A TRAIN COMES INTO THE STATION.
You wake up on a train.
Your phone is buzzing. It's in your pocket, in your hand, on the seat next to you. It's a normal phone, and you're on a normal train car. One of the lights flickers, a little further down. The world is very quiet. It feels like you're right where you're meant to be. On the phone's surface is a white screen and the words—
WELCOME TO THE CITY. BEGIN ORIENTATION?
▶ NO
Please take a moment to complete your orientation.
Once you're finished, the subway doors slide open to let you out onto the train platform. To your right, the platform continues on and eventually ends; to the left is a set of stairs that will lead you up into the station itself. The platform is quiet, clean, empty–there's no one else around, and the only sounds you can hear are your own footsteps, your own breaths, and the occasional faraway sound of a creaking pipe or rush of air. The train you disembarked will stay there as long as you do, its doors still open, until you finally decide to venture up into this new locale.
As you make your way up the stairs to your left, you find yourself in the belly of City Hall station. The station is large, a sprawling underground mini-metropolis of corridors and storefronts. Here, you may find others like you, freshly-arrived city residents from other realms (or even your own). There is also a subway map, which will give you an idea of the layout of the neighborhood, and ticketing machines, which can currently only be used to buy tickets to a handful of stations located on lines 1, 2, and 9.
If you're hungry or in need of any kind of supplies, there are plenty of storefronts inside the subway station as well—snack stands, convenience stores, restaurants, clothing stores, a pharmacy, and a variety of empty shops that may or may not have ever been in use. Everything is unlocked, and you can take whatever you need.
Characters may stay on the train platform indefinitely, and may re-board and re-disembark from the subway as many times as they like, but the train will not depart nor will the doors close. Once they go up the stairs into the train station, they may hear the train doors closing and the train departing. Another train will not arrive, no matter how long the character waits. Only once they come up the stairs into the station itself may characters encounter their fellow newly-arrived residents and take advantage of what the city has to offer.
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WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
The station is located in the city center. It has three major exits that lead to areas of interest in the district, but there are several other smaller exits that lead in other directions around the neighborhood. You are welcome to use any of them, but may find the north, southwest, and east exits to be the most welcoming.
TO THE NORTH
The northern entrance to the station leads up into the sunlight and puts you out in a brickwork plaza. There's a modest building in front of you, three or four stories of stone with a welcoming facade. There's a sign above the entryway–it says City Hall. You may be tempted to explore, if you're interested in learning more about the city and how it functions, but prepare to find yourself disappointed–the folders in the records rooms are full of empty, blank sheets of paper, and the logbooks and balance sheets are similarly devoid of information.
Immediately to the west of City Hall, you will find a small building that houses the tourist information kiosk. The kiosk is not currently operational, but you may want to remember its location...
TO THE SOUTHWEST
The western exit of the station takes you up into a city park, lush and green with a very light fog still hanging about the trees. There are lampposts on the walkways and benches where you could rest, and plenty of flora, although you can neither see nor hear any signs of animal life. You walk the paths that meander idly through the verdant grass and you feel a sense of peace, some of your unease about this place easing into a pleasant calm. The air smells fresh, like it's recently rained, and you'll find the grass ever so slightly damp should you decide to take a seat.
As you make your way deeper into the park, the trees grow denser and the smell of soil and plant life grows stronger. This is the older part of the park, very nearly a forest, with ivy climbing the trunks of the trees and plants and shrubs growing riotously around their bases. As you turn a corner, you find yourself first in the statue garden, although the statues are harder to see now, choked as they are with ivy. There are many statues, some partially obscured, some fully–very few of them still stand free of the vines and clinging roots. (It doesn't feel quite as peaceful here.) If a statue's face looks a little bit familiar, you may not want to look at it too long.
Continue down the path and you will find yourself in a graveyard, one that seems centuries old. Most of the headstones are worn away by time and covered in moss, rendering them impossible to read. The few that are free of moss are blank, or bear only suggestions of names too faint to be understood. (Was that the name of–no, it couldn't have been. Could it?) Many of the headstones stand at an angle or are toppled over completely, having been subjected to either strong winds or the roots of the trees that grow up from some of the graves, spreading branches toward the sky.
