泽芜君 (𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛). (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
calmness) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ximilialog2022-02-13 05:04 pm
calmness) wrote in ximilialog2022-02-13 05:04 pm
[open] my soul is the color of ice and snow
CHARACTERS: lan xichen and YOU
LOCATION: around the ship
DATE: all after february 21st
CONTENT: simulation of cloud recess with totally not real rabbits that wear headbands, magical healing music, and a bit of sad time drinking. everything is about poorly coping.
WARNINGS: will update as i go, post-mission sadness ahead
time on the back hills (pets are forbidden)
[for an afternoon, those wishing to step into the simulation room will find it occupied and the scene before them as they step through the doors a pathway that leads them through a compound in the mountains. here winter turns to spring, blossoms bloom on trees still surrounded by sporadic piles of snow.
xichens them at the head of the path that leads them down past a waterfall and a pool, winding through the compound.] Come. Let me show you something.
[once on the way, xichen leads the two them through winding pathways and down a narrow path through a thick tree-line until they emerge on a grassy hill that is seems empty and covered in small patches of snow. the only notable thing there is a large rabbit-hutch standing under a tree, providing shade for the sunny field. xichen makes his way to the hutch, where he's left a basket full of vegetables -- carrots, lettuce, beets.
anyone approaching will soon realise that some of the white puffs of snow are not snow at all, but white rabbits of various sizes. some of them, surprisingly, wear a similar headband to the one xichen wears across his forehead.] Join me? [xichen calls over his shoulder, motioning them closer to the hutch.] They're friendly and easily won over, but I must warn you, they have a poor sense of boundaries. [he tips his head toward the basket of food, bribes for the rabbits.]
I used to take my nephew to this place after a difficult time. [he says after a while, in lieu of explanation for why he's created this particular vision for them all. rabbits are great for stress, you see. and that he equates some of you as needing the same soothing as a toddler once did.]
the song of clarity
[in the sunlight room, soft chords can be heard by anyone who passes through or wishes a moment of calm. xichen settles in a shady spot with his guqin, newly acquired and not quite tuned in the way he'd like. not that anyone unfamiliar could tell.
he sends a quick message to the network before he begins playing, a warning and also an invitation.] I am playing a song of Clarity the sunlight room, for those interested. If you have been feeling anxious or ill-at-ease, or unable to rest, the music is infused with Qi and will help ease your mind. I will play for anyone who needs it.
[the music floats through the room, the notes of the qin accompanied by sounds pulled forth by pale blue energy as he strikes each chord so it seems like he is accompanying himself with his flute. he has rested enough, slept most of the days since their return, that his energy levels are returning to their pre-mission state. not normal, no, but good enough that he can play. it helps too, serves as a distraction from the way things ended in scorpion's bend where the left a man to his seclusion.
that is a future xichen knows well, though he is pushing those exact thoughts out as he plays.
company is welcome and xichen plays the song all the way through regardless of when company joins him. as it comes to a close, he opens his eyes and looks at his companion.] Do you feel alright?
late nights musings and moping
[as it was for many, the mission was not an easy one for xichen. the conclusion, knowing that ford is left alone and the orb acted for its own entertainment leaves a hole in xichen's heart.
it makes anger boil in his chest, leaves him tossing and turning after exhaustion fades away. so instead of resting, he wanders the halls of the ship in the night. sometimes he is found on the observation deck, looking out at the stars with the corners of his lips pulled downward in a frown and brows creased in muted anger.
other times, deep in the night, he wanders to the kitchens and brews himself a cup of tea as he bends himself over a book that he is not truly reading. if pulled from his reading, he looks up at whatever poor soul enters the kitchen at this hour.] Would you like a cup? [there's still a good amount of tea in the pot next to him, a special blend from braccia for those who may recognize it. after a moment, he speaks again.] Or something stronger?
wild card!
[ooc: feel free to throw some variation of these my way or let me know if you'd like something else at grimm#9436 on discord or on plurk!]
LOCATION: around the ship
DATE: all after february 21st
CONTENT: simulation of cloud recess with totally not real rabbits that wear headbands, magical healing music, and a bit of sad time drinking. everything is about poorly coping.
WARNINGS: will update as i go, post-mission sadness ahead
time on the back hills (pets are forbidden)
[for an afternoon, those wishing to step into the simulation room will find it occupied and the scene before them as they step through the doors a pathway that leads them through a compound in the mountains. here winter turns to spring, blossoms bloom on trees still surrounded by sporadic piles of snow.
xichens them at the head of the path that leads them down past a waterfall and a pool, winding through the compound.] Come. Let me show you something.
[once on the way, xichen leads the two them through winding pathways and down a narrow path through a thick tree-line until they emerge on a grassy hill that is seems empty and covered in small patches of snow. the only notable thing there is a large rabbit-hutch standing under a tree, providing shade for the sunny field. xichen makes his way to the hutch, where he's left a basket full of vegetables -- carrots, lettuce, beets.
anyone approaching will soon realise that some of the white puffs of snow are not snow at all, but white rabbits of various sizes. some of them, surprisingly, wear a similar headband to the one xichen wears across his forehead.] Join me? [xichen calls over his shoulder, motioning them closer to the hutch.] They're friendly and easily won over, but I must warn you, they have a poor sense of boundaries. [he tips his head toward the basket of food, bribes for the rabbits.]
