un : deft hand of little deaths (voice)

[scrapgege]

So, I talked to An- to Haltham.

[Is it a good idea to use Anurr's name on the network? Probably not, so let's stick to the other one. Most people know who this refers to anyway.]

Now, I'm not saying we should do what he asked because well, these people are still people, and they were enslaved a long time, and it feels only fair that they should be able to choose what they want to do with themselves.

But he says he might be able to help with their pain.

Except he also said that he doesn't know yet how.

.... That's not very helpful, is it? Sorry.

Comments

[weifinder]

Are we talking five jars of alcohol kind of pretty well, or the twenty jars kind?

[scrapgege]

You know, I've never really counted, but I don't think five jars would do it, no.

[weifinder]

Remind me to go drinking with you sometime when I enjoy barely keeping up until I'm sleeping and you're still testing out limits. Ah! Here—

( his breathing changes as he breaks into a sprint. )

Gondola! Gondola, wait please!

[scrapgege]

You don't need to rush! I'm not going anywhere.

[weifinder]

Oh no, it's the gondolas that are--!

[scrapgege]

Be careful on the way!

1/3

[weifinder]

Best as one can!

[weifinder]

[weifinder]

I'm here! The gondolas were all backed up for some reason involving clotheslines strung over the water and a shouting match with a matron over the state of her, ah, garments... how's your would be robber?

[scrapgege]

He's asleep. Give me a second to make sure everything is paid for and I'll come out.

[He's still in his white and red, vaguely Hua Cheng-inspired pirate get up, just without the eyepatch, and he gives a little wave as he comes out.]

Hi. I've been speaking to a few other people and everyone seems to think they don't have enough consciousness left... but I still would like to try.

[weifinder]

( Wei Wuxian waves in return, nodding his head in a direction for them to walk; the gondolas are fast, yes, but they need to cross over bridges to reach the right side for the direction they wish to go. )

I have nothing experienced with them to suggest otherwise than I've already said, but there's likewise no reason for you not to see if somehow, you may know otherwise. Or if you agree, after speaking with what they are.

[scrapgege]

Your friend, Lan Wangji... He really doesn't like it when things are not as they should, it seems.

[He can understand not liking undead people, even Eleven's slight black and white thinking because his experience is limited to how his world views things... But Lan Wangji seems to take personal affront to the fact that Xie Lian refuses to blanket condemn Anurr.]

I know a lot of people dislike Anurr, and they have their reasons. I don't like the way he went about asking for these people either. Bu they're very.... prickly about him in general, just because he's undead.

[weifinder]

He adapts in spite of himself. He means well, and he's more flexible than he sounds... but he wants things to be kinder than they are here. Or simpler, I think.

( because it is simpler on their world. we wuxian can understand that desire with the whole of his heart. )

Or because they feel betrayed by his act as Haltham. I don't think it's as simple for everyone to say it's because he's not alive in the sense we are, but in his own. He's cold... all of them, all of his, burn with it.

( He waves a hand like this is a reasonable, logical statement to make, and then raises it higher to flag down one of the newly emptied gondolas. )

Hello! Open for business?

( And on they're invited, though the boat rocks furiously when Xie Lian may try his crossing, as another gondola stirs a wake and water goes splashing up... )

[scrapgege]

I used to be like him, a long time ago. I know why he doesn't like what I'm saying.

[He gives a small sheepish smile.]

I don't find him as cold as most people, either. But it's fine. I'm not here to change people's opinions of him. If he is doing something bad, we'll stop him.

[Which of course, is easier to stay when you can punch through mountains, but you know.

He'll follow Wei Wuxian onto the gondola, but the rocking makes him stumble and he stars falling backward with nothing to hold onto....

Please catch him before he ends up in the canal.]

[weifinder]

No, I mean it literally. Have you felt him, spiritually? Sensed him, and the... way of his?

( It was a very literal feeling he spoke of, a coldness that was inherent in the spirit animating whatever flesh container it was housed within.

The rocking of the boat has a certain naturalness to it for his sake, but he spies the moment Xie Lian is overbalanced backward, and he lurches to catch his arm and pull him toward his chest. The two of them topple over in a tangle of limbs the other direction, into the bottom of the gondola. Water splashes up the sides and sloshes high enough to catch them in its spray, but between the gondolier and their steadying by stick and spread legs, no one goes overboard.

For now.

Wei Wuxian, however, wheezes, patting at Xie Lian's back. )

You're uninjured?

[scrapgege]

Hm? Yes, I have but... I guess I've felt colder before? It doesn't really shock me all that much.

[He's honestly so used to being around very powerful ghosts, Anurr basically registers as one of them.

