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 Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2024 11:34 pm
[backdated to march 26th]
Shuangxu still didn't really understand what had happened, that rainy night. He'd found a magic wand, and turned into a magical warrior--become Lanting of Ida, whatever that meant. But that was the thing, wasn't it? What did it mean?
Who was Lanting? How was he different than Shuangxu, other than apparently being pretty magical? What was Ida, or who? Did he serve someone? Something?
He'd done some research, of course--the name Lanting had twigged something in the back of his mind, and he'd been sure that he knew how to spell it, perfectly, which characters to use, and he'd found something. An Orchid Pavilion, a place where ancient Chinese literati had gathered for a grand philosophical debate. So kind of the ancient equivalent of an academic conference, if he wanted to be reasonable about it, or an anime convention, if he wanted to be less so. And that was cool and all, but it didn't really tell him what anything had to do with him.
Why did Feng Shuangxu get the special ability to become Lanting of Ida? Weren't magical girls supposed to get cute animal sidekicks to help them out?! Where was his Mokona?! It really, truly was just not fair!
But maybe the way to figure things out was just...to be Lanting.
So he slipped out of his townhouse, and went for a walk, and once he was a couple blocks away in the opposite direction from his sister's place, he focused on that wand, and felt Lanting settle around him. He'd shoved some snacks in a backpack, in case he was out for a long time, because who really knew, when one was going out as a magical boy to fight monsters--maybe he would need them. Or maybe someone else would. No reason to be stingy, anyway.
It was a beautiful night, and maybe he could go see about fighting some monsters or something. Or look for other people to talk to, or...he wasn't really sure.
But some instinct itched inside him, an instinct that pushed him to do something else. To focus on something--somewhere--far away, to get some answers for himself. And, well. Following his instincts had worked out pretty well so far, right?
So he did--he focused on Lanting, and on somewhere else, and closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was somewhere else.
Lanting.
The Orchid Pavilion.
He was in a courtyard, a siheyuan--surrounded by buildings on all four sides, with a gazebo in the center floated on what had once surely been a lovely pond, and places that had once been green and full of flowers, Lanting was certain. It was crumbling, now, born down by the weight of time, and the pond looked disgusting, and the plants were dead, but--but he could tell, already, that there was something extraordinary here.
Lanting inhaled, and spun around slowly.
Whatever this place was, whatever its connection to him, it was--beautiful. Or, well, it had been beautiful once. And he was sure it could be again, it would just....require some scrubbing and cleanup, that was all! Some love and care and time and attention, and Shuangxu would just have to be the one to give it to it.
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Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2024 11:23 pm
Lanting really, really wished he'd brought some kind of cleaning supplies. Not that he really knew how to like...do that kind of thing, but he could probably figure it out! It probably wasn't hard! ....Maybe he'd do some research when he got back home, look up how to clear out old ponds and get weird stains out of wood and stonework and what to do with tons of dead plant detritus. You know, very normal things to want to know how to do. Gardening. Cleaning. Maintenance.
Plus, people flipped old, condemned houses all the time, there had to be all kinds of resources for cleaning up somewhere that had been left to rot.
It was sad to think about, really--Lanting swore he could see the hints of somewhere beautiful here; a place abandoned to time but certainly not completely lost. After all, the gazebo was still standing, and so were the buildings around the courtyard.
And this had to be it. His Orchid Pavilion, whatever that meant.
(Wonder, something inside him said, and that felt right. Maybe this place wasn't grand anymore, but it certainly felt like a wonder.)
He left the courtyard after a long, contemplative moment spent taking it in. Yeah, it would take a lot of work. No, normally Shuangxu was not inspired to do things that took a lot of work, unless they were digital. But this was....this was real, and special, and he was the only one who could do anything about it. So he would have to figure things out.
There would be plenty of time for that later, though. For now, Lanting wanted to explore.
He looked back, towards the main hall at the back of the courtyard. If there was anything for him specifically to discover, it would be there—after all, he was Lanting, wasn’t he? So the main hall should have been his. Somehow.
It made sense in his head, alright. And that was the only place it had to make sense.
So he walked there, feeling his chest clench in anticipation. This was....important, he knew it. And as soon as he pushed the doors open, he was assaulted by a moment of--something. Memory? Not his, certainly--
A sickening crack, and then another, then a voice, cold as ice and imperious--
"Get out, little beast, and never darken my doorstep again."
He staggered, briefly, looking around--but there was no source for the sound, just a snippet of...the past? His memories? Something else? Lanting couldn't even begin to guess.
He reached up and rested a hand on his chest, briefly. He'd hoped to come here and find answers, but....he just felt even more confused, now.
He exhaled, quietly, and kept walking forward. There were multiple doors off the main entrance room--if he continued forward, he suspected he'd find the master bedroom, or something to that effect, so he went to the right, and opened the door--and there, he found a beautiful little workspace.
Whoever had lived there had clearly loved plants; there were pots all over the room, including on the little writing desk at the far end of it. The desk had obviously not been touched for years, but sitting on it was...a ring.
Lanting scooped it up. There, engraved into it, was a stem of flowers--but the flowers were the same orchid-heart that was all over his outfit.
"Oh," Lanting said softly, and he scooped it up and slipped it on his finger.
It fit perfectly.
