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Entry tags:
- arknights: midnight,
- chainsaw man: denji,
- cyberpunk red: emerick kline,
- dceu: harley quinn,
- dogs b&c: badou nails,
- fear & hunger: daan,
- ffvii: reno,
- ffxiv: hythlodaeus,
- ffxiv: thancred waters,
- ffxiv: yshtola rhul,
- ffxv: prompto argentum,
- honkai sr: welt yang,
- library of ruina: angela,
- library of ruina: gebura,
- library of ruina: netzach,
- library of ruina: roland,
- library of ruina: yesod,
- limbus company: don quixote,
- limbus company: vergilius,
- mass effect: kaidan alenko,
- mcu: nebula,
- monster: kenzo tenma,
- nevermore: lenore vandernacht,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- persona 3: shinjiro aragaki,
- svsss: shen yuan,
- the sandman: dream of the endless,
- the sandman: hob gadling,
- the sandman: johanna constantine,
- zero escape: junpei
[MINGLE, ESPECIALLY TO NEWCOMERS] ROOFTOP FESTIVITIES!!!
WHO: All!
WHAT: Rooftop festivities!
WHERE: On a rooftop of an office building in the second open district!
WHEN: 8/14, evening!
WARNINGS: alcohol, tba as it goes
Banner displayed inside the train station, outside city hall, and on the most used residence buildings.
Follow the arrows.
So you're unaware. Maybe new. Or maybe you just didn't care the first time you saw it. That's fine. Between the banners hanging around key areas, and the flyers quickly drawn up in a similar fashion scattered across the city, it's hard not to know something is going on -- and there's helpful arrows, chalked on building walls and the streets the day of the party, to let people know where to go.
The Rooftop
A splendid scene awaits those who travel heavensward. Fairy lights connect the corners of the roof access building to metal poles at the corners of the building itself, lifted by cylindrical supports where needed, each one held straight by pots filled with well-packed dirty and stone. There's multicolored stars hanging from some of the lights, while various painted flowers hang on others, and what greets the ears first is some royalty free party music played from a CD player off the the side.
There's a long folded out table in the center for those who'd like to share cuisine, just set and serve yourself! Nearby is a space for Daan to do some bartending as well, a man who can make a multitude of cocktails and mocktails for those who want something less alcoholic. Also, pints of various ice cream flavors in a cooler!
Don't worry -- they won't have any odd effects on them, Don verified the lack of them herself. Not all of them are normal. Think loaded baked potato weird.
For those who'd like a quieter space, there's beanbags and a swirly, fuzzy carpet to sit on more away from the center of the party area. This'll be a great time to play some games, such as truth or dare, spin the bottle, and... whatever else you play at parties. Get to know your fellow man and such. Play the violin.
Naturally, no party... hosted... by Don Quixote would be without a space to fight, if one wishes to show off a little! It's also taking place on a swirly fuzzy carpet, just so no one smashes their head in, and there's a neat little banner hanging down from a string of lights that says thus:
WIN THREE MATCHES AND A PRIZE AWAITS THEE!!!!!!!
- NO KILLING
- HANDS ONLY
What the prize is, no one knows. But come find Don Quixote with your battle scars and she'll grant it -- and stick around a while, 'cause this party's gonna end with a bang... that is, with homemade fireworks donated by "a friend" through Junpei.
Anyway, have fun!!! Share words about your worlds!!! The society your characters are from, the cuisine they've brought, how they're working out in the city -- help the new kids along, too. There's more vets here now than there were a few months ago, after all.
Navi: Truth or Dare - Two Truths and a Lie - Hydra Storytelling w/Junpei - Drink Up With Daan - Qixi Festivites
WHAT: Rooftop festivities!
WHERE: On a rooftop of an office building in the second open district!
WHEN: 8/14, evening!
WARNINGS: alcohol, tba as it goes
Banner displayed inside the train station, outside city hall, and on the most used residence buildings.
Follow the arrows.
So you're unaware. Maybe new. Or maybe you just didn't care the first time you saw it. That's fine. Between the banners hanging around key areas, and the flyers quickly drawn up in a similar fashion scattered across the city, it's hard not to know something is going on -- and there's helpful arrows, chalked on building walls and the streets the day of the party, to let people know where to go.
