[It will take her a few minutes, as she has to run all the way out to the fucking woods and back. But she will return, nodding her head apologetically with something in her hands.]
Thanks, Chijin.
[She walks to the altar, and quietly places three white flowers at its base, before taking a quiet step back. She nearly kneels - it feels right - but Hua Cheng's words float into her mind, and she straightens herself up, folding her hands below her chin, closing her eyes and falling very silent, just as reverent as any other prayer she's made.]
he doesn't know what hikaru is asking for. he doesn't know what she wants to protect, or what she wants to keep safe. but he stares, at that little white flower, that he feels like he's seen a hundred times, before.
...it isn't unlike san lang, to do things that affect xie lian. he knows, that he must have told her the story - the flower crowned martial god; flower in one hand, sword in the other. but when was the last time he ever saw someone pray at his altar?
the majority of artwork that depicts the crown prince of xian le now is of him in misery and agony. you step on his back, bowed over, and hope that he will absorb your bad luck. you kick him when he is down. or, you leave scraps, for the trash god, for the heavenly laughingstock. the "flower crowned martial god" has been gone for centuries.
but watching hikaru set down her offering gives him a flashback, to the tiny, dirty hands of a child, pressing a perfect, snow white flower into the left hands of a statue. the memory is so vivid and bright that he almost doesn't know what to do with it, and he finds himself blinking back tears.
he doesn't pray. it would be silly.
but, instead, xie lian quietly presses his hands together, and bows his head.
thank you. he thinks, fervently. i'll do my best to grant your prayers. ]
[She stays like that for a good couple minutes, before lowering her hands and opening her eyes. For a moment, she just stays silent... but she inclines her head - not the formal bow to a god, but the polite one from person to person.]
Watch over us, and teach us to learn from our mistakes... Dianxia-sama.
[ xie lian says, quietly, as she finishes. that's the only way he really acknowledges it, first, and there's a soft, almost faraway tone to his voice. nostalgic, maybe. sad. touched. somewhere in between. his heart aches with it, as compassionate as he has always been. ]
...In other languages, I believe it simply translates as "your highness"; "His Highness, the Crown Prince of Xian Le."
[ to talk about himself as a stranger doesn't feel all that wrong. he isn't even sure who "his highness the crown prince of xian le" is anymore, either. ] His tale is very... [ a pause, as he tries to word it. ] ...it is infamous, in many ways, in our land. Cautionary. Sometimes a comedy, but most often a tragedy. He made many, many mistakes in his life - more than any tale could really encapsulate.
So to ask him to teach you to learn... I think that is a very good prayer to make.
[ i'm trying, he thinks, of hikaru and her actions and her huge, bright heart. of what we can learn. of waves, of ripples, of riptides.
Mmn. Hua-chan told me a little about it... "Sama" is what you use to address someone of higher status. Like Elsa-sama, or Ojii-sama. To address a god... to speak to Kami-sama... deserves at least a little reverence, to show their hard work and power. I don't think Dianxia-sama is any different.
For the world to judge someone for doing whatever they could... for taking paths they chose were right, no matter what, and trying to do what was best for their people, even against things that should have been impossible... to have everyone think that Dianxia-sama should be perfect, and be miraculous, and not remember that he too was a person, and that people make mistakes...
[She lifts her hands to her chest, letting her eyes drift shut.]
I hope... he can teach. And I hope he can watch, and know that... people don't want to see his story as something foolish. I think, in the end, he is like Princess Emeraude. Even if his mistakes turned a way he did not want, and he thought he failed, and his people suffered... he still deserves to be remembered for his joys and praises, and for his kindness, and for the wisdom that he might hold. I... just hope that his heart, even as a god, hasn't been suffocated by despair.