Ah, but then the saving happens, and the falling in a tangle of limbs, and Xie Lian immediately tries to get up very quickly.]

I'm sorry! I'm fine! Are you alright?

... These things tend to happen around me.

[weifinder]

No, I don't think you—the undead. When they're of one affiliation, they seem to... share a trait, a something, between them all. Anurr's undead share a cold, a sort of... I don't know. Unhalad's shared a hunger.

( It's a driving force, and that says something, is what he's trying to point out.

And then they're aches and wheezes and a hand waved at Xie Lian, not trying to get up himself: )

's fine! Fine.

( while the gondolier lifts pole and begins to take them where Wei Wuxian first queried, fairly certain they're drunk. )

[scrapgege]

Oh. Well. That's normal, isn't it?

[He kind of always figured that those who are related share the same type of energy... Maybe it's not as widespread knowledge as he thought. From what he knows, a god and their minor gods share the same type of qi, so it would work the same for ghosts, and then these undead feel a bit like ghosts... He is not quite learned enough in the intricacies of this. It's just a thing he sort of took for granted as fact.

He's going to help Wei Wuxian sit up and vaguely dust him off.]

What about the ones here? How many did you save, and what does their energy feel like?

[weifinder]

No. Not in their spirit, or.. where one expects to find the spirit. That's not normal at all.

( It's not a yin condition, which yes, would be normal for spirits; losing yang energy to the life they lost, until they're overwhelmingly yin. But this wasn't an energy alignment of the same kind, though given they have a dedicated gondolier, he avoids talking too directly as they take their own seats post being randomly dusted. He returns the favour, patting Xie Lian's shoulder free of dirt that may or may not exist.

Wei Wuxian flips his hair back over his shoulder, leaning his hands forward, between his legs and resting on the bench he sat on. )

Three, and yin as you'd imagined, but they burn with heat. Might be part of why they're still here.

[scrapgege]

Isn't that because of how they were killed? They were burned, weren't they? It might have cursed them on top of killing them.

[Which is... wretched, really. Maybe there is nothing to be done for them, but if there is a way to get through to them...]

... Sometimes I wish I had had more time to study cultivation before I ascended. There's still so many things I know nothing about.

[weifinder]

It's possible, as of this point I'm barely understanding the depths of their... differences...

( why are they talking about this in public. he smiles, then laughs. )

Sometimes we're talking about things like we're reviewing plays, ah? Better for lighter topics, such as how pleasant the winds are on the canals, when they're, ah, blowing in from the sea.

[scrapgege]

[Oh... right. They shouldn't be talking about this openly, right? Although a lot of what happened is already being gossiped about, but still...

Lighter topics it could be, but Xie Lian can't help himself.]

Do you also think I'm too naive, Wei-gongzi, to prefer to judge a man by his action and not by whether or not death refused to stick to him?

[weifinder]

... No.

( he can't say that, can't believe it. it's what he prefers to do, and he, he's a man who fits that bill, isn't he? )

I think that when we cease to make decisions based on our observations and facts uncovered, we stop thinking, and start letting ourselves be lead to conclusions by those who have not ceased thinking like the rest have.

[scrapgege]

People took offense because they think I'm defending his actions. I'm not. But he offered something. I don't know if it's right or not, and honestly, I don't think it's right to just give these people to him.

But it's not because he's technically a dead person that it's wrong. I just figured it didn't hurt to ask him what he had in mind. It turns out it's not that helpful, though.

[But well, it's not the first time a crowd has misunderstood him, and it probably won't be the last.]

If it turns out giving them their last rites and laying them to rest if the best for them, I'm not going to go against it.

[weifinder]

Hah, ah. Once I wouldn't think asking hurt. Once it's what I thought everyone would do, given the chance.

( He shrugs, but that's not... anything to answer these days. )

Mm, soon. I don't imagine you'll take any more pleasure out of the learning than I have.

( Because it's not long before they're at the address he asks for, and he takes them on narrow alleyway tours to get to the outwardly decrepit house with its twelve grandfatherly grumpy ghosts and three witches and its wards and arrays and the dampening effect of its quiet and looming sense of disquiet. He navigates them inside, sweeping gestures, and smiles grimly. )

Shoes at the door, please. Our resident ghosts are displeased by tracked dirt and mud.

( His boots are left there, and socked feet continue forward on the surprisingly clean floors, kept that way between his efforts, Lily's efforts, and those few others who've come by. A gesture to a door with extra seals on it, in the coolest part of the house, next to the canals. )

They're restive for them, and you don't smell of smoke. Please don't disturb the talismans on them, they're helping soothe the burns as much as one can, when it's not entirely a physical thing.