aulteration | sangcheng zone

[The question makes him frown at the cup in his hand, and he puts it down beside him like he's suddenly decided to rethink the idea of drinking.]

I usually drink tea.

I haven't... [He doesn't look at Huaisang, or finish his sentence; instead, his eyes lift to the horizon distantly.] Not in a long time.

I see...

[He hasn't either, honestly, but he's appeared drunk enough in public that he can't just say so. Huaisang just hums, then, before he holds his cup up to Jiang Cheng with a smile that's only slightly lopsided.]

Then-- to a return to old habits. I think we can afford a bit of that, in these times.

[He glances at Huaisang, and then his eyes drop to the offered cup. His smile is extremely faint and very tight, but it's there.

Again, he takes up his own cup and bumps it gently with Huaisang's, a toast.]

To old habits.

[He nods, taking a real sip this time, then setting the cup aside with a little sigh.]

Really, it's almost a shame it's only the two of us...

[It's a good thing he is having a swig of the cup, or he would have maybe been more rude.

His melancholy expression turns very sour.]

He made his choices.

And have you as well, Jiang Cheng?

[He says it lightly, almost airy, but his words are measured.]

[He glances at Huaisang, a little defensive even if the words sound reasonable.

There's a thorn he can feel digging in, but doesn't completely recognize.]

Yes.

[He looks away stubbornly.]

Then what choices have you made, when it comes to him?

[Still in that light, conversational tone, head tilted like this is just any other normal question.]

[Both brows furrow. For a long moment, he doesn't answer. It looks like he wants to be bitter and angry, as always. But there's something else there now, after everything. After his little meltdown.]

What choices are there to make? He's with Hanguang-jun. I doubt he'll ever return to Lotus Pier.

Is he aware whether he'd be welcome to return here, if he chose to?

[He knows how these things go.]

[Huaisang isn't wrong...

The silhouette of Jiang Cheng's face pinches visibly, but he doesn't say anything. Since, like, his silence says a whole lot.]

[That's more or less what he expected, yeah.

Huaisang sighs, slowly, taking his cup in hand once more.]

You can do as you like, Jiang Cheng, your family matters aren't mine to speak on-- but at the very least, he's alive.

[Angry, he cuts a quick, sharp look at Huaisang, but then realizes what the man's point is about this specifically. His face falls some.

Right.]

He doesn't want anything to do with me, Nie Huaisang. In that way, it's better. I would probably kill him otherwise. And he'd deserve it.

Would you, now.

[It's only half a question, one he shortly follows up with:]

Has he said he wants nothing to do with you? I really could have sworn he went in this direction, after we all left the Burial Mounds that time, but-- ah, maybe I didn't look properly?

[Despite not looking back at Huaisang yet, his eyes narrow considerably. The irritation cracks for a second or two--no, he doesn't want to hear it, he doesn't want to think about Wei Wuxian still being so important to him, then and now--and again he frowns hard.]

I didn't realize your offer to drink was just a way for you to chastise me about Wei Wuxian. Did he really sweet-talk you so well in whatever place the two of you were kept?

My offer to drink was exactly that!

[They're just drinking, and talking, and these things come up sometimes? He hums, sipping at his cup.]

It's hardly chastising to ask a few questions, Jiang Cheng. I'm not accusing you of anything.

[He's still pouting, essentially, with his head turned away and his lips drawn down. He looks very much like the usual Jiang Cheng, so Huaisang at least should know this isn't some kind of dimensional trick.

He thinks that his family spent most of their time talking about Wei Wuxian in some way. He wants so badly to say this to Huaisang, as bitterly as he feels it... and yet.]

Are you trying to convince me to make amends?

I'm not trying to convince you of anything. Only saying that it's-- easy to miss chances, when we have them.

[They didn't make up before Nie Mingjue was killed, after all. There was no second chance later. Jiang Cheng, he thinks, is lucky in that way.]

But as you said, the two of us were together in one of those places-- I'm not as concerned with his state. It's yours.

[It's whether he'll come to regret it if he doesn't take what he's been given, whether he'll always remember it, like Huaisang does.]

I'm fine.

[The compassion shouldn't sting like it does, but Jiang Cheng's biggest flaw is probably his pride. He is very obviously in A State, and yet... if Huaisang can see him this way...

Who else could?]

You didn't worry any other time. Why does it matter now?

I know.

[He's fine in the way that any of them are, maybe. Huaisang isn't sure how many people of their age, here, could honestly say so.

The question, though, just gets a wave of his hand.]

We were both occupied, before-- would it matter whether I worried or not until now?

[There was certainly no way to say so.]

I don't think you really need to ask. You aren't foolish, Jiang Cheng.

[Jiang Cheng swallows, feeling as if his throat is dry. He is fine in the same way the rest of them are fine.

In a way he hopes Jin Ling never has to be "fine."

Slowly, he turns his head enough to glance at Huaisang.]

What happened to all of you, Nie Huaisang?

Jin Ling has explained, hasn't he-- ah, though he just knows the first one, he wasn't awake for the second...

[He exhales a slow, measured sigh.]

The second game, we were pulled into almost immediately after the first, along with others from similar places. In that one, there were no monsters. We were split into three groups and told only one was to be left standing. Things proceeded roughly as one might expect-- deaths each week.

[Both of Jiang Cheng's brows furrow.] He heard what happened... supposedly from Wei Wuxian. [Which just makes! Jiang Cheng! frown!

But he listens to Huaisang's recount anyway.]

That's... [He hates it, honestly.] It sounds like what happened to us with the Wens, but... worse.

Definitely worse. There were a few among us tasked with ensuring death continued to happen-- if none died, we all would.

Even so, there were an alarming number who kept insisting that it was terrible to act and justice must be served on anyone who did-- not that anything done there could be considered 'just' at all.

[Jiang Cheng wonders if he would have been one of the handful insisting on justice against those doing such a thing. With Huaisang here, he wonders if Mingjue would have been standing with him, too.]

And Wei Wuxian?

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I was so sure I fucking tagged this

no sangchengs for you

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