text | un: wei laozu, following the protestors being escorted to jail

[weifinder]

Dear Friends,

I am presently enjailed with a number of the protestors who did not have the luck to get free of the ordered guards. Some here have been injured, and we've done what we can on limited supplies and with limited sympathy, but it wouldn't be a terrible idea to drop some fresh clean bandages in, maybe a few poultices for healing, and also:

I probably need to exit this particular stage after chatting up my cellmates for their thoughts, to the accompaniment of the odd gurgle from the semi-conscious man in the corner. Don't worry, he's actually improving.

Remember, make love! Not violence! Makes for more fertile growing grounds.

- Wei Wuxian

( this is help, only not a distressed call for help, from Wei Wuxian, Jailbird. he's so thankful zero dogs are involved in this venture. )

Comments

[weifinder]

My friend, I am presently a reincarnated fertility goddess. Seeing what the state of things was from the violence escalation to down here fits to what I do, at present; I need others to be the eyes that see on those lines.

Now we know the protestors sell their time and beliefs, whatever their own might be. This shouldn't be news to Lord M, and yet he responds touchily. Lady V benefits, certainly, but to what extent? This is known about his attitude, so who, or what, drives tipping him off and escalating against the paid complainers?

[somebadnews]

[ He's a what. Five reads that a few times before he gets back to writing. ]

I wouldn't expect that backstory to play so well in jail.

If it's all for show, why assume it's any different for him? It doesn't sound like he discouraged any of them from participating the next time, assuming they don't all end up with you there.

[weifinder]

Did you witness what happened?

[somebadnews]

I think we all got a glimpse after your friend's video.

[ Which is to say, he watched from a distance. He has an obligation to see that his family didn't get swept up in it because they think they can... do what Wei Wuxian just did, basically. It only now occurs to him that he hasn't accounted for all of them in the last few hours and there's still a few missing. ]

You didn't recognize anyone else there? Or anyone who didn't seem to know what was going on?

[weifinder]

Then you've an idea at a distance, rather than up close and personal. Lord M was taking it personally. Those guards there are not the guards in here.

Anyway, no, not of people like us that I'm aware of. Beyond myself, everyone seems to either know another paid protestor or know a guard and is getting fed and watered by their connections. Why? Someone of yours gone silent?

[somebadnews]

So he's hiring his own guards to take care of them. You're expecting it to escalate if there's another protest?

Nobody I'm worried about. You would have noticed them.

[weifinder]

I'm expecting whoever's behind them to escalate, or someone else to take advantage and do the same. How much we decide to care is on each of us, when we're assigned to support Lady V.

You're not very honest with yourself, are you, Xiao Five? Fine, fine, no one down here, that much I agree is true.

[somebadnews]

If it suits our purposes, we might as well take up a collection for them.

[ No comment on the last part. He said what he needed to know, and there are other people can read this. ]

[weifinder]

Never hurts to have ins with people used to being loud and contrary.

[somebadnews]

Maybe you can get us a discount.

So you're just going to ride it out and wait for someone to come get you?

[weifinder]

Can't hurt to see what's possible!

Oh, word that I hear is we're all out by nightfall, but sure, if one of the other enterprising souls doesn't come wandering first. This is more dangerously boring than dangerously anything else at present.

[somebadnews]

Right. You can probably take a nap and they'll wake you when it's time to leave.

[weifinder]

In all but the literal sense, yes, that well might be how this day ends. Thank goodness I was able to rest this morning!

Only wait, I wasn't. That nap definitely sounds appealing now...

[somebadnews]

[ He was joking... why would you sleep?? How is he this trusting. But it's not really his concern. ]

Maybe keep one eye open, just in case.

[weifinder]

( They're both joking, but it amuses Wei Wuxian that Five says "no wait, be careful" after. )

Anything less than a third eye might be an oversight.

[somebadnews]

[ That is absolutely not what he said at all. He refuses to admit that he can't always read social cues. ]

Why not? I'm sure you're running out of things to talk about.

[weifinder]

Because in this world, the living is only the start of what to watch out for.

[somebadnews]

[ Oh. Well, that's different. ]

I didn't think they had that problem here.

[weifinder]

Resentment lingers everywhere, but for the more visible kind: spend time in the necromancer's district. In company, preferrably.

[somebadnews]

[ That makes sense with necromancers, but at least they don't have undead walking the streets. Or maybe they do. They've been eager to help him with his problem, but so far he's kept his distance. ]

How did you feel about them?

[weifinder]

Depends on which ones. I'm liaising through a man who has four undead he uses as he pleases, all who remind me of our undearly consumed friend, Unhalad. And he's still greasy but better, by coin and by crook, than the ones who have slit throats for their own ends in the same district, ah? Assume a knife's at your back at all times, barter and bargain, expect to be ripped off.

Still, I'm learning. What would you seek out of them?

[somebadnews]

[ This is news. He wonders why they're so interested in what he's carrying around inside him then. ]

Do they practice anything else, or does it all tie in with the dead?

[weifinder]

Death, curses, compulsions, anything dealing with what you might call the darker arts. Not what polite society wants to discuss; vultures and scavengers are words I've heard, but they're hungrier than that, predatory and not simply picking at the bones of what has already died.

[somebadnews]

[ That answers that. ]

I can see why you'd want to learn from them.