Wei Wuxian (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
acrookedpath) wrote2020-09-23 05:05 pm
acrookedpath) wrote2020-09-23 05:05 pm
[pfsb]
The good news: the energy-revealing array works!
The bad news --
It's not bad news, he insists to himself. It just... is. It's a complication, a hole in the road, a little snare tripping him up. That's all. It doesn't have to be more. It might not even be in the first place, yes? He is dead, Lan Zhan is alive, of course seeing just how very alive would stir something in him. That's all it is.
Right?
Never mind that he's fairly certain if he placed the same array on Harrow, or Tom-gongzi, or Ingress, he would not have been struck the same way. That -- it's ridiculous, this is all ridiculous, and that's why he's out here by the lake, standing on a flat rock with another array of talismans fluttering in his hand.
The key is not just luring resentful energy from the forest, despite the suppression around the inn. It is how swiftly he can do it. During his coffee-fueled spree of work last night, he drew up some new lures that ought to work faster than a traditional set. Now he scatters them in a wide circle around his feet, gestures sharply, and sends a bolt of red energy into the yellow paper slips.
Silently, in his head, he begins to count. One... two... three...
At the count of thirteen, something boils at the forest's edge, dark and oily.
Wei Wuxian smiles and lifts his flute to meet it.
The bad news --
It's not bad news, he insists to himself. It just... is. It's a complication, a hole in the road, a little snare tripping him up. That's all. It doesn't have to be more. It might not even be in the first place, yes? He is dead, Lan Zhan is alive, of course seeing just how very alive would stir something in him. That's all it is.
Right?
Never mind that he's fairly certain if he placed the same array on Harrow, or Tom-gongzi, or Ingress, he would not have been struck the same way. That -- it's ridiculous, this is all ridiculous, and that's why he's out here by the lake, standing on a flat rock with another array of talismans fluttering in his hand.
The key is not just luring resentful energy from the forest, despite the suppression around the inn. It is how swiftly he can do it. During his coffee-fueled spree of work last night, he drew up some new lures that ought to work faster than a traditional set. Now he scatters them in a wide circle around his feet, gestures sharply, and sends a bolt of red energy into the yellow paper slips.
Silently, in his head, he begins to count. One... two... three...
At the count of thirteen, something boils at the forest's edge, dark and oily.
Wei Wuxian smiles and lifts his flute to meet it.
no subject
Yes, he thinks. He can understand that very well.
Before he can let himself ruminate too long on just how well he understands it, Wei Wuxian opts to seize on the other part of Kevin's story. "Blood?" he asks. "Or, ah -- no, please don't tell me if it was something other than blood."
Because there are a lot of options, not all of which are fit for discussion with someone you just met.
no subject
He doesn't tell him. Which probably doesn't help, any more than Kevin's slightly amused smirk. But just 'blood' doesn't really cover the physical exersion in the act.
(And hey, worth noticing: Sefton just effectively came out to a person from a wildly different culture to himself, and nothing happened.)
"But yeah, it's mnore about the act and the intention, but all the magics around here," he gives a vague gesture, "are way more specific. People know what it is and how to harness it in much for exact ways."
no subject
"Have you found anything yet that may be useful in your own world? Or is it too specific? I met another necromancer here who has a precision to her work I have yet to capture -- it gives me much to do, but not everything translates perfectly to my own path."
no subject
('Exactly what you'd expect,' Gaiman said. Sefton still doesn't know what to expect.)
"Weirdly the most transferrable thing has been meeting the equivalent of our local... uh, the word 'gods' doesn't really fit. Spiritual beings?"
no subject
He has heard stories of extremely powerful beings making their home at the inn, whether gods or otherwise, but has yet to meet any himself. Sometimes he will muse on it, but never for too long. If it happens, then he will figure out what to do when it happens.
"What sort of spiritual beings? How does it transfer?"
no subject
"Beings that have been created from all the - magic, belief, memory, whatever it is - that makes my London what it is. Not things that used to be human and changed but that are a part of the locality themselves. They're assigned to certain concepts, I guess, and have a dominion of a sort.
"I think it helps that I have so much cultural overlap with worlds that come here - there are lots of Londons, and while they don't all have magic, they all have a - Baker Street, for example."
Which will mean nothing to Wei Wuxian and he knows it.
"Does your culture have the idea of an afterlife? A domain, maybe with someone ruling over it?"