XIE LIAN

[chanteuser]

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week 2, tuesday

[chanteuser]

[ alex wanders into the pub eventually. she likes cooking, sure, but sometimes it's nice to ... just have food made for you? and if she doesn't question where the food is coming from too much, this is a pretty nice place to hang out.

...

especially when there's company ]

Oh, hello. Are you having lunch?

[dianxias]

[ xie lian is absolutely not the type to take free food for granted, so. he's been in here often the past two days, trying different dishes! today, he's settled at a table with a glass of water and three or four plates in front of him, scanning through his phs. ]

Hello, Miss Alex - I am! [ he's got a smile as he's greeted, with a polite bow of his head. ] Would you like to join me? I think my eyes were a bit bigger than my stomach.

[chanteuser]

[ oh

wow yeah that's a lot of food you've got there xie lian. alex stares at the dishes for a moment, before nodding. ]

If you don't mind. What did you order?

[dianxias]

...Well... a lot. I'm not really sure. I think these were called "fish sticks", and some kind of stew, and there's a grilled fish that's kind of spicy - it reminds me a little of home...

[ he's pointing to each one as he goes! ] I think it's quite the blessing to be able to eat things like this whenever we please this week, so... I guess I got a little excited. Please, come sit!

w2 post execution!

[dianxias]

[ well! that was fun. at least they caught the right person, i guess.

xie lian seems to be heading out when he spots alex! as ever, he has a friendly smile for her, and a polite bow. ] Good afternoon, Miss Alex. Would you like to come for a walk with me?

[chanteuser]

[ she seems a bit out of it, but does blink when xie lian calls her name. ]

...?

Oh hello, Xie Lian. [ ... well. she's out walking anyway, so... ] I'll join you.

[dianxias]

[ huh...

he nods, and settles to walk with her, at an easy pace. xie lian tucks his hands in his sleeves, looking to the side at alex. ]

I usually find a walk clears my head out, after the events of the weekend. How are you holding up...?

[chanteuser]

It's... better than sitting around overthinking things.

[ hmm. she has her own arms folded across her chest, a little like she's cradling herself with her arms. ]

I'm holding up fine. I'm just... there's a lot happening. I'm not sure where to start or what to focus on first.

week 4, tuesday

[chanteuser]

[ alex really should avoid the saloon, most of her memshares have been here. but she's hungry, so she wanders in, looking for some food. ]

[ and of course, waving to xie lian when she sees him. ]

Looking for lunch?

[dianxias]

[ wow can't believe it's time for alex to share another mem in the saloon!!

i mean. xie lian spots alex and brightens; as she waves, he gives her a little bow in greeting. ] Hello, Miss Alex - I was! Would you like to join me?

[ he loves... food. ]

[chanteuser]

I'm getting flashbacks to the pirate inn-- what did you find this time?

[ he really does love food. can't wait for his lunchtime to be interrupted when the bubbles descend ]

1/2

[dianxias]

[ yeah. boy howdy.

xie lian can't help but smile, as he holds up his mutton! ] This! it's delicious. Really, everything is... the tomatoes, too! You know, I just think they're the most interesting thing. It's a fruit! But, it tastes like it should be a vegetable? I'm not -

[ as he's reaching for his tomato to demonstrate, however, ruoye realizes that its Favorite Person is here, and comes disobediently wiggling out of xie lian's sleeve to say hello... and pops a bubble in the process. ]

...Ah.


[ uh oh. ]

[dianxias]

[ you are twenty years old, laying on a broken bed in a ramshackle house, feeling a torrent of emotions - misery, anger, paranoia - and have no rest.

you know this place as your temporary home. it is not - it is nothing like what you're used to, nothing like any of you are used to. nothing is anything like it used to be, and you have just finished trying to explain something to your former bodyguard - and you are angry. you've never been more angry, and bitter, and sad. this isn't you, your bodyguard told you, and you didn't care.

you don't get much time to stew today, though, because there is a knock at your door. you stay there, unmoving, for a moment, but eventually lift your exhausted head, and call out to whoever's on the other side.

