2024-09-03: Guanyu Begins her Ascent to the Familial Circle
- Cutscene: Guanyu Begins her Ascent to the Familial Circle
- Cast: Wendy Yuan, Jin Guanyu
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2024-09-03
- Summary: Guanyu breaks down on Wendy -- now completely healthy after a few days rest -- when she can't handle returning to work after her experiences. Wendy tells her to quit. She does.
In the days after the world is broken, one woman's world shattered for another reason. Jin Guanyu's fiancee died, up there -- only to be brought back, through horrific blood magics. Wendy returned for her sake... but no one asked her.
Once Wendy is on her feet again, Guanyu tries -- tries -- to return to her work as head maid, coordinating the housekeeping staff. But she finds herself escaping to the East Wing, to find Wendy, who stands and discards the book she was reading the moment she sees her.
"Guyu, what's wrong?" Wendy asks, with clear concern. "You're pale..." Guanyu has always been darker than Wendy, with her carefully-regenerated cyborg exterior, but it's all the more bitter now -- now that Wendy's too-pale skin has taken on a mint shade.
Guanyu collapses into her arms, anyway, all but sobbing. "It's just -- it's been awful!" She exclaims, and the sharp volume stands in stark contrast to her usual even-tempered pleasantness. She isn't immune to stress, either. "Wey, you died! And then -- they're saying whole cities -- so many people! The island -- the land itself, it's different now, and -- they're saying we were hit, and we slipped between dimensions to escape it, and then we came back, and -- and, oh, the waves! You were asleep, but the crashing waves...! They swept up higher than our walls -- if Mx. Hedlund hadn't been working on our magic barriers -- if not for that, we'd be swept away! And I know that, I know that, but all I can think is...!"
"Shh," Wendy hushes her, guiding her over to one of those ubiquitous fainting couches. "You've got to remember to breathe, okay? I don't want you to faint." Despite her harrowing experience, it feels right for her to be concerned for Guanyu's health -- after only a few days, Wendy's recovered completely. She helps Guanyu to sit down, and gathers her up in her arms, feeling now just a little more unyielding than they were.
(Metal has replaced those weak things, inside her.)
And Guanyu does breathe -- or try to, because she's more fully crying, now -- as she buries herself against her fiancee. "When -- when Junius Seven was falling," she tries to explain, a little more calm, "we all gathered together. All the working staff. We didn't know... what might happen. But, but even before it fell... oh, Wey, Vlad crumbled into dust! Right before our eyes! Then it was July, then Yuna... they... didn't even have time to scream."
"It was hard on you," Wendy says, and surely she's empathising instead of simply stating a fact.
"Mm," Guanyu nods, swallowing. "I mean, I know -- I handle rostering, so -- I know people disappear, sometimes. And I really did read my contract... I know our hazard pay covers 'potential experiences of violence, trauma, or death'," and her quotes are audible, relating it all miserably. "But just... seeing it, with my own eyes... we didn't know who would be next. When it would end! We were just -- fuel, and -- and I know it's how we all survived, but I was still horrified. Except... then, I saw you, and... I realised we might not all have died to save the Castle. The Strong Mistress, she's always talking about sacrifices, how you can't get something for nothing, and... oh, Wey, I hated myself," she admits, shamefully. "Because after that... I didn't know how I felt any more. I thanked her, even knowing what she'd done. It was horrifying, but I'd give anything to save you, and -- that kind of selfishness just doesn't feel moral!" Because of course selfishness itself is moral; it's one of the Silent Calling's central tenets.
"You're not a bad person," Wendy assures her, gently. "Wanting something isn't bad. You said it, right...? It's in the contract... no one was forced to sign it. Besides, you didn't do anything," she says, leaning forward to press her lips to Guanyu's forehead. "You can't be blamed for being glad I'm alive, or that you're alive." And the way she avoids looking directly at the consequences is typically Wendy, but...
"Isn't that... too callous...?" Guanyu asks, because no matter how easily Wendy ignores the implications, she's always taken care to gentle her soldier's logic around her fiancee before. Guanyu isn't a warrior, not like her sister -- she's always believed in the value of labour and the importance of keeping busy, but she's never quite had the stomach for conflict. Being happy someone else died in her place frightens her, even knowing how comfortable Wendy is with those calculations.
"Not really," Wendy shakes her head. "But... it still bothers you, doesn't it? That's okay. It's okay. It was a big shock, right? It's normal to be scared."
"I'm terrified!" Guanyu wails, burying her face against Wendy's shoulder. "Every time I put on my uniform, I think -- the only reason it wasn't me -- the only reason it wasn't me was because we're affianced! The Strong Mistress assured me she'd find some other way, but when I'm in my uniform with everyone, I think -- we've kept all this low-key, but everyone still knows! They must know why it wasn't me... and I feel like I betrayed them, somehow."
Wendy hushes her, again, hugging her close. "Then don't wear your uniform any more," she says, simply. "I told you, didn't I? You don't need to work... if it's not fulfilling you now, never wear your uniform again. You're to be my bride... it means I'll always protect you." And her alone.
"Is that really all right?" Guanyu asks, shoulders sinking. "It feels too selfish..."
"Then let me be selfish," Wendy smiles, hand resting at her voluminous blue hair. (Her ringed eyes, now green, can see every individual strand falling over her artificial fingertips.) "I want you to focus on the wedding... it's been hard for me to keep on top of it myself, anyway."
"I... I can do that," Guanyu says, looking up to her fiancee. A frown creases her brow. "But... baby, are you really okay? Really? Ever since you woke up, you've been... different."
"Different how?" Wendy asks, frowning in turn.
"I don't know... you're more... forceful?" Guanyu frowns; it's difficult for her to articulate. "And I'm not saying that's bad, not really. It's just... when you talk about other people now, you... you used to be kinder. I'm not saying you're cruel!" She adds, because she doesn't want to hurt her. (It doesn't hurt, not the way it used to, but how could Guanyu know Wendy's sensitivities have changed? Wendy used to care very much about being seen as kind, but she doesn't even blink, now.) "But you keep saying you feel fine, but you're acting strangely, and I -- I worry, Wey. I'm really worried about you, you know...?"
"I know," Wendy assures her, taking her hand. "Maybe you're right... it was pretty traumatic. But it doesn't feel like I'm being forced into it," she adds, because she was a subject of the Institute, too. "It just feels like... I have more clarity, now. Like I know what's really important, you know? What really matters."
"So... you came back, right...?" Guanyu asks two questions with one sentence, as she struggles with the fear that something else came back in Wendy's place.
"That's right," Wendy answers her other question, "I came back because you're what's most important to me. I couldn't break my promise."
"Baby..." Guanyu sighs, and pushes aside the question of whether Wendy came back wrong; the force of her love is too staggering, and like attracts like, after all.
(Wendy has always averted her gaze from inconvenient truths... just as Guanyu left Yuliana soaked in her own tears after a clear domestic dispute, because it simply wasn't proper to ask.)
"It's gonna be okay," Wendy says, squeezing her hand. "So long as we love each other, everything else will work out. I mean... Teodor's happy with Ingvar, right? Or hell, look at the Captain -- she's married to a piece of God, and she's happy." (Guanyu pretends there's no knot in her gut, as she listens to the rest of Wendy's reassurance.) "I know this stuff is weird, and I said I never would... but we'll make it work. Right?"
"... yeah," Guanyu smiles, breathing out, releasing the tension in her shoulders. "Yeah... it doesn't have to be weird now. We're still just in shock... or something like that, right?"
"Right," Wendy agrees, though she feels no shock at all.
Guanyu submits her resignation that very day.