Eastbound Contact

[weifinder]

Wei Wuxian
missives | encounters

Comments

[weifinder]

Ah, Lan Zhan!

( sounding... relieved? why, nothing's going to have happened to Lan Zhan in this time, but still. lingering in so many requests from the innocents slaughtered for nothing but the wish to inform is... tiring? tiring. it's good hearing his voice, little as it usually is. lan zhan is, above all things, still vibrantly alive. )

Tingling, but on the mend, Wen Qing threatened more needles but no long term damage, ah? You—how are you faring?

[downswing]

I bring no complaints.

( 'Well.' 'Poorly.' 'Manufactured.' What difference will it make? One of them should feign composure. )

Chenqing. Can you yet play?

( The flexibility of a musician's finger, when his instrument is his weapon, cannot be undersold. )

[weifinder]

( Trust Wei Ying to feign composure only in worse situations; upbeat, in some regard, that he's not attempting now. )

Mm, flexible enough, as needed. Though I've no objection if your fingers remain flexible. Spirits here are willing enough to leave, once heard.

( Which is more the point: he hasn't needed terribly to play. Not like once he might have had to, not once things unraveled, and Arha was handled, in whatever way that handling occurred. )

[downswing]

Wei Ying. ( Has he perhaps been too subtle — ) Are you without weapon, past your mouth?

[weifinder]

... Short of denuding a certain dead man's tomb, yes.

( Is he amused or wry? Both, and tired, but not physically, not this time. )

[downswing]

Keep close.

( Perhaps heeling, like a... )

[weifinder]

( ... donkey. Heeling like a donkey. )

Is that a no on carrying away his effects?

[downswing]

Are you so ill cared for, you must steal from the dead?


( Don't answer that. )

[weifinder]

Lan Zhan, have I ever said that? We're operating on limited resources, ah? Taravast will help with that, I don't worry about it. I'll stay close. Now and later.

( He may still end up taking those because they're not favoured by the ghosts waiting for bone retrieval, but not to use, in that case. )

Together, right?

[downswing]

You take them, what is to say they come cleanly? Without curse.

( A pause, and yet: )

Your hand paid price already.

[weifinder]

With my name cursed already? Nothing to say they are or are not, though I'd appreciate someone else's input, to see what we see.

( .......... the hand was his own... not great thought. But still. )

A bit of an electric one, hah... ( he sighs. ) Poorly done, on my part. I know it, Lan Zhan.

[downswing]

...you wish a trophy.

[weifinder]

I considered leaving it at Hatisse's tomb, which... suspecting how her career went, may well be in Taravast.

[downswing]

You wish to reward a traitor?

[weifinder]

I don't think either one of them were particularly blameless, Lan Zhan, and the dead here want their rest away from remnants of their murderer. So if not delivering it to her, then yes. Fine. Trophy. Never had those before, but I suppose I can always learn to add to collections. They're popular with our contemporaries.

( Suibian, held in Jinlin Tai. Chenqing, held in Lotus Pier. Just what else lurks, contained, in each sect's secret library or treasure room, ah? He doesn't really feel he wants to know. )

[downswing]

...they were soulmates once.

( Spoken so, before. Now, stuttered between points of agony. )

Recall brother. Jin Guangyao. Those who see us may wound deepest.

( It took a woman who knew her lover's nature to manipulate him into coming. And he, willfully blind to her, persisted. )

[weifinder]

Do wound deepest. Even if the wounding isn't the intent.

( Softly said. He knows. He recalls. Not just Zewu-jun, but his own transgressions. )

I defend neither of their actions. At some point, both believed in each other. At some point, they both loved. At some point, that broke down, willingly and otherwise. What would you do?

[downswing]

( Stand beside in Nightless city. )

I would leave them to their fates, earned.

[weifinder]

Was Arha's release earned?

( Not an advocate. Simply looking at the aftermath, hearing the stories of one injured party, having no idea what it is that happened, where Arha passed in spiritual, physical form. )

[downswing]

The deed is done.

[weifinder]

It is. At the least, his effects, such as they are, could be sent back to his originating people.

[downswing]

Then, I shall carry them.

[weifinder]

You're... Lan Zhan, doesn't the same potential for cursing exist for you?

[downswing]

What is one is the other's. Millet. This.

[weifinder]

... Pickles. I'm pickling everything I can find once we're in Taravast.

( A positive spin on the salt, ah? But no. It's--gesture. Reaching out. )

Shared burdens, and all... we've been doing well, you know? Aiding. Helping? I don't know, Lan Zhan, trying to share this is still new. I don't mind it.

( "This" as in burdens, not resources. Attempting not to simply sacrifice himself at all times has been a checked impulse and he's fighting to keep it that way. )