#also AGAIN using the lotus pond paper makes it seem like i have no other paper when in fact i hoard and buy paper like its a life raft

[imaginaryelle]

Prompt: a day in new sect leader jiang trying to raise jin ling

Thanks for the prompt! This one came in at around 1.5k and can also be read on AO3.

Jin Ling is four the first time he stays overnight at Lotus Pier without a revenue of Jin nurses and servants waiting on his every need. Those people are busy, Jiang Cheng understands, preparing for the new Jin heir, who should be gracing the world with his presence any day now. Jin Guangshan is very proud, he’s sure. Given the stories he’s been hearing lately and the relieved expression on the face of the Jin cultivator who handed the boy off, Jiang Cheng can foresee many, many extended visits to Lotus Pier in Jin Ling’s future.

It shouldn’t make him angry. Hasn’t he spent years visiting Jinlingtai and glaring at their tiny excuse for a lotus pond, itching to show his nephew what his mother’s home really looked like? Hadn’t he hated requesting permission of Jin Guangshan just to hold the child in the first year of his life? But it rankles, that they don’t want him. That the Jin clan hasn’t closed ranks around him in the wake of his parents’ deaths, and that this precious boy of Jiang Cheng’s blood can be so easily replaced by an infant who has yet to take its first breath.

The Jiang Sect is not the Jin Sect. Jiang Cheng doesn’t have enough people to assign Jin Ling a nurse or a servant even if he wanted to, which he doesn’t because Jin Ling is his nephew and the Jiang Clan has never done such things with their own flesh and blood. And it’s not as if the boy is utterly helpless. He can feed himself without spills and dress himself without trouble, and he wears shoes more readily than Wei Wuxian ever—Jiang Cheng pushes the thought aside.

The only thing Jin Ling can’t quite manage for himself in the morning is putting up his hair, but he sits without much fidgeting as Jiang Cheng combs through the tangles and draws up a small topknot; just enough to keep it out of Jin Ling’s face. He is so still, in fact, and so diligent and quiet while working through his morning training alongside the Jiang’s Sect’s older children that Jiang Cheng starts to worry. It’s been a long time since he spent so much time with a child so young, but he doesn’t remember being quite so biddable himself at that age. He’d been expecting tantrums. He’s seen Jin Ling’s tantrums, usually an explosion of tears and wailing shortly before the boy was whisked out of view by someone in a yellow Jin hanfu.

Instead, Jin Ling is clingy—he clings to Jiang Cheng’s clothes and watches him with wide, dark eyes. He follows Jiang Cheng around the grounds, sometimes jogging in his wake with his hanfu clenched in tiny fists. He doesn’t talk, and he doesn’t smile, and he shakes his head and hides behind Jiang Cheng’s leg when one of young disciples asks if he wants to play a game. His face below that bright red dot is a study in careful determination even when he’s drawing on scrap paper while Jiang Cheng answers his correspondence out on the pier. Even as the sun bears down on them in the late afternoon until Jiang Cheng himself is looking longingly at the water.

There’s nothing urgent happening until dinner. A few hours. Plenty of time to dry out. He stands. Jin Ling immediately puts down his brush.

“A-Ling,” Jiang Cheng says, “let’s go swimming.”

This is not met with nearly as much excitement as he hoped. Jin Ling looks around, as if he’s only just realizing they’re surrounded by water. Jiang Cheng starts taking off his own outer layers—no reason to get everything wet—and tries to look encouraging. He can see the sweat on Jin Ling’s face, it’s not as if the kid isn’t over-warm.

“Traditional Jiang Clan way to cool off in summer,” he says. “It’s easier with fewer layers.”

Jin Ling is just staring at the water with his hands clenched around his belt.

“Do you want me to throw you into the lake with all your clothes on?” Jiang Cheng asks, thinking of his father’s laughing threats on especially hot days. Instead of laughing, Jin Ling’s face immediately screws up into tears. He wails, high and miserable.

