[PALACE GAME - LAN WANGJI RUN]

[laughitoff]

Everything is red. You are dying, somewhere far beyond pain, the very essence of yourself going to pieces. You’re shattering so badly you don’t know if you’ll ever find all of yourself again, if you’ll ever put yourself back together. There are teeth on you, ripping, tearing, devouring. There are teeth inside you, carving their way out, and those are worse.

This is a memory, happening at a remove. It is not yours. This is not happening now.

Everything is grey. You wake up in a prison cell, eyes wide, the ceiling flat and blank and unfamiliar above you. For a moment you simply think, no. You think, Please, wasn’t it over? Wasn’t it enough? You consider closing your eyes again and refusing to get up, until oblivion reclaims you. Even if you’re no longer dying, everything hurts.

This is a memory, happening at a remove. It is not yours. This is not happening now.

What is happening, then?

You–

–sit up.

Comments

[strikingchords]

[puts a hand to his mouth, remembering all of that...]

[laughitoff]

[It was a memorable day for him, wasn't it?

The unmoving ghost of Jin Zixuan has appeared, kneeling in front of the strange god's statue. There's a look of shock on his face, and a ragged hole punched straight through his chest.]

[strikingchords]

[...he's going to touch the weird statue to see if he gets anything off of it...]

[laughitoff]

[Just cool stone.]

[strikingchords]

[okay. he's going to disappear the statue with Heresy and use Orthodoxy to heal the ghost's wounds.

...

can he like, actually make him not a weird freeze frame, or is that just part of the deal...]

[laughitoff]

[The statue is gone, leaving a bare altar.

What is his intent here, exactly? To heal and bring him back to life? To heal and get him moving?]

[strikingchords]

[IS "BACK TO LIFE" AN OPTION??????

he doesn't want that, exactly, though. "a form where Wei Wuxian can remember him as he was in life," maybe. as kind of an idiot, not reduced to a man he killed.]

[laughitoff]

[Nothing has been presented as not being an option, with these powers.

Jin Zixuan's wounds close, though the huge rent in his robes remains. He also grows more solid, and his skin greys out like a fierce corpse's, as he blinks and his face twists into a bit of a scowl.]

[strikingchords]

[does Wei Wuxian's heart interpret a memorial to a dead person as 'Wen Ning,' basically

he guesses that tracks. bows to him in greeting, brusquely]

[laughitoff]

[bows back a bit jerkily, though it seems like the jerky is because of embarrassment and not because he's hampered by stiffness like Wen Ning is]

Hanguang-Jun.

[strikingchords]

[the embarrassment reminds him that Jin Zixuan, though inarguably an ass, is far from the worst person he knows who's died. softens slightly.]

Young master Jin.

[laughitoff]

[:T T: :T]

My...thanks.

[strikingchords]

I can return your life here, but only by destroying something else, first.

[laughitoff]

[He gets scowlier. Kind of clipped:]

You don't have to. I know I'm just a memory.

[strikingchords]

Not a fond one.

...

For Wei Ying.

[he'll remove the altar with Heresy, and then return Jin Zixuan to life properly with Orthodoxy, yeah

he owes Jiang Yanli that much]

[laughitoff]

[It actually doesn't quite work as intended? His robes repair, and he gets about as mobile as a living person can, but the grey cast to his skin doesn't disappear. He looks at his hands ruefully.]

Well...I guess we've got a history.

[strikingchords]

Would share his anger, in his place.

But, you are missed.

Can you help me?

[laughitoff]

Ah--yes. Yes. Here.

[He flusters a little--apparently he forgot he was supposed to do this--and yanks another piece of tarnished metal out of his sleeve, shoving it at Lan Wangji.]

[strikingchords]

[takes it, and tucks it away with the other]

My thanks, also.

[laughitoff]

[Hm, those definitely look like chunks of the Tiger Seal.]

It's not--

[He shrugs irritably.]

It's the least I can do.

[strikingchords]

[he knows.]

Your son is well.

[laughitoff]

[The irritated cast of his expression softens.]

You should be saving this for the real one, if you ever see him again. But I'm grateful to hear it.

[strikingchords]

Is it such a limited resource?

Life continues. Here, as well.

[laughitoff]

It's all Wei Wuxian here, in the end.

[strikingchords]

Yes.

...

His sister would appreciate the memory.