Spiritual Weapon: Wood Wrought

[ranalore]

Title: Wood Wrought
Author: Rana Eros
Drabble Type: Double Drabble
Character: Wei Wuxian
Rating/Warnings: Teen and Up, creepy tree imagery, body horror, angst, the Burial Mounds generally
Summary: Weapons gained and lost.
Author's Notes: Finally, the drabble I've meant to write since I chose the comm's name. Thanks to Eliza for helping me whittle it into shape and smooth out the rough patches.

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The roots of every tree here are intertwined with bone. It shows on the inside, where they've bleached to white. Even their fallen twigs scream when you burn them, and fresh sap runs red.

Wei Wuxian's bones snapped like twigs when he fell. Every day, he bleeds to control the ghosts who fight to claim what's left of him. Their screams nearly deafen him to any other sound, so he is unmoved by the theatrics of the corrupted tree to which he takes the yin sword for a length of wood straight enough to fashion a dizi. He's started experimenting with Lan musical cultivation as a means to direct resentful energy, but he has only his voice, which lacks both the range and power of an instrument.

Between the yin sword, the contents of his qiankun pouch, and some creative thinking, he manages to carve a dizi out of the black wood of what might once have been a yew tree. The dizi's white designs are sinuous, unsettling; its range, excellent. As he plays it to remake the yin sword, Wei Wuxian refuses to think of warm, whorled wood carved only with a name that's not his to wield anymore.

Comments

[hhimring]

Wow! Really strong imagery.

[ranalore]

Thank you! The Burial Mounds are so inspiring that way.

[elwendell]

I particularly like the mention of yew, which is synonymous with graveyards. You've captured the strength of WW's character well.

[ranalore]

*punches air* I'd been hoping somebody would get the yew reference! I'm so glad you liked that, and that Wei Wuxian's determination comes through.

[aroberuka]

Love the imagery, especially in the first two paragraphs- the flip from the trees being personnified (twigs scream / fresh sap runs red) to Wei Wuxian's body being compared to a tree (bones snapped like twigs) is incredibly clever and well done.

Edit: ALSO this is just. A very powerful, evocative rendition of the Burial Mounds in all their eeriness.

[ranalore]

I'm so glad that came across! I think Wei Wuxian had to incorporate the Burial Mounds into himself in order to survive them, and I think he and they were interconnected at least throughout his first life. It speaks to me on a folkloric frequency, and I can't help but get my horror on. I mean, the Burial Mounds in general do, but their link to WWX really, really does.

Thank you so much for such amazing feedback!

[libitina]

Awrgh! Very atmospheric

[ranalore]

Thank you! I loves me some Burial Mounds.

[amedia]

Wow, this is amazingly evocative. Wei Wuxian's fierce determination gives the story a heart beyond the horror, an eerie beauty.

The blurring of the boundary between tree and WWX at the beginning is stunning, and it sets up a strange connection between WWX and the dizi carved from the tree. ♥

[ranalore]

Thank you so much for such detailed and flattering feedback! As much as it hurts to see him so broken down, I do love how driven Wei Wuxian emerges from the Burial Mounds.

I feel like the Burial Mounds are very eat or be eaten. So, Wei Wuxian ate, and now they're forever a part of him. Chenqing is a symbol of that.