closed post for the lads: makeover montage

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan is standing in his room in the Mansion in nothing but boxers, absolutely surrounded by clothes. There are stacks of discarded robes in every color of the rainbow (except, notably, red; the Mansion had given him one of those and he'd yelped and hid it under the bed); intricate and wildly expensive guans piled in teetering towers; he's knee-deep in jeans, and boots, and button-up shirts, and dress pants. There's a tuxedo, still on its hanger, swinging from the closet door. Behind it, the closet has helpfully refilled with more options, including a few very pretty dresses that Shen Yuan did not, actually, ask for, but he can't blame it for getting confused. He's fucking confused. He's completely at a loss, in fact.

He groans and grabs an outer robe at random, pulling it around his shoulders, and then falls over backward and starfishes on the clothes-covered floor. He doesn't know what the fuck to wear on a date. Especially not a date with Binghe, a dinner date with Binghe, and of course it's going to be world-class food, because Binghe is incapable of cooking anything else. And Binghe's going to be looking at him. The whole time. And it's not for—for an apology, or even for a seduction; he's just there to talk, and to listen, and to eat, and to—to flirt!! Intentionally!! Like gay people do!!

He has to look good, but not so good that it's painful for Binghe not to ravish him, and like himself—Shen Yuan, the self he's trying to be with Binghe—but not so different from Shen Qingqiu that Binghe doesn't like him anymore because he just looks like some fucking guy. He can't wear what he would have worn on a hypothetical date with a girl, because that's way too cringe and straight. Also, he doesn't know what that would have been, either.

It would be easier to do this somewhere else, anywhere his wardrobe is limited by what he already owns or could readily buy, and not made up of anything he can possibly imagine.

He rubs his hands over his face, and then pulls two slips of talisman paper and a brush from the robe's sleeve. Writing above his head like he's texting in bed, the paper held steady by an invisible force, he finishes two different but equally urgent messages. They fold themselves up, and he paints a last few qi-imbued characters on the outside before they both zoom out of the room in opposite directions.

[Magnus and Galahad will each receive a note that only opens for them and will lead them back to his room once they read it. However, Shen Qingqiu has mixed up which message was for who, so Galahad's reads "SOS!!! date emergency!!!" and then has two little drawings of the prayer hands emoji, and Magnus' reads "I need a favor, if you have the time - your friend Shen Qingqiu."]

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[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad takes the root beer and opens it, pleased as usual by the very satisfying crack and hiss of the tab and escaping carbonation.

"What did you like?" he asks, a little uncertain about interjecting.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu leans back on his hands, giving Galahad a smile so he knows the question is appreciated. "I was just, like, some guy," he says. "I don't know. My hair was short, but--" he pulls a lock of it forward over his shoulder and twines it around his finger. "I don't want to cut it. I don't think? And I liked, um. Anime bullshit. Pokemon. Webnovels. That's all--entertainment type stuff, stories and art and games," he clarifies for Galahad. "I had money, but no idea how to dress myself, and not much reason to try." Then, muttered self-deprecatingly, "didn't even know I liked men."

[summerdude]

Magnus nods seriously, understanding exactly where Shen Qingqiu is coming from with that last remark. Still, he finds the tone a little dismal, so he says, "Man, welcome to the club," and then pauses signing so he can lean over and clap Shen Qingqiu on the shoulder. "Sometimes a guy has to die before he kisses a guy and then questions his sexuality. It's totally normal. We exist."

Then he glances at Galahad, and what Galahad's wearing, and back at Shen Qingqiu. He resumes signing. "Is there a style of clothes you like better? Wait, we could make t-shirts. For the queer-after-death guys club. I think that would be a very striking first date look."

[onthewillowsthere]

Since Galahad does not have this expertise on t-shirts, and is a pre-dead queer guy, he keeps quiet and pays attention.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu laughs. "Okay, we definitely should make t-shirts, but I think my sister would kill me if I wore any kind of t-shirt on my first ever date." He stops, abruptly, and stares down at the root beer in his hands. He hadn't considered, until right now, how any of his family would react to him dating a man. It had seemed so far away. But somehow sitting here with Magnus and Galahad, drinking root beer, he feels more like Shen Yuan than he has in...a long time. His meimei would be cool, probably, but--"If I weren't already dead, I mean," he finishes, a little hollowly.

