[One banner, which reads THE CLOUD RECESSES, hangs within the gatehouse by the town gate, easy to see through the high windows. It dangles over the chair where a guard or inspector might normally sit. A black liquor jar stands upon the chair.]
-
You're standing on a boat, balanced and easy, with other disciples from your home sect and from Gusu Lan -- the one you're visiting. There's movement all around you: darting shadows in the water around your little pack of vessels, some of the others chasing them with nets. Someone shouts from your right side, “There are some here as well!”
On your left, another school of shadows swims past, too fast to be caught by the boat-bound pursuers. With the assurance of someone who's helped hunt underwater ghouls and ghosts in your home town since childhood, you know that something about this is unusual. You track the movements, aware, alert. "That's strange," you say. "The shape of this shadow doesn’t seem human? And it keeps shifting, long, short, large, small...Lan Zhan, beside your boat!”
Lan Zhan (or Lan Wangji, who is visibly much younger in this memory, in his mid-teens) reacts with admirable aplomb, making a sharp gesture with his fingers. The sword on his back unsheathes, and darts into the water, a bright streak of silver. A moment later it darts up again into clear air, and back into Lan Zhan's hand. Ai--all that admirable speed and he still missed!
A Lan disciple next to him foolishly imitates him. He's definitely not so skilled, though -- when his sword plunges underwater he can't retrieve it again, no matter how he tries, and his face pales as his hand-signs don't work.
An older disciple admonishes him, but you only have half an ear on it. You're watching Lan Wangji as he tries again, striking with his sword at another shadow. What a handsome figure! Truly peerless!
This time, instead of going under, his blade flicks the shadow up, like it's catching it on a hook. A wet black tangle drops to the deck of Lan Zhan's boat, and you crane over to look, but it's not the expected undead creature. It's...a mass of fabric? Discarded clothing?
This tickles you immensely, and you laugh at him across the short distance between your boats. “Lan Zhan, you’re so impressive! This is my first time seeing someone strip a water ghoul while catching them!”
-
[In the wake of the memory, a still and ghostly Lan Wangji appears just outside the gatehouse, visible through the door and windows. The back of his robe is soaked through with blood.]
the cloud recesses (the gatehouse by the town gate, where a guard might normally sit)
-
You're standing on a boat, balanced and easy, with other disciples from your home sect and from Gusu Lan -- the one you're visiting. There's movement all around you: darting shadows in the water around your little pack of vessels, some of the others chasing them with nets. Someone shouts from your right side, “There are some here as well!”
On your left, another school of shadows swims past, too fast to be caught by the boat-bound pursuers. With the assurance of someone who's helped hunt underwater ghouls and ghosts in your home town since childhood, you know that something about this is unusual. You track the movements, aware, alert. "That's strange," you say. "The shape of this shadow doesn’t seem human? And it keeps shifting, long, short, large, small...Lan Zhan, beside your boat!”
Lan Zhan (or Lan Wangji, who is visibly much younger in this memory, in his mid-teens) reacts with admirable aplomb, making a sharp gesture with his fingers. The sword on his back unsheathes, and darts into the water, a bright streak of silver. A moment later it darts up again into clear air, and back into Lan Zhan's hand. Ai--all that admirable speed and he still missed!
A Lan disciple next to him foolishly imitates him. He's definitely not so skilled, though -- when his sword plunges underwater he can't retrieve it again, no matter how he tries, and his face pales as his hand-signs don't work.
An older disciple admonishes him, but you only have half an ear on it. You're watching Lan Wangji as he tries again, striking with his sword at another shadow. What a handsome figure! Truly peerless!
This time, instead of going under, his blade flicks the shadow up, like it's catching it on a hook. A wet black tangle drops to the deck of Lan Zhan's boat, and you crane over to look, but it's not the expected undead creature. It's...a mass of fabric? Discarded clothing?
This tickles you immensely, and you laugh at him across the short distance between your boats. “Lan Zhan, you’re so impressive! This is my first time seeing someone strip a water ghoul while catching them!”
-
[In the wake of the memory, a still and ghostly Lan Wangji appears just outside the gatehouse, visible through the door and windows. The back of his robe is soaked through with blood.]