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

[sagramore]

"That's dramatic," Sagramore remarks. He's still leading his lame horse back to the stable, having gotten distracted for a while with Gertrude.

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin bristles, and then settles when he realizes that it's just some strange man and his horse. He likes horses, and knows that lightning tends to spook them. He calls Zidian back to his hand, but keeps Sandu loose in his grip in case he needs to attack. "What now?"

[sagramore]

"Ah, thank you. She's quite steady, actually. Are you new here?"

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin spreads his hands wide. Sandu glints in the sun; Zidian finishes wrapping around his wrist. "What the fuck do you think?" he asks.

[sagramore]

"Fair enough," deliberately pleasant. He clicks his tongue softly to Fenyes, and leads her on.

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin's glower intensifies. People don't walk away from him, he walks away from people¹!! "I take it you're not," he snaps, pretending like this guy and his beautiful horse haven't moved at all.



¹Citation needed. Literally any citation. Any single one. Please.

[sagramore]

"No, we've been here around three months," he agrees -- we here encompassing both Sagramore and his beautiful horse.

[qingxinling]

Someone -- not Jiang Wanyin, who has no frame of reference for the animal but someone -- might liken him, in this moment, to a particularly spiky sphynx cat in a bespoke purple sweater with its hackles raised. "And this is where Wei Wuxian got himself to, too?"

[sagramore]

"Wei Wuxian?" As it happens, Sagramore has met Wei Wuxian and spoken to Lan Wangji about him, but nobody actually said Wei Wuxian's name at any point, so Sagramore's polite confusion is entirely genuine.

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin has seen Wei Wuxian, and is unimpressed by anyone pretending he's not there. "You know," he says, holding out a hand -- to Wei Wuxian's original height rather than his new one. "So tall, messy ponytail, the worst fucking priorities you've ever seen in a man? Bizarrely obsessed with Lan Wangji?"

[sagramore]

"I know Lan Wangji. I can't say I've met anyone I'd call bizarrely obsessed with him."

[qingxinling]

Something isn't computing here. Wei Wuxian isn't a retiring kind of guy. "Wei Ying?" Jiang Wanyin tries. "Yiling Laozu? Has a dizi?" He holds his hands up, as if playing one; Sandu gets in the way.

[sagramore]

"That's different from the qin?"

[qingxinling]

"You don't fucking blow on a qin!" Jiang Wanyin's horror is mounting. What has Lan Wangji done to Wei Wuxian here??

[sagramore]

"Oh, I beg your pardon. Actually, let me ask you a question, if I may -- you seem rather powerful. Will you help me get this shoe off Fenyes? It's only half-thrown and you can see she's lame."

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin hesitates. He knows very little about horseshoes, and he hates not knowing shit. But Lan Wangji is here, and though Jiang Wanyin prefers not to think about that asshole at all if he can help it, the idea of it maybe getting back to him that Jiang Wanyin was helpful to people here will no doubt stick in his craw like so much shitty Gusu Lan food. "Fine."

[sagramore]

"You have my thanks." He bends to lift her back right hoof, bracing it against his slightly bent knee. The shoe is loose and swung outward, in part because her hoof horn is overgrown and several nails have come out. "I just need to get the rest of the nails out so the shoe can come off."

[qingxinling]

"What do you want me to do about it?" This may sound like bluster -- Jiang Wanyin hopes it sounds like bluster -- but it's a genuine question.

[sagramore]

"Can you pry them up with the flat of your sword?" blandly.

[qingxinling]

With Sandu?! Jiang Wanyin almost recoils. He hedges: "This is a spiritual blade."

[sagramore]

"Does that give you some extra leverage?"

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin grumbles -- a spiritual tool shouldn't be used for nails! -- but he withdraws his qi from the sword and focuses on constraining its glare. He really isn't interested in injuring a horse. "Fine," he says, squinting to inspect the hoof.

[sagramore]

"Wonderful." The remaining three nails require some force to remove, but it's definitely possibly for an ordinary person with the right leverage, let alone an immortal(?) cultivator(??).

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin sighs when the last nail comes out, relievedly sheathing Sandu again.

[sagramore]

Sagramore takes the bent shoe and hooks it in his pocket before letting Fenyes' foot down. She's still favoring it, but it's a definitely improvement. "Many thanks, sir." He straightens up and bows to Jiang Wanyin politely.