TO THE EAST
The final exit of the station, to the east, puts you out on a quiet surface street. Are you hungry? Or are you paralyzed by choice? There are plenty of restaurants, offering options of almost any food you can imagine. You could try a convenience store–it's well stocked, and the items there seem free for the taking. How about a restaurant? There's no one to take your order, but when you look in the kitchen, there's something on the stove, and it's just what you've been craving. Imagine that.
A few blocks down, you come in through the lobby of a tall building and find yourself in a corporate office. The fluorescent lights are steady and unforgiving, and the cubicles and offices are empty. There are a few pieces of paper on desks, a few folders left in organizers, but everything is perfectly blank. Despite how empty and quiet the office is, it nonetheless gives you the feeling that just a few minutes ago, this place was bustling with workers going about their daily business.
You enter another building and find yourself in the lobby of an apartment complex–finally, a place to rest. The first door you try opens easily into a completely empty living room, freshly vacuumed but without a single piece of furniture. It's a nice apartment, quiet, but with a little too much echo for your taste, maybe. Still, and perhaps oddly, you have no trouble envisioning what life here would be like.
The second door you open leads to an apartment that feels lived-in. Why does it feel lived-in? It's fully furnished with items that seem to go together perfectly, true, but the feeling is more than that–the room feels like someone was just here, maybe standing right in the kitchen only moments before you swung the door open. The air is a perfectly comfortable temperature, and it somehow smells like home despite that you've never once set foot here before. The refrigerator is stocked, and the cabinets are full of spices and flatware and kitchen utensils.
As you look around the living room, you find that there are pictures in frames on the walls and some of the flat surfaces–a seascape, a field, a shot of a city park bench. In each of the photos there's something just slightly wrong with the angle, as though the photographer were aiming for a subject that can no longer be seen.
Characters are welcome to explore the district around the City Hall subway station to their heart's content. The City Hall building itself contains several floors of offices and file rooms, but none of them contain any particularly interesting information. Nonetheless, characters may wish to team up with other newcomers and try to find some hints about the nature of the city. They can also spend a while in the park, the statue garden, or the graveyard. In the blocks surrounding the station there are plenty of options for food and housing, as well as office buildings, storefronts, and alleyways to look around. There are no workers in any of the buildings, and there does not seem to be an honor system for payment, nor any consequences for taking food from the stores or setting up camp in an apartment or office building.
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A WASH, ANYONE?
The coin laundromat is tucked into the first floor of one of the tall apartment buildings. Soap is complimentary, and while the machines say that they cost a quarter per load, in reality they are fully operational without any money being exchanged at all. If you have any clothes that need a wash, perhaps items that have been dirtied by your explorations (or your travels before arriving in the city), you may want to take this opportunity to wash them for free.
From the soap dispenser, you can retrieve packets of detergent in different strengths. There's plenty of stock of for mild to moderate grime and for heavy-duty stains, but there are also a handful of packets with slightly less obvious purposes. For things remembered, says one. For unhappy accidents, says another. Feel free to use whichever seems most suited to your needs.
When your laundry cycle has ended, the buzzer sounds and the door pops open so the clothing can be retrieved. You grab a laundry basket and reach in to start pulling fabric out of the machine by the handful. But wait a second–the more clothing you retrieve, the less familiar the items seem, and by the time you've retrieved the last bundled sock from the depths of the dryer you're absolutely positive: These clothes don't belong to you.
You're sure that you put your own clothing into the machine, but these are someone else's clothes entirely. Did someone sneak in while you weren't paying attention and swap out your laundry? Or did you accidentally open up the wrong dryer to retrieve the wrong load? Maybe you'd better look around at whoever else is in the laundromat with you and have a go at trying to find the owner of these clothes.
Whether the characters have had their clothing swapped or simply opened the wrong machine to grab someone else's laundry is up to the player's imagination, but one thing's for sure: you have someone else's clothes in your basket. Maybe these are clothes that belong to another character in the laundromat, or maybe they're garments that belong to someone that character knew back home. Players are encouraged to mess around with the premise and use it to get to know other characters!
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COME ONE, COME ALL...
Have you ever noticed that flickering sign hanging in the window of that little building around the corner from the parking lot? The one that says PSYCHIC READINGS in bold neon lettering?
