[Indeed, she does give the rabbits extra pets "from Wei Qianbei" before making her way over to the kitchen. She sends a message to Hanguang Jun to let him know that Wei Qianbei and she will preparing dinner this evening for the three of them. She ducks into the area, seeing the ingredients laid out neatly and smiling softly at the turnip that is included]
...Wei Qianbei...do you know how to make vegetable soup?
i am so glad you're emperor's new clothesing this post u_u
( Never fear, he's got... some ideas and some motivation to try rather than rely on "what's spiciest to make you forget whatever else is going on." It doesn't mean he can't joke with a quick half smile as if he's dead serious that the way to make vegetable soup is to make meat soup minus the meat.
The principles, he's aware, are different, and he doesn't mean the ones carved in stone.
Still, here, look, he's got vegetables, and a pot, and is giving a dubious stare over a series of dried herbs. Then abruptly looking toward Sizhui, who is now deemed a saviour for anyone who enjoys flavour because... )
Which ones are actually useful making vegetable broths?
( He doesn't mean the veggies. He assumes all those are going to be useful. That most of what is not next to the turnips (those are a feature, they're not the broth) are scraps from earlier in the day is not so farfetched, considering waste not, want not, turn it into broth pot.
No, it's not the scraps or whole vegetables. He's pointing at the not-hot spices. This is not his forte. )
( He smiles, and it's mostly genuine, just as part of it is to mask worries and concerns of his own, just shy of anything anxious. If Jiang Cheng didn't want him here on some level, there'd have been no concession. Most likely, most probably, it helps to be here on his own, without Lan Zhan or Wen Ning, but one's gone on to build monuments to his dead, and the other's sitting atop the cultivation world, and Wei Wuxian is a man wandering with a flute and a donkey.
Someone figuring out and finding his own way.
So he smiles easily enough, stepping toward his (once) shidi, someone he's failed and cares for and doesn't figure there's enough to truly make the mess of them okay, and still, and still! He's familiar for his colours, all black now, no reds, no highlights beyond the one found tied around his top-knot. Lean as always, but not gaunt, no shadows lingering under eyes, and less alcohol flowing through his veins. Still the easiest way to calm his thoughts, but a crutch he's trying to address, in his own way. Not make a staple to getting by day to day.
Been there. Lived that, more than once. It's nice having to do less laundry because he's not pouring wine down his front, too keen on the effects, not wise enough to the mess. )
Jiang Cheng! I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying, and I wasn't a bit late!
( He does have a qiankun pouch, this one not holding any angry spirits, resentful spirits, spirit swords, or anything else of a particularly unusual nature: instead, a bundled book that he pulls out with a motion of his hand and tentatively offers toward the crossed arm figure of his adoptive brother. Martial brother. Ah, family, even if he's hurt Jiang Cheng in ways he hadn't even realised until... weeks ago. Secrets and memories, things that find their way out eventually. )
If you wanted to look at this. You know what they say about my memory.
( Which is a cop out, ha ha ha. Yes, he has said let's put thing behind us, he's let go of old injuries, old events, but it's less out of a forgetful nature (oh, if he could only have one that worked on the things he wanted it to) and more out of a forward facing one. He's always been that way, and if it seems like it means he forgets the unpleasant fast, and remembers only the good, it's as careful in design as anything he's ever done that wasn't on a whim.
The truth here is simple: he doesn't want to get anything about their sister wrong. )
[ There's some truth in the notion that if Jiang Cheng didn't want him here then he wouldn't be here - no one would let Wei Wuxian anywhere near Lotus Pier of the Jiang Sect Leader hadn't offered permission first. The fact that he has even got this far speaks more for Jiang Cheng's lenience than anything else.
It's a struggle all the same. Seeing him back here leaves an ache in his chest, a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar all at once. It's painful.
His eyes skim over Wei Wuxian quickly, drinking him in. The body is different, but the spirit is the same; recognising that doesn't make this process easier. No one could fault him for his allowances, no one could fault him for letting his brother come back to his home once again. It was still his home, no matter how much Jiang Cheng might be filled with hurt at the notion of it; he would never be able to truly turn Wei Wuxian away. Not in his heart, nor with the memory of Yanli hovering at the edge of his mind.
Wrinkling his nose, he breathes out. ]
You were lucky this time.
[ He hesitates for a moment before he reaches out to take the book and begin to skim through the pages. It's a good thing - it's something that Jin Ling will appreciate, once he has wrapped his mind around what had truly happened with the deaths of his mother and father. Losing one uncle and gaining another - it's more than a little painful for the boy that Jiang Cheng sees as more of a son than a nephew in all honesty.
His hands shake, just a little, but he hopes it isn't obvious. ]
You might as well come in then. He knows what Lotus Pier looks like, but more memories couldn't hurt.
All I see is a lot of assumptions being made and motives being ascribed and not once have you actually asked the man why he gave you a key to his place and lets you crash there when you're drunk and cooks for you.
Do you know how many other people he does that for? Zero, that's how many. You're the only one.
