#guiping

tumblr privilege strikes again, posting new art here early bc this site is stress-free 2 me slayyyy

All she carries with her is a bell, made by Guizhong, a bell she previously viewed as unable to depict the soul in the way human-made music could. But it's not that anymore. In the way Madame Ping depicts the soul through music, Guizhong depicted it through creation. That bell carried Guizhong's soul, a soul she entwined with Madame Pings. That's why Zhongli gave it back to her when Madame Ping left for the mortal world.

When Zhongli requests the bell for his funeral, it carries so much more weight. He isn't just requesting a ceremonial bell, he's requesting Guizhong's soul and love, he's requesting a mourner who departed far earlier than him. He's also requesting a blessing from Madame Ping, to live as a human.

Madame Ping takes the appearance of an elderly woman, somebody who is weary and full of wisdom. She has lived lifetimes and she shows it in her form. She mentors young creators around her, Xiangling, Yanfei, Yaoyao and the like. She gives the Traveler a teapot, so they have a place to call home for a little while. She cares for the glaze lillies, because they are the scattered notes of the torn sheet music that's Guizhong's love for humanity. She doesn't play music anymore, because the only one who could hope to understand her tune, the one attuned to her soul, is gone.

Her last song was to mourn Guizhong because grief is love with nowhere to go. She put it in music created with callused hands, like Guizhong's making of the bell. She played for a lantern, a love, a ghost.