[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

[laughitoff]

[A gentle incline of her head.]

Hanguang-jun's efforts have not been in vain.

[strikingchords]

[


just doesn't acknowledge that whups]

What can be done, here?

[laughitoff]

[She is a memory, and does not take offense.]

You must finish gathering the Seal.

[strikingchords]

Do you have a piece, as well?

[laughitoff]

Ah--yes, I do.

[She slides it across the table. He appears to have half the Tiger Seal now; oddly, dream logic is telling him this is enough to be a complete Treasure.]

[strikingchords]

My thanks.

[nods and tucks it away]

...

A question.

What is the meaning of a blank banner?

[laughitoff]

A conduit to the Burial Mounds.

[strikingchords]

...

May I ask a favor?

[laughitoff]

Yes, though I do not know if I can grant it.

[strikingchords]

Can you leave this place?

Would ask you to find your husband and instruct that he draw a ward around the pool here, when he completes his task.

[laughitoff]

[She looks faintly disturbed, but nods.]

I can do this.

[strikingchords]

[tilts his head]

Do you think it unwise?

[laughitoff]

I think it is new. As a memory, it is hard for me to say what is or is not unwise in the greater context of things.

[strikingchords]

[...nods]

Once that is done. Would ask that you tend to his living space, where he will not.

[laughitoff]

I can do that, if you point the way.

[strikingchords]

[nods...]

Will meet you again soon, then.

[he'll give her directions to the temple to meet Jin Zixuan, for now...]

[laughitoff]

[She bows to him again after that and moves out the door, disappearing into the streets.]

[strikingchords]

[good; he's glad to have help here besides the bunny. inn next...]

[laughitoff]

[There's a bustling little inn in the middle of town, its doors flung wide to the night to admit custom both ways. Luckily, he doesn't need to head inside: the red banner over the door proclaims it THE BREACH, and there's an unnaturally shiny silver needle embedded in the doorframe which catches the eye.]

[strikingchords]

[oh no. he might have a guess about what memory this is, actually.

reaches for it.]

[laughitoff]

You're frozen on your bed, unable to move a muscle after Wen Qing stabbed you in your acupoints. "We've come to a conclusion," she says.

Her undead brother rises to his feet -- he'd been ready to hold you down, in case his sister's paralysis didn't take at once, you realize. "Sister and I have decided. We’ll be going to Koi Tower to give ourselves up.”

“Give yourselves up?” Shock joins your fear. They can't-- “What are you going to do? Apologize? Surrender?”

Wen Qing rubs her reddening eyes, but her expression is calm. “Yes, more or less. The Jin sect wants an answer for the death of their heir. The only acceptable one is to hand over the two leaders of our sect's remnants -- us. That should settle matters."

“You can shut the fuck up! It’s already chaos as it is! Both of you stop adding trouble to the pile. Give yourselves up, my ass. Did I tell you to do this? Take it out!”

She's watching you struggle, calmly answering your protests with logic, as your rage and fear gives way to something hollow and cold. They can't do this. They can't pay for your mistake like this.

At last, she says, “That’s right. They didn’t ask you for proof you were the one who did it. They straight-up prepared to kill you. Do you understand now? They don’t need any proof, and they don't need you to find the truth. Whether you present those or not, it doesn't matter. You’re the Yiling Patriarch, the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. You specialize in dark curses, so it wouldn’t even be strange if you didn’t have curse marks on you. On top of that, you didn’t have to do it yourself. You could’ve gotten Wen-dogs, your slaves, to do it for you. It’s you no matter what. You won’t be able to deny it.”

You curse, try to rise again, to pull out the needle, to do anything, anything. They wait once more.

“But, but--” But you have no excuse to follow that with; no good reasoning to counter Wen Qing's merciless logic. You settle for, “But even then, I should be the one going, not you. I was the one who made corpses kill the people, who lost control of Wen Ning. Why should the knife go instead of the murderer?”

“Isn’t it better this way?”

“Better than what?!”

She is so calm. “Wei Ying, we both know. Wen Ning is a knife, a knife that scares them, but also a knife that they use as an excuse to attack you. If we go, they’ll no longer have an excuse. This entire thing might finally blow over.”

You finally understand why your brother acts the way he does, why he always says that you have a hero complex, why he always looks like he's restraining himself from striking you. Watching others take the responsibility onto their shoulders no matter what, insisting on bearing all of the negative consequences, to be unable to stop them--it's unbearable! Detestable!

Once you run out of arguments, Wen Qing looks soberly into your face, then reaches out and flicks her finger against your forehead. “I’ve said what I had to say, explained things, and said farewell. Goodbye.”

“No…”

“I’ve never really said such things to you before. But now that it’s come to this, there are indeed things I should say before I lose the chance."

“...shut up...let me go..."

“I’m sorry. And, thank you.”

You will lie paralyzed for the next three days, as they go to their doom.

[strikingchords]

[nailed it.

takes a deep breath, lets it out...

is the ghost Wen Qing?]

[laughitoff]

[Yes. She appears standing in the inn doorway, unperturbed by the monster traffic going through her. There's a clean red line cut all around her neck, blood spilling down to dye the white part of her robes red.]

[strikingchords]

[...what's inside this inn...]

[laughitoff]

[Just looks like a regular-ass inn except it's full of monsters.]