text.

[secondjade]

[ It has taken Lan Wangji a while to figure out how to use his communicator, and he only really started the attempt once he decided it might be of use to him. So he hasn’t been paying attention to the network, much. Forgive him. Now, though, he has questions that he cannot divine the answers to himself.

He needs a basis of knowledge here that he just doesn’t have.

He doesn’t know how to lock this from Wei Wuxian so he... just hopes the man doesn’t see it. ]

Questions:

Inner power - cultivated or gifted?

If cultivated: remains the same from home?

If given: boon or bane?

If granted a curse, is cure to be found?



Further questions:

How long imprisoned without dungeon or whip? Freedom only through chance - any hope of choice?

Availability of lotus seeds?

Best wine?

Comments

[secondjade]

[ Interesting. He frowns. ]

Many immutable things can retain spiritual energy. Grass. Stone. Perhaps affected differently, but man not only beings capable of cultivation.

[ He watches her as she tilts, though he makes very little movement himself. His social cues have never been great.

There is, however, a slight widening of his eyes at the second piece of news. Who the sorcerer supreme means little to him, but the fact that she can use magic... ]

Demonstrate?

[mortalweapon]

But I am not immutable.

[ She answers with perfect clarity. ]

I was not created with consciousness.
I evolved it.
I am a mutant.

[ That's what makes her so dangerous, isn't it? The raw potential. She's incredibly powerful - and she could become anything. Good or bad. Her maker knew it. Feared it. Tried to control it and failed. ]

Regardless, you would not take kindly to a demonstration.
The enchantments I have been taught are strictly for containment.
They are seals, and they require a prisoner.

[secondjade]

[ He draws quiet, contemplating his own ignorance. He kept trying to draw comparisons to systems he knew and understood - like the rock which cultivated itself into a fairy - but she kept defying his expectations and understanding. The word ‘evolved’ held little meaning for him, beyond the vague concept of growing.

The word mutant even less. ]

Define ‘mutant’? [ He asked, patiently.

At the mention of seals, though, his interest suddenly became far more intent rather than less.

Actually that was something he needed badly. ]

Physical containment? Spiritual? [ Or, what was the word they used more often here... ]

Seals powers from use?

[mortalweapon]

[ Likewise, patiently: ]

Everything is always changing.
Even things that are not living.
Small changes.
Random changes.
By an infinitesimal chance, these changes accumulated to give me consciousness.
I was not a living thing.
Now I am.

[ Living. Feeling. Complex. And still changing. ]

The seals were most effectively combined with physical containment cells of my own design, yes.
This combination of sorcery and technology was intended to suppress the powers of one specific mutant.
Her name was Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina.
We called her "Magick."

[secondjade]

[ It isn’t something completely foreign to him - there have always been stories of inanimate objects or animals managing to cultivate themselves into something more. But this sounds like something different - something less like will and more like nature. ]

Perhaps less of chance, and more of fate. [ Mumured more as a thoughtful note to himself. He listens to the rest, the slightest crease of his brows as he tries to use his new knowledge to paint him a picture of what she means.

People changed into more than they were, as well. ]

Was it effective? [ The crease furrows a little more. ]

How powerful was she?

[mortalweapon]

[ Maybe it was fate. But fate isn't something she can calculate. Destiny is an abstract construct. ]

It was effective enough, for a time.
She was very powerful.
But then, so am I.

[ It isn't said in the way of a braggart. She speaks calmly, with an objective kind of certainty. As if this were simply a fact. ]

You seem very curious.
Are you seeking others like you?
Is that why you have been asking these questions?