maskormenacelogs | Untamed/MDZS catch-all

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Untamed/MDZS catch-all

WHO: The Untamed / MDZS cast and friends (enemies, etc)
WHERE: Anywhere, everywhere, including their assigned lodgings and around all towns
WHEN: February
WHAT: Catch-all because the emotions never end
WARNINGS: The Untamed / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / Mo Dao Zu Shi spoilers; canon-typical violence; event-typical violence. Will add more if it becomes necessary

ooc: Go forth and do the things as they come.

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At Miu's hand on his wrist, Jingyi freezes, both startled and alarmed. This is not a reaction he has ever gotten before when he has shouted. Or, rather, he has gotten reactions where he has been grabbed, but it is usually for the purpose of quelling him. He does not know what this is.

His emotions still hot, all he can do is demand, "What?" as the height of his outrage converts to equally strong confusion. This confusion does not ease as she follows her touch with 'thank you,' and an explanation of why she is thankful. Both his flaring emotions and his heart flip upside down in his chest.

"I care!" he tells her immediately, insistently. "How could I not care?!"

He would not be able to adequately explain why he cares, but that fact that he does cannot be disputed. His remains confused, angry, and full of complicated emotion as she releases him.

"And you certainly you need more than a stick," he agrees, fingers whitening on his own sword. The idea that she needs to be prepared sinks in and he feels some guilt at bringing her with him when she does not know how to fight as he does. They will be fighting, and he is confident, but she cannot go unprepared. He does not have an extra weapon, but—

"Here," he says, pulling something out of the pouch at his waist. The piece of paper is about as big as his palm and is scrawled with inked characters. "A talisman. If you activate it and aim it at the sky, it will send up a signal that any of the Lan will recognize. This is just in case, since I have brought you out here without knowing you could not fight."

She feels her face heating up, surprised and uncertain how to process his intensity. “I thought the Lans weren’t that passionate about anything...” She mutters, more to herself than to him. But then, Jingyi didn’t seem much like any other representative of the Lan Clan/Sect that she’d seen, so what did she know? Maybe it was just Sizhui, Wangji, and Xichen who were Like That.

...well, no, okay. She’d touched Wangji and felt the depth of his feelings underneath the cold exterior he wore, but still. She watches him curiously, taking the talisman to inspect it. “Ah... I can probably handle this much.” Her tone lifts a little, half-joking. She’s seen dramas and stuff, she knows how to use a talisman! Or, at least, she can figure it out. She has a basic understanding and ides of it, though she’s never personally used them before.

The thought depresses her a little all over again; compared to them, she really was quite useless, wasn’t she? She takes a breath and exhales in a rush, straightening up her spine with a new resolve. After this, she was definitely going to start demanding at least a wood or bamboo sword to practice with.

“...I’m sorry.” She says at length, sighing again. “I’m pretty good at faking everything else, but I can’t really fake this—not being able to fight and all. I’m sorry to have to rely on you so much. So... Let’s make this quick, okay? Then I’ll start practicing for real.” Miu lifts her chin with a light grin, her tone teasing and challenging, “and you’re not allowed to start crying when I start getting better than you!”

At her comment about the Lans not being passionate about anything, though, he thinks he did not hear her right. He gives her an odd look. This is unfortunately not the time to ask what she meant, because it is now dark and he can hear the noises of the city beyond them. His skin prickles as he imagines the shadows they are hunting moving closer just out of sight.

He instead pays attention to the talisman and her answer to receiving it. Satisfied that she can use it, he says very seriously, "If you need to call Hanguang-Jun or Zewu-Jun, call them. We might have to do handstands, but you cannot fight like I can, so you also cannot get hurt."

His life would really be forfeit if he let anything happen to Miu. At her apology, though, he lets out his breath and shakes his head. "Night-hunting is to protect people, but it is not all swords. You survived a long time without a sword so do what you know to do and then we will go back."

Maybe the sensible thing would be to turn back, but what Miu said about revenge earlier was not entirely wrong. Jingyi beckons her onward without any second thoughts and this time draws his sword. "First you have to get better than me," he says to her challenge and then teases back with, "Which will take a long time."

