I think you would probably be fine barefoot, could say it was for your cultivation. I would definitely get looked at weird though, I can't use that excuse.
I didn't know you needed a cover story for going by the living room! Why would he be standing in the corner like some kind of specter? Is that what you think Lan Zhan does when you can't see him? I'm not even going to question this anymore, the window plan makes perfect sense, 👍.
[Klaudia is already creeping off the bottom step (feet balanced on the outer edges of the steps to avoid any squeaks) when her phone dings with his response and gives her a heart attack. She clamps both hands over her pocket, and stands completely still for the seven and a half seconds it takes for her heart rate to fall out of the triple digits.]
[She doesn't read it yet, instead slides open the backdoor just half an inch to check the backyard. No Lan Wangji here... She eases open the door with her breath held, just enough to slide sideways through the opening, and then eases it shut again. The trip around the back of the house is less fraught--there's nothing yet to obscure her view, and she only pauses to peak around the corner of the building before creeping up the side and peering through the window...]
[She exhales. No Lan Wangji here, either. The living room is Cloud Free.]
[Klaudia hurries back inside, still trying to open and close the sliding door with utmost silence. She needs practice with doors like these... Does it help if she lifts it a bit? That's always helped before.]
[Back inside the house, she slides her shoes off so she doesn't track dirtchecks the dining room just in case goes quickly to the living room and hops over the back of the couch. Walking around it would have taken two extra seconds. Lying on her stomach on the cushions with the backrest as a shield from the rest of the room, she can finally respond back properly.]
He might have been! I don't know what ☁️ does when I'm not looking at him. Maybe he's a ghost that's haunting this house now. Maybe we are. There's absolutely no way to know.
And so Wei Wuxian goes to the living room in a completely normal way, which includes being utterly unaware of all the subterfuge that just occurred under the same roof (mostly). The surety of being a ghost expert has long since worn off, and upon arrival he foregoes greetings entirely, taking a stance and clearing his throat to make an announcement. "The reason for this audience, as you might have guessed, is Lan Zhan's birthday." He pauses very briefly, to let the gravity sink in.
...Which is about all the sect conference level propriety he has in him for the day, and he continues in a more naturally woeful rush. "We have to make a really good plan, you have to help. It's like a birthday and a housewarming, right? So it has to be twice as good, and it had to be very good already. But in a Lan way! With no liquor or meat or excessive amounts of noise. But still good! So you see why I need advising from a sand cultivator. I mean, what does that even leave?"
Klaudia had a feeling that's what this was about. It's not like she doesn't know Lan Wangji's birthday is coming up. Someone has to be keeping track of the days, and she constantly has three calendars in mind at any given time; and what else could Wei Wuxian possibly want to hold a meeting about? Especially if he's excluding Lan Wangji.
So the proclamation is met with an attentive look from the couch, but also... a slightly distracted look to the open doorway leading back out into the foyer. Does he realize the door is still open? Because it's still open, and she didn't check the kitchen. Could Lan Wangji be in the kitchen? He very well could be.
There is absolutely nothing to be done about what's already been said, but Klaudia is going to climb back over the back of the couch without a word and pull those sliding doors shut just in case. "That leaves not leaving the doors open when having a secret meeting." Just a little quieter than she normally is. Not a whisper, but still some caution--and meeting his energy just a little bit more as she decides to pace back and forth behind the couches instead of sitting down again.
"...What else does he like? I think we can do quiet for one day, right? Or quieter at least. I don't know if we should be very quiet, that might be weird. And there doesn't have to be meat or liquor to have a party. There's... cake? Or I guess noodles. He should definitely get noodles. And gifts. And music? He likes music." She doesn't play any instruments, but she knows that Wei Wuxian does.
But beyond that... She's not sure what else a birthday entails. Most of her birthdays were expensive gifts and foods, brought to her by her mother when she was younger and then simply left for her as she got older. The one birthday she'd had at sea was bewildering, simple but boisterous--jarring for all of its implicit care. The one she'd had here was pleasant and endearing, but didn't leave much for ideas.
"...I told him that surprises are nice when we were planning yours. Do you think he'll like a surprise, too? Is there something we can surprise him with?"
The meeting is only like, a little secret, and doors are the furthest thing from his mind, or at least they were until he was--scolded? A little? He blinks from her to the door and back at this, a little dumbfounded, but accepts it nonetheless. Lan Zhan is undoubtedly busy and probably not lurking anywhere this time, and even when he does lurk it's really far too elegant to be called that, so why's she like this. Maybe he shouldn't have brought this energy to the not-so-secret-meeting in the first place, but it's the energy he has and isn't that what cultivation is about?
