august mingle

[stellafortunamods]

August Mingle
Welcome to Teyvat - a vast magical world of adventure.
Happy new year....! In Teyvat, that is. It is now January ingame, and Liyue's people go about their disaster recovery efforts with more vigour than before. After all, Liyue's biggest festival is slated to occur in the latter half of the month - the Lantern Rite!

The Rite of Parting - Rex Lapis' funeral - passes without much incident, and Liyue collectively breathes a sigh of relief. With the Fatui being chased out of the yard, it seems that peace will finally return to the harbour city as they rebuild from the storm. You'll also get to watch three million Mora's worth of incense go up in smoke, so there's that.

Eager to focus on the future, Liyue folk have begun discussing the upcoming festival. The Lantern Rite commemorates hope for a new beginning and continued prosperity, and the construction of the festival centerpiece is currently underway. This year's Mingxiao Lantern will soar into the sky amidst thousands of smaller lanterns, and it will take the shape of a fallen Adeptus to commemorate the Adepti's contribution to Liyue's lasting peace.

Unfortunately, you're not quite out of the frying pan yet. With the Fatui gone from Liyue, the Ministry of Civil Affairs turn their attention to solving another issue that has cropped up after Osial's revival and subsequent defeat. Quite a few miners have gone missing from the Chasm, and the likelihood of finding them will only grow slimmer as the days go by. Both the Millelith and the Adventurers' Guild have pitched in to search for the kidnapped people. All clues lead to Nantianmen - and it's just your luck that Geovishaps and their hatchlings have come out of hibernation at around the same time. These lizard-like beings have shells of solid rock, and they seem especially agitated at having their territory invaded. Solving the mystery of the missing miners will take more than just a day's work.

State of the World

With the Lantern Rite set to open on January 21st, all of Liyue have come to visit the harbour to set up their stalls and pitch in to craft the Mingxiao Lantern. Hopefully the miners are found before the festival begins - the Lantern Rite is a festival of reunions, after all. Not to mention the Geovishaps' increased activity will inadvertently lead to them burrowing around in the rocky mountains. There's a small, but non-zero chance of them hitting an ancient seal somewhere and unleashing a buried threat.

Unless... that was their intention all along?

Please direct all questions to August's OOC post!

Comments

[fiddlestick]

[ 💧 ]

So in other words, you use a method of channeling magic that occasionally...blows up in you face.

[Sounds like uh, a dumb idea]

[drewthetower]

Oh, no, my deck's a literal demon deck so it doesn't blow up in my face, just other people's. D'you not know tarot? Fortune telling with cards?

[fiddlestick]

Um...

[He scratches his jaw]

I know it a little. Mostly that some girls like to use it to get relationship advice.

[drewthetower]

[August makes a face.]

I mean, you can, but they're probably just doing it superficially. Doing it properly and not fucking around is...it's a whole thing. Each person has their own relationship with their individual deck, their own rituals when it comes to doing a reading, and they know how best to read and interpret their deck. It's kind of a joke that the decks call the readers out whenever they do readings for themselves.

[He holds up the Page.]

The card I pulled usually means a lot of different things, like "not thinking this one through". And then in blew up in my face.

[August gestures as if to say "see where I'm going with that one".]

[fiddlestick]

[Elliot listens to the explanation. It sounds very much like something you'd hear coming out of the Hexen Clan. He's sure Emma would be familiar with it. But him? Well....he'll just stick to the power of music thanks.]

I see...

So in other words, the card deck was telling you weren't being careful and decided to prove it to you?

[drewthetower]

[Elliot is smart.]

Yeah, basically. [And like, August knows it's really just chance and luck and all that stuff, but August also knows his decks are demonic so for all he knows they could be vaguely sentient.] Anyway, maybe trying to use my deck like I usually do is a bad idea...

[fiddlestick]

Y-Yeah, probably...at least until you got a hang of your Vision.

[Because uh yeah, that seems like a mixing of magic that might end badly]

I bet you could get a catalyst from the blacksmith in town.

[drewthetower]

Maybe. I'm gonna guess there's no, like, shop for that sort of thing here? Everything's more or less made-to-order?

[Since looking around it's pretty Not Modern.]

[fiddlestick]

Well if you don't care about quality, the blacksmith might have something on hand.

But if you want something nicer...well, you'll usually have to bring them the ore for it.

[drewthetower]

[August makes a face.]

I'm a tailor, not a miner. How the hell am I supposed to get ore?

[fiddlestick]

Ask a friend to help, see if any merchants in town carry any...?

[drewthetower]

[He starts to make another face, but just pauses and sighs.]

Sorry, I'm just bitching to bitch at this point. I'll figure something out after I, y'know, eat and stuff. There's a place to get food in town, yeah?

[fiddlestick]

Eheh, it's alright - I get it. I wasn't in the best of moods the day I came here either.

[In other words, he doesn't blame August for being on the more negative side]

Oh yeah, lots of places! I could buy you lunch, if you'd like.

[drewthetower]

[Both Julian and August perk up at that.]

You are my new favorite person, holy shit, dude--wait, shit, I completely--August. I'm August, this is Julian, nice to meet you.

[fiddlestick]

[He laughs a little]

Aw, it's nothing! I just figured if you're brand new, you probably don't have much money on you.

[Elliot wasn't RICH , but he got by between money he made from music and commissions - plus rean's income as well]

Nice to meet August, and you too Julian! [He'll say the second part to the bird with a smile, before looking back at August] I'm Elliot.

[drewthetower]

I mean, I have my debit card maybe but...yeah I'm broke, and you're my hero.

[fiddlestick]

[He'll gesture at him to follow to town. Vision practice can wait until food is had]

Eheh, yeah, I can't say I know what a debit card is...but since we're in a different world from where you came from, it's safe to say it's probably useless.

[drewthetower]

Probably.

[And off they go! But as they go, something starts to bother August since. Well. He knows how he ran into Forneus but Elliot probably did not try to summon a demon so...]

...so, okay, I have to ask. How did you end up talking to Forneus and getting here?

[fiddlestick]

[Oh, that question. elliot pauses]

Ah...

I-Is it weird to say I don't remember the specifics?

[drewthetower]

Has it been that long or...?

[fiddlestick]

Oh no, it's not that. It hasn't even been a full year yet.

[He rubs the back of his head]

It's more...for those who Forneus first recruited, he thought it was a good idea to erase our memories of when we met and put us into this world without any memory of how to get here. You know, to test to see what we'd do without his direct supervision.

So that's why I don't remember.

[drewthetower]

[A long, long pause.]

And we're sure he's not a demon? Because that's how I got here, I was trying to contact my Forneus and got this chucklefuck.

[fiddlestick]

Huh?

You know another Forneus?

[drewthetower]

[Handwobble!]

I know he's around? I've never met him personally, but that's what I was trying to do.

[fiddlestick]

Wow, what a coincidence. I had no idea Forneus was such a popular name.

[Yeah, because that's what it. The more you know!!]

Really, I don't think he's a demon. I think he's what he says he is. And he means well, it's just....well, he's never been human, so sometimes he misses stuff that'd be very obvious to us.