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rustedleopard · 12 days ago

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I'll ask! Would Cerojin get divorced? They are both very stubborn people. I can see them trying to work it out somehow (even if only for Kanako's sake).

I love how people are starting to see me as the Cerojin divorce guy, lol

For the most part, I see Ceroba's and Chujin's relationship going out in such a spectacular fashion that there's no way for them to try to salvage it. I'm talking "months/years of poor communication and the stresses of life and having to provide for the family practically singlehandedly" putting cracks in the dam that is Ceroba's idolization of Chujin that holds back anything... unsavory that she might feel about him. And then, one day, the dam breaks and Ceroba goes from "Chujin is so wonderful and perfect" to "Chujin is awful. He's done nothing but bum around while I've had to do everything for the family!!! I hate him!!!" And then their relationship goes out in a full-on "flinging magic and words you can't take back (and maybe a chair)" messy explosion. (Okay, well, it wouldn't be immediate, there would be signs that Ceroba's getting frustrated with him, but she's too busy trying to bury/ignore those feelings, so you'd only really see her temper flare up occasionally before she tries to steady herself by saying "My husband is a wonderful person, I'm doing what I can to help him. I shouldn't be acting like this" and Chujin's too busy focusing on what he wants to do that he's not paying attention to how his wife feels. They CANNOT communicate properly for the life of them :'). The relationship still peters out pretty quickly once Ceroba stops feeling the love, though.)

Buuuuuut, let's say that they're able to communicate well enough that they can tell each other "We NEED to make this work. We can't get a divorce. We can't have our marriage fail." Well... It would be a nightmare. To say the least. They'd both only try to force the relationship and make it work for their own egos without any of the groundwork that makes a relationship work, so at best it'd be a public performance of what a happy couple should look like instead of what it would be like. A happy and healthy marriage needs more than just love to work. It needs trust. It needs shared responsibilities. It needs proper communication. And these are areas where Ceroba and Chujin fail each other. Sure, maybe they might be able to act like they tolerate each other when they're out in public (i.e. not yelling at each other, though there's still some weird tension between them that some people would be aware of). But behind closed doors, I can't see this facade holding up well. Conversations would be so insanely passive-aggressive, that you'd have to call them "passive-aggressive-aggressive." They would probably develop a routine like this every day:

Ceroba: "You're home late. How was work?" (<- Said with a smile tight enough that she could put teeth marks into steel)

Chujin: "Fine." (<- Chujin got his ear chewed off about not contributing financially around the house so he got the first job that he could to prove her wrong. He hates it and his negative feelings about his job rebound onto Ceroba because he feels like she forced him into it.)

Ceroba: "Oh, that's wonderful to hear! Well, dinner's on the table for you. Kanako and I already ate, so you'll have to have it alone."

Chujin: "... It's cold."

Ceroba: "Oh, well. That's what happens when you stay late at work without telling me. Microwave's in the kitchen, you can handle it yourself." (<- she is already thinking about the bottle)

And on and on and on. They'd be the sorts of people that everybody else around them wants them to get divorced because they're sick of all the arguing and stress and anger. Starlo in this situation, brave man that he is, tries to recommend that Ceroba gets a divorce and ends up getting yelled at because "How dare you suggest that we can't make things work!!" Martlet doesn't seem as privy to Chujin's home life as Starlo is with Ceroba, so all she knows is that things are rough at home, but she tries to invite him out bowling or to relax in Honeydew's hot spring to get some of the stress out. Both of them are trying their best to help their friends, but this isn't something that they can handle because their friends are just.... astronomically stubborn and stupid.

(And this isn't even getting into how a monster's health is heavily tied to their emotional state. A monster can literally be put into a near-death state from grieving too hard. Can you imagine how rough things would be with all that stress? Humans already experience a myriad of health problems when put under stress for an extended period of time, so you can just imagine how bad things would be healthwise for a monster. Food for thought...)

