eastbound | username: yiling laozu

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username: yiling laozu | video

( a smile from the man on camera, and a wave of his fingers against the backdrop of an ice wall. )

To those who know me not at all, or less well than others of our number do, I'm Wei Wuxian.

( hands lifted, he offers a polite, perfunctory sort of bow, paired to the clasping of fingers over the other hand's set. they drop out of frame, and he looks a touch more serious, dark eyes fathomless. or maybe it's all in the lighting. (the lack of proper lighting. torchlight keeps him flickering in reds and oranges.) )

The king mentioned Irenia in passing, the dragon? She was thieved away from a lord of death our group knows of, and has run into several times. His name's Anurr, he's the, ah, very slightly less horrible option for being enslaved by death lords, and from Sa-Hareth. Trailing after us with his creatures or his shifting loyalties, never trust his kind voice, Eleven can tell you about that! Five, I'm sure, can tell you more, as can Xie Lian, or Xiao Xingchen. All members of our group, as it were. Anyway!

( he claps his hands, and grins. a little crinkling around his eyes makes him almost seem truly merry, instead of merrily dry. )

Irenia lured far enough west can be called back to Anurr's dubious graces. Far enough east, and with a different strong pull on her mind, maybe, maybe we can free her. Either way, I recommend we do one or the other, because space to crash a being who never asked to be used as she is is limited, and using the keep itself in poor taste, as it defends this world from hell. Apparently. Very exciting stuff!

( ball's in your court now, chaos crew! )

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[ He's probably right that it's 'when' and not 'if' when it comes to Anurr. As much as Five balks at the idea of saving another world when he couldn't save his own, despite trying his damnedest multiple times, he doesn't... not care. But what does he expect him to do? ]

You're right, we've made mistakes. It's because of us that he's as powerful as he is. [ Largely Five, specifically, but details. ] That doesn't mean we won't need him on our side. We have to be smarter.

[ Of course, Five could do it differently if he went back in time, but he hasn't touched that math in weeks. Finding out what the future holds is a surefire way to knock the wind out of your sails. ]

Will we?

( Five, you're getting a very flat look, and the slight, wry twist of Wei Wuxian's lips.

Because he does know you're why Anurr gained so much strength in Taravast, and that Winnie was tied in as part, being the one who'd tucked away the mirror after the bank heist. And he knows you're cursed by Anurr, and doesn't believe that's ever been resolved. )

Lao Five, find me. It's time for us to address a longstanding issue regarding your well being. Having been drafted into so much healing here, I feel obliged to act the part to even our most stubborn old hurts.

[ That was a very diplomatic way to put what Five knows he's referring to. The problem is that he remembers how it went at the lake, and how all their cleansing and flute playing did nothing to help him. Wrath is the only one who seemed to still be monitoring it.

Why he's suddenly offering is suspicious. Wei Wuxian sensed the curse before and did nothing, so he wonders what else this is about. If he's aware of the piece of Anurr that Five keeps with him. ]

You feel obligated now?

I've felt obligated to wait on your decisions. I have not, as you've noticed, try to force action on you.

( no, that has been his husband, for different reasons, and he knows it. they both know it. )

So I ask you cooperate now, because this is an avenue you've chosen to leave off exploring. I don't believe that's wise, or that it should continue anymore.

[ If he's been waiting on him to break again, he'll be surprised at how much anguish Five can live with.

His instinct is to pick apart exactly why he's decided to bring this up, but he holds back. It'd be too easy to undermine him if rumors spread about him being compromised. Not to mention a possibility that has kept him from burning bridges. ]

This isn't the time.

So when is? Specifics, Five Hargreeves.

I hate to point out the obvious. But it's nice to know I outrank a dragon on your list of priorities.

Only one of them is new! And now is a great time. Planning for a dragon is minor in the scheme of things here, age transports ah? Not the attack leader.

I think you might have been here too long to judge a crisis.

I know you prefer to believe yourself in control of situations you're not.

I'm a talented man, Five Hargreeves. I can handle more than one thing at a time.

Like you handled it in Sa-Hareth?

