westwhere | a little dream of her

a little dream of her | part i

A LITTLE DREAM OF HER

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This is the first of two logs covering the Dream county travel Arc — it stretches until 23 April OOCly and covers roughly one IC week. There is an entirely optional wedding mystery plot, which will depend heavily on information gathering, sharing and deduction, rather than on supernatural powers.

Boarding scenarios for existing and new characters are covered under the Old Timers and New Arrivals header, respectively. Click on the tabs for details!

OLD TIMERS

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Absorbing Wrath, Licyn and Yelena’s feedback, King Deimar of Alem decides against joining his brother Haiva in ‘noble sacrifice’ to hell. Good news for the party, who depends on royal savvy to reach Alem’s otherworld transport beacon, buried in the labyrinthine tunnels beneath crumbling Alem.

■ Deimar and his paladins guide small groups back to the beacon — but the keypoint’s war-drained energies only let a handful of party members out. Characters who have dropped or been swept by AC during Arc VI go home. You can also canon update your character now.

The party must heads onwards east, boarding a dreamy train at a station near Hassir. Here, find exotic stalls with wares once intended for Alem — from the latest travel fashions, to unlucky artefacts, heavy alcohol and narcotics. You can even purchase a domestic ghost.

Whether the Merchant supplies a ticket or false staff uniforms for you to proactively sneak aboard, don’t dally — this train runs like clockwork.

NEW ARRIVALS

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You wake up to claustrophobia, ash and gravel in your mouth — and a sense of urgency: run. Midway through a slovenly, rattling underground corridor, you meet an irritable woman, who leads you out, at the foot of a serene, smoke-topped mountain.

The woman passes you a pendant that allows you to understand her and to communicate with others like you. You are one of many otherworlders brought into Akhuras by undead lords who seek to weaponise you, as they battle humans and each other for dominion. Don’t believe her? Look up. The holy citadel Alem yet burns before the dead armies of Rahakku.

The woman is Karsa, an associate of the elusive Merchant, who collects and leads otherworlders east, where ancient beacons can transport them home.

Regrettably, you’re late — you arrived with the unexpected last gasps of Alem’s dying beacon and must now catch up with the others, who’ve departed on the Sandman train express.

WHY THE LONG FACE?

Karsa barters for a carriage led by two nightmare horses, along with several such steeds for confident riders. These are mercurial mounts and dizzyingly fast — your only shot to reach a train travelling through Dream county.

■ Karsa warns you must not fall asleep during travel. The horses will invade your nightmares, consuming your vital energy while you suffer asleep.

■ Talk at all times or sound the shrill silver bells Karsa provides to wake up any sleepers.

You reach the seaside village of Kyari, where you must board the incoming Sandman express. Regrettably, the horses have left Karsa with just enough coin for one ticket for the wounded Dean Winchester. Everyone else: make do.

You must also help Karsa sneak in fist-sized, forbidden dream boxes. Try to avoid the Sandman’s guards and their canine sentries, who scent newly boarding passengers for such contraband. Return the boxes to Karsa once on the train.

You’ve got 45 minutes to board, once the Sandman reaches its rustic station. Some options?

■ Play stowaway and break the rustier locks of the economy class cars.

■ Sweet talk the depressed Conductor. You bought, but just… forgot your ticket.

■ Distract the guards while your group boards, so they can sneak you on after.

■ Plant dream contraband on another would-be passenger, when the dogs draw close.

■ Ride one of those god-forsaken horses and jump on top of the train once it starts moving, then make your way in through ceiling hatches. God help.

A fully veiled young woman might lend you a hand.

THE SANDMAN

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All aboard… the Sandman, a majestic 100-car train that gallops on an emaciated railway across Dream county. Ghosts and dream residents wave as it passes by.

The Sandman stops once after leaving Alem, at seaside village Kyari, before crossing the abyss of the Cradle — the turbulent, storm-prone birthplace of dreams, where it is constantly night-time.

Some say the Cradle is only a cauldron for those who steal dreams or make them into living things. Others say the Cradle has its own mind.

To avoid igniting dream storms, passengers are strictly prohibited from carrying dream tokens and performing dream magic. Characters find their powers are significantly reduced while travelling on the Sandman.

