un: absterge | video

[downswing]

( Dark and damp and Lan Wangji's pallor strained under moonlight. Behind him, flickers of broad, long temple columns — and the smoke smears of... ghosts, gathered. He seems short of breath, the silvered sheen of his sword half drawn from her scabbard, a spate of parchment papers littering the walls: active talismans. )

They have crowded their halls of the dead, to excess.

Here, the key withholds itself. Who hunts the other locations?

( And a pause, hesitant — whether to find his words or, absently, slap another talisman on the spirit that looms with a gaping maw behind him. ) Ke-Waihu stands safe?

( ooc: forwarded dated to the group's incursions in Ke-Waicai. Feel free to run into him in person, if you're also chasing the haunted temple key! )

Comments

[techmaturgy]

The gain is, currently, unknown.

[downswing]

( Is no one listening, not a single soul — )

The key.

[techmaturgy]

I'm not picky about the exact books. Throw anything interesting into a bag on your way out. I can work with it.

[downswing]

Alongside the key.

[techmaturgy]

Yes! Obviously this includes the key. I never said it didn't.

[downswing]

Only ascertained.

[techmaturgy]

I am fully in support of stealing the key, in addition to whatever books seem interesting.

[downswing]

We borrow the key. With intent of return.

[techmaturgy]

Ehn. [An ambivalent little noise.] Semantics.

[downswing]

Intent.

[techmaturgy]

You don't have to steal anything, if you're opposed.

[downswing]

We are not animals.

[reparo]

Should we not prize human sacrifice above theft?

[downswing]

One wrong does not correct another.

[techmaturgy]

Considering some of the things humans are capable of? [Lan Wangji they are going to throw people into the volcano.] Stealing seems fairly benign, in comparison.

[downswing]

I speak not of their dignity. But our own.

[techmaturgy]

Fair, I suppose, but I like to think this is an extraordinary circumstance.

[downswing]

All banality was once extraordinary. Rise above.

[techmaturgy]

[Oh, okay. That's what this is about.]

Surely the pursuit of knowledge is worthwhile.

[downswing]

At what cost?

[techmaturgy]

Will it make you feel better if we return the books?

[downswing]

Do you intend to?


( Sir, he has raised a son. )

[techmaturgy]

[No.]

If it would put your mind at ease.

[downswing]

I trust in you.


( Go ahead, break his heart. )

[techmaturgy]

[HE'S NOT EVEN GOING TO THE LIBRARY]