You step inside the shop and immediately smell a powerful combination of aromas: herbs, candles, incense, something spicy and warm underneath. It's a small space, cluttered with objects. A crystal ball covered in velvet sits in the center of a table, and there are tarot card sets and drawers full of dried herbs and flowers. On the shelves are various remedies with labels printed so neatly it's impossible to tell whether they're typed or handwritten. Headaches, or hemophilia, and also irascibility and fits of sighing. There are also jars full of less easily-identifiable contents, but a close examination may show you frog legs, fish eyes, rat tails. For some reason, it feels like sticking your hand in one of these jars might not be the best idea.
Toward the back of the shop is a glass case that holds the bust of a woman. As you approach, your movement triggers a light inside the case to illuminate the woman's face–or where her face would be, if she had one. The normal human features of her face are smoothed out until they barely resemble a face at all, with slightly hollowed divots for eyes and a faintly raised bump for a nose. The closer you get, though, the more strongly you feel that despite the absence of eyes, the woman is indeed watching you.
The lettering at the top of the case states FORTUNE TELLER, and a sign affixed to the front of the glass says, Ask for anything, but be careful what you wish for.
You form a question in your mind, then ask your question out loud. The woman shifts, straightening up, and you hear the faint whirring of clockwork and pneumatics moving inside her. She gathers her hands in front of her, cupping them like she's holding water, and strange light emanates from her palms, casting harsh illumination on the blank space where her face should be. Although she has no mouth with which to speak, you nonetheless hear a vaguely female voice intone, "Your fate has been read."
A paper slip emerges from a slot in the front of the case, your freshly-printed fortune, the ink barely dry.
Although the crystal ball will not actually show the future, characters with any kind of herbal knowledge may clock that the herbs and remedies in the drawers and shelves of the shop are legitimate. Characters can ask anything they want of the fortune teller, or make as many wishes as they like. They'll get as many fortune slips as correspond to the number of questions they ask. Players are encouraged to come up with whatever vaguely-accurate fortunes you think work for your character, but if you're low on ideas, you can always try an online Magic 8 Ball or fortune cookie generator.
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WILDCARD.
The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There's no rush in exploring, so feel free to take your time looking around and peering into various nooks and crannies and alleyways—and don't worry, you're not very likely to find anything peering back.
If none of the above prompts appeal, feel free to check out the Locations and Maps pages and write your own freestyle prompt using one or many of the available locations.
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citylogs2023-06-01 12:00 am
Shen Yuan | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
A young man dressed in white trousers and a yellow robe wakes up with a start, pressing a hand to his stomach while he looks around wildly. The last thing he remembers is self-destruction, pouring all of his spiritual energy into Luo Binghe's spiritual veins, so that poor child would be spared the dangers of qi deviation. It was supposed to be Shen Qingqiu's final sacrifice, redeeming his past sins so Luo Binghe could move on and forget he'd ever had such a wicked failure of a teacher. And then, so Shen Qingqiu hoped, he would wake up in the fungal body he and Shang Qinghua had grown, shedding the name and identity of Shen Qingqiu like an old snakeskin and slipping away to live quietly somewhere far, far away from Luo Binghe and the main plot.
Instead he'd woken up on a modern train of all things, but in his cultivator body! He even had his golden core back! Another person might have confused or scared or even upset about being suddenly snatched out of the world he knew, but Shen Qingqiu was an old hand at this transmigration business. He picked up the buzzing phone on the seat nearby and smiled at the question on the screen. "An orientation?" he addressed the air. "You're already more polite than the last System I had answer to." Nothing answered, but Shen Qingqiu merely shrugged and filled out the questions before departing the train, the long ponytail of his waist-length hair swinging behind him as he climbed the stairs.
It was more of a surprise to reach the main floor and only see a handful of people milling around -- and none of them station employees, either, they were all as eclectically dressed for the setting as he was, and several of them looked terribly anxious, the poor things. Well, as a veteran transmigrator it was clearly his duty to help them adjust! He approaches the nearest stranger openly, a gentle smile on his face and his hands in view. "Hello friend," he addresses them cheerfully. "Have you been here long?"
i.ii Storefronts
Despite his efforts to maintaim some order of decorum, Shen Qingqiu couldn't help but be drawn to the convenience stores, with their spacious snack counters and shelves full of all kinds of chips, crackers, and candy. It wasn't his fault! He'd grown up in a modern world, but then he'd been trapped in a fantasy novel for seven long years! They didn't have Snicker bars in xianxia land, or Yan Yans, or...fuuuuuuck...Lemon-Chicked Flavored Lay's Potato Chips...he was but a man! He wasn't even sure if he was actually immortal anymore! Sure it was technically stealing, but maybe just one chocolate bar, wouldn't hurt...?
