Yes. [He's never seen anything like it. He knows that children in areas with heavier snowfall sometimes pushed each other down slopes of snow, but he's never heard of anything on such a grand scale. It looks amazing.
his ancestors are Testing Him. but somehow, the vague annoyance is drowned out by a sort of weary fondness. he does not think he has it in him any longer to deny wei wuxian much of anything. ๏ผ
If you wish. Depending on your tolerance for cold weather, we may need to acquire a substantial amount of gear.
๏ผ it isn't as if he's hurting for money. the backstory he's set up for himself has made it easy to acquire 'investments' from the wealthy — mainly those whose business practices or personalities he found abhorrent. he has already arranged provisions for the remainder to be donated to the orphanages, scrubbed clean of its pathing when they leave. but until then... he does not care to be shy about his spending, either. ๏ผ
There are specialty stores. Come, then.
๏ผ he also quaffs the remainder of his tea, and stands. unselfconsciously, he offers wei wuxian his hand to rise as well. it is a part of his cover — the well-mannered and kindly gentleman — but there is always something different about doing such things with wei wuxian. ๏ผ
[He takes Itachi's hand with a warm smile, his face lighting up with delight, and he's quick to begin strolling at Itachi's side. He trusts that his friend will lead the way to wherever it is they need to go to acquire said gear.]
Did you grow up in much snow? It snows a little in Yunmeng although mostly everything just gets very frozen. It snows in Gusu, but I've only visited in the summer. I've always found it beautiful even if I prefer the warmth.
๏ผ he's silent for a moment, and then he transmits an image to wei wuxian's earpiece — a map of his home. ๏ผ
Konoha, where I grew up, did not see much snow. A handful of centimeters per season — more, in heavier years, less in leaner ones. Kirigakure, to the south-east, is host to perilous blizzards.
๏ผ strange, to have a moment's nostalgia for kisame. his right hand, barren of the ring, feels far too light all of a sudden, and he curls his fingers in against his palm. ๏ผ
However, once I left my village, it was not unusual to encounter a variety of extreme weather conditions, including deep snow. It is easy to walk atop it with chakra as one would with water.
[It's much more exposure to snow than Wei Wuxian ever had in Yunmeng, but if it was after Itachi left his village, then it was long after he'd have engaged in any kind of playing in the snow. Which means Wei Wuxian will make this experience a good one for Itachi, or die trying.]
It snowed in Yiling sometimes. Still not very much. [He'd thought it was pretty even back then. The way he'd spent Yiling winters isn't a very pleasant topic though, and he quickly changes gears.]
๏ผ his mouth presses into a faint line when the man mentions yiling, deepening into a faint frown when wei wuxian carries on, changing tacks as one at sea. it's a habit of his of which itachi has been long aware, the sleight not of hand but of word.
he gives him a sidelong look, not bothering to hide the faint disapproval in the downturn of his mouth. ๏ผ
That depends on how you define 'hard'. I have never found it so. ๏ผ a beat. then: ๏ผ Will you tell me about Yiling? If not now, then another time?
[Look Itachi, sometimes a man doesn't want to reminisce about begging on the streets and nearly freezing to death when he's trying to make it a fun day for his friend! Still, he takes that knowing frown with grace, a sheepish look passing over his eyes for just a moment.
It's Itachi after all, not anyone else. He pauses thoughtfully, his expression unselfconscious, and then he nods.]
I don't mind, I'm just not sure there's much to tell. [Pause.] It's where I was born, did I ever tell you that? [There's fondness in his voice despite everything.]
๏ผ surprise alights in his expression, there and gone in a moment. warmth follows it the way thunder follows a lightning strike, and itachi lifts a hand to place it gently against wei wuxian's nearest shoulder as they walk, letting the weight of his palm convey what words cannot reach.
it has been a long, long time since his guard was lowered such that he could touch someone thoughtlessly. there is no knife in his sleeve. there is no matrix of actions and reactions overlaid in his mind, anticipatory of attack. beneath his hand, wei wuxian feels only sturdy and warm, familiar as a bleak, starless night and somehow as luminous as the sun. ๏ผ
It is not a matter of what you may say possessing some quantitative substance. It is a place you have passed through. I cannot see it, my steps cannot fall where yours have had cause to fall. I wish to know it, just the same.
๏ผ there is value in that alone. even amidst the sorrow, and the loss, and the loneliness. it was something he survived, and that consecrates the ground. ๏ผ
[The touch so freely given doesn't strike Wei Wuxian with shock the way it once would have. Instead, it only pulls his eyes back up to Itachi's, warmth echoed in his own gaze. Even the direst of subjects is easy to speak of like nothing at all when Itachi looks at him like that.]