And as for Kanako? Oh my god. Out of everybody in this situation, she is the one I sympathize with/pity the most. Ceroba and Chujin have a choice in their relationship and how it's going/turns out, but Kanako doesn't. She's just a kid. Like I said earlier, on paper they might say that they're trying to make this marriage work, perhaps "for Kanako's sake," but that's their egos speaking because if they were actually paying attention to what their daughter wants, they'd realize that she'd be happier if they weren't fighting all the time, even if that means a divorce. I can see her feeling responsible for how terribly things are going because they keep saying "We're trying to stay together for your sake." Maybe she tries intervening in arguments to stop Mommy and Daddy from fighting each other, but over time gets burnt out on doing that because she's not stopping them from fighting, she's only delaying the inevitable. Most likely, she'd avoid being at home/around her parents as much as possible because there's so much tension at home and she never knows when tempers are gonna flare, so it's better to sleep over at friends or spend the day at the Wild East/the Sunnyside farm/at the playground/Cafe Dune/somewhere else. Over time, her parents' constant quarreling could even burn her out/make her jaded and irritated with her mom and dad as well as depressed because she feels like it's her fault they're like that. She never asked for her mom and dad to try to maintain their relationship for her sake; she just wants to be happy, whatever shape that happiness may take.

Tl;dr Divorce is a mercy in this situation.

#i am so sorry i let this ask ferment in my inbox for so long 🙏#this was a fun little thought exercise though *giggles and kicks my feet on my bed*#while i was writing this up i had this mental image of kanako leaving her house because Mom and Dad are fighting again #and she stumbles across martlet (dad's friend) escorting clover (a human. Dad says that they're all dangerous and incapable of decency)#and when put in a situation where she has to choose between going back home or dealing with the human she's like ''hey. can i #go with you guys 🥺'' because it's just THAT bad at home.#moral of the story is that their marriage has already failed. it was set up to fail in the game if Chujin hadn't died.#divorce doesn't make a happy marriage fail in the same way that signal flares don't make ships sink. it's just a sign of a failed marriage #[rusty door hinge noises]

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shamera · 1 year ago

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An Oar Upon the Water (MLC ficlet)

Fandom: Mysterious Lotus Casebook Character/Pairing(s): Di Feisheng / Li Lianhua / Fang Duobing Rating: PG Warning: none? fluff! DreamWidth link

"There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water." -Kate Chopin

Despite his reputation, Li Lianhua didn’t always work as a physician for money.

Of course he didn’t, not when he saw sick children lining the streets or parents offering what little they had if only someone would help— and he could help. Perhaps it was unwise to use his Yangzhouman in those cases, but he once tried to make the world a better place and it turned out to be a habit hard to break.

For the poorer families, he often got cases of vegetables (he would accept seeds for payment as well) or whatever homemade kits of items they could afford to give away. Once, a young girl gifted him with a tiny wood carving for helping her injured brother.

“It’s my favourite,” she lisped in a mock-whisper, holding it up for him with both hands. She was missing at least two of her front teeth, and had her hair barely contained in a childish bun on the side of her head. “Brother made it for me.”

Li Lianhua had knelt before her to keep her at eye level, a little tired but not overly so from his session. “You should keep it, then. It must be worth more than anything in the world.”

She brightened at his acknowledgement, all but thrusting the little wood piece at his chest. “It is! But you have it, okay? Brother can make a new one for me now.”

And thus Li Lianhua ended up with various knick-knacks in Lotus Tower that he just couldn’t bear to throw away.

—

After the cumulation of everything, Li Lianhua returned to Lotus Tower filled with trepidation. With nothing else to do (he had practically been ordered under house arrest! He was rarely left alone, and even when he was, Hulijing barked loudly every time he walked outside the door!), he found himself organising boxes and drawers in an attempt to keep busy.

By the time Fang Duobing came back, slouching a little from exhaustion from dealing with angry officials who could hardly believe the results (and arrests) from a case, he found Li Lianhua in the middle of a chaotic mess on the ground, piles of random trinkets thrown atop the table and chairs and floor.

“What are you doing?” The younger man asked, mentally despairing at the idea of cleaning all that up in order to make room for dinner. He crept close, toeing the mess warily.