New arrivals join the Sandman at Kyari with group caretaker Karsa, who introduces them to the old party.

■ The Sandman offers exquisite single-person compartments with en-suite bathrooms for First Class passengers, while Second Class travellers share generous cabins in pairs, and up to four voyagers can bunk up in… cozy Third Class cabins. Shared bathrooms and a small sauna cabin are also available.

■ You can hide in the staff, luggage or coal stock rooms.

■ You can decide your character’s First/Second/Third Class, staff or stowaway status. (Pick a job for staff!)

■ The LOST & FOUND booth contains an assortment of clothes and items forgotten by passengers, which you can raid (within reason). Latest findings: cigarettes, medical-grade opiate powders, a a beautiful green dress and pink striped men’s suit, all brought in after the Sandman leaves Kyari.

■ Amenities range from dining & bar carts to game, exercise and cinema halls where the (PG-13!) pleasant dreams you’ve gambled away can be viewed freely, or passengers can hold recitals or seminars.

■ You can gamble in regular currency or pleasant dreams (not memories).

■ Travellers are polite and social. You learn early on that you share a voyage with renown heroine and First Class passenger Firo, who, alongside her friends and sister party, picks up her bride Prassenze from Kyari.

■ Within two hours of leaving Kyari, the sky begins to darken, becoming pitch black and occasionally loudly stormed. It stays a starless night time throughout your journey over the Cradle.

■ For communal safety, windows and doors are locked and magically enforced shut after the train departs Kyari. The nightmare storms within the Cradle region crackle with highly chaotic energy that can (re)shape reality, endangering passengers. Deputy conductor Michel Bauc holds the window and door keys. An irritating, tinny, train-wide alarm sounds if anyone tries to force a window open.

■ You might sometimes find fellow passengers trying to exit the train or open the windows to join the storms, while they nap. Do wake up them up.

■ Whether you’re an insomniac or don’t typically need sleep, you find you fall instantly asleep at midnight and awaken refreshed by 8 a.m.

■ A skeletal crew serves the Sandman at night. The most authoritative figure is gloomy Conductor Rossakoff, who slinks silently across the train.

THE MENU

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Trot down to the dining carts for an unforgettable meal included with your ticket. Formal evening attire is expected during dinner. Some courses are lightly sparkled with stimulants that deepen certain aspects of diner’s emotions during the meal — this is not disclosed ICly, but visible to you OOCly in the menu. (ex: the Ham and Laughter Eggs triggers roaring laughter and a good disposition ).

BREAKFAST

SUPPER & DINNER

SNACKS & BEVERAGES

DREAM SMUGGLERS

The new arrivals helped Karsa bring contraband aboard, but they’ve steps to go to their final destination. The sorceress doles out fist-sized boxes containing precious dream fragments of happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, guilt or disgust — explicitly prohibited cargo that regains its magical properties once aboard the Sandman.

Each box comes with instructions for drop off under a dining hall table at midday, under a roulette table by 6 p.m. or in the coal room by 8 p.m. Karsa says the deliveries are an explicit favour from the Merchant to an old (dream thief) friend aboard the Sandman.

■ Pair up for your run! Those who hold dream boxes feel their emotions to a player-chosen degree of intensity, throughout their adventure.

■ Beware the vigilant guards of the Sandman, who run frequent searches for illicit dream artefacts. Some bring dream-catching dogs who catch the scent of the dreamed things.

■ You may feel unusually sleepy while holding dream boxes. Doze, and you wake up to find your dreams have summoned a wo/man, child or animal whose temperament embodies the box’s emotion. They can’t help drawing attention, but slowly disappear within 30-60 minutes — wait, are those the guards?

■ Caught smugglers are locked into ‘jail’ cabins, while their contraband is placed in the office of Conductor Rossakoff. First-time captives can be bailed out at ludicrous expense or in exchange for maid service, but repeat offenders are jailed
for the rest of the voyage. Liberate your dream box back from the Conductor’s strangely barren, otherwise untouched compartment.

