i once knew a man who learned such a thing | october catch-all

[poorlittlesange]

Who: Jin Guangyao + select closed prompts + OTA
What: Settling in; an encounter with a draugr; trying to locate some much needed chill; continuing a TDM thread.
When: /waves hands, throughout the month.
Where: Willful Machine, along a nondescript thoroughfare and by the canals; the Pale Sanctuary in Cassandra; the Boardwalk
Notes: If you're keen on threading something, hit me up on plurk @ ragweed and we can figure something out.

Content Warnings: Blood, gore. Allusions to memories of a murder victim. Frank discussion of a child's murder (his son).



I. Cleaning house. (OTA)
The siheyuan has good bones. Whoever built it understood the importance of craftsmanship, though whether there is any prosperous energy in Trench for a south-facing house to welcome is anyone's guess. But someone had lived here before, once; there are height marks scratched into the wood of a door frame, seven of them, one for each birthday celebrated by a child. When Jin Guangyao first notices the marks while affixing spirit-repelling talismans to the walls in auspicious locations, he very deliberately does not think of his son.

With the talismans in place within the courtyard and the rooms themselves, he steps outside and onto the thoroughfare sidewalk to affix a few of them to the gate. Trailing behind him is his omen, a lean steppe fox whose winter coat has already begun to come in.

II. Second Death at the Canals. (Closed to Sasuke)
OOC note: Timing of this event is sometime after JGY snags himself an address, and finishes up his conversation with Mike Enslin (see below).

It is late in the evening, well after what passes for dusk in Trench, when the screams rip through the air near the canals. What follows is an immediate mad scramble of bodies and limbs of all shapes to escape the scene unfolding by the water's edge, where a draugr has pinned a man in pale gold robes to the ground by his throat.

Right now, only two things separate Jin Guangyao from death: the first is the blade of his spiritual sword, Hensheng, which he has thrust through the draugr's throat and embedded in what passes for its spine, and which in combination with his faltering spiritual power serves only to keep the monster's still-gnashing jaws from descending upon him. The other is his omen, who has transformed herself into the menacing shape of a large huli jing, and is harrying the draugr with ear-splitting fox-bark screams and yodels that keep the thing distracted, but not deterred. Every so often it swipes ineffectually out at her with the hand not at its quarry's throat, before she lunges away.

The draugr has taken much from Jin Guangyao over the course of the last month to the point where his outrage and fury over the theft of his memories is only overwhelmed by the sheer terror he experiences when the monster at last manifests itself and forces him to look at its face (and forces him to remember a face he wishes he could forget, dead but still seeing him, still hating him, still suspecting his every decision, hesitation or sideways glance--)

Ichor from the gaping throat wound above him splatters down towards him. Jin Guangyao jerks his face away and grits his teeth, and twists beneath the monster's bulk to edge a foot against its stomach--not because he thinks that he has the power to actually kick the thing away, but because any barrier he can put between the draugr's teeth and himself is better than nothing. Still, this is a grim situation, and his eyes dart about himself in terror and outrage as he desperately tries to come up with an escape plan.

III. Exploring near the Pale Sanctuary. (OTA)

The pale, bloated tree at the heart of the Pale Sanctuary does not look like it should be a place of spiritual tranquility. Jin Guangyao stands slightly out of its shadow and considers it in silence, being sure always to keep his expression as inoffensive and absent of any outside judgment as possible. The thing alarms him, there's just no getting around it, and hearing the murmurs among the nearby Disciples regarding just who this entire district was named for strikes him as doubly inauspicious. No one in the cultivation world would think to name a place of spiritual sanctuary and healing after the Yiling Patriarch, surely.

He doesn't venture near the door that leads down into the sanctuary itself--that's a big 'nope, no thank you, not interested' at least for the moment--and instead takes his time walking the circumference of the tree, being sure to give it as wide a berth as possible as he looks it over in detail, committing what he sees to memory.

IV. Encounter on the Boardwalk. (Closed to Mike Enslin)
[continued from here!]

'Napkin guy.' That's a new one. It's much better than his last nickname. Jin Guangyao's expression softens by a hair's breadth of a margin, and though he doesn't smile--that particular mask wouldn't be appropriate, not now--he makes a sound somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. Then, "Thank you," the stranger says, and Jin Guangyao bends his head in wordless acknowledgement of the courtesy.

