#people aren't useless or forever dangerous if something happens even if a life is taken. rehabilitation is possible

[androphagy]

also, i can't remember where i first saw this fall-through-the-ice take, but i've been watching it be echoed in youtube comments/twitter/some parts of tumblr, and when people say "we need to hold people with mental illness and developmental disabilities accountable, they can't just get away with it because of their disabilities!!!" i am baffled because. they are. do they know how disparaged, abused, ignored, and erased from society these people are.

when someone with severe autism or schizophrenia or any manner of severe debilitating issue has an outburst, lashes out, hurts someone, and/or does something "bad", the amount of times it's excused is rare. the people who use it as an excuse are those able to understand why they need to use it as an excuse. severe issues can cause severe actions and subsequent consequences — if you actually look at the (estimated!) statistics of mentally ill and developmentally disabled people in jail, prison, and indefinite psychiatric holds as a result of violent or "uncontrollable" behavior, they ARE being punished. and if they're not being punished with imprisonment, they're being punished with abusive "therapy", state/federal programs relying on people who need their services to not understand the process — then make them jump through hoops and wait for half a year at least to make any progress (which can and regularly leaves people homeless and starving), societal ostracization and abandonment, and abusive people who come and go in the form of caretakers, friends, and those who take advantage of their loneliness for benefit payments, if they ever receive them.

the people in these comments are talking specifically about people who don't understand or weren't able to understand at the time what was happening, for the record. the idea that we lost a valuable resource when crowded, abusive, and dangerous asylums could hide these people away from "good and proper" society (of which still happens, see my point of imprisonment via jails and psych wards) and often end in their deaths is such a heartless and nasty belief.

[silverflame2724]

Ok. Since I'm a person who lives for angst, I had this scenario played out where WWX is asked by all his friends and family to come to a discussion conference since they believe that the cultivation world wants to say sorry to WWX. However, since most of them aren't forgiving just yet and still strongly resent WWX, I can easily imagine those people punishing WWX by physically and mentally torturing him in order to reduce him to the same condition he was in before he died. Once they let him go, he arrives at the conference only for most of the cultivators there to verbally degrade him without remorse. Wanting to end his suffering, he commits suicide in front of everyone there, leaving the people who love him, especially LWJ, JC, JYL and LSZ both enraged and heartbroken that they couldn't protect him

BTW, this is the anon who asked about you AO3 fic "Misunderstood." And I'm sorry if my prompt is triggering to you in any way

Ohhhh. My god. This is going to hurt so much.

(I am not triggered in any way, so don’t worry about that!)

I really, really hate putting Wei Wuxian through any form of torture. Which seems hypocritical of me because I’ve written many fics like that. I must warn you though, I’m not really good at torture scenes.

(Oh right, for those that don’t know, Wei Wuxian (in my Misunderstood fic) has two cores, one of resentful energy and one of spiritual energy. If one of his cores runs out of energy, his body starts to fade because those two energies are the only thing keeping him together (literally)!)

Nevertheless, *rubs hands together* Here we go!

___________________________

It happened about a week before the discussion conference.

Wei Wuxian had been having a nice drink by the inn near Lotus Pier when he suddenly felt very dizzy and collapsed into a dead faint.

When he woke up, it was to a room full of unfamiliar people staring down at him with sneers on their faces. And immortal deity binding rope was holding him down and his flute had been chucked off into a corner.

It would be difficult to get out of the rope binding him, but what many didn’t know was that he could still use resentful energy without any tools. It was harder to control them, sure, but he would still be able to escape. He didn’t know what these people were planning and he sure as hell did not want to find out.

Someone came up from behind and kicked him to his knees. His face burned in humiliation as they grasped a hand in his hair and forced him to look up.

“Do you know your crimes, Yiling Patriarch?”

At that, Wei Wuxian had blanked.

The men sneered and one brought out a discipline whip.

“Since you’ve forgotten, for every crime you’ve committed, for every life you’ve taken, you’ll take a lash from this. And don’t worry, we need you to be alive for this. We won’t be too rough.”

Ice flooded his veins as they named the people that had died during the Sunshot Campaign and Nightless City because of the Seal. His Seal.

So he didn’t move. Didn’t try to escape. Because it was true, wasn’t it? Those people died because of him. Even if he didn’t intend for it, he killed them.

If it was only that, it wouldn’t be that bad. He had been whipped before, he could handle the pain. His body was made of energy, so he didn’t bleed (though he could still feel pain) but that made the cultivators angry so they broke his fingers, sewed his lips shut when he got too loud, but he could endure it.

