un: pillar of the heavens | video

[inkfire]

[ Mo Ran again, this time looking somewhat worn. His eyes are shadowed, and his usual smile is gone, his face serious for once. ]

Miang-Si talked about wanting to be queen. Not just of the village but of the whole world. Talked about how she's everything. She sounded fierce about it, too. Wants more than this.

[ He trails off, rubbing the back of his neck as he looks out beyond the camera. ]

I didn't encounter her when the elders were parading her around the village, but something happened to her between now and what we originally saw. Maybe they kept her locked away because she went insane with all of this talk.

[ He shakes his head, bangs falling into his eyes, which look more purple than usual, and then he sweeps them away and looks at the camera. He finally smiles, dimples showing. ] They had terrible tea, and served it lukewarm. Can't even impress her suitors. I don't think her parents are as rich as they might let on.

Comments

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[beitangmoran]

Interesting. It looks like our young lady might have made a deal with someone too wily for her own good.

[inkfire]

It's a pity for her, she might have gotten somewhere without being conniving.

[beitangmoran]

Someone certainly put very lofty idea into her head that got to her and precipitated her downfall.

[downswing]

Wanted more than most?

[inkfire]

A lot more than most, unless you regularly spend time with people who want to be queen of the entire world.

[downswing]

Some speak of ambitions unlikely to pursue.

[inkfire]

From what else we've seen, she likely tried to find a way to achieve her goals.

[downswing]

She appears impulsive. Unlearned.

[inkfire]

And likely to enter into situations with people who will take advantage, thinking she will get ahead.

[downswing]

Not all youths are innocent.

[inkfire]

Do you imply Miang-Si is not so innocent?

[downswing]

Do you yet feel drawn to her?

[inkfire]

No.

I feel revulsion that I did want her.

[downswing]

Then, the thrall ends with her absence.

Un: manic marbles | text

[saintclaire]

That’s ambitious.

You courted her?

un: pillar of the heavens

[inkfire]

Only briefly and only to find more information. I had no true interest in marrying her.

[saintclaire]

Did her parents realize that?

un: average sighren, video

[lanclan]

Couldn't impress even a single suitor?

[inkfire]

There's no announcement of a marriage, and she isn't married in the future when we arrived, so I assumed none of them were impressed. [ He rubs the back of his head again, frowning. ]

Unless she is and was just going around kissing people for some weird reason.

[lanclan]

[ The way his lips straighten ... ]

I can't think of any reason a young lady might do such a thing.

un: yuheng; voice;

[wooden_one]

...you were courting her?

[He's not jealous by the way. That would be improper he's just......wondering. But, really, Mo Ran is so handsome, if he were courting her why shouldn't her family have at least given him tea that was the right temperature! The gall!!]

un: pillar of the heavens | audio

[inkfire]

[ He freezes, feeling incredibly guilty, and has to rush to respond, once he hears Chu Wanning's voice. ]

Only for a mission, Shizun. I was not seriously interested in her. [ He pauses to think about his next words. ] She did not seem interested in me in return, so I saw no harm in talking to her. No hearts were broken.

[wooden_one]

[When Mo Ran was younger, he had visited brothels, Chu Wanning knows. But the young man had always been ardent and consistent in his adoration of Shi Mei. From the start, Mo Ran was too kind to break someone's heart on purpose.

And now, much older and mature, Mo Ran seemed a lot less likely to indulge in brothels and such things.

No, it was his own lack of character that made him worry, made him uncomfortable over Mo Ran's, apparently, fake courtship.

He can't confess to that however so he doesn't elaborate.]

Even so...]

Even if she wasn't interested serving you lukewarm tea is disrespectful. You're my disciple; you shouldn't put up with such treatment.

[So his name and reputation means nothing her but even so.....he's a little irritated on Mo Ran's behalf.]

un: song | voice;

[spoilers]

Well, I understand the desire.

( She may or may not have been queen of a world - or two - herself briefly, not to mention that minor flirtation with the kind of power that rules a universe. Thankfully, she'd had someone to talk her down. )

I don't think talk is what drove her insane.

voice; un: hopscotch

[clavesregni]

I trailed Miang-Si to the lakes. There were women there. Or rather, skeletons. Who looked like women when out of the water. One of them called Miang-Si the queen of the night, so I do wonder whether, in a sense, she is a queen already.