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

[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.