deercountry | Hunting Under the Bone Moon [Closed]

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?"

Edited 2022-11-13 03:56 (UTC)

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."

"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."

"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."

"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.

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...?"

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?

"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?"

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?

"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.

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.

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.

Look, okay, miscalculations were made, Shen Yuan will own that. But having dedicated himself to the bit, he's not going to embarrass himself by backing off now, that'd just be ridiculous. So: he allows himself to be towed along, keeping an eye out for oak trees and holes in the ground and other things that might make Huaisang scream right in his ear. Shen Yuan sincerely hopes Huaisang does not scream in his ear, but if it happens, well. He's prepared for it.

He's less prepared for Huaisang to get sidetracked completely, although he supposes really he shouldn't have. When Huaisang produces an egg, Shen Yuan automatically looks up into the branches for a nest, unsure what if anything it means that he doesn't see one right off the bat. Is that a bad sign? Probably.

"A-Sang," he says, and resists the urge to pinch the bridge of his own nose in exasperation. "What did this one say about wild animals?"

It's a pretty egg, off-white in a bluish way and speckled with brown and white. It's also not an egg Huaisang recognizes, so he's extra excited to find this New and Novel bird, which absolutely will not do anything to harm them. Because it will be a bird. And he's returning the egg, ideally, if they can find the nest.

But, "I don't know. Did Shen-ge say something about wild animals?" He glances up from cooing over the egg to ask, because- "Ah, you mean, back then? Shen-ge, it's an egg!"

Nothing could possibly go wrong!! He shuffles back to Shen Yuan's side, holding up his cupped hands to share his prize. Look at it, look at it.

"Look— such unique coloring. I wonder what color the plumage will be..."

The fact that this is when they get Lan Xichen's message, you know, the one about being trapped in a crevice with Jin Guangyao while a monster prowls outside? Lends the whole dispute an air of dramatic irony that Shen Yuan really could have done without. He fires back a quick acknowledgement and shows the message to Huaisang anyway, saying gently, "Look, do you see? These woods aren't safe a-Sang, anything could happen out here. I'm afraid we really don't have time to get side-tracked."

So please, please put the egg back, before this night hunt turns into an Attack the Block reference.

Huaisang only half-heartedly looks away from his new egg to look at the message, like, and? San-ge and er-ge are profoundly capable, and the two of them right here are not nearby to any crevices, ergo: he gets to coo over this egg if he likes. He hums, eyebrows raising, and turns his attention back to the egg.

"Shen-ge has a stress problem," he says, but, "I'm keeping this, but Shen-ge can lead on and we can get this over with."

He's saving his panic for if and when something actually comes out from behind a tree to threaten them, which he thinks is both resourceful and considerate of him. After a moment he nods to a tree across the way, one with no eggs, and says, "That one is an oak, if you're still looking."

"What do you even want it for?" Shen Yuan asks despairingly. "It's too cold out for anything to hatch, surely?" Or at least he certainly hopes it's too cold and too late for the egg to hatch! Because the alternate...brrr.

But fine. Fine! He'll leave Huaisang alone with the potentially dangerous murder-egg to check out that tree over there! But if something happens and Huaisang gets a hand bitten off by a monster, Shen Yuan wants it known that he took his eyes off him under protest!

Hunting Under the Bone Moon [Closed]

Shen Yuan & Nie Huaisang

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