westwhere | (open-ish) gentlemen, start your engines

Entry tags:

(open-ish) gentlemen, start your engines

WHO: Xue Yang, Zhou Zishu, Bai Mingyu, Wen Kexing, Wen Qing, technically Hatisse's ghost, anyone else to be added, this is open to anyone who could feasibly be around at any of these times and places for whatever reason, including just wandering into the make-up studio or wanting to tell Mingyu how pretty he looks.
WHEN: preparing for the catfishing, during the catfishing, after the catfishing
WHERE: not by Arha's bones, to distract him from them, duh
WHAT: dressing up Mingyu and changing his face up, preparing him for the role of Hatisse, eventually seeing the plan through and dealing with the aftermath of being possessed
WARNINGS: possession, probably language, likely blood, anything else to be added
ooc: This is a catch-all post for everything surrounding the catfishing plot, so feel free to just tag in as you see fit! I'm going to put up some headers, but add your own as necessary. I'll try to stay on top of what warnings and characters to add, but feel free to prod me about it on plurk (

reineke), PM or at the plotting post.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

"Hmm, Master Zishu... Tell me, what do you like more about this method for the eyes, how long this takes or how ugly it looks after all that effort?" Xue Yang could have had to admit that Zhou Zishu's skill was considerable and even impressive, but instead crouching on the ground and critically looking on to what he was doing to Mingyu's face so he could nit-pick every little thing seemed more to his tastes.

There wasn't, in all honestly, that much to nit-pick, but that certainly didn't stop him. Especially when he finally saw him do something that he considered inferior to his own approach.

Wow rude.

Wen Kexing, being attached to Zhou Zishu’s side like a lamprey and low-key feeling jealous that he’s spending so much time on another man, but ALSO annoyed that this jerk would dare to criticize his soulmate’s skills, feels compelled to immediately interject:

“Naturally, by comparison to Ah-Xu’s face, anyone would look ugly.”

"Hm?" Xue Yang barely glances at him, until he does, after that sound, making it a purposeful glance. Some things aren't that hard to read. The jealousy? That's not so subtle. "Ah. That explains how you look."

As if Wen Kexing looks mildly repulsive, which Xue Yang does not truthfully think he does, but truthfulness seems fairly irrelevant here. His smile is bright when he focuses on Zhou Zishu again. "Your beauty shines too much, don't you feel shame, Master Zishu? It's rude. No wonder I can't focus."

He doesn't really speak for anyone's benefit other than Wen Kexing's here.

"You can do that with anything?" Xue Yang is intrigued by the magic on display here, nothing comparable to any method of cultivation he has encountered before. He is impressed, not that he intends to show that too much, even as he looks at the dress that he is holding up for Lily, judging the little details that she's working on by now.

It is impressive, he supposes. There is no need to show her that. "Then why are you dressed like that?"

Edited 2021-08-03 19:01 (UTC)

Kexing's jealousy at his side only serves to make him take longer than strictly necessary - which Xue Yang chose to call attention to. He spares a glance, brush pausing in the air. "If one isn't willing to take the time to do it right, they shouldn't bother."

However the flirt from Xue Yang tugs a slight smirk - another one who finds jealousy amusing! "Aah. I tried with his face," he puts a hint of forlorn in his voice, "but he refused to allow it." It was to try and disguise them, of course. But does that really need to be clarified?

Teasing is fun and he's half tempted to steal his soulmate's fan just for affect - but goes back to his work instead. "My apologies, I will try to be less distracting." No he won't.

Mingyu is remarkably silent and still during the clown show involving the men who are apparently most proficient in disguises in their midst. It's no wonder, really. They probably have to fake their own deaths and change their identities every other week to escape their own mistakes from what Mingyu can tell listening to them.

Around the time Wen Kexing calls him ugly, however indirectly, he just thinks to himself that these people don't know what air conditioning is. Or indoor plumbing. Or boba. God, these fuckers haven't even had boba. The indignity.

Mingyu appears to be having a fairly good time, quietly to himself, beneath Zhou Zishu's expert touch. He's going to wrangle Fox after this, figure out how they can approximate a nice cup of fresh boba tea in Taravast. And none of this full circus tent gets any.