A splendid scene awaits those who travel heavensward. Fairy lights connect the corners of the roof access building to metal poles at the corners of the building itself, lifted by cylindrical supports where needed, each one held straight by pots filled with well-packed dirty and stone. There's multicolored stars hanging from some of the lights, while various painted flowers hang on others, and what greets the ears first is some royalty free party music played from a CD player off the the side.
There's a long folded out table in the center for those who'd like to share cuisine, just set and serve yourself! Nearby is a space for Daan to do some bartending as well, a man who can make a multitude of cocktails and mocktails for those who want something less alcoholic. Also, pints of various ice cream flavors in a cooler!
Don't worry -- they won't have any odd effects on them, Don verified the lack of them herself. Not all of them are normal. Think loaded baked potato weird.
For those who'd like a quieter space, there's beanbags and a swirly, fuzzy carpet to sit on more away from the center of the party area. This'll be a great time to play some games, such as truth or dare, spin the bottle, and... whatever else you play at parties. Get to know your fellow man and such. Play the violin.
Naturally, no party... hosted... by Don Quixote would be without a space to fight, if one wishes to show off a little! It's also taking place on a swirly fuzzy carpet, just so no one smashes their head in, and there's a neat little banner hanging down from a string of lights that says thus:
- NO KILLING
- HANDS ONLY
What the prize is, no one knows. But come find Don Quixote with your battle scars and she'll grant it -- and stick around a while, 'cause this party's gonna end with a bang... that is, with homemade fireworks donated by "a friend" through Junpei.
Anyway, have fun!!! Share words about your worlds!!! The society your characters are from, the cuisine they've brought, how they're working out in the city -- help the new kids along, too. There's more vets here now than there were a few months ago, after all.
Qixi Booth (multiple responders welcome!)
For their contribution to the festivities, Shen Yuan and "Liu Feiyu" have constructed a Qixi booth (Tanabata in Japanese). On either side of their table hangs two large vertical banners, depicting...somewhat overdressed versions of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl. Actually, it seems that Shen Yuan got a little too excited there -- seriously, since when does a simple cowherd wear such brightly colored clothes with so much embroidery? And why does he look vaguely like Luo Binghe?? Somebody take the expensive inks and paints away from this man before he hurts himself, ffs...
The food is much less objectionable -- it was made by Luo Binghe, after all! Everyone who visits their table will receive a strip of qiaoguo [a thin, fried pastry that's been shaped into a weaver's spindle] and a dumpling which may or may not contain a copper coin, foretelling a future of great wealth. (There's supposed to be a dumpling with a red date in it too, to foretell a happy marriage, but by sheer accident Shen Yuan ate it for breakfast this morning! Oopsie daisy, which an embarrassing accident that definitely wasn't set up by any naughty roommates with wedding bells on their mind...) And every two hours, on the hour, Shen Yuan will serve tea to anyone who's interested and relate the story behind the festival, how a lowly peasant fell in love with a maiden of heaven, and though the two of them were separated, still they meet once a year when a flock of sympathetic magpies form a glittering bridge across the sky...
After one of these retellings, Shen Yuan gratefully accepts a cup of tea from Luo Binghe and says, before taking a sip, "It's a little funny how outdated these old stories are. In my world if any guy tried to court a woman by stealing her clothes, he'd be thrown in jail...but because it's old and traditional, people still think Qixi is oh so romantic..."
no subject
Shen Yuan's complaint about stealing clothes brings Binghe's idle daydreams of picking out red silks to an abrupt and screeching halt.
"It isn't? Why not?"
It's not as though there weren't several arcs of Proud Immortal Demon Way that released around Qixi where Binghe ended up reenacting some element of the famous tale (three guesses which part), and, in one stroke of creativity, Great Master Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had even written an inverse of the traditional story where Luo Binghe's fine silk raiments were stolen by a poor cowherd who needed to pay for her sickly parents' medicine.