Honestly, after the last time he tried with a girl and he ended up wearing both of the drinks he'd bought because what he said to her about her make-up, I did not think he had 'dating prospects' to speak of.
Bless Wei-xiong, it's his problem now.
[And Wei Wuxian might end up with Jiang Cheng knocking on his door after having been kicked out at least a few times, or Fei Du isn't a psychology major anymore.]
Anyway, the kitchen has barely been used because I can't cook and I haven't lived there for at least 8 months. I might as well let Wangji use it.
He's pretty enough, he might have found at least one face con?
Hey, hey, don't bless me (I know you mean Nie-xiong, but I shuddered, then laughed, and you deserve to know).
( also he will, but he, a kind brother, will usher Jiang Cheng in, then tell him to cry it out and sleep on the couch, and there may be a few unstated movies of a certain kind they watch while Jiang Cheng has feelings he works through while mostly mad at himself. as he does. )
Hey! I can cook too!
( define cook, Wei Wuxian, go on, we dare you. but really he does cook fine when he tries without trying too hard, he just isn't all that patient about cooking and also has a very specific amount of spice he likes to add. )
Right. See, usually from what I hear, that would be a bad idea, but he knows what he's doing, so you're the one and only case where I'm not going to worry about lingering damages.
Lan Zhan, you will cuddle and appreciate the artistry of the sound technicians if nothing else, okay, stop judging the unreality of what is thankfully just fiction! We don't need actual alien massacres happening, things are much nicer when zombie uprisings are only in fiction, and who wants to deal with being turned into a slave in your own body?
I will happily cuddle. You cannot make me not notice impossible inaccuracies, I will merely refrain from pointing them out until you ask. In the unlikely event of an alien invasion or a zombie hoard, rest assured I will protect you. Even while purchasing a hat for the sole purpose of eating it if those inaccuracies prove true.
Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, have mercy my skin is baby soft as it is, I don't need to be forced into submission! I take care of myself! I have a good facial soap! I'm not going to remember anything more than that!
That's the thing, I don't. Sometimes I crave something I simply don't have, and that's fine, it means then I try to see if I can pick some up for later. It's like scratching an itch. Very satisfying, even if I have to wait!
Your history does not agree with you in terms of 'taking care' of yourself. It is not a hardship for me to offer help, however if you truly do not wish for it I will not force myself upon you. Perhaps one day we will be able to amend that.
That seems counterproductive, but sounds true to your character. It is not unheard of to crave what you do not have, I just do not like having things like greens left until brown in my fridge because I did not want them that day.
Ah, I feel plenty, it's just sorting out... stuff. Like if someone who's helped you out in ways you can't really repay is someone you truly care for like that, or if you think you should, because they've done all this, or if you do care about them like that and you're feeling guilty and what you have right now is something that doesn't cross too many lines, because if you do, what happens if someone was lying to themselves? I don't know what to tell you.
Stories have a basis, sure, but it's like rumours, Lan Zhan. They grow and change the more they're touched. They don't have to be real, they need to be sensational. Anyway, I'm not saying one love is like all loves, I love my sister and my brother and even if half the time they're not mine, I love them anyway. It's just different. This one specific kind of love, that's... I'll mess it up. That's not fair to anyone involved.
You said a lot very quickly in that first paragraph, forgive me for taking a moment to try and parse the meaning from it. Regardless, how you seek to repay that person should depend on if they seek favours from you or not. From there it could then be a case of if it would make you happy to make them happy? If so, then examine those feelings in depth. I do not think you would be blamed for making a mistake in your feelings Wei Ying. It is how we all learn.
I cannot offer much more advice as it took me a very long time to understand my own feelings, but I knew it was different from the beginning.
Wei Ying. Have more faith in yourself, if someone loves you then I am sure they like you for your flaws and not in spite of them. You care very much, it will show.
[It takes a little longer for the next message to appear.]
When I was maybe six, my father bought me a hamster. It was really soft and small. It was small enough that I could hold it in my hands and it could completely hide between them.
I really liked it. It was the first time I had gotten a gift like that.
About a week later, I was holding it and playing with it, and my father came. And he took my hands in his while I was holding it. And then he made me squeeze my hands together.
And you know what the weirdest thing is? I don't really recall much in terms of images of that time. But I remember the hamster bit me before it stopped moving.
[Honestly at this stage he'd understand if Wei Wuxian decided he never wanted to talk to him again.]
( It's horrible, and horrifying. The things parents do proprietarily to the children they've turned into objects, egocentric projections of a concept of themselves that has never seen reality, but wishes to mold a living being as if they were made of clay in truth. )
Right, so if I do figure out the mechanics of time travel, even if it spawns a few alternate timelines to the one we're living in, can I get a general go ahead on punching your father in some significantly incapacitating manner, asking for my mad scientific research values.
There's a thing I heard recently, can't remember where, but it was something like... memories in my head lied to me. Particularly what we don't remember. The ones we let through are... uh. So, I have a lot of holes in memory, myself? There are things I don't want to remember, so I don't, and things I can't remember, and not because I choose not to remember.
