[open post - dream big]

[protagonisthalo]

Luo Binghe does not need to sleep every night, and at home he is too busy to do so. But there is less to do here, and he grows bored in the nighttime when there is no chance of seeing any of the few people he likes. And Nina must not have any nightmares on his watch.

He curls up on his bed now, enduring the ache he always feels to be in it alone. Sleeping alone is one of the things he most despises. The only saving grace is that his powers let him make himself sleep instantly. In his youth, he often ended up fighting his thoughts for hours in place of sleep, even when physically exhausted. He wishes Shen Yuan were here, or if not, perhaps Sagramore—not to do anything that would disrespect Shen Yuan, but just to warm Luo Binghe's bed with his presence. But he would prefer almost anyone in the mansion over no one.

He ignores this customary melancholy and forces himself to sleep. He will first check on Nina, to guide her mind towards its best dreams without intruding, as he promised. After that, all dream paths are open to him.

[If you'd like a Luo Binghe dream visitation, please comment with how and where your character is sleeping, and perhaps what might be on their mind. If Luo Binghe does not know the character well, the dream will be more generic. However, he can read thoughts and memories, so feel free to DM the typist if there's anything you'd like Binghe to pick up on. Sweet dreams!]

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[protagonisthalo]

"We are." This could be going worse, but it's not going as well as Luo Binghe might like, either. Some part of him wants to protest that he doesn't know how friendships are; his only friend is Nina. It baffles him why people dislike him so much here—and then he realizes that it's not only because he has no status or military prowess with which to impress them. He could have approached this all differently. He could have turned on the sleek, charming persona he uses when he plans to kill someone and doesn't want them to know it yet. He could have tried harder to be nice. But he didn't, because he loves Shen Yuan, and he wants to be himself around him, and Luo Binghe's self is not very likable. He huffs in frustration. How did he befriend Nina and Janet? He humiliated himself in front of both of them, letting them see him in moments of deep distress. But that's easier with women, and more appealing to women anyway, in Luo Binghe's experience. Women like vulnerability.¹ How does one appeal to a young man?

"I love Shen Yuan," he says again, just to confirm. "Things are very different here from what I'm used to, and I've had to learn to act differently." He thinks of Nina saying he has room to grow—something that would be unforgivably condescending from anyone else, but a genuine compliment from her. "Shen Yuan is from my world and knows me very well, so it is easier for him to understand that. It's not easy for me to explain myself. That's why I left the note."

¹Broad generalizations not endorsed by typist.

[summerdude]

Magnus is pretty sure Shen Yuan is actually from his world, but it's not worth arguing about. He squints at Luo Binghe for a long moment. "If you don't wanna hang out, that's fine," he says, finally. "I'm not, like, Forcing Dudes to Hang Out in My Dreams Guy. I just thought --" He shakes his head. "You're my friend's boyfriend! I like Claudius and Amir and Halfborn. And Hearth and Blitz." The last two count less, because they're each other's boyfriends. "So I wanted to get to know you. But it's cool. If you're still willing to give me a dream, I guess I'll take one about hanging out in a park with all my friends. Or maybe a nice day you had, if you want to share."

[protagonisthalo]

"No, I—" What he said was meant as an explanation of his behavior, not a rejection of Magnus. The mention of Claudius pierces through him in a flare of hot shame. How is he losing out to Claudius? "I want to hang out," he says hesitantly—Magnus must have picked up some of the ancient demonic dialect from Shen Yuan. "I'm just saying that I'm not used to it."

[summerdude]

"Oh," Magnus says. Okay, actually, that explains a lot. "Yeah, that's cool." He's putting a few things together, between this conversation and what he remembers of their first one. He doesn't want to assume, though; he doesn't want Luo Binghe to freak out at him if he's wrong. "So what's demonic cultivation?"

[protagonisthalo]

"It's cultivation from a demonic source," Luo Binghe says with some relief—Magnus seems a little warmer toward him than before. "Human spiritual qi and demonic qi are different types of energy. Demonic qi is stronger, but more destructive, harder to control. And most magical artifacts work better with one kind or another. I'm half-demon and half-human"—he remembers that he hasn't explained this before, since he was pretending to be a god—"so I can use both kinds." It's a bit meaningless to demonstrate in a dream, since Luo Binghe can do whatever he wants anyway, but he holds out his palm and ignites a flame in it. The flame fades from the warm yellow-red of spiritual qi to the flickering black of demonic qi and back again. He's not actually switching between his human and demon qi pathways, since his physical body is not present—he's just using dream cultivation. But this is what it would look like if he were.

[summerdude]

"Oh, that's cool," Magnus says, leaning forward to inspect the flame. He's uncrossed his arms at some point without realizing it. "I don't think we have demons where I come from. I think the closest thing we have is jotuns."

