singlelogbridge | Inbox: Ximilia

[He snorts and shakes his head, raising a hand to rub self-consciously at his nose.]

I'm learning that birthdays are more celebrated in other places than in my home. [It's different, but sweet in a way.] It wouldn't have been strange to me, but the gifts are very appreciated.

Just promise me you won't tell Newt? [He makes a face.] I don't think I want all of the...[He gestures aimlessly as if to encompass everything that Newt is with his extremely publicized birthday calendars.]

[He bursts out with a sudden laugh at the request and the motion accompanying it, and waves a hand in a gesture of reassurance.]

Don't worry. You should've seen him when he realized he was late for my last birthday by a week. Ran back and forth in and out of the room until he'd not only found some kind of snack cake and a candle for it but also a gift that he managed to wrap right then too. Thoughtful guy, isn't he?

[And he'd been delighted by it, admittedly, because it was just so damned genuine, but he completely gets why Wei Wuxian would just rather not have all that fuss.]

[He shakes his head and chuckles under his breath, easily able to picture it. His own experience with Newt has been...varied to say the least, and there are times when Wei Wuxian finds his enthusiasm to insist on certain things tiring, but even he can see that he typically means well and that his intentions are to make the other Orbers feel special.]

He's very thoughtful. [He pauses.] But why a candle?

Oh, it's a tradition in a lot of places, mostly for kids. You give them a cake on their birthday with candles on it, one for every year of age. Eventually that's too many candles but people keep putting a few on anyway just for fun. Besides, it's symbolic. Light and life, or something like that.

[One of those odd traditions that seems to span some worlds and cultures more than others, which is curious, as he thinks on it. He understood why the cake had a candle, but he isn't even from Earth. Maybe it's one of those things so laden with obvious symbolism that lots of cultures developed it. It should be celebrated that someone survived another whole year, because that isn't always easy. And that makes him wonder:]

You really don't celebrate birthdays at home?

[He shakes his head, amused and fascinated at the description.]

There are key ages that are celebrated, and sometimes people will have dinners for their birthdays, but otherwise, they don't seem to be celebrated exactly the same way.

[He pauses for a moment, wondering how to explain the difference.] From what you've shared, birthdays are seen as a sign of life? But where I'm from, birthdays represent our paths coming one step closer to death. People don't like to be reminded of that.

[He grins.] A moot point for me though. If anything, it's even more like you've described than normal, right? Any birthday I have now is an achievement. [Despite the rather dark topic, Wei Wuxian seems totally at ease with it. It's clear he has no problems referencing his own death.]

[An interesting shift of perspective, but it's one that makes sense in its own way. Maybe some places fear death more than wanting to celebrate still being alive. He can imagine plenty of reasons for that.

But as Wei Wuxian says, it's different for both of them now.]

Right, another year of extra time. Why not celebrate that? Look at all the new things we get to see just by being here.

[His smile grows soft and he nods, a little overwhelmed by the feeling if he's honest.]

When I first arrived here, I didn't want it. The extra time. But I'm glad for it now. I'm glad for the opportunity to have met so many wonderful people. [And he grins extra bright at Rosinante, very obviously including him in that number.]

So I guess I will have to celebrate any other birthdays I have from now on.

I think you might have mentioned while we were drinking, but please refresh my very poor memory, when is yours?

Back in July. The fifteenth.

[And he's not bothered in the slightest that most people don't know that, though Newton did wind up with it on his calendar ultimately. That's all right, though. He still doesn't expect anyone to do much for it.]

It was a good one this year. Law made sure of it.

[And his absence is still painful, but he's come to accept it now. Hopefully he's doing all right back home.]

Good. And if we're both here next year, I won't forget it. [Well.] I'll write it down. [He laughs.] My memory has always been the worst.

Anyway, we'll do your cake and presents and everything.

You really don't need to go out of your way.

[Again, he appreciates the thought, but also he's really not used to being the center of attention in any way and it's a little overwhelming. But, in case he really feels compelled, he adds after a moment,]

I don't care much for cake, anyway. Maybe candles could go in a pie, though.

