Video; Fiddlesticks 25

[achickenformylove]

[For anyone that would know based just on the background, WangJi is in the garden car. It is quiet at the moment and he's clearly sitting on the ground, based on the position of flowers behind him. Also, a white rabbit keeps poking its head into the field of view, trying to get WangJi to pay attention.

WangJi's face is carefully impassive, but there is a subtle sadness in his eyes]

For those that knew them, it would seem that Wei WuXian and Lan Sizhui are no longer on the train.

[Sorry, Yanli and HuaiSang. He's noticed, but those two are his priorities]

Comments

[achickenformylove]

After far too many years. We did not realize the death of this man was anything other than natural until a village was attack by a possessed left hand.

she has no WHUT face

[marriedanidiot]

...............I'm sorry did you say a possessed left hand.

It's all good

[achickenformylove]

Yes. That is how I found WuXian again. He was in the village where our juniors were trying to solve a much simpler problem, but they were using spirit attracting flags. The flags called the hand to the village and it began attacking members of the village.

[marriedanidiot]

Oh dear. [ She manages ]

That sounds... extremely complicated. Was... it resolved?

[achickenformylove]

It was. We did resolve the problem. Unfortunately... it showed us the issue I mentioned before.

The man died what we assumed was a natural death. His remains were not properly handled by the one my brother trusted, scattering pieces of him in different locations. It was... his hand that was attacking the village, trying to find the rest of his body.

[marriedanidiot]

Oh dear... I did not think that humans lingered that way! Was there a necromancer involved?

[achickenformylove]

Most do not. However, if one dies with enough resentful energy, there is the risk they will come back to finish the business they have. This is common enough that we have three steps for how to get rid of them and most cultivator children undergo a ritual at a young age to try and prevent this from happening.

[marriedanidiot]

How strange! And this just happens... naturally? Your world is very different to ours.

[achickenformylove]

It does. It can also be helped along by those who practice the crooked path, but even before we began to worry about that, we knew this happened and had rules for how to deal with them.

[marriedanidiot]

In mine, Men do not linger, unless a necromancer is involved. [ She shakes her head in wonder at the strangeness ]

Indeed, one of the names for your people is Strangers, because dying you pass out of Arda and none can tell us where you go.

[achickenformylove]

It sounds far more peaceful that way, that one does not have to worry about others being effected by resentful energy. But it is how our world has always been. Resentful energy causes many problems.

[marriedanidiot]

What exactly is resentful energy? [ She asks curiously ]

I had thought it like the miasmas that the Enemy uses to shroud His armies and poison the lands, but it sounds as if tis something different, in yours.

[achickenformylove]

There are two types of energy in our world: spiritual energy, which cultivators use, and resentful energy. Resentful forms from repressed resentment. The example Uncle uses is 'There is an executioner with parents, a wife, and children, but before he died, he executed more than one hundred people. He suddenly died in the public and, to punish him for his deeds, he was left on the streets for seven days. With the repressed energy of resentment, he started to haunt and kill.'

[marriedanidiot]

Interesting! So it is something generated, then, not innate?

[achickenformylove]

Yes. Someone who lives a truly idyllic life is unlikely to return as a ghost. It is deep resentment that risks someone coming back. Being wrongfully convicted, war, improper handling of their physical body, and not being given what they are needed to proceed into the next life are just a few examples of what could create that resentment.

[marriedanidiot]

I see. [ She muses ]

I wonder what your world would have made of my Feanaro's mother, then! Her body lay long in state, waiting for her to return, but she never did. And although she is technically Reborn now, she ventures not from the Halls of Vaire, where she weaves the history of her family. But then... tis probably good that we had nothing like that, considering how many died without noble burial in all the battles of Beleriand....

[achickenformylove]

She is... reborn in a different body? Or the same?

[That really played a difference in how they would consider it]

[marriedanidiot]

Mm, you know, I'm not absolutely sure. I haven't been to the glade since... well. Feanaro and I had a ... rather large argument.

[ They didn't talk to each other for approximately fifty years ]

But I do believe it is her initial body.

[achickenformylove]

Then our people would have likely considered her a ghost as they come from dead humans. While most ghosts that come back in a physical form are dangerous, not all of them are. The higher the level, the more capable of thinking and reasoning they are. Have you met Wen Ning here on the train? He is a fierce corpse, the highest level. He retains enough sense of self to have not changed at all cognitively.

[marriedanidiot]

Hm. [ She considers that ]

Not quite the same, I think. We are... meant to remain. If you like, death is unnatural for us. Not the way it is for you.

[achickenformylove]

So it was expected that she would stay. Even if our goal is immortality, it is not expected that everyone in our world will be able to. Not even every cultivator will be able to.

[marriedanidiot]

Yes. Death is... a rest stop, perhaps. It was considered strange that she had refused to return, for we are meant for life, and life in the world.

[ She nods ]

Although it was not unusual that she would take time to heal, to refuse entirely was unheard of. Some take many millenia, but it was always expected that one day they would return. It ... was a lot of the reason why Feanaro was so upset that his father wed Indis...

[achickenformylove]

I see. So his father married someone else after the death of his mother even though it was expected by everyone that she would be returning. I can see how that would be upsetting.

[marriedanidiot]

It was. Miriel agreed to it, of course, or Finwe and Indis would not have gone ahead - she argued that she had no wish for life, nor for more children, and so she forswore her marriage bond and agreed to never return to life. Feanaro... well. It soured him against Indis forever, but she was always kind to me.

[achickenformylove]

I see. There is something to say about the fact that she agreed to it and that her husband was honoring what she said, but I can understand that it would be difficult for children accept this wish.