Then, they began to talk down to him and tell him how he didn’t deserve to come back to the cultivation world, how he was ruining the Jiang sect, how he was ruining Jiang Cheng and his Shijie, how everything he touched became ruined.

Wei Wuxian gradually grew numb to that. He had heard the same words from Madam Yu and from the cultivators at Nightless City all those years ago. It was no different then than it was now. But the pain he felt from those words was no less.

The resentful and spiritual energy in his body was scrambling to patch his wounds up in the lapse of their attention. However, because it was focused on healing him rather than helping him break out of the ropes, he wasn’t able to do anything when they fed him something. Wei Wuxian began to grow dizzy. His body felt hot and sweaty. This.....

Oh. They fed me an aphrodisiac.

Wei Wuxian didn’t know what they were planning to do and he sure as hell did not want to find out.

So he gathered all the resentful energy in his body - which, from experience was not a good thing to do -, absorbing as much as he could from the emotions of the men in the room before letting it burst out in an explosion. The rope disintegrated and he bolted for the door.

But not before a few sent their swords at his back. The remaining resentful energy removed them and the spiritual energy frantically tried to heal his wounds but he still lost a lot of energy. He could feel his body fading already.

He pulled himself together nevertheless and bolted out the door. Looking around, he was relieved to see he was near Yunmeng. However, despite that, he could trust no one. So he kept silent through all the pain until he made it back to Lotus Pier.

The sounds of his shidi and shimei calling for help sounded fuzzy and far away. He hoped he would survive. He hoped he would not.

After all, wouldn’t his death make everything better?

....................

When he woke up (on his stomach), it was to Shijie, Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan all sleeping by his bedside in what looked like the infirmary room. He shifted and then groaned in pain. Using energy as recklessly as he did must have put a lot of strain on his cores.

Instantly, three heads popped up.

“Wei Wuxian!” “A’ Xian!!” “Wei Ying?”

“Are you alright?” They asked in unison.

Wei Wuxian would have laughed at how in sync they were. He didn’t. He only gave them a strained smile that he hoped they would not notice and told them he was fine. They didn’t believe him, of course, and kept fussing over him for the rest of the day.

As they did this, Wei Wuxian swallowed quietly, remembering the parting words that were shouted at him.

“As long as you’re alive and well, we’ll never forgive you! Next time, we’ll go after your family and friends. All those bastards who dared to support you!

Wei Wuxian quietly contemplated his next moves. He didn’t want to leave his family and Lan Zhan and everyone else behind, but......what else was he supposed to do? As long as he’s alive, they might forever be in danger!

He swallowed a qi replenishing pill and forced his tears down.

I never wanted to come back in the first place. What was ghost!me thinking when he decided to come back? I......I don’t know anymore........

......................

The discussion conference was held at Lotus Pier and Jiang Cheng and the rest had tried to convince him to go. After all, they believed that the cultivation world wished to apologize to him (and simultaneously ask for his help against the new evil).

That’s what they were hoping.

That’s not what happened.

Instead of an apology, they started blaming Wei Wuxian for their current predicament. They hurled abuse after abuse at him and Wei Wuxian just stood there with a blank face and took it silently.

That was, until, someone yelled, “Wei Wuxian, it’s all your fault for creating the Seal!!! If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t be in this situation! We’ve all suffered because of it. The Jiang sect is one of the only sects who hasn’t suffered. Shall we make them feel our pain? After all, your sect should pay for your crimes, should they not?”

Wei Wuxian let out the most heartbroken sob and stood in front of the cultivation world.

“If it’s life you want, then I will offer you mine.”

Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli, Lan Wangji and a few others cried out his name and reached for him, but Wei Wuxian simply reached deep into his cores and turned the energies against each other.

His cores cracked and shattered and Wei Wuxian began to fade right in front of everyone.

“NO!” Lan Wangji yelled out in an uncharacteristic display of emotion. He rushed forward and recklessly poured spiritual energy into Wei Wuxian. “No, Wei Ying, no. Don’t leave me! You can’t! No, no, no.”

The rest of his family and friends gathered around, trying to see what they could do to keep him alive, but.....his cores were gone, it was useless.

“I’m.....sorry.....” Wei Wuxian managed. “And thank you.....for everything.”

And then he was gone.

______________

Hmmm, I still feel a liiiiiiiiittle iffy on how this turned out (so I might edit it later) but I hope you enjoy, anon!