That memory hurt. It's the impression that lingers. Even the smallest things fight for life. Your father forced your hands to take one life. He wanted your life too.
[It's a good thing they're in the parking garage now because it means no one sees it when Wangji steps on the brakes just a little too hard.
He takes a deep breath, hands holding onto the steering wheel white-knuckled.
He knows how Wei Ying is in general. And he knows Wei Ying is drunk. In vino veritas as they say, but it's also not certain that this is not just more teasing, and also Wangji won't allow himself to stoop down to doing anything to Wei Ying when he's inebriated, no matter how inappropriately arousing that question was.
Deep breath, Wangji.
He doesn't say what he almost said - 'Do you want to?' - because he's not sure he's ready for the answer, no matter which way it would go. Instead...]
You can sleep in the guest room, as usual.
[And now he'll just go and focus on parking the car first, and then extracting Wei Ying from it.]
( No one sees it, but one drunk feels it, startled into blinking and looking around for whatever Lan Zhan was reacting to. Nothing stands out; he continues to puzzle over it. )
I want to sleep in your bed, it always looks so comfy...
( Even drunk, horny comes in second place. This may explain... many things.
When he's being extracted from the car he's helpful in the sense that he cooperates and then tries to drape himself off Lan Zhan, muttering a: )
You smell... delicious.
( When he's not as helpfully plastering his face against Lan Zhan's shoulder. Is like his wariness from who he was out drinking with is melting away right into playful childishness, and that... would be correct. He feels safe around Lan Zhan.
So, inevitably, he complains. )
Lan Zhaaan, we should have gone to our other place, the bed there's even bigger. Isn't it bigger? I need to see if yours is bigger.
( It's not a problem, per say, that Lan Zhan's first priority is bandage inspection. What's more of a problem is location, and the fact his thigh's not out there for everyone to see, not with how his robes fall, so Lan Zhan sitting down and flipping up his lower robes to get to where the bandaging can be seen is embarrassing?! It's enough when he's getting called out for something he's hiding. He'd been up front with this! Can't he have at least held off for a room?! )
Lan Zhan?!
( HAHAHA SHOVING HIS ROBES BACK IN PLACE HI FOLKS NOTHING TO SEE HERE, or at least just admire the handsome cultivator who ethereally walked his white-robed self in and pretend this is all exceedingly normal, for everyone's sake. )
Can we at least not do this in the public dining area?!
( It's like he has a whole bunch of trauma concerning Wei Wuxian being injured and having said injuries go underaddressed for some reason... or five. )
[ This is all indeed completely normal, and it's simple fact that if Wei Wuxian didn't want Lan Wangji investigating in a public place, he should not have parked his ass in said place before sending out his not-quite-a-distress-call.
But what was visible for that brief period of time is at least enough to settle Lan Wangi's immediate fears, and though there's obvious exasperation on his face (it is not obvious; it's just as subtle as almost all of his other expressions) it's accompanied by relief in equal measure. While Wei Wuxian arranges his robes back into place, Lan Wangji takes a moment to survey the food present on the table before speaking. ]
You will rest. Tonight, explain the details.
[ There's anger that he's holding down. Whoever it is that caused harm to Wei Wuxian will be dealt with, but ensuring Wei Wuxian's health comes first.
A trap like this was almost certainly not set in one night, nor will all the evidence left behind be hidden so quickly. ]
[because he knew your friend was empty, and he'd been planning to drop some of this off, and you mentioning you hadn't eaten was just the trigger to get him to come deliver this earlier. Probably enough for a whole week and then some, since the spicy dishes tend to keep longer than what he makes for himself.
His eyes are roaming the expanse of Wei Ying's chest and waist - too skinny, as usual - as his fingers wok and finally unbutton everything. He's pretty blatant about it too. It might feel out of character for someone so reserved... but only if, like Wei Wuxian, you haven't noticed he's basically been staring for two years. He hasn't really changed what he's doing, it's just that now Wei Ying knows why he's doing it.
And maybe one day he'll try to think about how long Wangji has been doing it. But Wangji won't bring attention to that. He's never tried to guilt Wei Ying for having been oblivious and maybe a little spooked, no matter how painful it's been at times for him. Not imposing unwanted feelings on Wei Ying was more important.
And if his fingers brush against Wei Ying's skin as he goes to rebutton the shirt properly this time, starting at the bottom, it is of course completely coincidental.
( Wei Wuxian is well distracted between the feeling of each button being undone and the weight to Lan Zhan's stare, observing. He's always known the guy was observational, but it hadn't meant of him in any meaningful way, not until recently. However long road might have been happening for him, it's... different, for Wei Wuxian.
But he feels seen, and he doesn't hate it. It's an unknown, what follows, in any personal sense. Not in a general sense, he's aware of how me people can be intimate, even are intimate, but intellectual as that exercise has been in the past...
He swallows, then laughs, skin still pebbled, nipples contracted, ears and cheeks gaining a more noticeable flush.
He blinks and laughs, skin twitching under every touch. )
Ignoring me for what?
( He's too distracted to recall his own earlier barrage of texts when he'd been left on read. )
That's a surprisingly apt analogy for someone who wasn't even in the thick of it, Wei-xiong.
