EVENT LOG: HÆIÐRS-MINNI

[asgardmods]

Who: EVERYONE
What: the Hæiðrs-Minni event log
When: November 16
Where: EVERYWHERE
Rating: PG-13; please take anything higher than this to a private log!

morning: the funeral

The morning sun is lost behind clouds that pour in an endless rain, casting the city into a dark and gloomy shadow. The streets of Asgard are almost entirely empty, although hardly a soul can be found indoors either. Everyone is gathered instead at the riverbank on the castle grounds, where a series of boats are tethered along the short and gently tugging with the current. The native Asgardians place gifts, food, and personal belongings into the boats in memory of their lost loved ones.

Whether you've lost someone, were lost yourself, or carry some other loss within you, the natives invite you to place your own offerings in the boats to send off your sorrows together.

Several hours into the morning, once everyone has had their chance to fill the boats, Heimdall gives a short speech honoring those that fell in the recent battle as the boats are let loose down the river. Honir fires an arrow towards the last one to float away, and Odin lights it on fire as it soars overhead, the single arrow splitting into a wave of shooting stars that strike each boat dead center. The boats alight all at once, and even with the rain pouring overhead, they continue to burn as they float gently out of sight, carrying everyone's grief away with them.

all day: the dedication

Throughout the rest of the day, many of Asgard's residents seem to buzz around Firar Samka, the cultural museum in Mimir's district. A new wing has been added to document Asgard's recent triumphs, but most especially to honor the unexpected stalwart allies of the kingdom: you, the Wanderers from other worlds. This display was added to memorialize the lengths you've gone to in the name of protecting and preserving life within the realm, the core purpose of Asgard in its entirety. You are heroes among gods and this exhibit seeks to portray that for all to see.

As you wander through the display, you might see childish drawings of familiar people fighting a massive dragon, or a large painted mural of solemn faces standing off against an army of ghoulish figures. Skadi can be found beside these, sometimes twisting them into eerie motion or placing a new piece somewhere along the halls.

Elsewhere, you can find Njord alone or accompanied by some human skalds as they sing or read poetry or even sometimes reenact part of the battles against the Red Death and the Army of the Dead. Your characters can watch or join, and they might even hear their own names mentioned among the reverence and song. This is the story of Asgard and the Wanderers conquering death, and you're right at the center of it.

evening: the feast

To end the day on a high note, everyone is invited to Nādhirhöll in Tyr's district, where the entire banquet hall has been decked out in so many colors and leaves and lights that it might feel like walking into an overgrown forest tightly held in the grips of a sparkling autumn. With the growing success of the distilleries in Njord's district, vodka and ales are passed around freely alongside the mountains of food available on tables in every room. People dance and sing and lounge around the leaves with laughter and a joyful appreciation of life in the air.

If your character joins the party, they might notice themselves feeling more warm and relaxed over the course of the evening. They might have the unusual inclination to be more physically affectionate with people and vocally declare their appreciation to them. Deep in this glittering "forest," it is easy to feel lost in the warmth and comfort of good company and relative safety.

This party continues into the morning of the next day, something that many may not realize as deeply wrapped in an artificial forest as they may be. The effects of the curse fade as everyone stumbles their way out of Nādhirhöll, leaving a heavy blanket of strangely warm exhaustion behind. It's been a long and potentially emotional day, but the city seems to be brought together under a shared relief and a new tomorrow.

[ OOC NOTES: This is the event log for Hæiðrs-Minni! There are various goings-on throughout the day to acknowledge past strife and be grateful for a projected future. If you have any questions or need any help, please let us know on the mod contact page! ]

Comments

[yiling_laozu]

Caught, Wei Wuxian drops his gaze, uncorking the wine to take a deep pull. If they ever return home, he wonders if Lan Zhan won't immediately smack Lan Xichen with Bichen upon his arrival.

"I know a little," he admits. "I believe...I believe Zewu-Jun sought to compare my personality with her own. That neither of us quite belonged in the Cloud Recesses, but found ourselves there again and again for the sake of a person."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Zhan frowns, unable to understand why Brother would tell Wei Ying about all of the things he'd never imagined him knowing. He can't fathom why he would tell him about the whips unless Wei Ying had seen them but to tell him about their mother seems impossible.

It pains him to hear Wei Ying speak of not belonging in Cloud Recesses, although Lan Zhan knows it to be true. Wei Ying belongs somewhere far more free.

