Wang Wu is an expert at looking away or not meeting people's gazes, so she understands that it would be preferable.
Ah. She let's go of his arm to place it over his back much like she did during affection week. Not knowing is horrible to a truth seeker and it reminds her of when he was rather vexed after the trial that they voted out the wrong person. ]
I do hope you find the answers you seek once you return. [ She isn't going to say at least he put his soul to rest, because that may not be enough for the Hound. For a brief moment she does think of someone else's final wish.
Promise me.
Leaning a bit into him. Don't mind her, she's just borrowing your cute shoulder. ]
Maybe you can find something here that'll help you in that endeavor.
[ he doesn't sound like believes that, but that's not wang wu's fault so much as it is temenos. he's too realistic to really think about the possibility of finding something here, but at the same time... well. maybe it would bring some closure, if nothing else.
he misses roi, after all. every day that passes - and being in oceanside hasn't helped with that, either. neither did crick. it feels like every day, lately, he runs into something that reminds him of his dearest, closest friend, his basically-big-brother, and these memory shares feel like digging into an open wound that he's been struggling to close now for years. temenos doesn't push her away, letting her lean on him as they walk, if she'd like. ]
I believe perhaps I was on the eve of them, at least. The pieces are there. I just need to put them together.
[ She can be an emotional support bun! She's quiet for a moment, knowing there isn't much she can say to this. Anything would feel like a flimsy bandage tossed over a large wound.
Still, it doesn't feel quite right not saying anything. ]
You are my cute little detective. I know you'll figure it out. [ It may have to be on the back burner with everything else happening here and in his world, but eventually... sometime in the future, she's sure of it. It may do little in the way of that wound, but she does hope someone having faith in his abilities may do something. As much as she hates to admit it, she really is soft for her buns.
Keeping pace with him as they continue, ready to say something more when a heavy brush stroke starts to form panels over her own head. ]
Edited (MISSED WORDS AT THE END) 2023-10-19 19:23 (UTC)
[ The scenery itself starts out in ink brush strokes, painting a picture of a gazebo amidst a sea of flowers. The crisp air of the mountains and subtle floral scent becomes prominent with every breath you take.
All the colors start to come into the picture as you're submerged into it. You are plunked in the middle of a glowing field of flowers. A full moon hangs in the air, but you pay no attention to any of the beauty around you.
You're sitting on the floor of the gazebo leaning in to the wood pillars. There's the taste of strong, cheap rice wine on your lips but the flavor doesn't really register to you. There's is a certain numbness buzzing beneath your skin as you take another drink to dull out the pain you feel under your skin. It feels like your bones breaking over and over again. You know they are in one piece and no longer breaking, but the full moon brings all the pain anew again. It's something of a curse that you wouldn't wish on anyone else, but wouldn't change for anything else.
You take another drink, as something else flitters through your mind. A memory of when you were free of this pain and very much in love.
At the time you were still a disciple and you slipped away during your free time to sit in the middle of the field to work on a project. Your heart felt fluttery as you wonder if he would like it as you fold the yellow and blue cords together and finish the knot. You hold the bracelet up to admire your handiwork before you hear someone approach. Immediately you try to put it away, but it's too late.
Ouyang Shang has seen it. You feel flushed at being caught as he immediately crowds into your space to indicate it. ]
Is that for me?
[ You can see the fondness there as he holds his hand out. Ouyang Shang is the number one disciple of Spirit Blade Mountain and someone who has been at your side for years. You never put it in words what you meant to the other, but it's always clear through your actions and looks what you are to each other. A quiet push and pull full of warmth and affection, and there is no one you would have at your side.
Pulling the bracelet out to tie it on his wrist with a smile of your own to answer him. He admires the bracelet. ]
I really like it.
[ While inside you feel elated that he likes it, you're much more reserved on the outside. He can tell though from your eyes that you're happy. The rest of the time was spent sparring together, but it was more similar to dancing with someone. You both move in perfect step with each other as you fly to different spots on the path, your blades meeting and parting before you both spin away. This goes on a few more times before you both decide to press your backs against one another to combat invisible fiends around you. You're smiling the whole time, feeling at peace.
It was a beautiful time in your life.
It was a moment you wish could last forever.
It was before the need for masks you crafted yourself. Before mourning. Before the pain.
You feel the tears falling down your cheeks and the pain as well as sensing someone else being close to you snap you out of your thoughts. You look at the bracelet resting there on your wrist and take another slow drink from your wine gourd. ]
"Shimei," [ You try to piece together your mask, but you already know it's much too late. The Sect Leader is there and he's already seen enough. ] "I knew you would be here."
