open post!

[mannerless]

hit me with starters, image prompts, texts - anything goes.

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texting meme follow-up for ~downswing.

[mannerless]

( continued(ish) from here. )

( wei ying did, in fact, lie down. he didn't sleep, though. not for quite a while after he excused himself (abruptly, inconsiderately) from their conversation.

the following morning, lan wangji gets another message. )

I don't want to be owed. I don't want to still be destroyed. I don't want to walk this life continuously carrying the weight of my last. And I thought that I might be spared of it, but that's not how this works and it's also probably not what I deserve.

Speaking of deserving things, you didn't deserve that. Me dismissing myself like I did. You were trying. How many times have I been frustrated with you for shutting me out when I'm trying? It wasn't fair of me.



Also, good morning. I should've opened with that.

[downswing]

( ...ah. Trust the sun to rise in the east and set west-side, trust wine to woo away wit, and trust Wei Ying to discover early-morning remorse.

Trust Lan Wangji to stumble on slivers of cruelty: until after the morning drills, the message waits. )


Do not insult a good morning with appeasement.

[mannerless]

( it isn't early-morning remorse. it's remorse he had the courtesy not to wake lan zhan with after nine in the evening, after stewing awake on it for a handful of hours. but that's a semantic difference, and it doesn't matter. what matters is how painstakingly long it takes to receive a reply. and then when it comes, it's so dismissive. )

Why is it that you get to apologize all you'd like but when I try to do so, it's appeasement?

[downswing]

I mean my words.

You mean to placate.

[mannerless]

Believe what you want, I suppose. I doubt I can change your mind.

[downswing]

To walk free of past life's burden.

You think yourself unworthy?

[mannerless]

I haven't yet decided.

There are the times when I'm recognized, cursed for the loss of a life that I never took, or one that I took grudgingly in self-defense. It frustrates me, at the time. I feel like I don't deserve it, not after this long.

But then I consider all that I have done.

( the wens' sacrifice. jin zixuan. shijie. jin ling left parentless, jiang cheng left alone in this world as well. promises repeated time and time again and then broken as if they were nothing. all that lan zhan endured in wei ying's name and absence. )

I'm not sure it makes any real difference what I think, regardless.

[downswing]

You, who 'know what is right from what is wrong.'

tfln overflow for ~wuji.

[mannerless]

( from here. )

Did it? How disappointing. Perhaps we should have interrogated it properly, it sings easily enough in your ice cave.

( however practical it had been to wrap the ribbon around their wrists, that still counts. )

But what's past is past now. It can hold whatever peace it chooses.

1/2

[taciturnly]

Peace is earned.

[taciturnly]

Ask.

1 of 2 also because fuck it

[mannerless]

Peace isn't earned, it's stolen. Often by me, perhaps, but not this time. I'm hardly in danger, what good is interrogation now? How should I even know what to ask it?

[mannerless]

It's kind of funny. Sixteen years (dead, granted) and I've finally learned to spot when there's something I'm missing.

Perhaps in another sixteen I'll be able to figure out what that is.

[taciturnly]

Grief molds and reforms.

Death must, as well.

[mannerless]

lan zhaaaaaaan.

I've asked two questions and you've answered neither of them. All after you said to ask! What question will you answer? Do I get to ask that, or will you force me to guess again? I'm terrible at guessing, Lan Zhan, you've seen it.

[taciturnly]

( wei wuxian pls. the answer is literally right there. would you like some emojis???? )

Take heed.

What gives you the impression that you are missing something?

[mannerless]

( yes pls, he does well with pictures. borrow from huaisang if necessary. )

You told me to ask. Not 'ask something' or 'ask what you will' or any of that. Just 'ask', like there's one specific question owed whether or not I know what it is.

( he's almost certainly rereading his text, then flopping back on his bed in a dramatic huff.

....but a few seconds later, he's sitting back up and: )

What should it have said, your headband?

( is that the question he's supposed to ask? )

[taciturnly]

( over his dead body, thank you very much. or maybe one day you'll get a select few from his own personal collection.

was there one specific question, though? or a specific answer, for that matter, which he did provide, before you even asked. is it as simple and as complicated as that? )

Exposed itself. ( remember that song? unrestrained. ) I've always worn Wei Ying's colors.

🍷🍷

[lotuspier]

She... really likes him, doesn't she?

[mannerless]

JIANG

CHENG

He's not even that pretty!! Why did this have to happen to her?? The one time she isn't twice as wise as the two of us put together, and it throws her head over heels for that stupid peacock.

( someone has been bottling this up since he saw them together this morning, don't mind him )

[lotuspier]

[ he won't, this once. ]

I've been trying to understand... it makes sense, but not from her. Doesn't she have higher standards? Shouldn't she? Have we failed her?

we get to pretend this is a thing in their culture bc fuck it

[mannerless]

Maybe it's Stockholm Syndrome. Y'know, from the betrothal. It lasted quite a while before they actually met and he opened his fat mouth.

done deal

[lotuspier]

Wei Wuxian. I obviously cannot put myself in her place, but when I try...

It must be her rebelling. She's taking after you.

[mannerless]

But she's older than I am! Aren't I supposed to take after her??

And also, I wouldn't touch him if he were a bucket of water and I had run flaming from here to Carp Tower.

Except with my fist. I can touch him with that.

[lotuspier]

How stupid you can still be.

But... you can't be blamed. I still don't understand it. She must want someone cruel and uncaring, pointedly. Unlike us.

Can't we find a way to convince her into being sensible?