"Noodles are a given! And cake! I didn't think I even had to say that. Though obviously it has to be a very good cake and very righteous." Do Lans even traditionally get birthdays? Do they just spring up fully formed under jade cabbages on the back of a mountain, without any ceremony or fuss? "I don't think he won't like a surprise. Though I don't know how much of a surprise it can be, unless he forgot his birthday was coming. Gifts should be auspicious and honor a new house, no clocks, no fans. Fruits obviously, no pears. Maybe a painting? I have a portrait, but he'd never display it as a house decoration, too grandiose. What about rabbits? Real or painted? Both?"
Klaudia nods earnestly along as he all but ticks off ideas. Noodles, cake--they're both agreed on that, even if the details aren't well defined. What makes a cake very good or very righteous? Tasty and wholesome? It probably shouldn't have cheese, which is something she personally has regrets about.
The other things come a little more rapid-fire... Auspicious gifts, no clocks, no fans, fruit--but not pears. She feels a little dizzy, trying to hold all these thoughts. How is she supposed to know what's auspicious or not? She's brimming with questions, but that's not useful for brainstorming if he's already crossed them off the list. She tries to focus on the things she can help decide on.
"Is both doable? I mean, he likes rabbits a lot, and his familiar might like some friends. But this place has a lot of walls, so it could have a lot of decorations too." She barely even stops for breath as she switches to her other thought. "What about moon cakes? Or... other kind of cakes? I showed him a really cool one once--it was white and blue and misty with darker swatches that looked like mountains. He liked that. Maybe we can make them look like that, but tiny. Tiny mountain cakes. Is that auspicious enough?"
How often auspiciousness is determined purely by what they have called 'word games' while learning about their inability to carry across in this world, is another thing far from his mind currently. But it doesn't matter, Wei Wuxian is here to be the arbiter of auspice for the uninitiated. Someone has to be, since Lan Zhan is apparently more serious about it than he would have assumed, outside the realm of cultivation-friendly environmental layouts. Is a single rabbit as bad as a lone duck? He can't risk it.
"Both is doable, unless there's only no-good rabbits, that would be just my luck." Small mountain cakes poses some interesting challenges, and he takes a moment to consider this, stroking his chin thoughtfully. Jury is out on the auspiciousness, but the righteousness is beyond question.
"Tiny mountain cakes could work, if we're ruling out a big cake that probably goes up to heaven. Though I suppose any cake is better than little ghosts on sticks. Wouldn't it be funny if the Lan upbringing gave them all a taste for sweets they won't admit to? Gusu food is sweet, I don't know what went wrong at Cloud Recesses." He's started to feel a little dizzied himself. "We could at least stack them very high."
Klaudia is glad that her tiny mountain cake idea holds water because she's increasingly perplexed by the stipulations that a ghost is putting on these gifts. Rabbits are good, but... not if they're no-good? What does that even mean? No, she can't take it. She can't hold her peace on this.
"What makes a rabbit no-good?" she all but demands an explanation for these questionable rabbits. And like the single crack that breaks a levee, the rest of the questions rush after. "And why can't we gift fans or pears or clocks... I would have thought clocks were nice gifts. They're elegant without being too fancy, aren't they? Very dignified, especially for someone that likes being punctual." Which Lan Wangji clearly does. It seems very unfair that something so suitable would be off the list.
This outburst has him blinking at her in surprise, like it only took a few seconds for him to forget the threat of Klaudia asking questions, or perhaps her involvement altogether. They were doing so well, and now he has to give a verbal lecture on appropriate fruits? Well, he should probably have expected a time limit on Klaudia's ability to stifle her curiosity, as much as there is on any silence spell.
"Badly behaved, smelly, whatever rabbits are left after someone gets the good ones? I don't know, use your imagination!" As to the rest, her imagination presumably will not avail her any. Not Inquiry performed by a lunatic, but just a very unworldly spirit, here to listen to lectures. "Clocks can be elegant, but they also remind people that things come to an end," he says, with a look of brow-furrowed seriousness, visibly willing her to do the math on death. If anyone were to ever take it wrong, it would be Lan Zhan, who has already scolded them about joking fruit offerings and turned absolutely weaponized looks on him over unpaired ducks. Perhaps ironically, neither of them can possibly survive such disapproval a second time, and on his birthday, to boot? "Fans scatter. A pear sounds like a parting, and there are so many kinds of fruit which are better! Peaches for long life, apples for peace. New fruit that don't mean anything at all. But good ones."