A little gift, from centuries ago.
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Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 2:19 am
Lanting felt...tired. The longer he stayed on this place--this Wonder of his, this beautiful Orchid Pavilion somewhere out in the universe--the more he felt like he ought to go home. It was a strange sensation, and one he decided to ignore. There was nothing he could be doing back home that was half as interesting as this. Sure, there were games to play, and webtoon updates to read, and fanfics to comment on, but all of that could be done any time, every day. Lanting had no idea when he'd next get to come here--there was so much to see, so much to do, so much to find. So he kept on exploring the main chambers; found an elaborate and lovely bedroom, and a small side room that seemed like it might be another work or study space, or maybe a studio for painting--the kind that a young, well-educated lord might have had a thousand years ago, in a siheyuan just like this in Zhengzhou or Luoyang. This place...Lanting loved it already, with his entire heart.
He could have spent forever here, he thought, looking for more to do and more to find. Could have lingered for ages discovering every nook and cranny. And maybe he would, in the future. Espedcially once he brought the tools to really start bringing this place back to life.
He hoped for something, anything, to come again--another piece of memory that might help him understand what had happened here and who had lived here and what they'd done. But there was nothing; no more little voices, no more things to find.
There were books, everywhere; he supposed that made sense, if this Orchid Pavilion was like the one on Earth, and had been the home of a legendary scholar of some kind or another. All of them, though, were in a language he couldn't read--nothing like anything he recognized from Earth, and so in the end, after puzzling over them and not being sure what to make of a single one, they were set aside. There were other distractions, too; paintings and scrolls all clearly created by hand, with love and care, and even if he couldn't read them or really understand what he was looking at, he still took a moment to admire the craftsmanship. Paintings done elegantly and airily, scrolls that he couldn't read but that had the air of fine calligraphy, somehow.
What that he could make something like this. Then maybe Shuangxu Feng might have some worth, in this world.
But he couldn't, and so the scrolls and paintings too were set back where they belonged.
There was plenty more of the pavilion to explore, Lanting was sure, but...that could all wait, he supposed.
And then, as he was planning to go home, suddenly, for a moment--
Lanting felt something..strange. A lurching in his chest. A sluggishness in him, in the magic that made Lanting.
He shook his head, slowly. Whatever that was, it had passed, and it probably didn't mean anything.
He tried to reach for Earth, for home. Closed his eyes and focused, the same way he had done to come here in the first place.
He felt nothing. And when he opened his eyes, he was still in the same place he'd been before he closed them.
Lanting's heart lurched. He tried again--perhaps he hadn't understood properly. Perhaps there was some mistake.
But no matter what he did, nothing changed.
Lanting couldn't go home. He was trapped here, in space, all alone.
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Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2024 5:58 pm
Of all the things Lanting had ever thought to be afraid of, "being stuck in space at the magical place that was supposed to be His" was nowhere on that list at all. Generally, he lived a life that afforded him the luxury of not worrying about much--sure, he got nervous about all the stories of strange activity in Destiny City, but none of that had really crossed his path until the night he became Lanting, and he'd obnly dealt with a little of it since. So any kind of magical space shenaigans? Totally beyond him.
Maybe it would be fine in a few hours. Maybe he just had to wait.
So wait he did. Not just waiting, no--he explored more, though there was only so much of that to do. It was a complex of buildings built around beautiful courtyards, yes, but it wasn't some massive sprawling estate. He got the lay of it pretty quickly, and he had to admit, he really, really liked it here.
Being stuck wasn't great, and it'd probably be nicer to be stuck here if ti wasn't a crumbling ruin, but even with the Crumbling Ruin and Trapped Here of it all, it was still....really beautiful.
And really peaceful.
Lanting...liked it here, if he was honest. Maybe he'd like it better if he could come and go as he pleased, but....this was...nice?
After a few hours, and a few more failed attempts to leave, he decided that it was probably better to just...sleep it off and try again in the morning. There was a fancy, comfortable-looking bed in what he assumed was the master bedroom, so he slipped in there, pulling off the top blanket and shaking out the pillows to get rid of any particularly clingy dust and detiritus, and then curled up on surprisingly well-preserved bed linens.
The next day, he tried to leave again.
Once more, though, he was stymied.
No matter what he did, he couldn't seem to make himself go back to Earth. He was suddenly especially glad for the snacks he'd packed--living on granloa bars and chips and bottled water would suck, but it would be better than not living on anything.
So he stayed. He explored his Wonder, and was suddenly glad for his ability to lose track of time and skip meals, because it meant he could just let himself get lost in wandering, in examining, in learning, and only occasionally pop out a snack when he thought about it. There was no one to answer to, here, no streaming schedule to keep (oh, his Discord was going to be a mess when he got back, wasn't it?) and nothing to rush to, so he napped when he felt like it and explored when he didn't. In a storeroom, he found garden tools and cleaning implements--and so he took the time to start in on that.
He wasn't sure how many days he stayed. Time felt elsewhere, in some ways.
But it was when he was starting to run out of food that something finally happened.
He tried, one last time, to get to Earth--and this time, it worked. He found himself back in his apartment--dark, quiet, untouched.
As soon as he powered down, his phone started to buzz with alerts.
Shuangxu had found his way back.
[align-right][total wc: 2,270]
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