Yiling isn't beautiful. [He starts, his gaze wandering away only because he can see it in his mind, the dark rolling hills in the distance and the bustling city streets.] It lies at the foot of the Burial Mounds, so it's neglected and ignored by most cultivators. [Rather than carry any condemnation or even resignation, that fondness never leaves his voice.]
Still it gets by. The people of Yiling are strong. They persevere in the face of that neglect. Some might even say they prosper. [A smile pulls his lips up at the corners.]
I've never told you my title. [He says quietly, not a question.] When I took the Wen refugees and fled to the Burial Mounds located just on the edge of Yiling, some of the sects believed I was building an army, trying to create a sect of my own in Yiling.
"Yiling Laozu." [He echoes, lips twitching like he's unsure if he wants to smile or not.] The Yiling patriarch.
It was a dangerous title because it made me a threat, but...[A pause.] It wasn't like that from them—the people of Yiling. After a time, they stopped fearing me and seeing me as some terrible monster. They stopped glancing my way when I came down from the mountains to trade with them. They didn't even go easy on me when we haggled! [The last part is half complaint, but the amusement in his voice is obvious.]
To them I was just a man, and a man who made life a little bit easier for them. My purposes in trying to purify sections of the Burial Mounds might have been to give the Dafan Wen a safe place to live, but it benefitted them too. You could say we liked each other.
๏ผ they approach the milling crowd of one of the strip malls set against the backdrop of the mountains. itachi remains attentive on wei wuxian, focused through the storytelling even as he shifts to accommodate the crowd, putting himself a half step ahead of his companion. he has very little trust in large gatherings such as this, after all, where any hand can conceal a weapon.
he listens, wordless all the way through. the title gets only a soft 'hm', and wei wuxian finishes just as they reach one of the doors of a shop that specializes in cold-weather gear, the doors slide open at their approach and once they're inside, in a quiet undertone and in his faintly stilted but still unerringly-pronounced mandarin he continues their conversation: ๏ผ
What fails to be beautiful about a place like that?
๏ผ it has shaped so much of who he is, how could he find it otherwise? ๏ผ
It is not only aesthetic that drives such perception.
[There's a special kind of joy he feels at hearing his own language out loud, and something undeniably better about hearing it from Itachi's voice. He's smiling affectionately even before he processes the words.]
Yeah, you're right. [He pauses and then huffs quietly under his breath.] I'll show you when we're back, in the simulation room. [It had been one of the first locations he'd created.]
I can show you Lotus Pier too, if you'd like to see it. [As he talks, he follows Itachi through the store, hardly paying any mind to the items they're gathering.]
๏ผ the rest of their conversation is spent speaking in quiet, idle mandarin as they select items from the shelves. it's the sort of rather expensive place where one is better off not asking for a price — and they collect a decent array of items as they wind through the store. itachi waves off an attendant's help twice over with a charming smile, and by the time they're finished he simply asks one of them to charge the items to his room which they are all too happy to do.
afterwards: ๏ผ
We should return to my quarters to change into the items. I already have a pass and guest pass for the snow hill as part of the room package as well.
[Perhaps it's because the currency they accrue on missions is fleeting and inconsequential, or perhaps because no physical currency is actually exchanged, but Wei Wuxian only smiles gratefully as Itachi arranges payment for their things and follows along. He's already makin plans to add various details to the Lotus Pier simulation to make it as close to the real thing as possible, but his thoughts are stalled as he remembers a detail from the map Itachi had sent earlier.
He pulls it up again now and then tilts his head in curiosity.]
On the map you sent of your world there's a marked location without a name. Is that a place of significance?
๏ผ his mouth presses together faintly, as he lets them both into his suite. the room is... extravagant, comparative to what he usually prefers. high ceilings, luxurious red wood furniture. beautiful abstract paintings on the walls, and everything just has an air of quality to it, elegant without being ostentatious.
it's clear he's done very little to make it 'his' space, perhaps as a consequence of that extravagance.
at wei wuxian's question, he cants his head faintly as he sets the bags down. ๏ผ
It was the location of the Akatsuki's primary base. The man known publicly as our leader was from that country.
[He's temporarily distracted by the size and luxury of the room, though not as one who has never experienced luxury before. Instead, he does note the lack of ostentatiousness with a small smile to himself. The distraction is momentary though, and he focuses his attention back on Itachi the moment he speaks.]