"All animals are badly behaved and smelly. That's why you have to take care of them." At least, that's how chickens are. She assumes that basically every other animal is no different. Are animals really supposed to know that they should be clean and well behaved? Are any animals actually like that, familiars notwithstanding?
The look of seriousness draws her up short, though. That... is a thing. Certainly. She definitely didn't mean to imply that she had forgotten about that little detail; and she presses her lips together, contrite but grudgingly so. "A lot of things can remind someone of that... Fruit, too. It's not like those last a long time." Obviously not the point, but she's only trying to survive her own embarrassment. So no clocks. Or fruits that sound like partings. Maybe they should just avoid all fruit to be safe? This is so much harder than it was to plan for a ghost...
"We're not going to have anything to give him if you keep crossing things off the list, you know. Why not just get him a bunch of rabbits? Or that sleepy brown thing we saw at the fair? It couldn't possibly be badly behaved; I'm not even sure it was fully awake."
Well the idea is that you eat the fruit and don't give it time not to last, obviously, says his look, but he's willing to pass by the lifespan of fruit for her other suggestions because it's technically a fair point. Though at least you CAN eat the fruit; flowers don't even get that. A bridge they will undoubtedly cross momentarily. Truthfully he isn't sure he's ready to broach the subject with Klaudia again, but he takes the edge of a seat so he can be prepared for it nonetheless.
"I like those ideas. There were a bunch of rabbits at Cloud Recesses, and they were very nice rabbits with no opinions, I'm sure he misses that a lot. And if the cushion animal has any associations to it he can't possibly know about them unless it comes with a list. Which we would destroy, of course. Do you think one is enough? But you should get to give one too, it was your idea. Do you think there are two?"
Klaudia is refusing to accept anymore looks today. She's already ruled out fruit, so he's going to have to live with that. At least he grants her some clemency with his approval of the rabbits and the 'cushion animal'. The question of how many sleepy pillows is a good enough is a whole new trial, though.
"Technically your idea, I just added to it," she quips with absolutely no intention of staking claim on particular animals or even particular gifts. They're just collectively brainstorming now. And Lan Wangji deserves a lot of gifts, so does it really matter who they're coming from? They could end up with a whole room of gifts, and that would be fine so long as he likes them. "Didn't he cause a fuss about there being only one duck? Or is that only with ducks? Do you think he'll frown if we get him only one furry pillow creature instead of two? I'm sure there has to be at least two. They wouldn't be selling them at all if that wasn't the case. They'd be in some rich person's house, or protective custody or something."
Klaudia's reasoning about the scarcity or lack thereof of cushion animals is reassuring, but Wei Wuxian is preoccupied with reliving the single duck "fuss," now removed from the strain of being the one in charge of providing additional ducks. In his defense it was painfully endearing at the time, despite his put-upon assurances regarding the second duck's unremarkable absence.
"You both caused a fuss. I didn't think I'd ever be allowed to stop drawing ducks and I'm still not sure what I was being punished for on that day." It's really for the best he isn't privy to Klaudia's thoughts about a whole room of gifts. Some overbearingness will be allowed, even ideal, but they can only fluster Lan Zhan a little, not leave him feeling overwhelmed. A delicate balance that they have been charged to strike by the heavens. "I think that is only with ducks, but we should still get two so the first one can have a friend. And so the rabbits all have places to sit. Not having to break them out of protective custody will save time, at least."
Klaudia lifts her chin in defense. "I didn't cause a fuss. I just wanted the picture. It could have had one duck or a hundred ducks; I wasn't being picky." Is that unreasonable? She doesn't think so, and if she said otherwise she doesn't remember it. Lan Wangji was the one insisting on adding more ducks, that was his punishment to inflict on a silly ghost. She was just an innocent bystander.
"Two sleepy pillows is a good number, but what about the rabbits? Do those have to be even numbers too? Two seems like too small a number for rabbits. Do we get four? Or six? Or eight? How many is too many rabbits?" Considering they'll have to care for them all, maybe they shouldn't be getting a hoard of them. Even the most polite and well behaved rabbits aren't going to be self-managing.
The audacity of this sand cultivator! Wei Wuxian gasps in a kind of delighted outrage. "You wanted ten little ducks! I remember because my life flashed in my eyes!" So brazen, trying to foist off her share of the duck concern. Amazing that he even remembers the series of events so exactly, but that's how intense the duck fuss had been (which is to say, very funny). "Can't believe you would try to make Lan Zhan to blame while we're planning his birthday. So unrighteous."
