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]

...Holy shit.

It's not that it hadn't occurred to Shen Yuan that more people from CQL, or—what was the book called? grandmaster of something?—might show up here, but he'd assumed if they did it would be other Lans, or maybe even people who had been cut entirely from the story for censorship reasons, like Laertes had been from the Lion King. He'd never considered Jiang Cheng could show up here. He was like, the coolest guy in that whole show!! Come on, lightning whip that turns into a beautiful snake bracelet?? Plus he was, like, totally wronged by the narrative. In retrospect, of course he's shown up here, who could possibly deserve a second chance at happiness more??

He's so caught up in staring at Jiang Cheng actually wielding Zidian that he doesn't even say anything, just stopped dead by the edge of the lake.

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin huffs, impatient. This man is deplorably arrayed, his clothes thoroughly inappropriate for public settings. He's also clearly socially inept. He should be bowing his greeting, not -- not staring!

"Why are you just standing there?" Jiang Wanyin demands, closing his fist more tightly around Zidian.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan startles, and then bows, deeply, as befits a Sect Leader. "Apologies, Sandu Shengshou," he says, straightening with a smile. "This one was only briefly transfixed by your power and beauty."

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin regards the man with heightened suspicion. Clearly he knows how to act, but is choosing to ignore it. Jiang Wanyin knows and distrusts the type. "What."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan tucks his hair behind his ear. "As if you don't get that all the time," he says. "Has anyone showed you the welcome table? I could, like, show you around?"

[qingxinling]

"Who are you," Jiang Wanyin demands, furious in his confusion. "Is this some joke? Did the Chief Cultivator put you up to it?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan's smile grows puzzled. Why would Lan Wangji tell him to show Jiang Cheng around? They hate each other. Unless the adaptation got that wrong, too? "My name is Shen Yuan," he says, "and no one's put me up to anything. It can just be confusing, when you first arrive, and I thought I might offer a friendly face."

[qingxinling]

"Shen Yuan," Jiang Wanyin snaps. He bows: a shallow affair. "What is there to even show around? A shitty lake?" He glances past the glare of the sun to the strange building rising in the distance. "A weird house?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan pulls his fan out of his back pocket so he can hide his smile behind it. He's very tempted to just loop arms with Jiang Cheng, but Jiang Cheng still very much has Zidian, like, out and crackling. "Quiet your weapons, Sect Leader Jiang," he suggests, "and I'll see if I can find something on our humble grounds to impress you."

[qingxinling]

This Shen Yuan wields the fan like a man who knows how to use it. Jiang Wanyin's suspicions escalate. He's heard tales of traps that come in the form of comely beings, waiting for a man to show but one weakness before they're sprung. "What are you?" he asks, though he does not expect the truth.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan snorts. "I'm a person," he says. "Well—technically I'm an immortal cultivator, but that does still count. And yes," he gestures to himself with the fan, "I'm aware I'm not exactly dressed the part."

[qingxinling]

This gives Jiang Wanyin a start. He reaches out with his qi, almost reflexively and -- yes, indeed, that must be what an immortal cultivator feels like. Darkly, he thinks of the lie Wei Wuxian had told him of his meeting with Baoshan Sanren... but perhaps he shouldn't dwell, right now. "I guess an immortal cultivator is allowed to dress however they want," he grumbles, and lets Zidian grow inert. Now that he knows the caliber of cultivator he's talking to, he sinks reluctantly into a deep, respectful bow.

[peaklordshen]

"Oh," says Shen Yuan quickly, catching Jiang Cheng's elbow and pulling him back up. "Don't do that, there's no need, that's not why I told you."

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin, perplexed, gives Shen Yuan an angry look. Why the fuck would an immortal cultivator dispense with propriety? For that matter, why the fuck does this immortal cultivator know who he is? Jiang Wanyin has never heard of an immortal cultivator named Shen Yuan. "Then why the fuck did you tell me?" he asks.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan shrugs, a little. "Because you asked?" Before he drops Jiang Cheng's arm he admires Zidian a little, where it's curled now around his wrist. "It really is gorgeous. Love a snake theme."

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin's eyes narrow. What the fuck kind of dirt does Nie Huaisang have on this guy??? "Whatever," he mutters.

[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?"