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[rootsforyou]

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[rootsforyou]

[this soup simmers for 4 hours buddy, you can't stay quiet forever]

...You wished to remain here for the time being. Do you still feel the same way after seeing what the tokens can do?

[strikingchords]

[girl i can stay quiet for days tho]

...

More so.

[rootsforyou]

Are you interested in what they have to offer? More than going home?

[strikingchords]

[looks at her, level, without challenge]

Are you not?

[rootsforyou]

I'm currently with Echidna. There isn't a way for me to obtain tokens. So I haven't thought on it too much at this time.

[strikingchords]

[doesn't answer...]

[rootsforyou]

You and A-Xian are quite alike in some ways.

[a little amused...]

[strikingchords]

[seriously, not taking it as a joke]

That is so.

[rootsforyou]

[it was serious!]

Did my answer displease you as well?

[strikingchords]

[pauses]

You have spoken on this?

[rootsforyou]

We spoke shortly after the announcement.

[strikingchords]

...

Why was he displeased?

[rootsforyou]

Is it difficult to guess?

[strikingchords]

We are unalike in other ways.

Please.

[rootsforyou]

[stirs the soup, idly]

He's interested in collecting enough tokens for a wish. But not for himself. For me, for Zixuan, for the Wens, for you. Even if he succeeds in correcting everything that happened, he has no intention of going back himself.

I told him that he should do as he wished. However, I wouldn't return without him. He didn't seem happy with that. So I...wanted to better understand the events that transpired leading up to our deaths. So that they can be avoided in the future, if that's the path we go down.

[strikingchords]

[his knuckles are clenched white on the edge of the cutting board; his hair shadows his face a little, but he has too much self control to hide it, so the iced-over lines of his profile are perfectly clear.]

...

[rootsforyou]

[covers the soup with a lid and shifts her body more to face him head-on, hands folded in front of her]

Feel free to speak your mind, Hanguang-Jun.

[strikingchords]

[steadily, after another moment]

We are in sympathy.

[rootsforyou]

[exhales]

I don't want to pressure him to do something he doesn't wish to do. So I'll accept whatever he decides. Since there's time, there's no rush to make a decision about the future. But...I'm worried he'll pick something that will make him unhappy.

[strikingchords]

It seems he wants something you do not wish, as well.

[rootsforyou]

I don't wish to go back on my agreement to help on Echidna. So, as I said, at this time I have no ability to gain tokens for myself. That means whatever is done with those tokens, in the end, isn't up to me.

I also don't take my agreement with the Warden to mean that I will remain here forever. Her intent appears to be to "rehabilitate" everyone. There will come a point when there are no more people left here, or a point where I feel like there's nothing more that I can do to help. But that is a point off in the future, and I don't know what will change between now and then. There's much that I still don't understand. Before saying whether or not there's something I wish for, I want to understand what the cost would be for that wish.

[strikingchords]

[...exhales...]

That is not unreasonable.

[rootsforyou]

Hanguang-Jun. Forgive me if this is too forward. But within the last few days I've seen how much you care for A-Xian. Though you won't say it directly, I've also heard how much you did for him prior to your arrival here. Would I be correct in thinking that, given the opportunity, you would wish for him to return to our world once more?

[strikingchords]

...

It is so.

Why do you ask?

[obviously she's interested in what happens to Wei Wuxian, since she cares about him. but it feels like there's something she's thinking about, that she wanted that response to confirm]

[rootsforyou]

You don't seem like the kind of person who would do so against his wishes. I wondered if you had an idea of how to persuade him. And what you intended to do if he couldn't be persuaded.