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[downswing]

username: yiling patriarch

( Rise and shine, to coarse, near-dawn rasps from a gently borrowed quartz piece. Overheard in the background: meowling winds from the settling snow storms, the yawning bustle of early-morning trade, and the sharp gasps of a crowd. )

Bring salt, wine, water and joss sticks to the marketplace. ( Murmured: ) They've sullied their dead.

( A pause, stretching its legs, until a child cries over the 'armless men there.' )

We cannot be as animals, to leave them in indignity.

( ooc: ...response usernames will vary, depending on whether he's still at the marketplace or back at the House of Dew and hoarding Wei Wuxian's device, since he's too himself to get his own. )

Comments

[downswing]

( The ghosts, only scraped words of his mouth.

No doubt, to know how they'd parted, accusing. )

Keep distance. I do not want you here.

[weifinder]

Sure, back then hearing that would have bothered me, but you know how stubborn I was! Am. Anyway, would you believe me if I said it was more about resting and missing or aiding in vengeance?

( Ignoring the point in favour of acting like it was something else, because he's not failing to come, and their rough edges can do what their hurtful pasts can: get sightly less cutting with time. )

Be there soon!

[downswing]

( Such gravelly gritting of teeth. )

I do not wish you here.

[weifinder]

Explain why, Lan Zhan.

( he's sounding chipper in that serious sense, ave ask extraneous sounds indicate he's still walking. )

You go from asking for help to forbidding it, very contrary, did you forget to eat this morning? Ah, did you want me to look into arranging a bath for you for after?

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[downswing]

( Of all the offers, that.

...that. )

Acceptable.

( And yet - )

But do not come.

[downswing]

I cannot purify irritated.

1/2

[weifinder]

... Isn't that what meditation is for?

( no it isn't it hasn't worked for any lan not already that good natured, aka lan xichen or lan sizhui )

[weifinder]

Fine, fine, tell me when you're heading back, but beyond that—sense if anything remains.

[downswing]

I have purified nearly twice your lifetimes.



( The Yiling Patriarch will not teach him his work. )

[weifinder]

I'm asking, Lan Zhan.

[downswing]

...you have not been denied.

[weifinder]

Then tell me what you sense, or don't, when you get back. Since you don't want me there, and I haven't exactly been rounding up the twice dead to check myself.

[downswing]

( A troubling thing, to lug so many bones behind him. He breathes with something like hardship. )

Wei Ying. I ask a pledge first.

[weifinder]

( A pause, half listening to breath, half listening to all else. Words?

Either that or he's hunkering into his cloak and paying attention to passing by those on the streets, drawing no attention to himself as he can help it. )

Ask, Lan Zhan. I'm unlikely to not pledge to anything you ask.

[downswing]

Do not attempt empathy on them. Pledge.

[weifinder]

Pledged.

( no hesitation, because maybe it would benefit, but it's also, frankly, insane right now. how much memory those ones retain versus what the Anurr do, he doesn't know, and finding out if there's something in their magic to pull them back...

granted, he realises, there's nothing to tell Lan Zhan he doesn't regularly gamble with his sanity, but surviving here is by different rules than a curse slowly killing him and a shadowpuppet war they were both tugged along by. this one is impersonal, and far reaching. )

[downswing]

Cold. On their skin. Their curled fingers. Within them. Within me.

( And him, teeth lightly chattering, possessed of a golden core. )

That is what remains.

[weifinder]

... Transferring?

( A pause. )

I wonder if that's what was left behind when what had been there fled, or if it was taken. These other ones, Anurr's? Whatever it is.

( Another pause, and a sigh. )

Extra hot bath. The tub's still going to be less than Gusu Lan impressive, but more than big enough for you.

[downswing]

Bath waters cannot warm what a core does not.


( Perhaps some forget. )

[weifinder]

No, but seeing as bath waters are more pleasant being warm for relieving other aches and pains, my plan is still a good one! If you want any musical accompaniment, just ask.

( he's not saying crack your chest open and pour hit water in for cleansing, but if ask her can do is offer to take care of the outer shell, so be it; that's what he'll offer. )

[downswing]

( This man's voice, a study in awe: )

...accompaniment. As I... bathe?

[weifinder]

The walls are pretty thin!

( He's sure the music would get past, shouldn't it? Or he supposes he could hunt down a privacy screen and sit in the same area, he just doesn't think Lan Zhan is particularly keen on the idea, so why not door guard and play at the same time?

Brilliant! )

Or at least not soundproof, I could play and guard the door at the same time, you know.

( Parking his thin butt down somewhere is not particularly a hardship on the scale of things he does. )

[downswing]

( ...ah. This, then. This was the man he risked everything on.

What a gamble. )

Unnecessary.

[weifinder]

Not necessary, sure, but you really don't want accompaniment?

( Congratulations, you've successfully stood by the person who is Like This. Out here to guard your modesty and virtue, so kind, so kind. )

[downswing]

( This mother hen. )

Tea instead. ( And a laboured exhale: ) The dead, when you rouse them. They feel cold?