As for the rest--

"Yes," he replies. He looks away from Mike to allow him the courtesy of tidying himself without a scrutinizing audience. There is so very much else happening on the boardwalk to draw the eye anyway; the masks, the lights, the myriad of different beings and bodies that are as alien to him as that tape recorder, if more frightening. When one being makes sustained eye contact with him for too long, Jin Guangyao is quick to avert his gaze in as non-threatening a manner as he can manage, and turns his attention back to Mike.

"Xiansheng, please forgive this one's lapse in manners. I am called Jin Guangyao." Just in case the stranger felt so inclined to actually refer to him as 'napkin guy,' henceforth.

Comments

[poorlittlesange]

Jin Guangyao stares at Wei Wuxian as he describes a plausible rationale for ending his life in this place, and stifles a mad little laugh. He tilts his head backwards to look up at the sky, as though what he has heard has solidified some decision in his gut, one that feels far too familiar. His chest aches.

Then he looks back at Wei Wuxian again and smiles.

"I took a bath."

[chenqing_player]

His hand comes down to rest on Chenqing, as if to show that he could change his mind and attack at any moment if he doesn't like what the other man says. He clearly is not amused by the answer. But a deal is a deal. "I died in a dream." Since he came from the other world into this place his is not the most delicate of transfers. So his answer is equally as vague and not useful.

"Who has died so far before you came here?" How much blood is on your hands Jin Guangyao?

[poorlittlesange]

He doesn't lose his smile, but his eyes track Wei Wuxian's hand to Chenqing and stay there, at least until he can be certain that he isn't about to make use of it yet. Already his pulse is rabbiting in his throat, as though that gesture alone confirms his worst fears. He takes another small step backward, but he does not reach for his sword. What would be the point? He will be dead, or worse, before he unsheathes it.

If Wei Wuxian is going to kill him for speaking words he does not want to hear, then he will do it whether Jin Guangyao has a sword in his hand or not. Whether he answers honestly or not.

"This one is afraid that Yiling-laozu will need to be more specific," he replies. "There are many people who have died in our world for any number of reasons, and many more who yet live. How is this one meant to know who Wei-gongzi is speaking of?" There is a flicker of both genuine confusion and fear in his expression over the direction of this line of questioning.

[chenqing_player]

That little bit of fear is what Wei Wuxian needs to see. To know that he is still in control of the situation even if he hasn't yet gotten the information he desires. He ca piece a few snippets of information together and is smart enough to figure out some things on his own but he just needs a bit more. There is much that he doesn't know about those sixteen years he was gone from the cultivation world. But the important pieces of information are there. He just has to be careful how he words things because in many instances the people who died...did not do so directly by this man's hand. But rather an extension of it.

So instead he decides to switch gears slightly, letting himself keep his eyes on Jin Guangyao's expression for any small change in it by what he has to say. "What I know is that Nie Mingjue is dead. Jin Guangshan is also dead." If these two names draw no surprise then this Jin is quite young. So he moves on, "Jin Rusong is dead." A little further up the timeline and a bit of a jab if the man recognizes the name. If he doesn't...well it goes far to know when this man is from.

cw discussion of a child's murder

[poorlittlesange]

Jin Guangyao sees no reason to voluntarily divulge any information to Wei Wuxian in the face of this interrogation, and so only stares back at him, stone-faced, after he names Nie Mingjue. At Jin Guangshan's name his eyes widen a fraction and his breath catches, betraying shock? Disbelief? He'd thought of it after what he and Chengmei had overheard together, and the beginnings of a plan had begun to form, to coalesce, but if that means he did it, that he carried out that plan--

But then Wei Wuxian says, "Jin Rusong is dead," and he forgets how to breathe.

"What did you just say?" He barely lets Wei Wuxian finish saying his son's name before he steps forward, suddenly ashen as the bark on the tree beside them, and the look in his eyes is unfathomable, like black ice across a lake's surface with a slow crack running down the middle of it. He lifts a hand in an almost helpless, futile gesture, like if he can just touch--something, grasp something in front of him, he can make Wei Wuxian unsay what he has just said.

Then he shakes his head, a short, tight gesture, his jaw clenching. "You're lying. You're lying to--you're trying to provoke me into--" He squeezes his eyes shut, and then when they snap open again, red-rimmed and wet, he shouts, "What happened to my son!" and all thoughts of courtesy and decorum have fled him.