Did you live there? I know you traveled often, but is that where you stayed when you weren't traveling?
[Wei Wuxian begins to strip unselfconsciously, pauses for a moment, sighs, and then gathers the mess of his clothes into a sloppily folded pile. (He tried.) He dons the underclothes then before staring with some trepidation at the rest of the clothes.
Tentatively, he reaches for a pair of pants that he's pretty sure goes next.]
Not exactly home then. [He voices aloud, contemplative.] Is it strange to be on the Ximilia now? Stuck in one place for so long?
๏ผ he changes his own clothing with rather less ceremony than whatever it is wei wuxian is doing, and makes a soft, thoughtful sound as he tugs one of the tight wool shirts on over his head. ๏ผ
Not in the way you might imagine. Shinobi are adaptable, but they often have a home base — a place they returned to at the completion of their missions. To be a missing-nin is different, in that you are considered stateless. The majority spend their lives — often short — on the run. Constantly looking over their shoulder, fearful — most villages employ hunters to track down any who have betrayed them. One's techniques and knowledge can be taken from the body and ensured in this way to belong only to one's home. Konoha does not use hunter-nin in the same way, and in my years as a criminal very few people risked coming up against me due to my inherent notoriety as an Uchiha. Those that did paid for it dearly.
๏ผ it is a curious thing, to speak of his time with akatsuki. it seems so far away, now. ๏ผ
In a way, the structure of the Ximilia and our missions is much more similar to belonging to a village than anything else I know.
[None of it is especially surprising despite its grim nature, and Wei Wuxian listens attentively. He finally manages to figure out the order of the clothing and he pulls on his pants before copying Itachi and pulling on a warm long sleeved shirt.]
It does feel a little bit like that, doesn't it? It's reminded me more than once of living with the Wen remnant in the Burial Mounds. [For that nearly two years of peace, things had been remarkably simple. The first few months had been rough as they struggled to figure out a way to feed themselves, but by the end, it really had been like living in a small village of their own.]
The people, at least, if not the actual station. [Wei Wuxian can't say any place has ever really felt like home. When he was younger, he would have said Lotus Pier, but the more distance he has from that time of his life, the more he realizes how insecure he'd always felt about his place there. People, though. People have always been his home.]
๏ผ he turns his hand palm-up in a sort of halfly shrug. he's dressed now, a warm bio-synthetic fabric clinging close across his skin. he tosses over a pair of the unduly chic snowpants to the man to try on, and then hunts down the second pair buried in one of the other bags. ๏ผ
I think most of them are not... accustomed to the same sort of community.
๏ผ the other orbers, he means. it isn't said unkindly — nor as a statement intended to decry the benefits of one over the other as a sort of living. it's just truth. ๏ผ
[He catches the pants and tugs them on, surprised at how warm they already feel despite their apparent thinness. They fit well and he runs a hand over the material, admiring the sleekness.]
I think you're right. From what...[His voice drifts off a little and he clears his throat, trying again] From what Gwen shared, it seems like people from her time are more isolated. Or if not isolated than...independent? [Individual. Everyone existing on their own with their own private lives. He can understand the appeal in a way, but he'd miss people if he lived that way.]
๏ผ the name of their lost friend does not stir grief in him. he knows she returned to her life, to her world, and carried on. but he does briefly come into wei wuxian's space, presses a hand to his shoulder at her mention. ๏ผ
[Wei Wuxian can't say the same, but his grief is only in missing her. Knowing that she's out there,alive, well, and chasing her future, dulls the sting of loss to a gentle throb.
He chuckles under his breath and nods.
Eventually they finish dressing and Itachi leads them out of the room to wherever it is they're going to next. In the distance, some kind of moving swing guides people up and down the mountain and his gaze catches on it for a minute before he returns his attention to Itachi.]
[Sometimes he honestly marvels that so many people think Itachi is polite. (Then he remembers that seeing this side of him is a privilege and he has to fight back a smile.) It doesn't mean he's going to just take that lying down though.]
You think I spent years riding the sword just to need help learning how to slide down a hill on a piece of wood?
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Yes. [He's never seen anything like it. He knows that children in areas with heavier snowfall sometimes pushed each other down slopes of snow, but he's never heard of anything on such a grand scale. It looks amazing.
He downs the rest of his tea.]
Can we go try it?
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his ancestors are Testing Him. but somehow, the vague annoyance is drowned out by a sort of weary fondness. he does not think he has it in him any longer to deny wei wuxian much of anything. ๏ผ
If you wish. Depending on your tolerance for cold weather, we may need to acquire a substantial amount of gear.
