lightbearinglord: (quietly happy)
Lan Wangji (蓝忘机) ([personal profile] lightbearinglord) wrote2024-01-02 11:18 am

[ closed post: delivery for Hanguang-jun ]

The morning after the dance1 sees Lan Wangji in one of the better moods that has visited him in quite some time. Wei Ying was happy last night: truly happy, the kind of happiness that chases all the ghosts out of his head. It is so much better to see than the false smile that graced his face for several days following their confrontation with Jiang Wanyin.

Lan Wangji, content and light of heart for once, has found a small parlor not far off the entryway of the mansion, and he is sitting cross-legged on a floor cushion, hair down, with his qin laid out on a low table before him as he strums a few thoughtful chords. It has been some time since Lan Wangji composed something, but there was so much unfamiliar music the night prior. It has made him want to begin again.

Now, surely nothing could possibly improve his mood even more at a time like this. And surely everyone in the mansion had an equally romantic and enjoyable evening.

1Time is a flat circle. No further questions.
wickedwit: (smiling villain)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-01-02 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
"Ah, he's here." Claudius's voice comes from the doorway in a gentler hush than usual, and for good reason. With cradling, careful arms, he carries a pair of rabbits -- one white, one brown, the both of them admirably calm, but likely to be disturbed if Claudius starts talking in brisk exclamations. He isn't, however, talking to them, but to someone down the hall. "That's the sound of his spiritual instrument -- that means we're in luck, Crowley. You still have to hear him play -- hello, Lan Wangji." He turns to properly face his other friend and smiles.
aflashbastard: (Default)

[personal profile] aflashbastard 2024-01-02 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Crowley's grumpy post-dance mood has been boosted slightly by the rabbits -- but whose wouldn't be? He's always secretly had a greater affinity for all creatures great and small than Aziraphale1, even though he does bully the occasional duck. On the long walk over, he's been in the role of the rabbit secret service, opening doors and carefully holding them open so that the rabbits aren't jostled.

"Hey," he says, nodding at Lan Wangji. He was most likely bullied into this, a fair trade for the drink he had promised Claudius for leaving the dance so early and abruptly.

1Except horses.
wickedwit: (smiling villain)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-01-02 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
"Lan Wangji, I made a promise to thee," Claudius says with solemnity, belied slightly by the soft twitch of a smile. "Thou may'st not remember it, but to me it was strong. If there were ever rabbits in the mansion, thou wouldst be the first man I'd tell. They only needed rest last night during the dance1, and soon as they roused this morning, I bade Crowley help me bring them to thee."

1 You may be asking yourself: Aziraphale conjured the rabbits immediately after the last mansion event, so is this a joke, a lie, or is time a flat circle? Time's a flat circle, of course. Claudius would never lie.
aflashbastard: (Default)

[personal profile] aflashbastard 2024-01-03 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
"Seems like a fair trade. Two rabbits for spicy stir-fried pork," Crowley adds, dryly. He's at least going to give Aziraphale the credit for the rabbits themselves.
wickedwit: (smiling villain)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-01-03 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
"I would like nothing better. And I've no doubt they'll also politely acquiesce." They are, after all, Claudius's children who he's raised with positive reinforcement ever since Aziraphale conjured them into existence.
aflashbastard: (Default)

[personal profile] aflashbastard 2024-01-03 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
Now that the attention is on the rabbits, Crowley leans (well, slouches) against one of the walls and watches Claudius carefully hand them over.
wickedwit: (sanguine humor)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-01-03 02:08 pm (UTC)(link)
"I thought thou shouldst have that honor," Claudius says, with more of that play-solemnity -- but his smile has widened enough now to demonstrate his full delight. "I' faith, I wished to hear what names thou wouldst give them."
wickedwit: (smiling villain)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-01-03 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Claudius has already perceived what he believes to be marks of an exploratory, curious personality in the brown rabbit, so he's not surprised to see it testing its environs and chewing on tempting pieces of hair. He's so proud it's respecting boundaries gently set! Parenting truly is so rewarding.