I honestly did not necessarily expect to come out alive, and I would have been fine with it as long as they got caught. So, I think that's why Wenzhou is overprotective.
( The summer storms weren't usually this close to monsoons in this region as the one striking now, blowing in off the coast and further inland, traveling the river to break over the back of this jagged range of mountains, the deluge at the high plateaus impressive enough to flatten the expanses of verdant grasses found there, pounding them flat. Wei Wuxian admired the sheer vitality of the storm, would have luxuriated in watching it from some safe abode, but he was out and unfortunately not at home in Yunmeng's well-roofed rooms, drinking from his wine jars and conversing or needling Jiang Cheng, whatever was most needed in the moment. No, he was instead here, running through a ridiculously powerful storm, in full fur and regretting every moment of it.
His red fur was plastered against his skin, turning it so waterlogged that when night would fall, he'd look nearly black. He needed to find shelter of some kind, but high as he was now, no human settlements were to be found for dozens of li, and he wasn't even sure which territory he might be crossing. Better to hunker down for the night, then start again when the storm calmed to something reasonable, continuing his run back to Yunmeng for the announcement of whatever importance had set that messenger bird after him, demanding his return.
His ears pricked up from their flat press against the sides of his skull at a louder roaring, the rain pouring hard but only making the roar of the waterfall even louder, more unruly, more wild. His heart thrummed with a sense of kinship, and he angled toward the broad cliffside, paws digging into mud and flattened grass as he raced on, looking for some likely shelter.
It was coincidence when he caught sight of the darker shadow of a cave just down from the cliffside, following the path of the waterfall. The waterfall itself dropped in many short, dramatic falls, going down and down into the depths of the mountainside impossible to make out in this storm; Wei Wuxian studied the cliff, then backed up, and threw himself off it with the care of a person utterly confident in his own body's capabilities. He leapt from thin ledge to thin ledge, until he landed with a clattering skid of nails on a broad stone expanse at the first pool of the waterfall, presently overspilling banks and pouring downward in that mighty roar. He tipped his head to the side, ignoring the faint flicker of electrical current that seemed to pass through him; a mere nuisance of the weather, he was sure. If he'd crossed through a barrier, he paid it no mind, instead taking his sodden form forward at a trot and sliding into the cold comfort of a cave existing to the side of the waterfall pool, blessedly dry beyond the entrance and its welcoming of rain and spray from the pool.
Drenched, he shook himself off, until his fur stood up in patches. He wanted to get warm, even if the cold didn't distinctly bother him; his cultivation level was enough to see that prove true, at least. Still, a fire would need wood, or a lot of qi, and one he wanted to conserve, while the other needed finding. With that in mind, Wei Wuxian, the red many tailed fox, made his creeping way forward, sniffing for any woody scent along the way in the darkness of what he expected, at first, to be a rather shallow cavern. )
[The rain, in principle, does not bother Lan Wangji. Nor does the wind, the thunder rumbling through the sky. It is his own doing, a cumulating and release of energies to cleanse the mountain of the energies that had settled, brought by spirits who had refused to move on. The spirits had been released, the energy lingered.
It is not the storm that bothers him, no, but just how tumultuous it has grown.
He hadn't intended it, but that's telling in itself. A spring storm meant to cleanse, to bring in the new season, had turned into a manifestation of uneasy, unsettled energy reflecting the one who'd brought it.
Returning back to the Cloud Recess would only draw in questions and concern and while he normally had the strength to navigate the winds and rain, his energy was depleted. The source of that unease, of a sense that something was coming was not one he could shake.
Seeking shelter was the viable option; so he'd done just that. Wangji had descended down from the skies, found himself a cavern deep enough to hide from the rain and rest. Within it, talons hit earth and dug into the dirt before bones that made up his long frame twisted and turned, bent and shifted into place until he resembled more man than an azure beast of the heavens. Horns at his temple remained, his nails akin to claws and scales still scattered above the collar of his white robes. Alone in the cave, he did not need to waste qi to hide it all.
The transformation always hurt, though he'd grown accustomed to it.
The remainder of qi he was willing to spare went to setting up protection at the entrance of the cave, so none unfamiliar or wishing harm would cross.
Then, slowly, Lan Wangji moved deeper through the darkness. Luckily, his eyes had no problem with the dark. There was wood to keep warm, but he had no qi to spare to light the fire. Bringing life to a flame took longer than he'd anticipated with shaking hands, he focused solely on the task that when the fire's flames and illuminated the nook he'd settled in, that Lan Wangji realized his wards had been breached and someone was well inside his cave. His hand went to Bichen at his side, drew the blade from its scabbard to point the tip of the blade and the trespasser drawing near.]
[Sixteen years. Sixteen years, four hundred lashes, a cursed manor, and a badly made flute. Her fingers are slow as they move over the strings of her guqin, playing the notes of their song that she had played when they had been trapped in the cave. The night is quiet as Wei Ying, her Wei Ying, rests on her bed and slowly opens his eyes. She remains silent as he gathers his bearings. The soft breeze of the night flows through the Jingshi and she finally rests her hands when he says it's been sixteen years, how it feels like a dream. They speak for a few moments before Wei Ying asks her the important question: why did she wait three years? Her hands pause over the instrument.]