Alas, it didn't stop at just one chocolate bar. One turned into two, turned into a can of Yan Yans, turned into opening half a dozen bag of chips and leaving them scattered all over the counter as he tasted them one by one before leaving them alone to guzzle a bottle of lychee-flavored soda. He nearly cried over the carbonation! And then he spotted a bottle of salted pineapple flavor, something that had only just come out before he died, and he just knew it would taste great with that bag of pineapple buns of over there, and holy shit, they had an entire box of youtaio under a warming lamp, and then he was thirsty again, and then -- and then --
Yeah, he's gone into full feral mode, driven mad by the siren song of cheap modern snacks. Go on and heckle him -- if you dare! Or maybe remind him that the human stomach has a limited capacity, er...is he sure he wants to each that much??
storefronts! (cw for stalker behaviour - this bing-pup isn't housebroken i'm afraid)
The Huan Hua Palace robes had caught his eye, but not so much as the figure wearing them. Well well. Nice try banishing this lord, other him, but it seems he's caught up to shizun after all.
He hangs back far enough to stay out of sight, but in a prime spot to observe the carnage.
He thought that other world with that other shizun, the kind one with soft hands and soft words, was strange and surreal, but here he is watching Shen Qingqiu scrabble around in candy wrappers like some little beast, eating food Binghe deemed barely fit for human consumption, as though it were the ambrosia of the very heavens.
What, he thinks to himself, the actual fuck.
Are there just many different variants of Shen Qingqiu? One cruel, one kind, and now one quite possibly completely off his gourd...?
Reigning in his immediate impulse to pluck the other man's arms and legs off, he steps through the sliding glass doors, all smiles.
"Shizun~" he calls in a tone so sweet it circles right back around to being sinister, "what are you doing, shizun...?"
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Shen Qingqiu startles and swallows a too-large chunk of milk candy, which promptly gets stuck in his throat and triggers a wild coughing fit. He bangs on his own chest, finally bringing it back up with a sound not unlike a cat hacking up a hairball, and spits it into a empty wrapper, before finally turning to stare at Luo Binghe with a horrified face and watery eyes.
"Luo --" he coughs again. "Luo Binghe," he finally manages to pronounce the protagonist's full name properly. "Um..."
Wild eyes dart around the store for a window, a fire-door, anything he can use to escape! Shouldn't this store at least have a stockroom or something??? But nothing presents itself, and finally he looks back at Luo Binghe -- who's clearly been watching and following his train of thought like a hunting bird follows the movements of a mouse in the grass, waiting for the perfect moment to strike -- and offers him a frankly terrified smile. "Well, this is awkward," he finally admits.
cw: mentions of dismemberment and torture
Even worse, it's the wrong Binghe.
There is some bone-deep satisfaction he gets in seeing Shen Qingqiu caught like a rat in a trap, squirming on the ground like a worm. He was tempted to be civil about this, but it's like a predator's prey instinct being activated by something trying to flee - any rational thought is utterly gone, and Binghe's mind has honed in on this.
"Even when I tore off your arms and legs," he says casually, as if talking about the weather, "even when I plucked out your poison tongue..."
His smile only widens. Ah, good times.
"...Never have I seen you in such an undignified state."
He steps into Shen Qingqiu's space, looming over him with that terrible Cheshire grin, and eyes so empty, so hollow, they could belong to a doll.
"Which one are you, I wonder? Mine? ...Or his?"
A chilly laugh escapes him.
"...Can you even call yourself Shen Qingqiu at all, acting like that...?"
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It wasn't fair! He'd given his life to the protagonist, been transported into another world -- only to come face to face with Luo Binghe once more?? And worse yet it wasn't even the one he'd sacrificed himself for, but the ultra-violent edgelord with a hard-on for dismemberment?? It wasn't fair! System! He wanted a refund!!
Shen Qingqiu whimpered quietly, a stray chip cracking to pieces under his bootheel as he tried to edge away from the slowly advancing protagonist. Like bones under Binghe's hand, he thinks, and wants to cry or throw up or possibly faint dead away. Even the oblique reference to 'his' (his what? Who was 'he?') isn't enough to shake him out of his near-literal pants-wetting terror.
