open post: in a carefully staged pavilion

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu is luxuriating in having his cultivation restored. He's also steeling himself for his next conversation with Luo Binghe, trying to engineer everything about it so he doesn't fucking die. The combination means he is being... maybe a little bit extra.

The Mansion's closets have a strange way of giving him the clothing he's used to; apparently both as Shen Qingqiu and—before that. He ignores the array of jeans and Naruto t-shirts and selects a set of fine silk robes in greens of deepening hue, so that the crossed layers at his throat imitate the sequential layers of a bamboo shoot: from forest green passing through spring green and jade to near-white as they reach his skin. He also takes great care with his hair and his guan—he can't look like a slob in front of the Emperor.

There are several beautiful Chinese-style pavilions on the Mansion grounds¹, and he chooses one in the shadow of a blossoming cherry tree. The sun is high, painting dappled shadows across the floor of the pavilion as the blossoms sway in the breeze. He fetches a small writing table and sets it up on one side of the pavilion. Under it he tucks the congee, rescued from the rice cooker, which is...well, it can charitably be said to smell like it might be edible. As long as Binghe doesn't think he's being intentionally poisoned, maybe it'll be okay?

He takes great care with the invitation. He considers writing it with the very expensive pen Crowley had conjured for him, but it feels wrong, not to grind his own ink for it; disrespectful, somehow. Thankfully he keeps an extra brush and ink stone in the qiankun pouch in his sleeve. He crumples up several drafts before he's happy with his calligraphy,² and decorates the edges of the page with bamboo leaves and elegant black lotuses.

If he were really doing this properly, he'd have taken the time to boil some cherry blossom petals, distill their steam into perfume, and then add it to the ink—but he'd felt like he was risking his life just going back into the kitchens for the congee. It's the most likely place for Luo Binghe to be, after all, since there's no throne room or audience hall here, and the whole point of the invitation in the first place is for them to meet on Shen Qingqiu's respectful and very much non-confrontational terms.

He folds the invitation and marks it with Luo Binghe's name and a small talisman that both seeks his former disciple and makes sure he's the only one who can open it. With a wave of his hand he sends it wafting away on the breeze, and then settles back. To wait. He has a small stack of parchment at his elbow, so when Luo Binghe arrives—or if anyone else should happen upon him—he can pretend he had something occupying him rather than just sitting here, paralyzed with anticipation.

¹ As established by Temeraire.
² This is definitely just him being obsessive and a perfectionist. As Peak Lord of the scholar's peak at Cang Qiong, Shen Qingqiu's calligraphy is impeccable. He's won contests.

Comments

[peaklordshen]

"That's very kind of you," says Shen Qingqiu, drily. He means it, but in a kind of and probably useless, so what's the point sort of way. "And—Twilight is a book series from my world. A really terrible book series, full of contrived plots and flimsy romance and bad characterization. There's a vampire, or like a bunch of vampires, but they're all still going to high school for some reason, and then this girl—Anyway." He slips an extra scrap of talisman paper into Blood at Dusk, marking his place. "This is somehow worse. Maybe because they're in college, so you can't even chalk up the bad decision-making to being teens." He shrugs. "But B—Luo Binghe¹ wants to hear what I think, so."

¹ Just calling Binghe 'Binghe' is too intimate, and he's trying to stop doing it whenever he notices himself slipping up. Which is like, one eighth of the time he slips up.

[ravkanwitch]

“That sounds like the Princess and the Barbarian, one of the tales from Ravka,” Nina says. “It’s also a terrible romance series about a Ravkan princess who gets kidnapped by a Fjerdan barbarian. She gets taken to a cave where they eventually fall in love and— …Anyway, Luo Binghe gave you that book to read?”

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu snorts. "Oh, of course, a cave. Why is it always a cave? Like I get the appeal of the whole, like, primitive masculinity thing, someone shoves you down on furs or whatever because they're just so overcome with lust, but come on. Stone floor. Way uncomfortable!! That poor girl's back!!" He coughs, remembering himself. "And. Yes. We—" he hesitates. "Talked. He was... better disposed toward me than I expected.¹ Do I have you to thank for that?"

¹ This is both understatement and kind of just ?????-statement. He still has no idea what to make of Bingge's behavior towards him.

[ravkanwitch]

"If I'm going to be in a story, I want to be wooed on a bed of silk sheets," Nina agrees, then turns solemn again. That's a good question. She muses. "I'm not sure. I definitely convinced him of - or gently pointed him in the direction of, I suppose - something. He... was also wondering about you. What you were like. What paths were open between the two of you. I told him that ...all of them were and that he shouldn't squander that."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu huffs. "I mean--I don't know about all paths," he protests. Why is he still thinking about caves and furs and silk sheets? "I told him more than I expected to. He has a gaze that kind of--pins you, I guess." He shifts, embarrassed. "You've noticed, I'm sure."

