[ Sandu sinks deep into the chest of the beast - sinking in too fast, too easily, too quickly even for something that is rotten, this feels hollow until he finally meets resistance.
Curious, or maybe just frantic, maybe just feeling closer to madness than anything else, he yanks the sword to make a large slash and cuts open the chest cavity wide to reveal the empty expanse he isn't even surprised to find.
He laughs, a choked, teary noisy, and sinks to his feet. Reaches out and scoops out the heart, pierced right in the middle by Sandu. A human heart, no longer beating now but still warm and gushing blood over his fingers.
And as the heart bleeds over his fingers, something almost like memories bleeds into his mind. There is the cackling laughter, the jeering, there is a voice almost Wei Wuxian gloating as his mother dies and then there is Wei Wuxian, the one he knows, not the one with the twisted smile and cruel voice in a forest, alone...
He died alone. He will die alone. Has died alone. He is dead. Will be dead. Again. Tears flash through his mind, an embrace, a message, a plea for ten minutes...
He will die alone.
Still clutching the bloody heart, Jiang Cheng finds himself staggering into the forest, still uncertain if he actually wants to find him - he laughed! He jeered! Or did he? There is a trail of resentment to follow, strong enough almost to make him nauseous as different contradicting memories blur with reality, all of them only having one thing in common and that is being soaked in resentment, but he stubbornly keeps following that trail deeper into the woods.
He needs to find him, before he dies alone. Again. ]
ghosts & hosts, for Wei Wuxian
Curious, or maybe just frantic, maybe just feeling closer to madness than anything else, he yanks the sword to make a large slash and cuts open the chest cavity wide to reveal the empty expanse he isn't even surprised to find.
He laughs, a choked, teary noisy, and sinks to his feet. Reaches out and scoops out the heart, pierced right in the middle by Sandu. A human heart, no longer beating now but still warm and gushing blood over his fingers.
And as the heart bleeds over his fingers, something almost like memories bleeds into his mind. There is the cackling laughter, the jeering, there is a voice almost Wei Wuxian gloating as his mother dies and then there is Wei Wuxian, the one he knows, not the one with the twisted smile and cruel voice in a forest, alone...
He died alone. He will die alone. Has died alone. He is dead. Will be dead. Again. Tears flash through his mind, an embrace, a message, a plea for ten minutes...
He will die alone.
Still clutching the bloody heart, Jiang Cheng finds himself staggering into the forest, still uncertain if he actually wants to find him - he laughed! He jeered! Or did he? There is a trail of resentment to follow, strong enough almost to make him nauseous as different contradicting memories blur with reality, all of them only having one thing in common and that is being soaked in resentment, but he stubbornly keeps following that trail deeper into the woods.
He needs to find him, before he dies alone. Again. ]