#gentlemanly virtues lmao

[whetstonefires]

being fixated on the same piece of fiction for several years is great because you wind up drilling down to the most fiddly detail shit like:

qin players need their nails to be a certain minimum length on the right hand, to get the proper pluck effect on the string.

however, there's ofc a maximum length the human fingernail can be before you can't grip things firmly without risk of breaking it and/or stabbing yourself, and lan wangji also wields a sword right-handed.

therefore, an essential part of his personal grooming must be frequent self-manicures to keep his nails on one hand exactly the right length, in good condition, and filed very smooth. the latter both because the qin strings are silk and you don't want to snag and because a nail that isn't filed into a clean curve is more prone to catching and tearing, and if he breaks a nail he can't use his ranged music attacks etc.

(also i think having untidy nails would bug him even if it had no practical consequences, and it's arguably against lan sect rules.)

this was especially important to keep up with during the war, when he had to use both implements frequently, and as well as he possibly could.

so lan wangji on the war front, not necessarily managing to keep up his usual standards of hygiene and personal dress (i think the only detail we ever get about him in that period is Wei Wuxian instructing the kid roleplaying sunshot-era hanguang-jun that he was uncharacteristically covered in blood) still carefully trimming and filing the nails of his right hand, every day.

what sort of nail file do you think he owns. what's a historically accurate nail file going to be made of, huh? what's a luxurious historically accurate nail file going to be made of?

you probably could get a nail-filing texture onto jade but i have a hard time believing anyone would.