The point being, Binghe had met at least half a dozen of his wives under the circumstances of someone's clothes being stolen. It had all worked out fine in the end, hadn't it? What was the problem then?
no subject
It just seemed really pointless, okay?? He was the emperor of the entire goddamn planet and Hell besides, what was he doing stealing somebody's clothes as an excuse to court them? Setting aside the question of how many interchangeable flowers he'd already plucked for his private garden, shouldn't he have developed some classier techniques by that point? He came off less the humble cowherd and more the creepy voyeur!
The one exception had been the role reversal chapter, which even Peerless Cucumber had thought it was pretty cute. Binghe had gotten the chance to show off his softer side, a little hint of that white lotus cultivator appearing out of the shadows, as the cowherd lost her shit after realizing exactly who she'd stolen from and had a crying meltdown, and Binghe calmed her with charm and a few jokes at his own expense, drying her tears with his sweet-smelling hair (because he was still naked at the time, remember?) until he'd gotten her whole backstory and promptly fixed it all with his money and protagonist powers. The descriptions of how the girl's family had ranched cattle in the post-conjunction world had also been really cool, Cucumber had to admit -- Airplane did some of his least-terrible writing when he asked himself some what if question and then went on a research binge about it.
But that didn't fix the basic issue, which is that his protagonist had no idea that you couldn't court somebody by forcing them to be naked! What if he tried that here, or in whichever world they retired to? If it really was anything like Shen Yuan's world he'd end up arrested, and then what would they do? Laoshi needed to fix this!
"It's...only natural that Binghe wouldn't get it," Shen Yuan notes out loud, and awkwardly pats Binghe's arm. "He was created to be a romantic figure after all -- of course any woman the protagonist set his sights on would fall helplessly in love with him no matter what dirty tricks he pulled. But in the real world..." He sighs, trying to think how he should explain it so Binghe will understand. "Binghe didn't mind when Ngau Nungfu stole his clothes, because Binghe had grown so strong by then that he had no fear of anything," he finally decides. "But what if such a thing had happened when he was still a little disciple living on Qing Jing Peak? If he'd been bathing, and thought himself quite alone, wouldn't it have worried him if he'd suddenly looked up to find his clothes gone? Wouldn't he have been scared of what might become of him, if he had to leave the bath naked for all the world to see?" Maybe he was laying it on a little too thick here; if the original goods had seen Luo Binghe like that, he'd have whipped all the skin off his body!
But Shen Yuan presses on, "Would Binghe have felt kindly to whoever did that to him, even if it had just turned out to be Yingying pulling a silly prank? Mightn't he have struggled to forgive even her, after putting him through a scare like that?"
no subject
He's about to protest, to explain the realities of the harem, but hearing Shen Yuan call it a dirty trick silences him. It does a lot more to discourage Binghe's original plans of stealing his laoshi's clothes while he was in the shower as a little Qixi prank than the lecture about putting himself in other's shoes.
Still, he listens, rapt and attentive, ever the good pupil even now as some dreaded black lotus.
"I suppose I would have been angry with her," he admits. Even with how distant he and Yingying had become, he couldn't bring himself to resent her naivete. He had once thought that innocence worth preserving, and yet, that other one...
"Ning-shijie, in your world... she would never pull a prank like that. She was... different. Stronger."
More stern. And in many ways, kinder.
no subject
Out loud, he says, "If you'd told me eight years ago -- even five years ago, honestly -- how capable she and Ming Fan would turn out to be, I'd never have believed you. I don't even know how it happened, I came home from a trip one day and...there they were."
He'd been so upset while Binghe was gone, he could acknowledge that now that the pain was a little less raw, a little more distant. But the rest of the world had just...kept going. In all kinds of ways he didn't expect.
"Does Binghe miss her?" he asks, and gives the protagonist's hand a gentle squeeze. "It's alright if he does, I won't be upset..." He didn't know why he'd be upset about such a thing in the first place, but Binghe got kind of weird sometimes when they discussed his wives...ex-wives, technically, if he stuck with his retirement plan.
no subject
He should be. He should be shocked that he doesn't miss one of the closest things to a friend he's ever known.
But he doesn't.
