audio

[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]

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.

[downswing]

You lessen yous to accommodate.

( Him, but they both know. )

Stand straight.

[weifinder]

I kept all mine to accommodate before.

( They also know how that went. )

And tall. We'll need to find you another crown so you can have the height advantage again, Lan Zhan!

[downswing]

Perhaps Wei Ying may take the knee.

[weifinder]

One or two?

[downswing]

Plaintiffs greet the chief cultivator on two.

[weifinder]

Fine, fine, then down on two, please stand tall over me, oh chief cultivator, and if you're feeling so inclined, pat my head and call me a good boy while you're at it!

( kick him in the back of a knee, he'll go down on you all right )