[summerdude]

"Okay, so that rules out t-shirts," Magnus says. It strikes him that he's kind of lucky that all his family is either also dead (mother, uncle), also a demigod (Annabeth), or a god (Frey). He looks at Galahad, whose fashion sense seems to have changed more than Magnus's in the time that Magnus has been here, and who therefore may have a better idea how to handle issues of disparate wardrobes. "What do you think?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"You told me for my portrait I should wear something that made me feel beautiful." He takes a drink of root beer. "What makes you feel like that?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan shakes himself out of his weird maudlin thoughts. Had he said that to Galahad?? That almost sounds wise. He takes a minute and really thinks about it.

"I don't really know," he says, finally. "There are clothes I think are beautiful, and sometimes I feel beautiful in Shen Qingqiu's robes from Qing Jing--" like when he'd dressed up for Binghe before, in his many layers of green, "--but that feels like I'm dressing up, like being in a play." Or doing cosplay, not that he ever would have cosplayed Shen Qingqiu in a billion years. "I'm not sure I've ever felt beautiful and like myself at the same time."

[summerdude]

"I told Galahad that I feel beautiful when Alex is looking at me," Magnus offers, in case that helps. "When we go on dates I don't really dress up that much. Sorry, dude, but I'm usually like, 'here's some pants that aren't ripped up or an offensive color or stained, and here's a decent t-shirt and a clean hoodie,' and if I'm lucky they don't clash with Alex's color palette and superior fashion sense. But I focus more on the kind of stuff that I know he likes. Cherry soda. Camping. Opportunities to shapeshift. Cutting my hair. Art. Teasing me. And then he'll hold my hand, and I'll feel..."

He trails off, hands falling limp in his lap, too, as he thinks about how Alex makes him feel, and how much he misses her.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad puts down the can and reaches out to touch Magnus' hand, twining their fingers together, and offers his other hand palm-up to Shen Qingqiu.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu takes his hand, smiling at him. He--he does feel beautiful when Binghe looks at him. Anyone would--it's one of the protagonist powers Airplane loved to bring up with any wife who thought she was ugly because she had one perfect mole on her cheek, or the world's tiniest scar on her eyebrow, or was literally just poor. Held in Luo Binghe's gaze, she felt lovelier than a thousand springtimes. Cue the world's biggest eyeroll.

But Magnus said he feels that way when Alex looks at him, and he's pretty sure Alex isn't the protagonist of their book. Both because Magnus clearly is, with the talking sword and everything, and because she's way too LGBTQ. Side-character status for sure. So maybe--maybe it's just kind of a thing, feeling beautiful in the eyes of someone you love. Maybe it doesn't matter what he wears, because Binghe will be looking at him no matter what.

...Yeah fucking right!! Enough moping!! Get up and get cracking!! He squeezes Galahad's hand and stands up. "Right," he says. "Okay. So basically. There are two ways to go, here. One, xianxia robes." He gestures at the stack of silk. "Pros: They're beautiful, and I know how to style them. Cons: I don't really know how to wear them and feel like me." He gestures at the closet. "Two! Modern, like, nice date clothes. Pros: They remind Binghe less of the scum villain, and are, ostensibly, more my deal. Cons: I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, or what looks good on me, or anything, and also he's never seen me dressed like that and what if he hates it?"

[summerdude]

"When you, um," Magnus says. Fucked, his brain helpfully supplies. He's not signing now -- he likes holding Galahad's hand too much to let go in service of continuing the lessons, and he squeezes Galahad's hand as a kind of signal to this effect. "When you and L.. Binghe... more than kissed. Did he tell you how he feels? About you?" This is the part of the equation Magnus is least clear on, but he knows that if Luo Binghe likes Shen Qingqiu, he probably won't hate what he looks like.

[onthewillowsthere]

He squeezes back and waits for Shen Qingqiu.

[peaklordshen]

"Don't let him hear you call him that," Shen Yuan warns. "I think if anyone other than me--" he pauses, surprised. It hadn't occurred to him until right now, but Binghe really didn't mind that Shen Yuan called him that, even though he wasn't his little sunbeam disciple and never had been. "Huh," he says. "Well--don't. It's like, a familiarity thing, to drop the surname." He licks his lips. "Anyway, um, yes. He told me a lot of stuff. Galahad can confirm, I saw him right after. I, um. I didn't really know whether to believe him. But I'm starting to think maybe that's unfair."

[summerdude]

"Cool, thanks for the info, man," Magnus says, because he likes learning how things work. But more to the point: "So I gather he told you good things. About his feelings about you. And maybe we can, you know, assume he's attracted to you, if..." He waggles his eyebrows. "So he's probably gonna think you look good no matter what?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is coming to this conclusion as well (he almost never notices what the people he likes are wearing; the only exception to this is Claudius, and it's because he's spent so many mornings watching Claudius from the bed, and seen the deliberate way he chooses his shirts and ties, and how carefully he fastens his sleeve and sock garters. If Claudius puts so much thought into his wardrobe, it seems only right that Galahad should pay attention to it too), and he nods his agreement with Magnus.

