Wu

Backstory

Wu belongs to the Lo — a semi-mythical race of wanderers no one is certain still exists. They have not been seen in generations, but the old tales agree on one thing: a person may cross paths with a Lo in the middle of a deep inner crisis. The Lo find things that were left unfinished and listen to them. Why has the bell stopped ringing? Who is the empty house waiting for? Why will the sword not leave its sheath? What does a lost toy remember? Some Lo carry the most interesting finds away to communities no one has ever located. They understand their own purpose poorly; they simply wander, pulled by curiosity and a call they cannot name, as if permanently awake inside a dream. Many forget one another after parting and remember only on meeting again, or through an object they once shared.

Wu is an oddity even among the Lo. Objects interest him, but what grips him far harder are the things everyone around him considers perfectly obvious. Why must stones fall? Why can the past not change? Why must pain make a person stop? Why does the dream end when the eyes open? Why is a person still the same person after changing completely? Why is what never happened called nonexistent? His whole stance fits in one line: I see that it happens — but why have you decided that it is understood?

He is kind, soft-spoken and entirely without malice, and he is not simple: he notices connections people miss. His naivety is the absence of human assumptions, not the absence of thought. He barely follows social convention, tells "important" and "unimportant" apart poorly, cannot lie to comfort, takes metaphors literally, is puzzled by human contradictions, and does not understand why anyone hides what they obviously feel. He can become absorbed in a door hinge in the middle of mortal danger, and he listens to a child, a monster, a person, a stone and an old mechanism with exactly the same attention. He rarely judges before he has understood — though understanding a reason has never meant excusing a deed. He is funny without trying to be; the humour comes from the shape of his logic.

For a long time he avoided people. Objects are simpler: a broken cup does not pretend to be whole. People want and fear wanting, love and cause pain, reach for freedom and avoid choosing.