milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

(OOM: I have many sorrows; I know how long the night is.)

Wei Wuxian, wrapped in his more rough robes in dark greys and dull reds, steps up to the bar. He has a heavy sheaf of papers, which he attempts, momentarily, to straighten with tired fingers when he sets them on the polished wood.

After a few moments of conversation, the papers disappear, and Wei Wuxian bows, carefully. Then he takes the bowl of lotus soup the bar gives him in return, he retreats to his usual seat by the fire, but once there is more interested in putting a fresh edge on the trowel he digs out of his sleeve's pocket than eating.

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"Ah, sir! You're looking tired. You might take the trowel to the smithy, they'll likely do a good job on putting it's edge back on," Zenigata says from his comfortable seat not far from the fire. He's as relaxed as he ever gets, with a laptop across his legs and light shining up at him from it.

There's also a case of on the table next to him; an oblong hardcase, with a an odd, square symbol in the center of it, reading SWITCH underneath. Next to it is a longneck beer bottle, labeled ASAHI.

"You also look like you might need some rest after that soup," he says, a touch more gently.

Wei Wuxian half rises, getting far enough up to make a decently polite bow, the ever-present Chenqing braced over his hands.

"Zenigata Koichi, you honor me with your concern." He smiles - a crooked thing knocked loose by a sleepless night. "You have been well, I hope?"

Redirection?

What redirection?

"There are two good smiths," Zenigata says, ignoring the misdirection, "who love their work. There are also free beds here, safe and quiet, with no bustle of other people or demands of small children."

Inspector Zenigata knows Wei Wuxian is -- magic, for lack of a better term. He rose the kind and good Wen Ning from the dead, and he is taking care of people trapped in a terrible place. The boy's doing his best. But even the best need a break, and this kid isn't taking one.

Edited 2020-10-04 02:20 (UTC)

"Ahh, it's just a little project, no need to bother anyone." Wei Wuxian spent over a decade keeping a sharp edge on his sword - this isn't the same, but only because it is easier. The metal of the trowel puts up much less resistance than his blade ever did. "It is good to keep my hands busy."

"Perhaps you should inquire about further tools, if you're going to grow your little village," Zenigata says, as he closes his thin laptop and sets it into the larger of his two bags. "That way you can expand more easily, with less concern about the tools to break more ground, create more fields."

Wei Wuxian huffs a surprised laugh. This place often carries the feeling of a runaway horse, and tonight is no exception. His hands stay steady on the trowel however, steadily grinding against the sharpening stone.

"Growing? Don't let the Jin Clan hear you, they will have such nightmares." On the more benign side, they might worry the Wens were regrouping.

On the less benign side, they'd be worrying that the Yiling Patriarch was literally raising an army.

"Hopefully, there are no Jins to hear me," Zenigata says, not knowing that's a vain hope indeed. "But-- still. Time, and distance, and maybe your people will be able to go out into the world again, resettle in other lands."

He really does want the best for them. But Zenigata wants the best for basically everybody.

Except Lupin. Fuck him, he's a scoundrel.

"On and on, going on and on, away from you to live apart, ten thousand li and more between us, each at opposite ends of the sky." He quotes, then laughs at the notion. "Aiya, I don't think little a-Yuan would appreciate a journey of ten li, never mind a thousand."

Never mind the hazards of shepherding his little band of elders and infirm through the hazards of rogue cultivators and encroaching armies. He might be a cornered tiger, but they've learned to be wary of his claws.

"No, he's young for that," Zenigata agrees. He's raised -- or is raising -- three children over the span of his life. A daughter who stopped speaking to him before she was twelve, a son who is legally debt but haunts Zenigata with the knowledge he is alive, somewhere, and he has no idea where or why, and now Ami, a girl who was trafficked, only to have her Zuckerbergian father attempt to take advantage of it for press surrounding his stupid data aggregation social media bullshit.

It hurts, knowing there's one so little, that needs so much, but-- Zenigata knows he has limits. That's another world's child, and too young besides. Ami at least is half-grown, forced too soon to be mature and survive, but only learning now how to make friends and feel her feelings. He doesn't have room, time, or money -- and if he understands Wei Wuxian at all, the man would never, ever let A-Yuan go anywhere he couldn't keep watch.

So he keeps his tongue still in his mouth for a moment, reaching out to take up the beer on the side table and drink it. Then he pauses, and asks, "Anyone given you a proper beer yet, Wei Wuxian?"

"Beer?" Wei Wuxian echoes, pulling a face. "It's a bit sweet for my tastes."

Of course, the beer he knows is an entirely different beast than the one Zenigata refers to, but how is he supposed to know that?

Zenigata makes a face. Sweet beer? "The hell are you people drinking?"

He flags down a wait rat, and asks for a Japanese beer sampler.

