tl;cr meme

[marriagebroker]

post your character, people reply, give them the deets. you know how this goes.

Comments

[suibian]

OH BOY...........

So, Wei Wuxian likes Rom way more than Rom likes him, for certain. But that's not to say he likes him fully, actually. He can't stand his insincerity and youtuber shtick and finds it annoying to be around and the fact that he was always aware of the cameras to the point he never let his guard down completely in front of Wei Wuxian is a point of annoyance for Wei Wuxian. He is genuinely surprised that Rom found something sincere in the course of the game because he kind of wrote him off as a lost cause after he realized Rom would never drop the act.

Of course this is like, with the caveat that Wei Wuxian doesn't know the modern era enough to be hyperaware of cameras the way Rom is. His understanding of reality TV is based off of what information production fed him and his own personal research but there's a difference between say, reading a book versus living it in person. Still it's funny because Wei Wuxian is also a victim to his reputation in canon and functions as the "boogeyman" in his world with people being scared to say even his name or his title. Little kids play games where the "enemy" is the Yiling Patriarch (his title) and run away from whoever is the Yiling Patriarch because that role is dubbed as "evil". So, that's the level of infamy he has in his canon.

But it's kind of funny in that sense because it's almost a mirror image of what Rom goes through with people thinking he's creepy and weaponizing his creep factor to put distance between himself and others in order to protect people, right? Because Wei Wuxian just lets people believe he's evil and uses it as a means to protect people as well. So, they have that similarity but they'll never come to a common ground just by nature of their perspectives especially on ghosts and the undead.

Wei Wuxian just fundamentally does not see ghosts or resentful energy as a bad thing and this is part of what makes him a pariah in his own canon. There's a lot of "traditional" cultivators who think what he does is heretical, essentially. So, Rom is not strange for thinking Wei Wuxian is bad news at all! But Wei Wuxian will always think that there is more useful ways to navigate ghosts and resentful energy than just getting rid of it. They can be friends, allies, weapons, etc. And Wei Wuxian does not acknowledge the trauma Rom's gone through to get his perspective, which kind of makes him shitty as a result but it just is what it is! It's funny though, because Wei Wuxian's death was actually him being torn apart by ghosts when his spiritual energy backfired on him. So, he should be more wary of ghosts! He's not though.

I think a key shift in their relationship was when Rom got together with Edamura though because it made Wei Wuxian understand and accept that he would never be in Rom's "close circle" or even anyone he would rely on. Because it came as such a surprise to him since he really didn't think Rom would let anyone that close to him during his time in the game. He felt like he should have been able to predict a development like that, but Rom was so closed off in his eyes that he didn't expect him to get close enough to anyone for it to happen, let alone someone like Edamura. It's seeing them get together that made him realize Rom might be closed off in front of the cameras but he's especially closed off to Wei Wuxian. So, he accepts that now.

Though he's genuinely happy for him and Edamura but he's not expecting Rom to ever want to talk to him again after the game has ended. He expects to get updates from Edamura on their relationship progression though! But lmao, like I told Al, he expects it to either last forever or fizzle out in like six months. He's rooting for you guys, though! A little bit. Kind of.

Ironically, he's pretty sure Rom would get along with Lan Wangji because he's much more respectful and less heretical than Wei Wuxian but he doesn't like the idea of that either so he doesn't want them to meet.