■ Successfully delivered boxes feed into the mystery of the missing bride. You mysteriously fall asleep to a sweet dream if you wait to meet the collector — and wake up to a feeling of wrongness, as if reality is mute and diffuse around you, before your hearing and vision resettle.

THE GROUNDHOG WEDDING: A MYSTERY

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Firo’s bride Prassenze boards the Sandman from Kyari. She comes alone, veiled head to toe, and only brings a modest case. She is short, thin, pale and shy, prone to silence and retiring to her cabin at the earliest opportunity — a far cry from boisterous Firo.

…so much so that Firo’s sister Lita and friends Dulcinea, Maiza and Attru tell anyone who’ll listen that Firo is marrying this girl after courting her for six months through correspondence. Even bashful Hugo admits the pair is… perhaps a little mismatched. This is their first in-person encounter.

■ The wedding party members plead or offer coin for you to coerce the loving pair to delay their marriage — or to sabotage the wedding, due to take place in two days.

■ An enthusiastic Firo meanwhile asks if you can help with celebratory clothing or wedding ornaments.

■ Shortly after, Lita appears lost in her thoughts and altogether not there, clutching a letter in hand, the day after the Sandman departs Kyari.

HERE COMES THE BRIDE... AGAIN

1.0

No one forgets their wedding night — least of all brave Firo, who, vows performed, makes merry with her group and timid bride over a magnificent feast in the dining halls. Everyone is invited.

The blushing bride is visibly infatuated with Firo, but overwhelmed by the loud, relentless social activity. She hardly speaks to anyone, other than Firo, whose friends complain increasingly loudly that Prassenze is aloof, a cold fish, and thinks herself above them.

Prassenze excuses herself to freshen up in her cabin. Nearly an hour’s absence later, a worried Firo checks up on her — finding the bride’s compartment locked from the inside. Once the door is forced open, the partygoers — and you? — discover the inside stormed, bridal veils discarded on the floors, and windows widely open as the Cradle’s nightmare tempests rage.

The bride has vanished.

Terrified, Firo questions everyone in earnest, accepting your assistance to find Prassenze.

2.0.

You wake up next morning to find everyone reliving the same wedding day, which only fellow otherworlders recall. Squinting outside, you see new landscape — suggesting the Sandman has covered a day’s journey.

The bride Prassenze is present again, but sharply different in appearance and manner. Now, she is closer to Firo in size, her build athletic. Her manner is brusque, assertive, commanding. Some in Firo’s group are put off, others frightened. Firo appears a little taken aback by her bride’s domineering nature.

During the second wedding, a drunk Maiza and Dulcinea quarrel with Prassenze, who doesn’t back down. A frustrated Firo tries to break the fight, verbally lashing out at her friends for drinking and at Prassenze for stooping to their intoxicated level.

Prassenze storms to her cabin. She is once more found missing, when searched. As before, her compartment was locked from the inside, the window is wide open, and her veils have been abandoned.

3.0.

You wake up to a third wedding day, with only party otherworlders recalling the past two days. Prassenze looks and acts differently from the first and second wedding day — now she is of average build and height, with an especially jovial, overly friendly manner, prone to laughter and pranks. This time, she drinks with Firo’s friends, plays (and wins!) at many of their card and dice games, humours their stories and even flirts — but is so devoted to Firo’s group that she accidentally neglects Firo herself throughout the day. Firo repeatedly tries to coax her to spend time together, but fails, and abandons her during the wedding feast — perhaps meeting you for a drink instead?

Realising she has driven Fire away, a distressed Prassenze once more withdraws into her compartment at the end of the (third) wedding night — and disappears, leaving the same clues behind as on the first and second wedding day.

There are no further repetitions and time passes regularly after the third wedding day. The morning after, apothecary passenger Rigolante mentions asks Conductor Rossakoff to conduct a search, as some of his herbs and measuring tools have gone missing.

■ Player characters can change events and investigate during the second and third ~~groundhog~~ wedding days. Regrettably, Prassenze still disappears.

■ Non-PC characters and the Sandman’s crew only recall the third wedding day.

■ Conductor Rossakoff says the number of dreamers whose dreams help propel the Sandman during the obligatory midnight-8 a.m. nap — what do you know, you were helping all along! — has stayed the same since leaving Kyari, meaning the bride is alive on board. No one seems able to find her… help a distraught Firo find her missing wife!