He ruined Ning Yingying's life. He has no business missing her or any of his wives. They are all, to the one, better off with him gone.
Not that he's going to pretend his absence is in any way altruistic. It's better for him too, to be here, with Shen Yuan and away from the power plays and Xin Mo and all those things he never actually wanted.
"I think, this way, we're both free now."
no subject
There are lots of ways he could finish that thought. Encouragement, platitudes, even leaving it unfinished and changing the subject. But instead he purses his lips slightly, and says sympathetically, "Even without Xin Mo clouding his thoughts...it seems like Binghe struggles a little bit to connect with other people, doesn't he?"
no subject
Though it occurs to him that he has not thought spared much thought to the struggles of any who aren't himself. He did not put himself in the shoes of the women he basically cajoled into marriage when he stole their clothing and only thought of things from his own perspective.
Shen Yuan is right; he struggles to connect with other people. Even when he wants to, he doesn't know how. Make them delicious food, fix their problems, give them his body and power and wealth, take their loyalty and obedience -- it's never enough. There's always a wall between him and the world.
He takes Shen Yuan's hand in his, thumbing lazily over the knuckles.
"Shen-laoshi sees much. Is it that obvious?"
no subject
Such sticky words, his tone of voice, even the realization that he and Binghe are basically holding hands -- none of that manages to embarrass him, this time. But the sudden intrusive urge to live Binghe's hand to his mouth, and kiss his knuckles -- a rolling wave of heat spreads over Shen Yuan's entire body, from his scalp to the soles of his feet. Brain! WTF, where did that even come from? He's not even drugged this time!!
Shen Yuan squirms in his seat, suddenly unsure where to put his gaze. It's not like he can just take his hand back, either, not after speaking so personally. What if poor Binghe feels rejected? That's absolutely not allowed!
no subject
Instead, he rests his chin in his palm, giving Shen Yuan's hand a pleased little squeeze as he flashes his most charming smile.
"I like Shen-laoshi very much as well," he says, wondering if the other man will get the hint. He doubts it, but he's finding it rather fun to see how oblivious Shen Yuan is.
"Laoshi makes friends easily though. Does he, perhaps, find it easy to relate to others...?"
no subject
"Ah, well..." Shen Yuan clears his throat. "I wouldn't say it's easy for me...in fact, a lot of time the motivations of other people are a complete mystery to me...but I try to make up for it with courtesy and friendliness. I find that a warm smile and believing the best in people is often enough to win them over..." That's how it worked with Liu Qingge, anyway.
no subject
Believing the best in people hits him like a truck, however. What did Shen Yuan believe that was good about him, enough to willingly, happily, occupy a space with him? He'd read the story of his life and though Binghe has the growing suspicion that some things were omitted for reasons beyond his comprehension, the gist is still there. He's not a good person, even now. He's petty, cruel, vindictive, coercive, a liar, a fake. If there's anything left of the optimistic boy he once was, that sweet little white lotus Shen Yuan knew so well, then that's long gone.
He wants to change, wants to be better, but that doesn't change what he's done, what he is.
"Laoshi is dangerously optimistic. What if he's wrong about the people he believes in so easily?"
no subject
Interesting people like Binghe, he means. Even if their time together has sometimes been scary, embarrassing, or just plain weird, Shen Yuan doesn't regret a single moment of it.
He doesn't think he ever will.
no subject
Spoken almost sullenly with just a hint of envy. Envy, perhaps, not just because Shen Yuan has others in his life besides Luo Binghe, but because he has had such luck with meeting such kind people.
But of course they would be kind to him; Shen Yuan is very likable. Even wearing Shen Jiu's hateful face, he has made it something warm and kind and comforting. People must surely see him for the marvel that he is.
Binghe is sure that, even with his own handsome features, it is easy for others to see the horrible thing lurking underneath. That is why they were always so quick to beat and humiliate him, even before he himself understood what a monster he is.
no subject
All he can do is sigh. "I'm not sure how to answer that," he says honestly. "I can't make Binghe believe that other people are worth knowing; it's something he has to figure out for himself. But Binghe has always been worth the risk," he adds, in a low undertone, tracing a fingertip around the tea cup that lies near at hand.
no subject
Not that that's where Luo Binghe's mind is at in the moment (though it never strays too far from such thoughts). Binghe, instead, looks pensive, gaze distant, thoughtful.
