The rock hit its mark. Deidre left me at the very last second and distracted me so I failed to get off in time. I got bruised and had my ki badly distorted. Chinaway's tech defence deflected the rock's mass aspect, but failed to deflect the reinforced ki aspect.
The intact tech defence kept most of the detonating ki in which set fire to the internals and barbequed lots of Chinaway's henchmen. The nexus had obviously been ruined, because the surroundings were flooded with energy. Lord Chinaway showed up and was angry - understandably so. I felt obliged to fight him in an honorable fight, but left when he started to get dishonorable - I was, after all, a bit bruised.
I reported my results to Rhiannon. My distorted ki had some interesting effects on her house.
Rhiannon: She ruined the rugs and turned parts of my house more or less sentient. Since being my house is not a punishment I would inflict on any thinking being, this was a bit embarrassing... but it is nice when somebody reports something.Meanwhile, Mei Li, having returned from her prolonged stay in the less pleasant parts of the Underworld, soon discovered that she had outgrown the Monastery of the Whispering Willows, where she had been raised and trained. The Elders there told her she must seek her own destiny. Thus inspired, she proceeded to start building her own temple at an island just off the cost of the great Po Lin Monastery. Brand had some opinions in the matter - mainly that Mei Li was an inexperienced brat that could not be trusted to build a temple on the very Holy Isle. Some diplomacy ensued and resulted in Rhiannon being co-responsible and Steve getting a say in all matters that could interfere with the Po Lin monastery.
Rhiannon: I realized that being informed about the temple construction might be a _good_ thing, although I'm less sure of it now. Steve and Mhei-Li is an explosive combination. Mhei-Li wants things done her way, and Steve just wants to object to anything that even crosses his path.Deidre had apparently gotten some crazy idea and was busy inviting hordes of creatures into my house. Each group had a unique ki pattern, so I suppose she was up to some ritual. I had to hire an abandoned condo nearby to house them all and get them from underfoot. I gave both Anna and Uni the day off so they could relax from this ruckus.
Uni decided that she needed a change of air and went fishing. She returned two days later with an enormous white shark - alive. She wanted to keep it in a tank in the garden. I don't think I've been so astonished for decades, but I could not get myself to disapprove of her new-found zest.
This incident made me realize that our residence was rally a bit too small for its role as both my and Deidre's residence. If Anna and Uni would start embracing their fates we would definitly need more room so I had Uni investigate the possiblility of acquiring some the neighbouring properties.
She did a good job - all the three surrounding properties were vacated by noon the following day. This gave us more space than I had originally asked for, but it also made it possible to plan a full-scale Japanese garden, something I had always wanted.
Chinaway had proceeded to hire some bunch of 'trump agents' which trumped me, Rhiannon, Mei Li, Darien, Quengh Chi and possibly others and challenged them to a duel in his name on neutral ground. No one was stupid enough to accept, of course.
While annoying us all, this threw Mei Li into a fit. She stormed over to my place and started raving about the challenges being my fault. She had dragged along Rhiannon and Darien who, as always, had Quengh Chi clinging to him.
Rhiannon: If you think she threw a fit, I could mention that was nothing to what she did at my house. Strange men paging her seem to make her nervous. I'm still kind of surprised since two hundred years in Hell must have introduced her to far more unsavoury characters than Lord Chinaway.
I'm not sure I would agree she dragged me, though - it is, after all, my responsibility to be where the action is. I will agree that Quengh Chi seems to have decided that she is a personal accessory to Darien.I was busy destroying all the existing power lines in the old garden so I could build new ones at this time. In the middle of the ensuing hetead debate, Random happened to drop by. His boyish charms caused a temporary lull in the argument and he helped himself to a view of the ongoing construction work from my roof. Eric had no doubt sent him to check that the madwomen weren't up to something insanely dangerous.
Rhiannon: It's easier than that. After reviewing God knows how many reports, I have come to the conclusion that Random has some kind of sixth sense that tells him exactly where the most interesting explosions will happen, and can't resist being there in time. Maybe it's all in his subconscious.With clockwork precision, two car stopped just outside the hole the trucks used to drive in and out. Eight men in black trench coats stepped out and started walking in unison towards Random. I always thought his mother selected a bad name: I have never known someone to be more predictable.
I intercepted the octet bent on destruction and gave them each a scarlet pimpernel. The first one accepted very hesitantly but when he failed to die horribly at the mercy of the terrible killer flower, the rest accepted their pimpernels.
They then proceeded to get massacred by Random, with moderate collateral damage. They managed to ruin most of the scaffolding while fighting and all windows in the area blown was out from an exploding fuel trailer which happened to pass by. This also deforested every single one of the trees still left in my garden. I'm still not sure how the ten storey house across the street managed to get demolished.
On the upside, the ki patterns formed during the fight by the nexi flowers and Random's general presence completely scrubbed all the existing power lines out of the garden, much more effectively than I could ever have hoped to accomplish by myself.
The problem with a full-scale Japanese garden is that it takes a few hundred years to grow. This had me stumped for some time until I realized that there would actually be a way to get the necessary plants there other than physically transporting them there. Sam would be perfectly capable of having a forest grown on the spot. I remembered Mei Li saying that she would like to visit Sam, whom she apparently knew.
I arrived at Rhiannon's in the middle of a very serious (and private) discussion between Mei Li and Darien. I enjoyed the stillness of her garden while waiting for them to finish.