“Ugh, handstands...” she immediately makes a face, but she sticks close to him still as they begin to move again. Nighttime falling over everything makes her skin prickle again, but she still has it in her to grin at his tease and to tease right back,

She was an actress, after all. Even in the worst moments, all she had to do was channel someone else, be anyone else, and she could succeed at hiding her true feelings—whatever they were. “Better than you? How hard can that be? Give me, hmm...” She taps against her chin thoughtfully, before hurrying a little so she can walk a little bit ahead of him, enough to lean in and gangle her grin up at him without straining her neck too much. “Three weeks! And I’ll definitely have you crying on the floor!”

But her laughter is abruptly cut off as something drags against her senses, like a cat whose fur has just been rubbed the wrong way. The shadows don’t seem so harmless anymore, though there’s an almost unnatural stillness to the air that has her stopping short once more.

“Jingyi...” Miu trails off, slowly scanning the ground.

"Three weeks!" Jingyi scoffs, but he moves his sword out of Miu's way as she moves in front of him. "That is--"

And he too cuts off, only a beat behind. He may not be the most accomplished of the disciples, but he has been tested in the world more than once. Instinct makes his skin pebble. They are in the murky halfway place of small storefronts and apartments before the city truly begins. There are fewer streetlights, fewer people, fewer vehicles, though there are sounds of life from the windows that rise on either side of the street. Even so.

"Yes," he agrees. "I feel it."

Ahead, there's an alleyway cast in darker shadow. The nearest streetlight should be having more of an effect than it does. That will be their target. In no way does Jingyi want to let whatever comes from that alleyway get close to the houses and people at their back.

"Be ready." He moves to push her behind him with one hand. "I think we found something."

Miu doesn’t need to be told twice, quickly easing behind Jingyi to let him take the lead. She’s not stupid—he’s the one with actual combat experience and all, she’s not about to try and play Big Damn Heroes here.

The shadows seem to become solid, moving in such an unnaturally thick, fluid way that it makes Miu’s skin crawl.

And then the eyes appear.

Glowing yellow, the creatures rise up, and honestly? Not that terribly Intimidating on their own. They kind of look like some weirdly stay liked cat creatures, and it’s the way they move that really drives home how creepy they are. She makes a strangled noise of disgust and takes a step back as they move, far quicker than she’d been expecting.

But thankfully, Miu’s reflexes are good even if she has no idea how to do much else. Her camera is up and the flash goes off; the black creatures seem rather stunned by it, a good chunk of them moving slower when captured in the viewfinder of the camera like that.

"These things," Jingyi says as the creatures begin to coalesce from out of the alleyway. He sounds similarly disgusted, and he is not whispering. His words are too loud even though he is only speaking normally. "They were at the ceremony. I have fought them before."

There is no reason to hesitate. The twitching things begin to approach, and quickly, and there are more of them than he had hoped. Already he has concerns that he will not be able to guard Miu if they are surrounded. They may look small and they may be fragile, but even the small and fragile can triumph if they have the numbers.

As the shadows of the alleyway still appear very dark, he worries that they do indeed have the numbers. This is not a good place to fight.

Before he can charge forward, the flare of light from his side draws his attention to Miu's camera and then he can directly see the effect. They are slower! (Some of them.)

"Good," he says immediately. That will allow them to breathe. Though there is still time to run, he instead points to a parked car. A tall one. "Get higher."

He slashes at the nearest shadows, his sword glare bright in the darkness, and it vanishes into motes.

Miu glances to the car with a frown, hesitating at the idea of leaving Jingyi, even though it’d likely not make much of a difference here. If she’s further away he at least can swing his sword without worry she’ll get in the way... Also a higher angle means she’ll be able to fit more in the viewfinder.

Still, she’s a bit reluctant, taking a few steps back before she forces herself to dart over to the car. Thankfully she’s rather light and the car proves to be of the sturdy sort, but she knows if they target her the thing is going to get pretty banged up. Did their insurance cover “weird-ass monster things” attacking it? Hm.

