while.

[He didn't want that to become a habit]

Might have to wait another year to see about that, this was almost the worst kind of anniversary of the Rathmore stuff.

[Which means they're gunning for once a year terrible kidnappings at this point. He thinks the Rathmore thing happened slightly shy of one year since people started arriving, so they haven't had the chance for a third year running yet.

Hopefully it doesn't carry over to next year.]

At least it means we know the local government doesn't take this sort of thing lightly, though.

Hmm... seems so. As unfortunate as it is, at least they are consistent. Makes it easier to expect when something is going to happen.

[He's probably going to have to remember the next year's anniversary so he doesn't get caught up in it again]

I'm sure we'd both rather not be in the group that needs help next time.

[As well as others wishing it for them as well]

Definitely not. Though I guess maybe I got off "too lucky" some other times...we did have a couple of brushes with brainwashing before that I got out of because of having a ward.

[None of them were on the level of what the cult was doing, but Drummond and her followers definitely attempted it a few times - those were actually pretty much the only times he ran into it prior to now. First the riots, then the actual attempted return of her to power and having to go and deal with it.]

Though if it has to be someone, I'd rather me than anyone I'm close to. [Momo is one of those self-sacrificing types, and one of his Bonded did get caught up in all this too.]

We in our world believe that what one does in a previous life affects the one that we have now. Someone who is incredibly lucky will say they must have saved up luck in a previous life.

[Or him, where he wonders what evil he must have done to everything crash around him constantly]

Sometimes, it certainly feels like being too lucky. But I agree. If it had been me or my family, I would do it again.

I wouldn't call myself incredibly lucky all the time, so maybe I was just inconsistent.

[He has actually been extremely lucky in some respects, but he did have one very memorable bit of bad luck send his life off the rails before the good luck kicked in again and put him on his current course. But he's certainly not getting into too much detail on that.]

I just wish I could've actually spared others the experience. One of my Bonded was captured after I was, so I couldn't do anything about it at that point.

[Something which he looks very guilty and upset at even the mention of. Lio is still in the process of getting comfortable with his presence again, so even though they didn't directly interact in the basement, there's a distance there.]

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