( A pause, the shades of his world still filled with hollows and aches and griefs and guilts he has no means of sorting through. Sixteen years, and he only knew the time passed, did not find himself changed. Not even changed enough to turn and walk away, or else why would he be here, with her?
He shoves those thoughts aside. They can wait for later. If that later never comes, so be it. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
IT'S A VERY FANCY OPEN POST
[Indeed, she does give the rabbits extra pets "from Wei Qianbei" before making her way over to the kitchen. She sends a message to Hanguang Jun to let him know that Wei Qianbei and she will preparing dinner this evening for the three of them. She ducks into the area, seeing the ingredients laid out neatly and smiling softly at the turnip that is included]
...Wei Qianbei...do you know how to make vegetable soup?
i am so glad you're emperor's new clothesing this post u_u
( Never fear, he's got... some ideas and some motivation to try rather than rely on "what's spiciest to make you forget whatever else is going on." It doesn't mean he can't joke with a quick half smile as if he's dead serious that the way to make vegetable soup is to make meat soup minus the meat.
The principles, he's aware, are different, and he doesn't mean the ones carved in stone.
Still, here, look, he's got vegetables, and a pot, and is giving a dubious stare over a series of dried herbs. Then abruptly looking toward Sizhui, who is now deemed a saviour for anyone who enjoys flavour because... )
Which ones are actually useful making vegetable broths?
( He doesn't mean the veggies. He assumes all those are going to be useful. That most of what is not next to the turnips (those are a feature, they're not the broth) are scraps from earlier in the day is not so farfetched, considering waste not, want not, turn it into broth pot.
No, it's not the scraps or whole vegetables. He's pointing at the not-hot spices. This is not his forte. )
you're welcome XD also, post canon okay? read the permissions post <3
totally fine! as you see i'm not there yet, so forgive my lacked context (be kind, a-yuan)
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for fennu
( He smiles, and it's mostly genuine, just as part of it is to mask worries and concerns of his own, just shy of anything anxious. If Jiang Cheng didn't want him here on some level, there'd have been no concession. Most likely, most probably, it helps to be here on his own, without Lan Zhan or Wen Ning, but one's gone on to build monuments to his dead, and the other's sitting atop the cultivation world, and Wei Wuxian is a man wandering with a flute and a donkey.
Someone figuring out and finding his own way.
So he smiles easily enough, stepping toward his (once) shidi, someone he's failed and cares for and doesn't figure there's enough to truly make the mess of them okay, and still, and still! He's familiar for his colours, all black now, no reds, no highlights beyond the one found tied around his top-knot. Lean as always, but not gaunt, no shadows lingering under eyes, and less alcohol flowing through his veins. Still the easiest way to calm his thoughts, but a crutch he's trying to address, in his own way. Not make a staple to getting by day to day.
Been there. Lived that, more than once. It's nice having to do less laundry because he's not pouring wine down his front, too keen on the effects, not wise enough to the mess. )
Jiang Cheng! I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying, and I wasn't a bit late!
( He does have a qiankun pouch, this one not holding any angry spirits, resentful spirits, spirit swords, or anything else of a particularly unusual nature: instead, a bundled book that he pulls out with a motion of his hand and tentatively offers toward the crossed arm figure of his adoptive brother. Martial brother. Ah, family, even if he's hurt Jiang Cheng in ways he hadn't even realised until... weeks ago. Secrets and memories, things that find their way out eventually. )
If you wanted to look at this. You know what they say about my memory.
( Which is a cop out, ha ha ha. Yes, he has said let's put thing behind us, he's let go of old injuries, old events, but it's less out of a forgetful nature (oh, if he could only have one that worked on the things he wanted it to) and more out of a forward facing one. He's always been that way, and if it seems like it means he forgets the unpleasant fast, and remembers only the good, it's as careful in design as anything he's ever done that wasn't on a whim.
The truth here is simple: he doesn't want to get anything about their sister wrong. )
ty!
It's a struggle all the same. Seeing him back here leaves an ache in his chest, a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar all at once. It's painful.
His eyes skim over Wei Wuxian quickly, drinking him in. The body is different, but the spirit is the same; recognising that doesn't make this process easier. No one could fault him for his allowances, no one could fault him for letting his brother come back to his home once again. It was still his home, no matter how much Jiang Cheng might be filled with hurt at the notion of it; he would never be able to truly turn Wei Wuxian away. Not in his heart, nor with the memory of Yanli hovering at the edge of his mind.
Wrinkling his nose, he breathes out. ]
You were lucky this time.
[ He hesitates for a moment before he reaches out to take the book and begin to skim through the pages. It's a good thing - it's something that Jin Ling will appreciate, once he has wrapped his mind around what had truly happened with the deaths of his mother and father. Losing one uncle and gaining another - it's more than a little painful for the boy that Jiang Cheng sees as more of a son than a nephew in all honesty.