( cute the raised eyebrow. )

Oh?

[ He was there at the lake. It's not entirely his fault, but they didn't help him then and he's done nothing but watch since. ]

What changed?

My continued patience for your refusals.

[ He says that like he's never tried anything, or that they've haven't been in a constant state of emergency since it happened. ]

And if I don't cooperate?

Would you continue leaving your family at risk?

[ He doesn't have words for how much he hates it when his family is used against him. ]

What risk is that?

You know. Do you want me to say it so you can hear it outside of your own mind?

I know what you think, but it's always nice to be vindicated.

This will take a moment, bear with me.

Being afraid is not a sign of weakness. Accepting it, facing it, handling it, those are things we can do for ourselves. Accepting offers of help before we unleash powers to a lord of death, before our own great powers can be used against us, before we're fully destroyed, that's important, ah?

I've been there before, in slightly different ways. You've become more and more lost in fear and anger over the last two years, Lao Five. It has to be exhausting.

[ The sincerity, if nothing else, takes him by surprise. He wants to refute him, but he's aware that what he's carried around for damn near two years is not getting better with time. They're never far away from anguish for him to absorb, the only difference is that he's learned how to compartmentalize the effects so he hasn't had another incident like Taravast. Wrath has offered more than once to remove it under the right conditions, but he understands why he's continually put it off. Bad can always get worse.

He can't afford another mistake. ]

The last time someone tried to help me, I lost all memory of one of my siblings. [ He hadn't planned to admit that, but he's reminded any time someone asks for his trust. It still tortures him that he lost his chance to get his memories back when Mingyu was too afraid to meet with him and disappeared again. That he couldn't murder him for what he did. ]

None of you are subtle. I know you see me as a threat. I've traveled with you, fought with you, for two years, and your own husband still tried to start a campaign against me. So why would I agree to put my life in your hands?

That's horrific.

( the memory loss. it's stated factually, yes, but it's something that wei wuxian's voice doesn't try to disguise how deeply... terrible he finds that. because memory for him, that's something he holds stronger than he likes for some things, and then in the same turn has nothing to hold regarding his own parents. lost to the mists of childhood, and the terrors that followed. )

Am I my husband to you? If you believe that I think as he does, Five, then I don't know why you'd agree. If you've learned anything of me in the last two years, do you think I'd lie idle on someone I perceive as a true threat? Do you think I would have worked in tandem with you, or been concerned for how you are? I'm asking.

[ Horrific is a good word for what was done to him, but there's too much pity attached to it to make him comfortable about mentioning it. He assumes Mingyu did it because he was afraid of him and how far he'd go if he thought his family was dead. That's what people do when they feel threatened.

There is a valid point to that. He can be dangerous all on his own, let alone when he's pushed like he has been. Wei Wuxian is different, but he's never known what it is that makes him that way. The Commission manipulated him, sometimes pretended to care, but he always knew where he stood. With him, he never has. ]

You're concerned. [ For how he is. Somehow those two things don't go together in a way he can resolve in his mind and he stews as he struggles with them. ] It's bad. I'm aware. I also can't risk removing it while we're on the verge of an apocalypse.

[ It would also be an inopportune time to lose his mind because of all of the suffering going on around them. That's exactly why Mingyu did what he did. There's a considerably long pause before he makes one concession. ]

...Once I was able to release what it'd collected. The shards from the broken mirror absorbed it when I went back for them in Taravast. If that's something you can replicate.

Edited 2023-02-18 22:27 (UTC)

( he listens, patient. wei wuxian is often more patient than people realise, even as he chooses when not to be patient just as surely. right now it's more important to listen. to hear. )

... We know the mirrors in their different ways can retain measures of their power, even less than whole. However, the way of it works... like a curse, of this lands. I specify, because curses work differently in my world.

( all slowly, thoughtfully stated. )

I may be able to. Not the exact same way, but drawing it out from you, into another vessel. It won't be pleasant. I don't know your inherited curse well enough to unmake it yet, so the lure, the call would remain, but dampening, siphon away what it brings to you, that... yes. Yes, for relief, to start.

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