๏ผ it isn't as if he's hurting for money. the backstory he's set up for himself has made it easy to acquire 'investments' from the wealthy — mainly those whose business practices or personalities he found abhorrent. he has already arranged provisions for the remainder to be donated to the orphanages, scrubbed clean of its pathing when they leave. but until then... he does not care to be shy about his spending, either. ๏ผ
There are specialty stores. Come, then.
๏ผ he also quaffs the remainder of his tea, and stands. unselfconsciously, he offers wei wuxian his hand to rise as well. it is a part of his cover — the well-mannered and kindly gentleman — but there is always something different about doing such things with wei wuxian. ๏ผ
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Did you grow up in much snow? It snows a little in Yunmeng although mostly everything just gets very frozen. It snows in Gusu, but I've only visited in the summer. I've always found it beautiful even if I prefer the warmth.
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Konoha, where I grew up, did not see much snow. A handful of centimeters per season — more, in heavier years, less in leaner ones. Kirigakure, to the south-east, is host to perilous blizzards.
๏ผ strange, to have a moment's nostalgia for kisame. his right hand, barren of the ring, feels far too light all of a sudden, and he curls his fingers in against his palm. ๏ผ
However, once I left my village, it was not unusual to encounter a variety of extreme weather conditions, including deep snow. It is easy to walk atop it with chakra as one would with water.
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It snowed in Yiling sometimes. Still not very much. [He'd thought it was pretty even back then. The way he'd spent Yiling winters isn't a very pleasant topic though, and he quickly changes gears.]
Is it hard to walk in snow?
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he gives him a sidelong look, not bothering to hide the faint disapproval in the downturn of his mouth. ๏ผ
That depends on how you define 'hard'. I have never found it so. ๏ผ a beat. then: ๏ผ Will you tell me about Yiling? If not now, then another time?
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It's Itachi after all, not anyone else. He pauses thoughtfully, his expression unselfconscious, and then he nods.]
I don't mind, I'm just not sure there's much to tell. [Pause.] It's where I was born, did I ever tell you that? [There's fondness in his voice despite everything.]
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it has been a long, long time since his guard was lowered such that he could touch someone thoughtlessly. there is no knife in his sleeve. there is no matrix of actions and reactions overlaid in his mind, anticipatory of attack. beneath his hand, wei wuxian feels only sturdy and warm, familiar as a bleak, starless night and somehow as luminous as the sun. ๏ผ
It is not a matter of what you may say possessing some quantitative substance. It is a place you have passed through. I cannot see it, my steps cannot fall where yours have had cause to fall. I wish to know it, just the same.
๏ผ there is value in that alone. even amidst the sorrow, and the loss, and the loneliness. it was something he survived, and that consecrates the ground. ๏ผ
No, however. I was unaware of the connection.
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Yiling isn't beautiful. [He starts, his gaze wandering away only because he can see it in his mind, the dark rolling hills in the distance and the bustling city streets.] It lies at the foot of the Burial Mounds, so it's neglected and ignored by most cultivators. [Rather than carry any condemnation or even resignation, that fondness never leaves his voice.]
Still it gets by. The people of Yiling are strong. They persevere in the face of that neglect. Some might even say they prosper. [A smile pulls his lips up at the corners.]
I've never told you my title. [He says quietly, not a question.] When I took the Wen refugees and fled to the Burial Mounds located just on the edge of Yiling, some of the sects believed I was building an army, trying to create a sect of my own in Yiling.
"Yiling Laozu." [He echoes, lips twitching like he's unsure if he wants to smile or not.] The Yiling patriarch.
It was a dangerous title because it made me a threat, but...[A pause.] It wasn't like that from them—the people of Yiling. After a time, they stopped fearing me and seeing me as some terrible monster. They stopped glancing my way when I came down from the mountains to trade with them. They didn't even go easy on me when we haggled! [The last part is half complaint, but the amusement in his voice is obvious.]
To them I was just a man, and a man who made life a little bit easier for them. My purposes in trying to purify sections of the Burial Mounds might have been to give the Dafan Wen a safe place to live, but it benefitted them too. You could say we liked each other.
no subject
he listens, wordless all the way through. the title gets only a soft 'hm', and wei wuxian finishes just as they reach one of the doors of a shop that specializes in cold-weather gear, the doors slide open at their approach and once they're inside, in a quiet undertone and in his faintly stilted but still unerringly-pronounced mandarin he continues their conversation: ๏ผ
What fails to be beautiful about a place like that?