But speaking of righteousness, she has a point about the rabbits. Two is barely any, four is out of the question, and eight might put them over some kind of Lan Zhan flusterment limit, as much as he would like at least a dozen to be a part of the full experience, maybe poured gently on Lan Zhan from some kind of container. But six would have to be enough for now. As to their care, surely any of the less photogenic aspects can be pawned off on what he cannot help but think of as the juniors, at least some of the time. That's to build character, or something, surely. Still, he sounds less than self assured. "Six seems right? The whole point is to be like Cloud Recesses, but we can't get that many. I think they like to live in groups, so it shouldn't be a problem for them. But we would be outnumbered."
Klaudia huffs out a breath, crossing her arms over her chest. "The rabbits can outnumber us; I'll allow it if it'll save me from your duck fussing." Honestly. Who complains this much about drawing ducks? Didn't he say he was a master of art? Ten tiny ducks should have been no problem for him--if she asked for that at all. Maybe she did, or maybe she just used ten duck emojis and he inferred that was how many she wanted! Who can really say?
"But I guess six is enough." The most put-upon acquiescence to a quantity that she suggested herself. But if they're in agreement about the kind and the number, then that seems settled enough to her. "What else? If we only get him animals, he'll think we're starting a menagerie. ...Which is fine! But he should have fancy gifts too."
He said he was a master of a very specific number of arts, and whether drawing any number of ducks falls explicitly under any of the six headings is up for some debate. But ducks aren't the point, because they don't have a place for any and he's at this point less familiar with the art of keeping them than that of drawing them. Do the pretty ones even serve a purpose? They must lay eggs sometimes, but that hardly seems worth it. Maybe the ducks he isn't getting would just be ornamental. Questions for another time, since Klaudia seems to think they should table animals for now.
"He should have fancy gifts," he says with a beneficent nod, because Klaudia is a joy to have in class correct and that should be acknowledged, before he devolves into energetic reminiscence that he feels certain will be appreciated with exactly the care it deserves. Klaudia loves this kind of thing, she's bound to be on board. "The Cloud Recesses lectures started off with a gift giving ceremony, so all the major clans got to throw their weight around with valuable offerings. There were no animals at all obviously, so we've already improved on that, but there was a fancy book. Books can be fancy but still practical if they're good to read, you tell me that's not a good gift." And a fun sidequest.
More Cloud Recesses stories are never not well-received. Fancy gift giving ceremonies? Valuable offerings? Klaudia listens with rapt attention, all squabbling about rabbits and ducks forgotten. Does there have to be ceremony with it? Do the gifts have to be expensive? It's sounding very much like just rabbits and sleepy pillow creatures would be woefully subpar on this occasion. Maybe she should be worrying about if the rabbits are good enough or not...
The mention of a fancy book lights her expression up, though. "It is, it is!" She chimes back at him with excitement, also forgetting that she'd only chided him about secrecy a few minutes ago. It's a very good gift, and one that she's just as delighted to think about as she would be to gift it. "There's no rules against books, right? There shouldn't be. Books can't possibly be inauspicious, and you can't tell me otherwise. So we just have to figure out what kind of book he likes..." A small hiccup in that plan. But she rounds on Wei Wuxian almost as quickly as she trails off, making a new demand: "What kind we should get? You know him best; what books does he like?"
The Cloud Recesses story was meant more as a kind of verbal spitballing combined with a sacrifice to the questions cultivator, deserved for being so restrained in this conference. Not a guide to the price or valuability of gifts, though that concern surely already existed, as they are both no doubt prepared to engage in hand to hand combat over elusive cushion animals, should it become necessary. And she very much should be worrying about the quality of the rabbits. Wei Wuxian is counting on her.
But her enthusiasm for the book tack is rewarding nonetheless, even if the vehemence of the question leaves him looking a little attacked, despite his perpetual station as the high functionary of Lan Zhan facts real and imagined. Truthfully, and as usual, he didn't think that far.
"I think he likes all good books," he ventures, uselessly, followed by a kind of amused wince. "...Mostly." This isn't the time to confess to bullying even if it's very funny, he's a good influence now and anyway involving another party would be unsportsmanlike. Still, he'd never see it coming. "A classical text was the gift for the ceremony, but something new might be even better. Who's to say?" Wei Wuxian, technically, but he doesn't seem inclined. "Depends on what we could find, and why not both, anyway? It would be more meaningful that way." Please don't make him back that up.
