Raising my cup, I beckon the bright moon: An Ode To Absent Friends

[aroberuka]

Title: An Ode To Absent Friends
Author: aroberuka
Word Count/Drabble Type: 100
Character(s)/Ship(s): Nie Huaisang & Wei Wuxian
Rating/Warnings: G; temporary character death (canon) & mentions of alcohol
Summary: It is a lovely night, and Wei Wuxian is dead.

***

The moon looks lonely tonight; or maybe that’s just Huaisang. Wine these days lulls him into a maudlin state, a melancholic longing for the bygone days of childhood.

His brother had delivered the news with his customary bluntness. Wei Wuxian is dead. Jiang-zongzhu killed him. Such simple words, to cut so deep.

Wei-xiong always had a way with words, especially when it came to wine; Huaisang tries to imagine how he would have described this one, but the only words he can find are his own.

“Until we meet again, then,” he says, and leaves the rest to the poets.

Comments

[fufaraw]

Yes. Thank you.

[aroberuka]

:D my pleasure!

[elwendell]

I seesaw with loving/hating his character. I mean, his family is destroyed around him, but then there's the detailed plotting of revenge. There's a cold side to him that makes me shudder. I like your take on melancholy Huaisang, however.

[aroberuka]

He’s a polarizing character for sure, I think partly bc there’s so very little we know for certain about how much of his quest for revenge was meticulously planned vs. how much was spur of the moment thinking / sheer luck on his part, so depending on how you interpret things he could be anything from ‘cold-blooded monster’ to ‘desperate man grabbing at straws’. I tend to lean more towards the latter mostly bc I find it more interesting to explore & more in line with his pre-timeskip self, but that's just me.

Either way, I’m glad you enjoyed this little snapshot! Thank you for taking the time to comment :3

[juniperphoenix]

Lovely.

[aroberuka]

Thank you <3

[hhimring]

I imagine he has no idea yet at this time that he is going to arrange that future meeting himself, and in this life...

[aroberuka]

Oh, none. I find NHS way more interesting as a character when his mastermindery is the end result of his ten-year-long revenge quest, not its starting point. That was just me having fun with ~~foreshadowing~~ :p

[narie]

Oh, this is so very excellent!

[aroberuka]

Thank you kindly :3

[ranalore]

I love this. I love the closeness of the friendship between Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang as young teens, and I find it interesting how their traumatic journeys into adulthood mirror each other. I think NHS would have had a very unique perspective on WWX's theoretical loss of control and subsequent death, considering the Nie family cultivation. Like Lan Wangji, I don't think he ever gave up on WWX.

[aroberuka]

Thank you!! I really like their early friendship bc it’s so *uncomplicated* when compared to Wei Wuxian’s other relationships; it’s not based on life debts / sect ties or anything, they just. get along. And yeah, between that friendship and his family’s unique cultivation style, I don't think Nie Huaisang would ever completely buy the Wei-Wuxian-has-declared-war-on-the-cultivation-world lie. If nothing else, he did still believe in Wei Wuxian’s sense of justice enough to entrust a big part of his revenge plan to him, albeit indirectly!