She readies her camera again and for a brief moment laments not being able to focus on Jingyi in the shots. He makes the sword play look so easy—and, she admits to herself with annoyance, he has that same sort of grace and beauty the other Lans have. Dammit.

The camera takes a few seconds to reload after each picture, so she can’t keep it up consecutively, but the creatures she tags in the photos move much slower for a good 30 seconds after each picture. And she’s quick to target any that seem to be about ready to serve on Jingyi, especially given how quick they are too; and, unfortunately, not completely brainless. It doesn’t take them long to realize that Miu’s support is what’s going a long way in getting their asses kicked, so soon they seem to be staying to swarm towards her too...

As Miu heads for the car, Jingyi sweeps his sword and releases a larger arc of spiritual energy from the honed edge. The nearest shadows are cleaved apart as the arc flies outward. He makes sure that none of the shadows come near her, fast or slow. Having her here helps him focus, gives him a focal point that keeps him at least attempting to think tactically. He's on guard, she's on the high ground, and she's able to give him an advantage. He cannot wade into the shadows like he otherwise might if she weren't here, which is...honestly a good thing.

He wishes he had someone capable of destroying the things with him but he cannot deny that Miu is doing very well. "Good!" he calls to her after she takes a picture from the top of the car and a large swath of creatures slow. Dispatching as many as he can, he comes to understand that there is a rhythm to this: a surge of creatures and a flash of light, and in between he does is best to keep his and Miu's collective heads above water.

Without thinking too hard about it, he says, "A guqin would be better for this." The power of the technique could not be denied, especially when confronting large groups of enemies, even if he himself is not as good at it as some of his fellow disciples. Still, his sword is doing something, and for the most part, his presence on street-level concentrates the shadows' focus on him and, at the start, this seems to work. Miu is high enough above the shadows' heads that they do not immediately go after her.

This doesn't last. The shadows increase as the night deepens and they have discovered Miu.

Jingyi had hoped to find something like a nest of them that they could clear out, leaving a part of the city safer than it had been before he had arrived. Now, however, even using the larger forms and broader strikes, he is already starting to fall behind as more of the things flow out from the darkness surrounding them. The creatures, far more than one, climb the car and Jingyi cannot be in more than one place at one time.

"There were not this many at the ceremony," he gasps out. Had they increased in number since the ceremony? How? "How are there so many here?"

He can do nothing else but leap lightly to the hood of the vehicle and wobble there. He is tiring, and though he still has spiritual energy left, he suspects that it might not be enough. With his new position, too, his guard has changed and his stance has weakened, and several of the creatures bloody his legs.

"Find a retreat," he says, slapping one of the shadows away from him and into pieces. The creatures are short, but it feels like their claws are reaching for his chest. "You need to be able to escape, and soon. I will keep them from you if you find one."

Miu’s never been the emotional type. She often declared herself as being
“empty” and for the most part it was true. Sure some things came
easier—anger, for one, seemed a constant companion to her. But she’d always
regarded everything and everyone with a cold, calm indifference. Facing
down ghosts had even been more an annoyance than a fear.

She had nothing to lose, she’d told Yuri once. So what did she have to be
afraid of?

Miu could understand the question now.

“What? And leave you? Are you crazy?” She was smaller than him, lighter.
Likely she could get a nice head start but she’s also aware that her
stamina has absolutely nothing on her spiritual power. She’d be lucky to
run a block or so before she collapsed and these things were quick.

Well, she thinks. If she’s going to die here at least she’s not dying
alone. It’s a small consolation but one she’ll take.

“Oh, wait— the talisman!” She grabs for it again, standing up and flinching
away from the claws of the shadows that tear at her pants and her legs as
they climb at the car. “I’ll set it off.” It takes her a second to figure
it out, clumsy and unused to actually channeling her spiritual power in
such a way, but eventually she sets it off, the brief flare of light making
the shadows scatter briefly. But Miu doesn’t have much time to admire the
showy fireworks display, just hoping that Xichen or Wangji would see it
soon.

“We just have to hold out until they get here!”

