video | what this library needs is a book club

[weifinder]

( This is a video message brought to you by Wei Wuxian, who just learned about video in the last week or so, and definitely knows nothing about making a video well. So congratulations, he's holding his recording tablet in one hand, in selfie mode, and grinning at the camera. He tips his head toward it, since bowing... won't work with him holding his tablet, and begins. )

This whole moving images film-creating concept is fantastic! Wei Ying, courtesy name Wei Wuxian, greeting all the others swept into this library and out of their proper homes with a simple suggestion for the sake of entertainment: a reading group. I even have a starting novel for the adult audience!

( He looks offscreen to pick up a novel and showcase its simple bound red front with lovely golden writing visible: Resentment of Chunshan. This is porn. It is very raunchy, very fantasy-not-reality gay porn written by a woman from ancient fantasy China. It is also, hopefully, an amusing read? )

This one promises to be absolutely scandalous! Then for the people who are more inclined toward having a sense of any other taste, well, I have recommendations. I've leafed through many, many books this last week and then some, if it's been a week, or any, or who knows? Time here is rather... stagnant. Either way, speak up here, or find me in person, I'm hanging around the third level with all the lounging space.

( ... then the tablet shakes as he tucks the book under an arm and taps at the screen to end the video. )

[ ooc note: novel found with permission from Shen Qingqiu's player! ]

Comments

[weifinder]

( look here is someone being very silly, so he responds to what's relevant in this: )

So you've read it before?

[youcanyouup]

More like put up with people singing it literally everywhere I went before I came here. If I have to hear that song again anywhere in or around this library I will hold you personally responsible.

[weifinder]

Oh, it's a song? I'm so glad you told me! The lyrics must be in here somewhere, let me find them!

Anyway, who is this "I" holding me personally responsible?

[youcanyouup]

[ Oh he is going to fucking castrate this guy. He's going to beat him to death with his own arm. ]

Shen Qingqiu. If you sing a word of it where I can hear you I swear I will break every bone in your hands.

1/2

[weifinder]

( he is going to compose a song! only he reads the name of the guy here and pauses to pull the book back to himself, and checks. twice. )

You're not saying this novel...

[weifinder]

Was written to spite you?

[youcanyouup]

It might as well have been, but seeing as I was dead when it was written I don't think the author really cared what I'd think about it.

[weifinder]

That explains a certain section of the book, but how did you... wait. Correct me for making wild assumptions, but did you resurrect?

[youcanyouup]

Yes, obviously. I was dead for five years and when I came back this garbage was everywhere.

[weifinder]

I have to say, you know, that's not normal? Most people don't die for a period of time then come back like nothing happened. There's nothing close to obvious about that?

( this coming from the guy believed to be dead for sixteen years while... uh... even he doesn't know what happened for that sixteen year gap of being nowhere. )

[youcanyouup]

Well it's obvious I'm not still dead, isn't it?

[ Look, he's not going to be helpful when you're threatening to spread Resentment of Chunshan around. ]

[weifinder]

We're writing in messages, nothing's obvious about that. Besides, resurrection doesn't occur where I'm from—people can be brought back from the brink of death, forever changed by it, but not from true death.

Anyway, your serenade will be out in the forest gardens later this perpetual afternoon, you're welcome!

( also known as get fucked but asldkfj )

[youcanyouup]

Hmm. Very well. I will be there to kick you in the groin.

[weifinder]

Wonderful, I look forward to meeting you then!

[youcanyouup]

[ Shen Qingqiu is NOT looking forward to it. He is extremely mad. But he WILL be waiting out there! ]

[weifinder]

( Wei Wuxian is too, but he'd been in another part, listening to the silence, and frowning at it. When he starts to play on Chenqing, it's a questioning sort of song, bereft of power; so far when he's tried, nothing has responded, other than a plant or two stirring in interest at one point.

He's kept a more somber, lovely melody in mind while the words he scrounged up from the smutty novel play through his head, a rather racy tale that brushes up against several taboo sort of concepts. Wei Wuxian's fairly sure that even in the more wild renditions of all the things he didn't do as Yiling Patriarch, these would have been new: sure, accusations of seducing Lan Wangji away from the righteous path, but no accusations of falling into hopeless love with Lan Qiren (hah-hah) or Jiang Fengmian. There's enough drama and trauma in this he can play to, and so:

Shen Qingqiu is treated to a very beautiful, unsung rendition of Resentment, as composed by his younger brother Wei Wuxian, who briefly smiles even as he's playing and winks at the man when in the same vicinity. )

[youcanyouup]

[ Shen Qingqiu narrows his eyes in response. The thing is. It does sound pretty nice, actually! It's obviously not the tune he knows, and there aren't any words, so if he ignores who's playing it and everything he said online earlier, he could just... pretend it's some nice music!

Ha ha. Fat chance.

He folds his arms, scowling. ]

I don't know why you feel the need to ruin a perfectly decent piece of music by deciding it's Resentment of fucking Chunshan.

[weifinder]

( Shen Qingqiu's scowl does nothing to leave him feeling cowed, and his lips show that same hint of a smile as he finishes out his spontaneous composition. Will he remember it? Just long enough to be a nuisance, he rather like portions of that melody.

Once done, he brings his flute down, deftly spinning it between his fingers in one hand and cocking his head to the side to regard this guy. This Shen Qingqiu. )

Come now, you can't even laugh about it? The whole story and song was rather laughable, and if anything, the song was kinder. I'm not surprised it caught on once you were a tragic figure, but how was it changed once you came back alive, ah?

[youcanyouup]

[ He rolls his eyes. ]

I wouldn't know, I wasn't around for long enough to hear any rewrites before I ended up here. And it's not funny! Do you know how many people took that garbage seriously?? People were just, assuming it was true!

[weifinder]

The nature of rumours is they're taken as truth regardless of any core facts they don't follow.

( He stops the motion of his flute, catching it firmly with the same hand he'd been spinning it around with. This he can indicate toward Shen Qingqiu as he strolls closer, without holding Chenqing in any way that might be read as aggressive. )

Was any of it accurate? Any kernel of truth, or all of it wild speculation based on a master with a disciple named Luo Binghe?

[youcanyouup]

[ Shen Qingqiu glowers at him. ]

It's all nonsense. He was my best disciple, that's all.

[weifinder]

Was he no longer your best after you woke up alive again?

( He still finds Shen Qingqiu defensive, but also, as he continues to approach, he doesn't take the song or story too seriously. Why would he? He's been the target of his own unfairly generous amount of rumour turned into lasting stories that had very little to tie them to reality, other than a location and association with his name. )

[youcanyouup]

[ Behind his fan, Shen Qingqiu opens his mouth, and then closes it again. ]

Seeing as he's the ruler of the Demon Realm now I think it's a little presumptuous to still be calling him my disciple.

[weifinder]

...

( He has to laugh a little at that announcement, then hold up a hand, waving off his own bout of laughter. )

Ah, well, unless you cast him aside, isn't it every master's presumption to be master for a lifetime? Though really, when you say Demon Realm... what exactly are you talking about?

[youcanyouup]

[ Haha, wow, he sure is grateful for that additional question to answer so he can just focus on that and he doesn't have to address the part about casting one's disciple aside!! ]

Oh, ah, it's the plane of reality where demons live. It's connected to the human realm in a few places but it's more or less just another physical dimension with more aggressive geological conditions and different balances of energy... I take it that isn't something that exists where you come from?