"But I'm not," he manages to croak, seizing on the offered chance like a lifeline. It's a one in a million, possibly even a one in a billion chance with the protagonist already thirsty for blood, but Shen Qingqiu would fall to his knees and beg for his life if he thought it would do a single lick of good! Anyway, the old System isn't here, so it can't take his points away for just telling the truth! "I'm not Shen Qingqiu!" Shen Yuan says out loud for the very first time, and immediately feels a great and terrible weight lifted off his shoulders. "I never even wanted to be Shen Qingqiu, the System made me! It made me do everything he was supposed to do, and I --" The words are coming faster and faster now, a torrent of words that had been dammed up for far too long.
"I hated every minute of it!" he declares, red-eyed and nearly shouting as he announces it to the entire train station and possibly the people outside and down the street. "Luo Binghe was my favorite, I loved him best of all and if it had been up to me, he'd never have had to suffer in the first place!!!"
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What.
What!
For Shen Yuan, the man in front of him has gone very still, stunned speechless as jaw hangs open; moving, but no words are coming out.
It's not a very cool look for the so-called "protagonist".
For Binghe, however, it's like the a piece of a puzzle clicking neatly into place, forming the beginnings of a much clearer picture.
Suddenly, the kind shizun makes much more sense. It wasn't some variant of Shen Qingqiu. It wasn't Shen Qingqiu at all! No wonder his actions in the dreamscape had seemed so erratic. He was someone else, forced to play a roll; one minute he was praising the... other Binghe, then he was mournfully kicking him off a cliff into the Endless Abyss.
(Does that mean that his trip to the Endless Abyss was always inevitable? Then why? To what end? What purpose did that serve...?!)
He snaps out of his stupor quickly enough; Luo Binghe is practically a force of nature even in this severely reduced state and nothing so paltry as reality being flipped on its head is going to leave him surprised for long, but luckily enough the bloodlust is now gone and replaced by a cold and calculating stare.
"...Who... are you...?"
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Holy fuck, it worked! Holy shit, that was so scary! Is still really scary, but the protagonist is in "information-gathering mode" now, and that is so much less terrifying and easier to deal with than "I'm going to literally rip you to pieces and laugh about it" mode! Shen Yuan could just go to pieces, he's so relieved!
Luckily he doesn't do that, though he does put a hand out to brace himself against a nearby shelf when his knees go a little wobbly from the emotional rollercoaster he's been forced to endure.
"My name is Shen Yuan," he says. "I was born in a different world than Lord Luo's, but when I died in that world a mysterious entity called the System put me in Shen Qingqiu's body. I was supposed to..." He hesitates for a moment over his words, not wanting to remind the protagonist of painful experiences but not seeing how he has any choice. "Shen Qingqiu's actions were evil, but without them could Luo Binghe have ever achieved his full destiny?" he finally says in a quiet, shameful voice. He has to scrub at his eyes for a moment, he must have gotten chip dust in them or something. "I never wanted to hurt him, but the System would have killed me if I didn't obey...I'm sorry," he finally says, and bows his head.
When you think about it, he actually...kind of deserves to get beaten up by the protagonist, doesn't he...maybe not to the full limb-ripping extent the original goods did, but...he's earned some pretty black karma for the choices he made, that's undeniable...
no subject
He sounds almost dazed, his mind working overtime to put this mystery together.
It's a lot to take in, especially knowing that he was always destined to suffer that living hell, whether at the hands of that treacherous snake, or the kindly shizun that loved... well, some version of him at any rate.
(If there was ever something worth loving about him, he suspects it's long since gone.)
Still, it's all beginning to make a lot of sense now. He knows there aren't just other versions of his reality, but other worlds entirely. His visit to the kind shizun -- likely Shen Yuan, or a variant of him -- and now this city confirm both those things as truth.
"The System..."
He holds up the peculiar device -- the phone he heard it called -- to Shen Qing- Shen Yuan's face.
"...Is it anything like this thing?"
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"Similar," he says, and takes his own phone out of his sleeve to show it to Binghe. "The System that forced me to take Shen Qingqiu's role had no body I ever saw; it spoke directly into my mind and once even took over my body in order to limit my ability to act. But its speech patterns were modeled after technology from my original world, as are these. There may be other similarities we simply haven't experienced yet."