CAST & CREW

	FIRO Good-humoured, sincere and just heroine, renown for her many feats of bravery — from rescuing villages to outwitting sphinxes and challenging immortals. Loud and prone to laughter. Quick to tell everyone about her beloved Prassenze.
	CONTESSA LITA Doting older sister of Firo, married to a Count who prefers a quiet life at his countryside estate. Preposterously wealthy and fashionable. Life of every party.
	MAIZA Once a gifted mathematician, Maiza quickly realized there is more money for the modern man to make from his brawns than his brains. After retraining as a barbarian, he served as muscle (and accountant) during many of Firo’s adventures..
	ATTRU The prince of a distant land, some say descended from wolves. Walks among men to learn their ways. Looks young, but will mention at least three wives and five children in the first five minutes of conversation. Smooth.
	DULCINEA Redeemed mercenary, who once used to sell her sword to anyone with the coin to spare — some say, even the dead! Turned an honest leaf after meeting Firo, of whom she is very protective. At times still sinister at her edges.
	HUGO A pilot turned priest, or a priest turned pilot. Met Firo during his many travels. Soft-spoken, mild-mannered, but jittery, with the kind of thin nerves that suggest he has survived numerous fraught circumstances.
	RIGOLANTE An apothecary of exotic drugs and herbs. He had hoped to make his fortune in Alem, but arrived just as the fortress crumbled, before he could sell enough of his wares. Prays he will find better fortune east.
	CONDUCTOR ROSSAKOFF The gloom and doom of the Sandman, eerily tall, slinking and silent. Passengers prefer to deal with deputy conductor Michael Bauc because of Rossakoff’s intimidating and discouraging presence. Takes a hard stand on smuggling or passenger misbehaviour and all but worships the Sandman.
	PRASSENZE The all-veiled bride of Firo, boarding at Kyari. Not once, not twice, but thrice disappeared.

IC TIMELINE

Day 01: Boarding at Hassir/Alem (morning)

Day 03: Boarding at Kyari (midday); within two hours of departing, the Sandman starts journeying on the railway above the abyssal Cradle — the sky is pitch black at all hours, nightmare storms rattle the train.

Day 04: Lita begins to behave airily, as if she’s not quite present.

Day 05: First wedding (16:00) and wedding feast (19:00)

Day 06: Second wedding (16:00) and wedding feast (19:00)

Day 07: Third wedding (16:00) and wedding feast (19:00).

Day 08: Rigolante asks Conductor Rossakoff to enforce a search for his missing herbs and recipients.

QUESTIONS

NPC THREADS

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Eight.

( A flash of a smile, grim, before he nods to the door again. )

See you soon.

( Allowing him to be out first, to set to his task in whatever way he's comfortable, while Wei Wuxian's mind is already soaring ahead, to what he'll be doing in his cabin. The questions he'll ask, because curses here don't have the constraints like back home. They're more like his ongoing study of Xie Lian's curse shackles, defined in a different sort of take where the give doesn't need to be bought in blood.

How cunning, to make great evil easier than it seems, with heavier costs down the line. )

[ It takes Five longer than he anticipated to do something as simple as putting a necklace away and finding room 'eight'; long enough that it might seem like he'd changed his mind again. If he didn't feel like he was going to crawl out of his skin, he could have spared the energy to resent Wei Wuxian for indirectly causing an encounter will come back to haunt him. Lucky for him, he's already half out of his mind and the pulse of anguish drowns out all of his usual grievances.

Of course, there's another reason he's slow. He still can't teleport, which leaves him exposed to anyone who wanted to see him slink off to be for help. A concern for another day. He runs his hand through his hair and debates for one last time, then knocks and waits to be let in. ]

( Wei Wuxian answers the door, stepping to the side to invite Five in with a half smile and wave toward the table. Two glasses of wine sit there, and water, and cinnabar and ink, brushes, paper. )

Come in, sit down, let's see what we can do for you. The wine's nice if you want any, stick to one glass, ah? Everything in glasses here, no one has respectable cups, no bowls, what's with the love of glasses in so many places?

