Eastbound Contact

[weifinder]

Wei Wuxian
missives | encounters

Comments

audio

[downswing]

( ...ah. The level of anger that leads to pedantry. )

Wei Wuxian is correct.

[weifinder]

( the pedant is on )

Often true, rarely acknowledged.

[downswing]

( The temptation to write now and shield his irritation — )

You are angry.

[weifinder]

Am I? I'm considering it. How I feel, that's what we're asking about?

( this is the thing he's really bad at, because it is, frankly, easier to tell white lies. )

[downswing]

...it is. How are you?

[weifinder]

( there's a long pause, and a sort of speculative sound. he wrestles himself over this: it's likewise a known blindness, where he's only learned to see in some moments, not all. )

I don't know. I try not thinking about it.

[downswing]

( He has hurt this man, it strikes him candidly, openly. And he cannot put this right. )

We need not speak of it.

[weifinder]

I never learned the way of it. Should that remain unchanged?

( he is, for better and worse, actually asking. as if the man he's married several times over is better adjusted to the communication of such things; as if either really know. )

[downswing]

( Give him a moment. Another more. Then: )

I wronged you. ( This much is scrupulously plain. ) I cannot apologise faithless for what would be done again the same. I wish to make amends.

[weifinder]

...

( the exhalation that becomes a sort of laughter. )

Direct and honest. ( what he means: hard soap for him to dodge. ) What is your faith in me? Your belief? Your expectation?

Is the man I am now not didn't from the man I was that time in Nightless City? Is that fear one you can grow beyond? Is that what it even is?

[downswing]

( His breath, catching: ) ...not the old fear.

( No. Simpler. ) It is only that I love you.

[weifinder]

Lan Zhan...

( the hint of a whine, and then: )

Is this where it hurts, knowing you want to spare those you love the harms of the world, while knowing at the same time, you can't? And shouldn't, without asking... I think I understand my sister better now than I ever did when I was still a younger man.

[downswing]

It would have been one of us.

[weifinder]

Why didn't you discuss?

( was it only the pressure of the miasma of that place? )

[downswing]

Be fair. What could have been spoken?

[weifinder]

"I wish to go, please."

[downswing]

( And yet, betrayal was asked. )

And what might you have said?

[weifinder]

( he was already bleeding on the door, wasn't he )

"Because the door says only one of us may, or for another reason?"

[downswing]

We have ever gone together.

[weifinder]

Yet sometimes to walk in step means to do so on parallel roads. Haven't we don't that, too, in this world?

( a pause, and a sigh. short, but a sigh none the less. )

I don't really like being chained, I don't think.

[downswing]

...I do not mind.

[weifinder]

... You'd like to be?

( slightly baffled, mostly curious, and that much is audible in his voice. )

[downswing]

I did not mind Wei Ying bound.


( Is this................ a joke. )

[weifinder]

...

( he snorts. )

I didn't mind seeing Lan Zhan kneel.

[downswing]

( The key to a successful marriage is not letting your partner know you are wedded.

Past that, he hears: compromise.

And so, camera sternly off, and only obliging his husband with sound —

He purposefully loudly brings one knee down with a shrill thud. Then, the next. )