[ Putting on your usual gremlin smile as you raise your drink. Your movement feels sluggish with the pain and the alcohol running in your system. ] All of the Spirit Blade Sect elders know the night of a full moon is when I drink and play around. [ Your tone is light, but your eyes are still wet. ]
"You can fool others, but you can't fool yourself. I know you're still sad about the Head Disciple. You haven't given up on searching for his whereabouts across all nine continents. It has been more than a century. It's time to let go. I am sure he would want you to live a happy life." [ His tone is full of a quiet fondness you will hear from an old friend worried about you. It's more than you really deserve.
Your mind goes back to when you last heard Be happy. The barrier between the human world and the demons has been opened. Your companions bodies lay some where behind out outside of the circle. You and Ouyang Shang are the only ones there at the gateway. Your mouth is full of blood and you know you won't be able to hang on any longer, but you still have to try to seal it up before the demon breaks out. Just as you start your sword, you are immediately frozen in place by a spell.
Your heart immediately freezes as you realize what is happening as Ouyang Shang moves to be beside you. ]
Promise me you'll live happily. You must promise me this. Wait for me. I will find my way back to you.
[ The tears fall as you try to shake your head. You try to scream out and plead, but you can't move your mouth. You're frozen in place as the man you love walks to the portal. Your hand manages to move to grab on to anything on him to keep him from going forward. You manage to only hold on to the bracelet that you made for him. He slips out of it and continues to the opening. You manage to yell his name.
That is the last time you ever see him.
In the present time, you are experiencing pain and your dear friend is near. Trying to urge you to be happy. You give a smile as you play into the drunkenness. ]
these memories are always so intimately personal, and seeing the world through wang wu's eyes is no different. but there's something worse about it, to be made audience to a moment like this. the familiarity of it all.
roi was like his brother, but temenos knows how it feels to watch someone slip out of his hands. to see someone else's back, as they step out of your life. to have questions, to never know what could have happened, to lay there awake at night wondering if someone you love's body is rotting in a field somewhere, if he became food for some kind of monster, or maybe if he just forgot to come home. you never came home.
as the memory comes to an end, he stops walking. but it's just long enough to gently put his hand over hers on his arm, and squeeze, tight. ]
... I'm sorry.
[ quietly. i'm sorry, where it sounds like i understand. ]
[ She feels every bit of emotion all over again at seeing it. There's a long pause after it, as she ignores the way her eyes feel watery. She wants to flee, but that would make it all the more evident that it bothers her.
Instead she merely just shakes her head. ]
Enough of that, dearest. There isn't anything to be sorry about for. [ It's fine. It's fine... it's always fine... ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Wang Wu is an expert at looking away or not meeting people's gazes, so she understands that it would be preferable.
Ah. She let's go of his arm to place it over his back much like she did during affection week. Not knowing is horrible to a truth seeker and it reminds her of when he was rather vexed after the trial that they voted out the wrong person. ]
I do hope you find the answers you seek once you return. [ She isn't going to say at least he put his soul to rest, because that may not be enough for the Hound. For a brief moment she does think of someone else's final wish.
Promise me.
Leaning a bit into him. Don't mind her, she's just borrowing your cute shoulder. ]
Maybe you can find something here that'll help you in that endeavor.
no subject
[ he doesn't sound like believes that, but that's not wang wu's fault so much as it is temenos. he's too realistic to really think about the possibility of finding something here, but at the same time... well. maybe it would bring some closure, if nothing else.
he misses roi, after all. every day that passes - and being in oceanside hasn't helped with that, either. neither did crick. it feels like every day, lately, he runs into something that reminds him of his dearest, closest friend, his basically-big-brother, and these memory shares feel like digging into an open wound that he's been struggling to close now for years. temenos doesn't push her away, letting her lean on him as they walk, if she'd like. ]
I believe perhaps I was on the eve of them, at least. The pieces are there. I just need to put them together.
[ as always, he has to find the truth. ]
1/2 OKAY OKAY
Still, it doesn't feel quite right not saying anything. ]
You are my cute little detective. I know you'll figure it out. [ It may have to be on the back burner with everything else happening here and in his world, but eventually... sometime in the future, she's sure of it. It may do little in the way of that wound, but she does hope someone having faith in his abilities may do something. As much as she hates to admit it, she really is soft for her buns.
Keeping pace with him as they continue, ready to say something more when a heavy brush stroke starts to form panels over her own head. ]
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
All the colors start to come into the picture as you're submerged into it. You are plunked in the middle of a glowing field of flowers. A full moon hangs in the air, but you pay no attention to any of the beauty around you.
