week two | match ceremony

[marriagebroker]

Tonight, we're back in the courtyard. It looks similar to last week with the slight exception, there is now a plush couch near the stage, and a single lantern already lit above the stage. There's still food, drinks, all sorts of things available for the contestants to snack on and enjoy.

On the stage is Wei Wuxian, looking presentable in his hanfu for today. He's busy twirling his flute in hand as he waits for the contestants to show up and find their places, and when they do he'll extend both arms out, welcoming the cast.

"Second match ceremony! You're exempt from a black out tonight because you've already found one of the matches."

He'll gesture to that couch from earlier, which seems to be The Special Seat for Ringo and Furina to sit at if they'd like.

"Now, we know how this goes so let's not delay anymore! Team Wangji, it's your turn to announce your matches!"

Comments

[gamboler]

[ ...He doesn't respond to this right away, instead bearing it in mind, compiling it with what he's already learned about her, and chewing on his own thoughts. She is a prisoner in her own right, the power of the wisteria both a blessing and a curse. He can only assume that's why her future is uncertain, why she can't take material possessions with her, why her existence seems so...fleeting. Does it have to be that way?

Later, when the discussion has moved along, he'll pull her aside. ]

Miss Yingying. Can I ask you something? It's about that lovely wisteria tree of yours.

[embellwish]

[ She blinks — not surprised to be asked about it, but more surprised to be pulled to the side. As much as she can, she's trying to be as forward about it without getting too into the more macabre details. For what it's worth, she seems genuinely clueless as to what he might ask, so she's not hiding anything. ]

Hmm? What would you like to know?

[gamboler]

If you used your wish to be parted from it, what would happen to you?

[ Candidly, though not asked without any sense of care. If her health is unstable, if she might have a shortened life because of it, then maybe she can use her wish to just...live a normal life. Maybe it's a little bold to ask and out of the blue, but —

He's just brainstorming how to make her existence less unfortunate, that's all. ]

[embellwish]

[ ..... ]

...If I wasn't careful, I'd probably pass on.

[ Which she says after taking time to think about it, expression thoughtful. From the sound of it, she's long since accepted that any way out of her situation likely meant death. ]

You overheard, right? About my physical body. The contamination has made it inseparable from the wisteria... [ She might not even look human anymore, she's not sure. The officers she's heard talk about it seem to talk about her body in such a grim, grotesque way. There's no way of knowing. ] Even if I did manage to be separated... there isn't very much waiting for me.

[ And wouldn't that be two wishes? To be separate from the wisteria, and for her health to be fixed? All this time that she's been focused on the idea of granting everyone's wishes, she's strangely never had a wish of her own that she seemed excited about granting. She didn't come here with the idea in mind to fix her own state. ]

[gamboler]

[ Not much waiting for her, is there...

He understands, and yet it seems so unfair, to bring Yingying into something like this show, dangle something like a normal life in front of her and then abruptly take it away again. If one wish isn't enough to cover it, then — ]

Take my wish, too. I won't need it. I'm already burdened with more good fortune than I know what to deal with.

[ For someone like him, messing with a wish would be...troublesome. He always intended to use his on someone else, even if he initially would have expected it to be for someone back home. But why not let Yingying use it instead? It's better served to free someone from the shackles of fate, than sit in Aventurine's pocket, unused and gathering dust. ]

Take the chance to live as yourself.

[ This is something he feels...rather strongly about, it seems. ]

[embellwish]

[ ...Aventurine is secretly the sweet type too, huh?

There isn't wide eyed surprise, nor heartfelt tears, when he makes his offer. Just a faint smile, and her chin lifting up confidently. ]

No thanks!

[ .....

Is all she says for a while, rather cheerfully. She's not trying to insult his efforts — it's the opposite, really. ]

Did you think I'd take something like that from you just for myself? [ This, too, is important to her. There are already... too many people giving up too much to try to save her. She doesn't want to add Aventurine to that list. ] Maybe you don't need good fortune... but you're always giving yourself the short end of the stick, aren't you?