Jiang Cheng freezes, just for a moment, and then he kneels and tries to gather his sobbing nephew into his arms as if it can help. As if that’ll make the tears stop, instead of just meaning that Jin Ling buries his face in Jiang Cheng’s chest and rubs tears and snot right into the crossed collar of his innermost yi.

He pats his nephew’s shoulder. He’s not good at this. He knows he’s not good at it. This was his sister’s thing. Even—well, not his, anyway. Never his. But he can’t stand doing nothing while the kid cries, so here he is, feeling like a fish that’s flopped up onto the dock and flailing accordingly. Eventually he can just barely make out the words I can’t swim among all the other noise.

He frowns. “Of course you can swim. I taught you to swim on your first birthday.”

Jin Ling continues to cry, but quieter. He actually opens his eyes. He hiccups. “You did?”

“I had a fight with your grandfather about it. And Jin Guangyao.” The concept of a pond that is entirely decorative still rankles something deep in his soul.

“I don’t remember,” Jin Ling says, looking like he’s going to start sobbing again.

“You will,” Jiang Cheng assures him, wiping away his tears. “All Jiangs know how to swim.”

“But I’m not a Jiang.” Jin Ling’s lip trembles.

“You have a Jiang Clan spirit bell, don’t you?” Jiang Cheng tugs the bell and tassel loose from Jin Ling’s belt at holds it up for inspection. “That makes you a Jiang. And even if it didn’t, you’d be a Jiang because I say you are.” One of those statements seems to work. Or at least, Jin Ling no longer looks like he intends to continue crying. Instead, he runs his hands through the green silk threads of the tassel and looks out at the water.

“Jiujiu,” he says after a moment, “what if there are alligators?”

“They can’t get past the wards,” Jiang Cheng tells him. It’s a large part of the reason they have wards sunk into the waterways instead of only on docks and buildings.

“But what if they did?” Jin Ling asks, logic and cultivation apparently not enough to satisfy him.

“Then I’ll use Zidian on them.” Jiang Cheng raises his hand so Jin Ling can see the metal snake wrapped around his hand and wrist. “They won’t even get close.”

Jin Ling pokes a small finger at it and traces along the tiny etched scales. His lips press together into something might—just—be called a smile. He nods. “Okay,” he says.

“Okay?” Jiang Cheng confirms. “We can go swimming now?”

“Mn,” Jin Ling agrees with another eager nod.

“Good,” Jiang Cheng says. And then he throws Jin Ling into the water, fully clothed, and jumps in after him.

“Jiujiu!” Jin Ling comes up sputtering and yelling. He waves his arms and nearly kicks Jiang Cheng in the sternum. “Jiujiu! I don’t—”

“You’re fine.” Jiang Cheng slides his hands up under Jin Lings armpits, giving him just enough support that he’ll stop struggling. “You’re floating fine,” he says, which is only a little bit of a lie. It takes a touch of spiritual power to really float in water-soaked layers of silk and linen and cotton, but he can feel that little glow of intent moving under Jin Ling’s skin. His body remembers, even if his brain doesn’t. “See?” he says when Jin Ling has calmed. “What did I tell you?”

Jin Ling leans back in the water. He kicks his feet out and slaps his hands against the surface and watches the ripples fan out and he smiles, and he looks so much like his mother then that Jiang Cheng can hardly breathe for a moment.

“Throw me again,” Jin Ling says.

Jiang Cheng raises a skeptical eyebrow at him. “I think only boys who can float on their own get to be thrown,” he says.

“I can, I can!” Jin Ling squirms away from him and immediately dips lower in the water, but he keeps moving. He keeps his head up. “Again.” He tugs at Jiang Cheng’s sleeve, laughing even as he sputters water. “Again, again!” he demands.

“Just remember you asked for this,” Jiang Cheng says, and heaves him, still laughing, into the air.

