un: yiling patriarch

[weifinder]

Ah, Lan Zhan! I may have annoyed a magical fish because of a cultural misunderstanding and have it saying it'll nonspecifically curse me for seven years in a very dramatic way, but, uh, would you be willing to go cleanse its waters?

Comments

un: sweet lily of the hidden valley - handwritten

[bearshermark]

Are you okay?

[weifinder]

As of the present moment, just a touch chill! Normal stuff.

[bearshermark]

I'm glad to hear it.

[Normally, this would be the time he'd ask after specifics, but he has something else on his mind]

I have something for you, when you have a moment.

[weifinder]

Oh? Sure, wanted to talk when all the uh. Trials stuff ends?

[bearshermark]

Yes, when you can.

[weifinder]

Will do, though if you're not up around the trials it may take a longer time than otherwise.

[bearshermark]

I've been trying not to get involved. Only stopped by the tree to try and reach its spirit.

But it isn't an emergency, if you're held up with them.

[weifinder]

Oh, no, I've made the fish angry so I'm only due for what, helping in some kind of apple contest?

Anyway, if you swing up this way we can meet sooner!

[bearshermark]

[An. Apple contest.]

Sure, I think there's something I need to look into out in that direction anyway, actually.

[weifinder]

Good, good, also what did you mean about the tree bit? I'm waiting a bit back from the waters for another one of our group to have her chance with the riddling, but you know. Where the carp can't see me from the water.

[bearshermark]

It took a few days, but I was able to commune with the ancient tree Anurr's supporters have been chaining themselves to. It gave off a sense of birth and death that reminded me of Yggdrasil.

[weifinder]

Oh? Does it feel like a transformative place, in its way?

[bearshermark]

No, I wouldn't say so. It has a dull spirit, and has absorbed the residual energies of birth and death. It struck me as a greedy spirit, as it took some warmth and magic from me before we parted.

[weifinder]

Huh. If you want to chat about it more in person once I'm back, I'd be curious!

[bearshermark]

Unfortunately it wasn't very talkative. It was more an exchange of sentiments. I appreciate that it let me reach out to it, even if it took a few days to manage it.

But of course I'll be happy to speak with you once you're able.

[weifinder]

Eleven, how long did you try to converse with this tree?

[bearshermark]

It reached out to me on the fourth day. I don't know if it was shy or its spirit took some time to notice my attempts to reach it.

[weifinder]

Considering the trials, it might have been preoccupied?

( so he was trying to sweet talk a tree... )

[bearshermark]

[Y e s. He serenaded it with affectionate touches of energy and underlying longing]

Maybe, but I've only approached it during daylight. I got the impression that it's very... internally focused.

[weifinder]

So... self absorbed?

[bearshermark]

You're terrible.

There's a sense of childishness about its selfishness, despite the tree's age. It likely isn't a fair comparison to Yggdrasil's millennia of benelovence, but it didn't seem so terribly wise. Although I'd never communed with another tree spirit before, so I could well be misjudging its behavior. It's quite possible that it's as wise and powerful as any mortal tree is likely to become.

[weifinder]

I am, and yet so charming about it!

It's as possible that any tree with an aware enough spirit is as individual as any person. I haven't run into as many that are from living nature, but you do see it, sometimes. The examples I know of were each uniquely different from each other, so why not the same with the trees?

Besides, while this one is part of ritual, it isn't the religion itself, yes? Yours is part of the heart of a belief system as a beacon itself, isn't it? Yggdrasil holds a different importance to your home than this tree does.

... Does this tree have a name? Or can I call it's Anurr's Mourning Wood?

[bearshermark]

[FFS WUXIAN. He's so glad this isn't voice]

It didn't give me the sense of a name, but I'm sure you don't want to call it that.

True enough that Yggdrasil in spirit is divine and this tree is not, however. Have you communed with one before?

[weifinder]

( the sad part is this means he's in a good mood, if he's goofing around and playacting, since he very much does not believe this statement of his. but hah! he's great at pretending! )

With a tree, or a divine, or a spirit?

[bearshermark]

[His mum would be so ashamed that he understood such crude humor. The title of Luminary added a complex layer to that perceived innocence as well, so how very dare, Wuxian]

A tree.