[sidereal - the dreaming]

[laughitoff]

[for MDZS AU plot-related shenanigans]

Comments

[laughitoff]

What supplies would you want?  What are you aiming to do? I don't know what you're thinking, believe it or not.

[strikingchords]

"Find what's wrong. Fix it. Do us a favor."

[laughitoff]

Wow! You're spoiled for choice then! Everything is wrong with the Burial Mounds here!

[strikingchords]

...

I will take your word for it.

[laughitoff]

You kind of have to, don't you.

[bitter!]

[strikingchords]

[another flash of hurt shoved down. silent again]

[laughitoff]

[breathes deeply in and out, trying to smooth some of those angry jags down himself]

[strikingchords]

[quietly repeating himself, tone kind of duller than the tense edge it had before]

Your counsel.

[laughitoff]

[he just sounds . . . tired.]

Fine. We can check the outer tombs for something useful. Don't go too deep; the inner ones have too many traps, for the most part. I'll guide you.

[strikingchords]

[still quiet]

My thanks.

[he starts forward again, not hesitating any more than he did when Wei Wuxian guided him before]

[laughitoff]

[he can feel thorns under his boots, as Wei Wuxian warned. it's difficult to avoid injury on the way to the buildings/tombs.]

[strikingchords]

[that will depend on Wei Wuxian! Lan Wangji listens to him very carefully.]

[laughitoff]

[Wei Wuxian IS trying not get him hurt more, so they can probably reach the buildings with minimal mishap.

they're...strange. they look, to Lan Wangji, like more generic copies of the Cloud recesses buildings, all white walls and wood without the embellishments and personality that made the originals lovely. kind of like the architectural version of Su She? they're shut tight...]

...these are from before I robbed them.

[strikingchords]

[Lan Wangji doesn't attempt to draw closer to him again, but Wei Wuxian can feel his cool attention, the same as he would have been able to feel his eyes on him.]

[laughitoff]

[feeling Wei Wuxian shiver in the back of your mind is very strange.]

Mm, that probably means the traps are still active. What a pain.

[strikingchords]

Where should I enter?

[it's the first he's spoken since he thanked Wei Wuxian. he's still a bit monotone even for Lan Wangji about it, turning that internal gaze away again.]

[laughitoff]

[his tone dulls even more]

Give me a minute. Let me think. It's been years...

[strikingchords]

[...

he can't help but refocus and sort of shift his attention back that way again, alive to the nuance of Wei Wuxian's voice]

[laughitoff]

[he doesn't reject the attention. at last:]

Go around the back of the one you're facing.

[strikingchords]

[he obeys...]

[laughitoff]

[it looks nondescript! there is a small window, but all he can see inside is a strange, flickering light]

...kneel so your head is below the sill, and touch the wall at the bottom left corner. There should be a stone you can push in...

[strikingchords]

[he is obeying meticulously, heart pounding a little, doubly at a disadvantage. the apparently-wooden walls don't show a stone to his eyes. he closes them and finds it with his fingers.]

[laughitoff]

[the stone is smooth and solid and cold under his fingers; there's the barely-there seam of the one to push . . .

when he does, there's a hard thunk overhead, something passing close enough to ruffle his hair as it slams out of the 'window']

[strikingchords]

[he keeps his eyes closed.]

Now?

[laughitoff]

Feel...feel around the sill for a catch...

[he is concentrating VERY HARD on NOT GETTING LAN WANGJI MURDERED]