[lesbian-janai]

when rayla comes home, tinker is very cheery. too cheery, in fact. every time rayla sees him, he gives her a smile, but rayla can tell it's forced. she asks him how he’s doing and he always responds with "i'm fine!" in a fake cheery voice of someone who is trying to hide the fact that they're definitely not fine. rayla also took note of his behavior: he's quieter than usual, and he stays in his room more often than he used to. rayla also finds it odd that he hasn't asked about runaan. she didn't think much of it at first, she told tinker about how she left the castle much earlier than runaan did, so she assumed he thought he would come home after she did. but it's strange just how little he talks about him, in fact, he hasn't mentioned his name since rayla got home.

a few days after her return, rayla walked into tinker's work area expecting to see him tinkering away at something, but instead she found him sitting at his work bench with his head resting in one hand and twirling a pencil in the other. he must have heard her footsteps because he turned around with that fake smile that rayla was starting to get annoyed of. "how's it going?" she asked, and rayla tried not to get irritated when he responded with "i'm fine!" in that fake cheery voice. "are you sure? you don't seem fine" she said, and she sat down next to him. he turned away from her and rested his head against his hand again. rayla noticed the way his shoulders slumped. "yeah i'm fine, i'm just a bit tired, is all. it's been a long day" he said, and rayla knows he's just trying to make an excuse. she saw the paper in front of him and noticed that he's been sketching a bunch of random lines on the paper, no weapon or jewelry designs like she would expect.

they sat together in awkward silence, rayla looked around the room and tinker sketched more lines onto the paper. rayla sighed and finally came up with something to talk about. "do you think runaan will come home tonight?" she asked, and she took note of the way tinker stiffened next to her. it took him a little too long to respond. "i'm sure he'll be back soon," he said, and then he was quiet again. after a few awkward moments rayla continued. "I just find it kind of odd how he hasn't come back yet. he's so fast, you'd think he would’ve caught up with us." she noticed tinker tapping his pencil nervously, and it took him a while to respond again. "maybe he got lost. or got stuck waiting at the moonstone path. or maybe one of the assassins got injured and it's slowing them down." rayla tried not to cringe at the last part, if one if them got injured she knew it would be her fault. "you really think runaan would get lost?" tinker didn't respond, he just shrugged, and he still refused to look at her.

rayla narrowed her eyes at him. "is there something you're not telling me?" she demanded. tinker stiffened again, and after a few moments he finally turned to face rayla, with that stupid fake smile again. "of course not! i'm just... tired, okay?" "tinker, I've lived with you for almost fifteen years, I know when you're upset, and you're upset right now and you're not telling me why!" the smile faded from tinker's face and he turned away from her again, returning to his earlier position. "so now you're not going to talk to me?" tinker didn't respond, and after a few moments he stood up. "it's getting a little late and I still haven't made dinner yet. I should probably go do that." he tried to walk away from the workbench but rayla stood up and grabbed his wrist. tinker stopped despite that fact that he could very easily get out of her grip. "don't change the subject, tinker!" she said "something's wrong, and I want to know what!" tinker turned away from her again. "i'm just hungry, okay?" he said, and he shook his wrist out of rayla's grasp and tried to walk out of the room, but rayla is much faster than him and she blocked the doorway. "are you upset that I brought a human to xadia?" she asked, and tinker looked surprised. "what? no! I understand why you brought him here, rayla." "then are you upset that I ruined the mission?" "of course not!" "did something happen at the forge? did someone say something to you?" "no!" "are you worried about the other assassins? are you worried about runaan? do you miss him?" no immediate answer this time. instead, tinker stuttered, looking for an excuse, and then he closed his mouth and bowed his head.

