voice | un: yiling laozu

[weifinder]

( at speaking volume, head pounding, he offers a just shy of chipper address to everyone on network, in their ragtag group and those tied into it peripherally, over the scattered memories empathy left him with: )

Had a moment or two in the formerly living Tavernus's head. The sorts of lingering regrets a person has, and all that. How a man, before he learned to drown in drink, finds himself in uniform taking reports from farmers who say "it cannot go on further" as their wives and children grow more frightened. Screams heard in the distance, and Tavernus tells the farmers to leave, to keep wrestling "it" from the ground and taking it "to the granaries." The same place he directs a frightened solider to bring a summoned legion, with a sigh.

( A cluck of his tongue. )

Years later, how a different regret slides in around the alcohol he's drowning himself in on the pleas of his brother, Narula. Begging him to stop, stop the drinking and whatever else he's indulging, to return to the Hand. Tavernus slurs his own feelings about that, how it was Narula and his Hand that led him to this path to try and forget, before he rouses himself to hasten Narula's exit. Still looking like the soldier he'd been once, back when the farmers were complaining about what they were harvesting and storing in the granaries.

( His tone shifts now, less in the cadence of one sharing a story, a memory, and more of one opening a conversation. Like there aren't echoes of a very different set of circumstances he finds in the words of another man's memories, and maybe he doesn't: maybe he's long since learned to let go. )

Strange crops all around. What lingers out of them that's here today, that Tavernus couldn't live with remembering?

Comments

audio; un: a tentacute observation

[companionsgrasp]

You...had a moment or two in his head? Did you- were these memories of his?

[He's less interested in the subject matter and more interested in what Wei Wuxian experienced and what it means.]

[weifinder]

These were his memories, as far as he once recalled them!

[companionsgrasp]

So d- did you see them, or was it just the knowledge and emotions of them?

[weifinder]

Seen, witnessed. No insight to his thoughts, only the occurrences, and the regret lingering within both.

[companionsgrasp]

How?

[Give him a second, then he tries to clarify.]

I mean, if you can explain it. Is it something you control? A ritual? O-or an ability? Is it innate, like something inherited or was it gained? I- everything is so different here. I don't-

[A pause.]

I've never met anyone else with the ability.

un: absterge

[downswing]

Rest.

[weifinder]

In due time.

[downswing]

Today.

[weifinder]

Consult with the schedules relying on others, I'm not seeking to remain sleepless myself, Lan Zhan. I'll rest. When I can, today.

[downswing]

Most accommodating is Wei Wuxian.

un: bottled up inside | audio;

[deescalate]

...How are you feeling?

[Cal doesn't know this guy, but he does know how strong memories can take a physical toll on the body.]

[weifinder]

Like I'm hoping my next artistic show of a fight is one I'm meant to throw.

[deescalate]

I feel that. Are you staying hydrated?

[weifinder]

... Drinking?

[deescalate]

...Water?

voice; un: xunxian

[topoiran]

I will ask about unusual crops appearing now.

[weifinder]

Gratitude, Su Xunian, you've means of asking most of us lack.

[topoiran]

Of course.

[ A pause. ]

You truly are tired, aren't you.

[weifinder]

More over this gladiatoral farce, ah? Endless silliness, staged like it matters.

[topoiran]

I could offer some music, to soothe and distract, if only for a little while.

voice — un: starburst.

[valeas]

( Emilia listens, quiet and grim, though always with resolve. A concern for Wei Wuxian and how this information came to him lingers, but she also considers his question in earnest. She has no concrete answer yet, only more questions. )

There are some who wonder how Narula led the Hand to such glory.

[weifinder]

Do they also question if it was Narula, or the combination of efforts of those now lost?

What rumours have you heard?

[valeas]

Rumors of Tavernus, mostly.

I've befriended one of the gladiators who was formerly a soldier of the army, back when it was under-resourced and few people willingly joined it. Cornelius is admittedly bitter — claims he was let go without personal fault. Still, he spoke favorably of Tavernus: his alleged knack for inspiring men and enforcing discipline.

The interesting part of his tirade, however, comes once Caius Justus fostered notions of Ephes becoming an empire and appointed Tavernus to lead it, assisted by Narula.

Cornelius says both of the brothers frequently championed prayer and physical improvements through any means, albeit with different methods. Tavernus insisted on 'diabolical' exercises, diets, and deprivation. Narula, in turn, exposed soldiers to hazing and strange elixirs.... rites that felt demanding and absurd to him. Some of Narula's methods, particularly those involving these potions and narcotics, were supposedly done behind Tavernus' back.

[weifinder]

I don't find it a surprise he operated behind his brother's back, but I wonder if Narula was as discrete as assumed. Their combined methods of making an empire destroyed Tavernus. Enough that he might have been considered a liability.

[valeas]

I suspect discretion was not his forte, no. Not if Cornelius was able to learn of this after he was dispatched. He also mentioned an expedition at a granary, which you saw. Violence was reported, and the set of soldiers led by Tavernus returned bloody. Barely alive.

That was the same day he purportedly fled from the Hand.