week four | mingle

[marriagebroker]

Final week at the estate! Final week with your friends. Final week with your beaus. Time to make the most of it, everyone!

In fact, to celebrate this fact, today there is a cake. It's nothing special, just a nice little cake to enjoy with your morning coffee or throughout the day. Yay, cake!

And when Wei Wuxian arrives that morning, he is going to call out once again for everyone to join him, near the cake.

"Everyone, I have another announcement!"

Hell yeah, announcements.

Boom Boom Room | Dates | Property Damage
Truth Booth Voting | Match Ceremony Voting

Comments

[enscene]

It must be lonely. [Softly, a little knowing.] No matter how many people know, it's also something that can never be fully shared. [The memory of that fear--of being all that remained--is rooted deep within her. That's something that belongs to Furina, herself, too, after all, and not just the job she performed.]

Would that make you afraid to leave it behind?

[She doesn't know the full extent of Yingying's deterioration or that she literally can't be separated from it as she is now. She knows only what she's observed: that she can't be away from the tree and that her connection to it runs so much deeper than sentimentality.

But Furina also isn't talking about such a literal definition of separation. Yingying seems hesitant to take that offered hand, and in Furina's experience...that kind of stubbornness often goes hand in hand with fear. Or maybe Furina is just naturally a coward.]

[embellwish]

[ ...What might have Furina gone through, to put that so succinctly?

Yes, it's a weight that can never be shared, not to its full extent. No one can know what it feels like to be that alone, unless they've similarly been ripped apart from everything. She wouldn't wish it on anyone, even if it meant someone else understanding the true depth of her loneliness. Unbidden, she reaches over to put her hand atop Furina's, eyes deep in thought. ]

...Of course. I could never leave it behind.

[ She's physically bound to it, yes, but it's so much more than that, too. It symbolizes all the springs she spent with her mothers, all the wishes made by her people, the place where her life truly began. The tree has been a part of her for as long as she can remember — even before she was entombed inside it.

Her hand tightens around Furina's, wanting to share something with her, if only so she might also learn... what loneliness Furina seems so well acquainted with. ]

Did you know? There used to be legends that I was born from the wisteria. When I was a baby, I was found among the petals.

[ She starts there, weaving the beginnings of the tale that makes her so inseparable from it. ]

[enscene]

[Furina blinks at the hand reaching for and squeezing hers, then pulls the smallest of smiles and closes her fingers lightly in return.]

I think I've heard some of this story. [But only ever the beginning of it. It's usually as far as they get, meandering off somewhere or another before it can continue. It seems like Yingying repeats the comfortable part with small variations, like dancing the same dance again and once again.

That gets a little boring, doesn't it? Even if it's comfortable.]

Can you tell me more about how it goes?

[embellwish]

Because my moms found me there, they would tell everyone in the village that I was like the Wisteria Fairy in our myths — a granter of wishes and guardian of our sacred tree.

[ Let's pretend she really was repeating the beginning for drama and not because I'm doopid and can't remember what lore I've dropped where. Anyways. She moves Furina's hands back and forth a little as she goes on, almost as if in time with the beats of the story. ]

When I was young, I'd always practice my magic powers really hard, wanting to grow up fast so I could grant everyone's wishes quicker. Then one day, I found my old swaddling clothes that I'd been discovered in, and there was a note inside.

"There's a war outside. I can't keep her with me anymore, and I likely won't return. I've left all my savings here. I'm sorry. Please take care of her. This street is the best I've ever walked on, and you're the kindest people I've ever known. Please, look after her. May the sacred wisteria watch over her. Let her grow up in a place full of hope, where she can always look forward to a brighter year. Don't let her end up like me."

[ ... ]

That's what the note read. My moms were only thinking of me, not wanting me to feel abandoned...

[ That's where the legend had its roots: the truth that Yingying was always just a normal human girl, who happened to be left behind during a war. Speaking about this, though, she doesn't seem regretful — if anything, there's a note of appreciation to the words, nostalgic. ]

Even then, I still received everyone's wishes every year. I didn't mind that the story wasn't true. I think, up until the end... everyone still thought of me as their Fairy.

[ She doesn't want to let go of that. To all the people that perished, she had been the conductor of their hopes and prayers, a tangible symbol to funnel their wishes to a higher being. They knew she wasn't really a deity — but even still, she became inseparable from the tree in perception. And now, divorcing herself from it symbolically... it feels too cruel to their memory. ]

[enscene]

So you were only human, but you carried the weird of their wishes to bring them happiness. [That, too, is said in the tone of someone who can understand the weight...but also the tone of someone awed by it, that even over a century, Yingying hadn't even seemed to doubt beneath that pressure.]

I think...it wasn't about being their fairy, then. I think they loved you all the same.

[It's something she's never been able to think or feel for herself, but with Yingying, Furina can both articulate and believe it.

It brings a tear to her eye, small and distant, like a whole ocean in there. They are probably different, anyway, but--] Couldn't your happiness...have also been their wish that you can still grant for them?

[embellwish]

[ Gently, she reaches out to brush away that single tear with a curled finger, her smile sympathetic. ]

Mm... it's taken me being here to realize that.

[ She hums in acknowledgment of Furina's question, reaching up to pet her hair now with her tear wiped away. Soothing, comforting strokes, like this is Furina's tale, and not hers. She gets the sense some of its weight is shared. ]

I was tired, when I arrived... it's been hard for me to understand why I was the only one left. And starting over would feel like leaving them behind. [ Why her? Why did she have to be so alone? Why couldn't she have left with all of them, all those years ago? But, if she had... then she wouldn't have gotten to meet with all of them, or share this burden with the girl across from her. She wouldn't be able to be here, catching one of her tears. ] But... you're right. I think they would rather I walk forward and be happy, however I can.

[ a beat. ]

It's easier said than done, isn't it?