The baffled look that Jingyi gives her is short, since he is currently fighting, but extremely baffled. "Who says that you would leave me behind? I am not a crazy person. I am guarding you to leave with you."

He kicks another shadow down and off the car. This field of combat was poorly chosen by him. Next time he is going to be much more clever about where they fight and give himself many more advantages. At least he managed to give them one advantage; the talisman lights up the night sky and he cannot bring himself to feel regret for all of the handstand and copying he is going to have to do. He does not have enough hands to keep the shadows from himself and Miu any longer.

Another swipe of his sword and another shockwave of spiritual energy give him a moment to look around and he tries to spot a path of retreat. There are none that both of them can take together. Miu cannot leap far, as far as he knows, and now that he sees the creatures from her perspective, he also realizes why she protested their retreat. If he guards against these things alone, he will fall.

That is not a good plan.

Maybe...if he could lift Miu again, maybe a fire escape to a roof? Though to do that, he would have to go deeper into the shadows where these creatures are coming from. A roof, though, or even just a short running start, and he could put some distance between them and the swarm. There are shorter buildings he could try and jump on top of down the street. He is not so fragile that these things should be able to slow him enough that he cannot reach one of them. A roof would at least give them time for Hanguang-Jun or Zewu-Jun to arrive. He will just have to jump very high and hope he does not fail.

"But we are not going to be able to hold out here," he continues. This is not a despairing statement, but a fact. They need to retreat, and at this point they are going to have to do it together. "Since we cannot both run separately, I will try and carry you and I will jump."

Decision made, he turns and he lobs his sword at Miu. It is a spiritual sword, and it turns midair, controlled by him, to offer itself for Miu to grab and wield. She might not know how to use it, but a sword is better than no sword. He bends, scrambles up the windshield of the car, and reaches for her to pick her up.

Unfortunately, all it truly takes is one unlucky strike for a Heartless to steal a heart.

Jingyi's eyes widen and lock onto Miu's face. "Oh," he says and loses himself to shadow.

For a moment, it seems like things are going to go alright. They'll retreat, they'll sneak back home, and later on they'll be able to look back on this and laugh, right? After the handstands and punishment is finally over and they're done being grounded for like, a month or five.

She grabs the handle of the sword, momentarily baffled by the sword being thrown at her what the fuck, and the fact he could control it midair. "S-sure--" She begins, standing up and shoving her camera into her bag so she could get a better grip on the sword. It seems to be working fine so far. The sword is heavy, but she feel she could probably wield it at least a little, short-term, if needed. Not that she'd need it, right? Because Jingyi was-- Jingyi was--

"Oh."

She feels her heart stop and stutter and everything seems to be slow motion. The heartless, seeming pleased with being able to get at least one and maybe trusting in some sort of hivemind knowledge that the bigger threat has been taken care of, mostly seem to disperse after this, but the darkness is still smothering in its completeness and she doesn't feel like she can see anything else other than the way Jingyi falls, and--

Her mind can't quite comprehend what exactly happens, baffled. It's not like she's a stranger to death. She's felt the death of hundreds before, seen countless numbers fall in the worst ways imaginable. But this hit so much closer to home. She can't even scream, the sound stuck in her throat as her instincts suddenly scream at her to move, to protect herself and she's clumsy but the sword is sharp ('please listen to me,' she pleads, because she doesn't know if there's some kind of magic bullshit about who can wield these swords but it'd be just her luck if they had souls or something and this one decided to cop an attitude or something--)

And the heartless that rises up from where Jingyi had been turns on her so suddenly she barely has time to process 'oh that was Jingyi' before she slashes at it when it jumps for her.

But the sword is heavy and Miu is light, and she stumbles backwards with a shriek of alarm and off the top of the car, bouncing painfully against the trunk and to the ground, still clinging desperately to the sword.

The juniors were gone.

This was why Lan Wangji was out on the streets again - or, well, if flying around on his sword could really be called the streets. He had been careful to keep checking up on them - or have his brother check up on them - but he couldn't be in all places at once. He'd had to go and check on Wei Ying, and it had taken him a good hour to cool down after that, letting a cold shower wash over him and push the turmoil away. But that hour had cost him. As soon as he'd gone in search of Miu and Jingyi again they were no where to be found, and a quick message to either of them resulted in nothing.