rayla sighed. "if that's what it is you should've just told me. I miss him too, tinker." tinker didn't respond again, but then his chest started heaving and tears started falling down his face. "I miss him, rayla" he said, and the way his voice shook broke rayla's heart. "no, don't cry!" she stepped forward to give him a hug, "he'll be back before you know it!" she rubbed his back in a comforting gesture, "he's going to come home and yell at us for bringing a human into his house and then you'll convince him to let callum stay and then everything will be alright, you'll see." tinker wrapped his arms around rayla and wiped his tears away. she expected him to say something like "you're right," or "he's going to be so mad at us," but instead he said, "that's not going to happen, rayla." rayla scoffed and pulled away to look at him. "I know runaan's stubborn and all, but if anyone can convince him to let callum stay it's you." rayla wanted tinker to smile, but instead he sighed and placed his hands on rayla's shoulders. "that's not what I mean," he said, and he tried to look at her, but he ended up looking at the floor instead. "something happened, rayla..." he said, and rayla's heart started beating faster. oh no, those aren't good words. "what do you mean?" she asked, silently pleading, "please don't be something bad." tinker took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "you know those enchanted lotuses?" he asked. "yeah..." rayla said. she knew about the lotuses enchanted to track an elf's life. if the elf was alive and well, the lotus floated peacefully on the water, but if the elf died... the lotus sank. rayla didn't like where this was going. tinker continued, still averting his gaze. "runaan-" his voiced cracked and he cleared his throat again, "runaan's lotus... it..." he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

rayla felt a panic swell within her. runaan. enchanted lotus. tinker misses him. "what... what are saying, tinker?" tinker finally looked at her, and there was no denying the truth in his eyes. rayla pushed tinker's hands from her shoulders and took a step back. "NO" she yelled "IT CAN'T BE TRUE!" she couldn't hold back her panic anymore. "rayla, please-" tinker tried, but rayla turned around and ran out of the room, out of the house, and all the way to the lotus pond. she scanned the pond, wiping her eyes so her tears didn't blur her vision. "come on, come on, where is it?" she whispered to herself, trying desperately to find runaan's lotus, but it was nowhere to be found. she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. she didn't want to look in the water, but she had to be sure. she opened her eyes and looked past the surface of the water, and down at the bottom was a sunken lotus. runaan's lotus. a strangled sob left her throat, and she collapsed against the wall of the pond and wept. runaan is dead. he's dead.

and it's all her fault.

[asterinjapan]

Grey skies

Good evening again!

We’re nearing the end of our stay in Okayama, but not before another side trip. Today, we went to Hiroshima, which is about 45 minutes away by shinkansen from Okayama. We, ehm, accidentally had quite the timing there in retrospect, hm.

Anyway, off we go!

The weather forecast predicted grey skies and rain, but we took the gamble anyway and made it to the station to catch our reserved train (the Sakura shinkansen this time, or cherry blossom). We were a little early, so we could spot the Hello Kitty shinkansen on the opposite track, and then we also found something else – Hello Kitty shinkansen chopsticks! How incredibly specific is that, haha. Naturally those went back with us, come on. Exclusive souvenirs for sure.

The train ride took us right past Fukuyama Castle down to Hiroshima. Once there, we hopped over to the tourist information center for some maps and to ask around, because we knew Hiroshima has an extensive tram system, but also sightseeing buses owned by JR. Which we can use our JR passes for, so obviously we first went to ask where those buses departed from.

We didn’t have to wait long for the bus and even secured seats (good luck with that in say, Kyoto), and we got off at the nearest bus stop near Shukkeien, a landscape garden. Originally we’d planned that for the end of the day, but the weather forecast put the rain at the afternoon, so we changed plans and the garden came first as a bus stop anyway.

We were welcomed by a couple of lotus flowers, still in the bud but a lovely sight regardless. The name Shukkeien can be translated as ‘shrunken-scenery garden’, which is – kind of an accurate description, really, as it features various sceneries throughout the garden and there’s even a miniature Mount Fuji here. There’s miniature islands in the pond, many fish swim around here, and there’s quite some bridges, from the characteristic red to the almost perfect half-circle rainbow bridge.

The original garden dates back to the 1620s, serving as a villa for the Asano family and later for the Meiji emperor. However, when the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, it was not far from Shukkeien, which suffered extensive damage. It became a place of refuge for the survivors, although not all of them made it as they didn’t get medical care in time. The garden was reconstructed and reopened as early as 1951, but reminders of the bomb are everywhere. A giant Ginko tree that was the only tree to survive the blast; one out of three wooden images of Buddha that miraculously survived and got seated at a small altar in the garden; and, more harrowing, a plaque mentioning how the remains of over 60 bomb victims were found buried here as late as 1987.

