un: wei laozu | audio | day after the summit

[weifinder]

Passing along a few highlights of my conversation with Asgeirr, our resident scholar ghost possessing a cloak from, oh, Sa-Hareth, that may be worth noting.

The citadel has raised and lowered itself, by a mechanism he believed connected to its central clock, for ages. However, it was largely for defense in the past, and the dragons were their primary form of offense in that defending. The civilians were kept safe. At that time, there was also no blurred lines between the dead and living—you could determine who and what was dead, and who and what lived.

( a pause, and he adds: )

He suggested it might be a thrall to the territories, or a freezing of the person at moment of death. Or that it might be something affecting us, but while that's clearly true, I don't think it's that specifically targeted.

Comments

[downswing]

You did not lament.

[weifinder]

I didn't get to strip for you!

... First!

[downswing]

Your injuries do not console me.

[weifinder]

Which is why I'm lamenting that I haven't been able to strip for you.

Not out of unhappy necessity, ah? Or bears.

1/2

[downswing]

( Why here, now, in the midst of — this. Why the drained dregs of his heart, drowning. )

When you first barred my path, you were laughter, beautiful.

When you crossed my sword, you were flame, beautiful.

When we took paltry hot water in Yiling, you were righteousness, beautiful.

When you slipped at cliff's edge, you were cruel agony, beautiful.

When you stirred to second life, you were hope, beautiful.

[downswing]

When you bare the whole of you, you will be beautiful.

1/?

[weifinder]

[weifinder]

[weifinder]

( there are times he better knows the poetry that is lan wangji's right as much as his title, as much as his own birthrights within his clan, as much as his respect across a world that decides upon the concept of respect at its own whim. )

[weifinder]

( it's never been a doubt of his, the outstanding nature of lan zhan's person, his education, his tastes. questionable only in the ways where they curved around to find wei wuxian anything firstly of invested interest, but he doesn't deny that, let alone in their youth. lan zhan was a friend he'd treasured as a soulmate for a reason, and the loss of his companionship and the way of his pride to stand aloof and hold to himself had been a burr under his skin, when he was a younger, rasher, less wise man. )

[weifinder]

( shameless he's known as, called as by his husband, and he agrees. wouldn't argue it, but finds in reading his husband's words, it's not shame but... embarrassment at the prickling ache of his heart, the fission of awareness, too intense for his jesting tone, knowing that lan zhan speaks his truth, and this belief is one that wei wuxian believes in too. )

[weifinder]

In this bright mirror, do we see each other?

end

[weifinder]

Only you might strike me speechless.

[downswing]

This, then. Recourse to the silence spell.

Flattery, and shameless Wei Ying succumbs.

[weifinder]

( he laughs, unheard and unseen. aching in the best of ways. )

Flattery only matters when spoken from one close to my heart, coming from close to theirs. Even my face can be thin!

[downswing]

All of Wei Ying is thin.

Emilia has taught a remedy.

[weifinder]

I think the one for that involves meat and more rice.

[downswing]

And spice. She has instructed.

[weifinder]

With every spice, including hunger, she is a talented cook.

You can also simply give me a container of chili oil, then let me season as I wish. That should last me a good week or so!

[downswing]

Care displeases you.

[weifinder]

I have no idea what to do with it, Lan Zhan.

[downswing]

Accept your due.

[weifinder]

Peace, Lan Zhan. I am trying.

[downswing]

Apologies. It is... as if to say, you do not know to breathe.

[weifinder]

Consider me as a fish, ah? I know how to breathe, but the manner of it is different from what you know. I'm learning other ways. Slower than I usually learn.

( the divide between people and emotion vs concepts he can throw himself into, or techniques that only require application of skill and practise. )