It was hard not to fear the worst, after Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian. After Sizhui. So he hadn't wasted any more time launching into the sky to try to track them down.

The burst of a firework - the Lan Clan signal lighting the sky - drew his focus instantly. It was half way across the city, but he didn't care - he just leaned forward, flying as fast as he could go, Bichen whistling through the air.

He's too late. He spots them before he can get there: Miu standing on the back of an automized chariot, Jingyi reaching for her--

His heart lurches as the sword glare strikes out, as Miu falls to the ground. As what had been Jingyi a few seconds before scattered into motes of darkness.

He's there half a breath later, grabbing the collar of her shirt and pulling her in one sudden, smooth movement up off the ground and onto his sword. He wraps one arm around her waist to secure her tightly to his side, the other immediately summoning his guqin. It's too much contact, but he's too focused - his worry and his fear making his heart gallop even if it didn't show on his face. One handed, he strummed the instrument with enough force to send an entire wave of them blown backward, even the car nearly tipping over as he did so. Black motes shattered where the creatures had been.

Again, and again, the chord assassination technique ripped forward, destroying the waves of heartless as if they were glass. Only once they were gone did he stop - flying upwards to the roof above them, where no shadows lay. He let go of her as he stepped off the sword, turning to scan her quickly, his gaze sharp even if he otherwise appeared as stone.

She’s going to die.

It’s a resigned thought, and it annoys her more than it scares her. She’s going to die in this weirdo world and she’s going to truly be alone because there’s no way her mother is waiting on the other side for her here. She has nothing and no one, and she will die as nothing and no one.

It doesn’t even scare her. It just makes her angry and she clutches the sword with a grim intent that god damn it she is not dying because she fell off of a car in this god forsaken town. She’s going to go down swinging, she’s going to—

Be abruptly picked up and hauled off. There’s a flash of white in her vision, the sound of the guqin strings that seems to vibrate through to her very soul and the familiar smell of sandalwood that immediately means safety. Oh. Okay. She doesn’t have to fight anymore, because— Because he’s here. Everything will be okay.

She feels cold and lets herself lean against him fully, one arm wrapping around his wais for cling to him, the other hugging Jingyi’s sword tightly to her. She doesn’t even realize how badly she’s shaking, doesn’t open her eyes until she feels him dislodging her from him.

Her eyes fly open and she looks up at him, trembling, her eyes wide. “Dad—“ She blurt sout, then pauses, then decides the slip-up doesn’t matter, doesn’t think about it. “Dad, Jingyi was— He—“ Miu looks over her shoulder and her knees feel weak, but she holds the sword tighter, the edges of it beginning to cut into her arms, but she hardly registers it. The slight sting keep her upright. Jingyi was there, and then he wasn’t.

Was it just her now that was really left of the juniors? Sizhui was still in the hospital as far as she knew, and she hadn’t really asked after Jin Ling, and Jingyi— Of all people, her?

She turns back to look at Wangji, eyes searching his face before she drops her gaze to the ground. She doesn’t know what to say, her voice hollow. “We... messed up.” Her gaze goes to his hands, half-expecting to see blood from the strings. “Are you... okay...?”

Edited 2020-02-29 23:40 (UTC)

He doesn’t correct the outburst.

There isn’t anything to correct. It’s something he’s already felt for a little while, even if he hadn’t one hundred percent acknowledge it. But it’s the role he slipped into, and it’s the role she’s clearly accepted. What more was there to say about it?

He’s not okay. Of course he’s not okay. But there’s a thread of relief in his expression as he glances over her. She’s alright.

He failed all of them, but not her. Not yet.

“Stay here.” Is what he says instead. No admonishment, no lecture. There was no point. She had learned the lesson of their recklessness in a far more painful way than he could ever have taught her.

He backs away, stepping on his sword again. One child is safe but he can’t abandon the other. He has to check, even if he already knows he is too late. Perhaps the other half can still be found...

