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"Right." Wei Wuxian nods, satisfied, and lifts the makeshift dizi to his lips. The tone of it is unsurprisingly reedy - no matter how much Lan Zhan messed with it, it still isn't a proper instrument, not really - it's not a full spiritual tool like Liebing, or even Chenqing.

But energy is energy, and in this, at least, intent is 9/10ths of what is necessary anyway.

The song Wei Wuxian plays, if one might generously call it a song, is sharp and atonal. The dark mist that winds between tree branches in response almost seems to have a will of its own. It coils at his feet, and twists around Wei Wuxian's limbs in a sinuously over-familiar arc.

It doesn't feel like watching Ysalwen in battle, he realizes, energies of death aside. A chill runs down his back as he watches the black smoke-like tendrils wrap themselves around Wei Wuxian, responding to the music.

"You okay there?" His tone is sharp and alert now, everything about him focused and ready.

Wei Wuxian's gaze, now taking on a tinge of red, flicks up at the question, and his eyes crinkle again with good humor. He bows, his hair sweeping down over his shoulder in a graceful arc, unable to break away from the music right at this moment. He's almost entirely sure what he's called up isn't nearly powerful enough to do more than look fearsome, but...

Well. The consequences of being wrong are a bit too high to put that much faith in it.

Okay. The slight smile and cheerful bow - he'll take that as a good sign, at least for now, without lessening his watchfulness in the slightest.

The forest feels like it's growing darker around them. He could almost swear that he hears whispers, just at the edge of what's audible, coaxing and tempting and mocking. Bucky turns sideways so that he can keep an eye on as much else as possible without looking away from the thickening smoke coiling around Wei Wuxian.

Is there something lurking in the darker pats of the wood? A hint of motion that doesn't seem to be moving with the swirling smoke?

Wei Wuxian's tune changes, becomes something a little less coaxing, a little more demanding. The smoke changes along with the song - instead of coiling around Wei Wuxian, it arrows towards the targets he set up, one at a time.

Most of the detection talismans go up in flames immediately. But a few only darken at the edges.

One doesn't seem to be changed at all, and Wei Wuxian's grin is visible behind his makeshift dizi. Result!

"I take it that's good?" Dry as dust. Magic of any sort's not his strength, but he can recognize the differences in the results here clear as day.

Wei Wuxian's song shifts again, a little shriller, a little faster - honestly, it almost sounds like an old farmer's wife shooing away rogue chickens. The smoke dissipates as fast as it was called up, a last tendril snaking around Wei Wuxian before shooting off between the trees.

"It certainly isn't bad!" He announces cheerfully, spinning his makeshift flute between his fingers. "It'll probably take some tweaking to fine-tune it to its intended use, but it should actually..."

Something is still moving between the trees.

Something growls.

Oh. Um.

That wasn't supposed to happen.

Wei Wuxian whips around, holding his flute out like it's some sort of shield. It isn't. It's just force of habit.

Bucky moves fast, placing himself between Wei Wuxian and the thing that's growling. A matte-black throwing knife appears in his right hand, and he has his left braced, palm out toward the threat, ready to react.

"Stay behind me," he orders, low and harsh.

Wei Wuxian's first reaction to this sudden protection is... um.

He thinks it's SO cute, he wants to pinch Bucky's cheeks so much it's ridiculous. Look at that serious face! Augh, he's going to die from it!

He does not pinch Bucky's cheeks, but it's a near thing. He may squeak like a trod-on mouse about it though, to himself.

And then the monster emerges into the clearing - it's not particularly huge, nearly man-sized but no taller, flesh closer to rot than whole, teeth a jagged landscape in a gaping mouth, wicked claws on all four paws, giant fluffy ears and a cottonball tail...

It's a resentful yao bunny. Wei Wuxian wails.

"Nooooo, Lan Zhan will be so sad, you can't ever tell him, okay Bucky-xiong? He'll cry!"

It's a fucking zombie rabbit. Great.

Wei Wuxian is yelling something about how his cultivator friend's going to be upset over this, and Bucky decides that he'll deal with that if it happens at some point in the future that's not now.

There's a harsh zing of metal as the first knife flies followed by the second, sharp points finding their home in the dull eyes of the creature. Can it even see? Do rabbits have a keen sense of smell? Is it contagious if it bites? He has no fucking idea and only movies to go on, but might as well start with the obvious.

Bucky strides forward into the fight, leading with his left arm, which he feeds to the zombie rabbit by means of a hard punch to the mouth, trying to shove his hand into its throat. "Chew on that."

Wei Wuxian is duly impressed by the thrown knives - that shows some real skill, and you know, actually helps.

And then Bucky-xiong takes his hand, his potentially-resentful-energy-absorbing hand, that one, and tries to SHOVE IT DOWN THE YAO'S GULLET. Wei Wuxian makes a startled, alarmed yelp a that, because the whole point of this exercise was to keep Bucky from becoming a resentful energy magnet. He immediately goes to haul Bucky back out of range.

But, see, he's forgotten something. Well, two things.

He's forgotten that Bucky is a solidly-built super-soldier.

He's also forgotten that he is, currently, an underweight, undermuscled, undertrained Jin reject with not enough of golden core to make up the difference. While he does manage to get arms over Bucky's shoulder, he does not manage to keep his feet.

The rabbit makes a gargling sound around Bucky's arm and tries to bite down, at which point it's immediately obvious that zombie teeth are no match for vibranium. The shrieking, squealing sound of tooth against metal isn't quite loud enough to drown out Bucky's startled yell as Wei Wuxian latches on to him.

