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

[untamedantinous]

"That is what some call it, yes." He waves a hand at the shrimp chips, once again refusing. "It is ...certainly very different from here."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu snorts. Pretty, but not exactly a philosopher. He shrugs at the shrimp chip refusal, taking another handful himself. "Yeah," he says. "It's a city. This is a house."

[untamedantinous]

"A very queer house, yes." He clears his throat. "I mean to say, it was a very different time there as well, we did not have a good number of things that I have seen here, so far. It is taking some getting used to." There's another pause.

"What are you reading?"

[peaklordshen]

A very queer house. Shen Qingqiu snorts, then starts to giggle, dropping his face into one of his palms. "Queerer, tonight," he says, and then starts laughing again, listing slightly against Enjolras' side. He's allowed to say that. He's gay, right now.

He sighs happily, coming out of the laughter. If Enjolras wants his question answered, he'll have to ask it again--it was lost in Shen Qingqiu's joke with himself.

[untamedantinous]

Enjolras just gives him a long, cautious look and carefully edges back from Shen Qingqiu. He's not the most affectionate person at the best of times, hardly with someone he has just met. His posture is ramrod straight, if someone knew him well enough¹ they would see how uncomfortable he is.

"I said," he repeats, slightly clipped now, "What are you reading?"

¹Grantaire, we're looking at you.

[peaklordshen]

If Shen Qingqiu were straight¹ right now, he might have caught on to Enjolras' discomfort and backed off, given him the space. Unfortunately, he's very gay² right now, so he just smiles up at him from his laighing slump--not moving closer, but definitely not moving away, either. He wrinkles his nose. "Very bad fiction," he says. "About, um." He squints. "Do they know about vampires? In your Paris?"

That one book about lady vampires is from France, right?? He should know this. Now that he's gay.

¹Sober.
² High.

[untamedantinous]

"Vampires," he replies flatly. "Stories to scare children or the foolish? Yes, I have heard of them." He can't quite figure why one would want to read about them, but perhaps this man is a Romantic like Prouvaire. He certainly seems to be acting fool enough to be one.

"I do not think your book would be to my taste, it sounds like."

[peaklordshen]

"Oh, I should hope not, it's very bad," says Shen Qingqiu, cheerfully.

[untamedantinous]

"Then why do you read it?" The concept of hate-reading is not one Enjolras is familiar with, alas. Mocking, sure, but he's more accustomed to doing that with proclamations and charters, dissecting phrases and other such things.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu grins at him. "Spirited debate," he says. "I'm in a book club. Or. I'm not in it right now, because Binghe doesn't want to see me, but I'm fixing that, and then I'll be in a book club again."

[untamedantinous]

"Ah," he says with a nod, as if that makes all the difference. "My friends and I had something....somewhat similar, at home. We discussed many things other than books, as well."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu nods. "Book clubs can be a great excuse to hang out with people you want to talk to about everything, because they give you a place to start."

[untamedantinous]

"I suppose," he replies, and perhaps it's the thought of his friends, but a little of that discomfort melts away. "Though I -- do not think we will need discussions along the lines of my, er, 'book club' here."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu raises his eyebrows. "Why not?"

[untamedantinous]

“Mine was less ‘books’ and more, er, planning revolutions, among other things.”

[peaklordshen]

"Revolutions," repeats Shen Qingqiu. "Well—yeah. Right now this place doesn't technically have a ruler, there's kind of a power struggle going on.¹ But once Binghe takes over I wouldn't recommend revolution, that's a good way to get really quickly dead." He looks at Enjolras, wistfully. Way too pretty to be cannon-fodder.

¹ No there isn't.

[untamedantinous]

“I would venture to say it doesn’t need one, it seems to running perfectly well as it is.” There’s a slight shrug.

“I am already dead, I do not think I can die again.”

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu could explain that Binghe doesn't need to rule the Mansion because the Mansion needs it, he needs to rule it because Binghe needs it, but he gets distracted by the last point.

He'd already touched Enjolras before, he was pretty sure, but he does it again just to be sure—places a hand on his arm and pushes, gently, in case his hand passes through. Nope—solid.

"You still have a body," he says. "If you still have a body, you can definitely die again. I've died, too, and then after I died I got poisoned, and eventually the poison will probably kill me again." He says all of this with a kind of thoughtful detachment.

[untamedantinous]

Well, at least it's not leaning on him. That, he will accept, if only because it was brief. "How did you manage to go about doing that?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu blinks. "Which part?"

[untamedantinous]

"The getting poisoned after you died part. It -- doesn't follow." Unless, of course, Shen Qingqiu had come back to life upon arriving here, as he and Grantaire had.

[peaklordshen]

"Oh, right, yes. Well." He gestures at himself. "New body."

[untamedantinous]

"...Did you receive a new body upon arriving here? Because I certainly did not."

[peaklordshen]

"Oh, sorry, no," says Shen Qingqiu. "I'm being unclear. I died five years ago, got a new body, and then showed up here a few weeks ago. In the second body. Which is poisoned." He smiles at Enjolras, a little hazily.

[untamedantinous]

"...Ah. Your world must, er, be quite interesting." Or else he's mad. He's kind of veering back to his original thoughts on Shen Qingqiu, here.