video — un: starburst.

[valeas]

( Wei Wuxian and Emilia are perched up on a tall building.

Two dragons act as their wind buffers — recent arrivals from Serthica, for those who remember the fissured citadel. The narration feels compelled to stress that despite the buffering in question, the hair of these characters billows fabulously behind them, even as they look a bit rundown.

Emilia's anger has smoldered away somewhat, a low murmur in the background. )

Yesterday, a soldier of the Hand requested Wei Wuxian and I demonstrate hand-to-hand combat for the new recruits of the army. These recruits were ferocious, unpredictable, and ... eerily good at mimicry.

Their handlers were frightened of them.

After this session concluded, we were offered a 'booster' to replenish our strength. We refused, as we learned it was essentially diluted black water. The same black waters that resurrected the dead in the arena today.

Comments

un: absterge | audio

[downswing]

You are... in health?

un: yiling laozu

[weifinder]

Ah, Lan Zhan, question: have you in the past applied qi to any of the dark waters? Or worked with the islanders in Ke-Whatever who were using it to farm?

[downswing]

To experiment?

[valeas]

I should be all right with some rest.

[downswing]

You were exerted past bearing?

[Video, un: howl in one]

[mustact]

[ Colour him so surprised. ]

I believe, then, we can conclude that the Hand is most likely behind the attacks on the banquet and at the arena.

[ Which he very much doesn't like. It seems no one in this mess of a city has morals. ]

un: yiling laozu

[weifinder]

( here he waves, with a sunny smile. it makes him seem less tired for the moment. )

Quite possibly, and furthermore, very little about the hand is living. It is, I'd say, built upon the dead.

Now if it's the Hand or those who stirred the hand may be worth questioning, because those creatures we saw, they weren't making decisions. Neither were the soldiers of more usual means. And they've been supplying black water to everyone within the revived army under this Caybus fellow ( Caius, but he doesn't particularly care ) since they discovered its bounty under their land.

( He taps his temple, head canted to the side. )

Those memories I saw before, the guilt? From the dead man when he still lived. What they pulled out of those farming fields, what must have happened in those granaries, the Brotherhood's tendrils have been here for a lot longer than we may have thought.

[mustact]

[ The Brotherhood ... That black water made him think of them, too, thanks to those very memories. There are so many different parts to this puzzle, and it's starting to feel like they're misstepping by trying to blend in like this. Shouldn't they just have been left as background? Why place them in such important positions? What's the actual play, here? ]

In that case, Ephes may not have much choice but to join forces with Messalina.

un: absterge

[downswing]

Then, they must face justice.

[mustact]

I agree, but I am not sure what we could do to arrange that.

[valeas]

I fear you may be right.

One of the things first apparent to me was the jittery state of these recruits: how they struggled to contain themselves, as if fighting some terrible instinct. It would be difficult for the Hand to consistently manage.

( Impossible, in the long-term.

And now they know how to mimic her combat maneuvers. Wei Wuxian's. )

[mustact]

[ Well, that doesn't sound good. Could they have gone rogue ...? ]

Perhaps they have not consistently managed it.

[ Though he doesn't sound certain about it. ]

audio

[scrapgege]

They feed them strange things in there.... and there have bene executions after some of them have gone berserk...

[valeas]

It does seem like much of this can tie back to the mishaps at the granaries, the specific diets and elixirs the soldiers are given as part of their training.

[weifinder]

Such as the new soldiers we were "showcasing" for, whose minders were afraid of them. For their inability to be predictable.

un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

[ Five is listening long before he says anything. It doesn't bode particularly well that they're using dark water on their new recruits, but he's more concerned that Emilia and Wei Wuxian were supposedly taken there to demonstrate how to fight. They were trying to learn how to micmic them.

He's got a lot of very specific questions, but he starts with the most pressing: ]

Are you still with them?

[valeas]

No.

They made no move to keep us with them, but Laetio did seem nervous at the thought of our refusing to go. He said it 'goes quicker if we cooperate.'

( That is not why they went, of course. They wanted to learn more, but it sticks out to her. )

[weifinder]

We did not, and today was chaotic enough with the fissuring in the arena to merit our speaking on this only now.

un: a civil serpent | video | private

[inferus]

( Wrath is quite aware that he would know if his wife was in trouble, if she was injured in some terrible way that required him to find her. Of course, she met all challenges given to her, and he was aware she went to follow the request made by the soldier. It's... infuriating to know they were attempting to mimic their stance. More than that, there's that worry coiling around his heart, but also an undeniable attraction, he can sense her still smoldering anger through the device, through their bond.

He is relieved to see Opal again at his wife's side as she should be. Wrath had quite the fight in the coliseum which was largely enjoyable even if he is still has his own golden ichor to wipe from him. Before he addresses the rest, he says with the smallest of fond smiles: )

I see Opal has returned.

[valeas]

( The sight of him soothes something inside of Emilia, lowers some of the hackles that remained. And she smiles as Opal turns her head at the sound of her name. Most of her is out of frame, too big to possibly fit within.

Her eyes settle on Wrath, and she seems to loom a bit closer. )

She has. She must have heard my call when disaster struck.

( It required aerial support, to say the least. )

[weifinder]

( Wei Wuxian would have said something. Truly! He would have!

Only in hearing Opal's name, Lethe's head descends before him, and so the impossible largeness is next to Emilia in frame, breathing out in a pointed huff.

Say hello to Lethe too, don't just speak of Lethe's beautiful other half! )

I think Lethe's jealous, ah?

( He says, from where he can't really be seen but a smidgen of dark behind Lethe's neck and jaw. )

video; un: owllady

[traaaaaash]

Sounds like you just escaped being zombified!

[ She says this while grinning and swinging her first, clearly sarcastic. ]

[valeas]

( The corners of her mouth twitch ever so slightly. )

We aren't entirely without fortune.

( Thank the goddess. )

un: headless ragdoll | audio

[matermali]

How far do you believe their mimicry can reach? Beyond the physical realm?

[valeas]

Wei Wuxian and I both suspect if we'd used our cultivation and magic respectively, they would've been able to mimic it, as well. Their way of learning was uncannily swift.