audio | un: yiling laozu | the day following the dragon hatching (end of august)

[weifinder]

( sounding subdued, wei wuxian speaks out on network again! really we're all tired of hearing from this guy, get him a new hobby, like knitting. those needles are great impromptu weapons! ask wen qing. don't ask wen qing.. )

Hey. For those partnered with dragons, you'll know what I mean when I say that yesterday's hatching was emotional. I felt mixed joy and dread from Lethe intense enough to bring me to tears.

I reached out to a fellow member of our group, Wrathion, in an attempt to understand why. He found their mother Aiva at a loss to explain how she felt at the time of hatching, but with the moment passed, believing her young were fine. She sensed nothing awry. Her major concern rested with her mate's injury, and her irate belief that it was caused by a Minaras scouting airship, or so her shared images conveyed. He then coaxed the new mother into allowing us near the newborns for a brief examination.

( he pauses here, then sighs. this is not the sort of thing he finds enjoyable to say. it's simply important. )

We found that the infant dragons appear alive to sight and touch. But according to my sense of death and life, they're dead. Not possessed, not puppeted, just... dead. Which is different, as the citadel makes it impossible to tell the living from the dead otherwise. The only place you can is in the Mouse House.

( a final pause, and a solemn consideration: )

I don't know that anything survived that plague years ago. This feels more and more like a mockery of life forced on the dead.

Comments

un: absterge

[downswing]

( Silent, too silent. Threadbare thoughts roiling. There are moments when Wei Ying drifts — )

Sleep.

[weifinder]

It's daylight, Lan Zhan, this is when you should be sleeping according to your half of the citadel's whims.

[downswing]

Wei Ying. Sleep.

un: qishan; text

[silverneedles]

Would one of the infant dragons be small enough to take to the Mouse House?

[weifinder]

With permission from their mother, yes. Lethe... Lethe might agree to accompany? As dragon assurance. Or just to bite me for fun.

[silverneedles]

Even better if she does accompany you. It would be a good chance to examine the differences between the dragons, if any exist.

Re: un: qishan; text

[downswing]

( WHY ARE YOU ALL LIKE THIS. )


For entombment?

[silverneedles]

To see if there is any life within.

[ she's not that cruel! ]

un: Black Prince; text

[blackscales]

You believe you will see a difference here?

[silverneedles]

If it is the only place to feel the difference between life and death, it is possible.

un: headless ragdoll (audio)

[matermali]

Living together in death. Poetic. The most memorable poetry is always the most tragic.

[ The fog has lifted, and Vanessa hates it here. It's official. Her distaste is audible, and her tone weary. ]

So it extends beyond humans. To any beast within the city's reach, most like. What if we are to be consumed by the lingering effects? This...rot that they have marked some of us with?

[ She doesn't expect him to have the answers. This is as close as she gets to ranting in public. ]

[weifinder]

We'd need to die first. Or so I suspect, but it's another thought, how often do those of either half of the citadel reach beyond its limits? Or do only foreigners come and go?

[matermali]

Surely...they are not forced to remain against their will? A compulsion?

voice; un: iwannahexyouup

[incantates]

[ This was not the Shyamalan twist he was expecting to encounter today. ]

I'd also be interested to learn of what would happen if you bring the infant into the Mouse House. If you need fast and easy transport, I can open a portal for it, yourself, and any accompanying dragons or party members through. You can thank me by letting me access further knowledge to what in all the hells ever is going on in this place.

[weifinder]

( at least the plants aren't devouring them all.

... yet. )

That would be best, avoiding too many eyes on the movement too. All the information I have I'm more than happy to hand over, we've been in enough unkind places, but this... this.

( a breath in, and a long sigh out. )

I'll ask to see if Aiva will allow this. Lethe is eyeing me dubiously, but Lethe tends to do that, so I don't take that as our chances being dubious in turn.

[incantates]

Do get back to me once you know. I'd rather get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later. Although, assuming you are right, what are the chances of the plague even being fully dormant?

[ They've been living among it for a while now, and while Magnus himself is immune, he can't say the same for his mortal counterparts. They might not even be aware they're affected. ]

I suppose, if there are some still living among the dead, that could give us a better idea or if those susceptible to diseases and enchantments from our giant travel party suddenly start acting unusual.

un: sizhui

[paperbutterflies]

[ Oh.

Sizhui takes a moment to just process.

Then, softly, ] senior Wei. Could I bring you some tea?

[weifinder]

( ah. that voice... he wants to say, don't disappear into tomb walls, please, but it's a disconnected thought, months and months and a year lagging behind, like a small child in a fever stuck behind a stone bed, left untended, unknowingly. he shakes his head, answering in a similarly soft tone. )

That's kind of you, Sizhui. I'd appreciate tea.

( and wine, but tea is better right now. )

Perhaps enough for three?

[paperbutterflies]

Of course, enough for three would be no trouble.

Where?

un : deft hand of little deaths (voice)

[scrapgege]

They are born dead? Not that they died after birth, btu they developed in the egg and got born without any sign of actual life?

That's... that's worrying. Death things giving birth is just not normal.

[weifinder]

As much as I can tell, they were born in this state. Physically appearing alive, but feeling dead.

( a laugh, not really so much humour as dark awareness. )

No, death doesn't birth life, it's not possible. Only here it is, to some extent, until it won't be.

[scrapgege]

Something is definitely affecting this whole area...

Say, have you seen a lot children around? Human children, I mean.

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[beitangmoran]

It seems more and more as if our patron was right about whatever is going on here, and right to be worried.

[weifinder]

Master Scorpion's tail starts to lift anytime he hears word of potential bodied dead infiltrations. How extensive this is, and who or what is behind it, I don't know yet, but his hunch is correct. There is death walking here in disguise.

[beitangmoran]

If I remember correctly, he seemed to fear that half the city might be dead and able to mask it... but it appears it affects all of it.