bang! crash! the lightning flashed!! -- that's another story, nevermind, anyway!

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin sweeps along the shores of the lake, glowering. This is not his beloved Lotus Pier. These waters are cold, foreign, uninviting. Clearly there's been some trap: he's been distracted by duty in this hunt, and when he followed the slight tug in his chest, he ended up getting pulled into unfamiliar territory.

No matter. He draws himself to full height, letting cool arrogance slip down his shoulders and suffuse him. Sandu is naked in one hand; Zidian crackles in the other. He can handle whatever monsters may arrive.

Comments

[qingxinling]

Absolutely not. Jiang Wanyin is not done here. Without even really thinking about it, Zidian lashes out and wraps around Bichen's hilt. He yanks.

[qingxinling]

"You need to tell him what I said exactly," Jiang Wanyin says, insistent and intent. He'd screwed up earlier; he can't just go back there and say it himself. Wei Wuxian will know what it means.

[aflashbastard]

"What's the normal amount? I have two," Crowley offers.

[sagramore]

"Yes, that's why I wrote it down. I'll tell him."

[qingxinling]

Technically, it's two names and two titles. Or two and a half names and one and a half titles "Which two?"

[qingxinling]

"See that you do. If you don't, I'll -- you call that writing?!"

[sagramore]

"Well, that's what I thought I was doing."

[lightbearinglord]

Bichen jerks hard under Zidian's pull; at first, Lan Wangji has time only to catch Wei Ying before he stumbles and then to leap back to the ground with his arm back around Wei Ying's waist. He is distantly aware that Wei Ying is saying his name, and Jiang Wanyin's birth name, but more than anything, he is aware that Jiang Wanyin has gone too far.

Lan Wangji puts out a hand for Bichen, which is too heavy for anyone but him to go far under Zidian's pull, and then stalks forward to block Wei Ying from view as he finally unleashes all the qi built up in Wangji's strings in one single low, cutting chord.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan grins, leading him around a corner in the garden path to the greenhouse entrance. He lets go of Jiang Cheng to open the door. "This," he says, "is a greenhouse."

The sunlight streams in through the windows. Someone must have just been in here, because the neat rows of green leaves are wet and sparkling, as if with dew. Vines twine their way up carefully woven lattices; fruits of all types swell and color basically before their very eyes. That's actually--a little more than usually happens; is Magnus have a really good day or something??

"You can grow anything you wish, here," says Shen Yuan, quietly. "No matter the season." He looks sideways at Jiang Cheng. "One could build a lotus pond in one of these, if they were so inclined."

[qingxinling]

Finally. Jiang Wanyin yanks Zidian free and then uses it to counter Lan Wangji's stupid chord, qi and lightning shooting out to meet the attack. He's glad that Sandu is naked in his hand; he brings the sword into his favorite of the Jiang forms. Lan Wangji is boring and stuffy and obnoxious and part of the most annoying sect in the world, and Wei Wuxian still chooses to live in his ascetic shithole of a home instead making a nuisance of himself at Lotus Pier despite Jiang Wanyin's strict orders to the contrary????? If this truly is an unescapable hellhole like others have been saying, at least Jiang Wanyin can unleash on this fucker the way that he's wanted to for years.

[aflashbastard]

"Crowley. The other one, I can't exactly pronounce with this mouth," he says, apologetically.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji wishes dearly that Crowley's absurd so-called folk tale had been real and that Jiang Wanyin had truly encountered a thousand years of bad luck the moment the demon set those books alight. He would have enjoyed seeing Jiang Wanyin tripping over his own garish whip at a moment such as this, for instance.

At least he doesn't need the workings of luck to best Jiang Wanyin in a fight. Bichen gleams blue in his hand. Lan Wangji stays where he is, determined to keep Wei Ying safe and entirely out of reach, but he is otherwise focused solely on releasing sword qi and yet another slicing chord at the same time.

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "Yes, I've met them both. I know Lan Wangji better than Wei Wuxian, though."

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin is impressed despite himself. "Is that what Wei Wuxian has been up to?" he grumbles.

[qingxinling]

"You can call me Jiang Wanyin," he says. "Or Sandu Shengshou." One name, one title. That's enough.

[qingxinling]

That doesn't make any sense at all. Unless she means she knows Lan Wangji because he's so dull that there's nothing to know. He glowers.

[sporesprouter]

"So I'm guessing you... don't get along, then?" She can already tell that's an understatement, even.

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin holds his hand the way this man -- it occurs to Jiang Wanyin that he never got his name. Typical. He's not going to ask now -- held his, and scowls. That just feels wrong. He adjusts to the proper grip one would use for a brush. Yes, much better. "You weren't," he says. It's almost gentle, for Jiang Wanyin; he supposes not everyone can be literate, and if an illiterate strange man is going to pretend to take notes to pass along to Wei Wuxian -- well. That's just fitting.

[qingxinling]

"What the fuck are you talking about," Jiang Wanyin snaps. As if it's any of her business!

[sporesprouter]

"... Right. I'll be getting back, then, I guess. Nice to meet you?"

[sagramore]

"I apologize. I'll work on my form."

[qingxinling]

There could, perhaps, be a world in which Jiang Wanyin is perfectly polite to a strange young woman¹, but that world is on in which he has not locked eyes on his former shixiong cavorting about with Hanguang-jun, the man who proves that some jade is actually worthless. He barely even bows as she leaves.


¹Citation needed!

[aflashbastard]

"Oh." Crowley says, pointing at him, much like the Leo-pointing-at-the-TV meme (you know¹). "The burn book! The-- er, loquat. The rotting loquat!"

¹If you're reading this, you almost definitely do know.

[qingxinling]

"What," says Jiang Wanyin, dangerously. "The fuck."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan shrugs. "Maybe? I'm not really sure what he's been up to. We had a drink, once, but I haven't seen much of him since then. His, ah, husband is not particularly fond of me."