It's really no less than he deserves. It was an ill omen from the start, donning the guise of a dead woman. That alone invited repercussions, would have been too disrespectful of the dead to even speak of back home where ghosts were not known to walk the streets. The mere mention would have had people burning incense and paper money to try to stave off the misfortune sure to follow.

So, really. Mingyu should have known better. In many ways, he did. The problem is, he's really struggled to care about consequences as of late. He's not afraid of misfortune, and he's confident in his ability to survive. Everything else is just details. He wouldn't even say he regrets the experience, kneeling here now with shaking, bloodied hands, arms throbbing with cuts and welts. He did what he set out to do, with minimal casualties. It actually went well, all things considered.

There's just phantom memory in his bones, a slow to fade echo of her in his soul. He can feel Arha's gaze upon him still, can taste his pity.

'I pity you, Hatisse. I pity your love.'

And it is, isn't it? A pitiable thing, to love.

Mingyu laughs shakily, tries to drag himself to his feet. He trips upon his skirts, then laughs again, blood dripping from his hands into the dusty earth. He lifts them up to watch the red rivulets run.

Love and blood, love and death, love and blood.

"Did you enjoy the show?" he asks the nothing in particular around him sharply without looking up.

Waiting until she had gotten the flare of the skirt just right before she stopped moving her wand, Lily finally looked up and gave him an answer. "Almost anything," shifting her focus to the statue, Lily gave her wand a flick so that it rotated slowly, letting her get a view of the whole dress again.

Turning back to the dress she was on the verge of adding to the waist when he spoke again, making her pause and look at him oddly. "Are we going somewhere fancy?" In a potentially hostile situation with an army of ghosts, a pair of jeans and a shirt were perfectly suitable.

Xue Yang's taunt flows off of him like water. Wen Kexing is handsome and he knows it, shamelessly. Also, hasn't the Valley Master been cursed in any number of creative ways? He's just about to beam and thank the man, when Zhou Zishu cuts in and says... that.

Wen Kexing's eyes go wide and he cries:

"Ah-Xu!"

He shuts his fan and taps Zhou Zishu's arm with it. If that, for instance, makes an eyeliner line go awry, who could blame him?

"Ah-Xu, you've said already I'm a good looking man, how can you pretend otherwise?"

Previously he'd been barely content to stand back and let the man work, but now he crowds in, "helpfully," reaching up to fiddle with Mingyu's hair and create a general disturbance.

Doing her very best to ignore the men bickering about pretty faces, Wen Qing waits until they're nearly done to approach, settling next to Mingyu. "They're worse than courtesans. At least talk like that is expected among women." She doesn't bother to keep her voice low when she says it; let everyone hear, for all she cares.

As she speaks, she studies Mingyu a little closer and reaches out to adjust his posture, her touch fairly clinical. "Try not to walk around too much, once Arha sees you. That will make this much easier. And don't look at him directly."

"Ah, he's work, eh?" Talking over Wen Kexing directly to Zishu seems like the best way to go, at least as far as the entertainment factor goes, so Xue Yang does as much. "I hope for you that he knows how to make it worthwhile."

He rises to his feet, stepping behind Zishu and ever so helpfully handing him a tool to fix the mistake Wen Kexing has just caused him to make. Is it necessary to lean in like this, to almost rest his head on Zishu's shoulder, to almost lean against his back? "Such impressive skill, master. You are good with your hands."

And he, of course, was good at sounding suggestive.

"This fits you well..." Xue Yang would have been by his side even without feeling called out like that, but as it is, it's even faster. A shine to his eyes as he looks him over, lingering on the blood, professional interest skewing towards obsession. "Such beauty."

Falling to the ground by Mingyu's side, he puts a hand on his arm to steady him, but the other on his chest, ti try and feel her. Naturally, the blood does not bother him in the least. Excite him, maybe. "What a show." He laughs quietly, with a slight shake of his head. "Maybe Arha had a point."

"...depends on how you feel about exorcisms." So, yes, there is a fair amount of ritual and pomp associated with it, but it isn't as if Xue Yang cares much for upholding those traditions outside of what is necessary, seeing no need to respect death more than he respects anything else, which is very little.

So, not fancy, maybe. He looks her over again, trying to make sense of what she is wearing. Naturally, it has little in common with what he is used to. "What's its purpose then? You barely have room to put anything."

Truthfully, by now be sounds less insulting and more genuinely curious. "I suppose you can undress quickly, at least."

