PC WITH YIN YU

[wowcool]

Comments

[wowcool]

[that's just how it is sometimes!!! :)]

Mmm. Not exactly. I mean, yes, we have murders and mysteries and everything. But a mystery novel with a brilliant detective works on certain principles. Someone must die. The detective comes in the story. They find the clues, talk to the suspects, seek out the truth. And then, at the end, they present their answer, and justice is served.

[He shakes his head.]

But "brilliant detectives" can't exist in reality, Yin Yu. It's a cursed existence. Someone must die to give their life meaning. And they exist only to solve mysteries. They work at the whim of their creator. When the book closes, their existence ends, until the next mystery must be solved.

So really...what I am is...an abomination.

[shixiong]

[ crystal i hate you

yin yu stays quiet as long as anaido speaks. there's a lot he doesn't really understand, but..

well, it makes sense. look at the reality they live in, where today they caught one murderer, and left three bodies unsolved. look at the people they've lost. scapegoated away.

being at the whim of your creator feels familiar, too. ] When you say you're a tool, you say so quite literally.

[wowcool]

It's complicated.

[He's not exactly fictional...maybe. He just chuckles lightly.]

But essentially, yes. A brilliant detective is made for a purpose. And that purpose is to solve the mystery of the death of Kaeru-kun. Technically, solving other murders isn't my role.

[shixiong]

[ roles, murders, detectives... reflective of their situation, but somehow, not at all. ]

It is none of our roles. [ well.. clearly, their success rate isn't so great. he doesn't say so meanly, just solemnly aware of their failings. there are a lot of things that anaido is saying that are cryptic and lost on him, but he tries to understand them, anyway. ]

And so, have you not solved such a mystery? In your own realm.

[wowcool]

Hahaha. Only Kaeru-kun's. And she technically doesn't exist, I think.

[???????]

[shixiong]

[ ....?????? ]

....I'm sorry?

[wowcool]

[Oh, that's a nice look on Yin Yu's face. He laughs, fingergunning at him.]

Is it that surprising? Hahaha! I don't think it'll help you if I tell you that I technically don't exist, either!

[shixiong]

[ STOP DON'T FINGERGUN THAT ANAIDO

anyway. give him a second. ok. he needs a second. ]

...That makes two of us, I suppose. [ gods in heaven. talking to anaido is exhausting. ]

[wowcool]

Hm? How so? If the man dreaming you wakes up, will you disappear?

[It's obvious from him grinning like a fox with a rabbit in its mouth that he is taking way too much amusement in this.]

Is that the kind of existence you have, Yin Yu?

[shixiong]

[ that twinges something in his chest. familiar. bitter. the confused look on his face fades, mouth tightening behind his mask, instead. these old memories have been stirred so often this week, that they're on the forefront. ]

...When your existence is driven by the belief of others, and they all move on to someone else instead, you have disappeared.

[ believe it or not, they are actually pretty similar. dreams, huh. ]

[wowcool]

...

[The amused look drops, and he blinks, surprised. He didn't think...Yin Yu?]

So...you have to rely on people to believe in you in order to keep existing as you are?

[shixiong]

I did, once.

[ that time the bitterness comes out in his words. hidden, maybe, by their distance, his hands flex and clench into fists.

when he speaks again, it just sounds tired, as his hands relax, again. ] What do you know about the gods and the heavens?

[wowcool]

I don't know that much.

[A shake of his his head, but his curiosity is piqued, to say the least.]

Tell me, please.

[shixiong]

[ ugh. it's like lifting rocks trying to say things like this, the weight of his own past so deep and heavy that yin yu has buried it li under the earth. but there's a sense of duty, and... maybe a bit of camaraderie. who knows. maybe this person understands him better than he would have expected. what a strange twist of fate.

he stares at the fire instead of anaido, and speaks somewhat distantly, as if reciting from a textbook. ] There are two types of gods, in my realm. Literature gods are masters of knowledge, and martial gods are masters of cultivational arts, fighting, so on and so forth. To ascend to godhood, a mortal must do something extraordinary, through practice, hard work, or through natural talent. Soldiers, generals, heroes, politicians - such people can cultivate to immortality and walk among the heavenly realm for eternity as heavenly officials.