"Would never do what he did. Would never confine Wei Ying. Never force Wei Ying to stay with me," he blurts out, desperate for that to be known. He knows he is not fun, that he is not a good companion for the types of adventures Wei Ying enjoys and is fearful of ever holding him back.

[yiling_laozu]

"I know," says Wei Wuxian, wishing his hands were not so greasy with pastry when such a look crosses Lan Wangji's face. "Lan Zhan always allowed me what others would not," he says with a small, nearly bewildered smile. It's not that he doubts Lan Wangji's goodness - it's Wei Wuxian's own luck that's too incredible to be believed.

"You let me be what I am. Since shijie, no one has ever been kinder."

[lan_wangji]

"What Wei Ying is never needed to change," he murmurs, giving into impulse and unfolding his legs to crawl up to the head of the bed, resting against the other pillow. It feels dangerously intimate to be so close in only inner robes but they have spent time in closer quarters and he thinks Wei Ying will not hold such an indulgence against him.

When he had woken at 5am to rain and darkness, he'd longed for more sleep. This is better.

"Lady Jiang knew this. Was a good person but Wei Ying deserved the kindness. Your sadness honors her."

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian's feet are still freezing, and he pulls the blankets up and over Lan Wangji, tucking them in against his sides to trap the heat. "Jin Ling honors her," he says, setting aside the last of the pastries.

"I wish I'd seen him grow," he admits. "He is angry, but who could blame him? No father, no mother, and only Jiang Cheng to show him kindness. He loves him, I know, but he can never let himself be warm. A child needs kindness as well as strength."

[lan_wangji]

Being tucked into bed is an odd but not unpleasant sensation and Lan Zhan settles close, trying to offer what body heat he can without taking advantage of their proximity.

"Wei Ying would have been a good Uncle," he says, easily imagining him surrounded by children. He would make a good father. "Would have been kind, taught him many naughty things. Was good to A-Yuan," he hedges, unsure if the mention of A-Yuan will make it worse. But Wei Ying deserves the credit for the care and love he'd shown the child. "Am sorry Wei Ying has lost so much."

[yiling_laozu]

"I taught them, a little," says Wei Wuxian, fiddling with the cork on the wine. "In Yi City I was alone with them for some time. And again at the Burial Mounds, when those plotting against me showed their hand. I liked teaching them. I think they liked me, too."

He huffs. "Even Jin Ling, after he got around to stabbing me."

[lan_wangji]

"Jin Ling stabbed you!" Lan Zhan huffs, sitting up and pawing at the blankets covering Wei Ying as if the wound could still need attending.

"How long ago? Healed?" he demands, trying to jerk the blankets down to confirm that Wei Ying is indeed hale and safe with his own eyes.

[yiling_laozu]

"All healed, Lan Zhan," says Wei Wuxian, wriggling when Lan Wangji yanks at the blankets, but there's nowhere to go. "It was the same place Jiang Cheng and the frozen fierce corpses stabbed me. At this rate the scar tissue should be impenetrable," he mutters.

He watches Lan Wangji huff in outrage, but how could he blame Jin Ling? Wei Wuxian is the reason he has no mother or father. "It's resolved now, Lan Zhan."

[lan_wangji]

"Does not make it okay," he snaps, revealing Wei Ying's torso wrapped in soft, if slightly oversized robes. Lan Zhan does not tear them open but it is a close thing and his hand hovers over the spot for a moment before pressing on his side.

"No one hurts you, anymore. No one. Tell me if they try."

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian's heartrate spikes - Lan Wangji's hand is so close to scars he's not ready to be seen, but he merely clasps Wei Wuxian side as if he, himself, could become the protective tissue.

"Will Lan Zhan protect me?" he asks with a small, affectionate smile. "I think we're alright now," he assures him. "Until the next war the gods find for us."

[lan_wangji]

"Always," he confirms, patting Wei Ying's side gently before drawing back, settling again by his side but still stiff, still agitated. Wei Ying is always getting stabbed and Lan Zhan is heartily fed up with it.

"Odin warns that this place is not safe but will not say why. But we have fought monsters and demons. Is our way of life. As safe here as anywhere. Prefer here to a place where you are gone."

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian hums in thought, swallowing another mouthful of wine as he considers. "Not safe," he agrees, for no land ever is, "But more unstable than unsafe?" At his side, Lan Wangji is brooding, and Wei Wuxian rests a hand on his shoulder. "This world is still growing. Much of its dangers are surely from growing pains. I'm certainly allowed more frivolity here than in the cultivating world."