"my son, it is your mother. let mother come in and take a look at you, alright?"

and no matter how angry, how miserable you are, you cannot refuse that request. you rise to your feet and answer the door, and she stands there.

she is beautiful, even now, though the weight of her exhaustion makes her seem older than she is. your beloved mother doesn't look like she fits in this place - she's too beautiful for it, ethereal, someone who has always been wealthy and now is poor, with a plate in her freshly weathered hands. she smiles at you, and you can see she's just as tired as you are. "My son, you haven't eaten yet, right?"

what she has on the plate looks terrible. it looks truly terrible, and smells foul, and the first thing you think is even if i haven't eaten, i don't want to eat what you've made, but the words die in your throat, because it is your mother, and you have stomached her cooking a thousand times since things became like this. you have begged her not to cook too much - you are a fine cook, so you do it, but right now, you just can't, and your mother...

you step to the side, to let her in the room.

"look," she says.

you feel a rise of bitterness again, and ask, "what's that?"

your mother gestures to the plate and says, in a serene voice, as if she is offering you treasure, "this is "Lovebirds Upon a Branch Meatballs", and this, is "Blooming Flowers and Full Moon Stew."

they both look absolutely horrendous. you interrupt her. "why did you name these things?"

"don't all dishes have names?"

"...that's for imperial dining, in the palace." you say, and the memory of your once charmed life touches the edges of your mind, the way your mother still looks like she will never belong, like a diamond placed in a coal mine, "Ordinary folks don't give names to dishes."

the queen falls silent for a moment. she watches you, then looks down at her dish, and then... she smiles at you, and you love your mother's smile. it feels like home. "Well, no one said you have to be dining imperially in order to give dishes names, so just take this as a wish for good fortune."

she hands you the chopsticks. you stare at her. you don't - you don't know what to say, and the memory fades away there.]

week 5 sunday wow im backdating bc i cant read

[dianxias]

[ xie lian is making his way to the kitchen when he spots poor alex laying face down on the floor. she is so valid.

he disappears for a moment, and then comes back with a pillow in his hands. kneeling down beside her, he says - ] Miss Alex...? Can you lift your head for me?

what's reading

[chanteuser]

[ she grumbles, and curls herself up more. ]

we're all blanca

[dianxias]

[ a quiet chuckle ]

Please? Just a little.

[chanteuser]

[ she will lift her head up just a little. she looks tired. ]

Like this?

week 6, post trial

[dianxias]

[ hi alex!

if you are looking for xie lian, you will find him out at the beach. he's just laying on his back, spread eagled, staring up at the sky.


all my friends are dead.png ]

[chanteuser]

[ she just

comes and lies down next to him. less spread eagled, but still. ]

[dianxias]

[ mood.

he tilts his head over, to give her an exhausted smile. ]

...What an utterly horrible weekend.

[chanteuser]

... That's an understated way of putting it, but yeah. It has been.

w7, post trial

[dianxias]

[ xie lian's coming down to the kitchen after all the fuss is over to seek out a snack. he doesn't have his usual robes on, instead dressed in a sweatshirt that looks entirely too big for him and a pair of loose pants, and when he spots someone else in the kitchen -

well, it's alex, so! xie lian has a smile for her, tired, but a smile nonetheless. ] Good evening, Miss Alex.

[chanteuser]

[ what is up, snack lian ]

Good evening. You look nice and cosy.

[dianxias]

[ he has to get snacks from the kitchen now because francy took away my breadsleeves bc she wanted us to be clowns

anyway. xie lian blinks, and looks down at himself, and then scratches his cheek, laughing a little sheepishly. ] I suppose so... um, modern clothes are fairly comfortable, but I'd really like my robes back.

[ rip. ] What brings you down here tonight?

[chanteuser]

[ xie lian your breadsleeves. ]

I'm a fan of the oversized sweater myself, so... maybe I'm a little biased.

[ hmm. ] I was just passing through to go upstairs. It's a little... unsettling outside, if I'm honest.