Mortals pray to the gods for many things. Success, safety, healing, hope... the gods listen to prayers of mortals and attempt to answer them when they are able. [ if they want to. most gods are self-centered, in his experience. ] And the strength of a god is inherently dependent on those believers and those prayers.

[wowcool]

[He listens well. Mortals ascending to the level of gods. He squints at Yin Yu for a moment, and wonders...]

So you're a god, Yin Yu?

[Since he said his existence used to be based on other's beliefs - it's a logical conclusion. And if that's so...ah, how exciting. A brilliant detective, and a god. Like something out of a fairy tale.]

[shixiong]

[ that gets him to laugh, a short, humorless bark. ]

I was.

[wowcool]

[His smile edges into a smirk, briefly.]

And how did you fall from grace?

[shixiong]

[ it was a vastly complicated situation. one that hurts centuries and centuries later. there is so much more to the story than what he says, but, what he says is the essence of it.

quietly: ] Talent always beats hard work.

[ his hand comes to his right wrist, long fingers over the covered skin. ] I am no extraordinary person.

[wowcool]

[A cryptic statement. But one that Anaido wants to pull apart, figure like a puzzle, because isn't a puzzle of a man suited for that sort of thing?]

Hahaha, but you are, you are, if you became a god! Were you told you weren't good enough to be one?

[shixiong]

[ the laughter stings a part of him. yin yu isn't prideful - he has nothing to be proud of - but it stirs something old and unhappy, buried deep under the surface.

he doesn't react to it, though, just pushes it down, as he considers his answer. ]

...In some manner of speaking. I was overshadowed by someone who came after me. The followers I did have moved on.

It is as you said: if the people who believe in you cease doing so, you cease to exist.

[wowcool]

I see. Another god usurped you. How unfortunate.

[Even the gods have their problems. His cheerful face sombers into something thoughtful.]

Is that what happened before you found your Master?

[shixiong]

[ he nods.

there was more than that, but yin yu has long slammed the door on that story. he has no intentions of telling it. ]

...So, when you say that you cease to exist if someone stops dreaming of you, I understand. This place and the island have been exceptions, but essentially, I am no one.

[wowcool]

[There's a long, long silence, before Anaido perks up, and recites:]

I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you...Nobody too? [He grins, but his eyes are dark, the circles under them giving him a weary, exhausted appearance.] Then there's a pair of us! Haha! Don't tell! They'd advertise, you know!

[A cheerful little chuckle comes at the end of that poem, like a little personalized signature.]

Haha! I'm no god, and never will be...but it seems we're one of a kind, aren't we?

[shixiong]

Perhaps so.

[ the verse isn't that odd. he doesn't recognize it, of course, but, poetry is an important art for any cultivator anyway, and they all tend to be wildly verbose for no reason.

he's not so sure that they're that similar. the guilt from what happened to wen ning still lingers, wraps tight around his stomach and squeezes, but... this might be the first time he feels something a little closer to anaido that isn't just guilt, or sorrow. maybe it's something. ]

It's strange to be out of that situation. [ ... ] Isn't it? Here.

[wowcool]

Of course it's strange. I'm not one for existing for long periods of time. My so-called dreams are always quite short.

[And they always end up in him dying, but well, what's a death in a dream?]

[He smiles - honestly, why is he telling Yin Yu all of this? It's far more than he's said to anyone. Wen Ning knows the truth, of course, but Yin Yu? Perhaps its that familiarity, that feeling of occupying some strange existence that's neither here or there. He's just glad to have someone understand, and he wants to connect with Yin Yu, no matter what he's done.]

...Honestly, that's why I died so quickly on the island. I just wanted to get back to where I'm supposed to be. But I guess, for now, I'm stuck like this.