๏ผ it has shaped so much of who he is, how could he find it otherwise? ๏ผ
It is not only aesthetic that drives such perception.
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Yeah, you're right. [He pauses and then huffs quietly under his breath.] I'll show you when we're back, in the simulation room. [It had been one of the first locations he'd created.]
I can show you Lotus Pier too, if you'd like to see it. [As he talks, he follows Itachi through the store, hardly paying any mind to the items they're gathering.]
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๏ผ the rest of their conversation is spent speaking in quiet, idle mandarin as they select items from the shelves. it's the sort of rather expensive place where one is better off not asking for a price — and they collect a decent array of items as they wind through the store. itachi waves off an attendant's help twice over with a charming smile, and by the time they're finished he simply asks one of them to charge the items to his room which they are all too happy to do.
afterwards: ๏ผ
We should return to my quarters to change into the items. I already have a pass and guest pass for the snow hill as part of the room package as well.
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He pulls it up again now and then tilts his head in curiosity.]
On the map you sent of your world there's a marked location without a name. Is that a place of significance?
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it's clear he's done very little to make it 'his' space, perhaps as a consequence of that extravagance.
at wei wuxian's question, he cants his head faintly as he sets the bags down. ๏ผ
It was the location of the Akatsuki's primary base. The man known publicly as our leader was from that country.
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Did you live there? I know you traveled often, but is that where you stayed when you weren't traveling?
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๏ผ he tosses wei wuxian some of the warm underclothing they'd acquired from the boutique. ๏ผ
I am not quite certain I would call it 'living'. I don't believe I spent more than two weeks there in total in nearly a decade.
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Tentatively, he reaches for a pair of pants that he's pretty sure goes next.]
Not exactly home then. [He voices aloud, contemplative.] Is it strange to be on the Ximilia now? Stuck in one place for so long?
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Not in the way you might imagine. Shinobi are adaptable, but they often have a home base — a place they returned to at the completion of their missions. To be a missing-nin is different, in that you are considered stateless. The majority spend their lives — often short — on the run. Constantly looking over their shoulder, fearful — most villages employ hunters to track down any who have betrayed them. One's techniques and knowledge can be taken from the body and ensured in this way to belong only to one's home. Konoha does not use hunter-nin in the same way, and in my years as a criminal very few people risked coming up against me due to my inherent notoriety as an Uchiha. Those that did paid for it dearly.
๏ผ it is a curious thing, to speak of his time with akatsuki. it seems so far away, now. ๏ผ
In a way, the structure of the Ximilia and our missions is much more similar to belonging to a village than anything else I know.
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It does feel a little bit like that, doesn't it? It's reminded me more than once of living with the Wen remnant in the Burial Mounds. [For that nearly two years of peace, things had been remarkably simple. The first few months had been rough as they struggled to figure out a way to feed themselves, but by the end, it really had been like living in a small village of their own.]
The people, at least, if not the actual station. [Wei Wuxian can't say any place has ever really felt like home. When he was younger, he would have said Lotus Pier, but the more distance he has from that time of his life, the more he realizes how insecure he'd always felt about his place there. People, though. People have always been his home.]
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I think most of them are not... accustomed to the same sort of community.
๏ผ the other orbers, he means. it isn't said unkindly — nor as a statement intended to decry the benefits of one over the other as a sort of living. it's just truth. ๏ผ
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I think you're right. From what...[His voice drifts off a little and he clears his throat, trying again] From what Gwen shared, it seems like people from her time are more isolated. Or if not isolated than...independent? [Individual. Everyone existing on their own with their own private lives. He can understand the appeal in a way, but he'd miss people if he lived that way.]
I like it this way, honestly. It's nice.
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'Independent'. That is one word for it.
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He chuckles under his breath and nods.
Eventually they finish dressing and Itachi leads them out of the room to wherever it is they're going to next. In the distance, some kind of moving swing guides people up and down the mountain and his gaze catches on it for a minute before he returns his attention to Itachi.]
Do you think a lesson is necessary?
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๏ผ it's said... a bit playfully, with a faint raise of his brows as he looks over at wei wuxian.
(one does not simply ask an uchiha prodigy if they need lessons, thank you.)
the small hut where one rents boots and boards is nearby, and he steers him towards it with one hand casually against his elbow. ๏ผ
I suppose that depends on how adventurous you're feeling at the moment.
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You think I spent years riding the sword just to need help learning how to slide down a hill on a piece of wood?
[Bring it on.]
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