[Says the man who just brought him baked goods and a present! Wei Wuxian huffs and then brightens.]

A pie it is then. Who says we have to follow anyone else's rules!

Exactly.

[He grins, as he then fishes out a new cigarette to light, and flicks his lighter closed with a snap.]

I always figured if traditions don't work for you, make your own, anyway. Just because something is the way it's always been done doesn't mean it's the right way.

[That gets a loud laugh from Wei Wuxian and he nods in agreement.]

Yeah. I once stood up in class and said that to one of my elders. [He grins.]

So you could say I'm in agreement.

[They really do have more than a few things in common, don't they? He laughs as well and takes his cigarette in hand.]

I'm sure that went over well.

[He grins.]

He threw a scroll at me! And I got detention for months. I had to write out hundreds of their stupid rules hundreds of times.

[And then there is the fact that the Lan elder he'd talked back to—one who had never liked him—had been one of the first to condemn is actions in the war that led to the eventual mob that formed to kill him, but he doesn't actually hold that against the stubborn old man. he'd been right after all.]

Edited 2022-11-15 03:21 (UTC)

Damn. What were they insisting on that you didn't want to do, anyway?

[He's actually kind of impressed that he stood up against an elder, actually. Rosinante sure was always the type to quietly just go along with it unless nobody was watching. School wasn't something he minded so much anyway - it's the broader societal rules he generally found problems with.]

Ah...[He looks away and scratches his head, suddenly almost embarrassed.]

Hmm. It was a combination of things really. You don't talk back to elders like that, and especially not as rudely as I did. And then the subject matter was...hmm, controversial? [He lets out a laugh.]

You've seen my cultivation now. I don't know if you've ever seen Lan Xichen's, but if you have, I'm sure you've noticed the differences. Lan Xichen and any other cultivator you've met here cultivate spiritual energy. I cultivate resentful energy. The energy of the dead. [It's an oversimplification of what resentful energy is, but it suffices.]

It was the theory I posited that day in that classroom, to cultivate resentful energy instead of spiritual energy, and it went against centuries of teaching. Hence, detention!

[He nods thoughtfully, thankful that he has in fact seen the work of another cultivator by now after his collaboration with Lan Wangji in trying to help out Clayton's search for spirits on the astral plane in the last mission. And it helps to know, too, that there are distinct differences and to have words to put to them. It's interesting stuff, no doubt foreign to him but still easier to grasp than all the magic around.]

Leadership praises creativity up to a point, and then suddenly you've gone too far, hm? Especially with a sensitive topic like the dead. But what you do is incredible. I certainly owe you still.

It is incredible, [He echoes, though it doesn't sound like praise when he says it,] But that elder wasn't entirely wrong either.

I'm glad that I've been able to help people with it. I'm glad that here on the Ximilia especially, it has proven to be useful on more than one occasion. But there are some consequences, to cultivating the way I do.

[He lets out a soft exhale and shrugs, smiling wryly.] Nothing that gives me too much trouble here though.

[A pause.] And don't be silly, you don't owe me anything. You would have done the same for me I'm sure.

[He has his guesses as to what sort of consequences there might be, based mainly on his knowledge of the uses of haki and devil fruit in his own world. He won't pry, at least not for now. If Wei Wuxian insists that he knows what he's doing and that it isn't a problem, he'll believe him, at least to a reasonable extent.]

I would have. And if there comes a point when you need my help, you know I'll be more than willing to give it. Even if what I can do is nowhere near as cool as what you can do.

[Wei Wuxian grins up at his friend bright with warmth and he lets out a soft laugh as he shakes his head.]

I know.

[Whether he deserves this extra birthday—these months filled with laughter and love, even as there was hardship and struggle too—he doesn't know. He is fairly sure this place isn't about "deserves" though. He is here among the crew earned or not, and that's enough for him. He's here surrounded by more friends then he had left at the end of his life and he won't get hung up on the details of why.]

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