A ghost is thankfully being spared for the moment. There's a story behind that Mostly that Klaudia almost asks about. What sort of book would Lan Wangji not like? Did Wei Wuxian try to give him something silly or frivolous? But he offers more information as a sacrifice to a questions predator, and she takes the offering and runs with that instead, mulling it over until she arrives at a new dilemma.
"It might be hard to find any fancy books on short notice. People don't like to part with those easily." At least not without a lot of money being traded, which normally wouldn't be a problem--but she's trying to be good. Which means not dipping into the more lucrative quests on the dark web. And there's also all the house modifications to consider... She can alchemize a lot of things, but they'll still need supplies. She can't make things out of thin air. (Yet.)
"What if we look for a book that he would like, and then we make it fancy? So long as it's in good condition, we could add some gold leaf or something..." Klaudia's never specifically worked with embellishing a book cover, but she's familiar with a lot of examples. Though now that she thinks about it, there's another potential problem with that approach. "Would gold be right, or should it be something else? Silver? Platinum?"
For once his calculated sacrifice worked exactly as intended, and he doesn't have to confess to any shenanigans or suffer any sharp-handed admonishments. All but physically, he is patting himself on the back for how well this is going. Klaudia isn't even offering to steal a fancy book from some dangerous locked library or anything. They're nailing this.
Far from stealing, her suggestion is actually very good, even if it opens up the table to yet more decisions. "Gold isn't unusual, and it is very fancy and auspicious, but we could pick something better, less stuck up. I'm sure Lan Zhan wouldn't mind. ...Can you just get platinum?" Now he looks and sounds a little spooked. Why can their sand cultivator just get platinum? He supposes he never thought to check. He's not sure he knew it was real in the first place. But he quickly disregards metal specifics with a wave of his hand; now it's up to them to choose a book that's either edifying because it's old, or interesting because it's new, and he can only hope they have such options. "It doesn't have to be platinum, if you can't, or if it's not real. But since it's kind of like, planting a library seed, right? It can be unusually fancy, without being against the rules, I think. Especially if we're the ones who made it that way."
If Klaudia knew that stealing had been an option that was on the table (for her), she would have vetoed it herself. They can't give Lan Wangji a stolen gift! There had to be a rule against that--not just stealing, but gifting stolen property to Lan Wangji specifically. It would be an outrage. Even if he didn't find out (which he would because he can probably smell impropriety), they would still have to go live in the woods out of shame.
But fortunately illegally acquired gifts are the least of Klaudia's worries at the moment. What is truly perplexing her is how Wei Wuxian has apparently never seen platinum before. Did it translate poorly, or does he really think it doesn't exist?
"Why wouldn't platinum be real? I thought you were from a noble family. Weren't you wealthy?" She can't help but sound incredulous. Who ever heard of a noble not having platinum? There were some markets in Waterdeep where you'd be laughed out of the room if you tried to pay for something in gold--if you could even cart that much gold around in the first place. Who would carry around a thousand pieces of gold when just twenty Harbor Moons would do? "I can't make it; it's like gold or silver like that, but it's just a metal. I can work with it."
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no subject
Date: 2022-01-24 12:23 am (UTC)From:I didn't know you needed a cover story for going by the living room! Why would he be standing in the corner like some kind of specter? Is that what you think Lan Zhan does when you can't see him? I'm not even going to question this anymore, the window plan makes perfect sense, 👍.
1/2
Date: 2022-01-24 01:06 am (UTC)From:[She doesn't read it yet, instead slides open the backdoor just half an inch to check the backyard. No Lan Wangji here... She eases open the door with her breath held, just enough to slide sideways through the opening, and then eases it shut again. The trip around the back of the house is less fraught--there's nothing yet to obscure her view, and she only pauses to peak around the corner of the building before creeping up the side and peering through the window...]
[She exhales. No Lan Wangji here, either. The living room is Cloud Free.]
❌☁️ 👍
2/2
Date: 2022-01-24 01:06 am (UTC)From:[Back inside the house, she
slides her shoes off so she doesn't track dirtchecks the dining room just in casegoes quickly to the living room and hops over the back of the couch. Walking around it would have taken two extra seconds. Lying on her stomach on the cushions with the backrest as a shield from the rest of the room, she can finally respond back properly.]He might have been! I don't know what ☁️ does when I'm not looking at him. Maybe he's a ghost that's haunting this house now. Maybe we are. There's absolutely no way to know.