He hesitates for a moment, and then offers, "Nothing can make up for the crimes I committed against Luo Binghe in the past, but...if he'll allow it, I'd be glad to offer him whatever assistance I can."
It's the absolute least he owes Luo Binghe, after all.
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"You aren't Shen Qingqiu," he states bluntly. "What is there for you to apologize for? We've never even met."
There's a nasty, inscrutable leer as he leans ever more into Shen Yuan's space.
"...Right...?"
It's a once in a lifetime chance, Shen Yuan - that is, it's the chance to have a lifetime at the very least. He isn't usually this merciful.
Binghe must be getting soft in his old age if he's willing to let someone writhing around in his old shizun's skin just get up and go utterly unscathed. After all, just moments ago, hadn't he wanted nothing more than to lay claim to that kindly shizun? Hadn't he wanted to have him utterly and completely to himself...?
Or had whatever sick pleasure he might have derived from such a situation drained completely, knowing this wasn't Shen Qingqiu at all, but just an imposter? And that was likely the case too for that other shizun.
Pragmatism wins out over his melancholy, however, and he looks over this stranger in a familiar face once more.
"But if you are feeling so indebted to me, by all means elaborate. This world is similar to your own, you said? Do you come from such an empty place? Where are the people? This is clearly a city of sorts, isn't it?"
cw: minor homophobia
"Luo Binghe is Luo Binghe," he says firmly, "And I know Luo Binghe's heart. I know what kind of person he was, before his evil master and a cruel world broke that heart. I know how much he deserves retribution -- but he deserves kindness and -- and loyalty, too." Geez, get it together Shen Yuan! The word 'affection' had nearly slipped out of his mouth; he'd only been able to change it at the very last second! He was trying to swear fealty here, he didn't want to sound like he was trying to hit on Luo Binghe or something weird like that!
"You might not be the Luo Binghe I personally raised and betrayed, but..." Shen Yuan cleared his throat awkwardly. "I see no difference between him and the Binghe before me. And I'll always be concerned for Binghe, even if he tells me to leave his sight forever. A-anyway --" he says hastily, twisting his body to brush past the protagonist and reach for an unopened can of Yan Yans. If he's about to be executed for impertinence, he wants to die with frosting in his mouth!
"The technology and general aesthetic is pretty close to my world," he says around a full mouth. "But naturally my world was full of people, especially the city where I lived. I see two possible explanations for this world's empty state: either its people were all killed in some manner that left no trace of their bodies, or this world was created without people, just as a bird cage must necessarily be constructed without a bird inside it. I suspect we were brought here specifically to fill this city, though why or by whom I cannot yet guess."
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(He perhaps considers, in a rare moment of self-awareness, that might have had something to do with tearing Shen Qing arm and leg off in the dreamscape, and later trying to simply replace the other Luo Binghe, but it's far from the worst thing he's ever done.)
He watches this Shen Qingqiu... Shen Yuan far more closely, his hackles up and his expression cold and guarded.
Pretty, empty words, he thinks, from just another sycophant. What are you, one of my wives or courtiers?
But whatever Shen Yuan is, he has useful information, and Binghe is a pragmatist at heart; he'll never completely destroy anything if it has some use to him.
He paces - or more aptly prowls back and forth like a caged tiger, the gears in his head turning.
"Another of those Systems perhaps...?" he suggests. "You spoke of yours like it treated you as some sort of plaything. Maybe these devices are extensions of its will."
There isn't much that could part him from Xin Mo or reduce him to such a weakened state... Not that he's going to admit any of that aloud. Better to play his cards close to his chest with this one.
cw: reference to attempted rape
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cw for possessive behaviour
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iii. Clothing Shops
He'll just find a few elegant jackets or an over-sized hoodie so he can layer up and keep his arms covered, it should be fine. Not to mention the underwear, goood fucking god is he ever looking forward to returning to modern underwear...
...All right, so maybe he gets a little distracted checking out his own ass in the three-way mirror! It's not his fault! The original goods was a terrible person, okay, but he had a decent body! He looks like a professional model in fitted jeans, anyone would find it appealing!! Maybe Shen Qingqiu will finally get a girlfriend, with an ass like this!😤
He jumps when he hears the shop door open, hastily throwing Gongyi Xiao's yellow robe back on and tying it shut before poking his head out. "Is someone there?" he calls.