Would reaching out have made a better man of him? It was such a terrible risk though. The last time he'd hoped that things could go differently, he'd had hot tea tipped on his head. After that, he'd closed his heart.
When he was kicked into the Abyss, he locked and bolted the wretched beating thing for good measure. He'd contented himself to play-act at connection; facsimiles of the real thing that couldn't fill that gaping hollow place in him, but could, for a time, cover it, before it grew ever wider and swallowed those relationships.
Is that what would happen with Shen Yuan eventually? Would he go the same way as everyone else?
Would Luo Binghe destroy him the way he destroyed everything else?
His gaze falls on the other man, lingering for the long, thoughtful silence.
"Laoshi is taking a big risk," he says slowly, dark eyes unblinking. "This lord is not his maiden-hearted disciple. He's read my story. He knows what I am. He knows what I do."
He stands, taking Shen Yuan's hand in his, holding it to his chest as he leans into Shen Yuan's space.
"This lord wishes Shen-laoshi would take better care with where he places his trust."
no subject
"Thank you for the story," she says when it's done, setting her tea down. "It was interesting. I've never heard anything like that where I'm from."
no subject
Perhaps an adventure story next time, maybe something from Journey to the West..."Liu Feiyu" had never shown any particular interest in Qixi before, but this time he seemed to have lost his head a little over the romance of it all and had been acting even weirder and stickier than normal. Feiyu! If you want to go out and chat up any of the pretty young ladies wandering around, just go and do it! You don't need to waste your time waiting on this old man hand and foot!
no subject
"Have you considered writing them down? You could have a collection of stories between you and Liu Feiyu to share with everyone." And, privately, she does want to hear more, read more. It's no book club like Hod's idea, but more of a... there is much you can tell about a people and a culture by the stories they tell; that's the whole reason she had a library in the first place. To learn, and that curiosity hasn't settled even now that she gets to experience.
no subject
"There's something special about live storytelling though, I think. There's an energy generated between audience and storyteller that you can't get from books."
Shen Yuan crosses his arms, tapping his chin with one fingertip as he gets caught up in the idea. "Perhaps some kind of regular meeting, with volunteers taking turns to share stories from their respective worlds... That might be fun to participate in."
no subject
"It might be, though I don't have many stories to share myself." Nothing as nice as what he's brought to the table, what other people might. If people want horror, though, she supposes she has them covered. "I have... an acquaintance. She isn't here, but she collected plenty of literature. I'm sure she'd jump at the chance to tell any multitude of stories she's read before."
what's a little backtagging between friends...
"Are they able to meet every year? I think it silly, though I cannot say I do not understand -- to forsake work for the company of another is irresponsible, though terribly romantic!"
Yes, don't worry, she's all about it, but Don's also from a City where money talks, walks, and dances... to slack away work is a big no-no, though really, she cannot deny that it would be nice... perhaps...
i love her
"The maiden of heaven no doubt has many duties to attend to," he acknowledges. "But she also has many sisters and the favor of the emperor besides. Surely her family works with her to ensure that, regardless of whatever else is going on, she can have one day off out of the year to visit her beloved husband. It would be simply too cruel to deny her that."
she's my all. i hope she can be yours too
"Indeed, much too cruel... surely they could afford her more, if they were able to. To grant her that much is kind enough, I suppose." Still... A sigh. Poor thing. Though she doesn't know the feeling herself, it's a tale that anyone can sympathize with. "Have thee one who would wait upon thee, and thee upon them?"
no subject
For some reason he finds himself smiling as his gaze drifts over to "Liu Feiyu," his roommate and best friend, as the younger man gathers up the tea cups left behind by their other listeners and carries them away to be cleaned. "I don't have anyone in the romantic sense, if that's what you mean," he finally tells Don. "But there is someone I'd prefer to spend the rest of my life with, if it's left up to me."