I hope he can see us, that pray to him, and for him, and see a little light for himself to follow.
a long moment passes. it might seem that he's simply reflective, or that he's perhaps repeating her prayer, but in honesty: xie lian doesn't know what to say.
reverence? devotion? all of these concepts are things lost to the crown prince of xian le. he's broken statues and broken kingdoms, the collapse of an entire world, physically and metaphorically, on his very shoulders. he is the plague, he is bad luck incarnate, the laughingstock of the three realms. a man made of his mistakes and every costly piece of suffering that came with them. once a god, then an immortal, doomed to walk the earth in suffering.
he's reminded, not for the first time since coming to the realm, of an event a long, long time ago. a village, the sky black with the agonized, screaming souls of the dead, desperate for a target for their rage.
the pouring rain, laying there with a sword stabbed into his stomach. and a single figure all in white, standing before him. the mask, that haunted his dreams, staring him down from across the clearing.
and the way the rain had suddenly stopped, because someone pressed a hat onto his head.
stand up! go home now. ]
...It hasn't. [ xie lian says, softly. he mirrors hikaru, for a moment, reaching up to touch his own heart, letting his eyes close. ] I know many things about The Crown Prince Who Pleased the Gods. The world has tried to suffocate him, many times, Miss Hikaru. Do you know what he learned, over all those years of mistakes?
[ and xie lian. screaming, at the top of his lungs, as all of his vigor came back to him in one gasp.
fuck you! who do you think you are to talk to me like that?! i am the crown prince!
one person had been enough. ]
He learned that a simple act of kindness can change anyone's life. That is the little light that that foolish prince has always learned to follow.
I hope, then, that he can see the kindness that someone wants to show him, even from worlds away. I don't think someone who has so much to share, no matter where it came from, should have to disappear. I... know that it's hard to be alone with no one, and nothing but your mistakes.
[She'll take her step away, finally returning to her seat on the floor, if only to give a shallow bow to Xie Lian.]
If it isn't a disrespect, Chijin... I'd like to remember him. Even if the people here who have taught me about him can't speak his name anymore, or tell his story.
I don't want Taizi Dianxia to have no one at all to pray for him.
[ xie lian smiles, then. it's softer, and warmer than before, genuine, as he steps back from the altar, too. ]
It is no disrespect. The Crown Prince of Xian Le is a god who looks after blessings of peace and protection, and... I've heard that once, he was quite meddlesome in the affairs of mortals, when they were in danger.
[ "once". ] He does not like to let people suffer as he has. I think he will be happy, to know that you feel the same way.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Thanks, Chijin.
[She walks to the altar, and quietly places three white flowers at its base, before taking a quiet step back. She nearly kneels - it feels right - but Hua Cheng's words float into her mind, and she straightens herself up, folding her hands below her chin, closing her eyes and falling very silent, just as reverent as any other prayer she's made.]
no subject
he doesn't know what hikaru is asking for. he doesn't know what she wants to protect, or what she wants to keep safe. but he stares, at that little white flower, that he feels like he's seen a hundred times, before.
...it isn't unlike san lang, to do things that affect xie lian. he knows, that he must have told her the story - the flower crowned martial god; flower in one hand, sword in the other. but when was the last time he ever saw someone pray at his altar?
the majority of artwork that depicts the crown prince of xian le now is of him in misery and agony. you step on his back, bowed over, and hope that he will absorb your bad luck. you kick him when he is down. or, you leave scraps, for the trash god, for the heavenly laughingstock. the "flower crowned martial god" has been gone for centuries.
but watching hikaru set down her offering gives him a flashback, to the tiny, dirty hands of a child, pressing a perfect, snow white flower into the left hands of a statue. the memory is so vivid and bright that he almost doesn't know what to do with it, and he finds himself blinking back tears.
he doesn't pray. it would be silly.
but, instead, xie lian quietly presses his hands together, and bows his head.
thank you. he thinks, fervently. i'll do my best to grant your prayers. ]
no subject
Watch over us, and teach us to learn from our mistakes... Dianxia-sama.
no subject
[ xie lian says, quietly, as she finishes. that's the only way he really acknowledges it, first, and there's a soft, almost faraway tone to his voice. nostalgic, maybe. sad. touched. somewhere in between. his heart aches with it, as compassionate as he has always been. ]
...In other languages, I believe it simply translates as "your highness"; "His Highness, the Crown Prince of Xian Le."