( It's filling speech until the door is closed, and he turns back to Five, expression serious. )

Talk me through what you're presently struggling with. The more I understand it, the more I can do to help.

( They're watched by two rabbits flopped on the bed, chewing on the last of the grasses he'd been feeding them in the monastery. They seem alert but not too concerned with the new presence in the room, though neither of them makes any move to leave their languishing perch to come closer. )

[ Five squints through his rambling and pushes past him as soon as the door is open wide enough for him to fit, like he's suddenly in a huge rush and Wei Wuxian hasn't been patiently waiting on him to show. And pouring him wine. With his... rabbits.

A quick glance around confirms that they’re alone otherwise. He should be here with Allison and Wrath. Having his sister with him had even been one of his conditions, but now he’s here and so desperate to get this over with that he's foregone all the precautions that he negotiated. He can't even teleport out. Wrath warned him about making decisions when he was still clear headed. He didn't listen, and here he is.

Eventually he turns back, confused and uncertain. It's been too long since their last conversation, and he can't remember what he told him or what he pieced together himself. Can he help if he doesn't know?

He frowns and takes a seat, never answering that question for himself. ]

The body in the lake. [ He has to know. He was there, why is he telling him? ] A piece of the mirror that was inside. It still works.

( He comes to take a seat as well, nodding his head the once to acknowledge what he'd guessed at the time, but that Five has been very devoted to dodging now and again, as one does. He doesn't blame him for it so much as wonder at who Five would be if this were being resolved more proactively — far be it from him to tell another person how to handle their curses.

Though that is exactly what he has to do now. Exhausted, depleted, and relying on the very things that he was mocked and feared for a lifetime ago. )

It's still absorbing with you as the container.

( That's what the lake did, funneling memories, emotions. It called to people because of those. Taking that curse into himself because he ended Anurr's punishment for that particular body. He folds his hands and arms down onto the table. )

Extracting the mirror is going to be complex. What we can do is pull out those energies to some extent. You're not a cultivator, so it might be better I'm doing this now...

( He leans back, bringing his hands together to press flat, palm to palm. )

It's going to feel terrible. Then it'll feel better. Until you're overfull again, or we cleanse the curse fully out of you.

[ Got it in one. Five shifts subtly away when Wei Wuxian takes a seat and wars with himself quietly over his choice to come to him. At worse, he’s revealed what had only been a guess before, and proven that he’s been struggling with a curse for almost a long as he’s known him. He’s not sure if that might serve to dismiss his actions or put others in a different light, but coming here changes their dynamic in ways he doesn’t know how to deal with.

He nearly backs out a dozen more times, if only to come back or insist they do this with the others in the room, but he can’t keep putting this off. Wrath said to make time. He needs to buy some until he can have it removed entirely.

Wei Wuxian’s confidence helps keeps him seated, then eying the wine. His attention is brought back as he brings his hands together, like he’s preparing. Hesitantly, he nods, then slowly elaborates. ]

It absorbs anguish. I’ve already had that confirmed for me. [ How much worse can it possibly feel? He’s never gotten a break from the suffering around them. ]

That’s good enough. [ Then there’s the fact that Wei Wuxian wore himself out doing who knows what when Hell spilled over. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up. ] What do I have to do?

( An inclination of his head. Given what he did know, hearing what specifics this mirror shard angles after makes sense.

He taps a finger next to his brush, the cinnabar, the inkstone. )

Get down to whites, or anything closest to skin. Or skin. ( He grimaces, and shrugs. ) I write on you to start the process, like I'm working with an issue for a low level cultivator, passing bad blood, bad energy, out of your system.

( Like a slow moving qi deviation, but he doesn't say that, not exactly. It won't make sense to Five in a meaningful, useful way. )

It's going to feel like you're about to throw up, because you will. Don't panic when it's blood. That's normal for things like this, and I'll be focussing. Guiding this energy out so it's not a danger to you or me or anyone, ah?

[ It’s not as if he didn’t know where this was going after the sleepwalking incident made him familiar with his techniques, but it makes the rabbits and the wine look more like poor attempts to put him at ease. He gives him a hard look after he tells him not to panic when he starts throwing up blood, but he doesn’t back away. At least he was warned.

