夏侯惇 (Xiàhóu Dūn) × 元讓 (Yuánràng) (´・ω●`) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
qilinmesoftly) wrote2012-12-02 08:56 am
qilinmesoftly) wrote2012-12-02 08:56 am
Letters from Dun
Below are letters Xiahou Dun has left as a farewell to his CR in Amat. A few of these letters will simply remain abandoned in his apartment but the letters addressed to Guan Yu, Zhao Yun and Xiahou Ba will be delivered by a small, white dog. Gongxiu will bark and pitch a fit outside of Shuhaus until someone answers the door. He will drop off the letters and then wander off, going to become the wild and proud pomerweinian Dun taught him to be.
-------------------------
-- Cai Wenji --
Cai Wenji.
If you are reading this, I have failed to live up to my promise. For this, I can do nothing more than offer my deepest regrets and apologies. Know that I have done all that I can to bring you along and keep you at my side but it seems that that is not something this Goddess will allow.
I shall return to my duties by Mengde's side, fear not for our Lord in your absence. I shall tell your husband and sons that you are well. I ask only that you take care of Xiahou Ba, there is letter I have prepared for him at the bottom of this box. Deliver it to him and request he read it privately. That is the final request I ask of you in this accursed place.
You have made my time here more bearable than any other. If I had just a little more power, I would do all that I could to retrieve you and bring you back to our homelands. Perhaps one day I shall.
--------------
-- Zhao Yun --
Zhao Zilong.
We are both men of pride. I shall not speak a word of what occurred and I expect the same of you.
---------------
-- Guan Yu --
Guan Yu.
You are a man of great strength, pride and loyalty. The bond you share with your brothers is legendary, a fidelity that cannot be broken nor emulated. For this, you have my respect. I respect you as a warrior and as a man and these are truths that I cannot and shall not deny. Your prowess upon the battlefield cannot be matched, though I shall try and pour every last ounce of myself into besting you the next time we face one and other.
But I have always hated you, down to my very core. I despise you and I look forward to the day I take your head and raise it above my own. Your blood upon my hands shall hallmark my greatest victory - and my blood upon yours will be my bitter defeat. However, I do not intend to lose. There can be but one man left after our next battle.
When we face off against each other, do not hold back.
---------------
-- Xiahou Ba --
Xiahou Ba.
From the moment I arrived, every word you have said to me has been met with disappointment and a heavy heart. You have told me about defecting from our homelands, abandoning your brothers, running to the embrace of our enemy. You have told me about the collapse of everything I have dedicated myself to, everything I have struggled to build and protect - all of it was for naught. That path I so carefully safeguarded, the ambition I guarded with my very life, was for nothing at all.
I am a weak man. I was not prepared to deal with this revelation, not at this stage. I am still in mourning over your father - to now mourn the loss of our home, my children and our lord's vision was too much to bear. I took out my anger and bitterness upon you, the only physical manifestation, physical reminder, of all that sorrow. For this, I cannot forgive myself. I am uncertain if I can truly forgive your actions either, for what you have done is inexcusable.
...But what you have done is precisely what your father would have done. Yuan would have ran to safety. He knows that I, and all of our sons, are capable of defending themselves. I trained you and your brothers, along with my own sons, in swordplay - and Yuan trained many of you in archery. Every last one of you is a Xiahou, the strongest military family of the Three Kingdoms. Running was the only option you had - it is not what I would have done but it was your only choice. Running to Shu was not something I would have chosen but I am a stubborn and foolish man. I would have died fighting, choosing death over a life of exile.
The mercy of Shu is all that you had. Wandering in exile is not something I would wish upon any of my family and it is not something I could ask of you either. Condemning you here was not my intention. Casting you out... Is not something I am capable of either - for I am not the head of the Xiahou family. Your father is and that is why you were the one we chose as successor to the family. I was exiled in my youth for killing a man who insulted my Master. Yuan accompanied me of his own volition. It was that day that I cut my hair to show repentance and throughout my life, have done all that I can to honour the family that cast me out. Mengde accepted Yuan and myself into his ranks and as I was the eldest of the two Xiahou brothers, it was assumed that I was the one who held the family's title. Yuan preferred it that way.
You were right about that as well. That I am the reason Yuan is dead. It is my fault and it is something I have not been able to forgive myself for. He learned his cockiness upon the battlefield by emulating me. As the elder brother, I should have been a better influence upon him. A single oversight was all it took to end his life. You have always been cautious and alert - that is why you are still surviving. That is why you will continue to survive.
You are not a disappointment, Ba. I am not ashamed of you. My own stubborn nature may make it so that you never hear these words - you may never even see this letter - but if you do, please know that I love you as though you were my own son. After Yuan's death, my world began to crumble. In the future, it shall entirely collapse but there is and always shall be one shred of hope that shall remain, even when my soul has passed on from this world:
You are a Xiahou and always shall be.