Without knowing anything about the boba-licious thoughts, much as he'd appreciate the idea if he knew what boba was, Xue Yang simply leans next to Mingyu at one point, looking him over critically. Then he smiles, friendly enough, perhaps that slight bit of 'too' to his smile, too wide, too much teeth. "I don't know how Arha works down there, but I'd be surprised if he stayed soft looking at you."

Is it a compliment to imply that the ghost would think him fuckable? That's up for Mingyu to decide, Xue Yang's mind has already moved on. "Your voice, young master. Can you change it?"

Xie Lian did wander in at some point, just because he's been asked to help, but the main event isn't happening just yet, and anyway, he's there more on standby than anything else. He's a martial god, his usual way of dealing with unruly ghosts is to punch them and he knows some people want to try another, softer method before, so he's here as back up.

He's a bit curious about the transformation - though not the idea, he's done it himself before and it... sort of worked? And to be quite honest...

"You look good. Much better than I did when I had to to do it myself. I'm not very good at make up, it turns out."

Zishu rolls his eyes with a click of his tongue when his soulmate makes him smudge and he reaches out to pinch and twist the offending arm a little in revenge. "You're making it worse, Lao Wen," despite the harsh pinch, his voice is mild and he doesn't slap at the bothersome hands.

The tool Xue Yang hands him is promptly used. And the close lean isn't strictly necessary...but he also doesn't shift away. The suggestive tone amuses him - it's nothing Kexing hasn't done himself!

"This is nothing. With better supplies my work would reflect it."

"I think I'd rather hear about it afterward, and I'll be more help here." Apart from a few cryptic passages in a few old books in the library's restricted section, and an absolutely terrifying movie that had come out a few years back Lily's sphere of knowledge on exorcism was very small. However, if the movie was anything to go off of, she'd just as soon give it a miss.

Resuming her work, and adding to the waistline of the dress, embellishing it according to the etchings on the stone of the statue, she leaned back to admire her work before looking up at Xue Yang. "I don't need a lot of room." A pause, and then. "Flip the dress round please."

The remark about undressing quickly made her chuckle in surprise, raising a brow at him. "It hasn't really come up. Have you got room to carry much in your clothes?" She didn't think he looked especially road-ready either, but at least if she gave him a question to answer she would have time to work on the neckline at the back of the dress, shaping it how it was on the statue.

"Hasnt come up? What, you never undress? You look clean for that." Is it a modesty thing, talking as if taking off clothes was a foreign concept? Xue Yang questions it either way, while acquiescing to the request and turning the dress, his eyes inspecting the front as he does so. He lets out a sound that could be one of appreciation, then considers her question.

"Yah. Everything I have." He had never owned much, which helped, but still. "There's pockets. And sleeves."

He is not actually one to think about fashion much, but given current circumstances, it seems inevitable. "It's good for fighting, especially in the air. They tend to hit the fabric first."

"Mm, you're speaking to a courtesan," Mingyu points out diplomatically, though he smiles warmly at Wen Qing for so boldly and pointedly speaking her mind. He'll catch her up on feminism of the 21st century some other time. For now, he'll just show her a little gender anarchy. "Well, at least that's what Lee Chang likes to call me. I suppose, strictly speaking, I'm just a whore."

He lowers his eyes demurely in Wen Qing's direction, smiling shyly for her benefit, let her see a bit of his ability to appeal to the male gaze and get her assessment of him.

"Do you think his lady the type to be indirect...?"

Ghost boners for small talk. After the bickering from earlier, Mingyu isn't the least bit surprised. He laughs instead, arching an eyebrow in Xue Yang's direction.

"Want me to check for you?" Just a casual ghost handjob for the cause? Mingyu's done worse for less. But then Xue Yang proceeds right along, so Mingyu does his best to follow. And, well, he can change his voice, but he wants to see where Xue Yang is going with this first.

"Going to give me voice lessons too?"

"I somehow doubt that there's any way to make you look bad," Mingyu comments, and the tone in which he delivers it somehow manages to make it veer away from a compliment. A scathing assessment of Xie Lian's inability to do anything right, coasting along on his good looks alone perhaps.

Only Mingyu is allowed to do that.

"Can I help you with something, or did you decide I was overdue for a little disaster in my life?"

"You're being too kind."

