inbox | eastbound

[downswing]

lan wangji
missives | encounters

Comments

[weifinder]

Mm.

( a pause in turn, and a sigh; lips that turn up, and the tone of his voice rising to match. )

One plays where one's strengths assist the whole, such as they can.

[downswing]

Do not be so cruel to beg my blessing in this.

[weifinder]

There are times where what we each want will be in conflict with each other. It'd be easier not to ask.

( but he still is. )

[downswing]

You do not ask. You inform.

[weifinder]

I ask for help, Lan Zhan. But no, I don't ask for you to tell me if I'm allowed to help with the skills I've taught myself or not.

[downswing]

( His teeth are far too fair for gritting. And yet. )

How does a humble cultivator assist the patriarch?

[weifinder]

( softer: )

Lan Zhan.

[downswing]

How?

[weifinder]

Dividing my attention is possible, but less effective, than if I can trust my back to another.

[downswing]

The sword you neglect, now relied upon.

[weifinder]

You're so callous as to believe it neglect?

[downswing]

( Hissed: ) Alternative exists to spiritual weapons.

( When he sighs, it's wrenched of him like long gutting. ) You shall have shielding.

[weifinder]

When fighting cultivators with spiritual weapons, one needs reach.

( resentful energies, yes, but also the bow; a normal sword couldn't hold up long under a spiritual blade's might.

it's always been a matter of which battlefield he's stood on. )

... Thank you.

[downswing]

Do not.

[weifinder]

I must.

[downswing]

Do not thank me what I do not do gladly.

[weifinder]

I thank you because it matters to me.

[downswing]

Bloodshed. Spirits. The yawning mouth of the abyss.

[weifinder]

Lacking a slaughter of those who willingly died for me, their desecration, their sacrifice made pointless before the greed of the entirety of the righteous cultivation world. I have no sister here to die upon another's blade of vengeance for the attack made and met in kind; I have no tearing grief I fail to understand how to survive.

I see what hurts you. This is not then. We write a different story now.

[downswing]

You do not see. You were not there.

( Absent: heat, edge, stab. He withholds himself. ) There was nothing left of you to behold yourself. Your fists bled. Your mouth bled. You had haemorrhaged yourself.

[weifinder]

And I let go.

( a flat statement, though not a hard one. he knows himself of that time, and while he does not now think, this was an excellent way to have gone forward, that life was more precious, he also knows who he was at the time.

and letting go, to that man, had seemed like the only kindness left for him to give.

he'd been wrong. )

I'm sorry.

[downswing]

( Simple, pellucid: ) You are.

[weifinder]

Now. Then, I wasn't. Not to you, or any of those I knew to yet live.

[downswing]

...Wei Ying. Do not bleed your scabs afresh.

[weifinder]

Flesh and hearts reknit. Mine can take this much. I worry more over yours.