Hunting Under the Bone Moon [Closed]

[baiyueguang]

Character Name: Xichen and the Gang

Who: Lan Xichen, Jin Guangyao, Nie Huaisang, Shen Yuan
What: Closed log for their Night Hunt for Special Mushrooms
When: Late-ish November
Where: In the forest

Content Warnings: Blanket event content warnings apply, monster body horror, will add more as needed.

Starters below

Comments

There's Not Mushroom In There

[baiyueguang]

There are mushrooms in these woods, tucked away in knotholes of trees, hard to spot, even harder to harvest. Besides that, the woods are full of dangers around every twisting corner, and while the paths are safer, they aren't exactly ideal for finding mushrooms.

And so the Night Hunt splits off into smaller groups to scour the region, heading off the beaten path in hopes of finding more success.

Xichen and Jin Guangyao

[baiyueguang]

It's almost normal.

They walk in silence through the woods, alert for any signs of danger. Xichen is straightbacked and his hand is on the hilt of Shuoyue and Jin Guangyao's poise is equally proper. They're being very polite.

They've always been very polite.

It feels so very much like their usual Night Hunts; so exactingly familiar and yet...

...And yet.

The silence between them not some comfortable, companionable thing as it used to be, but pregnant with things said and unsaid, things done and undone. Hope had been thoroughly dashed upon the rocky shores of reason, shattered to bits once more and Xichen didn't know if he had the strength to put the pieces back together again. It feels like he's unraveling fiber by fiber, another piece of something good and precious gone, scattered like so much debris. Maybe if he screamed he'd feel better (probably not though).

Still better than what awaited him back home.

He wishes Nie Huaisang and Shen Yuan were here. Their easy cheer would sand the sharp edges off this awkwardness between him and Jin Guangyao, but he is not due to partner with either of them respectively until the next day, and the day after that.

Xichen pauses, peering inside of a knothole to see if there's any sign of mushrooms. To his relief, there are some. The first sign of them in hours.

"A-Yao, do you have the bag...?"

[poorlittlesange]

Jin Guangyao does what he can not to allow his feelings about this change in their relationship to show on his face, because his feelings on the matter are irrelevant. He is the one who shattered the delicate thing that they had spent years nurturing, speaking around it rather than about it, allowing it ample space to grow and flower in the limited intimacy that they could claim for themselves. There had been no reason to dash it against the ground, except that in this place, with the expectations and constraints of the cultivation world so far away from them, it was too easy for Jin Guangyao to look at Lan Xichen's gentle, attentive eyes, his soft smile, and forget himself. To forget Qin Su.

He tries to tell himself that this is for the best, that what he is feeling now can't possibly be heartbreak, because if he is heartbroken over this self-inflicted loss, then what he has felt for Lan Xichen all this time has been love.

And so he moves methodically and mechanically through the woods at Lan Xichen's side, his hand on Hensheng's hilt and his eyes anywhere, anywhere but on his er-ge's, and he tries to let his instinct for this work guide him so that he does not have to think overly much about anything. Then--

"A-Yao, do you have the bag...?"

"Here." He comes to stand beside the old tree and holds out the silk pouch he'd procured specifically for holding the mushrooms on Never Mind's instructions. It would be more than sufficient for carrying the delicate fungi without damaging them--though they will need far more than what they have gathered so far.

Jin Guangyao watches Lan Xichen at his careful work of removing the mushrooms and placing them in the bag, eyes tracking the unhappiness in his serene features, and hates himself for having put it there. For a moment, the instinct to apologize, to take it all back, to plead for a return to how things used to be is right on the tip of his tongue, and maybe it shows in his eyes--but then his paleblood decides to betray him, and he starts glowing underneath his skin like some kind of sentient, incandescent lightbulb.

"Oh--" He holds up a hand to stare at himself, then looks around them, suddenly nervous. They've managed to get by without drawing the attention of beasts so far, but if he's lit up in the dark like this, how likely is that to remain the case?

[baiyueguang]

Xichen is about to pluck another of the little fungi when a surprised 'oh' draws him from his task. He turns.

Oh.

Jin Guangyao is heartachingly beautiful with the way he glows under the moonlight, his eyes wide with surprise. His sworn brother looks like some ethereal creature emerging from the clouds, and Xichen cannot help but to stare in stunned silence.