I used to take my nephew to this place after a difficult time. [he says after a while, in lieu of explanation for why he's created this particular vision for them all. rabbits are great for stress, you see. and that he equates some of you as needing the same soothing as a toddler once did.]
the song of clarity
[in the sunlight room, soft chords can be heard by anyone who passes through or wishes a moment of calm. xichen settles in a shady spot with his guqin, newly acquired and not quite tuned in the way he'd like. not that anyone unfamiliar could tell.
he sends a quick message to the network before he begins playing, a warning and also an invitation.] I am playing a song of Clarity the sunlight room, for those interested. If you have been feeling anxious or ill-at-ease, or unable to rest, the music is infused with Qi and will help ease your mind. I will play for anyone who needs it.
[the music floats through the room, the notes of the qin accompanied by sounds pulled forth by pale blue energy as he strikes each chord so it seems like he is accompanying himself with his flute. he has rested enough, slept most of the days since their return, that his energy levels are returning to their pre-mission state. not normal, no, but good enough that he can play. it helps too, serves as a distraction from the way things ended in scorpion's bend where the left a man to his seclusion.
that is a future xichen knows well, though he is pushing those exact thoughts out as he plays.
company is welcome and xichen plays the song all the way through regardless of when company joins him. as it comes to a close, he opens his eyes and looks at his companion.] Do you feel alright?
late nights musings and moping
[as it was for many, the mission was not an easy one for xichen. the conclusion, knowing that ford is left alone and the orb acted for its own entertainment leaves a hole in xichen's heart.
it makes anger boil in his chest, leaves him tossing and turning after exhaustion fades away. so instead of resting, he wanders the halls of the ship in the night. sometimes he is found on the observation deck, looking out at the stars with the corners of his lips pulled downward in a frown and brows creased in muted anger.
other times, deep in the night, he wanders to the kitchens and brews himself a cup of tea as he bends himself over a book that he is not truly reading. if pulled from his reading, he looks up at whatever poor soul enters the kitchen at this hour.] Would you like a cup? [there's still a good amount of tea in the pot next to him, a special blend from braccia for those who may recognize it. after a moment, he speaks again.] Or something stronger?
wild card!
[ooc: feel free to throw some variation of these my way or let me know if you'd like something else at grimm#9436 on discord or on plurk!]
no subject
he listens to the other man's words, to the evenness with which he speaks. clinical, detached but xichen knows what calm and even can hide. his own approach i always that, to hide between a tempered tone and gentle smile.
it is a mask he's crafted over a lifetime. ] It cannot be learned?
You are lucky it cannot be destroyed or taken. [ he thinks back to the war, to a man capable of doing just that but he had been one of them. a cultivator aligned to a sect that wished to wipe the others form existence, lead by a man who could manipulate resentful energy and raise the dead.
he looks at his hand. ] It's qi. An energy that flows through everything. I am a Cultivator, I can manipulate to it light a room, to soothe the mind, or silence a crowd. [ or anything he wants, really, but there are lines he will not cross. ] Passing through my golden core, it manifests as blue.
no subject
[He draws more branches, tiny and intersecting, trying to make sense of the stories mentioned to him months ago - the truth he's dreading to face] You are here because you regret one of these branches - big or small, you wish it away.
[He wipes his dry fingers over a central one, leaving the rest of the branching branch in place. It floats disconnected next to the tree.] You cannot go back, because there is no branch to walk upon. We will land on another branch, dropped in to another life that was not the one we left behind. [He points to a random branch further up in the tree and after a beat, he wipes everything away except for the base.]
Or we start over. It depends on the regret, I presume.
[Shaking his head, the Darkling looks away from his tree.] What I can do, is something I was born with. It cannot be learned. [But can yours? He doesn't add, watching the blue light in Xichen's hand]
That sounds like the will of the Making at the Heart of the World. A thread that binds us to all things, and Grisha are able to feel it, to manipulate it and bend it to our will.
[Hand reaching out, he lets it hover just outside the ball of light.] May I?
no subject
the tree begins to evaporate, as will their memories of the time spent here with one another. ] We start anew, if we feel changing our regret is still worth it after all we see here.
[ but then there's the matter of what the other man can do, what his power manifests as. that has xichen curious. ]
No? And do you inherently know what to do with it? [ xichen shifts his hand and the light dances, spiraling between his fingers. as the darkling reaches for it, he raises a brow but does not withdraw his hand. ]
That is what qi is to cultivators. A thread the connects everything, that we can harness in ways that those without a golden core cannot.
no subject
[What a foreign concept. The Darkling has already sacrificed too much, has already done too much, to back down from this and go back to a world where Alina despises him. To a world where he has lost her, and the promise of her Sun.
A world where the Fold still slashes across the world, uncontrollable and wild.
His eyebrow twitches up, as he drains another glass.]
If we know or not, depends on the Grisha. Some know, some need to learn just what they are. We all need to train, to hone the skill that comes so easily to most of us. Precision, strength, inventiveness.
And, of course, the theory about the Small Science.
[When the light isn't pulled away from him, the Darkling lets two of his curled fingers move through the blue light. A slow stroking motion, before he looks away, gaze finding Xichen's from across the table.]
What is your golden core capable of?