Open | RIP Sebastian + catch all

[singlelogbridge]

CHARACTERS: Wei Wuxian, a giant dead crab, and you!
LOCATION: The kitchen/mess hall
DATE: September 17th
CONTENT: Eating crabs
WARNINGS: None at the moment



A

[The day after their return from Xrisora, Wei Wuxian can be found having taken over one of the stoves in the kitchen. Lying on the counter next to him are two crab legs—that is, two giant crab legs from a Titan Crab. How did he get them here? It is a mystery. Anyway, he’s taken over a part of the kitchen with his crab shenanigans and is slowly but surely beginning to cook one of the legs up. After a while, he makes the executive decision to freeze a leg and a half because there is absolutely no way they’ll be able to eat all of it.

Anyway, he is cooking so much crab.

At some point he is absolutely burning some of the crab. Maybe someone can supervise? Please come save the crab.]

B

[Somehow, most of the crab gets cooked without being burned or ruined in some other way, which means it is time to season it! Do you like your crab spicy? Obviously you do, why wouldn’t you? Who doesn’t like spice? Only crazy people, that’s who!

Thankfully, Wei Wuxian is friends with Itachi which means he’s aware that some people on the station can’t handle spice. This means that most of the crab is boring and only has some melted butter on it, and absolutely zero eye searing red flakes and spices.

Everyone should help themselves to crab. Their options are terrible, boring, (perfectly fine) normal crab, or delicious, stunning, wonderful (hope you didn’t need your tastebuds or your esophagus!) spicy crab.]

C
[And at some point, a text across the network.]

I’m making crab!

[That’s it, that’s the text, he doesn’t have time for this network nonsense, his pan is on fire!]

D

[Wildcard it! Crab related or other!]

Comments

[singlelogbridge]

[With an overly dramatic sigh, Wei Wuxian groans and shakes his head.]

Not you too, Dajie! [He whines, but whatever he's so pressed about clearly isn't actually as big of a deal as he's making it out to be because there's still a good natured humor in his eyes.]

Cultivation is not magic. [He is going to write a book about this. He is going to write a pamphlet and then he can hand it out to people whenever the subject comes up. He is going to make posters and pin them on the walls of every room in the station.]

All of these other worlds—they really only understand anything supernatural as magic, don't they? Aiya! cultivation is...it is supernatural, but where I'm from the supernatural and the natural don't have as many lines drawn between them.

We've spoken a little of qi I think, right? Everyone has it. You, me, any plant or animal. This is universal of everyone in the station. Cultivation is...it's using that qi to form ling qi—spiritual energy. Everyone is capable of it. From what I understand of magic, this is one of many things that sets it apart.

[oiorpata]

[ his reaction pulls a small grin out of her, almost a laugh, as she shoves another bite of crab in her mouth. ]

If they're capable of it, no one on my Earth has learned how to use it. [ she says it with a certainty that isn't particularly boastful so much as it just is. ]

Qi exists as a concept, and I'm pretty familiar with it compared to others, but the things you do with it? Don't happen. Therefore, the music lifting people into the air, control over corpses - it's like magic to me. [ she shakes the bag. ] Pockets only exist as big as you sew them. But I can see why it wouldn't be magic for you, so I'll try to get better about what I call it.

[singlelogbridge]

[Wei Wuxian suspects that the art is merely lost, or kept concealed, if only because he can't fathom a world where people can't hone qi into spiritual energy. It isn't a magical ability, it's simply the way of nature. But perhaps no one had ever been taught how, or the secrets of cultivation have fallen into disuse.]

Ah, you misunderstand. I don't mean to say cultivation isn't supernatural. It's just...[He shakes his head and sighs.]

The...[It takes him a minute to remember the name] the Americans here. Most of them I've noticed...there is only magic and non magic. There is nothing else, nothing in between. That's...unbearably simple. Black and white, like a line can simply be drawn between two different worlds.

Cultivation isn't magic because the line is thinner if it exists at all. Qi is no more magical than blood, and spiritual energy is honed from qi. Everything living is made up of energy. All cultivators do is find a way to use it.

[oiorpata]

Don't get me started on Americans. [ perfect opportunity to crack a joke in the wake of all the spiritual talk. the ones here are perfectly nice but there's a reason she hasn't been back to the states in the last two decades. ]

[ there's no easy way to tell him how she knows it to be true of her world without outing just how long she's been alive. that's she's been to china repeatedly, in many different eras and different dynasties, and not once did she witness the kinds of things xichen and wu wexian can do. ]

You're right in a sense, about the black and white lines. Most assumed pieces of magic have ended up being science in the trajectory of my Earth, and I know I have a pretty dim view on the supernatural. [ she does not think of her immortality as magic, not anymore. it just is. ]

I don't disbelieve any of what you're saying. That anyone can learn it, that the line is thin. And I see more of what you mean now, about it not being magic. I've just never met a cultivator before coming here, and I've met a lot more people than your average person.