His hands shake, just a little, but he hopes it isn't obvious. ]
You might as well come in then. He knows what Lotus Pier looks like, but more memories couldn't hurt.
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apologies for my slowness!
all is good <3 never a rush, and worth the wait
you're a gem <3
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i am sorry this is so long he has a lot of feelings
this is why we're attempting to smash their heads together and go TALK, FOOLS
who TALKS in the untamed universe. only suffering in silence and regrets.
the untamed: where how much a sword or flute was shaking indicated emotion more than their words
me: arrives late carrying angst
add in some awkward five days later, chefs kiss
we're the heroes these two needed
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[Continuing]
All I see is a lot of assumptions being made and motives being ascribed and not once have you actually asked the man why he gave you a key to his place and lets you crash there when you're drunk and cooks for you.
Do you know how many other people he does that for? Zero, that's how many. You're the only one.
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More TFLN College AU
Honestly, after the last time he tried with a girl and he ended up wearing both of the drinks he'd bought because what he said to her about her make-up, I did not think he had 'dating prospects' to speak of.
Bless Wei-xiong, it's his problem now.
[And Wei Wuxian might end up with Jiang Cheng knocking on his door after having been kicked out at least a few times, or Fei Du isn't a psychology major anymore.]
Anyway, the kitchen has barely been used because I can't cook and I haven't lived there for at least 8 months. I might as well let Wangji use it.
gasps! yes good
Hey, hey, don't bless me (I know you mean Nie-xiong, but I shuddered, then laughed, and you deserve to know).
( also he will, but he, a kind brother, will usher Jiang Cheng in, then tell him to cry it out and sleep on the couch, and there may be a few unstated movies of a certain kind they watch while Jiang Cheng has feelings he works through while mostly mad at himself. as he does. )
Hey! I can cook too!
( define cook, Wei Wuxian, go on, we dare you. but really he does cook fine when he tries without trying too hard, he just isn't all that patient about cooking and also has a very specific amount of spice he likes to add. )
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>>
[Oh no.]
What happened?
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<<
I meant that more aesthetically, Wei-xiong. Their style isn't really what I'm looking for. It's fine, I'll find something somewhere.
Yes, we're using actual police cuffs.
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Right. See, usually from what I hear, that would be a bad idea, but he knows what he's doing, so you're the one and only case where I'm not going to worry about lingering damages.
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cont.
Whatever juice you want, why?
Lan Zhan, you will cuddle and appreciate the artistry of the sound technicians if nothing else, okay, stop judging the unreality of what is thankfully just fiction! We don't need actual alien massacres happening, things are much nicer when zombie uprisings are only in fiction, and who wants to deal with being turned into a slave in your own body?
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I will happily cuddle. You cannot make me not notice impossible inaccuracies, I will merely refrain from pointing them out until you ask. In the unlikely event of an alien invasion or a zombie hoard, rest assured I will protect you. Even while purchasing a hat for the sole purpose of eating it if those inaccuracies prove true.
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do we wanna continue with the visit or?
i'm happy to do so!
Fantastic
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wei ying if you do that this is date
wasn't it already, he just didn't notice
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cont.
Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, have mercy my skin is baby soft as it is, I don't need to be forced into submission! I take care of myself! I have a good facial soap! I'm not going to remember anything more than that!
That's the thing, I don't. Sometimes I crave something I simply don't have, and that's fine, it means then I try to see if I can pick some up for later. It's like scratching an itch. Very satisfying, even if I have to wait!
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That seems counterproductive, but sounds true to your character. It is not unheard of to crave what you do not have, I just do not like having things like greens left until brown in my fridge because I did not want them that day.
What do you crave most often?
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cont.
Ah, I feel plenty, it's just sorting out... stuff. Like if someone who's helped you out in ways you can't really repay is someone you truly care for like that, or if you think you should, because they've done all this, or if you do care about them like that and you're feeling guilty and what you have right now is something that doesn't cross too many lines, because if you do, what happens if someone was lying to themselves? I don't know what to tell you.
Stories have a basis, sure, but it's like rumours, Lan Zhan. They grow and change the more they're touched. They don't have to be real, they need to be sensational. Anyway, I'm not saying one love is like all loves, I love my sister and my brother and even if half the time they're not mine, I love them anyway. It's just different. This one specific kind of love, that's... I'll mess it up. That's not fair to anyone involved.
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I do not think you would be blamed for making a mistake in your feelings Wei Ying. It is how we all learn.
I cannot offer much more advice as it took me a very long time to understand my own feelings, but I knew it was different from the beginning.
Wei Ying. Have more faith in yourself, if someone loves you then I am sure they like you for your flaws and not in spite of them. You care very much, it will show.
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1/?
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end
ahskdhsk that was amazing 1/3
2/3
3/3
this is about to get stupider lasdjkf
two kings of stupid mountain
bless them both
our stupid boys
they figure things out... eventually
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[College AU] also CW: animal cruelty because this is how we roll in Mo Du
[It takes a little longer for the next message to appear.]