[ravkanwitch]

"Oh-- I suppose he can be a little intense sometimes," Nina says, diplomatically. "But he was very kind to me when I was turned into a child. Did that happen to you?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu flutters his fan. "Oh, I--he just has a way of looking at you that makes you feel. Caught, I guess, like a fish on a hook. I don't mean that he wasn't kind." Although. That's probably the very first time anyone has described Bingge as kind, actually. Shen Qingqiu had called him good, in their first conversation, and meant it, but good and kind were different. Luo Binghe could be chivalrous, and merciful, and attentive, and thoughtful in his courtship and affections, but the blackened, full-power Stallion of Proud Immortal Demon Way, kind---

He flashes back to the Bulbasaur, peering up at him with affectionate red eyes, and clears his throat. "Ah. No," he says, automatically, and then remembers who he's talking to. "Well--yes."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina blinks a little at the rapid back and forth. "Caught like a fish on a hook? Like... every time your eyes meet, you feel trapped and pinned but also expectant... like you want to bolt from the room but you're also sitting on the edge of the seat a little wondering what his next move will be, wondering what is he going to do and say?"

"And all this... nervous energy," she continues, lost in thought now, "it seems to come out in an endless stream of nonsense from your mouth..."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu sits back a little, affronted. "It's not nonsense," he objects. "See, you knew what I meant once I explained it well enough." He's relieved she feels the same way, though of course how could she not? That's the Bingge effect(TM). He wonders if there's a polite way to ask how their courtship is going. It seems relatively slow-paced, which is a nice change from every Airplane-authored romance in Binghe's life.

"I'll have you know that back on Cang Qiong Mountain I'm known for my scholarly calm and icy restraint," he continues. "I'm like--I'm like the Lan Wangji of my world, only of course more advanced in core formation."

[ravkanwitch]

"That was not about Luo Binghe and not about you," she tells him a little sternly, but kindly. "I was talking about myself and Matthias. You know, my friend Inej told me that Matthias called me 'too much' once. Too much. Can you believe it? He was the one who made me act like I was too much."

[peaklordshen]

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?" Shen Qingqiu grumbles. "I can't read your mind." But he remembers what they'd talked about, last time. "This—Matthias. He's the one whose life you saved? Twice? How ungrateful." He can't imagine anyone describing Nina as too much. That was the kind of thing men said about women when they couldn't handle them being smarter and cooler than they were. Luo Binghe would never.<sup>1

1</sup> It helps of course that no women were smarter or cooler than Binghe, because no one is smarter and cooler than Binghe. But even if they were, Shen Qingqiu is sure he would never.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina was trying to say something quite pointed - but instead she sighs and lets the moment pass. "Yes, that Matthias. He was ungrateful at times... but I was too. We didn't understand each other half the time. But we loved each other."

"Also," she says with a little smile, in an attempt to distract herself from the small wave of sadness sweeping through her, "Luo Binghe and I are not courting."

[peaklordshen]

"Oh," says Shen Qingqiu, blinking. "I didn't think you'd had time for a wedding." He smiles. "Congratulations," he says, sincerely, opening his fan in front of his mouth. He is sincere - just a little put out, maybe, that he wasn't invited? Maybe it had been before he'd somehow convinced Bingge not to kill him.

[ravkanwitch]

"We're not married!" Nina says indignantly. She's not even sure how he got to that conclusion. "He's more like an older brother to me than anything else. Would it be... typical for him to marry people so quickly?"

[peaklordshen]

Like a brother? How could anyone with any kind of taste in men think of Luo Binghe like a brother? Shen Qingqiu would have sworn up until this moment that even the most dyed-in-the-wool, man-hating lesbians would be swayed by his ample charms.¹ Maybe that's the key, though—Nina doesn't like men. He feels a swell of pity for her. Sure, there were pretty girls here,² but not compared to the vast array of male eye candy. Even if she had been married to Binghe, she could still appreciate all that. "Sure," he says. "It's very—The Princess and the Barbarian, usually, only rather than months or whatever it takes a couple days."

¹ Of course he's doing this while swearing in another thread that he can't be homophobic.
² Would love for you to name them, Shen Qingqiu.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina's not sure what to think about the fact that Luo Binghe has a wife - or most likely plural, wives? - and that he apparently marries them within days. Is that why he called her a 'vision of loveliness' and was a little over the top when they first met, until they got to know each other better? She'll have to ask him whether or not he's forcing them into marriage, if his wives are happy, and what rights they have. In fact, she means to ask Shen Qingqiu more about this but--

"You are being so loud today," she huffs. "It's impossible to even think. I like men. And I like women. I honestly don't think it matters, I've slept with both enough."