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He stops short and looks back at Shen Qingqiu, and the spooked rabbit quality to his expression is only half an act at this point. Still, if this man were intent on doing him--or anyone else--some kind of harm, surely he wouldn't have blithely announced his presence to a complete stranger like... well. Jin Guangyao does not want to think about who this man reminds him of.
He smiles. "This one begs your pardon, gongzi. This one didn't mean to startle you." Then he steps the rest of the way into the shop, keeping his mutilated arm carefully out of sight, and closes the door behind him.
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"Think nothing of it, my friend," Shen Qingqiu says, offering the other cultivator a sympathetic smile and a polite salute. "The fault was mine, for not being more aware of my surroundings. Actually," he says diffidently, trying not to let his gaze too obviously linger on the way the other cultivator seems to be taking pains to keep one of his hands hidden.
"Might this humble Shen offer gongzi his assistance?" he asks, and smiles welcomingly. "Forgive this one his impertinence, it just seems that gongzi has recently encountered some difficulties -- and since we clearly both entered this shop with the same goals in mind, it seems selfish of this one not to share his expertise."
Indeed, the area around the fitting rooms looks as though it were hit by a small whirlwind, with one untidy pile of clothes Shen Qingqiu wished to try one, one even messier pile of those he tried on and rejected, and a final, scarcely neater pile that he'd intended to take with him when he finally left the store. Possibly the lack of audience -- and all the freedom that implied -- went to his head. He'll need to be careful about that in the future, now that he's been caught in the act twice now.
iii. Network
username: Peerless Cucumber
Thread Title: This is my second transmigration -- AMA
Hi! Like the title says, this is my second time waking up in a strange world with no memory of how I got there, so feel free to ask me whatever you like! I don't assume all of my experiences will prove to be universal, but I hope that by sharing them I can at least help soothe people's anxiety and help them deal with this situation in calm and constructive ways, at least until we find out whatever the powers that brought us here want from us.
Because make no mistake, I am 100% certain that we were brought here by an intelligent entity, or entities. This city was made for some purpose in mind, and bringing us all here serves that purpose...they just haven't seen fit to tell us what it is yet. >:/c Probably watching to see how we react. Well, their loss! The more time they leave us at loose ends, the more time we have to get to know each other and present a united front, right guys??
un: abyssalblade
Really now, laoshi? Do explain.
I never took you for the gardening type.
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Anyway, I could probably garden if I wanted to. I just don't like getting dirty >_>;;
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It's very useful.
You don't like getting dirty? I find that hard to believe given the initial state I found you in.
What are these little symbols supposed to be?
(ᗒᗣᗕ) >_>;;
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And Binghe doesn't have to bring that up! ୧(๑•̀ᗝ•́)૭ I hadn't gotten to eat any sweets or snacks from home in seven years, of course I missed them! Normally I'm not so...feral.
Anyway, the symbols represent little faces. Like this: ^_^ Do you see how it looks like two upturned eyes and a mouth? It represents a smile. (ᗒᗣᗕ) represents annoyance, and...well, Binghe is a smart boy. I'm sure he can figure the rest out.
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Are you homesick then? I can only imagine what a change coming from a world like this to a world like that must have been like. A shame that you aren't so feral more often though.
It was kind of cute.
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I suppose I am a little homesick, but it's fine. I lived in Binghe's world for years and years after all, I'm used to it! It was just nice to have that taste of home again, that's all.
Although I really don't see what's so cute about me gorging myself on candy like a pig. :/c
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[Binghe makes notes - Shen Yuan likes those horrible, overly sweet or overly salty snacks. He should make sure to keep them freshly stocked. And, if he can find Xin Mo and cut open a portal back home, he should also learn how to make them -- at least Shen Yuan's favourites, so he never has to go without again.
These are all very normal thoughts for someone to have about a man wearing his abusive shizun's skin who showed him the first scrap of unconditional love since his mother.]
Is that the only thing you miss from home? Just the snacks?
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What about you? Is there anything about this world Binghe likes? Apart from the kitchen knives, I mean. ;3
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The machinery of this world is fascinating. There are cultivation spells and arrays that do very similar things, but they are nowhere near as convenient. The refrigeration machines are especially my favourite, though I also like the clothes-washing machines.
The dish washing machines leave much to be desired, however. I think I will continue to do that by hand, but even the sinks with their running water are far more convenient than even my own palace's amenities.
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cw for some casual misogyny
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