[[open post and announcement: no mourners, no funerals]]

[ravkanwitch]

[cw: discussion of death!]

Nina knows that word of Shen Yuan's death has been slowly spreading. She tried to put out a general warning of danger right after it happened... but she's not sure how many people were warned by it. She wasn't in the right mind at the time, after all. This time, she's more careful and collected. With SecUnit's help, she's alerted and gathered everyone who's interested for an important announcement in the lobby of the mansion. Despite all appearances of bossiness and stubbornness - all quite true - Nina has never been in charge of anything so serious. Kaz, Zoya, and the King himself; she followed their lead. As people slowly begin to gather and she attempts to compose herself, she wonders why she decided to put herself up to this.

Deep breath, Zenik. Pretend that - well, that this is pretend. She's back in the orphanage as the official greeter, making an important announcement to all the other children. She's the governor of a small town, making sure that all the citizens are aware and prepared. It does have to be her, after all. She's playing a crucial role in everything. She also doesn't want anyone else to carry the emotional load.

"Hi," she tells everyone gathered, trying to paste on a somber but not-too-morose expression. "Thanks for coming. I'm sure some of you have heard part of this announcement already and I'm sorry that it took so long to pass this information onto everyone else... but there was an incident not too long ago. We're not sure what caused it, whether it was the house or whether it was an individual, but... Shen Yuan is dead." There's most likely a reaction at this point and Nina forges onwards as confidently as she can, pitching her voice above the hubbub.

"But there is a way that he can return. We're sure of it. We're just trying to figure out the details, which might take a while. If you want to know more about that, you can ask Magnus, but I'm not sure how much he can tell you. Also, if you encounter any signs of Shen Yuan's spirit, you can talk to--" Here she meets Aleksander's eyes almost instinctively; this line of conversation is something she's purposefully kept from him. "You can talk to myself. Or... to Lan Wangji. ...That's all. Thank you."

A confident start but slightly deflated by her last few sentences, Nina steps back and allows for conversation to happen. If anyone would like to speak to her, she's looking much less strained and grim than she has in a while.

[[Feel free to post a single comment reaction and/or start a thread with Nina in the comments!]]

Comments

[lightbearinglord]

Perhaps he'll grow more accustomed to that informal use of his name one day, or perhaps not -- Lan Wangji still wakes up astonished to find Wei Ying's hair tickling his throat, and it has been nearly two years since they wed. He likes it, in any case, the faint surprise and the accompanying affection for his friend. "I do," he says warmly. "And you are still on the little side."

[wickedwit]

"Thou and Crowley art uncommonly tall," Claudius says with a laugh, brightening as he always does at Lan Wangji's flashes of humor. Like the sun, flashing through a bank of steadily rolling clouds. "Come. Let us leave this room together. Take care not to hit thy head upon the doorframe, as we go."

[lightbearinglord]

Crowley could be considerably taller if he did not have such abysmal posture, Lan Wangji thinks, with a welcome dip into irritable fondness at the thought of that very demon. He stands, though, the prospect of abandoning this room an enticing one, and affixes his qin in its place across his back. "I attempted to teach Crowley the art of calligraphy recently," he says, as he follows Claudius out of the room and leaves whatever remains of Shen Yuan's ghost behind, just for now.

[wickedwit]

"Oh, did you?" Claudius casts a grin back at him, falling in step with Lan Wangji once they're in the hallway (so they walk side by side, as equals.) "You must tell me everything."

[lightbearinglord]

"He deliberately misinterpreted most of my instructions, claimed his eyesight was too poor for writing, and made it through only three of the eight basic strokes before becoming bored." Lan Wangji delivers this information in his typically indifferent manner, but not without some suppressed amusement. "To alleviate his boredom, I demonstrated a character with thirty-nine strokes and successfully goaded him into copying it in its entirety."

[wickedwit]

Claudius laughs, able to imagine the exchange clearly, with Crowley sprawling boredly on one side of the table and Lan Wangji sitting upright at the other. "Of course. If thou makest something too easy for him, he will make things difficult for thee. But if thou makest it difficult, he will make it easy. He's contrary by nature."

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn," Lan Wangji agrees, recalling Crowley throwing down his glasses and, after months of acquaintanceship, finally revealing his eyes solely in an effort to call Lan Wangji's bluff. "Thereafter, he fetched the young master Grantaire for a mysterious errand." Presumably, the plans for Grantaire and Laertes to dress in rabbit costumes and dance erotically with swords are meant to be a secret.