Re: cw discussion of a child's murder

[chenqing_player]

And that tells him everything he needs to know. He might not have the exact year but he knows about approximately how deep into his plan this man is. The main players have started to fall and things are already in motion. He doesn't move as Jin Guangyao approaches. His expression is cold and doesn't seem intimidated in the least by the man's sudden flurry of emotions.

Wei wuxian has never been one to have much tact and has never been afraid to speak his mind even when it was advised that he stay silent. And so striking the cord that will cause the most pain in this moment is just a necessary step in finding out what he needed to know. In some cases he would pull his punches and have a little compassion. Jin Guangyao deserves no compassion.

"I was dead when it happened." A simple statement just to make sure Jin Guangyao understands that he had absolutely nothing to do with this death, or any of the ones that he mentioned. This one cannot be pinned on him in any way. But also said to indicate he had no intention of telling this man any more then that.

"The details revealed themselves after I returned and showed just how much blood was spilled because of your schemes."

[poorlittlesange]

There is a dense white static ringing in his ears and a molten pressure building behind his eyes from a swell of emotion that is too massive, too all-consuming, too wild and despairing to be released through tears or words or even a scream. It defies Jin Guangyao's ability to categorize it, because it is composed of every black and horrible thought he ever had about A-Song and his wretched parentage, thoughts he had always kept bottled away and tucked into the darkest crevices of his heart; and it is also the smell of the top of his head through tufts of black hair when he was still a newborn, and Qin Su placed a baby in his arms for the first time; it is the shriek of his laughter and the sight of him in Lan Xichen's arms (a particularly sweet and acute pain); it is every pang of revulsion that caught him unawares, when he couldn't look at his son without remembering the truth; and it is the burning fury that is threatening to chew its way out of his stomach right now, knowing that Wei Wuxian knows how his son died, and will not tell him.

"My schemes," he echoes in a low, flat voice. He stares back at Wei Wuxian unblinkingly, either unaware or uncaring of his own tears, and shakes his head slowly like his words don't make any sense. His breathing is coming more quickly, raggedly, and wouldn't it be the height of irony if he qi deviated right here, right now?

He laughs. It is not a reassuring sound. "Wei Wuxian. Tell me what happened to A-Song, or I swear to you, I will ruin you. I will not rest until I have ruined you in this place for as many lives as that sea sees fit to vomit either of us back onto its shores, and in whatever foul place we are sent to next." His lip twitches, the barest hint of teeth, before he shouts again, "Tell me!"

[chenqing_player]

The laughter that leaves his lips is full of bitterness and dark amusement. There is irony in so much of what this man says. Wei Wuxian can't help the breath of amusement that escaped him. He feels some of that darkness well inside of him that has been kept at bay for such a long time. It still lingers there in the depths of his soul and is only fed by the darkblood that runs through his body. A blood of this world that can be dangerous all on its own.

"Ruin me? Do you really think my life can be any further ruined?" There is a quivering in the rocks beneath their feet. His ability to control his surroundings far stronger then it was a year ago when he first discovered he could move things with his mind. A year of training himself and his abilities. But even he knows that without the calming force that is Lan Wangji, he can lose himself to the corruption this place encourages. He can't let himself get too worked up over this man.

"Do you think you have any power over me at all? Do you really believe you can force me into telling you anything?"

[poorlittlesange]

He startles when the ground trembles under his feet and looks down, watching the pebbles shiver and bounce against his shoes. Then he looks up again at Wei Wuxian with that same expression of wide-eyed mania writ large over his face. He's stunned, and terrified, and the absurd fact that Wei Wuxian would rather kill him than tell him what happened to his son puts him right at the top of the steps in Lanling City again, waiting for Nie Mingjue to bring down Baxia on his head.

"Kill me then," he spits. "Do it."

[chenqing_player]

"What good would that do? No one truly dies in this place. You'll only come back and nothing will be gained at all. Death is pointless. Killing gains no one anything. A lesson that you should learn."

Wei Wuxian doesn't kill. Not anymore. It is the one thing he has vowed as each of his experiences in all of these worlds has shaped him. He barely sees any reason to even fight any more. THe fact that he has gotten this worked up is going to bother him later when he has had a chance to cool down.

"But what you need to understand is I know what lies in your future. We aren't from the same time. Possibly not even the same place. And you should remember that should anyone else we know arrives."

Because it is important. Anyone that is dead on their world can come to this place.