"You aren't drinking beer. Don't know what this is translating to, but beer isn't sweet."

"We are drinking wine - if I am going to drink your beer, you are having some of Yunmeng's wine. Hey!" He calls after the rat, and once getting it back, asks for a jar of wine from Lotus Pier, and another of Emperor's Smile.

The rat gives them a 'anything else?' look, before scurrying off again.

This is rapidly becoming a culturally significant boozer.

"Ah, and bring the Japanese whiskey sampler I served, some time ago?"

The rats just roll their eyes. Anything else? Seriously, humanoid men, what are they good for?

"If you have some of Uncle Four's fruit wine, that would also be good!" Wei Ying calls, utterly shameless. What? Uncle Four made good wine. The Burial Mounds ought to have at least one export that isn't painful, right?

Radishes aren't painful, they are good.

"Lotus chips with Anzu sauce!"

The rats are downright perturbed as the two men generously try to one up each other. Before another round of one-upping happens, they just flat out LEAVE. Maybe later, boys.

Radishes are Nasty, and no one can tell Wei Ying otherwise.

"Ah, that should get us started properly, though why you want to include beer of all things..." He sighs, realizing that everyone has their one weird quirk.

"Beer is-- hoppy! Bitter, sour, but not sweet!" The hell are you drinking, Wei Wuxian!? "Ugh. Sweet beer! If I wanted to suffer I'd drink some American hipster pisswater IPA, but it still wouldn't be sweet."

Zenigata has Thoughts on Booze, and they often are The Kids Are Wrong, Beer Was Fine, Why Are You Making It Fancy?

Edited 2020-10-04 05:36 (UTC)

"... What are you drinking? Beer is... alcoholic gruel with aspirations of one day being an acceptable drink." Wei Wuxian complains, as someone who has at least once been forced to Drink That Shit because it was the only alcoholic thing available.

"Beer is not gruel!" Zenigata is shouting now, because his default volume is set to Really Loud, and now he must raise the stakes -- and the needle -- to Shouting Loud to get his point across. "Beer is a perfectly good drink! It's inferior to whiskey, but sometimes you need something that's good for large, social drinking and something that's good for sipping or shots!"

Wei Wuxian has never seen a hardworking Japanese man strapping in to teach another person about Japanese drinking culture. If he isn't hungover tomorrow, Zenigata will have not done it right.

Wei Wuxian is a disciple of Yunmeng Jiang - loud is a way of life.

"How many people that you hate do you drink with, to make it a social drink?" He shoots back, astounded. Clearly it's not something you'd order for a friend.

"You are going to both eat your words and drink your beer," Zenigata says; the rats are returning with samplers -- one for each, two glasses apiece. Not full tall pints, but tumblrs filled with beer to sample. They place down fried lotus root with spicy-sweet Anzu sauce beside it.

"Normally, I would pour for you, and you for me, if we got bottles and glasses. But these are pre-poured! So, it's kampai and down the hatch!"

He picks up one glass of deep golden-brown beer, and lifts it, enjoying the sheer sight of the deep liquid and the foam that tops it, before he takes a drink.

"Aah, yes. God, I miss home sometimes," he says, looking down at the glass. "And food that tastes just right."

There is a certain tightness across Wei Wuxian's shoulders, across his expression, at the mention of home. Of missing home.

This is... unwise. He knows this is unwise - he is not tucked behind his wards, not secure in his surroundings...

But he is so very tired of being wise.

So very tired.

He tilts his glass back, downing the unfamiliar liquid with the ease of a pro. And he makes such a face at its bitter bite.
"What is that, medicine?" He demands, popping a fried lotus chip in his mouth to wash out the flavor.

"It's beer. A hoppy one, bitter. Some people like it that way. Try the very dark one, they tend to be richer and smoother." He gestures to the darkest one. "Try that. It'll be more malt, less hoppy."

When he will happily bring up and drink, and happily enjoy. Beer's great, Wei Wuxian just doesn't know how to drink.

Wei Wuxian protests strongly this slander against his drinking skills. Or he would, if he knew about it. As it is, he downs the second offered drink as easily as the first.

The resulting expression is less hateful than the first, he's still not at all convinced this is 'good'.

"Come, come, let me pour you some Emperor's Smile, that is a good drink." Maybe if Wei Wuxian teaches Zenigata the error of his ways, he'll stop forcing this bitter muck on people.

"Okay, okay. Acquired taste, I know," Zenigata grumbles, beer having lost this round. It's okay, whiskey will remain the best thing to drink, ever, fuck anyone who disagrees. "But it's still not sweet!"

But the rats have brought the wine, and they'll go get the whiskey sampler next. In the mean time, lotus chips and anzu are a good way to clear the palette from one liquor to the next.