Fight on, Ba. Whichever side you choose to stand for. Though you bear the colours of Shu now, may the glory of Wei never sleep within your heart.
-Xiahou Dun
-------------------------
-- Cai Wenji --
Cai Wenji.
If you are reading this, I have failed to live up to my promise. For this, I can do nothing more than offer my deepest regrets and apologies. Know that I have done all that I can to bring you along and keep you at my side but it seems that that is not something this Goddess will allow.
I shall return to my duties by Mengde's side, fear not for our Lord in your absence. I shall tell your husband and sons that you are well. I ask only that you take care of Xiahou Ba, there is letter I have prepared for him at the bottom of this box. Deliver it to him and request he read it privately. That is the final request I ask of you in this accursed place.
You have made my time here more bearable than any other. If I had just a little more power, I would do all that I could to retrieve you and bring you back to our homelands. Perhaps one day I shall.
--------------
-- Zhao Yun --
Zhao Zilong.
We are both men of pride. I shall not speak a word of what occurred and I expect the same of you.
---------------
-- Guan Yu --
Guan Yu.
You are a man of great strength, pride and loyalty. The bond you share with your brothers is legendary, a fidelity that cannot be broken nor emulated. For this, you have my respect. I respect you as a warrior and as a man and these are truths that I cannot and shall not deny. Your prowess upon the battlefield cannot be matched, though I shall try and pour every last ounce of myself into besting you the next time we face one and other.
But I have always hated you, down to my very core. I despise you and I look forward to the day I take your head and raise it above my own. Your blood upon my hands shall hallmark my greatest victory - and my blood upon yours will be my bitter defeat. However, I do not intend to lose. There can be but one man left after our next battle.
When we face off against each other, do not hold back.
---------------
-- Xiahou Ba --
Xiahou Ba.
From the moment I arrived, every word you have said to me has been met with disappointment and a heavy heart. You have told me about defecting from our homelands, abandoning your brothers, running to the embrace of our enemy. You have told me about the collapse of everything I have dedicated myself to, everything I have struggled to build and protect - all of it was for naught. That path I so carefully safeguarded, the ambition I guarded with my very life, was for nothing at all.
I am a weak man. I was not prepared to deal with this revelation, not at this stage. I am still in mourning over your father - to now mourn the loss of our home, my children and our lord's vision was too much to bear. I took out my anger and bitterness upon you, the only physical manifestation, physical reminder, of all that sorrow. For this, I cannot forgive myself. I am uncertain if I can truly forgive your actions either, for what you have done is inexcusable.
...But what you have done is precisely what your father would have done. Yuan would have ran to safety. He knows that I, and all of our sons, are capable of defending themselves. I trained you and your brothers, along with my own sons, in swordplay - and Yuan trained many of you in archery. Every last one of you is a Xiahou, the strongest military family of the Three Kingdoms. Running was the only option you had - it is not what I would have done but it was your only choice. Running to Shu was not something I would have chosen but I am a stubborn and foolish man. I would have died fighting, choosing death over a life of exile.
The mercy of Shu is all that you had. Wandering in exile is not something I would wish upon any of my family and it is not something I could ask of you either. Condemning you here was not my intention. Casting you out... Is not something I am capable of either - for I am not the head of the Xiahou family. Your father is and that is why you were the one we chose as successor to the family. I was exiled in my youth for killing a man who insulted my Master. Yuan accompanied me of his own volition. It was that day that I cut my hair to show repentance and throughout my life, have done all that I can to honour the family that cast me out. Mengde accepted Yuan and myself into his ranks and as I was the eldest of the two Xiahou brothers, it was assumed that I was the one who held the family's title. Yuan preferred it that way.
You were right about that as well. That I am the reason Yuan is dead. It is my fault and it is something I have not been able to forgive myself for. He learned his cockiness upon the battlefield by emulating me. As the elder brother, I should have been a better influence upon him. A single oversight was all it took to end his life. You have always been cautious and alert - that is why you are still surviving. That is why you will continue to survive.
You are not a disappointment, Ba. I am not ashamed of you. My own stubborn nature may make it so that you never hear these words - you may never even see this letter - but if you do, please know that I love you as though you were my own son. After Yuan's death, my world began to crumble. In the future, it shall entirely collapse but there is and always shall be one shred of hope that shall remain, even when my soul has passed on from this world:
You are a Xiahou and always shall be.
Fight on, Ba. Whichever side you choose to stand for. Though you bear the colours of Shu now, may the glory of Wei never sleep within your heart.
-Xiahou Dun