singlelogbridge | Inbox: Ximilia

[It's instinct the way the words come to him immediately with a laugh in their wake. Anything without me in it. He bites his tongue before the reflex can make itself known.]

...better people in charge. Huaisang told me that Jin Guangshan died a few years after me. [And Jin Guangyao after him, though he doesn't mention.] That means the leaders of the cultivation world are Huaisang, Lan Xichen, my brother and...[It takes him a moment to figure out who has inherited Jin leadership, and when he has, he's almost sorry he thought about it at all.]...a boy named Jin Ling.

I don't know anything about Jin Ling, but he...he'll be...I'll bet he's rough around the edges, but wise and compassionate in a way none of the Jin who came before him were. Jiang Cheng will have helped raise him.

Anyway, the four of them...they have their flaws, but it's a better place to start already. I hope they'll learn from the mistakes of the past. I hope they'll look out for the common people, the way the Great Sects were always meant to.

[He's quiet for a moment as he contemplates the reality he's crafted in his mind. Eventually, he turns his gaze back to Itachi.]

What about for you?

（ there is very little reason why wei wuxian would have imagined a situation where his brother raised a child not his own, and been so exacting in the imagination of his demeanor. he pieces it together in his mind — wei wuxian, after all, had a sister.

his mouth quirks downward at one corner, but rather than pursue the matter, he says — ）

The simple answer is 'peace'.

（ he says it tiredly. the naivety of the word is stripped away in the breath on which he exhales it, the dream of the child he used to be. the world was so much smaller when he was young, but even then... his earliest memories are still of war. he was never so ignorant of the cruelties of the world as to have the luxury to ignore them.

his fingers flex. he takes another drink of the tea and lets it sit briefly on his tongue, savoring the taste. ）

However, I cannot say what that might look like. There is no precedent in all of our recorded history. Truthfully, the most peaceful time my world has known was the time between the end of the third Great Shinobi War which ended when I was a child, and the time I died. （ his mouth quirks. ） Which isn't saying much. Conflict was still occurring, just not on a national scale. However, relations were reaching an inevitable boiling point, largely the work of the organization I was aligned with, the Akatsuki.

[He hums softly in response, trying and failing to imagine it. Despite the war that came for them when he was a teenager, war was no longer as common as it had once been. He can't imagine what it would have been like to grow up surrounded by it. He can't imagine being a child exposed to all of its horrors. He'd done all in his power to shield a-Yuan from the horrors going on around him. (Silently, he wishes someone had done the same for his friend.)]

They worked to destabilize nations. [A pause.] Do you remember the first time I heard you say that?

（ simply, ）

Yes.

（ how could he forget? ）

[He huffs quietly and takes another sip of his tea, staring into it once more.]

We found peace. I know it's hardly an apt comparison, I don't mean it to belittle anything. But if you'd told me that I'd be sitting here with you almost a year later, well. I would have laughed.

I'm hopeful for your land is what I mean. Even if it doesn't seem possible, I didn't think it was possible for us either. So, there's hope for it.

That has markedly more to do with your being stubborn, and the fact Viveca frowns on murder.

（ a bit of a joke at his own expense. if pressed, he would have told wei wuxian the same thing he had told gwen. that he would take no issue at dying at their hands if it meant his goal on the ximilia was fulfilled. even now, they remain the only two people he would not rally against. ）

There is a cycle of trauma in my world. Breaking it will require an immense sacrifice, someone needing to be the first to accept to their hurt and loss must be set aside rather than avenged. Others will also need to follow suit. Not just one person, one village. Thousands of individuals beneath the banners of the five great nations. It is not impossible. But it would be so difficult.

（ he hesitates, and then: ）

There is a boy. Uzumaki Naruto. He was one to whom I entrusted my... （ he wets his lips, and then rather than speak he sends the characters that represent the concept, unwilling to let it be roughly translated by the earpiece: 火の意志

it is clear the meaning for him lies in the specific words and the willful intent behind them. the hiragana for of will be familiar from their shared dissection of their respective languages. ）

Sasuke's closest friend. The one who loved him as a brother when I could not. I would like to believe he could be the one to accomplish such a thing, but our world is not kind to hopeful hearts.

