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]

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!"

[qingxinling]

"What the fuck happened here," Jiang Wanyin asks, glowering at the frame and the words that it enshrines.

[peaklordshen]

"I told you," says Shen Yuan. "Lan Wangji defaced a wall. I think he might have been drunk?" he says, looking to Grantaire for confirmation; if he was, then that was at least one thing CQL had gotten right. Along with Jiang Cheng being so handsome.

[futaille]

"Very drunk, if his talent show performance had anything to say about it."

[qingxinling]

"Lan Wangji got drunk?!" Jiang Wanyin is frankly a little flummoxed by that one. "This array is so fucking weird."

[peaklordshen]

"Oh, there's no array," says Shen Yuan. "I mean. I'm pretty sure. It's not that type of magic. And I don't think Lan Wangji getting drunk had anything to do with magic at all, I think he just wanted to stake a claim to Wei Wuxian in front of everybody, because--" he's a yaoi Dom with overactive paranoia about everyone stealing his husband, even though everyone is happily ensconced in entirely separate yaoi dramas of their own? He rolls his eyes a little, meaningfully. "You know."

[qingxinling]

Disgusting. Disgusting!! In a way, they deserve each other. "I know," Jiang Wanyin grumbles.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan pats his hand sympathetically. "You want a drink?" he asks. "Or—something else?"

[qingxinling]

"Something else, like food?"

[peaklordshen]

"Sure, if you like," says Shen Yuan, and then taps his fan against his cheek, as if something has just occurred to him. "Or—someone here gave me something, a special kind of plant, only available here¹—inhaling its vapor brings peace, and a certain—clarity of thought." He shrugs, a little. "If there is an array here that I haven't noticed,² it could help you figure it out."

So, okay, he's lying to Jiang Cheng a little about what weed does. But how long did he spend watching that show wanting everyone to just let Jiang Cheng chill out?? Enjoy himself a little?? Receive a little positive reinforcement for once in his life?? If getting him stoned and buttering him up about his spiritual investigation skills is what it takes, Shen Yuan will shoulder that burden.

¹ No it isn't, but it's almost definitely not available in Jiang Cheng's world, unless the novel is very different than the show, so same diff.
² There isn't.

[qingxinling]

"Like some kind of special incense?" Jiang Wanyin asks, suspiciously.

[peaklordshen]

"Sort of," says Shen Yuan. "You inhale it more directly than that." He draws Jiang Cheng away from the display on the wall and toward somewhere more private. "I can show you?"

[qingxinling]

"...fine."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan, with all the self-control five years of pretending to be an impassive and dismissive immortal master gave him, does not do a cartoonishly huge fist-pump about this. He leads Jiang Cheng to one of the lounges, and rummages around in his sleeve until he produces the vape pen. "You just hold it to your lips," he says, "and breathe in." He demonstrates, breathing out a slow cloud and smiling at Jiang Cheng through the haze, and then immediately circulates his qi so he doesn't actually get high. Getting Jiang Cheng to relax is one thing; relaxing with him a completely different one. He holds out the vape pen.

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin gives Shen Yuan a suspicious look, but takes the device and fits it to his lips, taking the tiniest inhale in the history of the world, probably. "This is just ma," he says, suspicion escalating as he lifts the device to study it more closely. "What a weird little censer."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan laughs at him. "Take more than that, Sandu Shengshou, or it'll never work."

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin is pretty sure you're not supposed to inhale ma directly, but surely an immortal cultivator would know best. He takes another tiny inhale and then passes the censer back.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan takes another hit and circulates his qi again, but he does let himself sink down, a little, into the chair, in case Jiang Cheng needs the implicit permission to relax. "If there is an array," he says, handing the vape pen back, "it's like nothing I've ever seen." Mostly because Airplane didn't bother to write much array-type cultivation into PIDW, preferring monsters and demons and, of course, sex pollen over talismans and stuff. Doubtless whoever wrote the novel about Jiang Cheng was more serious and creative.