video | un: average sighren

[lanclan]

I was able, with some help, to procure some spices. Wanyin, Wei Wuxian, and Xie Lian, please find me at your earliest convenience. Ruka, I have some cakes for you. Ah, and ... Wen Kexing, once you understand these devices, will you please get in contact with me too? We did not exchange details the morning after we split up. [ The morning after they shared a room, you deviants. ] Alternatively, if anyone knows this man, help me find him. He is tall and well-dressed with fine features.

Wangji. A check-in, please.

Comments

[wifedup]

Oh, it never is.

( Carried out gracefully, he means. ) Ah, but I was right. You are upstanding, if you fought so hard to battle against the wicked. ( It's a little funny, he thinks. He highly doubts this man has heard of Ghost Valley, and he's not about to bring it up without reason, but he definitely seems the type to be righteous. To think, he's dining with it's Master!

Still, perhaps he should be more careful.

The next question gives Wen Kexing another strange pause. )

They've been dead a long time. I miss them as any filial son would.

( Murderously, monstrously. But he'll find a way to avenge them soon. )

[lanclan]

Mm. Mine died when I was young, Wangji didn't understand death at the time our mother passed but he did when it came to our father. He loved her ferociously.

[ Sad talks to be having in a house of the dead, but somewhat apt. ]

I don't know if it's bad luck to wish your partner was here with you, but if it would ease your troubles then I do.

[wifedup]

( He makes a small, sympathetic sound in response to that, but lets the conversation shift after. )

Ah, he'd hate it. There's a distinct lack of wine, or so I've seen, and he gets sore like a bear if it isn't on hand. ( It's left him a little wrong-footed, this absense. Wen Kexing has bothered the other man constantly since their fated run in that sunny afternoon. He barely goes an hour without finding some silly, flippant little excuse to speak with him. Even, more lately, with Zhou Zishu's prickling insistence on calling Wen Kexing shidi there's very little to that could run Wen Kexing off.

But perhaps -. Who knows what happened after he feel unconscious? Maybe Zhou Zishu has found him too much trouble. )

You'd like him. ( Unprompted. ) He's a softer heart than mine, that's how we ended up with Chengling. ( Not that Wen Kexing didn't force that. ) Left unleashed here who knows what number of adoptees he'd find? And who'd have to feed them? Me. ( Spirited, and then slightly more muted. ) No, it's better that he isn't. I'll find my way back to him. I always do.

[lanclan]

[ It warms his heart to hear such rambling fondness rattled off, thought after thought given tepid consideration because Wen Kexing knows his zhiji so well. ]

That's a good way to think. [ Lightly, he teases, ] Nevertheless, I hope to meet him someday, this man who drinks like a brawler with the generous heart of a daozhang.

[wifedup]

( A laugh, startled out of him, light and tinkling, Wen Kexing leaning forward with an elbow on his knees. )

Are you sure you haven't met him, you've got him down so well.

[lanclan]

It's all down to your colourful description, rest assured. Wen Kexing has a way with words.

[ And Xichen likes to listen, especially to that uplifting laugh. ]

[wifedup]

I might have been a poet in another life.

( Airy. )

But how refreshing to have someone not disgruntled with my chatter.

( If Zhou Zishu ever does turn up, then Wen Kexing will use Lan Xichen as a shining example of how someone really should react to him talking. )

But tell me more of Lan Huan, I have talked of myself more than enough. I know of his brother, of his nephew, of his feats in battle, but not of what makes him smile. Is this place so lacking in them?

[lanclan]

I ...

[ He pauses, lips parted, realising he doesn't know what makes him smile anymore. He hasn't wanted to, not since Guanyin Temple. Everything that brings him joy is fleeting and his reactions reflexive, he hasn't done anything fun in so long ... what did he used to do? He ought to dredge up his hobbies. ]

I paint. In Yancai I was working on two teacups for my brother and his husband as a kind of replacement wedding gift, as I missed each occasion, but then we were all transported to this house.

[ He never gave those cups to Wei Wuxian, did he? No. I will leave them in the cave, he had said, and then become so relaxed in the village he saw no need to hurry. Sad now, to think of those two delicate teacups lost in time somewhere, delicately painted in blue wash depicting Cloud Recesses. In an attempt not to look forlorn, Xichen considers a broader range of activities he has enjoyed in the past, back when he delighted in company. ]

I enjoy archery and used to enter contests, but I'm no sure shot. Collecting books and manuscripts for the Library Pavilion back home was one of my fonder past-times.

[wifedup]

Keep all my belongings on me at all times, I see. ( It's a little joking, but his expression is sympathetic at least. He'd hate to work on something and have it go missing. )

A master of many skills is Lan Huan. We'll get on well, if those are your hobbies.

( Maybe not the archery, Wen Kexing is not a long range fighter, he prefers to be up close and personal to his targets. There's definitely something more ruthless in him, a desire to see something seen through more properly. )

I didn't see a library about the place when I arrived, but that's not to say there isn't one in a house like this.

[lanclan]

[ Wen Kexing has the ability to drop a hook in any vaguely morose topic and bring a smile out of Xichen with it, given a grateful look as he jokes about keeping items on him. A good idea, truly! ]

I would like to look with you but it's dangerous, we might run into the bear.

[wifedup]

Ah yes, the bear.

( He has to fight a little hysterical laugh at the reminder. Who keeps a bear in a house like this? Why is there a bear in a house like this? )

I've never fought a bear before. ( And then with a shrug of one shoulder. ) How hard could it be?

[lanclan]

I wouldn't want to hurt it, is the thing.

[ It's such a strange type of danger to run into ... ]

[wifedup]

Ah.

( Sweet.

Wen Kexing picks up his fan to tap the edge of it against the palm of his other hand. )

Well, I'll resist the temptation to try for now. If I really must take my frustration out on something, there's still those statues in the garden.