haunt and kill: b-side
Nov. 24th, 2024 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceuMy first attempt at writing this, before I decided to go from another direction :)
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There is a ghost in the corner of the cafe.
Lan Wangji is careful not to look at it. Some ghosts will disappear when you make eye contact with them—or perhaps not disappear, but rather hide themselves that you'd have to seek another way to find them again. Adaptability, Lan Wangji has always been taught, is key. Spiritual entities only know survival and destruction. It is his duty to teach the forgiveness.
This corner of the city had come on his radar yesterday, when he'd done some mandatory perusing. Although Lan Wangji has no issues with being recognizable in the larger cities, it is nice to visit a small town where the innkeeper will offer him free dinners because she is kind, not because he is Hanguang-jun. When he'd asked about supernatural events in the area, she had laughed and said some of the neighborhood kids joke that this cafe is haunted. Then she asked him if he believed in ghosts, rather than asking him about his cultivating techniques.
Lan Wangji has never had a choice to believe in ghosts. The motto of his academy had been "Deliver righteousness unto the dead as the living." And Lan Wangji knows he has seen more spirits than the average person, much less cultivator; sometimes he is unsure if this makes him lucky or not.
He finishes his tea and closes his book. The other patrons in the cafe do not pay much attention to him, nor do the baristas. The tea itself tasted more like water than anything else. Regardless, Lan Wangji puts his trash in the bin, picks up his belongings, and pushes his chair in to leave.
The door jingles.
-
There is a ghost in the corner of the cafe.
Lan Wangji is careful not to look at it. Some ghosts will disappear when you make eye contact with them—or perhaps not disappear, but rather hide themselves that you'd have to seek another way to find them again. Adaptability, Lan Wangji has always been taught, is key. Spiritual entities only know survival and destruction. It is his duty to teach the forgiveness.
This corner of the city had come on his radar yesterday, when he'd done some mandatory perusing. Although Lan Wangji has no issues with being recognizable in the larger cities, it is nice to visit a small town where the innkeeper will offer him free dinners because she is kind, not because he is Hanguang-jun. When he'd asked about supernatural events in the area, she had laughed and said some of the neighborhood kids joke that this cafe is haunted. Then she asked him if he believed in ghosts, rather than asking him about his cultivating techniques.
Lan Wangji has never had a choice to believe in ghosts. The motto of his academy had been "Deliver righteousness unto the dead as the living." And Lan Wangji knows he has seen more spirits than the average person, much less cultivator; sometimes he is unsure if this makes him lucky or not.
He finishes his tea and closes his book. The other patrons in the cafe do not pay much attention to him, nor do the baristas. The tea itself tasted more like water than anything else. Regardless, Lan Wangji puts his trash in the bin, picks up his belongings, and pushes his chair in to leave.
The door jingles.
