xxjianren

[xxjianren]

xxyixue‌:

“yes…” she says softly, wishing she could take his hand. she knows she can’t, and she’d never even dare to try, but the desires there, tugging at her insistently. “aren’t you?” it doesn’t look good, especially after what she’d overheard lady wei murmur to herself. “i’m sure the group can handle themselves, though.” she says, trying to convince herself as she speaks. 

Jianren hums. 

“Of course I am.”

He eyes her curiously for a moment, turning his face to scan for prying eyes and ensure once again that they were alone before reaching over to place a hand on her back, as if to comfort her. He is for a moment distracted by the energy that seems to crackle beneath his fingertips, however gentle the touch may be it still tightens his throat. 

“And yes...” he continues, his brow tightening in concern, “I’m not so generous as you are to be sure, but I certainly hope they can.”

He’s not yet processed what they’d witnessed, but he can feel something beneath them quickly shifting, as if the world was no longer the same as it had been only minutes ago. A sense of dread bubbles in his chest, and beneath it, a simmering anger. Twenty years of peace, and again the end of the world? He’s incensed by Lady Yu’s portent of doom, if not for how it’s shaken the comfort he’d come to feel, then because he couldn’t help but assume that her one of hers was at the centre of what was beginning to unfold.

Rekindled Embers

[xxjianren]

Rekindled Embers

A STARTER FOR @xxyixue

Jianren had seen the quiet concern writ unto the brows of the Sect’s elders, and he’d shared it—the group that had been sent to Baijing Mountain had been gone for much longer than they should have been, and it was growing clear that something must have delayed their return—something might well have gone wrong. 

He had thought from the very day they’d left that he should have gone with them; a big band of fools, they were, as likely to have been delayed by petty circumstance or lowly temptation than by real danger. 

But steadiness was always cautioned, and it was most prudent now to wait—if only a little longer—as they were due for guests in the form of the other Sect leaders. Jianren had found that he doesn’t much care for the presence of others in Cloud Recesses, but he was used to stomaching the gentry of the other sects.

Sect Leader Yu was characteristically tardy, pots of alcohol dangling from her waist as though this were not a simple progress review—he’s certain that it was one of hers that delayed the Baijing Mountain party, anyways. He tries to ignore the sect leaders’ presence, and is hardly paying attention, trying and failing to meet Yixue’s eye from across the room, when a commotion breaks out. He follows the sweep of people from the lecture hall, where he watches with quickly blooming dread as stripes of crimson pulsate in the distance.

Jianren remains still even as the crowd around him thins, returning into the lecture hall, a murmur of concerned whispers, and he steps aside, descending the stairs of the lecture hall to stand in its courtyard and consider the mountain, thinking about what he heard Lady Yu say. 

The end of the world?

He’s startled from his wondering by a voice, and it isn’t until he turns to see her that he realises it is Yixue’s, the sight of her softening the harshness of his brow and warming the sharp glint in his eye. 

“Should we...send for them?” she asks, stepping closer to him, prompting a nervous scan of the area to ensure that no one saw them alone like this, lest the wrong impression be given. 

“If the sect leaders deem it necessary.” he says, although his voice is cut with steel, as though he’s already certain they will, and he hesitates, admiring Yixue’s face in the pale moonlight, “Are you...worried?”

[xxjianren]

xxweixiaoyu‌:

xiayu tries to keep his back straight and shoulders back as he walks over to jianren, though he’s not sure he’d giving the poised, elegant impression he was hoping to. “lan jianren! i don’t know if you remember me, but i’m wei xiaoyu. your brother, jingyun, fell in a river with me many years ago. you probably don’t remember, but i remember you well! have you been well?”

Jianren can see the little Wei boy approaching him, although he shows no indication that he does until he is nearly upon him, half-hoping that he might make an escape if only he can pretend that he’s not yet seen him. 

Unfortunately, Xiaoyu seems intent upon initiating a conversation, and for a moment, Jianren shimmers with irritation—he resents that they had decided to allow the disciples of the other sects to crawl about Cloud Recesses like mites—they all had a predilection for disturbing his peace, through direct conversation, or curious glances, by way of their existence in his vicinity. 

He resents disruption and he’s convinced that at least one or two of the other sects specialise in it. 

He wonders if the little boy is lost and is come to ask direction, and is already admonishing him in his head for being so presumptuous as to treat him like some sort of servile attendant when the boy comes into his direct line of sight, his gait awkward and stiff, as though he’d slept poorly and now suffered from bodyache. 

Then Xiaoyu speaks, and Jianren feels the irritation within him wither, a sense of guilt blooming in its place—he’d forgotten that he didn’t mind this particular Wei so much—he seemed little more than a child, and his eyes sparkled with an honest sort of innocence that made Jianren more keen on him. He was good. 

“Of course I remember you.” Jianren assures him, although his tone of voice would indicate that he’s perhaps offended by the suggestion that he may have forgotten something, “I still don’t understand how the both of you managed to fall into the river, but yes, I have been very well.” 

Lan Jianren is not particularly good at this sort of small talk—he knows he ought to be, it’s just always felt like unnecessary speech, wasteful even—formal circumstance demands it of him, but he often wishes that people could speak only of that which was important, and of nothing else.

“How have you been enjoying your time here? Is there anything you need?” he asks, trying his best to be the accommodating host he feels he should be, even if he feels his words are hollow in intention. 

.learn to smile