When I was maybe six, my father bought me a hamster. It was really soft and small. It was small enough that I could hold it in my hands and it could completely hide between them.
I really liked it. It was the first time I had gotten a gift like that.
About a week later, I was holding it and playing with it, and my father came. And he took my hands in his while I was holding it. And then he made me squeeze my hands together.
And you know what the weirdest thing is? I don't really recall much in terms of images of that time. But I remember the hamster bit me before it stopped moving.
[Honestly at this stage he'd understand if Wei Wuxian decided he never wanted to talk to him again.]
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Right, so if I do figure out the mechanics of time travel, even if it spawns a few alternate timelines to the one we're living in, can I get a general go ahead on punching your father in some significantly incapacitating manner, asking for my mad scientific research values.
There's a thing I heard recently, can't remember where, but it was something like... memories in my head lied to me. Particularly what we don't remember. The ones we let through are... uh. So, I have a lot of holes in memory, myself? There are things I don't want to remember, so I don't, and things I can't remember, and not because I choose not to remember.
That memory hurt. It's the impression that lingers. Even the smallest things fight for life. Your father forced your hands to take one life. He wanted your life too.
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[College AU]
[It's a good thing they're in the parking garage now because it means no one sees it when Wangji steps on the brakes just a little too hard.
He takes a deep breath, hands holding onto the steering wheel white-knuckled.
He knows how Wei Ying is in general. And he knows Wei Ying is drunk. In vino veritas as they say, but it's also not certain that this is not just more teasing, and also Wangji won't allow himself to stoop down to doing anything to Wei Ying when he's inebriated, no matter how inappropriately arousing that question was.
Deep breath, Wangji.
He doesn't say what he almost said - 'Do you want to?' - because he's not sure he's ready for the answer, no matter which way it would go. Instead...]
You can sleep in the guest room, as usual.
[And now he'll just go and focus on parking the car first, and then extracting Wei Ying from it.]
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I want to sleep in your bed, it always looks so comfy...
( Even drunk, horny comes in second place. This may explain... many things.
When he's being extracted from the car he's helpful in the sense that he cooperates and then tries to drape himself off Lan Zhan, muttering a: )
You smell... delicious.
( When he's not as helpfully plastering his face against Lan Zhan's shoulder. Is like his wariness from who he was out drinking with is melting away right into playful childishness, and that... would be correct. He feels safe around Lan Zhan.
So, inevitably, he complains. )
Lan Zhaaan, we should have gone to our other place, the bed there's even bigger. Isn't it bigger? I need to see if yours is bigger.
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for tanxiang
( It's not a problem, per say, that Lan Zhan's first priority is bandage inspection. What's more of a problem is location, and the fact his thigh's not out there for everyone to see, not with how his robes fall, so Lan Zhan sitting down and flipping up his lower robes to get to where the bandaging can be seen is embarrassing?! It's enough when he's getting called out for something he's hiding. He'd been up front with this! Can't he have at least held off for a room?! )
Lan Zhan?!
( HAHAHA SHOVING HIS ROBES BACK IN PLACE HI FOLKS NOTHING TO SEE HERE, or at least just admire the handsome cultivator who ethereally walked his white-robed self in and pretend this is all exceedingly normal, for everyone's sake. )
Can we at least not do this in the public dining area?!
( It's like he has a whole bunch of trauma concerning Wei Wuxian being injured and having said injuries go underaddressed for some reason... or five. )
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But what was visible for that brief period of time is at least enough to settle Lan Wangi's immediate fears, and though there's obvious exasperation on his face (it is not obvious; it's just as subtle as almost all of his other expressions) it's accompanied by relief in equal measure. While Wei Wuxian arranges his robes back into place, Lan Wangji takes a moment to survey the food present on the table before speaking. ]
You will rest. Tonight, explain the details.
[ There's anger that he's holding down. Whoever it is that caused harm to Wei Wuxian will be dealt with, but ensuring Wei Wuxian's health comes first.
A trap like this was almost certainly not set in one night, nor will all the evidence left behind be hidden so quickly. ]
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[College AU]
Yesterday and earlier today.
[because he knew your friend was empty, and he'd been planning to drop some of this off, and you mentioning you hadn't eaten was just the trigger to get him to come deliver this earlier. Probably enough for a whole week and then some, since the spicy dishes tend to keep longer than what he makes for himself.
His eyes are roaming the expanse of Wei Ying's chest and waist - too skinny, as usual - as his fingers wok and finally unbutton everything. He's pretty blatant about it too. It might feel out of character for someone so reserved... but only if, like Wei Wuxian, you haven't noticed he's basically been staring for two years. He hasn't really changed what he's doing, it's just that now Wei Ying knows why he's doing it.
And maybe one day he'll try to think about how long Wangji has been doing it. But Wangji won't bring attention to that. He's never tried to guilt Wei Ying for having been oblivious and maybe a little spooked, no matter how painful it's been at times for him. Not imposing unwanted feelings on Wei Ying was more important.
And if his fingers brush against Wei Ying's skin as he goes to rebutton the shirt properly this time, starting at the bottom, it is of course completely coincidental.