He can’t decide if it’s better or worse that Allison and Wrath aren’t here to see it.

Silently and stone-faced, he stands and starts to peel off his outer layers. Then, slower, the thin undershirt beneath. His skin is predictably covered in bruises and superficial wounds, but nothing that can’t be easily explained by what they all went through in Alem. Nothing that would give away how much agony he’s been carrying around, aside from how extraordinarily tense he is. That’s how he’s managed to keep it from the others all this time. Most just assume that’s how he is.

Wei Wuxian has seen him vulnerable before and he didn’t take advantage, but this is different. He wouldn’t let the necromancers or the healers in Taravast touch him because of what they might do. If it wasn’t for Hell proving what a liability he is until he gets rid of it, he knows he wouldn’t be here.

He studies the items in front of them, then turns his gaze back. ]

You’re saying there’s no risks? It’ll work and I can walk right out of here?

To this? The risk is it doesn't take enough. You'll walk out of here either way. Possibly feel a bit weak kneed right after, you're this tense, you look as bad as I do.

( As in thin, as in bruised and bony, as in nothing that Wei Wuxian blinks at, even if he knows if he had the ability right now, he would try coaxing this battered body into some healing after.

He doesn't. Saying nothing about it is knowing how Five is with trust and paranoia and the cost it must indicate for him to be here now. )

This will be uncomfortable once things start moving. To start, it'll just feel a little cold. Are you ticklish?

( Here, as he grinds the cinnabar as ink, as he makes the proper consistency, and gives Five a level look. )

Warn me if you need to move.

[ There's a few valid reasons he avoids mirrors. He's never a fan of exposing what he looks like under the layers, and how small it makes him feel when he doesn't have that protection. The body he's had for two years is growing, but it's still a child's body, and he hasn't put on any muscle to compensate for how young he looks.

Wei Wuxian's comment makes him wonder how battered he is under the robes. Still, he doesn't detect any doubt that he's up for the task. Just a task. ]

I can handle it. [ If nothing else, the Commission conditions out any squeamish behavior their agents might have. Although it has been pointed out to him that he may have an exaggerated confidence in his pain tolerance when it comes to curses. He barely notices how tightly he's gripping his fists at his sides. ] How long will it take?

As long as it does.

( It's an easy, direct answer, while he finishes grinding the cinnabar stone. )

I don't have the qi, the energy, did that translate? I don't have the qi that my husband does to nudge things along faster, but you don't want him here ( stating something he knows is factual from Five's statements in the past ) and so we go slower, safer.

( Picking up the brush and holding it up, carefully dipping, dragging, rolling it in ink. Another tap and a brush across the lip of the inkstone, and he looks to Five. Lifts the brush. )

Starting now.

( Because unlike things he can do more easily back home, pulling all the anguish Five feels into himself is going to be mutually crippling right now. It'd be faster, but he can't control how he'd hold up when he's still not yet hale. Give him a handful more days.

But they don't have those. The brush dips down, and he's intent, focussed, on the sealscript he writes as he asks Five's body to do what the lowest level cultivation can manage, for people just starting. For a child. To call and focus impurities, the negative energies, near, below, around his diaphragm.

The rabbits shake themselves off and hop off the bed, starting to circumnavigate the room. )

[ Five keeps taking in deep breaths, trying to suppress the urge to pull back or blink away. (The way he knows he can't right now after repeated tries getting to the room. A smaller problem to deal with later.) He twitches with every movement, and he holds his composure in an iron grip as the brush sweeps over him in an indecipherable script. He should have brought someone. Wrath might have been able to read it, or at least stop him if he sensed something was off. In the moment, it'll have to be enough that Wei Wuxian remembered to keep his husband away.

And why did he? When he agreed to extract the anguish, he said something about pulling it into him. If he meant that literally, looking like he does, that's not a deal he should have taken. It's been building for months on end, and if Five wasn't actively losing his mind, he would have kept on living with it to avoid anyone else finding out how bad it got.

