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

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan—fully, absolutely pushing his luck—loops their arms together. "So. Tour?"

[qingxinling]

"...Fine," Jiang Wanyin grumbles. He does not jerk his arm away and shove the immortal cultivator. Because he's not stupid, that's all. "If there's even anything worthwhile in this shitheap."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan cannot believe he's getting away with this, but he leads Jiang Cheng away from the lake and into the gardens. "These are more impressive in spring and summer, of course, but autumn has its beauty, too," he says—and it's true; Shen Yuan himself had done a little work on it, mostly to repair the damage caused in the zombie attack, but Claudius and Galahad really carried most of the effort to plant evergreen shrubbery and late-blooming roses; tall sunflowers nod their heads against the walls of the greenhouse. Goldenrod and purple sage overlap in a riot of color that could, if one squinted, be almost Jiang and Jin colors. He hopes Jiang Cheng doesn't squint—nothing good came of that particular union.

[qingxinling]

It's no Lotus Pier, that's for fucking certain. Jiang Wanyin supposes he should be grateful that Wei Wuxian ended up somewhere that isn't like Lotus Pier. Surely Jiang Wanyin would hate that, if Wei Wuxian disappeared and ended up in a second-rate Lotus Pier since he couldn't go back to the real, superior one. There's a lot of flowers here he doesn't know, not that he'd ever tell an immortal cultivator that. Or anyone else, for that matter. "This is your place?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan shakes his head. "I live here, currently," he says, "but it's not mine. No one knows whose it is, but we've made a sort of communal space out of it." He leads Jiang Cheng toward the greenhouse. "It seemed very odd to me at first--no sect leader, no Emperor--but you get used to it." He still isn't entirely convinced Luo Binghe won't end up the Emperor here, but for now anyway his ambitions seem taken up with. Um. Mainly tricking Shen Yuan into kissing him more.

[qingxinling]

Currently. "Why would you live here?" Jiang Wanyin demands, ignoring the beauty of the stupid unfamiliar flowers.

[peaklordshen]

Ah, Shen Yuan sees no one's explained anything at all. Not too surprising, if he's been stomping around with his sword and whip out all the time. Everyone was probably hiding and just admiring him from afar. "Not much other choice," he says, matter-of-factly. "Can't go anywhere else."

[qingxinling]

"An immortal cultivator can't leave?!" Jiang Wanyin is shocked. If an immortal cultivator is stuck here, then perhaps even Wei Wuxian--

"Fucking convenient," he mutters.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan laughs. "Convenient?" It kind of is convenient, because it's given him and Luo Binghe a space to sort out, um, everything, outside of their respective versions of Proud Immortal Demon Way--but somehow he doubts that's what Jiang Cheng means. "How so?"

[qingxinling]

"That Wei Wuxian would find himself in another place he can't leave," says Jiang Wanyin, who has decided that he will leave when it pleases him to do so. Some people attend to their responsibilities!

[peaklordshen]

Another place he can't leave?? Was the first place death?? He wants to ask, but doesn't want to reveal how much he knows about Jiang Cheng's life--he'd learned his lesson there with Lan Wangji. But on the other hand he'd already fucked up and called him Sandu Shengshou, so he couldn't plead total ignorance. Oh, cucumber-bro, you're in it now!!

"Um," he says. "Right. Anyway, have you ever seen a greenhouse?"

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin assumes he's not talking about the Chief Cultivator's receiving chambers. "What the fuck is a greenhouse?"

[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]

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

[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."

[qingxinling]

So Lan Wangji has been his trademark self (i.e., a total ass) even to an immortal cultivator. Jiang Wanyin cannot even muster up the slightest bit of feigned surprise. He wonders what Shen Yuan did -- breathe in his space? Or was Hanguang-jun just jealous that Wei Wuxian makes friends like breathing and likes a drink? "Typical," he grouses.

[peaklordshen]

"It totally is, right??" says Shen Yuan. Finally, someone he can complain about Lan Wangji with! He's getting a migraine from pretending to like that guy around Magnus. "He's so judgmental, and he pretends he's always above everyone else, like our lives are petty little games and only the people he deems worthy are worth caring about."

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin, it must be admitted, does stare at Shen Yuan for a protracted moment. "You must be a wise immortal indeed," he says, even though flattery tastes strange on his tongue and is not actually a great look for him. "To see through that asshole's entire ruse."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan scoffs. "Nothing to do with being immortal, I can just smell a fraud from a mile away." Because he's such a practiced one himself, but no reason to go into that!! "Most people here like him, though, so it's refreshing to speak to someone who gets it." He elbows Jiang Cheng conspiratorially. "He defaced a wall the other day. You want to see?"

[qingxinling]

"He what?! Yes I fucking do."

[peaklordshen]

This requires moving through the connecting doors from the greenhouse to the Mansion and traversing several hallways, which Shen Yuan happily takes Jiang Cheng's arm again for. When they reach the cafe there's quite a bit of chatter inside, and Shen Yuan is surprised to find several more Frenchman gathered around one of the tables than he's used to. He waves, a little, to Enjolras, who's the only one of them he's really had extensive¹ conversation with, though he notes Grantaire among them as well.

He leads Jiang Cheng over to the wall, where someone has set up an empty frame around Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian's signatures. He folds his lips into his mouth to keep from laughing. "Shameful."

¹ And high!

[futaille]

Grantaire looks up at the pair of new arrivals and laughs when he sees where they're heading. He calls out to them. "Ah! Come to goggle at the smallest art gallery ever?"

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin has more important concerns than a loud drunk man. In truth, his primary concern is a different loud and frequently-drunk man. "You're telling me Lan Wangji did this," he says to Shen Yuan.

[peaklordshen]

"Yep," Shen Yuan confirms with satisfaction. "In front of the whole Mansion, pretty much." He turns and raises his eyebrows at Grantaire. "Are you the one who added the frame?"

[futaille]

Grantaire nods with a grin. "Seemed appropriate for the place's first and most public defacement!"