(In a better world, they would laugh, and Xichen would take him by the hands, shelter him under his robes, until the light faded and they could get back to work.)

He takes off his outermost robe, a masterwork of deep greyish blue silk, intricately patterned with silver brocade. It's the sort of thing that looks simple on first glance, but closer inspection reveals its quality and elegance.

Xichen hands it to Jin Guangyao without second thought.

"Quickly," he urges. "Cover up as much as possible."

[poorlittlesange]

The otherworldly glow emanating from his skin does not strike Jin Guangyao as particularly beautiful, but then again, he is the one who has to inhabit this body every day, and has had to look at himself in the mirror after bloodying these same slender, now-glowing hands enough times that his own feelings on the matter are complicated. He is frowning critically at his own skin when he notices Lan Xichen's eyes on him, and in that moment everything seems to stop for one held breath.

But then it is over before he can say anything, because Lan Xichen is offering out his outer robe. Jin Guangyao's eyes widen, and though he takes it, he is in the midst of protesting, "Er-ge, you don't need to--" when there comes a low, snuffling growl from behind a nearby ridge, and Jin Guangyao's words die in his throat.

He unsheathes Hensheng and turns to put his back to Lan Xichen out of pure instinct to protect his night hunting partner's flank, but even with Lan Xichen's robes around him, only so much can be done to mask the glow that emanates from his skin. "I need to hide, I'll give us away otherwise--" he hisses, eyes already searching desperately for some place he can shelter himself where his inexplicable incandescence won't betray Lan Xichen's location to the beast that prowls nearby.

[baiyueguang]

Shuoyue is drawn with equal swiftness as Xichen tucks the bag of mushrooms safely into the fold of his robes, and in one fluid motion his back is to Jin Guangyao's.

(Perhaps some part of him should examine more closely why he so readily puts his back to a man he still isn't completely sure tried to kill him, but he cannot bring himself to care. He is choosing to trust Jin Guangyao, as he has always chosen to trust Jin Guangyao, because the one time he chose otherwise resulted in him putting Shuoyue through his belly for something he may or may not have even done and it opened a chasm of grief in him so deep, death would have been a preferable outcome.)

His eyes scour the woods and then the ridgeline and... there! On a rocky precipice, there's a dark, narrow indent, easy enough for the two of them to squeeze into and it looks relatively deep.

He lightly taps on Jin Guangyao's forearm, and wordlessly points to the gap. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the silhouette of a creature slinking ever closer, drawn by Jin Guangyao's glow.

"Shuoyue," he whispers, and his intent is clear as the sword shifts to stepping height.

[poorlittlesange]

The beast casts a long shadow in the light of the moon, and the sharp, unforgiving angles of it make Jin Guangyao's stomach lurch. He is not easily moved to terror by ghosts or monsters or demons, because those threats are rarely as dangerous to him as the threats posed by his fellow cultivators, but in this space where he is still learning what his capabilities can do to protect him and so soon after his qi deviation--

He startles slightly at Lan Xichen's touch to his forearm, meets his eyes, then follows the line of his gaze and forefinger towards the chasm in the ridge. When Lan Xichen whispers only, "Shuoyue," and the sword hovers above the foliage and scrub grass, Jin Guangyao doesn't hesitate or allow himself to overthink it.

He steps up onto the blade and puts his arm around Lan Xichen's waist to stabilize himself, and then whispers, "Go..!"

[baiyueguang]

Shuoyue soars over the tree line, just as the creature springs out of the bare foliage onto the spot they stood not even a second ago. Wind whips their hair, and Xichen leaves a trail of frost in his wake as they ascend to the narrow cave.

And it is indeed narrow; they have to go in single file, and Xichen is almost too broad-shouldered to squeeze through. Something rips, but he doesn't pay it much mind and further towards the back, the stone walls widen a bit (but not much). He and Jin Guangyao are cramped together as the beast seems to have climbed the near vertical ridge in record time and is snuffling about outside the mouth of the cave.

Xichen keeps his friend close, his body placed firmly between him and the beast, Shuoyue firmly in hand.

The cave is too tight a fit for the beast. First it pokes its deformed head in, mouth foaming and teeth gnashing angrily at its prey that is so close and yet so far. When it can't reach them that way, it scrabbles with its claws but to no avail. Xichen and Jin Guangyao are a good two meters out of reach.

And so begins the waiting game.

"A-Yao," he says, "I would rather avoid killing it."

