Jon listens attentively, and only when the sword is sheathed does he move to gingerly pick it up - though he barely lifts it off the table, simply turning it over to have a better look at it. Even from within the sheath, there's an unease that comes to lifting it--- but a different unease, than when he's handled the strange, cursed objects that wind up in Calloway's Curios. An energy that doesn't seep into his palms, sinking like a poison, but rather, it cuts, like a light spilling into a dark room.
He doesn't care for what that might say about him, as opposed to the sword. He sets it down softly once again.
"It's quite a stroke of luck that it came back to you, then," Jon notes, watching Shen Qingqiu prepare the tea. "It's--- I've never seen anything like it, personally. I mean, it's fine craftwork, I'm sure, but--- that's an incredibly tangible energy it's got. Such a thing could have been terribly dangerous in the wrong hands, I'm sure."
Which makes Jon all the more fortunate that Shen Qingqiu didn't have it during their first, less-than-pleasant run-in...
"I feel extremely fortunate," Shen Qingqiu agrees. "Even if Calloway did make me pay out the nose to get it back. Foolish man. It's not as if anyone else would have been able to wield it even if they cared to pay his price." Well, maybe a teenage Luo Binghe...he'd no trouble using Xiu Ya to cut Shen Qingqiu's bonds, that time they'd been kidnapped by a Skinner Demon. It must have recognized what a good little disciple he was, loyal despite the terrible way the original goods had treated him.
"The energy you're sensing is concentrated spiritual qi," he explains, setting Jon's cup of tea down in front of him and taking his own place at the table, cup in hand. "Collected in the bedrock of Cang Qiong Mountain by its own natural feng shui and the results of centuries' worth of righteous cultivators making it their home. On Wan Jian Peak they carefully study and manipulate that energy, winding it into ever tighter spirals until it coalesces into a form like that of solid metal. They refine it further until it takes on the shape of a sword, and from there a sect disciple or honored guest may pull the sword out of the mountainside and call it their own." He smiles over the rim of his cup. "It's one of our sect's most precious techniques, and it can't be replicated anywhere else in the world."
Jon holds his cup and nods along as he listens; it's a hell of a thing to imagine, really. It's strange to think that, just a few years ago, he might've ascribed something like this to metaphor stemming from some combination of long-standing tradition and religion. But here it is, undeniable and directly in front of him. (Even if it is in front of him, his mind still strains to process the creation of such an object. After all, the items of his own world, imbued with the evil that they were, seem to have either attached themselves to mundane items, or seemingly come into existence on their own. The ability to see such a thing happen actively, however...)
"To be honest, I'm shocked that Calloway could pull such a thing here, and that it's energy didn't--- reject that pull," Jon muses. "Maybe however he's finding these things is inherently neutral, though? I suppose it's not worth looking too hard at something so beneficial, though. It doesn't feel like it's been altered at all since you've last seen it, as well?"
"I'd be able to tell if anyone had tampered with it," Shen Qingqiu agrees. "We share a bond, Xiu Ya and I -- a part of my soul lives within the sword, and it within me. Although..." He grimaces, setting down his own tea cup. "It is a little odd to see it again in one piece. The last thing I remember before dying was Xiu Ya shattering in my hands, as I fell from that roof...a side effect of my own self-destruction. Did someone reforge it, I wonder? Or perhaps it too has enjoyed a resurrection."
He shrugs. "In any case, I have a theory about the items Calloways finds -- namely that they are somehow tied to us off-worlders. Of course he pulls in a lot of random junk, but have you noticed that many of the truly powerful objects have some personal ties to someone already living on the island? Certainly this is the first time a cultivator's sword has appeared in his shop -- Oh!"
He interrupts himself with a grin. "There was another thing I got from Calloway's...one minute while I go get it." He rushes out of the room, returning with a small...plasticy...item in hand oh god it's a Funko Pop. It's a fucking Funko Pop, and Shen Qingqiu brandishes it in Jon's face like it's an idol made of solid gold.
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Date: 2024-11-11 06:11 pm (UTC)He doesn't care for what that might say about him, as opposed to the sword. He sets it down softly once again.
"It's quite a stroke of luck that it came back to you, then," Jon notes, watching Shen Qingqiu prepare the tea. "It's--- I've never seen anything like it, personally. I mean, it's fine craftwork, I'm sure, but--- that's an incredibly tangible energy it's got. Such a thing could have been terribly dangerous in the wrong hands, I'm sure."
Which makes Jon all the more fortunate that Shen Qingqiu didn't have it during their first, less-than-pleasant run-in...
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Date: 2024-11-12 05:43 am (UTC)"The energy you're sensing is concentrated spiritual qi," he explains, setting Jon's cup of tea down in front of him and taking his own place at the table, cup in hand. "Collected in the bedrock of Cang Qiong Mountain by its own natural feng shui and the results of centuries' worth of righteous cultivators making it their home. On Wan Jian Peak they carefully study and manipulate that energy, winding it into ever tighter spirals until it coalesces into a form like that of solid metal. They refine it further until it takes on the shape of a sword, and from there a sect disciple or honored guest may pull the sword out of the mountainside and call it their own." He smiles over the rim of his cup. "It's one of our sect's most precious techniques, and it can't be replicated anywhere else in the world."
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Date: 2024-11-27 01:23 am (UTC)"To be honest, I'm shocked that Calloway could pull such a thing here, and that it's energy didn't--- reject that pull," Jon muses. "Maybe however he's finding these things is inherently neutral, though? I suppose it's not worth looking too hard at something so beneficial, though. It doesn't feel like it's been altered at all since you've last seen it, as well?"
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Date: 2024-11-30 09:36 am (UTC)He shrugs. "In any case, I have a theory about the items Calloways finds -- namely that they are somehow tied to us off-worlders. Of course he pulls in a lot of random junk, but have you noticed that many of the truly powerful objects have some personal ties to someone already living on the island? Certainly this is the first time a cultivator's sword has appeared in his shop -- Oh!"
He interrupts himself with a grin. "There was another thing I got from Calloway's...one minute while I go get it." He rushes out of the room, returning with a small...plasticy...item in hand oh god it's a Funko Pop. It's a fucking Funko Pop, and Shen Qingqiu brandishes it in Jon's face like it's an idol made of solid gold.
"Look!" he says gleefully. "It's Luo Binghe!"