And yet, the garden remains a wonderful walk, with so many sights to see it’s difficult to keep track of them all. It started to rain a little, but it was barely more than a drizzle, so we walked on and eventually left the garden a little past 12:30.  

Our next stop was pretty close, so we walked there: Hiroshima Castle. It’s probably no surprise that this main keep is a reconstruction, the original dating back to the 1590s. The above mentioned Asano family were lords of this castle until the Meiji Reconstruction, when the feudal era came to an end. At that time, the castle became a military facility and survived (many other castles got destroyed during the Meiji Era to break with the past). It was also a headquarters during the Second World War, and met its end on August 6 73 years ago.

The current reconstruction is mainly made out of concrete and holds a museum. However, it was about 1 PM, we still had one more big stop to make, and we were getting hungry, so we held off on the museum since it didn’t sound like something to be done in 10 minutes or so.  (Let’s be real, no shortage of castles this trip so far, ahem.)

We took another bus and first went to find some place to eat. You see, my friend really liked the okonomiyaki we had in Kyoto, and Hiroshima has specialty okonomiyaki (with fried noodles). So she wanted to try that, and we managed to find a place that also served without the noodles (since I have trouble eating them). So that was great, and the okonomiyaki was too!

After that, we made it to the one place can’t be avoided: the Peace Memorial Park. We first went to the A-Bomb Dome, which stands a little further away. This used to be the Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, and since it was at the political and commercial heart of the city, it was very close to the hypocenter of the bomb when it exploded. Since it was almost directly above, quite a lot of the building remained, including the skeleton of the characteristic dome on top. Rather than taking it down, it was decided to keep the remainders of the building standing to serve as a reminder and a link to the past. It was rather chilling, to be honest. Nearby is a memorial place for the mobilized students who never made it home again. Here, we saw the first strings of what turned out to be many, many paper cranes. 

Hiroshima receives thousands of them as they’re a symbol of peace, and an ancient Japanese legend promises that whoever folds a thousand cranes gets their wish granted. This also ties into the story of Sadako Sasaki, who was 2 years old at the time of the explosion. She seemed to have made it out alright, but developed leukemia ten years later and was told she had at most a year to live. She started to fold the paper cranes and even managed to exceed her goal of one thousand before she passed at the age of 12. She became a symbol of the innocent victims of nuclear warfare and a statue of her, holding up a paper crane, is installed on top of the Children’s Peace Monument. Naturally, there are many pillars around here with thousands upon thousands paper cranes.

There are many monuments around the Peace Memorial Park, including the Flame of Peace (to be extinguished when there are no more nuclear weapons on Earth) and the Hall of Remembrance, which lists all of the 200,000+ names of the A-bomb victims, although we passed that one in silence instead of going in.

After a long walk around the grounds, we settled in for some ice cream (mine was black sesame, just because I could) and got some souvenirs. They sold absolutely lovely origami paper, so I’ll be sure to fold these sheets into cranes.

And with that, we decided it had been enough for today. We took the loop bus back to the station – the loop bus here is called Maple-oop, maple loop, because Hiroshima likes maple leaves, so its buses get a punny name. Anyway, we tried to reserve a ticket for the shinkansen, but came up empty. Luckily we still managed to get seats in the unreserved area and made it back to Okayama safe and sound.

Today is August 15, the day Japan surrendered in 1945. We’re also at the end of the Obon period, the commemoration of the ancestors.

It felt appropriate to leave some extra blank lines there, before I cheerfully tell you that we’re planning on going to Fukuyama tomorrow with a very special train. (hm, which could it be...) Fukuyama’s castle is right across from the station, so that’s our goal. We are going to keep it calm tomorrow since we’re both tired and we have a long trip ahead of us on Friday, so this sounded like a good trip. Sadly, my planned trip to the Kyushu region is off the planning, but so far, that’s about the only thing we didn’t get to do, so that’s still a lot accomplished, and we’re not leaving Japan just yet!

Tomorrow, Fukuyama. After that – Tokyo, here we come!

Good evening and see you tomorrow!