Blood pollution and all that.

"How are your reserves...?"

[poorlittlesange]

The light that emanates from his paleblood under his skin is a blessing to them now, and Jin Guangyao holds out his hand ahead of them like a lantern to illuminate the narrow path deeper into the crevice. Even for his slighter, more slender frame, it is still a tight squeeze, and he refuses to put too much distance between himself and Lan Xichen just in case his friend requires his aid. When the tight stone walls no longer press quite so tightly around him, he turns around and reaches for Lan Xichen's arm, to pull him sharply back from those scrabbling claws and that hungry, snarling maw, with a worried exhalation of, "Xichen--!"

He can feel its hot, fetid breath on them even from here. Staring past Lan Xichen's shoulders at the beast's muzzle, his eyes wide and unblinking, it takes him a moment to realize that he's been asked a question, and he has to backtrack to find it.

"They are enough," he asserts, and hopes that his core won't make a liar out of him. Jin Guangyao drops his free hand to his pocket to feel for his talismans. "Tell me what you need me to do." He knows the steps to this dance, and is more than prepared to follow Lan Xichen's lead.

[baiyueguang]

Jin Guangyao's frightened exclamation is met with a brief reassuring touch to his shoulder and he inclines his head to the mouth of the crevice where the creature is pacing irritably, occasionally trying to squeeze itself inside to no avail. They are out of reach from its scrabbling claws.

"We'll need to make a barrier to keep our scent and sound from reaching it. Then it is just a matter of staying out of sight and waiting until it loses interest."

He draws a number of charms from his satchel, flipping through them.

"I only have a couple for suppressing sound and scent - can A-Yao make up the difference?"

[poorlittlesange]

Already he has pulled out a little jar of cinnabar from his qiankun bag and unstoppered it with one hand, deftly applying some to his fingertips as a makeshift pen. "Yes," he says and withdraws a talisman, making a few swift but minor alterations to the script on the paper, before sending it hurtling swiftly towards the mouth of the crevice. It makes contact with the stone wall and the characters scrawled upon it glow a burnished golden colour as his spiritual energy activates their power; immediately, the sound of the beast's growling and scrabbling claws become muted, as though a heavy fabric curtain has been drawn between them and the predator.

"A few more," he murmurs and repeats the work diligently, hoping that this will be sufficient to eventually convince the thing hunting them that they have escaped. If not, if they remain cornered by this monster for longer than a few hours, well. not to mix idioms but he'll burn that bridge to the ground once they get to it.

[baiyueguang]

Xichen's talismans are fewer in number, but he's able to make up for the difference with his more developed core (not only from the fact he started younger, but also he now has over a decade's more worth of cultivation under his belt) and inject them with more power. Unfortunately this has the side effect of dropping the temperature inside the already frigid crevice (and Xichen very nearly swears at this because damn his blood).

But he is once more reminded of times before and his frustration turns to a swell of pride; he and Jin Guangyao had always worked well together, their abilities complementary and easily making up for each others' shortcomings. Jin Guangyao had always been versatile, able to swiftly adapt technique to any given situation and quick at thinking on his feet, and Xichen was a powerhouse with years of rigid discipline and practice.

It always makes him feel a sharp pang of fury that Jin Guangyao never got the training he deserved elsewise the cultivation world may have seen two unprecedented geniuses.

It isn't long until they are warded off from the creature and Xichen sees its pacing halt, its head swiveling to and fro as though trying to catch their scent. It keeps poking its head in, to make sure they're still there, the last thing giving them away is Jin Guangyao's pale glow.

"Under the robe," he urges. "It can still see us."

[poorlittlesange]

He needs no coaxing to shelter underneath the weight of Lan Xichen's outer robe, not only to shield his still-glowing blood from the beast's searching gaze, but to grant himself some measure of warmth from the cold. Because, not to put too fine a point on it, it is now fucking frigid in this crevice, and only one of the two cultivators sheltering here has coldblood to render them immune to the discomfort.

"This way," Jin Guangyao says and steps further back into the crevice, into a small alcove that breaks the beast's line of sight and provides them some additional modest cover. The space remains extremely small and cramped, however, which means it is impossible for them to avoid the inevitable awkwardness of close quarters. At least for a moment or two Jin Guangyao is too distracted by his own cold hands to bother acknowledging it; he shivers and chafes them together, blowing on his still-luminous fingers to put some heat back into them.

