[reverie - inbox]

[laughitoff]

TEXT | ACTION | OTHER

Comments

[strikingchords]

[the sooner that happens, the better for everyone, probably

there are trees and wild plant life and a lot more bushes and such since a few days ago out there. the figure doesn't notice him.]

[laughitoff]

[maybe...maybe it's time to furtively stalk him and see what he's up to

this is a great plan and definitely superior to 'just saying hi and having a real conversation again right away']

[strikingchords]

[that's a good call. if you stalk someone furtively that's very heterosexual of you. if you just talked to someone they might think you were gay

he has a stack of papers and packets of seeds with yellow and white chrysanthemum pictures on them in a basket next to him, and he's... digging up a grave??????? it's a bit hard to make out from here.]

[laughitoff]

[hm

sneaks a biiiit closer to see better]

[strikingchords]

[he can! Lan Wangji's finishing this one up, sadly; he drops a piece of paper into the hole with the seed, there's a brief flicker, and he covers it up.

luckily, he just picks up the basket and moves to the next grave over...]

[laughitoff]

[shifts to get a better viewing angle? what is he even doing. talismans...?]

[strikingchords]

[actually the FIRST thing he does is examine the blood ward on the grave, then press a piece of paper over it, then take it away; the paper picked up a little rust in a faint pattern of lines, maybe, no more]

[laughitoff]

[he does NOT jump up and yell BITCH ARE YOU MESSING WITH MY BLOOD WARDS, which we can also generously count as character growth?]

[strikingchords]

[one of his hands is bandaged. weird.

he (respectfully) uses the headstone as a hard surface to hold the paper against so he can sketch lines in over the transferred ones; Wei Wuxian can probably creep close enough to recognize that they're the same ones, since he knows them very well! the rough charcoal they're forced to use without cinnabar here isn't the best, but they've both made do before.

now he's... adding more lines?

there IS a bush closer if he makes a break for it]

[laughitoff]

[YEAH HE'S GOTTA KNOW. HE'S GOTTA. HE'S GOING FOR IT]

[strikingchords]

[HE ATTAINS BUSH. HE IS NOW OFFICIALLY TOO CLOSE FOR SAFETY.

okay, so the background for what is happening is:

- when they previously worked together on the wards in Phoenix, they both used paint that had been mixed with both their blood, to set up their two separate kinds of wards. this was basically a rough hack to keep the energies from rejecting each other without needing to put in the time to figure out how to work around each other more elegantly.
- at that time, they also decided to have Lan Wangji's wards innermost (to protect the people) and Wei Wuxian's outermost (to command creatures to go away). Wei Wuxian altered the direction his lines were drawn in to facilitate this, basically directing anything that tried to break his ward directly around it to keep the heat off of Lan Wangji's for longer.
- these were all Wei Wuxian's ideas! he discussed the first part with Lan Wangji and did not discuss the second part; you would have just had to be watching what he drew.

when he did the blood wards, he did them the way he would if he wasn't working with anyone else -- in pure blood so they'd be as strong as possible, commanding creatures to stay at rest.

what he sees now, is:

- Lan Wangji was apparently paying attention to the logic for why the paint idea worked in the first place! he's using the rubbing to pick up enough blood and residual energy from Wei Wuxian's wards that after they've been laid over with the same charcoal as he's using for the other one, a little bit of that resonance is there.
- Lan Wangji was apparently paying attention to what Wei Wuxian drew when he was reinforcing Lan Wangji's wards; he's making the same modifications now while drawing his own wards around the representations of Wei Wuxian's on the paper, only backwards, because the underlying logic here is "have Wei Wuxian's wards innermost (to command the creatures to stay) and Lan Wangji's outermost (to hold them in/keep others out)" instead.
- he's then adding a drop of his own blood from the cut on his hand to the center to add the same continuity that allows for cooperation that Wei Wuxian had worked out before, but with the minimum amount of blood loss.

then he digs a hole, folds the paper around a chrysanthemum seed, drops it into the dirt, and covers the whole thing up. Wei Wuxian has no idea what that's about, except whatever he can guess. something about the roots/a living thing providing something extra? making it mirror the other using the fact that the one ward is on an unliving headstone and the other is on a living respectful tribute? this is wild, actually--

Lan Wangji presses his bandaged hand against the dirt and there's a jolt of spiritual energy that Wei Wuxian feels, catching but then solidifying against his blood ward instead of tearing it down, because he is as mentioned officially too close]

[laughitoff]

[makes a very tiny squeaky noise in the bush, of mingled admiration and mild outrage; he's not used to others being able to reverse engineer his work quite so casually...]

[strikingchords]

[Lan Wangji whirls with a snarl. his fingers are curled, nails elongated into claws, and there's definite fang showing under wide eyes that are nearly black with pupil. Wei Wuxian sees the shadowy outlines of wings and lashing tail silhouetted behind him, looming. Bichen is out of its sheath and hovering by his shoulder, an old instinct as strong as, apparently, the new one to leap and bite someone's throat out.

his eyes fall on Wei Wuxian in the bush and he f r e e z e s]

[laughitoff]

[what Wei Wuxian in the bush? there's no Wei Wuxian in the bush. Wei Wuxian has jumped on the headstone NEXT to the bush in a weird four-limbed crouch, back arched like a cat's and tail boofed out and eyes huge with panic, also frozen]

[strikingchords]

[LAN WANGJI'S PUPILS DILATE A LITTLE WIDER WHILE THEY'RE STARING AT EACH OTHER WITHOUT MOVING, then contract slowly to slits

he gradually uncurls his fingers and relaxes his muscles, one at a time. the claws recede. the silhouette fades. the impression that he is somehow much bigger than his physical presence ebbs.

his voice still reverberates a bit too much in his chest when he speaks, an echo of a growl in it, but it's also the slightest bit shaky. still level, though.]


...

Wei Ying.

[laughitoff]

[startles visibly and then whisks mostly out of sight, hiding behind the gravestone, which is not actually large enough to fully conceal him]

[strikingchords]

[DEAD SILENCE FROM OVER THERESVILLE]

[laughitoff]

[peeks out at him over the gravestone]

[strikingchords]

[still staring at him, absolutely motionless; he just looks like Lan Wangji now, albeit the horned, dragon-eyed version he's become more used to in Reverie over the past few days]

[laughitoff]

Hi?

[strikingchords]

[rusty]

My apologies.

[still wide-eyed and absolutely aghast at something, whether that's "seeing Wei Wuxian" or "the implication that in some capacity he could have attacked Wei Wuxian"]

[laughitoff]

Um.

It's fine.

I made you a...

[glances to the side, and realizes that in his terrified leap to the gravestone he knocked the milkshake out of his skeleton buddy's hands]

...never mind! Haha.

[strikingchords]

[IMMEDIATELY, TOO FAST]

I want it.

[...

backtracks, because it registers suddenly that Wei Wuxian already did so]

Unless.

[maybe they can stare at each other more]

[laughitoff]

[yeah that tracks. all he can see of Wei Wuxian's face is stupid fox ears and wide eyes and the messy fluff of his hair]

I think I just broke this one. So. Maybe later.

[strikingchords]

[nods mutely, still mostly frozen and breathless, dirt on his stupid bedsheet robes and earth and blood and charcoal on the claws... no, fingers, of both hands]