[ It hasn't missed her notice, the subtle ways he seems to talk down about himself. Stark as the refusal must come, her eyes are kind and clear. Yingying's feelings on wishes are complex: wishing for someone's health and happiness is one of the noblest things someone can do. But in exchange like that... it doesn't feel right. If he'll let her, she'll reach out to graze his cheek with the back of her knuckles, her skin cool.

She thinks there's definitely something he will want to wish for, one day. Maybe he can't make it with his own hands, his concerns about his own luck abound... but she can't help but be reminded of how he'd surrendered his energy so easily, claiming that it was better in her hands. Too easily does he see others as befitting treasures more than himself. ]

I want you to save nice things just for yourself, too.

[gamboler]

[ ...He already has too many nice things. More than he has earned, particularly since coming here, and in spite of himself, he can't keep his gaze from flickering over to wherever Nico is mingling right now.

If she won't accept, he won't push, either. Wishes and good fortune are fickle, and it seems that Yingying understands that, too. Breaking the shackles off of her won't mean anything if she won't walk free from her cell, but in the end, he only has glimpsed a very small piece of the situation she's in. She has her reasons for refusing, and he'll respect it, and hope that there's some other way she can find her own path. ]

...As you wish. Or perhaps I should say, don't wish... [ A wry little smile. If he's giving himself the short end of the stick, it must only be because he knows he can weather it. He...always does. Always has. ] I am curious, though, what you will use your wish for. Or maybe what brought you here wasn't the allure of a wish at all?

[ Everyone's reasons remain complicated and evolving, but maybe she's found the real prize among the other guests, as he has. ]

[embellwish]

[ If there's one thing she can be happy about, it's that little glance that he gives Nico's way, however slight and fleeting. Perhaps he doesn't have anything he can use the wish for himself for... but in the future, down the line, she's certain there will be something, or someone he will want to use that wish for. And when that time comes, he might come to regret using now...

Her smile quiets, privately endeared. ]

No, not exactly. I came here just because I wanted to talk to and meet people like you and everyone again. Simple as that. Sounds quite lonely, doesn't it?

[ Because that's the heart of it, right? She wanted to be her friendly, charming self that she was before the meteor had took everything. She wanted to play, and laugh, and cry, and sing hand in hand with people she came to care about. ]

As for the wish.... A hundred years have passed, everyone I know is gone... I don't speak or read the language of the common folk anymore, and neither can I go out and feel the sun.

[ That is what she meant, when she said there wasn't much waiting for her. Even if she improved her health... what good would it do? She has nowhere to go. ]

So I can think of better uses for the wish than my own recovery, assuming they're even granted in good faith. As I'm sure you know, wishes don't come true the way we want them to just because we pray hard.

[ There's a flippancy to the way she says it, almost like she's already somewhat given up on returning to life like the kind she's living right now with all of them. In some ways, she has. Where Yingying is encouraging and thoughtful to all others, she lacks enthusiasm or motivation for building her own path forward, finding it a challenge to advocate for her ongoing existence. ]

[gamboler]

[ He knows all too well that prayers so often go unheard, unanswered.

His lips press together in a thin line, not because he wishes to press the point further, but because he doesn't. After so many years of isolation, of utter loneliness, of being left behind by the world that continues to change around her...maybe all she really wanted was one chance to experience what life is like for herself while she could. Maybe her wish shouldn't be to restore herself, but...to rest.

And reflexively — he can't help but think that he will face such a dilemma when his time here is up. This was his chance to live a "normal" life, too, even if he hasn't been left behind by time like Yingying has. This was his chance to slip the shackles of the IPC, to make the friends he wants, pursue the people he likes, live for himself — yet even if he is no longer owned in the literal sense, he isn't free. And rest from that can be oh-so-alluring indeed.

In the end, all she can do with her wish is try to make a choice she won't regret, and all he can hope is that it makes her happy, even if it's not for herself. ]

Hah, you caught me. It wouldn't do to offer up a wish I don't even really trust myself. And as they say...it's more about the journey than the destination, isn't it?

[ A beat, his features falling, for just a moment, before he regains his bravado. ]

So let's make these next two weeks count. For every chip on the table.