He remembers Nan Feng and Fu Ya's horrified look at his first attempt at make up. And any of the double entendre seems to fly waaaaaaay over his head.

"I'm just waiting until they say it's alright to go inside. I'm not going to go in first, I think. They'd rather keep me at the back for safety."

"Of course I undress to bathe," though after witnessing what happened to Wei Wuxian and the bear, she'd stuck to using the scourgify charm on her clothing and herself instead. It wasn't exactly a pleasant soothing bath but it certainly had the same effect. The idea of being chased through camp naked by a bear was nothing short of an absolute nightmare. "I didn't time myself while I did, however."

Pausing to look back and forth between the statue and her handiwork on the copy Lily made a few slight adjustments, silently moving her wand to manipulate the fabric how she wanted it to go. When it was perfect she finally lowered her wand to answer, peering around the dress he held up to get a better look at his outfit.

"You can fight in the air?" Giving him a nod of approval - his outfit was pretty cool, she straightened and started working her way down the back of the dress.

"...ya. Do. Grab him." Well. He can't help the professionally morbid curiosity and if Mingyu offers, who is he to refuse such a prime opportunity for ghost boner research?

At the other question he shrugs, "Not sure how much you could learn in that time. But you could show what you are working with. And there are some tricks. Maybe even once the learned Master Zishu doesn't know yet."

"You aren't sitting here not snipping with them or complaining," she points out, with a slight bow of her head. "Worse than courtesans. Unless you are simply not complaining because you're the one being dressed to go out and deal with a spirit."

The lowered gaze and shy smile make her look at him with an expression that isn't quite a glare but certainly isn't impressed. "You can be direct without looking him in the eye. Stare too much and he might see through the disguise."

"I can fight anywhere." Tilting his head to the side a little, Xue Yang considers those words, which are true without a doubt. Not just in theory, he knows that he has fought everywhere he's ever been, one way or another. "Guess most anyone can, if they have to. Or really want to."

He rolls his shoulders so they don't tire from holding the dress, moving it a little as he watches her work. Such peculiar kinds of cultivation here. He can feel her energy, but it's a difficult one to grasp entirely, which only makes it more fascinating. "What else can you do? It can't just be about clothes, or a seamstress would do just as well."

She considered trying to fight in the air, and even with a broom to help, it seemed impossibly dangerous. "I can't say I've ever really wanted to fight, terrain notwithstanding." If there was no choice Lily could be formidable in a battle, but on the whole, she was hardly the type to seek out violence or conflict.

"What else?" Adding some trim to the bottom of the dress she nibbled her lower lip thoughtfully, sitting up when she was finished. "I can," with a pop she disappeared from where she was sat, returning a moment later with a second popping sound. "Which feels awful but is very handy. What else can you do?"

Lily studied the dress while she waited for an answer, tilting her head from side to side. "Hold out the sleeves please," she stretched both her arms out, like a mummy from a classic horror movie might. "Like that."

"I'm good with death." Whatever that might mean so ominously, Xue Yang left it that that. However, given the exact nature of their current mission, it was at least slightly more appropriate, so maybe that was why he didn't feel the need to explain it too much. Especially since his mind was still on just what he'd seen her do. "It's not an illusion, is it? I felt your qi shift."

This was not like any kind of cultivation he was familiar with and a lot more interesting than dress design. Not that he didn't move his arms the way she showed, letting her do that work. "How did you learn?"

It was a terribly weighty thing to say and Lily's head tilted to the side, debating how she was meant to take it. She had already gathered Xue Yang seemed to have a penchant for provocative remarks, and it was almost endearing - like a cheeky little boy. "Is your home particularly brutal?" She supposed if he came from a place full of war he could have become

After making a few little adjustments and changes to the back of the dress's bodice Lily got back to her feet and stepped back, taking it all in and comparing it to the statue. "It wasn't an illusion, no - I just popped outside, and I learned in school. There's a handful of schools for magic where I come from, you learn nearly everything, transfiguration, potions, defending yourself against dark magic, arithmancy - if you enjoy maths."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

(open-ish) gentlemen, start your engines

transforming Mingyu (when will your relexion show who you are inside)

post-ghost-possession (say that three times fast)

criticising Zhou Zishu

no subject

no subject

criticising Lily Evans, I guess, damn, he sucks

no subject

general status of Mingyu while these children bicker

calling xue yang tf out

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject