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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

[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?

[weifinder]

From a block or...?

( Far, far from anywhere growing tea, living the "well we do have tea blocks" life. )

Mm, some. It's more emotion and intent, when I'm dealing with them. Cold for how they died, cold because they're dead, cold burning emotion; you feel it, but not the way you're describing it. It's not the cold that invades.

[downswing]

( They should have discussed this, prior. Should have. Did not. )

What do you feel, when you summon a multitude?

[weifinder]

( More to the point of discussing what differences he's felt, since being here; but they're talking on this channel and he sighs. )

Lan Zhan, you want to have this conversation like this, rather than in person?

( Not pressing the point of where he'd originally been heading when he went outside, but he's not presuming sanctity of conversational privacy, not without sound wards and seeing Lan Zhan face to face. )

[downswing]

( He wishes, revulsion stretching long arms beneath taut skin, he need not have this conversation at all. )

...sleep. You are not for the hour.

[weifinder]

Maaah, I'm out here in the cold anyway, I'll get other errands done and listen to ask the unhappy chatter. See you back there, and I'll work on your bath and tea, ah?

( His moments are just breath and crunching snow, now. Preoccupied thoughts concerning the dead at Lan Zhan's hands aside, he frowns, pulls hiss cloak up closer to his chin. )

We'll talk.

[downswing]

Wei Ying. We need not.

[weifinder]

We do, Lan Zhan. Some silences are comfortable, some educational, some preferred, but this is not any of those, I think.

[downswing]

My curiosity need not be Wei Ying's burden.

[weifinder]

Am I bearing it alone?

[downswing]

Not while I yet have shoulders.

[weifinder]

Then your curiosity met, when possible, is half my relief.

[downswing]

We are not one and same person.

[weifinder]

Good, because as much as I'd be fascinated to meet my exact twin, I'm fairly sure we'd also both be in incredible trouble within a month's time.

( ... which is true, but: )

We don't need to be one and the same. You have shoulders, so do I.