[lan_wangji]

"Mm, same," he agrees, trying muscle by muscle to relax. Wei Ying is fine, right now. Lan Zhan is here, if anything tries again.

"Master Hector made me jump in one of those holes. Said it would be fun. Was disorienting. Tried to teach me about fun. Very, very different from cultivating world."

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian sits up straighter for his mention. "I promised Uncle that we would place his portrait in our rice paddy when it is finished," he says. "It's very important. In his world the dead can only visit where their portraits hang, and no one ever put his up. A hundred years he was without his family, Lan Zhan. We must make his...his ofrenda. Even if he can't go home to them, he will still have a tether."

[lan_wangji]

"Can hang any portrait Wei Ying wishes," Lan Zhan agrees, mind briefly flashing over this future domestic scene, a little pained at the thought of it.

"Wei Ying could draw it. Kept the one of me, even though I was angry," he admits, ears flushing a little at how sentimental it was to keep such a thing. "I like Master Hector. Like that Wei Ying knows him."

Lan Zhan thinks he is a friend. Another one. Someone other than Wei Ying. It feels like an important step.

[yiling_laozu]

"You kept it?" Wei Wuxian asks, cheeks pinking with surprised pleasure. He has a decent hand, one he was sure he'd wasted on Lan Wangji at the time, but apparently not so. "I will draw Hector's then," he says. "He is a fine gentleman, is he not? Is he Lan Wangji's friend?"

He must be, if he managed to get Hanguang-Jun to throw himself into a mystery hole, but Wei Wuxian impishly wants to hear him say it.

[lan_wangji]

"Mm," he reluctantly agrees, although he's not certain if it is the correct word. He grabs Wei Ying's now empty plate, leaning over him to settle it on the floor as he thinks this over.

"Not same as Wei Ying. Friend is a very broad word. Should be more words with better meaning. Admire Hector. Find him pleasant to be around. Do not love him, though. Different."

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian holds still while Lan Wangji bends over him, used to the rush of warmth that ever accompanies such close proximity, but smiling for it all the same. "I should hope not," he teases, "Wei Wuxian is a singular man. Who could compare?"

Laughing, he nudges Wangji's shoulder with his own. "There are friends, there are close friends, there is family and there are soulmates. Many words."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Zhan settles back down, nudging Wei Ying right back as he thinks on these distinctions. He is still unsure what the differences between all of those would feel like. Wei Ying is indeed a singular man, one who went from an annoying presence and skipped quickly to soulmate. Brother and Uncle are Family, although Brother feels decidedly different than Uncle. Hector is perhaps beginning to become a friend although the idea of pursuing even more of these, putting in even more effort feels exhausting.

"Complicated," he complains, indulging himself a little as he scooches down to rest his head against his pillow. "Master Ye Zun feels more like Lǎoshī, than friend. Think that is enough, for me. Don't need more."

[yiling_laozu]

Between the blankets, the dry clothes, and Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian can finally feel his toes again, and he also lies down, his head pillowed but his body turned to face Lan Wangji's. "Master Ye is fascinating," he replies. "He's centuries old. Did you know he also struggled with a darkness that crept inside him to live?"

[lan_wangji]

"Did not know," Lan Zhan murmurs, angling his body towards Wei Ying's, a little startled at how comfortable he feels with him in his space, in his bed like this.

"Master Ye has alluded to his age but not offered such information."

He thinks on that for a moment, wondering if he ought to have been asking more person questions. It had simply never dawned on him. "Did he volunteer this information to you? Does he know about you?" It is not that Lan Zhan distrusts Master Ye but he simply does not know him, not well enough to trust with Wei Ying's life.

[yiling_laozu]

Bundled in bed and facing one another across the sheets, Wei Wuxian feels pleasantly conspiratorial, as he often had when he and Jiang Cheng were young. "Master Ye knows a little," he says. "I made no mention of that wretched seal. He managed to tame the darkness within him, but first he had to become a spirit. It's not so different from my own tale, is it?"

[lan_wangji]

Lan Zhan frowns, reaching out to circle Wei Ying's wrist, feeling more grounded with as much proof as he can get that Wei Ying is whole and healthy. "It does seem Master Ye has much in common with Wei Ying," he murmurs, brow furrowed as he wonders why he is uneasy.

"Master Ye has been nothing but helpful to me. I admire him, enjoy learning from him. But I am glad he doesn't know about the seal. There is much to him I feel is hidden. Wei Ying has an open spirit. Glad you were careful."