[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]

[he does end up coughing a little and then has to wipe his mouth on his sleeve because he used up his handkerchief. stays like that for a couple more minutes, breathing in rasps. I cannot imagine what the anxiety rat thinks about this.




eventually he'll look for where the curse mark on his hand was]

[laughitoff]

[The skin is clean and unmarked, though reddened like it's irritated.

The pool is now just a pile of rubble, though the barrier has stayed up.]

[strikingchords]

[it shouldn't be. that pool was the final resting place of the Wens. he remembers seeing them thrown there; Wei Wuxian doesn't have that memory, but Lan Wangji himself doesn't like the idea of their sad remains dry and twisted on the ground instead of given the dignity of sinking out of sight.

he's not thinking super clearly, so he'll lean forward to touch the edge and try to use Orthodoxy to restore it to something more like a pool than a pile, albeit shooting for "water" this time; Wei Wuxian likes having water in his room]

[laughitoff]

[He makes a pool, though nothing so big and deep as the blood pool, more like a viewing-pool for a courtyard. The water inside is unbloodied.]

[strikingchords]

[cool. he's going to go... back to the cage with the rat.

how are you doing in there, buddy]

[laughitoff]

[v i b r a t e

It doesn't seem to have been damaged by all that noise just now.]

[strikingchords]

[oh good.

he's going to take it out of the cage, gather it up in his hands and use his second Orthodoxy to just... ask for it to please be in better shape, please

the thought he is trying to go for is "it's fine if you're scared and even if some fears don't go away but I want you to be in some kind of shape to receive comfort" rather than specifically trying to define how Wei Wuxian's internal landscape wants to interpret that]

[laughitoff]

[It transforms into a tiny baby white bunny that fits in Lan Wangji's hand?

It's still vibrating, as bunnies are wont to do.]

[strikingchords]

[what the fuck




STARES AT IT DUMBFOUNDED]

[laughitoff]

[Behold the new face of anxiety.]

[strikingchords]

[I mean let me be clear, Lan Wangji would have already died for this shivery creature even when it was a skeletal rat






pets it so carefully with a fingertip]

You are safe here.

[laughitoff]

[There's tiny animal shivers and a rapid heartbeat under his fingertip.

Petting...does seem to get through better to something that can feel it, though, eventually...?]

[strikingchords]

[he's going to carry it over to the bed and sit on the bed and feed it greens from the nice meal D8]

[laughitoff]

[It nibbles and nibbles and nibbles.

It really does not stop being anxious, but the shrieking jolt he was getting has dimmed to something at least bearable; Sunday Scaries instead of a full panic attack.]

[strikingchords]

[




can he tuck it in the front of his robes to carry it around like this and project reassurance at it on and off for a while]

[laughitoff]

[What the fuck. Yes, absolutely.]

[strikingchords]

[cool he's doing that while he finishes up here. he has only one Orthodoxy left, so he is going to use Heresy to do some precise stonemasonry again: first to deepen the formerly-known-as-Blood-Pool and then to do some surgery on the lower half of the bed. that will give him three Orthodoxies to hopefully get what he wants here.

his goal is this. (if you need the steps, he'd approach it as: make the under bed area he carved out functional and nice, upgrade the cloak to real pillows, try to ideate a mattress/better bedding)]

[laughitoff]

[Wow, that looks like a bed a human would actually sleep on now.

Looking in the pool as he deepens it, he can see the faintest streaks of red curling through the water.]

[strikingchords]

[... he'll quietly reach his hand in and just feel the vibes...]

[laughitoff]

[A buzz of darker hungry energy, greatly weakened for now but gathering itself again, angry...]

[strikingchords]

[...

he'll remove his guqin and just, play Rest with spiritual energy for a while

not even really trying to suppress it, as if one cultivator even could, just. hey. chill out]

[laughitoff]

[Its reinvasion of the pool slows even more.]

[strikingchords]

[he considers, then gravely nips his finger and draws the characters for respect and rest in the surface of the water in his own blood and spiritual energy; they're not even proper talismans so they wouldn't work even if they weren't instantly taken by the water, so it's more an offering than anything, but it feels right for some reason

he'll also set a stick of incense to burn in a crack in the stone before retreating to the bed area again to drop off the bunny in its new home.]

[laughitoff]

[The blood sinks in and down to join the rest, but there's no more adverse reaction. Maybe that's good...?

The bunny snuffles around, still kind of highkey checking the environment and Alert, but no longer running in mad circles or frozen stiff with stress.]

[strikingchords]

[pets it, soft]

Be good.

[he'll put bonkers strong wards against harm on the bunny hutch. just, truly excessive :B

then he'll regard the grisly parts of the meal on the tray, sigh, walk back over to a wall about midway between the bed and the blood pool, and use Heresy to open a grave to deposit all the body parts in. rinses the plates off after 9_9

he can use another Orthodoxy after to close stone over the impromptu burial site, complete with a marker that just says Regrets.

assuming all that works, he'll leave the tea here, as an offering, and a couple more incense sticks by the bed in case Wei Wuxian wants them. he'll also make sure Chenqing is back in the cage and everything's tidied up.




he can't think of what else to do here right now. surveys his handiwork: how's the vibes, weird cave?]