[wickedwit]

"I'm glad of it," Claudius says, eyes still bright but with a softness to his smile. "Whatever mysteries those two could concoct will surely be pleasant to solve." Playful secrets, enjoyable challenges, all the things Claudius enjoys ... like his own secret plans with Magnus to surprise Lan Wangji, and the mystery posed to him by Tress. Speaking of, he asks, "Didst thou know that Lady Tress has another name? Has she told thee?"

[lightbearinglord]

At this point, it is likely becoming obvious that Lan Wangji is directing them upstairs and toward the little room adjacent to his quarters that houses the rabbits. They could do with a visit. More pertinently, he and Claudius could both do with one. "No," he says, with understated but genuine surprise. "Not in the way I have more than one name, then."

[wickedwit]

"In a certain sense, perhaps," Claudius says, taking a deliberate turn to these lighter mysteries. He thinks he recognizes these steps, for all that the mansion's hallways like to twist sometimes. "Like thy courtesy name, Tress was the second name given to her. A name of distinction -- the distinction being her hair. Does that translate? Tress?" he asks in English. "Tresse?" in French. "Treccia?" Italian. "It doesn't translate into Danish or Norwegian, I'm afraid."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji pauses, only for a half-step, to give Claudius a look of bemusement. "It sounded as if you were asking me to braid your hair." He resumes walking. "翠丝," he tries, but that will presumably make its way to Claudius' ears only as Tress' name. "Is that the meaning of her name?" Tress' hair is impressive. It's a sensible moniker if so.

[wickedwit]

"Ay, e'en so. A tress, a lock, a braid. Were my hair as long as Tress's, I would have thee braid it," Claudius promises, as though such promises need to be made.

[lightbearinglord]

"Grow it longer and I will." With that, Lan Wangji ushers Claudius into the rabbits' room, where they are bundled into sleeping balls of white and brown fur pressed together in a corner of their hutch. The room remains reasonably spare, but has gained a few floor cushions as well as a chest that contains their ever-growing collection of toys as whittled by Wei Wuxian.

[wickedwit]

Claudius's heart seizes with the same crushing fondness it always does, when he sees his rabbits. Even when he was in a daze, unable to connect his body, he'd sometimes come to sit by their cage, and he'd feel the slight flicker in his chest. "The children are looking well," he says, keeping his voice to a teasing whisper. "And so well-appointed with entertainments. They must be small patrons of the arts, with their taste for wooden sculpture."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji can feel some of his own lingering tension drifting away. The rabbits are so small, and their hearts are simple. They know nothing of Shen Yuan's death or of Aornis' power. "They also like to bite the things they love," he says, allowing himself another flicker of humor, and then he kneels by the hutch and carefully unlatches the door. "Danding," he says, low and soft. "Xiaoxue. Xiao shushu is here."

[wickedwit]

Claudius laughs with sharp delight (but low and soft as a man can) then takes a sprawling seat on the floor, so he can be on a level with Lan Wangji and the others. Xiao shushu or not, he can always make himself a little smaller for the sake of his rabbits. "Ay, here to see my two sweet sirs."

[lightbearinglord]

The rabbits are stirring sleepily, noses twitching and bright eyes opening, but without urgency, given that they are long used to the sight and sound of both Lan Wangji and Claudius. With gentle hands, Lan Wangji scoops up Xiaoxue and passes him to Claudius, a tidy parcel of white fluff. He takes Danding for himself, crossing his legs and settling where he is. The rabbit in his arms gives a wheezing little sigh of contentment and settles in turn.

[wickedwit]

Before he even learned meditation, Claudius learned how to breathe steady and slow with Xiaoxue in his arms. Xiaoxue's an anxious creature, and quick, frantic breathes unsteady him. Xiaoxue needs to know, wherever he is, he is safe and held. Whatever movement comes is rolling and predictable.

Such a dear creature. The nobles who raised rabbits only to release them on their hands and hunt them down with hounds were, in Claudius's opinion, so entirely wrong it's not worth listing the ways why. They'll never know what it's like to care for such a soft, vulnerable creature, understanding every human is just the same. And just as worthy of care.

[lightbearinglord]

In Lan Wangji's arms, Danding drifts promptly back to sleep. It will take Xiaoxue a little longer, but not so long. He trusts Claudius, and knows him to be a safe place to rest. It heartens Lan Wangji, just enough: they are facing something, someone, hidden and malicious. He is tired, the kind of deep weariness that has little to do with physical resilience. He is worried for too many people and no longer certain about how to defend them. But there is this. Rabbits are vulnerable and easily frightened. They need tenderness and protection. He and Claudius give them that. He hopes they can do the same for this mansion and the people who call it home.