[protagonisthalo]

Luo Binghe is intrigued. "I haven't met anyone else here who comes from a world with demons—except Crowley, of course.¹ It startled me at first to be talked about as though I am mythical, and not in flattering terms either. What is a jotun?" He keeps the flame still so Magnus can look closely. Since it is a dream flame, it won't burn.

¹Because they're from the same world and Crowley is his ancestor.

[summerdude]

"Oh, they're giants," Magnus says. "Sometimes literally, sometimes not. Some of them have, like, claws? Or fangs? There are fire jotnar, ice jotnar, and mountain jotnar. A lot of them are masters of illusion magic. Some of them are gods, some of them are just regular giants." He shrugs. "About half the jotunns I've met have tried to kill me, and about half have tried to work with me, and those two halves do overlap. A lot. So they're just like anyone else, I guess."

[protagonisthalo]

"That does sound like demons." Luo Binghe's voice carries a touch of approving warmth—no one else has known anything about what he is. "Not all look as human as I—claws and fangs are common, as are tails. Some are associated with certain animals, such as snake demons or wolf demons. And we have fire and ice clans as well. But my line is the Heavenly Demons—those descended from heavenly beings, who were banished and became demons instead. I am the last remaining." Except Crowley.

[summerdude]

"I've met snake and wolf jotunns," Magnus says, with a shiver. The wolves -- he's not a fan of the wolves. "I guess there's a lot of what you might call heavenly jotnar in my world? My dad married one. My girlfriend's mom is a different one. I guess technically that would make my girlfriend half-jotunn? Demi-jotunn." He'd never thought of it like that, before. "But the half-mortal kids of jotunns we usually just call demigods, too."

[protagonisthalo]

Luo Binghe laughs. "Doesn't that make me something like a god after all?"

[summerdude]

"Demigods are nothing like gods," Magnus says, immediately and stoutly. Luo Binghe might not recognize it, but this is, in truth, a compliment.

[protagonisthalo]

"What are they, then? I have told you about my kind. Although we do not have a term for half-demons—I call myself a demon because I know it is what people think of me. I am as human as I am demonic, but humans would not tolerate one such as I counting myself among them."

[summerdude]

"Well, most gods suck, so," Magnus shrugs. "I guess us demigods are less powerful but a lot more useful. Um, they tend to live apart in my world, too. But that's mostly because most regular, um, mortals can't see the truth, so it gets dangerous to spend all your time around them."

[protagonisthalo]

"What truth can they not see?"

[summerdude]

"That gods and giants and monsters exist," Magnus shrugs. "Anything that would break their brains. They bounce right off of it instead."

[protagonisthalo]

Luo Binghe has never met a god—they don't leave the heavens in his world. He is contemplating this when he suddenly realizes that Magnus might know something he's very curious about. "Have you ever fought the son of a god?"

[summerdude]

Magnus frowns. "I mean, I don't know their heritage for certain, but I probably end up killing about five or six of them every Battle Practice?" he says. "Mostly Thor's kids. Those guys are like cockroaches in Valhalla."

[protagonisthalo]

"How do you kill them? There is one I keep hearing of who sounds like a vicious tyrant—I should very much like to fight him, but in my world the gods do not walk amongst us." He thinks for a moment. "Does the god that fathered them make a difference in their powers? I don't know the name of the one who sired the man of which I speak."

[summerdude]

"It does matter," Magnus says. "I have alf seidr and summer powers because of my dad. My buddy TJ is physically incapable of turning down a challenge because his dad is the god of duels. Sam and Alex can shapeshift because of Loki. Usually I kill them with my sword, unless its Dragons day, in which case I mostly just duck and let them take the heat, or Siege Warfare day, in which case I usually die too fast to get anyone else." He tilts his head. "Which guy do you want to fight? It's possible I've heard of him. I did a lot of research on different pantheons when I was trying to figure out what you were a god of."

[protagonisthalo]

"Christ?"

[summerdude]

Magnus stares at Luo Binghe for a moment, and then doubles over laughing. "Jesus Christ?"

[protagonisthalo]

Luo Binghe frowns. "Sagramore calls him Jesu."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, I've heard that too," Magnus says, still laughing. "I'm sorry, dude, I don't think he's real." Then he stills, frowning. Galahad's god has talked to him, which implies that he exists, at least in some versions of history, which would suggest -- because all gods love to sleep around and leave little demigods to their own devices in their wake -- that Jesus is, at least, a possibility. "I guess... he might not be just some made-up story. But I'm not sure."

[protagonisthalo]

"He doesn't exist in my world, but he seems to be a common feature of others. Perhaps he is mythical in yours, the way demons are mythical to many, and yet here I stand. It seems some elements manifest in many different worlds, in different circumstances, and the echoes may reverberate throughout the cosmos and be felt even through the boundaries of reality. But he is very real in Susan's world—she told me that his followers consume his flesh. It seems to me he runs mad with power, and someone should check him."