"Perhaps," he says softly, "we should try to send a message to Huaisang and Shen-di, to let them know why we are delayed. If our omnis will cooperate."

Shen Yuan & Nie Huaisang

[xiaoxiuya]

Shen Yuan's mood is pensive as he and Huaisang set out. Everyone was perfectly civil as they woke up to a disgustingly chilly dawn -- Lan Xichen in particular acted as though he were long used to such things, which Shen Yuan already from the invitation to meditate with him at *5 am* but that doesn't make it any less disturbing to see it in action -- but seeing everyone like that, moving around each other...

Look, Shen Yuan knows he isn't the *most* emotionally intelligent guy in the world, but he can still tell *something's* up. And so he eventually, diffidently asks Huaisang, "Are your brothers okay? They didn't have a fight or anything, did they?"

[fanfavors]

Getting up this early is a crime, but they're already here, so - well, there they are. Huaisang is making the most of it, which is to say, his attention is split between keeping an eye out for mushrooms and an eye out for birds, and who's to say which one he'll pick up more of by the time this morning is over?

So as he and Shen Yuan walk along, that's what he's thinking about - birds, and the empty bag for mushrooms dangling from his hip. He blinks back to the present for Shen Yuan's question, which, ah...?

"Shen-ge would have to ask them about that, not me. I don't know anything," he says, with a shrug. "But I don't think so, no..." He waves a hand, like, this is just how they interact. All the time. To the shock of everyone (or: Jin Guangyao, who thinks he's subtle), Huaisang does have working eyes. "If there's something, this one would guess it's caused by something this world has done."

[xiaoxiuya]

"Oh?" Shen Yuan nods thoughtfully to himself. "Yes, I suppose that would make sense...Trench does rather enjoy throwing people into troubling situations." See also: those damned System-faces that have been apparently springing up behind him all month like mushrooms, or the visions that apparently everyone's dealing with.

"It's odd though," he muses out loud. "When I saw the together for the first time in the Red, I'd have thought there were no two closer friends in Trench. Now it seems like they can barely stand to look at each other."

[fanfavors]

"I really don't know anything," Huaisang repeats, shuffling ahead a bit to crouch down and peer into a promising-looking tree. He retrieves a stick to give the innards of these roots a gentle nudge-around, frowning... any mush here... it's looking like no.

"Shen-ge's perspective is different from mine," he adds; being the government-mandated Littlest Brother, and with the benefit of years of knowing them, he doesn't, ah, keep such careful track of their moods. Sorry to er-ge and san-ge, except they'd probably be embarrassed, so not totally sorry. Huaisang leans back from the tree roots, wiggling the stick up at Shen Yuan.

"It's unbecoming to speculate." Haha, he doesn't care though, not gossiping is for nerds. "But really, it's not like this one knows everything that goes on between them."

[xiaoxiuya]

"Oh?" Shen Yuan tilts his head at Nie Huaisang with amused suspicion. Suspicious amusement? He doesn't know Huaisang well enough to know if he really doesn't know or he just doesn't want to talk about it, which Shen Yuan supposes would be fair if that's the case. The two of them do look a little silly, don't they, standing out in the woods like this gossiping about two grown men? Alright, enough of that then. "Fair enough," Shen Yuan says, and takes another look around at the woods, closed fan in hand.

"So," he wonders out loud, "if I were an over-powered medicinal mushroom, where would I be?" It's ironic, honestly; he knows about the locations of thousands of rare and magical mushrooms, plants, and animals, but they're all specific to Proud Immortal Demon Way or other novels he read over the years. Throw him out into the woods and ask him to identify a generic tree, and he's lost. Especially now when most of them have lost their leaves.

[fanfavors]

Huaisang looks up and over his shoulder at Shen Yuan, tapping his stick against his chin. Hmm, "Did you speak with that local deity?" Or whatever Never Mind is supposed to be, does this place even have a heavens? Ridiculous. "This one heard 'oak,' although if Shen-ge doesn't know how to spot an oak tree..."

Sad for Shen-ge. Huaisang waits for one whole beat before assuming that, no, Shen Yuan can't ID an oak tree at a glance, but luckily he can! Thanks again to Qinghe for squatting in the middle of a well-treed area. He taps the tree in front of him, pointedly.