And then....]
... I wasn't ignoring you.
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But he feels seen, and he doesn't hate it. It's an unknown, what follows, in any personal sense. Not in a general sense, he's aware of how me people can be intimate, even are intimate, but intellectual as that exercise has been in the past...
He swallows, then laughs, skin still pebbled, nipples contracted, ears and cheeks gaining a more noticeable flush.
He blinks and laughs, skin twitching under every touch. )
Ignoring me for what?
( He's too distracted to recall his own earlier barrage of texts when he'd been left on read. )
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More [College AU] Things
That's a surprisingly apt analogy for someone who wasn't even in the thick of it, Wei-xiong.
I honestly did not necessarily expect to come out alive, and I would have been fine with it as long as they got caught. So, I think that's why Wenzhou is overprotective.
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Yeah, because of that, sure. Are you valuing your life more these days?
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And [College AU] for this one too!
Yes, a bit of extra money is nothing to scoff at! i'll just have to find a way to fit it between classes and practice.
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for wangjis | the fox and the dragon
His red fur was plastered against his skin, turning it so waterlogged that when night would fall, he'd look nearly black. He needed to find shelter of some kind, but high as he was now, no human settlements were to be found for dozens of li, and he wasn't even sure which territory he might be crossing. Better to hunker down for the night, then start again when the storm calmed to something reasonable, continuing his run back to Yunmeng for the announcement of whatever importance had set that messenger bird after him, demanding his return.
His ears pricked up from their flat press against the sides of his skull at a louder roaring, the rain pouring hard but only making the roar of the waterfall even louder, more unruly, more wild. His heart thrummed with a sense of kinship, and he angled toward the broad cliffside, paws digging into mud and flattened grass as he raced on, looking for some likely shelter.
It was coincidence when he caught sight of the darker shadow of a cave just down from the cliffside, following the path of the waterfall. The waterfall itself dropped in many short, dramatic falls, going down and down into the depths of the mountainside impossible to make out in this storm; Wei Wuxian studied the cliff, then backed up, and threw himself off it with the care of a person utterly confident in his own body's capabilities. He leapt from thin ledge to thin ledge, until he landed with a clattering skid of nails on a broad stone expanse at the first pool of the waterfall, presently overspilling banks and pouring downward in that mighty roar. He tipped his head to the side, ignoring the faint flicker of electrical current that seemed to pass through him; a mere nuisance of the weather, he was sure. If he'd crossed through a barrier, he paid it no mind, instead taking his sodden form forward at a trot and sliding into the cold comfort of a cave existing to the side of the waterfall pool, blessedly dry beyond the entrance and its welcoming of rain and spray from the pool.
Drenched, he shook himself off, until his fur stood up in patches. He wanted to get warm, even if the cold didn't distinctly bother him; his cultivation level was enough to see that prove true, at least. Still, a fire would need wood, or a lot of qi, and one he wanted to conserve, while the other needed finding. With that in mind, Wei Wuxian, the red many tailed fox, made his creeping way forward, sniffing for any woody scent along the way in the darkness of what he expected, at first, to be a rather shallow cavern. )
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It is not the storm that bothers him, no, but just how tumultuous it has grown.
He hadn't intended it, but that's telling in itself. A spring storm meant to cleanse, to bring in the new season, had turned into a manifestation of uneasy, unsettled energy reflecting the one who'd brought it.
Returning back to the Cloud Recess would only draw in questions and concern and while he normally had the strength to navigate the winds and rain, his energy was depleted. The source of that unease, of a sense that something was coming was not one he could shake.
Seeking shelter was the viable option; so he'd done just that. Wangji had descended down from the skies, found himself a cavern deep enough to hide from the rain and rest. Within it, talons hit earth and dug into the dirt before bones that made up his long frame twisted and turned, bent and shifted into place until he resembled more man than an azure beast of the heavens. Horns at his temple remained, his nails akin to claws and scales still scattered above the collar of his white robes. Alone in the cave, he did not need to waste qi to hide it all.
The transformation always hurt, though he'd grown accustomed to it.
The remainder of qi he was willing to spare went to setting up protection at the entrance of the cave, so none unfamiliar or wishing harm would cross.
Then, slowly, Lan Wangji moved deeper through the darkness. Luckily, his eyes had no problem with the dark. There was wood to keep warm, but he had no qi to spare to light the fire. Bringing life to a flame took longer than he'd anticipated with shaking hands, he focused solely on the task that when the fire's flames and illuminated the nook he'd settled in, that Lan Wangji realized his wards had been breached and someone was well inside his cave. His hand went to Bichen at his side, drew the blade from its scabbard to point the tip of the blade and the trespasser drawing near.]
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and suddenly, talking fox
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but the kid is not my son
Seclusion.
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( A pause, the shades of his world still filled with hollows and aches and griefs and guilts he has no means of sorting through. Sixteen years, and he only knew the time passed, did not find himself changed. Not even changed enough to turn and walk away, or else why would he be here, with her?
He shoves those thoughts aside. They can wait for later. If that later never comes, so be it. )
Why?
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