But anyway, I'm here. You better be coming! 👿👿👿
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Date: 2022-01-24 01:48 am (UTC)From:2/3 actually, what are you going to do
Date: 2022-01-24 01:54 am (UTC)From:3/3
Date: 2022-01-24 01:59 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2022-01-24 03:23 am (UTC)From:So the proclamation is met with an attentive look from the couch, but also... a slightly distracted look to the open doorway leading back out into the foyer. Does he realize the door is still open? Because it's still open, and she didn't check the kitchen. Could Lan Wangji be in the kitchen? He very well could be.
There is absolutely nothing to be done about what's already been said, but Klaudia is going to climb back over the back of the couch without a word and pull those sliding doors shut just in case. "That leaves not leaving the doors open when having a secret meeting." Just a little quieter than she normally is. Not a whisper, but still some caution--and meeting his energy just a little bit more as she decides to pace back and forth behind the couches instead of sitting down again.
"...What else does he like? I think we can do quiet for one day, right? Or quieter at least. I don't know if we should be very quiet, that might be weird. And there doesn't have to be meat or liquor to have a party. There's... cake? Or I guess noodles. He should definitely get noodles. And gifts. And music? He likes music." She doesn't play any instruments, but she knows that Wei Wuxian does.
But beyond that... She's not sure what else a birthday entails. Most of her birthdays were expensive gifts and foods, brought to her by her mother when she was younger and then simply left for her as she got older. The one birthday she'd had at sea was bewildering, simple but boisterous--jarring for all of its implicit care. The one she'd had here was pleasant and endearing, but didn't leave much for ideas.
"...I told him that surprises are nice when we were planning yours. Do you think he'll like a surprise, too? Is there something we can surprise him with?"
no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 07:11 pm (UTC)From:"Noodles are a given! And cake! I didn't think I even had to say that. Though obviously it has to be a very good cake and very righteous." Do Lans even traditionally get birthdays? Do they just spring up fully formed under jade cabbages on the back of a mountain, without any ceremony or fuss? "I don't think he won't like a surprise. Though I don't know how much of a surprise it can be, unless he forgot his birthday was coming. Gifts should be auspicious and honor a new house, no clocks, no fans. Fruits obviously, no pears. Maybe a painting? I have a portrait, but he'd never display it as a house decoration, too grandiose. What about rabbits? Real or painted? Both?"
no subject
Date: 2022-02-01 10:33 pm (UTC)From:The other things come a little more rapid-fire... Auspicious gifts, no clocks, no fans, fruit--but not pears. She feels a little dizzy, trying to hold all these thoughts. How is she supposed to know what's auspicious or not? She's brimming with questions, but that's not useful for brainstorming if he's already crossed them off the list. She tries to focus on the things she can help decide on.
"Is both doable? I mean, he likes rabbits a lot, and his familiar might like some friends. But this place has a lot of walls, so it could have a lot of decorations too." She barely even stops for breath as she switches to her other thought. "What about moon cakes? Or... other kind of cakes? I showed him a really cool one once--it was white and blue and misty with darker swatches that looked like mountains. He liked that. Maybe we can make them look like that, but tiny. Tiny mountain cakes. Is that auspicious enough?"
no subject
Date: 2022-02-11 06:13 pm (UTC)From:"Both is doable, unless there's only no-good rabbits, that would be just my luck." Small mountain cakes poses some interesting challenges, and he takes a moment to consider this, stroking his chin thoughtfully. Jury is out on the auspiciousness, but the righteousness is beyond question.
"Tiny mountain cakes could work, if we're ruling out a big cake that probably goes up to heaven. Though I suppose any cake is better than little ghosts on sticks. Wouldn't it be funny if the Lan upbringing gave them all a taste for sweets they won't admit to? Gusu food is sweet, I don't know what went wrong at Cloud Recesses." He's started to feel a little dizzied himself. "We could at least stack them very high."