[ to talk about himself as a stranger doesn't feel all that wrong. he isn't even sure who "his highness the crown prince of xian le" is anymore, either. ] His tale is very... [ a pause, as he tries to word it. ] ...it is infamous, in many ways, in our land. Cautionary. Sometimes a comedy, but most often a tragedy. He made many, many mistakes in his life - more than any tale could really encapsulate.
So to ask him to teach you to learn... I think that is a very good prayer to make.
[ i'm trying, he thinks, of hikaru and her actions and her huge, bright heart. of what we can learn. of waves, of ripples, of riptides.
i am trying. ]
no subject
For the world to judge someone for doing whatever they could... for taking paths they chose were right, no matter what, and trying to do what was best for their people, even against things that should have been impossible... to have everyone think that Dianxia-sama should be perfect, and be miraculous, and not remember that he too was a person, and that people make mistakes...
[She lifts her hands to her chest, letting her eyes drift shut.]
I hope... he can teach. And I hope he can watch, and know that... people don't want to see his story as something foolish. I think, in the end, he is like Princess Emeraude. Even if his mistakes turned a way he did not want, and he thought he failed, and his people suffered... he still deserves to be remembered for his joys and praises, and for his kindness, and for the wisdom that he might hold. I... just hope that his heart, even as a god, hasn't been suffocated by despair.
I hope he can see us, that pray to him, and for him, and see a little light for himself to follow.
no subject
a long moment passes. it might seem that he's simply reflective, or that he's perhaps repeating her prayer, but in honesty: xie lian doesn't know what to say.
reverence? devotion? all of these concepts are things lost to the crown prince of xian le. he's broken statues and broken kingdoms, the collapse of an entire world, physically and metaphorically, on his very shoulders. he is the plague, he is bad luck incarnate, the laughingstock of the three realms. a man made of his mistakes and every costly piece of suffering that came with them. once a god, then an immortal, doomed to walk the earth in suffering.
he's reminded, not for the first time since coming to the realm, of an event a long, long time ago. a village, the sky black with the agonized, screaming souls of the dead, desperate for a target for their rage.
the pouring rain, laying there with a sword stabbed into his stomach. and a single figure all in white, standing before him. the mask, that haunted his dreams, staring him down from across the clearing.
and the way the rain had suddenly stopped, because someone pressed a hat onto his head.
stand up! go home now. ]
...It hasn't. [ xie lian says, softly. he mirrors hikaru, for a moment, reaching up to touch his own heart, letting his eyes close. ] I know many things about The Crown Prince Who Pleased the Gods. The world has tried to suffocate him, many times, Miss Hikaru. Do you know what he learned, over all those years of mistakes?
[ and xie lian. screaming, at the top of his lungs, as all of his vigor came back to him in one gasp.
fuck you! who do you think you are to talk to me like that?! i am the crown prince!
one person had been enough. ]
He learned that a simple act of kindness can change anyone's life. That is the little light that that foolish prince has always learned to follow.
no subject
I hope, then, that he can see the kindness that someone wants to show him, even from worlds away. I don't think someone who has so much to share, no matter where it came from, should have to disappear. I... know that it's hard to be alone with no one, and nothing but your mistakes.
[She'll take her step away, finally returning to her seat on the floor, if only to give a shallow bow to Xie Lian.]
If it isn't a disrespect, Chijin... I'd like to remember him. Even if the people here who have taught me about him can't speak his name anymore, or tell his story.
I don't want Taizi Dianxia to have no one at all to pray for him.
no subject
It is no disrespect. The Crown Prince of Xian Le is a god who looks after blessings of peace and protection, and... I've heard that once, he was quite meddlesome in the affairs of mortals, when they were in danger.
[ "once". ] He does not like to let people suffer as he has. I think he will be happy, to know that you feel the same way.
no subject
[she quietly returns to her twine.]
Don't let me keep you up or anything, okay? I'm just gonna finish this before I go to bed.