Lan Xichen is quiet as he comes. There's an exhaustion, a defeat in his frame that hasn't been there since the beginning of the Sunshot Campaign.
His brother... has done something unthinkable. Unexcusable. For entirely understandable reasons, but... he hurt the elders of their clan, without remorse. Wei Wuxian lost control at Nightless City, attacked all and sundry with resentful energy and the recent dead, caused untold grief, and broke his brother's heart when he died. Lan Xichen could find it in himself to hate the man, if he hadn't seen Wei Wuxian's broken grief for himself in that last furious stand.
But the punishment that is being required is too much. Thirty-three lashes the the discipline whip - absolutely unheard of, a savage punishment, potentially lethal. He's spent all of his time since the punishment was recommended until now arguing for forgiveness, for mitigation, for... something, anything, anything other than the tragedy that is bearing down. He is finding, too late, that while he might bear the weight of maintaining the strength of the Lans outside of Cloud Recesses, his power within the clan is... not nearly so formidable. The thought that he might lose his little brother tears at him.
The thought he might already have grinds salt into the wounds. His little brother, so quiet after so much rage, all in mourning white, casts a somber figure in the jingshi's doorway.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2020-11-02 05:04 am (UTC)His brother... has done something unthinkable. Unexcusable. For entirely understandable reasons, but... he hurt the elders of their clan, without remorse. Wei Wuxian lost control at Nightless City, attacked all and sundry with resentful energy and the recent dead, caused untold grief, and broke his brother's heart when he died. Lan Xichen could find it in himself to hate the man, if he hadn't seen Wei Wuxian's broken grief for himself in that last furious stand.
But the punishment that is being required is too much. Thirty-three lashes the the discipline whip - absolutely unheard of, a savage punishment, potentially lethal. He's spent all of his time since the punishment was recommended until now arguing for forgiveness, for mitigation, for... something, anything, anything other than the tragedy that is bearing down. He is finding, too late, that while he might bear the weight of maintaining the strength of the Lans outside of Cloud Recesses, his power within the clan is... not nearly so formidable. The thought that he might lose his little brother tears at him.
The thought he might already have grinds salt into the wounds. His little brother, so quiet after so much rage, all in mourning white, casts a somber figure in the jingshi's doorway.
"Wangji." He calls, soft.