no subject
Date: 2022-02-21 10:13 pm (UTC)From:"What makes a rabbit no-good?" she all but demands an explanation for these questionable rabbits. And like the single crack that breaks a levee, the rest of the questions rush after. "And why can't we gift fans or pears or clocks... I would have thought clocks were nice gifts. They're elegant without being too fancy, aren't they? Very dignified, especially for someone that likes being punctual." Which Lan Wangji clearly does. It seems very unfair that something so suitable would be off the list.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-20 04:47 pm (UTC)From:"Badly behaved, smelly, whatever rabbits are left after someone gets the good ones? I don't know, use your imagination!" As to the rest, her imagination presumably will not avail her any. Not Inquiry performed by a lunatic, but just a very unworldly spirit, here to listen to lectures. "Clocks can be elegant, but they also remind people that things come to an end," he says, with a look of brow-furrowed seriousness, visibly willing her to do the math on death. If anyone were to ever take it wrong, it would be Lan Zhan, who has already scolded them about joking fruit offerings and turned absolutely weaponized looks on him over unpaired ducks. Perhaps ironically, neither of them can possibly survive such disapproval a second time, and on his birthday, to boot? "Fans scatter. A pear sounds like a parting, and there are so many kinds of fruit which are better! Peaches for long life, apples for peace. New fruit that don't mean anything at all. But good ones."
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Date: 2022-03-21 01:42 am (UTC)From:The look of seriousness draws her up short, though. That... is a thing. Certainly. She definitely didn't mean to imply that she had forgotten about that little detail; and she presses her lips together, contrite but grudgingly so. "A lot of things can remind someone of that... Fruit, too. It's not like those last a long time." Obviously not the point, but she's only trying to survive her own embarrassment. So no clocks. Or fruits that sound like partings. Maybe they should just avoid all fruit to be safe? This is so much harder than it was to plan for a ghost...
"We're not going to have anything to give him if you keep crossing things off the list, you know. Why not just get him a bunch of rabbits? Or that sleepy brown thing we saw at the fair? It couldn't possibly be badly behaved; I'm not even sure it was fully awake."
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Date: 2022-03-27 04:18 pm (UTC)From:"I like those ideas. There were a bunch of rabbits at Cloud Recesses, and they were very nice rabbits with no opinions, I'm sure he misses that a lot. And if the cushion animal has any associations to it he can't possibly know about them unless it comes with a list. Which we would destroy, of course. Do you think one is enough? But you should get to give one too, it was your idea. Do you think there are two?"
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Date: 2022-03-27 04:42 pm (UTC)From:"Technically your idea, I just added to it," she quips with absolutely no intention of staking claim on particular animals or even particular gifts. They're just collectively brainstorming now. And Lan Wangji deserves a lot of gifts, so does it really matter who they're coming from? They could end up with a whole room of gifts, and that would be fine so long as he likes them. "Didn't he cause a fuss about there being only one duck? Or is that only with ducks? Do you think he'll frown if we get him only one furry pillow creature instead of two? I'm sure there has to be at least two. They wouldn't be selling them at all if that wasn't the case. They'd be in some rich person's house, or protective custody or something."
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Date: 2022-04-10 04:17 pm (UTC)From:"You both caused a fuss. I didn't think I'd ever be allowed to stop drawing ducks and I'm still not sure what I was being punished for on that day." It's really for the best he isn't privy to Klaudia's thoughts about a whole room of gifts. Some overbearingness will be allowed, even ideal, but they can only fluster Lan Zhan a little, not leave him feeling overwhelmed. A delicate balance that they have been charged to strike by the heavens. "I think that is only with ducks, but we should still get two so the first one can have a friend. And so the rabbits all have places to sit. Not having to break them out of protective custody will save time, at least."
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Date: 2022-04-11 04:50 pm (UTC)From:"Two sleepy pillows is a good number, but what about the rabbits? Do those have to be even numbers too? Two seems like too small a number for rabbits. Do we get four? Or six? Or eight? How many is too many rabbits?" Considering they'll have to care for them all, maybe they shouldn't be getting a hoard of them. Even the most polite and well behaved rabbits aren't going to be self-managing.
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Date: 2022-04-25 02:15 am (UTC)From:But speaking of righteousness, she has a point about the rabbits. Two is barely any, four is out of the question, and eight might put them over some kind of Lan Zhan flusterment limit, as much as he would like at least a dozen to be a part of the full experience, maybe poured gently on Lan Zhan from some kind of container. But six would have to be enough for now. As to their care, surely any of the less photogenic aspects can be pawned off on what he cannot help but think of as the juniors, at least some of the time. That's to build character, or something, surely. Still, he sounds less than self assured. "Six seems right? The whole point is to be like Cloud Recesses, but we can't get that many. I think they like to live in groups, so it shouldn't be a problem for them. But we would be outnumbered."
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Date: 2022-04-25 06:02 pm (UTC)From:"But I guess six is enough." The most put-upon acquiescence to a quantity that she suggested herself. But if they're in agreement about the kind and the number, then that seems settled enough to her. "What else? If we only get him animals, he'll think we're starting a menagerie. ...Which is fine! But he should have fancy gifts too."