"What the hell are you doing?"

He shifts, placing his body between the younger man and the rabbit from hell as best he can, and curses in Russian as sharp claws rake down his chest and along his thigh. Bucky grabs one of the knives from the zombie's eye and yanks it out, then stabs it in again deeper, trying to reach the brain.

If a thing like this even has a brain.

Wei Wuxian was trying to haul him back like he was a misbehaving junior, but, you know, physics got in the way. Very annoying and unsexy of it. However, he is realizing that this attempted rescue isn't going to work this way, so... back to the flute it is.

He misses Suibian.

One really cannot call the notes he produces a song. They are a sharp discordant series of reprimands, all from someone hanging on to his temper by his fingernails. Think you're going to make lunch of someone today, bunny?

Ding dong, you're wrong.

The music hits the yao like a bodyblow, the rending teeth of it ripping the creature's cohesion to shreds, note by note.

The melody, if one could call it that, screeches through the air and into the creature with the force of a sonic blast. The zombie rabbit lets out an unearthly agonized wail as it starts to fall apart.

"Keep it up!" Bucky yells, and twists his left arm deep in its throat as he stabs it again, trying to tear it into pieces from the inside out.

Wei Wuxian is starting to regret his choice of musical weapon. Lan Zhan has it right - he should have made a guqin, somehow. A lovely pipa, maybe. Even a stupid little two-stringed erhu. That' be fine.

Because then he could shout at Bucky to get his STUPID ARM out of the STUPID YAO before it's CONTAMINATED and you're going to make play Cleansing ALL NIGHT, aren't you? AUGH.

Look, you can take the boy out of Yunmeng Jiang, but you can't take the Jiang out of the boy. He's shouty when he needs to be. But right now he can't be, so he pours that frustration into his dizi, the notes an act of violence in themselves.

Apologies for any Gusu Lan cultivators in the audience.

He's dimly surprised his ears haven't started to bleed from the sound, but it doesn't matter. What's more important is that with a wrench of his arm and a particularly shrill scream from the bamboo flute, the zombie rabbit collapses in a disgusting burst of rotting flesh and black smoke.

Bucky stares at the mess on the ground and the remnants sliding down his left arm to fall into the heap, then slowly bends to pick up his other knife before he turns back to Wei Wuxian, absently wiping both blades clean on his shredded pants leg as he does.

"You okay?"

"Aiya, are you okay he says, after he fed his hand to the resentful creature, took ten years off my life with that." Wei Wuxian bitches, his heritage finally given free rein. "Throwing things was good, that was fine, at what point of the plan did I ever say punch things? I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything about punching things, this isn't a bar brawl, honestly. Come on, you need to get cleaned up, these things are nasty."

He still doesn't have anything approaching the muscle mass required to haul Bucky anywhere, but that doesn't stop him from trying. Attempt the impossible, and all that.

Bucky shrugs. "Works with wyverns," he informs him. "Figured it wouldn't be able to chew through the arm. But believe me, if I'd had a gun or a few more knives stashed I'd have used them."

His eyebrows go up as Wei Wuxian tries to drag him in the direction of the bar, but he doesn't resist. After all, he's right - that thing was disgusting.

"That thing was oozing resentful energy! Your arm absorbs energy. It's going to take me hours to get that out." Wei Wuxian huffs, because of course he's going to clean it up, don't be ridiculous. "I should let Wen Qing have at you. Actually, that's not a bad idea, she can make sure those cuts don't get infected."

Is it still considered a spiteful move, if doing a thing will actually help?

Probably, if Wei Wuxian carries through his plot to make Bucky's medicine extra bitter. He is, however, pleased that Bucky is moving, definitely less pleased that now he has yao bits on him. He's tempted to wipe his hand off on Bucky.

"So what, I was supposed to stand there and let it eat you?" Bucky scoffs. "Like hell."

He stashes the knives in their hidden sheath and brushes ineffectually at the torn front of his shirt. "I heal pretty fast," he says, although he notes with some surprise that he's still bleeding, if sluggishly. "It'll be fine."

"If the entire cultivation world failed to kill me, one ugly bunny yao certainly wasn't going to." Wei Wuxian scoffs in return, because really, that's just embarrassing. "And yes, you'll be fine, because you'll get clean and drink your medicine and let me play Cleansing at you."

Because.

You know.

Wei Wuxian has a good way to enforce those orders beyond 'get Wen Ning to sit on Bucky'.

Actually, that could work. Anyone seen a Ghost General?

Edited 2021-10-14 05:59 (UTC)

"You're damn right it wasn't, especially as I wasn't just going to let it try," Bucky grits back at him, keeping pace and ignoring the stabbing ache in his leg with pure will. "What's Cleansing do? And don't tell me it cleans things, I know it's not a shower."

"It cleans things." Wei Wuxian mulishly parrots, ducking out of range quickly. "More importantly, it draws out and purifies resentful energy so that you don't go home cursed, because you punched a Giant Undead Bunny."

He makes a strangled sound of frustration as they clear the trees and start crossing the grass toward the bar.

"Well, I had to do something, didn't I?"

"Something covers a lot of ground, Bucky-xiong! I don't know, throw a rock at it, distract it with a strip tease, don't punch it with the energy-absorbing arm. At least not until I can get some effective wards on it." Wei Wuxian admonishes, half skipping backwards to keep an eye on Bucky's progress.