^ [open post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan doesn't believe in the mansion spirits, but she is being followed by something in a way that makes little sense.

It begins when she wakes up. Opening the drawer to the sideboard in her room to retrieve tea, she finds another gold chess piece wrapped neatly in ribbon. Lancelot didn't put it there - it hadn't been there when she made her pre-sleep cuppa the night before, and she woke up when he did and sleepily saw him off to his training; he hadn't gone near the drawer. She shuts the chess piece firmly away, makes her tea, and dresses blearily for her own archery practice.

There's a new bow in the closet, too. To her pleasure, it's a heavier one that requires a stronger pull - she's quite got used to the draw of the ones the closet first supplied to her.

After her shooting routine, she finds a lipstick in the precise shade Ingrid used to wear on the bathroom vanity. When she's showered and dressed for the rest of her day, she finds her favorite pastry - a sort of breakfast roll she used to get from the shop by the tube station she'd walk past on her way to work, back in London - on a platter in the kitchen.

It's when she opens one of the closets in the hall off the library to return a pile of laundered wash-cloths that she receives both some clarity and a deepening of the mystery: a jumble of assembled balloons tumbles out, made of some queer material and filled with a gas that keeps them afloat. The writing on them reads: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN PEVENSIE.

She stares at them, perplexed.


Susan's birthday post! Three days (by our reckoning) and eight months (by her reckoning) early! Feel free to have your puppets run into her in any reasonable location at any point during the day; she's just going to be accumulating more Stuff she can't get rid of as the day goes on.

Comments

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan takes a delicate sip of her tea and sets her empty cup gently to the side. "I think it's dreadful. No - that's the politic thing to say. I think it's jolly unacceptable. If Bacchus hadn't pointed out the risk of confronting a man who can cause such harm, unprovoked and unannounced at a distance - whilst not even in the same room! Not even close enough to be confronted with the reality of the damage he's causing! - I swear I could've marched right up to him and boxed his ears." Her anger makes her bright, focused. "Was it dreadful? I keep picturing it. Bacchus wasn't clear on what precisely happened, besides some sort of - some sort of magical blood infection which caused tremendous pain?"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is contrastingly very quiet, silent with the continued memory and the effort of controlling his reaction to it. He speaks slowly, wanting to remain calm. "Claudius and Luo Binghe shared a flirtation. Luo Binghe slipped Claudius his blood in the soup they were preparing together." It is almost precisely how he explained things to Magnus. "If another person ingests Luo Binghe's blood, it grants him control over that person's body. He may puppet his target, or he may cause intense pleasure or pain."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan's mind is already whirling. "Surely there's some sort of device we might use to determine if any further food has been tampered with," she says. "Some sort of technology or spell that one might touch to their food and see that it's all right. He oughtn't have that sort of power over anyone." She flicks her gaze up. "I take it that this wasn't some sort of sexual play to which Claudius initially agreed. It wouldn't matter if it was, of course; it clearly went beyond any sort of degree one might expect from such things. But if it wasn't, it's a double violation and mustn't be tolerated."

[lightbearinglord]

"No." The whirlwind of Susan's thoughts is understandable, and Lan Wangji has a soft spot for people who think and talk this way, so it hardly bothers him, but his response is of a more methodical nature. "Such things do not exist in his world. He never knew he had been poisoned until Luo Binghe became angry days later."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

The set of Susan's jaw is grim indeed. "This can't be allowed to stand, of course."

[lightbearinglord]

There is something almost sardonic in Lan Wangji's expression as he meets her gaze. He knows that she doesn't know him: of course she doesn't know that if Luo Binghe could have been expelled from this mansion, Lan Wangji would already have done it. "No. But Luo Binghe is powerful. Claudius came to me at the height of his pain. I could only block it for a time."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes, Bacchus spoke about the difficulty posed by Luo Binghe's particular power set," says Susan grimly. "And its ability to function at any time from any distance. But surely we can at the very least establish a way of testing for contaminants to reduce the reach of his power. It shan't do a thing for the horrors Claudius has experienced, but it might prevent such things from happening a second time."

[lightbearinglord]

The usefulness of such a thing can't be denied; Lan Wangji nods. "Claudius has been working on something that will grant immunity to Luo Binghe's more demonic abilities, too."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes. Bacchus told me that, too. I imagine that being able to reject food offered by Luo Binghe to his face because it has tripped some sort of sensor might carry more weight than a more subtle protection against his magics." It might be clear, even though Lan Wangji doesn't know Susan particularly well, that she's rankling at the fact that Bacchus has dissuaded her from confronting Luo Binghe. She understands the reasoning and will respect his advice, but she's deeply displeased that giving the man a piece of her mind is off the table.

[lightbearinglord]

Hesitant, almost overtly cautious, Lan Wangji continues to meet Susan's gaze. "It may carry weight, but the weight will be dangerous. He is easily provoked. Like a child."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan's brow furrows. "What can he do, absent first infecting others with his blood?" she asks. "I'm afraid I haven't got a clear sense of any other... abilities."

[lightbearinglord]

"He wields a dangerous blade," Lan Wangji says, recalling with distaste the poisonous intent that seemed to pour off the sword when he was in close quarters with Luo Binghe. "He is immortal, and he is faster and stronger than any mortal."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"But there are others here who are immortal, or particularly fast and strong, or who wield... queer blades," says Susan. "Are his abilities outsized even in those respects?"

[lightbearinglord]

"I believe he is the cruelest among them, and the least likely to regret his actions. He still refuses to apologize to Claudius." A little pause. "His sword is-- it has killing intent. I doubt I know all that he can do. I do know that he can manipulate dreams."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Like Aornis. Susan looks down at her cup of tea for a long moment, and then back up again. "What does that mean?" she asks. "'Killing intent?'"

[lightbearinglord]

"Like mine, his sword has a spirit. But his sword's spirit is... malevolent." To put it lightly.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"But what does that mean?"

[lightbearinglord]

"I am uncertain how better to explain it. The sword wants bloodshed."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"To what effect?" Susan asks, and then sighs. "I don't mean to press on with a topic you haven't got another way of describing, it's just I'm trying to get a sense of the threat at play here."

[lightbearinglord]

"I understand," Lan Wangji says, meaning it -- he is not bothered or offended. "I did not touch it, but Luo Binghe and I were trapped in a small space together. Do you know qi?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan nods. After Shen Yuan explained it to her, she did some additional reading. "It's an Eastern philosophy regarding the circulation of energy through the meridians of the body, requisite for good health and tended-to by meditation, as well as external supports such as acupuncture. Do you mean to say the sword causes qi blockages?"

[lightbearinglord]

"I suspect this sword is more likely to cause qi deviation than blockage."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Ah. I haven't heard of qi deviation."

[lightbearinglord]

"It is when one's cultivation goes awry. Qi does not flow correctly. It is often deadly, and can cause madness."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Ah. And is your concern the sword causing a qi deviation in its user, or in the general populace?" Susan frowns. "Or do you suspect it already has caused such a deviation?"