Edited (my god i am so sorry this is so many edits) 2023-02-12 06:07 (UTC)

[Wei Wuxian's expression twitches into a smile for a moment at the joke and then he sobers up, listening carefully to Itachi's words.

His lips form the name, mouthing it silently. Uzumaki Naruto. A faceless boy from another world who Itachi had once seen something in. Something strong enough to warrant a spark of hope. Wei Wuxian is grateful to this Uzumaki Naruto, someone he'll most likely never meet but who holds a piece of Wei Wuxian's hope now too. After a moment he speaks, voice steady and strong.]

No world is kind to people like that, but if you saw something in him, and if he loves your brother, I think he'll succeed. The people who love Uchihas are incredibly stubborn after all. They don't give up easily.

（ there is a hitch to his breath, barely perceptible. wei wuxian may not recognize the corner he has backed him into with the nature of that statement, but itachi does — the sword of damocles swings down. to avoid it means denying the possibility of sasuke's salvation. to endure it is to accept the dulcet agonies of being known. he is stymied by hypocrisy — have his words not cut just the same?

wei wuxian is not the type to seek vengeance for such a thing, but some part of it thinks it would be easier to accept were that the case. tolerating the recompense for the latest of his sins would be easy enough, the simple question — how differently would your lives have gone if she had but thought to be kind?

his eyes flicker briefly closed. he does not reach for what is not there — but he yearns for the familiar haze of the sharingan. ）

You shouldn't speak so confidently of what it is like to love an Uchiha. I warned you once of our tendency towards madness.

（ and its corrosive effect on them. the strength of their love coupled with the weaknesses in their souls... sometimes he wonders if their cruel end was an inevitability from the days of hagoromo on down. if not his hand, then whose? he was only the knife. clans with notable kekkei genkai flourish or perish by the whims of the villages that shelter, nurture and use them ruthlessly. to be remarkable is to accept the brand of a target on you and everyone you care for. ）

[He'd thought to word it in a way that afforded Itachi some plausible deniability, giving him the room to escape the words if he'd wanted. He'd been ready to leave if the words provoked a demand for solitude. He'd expected, well, not this. Not the direct acknowledgement of what he'd meant.

His eyes don't leave Itachi's, gaze unwavering.

For most of his life, Wei Wuxian had shied away from blatant declarations of affection. Instead he smothered the people he loved in compliments, flattery, and casual gestures of intimacy, laughing and praising them but never able to look them in the eyes and speak sincerely to the depths of his feelings. (Probably, because he feared they might reciprocate and that wasn't something he was prepared to hear.)

Then he started to lose those people and it never really stopped.

Loss changed him. Being on the Ximilia changed him. He's lost too much and left too much unsaid not to have learned his lesson.]

I remember. [He says finally, and his voice shakes despite everything, overwhelmed and so sincere it hurts.] That doesn't make it any less true.

（ honest sentiment doesn't sway him. it never has. ）

Foolish.

（ but that seems to be the only refutation he makes, and then he rises from the bed. goes to the teapot left on the room's small, singular table, and begins the process of refilling his cup. with his back turned — ）

Please, leave. I would prefer to be alone.

[Once, Wei Wuxian had made the mistake of not immediately heeding those same words.

Itachi is right, he is foolish (though not about this) but not so foolish not to learn from his mistakes. He makes quick work of gathering his own cup—fewer reminders for Itachi that way— and pulling his boots back on.

Half a dozen parting lines come to mind and he delivers none of them. They're all too tinged with kindness and affection, and even if he doesn't take the sentiment back, he won't hurt his friend with anymore of that today.

The door closes behind him quietly and then he is gone.]

Inbox: Ximilia

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