True to his word, it goes slow. The movement from the rabbits catch his eye and he very nearly snaps his head around, but he's able to grind his teeth and resist. Cold starts to spread from his abdomen, and he pushes down the urge to panic. To let him finish. Remember. The anguish swirling around in him could break him at any moment, and he's determined not to let that happen again.

He's excruciatingly patient as he waits and wonders if he'll burst a blood vessel in his effort to stay still. The moment he finishes, he's going straight for the wine. ]

( The changes are slow moving, but he would feel it as the energies are nudged, gently, towards his dantian. The feeling of pressure, like a cough building or a sneeze threatening yet starting at his diaphragm instead of his nose or lungs builds. Low level nausea, the start of a headache born of tension, tapping at his temples.

Wei Wuxian remains dedicated to his work, the only qi he sends frissioning into Five at that point of his diaphragm, one fingertip tapping against skin. Everything is in place, in motion, and oh, here it comes. )

As much as you can, don't fight the urge to spit up.

( Because the agony is solidifying, coalescing with blood that moves from his stomach with the mildest touch of acid bile to his throat, and the urge to cough, to expel, becomes paramount. As does the discomfort, not brushing pain, but delving into harrowing certainty this must be gone from him, like a cat with a hairball that cannot digest, gone and out and exhausting but settling in the wake of every lingering taste it'll bring to his tongue when he coughs out, spits up, blood and agony, only one visible, both felt.

The rabbits, unconcerned, nose around under the nearby sofa. )

[ It takes so long to manifest that Five has to wonder if what he's feeling is the start of a panic attack or a direct result of Wei Wuxian's methods. Eventually it starts to feel like there's a terrible pressure building inside him, no doubt being guided, until it's met with resistance that's completely separate from him. Like the curse that's rooted in him is trying to hold onto the anguish it needs to thrive.

There wasn't a need to coax him to throw up. Nasuea isn't the worst symptom, but it's the one he has the least control over. The moment Five opens his mouth, blood leaks down his chin. As soon as he reaches to wipe it away, he pitches forward and red comes violently gushing out before he can even begin to panic.

Five doesn't know how long it lasts. For a moment he forgets where he is, what he's doing, and why he hurts this much. Agony envelopes every thought, and in that moment he's prepared to claw through his throat to be rid of it.

His shoulders tremble when he finally pulls himself back upright and the retching devolves into wet coughs. He's only vaguely aware of what the figure nearby is doing. More so the blood around him. Too much. Exhaustion comes next, but he refuses to give in to it. He looks back, half horrified and half accusing. If he's trying to kill him to end his misery, he could have told him upfront. ]

( It's amazing how blood makes itself look larger, more present, more consuming, than it actually is. He's seen it with injuries over the years, and now, handing Five a train monogrammed handkerchief, he calmly witnesses the same. )

I warned you.

( Is all he says to start, followed by: )

You can rinse the taste out of your mouth in the bathing room, and either clean up the ink now or take a bath later, whatever you care to do. Without me coaxing it along and more of that anguished energy being absorbed, it'll be passive.

( That said, he smiles for a beat, grim but steady. )

Congratulations! You expelled bad blood and a good amount of terrible emotion! Eat something, take a nap. You'll need to give yourself some recovery time, ah? Be a better patient than I am.

[ Five deflates as he takes the handkerchief, if only because of how surreal it is to be offered one. He uses it to wipe a smear of blood from his chin. It's a strange kind of whiplash to go from thinking his heart exploded to being congratulated. For a while he just sits there, breathing, and tries to assess for himself how he feels.

Eventually he remembers his clothes, but it isn't until his shirt is in hand that he notices. In his hurry to get this over with, he didn't consider setting them out of reach. Blood and bile splatter across the fabric in a color pattern that he fixates on momentarily, only eventually looking back up. Wei Wuxian seems altogether unfazed. Or maybe that's a front and he just knows Five would prefer to make all this seem like a normal problem to come to him with.

Normal and relatively easy to solve, if he ignores how they never put together any terms. He's too tired to work that out after the fact. It takes him a while longer before he moves again. The absence of what he was so used to suppressing makes him aware of how tense he was, and he seems to still be adjusting to the lack of it.

