[sidereal - the dreaming]

[laughitoff]

[for MDZS AU plot-related shenanigans]

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[strikingchords]

[?! confusion!!]

[laughitoff]

I keep hurting you?! It's not like I can't feel it!

[frustrated...]

[strikingchords]

...

[closes his eyes against the dark. he's terse and guarded, even inside his own thoughts, but making a dutiful wrenching effort to answer the question. You wish me gone.]

[laughitoff]

I wish you not in the Burial Mounds! How is that unreasonable!?

[strikingchords]

[clipped, trying to hold onto his relative calm with his teeth and fingernails. "I always end up back here."]

[laughitoff]

[nearly howls as his frustration spikes]

Sorry, did you think that was meant to be a blessing on myself and a curse on you!? Do you think I want to be back here myself!?

[strikingchords]

[nearly breathlessly wound up himself, still trying, trying-- You are not listening!]

[laughitoff]

Neither are you!

[strikingchords]

[Lan Wangji nearly hisses frustration and shoves him back his time; Wei Wuxian gets-- a confusing jumble of impressions, actually. deep subterranean upset and fresh-wounds over half-healed scabs and an odd moment of firelit darkness, water glittering in the distance, a dull fire in his leg, so mixed up with anger and anguish and wanting he could just bite--


it cuts off and Lan Wangji is over -----> there in their shared space, savagely still and tense]

[laughitoff]

[turns away so hard himself that Lan Wangji loses sight of what's there altogether, and there's only darkness]

[strikingchords]

[he couldn't see anything except the sparks before anyway!!!!!11

it's very quiet. Lan Wangji is breathing harder, upsetting whatever is wrong with his rib a little.]

[laughitoff]

[Wei Wuxian feels like an open wound, himself, too many different stabbing aches to pick apart; he does not break the silence]

[strikingchords]

[well, Lan Wangji isn't going to break it

his breathing eventually evens out, at least.]

[laughitoff]

[that's great for him!!!]

[strikingchords]

[this hurts so much and he tried; he really tried. his thoughts feel dull and sluggish. he does not know what to do.]

[laughitoff]

[he is so tired and hurt himself, and he has no body of his own that he can command to at least fix what's wrong. it's like being a ghost all over again, with the added merciless aspect of eyes on him through all of it and no defense against them. Lan Wangji feels him trying to fold in over his own emotions, like a Xuanwu curling into its shell, to try and make some more distance, futilely]

[strikingchords]

[...

...

...

takes a deep breath and sort of... tiredly gathers himself to inch that way again...]

[laughitoff]

[tries to back up, but there's only so far he can go]

[strikingchords]

[stops just out of arm's reach and rolls a fragment of memory at him, quiet

(he feels something soft settle over his head and back... Lan Wangji draped the blanket from the other night over his shoulders. with his head in his knees he could become a blanket turtle and disappear under it if he wanted, actually.

he can feel worry and confusion next to him, muted and oddly gentle.)

Lan Wangji turns away and then just. stays put there, metaphorical back to him, eyes open again and attention steadily and deliberately on the physical world; he can still feel Wei Wuxian there, of course. but.]

[laughitoff]

[there is quiet, a little longer (shocked, guilty, unhappy), and then Wei Wuxian finally comes forward again, trying to push his own grief and sorrow and anger aside. the sparks of the strange orbs under Lan Wangji return to view.]

Can you still reach your sleeves?

[strikingchords]

[he checks... he can't bring his hands together but he can tuck the less-painful of his arms back into his sleeve far enough to reach what's inside easily enough.]

Mm.

[laughitoff]

[blank talisman and ink and brush, he instructs, and presses the design for the paperman spell into Lan Wangji's head

Wei Wuxian has always been very good at working through pain without addressing it at all.]

[strikingchords]

[folding and inking a paperman in the dark one-handed is a bit of a trick

Lan Wangji manages it, because of course he does]

[laughitoff]

[what a fucking relief it is, to pour himself into that different vessel for a little while; jumps off Lan Wangji's hand immediately and hurries to see what's locking him down]

[strikingchords]

[literal padlocks! if Wei Wuxian can influence his paper body enough to stiffen his arm and press inside where the tumblrs should be, he can probably get at least one of the less-securely locked ones to click free; he can't try too hard or he'll break his own arms, but one should be enough if it's close enough to one of Lan Wangji's hands.]