CLOSED.

[laozu]

WHO: Ancient China Wuxia Crew ( Wei Wuxian laozu, Lan Wangji wangxian & Jiang Cheng sandu )
WHERE: Various locations.
WHEN: Various times.
WHAT: A catch-all log for literally everything so we don't spam.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Sexual content, discussions of suicide/suicidal ideation, physical violence, difficulties in communication, etc.

Comments

( & all: there's a river that winds on forever. )

[wangxian]

[ eleven hours is not overlong.

they have been upon trains once before, smaller in stature and smaller in form. and for all that it is in some ways crowded, there is something comforting in the persistent rock and rumble of the wheels as they skim past unused platforms. here and there, should lan wangji turn his head, there is the impressionistic blur of a landscape unknown to him. like colored ink spilled across an unmarked canvas, lan wangji can look only guess upon what it is for a moment before it changes shade and hue again. and so, it continues on like that. in the stillness of the train car, in the later tail of the day, it sometimes rouses him from shallow slumbers. it waits for him to wake, the wheels loud and contemplative as they roll them underground, the light beyond the windows fading and dimming as though a beacon at the cusp of its dispersal, its impending absence.

and though lan wangji knows these two stay nearest to him, his hands instinctively feel for the warmth of their skin regardless of those who pass and those who visit. his fingers brush onward until they may confirm it, the tension in his body unfurling as though a tangled ball of kite string beneath the constancy of clever touches- a well of some great patience. and when it is they move, it is those same hands that hold them tighter to him. awake or asleep, it is difficult to say, but there is always a delicate furrow between the dark of brows anyway.

after all, lan wangji has always struggled to convey with words what it is he’s wanted this way.

but, his body has no trouble being earnest. ]

[laozu]

[ he sits across from lan wangji, his feet pressed between the man's thighs even as he tries to hold jiang cheng's hand between his own to play with his fingertips. the train's seats are slim and space is minimal, but he makes the most of it in the small, open style of the booth. he touches, heedless of whether one wants it and one doesn't, and chatters all the while - filling the silence with conversation about tourist-y locations they'll see, what changes may have come over new beijing since last any of them had seen ( or heard, in the case of a homebody like jiang cheng, who had last traveled - to wei wuxian's own knowledge - when they were sixteen and being fostered among the other sects ).

even as he converses, bright and cheery in the open, he communicates in fits and bursts privately -- ]

[Bad username or site: xuanyu @ mo]
I want to run something by you two. Even though we're kinda' here to celebrate and play middle-guard for the people involved in Cassius's deal, I think we have a really solid opportunity to try and get to one of the gates in the meanwhile. It's the one located on Everest Mountain, which is really really far and outside of where we can travel. Thoughts?

[wangxian]

[ wei wuxian chatters and lan wangji listens, listens as he always does and questions where it is needed. though he is no great conversationalist, he understands the point of the ruse. he too understands that, among them all, wei wuxian is most suited to playing the part among them all.

and like this, linked to both jiang cheng and wei wuxian by wei wuxian himself, lan wangji eventually responds. ]

[Bad username or site: wangji @ lan]
Sit properly.

[ he punctuates his point with a glance, the gentle press of a palm to an ankle, but does not lift either foot from where it is they rest. the tops of his ears, in part obscured by the dark fall of his hair, go flushed and warm. even here, lan wangji indulges him. no matter how he emphasizes in part some propriety, the lack of bite in the request betrays him from where it is they touch.

and as he restrains himself from thumbing against the rise of bone, the curvature from heel to calf— he speaks to them all. ]

[Bad username or site: wangji @ lan]
Mn. We will need to plan carefully.

[ of course he would agree to travel with him, was there ever any doubt? ]

As you said, though we are closer than we were before, there is still significant distance. We do not know what lies between each destination. [ his expression, as quiet as it most often is, catches line of some thought and some concern between his brows as he looks once toward the scenery that blurs past them as though many colored inks. ] I will research.

[ what was once familiar to them is not familiar to them now, after all. ]

[sandu]

[ jiang cheng makes an impatient sound in his throat, much like a cat about to hack up a furball - he has been silently staring out at the changing flicks of scenery outside through half closed eyes, chasing the shape of the distant mountains, the way the tracks change sound along the terrain. a journey on a vehicle such as this, it has been a long time since he had to make use of such method of transport. perhaps swords would be faster, but eleven hours is not overlong a time to be spent travelling (what feels like) halfway around the world.

eleven hours of being pressed shoulder to shoulder alongside the both of them. to feel their breath and their slow beating of pulses against him, to hear the low chatter of wei wuxian's voice as incessant as ever and the occasional interjection of the other.

even though jiang cheng occasionally makes a movement as if to pull his hand away, he lets wei wuxian play with his hand as he will. ]

[Bad username or site: wanyin @ jiang]
Most of these stations seem to be in disuse, or abandoned altogether.

