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]

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[As he still lived in the same house that they had all shared together, they would have to be really good at hiding at this point for him not to have noticed them. Also, the longest-running game of hide and seek ever]

I was worried about her being here. But I'm just as worried about her going back.

[Considering her fate in their world, he knew what was going to happen]

[Momo can certainly think of a few reasons why people would be worried about their loved ones going back - he's met a few people here who are either dead or dying in their own world, so his expression shifts to something more concerned and sympathetic.]

Something wrong back home? I've met a surprising number of people who'd be better off here than going back home.

[Or people who'd outright choose to stay here. It's slightly rarer, but it's definitely happened.]

She was certainly better off here. There was a reason why I was raising my nephew almost by myself, the only help being his other uncle.

[She was gone in his world. Both she and her husband were gone. It was something that he had come to accept back home, but now he had seen her again. He was trying not to think about it, but it was hard not when it had been staring him in the face for a few weeks]

[Though he doesn't state the word outright, it's kind of hard to construe something like that as anything other than her being dead, and presumably the other parent as well if the care is mostly between two uncles. It's one of those things Momo's thought about a fair few times while he's been here, but not as many of the people he's met who are outright dead in their own world have actually left this one.]

Sorry for your loss. It...makes me wonder if the people in that situation might have any way to stay here, one day. Having another chance at life taken away so randomly seems almost cruel.

It does. I had come to accept it as a fact back home that she was gone, but I had the chance to have her here. Lossing her again is hard, but I hold out hope that if she could be here once, she could be here again.

[It was what he held onto. Maybe she'd yet again have another chance at life here. It would be better if she could, even if it wasn't with Zixuan and Jin Ling]

I hope so too. There's definitely been people before who've left and come back, so there's no reason it couldn't happen again.

[Perhaps a bit optimistic considering how rare it is, but in situations like this, it's hard to be anything but optimistic. Otherwise it gets too depressing to think about.]

Of course. It was nice when everyone was here. Now it seems rather empty in terms of those I know from home.

[He had gotten to see his sister, had made up with WuXian, things had been rather pleasant. Now, it was almost like home with them being lost to him]

It's a little weird how much it seems to vary, with how many people come from each world. The only time I had anyone other than Yuki was that unusual arrival last year, when a bunch of people came one month and disappeared by the end of it.

[He's pretty sure Jiang Cheng turned up after that, but that arrival was also one where a lot of the people who'd appeared during that strange month had turned up for good.]

Really? I don't remember that. [He shrugged] I must have arrived after that.

[At least that confirmed for Momo that Jiang Cheng had not been here for that. He would have thought that he would have remembered something like that]

It was last Maiuril, so yeah, it was before you arrived. [Momo remembers their first meeting pretty well, so he can confirm that much.]

I just wondered because some people who showed up that time turned up again with the Juril arrivals and stayed around - my partner was one of them, but there were a few others.

Interesting. I wonder if this will happen again.

Did those who arrived with Juril group, do you know if any of them remembered having arrived in Maiuril?

Yuki did. I'm not sure about others, I didn't personally meet a whole lot of people who I knew for sure had been around for Maiuril and then came back.

[He'd known it had happened because there'd been discussion around that time, but it hadn't seemed to be overwhelmingly common - there were definitely more people who'd just disappeared permanently at the end of Maiuril.]

Well, then there was at least one who did. I think I remember Wei WuXian mentioning it to me when I first arrived. Sounded like I might have shown up but I didn't remember. He wasn't too surprised that I was a merrow.

That wouldn't surprise me. I definitely wouldn't have caught everyone who arrived for both of those, and I don't actually think there was a whole lot of talk about it after people came back that second time. I don't see much talk about people coming back here in general, honestly.

[Which is strange, because he's seen enough to know it happens and it's not even terribly uncommon.]

Hmm... that is true. I haven't seen much about it. For all I know, Wei WuXian could be hopping around the city as we speak and I wouldn't know a thing.

[Hopping... since he was a puca]

I wonder how often it actually happens, someone coming back.

It's strange, because you get some that happens to, and some who see new things happening in their own world through the mirrors without actually leaving. I'm a bit confused how that all works.

[It does lend some credence to that idea that they're all actually some weird mirror clones or something, but Momo doesn't think anything's too absurd to be the case here, honestly.]

Really? I hadn't heard about that part. That is very strange how the mirrors can behave so differently.

[Jiang Cheng wasn't sure he really wanted to believe that. It was too weird. Well... being here and becoming a merrow wasn't exactly normal either...]

It's happened to me once before, though I'm not entirely how it looks on the outside. It seems to kind of grab you while you're asleep.

[And it's been some months since it happened, so he only vaguely remembers how it felt.]

[He blinked in surprise at that] You went through the mirror? I was not aware of that.

Not so much through, it's more like...looking into it and seeing something from your future. Hard to explain properly.

[Especially given Momo's lack of experience with magic before coming here.]

I see. So it was just from looking in the mirror, not actually going through it?

[Jiang Cheng had experience with things that were more than they seemed in his world like talismans, but there was nothing like these mirrors]

Yeah. It's a bit weird, because it makes you wonder what exactly it is you're seeing happen.

[Whether it's the true future, or some kind of dream, since they're supposed to be here and yet they can see things happening from beyond the time they came here.]

So it may not show you exactly what does happen? Or just the fact that you can't be sure until later if it was real or not?

Can't be sure if it was real or not. Since I haven't been back to my world since I saw it...still, it lines up with what Yuki knows, and he did actually go back between Maiuril and arriving here properly.

[So presumably, somehow, things are still happening while they're here.]

Hmm... sounds creditable if it lines up with what Yuki knows. But still, like you said, you can't know for certain until you see for yourself.

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Jiang Cheng Catch-All

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