Eastbound Contact

[weifinder]

Wei Wuxian
missives | encounters

Comments

[weifinder]

( He wants: to reassure. To laugh, avoid, redirect. A lifetime of habit, that he's lowered sometimes, and Lan Zhan has been in those exceptions before, both when younger and older men.

Easier to deflect. Harder even to pause and admit anything when not in lower moments, when not on unstable enough ground even he can recognise he needs something like help. )

Not a hardship. Hard, but not a hardship.

[downswing]

Archery, sword flight, talismans, swordsmanship, the Yin amulet, demonic cultivation — mastered.

I beg you to learn this, also.

[weifinder]

I—have been, I think? Am I truly that horrible at it?

[downswing]

As the rabbits. A heartbeat quickened to a storm.

[weifinder]

Ahahaha, then isn't the best solution letting you pet me calm? ( An awkward, painfully awkward half beat later: ) I'm jesting, that was horrible, I—I'll do better on this.

[downswing]

Before. Jiang Yanli stroked your hair?


( Who else might have taught Wei Ying the indulgence of petting? And he saw them, during his visits of Wei Ying's inert body, after he overexerted himself in battle — saw her knelt, waiting. )

[weifinder]

( Perhaps his own parents, but he hasn't recalled for years, and his memory doesn't improve with age. The catch to his silence is telling in and of itself, as is the return of the awkward laughter. )

Hahaha, yes, well, she did. Shijie was a kind and generous soul.

( And he got her killed. Just like he'd walked the knife used against her husband close enough for people to set up the situation where he died. )

[downswing]

That is what you yearn for. The kindness.

[weifinder]

The warmth. She soothed. The only other one who ever has for me is you.

[downswing]

I am not a sister.

[weifinder]

( He chokes on something like laughter. )

Lan Zhan, and this may surprise you, but I have indeed noticed you are not a sister. I'm very fond of you exactly as you are.

[downswing]

Fanged. Blood-yearning. ( Do they neglect his faults? Allow Hanguang-Jun to remind them: ) Intemperate. Unfilial. Cold. Possessed of pride.

[weifinder]

( He listens, and chuckles, warm and quiet, after that listing. )

Are you describing yourself, or me? Lan Zhan, if we were only a sum of our worsts or our bests, what exaggerations of ourselves we'd be!

[downswing]

Sketches of charcoal. Waning.

[weifinder]

Dissolved entirely, exposed to rain. Preserved forever under glass.

[downswing]

...your likeness of Caiyi.

[weifinder]

In Loquats and Emperor's Smile.

[downswing]

And thickened beards.


( Those... beautiful portraits. )

[weifinder]

Or spidery eyebrows. Lan Zhan, they made me hideous.

( A pout, if you will, in his voice. )

[downswing]

Likeness uncanny.

[weifinder]

Enough to send shivers down the spine, Lan Zhan, don't tell me I'm that unhandsome!

[downswing]

I speak no falsehood.

[weifinder]

That likeness is as mysterious and unsettling as that barking Fairy at the Saber Tomb.

[downswing]

The beard did not ill suit.

[weifinder]

Lan Zhan. ( he laughs, he can't help it, and then sucks in a breath for the sound of horror it is, without being horrified. )

It was at least more impressive than your uncle's, I'll grant the artist's that, but to find you so attracted to a beard? Surprising, Lan Zhan, surprising. I'll try to keep that in mind.