It was Hulijing, sprawled across Li Lianhua’s lap for a nap, who twitched an ear and acknowledged Fang Duobing’s presence first, opening a single eye and then huffing a breath before going back to her nap.

Li Lianhua, on the other hand, took a long moment before he looked up from his inventory, ink dotting the edge of his sleeves as he examined several wooden objects before picking up the wet brush that was resting a little too close to his clothes and writing something down on paper. He looked up only after he was finished.

“Xiaobao,” he acknowledged warmly. “How did it go?”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Fang Duobing replied, raising his chin proudly. He leaned over a large stack of books on the table. “What are you doing?”

“Organising.” Li Lianhua responded absentmindedly, and then paused. He gestured Fang Duobing forward with a hand. “Come here.”

It took him a moment to carefully step over the mess, and then lean down as Li Lianhua gestured him closer again, waiting as the man took one of the small wooden pieces and pressed it against the nearly empty plate of ink set on the side of the floor. Then Li Lianhua grabbed him by the hand and pressed the wooden bit against his skin.

“Good job on the last case.” Li Lianhua told him, and then lifted the wooden piece, making a pleased noise at what it revealed.

Fang Duobing lifted his hand, at first bothered by the ink stain and then amused as he saw the six petal flower impression left on his skin. “Thanks. What’s this?”

“I couldn’t figure out the shape of it.” Li Lianhua told him, setting the wooden stamp back down on the ground.

Fang Duobing gave only a moment’s dubious glance at the paper next to Li Lianhua, and then decided to ignore the small lie. He was coming to realise how Li Lianhua would speak, truth and lies mixed together in the grand scheme of things at all times, and this was one of those moments where he was deflecting with a small lie, one that was far too easy to pick out. It had taken him months originally to realise: Li Lianhua was actually a pretty bad liar.

“Is that a seal?” Fang Duobing asked, lifting his hand to better examine the shape. The petals were roughly carved, and the ink was slightly blotchy, bleeding a bit onto his skin already. It was cute, the size no bigger than a fingernail. “Did you make it?”

Li Lianhua shook his head absentmindedly. “Given to me, I think.”

Fang Duobing made a considering noise, and thought about Li Lianhua pressing the stamp against his skin to tell him he did a good job. “I’ll get you a better one. Something lotus-shaped. And cinnabar ink.”

“What use would I have for that?” Li Lianhua asked. He was already examining something else in the pile next to him, head turned away. “I have no official documents to sign.”

Fang Duobing gave a considering hum as he examined the flower on his hand, and smiled. “I’ll get you one, anyway.”

—

Wuyan paused in his daily report as Di Feisheng turned his head slightly to read the document next to him with the same apparent disinterest as usual.

“Ahh.” He blinked as his leader’s gaze turned toward him at the uncharacteristic hesitation. “Apologies, Director. You have, ahh—”

Di Feisheng was dressed impeccably as always, deep violet robes underneath a thick patterned black overrobe held tightly together by black leather wrist guards and belt, both sewn with silver edging. Everything was put together well, perfectly groomed, and his hair was in its familiar crown, yet—

Wuyan pointed to his own cheek and said, “You seem to have something here.”

The ‘something’ was barely more than a smudge of ink, but one that formed the shape of a six petaled flower, only the slightest bit smeared.

Surprisingly, the Jinyuan Alliance leader smiled slightly. “Yes.”

Wuyan cleared his throat, and decided not to comment on it further. Considering Di Feisheng had come back for the reports directly from Lotus Tower, very little was going to actually surprise Wuyan at this point.

He’d just have to ensure no one else commented on it later.

—

When Di Feisheng made his way back to Lotus Tower just after the sun set, the floor was cleared of clutter once more, everything orderly and tidy and wiped clean. The fire under the kettle was lit, the flame small but bright and warm in the autumn evening. There were several pots bubbling happily, emitting smells of herbs and medicine that stung his nose slightly.

Li Lianhua was seated next to the pots, hunched over slightly and mending a rip in some dark green robes, rattan fan set down next to him.

“Where’s the brat?” Di Feisheng asked in lieu of a greeting, seating himself next to Li Lianhua.