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Date: 2022-04-30 08:18 pm (UTC)From:"He should have fancy gifts," he says with a beneficent nod, because Klaudia is
a joy to have in classcorrect and that should be acknowledged, before he devolves into energetic reminiscence that he feels certain will be appreciated with exactly the care it deserves. Klaudia loves this kind of thing, she's bound to be on board. "The Cloud Recesses lectures started off with a gift giving ceremony, so all the major clans got to throw their weight around with valuable offerings. There were no animals at all obviously, so we've already improved on that, but there was a fancy book. Books can be fancy but still practical if they're good to read, you tell me that's not a good gift." And a fun sidequest.no subject
Date: 2022-05-04 01:49 am (UTC)From:The mention of a fancy book lights her expression up, though. "It is, it is!" She chimes back at him with excitement, also forgetting that she'd only chided him about secrecy a few minutes ago. It's a very good gift, and one that she's just as delighted to think about as she would be to gift it. "There's no rules against books, right? There shouldn't be. Books can't possibly be inauspicious, and you can't tell me otherwise. So we just have to figure out what kind of book he likes..." A small hiccup in that plan. But she rounds on Wei Wuxian almost as quickly as she trails off, making a new demand: "What kind we should get? You know him best; what books does he like?"
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Date: 2022-05-05 10:45 pm (UTC)From:But her enthusiasm for the book tack is rewarding nonetheless, even if the vehemence of the question leaves him looking a little attacked, despite his perpetual station as the high functionary of Lan Zhan facts real and imagined. Truthfully, and as usual, he didn't think that far.
"I think he likes all good books," he ventures, uselessly, followed by a kind of amused wince. "...Mostly." This isn't the time to confess to bullying even if it's very funny, he's a good influence now and anyway involving another party would be unsportsmanlike.
Still, he'd never see it coming."A classical text was the gift for the ceremony, but something new might be even better. Who's to say?" Wei Wuxian, technically, but he doesn't seem inclined. "Depends on what we could find, and why not both, anyway? It would be more meaningful that way." Please don't make him back that up.no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 04:38 pm (UTC)From:"It might be hard to find any fancy books on short notice. People don't like to part with those easily." At least not without a lot of money being traded, which normally wouldn't be a problem--but she's trying to be good. Which means not dipping into the more lucrative quests on the dark web. And there's also all the house modifications to consider... She can alchemize a lot of things, but they'll still need supplies. She can't make things out of thin air. (Yet.)
"What if we look for a book that he would like, and then we make it fancy? So long as it's in good condition, we could add some gold leaf or something..." Klaudia's never specifically worked with embellishing a book cover, but she's familiar with a lot of examples. Though now that she thinks about it, there's another potential problem with that approach. "Would gold be right, or should it be something else? Silver? Platinum?"
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Date: 2022-05-29 10:21 pm (UTC)From:Far from stealing, her suggestion is actually very good, even if it opens up the table to yet more decisions. "Gold isn't unusual, and it is very fancy and auspicious, but we could pick something better, less stuck up. I'm sure Lan Zhan wouldn't mind. ...Can you just get platinum?" Now he looks and sounds a little spooked. Why can their sand cultivator just get platinum? He supposes he never thought to check. He's not sure he knew it was real in the first place. But he quickly disregards metal specifics with a wave of his hand; now it's up to them to choose a book that's either edifying because it's old, or interesting because it's new, and he can only hope they have such options. "It doesn't have to be platinum, if you can't, or if it's not real. But since it's kind of like, planting a library seed, right? It can be unusually fancy, without being against the rules, I think. Especially if we're the ones who made it that way."
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Date: 2022-05-30 12:16 am (UTC)From:But fortunately illegally acquired gifts are the least of Klaudia's worries at the moment. What is truly perplexing her is how Wei Wuxian has apparently never seen platinum before. Did it translate poorly, or does he really think it doesn't exist?
"Why wouldn't platinum be real? I thought you were from a noble family. Weren't you wealthy?" She can't help but sound incredulous. Who ever heard of a noble not having platinum? There were some markets in Waterdeep where you'd be laughed out of the room if you tried to pay for something in gold--if you could even cart that much gold around in the first place. Who would carry around a thousand pieces of gold when just twenty Harbor Moons would do? "I can't make it; it's like gold or silver like that, but it's just a metal. I can work with it."
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