[ Wei Wuxian's response comes as he chews through a mouthful of fish — ]
Easy. The ghosts aren't from this realm, they just end up here. If they're kidnapping us from our realms, why wouldn't they do the same with their dead?
[ Sure, some of them have no memories of being anywhere else but here but that's an easy thing to explain away. If this is a realm that isn't the underworld or the earthly realm but something other, then it's easy to guess that the ghosts populating this place must've been pulled from elsewhere too. Probably along their journey to the underworld proper — and out of the cycle of reincarnation, which is a problem. ]
... Though I'm not sure there will be corpses here. This isn't real, right? So... why would there be any dead here either.
You and me are here together. If others also got stuck here before us, what are the chances that all of them survived? Some of those people can't handle anything they can't fuck. [ Probably. Admittedly Xue Yang has (surprisingly) not started too many fights, so he doesn't know that for certain. ]
Maybe they clean up the corpses but maybe they just leave them too. Or they could even intentionally leave them around for decoration to make us take their threat seriously.
Do you have a better idea for what to do with our afternoon?
[ He doesn't have a better idea for the afternoon.
Instead, he just picks at his fish a little and then closes his eyes because yeah, he guesses that's something to do, even if it is kind of morbid. Incredibly morbid.
Eventually, he'll open his eyes again and set his finished fish to the side. ]
Alright, let's go looking.
[ He'll save his second fish for later, setting the roasted fish to the side, stick plunged into the ground. ]
[ Xue Yang looks at Wei Wuxian's fish, then sticks his partially-eaten one back into the ground next to it. If something comes along and eats them, it's not like he's the one who needs to catch replacement fish. ]
There's a few houses in the jungle too. People would probably spend most of their time around those, but when it comes to dying I'd expect it to happen more while trying find food or getting lost at night. I haven't explored the whole area yet but I noticed a few cliffs we can check out first.
[ It's fine! It's... fine. It's just fish. Yeah, he'll catch replacements if he has to. 😔
But with that, he's going to get up from the ground, brushing the dirt off his pants and stretching for a moment as he considers what Xue Yang has said. Hm. ]
Cliffs are probably the best bet but getting a corpse from the bottom is going to be a pain. Let's try walking the paths through the jungle first, and make our way to the cliffs that way.
[ Xue Yang stands up and heads back into the nearby house. There's the sound of a bit of shuffling around as he grabs the bucket he found, a bit of squeaking, and then the distinctive sound of water slowly but steadily dribbling into an empty metal vessel.
A few seconds later he's come back out. ]
This way.
[ And Xue Yang picks a direction and heads into the jungle.
For a little while it's somewhat questionable whether the route he's selected could even count as a "path", but bit by bit it seems to clean up until it is indeed a proper traveled footpath. The first cabin they come across looks very similar to the one on the beach, though one of the walls appears as if something collided with it at great force, leaving a hole even larger than the size of a person to expose inside to out. ]
[ Wei Wuxian does have the thought that if Xue Yang wanted to kill him, this would be a pretty easy way to do it. As they walk through the jungle, it's just the two of them and there's barely a path to be found but Wei Wuxian follows, keeping his worries to himself.
He wonders too, if that's another way out of here. To die. This is a virtual reality, after all, and if there are people who died here — they probably just returned to the Golden Peacock. That's something to consider too.
It's when they come across the hut that Wei Wuxian's eyebrows furrow and he asks aloud, a little distantly. ]
My guess is it's whatever they're saying is dangerous at night. Or someone pissed off someone else enough to get themselves blown through a wall. There's another one that's also damaged in that direction [ he gestures off to the side of the direction they're continuing in, ] but it's in a little better shape. Hard to tell if it was the same thing or not. Most of the buildings are intact though.
[ He gives a slight nod forward, where through the trees there's a barely-visible structure. The path continues in that direction until it winds past it, and then past another. This collection of huts is not unlike those on the beach, just placed among the forest instead. ]
I haven't found anything aside from us that looks like it could've done that.
[ This suuuuuucks. Now they're going to be out here with something dangerous at night! That isn't what Wei Wuxian wants at all! Ugh, he wants to get out of here asap. ]
Alright, well, better to be safe about it. Let's stick together, make sure we're not caught off guard by anything.
[ Gag. Ugh. At the very least, he continues following Xue Yang, making a mental note on how the scenery changes around them as they go. ]
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no subject
Easy. The ghosts aren't from this realm, they just end up here. If they're kidnapping us from our realms, why wouldn't they do the same with their dead?
[ Sure, some of them have no memories of being anywhere else but here but that's an easy thing to explain away. If this is a realm that isn't the underworld or the earthly realm but something other, then it's easy to guess that the ghosts populating this place must've been pulled from elsewhere too. Probably along their journey to the underworld proper — and out of the cycle of reincarnation, which is a problem. ]
... Though I'm not sure there will be corpses here. This isn't real, right? So... why would there be any dead here either.
no subject
Maybe they clean up the corpses but maybe they just leave them too. Or they could even intentionally leave them around for decoration to make us take their threat seriously.
Do you have a better idea for what to do with our afternoon?
no subject
Instead, he just picks at his fish a little and then closes his eyes because yeah, he guesses that's something to do, even if it is kind of morbid. Incredibly morbid.
Eventually, he'll open his eyes again and set his finished fish to the side. ]
Alright, let's go looking.
[ He'll save his second fish for later, setting the roasted fish to the side, stick plunged into the ground. ]
no subject
There's a few houses in the jungle too. People would probably spend most of their time around those, but when it comes to dying I'd expect it to happen more while trying find food or getting lost at night. I haven't explored the whole area yet but I noticed a few cliffs we can check out first.
no subject
But with that, he's going to get up from the ground, brushing the dirt off his pants and stretching for a moment as he considers what Xue Yang has said. Hm. ]
Cliffs are probably the best bet but getting a corpse from the bottom is going to be a pain. Let's try walking the paths through the jungle first, and make our way to the cliffs that way.
no subject
[ Xue Yang stands up and heads back into the nearby house. There's the sound of a bit of shuffling around as he grabs the bucket he found, a bit of squeaking, and then the distinctive sound of water slowly but steadily dribbling into an empty metal vessel.
A few seconds later he's come back out. ]
This way.
[ And Xue Yang picks a direction and heads into the jungle.
For a little while it's somewhat questionable whether the route he's selected could even count as a "path", but bit by bit it seems to clean up until it is indeed a proper traveled footpath. The first cabin they come across looks very similar to the one on the beach, though one of the walls appears as if something collided with it at great force, leaving a hole even larger than the size of a person to expose inside to out. ]
no subject
He wonders too, if that's another way out of here. To die. This is a virtual reality, after all, and if there are people who died here — they probably just returned to the Golden Peacock. That's something to consider too.
It's when they come across the hut that Wei Wuxian's eyebrows furrow and he asks aloud, a little distantly. ]
... What could have done that?
[ Is there something out here with them? ]
no subject
[ He gives a slight nod forward, where through the trees there's a barely-visible structure. The path continues in that direction until it winds past it, and then past another. This collection of huts is not unlike those on the beach, just placed among the forest instead. ]
I haven't found anything aside from us that looks like it could've done that.
[ Yet. ]
no subject
Alright, well, better to be safe about it. Let's stick together, make sure we're not caught off guard by anything.
[ Gag. Ugh. At the very least, he continues following Xue Yang, making a mental note on how the scenery changes around them as they go. ]