[peaklordshen]

Right; Shen Yuan forgot that Magnus--and presumably also Galahad--doesn't know how courtesy names work. He picks up on that thread because he's already dismissed the other one as nonsense. Even if it's true, he still wants to look good. Maybe that's vain? Whatever.

"Most of the cultivators here have two names," he says. "Like--Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are their courtesy names, which anyone can call them, though it's polite to address them with titles, too, and then they each have personal names, too." Shen Yuan knows them, of course, but he's not about to give Lan Wangji another reason to track him down and ask him invasive questions. "Shen Qingqiu is this body's courtesy name, the guy in here before was called Shen Jiu before he became Peak Lord. That's a personal name, the name you have when you're a kid, but it's also for people you're really close with. There's kind of gradations of familiarity. Titles and honorifics, courtesy name, courtesy name without family name, personal name." He starts sorting through xianxia robes, discarding anything too garish or too Qing Jing peak-y. "Luo Binghe never got a courtesy name, because he never achieved rank on Cang Qiong, and he didn't have parents to give him one, either. So just 'Binghe' is about as familiar as you can get, with him."

He holds up a sky blue robe with a pattern of silver flowers on, making a questioning face at both of them.

[summerdude]

Magnus shakes his head as he processes this new information -- he hates the color blue^*.


*Galahad's eyes, of course, excepted.

[onthewillowsthere]

"What's your personal name?" as he studies the robe. He can't really imagine how it would look if it were actually on Shen Qingqiu -- and he realizes that he already dislikes thinking of his friend as Shen Qingqiu (only the body is Shen Qingqiu, and Galahad doesn't like the idea of conflating them).

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan blinks and puts the blue robe aside into what he is now designating the no pile along with anything white or pale green or bamboo-themed. "Oh--yeah, you guys can--it's Shen Yuan." It's easier to say, here, than it had been to Binghe; easier after admitting it to Lan Wangji and having it thrown back in his face. "Or--well, that's really just my, like, name-name. We don't have courtesy names anymore in modern China anyway."

He kicks some jeans out of the way. "Is a suit too much?" Is a suit less or more than like seven layers of robe? Is it weird that it feels like more?

[summerdude]

"Well, Shen Yuan, that depends. Are you planning to propose?" Magnus asks. He's pretty sure that's what suits are for. Proposals and funerals and fake weddings where your future girlfriend is pretending to be her sister-by-Loki so that said sister doesn't have to betray her vow to her crush/betrothed by being forced to marry a jotunn in one of Loki's myriad escape plots. And then you're in a stupid Elvis suit Sif gave you that does not feel right on you, but your new friend who you totally don't have a crush on and won't date for another year comes out in a wedding dress and you start staring and can't stop and don't know why.

Gods, he misses Alex.

[onthewillowsthere]

Thank you, Galahad signs at Shen Yuan; he doesn't expect him to understand, but it feels good to do it. He also squeezes Magnus' hand again -- he thinks he's maybe starting to know the kind of quiet Magnus is when he's thinking about his people back in his own world.

[peaklordshen]

"Am I--absolutely not," says Shen Yuan, flushing. "I just talked him out of proposing, are you kidding?"

He catches the sign Galahad sends him, but it's not one he remembers, or maybe just different in ASL vs Chinese sign. He gives him a little bow anyway, and tries to remember it to look up later.

Right, okay, no suits. He shuffles through some more clothes. He's already out of his xianxia underclothes, so he might as well try some more modern stuff first. He starts pulling on a pair of nice dress pants in dark grey, hopping a little to pull them up over his hips.

[summerdude]

"Okay," Magnus says, shrugging. Since Galahad squeezed his hand, he scoots a little so he can tilt his head and rest it on Galahad's shoulder. "So no suit. Those pants are nice, though. Are you more comfortable in tighter or looser things? What's your favorite color? What's Luo Binghe's favorite color?"

He cuts himself off after three questions, visions of Galahad signing slow down swimming in his head.

[onthewillowsthere]

He leans back comfortably, relaxing into the casual contact. It always feels good when Magnus does this-- it feels good to sit close with his friend, and feel all the ways their bodies can express friendship with each other.

Magnus has the questions covered as usual, so he keeps his gaze on Shen Yuan's face.