Returning home feels like a punch to the gut.

Jiang Cheng recognises Lotus Pier as if he's stepped into a dream - the rolling mountains behind the rivers, the flowers breaking out over the water, the slightly muggy feeling in the air. It makes him feel as though he is whole once again, as though he belongs, and the ache of leaving the train behind something that makes him uncomfortable, but it is forgettable.

He wakes in his chambers, makes his way around the familiar compound, ignores the disciples and begins to storm out of the stronghold and around the familiar rivers. The first thing he wanted to do was to explore, to reacquaint himself with all the things he knows. He pushes himself to move and walk around Yunmeng, to delve deep into what he knows as home - and it doesn't take long for him to lose himself to the fog, to stumble out and find himself back on the platform.

The rage he feels, the rage that's on his face, is unfathomable; there has never been anyone quite as angry as him, standing in the midst of what feels like nothing, like a betrayal. All he can do is stand there, glowering, hands shaking and Zidian sparking - his empathy power broadcasting to everyone just how absolutely miserable he is.

When he realises just how limiting his return home is, when he realises that it's complete nonsense, another broken promise, all he can do is go back to Lotus Pier and haunt the stronghold like he's a ghost.

There are numerous places around the Pier that he spends his time, hovering around; it seems as though people can see him and sometimes can't. Sometimes there's a sense of people coming to him for commands, for something, as if he had never left, but Jiang Cheng isn't sure if that is when he is is asleep and dreaming. Most of his time, otherwise, is spent on the edge of the pier, staring out at the scenery, what he had missed and what he hadn't really come back from.

For anyone who visits Yunmeng there are plenty of places to visit: the main room, with the grand Lotus throne and laid out purples and silks. The middle of the stronghold, where disciples can be found training, or moving around, bringing things backwards and forwards. There are the family spaces, with empty tables because there has been no one to eat there in years; with no family to share it with other than a-Ling Jiang Cheng had not bothered with the formality. There's even the possibility of seeing into well decorated bedrooms, some that look more lived in than others. Some seem haunted, left and abandoned in the midst of a Sect growing around it.

The most beautiful aspect of Lotus Pier is, of course, the rivers. There are boats that can take you out to see the lotus flowers in all their glory, with a chance to see and pluck lotus pods as you go. The river is beautiful, and reflects the sky and the scenery around them like a mirror.

It's no wonder Jiang Cheng longs for home so very often.

( Feel free to find Jiang Cheng anywhere else (somewhere in Lotus Pier, stuck on the platform, etc) or PP/DM me for something personal! )