"Fine, commemorative names," Claudius laughs. "Though I can well imagine Wei Wuxian teasing thee for thy originality. Such sweet creatures should be spoken to with fond names ... and I hear thy fondness, for little Wei Ying and little Lan Zhan, first gifts of thy youthful misadventures. Dost see, Crowley, how fondly a misadventure can be remembered, how romantic remembrance makes it?" He did resolve not to over-meddle, to let Crowley make his own mistakes, but this isn't meddling. It's just heartening conversation1.

1 He also never said he would stop meddling.
aflashbastard: (Default)

[personal profile] aflashbastard 2024-01-03 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hm?" Crowley asks, snapping his head up from where he's been lurking1. "Sure, yeah, the rabbits are cute."

1One of the few standard demonic activities he excels at.
wickedwit: (mm really?)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-01-03 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Claudius sighs, rather grateful for Lan Wangji's insight -- both rabbits are relatively calm, but the white rabbit does need the most soothing. Also: Crowley.

"Aziraphale may also come to reflect on the past with romantic fondness. Nothing's as hopeless as Crowley believes. And Crowley, I will note, Aziraphale would never have conjured a single rabbit for me if you weren't present. He certainly wouldn't have conjured two."
aflashbastard: (Default)

[personal profile] aflashbastard 2024-01-03 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Crowley sighs. "It's because we're used to doing favors for each other. He performs a temptation, I perform a minor miracle. I provide the wine, he tells a silly but ultimately entertaining story-- and he likes it when I listen to what he tells me to do," he adds, a little sullenly. "When he looked at me, his expression said Crowley, whatever you do, do not make me summon a nigh-unimaginable amount of rabbits. I had to go along with it."

Crowley is not helping his point or any point. We're not even sure why he's telling Claudius all of this.1

1And that's not even in the footnotes.
aflashbastard: (Default)

[personal profile] aflashbastard 2024-01-03 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Claudius is also pinning him with a Look, so there's no escaping the statement. Crowley desperately wishes he had an emotional support rabbit of his own right now.

He nods, a nod that's simultaneously both solemn and awkward. "For a long time," he confirms quietly. "There's just been so much-- stuff in the way of it that I didn't realize until now."
wickedwit: (mm really?)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-01-04 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
"I presume thou mean'st the man," teases Claudius, "not the rabbit he gave thee." He smiles, and it's full of its own fondness -- Lan Wangji's romantic stories1 always move him. "No doubt he told himself, like a demon tempting an angel, that he was only encouraging thee to break the rules of thy sect ... but looking back and reminiscing, he'd given thee a sweet and loving gift. You were like that, Crowley. You told me about the kindnesses you'd done for Aziraphale, with such casual disavowals -- the same way you talk about exchanging favors, as if favors can't also be romantic gestures2."

1 Even if those are stories are one sentence.
2 It's kind of like when you have a crush on a guy, and then you meet him as a kid, and he's so cute you want to make him a plate of crispels. And then things are weird for a while, but you clear the air while under the influence of a truth spell, and later at the wedding dance you arranged for him and his husband, his husband points out you're in love. And then you think back and realize the plate of crispels was a romantic gesture. This is just a random example.
aflashbastard: (Default)

[personal profile] aflashbastard 2024-01-04 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
"Sure, maybe on my part, and maybe I see that now, but--" Crowley gestures, a mildly helpless one. For some reason, it suddenly all feels so overwhelming. "Remember when I took that nap for a week? I think I need to do that now. Except I just need to just sit and think for a week."
wickedwit: (mm really?)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-01-04 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
"I have heard good things about meditation," Claudius says, in light-heartedly helpful tones that belie the equally concerned look he gives Lan Wangji. "But you know, the inclination to sit for weeks on end and think can also be a sign of melancholia. Is this a purposeful, meditative sort of thinking, or is it more like brooding?" Was Crowley just 'taking a nap because he was bored' during most of the 19th century, or did something make him melancholy? These are questions Claudius worries about.
aflashbastard: (Default)

[personal profile] aflashbastard 2024-01-04 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
Crowley completely and absolutely misses these looks of concern. "No no, it's just... there's thousands of years of history. It's all jostled in my head along with endless memories of--" He gestures vaguely towards the ceiling, the sky. "It takes a while to sift through all of it. A week for me is like... like if a human sat and thought and, er, I don't know, blogged or whatever they do for half an hour."

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