[peaklordshen]

"Well, I'm sorry," says Shen Qingqiu, focusing on the former half of that thought because it's less confusing. "There's been a lot going on the last few days and it's not like I can just choose to think quieter—" He stops. That isn't, actually, strictly true.

He closes his eyes and lets himself fall into the circular breathing that this body knows so well, years of the previous Shen Qingqiu's rigorous meditation and concentration making it second nature to him. When he'd first arrived in PIDW, he'd kind of only pretended to meditate, reciting bits of half-remembered movies in his head or meticulously planning out the exact ways he wished he could verbally eviscerate Airplane for whatever stupid bullshit wifeplot had happened to him that day. But after he'd been poisoned, it kind of started to matter, and also Liu-shidi started meditating with him, and as Bai Zhan War God he was obviously powerful enough he could sense if Shen Qingqiu wasn't circulating his qi properly. So he'd started doing it properly, and honestly, it did help. Not to clear his mind—a concept which was, and always would be, bullshit—but at least to watch the thoughts as they went by and not let them pile all over each other in overwhelming torrents. It's the difference between pulled under by a pack of crocodiles and waiting by the edge of the river to see one surface, at a safe-ish distance.

The crocodile thought that surfaces now is that he's scared—scared Lan Wangji will find and exorcise him before he has a chance to tell Binghe what he thinks of this stupid vampire book, scared he'll be yanked back to his own, original world when all this ends, leaving behind his friends in Proud Immortal Demon Way and his newfound friends here, scared of what he'll find when he does—himself, buried and mourned; his family moved on to the point where his re-entry into their life would cause more harm than good. He might prefer the void of exorcism over that.

But he can't say any of that aloud—better the confusing thing Nina said. He hopes he's succeeded in being less loud to her, at least. "Sagramore said something similar," he says. "Though he stressed his discretion, with—with men. Is there no stigma, then, in Ravka? For affairs between women?" It's hard for him to imagine, a world where being gay doesn't come with any association of weakness or shame.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina patiently waits for him to go through his meditation process, hoping it helps. "There's not much stigma, honestly. One of the King's royal guard Tamar is married to someone else from the court - Nadia - and both of them are women. A friend from Ketterdam - that's in a different country, Kerch - Jesper is the same way as I am. He'll flirt with anything that moves. Him and Wylan are finally happily in love after a lot of bickering," she rolls her eyes a little. "Men can be so dramatic."

[peaklordshen]

"I'm pleased for them," says Shen Qingqiu, and he is. He must be hungry, or something, because there's a strange hollow in the pit of his stomach. "That sounds nice."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina eyes him speculatively. “You know,” she says, voice with a hint of regret. “Luo Binghe is a great catch. It’s such a shame he didn’t care for me that way, but… that’s life. I’m just hoping he can also find someone to fall for after some light, tension-laden bickering.”

She’s drawing a bit on her natural acting skills, but at heart, she really just wants to see Luo Binghe happy.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu nods, thoughtfully. He's glad Nina has dropped the brother pretext. It was odd that Binghe wouldn't choose to marry her—if she'd shown up in PIDW, she would definitely have joined Liu Mingyan as his top favorite wives.

"I briefly thought it might be Claudius," he confesses, "but I'm afraid that's escalated beyond light bickering, and of course Binghe was only kissing him as part of his master plan." He considers. "Maybe Janet."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina has been highly doubtful that Luo Binghe's version of the blood curse is the entire, truthful version of the story. Even now, with Shen Qingqiu's short retelling, she remembers Binghe saying that he found Claudius charming and that they had a flirtation - most likely not part of any master plan.

"No, not Janet," she says, shaking her head. "She's already a Queen. It would be too much of a power struggle."

[peaklordshen]

"Only until they sleep together," explains Shen Qingqiu. "Sha Hualing was set to be Queen of the Southern Desert after she assassinated her father, but after—" he skips over the hundred of pages of lurid details, out of respect, "her wedding night with Binghe she surrendered her crown to him." In favor of constant schemes to supplant Liu Mingyan as his Empress instead, of course.

[ravkanwitch]

Hm. That doesn't seem fair, but Nina brushes the thought aside. "I just don't see it," she says. "I don't think there'd be any chemistry there."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu shakes his head. "No offense," he says, "but I think you're letting your experience with Binghe confuse things. There's always chemistry. Besides, if not her, then who? Tress? She doesn't seem like much of a bickerer."