The Guqin, Late at Night

[yinyangwizard]

It's late, by local time: the main bar is quiet and sparsely populated at this hour. Those few still hanging about can hear the soft notes of a guqin (or kin no koto, as the musician usually calls it) drifting over from beside the fireplace.

Abe no Seimei, garbed in a dark grey kimono with black vertical stripes and a pair of black hakama, kneels on the rug beside the coffee table where his instrument rests. He is currently playing a classical piece appropriate to the season.

One does sometimes like to play in relative solitude, but that does not mean one is averse to an appreciative audience.

[OOC: For purposes of future roleplay, the sequence of encounters threaded below this post is 1. Lan Zhan 2. Jin Guangyao 3. Wei Wuxian 4. Wen Ning.]

[Tinytag: Lan Zhan]

[Tinytag: Jin Guangyao]

[Tinytag: Wei Wuxian]

[Tinytag: Wen Ning]

Comments

[undead_radish_seller]

"Hanguang-jun?" Wen Ning says, momentarily shocked that anybody should consider him a danger to the Wen. "Oh no, he is very helpful. And I wouldn't want to make any trouble and attract more attention to us. Please, we just want to come and go quietly and sell radishes!"

[yinyangwizard]

“Forgive me. I met him last night and he seems like a very serious and disciplined fellow, but I had to make absolutely certain.”

Seimei sits back, stroking his chin.

“The warning system is not a permanent solution. A permanent solution would require either bloodshed or an agreement between all concerned parties. I wonder if Lan Wangji could help facilitate the latter.”

Hahahaha.

[undead_radish_seller]

"He is very serious and honest," Wen Ning says. "And a good friend to Wei-gongzi. Well, perhaps not friend" -- is Hanguang-jun anybody's friend? -- "but very fair and conscientious, and not swayed by gossip."

Wen Ning has no idea why Lan-er-gongzi, of all people, would have eyes in his head that allow him to regard the much-maligned Yiling Laozu fairly; he's just glad that he does.

[yinyangwizard]

“And what would the Jin think of him? You mentioned that the Lan clan is well-respected.”

[undead_radish_seller]

"Of Lan-er-gongzi?" Wen Ning asks, a bit puzzled. "Perhaps just that he's Zewu-jun's overly uptight younger brother. I heard of an incident when Jin Zixun tried to force him to drink alcohol. The Lan neither drink nor eat meat."

[yinyangwizard]

“In that case, Lan Wangji is also a better Buddhist than I am.”

Seimei is a vegetarian, but he still drinks alcohol.

[undead_radish_seller]

"Their sect founder, Lan An, had been a monk," Wen Ning says, "but I don't know how Buddhist they are now. They are just very, very principled."

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei has a book of Lan An’s poetry tucked into his sash, courtesy of Lan Zhan. It seems that Lan An led a very interesting life.

“I may have to ask Lan Wangji, next time I see him. But that is merely a matter of my own interest - it does not help your problem.”

[undead_radish_seller]

"Nor does it contribute to them, so it's all good."

The refugees at the Burial Mounds will settle for very little.

[yinyangwizard]

"In any case, I shall have a warning system ready for you in a day or so. If both you and Jin Guangyao are here, one of my shikigami will appear before you and lead you to a place where you will be safe. It will look sort of like this."

Seimei reaches into his sleeve and pulls out a stiff pieces of origami paper. He folds it into a shape approximating a human being, with arms and legs and a head. When he's done he is able to stand it up on the table, on its own little paper feet.

"If you have no other options, go into the security office and secure yourself in one of the cells. From what I understand, they are impervious to any sort of physical or magical attack."

That is a second-to-last resort of course. The last resort would be Wen Ning having to physically defend himself from Jin Guangyao.

[undead_radish_seller]

"I doubt he would try to harm me outright," Wen Ning says. "These look almost like Wei-gongzi's papermen; I didn't know they could be set to watch."

[yinyangwizard]

So Wei Wuxian can make his own shikigami? Seimei files that information away for later.

"They can do a lot of things. It is harder to keep them working when I am not present, but that just means they require some additional support."

A little altar and some quintessence will do the trick.

[undead_radish_seller]

"How do you keep them fed?" Wen Ning asks, curiously.

[yinyangwizard]

"Stored chi - known commonly among the mages of my world as quintessence."

Seimei reaches into his kimono and pulls out a string of cedar mala beads. "I keep some here, for emergencies. But for the shikigami I would use something else, like fungus of immortality that has grown in a place with great spiritual power."

[undead_radish_seller]

"Would you use the living lingzhi so it doesn't run out off energy?" Wen Ning asks, curious. His sister is a doctor, after all, and he knows quite a lot about medicinal herbs and other remedies.

[yinyangwizard]

"Oh, always. It has to be alive to hold energy. Fortunately it transplants well, and can dwell quite happily in a pot."

Seimei puts his mala beads away.

"There is quite a lot of magical energy at Milliways, just floating around! But it can be very difficult to work with."

[undead_radish_seller]

"It could always be somebody else's energy, and one does simply not steal that," Wen Ning says.

Resentful energy, the kind that Wei Wuxian uses, is different; it just sits there anyway. People are still having conniption fits about it.

[yinyangwizard]

"I have been able to tap into it without doing anything...unsavory. But it was for a much bigger thing than this. Even that was like trying to drink a waterfall."

Seimei is not going to tap into that to keep his shikigami going, because he wants them to work, not burst into flames.

[undead_radish_seller]

"What did you do with it?" Wen Ning asks, curious.

[yinyangwizard]

“Gardening,” Seimei says. “You will see when spring comes.”

Wen Ning can probably find out about the cherry blossoms by asking around. But maybe he will let it be a surprise.

[undead_radish_seller]

"Gardening with qi," Wen Ning says, smiling. "That must be remarkable."

[yinyangwizard]

"Some would call it frivolous. But beauty and joy are as essential in their way as food, warmth, and shelter. To create something beautiful that cannot be bought and sold, but freely shared - it is worthy work."

And sometimes, the things you learn working on pet projects have their utility elsewhere. But that's secondary.

[undead_radish_seller]

"It's good for the soul," Wen Ning says, "both yours and that of the people you give it to. It feels good to pass on kindness and see it bring happiness to people."

Something they are often so far away from, in the Burial Mounds.