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

[sagramore]

Sagramore actually has been thinking of Shen Qingqiu -- he remembers the way the young man was so talkative and sharp-eyed, observing everything, until the moment he was overcome with poison and had to be helped to bed. Also, there was an offer of flying on a sword, which he's not entirely sure wasn't an elaborate joke at his expense, but if it wasn't, is very intriguing.

So when he sees Shen Qingqiu in the pavilion, he immediately stops, leaning against one of the wooden support pillars. "Shen Qingqiu!" He sounds absolutely delighted to see him. "How are you?"

[protagonisthalo]

The letter finds Luo Binghe in the library, once again perusing the novels. He has a fondness for them—like any child who grew up wishing he were elsewhere, he supposes—and those in the mansion, being from other worlds, contain unimaginable marvels. He has just selected one to read when he senses spiritual qi at his elbow, a moment before the letter sticks itself to his arm. He peels it off and flicks it open.

Is this... an invitation from Shen Qingqiu? For Luo Binghe, who has spent over ten years making a study of this man, his new unpredictability is alarming. As though he woke to find the ground a step lower than where he left it.

And the formality of the note—as if directed at one of his fellow Peak Lords, not the disciple he cast out. Luo Binghe doesn't understand the significance that Shen Qingqiu intends by the lotuses, but the time and care put into them guts him. How is he meant to react to this? Who could tolerate being treated so reverently? It makes him almost sick, how quickly he's gone from hating this man to craving his notice. Does Shen Qingqiu mean to make a fool of him for his weakness?

He did tell the man to make things up to him. Luo Binghe will give him the chance. He makes his way to the pavilion, Nina's words about different paths echoing in his head.

Luo Binghe sees Shen Qingqiu from afar as he approaches, just as he did when Shen Qingqiu first arrived. Back then, he felt nothing but fear and revulsion, but this picture, Shen Qingqiu in such fine robes, thoughtfully studying under the cherry blossoms... He could be any beauty waiting for Luo Binghe in a garden. Luo Binghe cannot calm his heart. Unsettled, he stands at the edge of the pavilion and clears his throat.

"You requested my presence." Already he's said the wrong thing—it makes it sound as though he's at Shen Qingqiu's disposal. "Well? I hope you've come up with some way to impress me."

[wickedwit]

Claudius is in a sanguine humor once more, pun absolutely unintended. He has his health, his friends, an eager and open-minded lover, and no nagging sense of responsibility for the fate of the mansion. He's not one to trust in divine providence, even if he can never shake the habit of looking for signs, but it's easy to believe matters will work themselves out -- with or without God's hand in them. When he comes across Shen Qingqiu in the garden, his eyes light with playful interest, like a cat who's just spotted the flickering tail of a ribbon it could turn into its prey.

"Peak Lord Shen," he says, with deliberate emphasis. "You're looking well. I believe you have a story to tell me."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina marvels at the beauty of the pavilion and the cherry blossom tree before noticing Shen Qingqiu there. She’s more curious than ever about him after her conversation with Luo Binghe.

At the moment, she’s too far away to sense anything he might be thinking but before she approaches, she steels her resolve to not use her abilities, to stay present in the beautiful sun-lit world and not reach into that dark stream of consciousness. She’s not certain if it will work - but it’s a courtesy she can attempt to offer.

“Hello again,” is all she says, giving him a friendly smile.