You're sitting on the floor of the gazebo leaning in to the wood pillars. There's the taste of strong, cheap rice wine on your lips but the flavor doesn't really register to you. There's is a certain numbness buzzing beneath your skin as you take another drink to dull out the pain you feel under your skin. It feels like your bones breaking over and over again. You know they are in one piece and no longer breaking, but the full moon brings all the pain anew again. It's something of a curse that you wouldn't wish on anyone else, but wouldn't change for anything else.
You take another drink, as something else flitters through your mind. A memory of when you were free of this pain and very much in love.
At the time you were still a disciple and you slipped away during your free time to sit in the middle of the field to work on a project. Your heart felt fluttery as you wonder if he would like it as you fold the yellow and blue cords together and finish the knot. You hold the bracelet up to admire your handiwork before you hear someone approach. Immediately you try to put it away, but it's too late.
Ouyang Shang has seen it. You feel flushed at being caught as he immediately crowds into your space to indicate it. ]
Is that for me?
[ You can see the fondness there as he holds his hand out. Ouyang Shang is the number one disciple of Spirit Blade Mountain and someone who has been at your side for years. You never put it in words what you meant to the other, but it's always clear through your actions and looks what you are to each other. A quiet push and pull full of warmth and affection, and there is no one you would have at your side.
Pulling the bracelet out to tie it on his wrist with a smile of your own to answer him. He admires the bracelet. ]
I really like it.
[ While inside you feel elated that he likes it, you're much more reserved on the outside. He can tell though from your eyes that you're happy. The rest of the time was spent sparring together, but it was more similar to dancing with someone. You both move in perfect step with each other as you fly to different spots on the path, your blades meeting and parting before you both spin away. This goes on a few more times before you both decide to press your backs against one another to combat invisible fiends around you. You're smiling the whole time, feeling at peace.
It was a beautiful time in your life.
It was a moment you wish could last forever.
It was before the need for masks you crafted yourself. Before mourning. Before the pain.
You feel the tears falling down your cheeks and the pain as well as sensing someone else being close to you snap you out of your thoughts. You look at the bracelet resting there on your wrist and take another slow drink from your wine gourd. ]
"Shimei," [ You try to piece together your mask, but you already know it's much too late. The Sect Leader is there and he's already seen enough. ] "I knew you would be here."
[ Putting on your usual gremlin smile as you raise your drink. Your movement feels sluggish with the pain and the alcohol running in your system. ] All of the Spirit Blade Sect elders know the night of a full moon is when I drink and play around. [ Your tone is light, but your eyes are still wet. ]
"You can fool others, but you can't fool yourself. I know you're still sad about the Head Disciple. You haven't given up on searching for his whereabouts across all nine continents. It has been more than a century. It's time to let go. I am sure he would want you to live a happy life." [ His tone is full of a quiet fondness you will hear from an old friend worried about you. It's more than you really deserve.
Your mind goes back to when you last heard Be happy. The barrier between the human world and the demons has been opened. Your companions bodies lay some where behind out outside of the circle. You and Ouyang Shang are the only ones there at the gateway. Your mouth is full of blood and you know you won't be able to hang on any longer, but you still have to try to seal it up before the demon breaks out. Just as you start your sword, you are immediately frozen in place by a spell.
Your heart immediately freezes as you realize what is happening as Ouyang Shang moves to be beside you. ]
Promise me you'll live happily. You must promise me this. Wait for me. I will find my way back to you.
[ The tears fall as you try to shake your head. You try to scream out and plead, but you can't move your mouth. You're frozen in place as the man you love walks to the portal. Your hand manages to move to grab on to anything on him to keep him from going forward. You manage to only hold on to the bracelet that you made for him. He slips out of it and continues to the opening. You manage to yell his name.
That is the last time you ever see him.
In the present time, you are experiencing pain and your dear friend is near. Trying to urge you to be happy. You give a smile as you play into the drunkenness. ]
I am very happy!
[ You both know how much of a lie that is. ]
no subject
these memories are always so intimately personal, and seeing the world through wang wu's eyes is no different. but there's something worse about it, to be made audience to a moment like this. the familiarity of it all.
roi was like his brother, but temenos knows how it feels to watch someone slip out of his hands. to see someone else's back, as they step out of your life. to have questions, to never know what could have happened, to lay there awake at night wondering if someone you love's body is rotting in a field somewhere, if he became food for some kind of monster, or maybe if he just forgot to come home. you never came home.
as the memory comes to an end, he stops walking. but it's just long enough to gently put his hand over hers on his arm, and squeeze, tight. ]
... I'm sorry.
[ quietly. i'm sorry, where it sounds like i understand. ]
no subject
Instead she merely just shakes her head. ]
Enough of that, dearest. There isn't anything to be sorry about for. [ It's fine. It's fine... it's always fine... ]