open post: in a slightly hazy lounge

[peaklordshen]

After a few false starts, Shen Qingqiu has found a proper place to test out Crowley's BL pollen vape pen.

He posts up in one of the lounges, close enough to the bar that anyone leaving there might find him. He's still in his braid and loose robes - no one else had noticeably started dressing gayer¹ when they took the stuff, intentional or not, so neither will he. He also brings snacks,² and the next book in the Blood at Dusk series, Moonless Midnight, in case it takes a while to kick in, or a while for anyone to come along to prove it has, anyway. If no one finds him here he will go looking, but roaming the Mansion's halls newly homosexual feels like a much more risky prospect than just staying put and seeing what happens.

He arrays himself on a couch, feet tucked up under him (although this might not be immediately apparent due to the robes), Crowley's pen tucked behind one ear so he can make more notes now that he has a glimmer of a chance that Binghe will forgive him,³ and takes a drag on the vape.

He coughs. It's smoke, not pollen—the blooms must be dried and then burned, like with tobacco—and has an odd, kind of greenish flavor. Not unpleasant, but not pleasant, either. He expected it to taste of, like. Cherry blossom, or something. Pink rather than green. Shit, maybe he is a little homophobic.

He takes another drag, and lets the smoke out of his mouth slowly this time, watching it curl up to the ceiling.

By the time anyone finds him, he will be staring unblinking at the opposite wall, book open on his lap to the third page of the first chapter.

[Threads with Sagramore and Luo Binghe are NSFW.]

¹ Please explain what you mean by this, Shen Qingqiu. I'll wait.
² Crowley did tell him to.
³ After he confirms that the pollen works. And goes to find Binghe. And kisses him. And— well. Maybe. After. He can raise the book club idea again?

Comments

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu makes a face. "That's disgusting." It reminds him a little of the Skinner Demon, but in reverse - stealing the bodies of people and mutating them into you, rather than mutating yourself into them.

He shifts uncomfortably. For some reason it suddenly feels very wrong that he isn't wearing a guan and he doesn't have his fan. "I didn't kill him," he says. "The original scum villain. I—I don't think I did, anyway."¹ He certainly called for his death many times, online, along with his castration, but—that doesn't mean he'd killed him. The system had just—yoinked Shen Jiu out and yeeted Shen Yuan in. It wasn't intentional.

^{1 Nightingale has very much not implied that he has.}

[rememberettersberg]

"Your situation, as I understand it, was quite involuntary." Nightingale puts a hand on his shoulder, a little awkward but attempting comfort. "Whatever happened to the original could not have been your fault." He closes the notebook on Mr. Punch's horrible face and smiles gently. "We've wandered far from our original topic, haven't we? What have video games got to do with whether I have pets or not?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu shakes himself. Right! Yes! His sidequest! "I'm assigning everyone Pokemon teams," he says, like this should have been obvious. "Um—for fun, mostly. I get bored."

[rememberettersberg]

Nightingale has been acquainted with his apprentice for long enough that Pokemon is not a totally unfamiliar concept to him, but his knowledge doesn't extend much past a hazy memory of capering creatures in bright primary colours.

"A harmless enough diversion," he says, amused.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu would probably be embarrassed, if he weren't gay right now, but he is, so he just nods.¹ "You said you identify more with fire than the other elements," he says, "but there's other Pokemon types, too, right, like—flying, and lightning, and ghost, and bug." He cocks his head, interested. "Do any of those appeal to you?"

¹ Shhh... just let him have this one.

[rememberettersberg]

Nightingale gives the question some serious consideration. "Lightning does always leave quite the impression," he says eventually, making a tiny strike crackle through the room with a wave of his wrist.

[peaklordshen]

"Oh, hell yeah," says Shen Qingqiu, sitting up a little. "Lightning it is." He pauses. "Hang on. Earlier. The whole Mr. Punch thing. You called it a case. Does that mean you're, like, some kind of investigator?"

[rememberettersberg]

"I'm a detective inspector," Nightingale replies. "I head up a covert unit within the Metropolitan police that deals with magical crimes."

[peaklordshen]

"Perfect, says Shen Qingqiu, and with great excitement writes down Detective Pikachu under Nightingale's name.