But there’s nothing. The heartless are gone, and so is Lan Jingyi. The only thing that catches his eye is the fluttering pale blue of a headband, caught around the door mirror of the car, threatening to blow away. Carefully, he picks it up, folding it into his palm.

The grief has been a constant companion this week, and the guilt settles firmly alongside it. But he won’t make Miu wait further. He returns to the roof, more solemn than when he left.

“Home,” he instructs, standing on his sword and reaching towards her so she could climb on, too.

Miu takes a half-step forward when Wangji moves away, not wanting to be left on her own. But despite the small noise of protest, she says nothing further, watching him leave and telling herself it won’t be the last time she sees him.

She sits and quietly gets her limbs moving correctly to sheathe the sword at last and hold it to her, feeling—odd. She spends the time he’s gone—it seems to last forever and yet pass too quickly too—trying to figure it out.

‘Odd’ is the only way she can think to describe it. Off. She had seen so much death before, been ‘killed’ too often. She’d been the killer in her dreams, had felt the revulsion or the pleasure or anything else with it. But it had been easier then, when she could easily pull herself away from it, separate her feelings from their own.

What she’s killed hasn’t been human or beast. It hadn’t been Jingyi. That’s what she tells herself, but she curls her fingers around the sword and tries not to think of the look on Jingyi’s face as he fell or how she’d been so close and so useless. stupid. So stupid. Why has she agreed to this? Why hadn’t she tried harder to stop it?

When Wangji returns she scrambled to her feet with obvious relief. It’s not good news he brings with him, but she honestly hadn’t been expecting any or letting her get her hopes up. And while sword flying is still weird to her, she wordlessly climbs up and then clings to him again, pressing her face agains this chest. His grief washes over her in a wave and she shivers, remaining silent until they touch down again at.

“I’m sorry,” she finally murmured against his chest. “It’s my fault. I’m sorry.”

He lets her cling, on hand settled on her shoulder to keep her secure as they fly, but once they land he gives her a few seconds to mumble against him before gently dislodging her enough that he can see her face.

He doesn’t reassure her, doesn’t tell her that it isn’t her fault. He doesn’t know if that’s true or not, so he will not speak a lie.

Instead:

“Tell me what happened.”

She looks at him for a moment, not quite sure what to say or where to begin. But then she takes a deep breath and seems to ground herself, standing up a bit straighter. It’s easier if she can play a role; she’s not Miu, she’s not anyone with a specific name or face. She’s— she thinks of Sizhui and Xichen and decidedly does not think about Jingyi, and Wangji. She thinks of how she’s observed the Lans carrying and conducting themselves and lets that sort of stoic calmness and dedication wash over her.

Beneath the serene exterior, she knows firsthand how deeply the well of their feelings truly runs, but in the surface she’ll appear calm and collected, ready to dutifully report. It’s easier that way.

“...Jingyi messaged me and said we should do something about those monster things.” Okay, ‘monster things’ was not very Lan-like vocabulary but she’s working with what she’s got, alright? “That... we should do a ‘night hunt’? That they’d hurt Jin Ling and Sizhui, so... Something like revenge, I guess.”

Miu pauses for a moment, feeling the guilt welling up in her throat again before she forces herself to continue. “...He... he didn’t know that I can’t.... really fight. But I went anyway, because I wanted to help.” She clutches at her bag and thinks against telling him the main reason wasn’t even so much a desire to help, but a desire to relieve her boredom and satisfy her curiosity. “But I can, um...”

It feels a little weird to suddenly bring up the ability now, but— “if I apply my spirit power the right way, I can slow time for a little bit. So I could slow those monsters down for a bit, and it helped. Jingyi was doing really good, but there... there were too many of them. And they realized my ability was making it easier for Jingyi so they targeted me, and... Jingyi and I were going to escape then. But... it was a mistake. I don’t know, it happened so fast...” Miu trails off, looking down at the ground at last, her brow furrowed. Even though she’s not looking at his face, though, she’s still maintaining enough contact with him to try and feel his reaction from there.

If he blames her—well. She deserved it, didn’t she?

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