[ he glances sideways, in time to catch lan wangji stroke over the curvature of an ankle, and while his brows furrow as it were - his gaze is warm. ]

Maybe we could see if there are any alternate method of travelling.

[laozu]

[Bad username or site: xuanyu @ mo]
Don't scold me in the chat, Lan Zhan!! Scold me out loud!

[ as if to impress this upon him, wei wuxian flexes his feet forward, nudging them a little higher along the firm line of lan wangji's inner thigh. he digs his toes in, his mouth curling into a wicked little grin - too smug and too coy for a public space. the booth is crammed, it's a tiny car and it allows him to sit snug against jiang cheng and reach across the meager space to tease lan wangji all he likes, even as he juggles a serious and important conversation all the while.

he goes back over what information he knows from studying the rules and regulations of travel, doing his best to toe the line of legality and bend the existing legislation in favor of getting what he wants. it's what he does, after all. ]

We know that travelers have to declare origin and destination. It's not as easy as sneaking out of the city and walking all the way across China; I've never missed my abilities more than I have in this moment, gosh. Jiang Cheng has a good point too - what if we hopped off our mode of travel at an abandoned station... I think we'll need to ask for help from others, I don't think even WE are capable of doing this alone.

[ and out loud, he leans across jiang cheng, gripping his hand tightly in one hand as he points out the window with the other: ]

Look! Look! I thought I saw a fish, but maybe it was a shadow now that I think of it.

[ or maybe he's lying, because the shift in position also crams the toes of his foot high between lan wangji's thighs and drags jiang cheng's hand low on his belly. ]

[wangxian]

[ there is some advantage, to having such detailed history of conversation between them.

and it is something that comes to use here, as lan wangji's focus narrows to the press of wei wuxian's feet - how they flex high along the line of his inner thigh, the way the toes curl forward in the next moments. a man of less restraint may have pushed back against it, but lan wangji takes instead a steadying breath. he counts back, trails tight against the rules that have bound him with and without the presence of the forehead ribbon. and yet, how useless an endeavor it is, when it is his own skin that gives way to what it is he feels.

and how useless an effort it becomes, when the pale fingers against wei wuxian's ankle twitch, curve back into the palm as if a shier school of fish. and that illusion too is revealed with little more than divisive consideration. it is more for lan wangji himself, it would tell him. it is more for the way the bite of nails into the flesh makes him able to articulate sentences, despite the coy way of wei wuxian's smile stirs things both starving and tender in him, lights against his sharpest edge. ]

Sit properly? [ lan wangji repeats, dutiful as he is diligent. and if it is his voice that lifts without his meaning to at the end, lan wangji does not draw notice to it. and his gaze does not linger ( though it does ) upon both jiang cheng and wei wuxian before it is he takes to playing at finding the scenery more than interesting than he ought.

it gives him only a moment to drag the past mentions up. ]

[Bad username or site: wangji @ lan]
Possible. May not be practical. If they are abandoned, then it may be for reasons we are not aware of.

[ and yet, lan wangji is still only a man. beneath the table, one leg involuntarily shifts despite himself. and that in part brings jiang cheng into the loop with the accidental brush of his foot.

at least, for a moment. he takes another, steadying breath. ]

This train is not the only that runs through. [ at a quick glance, this much is evident. he needed barely research at all. ] But, others may know of more information and resources.

[sandu]

[ jiang cheng frowns - a familiar line carving itself into furrows upon his brows, though it lacks any measure of bitterness or viciousness, and he curls his hand upon the other's belly to pinch - though that too, lacks the usual fire. ]

Sit properly.

[ at least his voice carries a little more force than lan wangji's, and he shakes his hands free out of wei wuxian's grip in order to cross them, tucking them securely against the crook of his arms, out of reach. ]

What are you, a child?

[Bad username or site: wanyin @ jiang]
We need to find someone who knows the lay of the land, then.

[ a pause: ] It has been a while since 'our' time, after all. We would need a local. Someone who is more contemporary.

[ though he is not entirely sure of whether it is truly 'theirs' in the way that matters. there is said to be other universes, worlds where things are so unlike what he knows. the scenery outside seems so different yet familiar, that it leaves him feeling a little uncomfortable and queasy like looking through the wrong end of a telescope.

though it could be because the view he has now comes from a completely foreign mode of transport.

he glances down at their feet at the nudge, turning a half-curious, half-reluctantly amused gaze at lan wangji, but does not comment on it otherwise. ]