username: lady of the willow tree | audio

[aprescoup]

( She has long suffered, her great sigh speaks, every fool that's walked this world. ) ...you took more dead. Why are you like this? You want friends? I buy you friends. Three for five coin pieces, at the market. You are ugly, maybe I pay seven. And you are fools! No one likes you. I pay nine.

Pah! What is your luck? What is my luck? These other clapping seals in their little frills, with their little cakes and their little cups, they are playing their little games. And they come to me with messages. I I have the look of a saint now, who delivers word. How fortunate Karsa is. How grateful.

Look here. Pay attention. ( She spits out the words: ) First come the beggars, the Bessis. What is their puny fire worth now? I breathe hotter each morning. They ask for their captives, to hide their shame. Imagine! You kill, and you kill, and you kill, and then you keep your dead 'allies' like vermin, and it is not good, when you are found out. Who could have thought?

( And softer: ) The others. The Attaryl, for whom speaks the red woman, Vannozza. They want their dead. For burial. Ha! As if she will not use them to say, looooooooooooook! Look what my cousin's good friends! Look. But the witches... these are their dead.

So, talk, choose, and — ( The transmission seems to flicker, her voice first feeble, then doubled, then she shrieks: ) No. No. You do not dare, you do not presume, you do not, you fur-clad pink pig, you do not dare —

( But Karsa falls silent. To a quiet backdrop, broken only by a rhythmic drip, speaks undead Lord Anurr of Sa-Hareth — who has not been seen since arriving in Sa-Hareth. He seems to borrow the voices of multiple men, women and children, never settling on the one: )

H elLo   Li TtlE   FrIenD S. HoW   Ha VE   YoU   Be EN?   GoOD?   Yo U   ArE   Go OD   peOPlE.

Go oD   ThIn Gs   SHOUl D   HaPpE N   T o   GoOd   Peop Le.   And   GoO D   EnDing S   to   Th Ose   Who   HAV e   SuF f e Red   LoN G.

N o?   Y E s.

And   Th E y   havE SuFFer Ed,   ThEse   AtTa ryL.   An D   N oW   ThEY WoU l D   Be   Use D   aGA in?

No.   So   Man Y   BuRNs. So   ManY   WA I Ls.   I heAR   ThE M   FroM   HerE.

GiVE   Them   To   ME.   Th E Y   Will   Be   O U R   BrothER s   In   SA-HARE Th.   Fr E e.

( As quickly as Anurr interrupted, his voice disappears. A long heartbeat's silence. By the time Karsa recovers command of her own transmission sorcery, she is quieter for it, rattled. )

You... that. That disgusting creature. That... well. Well, you heard him, didn't you? You heard him. Tell me what you wish done. You cannot have it all ways. Only one answer.

( ooc: the floor is yours, threadjack away, debate the fate of the six undead claimed in the Bessis tower disaster, plus the three previously weaponised by Wei Wuxian. Characters with 'ownership' of the dead get final say — please state it! All the undead will go to the petitioner with the highest number of votes. Haltham Anurr will not be answering any comments. )

Comments

i cry at phone typing errors

[weifinder]

There's enough that's happened it gets... confusing. You're welcome. Anurr has been quiet for two months, but I find no surprise in hearing from him now, on this, over our "private" communications.

( aka, something to keep in mind. )

[reparo]

Confusing, yes - putting it mildly. Also disturbing and upsetting and exhausting, but I suppose this just proves that the fight is never over.

[A sigh.] Apologies, I wasn't planning to rant at a stranger.

[weifinder]

Oh, please, by all means, I understand. Rant all you wish!

As long as we're here, no, there's no end to the fight as a whole, simply moments away from its intensity.

[reparo]

Then I will. [Rant to a stranger.] But perhaps we can cross out one part of that - Hello, my name is Hermione.

[weifinder]

Hello, Hermione, I'm Wei Wuxian. Nice to meet you, such as it can be said given general circumstances.

[reparo]

[Wei Wuxian - Wei - Hm.]

Likewise - I have a rude question, potentially, but is Wei your clan name? [Listen, she is going to learn, but it is worth checking to annoy Lan Wangji.]

[weifinder]

Hah, Wei is my family name, yes. As far as I know, there's no notable clan of the Wei I'm descended from.

[reparo]

[Can't see her nodding and mentally taking notes, but it is there.]

I see - well, there's no notable clan of Granger either, if it makes you feel better. I was just asking because I met a person here who is adamant that I do not speak to a Wei Ying.

[weifinder]

Ah, hahaha, in that case, I am Wei Ying, but I'd hesitate to have many call me by it—Wei Wuxian would be more common. Were you speaking with Lan Zhan? Lan Wangji?

[reparo]

I was speaking to Lan Wangji - I should preface by saying, in case he's got a sixth sense for this, that I do not crave the necromancy.

[weifinder]

If you did, I'd have to take concern over it too, so that's reassuring. What do you crave?

[reparo]

I would've said peace and quiet a few weeks ago, but at the moment I find myself craving an understanding of this place. It feels too much like I am floating in unknown waters and expected to conjure up a boat.

[weifinder]

Oh, it's exactly like that, only you'll have more people yelling at you about how you don't understand boats and why can't you just float along nicely and by the way don't get swallowed up by whatever's in the water, quite an adventurous time!

Understanding this place as a whole is a work in progress for all of us, and those who are of this place don't know what it is to tell us what we want to know. This part of the world at minimum has slowly been swallowed up by a collection of Undead Lords, so-called brothers, of which Unhalad was youngest. He moved with hunger a guiding... truth for his revived, and they carried no memories of their first lives with them after their resurrections, only the hunger. Meanwhile, Anurr was the displaced and older Undead Lord of that region, not affiliated with Unhalad or his brothers.

Necromancy itself is a more troubled and nuanced situation; resurrection is achievable here, with memory and spirit retained. So is every manipulation of dead energies, and dead bodies to some extent, but the likes we've seen with Anurr or these witches isn't the, ah. Common kind. They're not holding philosophical conversations, but they're more aware of self than the ones we've encountered so far have been, sharing similar bodied dead status. Spirits left as ghosts are far more retaining of their selves so far.

[reparo]

[A HERO. A SAINT AMONG SINNERS. SHE ASKED, AND HE'S JUST SHARING THE INFORMATION.]

Thank - thank you, for that. The whole explanation. You didn't have to but I appreciate it a lot. [Could've just done a Karsa and called her a goat for asking huh.]

The ones below our cage weren't so interested in holding a conversation as they were in convincing us to jump and be eaten, so I will not question that. It must be horrible, though. I wouldn't want to...to die, and come back like this.

[weifinder]

( He's, ah, one of the least reticent in sharing information. Welcome to the horrorfest, Hermione: all these tight lipped unhelpful persons so certain of knowing what's best to be known and told, and mostly here he is, not telling people how local necromancy can work. )

I can't imagine most would, but we've seen that sometimes it's less... freedom to choose, or awareness of the choice made. This is the first we've encountered those who've died and been resurrected with any thought more complex than the intent to follow an order or a singular, driving cause.

( These witches have two! Hahaha...ha...ha........... )

One major point is for none of us to be brought back in this way, though our faceless patron assures us it's more likely our spirits would be, ah, used and made into some usefulness for other beings.