"Like this— take note, or we'll be out here for hours." Another beat. "Shen-ge isn't much of an outdoors type, is he...?"

[xiaoxiuya]

No, of course he doesn't know how to identify an oak tree, what does Huaisang take him for? Instead he puts on his best 'thoughtful shizun' face and nods, saying "Of course I expect Huaisang to know these things. After all, this is technically his night hunt."

...It is, right? Huaisang was the one who talked to Never Mind first, Shen Yuan's pretty sure. Really he'd just been going along for something to do, since he couldn't work with Duty for a while, and he hadn't been paying attention to the details.

He comes over to kneel down next to Huaisang. "So, it's an oak tree," he says leadingly. Which means what, exactly?

[fanfavors]

"Oh, it's mine, is it," Huaisang says, with an amused little lilt. That would make this the first one, technically! What a grand moment, to be doing his very first night hunt... looking at tree roots. He's here for the big bird man's sake, absolutely, but if he's going to teach Shen Yuan about oak trees, then that's an added bonus.

"Shen-ge should appreciate nature more. Look, look, you can tell by the bark and the shape of leaves that it's an oak. Evidently, this is the kind of tree Never Mind's mushrooms are supposed to be under."

A pause. He taps the stick.

"But not in this one, so let's find another. Do you want to make it a bet?"

[xiaoxiuya]

And so Shen Yuan learned how to recognize an oak, probably! That should come handy if he -- actually, if the Tower stays sick he probably will end up coming out here for more mushrooms, won't he? It's not like he likes living in a city that acts like a glitched-out copy of Inception. So...good, this is useful information, actually. Thanks, Huaisang.

"What are we betting on, exactly?" he asks with a dry little laugh, dusting himself off as he stands back. "Whether the next tree will have mushrooms under it, or if I can pick the next oak out of the crowd?"

...oh no, he's done it now, hasn't he?

[fanfavors]

"Whichever's first?" Huaisang suggests, completely innocently. Surely one of those things will happen before he himself finds the elusive special mushroom and ends this hunt with a bag full of fungus and bragging rights.

Straightening up, he points to the semi-clear path ahead of them, with a fair smattering of trees on either side.

"Shen-ge will see to the trees on the right, and I will take the left! Shout when you find an oak tree." A beat; he pauses to roll his long sleeves around his arms, to avoid getting fatally stuck in this forest. "Or an unruly forest creature. Shen-ge, please make note that if some creature tries to touch me, I will be shouting as loud as I possibly can." Will that perhaps get the attention of more creatures? Yeah, but he's got no self control when it comes to panicked reactions to Creatures, so it's good for everyone to know what they're getting into up front.

So! A sound plan! He nods and waves for Shen Yuan to head for his line of trees before turning to shuffle along the opposite edge of the path.

[xiaoxiuya]

Oh, um. Hang on a second here! Doesn't he already have a job here, which is: keeping an eye on Huaisang? He's pretty sure that's what Jin Guangyao was going for, when he paired the two of them off, and while yeaaaah it's technically true that Huaisang is an adult and can theoretically do whatever he wants, um. He just doesn't really trust Huaisang not to do something disastrous while his back is turned, like...he doesn't know, trip and fall into a pit full of snakes or something, sorry!

But he doesn't say that out loud.

What he does do is laugh, and say, "Now, hang on! How am I supposed to identify an oak tree if a-Sang doesn't check my work?" And he loops his arm around Huaisang's and falls in to step beside them, because that's the best 'wandering off and falling into a snake-hole' preventative measure he can think of on such short notice.

[fanfavors]

Huaisang blinks, only slightly surprised at being arm-looped like this so suddenly. Ah-? "By calling out for this one to check? Still, if Shen-ge insists..."

Then who is he to object, he supposes. In that case, he will take this as tacit permission to take the lead, tugging Shen Yuan further down the path and pointedly not indicating any oak trees for him, and only looking at the trees on his side. Such is the nature of a proper competition, after all, one he intends to win more or less by default. God forbid he have to partake in a competition he might not automatically win, eugh.

If soon enough he diverts them completely away from Shen Yuan's side of the path and tugs him along to crouch and peer at some roots again, well, that's the competitive spirit, or something. He exclaims over at least one tree, only to produce from the dirt at its roots... a tiny bird egg.

"Shen-ge, Shen-ge, look! Ah, can you see where it's fallen from?" And now they're doing this instead.