“Xiaobao took Hulijing down to the stream,” Li Lianhua responded, not bothering to look up from his task. “And since you have your hands free, you can help me fan the pots.”

Di Feisheng thought of refusing for only a moment (mostly to see Li Lianhua's reaction) but then took up the fan, keeping his movements slow enough to feed the flames but not fast enough to agitate. He watched as Li Lianhua carefully mended the rip with a dark thread, and then finally tied off the end with a clumsy double knot before snipping the excess and smoothing out the fabric triumphantly.

“That should do it,” Li Lianhua said. “Before I put this away, did you have— A’Fei.”

Di Feisheng raised an eyebrow in acknowledgement, still fanning.

Li Lianhua raised a sleeve to hide his smile. “You didn’t wipe it off? I thought you were angry at Fang Xiaobao for that. Should I—?”

“Leave it.” Di Feisheng said, halting Li Lianhua’s movement toward a rag. “It’s fine.”

“Did anyone else see it?”

Of course they did. Di Feisheng hadn’t exactly hidden from his meetings. None other than Wuyan dared to comment on the flower mark on his face.

“I should have hidden it,” Li Lianhua continued, tone amused.

“Where did you put it, then?”

Li Lianhua indicated toward the dresser by the door, close enough they could reach it without getting up. “I covered the ink earlier.”

Di Feisheng leaned over, reaching across over Li Lianhua’s warm back to grab the little wooden stamp, and then took a moment’s deliberation before grabbing the ink plate as well, pulling it back toward the table. Li Lianhua was watching him with a quirked smile, heading tilted as if questioning what he was doing.

He put the fan down and uncovered the ink plate to dip the stamp in, and then reached toward Li Lianhua even as the man leaned away with a huff of amusement.

“Oh no,” Li Lianhua said. “You don’t get to turn this around on me! I wasn’t the one who left that on your face!”

“Why not?” Di Feisheng asked, taking it as a challenge as he moved to keep the man within reach. “Fang Duobing has this mark too, doesn’t he?”

“He’s probably washed it off by now— A’Fei!”

Di Feisheng darted to reach around the mended robe Li Lianhua was using as a makeshift shield, and feinted in one direction only to push into the other man's personal space, leaving him no room to retreat if he didn’t want to get up from the chair, until Li Lianhua laughed from the sheer absurdity of it and Di Feisheng managed to slip a hand to cup the bottom of his head and gently press the stamp between his brows.

Li Lianhua's smile softened, “A huadian? Really?”

Di Feisheng found himself smiling in return. “It suits.”

Outside, the sounds of paws running on the road reached their ears moments before they heard Fang Duobing call out, “I’m back! We got a lot of fish in the traps— should we smoke it overnight?”

Li Lianhua gave Di Feisheng an amused, challenging look as the latter let him go and pulled back just as the door opened to let both Fang Duobing and Hulijing inside from the cold.

“Lao Di!” Fang Duobing greeted cheerfully. He was carrying a stick laden with fish tied to the end, arm bracers missing and his sleeves rolled up slightly to expose his forearms. “When did you get back?”

Then he took in the scene and stopped in his tracks, laughing at the two men with flower stamps on their faces sitting on the same bench.

Di Feisheng was gracious enough to let the young man laugh for several long moments before he handed the wooden stamp to Li Lianhua and commented casually, “I’ll hold him down.”

Li Lianhua accepted the object graciously, also taking the entire ink plate as Di Feisheng stood up. “Alright.”

“Wait, wait, wait! You’re not serious, are you? Wait!”

Li Lianhua smiled and made sure to press the stamp down extra hard in the ink.

#Mysterious Lotus Casebook #Li Lianhua #Fang Duobing #Di Feisheng #ficlet #this is one of the ones that might just end up on my DW only and not make it to AO3 #no edit no second look I LITERALLY WROTE THIS WITHIN MY NANO OUTLINE #...also that fan is apparently known as a Satay fan but I am not going to refer to it as such #I had the mental image of Di Feisheng with a little flower on his cheek and ran with it

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