When he stands he looks like he wants to say something else. Ask questions, express some relief or even gratitude that he did what he said he would. He hasn't sorted it all out. Thankfully when he speaks no more blood comes out, but he can still taste it, and his voice comes out slightly hoarse from all he expelled. ]

Do you have a sink?

[ They don't in his cabin, but it's worth asking before he parades down the hall in front of any nosy passengers. ]

( he gestures to the other end of the cabin: not supremely spacious, but more generous than many of their accommodations. he offers no comment on blood left trailing where, just trusting in what he'll have to muddle through cleaning on his own. five will find soaps, towels, potpourri even, all inside the bathroom, and also a shower with a deep but short bath attached. )

Make use it what you will!

( he calls out as five is set to disappear inside. he's still pondering what he felt with this curse, how it's lodged in five, mind already leaps ahead of where they stand now. )

[ Five nods and moves past him to the thankfully adjourning washroom, where he calmly closes the door before having any kind of reaction to what he just did.

It's nicer inside than he was expecting, clean, and starkly different from the bloodied mess that greets him in the unfortunately large mirror above the sink. He can't shake the sensation that he's... empty, without the extra baggage the mirror absorbed. His mind feels clear in a way he hasn't been for months, which makes him more appropriately horrified by his actions. The lingering nausea has more to do with seeing his young face smeared with blood (again) and remembering how vulnerable he let himself be to come here. It doesn't matter what Wei Wuxian's intentions were; there will be consequences to that favor. He can't take back what he knows now.

Fortunately he's no stranger to making quick work of cleaning himself up. He tries to memorize the symbol on his chest before he starts to scrub it from his skin, and to his credit, he doesn't leave as much of a mess as he left in the room behind him. His clothes are another matter. This shirt in particular is stained beyond anything he can salvage, and attempting to scrub it only wore down the already threadbare fabric.

He does the best he can, with the intention of throwing these rags out the window as soon as he's got another option. He's damp when he emerges again, and he nearly trips on the rabbits hopping around. After watching them scurry off, he ambles back towards the door, but not without passing near Wei Wuxian.

Of all the things he looks like he wants to say, he goes with the one that doesn't matter. ]

Why rabbits?

( An interesting choice, what's finally said. Wei Wuxian looks at the one rabbit set to scratching it's long ear, hind leg doing a remarkable job of it. What flexible natures, he thinks, and who that best applies to he doesn't clarify for himself or anyone else. )

There's a long history of rescues and companion rabbits, back home.

( One tied up in him and delivered to Lan Zhan, to ward off the loneliness.

He doesn't point out these are the only two of those he bought back months ago who weren't tucked into other willing arms. No need to mention they're meat rabbits elevated into pets. He simply watches with tired, tired eyes as Five crosses the room to the door. )

Ask me the story sometime over drinks.

[ Five looks from the rabbits to Wei Wuxian. It's hard for him to tell if the man is more exhausted after what he just did, if he could feel any of what he pulled out of him, or if none of it registered. He carried that anguish around for so long, he can't help but wonder where it all went.

The visible marks of blood around the furniture may have to be enough of an answer for him. As slight as this body is, he should probably be feeling lightheaded after that. Maybe he is, but at the moment he can't put a word to how it feels. Better physically. Mentally too worn out to sort out his confusion and uncertainty about where this leaves them. Whatever imbalance existed before, he's almost certainly made it worse, and there's nothing he can think to do about it. ]

Right. [ Over drinks, where they can reminisce over their bizarre encounters and talk about his pets. His hand lingers on the door. ]

Another time.

Mm. Rest well, don't forget to eat. Drink water. You'll benefit.

( But that's his farewell, and the wave, and the rabbits that take that moment to leap upon the couch and then leap down again, chasing each other in a fit of energetic furious play. )

[ Questions should have followed. At least to get a more firm understanding about what he owes him for his efforts. If there's anything he learned from... guiding his qi.

None of that happens. Later, once he's processed it all, he'll come asking. For now Five simply gives him one last long look, hums in response and opens the door to show himself out. And find himself some new clothes before his roommates make any weird assumptions.

The 'thank you' will have to be implied. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

a little dream of her | part i

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you can tell when i mess up tagging from email, sobs

I am blind to any faults, to me you are perfect etc.

♥️

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