un: absterge | video, might as well get a show with your wake-up

[downswing]

( The stage, set: pale dawns drowning fair maiden Emilia's boudoir, mid-invasion. The lady, aghast, but bravely holding back (onto?) Wrath — one of three gentlemen drenched in chimney soot for their orgy visit.

RIP: four porcelain bowls shattered on the floor, a wall stabbed with dining cutlery, a decapitated statue, inked parchment (protective, silent) littered on the balcony and ceiling spreads. A table broke its back to sweeten Jiang Cheng's fall. The man himself lies sprawled or scratching (unclear). Chimney bricks are still coughing down into the fireplace.

In the midst of the chaos, a dishevelled Lan Wangji — perched precipitously on the back of a chair — calls for silence. A heartbeat later, he sets the communicator closer to the balcony, so that everyone who neglected to turn off their device overnight can bask in the shouting and screaming of anti-Macaluso protesters outside.

Enjoy a minute of that. Violence is good for the ears. )

The lady's quarters — ( ...quite. ) ...lack vantage. What stokes their anger?

( And then, an awkward pause later: )

Morning's greetings.

( ooc: backdated to the first day of protests. Enjoy your 5:10am wake-up call, in between the ruckus of Jiang Cheng, Lan Wangji and Wrath slipping down the wrong chimney into Emilia's quarters, and Macaludo's protesters raising a storm. Just. Enjoy that. )

Comments

hissed over wangji's shoulder

[consignation]

I knew it! I knew nothing good could come of following you. Is this how you lead my brother?! Unbelievable—

[ ( 不可思议，) he mutters, over and over. ]

[downswing]

( Excuse the accidental shove back, as he... rights the wrongs of his posture, shrugs off a mote of dust, or calls down a flock of pigeons, whatever excuse works on this fine morning. 有眼睛，有愧疚。

And loud enough to be perceived by wild communicators at large: )

The man once your brother was not born to follow.

[consignation]

[ Jiang Cheng snatches Wangji's device up to shout into it. ]

WEI WUXIAN! Wei Wuxian, are you listening?! Are you my brother or not?? Do you hear the way he speaks to me? Wei Wuxian—

audio

[weifinder]

( he, er, heard this go on for long enough that the sound of protestors screaming in stereo wakes him. his voce, thick with sleep, over the crystal: )

Lan Zhan? What lady's quarters?

( too tired to make sense of that or the shouting and screaming of people who arrived to throw fits before sunrise. how horrid. )

Don't tell me you've got people propositioning you with fertility rites too, now.

[downswing]

( Amid the chaos, earning his name, one brick wept down with a clotted thump at a time. But gently, because one does not wake the Yiling Patriarch unduly: )

I intended Sizhui's rooftop. ( Ahem. ) Jiang Wanyin... surfaced.

( ...yeah. )

[weifinder]

( ... Surfaced. On a rooftop. Following after Lan Zhan. )

I take it the next time you'll reach our son unimpeded.

( He sounds more amused, less freshly awake, up to the point where he clearly is muffling a yawn. )

You and Jiang Cheng were bonding! Is good, this is good, and... wait, which poor lady have you all intruded upon?

[valeas]

My quarters. Emilia di Carlo.

[ an unusual introduction if there ever was one.

her initial surprise having faded, emilia's attention drifts back to their devices. a sharp curiosity resides in her eyes, and perhaps a hint of humor wried. ] Wei Wuxian, I presume? A great deal of effort has gone into finding you, signore.

un: dappled pearl of the parted seas [voice]

[beitangmoran]

Must you make such a ruckus at this time of day?

[No, Moran was not sleeping, actually, but will that stop him using it as an excuse to judge? Absolutely not.]

And invading a lady's bedroom? Unsightly.

[downswing]

( Can you hear this resigned, soul and lung-crushing sigh, because Lan Wangji has so deeply given up the ghost that he's waving it farewell from the street corner.

But he is a Lan. A man of dignity. Of poise. Of honour. Of duty, bound.

...of exceptionally bendy limbs, reaching to post his communicator device somehow even closer to the balcony and capture every decibel of additional noise. Oh, look. They're singing. )

I regret the tumult.

un: blushing beads of heft and beauty | video

[paperbutterflies]

[ Sizhui looks fresh and awake. He also looks lightly... disturbed. By how heroically the chaos is endured. ]

Han...guang...jun?

[ You can wash up here doesn't quite suit. Nor I can bring you tea on the rooftop. So he just.

Cups his hands in salute because uhhh. ]

[downswing]

( Oh, no. Oh, his son. This beautiful creature of perfect manners and delight.

What can one do, in the midst of... distractions... but gently nod along with a filial son's greetings and replicate them with a shallower bowed salute?

Ignore the... snowstorm of soot that drips down. )

Your quarters are fitted with the silvered balcony?

( ...so he can know where to drop off next time. )

un: moonage daydream (video)

[lancifolium]

[ Bleary-eyed and wild-haired Lily squints into the pendant. She'd parted company with Emilia not less than an hour and a half ago. Thanks free wine. ]

Wha... Emilia? You didn't tell me you were hosting a private after party. Are you alright?

[downswing]

( Very much not impressed. And very much not Emilia, either. )

We would not harm women.

[valeas]

[ emilia eases at the sound of lily's voice, if only just a fraction. she is not quick to trust or make friends, certainly not as of late. but lily has shown her a great deal of kindness, and she is not so hardened by her world that she fails to recognize a precious thing. ] I'm all right.

[ spoken with firmness to alleviate any doubt. the initial surprise has dispelled, and she's drawn herself back up. ]

But now that we are separated into teams, it might be in our best interests to become more familiar with the palace layout. [ see? when she is not lost in her vicious thirst for revenge, she can be quite diplomatic and level-headed! ]

[un: sprite bulb] voice;

[bearshermark]

[A deep, rasping yawn of the truly disturbed, words heavy with sleep over a short groan of effort]

What's happening? Attack?

[downswing]

( That moment when you scar your already war-troubled son. )

...be at ease. No.

Video | a jug of wine amidst the flowers

[wenderer]

[ Is he a little cranky this early in the morning? ]

Strange, I didn’t have you pegged as a flower thief.

[ Yes. ]

audio

[weifinder]

If only, Wen-xiong, if only. Lan Zhan's self remains so pristine that snow is shamed before him.

[downswing]

( With two other men beside him? )

You stain a lady's honour.

[Video] in a manor of speaking

[fated_dance]

[ Zishu is just...listening...and watching...all of this. He'd had something of a rough night (not new), not that looking at him would say as much...no more than usual. He offers a nod, rather than a bow, studying everything. He finds it...interesting. ]

What stokes any mob's anger?

[downswing]

The beats and flow of injustice.

un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ Five was already awake and about to investigate, but he's not used to this video function and he squints to try to sort them all out. — Which, sidebar, he does not need help making his brother aware of stupid protests going on thank you. ]

You don't know?

[ The mob is unrelated to the chimney entrance?? Is this just one of his things? ]

[downswing]

We did not steer them.

[Audio; UN: Lianfang-Zun]

[malicing]

[He has never been much of a morning person. There is an extra bite to his words because of the hour.]

I did not know you were so eager for female company, Hanguang-Jun.

[downswing]

( The crossing of swords, carving out his face in rancour. Disgust, a pallor.

Good morning, Jin Guangyao. )

Perhaps brother did not entrust in you all things.