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

[involuntaryturncoat]

"By which I assume you mean compose and play the background music for it?" He mulls it over for a moment. "I could, certainly."

[peaklordshen]

"Oh," says Shen Qingqiu. "Um. Maybe I'll like. Draw some concepts and stuff, and I could show you?" Like a pitch meeting. "You definitely don't have to, if it's not, like, interesting to you, or whatever. I just thought it might be cool to have a project."

[involuntaryturncoat]

He smiles, faintly amused. "We have nothing but time here. Feel free. As you say, a project would be interesting, and I am always happy to explore new avenues of music."

[peaklordshen]

Oh, nice! Shen Qingqiu was sure he was being nicely rejected, for a second there. He immediately starts rummaging around in his sleeve for his notebook. "Cool," he says. "Cool, great, do you have, like, favorite genres of story? Or like, moods of music, we can start either way."

[involuntaryturncoat]

"Oh, I can work in many different genres, and am perfectly content to explore ones that are new to me if they would suit. What would work best with your style of drawing?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu considers this. Most of what he's drawn in the last few years has been landscapes—the beautiful, stirring, birds-and-mountains paintings that are expected of a Peak Lord of the Arts Peak. He's done an occasional bit of fanart for Airplane - anime stuff, and once an imagined portrait of aged-up Binghe because Airplane wouldn't stop bothering him about it¹ that he cringes to think about now - his hair had not been Nearly lustrous enough, and he'd gotten the jawline all wrong. He has a pending portrait date with Galahad, but he probably shouldn't turn that into a pitch meeting—although it would be cute; a tiny chibi Galahad on a tiny chibi horse, questing for—um, whatever he'd been questing for, before he came here and started questing for kisses from murderous kings.

Certainly cartoonier style seems easier to animate in, but thinking that immediately kind of seems insulting to people with cartoonier styles. "I'm not actually sure," he says. "I have a couple styles that could work. Is there visual art you particularly like?"

¹ Airplane had said, exactly once, "It's a shame you never did any Bingge fanart, bro," and Shen Qingqiu had instantly started working. It took many hours.

[involuntaryturncoat]

He looks thoughtful. "I'm afraid I never paid much mind to visual art unless the artist was particularly lauded¹. This is your pet project, though, and as happy as I am to collaborate, I feel you should steer the ship."

¹ Unfortunately for those artists, we'll just say.

[peaklordshen]

"Okay!" Jasin isn't giving him much to work with, but that's alright. Shen Qingqiu will just—come up with something, and show him, and if it sucks they'll never have to speak of it ever again, or of anything else, because humiliating himself in front of a handsome and talented musician feels, right now, while he's gay, like it would be a death sentence. He'll just—go live in the woods and hopefully by then Binghe will like him enough to sometimes bring him snacks. "Thank you for humoring me. I'll come find you when I have some, like, character designs and stuff."

[involuntaryturncoat]

He smiles faintly and nods. "It's hardly humoring. It's a chance to use my talents, which I will hardly begrudge. Come to me with your designs, and, perhaps, and idea of what will actually be happening in the animation."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu flushes. "Right, yes, I'll do a whole—yeah." He waves a hand. "You'll be able to visualize it. I hope."

[involuntaryturncoat]

"I have every faith," he says, admittedly somewhat amused at this point.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu nods at him. "Thanks," he says, again. He finds his notebook and flips it open at random. He hadn't expected to be spending his gay hours drawing, but he's feeling a little self-conscious, now, like he has to do a good job. Maybe if he gets really absorbed Jasin will leave and he can go back to thinking about Binghe.

[involuntaryturncoat]

"I'll leave you to it, then." He stands. "I look forward to seeing what you come up with."

[peaklordshen]

"Yeah, um, you too," says Shen Qingqiu, and then draws some random lines in his notebook until Jasin is gone.