maybe today is the day to thread “xiyao & corpse!mom go to dongying”

well, we’ve done the academia bit, and the tender consensual stabbing, so now it’s time for the black comedy, drawn from the corpse-and-guqin slapstick conversations with @exoscopy, who is responsible for at least half of this

for the purposes of this thread, we are in the complicit!lxc universe, all that stabbing practice paid off, and jgy escapes out the back of the temple to a safe house with the tiger seal. the cleanup crew doesn't find a body, but they do find shuoyue and and a lot of ashes

clearly there had been a fire, everything is all smashed up, and wow, that was a lot of resentful energy, wasn't it? who could survive getting poisoned, stabbed, and getting an arm cut off? he must be dead. there's no other possible conclusion. and look at lxc, he's a wreck.

(lxc is, in fact, an actual wreck, because it all looks very convincing, and jgy is still, you know, in a bad way, and he can't really run off and check on him while all this is going on.)

jgy stays in the safe house and heals up, lxc goes back to gusu. somewhere in between this all, they manage to get back in touch and to extract meng shi's body (which for the purposes of this thread we're going to say had so far just been moved and not messed with).

jgy resurrects his mom! but, you know, the tiger seal doesn't create sentient corpses, so - we just have jgy and corpse mom, in a veiled hat, waiting for lxc at the dock after he vanishes from seclusion to join them. lxc, conceptually, knew what he was going to see, but

the reality of corpse!mom is- maybe a lot. still, he wants jgy to be happy, and this is what jgy wants. he knows that signing up for jgy means you can't ever be completely sure what you signed up for, but he signed up a long time ago, so they're going to make this work, they are.

obviously, they missed their original boat to dongying, so now they have to just take a random one. overpaying the crew but not so much that it would look even more suspicious. just two brothers and their extremely sick mom, traveling for their mother's health. also business.

once underway, the mother never comes out on deck at all because of her health. she doesn't speak either. or eat. she's on a special diet, it's fine. why do they need so much perfume? isn't it stifling in that small cabin? the doctors recommended it, it's medicinal.

lxc is out on deck to get air quite a bit. uh, he just - he just loves the sea. it's fascinating. all that water. being on a boat is so great. why would he want to be anywhere else. meanwhile, jgy is constantly flitting between abovedecks and the cabin on a little loop.

jgy has separation anxiety from corpse!mom after nhs nearly stole her away but also wants to be near his beautiful partner in crime husband on the high seas all the time. he's still a little off-balance from only having one arm, the boat isn't helping. he keeps falling into lxc.

the entire crew watching lxc continually catching his tiny, uh, brother, before he goes rolling across the deck again. wow, he sure holds his brother real tenderly. a lot of, uh, brotherly affection there.

(the crew later tries to tell the story about this weird trio for clout in crowded sailor drinking houses, but it makes everyone extremely uncomfortable and no one wants to actually ask them any questions. cannot be real! they must be making it up! not worth asking! moving on!)

when they finally get to dongying, everyone gets their own space and everything is so much better. lxc has his music/painting room and jgy has his study and both of them have a bedroom together and corpse mom has her nice little paper-fronted corpse closet where she can sit.

corpse closet is hidden behind some heavy furniture item so as not to accidentally expose guests to corpse mom, and they figured out some talismans for the smell. it's fine, lxc is happy to move the furniture around with his Lan Arms, and this is all so much better than the boat

any robber that breaks in in search of valuables from this pleasant pair of bachelors is going to get the fright of their life, and then the fright of their death, in quick order.

after a couple of robbers go missing, the word gets around: That House Is Not Worth It. why? you don't want to know. you simply don't. yes, they seem genteel and scholarly. yes, one of them only has one arm. still, not in a million years.

(coda for wangxian's reaction)

so, lxc kind of just up and goes, vanishes overnight, doesn't want to be found, doesn't want lwj to get any ideas, safer for everyone this way.

no thoughts hanshi empty.

lwj is not rolling around kicking his legs, but it's close. he's doing the hgj equivalent, sitting quietly & glumly playing ballads about sudden parting. he is creating NEW HARMONIES to express how abandoned he has been. you KICK wangji? you LEAVE WANGJI in the cloud recesses???

he has written FIVE harmonies this week, wwx & lsz are exchanging frozen smiles.

he says 'wei ying, i would like to perform a new composition for you this evening.' wwx wants to cry and run back to yunmeng.

why can't lwj just scream & utter death threats like a normal person!!!